"I'm afraid we cannot agree to your request."

The King slowly approached, each step etching a story of the untold years of battle he's endured.

"Follow." He demanded, swiftly passing between the elf and I.

His movement was smooth like Dean's. I didn't see a hint of mana escape his body.

Following close behind, we approached a set of french doors being opened by two guards. The King continued forward without stopping.

The night sky was hazy, as if it was polluted with… light?!

As we approached the edge of the balcony, the full view of a city glowed for miles. We were high in the sky. Just now I realized we were floating?

Steering my eyes towards the King, I swear he smirked at my reaction, but only a fierce gaze was now displayed on his face.

"Our great capitol, Deronus, is home to more than one million souls."

I hesitated, but spoke up, "Is this the only major city?"

"We have three major cities and countless villages, but we are flying above the largest."

This must be why he cannot provide manite. The insane floating castle must use up tremendous resources, not to mention an entire city lit up. These people are so attached to manite, just like we were to oil.

I slowly walked over the edge and hopped into the air, turning to gaze at the floating structure.

This was more like a floating island housing one giant palace, taking up most of the land. Two spires reached for the sky towards the back.

Flickering caught my attention at their peaks.

Facing the King, I spoke, "Are you collecting manite from the atmosphere?"

"Yes, but it is not enough to sustain this castle."

I was too curious about their collection method.

"May I take a look?"

His eyes pierced a murderous gaze towards me, but slowly relaxed.

"Very well."

I resolved myself and moved up towards the right spire's peak.

A flash appeared from the left spire, but I got distracted by the King, elf and two guards who appeared at the top of the spire in front of me.

Landing on the platform, I noticed the elf holding the back of his head in pain. Ignoring him, I focused my attention towards a two meter hovering sphere made of ice. I noticed minute clumps of manite were gathering on the sphere and sliding along its surface, then falling into a tube.

Such a simple design, but it appears effective if you are patient enough.

"May I attempt to increase its yield?" I glanced at the King.

His curious stare peered at me, as if dissecting my soul.

No word was spoken. Silence creeped in the air.

Finally, a gentle nod was given.

I felt myself breathe again. This King was intense. He shouldered the enormous weight of the kingdom and all its glory. I don't even know if I could defeat him in earnest.

Slowly my eyes closed, focusing into the atmosphere. The mana streams were dancing in the air flowing east, as I followed their path towards the device. The particles would glide around the sphere, where some particles made contact with the icy surface. They would collide with other particles, clumping together, and attaching themselves to the contraption.

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An epiphany surrounded my thoughts, “Ohhhh!”

I caught myself blurting out and noticed everyone's eyes glued on me.

Closing my eyes and paying no mind to them, “It might get a little windy as I bring more mana closer to us.”

Collisions were essential to generating manite. I reached out further up into the sky, beckoning for the denser mana streams to reach me. As I latched onto the upper streams, I guided them down towards the device, chris-crossing with the lower streams.

The air around us began to rotate around, roaring faster, and whistling from the patterns of the platform we were on. A visible mist was forming, encasing the surrounding area. Lightning sparked out in the fierce rotation of wind and mist.

Click, click, clank, clank, clank, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK.

Manite rocks the size of golfballs began pouring out from the colliding streams. I released my grip on the streams, as the sound of ore colliding onto the ground subsided. The tube was unable to handle the volume of manite, causing it to overflow onto the ground around us forming a hill.

“HA HA HA HA!”

The King’s voice was booming into the sky where the mist was quickly evaporating. I noticed the two guards had their weapons out, barely starting to relax. The elf’s mouth was wide open, so I motioned to him to close his jaw.

I felt the King staring me down, making the hairs on my neck stiffen. My understanding of quantity was poor, hopefully this amount is sufficient for our own development.

"You just created several years' supply in secon-"

I popped my hand up, to pause the excitement.

"In my era, our civilization became entirely reliant on a resource called oil. It propelled our technology to travel amongst the stars in the sky within a century. Wars persisted in its wake for mining rights, enriching a select few, while collapsing entire countries."

I wanted the King to know full well that I knew of the implications for what was just witnessed.

"What I am about to say must be kept secret."

I stared at the King. He turned towards the elf, who grabbed the guards and vanished.

"Our leading theory is that mana are the remnant souls of my civilization. Which if true, will one day dry up, guaranteed."

He turned out towards his city, no doubt pondering life without manite. It's a scary thought, but…

"There is a solution," I attempted to calm his thoughts.

"Demon technology?" He sighed out.

"Human science. Understanding the laws of the universe without mana." I responded confidently.

Silence arose for a few minutes as we stared out to the glowing lights below.

I brought out my pod and started up The Void.

Survival Rank

Survival Rank: 8

Oversoul: 2.5

Conversion Points: 52,113.08

War starts now

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"War starts now?"

The sounds of thunder roared in the distance. Tiny lights littered the sky in the horizon towards the north, sparkling like stars in the sky, encroaching closer to our position.

"The demons are here," I warned the King, who kept staring into the distance.

We were supposed to have three days, but it seems that was from my location back in Sarconia. The empire must want to prevent us from evolving further to rush an attack so soon.

“Have the elf use the EMP grenade under their bellies. I will greet them first to buy time for your city to prepare,” I cold-heartedly let those words out. My heart was racing, but this was the best course of action, and I was not going to allow these demons to succeed without a fight.

The King stood tall, staring into the distance and announced, “Beware, dragons have sided with the enemy.”

I felt an electric jolt stiffen my neck, from his words.

Fighting a dragon. I was growing excited and scared at the same time. This would be a perfect opportunity to gauge their strength, but was I powerful enough to stop them?

I left those thoughts behind, as I rocketed myself into the air towards the glimmering lights in the sky.