They attempted the same ritual two other times.
Once with his father attempting the ritual using his own blood, which resulted in the flame being both much smaller, only as small as a babies fist, but also lasting much shorter, that being only 9 seconds, it was so short and insignificant that a non – clear sighted mortal could easily be convinced it was a mere trick of the light.
This helped explain some more about why magics weren't more widespread among the mortals and why they were so oblivious to its mere existence. The time the flame lasted also implied some meaning in the numbers as exactly nine was a very conspicuous.
The other was with his father using Nicholas' blood to perform the ritual. The effectiveness was more effective than when his father just performed it himself, lasting 90 seconds and being the size of an adult's fist.
"That's it this confirms it. I've had a theory that mystical nature itself could lend an increase in a magical effect's effectiveness, though until this it has been unconfirmed" Nick said his voice brimming with unsuppressed delight of a confirmed theory.
"Yes, it appears that even the participation of a mystical creature as part of the ceremony even if they aren't the offering itself drastically boosts a rituals effectiveness." Jonathan said, still reeling from his first time performing real magic.
Nick nodded, thinking back to his theories regarding why his magic was so effective, before replying "I've been thinking that and I have come to several options for what could be causing the discrepancy"
"Either the Mist itself causes a suppression on non-mystical person preforming magic or the more likely option, given that you are a clear-sighted mortal and should be exempt from the Mist, is that since it appears that meaning itself gives rise to magic. "
"Its possible that my presence itself boosts the meaning of the ritual and the symbolism involved or so to say that due to my nature the world listens more closely to my demands." Nick said, already thinking of the ways to test the hypothesis.
"Wait, if the ritual itself gets boosted by the meaning of the symbols and place where its held, could it be that magic itself is all about using other foreign items and places to amplify the voice or intent of the person casting the magic?" Jonathan said.
Nick felt like lightning bolt struck him and he stood there in a daze his mind racing, and the totality of magic itself immediately slammed into focus.
He finally cut through the confusion on why seemingly random actions could produce spells and succeeded in creating a total theory on what magic and rituals in this world were.
If the world would be compared to a computer the Gods would be the administrators, spells appealing to Gods would be asking the administrator to execute a program through making a "connection".
The symbols and chants would construct a "connection" with the deities symbols being the address to the God that would allow sending them the program to be executed i.e. the chant, the offering would then be the payment to the administrator for running the program with administrator privileges.
While Norse magic was running the program directly on the computer, i.e. instructing the world directly, but there was still an issue of "authority level" so to fix that the rituals would make use of symbols and offerings that were symbolically relevant to the "program" to raise the "authority" level of the program.
It explained everything, why his spells were so much more effective, how symbols constructed a ritual, why offering was necessary for magic, why mortals could barely use magic.
It also explained how and why demigods were able to use the Mist to confuse mortals despite having no connection to the deity in charge of the Mist Hecate. It all clicked but ultimately was just a theory.
But an idea on how to verify it quickly came to his mind.
Because if it was only the authority level of the caster mattered then given that his "authority" was already at a certain level then some of the simplest spell should be possible with just a chant with no need of symbols to increase his authority level.
He also theorized that even the chants were for the purpose of enhancing authority as he knew that Gods could preform miracles with only a thought and no need for chanting.
Even Nick was able to use a miracle called prescience with only a thought.
But given that he was still far from that level, he would still use his chants to increase his authority level.
So with that he quickly ran through the spells in his mind before settling down on one he thought was perfect, however he translated it quickly into Ancient Greek as it fit his nature as a Greek Demigod better and he thought that it would help further boost the spell.
It was old Norse prayer to the elements of nature for a clear and still mind. It was perfect as it didn't invoke any Gods and it was within the domain of his "authority" so it would be especially effective as he himself was a symbol of wisdom and knowledge.
"Father I think I know how magic works, but I need to test something before I can confirm it" Nick said already anticipating being able to move from cumbersome rituals into some actual magic. The nerd in him could hardly wait.