"Alright kids, settle down I'm about to teach the lesson none of your professors want to you to hear" Already Donzel could see the faculty in attendance begin to scowl at him. "So to start off - what is the purpose of an incantation?"

An annoyingly chipper teacher pleaser hopped to their feet and immediately began to speak. "The purpose of an incantation is to force magical energies into a specific form, these forms having been discovered via trial and error over the centuries."

"Well yes - and no my ignorant little friend. Also next time - wait to be called" The snickering of the other students began to fill the air. "The purpose of an incantation is to invoke a particular mental state - to prime your mind to imagine the effect that is to come. It doesn't cause the magic - it merely helps your unimaginative little ass to conjure it." Kirata walked up to the board and began writing. "Take this incantation for example, it calls to mind imagery of fire gods and burning destruction. It mentions traveling forth. Obviously you all know that this allows you to throw a fireball. But at the end of the day it's all bullshit. A memetic device to prime your brain to do something you can already do. Now watch." He went to front of the class and silently slung a fireball forward.

"See no stupid incantation necessary. Infact the incantation has nothing to do with the magic at all. Watch this." He slung out his hand and began the incantation. "Ignaeus god of the forge, Ventraya goddess of flame, send forth your fiery destruction - FIREBALL!" The fireball did not come however but a thin piercing bolt of flame spewed forth from his hand. "Now early in your education your instructors blew that off as you saying the incantation wrong. But you didn't. Your mind merely evoked a different bit of imagery from the words. You didn't do it wrong - your teachers were just morons."

One of the faculty started to raise an objection but Kirata merely motioned for him to sit down. "It's not their fault. The fact is - most mages are morons. There isn't anything wrong with that - even a moron can be useful. But greatness comes from the mind. From imagination. With war on the rise and dark forces closing in they just aren't up for the task. They are shit combatants. That's why i'm here. The next three weeks I will be evaluating you all on your imagination. Those deemed worthy will be transferred to my new unit. You want to be a big goddamn hero - impress me."

And so the first trial of mages by 2nd Lieutenant Donzel began - marking the start of a new era of magical warfare - an age where mages stopped being tools of the rich, and transitioned to a sad state as weapons of mass destruction.