Lady Mirabella felt pain throughout her body as it lay upon the floor. A loud ringing in her hears muffled all other sounds that would normally be present in the keep. As things settled in her head, a desperation built as she tried and repeatedly failed to push herself up. Panic settling in as the ringing didn't go away and other sounds started to echo in the halls. Sounds of pain, confusion, and cries of children all of it working to put her further into distress. Until a hand grabbed her by the shoulders and waist before lifting her up and back into her chair. The arm was armored and had caused a bit of pain as the knight had lifted her. Enough that it cut through her distressed thoughts to put some semblance of order back into the world.

"Lady Arcues," The knight said, his words muffled by the ringing but still understandable, "We are working to secure the keep, but all of our abilities and magic seem to have failed. The mages have managed a couple things but everything else isn't working." His features were hard to grasp in her state and through the heavy metal of the helm. She was too disoriented to focus completely on everything, so she took a deep breath.

First, they had been attacked, at least that's the only way she could frame it. Second, it seemed like the effects of the rift were much worse now. Her sluggish mind put the two things together with a series of possible outcomes. The most likely was that they weren't attacked, and it was some kind of effect from the rift getting worse. It would explain much, but it had been so sudden and violent she wondered how bad it would be to move away from this place.

"My Lady?" The knight seemed to be waiting for her to speak, but she waved her hand at him. The thinking was hard enough without having to add to it with moving. She needed a few minutes to actually rest or even a good long sleep at this point. When another figure entered the room, stumbling every few steps, she knew it was just beginning. So with a groan she focused on the woman nearing her desk, and tried to listen past the ringing of her ears.

"My Lady," The woman, no girl, said before fumbling a curtsy, "Reports are coming in from the town and keep. It seems like nothing is amiss besides everyone collapsing. The mages report that the rift isn't growing fast, or has shown any change. Detailed reports will be delivered with dinner." The girl performed a curtsy again, this time not stumbling or falling down. Clearly she was getting better already, which left Mirabella a bit miffed. Why was she having such a hard time of it, her level was one of the highest.

"Could it be level dependent?" She said, not caring about the room, glancing around at who was there. They were all the lower leveled guards and knights with the guards looking much better than the knights.

"Knights are an evolved class from guard so it would make sense if it was level dependent." Her thoughts were easy enough to piece together, but her vague gesture at the room instead of at the knight she was aiming for. Gave her a clear indication that the effects were still going to take a while. The man moved forwards and knelt before her desk.

"My Lady?" He asked, his voice firm and his body only slightly wavering. Mirabella took in a deep breath to steady herself as she looked around the room.

"Report to the Mages that this event might be related to levels and evolutions of classes. Have them record the results of who woke up first and the order in which they stabilize." She took another breath as the room began to tilt, "Then, clear this room and post guards outside of it. I need to rest and will take dinner in 2 hours. During which I want the Knight and Mage Heads to be present to give reports." She finished her speech with another wave that had the rest file out after. Then, she dragged herself to her office's cot to sleep.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

----

I felt the shifting to the north settle as I relaxed a bit within my core. The displacement of mana had been immense, and I had an inkling that my son had something to do with it. He had told the ant scout that he intended to explore the old ruins beneath the human's town. Beyond just the amount of mana moved the feeling it gave off was similar to when the orb had taken away the System's influence around my dungeon. There was an odd feeling of absence in the air, and it felt like there had been tension I just didn't sense before. Now, it was calm, the mana moving smoothly outward from the Well and into the world at large.

I had to shift my attention to the entire domain to make sure that nothing had fallen apart from it. Yet, I found that everything besides my creatures were unaffected, and even they were just confused by the smoothness of the mana now. I took several minutes to twist a series of spell scripts into the air, and even imposed my will on the mana. Both had no resistance like they normally would, and reminded me of my early months as a dungeon and how easy it had been to do things. Though back then it was a matter of unbending will combined with the System only vaguely aware of my existence.

That gave me pause though, of all the things I had learned about mana and the System. I hadn't considered it's effects on the mana itself. I knew it could affect people and rob them of their potential so it could do something else with the energy. As well as block their growth with inefficient magical patterns and mind games, but I never considered what it would do to mana.

"Children, try using your powers to control the earth. Make odd things, things you have no need for. Try new things, and tell me how it feels now." I sounded through the floors of my domain, and the ants, bees, snakes, and various other animals began to use what elemental powers they possessed. I saw some turning rock into sand, and others making crystal from rock. One curious group of snakes were combining their fire and water mana to create large steam clouds. Though, it just seemed like they were enjoying it, not that it was anything new to them. To me it was all so interesting since it was just simple uses of basic mana. It had been such a long time since I had experimented with basic mana effects.

I glanced over at the cages of magical script that held the four "souls" of the adventurers. I sadly couldn't talk to the last one since we had only gotten to him right as the event occurred. Getting to work on those souls to make them elementals would be the best use of my time right now, but I found myself enjoying the show of my creatures. Much like Yana and Pyra, these were all my children, and the last few weeks had been so busy I felt like I had been neglecting them. So, instead, I turned away from my experiments and just shared this moment with my children. Giving words of praise even to the smallest of them, and I felt my spirit lightening moment by moment that I stored in my core.

Until I was listening to the War Queen of the second floor talk and brag about her battle against the intruders and I had a thought. I felt happy right now. No rush to do something, no vague threat I felt or foresaw. Just a nice moment to rest with my children, and even though Yana and Pyra weren't here. I felt like I could reach out to them so easily.

"Mother?" Pyra asks.

-----

Yana feels a tug at his mind, but pushes it away in favor of the abyss. The endless dark filled with colored stars looks back at him as he rests between moments of thought. Then, a sharp pain brings him back to himself and he attempts to sit up only to smack his head into the ceiling.

"Strange." He says, only to reel at the sound of his voice. It's deep, resonate, and has a strange quality to it that seems to make mana shake. Carefully lifting himself from the rubble on the floor he wonders where all that blood went. The stone is perfectly clean and free of any liquids, though it is cracked in many places, and it seems like it might be a good idea to leave. Though he takes a moment to look at himself in confusion. He is much larger than he was before, and it seems like his [Warform] is now stuck on and much... longer. In fact he would hazard to imagine that he has a very specific look to him now.

"Damn it, now how am I going to report this to Mother?" He grumbles to himself, as his dragon's tail swishes on the ground.