Garlean attacks aren't magic, so what are they?

[Cassar]

I know that in our first encounter with Zenos he was capable of doing moves such as Concentrativity, which certainly looks like magic to me, but he also had access to Thunderous Force, Tempestuous Force, etc. You're saying he used crystals for those? I still think he must've had some sort of magic power, possibly from the supposed body-enhanced procedures I meant in my previous post or, as Lilimo suggested, maybe it was Emet's doing.

Elidibus can use magic regardless of the body he's in, just the same as Emet-Selch. Remember that before Endwalker, Emet-Selch is always in a Garlean body, and that doesn't stop him from being the world's most powerful mage.

Oh yeah, I know about Elidibus being able to use magic regardless. What I meant is that our fight against Zenos in 4.5 was similar to our first encounter with him, which led me to believe that the magic Hien was referring to was the same that we witnessed in the first encounter.

I'll read Zenos' short story again to see if there's anything I missed.