Erik fixed his gaze on the black mist lake, deep in thought, trying to figure out how to make it move. He didn't know how Valcroy had managed it—Valcroy himself didn't even know which he kind of expected and chalked it to insane talent. Erik's mana hovered at the edge of the black lake, with red tendrils extending outward.
As he pondered the problem for a while, a thought suddenly came to him. He opened his eyes and found Val punching the empty air and asked, "Did you absorb mana from the world?" Not asking why he was doing what he was doing.
Valcroy shook his head, understanding Erik's line of questioning. Or maybe he didn't. His mind was a mountain of mess.
"No, it was already there. Why would I absorb any more?"
Erik nodded, piecing together a theory, a tattered one but still a theory, which he just needed confirmation for. He told Valcroy to sit down, which Val did, and Erik placed his hand on Valcroy's back, using his mana to check Valcroy's physical state. What he found confirmed his suspicions and, hence, his theory.
"He doesn't have an ounce of mana," Erik thought, removing his hand from Valcroy's back. Valcroy returned to his training, a brutal cycle of destruction and construction, at least that's what it looked like from the outside and anyone's soul would jump out of their body if they saw him do that.
Erik watched for a while, while thinking about something reckless. He now knew the problem that was hindering his progress. His absorbed mana had been acting as a barrier to the black mist. It had formed a dense wall around the black mana, which corroded mana but wasn't able to overcome it. Erik himself had an insane talent and an insane capacity for storing mana into his body. His body had instinctively used over 90% of mana to form a blockage around the black mana.
Now that he knew the problem, he just needed to get rid of it. He took a deep breath and focused. A gust of wind surrounded him, and if anyone with mana perception or the legendary Mystic Eyes were present, they would have seen that the gust was mana, leaving his body—being expelled rather than simply flowing out.
Erik's body twitched as if it were losing a vital part of itself, but he remained calm, suppressing the uncomfortable sensation as he purged every ounce of mana. It was a necessary step, at least according to him.
Valcroy noticed the gust of wind and looked over, curious about what Erik was doing. But when he saw Erik's furrowed brow, he realized Erik was deeply focused. Valcroy walked a little distance away, not to disturb him and to resume his own training. The power he felt with each cycle of corrosion and regeneration was tempting.
Valcroy channeled the black mana into his left arm, directing it into the muscle tissue. As soon as the black mana infiltrated his muscles, it began acting according to its corrosive nature. The muscle fibers started breaking down, and a weak sensation spread through his arm, as if something vital within his muscles was being eaten away.
The black mana was extremely corrosive and aggressive, which was obvious from the appearance of his arm. The muscle fibers deteriorated, weakening the arm temporarily. What were once strong and flexible arm became brittle and fragile, as if dissolving from within. Valcroy observed this with curiosity, amazed that he felt no pain—an unreal experience.
'At least it differs from the sick body art manual.'
The Frostborne family had provided him with the basic body strengthening art which he was using until now, it was the most basic manual and every soldier and the house worker had it when they joined the Frostborne family. But the fact it was the most basic meant it was also of lower quality. The mana it helped in gathering and utilizing to temper ones' muscles was inferior, not even the inferior mana stones have the mana this mixed and full of impurities.
Because it was an inferior body art, the pain it brought when one intake mana from outside was definitely bone shattering. He saw the guards and other squires of the house use the body art and how much they wailed in pain. It was discouraging.
Erik had been teaching him his own body art, a body art that he didn't know the rank of but it would be higher than an inferior grade for sure.
As his muscles reached the brink of collapse, the warmth of the regenerative aura, like a counterbalance to the black mana's corrosive effects, surged through his muscles. Valcroy retracted the black mana with a mere thought. He stopped and considered allowing the two energies to interact to see what would happen and something strange did happen: they ignored each other, as if existing on completely different planes.
The aura flooded the damaged areas, knitting the broken muscle fibers back together with a mythril needle. This regeneration wasn't just simple healing; it felt like a force that not only restored but enhanced the muscles, forging them to be stronger than before.
Valcroy repeated this cycle of destruction and construction. With each cycle, he felt his muscles becoming firmer, giving him more motivation to continue.
Meanwhile, Erik was still trying to navigate his own internal landscape. He had finally eliminated all the mana from his body, entering a state of mana deficiency—a dangerous condition for both mages and knights. Yet, for some reason, he didn't get the expected effects, and he understood why. The mana he had absorbed was the hindrance.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, focusing on how to move the black mana. Normally, he could control mana with his mental energy, but that energy had been specifically tuned for regular mana. He had no experience with the black mana, so how could he adjust his mental energy to move it?
This was a dilemma, and there was no one to help him out of it. Valcroy was obviously out of the question, as he was even more clueless than Erik.
"Here goes nothing," Erik thought.
He closed his eyes again and tried to sense the black mana, but all he encountered was darkness—complete and utter darkness. He couldn't see anything. Frustrated but not defeated, he tried again, sending his mental energy to his chest, attempting to perceive a single particle of the black mana. But every time he found himself literally lost in the darkness, there was nothing but darkness wherever he looked. He asked Valcroy, who replied with having no such encounter.
He tried over and over, failing each time. Just as he was about to give up, he heard something.
Ba-dump*
The sound made him stop and turn around. Though the darkness still obscured his vision, he could hear it, loud and clear.
Ba-dump*
Ba-dump*
A familiar heartbeat. Erik furrowed his brow as he walked toward the source of the sound in the pitch-black darkness, unsure of what he would find, but it was better than nothing. After a while, the darkness shifted, and a clear silhouette emerged. His eyebrows shot up as he recognized what was hiding in the darkness.
It gave him a feeling that was both familiar and strange. He stared at the silhouette hanging in the black veil, a red outline that contracted and relaxed with smooth transitions, but there were myriad colors around it.
"My heart."
But before he could fully take it in, his vision changed again. His inner sight, which he thought he had lost, returned. Yet Erik remained in a trance, struggling to process what he had just seen. He wasn't sure if it had been real or a dream.
"That's not possible," he thought. What he had seen was a body structure—specifically, a blood vessel reformation of the body, the cardiovascular system—but it was completely different from that of a human body.
He couldn't tell if it was real or not, but he got what he wanted: he hadn't failed the first time. The connection with the black mana had shown him a realm filled with darkness, possibly the source of this black mana.
Now, he could finally try what he had been aiming for, though he couldn't deny feeling he was nervous. This was an entirely new realm for him, and if he succeeded, it could open many doors.
He shook his head, dismissing unnecessary thoughts. With a single thought, the black mana moved like a flood, giving him a surreal feeling. It made him realize how feeble his previous control over regular mana had been. But he didn't let it get to his head; the actual test was still to come.
Erik channeled the black mana into his right arm, sending it into the muscle tissue. He observed like a bystander as the results unfolded. The black mana corroded the tissue structure like a hungry lion, weakening his muscles to the point where he lost control of his arm. One thing was for sure, his handling still wasn't as smooth as Valcroy's.
But Erik did nothing and simply waited. Soon, the regenerative aura surged through his body like a torrent, healing and strengthening his muscles. A word slipped from his lips as a smile crept onto his face.
"Jackpot."
---
While Erik and Valcroy relished the feeling of getting stronger, the same couldn't be said for others who were living in constant fear. Fear of the Alliance soldiers and now an additional terror—the cruel whale that could appear at any moment and devour them.
Collum and Mallory did their best to maintain control. It had been two days since Erik and Valcroy barricaded themselves in the Crucible, the same amount of time that had passed since the whale's last sighting.
The good news was that the weather had cleared, and now the sun was shining brightly, trying to breathe life into this lifeless world. But the little peace the people of Iron'Heits had found was shattered by the creature's presence.
Just as another riot was about to break out, Collum received word that Erik and Valcroy had emerged from their seclusion. Relief washed over him; he was finally free from the daunting administrative duties. Sure, the administration office handled most of the work, but Erik had insisted that the most important issues be dealt with personally. In his absence, Collum took on that responsibility.
When Erik heard about the incident with the whale, his eyebrows raised slightly. Valcroy, also curious about the creature, followed them into the war room. Mallory and Collum furrowed their brows, but Erik said nothing, leaving them to swallow their questions. Soon, they found themselves watching a screen showing the monster's first appearance.
Fortunately, the administration office had a good surveillance and monitoring device, crafted by a magic engineer (an auxiliary field like a scribe or a seer etc). The downside of the device was that it was stationary, easy to trick, and couldn't see past barriers or beyond a certain distance. But it had done its job by capturing the monster.
Valcroy's mouth hung open as he stared at the size of the creature. It was his first time seeing something so massive; the device had only been able to capture its silhouette amid the thunderous clouds.
Erik remained silent, his mind racing as he watched the footage. He felt the situation was somewhat manageable now. With this creature now in the mix, he thought they might stand a chance against the Alliance—if the creature didn't target them, that was the condition. His eyes stayed glued to the screen, and what he saw next left him shocked. Valcroy was equally stunned as the giant, disfigured whale emerged from the clouds, unleashing hell on the Alliance soldiers.
Collum and Mallory saw Erik's expression and were reminded that he was, after all, human. They had thought his emotions were frozen after the "Frostpyre" incident, but they were very much alive—he just didn't show them.
"You can go now," Erik said.
Collum and Mallory obeyed and turned to leave, but paused when they saw Valcroy remaining in place. They thought he was just stunned by the sight of the monster and were about to snap him out of it when they heard Erik say, "He's staying."
They hesitated, looking at Erik with raised eyebrows, but his serious expression left no room for questions. They nodded and left, still wondering what was so special about Valcroy. But again, there was no one to answer them.
Erik and Valcroy were both stunned, but for entirely different reasons. The moment they saw the whale, a strange feeling arose within them. It was as if they knew what it was and why it was there, but they couldn't quite grasp it, again the same familiar and strange feeling gripped them.
Seeing it in action only solidified their suspicions, especially for Valcroy, who, after a long silence, uttered, "It's a creature from the other world."
He could tell this from his nonexistent heartbeat. Erik had sensed something similar, the same feeling he got from the heart-like creature, but hadn't been to the other world, so he wasn't sure. He could only take Valcroy's word for it and sat there, deep in thought, while watching the ongoing massacre.
Soon, the whale vanished, leaving behind nothing but a thundering sky and pouring rain.
"I need to go there," Valcroy said, referring to the place where the whale had emerged. Erik didn't respond, but he felt the same pull, as if something was calling them to find it as soon as possible.
The room remained silent for a long time. Valcroy was determined to go, though he didn't fully understand why—he just knew he would regret it if he didn't.
"Let's go, then."