A large crater formed in the middle of a giant forest filled with nothing but silence.
And in the middle of the crater, traces of ruins could be found where the rubble had been flung through the air from unknown forces.
'... Ugh'
In the middle of that ruin, a piece of the rubble shifted and moved, revealing nan orange eyed man in semi broken shadow armor.
I got up from my place on the floor with a pain filled groan.
Pain filled my every limbs as every small movement caused a jolt of pain to thunder around my poor battered body.
I felt as if I was trampled by a stampede of Bulls being chased by men on horses being chased by Thieves on Horseback being chased by Police cars being chased by military grade vehicles being followed by Military Tanks.
Incredibly painful to sum it all up.
'...Where am I?'
All around me there was nothing but devastation.
The incredibly hard stone walls that had some sort of magic cast on them that granted them incredible hardness that made it so I would need prolonged effort to break through them were broken apart right in front of me.
Giant devastating cut marks ran across the walls like a tumorous cancer.
The walls were torn apart to small little pieces as all around me the pillars that were holding the entire place together had been broken apart and placed anew.
A giant hole was present above me showing me to the starry night sky.
Strangely enough no monsters were near me.
I shivered.
I couldn't blame them, I wouldn't want to be near where the center of devastation was either.
A small frown appeared on my head as I vaguely felt something was incredibly off about the situation.
The good thing was that the being who could be anything but human seemed to have disappeared after doing something.
That something I didn't know but I wasn't going to find out.
Next thing I did was assess my state of self and it didn't look good in the slightest.
My shadow armor couldn't withstand the abuse it had been put through and was currently in a... less than ideal state.
Hanging in tatters, the mangled piece of Demonite armor was holding together by some unknown force.
But I wouldn't be confident in it's durability.
'I just got this as well...'
Shaking my head I turned to the crater in the middle of the revealed night sky, the surroundings being lit up by nothing but the stars in the sky.
Frowning I looked at the center of the devastation where a one rune lay in the middle of a giant crater.
I vaguely recalled that was where the Elite Slasher was but...
'Yeah I don't think your surviving that'
Thankfully whatever being that accidentally killed my enemy left behind a rune.
Hurriedly grabbing the rune and putting it into my inventory for later me to use, and ran.
Since there was a hole in the roof that was caused by an unknown force that collapsed the entire sewer system.
All the ways into the sewer had been cut off, there were probably still a few intact entrances, but I wouldn't tempt fate and linger.
Hurriedly gathering whatever materials I could and using the blocks to leave this place.
Several eyes of various colors stared from the darkness of the shaded trees.
Lurking.
---
'So what was that orange light?'
Now in a much safer place, as safe as one could get on this island.
I was hanging in the network of trees that wove their branches together and was now resting on them.
Of course I made a small wooden platform out of the wood and was now resting on them while making sure to keep an eye out on my surroundings.
However, now that I was sufficiently far from the crater after running a large distance, using the trees as a springboard.
All I could do now was do what I was doing before.
Finding out what that strange energy was.
After opening my eyes to a new sense, my surroundings have never been brighter and if I focused.
Blue spots mixed with orange ones appeared in my vision.
'I can do things like this'
I still didn't know what the exact purpose of the strange particles, but if I thought about the fact that I saw a blue star travel through the Slasher's body and exited through the sword as red aura.
I could tell that the strange energy had something to do with the increase of power.
'The problem is how to use it?'
After being awakened to the new sense I was acutely aware of the hot presence that burned within my chest like the aftermath of downing some hot soup.
The problem was that although I could see or more like sense it, I had no ways to use it in the slightest.
I stared at my bandaged hand.
I had dismissed the armor by now as it was already in tatters and I had little confidence that the armor could withstand anything stronger than a love tap from a zombie.
"Ugh..."
I groaned as there was little I could do without literally tearing into my body for the answers.
'...'
I paused as I realized I could do just that as I would respawn the next day, I quickly shook my head and got rid of the thought to the dark recesses of my mind.
...That wasn't to say that I was going to forget about it.
Exposed to the cool night air I stared through the scattering of branches that let a smattering of starlight through their leaves and put my hand to the air.
Feeling as if I could reach through the branches and reach the stars.
I whimsically activated the Vine rune and caused the branches and leaves to part ways so that I could look through the branches and see the starry sky behind.
And that was when I felt it.
The distinct feeling of something leaving my body.
Feeling that sensation I froze as my hand was left there suspended in the air.
The Vine rune having done half of its job and parted a good majority of the branches and leaves in the way.
Revealing the black expanse of ight that hung across the sky like a blanket that was dotted with a scattering of white stars.
But I wasn't paying attention to the stars that were half revealed as I focused again, making the presence of the energy appear in front of my eyes.
Confirming that the blue and orange lights had appeared again, I slowly activated the Vine rune and willed for the branches to part.
Allowing more starlight to land on my body.
And when it did, I blinked.
Because I could see
And it was... beautiful.
Sparks of blue left my hand through the tattoo's that the Vine Rune had branded onto my skin and danced through the air.
And it was as if the Vine Rune itself was conducting the Blue sparks through some unheard symphony as they took a... brighter yet softer look to it.
The modified blue sparks flew to the unmoved branches and sunk into the plants.
Manipulating them as the blue light was suffused entirely into the plant and moved to my will.
'Woah...'
Unconsciously awed by this spectacle I accidentally stopped the activation of the Vine Rune and let the sparks do it's thing.
Blinking, I wondered why it stopped before feeling stupid.
'Whoops'
Continuing my Vine rune filled manipulation I wondered about what to call the strange energy that rested within my body.
'So what is this?'
The energy that I was using definitely had a use and a name given how the corpse of someone living in the Kingdom of the Malaise used it to enhance their blade.
'Now that I think about it, there was that place called the Mages Guild was there not?'
Recalling one of the briefly named guilds, thanks to Rina.
I thought back to what she called the energy that they used to create those magic spells.
"What was it called?... Ah... Mana... Mana Huh?"
Rolling the word on my tongue I said the word several times.
'Mana Huh?'
Pulling my hand back and resting my head on my hands.
I stared at the black expanse of sky dotted in a myriad of stars.
The series of unfamiliar looking constellations filling the sky in their patterns.
And just like that...
Under the protection of a series of being able to act like a corpse and being on top of a large wooden platform with fences.
I quietly lulled into a trance and fell asleep.
---
"So he found about mana already?" A small child with a variety of colorful clothes dotting their body like an abstract painting said to himself.
The God of Fun and Games Twin nodded. "Yeah, the one I'm overlooking also started to reach the second tier and is already looking to advance to the third"
A third God of Fun and Games interjected as they held their phone in their hands, adjusting a pair of wide glasses.
"So what about the guy we sealed away? Have we found him yet?"
Upon the glasses wearing ones words they shook their heads.
"How did they even escape this time? I'm pretty sure we locked them in our Infinite Prison?"
"Remember that pseudo religion they founded? I found traces of their meddling after looking"
"Benefits of being the founder of a cult huh? Nevertheless how much power was able to escape?"
"Thankfully we were able away a majority of the authority of the power we granted to them so it's not that serious this time"
"But let me guess" The God Of Fun and Games Rolled his eyes as he watched an Ipad that was watching over a Masked woman that was making several bullets with an ominous aura.
"They stole a relic" x3
"Correct" Glasses nodded as they continued to scroll through their phone.
"Luckily our followers are doing their thing"
"Yeah" The God of Fun and Games nodded to his own clones as they looked at each other.
"Onto other news, what do you guys think of finding..."
+++
Tree