Rivers of the Night

Theron only seemed to get faster and faster, his mind growing more and more capable of riding these waves, but the feeling was so very odd…

Until he abandoned the Dark Mana entirely because he realized that these feelings—he could Resonate with it all on his own using the Mana he was the most familiar with.

The moment Theron got a hold of the comprehension he needed from using Dark Mana a single time, he found himself capable of mimicking it with his Water Mana alone.

Theron didn't know why, but his Water Resonance had always been capable of this.

He could mimic aspects of Soul and Spirit Mancy, some aspects of Flux Mancy as well, but he had never thought of using his Water Resonance to mimic other Elemental Mancies.

Of course, there were strong limitations in all aspects. But what he did notice was that so long as it was directly related to his body and didn't rely too much on influencing the outside world, it was possible.

For example, he was able to erase his own Soul Imprint, and that was because it was etched into his own mind. He was able to mimic Weapon Resonances that only Flux Mancers should be able to access because it was an extension of controlling his own body. Even further, he was able to incorporate his Resonance into his movement techniques, because once again, it was his own body.

In this case, he found it even more possible.

The beasts were tethering themselves to Dark Mana a distance away, using that to influence change in the currents around them and send themselves in the direction they actually wanted to go instead of the direction the current wanted to send them in.

But Theron couldn't do this. That would be using aspects of an element to influence the outside world.

What Theron could do, though, was tether his body itself to a current he was targeting a distance away, then ride it.

The problem with this path was that he had to time it.

If he tethered to a current that surged before the one he was under the influence of did, then it was fine. But if it was about to surge after the fact, then he would be swept away before he could use his tethered current.

However, Theron actually found a way to take advantage of this.

If he tethered himself to another current and was swept away at the same time, almost like vectors, he could add them together into a single direction.

If one was to the left and the other was to the right, they would cancel out. But if one was to the left and the other was down, then he would go down and to the left.

Suddenly, Theron's mind became overwhelmed with calculations as he added yet another variable.

Currents deeper in the river were stronger than those above his head. If he combined two currents from different levels, then the vectors he was using would be of different sizes, causing him to go further in one direction than another, truly fine-tuning where he landed.

That was when Theron started using more than two.

He went from timing the use of one, to combining two, and then three, and then four.

Theron suddenly began moving through the river faster and faster, trying to understand why it was he was even capable of doing this.

It made sense for Dark Mana to be capable of this. It had spatial properties that worked on a more quantum level, something that Theron had learned about in the library.

Space Mana moved things as a whole, but Dark Mana deconstructed and then reconstructed things, allowing them to shuttle across enormous distances much faster and give the illusion of teleportation.

For this to even be possible, you had to be able to control things down to their smallest particles.

For someone with a high degree of Dark Mana control to be capable of something like quantum entanglement wasn't hard to fathom, though it definitely required an exceptional talent—or an exceptional powerhouse.

But Water Mana shouldn't have such properties. Yet, Theron had almost carelessly taken it for himself as though it wasn't difficult at all.

'I understand.'

This thought didn't come as an answer to how his Water Mana worked. Instead, Theron had pushed all those thoughts away, his mind feeling out the formation as a larger piece of a whole.

And he suddenly knew exactly how to get by.

SHUUUUU.

Theron shot downward, his speed so fast it looked as though he was cutting across the water itself.

He was adding together dozens of currents by this point, ping-ponging from one location to the next as though he was in his own backyard.

The beasts had also suddenly become incredibly wary of him. It was very difficult for them to do this, but Theron had learned and mastered it in a few minutes.

As expected of an Arcane Beast.

At that moment, they "realized" Theron's seniors weren't helping because they expected him to be capable of figuring it out himself, and he was doing exactly that.

They had only seen a few creatures capable of moving with this speed in the Dark Mana River, and most of the others that had had died instantly.

Theron didn't care about their thoughts, though, almost soaring—ironically enough—as he dove in deeper and deeper.

The currents were growing harsher and further apart, making it more difficult for his Third Eye to pick out several of them at a time, but he moved with a deft swiftness nonetheless, his body growing more and more eager.

'There.'

Theron's eyes sharpened, completely focused on the darkness beneath him as he landed.

As though he had stepped out of the river, his body slipped to the bottom and out of the series of streams into another layer of darkness. But this time, it was much thinner and didn't work like waves and currents at all. Instead, it rolled like a simple fog.

'… This entire river is suspended above this place?'

Theron's eyes narrowed.