The surface of the planet roiled like the ocean, waves of earth crashing and swallowing whole cities beneath its weight. Whole mountains collapsed and new ranges sprouted as the plates of the planet themselves shifted more than they had in millenia. While not every place was subject to this violence of the environment, every inch of Earth experienced some change. Mana saturated the wind, the water, the ground, leaving whole environments altered. Physics no longer had the grasp it used to, as mana changed the indomitable rules that had ruled science and our understanding for centuries. The poles unfroze in a snap, freshwater flowing quickly out into the world before refreezing again in a moment. The water did not become homogenous with the salt oceans however, a horizontal line of demarcation in the water like it was oil. The coasts did change though, the sea level rising dramatically around several major continents. But again the changes were inconsistent, as the United Kingdom and Japan found themselves a few hundred feet higher above sea level, while rivers across Africa and Asia flooded over, creating new grand lakes and some small seas. The deserts eroded the edges of their areas, several growing nearly double in size and much hotter along the way. The very shape of the globe grew as if it were breathing, every few moments stretching the space it was before, revealing grand underground caves, a whole new world beneath the ground. Asteroids passing by the Earth in their eternal rotation were pulled toward the growing planet. The largest struck the moon, cracking it nearly in thirds before throwing pieces toward the growing blue marble. Most burned in the atmosphere, but the largest fed on the mana as they flew through the skies and condensed into strange metals. Prey and predator alike huddled in dens, some sojourning to the new expanses inside the world to escape the violence on the surface.
After a period of destruction, of fire and flood, came a time of growth. Along the new valleys and fields flora sprouted wildly. Trees grew in days, whole ecosystems establishing themselves in a fortnight. Though all life was now fully saturated by the base level of mana, new and strange plants flourished above and under the ground, spurred onward by areas of dense mana or learning how to take the ambient mana for themselves.
Animals, like those Leto had seen in the forests, were common for several days. Many not taking to the changes well and becoming individual or whole new species of monsters to roam the land. The majority however flourished and grew, some in population or size, and some in intelligence. A few species came to collective consciousness, their memories of the world like engines spurring them on to create small communities in the few days of growth that they had, to differing success.
Mana, the great engine that pushed Earth through a violent evolution, settled like a metaphysical blanket across the world. It would push the people of this world forward if they could find a way to change, or be buried beneath the new world. Almost a million people had survived the initial apocalypse, cut in half by the violent changes and the new predators who roamed the land. Now, in nearly 500,000 places on the surface, humanity held on tight to the ripping fragments of their reality. Nearly a third of those were destined to fail this trial as well.
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Leto had no sense of time, only his body and his soul. The world around him shifted and screamed but his little grotto in the mountainside was untouched. In his strange stasis he saw his gold tinted mana flow into the ground around him, somehow transforming his little home into a ship upon the ocean of change. Days, maybe weeks into this he felt his Ruler’s Will skill develop a second satellite skill that lessened the draw on his mana and allowed whatever his mana was doing to do so more efficiently.
Leto sat with his back to his little cave pond, the beam of light from the ceiling enveloping him like an edict from God, and he basked in the little sun mana that he drew in every day. But his world was pain and pressure, his wounds from his battle unable to heal properly from the general pressure that the ambient mana pressed down onto him. It was like he was now incompatible with the current status of the world. His version was out of date and the world was just not backwards compatible. Still he sat, his internal self floating on his mana pool like a patient in a sensory deprivation tank. The endless void spread out above him, his skills spinning in the distance, and the same blurry background in the distance. Every drop of mana that entered his body was a painful relief, like passing a kidney stone. It burrowed through his body and was released into his pool.
Aurora’s presence sat upon his head in the real world and on his chest in his soul. The images they sent to him were indistinct and not very helpful, but they were worried for him. The few images that did make sense to him were the consequence of not adapting to this new change. Death. Death by mana, by the crushing weight of reality as it bore down upon him. But what could he do? How was he to fix his very physicality that kept him from living in the world?
Leto began to picture the space around him, to give his little soul world a shape. He imagined distant walls made of weathered stone brick that rose to form a distant dome far above him. As soon as the first bricks began to appear, Aurora’s helpful tips disappeared and a shocked silence hung in their connection. They watched as a rounded dais rose from his mana pool beneath his skills, giving him a small spot to work on his skills. Shimmering light illuminated the whole space, like a gym pool at night. Watery gold, white, and red light sparkled across the stones all around them and gave Leto a calm feeling. They watched together the process of mana entering his body now that he had some sort of visual indication of what was happening to him. Mana forced its way between the bricks, cracking the surface of his soul space and dropping into his pool. The cracks left behind would heal slowly over time, but rarely all the way. Studying the walls and ceiling, he found miniscule cracks all over his soul space. Inspiration lanced through him as he remembered one of the images Aurora had tried to show him. A dark gray rock, riddled with holes, floating on the surface of the water. It hadn’t meant much to him before, but he recognized it as the same kind of stone his parents used on the calluses on their feet. Pumice? That was it. He remembered learning about it in school, some kind of volcanic rock. His teacher had shown them that it could float in a tub of water because it was extremely porous. That idea stuck with him, picturing the many holes that riddled the surface of the stone. There was a smug sense of ‘Oh are you getting it now?’ from Aurora’s side of the connection as he put the pieces together.
The human body had many holes along the skin, allowing the passage of liquids and gas into and out of the body. Even cells had a method of letting things into them to produce the necessary things for survival. Leto’s metaphysical body was watertight, allowing the less dense mana into his body before the storm. Now that the mana around him was denser, it was more like water and unable to enter his soul without harming him.
“I need some more holes.” He said, the first words to leave his still body after weeks of stillness.
His first idea was rejected violently by Aurora. If efficiency of mana flow was what he needed, he wanted four large entrances in his soul right around his soul space to let in as much mana as he could get. A conceptual smack to the back of his head came from their connection, and they showed him an image of the pumice again. It had many holes that riddled its surface, and the paths through the stone allowed it to stay afloat. But when they got waterlogged, the stone would just sink right back into the water. His first idea would flood his body with mana and, well, the image they sent to him was of a balloon bursting. Leto shivered, trying not to imagine his body splattered across their new home.
“Okay, no bursting. What would be better?” He asked her. Aurora thought for a moment, and sent him an image of a water system, a river through a valley, with many subsidiary streams and creaks running to and from it. In response, he sent them back an image of a human circulatory system. Arteries and veins, with capillaries spread through much of the body. Instantly they agreed and now Leto knew he had been on the right track with his attempt of using Swiftstep how he had.
“Damn I’m good. Rora, look at this.” He sent the memory of the experience to her, and a sense of pride crossed back with a whack to the back of his head. Yes, he had been close but damn he could have killed himself. They expressed the feeling of discomfort, of not fitting together and he understood that his metaphysical and physical bodies needed to be closer than they were before he attempted something like that again. Again, the image of the bursting balloon.
“Fuck okay. This mana shit is really dangerous. Once I do this, is this going to be permanent?” They nodded, an image of bedrock filling their connection. This would be his foundation, his starting point. He sent back an image of a house built on sand and a bit of humor found its way back across with affirmation. It must be strong to support what he would build, and any changes in the future could compromise his structure.
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They sat together inside his soul space using his internal mana like small drills to break into the rock he had built. Aurora was mostly focused on keeping the ambient mana from entering his body. They had told him that any outside mana would solidify his channels, like quenching a blade after forging. It would reinforce what he would make, but any changes afterward would make it brittle. His drills of mana carved the channels through his metaphysical body, a nearly solid stone. Now, it had smooth curving paths that distributed his mana throughout, and allowed him to collect ambient mana from nearly every inch of his body. It was not a painless process, but he massaged himself with Infernal Vitality. A soft heat flowed through him as he carved, a meditation in and of itself.
Leto was careful, taking care of any cracks in his soul that formed with a layer of mana and his skill. However, about halfway through making his magical circulatory system, Leto had a second idea. The circulatory system was vast, the average person holding 60,000 miles of blood vessels in their body. But, it didn’t work alone. He sent an idea to Aurora, and they were cautious in their response. Yes, it would work, but it was incredibly dangerous. If he could accomplish it, he would have a diamond structure to grow from.
Though the metaphysical body was separate from the physical body, technically, it was still inextricably intertwined. They were anchored together through major spots in his physical body. His organs, heart and stomach and kidneys and such, the bones along with his spine, and most importantly, his brain. Damage to his physical body would impact how well his metaphysical body worked in those areas and vice versa. His blood vessel idea was brilliant in that it would anchor his whole system together and truly reach every part of him. But, he was changing anything too drastic.
His new attempt, along with his circulatory system, was to create a nervous system. They worked together in harmony in his real body, and having them both in his mana body would empower him exponentially. Though there were 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body, there were 7 trillion nerves, from his neurons in his brain through his spine and spread all over his body.
The initial process of making his mana channels would have taken a week at the earliest, a month or two with how careful the two of them were being. With the addition of his nervous system, they had stretched his foundational stage out by six months. By the end of the fifth month, they had used ninety percent of his total mana pool, and had to be sparing with what they had left. Leto’s conscious mind has fallen into a trance, all remaining sense of time and self leaving him, his consciousness splintering as he became each of his mana drills. His spinal column had been first, to set a small foundation to work upon. Once finishing his individual nerves, he moved up. As his drills reached his brain, the blood vessels there carved with precision, smaller drills broke off of them. Aurora helped with the nervous drills, as he struggled to recreate his own brain in his mana body. 10 billion neurons were created, each drill splitting off into two more drills once they had created one to speed up the process.
Aurora helped as much as they could, but often had to leave to reinforce their barrier around Leto, recharge their mana, or protect their cave from intruding visitors. The world had been settled for months, and they were certainly not alone.
There was only the void for Leto. He did not exist, for months he was not himself. Slowly however, he became a point of light in the dark. Each time a neuron was finished, another piece of him came back, but would not combine. To do so would be too traumatic for his sense of self, too splintered to be considered even a shard of a person. But a little web of mana began to build, to become one of the most glorious mana channel systems the universe had ever seen. There had been better of course, but never on such a primitive planet, never someone with no instruction, no practice on soul dummies. Never on someone who had access to mana for less than a year.
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A small tribe of creatures that had lived through the mana storm had moved into a valley deep in the mountains. There were dangerous creatures here of course, but they were numerous in the plains beyond. Here, they could protect the calves, overwhelm the stronger creatures with their numbers. Upon entering this valley, they found a pristine place that felt almost serene. A large mountain sat to the north, its wide reach embracing them. In the center of this valley grew a patch of flowers that sparked with electricity, and prompted the tribe to consume them. The strongest fought for the right to eat the most, horns and fists and hooves clashing. Eventually, every member of the tribe was granted access to at least one. They could feel their strength grow, their still mana malleable bodies integrating the natural treasures into their very makeup and changing them. Their horns and hooves grew metallic, their fur dark with jagged white lines crossing over their skin. Lighting would spark between those who had horns and crackle beneath all their hooves.
Empowered by such a change, they sought out another treasure. At the top of their guardian mountain sat a bundle of raw mana that they could almost feel, growing day by day. One of their bravest found a cave, obscured from view on the ground at the summit. But upon trying to enter, he was roasted near to death by blue and purple flame. Scrambling back to his tribe, he would tell of a vision of death from within the cave, a monster in truth who’s silhouette against the flames had told of a giant bird. A few more attempts would be made, but with each broiled warrior their respect for the Guardian on the Mountain and they began to offer food and beautiful flowers they would find, in a hope that the Guardian would bless them with its power, or at the very least not descend on them and scorch them to ash. Every few days the food would disappear, and the tribe would breathe easier knowing the Guardian had accepted their offer. Though the chief of the tribe would wonder what was so important there that such a Guardian would settle there and not consume it. Their mages could feel that it was a different source of power, and it seeped into the very ground around them.
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An ancient hall would stand nearly empty, an obscuring mist filling every nook and cranny, and a single figure seated on a chair in the middle of the hall, a cold hearth at his feet. His skin was skeletal, his robes tattered and near dust from rot. His hair was long and unkempt, a white mane and beard creating the image of a humanoid bush. But still he sat in the chair, his duty always to be fulfilled, his ancient charge kept. There had been no mana here in centuries, or he would have been able to live much better than he had. The mana inherent in his body was all that kept him present in this world, and even that was slowly consumed.
“Mmmmm hmmm mmmmm.” His humming echoed through the space, his only sanctuary for sanity. He was immortal and supposedly immune to the effect of agelessness, but the mana consumption had almost done him in. As he inhaled to start another soft hum, a feeling in the air changed. The empty tasteless world around him had a hint of flavor, of spark, of life eternal, the precious mana of his youth. He straightened suddenly a spark forming in the hearth before him. A small blue flame, and then a yellow one, then a green and an orange and flames of almost every color.
“They are coming baaaaack.” He whispered into the thick fog around him.
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A soft sigh filled the cave, a rusty throat expressing for the first time in half a year. The web of consciousness connected the last piece and flowed back together into one coherent being.
‘Are you okay Leto?’ The consciousness flinched at first, coming back to itself.
‘Aurora? Is that you?’ Memories trickled back as the mind settled. A soft laughter filled the connection between the two.
‘Yes it's me. Your growth wasn’t only good for you. We are connected, remember?’
‘Am I done?’ Leto asked. Leto, that's right.
‘Almost,’ They replied, ‘Just the final step, Ready yourself.’ His will clenched, an iron thing that had kept a mind that had split into a billion pieces together. He could take anything. The edge of his senses tingled as Aurora’s barrier fell, and the tide that had been held back washed through him. Ambient mana from every source bombarded him, a beam of sun mana directly hitting his brain from the top. The flood slid through every channel, solidifying and reinforcing the complex web. Leto stood in his soul space, watching the pores he had added between each brick begin to stream mana into his empty space. When he had come back to himself, there had barely been a puddle of his mana left. Now, he was filled slowly with the densest mana he had felt. It was not violent but smooth, perfectly guiding the mana to his core.
Leto opened his eyes to the real world around him, and sighed again as the blood vessels and nerves around his eyes received the same treatment as the rest of his body. He could see the world clearer than he could have thought possible. Before the apocalypse, he was planning on getting glasses within the next year or so, his vision getting worse throughout high school. Now, he saw with the vision of a hawk. When he activated his Twilight Sight, a whole new world was exposed to him. Waves of multicolored mana wove a beautiful tapestry in his view as he saw into the fabric of the world around him. A beautiful ball of mana sat in front of him, Aurora nearly twice the size they had been before.
“Woah dude.” He said, “You grew.” Aurora tilted their head and squinted at him.
‘Woah what really I had no idea.’ They sent across the bond, their tone full of humor and sarcasm.
“Okay we have been able to talk for minutes and you are already sarcastic. This is going to be fun.” He joked and looked around the cave. “What the hell happened here?”
Every inch of the area around them was covered in wonderfully colored flowers and stones and fruits. There was a large corner filled with food and an old basket that looked roughly weaved. A blush crossed their bond and a stammered reply came across.
‘I uh, we might have neighbors in the valley and uh, they might give me gifts…after I cooked a couple of them.’ Leto’s laughter echoed hard through the cave as their blush deepened. ‘Look they were investigating our cave and I had to show them who was boss.’ Leto’s laugh petered out into a coughing fit, his lungs and vocal chords rusty from so many months unused.
Cough “No no I get it,” cough “Got to set yourself as the local,” Cough “God sometimes.” Aurora let out an indignant screech and leapt at him, pecking his arms.
‘I did not, take that back!’
“Yes your Holiness.” Leto laughed back. The two of them tussled for a while before collapsing into a pile on the floor. They were both exhausted, the last six months were a trial for them both.
“It was close there at the end wasn’t it?” He asked. Their reply was a long time coming.
‘Yes. If you hadn’t finished before your mana ran out…I don’t think you would have come back.’ Leto shivered at their response
“Well I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.” Leto stroked the feathers on her head and the two of them fell into a much needed sleep