Rivers of the Night

'It seems that the answer is… time.'

Theron didn't like that answer either. He didn't want to waste too much time here if he didn't have to. The Secret Realm would only be open for a short while, and as far as he knew, teleportation out was instant.

Even if this secret nook of the world was able to save him from that fate, that would actually make things worse.

He had gone through so much trouble to set up fall guys and point eyes in directions other than himself. If he was the only one that was teleported out late, then it would be like flashing up warning signs that he had gotten something that he shouldn't.

The time the Secret Realm spent open wasn't decided well in advance. No one seemed sure of exactly what might trigger it. But normally, it could be anywhere between a week and a month or so.

Despite everything that had happened, they were barely heading into the second day. All things considered, even with the shortest timeline, Theron had about six days to figure out what was going on.

'There has to be another way…'

Just logically speaking, inheritances or secret trials like this only existed because a Sect's legacy was in danger of disappearing. Considering the state of the current Luminescent Moon Sect, that was all the more certain.

For such inheritances, safety of those they selected was of the utmost importance. But, that could mean one of two things…

Either there really was a way hidden around here to speed things up, or, in the worst case…

It wanted him stuck here.

What better way to protect a successor than by shielding them from the world completely?

'No, there has to be a way…'

Theron wouldn't give up on this until the very end. Anything else would actually be a detriment to him, so he had no choice but to take on this mindset.

'The moons…'

Whenever Theron ran into a problem, he often went back to the small details. The details were what normally escaped people when they were often so very important.

Today, paying attention to the little details, realizing that the statues and their item spirits couldn't be trusted, had already saved his life this time.

So Theron thought back to the first feel he had had when he saw the moons. Soon, he had landed on two sensations.

The first was the closeness he felt to the bluer ones. That… he wasn't quite sure about, it didn't make much sense to him. Sure, blue was the color of Water Mana, but it wasn't like the moons followed the patterns of elemental Mana. They were shades of purple and pink, not red, or brown, or green.

So why did he feel the closeness he did to the bluer ones?

Then there was the second sensation. This one had happened much later. After he defeated the young woman, he was transported here. But the method of transportation was very curious. It was like the world was shifting all around him.

If he recalled correctly, the moons were moving particularly fast back then. But when they stopped, they were in the exact same position as they had been from the start.

These two things felt almost vapid. There was nothing concrete to glean from them.

No matter how much he stared at the blue moons, they weren't clicking with him. And when he thought of the world spinning around him, even if this space had some sort of method to move the moons, it didn't mean that he would have access to it.

'Wait…'

Theron's heart skipped a beat as his eyes locked onto one of the blue moons in particular.

If he thought about it, he felt just a slight hint closer to this moon than the other blue moons. It was minor, but the uptick in comfort was definitely there when he looked at it.

But why…

'It's identical. It's identical to the real moon.'

Theron frowned.

The moon that hung above the world was this exact shade of blue when it was full. Often, it was a white silver, but on the perfect night, it would become a pale silvery blue instead, not obvious enough that it would feel as though a sapphire was in the sky, but enough that calling it a blue moon wasn't an exaggeration at all.

'Do these moons represent real moons? What does that mean?'

After some thought, Theron decided to focus all of his attention on the blue moon he felt the closest to. He was so intently trained on it that he didn't even notice when he slipped into Veinsong. But logically, that was exactly what he wanted.

At that moment, his Immortal Jellyfish Echo began to react.

The relationship between water and the moon was well documented. Often, the repulsion, yet closeness that formed between the two was the stuff of lore and legend, and also the reason the moon was so tied in with the concept of yin—much like water itself.

The complexities of the Mana Science behind it were far deeper than even Theron was comfortable with deducing.

There was a natural push and pull between the two, and as Theron sank into the sensory blanket descending from the moon, gentle waves began to move within his body.

First it was just his Mana, but then it grew deeper, down to his blood itself.

Something within him stirred, and for the second time, a gentle aura radiated. His black strands of hair began to emit a mist of delicate pinks, lavender violets, and sky blues.

But then, something even more shocking happened.

The vague outline of an Immortal Jellyfish appeared to his back, swaying from side to side to the rhythm of the blue moon above.

At the same time, beneath Theron's feet, one of the nine nodes lit up.

Slowly, but surely, the Mana it formed pooled outward, filling the other trenches of complex runes step by step.

And then it began to pour into the other nodes, first the two closest blue ones… and then the color began to slowly change, shifting and morphing into pinks and purple as the magic circle hummed to life.