Novels2Search

Chapter 149

The ground stood no chance against the rush of mana. Althea's senses smarted from just sensing the mana. The mana whose presence had supposedly been reduced by the System. But she could see what was happening. For the first time, she was seeing mana physically destroying something. So much mana in one place that it...converted matter into it.

Althea could scarcely believe her senses, but it was what they were telling her. This was the inverse of what usually happened. Mana wasn't turning into its related element, the earth was turning into pure mana. Not even aspected mana. Perhaps there was just so much of it that the aspected mana was too little for her to sense.

The mana went deeper as her sight followed it. A fluctuation of mana began as the mana encountered the planet's molten core. The fluctuation transformed into geometric shapes absorbing the mana, but they were soon overwhelmed.

Althea wasn't sure how she knew that-wait she did. The fluctuation must be the System. Or was it the geometric shapes? The pentagons and squares flashing across her vision that were desperately trying to absorb mana? Was this the moment the System was born, when mana overwhelmed the planet’s core?

That was different from what she had imagined the System being. Heck, she wasn't sure what she had thought the System was, actually. A bunch of mana pillars with computing ability? Not vague shapes that might mean something.

The mana pillar went ahead, not affected even a bit by the System's tries. And then something she feared happened. What she had thought might have happened. The core transformed. Like the earth before it, it became mana. The mana didn't stop, though.

The core began flashing, and her senses smarted again. The planet's layers started to transform from the inside, turning into mana. Althea couldn't believe what she was seeing. But it was what she was seeing. The planet was falling apart from the inside because it could not contain the mana.

What could only be the tectonic plates appeared in her vision. A bunch of huge plates that covered the planet's crust. The plates moved and crashed against each other as the mana flashed. But they were still being converted. Althea had a feeling that if the plates fell, it would be bad.

There was already sure to be a lot of trouble on the surface by the tectonic movement. The current continents were probably born out of this movement. Heck, the mountains near the Diery county had to be the result of this.

Althea had wondered how they had come to be. Everest was a tenth the size of any mountain in that range. What kind of tectonic movement was needed to make those mountains.

This kind of movement, apparently.

Earth probably hadn't experienced anything even close to this bad. Why it was happening was a mystery in itself. The planet wasn't alive, there should be no tectonic-Althea had the answer in a few moments.

The System. The System was trying to fight back, and was very bad at it. The vision she had zoomed back into the spot where the pillar was attacking. That made her curious. Why back there? The pillar assaulted her senses again. The sheer amount was too much. Like someone blaring a party speaker at full volume next to her ears.

But she could still sense...kind of. Ignoring the pain she was getting from her mana sense, she tried to see what she was supposed to see.

A tree.

There was a tree in the pillar. The silhouette of a tree was vaguely visible. A tree that was growing. Althea figured out who it was very quickly. The Great Mother. The tree was absorbing the pillar. The System had mentioned that the Great Mother had absorbed most of the mana cycle.

The tree continued drawing mana into itself, and the System helped her, leaving the core to shove the mana into her. The tree grew even more, and most of the mana stopped blaring down. The core stopped growing out.

The memory ended.

Althea collapsed back into her body, reeling from the memory. The first sensation she felt was pain. The headache had grown worse, a lot worse. The pain assaulted her, suffocating her thoughts. But there was more than even that.

In the back of her mind, she felt the pain being shared, a mental loop of sharing pain. Nathan. Oh, fuck, she hadn't ended the mental connection. Had she just broadcasted the memory to him? If she was feeling this bad as a Master, how bad would he be? Althea really, really hoped she hadn't killed him.

That would be bad. Yes, killing him would be bad. This was her last thought as she collapsed onto the ground, just laying there. Thinking was hard. A part of her wanted to check on things and get moving. The rest of her did not agree. The rest of her was busy scolding that part every time it tried to think. The pain that flashed across her brain and rest of the body drove the point in.

So she lay there, only observing the sensations she was getting from Nathan. Even though she couldn't really claim that her hands were clean, there was a difference between killing people that had harmed her in some way and killing her friend.

Even if it was a mistake. A part of her hoped that him surviving till now was a sign that he would survive, but really she had no idea. Perhaps having a weaker mana sense would save him? But the System had given a memory. Perhaps the Great Mother had done shoddy work and the full strength of memory had not reached him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The minutes passed as the pain faded. Althea wasn't sure how long had passed, but it couldn't be that long. Even if it felt long, there wasn't that great a difference in her surroundings. So she tried thinking again. And regretted it. The pain returned in full force, her brain smarting in protest.

Sighing, she relented to just laying down and hoping that they would survive. Mana seeped through the connection as she lay there, curious what was happening. But she did not dare try controlling her senses. That was more taxing than thinking.

Wait, she was thinking, wasn't she? Yes, yes she was.

Althea sat up, regretting it almost instantly, but not as much as she expected. The pain was less, far too little for what her healing could account for. Turning her mind inward, she tried to look for what was-of course.

Mind mana. There was mind mana in her mind. Nathan's mana to be exact. The mana was just lying around, filling gaps in her brain, but she could feel what it was doing, even if the structure confused her. The mana was supporting her brain, expanding its capabilities to let it heal better. The effect was extraordinary.

"Thank you" she tried sending back, and found she could. The reply was just a flash of acknowledgement along with another rush of mind mana. There was a lot of it.

The mind mana began to leave her as her headache began to fade. Even as it left, she didn't feel the pain increase. The exhaustion returned, but even that was reduced.

Althea wasn't sure, but it felt like she could think faster. The structure of her mind had been enhanced, for sure. Even her mental defenses suffered an enhancement. The effect of the mind mana was at least a little permanent.

"Please don't do that again, your grace. That was risky...new. Too risky to use on you. " Nathan's exhausted voice reached her through the connection. Calling the voice weary was an understatement.

The kind of exhaustion she felt in that message was deep. The kind she could barely relate to. The kind she was sure was going to end up with him falling unconscious just seconds later.

As if to confirm her suspicions, the connection faded, not breaking but losing support. There was no mind mage on the other side to support it. Althea turned her attention to the System, feeling lively after her healing session.

"So, what happened after that? I presume your main power source was the planet core? Did the Great Mother block you?"

Yes. The entity known as the Great Mother is currently absorbing the core energy to boost her cultivation.

This alone would not be enough to block System access, but the volatility caused in the core surface due to the presence of the suction has successfully blocked the System from forming an access module. The data to establish such a module is currently inaccessible.

Just how much did the System lose? The lack of System activity was suddenly making sense. Now, to fix it. Were the reserves, the mana the System absorbed during the 'event'.

That is correct.

And why was it necessary for continuation of life?

The System is responsible for synchronizing mana evolutions. The random nature of mana evolutions shall cause far too large a loss of life without System intervention.

Wait, the System helped during breakthroughs? Althea hadn't detected it doing anything, though that made a certain amount of sense. The way the System worked was utterly different. And she had only recently started looking out for strange things…because of the Great Mother’s interference.

That is incorrect. The System is referring to racial evolutions. Mana has the tendency to randomize the passing of traits, often leading to deadly or harmful mutations.

Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard of anyone being born without a leg or an arm. That could be the System interference, she supposed. But what caught her mind was that mana was apparently causing mutations?

What the heck?

What was going on?

The last few days had turned her understanding of mana on the head, and then done it again. And come back to do it again for good measure. What she thought the mana system was had contorted itself and turned into a bunch of things that contradict each other. And the rest of it was just a bunch of random facts that didn't want to work.

The core was made of mana. Ok, that was fine. But what about volatility? Was it like the Southern Continent's volatility? Althea frowned, her brows furrowing as she tried to connect what she had learned.

A breeze swept through her hair, blowing it into her face. That made her reach for it, before realizing that it was mana that was doing the blowing. Air mana that was turning into a breeze. Why? For fun? Or was that something the wind was trying to tell her.

After all, she had concluded that was a big part of the wind. The leap she had taken while forming her new path was a big one, but it must have been right. Wait, it should have qualified her for a title? Was the System holding it-

The host did, in fact, claim two titles through her actions. The title subsystem is not active in this part of the world. The host would not receive any boost in any part of the world either. The boost system lost power with the stat system five thousand and seven hundred years ago.

That was...about the same time as the War of Continents. Now that she thought about it, the timeline was pretty convenient. The System hadn't mentioned anything about ten thousand years ago, but she was sure there was something. What was up with that?

The Great Mother sinks her roots deeper into the core every five thousand years. The same occurred three weeks and two days ago. The host would note that they received a notification-Error. The host does not have the corresponding memories...further calculations halted due to lack of power.

Althea sighed. Three weeks and two days ago...she would have still been on the ship. How long had it been since she got eaten? Did she spend any time traveling at all? Perhaps the notification had come while she was asleep?

The System's timeline postulates that the Great Mother chose to sink deeper at the moment the host was eaten by the entity known as Whale Emperor.

So, the Great Mother had definitely planned that. Not that she didn't know that already. But this was just another confirmation.

What could she do about it?

Althea sighed. The truth was, she couldn't really do anything. The revelation left a heavy weight in her chest, but it was true. The tree was literally feeding on the planet core. And had absorbed that ridiculously pillar of mana. What was she supposed to do against something like that?

Heck, what was she supposed to do about the System's mana problems? Where exactly was she going to get enough mana to power it? Ask the Great Mother nicely?

"That won't work"

Of course, the bloody tree was listening.