Breaking down the array after that was quick and easy, all we had to do was wait until after the next spawning and then remove all of the man-made control points in the array. Once my blocks were gone, all I needed to do was tap into the array through the only remaining point outside the cistern and direct all of its amassed energy into burning and transmuting the pile of metamorphic and igneous rocks before me.
Melting down the pile by controlling its intensity with just my will, I transmute the molten material into a dense orb and then use the array's vast pool of energy to physically crush and compact it down.
Turning off the fire halfway through the process as the orb maintained a blindingly bright yellow glow, I use up most of the now breaking down array to further compact and cool the orb into a clear quartz orb of crystalline impurities and colors.
With this thickly enriched object, I simply imbued everything left in the array into the orb as vague cracks began splitting the stone around the falls. This was the release of stress from the transmuted stone maintaining its bond to the natural stone shaping the array. It was finally broken down.
The magic battery in my hands glowed with a brilliant white light even through the inner swirl of colors. For a single wisp, this was probably enough mana to speed through the entire growth and training process of months or years within just a few weeks. For the average person like these kids.
Even though I was young my mana pool and mental stats were greater than most 'fresh meat' in the Guild factions. I did not even have a third of what was in this orb, and my mana was not pure like this was, but for a bonded familiar my mana was more than enough. The remains of the orb, though, would probably be enough to stuff their wisps every day on the way home.
Once the array was cleaned up, I started breaking down my old blocks and the contents of the cistern into a transmuted powder that I simply let flow away like a semi-organic concrete mix from the top of the waterfall. This would remain around the area and continue to enrich the ambient wild mana. Just a little something to help make up for everything I used.
Tired of waiting, the others already had their wisps out and were studying the orb that I had made by the time I climbed back down from the falls. Nobody but Gryn knew how to actually interact with it because only he and I had a developed magic, but they still touched it and held it. Eventually they would probably become sorcerers and sorceresses who used body magic once they were strong for their magic to mature.
The wisps, though, circles about the orb like sharks feeding on the aura of energy that radiated from the orb. To the naked eye, it looked like these dark amorphous beings were consuming the light shining out of the orb. My own wisps would probably be doing the same if my heart was not a pure magic source for body type magic.
When I arrived, I gave everybody the task of projecting energy from their hands to literally hold their wisps out in front of them. Once everybody had managed to rein in their wisps with another food source, I picked up the orb and inserted enough of my consciousness to guide mana out and to their wisps.
Through the wisps I guided tendrils of magic to their grasping hand and then spent several minutes synchronizing the mana of the orb to their own living magic signatures. Once everybody was locked into place, I then guided the magic throughout their entire bodies from their arms. Once every inch of them was covered and filled, I gently released a small trickle of energy through the entire backs of their bodies.
When my mother had done this with a specially crafted tool whose designs were used for many generations in our family, it initially felt like I had been drowned in near scalding water and then fire was poured into my body. This mana was not as potent as the mana supplied to and amplified by the tool, but it was obvious from the sweaty brows and silent grimaces that the others were already having trouble hanging in.
This process really only had to last long enough that their wisps visible alignments were drained into their bodies, from which the wisps would regain their original alignments. After the wisps turned clear, they could not consume any more raw mana and merely acted as a slight buffer for the person being cleansed.
This was the point at which the person being cleansed would start gaining stats from the struggle of hanging on while their bodies rework a foreign energy by force. For me, this was simply done to purify my mind and body to increase the purity and strength of the mana I generated. For them, it would determine their future mana purity as well as their future affinities
Of course, it was possible even for me to go through an even more powerful cleansing but it would be much easier for them to find a stronger cleansing than this than it would be for me. With the right materials and a few months of dedicated research, I could probably replicate the tool my mother used with only a small loss in strength and efficiency.
On the other hand, the fact that I was doing this for them at all was more than most people without money or background could get.
They should be satisfied enough with this boost in strength. Even without affinities, self-healing and physical enhancement magic were things anyone with enough mana could do. With their affinities and a little training, they'll be able to do much more than enhance themselves with an element.
"Three..." I started counting unceremoniously, briefly flicking my gaze across their faces. "Two… one," I finish quickly, imagined a closed valve within the orb that suddenly turned completely open.
This part of the process sucked ass, no matter how weak or strong the mana source and injection tool. Because this part was literally entire mages worth of nearly pure mana being flushed through their bodies like imbuing a crafting material. The force entering the body was concentrated into a small area so was not that hard to deal with, but the exiting full surface coverage of energy exhaust was like a tornado sucking you backwards.
Dirt and pebbles were kicked up in the air behind them from the rush of 'potential' energy, and the same strength of force was pulling them away from the mana they were subconsciously pulling into themselves.
The wisps in their hands had their ethereal projections blows back as if in a wind, making it look like water or smoke or actual flames of darkened energies were rolling of and into their arms. This was the flushing of the wisps taking affect as their 'bodies' swelled largely to the size of melons.
Once they took in all of the power that they could and thinned themselves out, the energies of their affinities began to thin from the flushing of pure mana like water through a dirty cloth. The energies pouring into the arms of Gryn's friends also began to thin out and shrink down. Finally, only pure mana was passing through the wisps and into their arms.
The mana itself probably felt like fire, but to have raw elemental energy flooded into every fiber of your being was probably excruciating pain. I would not be surprised if it felt like their entire selves mind and body both were being melted and pulverized into a near nothingness.
Now, as they maintained their hold on the magic flooding into them, they would start to remake themselves.
Everybody maintained their grip on their wisps for the entire first minute and, just like my first time being flushed there was a notification in the air before everybody. They gained their first Willpower increase.
Layla and Eman were shocked into wakefulness from their pain-induced trance by the notifications, causing them to lose their connection with the orb and thus be thrown back a few feet in the air by the recoil of losing connection. Hilded shortly followed a few seconds later when Layla vocalized pain, but she handled the knockback much more gracefully and rolled once backward over her shoulder.
Something had happened to Layla's hand on landing or while rolling, there was some blood running along two fingers and I already knew my attention would be required. However, she would just have to work on raising her physical Endurance stat through pain tolerance while I continued cleansing Carth.
This dude had an admirable and fierce determination, refusing to let go for two whole minutes in which he gained several new notifications. However, Layla soon reached the end of her rope and began crying which caused Carth to lose focus. As soon as he was airborne I carelessly dropped the dimmed orb and ran to where Hilda was comforting Layla while Gryn tried to magically dull the pain.
Nothing was broken, thank God, but there was a large tear across her knuckles and one of them was a little messed up inside. However, it did not even take a minute to will the injury into regeneration. Once the wound was gone and the psychological affects of dealing with it passed, she was as good as new.
Once everything and everybody was settled, their wisps lazily drifted along toward their home food sources and out of sight. Now, it was time for Gryn and I to tap our wisps into the orb's remaining energy and let them feed.
I served the others large helpings of mana stew to help them recover from the effects of cleansing. My mother had simply given me a physical healing potion which honestly did nothing but act as a placebo. This stew, at least, would have both mana and body recovering purposes.
Besides, who does not like hot soup or stew when you're fucked up? It really is the best there is.
When our wisps were done feeding and returned home at even larger sizes than the others, everybody was more or less recovered and ready to start dividing up the storage goods. I already came with my own luggage and was in charge of food, everybody else had to divide the furs and materials among themselves. After about fifteen minutes of arguing, Carth, Gryn, and Hilda ended up carrying most of it to leave out archer unburdened.
The hardest part about returning to the ridge was climbing up around the falls, but after twenty minutes of waiting on the still weakened members of our party it was time to trundle up the ridge to the top of the gorge valley. From their we started the long trek back to the river flowing out of the gorge. Up until the others who were joking around pushing one another up ahead suddenly stopped.
Pointing up and out over the forestry, Carth turns to Gryn and asks, "Isn't that Arguston?"
Following the aim of the older boy's somehow trembling finger, I find myself staring out over the forestry at a monstrous pillar of smoke.
*