Rivers of the Night

The waves buffeted Theron, but his eyes were closed and his body didn't resist. It was as though he couldn't sense that he was falling deeper and deeper into a pit it would only become more difficult to pull himself out of.

There was something that Theron had realized before he stepped into this river, and that was that the waves were far too powerful.

The truth of the matter was that it was impossible for Dark Mana to act like Water Mana unless there was Water Mana involved.

There was a reason the debate of whether Mana was Life or Power existed. Mana wasn't just energy of an undefined sort—it was nature itself.

When you saw trees, you were looking at Wood Mana. When you saw vast oceans, you were looking at Water Mana. When it thundered in the skies, you were hearing Sound Mana and watching the flashes of Lightning Mana.

The fact you could see any of these things at all was a function of Light Mana.

This meant something very simple. If this river was acting like, well… a river, there was a reason for that—a primer of some sort.

The surface might be Dark Mana, but deep within…

Theron's eyes suddenly flashed open as his feet dipped into it. The texture of the waves around him changed, and his body seemed instantly invigorated by a swell of Water Mana.

With a sharpening of his intent, he pulled on the Water Mana. It wrapped around his ankles, pulling him into the stream below the waves of darkness.

With another tug of his intent, he poured the Water Mana into his body, flushing out his lungs. It took more than one attempt, but he was eventually saturated with Water Mana.

'Focus.'

Theron knew that he didn't have time to waste. He had randomly run into powerhouse beasts when he was merely in a small river of the continent.

This time, he had been dragged what must have been at least half a kilometer under the surface of the river. Whatever creatures called this place home were bound to be truly monstrous.

Theron's heart skipped a beat, his eyes widening.

Eyes. Several pairs of them, glowing in the darkness and surrounding him from all sides. Their auras were menacing, and it seemed like their maws alone could open large enough to swallow him whole.

The Mana they radiated was so dense and powerful that even the weakest were the strongest Gold Mancers Theron had ever sensed, while the strongest of them were undoubtedly beyond the Gold Mancy Realm entirely—a Realm he still didn't have a name for.

Theron's body went tight, ready to fight for his life. But just as he was about to take action, he noticed something else…

Why were they not attacking?

The beasts just encircled him and even seemed to be faintly… inching away?

Theron had gained a peculiar ability after the third evolution of his Third Eye. Back then, he noticed that when he was facing Water Mancers, he could even faintly sense their emotions through the way they used their Mana.

He rarely got to use this ability because many of the enemies he came across didn't use Water Mana in the first place, but he was feeling it again.

These beasts… they feared him.

'Why?'

Theron's gaze flickered, several possibilities coming to mind until he landed on one.

'They think I'm a beast. A powerful one.'

Theron's eyes dimmed somewhat.

They thought? Was he really so sure as to imply that they were wrong? He didn't even know what he was.

Alauna Sacharro had called him a Heart Demon. Was he even human?

His family, their history, their lives, were just constructs formed from Alauna's iterations so that she could "experience hardship." The love of his life, a woman that he had acknowledged when it was far too late, was erased with a wave of her hand. He never even got the chance to say goodbye, to look at her one last time.

He had sworn to get her out of there, that she would be safe… and Alauna Sacharro had made a liar out of him.

The waters churned and suddenly began to heat up.

But as quickly as they did, the waves of currents swallowed the heat up, passing it down the lines of tides. In a flash, whatever heat Theron had formed was dispersed by the churning waters and sent kilometers away.

It was then Theron snapped out of it.

He was weak. Still far too weak.

The currents of this river alone were so powerful that even with his Water Mana control, he could barely stabilize himself—and even that was just relative.

He was still being carried by the current. If he tried to stop himself, given how strong the river was, he would end up draining himself of all the Water Mana he had.

The good news was that these Water Mana Beasts thought he was an Arcane Beast because he had evolved his body into such a state.

The bad news was that there was no escaping these waves right now, and there would certainly not be a chance to escape the river itself.

Above his head was a layer of Dark Mana a full half a kilometer thick. In fact, it seemed even thicker in some regions.

The best thing to do seemed to be to follow along the currents and hope he eventually came across a patch that was thin enough for him to propel out of in a single go.

'Hm?'

Theron frowned as he was buffeted by another wave of current. This one crossed into him oddly, as though the two were running perpendicular to one another.

His inner organs were rattled, and his body shook, nearly causing him to cough up a mouthful of blood.

'What?'

Water Mana didn't act like this. The only explanation was that if the Water Mana was influencing the currents of the Dark Mana above, then vice versa was happening as well.

But that was only one of Theron's thoughts—he noticed something else as well.

There was no primer here. Why would this Dark Mana lay on top of the Water Mana like this? And why did he sense so much Dark Mana mixed into the Water Mana?

'Something is being hidden here…'