Crystal

''"Understanding time is far beyond the reaches of my kind, so for now we shall have to make do with one action at a time, in the case of our good friend crytallisation, stopping and containing essence is the closest we shall get to comprehending Tempus." ''~Quarrelsome - The Handbook of Ex Anima

Crystal (Crystallum) is a type of Chaotic Magic under the category of Ex Anima, it is the leftermost orb on the Chaotica Pentagram and is represented by a dull blue-ish purple.

Basic Powers
Crystal magic has many similarities to Ice in how it physically appears, as ice is usually represented in a crystalline form. The main difference between them is that ice causes effects of coldness and stopping through slowing down the moving particles whereas crystal simply stops the flow of time within a certain object, not affecting its temperature in the slightest.

Crystal is mainly used for capturing the essence of something that would be otherwise unable to be tampered with, this is used in things such as time, souls, energy, life-force and any elements that need to be turned into a physical form. Because of this, crystal is mainly defensive, creating shields out of virtually nothing and collecting hard to obtain objects.

Stages
Level 1: Envelope

Crystal's earliest stage is a fairly slow one, being able to affect only the outer layers of objects. It can, with time, completely cover an object and store it on the inside of a crystalline casing, however if used with a living being, it would struggle to completely coat them before they broke free from it.

Level 2: Intricate The second stage allows for crystallisation to sink deeper into the subject that it is affecting, changing both the outside and the inside to a crystalline form. This can aid in storing energy in a form that can be transported and directly accessed. It can also do intense damage to vital systems inside of a living creature.

Level 3: Re-shape

Re-shaping is the ability to fully change one form of energy into a crystal, this can be done with anything ranging from magic powers to time itself. Rather than encasing the subject in a crystal casing, it changes it entirely so that only the crystal remains.

Level 4: Extract

In these later stages, the user of crystal can work their magic in reverse, taking away the energy that was formed into a crystal. If energised crystals are stacked together the caster can absorb/expel huge amounts of energy from them with minimal effort. They can also use them as a form of healing or regenerating.

Level 5: Empower

The final form of crystal allows the user to bestow any powers that have been gained upon the crystals themselves, effectively programming them with different tools and commands so that they can carry out tasks autonomously. They can also giving the power draining effects to crystals, so that they automatically absorb and store and power/energy/time in the area that they are placed.



Advantages

 * Can create barriers similar to ice but without the weakness to heat.
 * Can negate time magic
 * Can store energy for later use.
 * Can create machines with no need for circuitry.

Disadvantages

 * Incredibly difficult and time-consuming to master.
 * Not very effective at early stages.
 * Very slow to cast correctly.
 * The user can accidentally kill themselves by pouring all of their life energy into a crystalline form.

Master
As a magic that is part of Ex Anima, a test was never created for it so the current master of Crystal magic is unknown.

Other Notable Users

 * Ironworker
 * Summastatur Corps.
 * The Seed Race