- "My Japanese is a little rusty, but I think that this says, "Majikku misairu"."
""Magic missile"? That's, like, straight-up Dungeons & Dragons." - ―Alice Quinn and Quentin Coldwater
The Magic Missile (Japanese: "Majikku Misairu") is a Battle Magic spell that fires three powerful bolts at a target.
History
- "Uh, where did you get this?"
"Is this, like, from World War II?"
"I tripped and fell on it locked in a drawer in Sunderland's office." - ―Alice Quinn, Quentin Coldwater, and Eliot Waugh
Alice Quinn uses several Magic Missiles against The Beast.
The spell was created by Japanese Magicians during World War II to be used against the Allied soldiers, and a book containing instructions on casting the spell was later stored by Pearl Sunderland in her office at Brakebills University until Eliot Waugh stole it for him and his friends to practice before traveling to Fillory.
After Quentin Coldwater and Alice Quinn initially failed to cast the spell, the group tracked down the only person they knew who studied battle magic, Kady Orloff-Diaz, who explained that performing spells in that discipline required years of study and meditation but offered a spell used by hedge witches as a shortcut, but warned that it wasn't a safe option. Performing the shortcut to suppress their emotions, the group was able to cast the Magic Missile against several practice targets near the Physical Kids' Cottage. However, Quinn and Penny Adiyodi didn't like the after-effects of the shortcut and decided to practice meditation instead, eventually learning to cast the spell without emotion bottles.[1]
During the Duel at the Wellspring, Quinn used several Magic Missiles against Martin Chatwin before casting the Rhinemann Ultra to transform into a Niffin.[2]
Kady Orloff-Diaz uses a Magic Missile to rescue Julia Wicker.
When Julia Wicker visited Dana Wallens for help after discovering she was pregnant with Reynard the Fox's child, she used a spell to signal her location to Kady Orloff-Diaz before being knocked unconscious by Wallens, who told Wicker she would be forced to carry the baby to term in order to use the magical energy released during the child's birth to banish Reynard again. Diaz, after arriving at Wallen's home, used a Magic Missile to blow down a cloaked door before knocking Wallens out and rescuing Wicker.[3]
Cyrus attempts to use a Magic Missile against Nameless and his sister.
During the Attack on the Library of the Neitherlands, the Librarian Cyrus attempted to use a magic missile against Nameless and his sister, but the gods were able to freeze the bolt mid-air before sending it back to the Magician, causing him to burn away to ash instantly.[4]
In a previous timeline, the spell was created by Alice Quinn and Penny, who based it on the Magnetic Acceleration Spell used by Professor Mischa Mayakovsky and the game Dungeons & Dragons. Quentin Coldwater used it against a Black Elf before knocking him out, while Quinn adjusted the spell's Circumstances to release several during the Battle at Ember's Tomb against The Beast. Coldwater worked on his own version of the spell during his recovery at the Retreat, perfecting it and adding new effects such as a purple hue,[5] and used it during the raid of a castle on Benedict Island, firing two deep indigo pulses from his fingertips to knock a guard out.[6]
Trivia
- In Dungeons & Dragons, the Magic Missile is a 1st level Evocation spell used by Sorcerers and Wizards that fires three glowing darts of force at an enemy.
