Malleus’ unique magic is Fae of Maleficence (hidden meaning: Blessing) has yet to receive a blanket statement explaining exactly what it is that it can do, with characters still trying to guess what it is that Malleus is capable of as of Book 7-139.
Ortho explains that the ability stopped time and put every living creature on the island to sleep and worries that everyone’s bodies will atrophy if they go too long without eating, but this has since been proven untrue.
The Energy Field: A barrier of briars encloses the island that STYX refers to as “a magic-based energy field” that absorbs at least one automated set of power armor during an attempted attack and is “gradually expanding in size…at approximately six to nine km per hour.”
The Director compares the black briars to illustrations in classic stories about the Thorn Fairy. The Chief Engineer says, “Sounds like the kind of ancient magic that lets the caster alter the world in a designated area” and the Director follows with, “there’s no way a person could cast it without overblotting.”
The Director explains, “Whenever humans or fae approach, the briars comprising the outer surface entangle them, then draw them inside the field.” STYX manages to slow the growth of the barrier by surrounding it in a magical barrier, but cannot stop it entirely.
With technomantic cannon support from STYX and aethereal slicer support from two androids Ortho is able to infiltrate Malleus’ barrier despite how it is capable of converging briar into concentrated areas in order to protect itself from attacks, but Ortho is only capable of surviving inside the barrier for 20 minutes.
Equipped with a “transmutation denial field,” Ortho is able to occupy Malleus’ domain without being subject to the overwriting of reality that is taking place.
Ortho explains, “Malleus gets to dictate every aspect of reality here. My attacks aren’t doing anything to him. In fact, they’re not even reaching him! He’s the undisputed ruler in his arcane realm!,” but there is a moment where Malleus freezes during the combined onslaught of STYX’s attacks and dealing with Ortho, which Ortho describes as “It’s almost like his CPU is overloaded and his processing power dropped…”
Following an analysis the Director says it reminds him of the ancient sorcery cast on Grim.
They determine that “unless Malleus Draconia dispels the magic himself, or the caster is eliminated, dismantling his spell from the outside is 99.8% likely to be impossible,” explaining that full-power cannon fire would be neutralized once inside the briar barrier because “the very laws of reality bend to Malleus’ will.”
Ending the Spell: The Chief Engineer explains that Malleus’ spell affects the minds of those upon whom it is cast, making them perceive virtual reality as actual reality, so if they were to destroy Malleus’ realm by force they might also destroy the minds of the people inside of it. Their only choice is to convince Malleus to free his captives of his own volition.
Ortho says, “The damage Malleus sustains in dreams won’t carry over to the real world.”
Silver says, “A strong enough shock in a dream or in reality can jolt you awake,” but no matter what he has tried since coming to the dream world he has not been able to wake himself up. “It just goes to show how powerful Malleus’ magic is and how deeply we’re sleeping.”
The Abyss: If a paradox arises that makes it so that a dream can no longer have a happy ending the dream will collapse, sending its occupant into what Malleus calls “the abyss.” Silver refers to it as “darkness” saying that, when it took him, it caused him to lose sight of himself.
The darkness is constantly pursuing Silver’s group as they fight to remain conscious, appearing in response to Sebek’s enjoyment of Lilia’s dream and his wish to remain dreaming forever. Silver guesses that it is attempting to pull them into a deeper sleep, but Sebek refuses to think about whether or not Malleus is actively controlling it.
The abyss successfully swallows Silver in response to his emotional turmoil at discovering the secret of his parentage.
Limitations: Silver questions why it is Lilia is suffering in a dream that is supposed to have been perfectly tailored to make him happy, and why Malleus has not made any attempt to remove them from Lilia’s dream despite how they know that Malleus is monitoring all his dream worlds.
Silver later guesses that Malleus cannot interfere in Lilia’s dream because it takes place before Malleus himself was born: “The source of magic is imagination. What if Malleus has trouble controlling things he doesn’t know about and can’t imagine..?”
This is possibly an accurate assessment, with Malleus only appearing within Lilia’s dream after the moment of his own birth and revealing that he did not know anything of what transpired before witnessing it for himself in Lilia’s dreamworld.
Idia explains, “‘Happiness’ the way it’s defined in the dreams Malleus makes is kinda superficial in nature. It’s low-res. No real in-depth understanding.”
And that is all available information on EN-server as of Book 7-139 (to be continued).
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 