"Well that wasn't quite what I expected." I said out loud, as I unwrapped my son from his protections. The "explosion" didn't even rock the dungeon a little, though the mana all around us was flowing in chaotic patterns. Using it was many times harder than it should have been as well, but my son could hold his breath a long time so it was fine.
"I will agree on that, Mother." He responded, after he got his breathing under control. He flexed his hands as his transformation had been cancelled by the rioting flows of power. Now he stood next to my core in his original form. Mostly human with crystal patterns twisting along his pale skin, and hair like twisted grass. His yellow eyes narrowed with annoyance, he liked looking more fierce like a dragon. [Warform] was the one skill from the "System" that he had decided to use until he could do it himself.
"Should I go investigate, Mother?" He asked my core, though he didn't have to speak to any one place in particular. My vision couldn't reach outside of the core room right now, so it would be good to see what was going on in that room of ours. I could feel no danger from my body in that direction, and there was strange feelings everywhere else. Instead of answering I gave his back a gentle nudge with my Will, and he nodded before heading towards the Library. Meanwhile, I decided to check those odd feelings I was getting from my core. I made sure to fully examine every piece to ensure that no cracks or other oddities had twisted the structure, and, luckily, it only seemed like the patterns on the surface had seen any real damage or changes. I decided to check my suspicions.
"Status" I called out, and the mana around me flexed for a second, and the patterns flickered and cracked more. No other sound or light appeared, and the usual boxes didn't make an appearance either. It seemed like what I did really was disruptive to the world though. I knew where my structure was but couldn't see or really feel much about it. It was a feeling I truly didn't like one bit, and I hoped that my son could give me some information about what was going on.
-----
He walked down the long tunnel connecting the Library to that room, and he grew increasingly nervous about the amount of energy he felt gathering there. He even saw several strands of the off color energy that the "System" seemed to use the most trying to get close to the door at the end, but it kept being pushed away by the volume of other energies. While he only had a true affinity for Air his birth within his Mother gave him the insights in order to obtain a Shadow affinity to practice. The "System" didn't like him having more than one, and it sometimes seemed like it didn't like the one he got at birth either, and strange sounds and marks would appear instead of words. That's how he just knew that the "System" wasn't some god or something, not like his Mother. For she could alter the land, create metals and gems from a thought, and could see throughout her domain. The "System" only seemed to connect to living creatures and just tried to push them in directions and limit what they could do.
He recognized that his opinion on the matter was heavily influenced by his Mother, but that didn't make his own study of it any different. What the "System" did was just useful enough to make it an easy path to strength, especially if it was given to lesser creatures like humans and beastkin. Though, he mused, likely it was more of a benefit to the humans since the beastkin seemed to have superior abilities to them. He shook himself from the tangents in his head to place his hand on the sealed series of gates leading into the room. While he didn't feel danger from it, he knew it might just be that the door was a solid protection from what was going on. Yet, he was curious and his Mother had given permission, so he pressed on the stone trigger that would unlatch the gate, and began to push it aside.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The weight of each set of doors was immense, and strained his body quite a bit making him rest between the gates. More mana twisted the closer he got, but the chaos from before was beginning to condense into a series of repeating patterns. The flavors of mana he had an affinity with also seemed to pull towards him a little as he continued. When, the final set of doors opened he was surprised by the room itself. Where once there was nothing but metal enhanced stone and darkness. Now there were distinct glowing colors from each of the fractal glyphs, and the stone had changed in each section of the room. The stone looked like red-glowing obsidian near the fractal for fire, like waves frozen in motion around the fractal for water, and so on around the room. Though the once bright seed in the center had changed the most. Now it just seemed to be a ring of twisted metal or stone with a void in the center, and it just hung there pulling in mana but also releasing mana.
There was also a light pull in the room towards the strange ring, and so he wandered close to it and touched the smooth but twisting geometry of the ring. The next blink found himself surrounded by nothing but streams of mana. It was like looking into a rainbow cloud all around him, but behind him was the same circle. He thought he could see something solid in the center of the cloud, so he tried to move towards it. Only to realize that there was nothing to walk on, only emptiness greeted him in all directions. He decided to try and push himself using the Air mana in the cloud, so he reached out with his Will. The mana smoothly and easily came to his call, like a pet long awaiting its master, and he was momentarily confused. The mana never reacted so strongly or smoothly as this, it barely took any Will to move himself towards the ruby light in the center of the cloud. Gently spinning in the emptiness was a smooth orb of glass or crystal, and all the mana was flowing through it's center and then out again. With streamers of various unknown mana flavors flowing towards the circle in the distance.
He reached out a finger to touch the orb, and his Will sank into it. He could feel it ask a question.
"Are you my Lord?" Pulling his finger back he wondered at this. If it was asking for an owner he should bring his Mother here somehow since she would be better suited to understanding this bizarre thing. Though he doubted that he could get her here considering how the flows of mana were restricting her. Perhaps be accepting he could bring it to her instead, and it would restore her ability to act? Nodding to himself, he reached out once again.
"Yes." and the expanse flashed. When he blinked he was holding the orb in his hand, and they were both laying on the floor of that room. All the fractals were missing from the walls, but were now present on the orb itself. The circle was hovering near his shoulder, and moved with him as he took a step. This would work just fine for him, and even the flows of mana seemed to be following the orb as it moved. He figured that placing it under his Mother's core would stabilize the mana in her room and help her gain control back a little. Though he wasn't sure about how far the effects of the orb extended, though it seemed like the whole dungeon was right now. He continued his walk.
-----
I felt the sudden shift in the mana flows, and it seemed to be getting closer. Which meant that my son had figured something out, and it looked like the source of the disturbance was an object of some kind. I had never heard of something that could pull so much power and disrupt it at the same time. The closer it got the harder it became to use mana, until I was just trapped within my core, watching through the facets of my gem heart. When he entered the room I saw the odd yellow orb within his hand, and the strange circle above his head. I tried to ask him what was going on, but my words couldn't leave my core. Then, he gently placed the orb on the water of the Mana Well, and everything changed all at once. Suddenly I could sense everything within my dungeon again, the orb turned clear with rainbow shimmers, and I could feel what was going on outside again. There seemed to be a hole in the sky.
"Well I don't think that is good..." I said out loud, and I also noticed how the Mana Well, as deep as it was, was being drawn up into the orb drop by drop. "Okay, twice as not good." I said, and my son just nodded before collapsing to the ground.
S_*(**()_)_(_)( ERROR!!O*)*)*I)