Rivers of the Night

Theron shook his head. He wasn’t very happy with his performance.

Honestly, he didn’t like how much he had to rely on Veinsong to begin with. But unfortunately, his bloodline—if it even was that—didn’t seem to want to listen to him unless he was in that state.

He was even more unhappy, though, that he hadn’t been able to keep Low alive. The Firewing was too dangerous.

The dead man was certainly right about one thing, and that was if Theron had allowed him to regain his bearings, it would have become a much more difficult fight.

The main issue was that Low wasn’t a Third Silver Resonance Mancer, he was a Sixth. His cultivation might be suppressed, but his Mana control, his technique comprehensions, and even his body were far beyond what his cultivation said it was at.

Theron was confident in winning even if the man did regain his bearings, but he wasn’t willing to take such risks, not right now, and especially not if there just might be other clues on Low’s body that he could make use of.

Thinking to this point, Theron began to pat Low’s body down.

At first, he didn’t find anything of interest.

He double-checked Low’s soul in case there was a Soul Tie Jade he had to be worried about, but luckily there was nothing of the sort.

That was when he finally found it.

’Hm…? This flame? No, this isn’t a flame, at least not one he controls

Theron thought for a long while before it clicked.

’This must be their method of finding one another. This should be a piece of Thessa’s contracted Fire Soul. When they’re close, they should be able to sense one another

Theron’s frown deepened. He wasn’t sure if he could use this.

He had no affinity for fire, and the main body of the flame was with Thessa. While she could sense things properly, that didn’t work in reverse unless Theron was an especially skilled Spirit Mancer.

Even if he was, the lack of fire affinity would be a tall obstacle to clear.

’Maybe I can use it that way… but it would need very special circumstances. Hm

The idea Theron had could work, but it needed to be implemented swiftly to have the highest odds of functioning.

’Not necessarily… if I’m correct, she should only be able to sense them when she enters a certain range. If I’m unlucky, then she might have already sensed this flame and will get suspicious instead, but the odds of that are impossibly low

Thinking to this point, Theron wrapped the crystal with his Water Mana and put it into a pocket.

Water restrained fire. If there was any Mana in the world that could hinder Thessa from sensing her flame, it was Theron’s. But…

’This isn’t enough

Theron could still feel the strong flame, and he knew that this was because it had life. It wasn’t normal fire, but rather almost like a Mana of Life itself.

’Fire Spirit

Theron had always been curious why it was that Fire Spirits were so much more common than those of other elementals.

He had heard of Thunder Spirits before, but they probably cost a thousand times as much as a Fire Spirit. As for Spirits of other sorts, they basically didn’t exist, or were so rare they functionally didn’t.

’Maybe if

Theron’s mind drifted to the Black Limbo Tortoise again. He had never tried to apply those runes, just putting all of his effort into studying and comprehending them. Normally, he wouldn’t feel comfortable trying something until he fully grasped it unless the situation was dire. But…

’I only need a piece of it, and it’s for an external item. Let’s try.’

Theron took a breath and exhaled. Then, he closed his eyes.

It was a good thing that it was raining. He had a feeling that this would bolster his chances of success substantially.

There were three parts to casting a spell. The first was Quantization, the second was Circulation, and the last was Manifestation.

Quantization was just a fancy scientific term Mana Scientists came up with to describe the process of pulling out Mana from the Core. The Core was solid, but Mana was not. Quite a number of Mancers were unable to truly master this step.

Circulation was the process of priming the Mana by passing it through the Meridians. Specific circulation patterns corresponded to specific spells, while certain Mancer paths tended to use and reuse many of the same patterns across various techniques.

Finally, there was Manifestation. Often, this was where runes came into play. At this point, the Mana had been properly primed and understood the general gist of what it was supposed to do, but it wouldn’t be able to execute on this without special markers known as runes.

This came from the caster’s soul, and it was like a final kiss goodbye to the Mana one had just circulated.

After being formed into these runes, the Mana in one’s body had everything it needed to communicate with the atmospheric Mana around it to form the end result of a technique or spell.

Ultimately, though, it could be said that Manifestation was the most important step of them all. The trouble was if the Mana wasn’t primed properly through the second step, or you pulled too much or too little during the first, it could very well still fail.

Therein lied the problem with what Theron was trying to do. He had the runes needed for Manifestation here, but he didn’t have the Black Limbo Tortoise’s Echo.

An Echo was so powerful because all three steps were managed for you. But now, Theron was just staring at the last step without having any feel for the first two.

And yet…

’Success.’

Theron knew he had succeeded when he was halfway through. One of the simplest runes on the Black Limbo Tortoise’s shell was etched onto the small shield of water around the crystal. Finally, the aura of the flame was completely snuffed out.

A breath slowly came from Theron’s lips, but he had only just calmed himself when his Mana circulated all on its own in his body.

Taken aback, Theron quickly turned his senses inward, only to watch the simple rune carve itself into his Bronze Core.

What is happening?’