Rivers of the Night

The call of a bird echoed through the air, a totem of a raven appearing high above Blackmaul.

Theron's eyes narrowed. He had learned about the Nightingale from the others. He wouldn't step into this Sect without understanding at least that, but it was part of why he was even more confused about Patriarch Nightingale's origins.

The Nightingale was an extremely powerful Arcane Beast that lived in the depths of the Nightingale Forest. However, it was almost more mythical legend than true existence. There hadn't been a confirmed sighting of it in a very long time.

But it seemed that the Nightingale Sect had a very secret and well-hidden method of gaining access to this creature since not just one, but two of their people had it under their control.

Interestingly enough, in Patriarch Nightingale's things, Theron had seen the techniques used to maximize this Echo. But what he hadn't seen was any method of finding it or farming these Echoes. He had no idea how Blackmaul managed to get his hands on one.

The abilities of this creature could be summarized in a single line: they were able to treat Dark Mana like another being would the atmosphere itself.

This seemed silly at face value, but the more you thought about it, the deeper this became, and the more intriguing the prospects were. Theron himself could think of a dozen ways this could be quite a powerful ability, especially on a planet like this one where Dark Mana was so abundant.

And he wasn't even a true Dark Mancer.

The first thing Theron thought of was how this might apply to the Cloud Realm, which was a realm where one essentially underwent the process of building their Dome of Heaven.

This Echo… it had the potential to be the king of Dark Mana if one had the talent to make use of it.

However, before the Cloud Realm, the abilities of this Echo were extremely limited—especially if you lacked motivation.

What Theron had learned, though, was that this world had a method of progressing Echoes beyond Silver Resonance, and at the Cloud Realm, it would undergo its first truly shocking change.

If you were a genius, though… it was possible to trigger this change at the Quasi Cloud Realm instead, and Blackmaul…

Was actually stupid enough to try and do this right in front of him.

"Idiot."

Theron didn't even move. All he did was raise up a hand. His eyes turned into orbs of dark blue, silky strands of this same dark blue dancing around him.

All of a sudden, the Dark Mana rushing for Blackmaul began to be pulled into Theron's orbit instead.

Theron's words were a bit harsh. In reality, most wouldn't be able to interfere with what Blackmaul was doing. Because it was a process related to the Cloud Realm, there was even a strong Heavenly Mandate around it, making it almost like a Tribulation, though not quite.

However, interfering could lead to backlash by an outside party.

Theron, though, was highly sensitive to the Mandate of Heaven, and his bloodline apparently still hated it to its very core even out here.

He could feel that interfering might even leave a mark on his Mana that would lead to backlash on him. But he didn't need to interfere directly.

Blackmaul thought that the Sect was his territory. So Theron would just make it his own.

Quickly, large amounts of Dark Mana began to convert to Dark Water Mana. When Blackmaul tried to pull it into his Core, he shook from head to toe and suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Kaelen's head snapped back when he saw this, his attention lagging. He had been the one blocking Lyra all this time, and even though he wanted to pay attention to the battle too, he could only do it through his Third Eye, making many things murky.

What had happened just now was clear enough to him, though.

Blackmaul stumbled back, the raven totem above his head wavering. Black veins pulsed across his body as he coughed up another mouthful.

He swayed. "No…"

He tried to look at Theron, but his vision was swaying too much. But maybe it was a good thing he couldn't, because Theron was a bit absentminded at the moment.

'I see… I was wondering why I didn't sense their Laws so clearly. These people seem to combine their Laws and their Echoes together. So that must be how they allow their Echoes to grow beyond Silver Mancy, no wonder…'

This made perfect sense to Theron. The Echo and the soul had a lot of parallels between the two, and the soul was used to commune with the Mandate of the Heavens and sense Laws. It made sense that the two would work hand in hand.

That meant that Theron could probably improve substantially this instant just by fusing his Laws and his Echoes.

Theron also realized he was quite lucky that Patriarch Nightingale didn't take him seriously enough to ever use his own Echo, otherwise there'd be no telling how that would have gone.

A dull bang woke Theron up from his thoughts. Blackmaul fell over, his seven orifices bleeding and oozing out with blood so dense it almost looked black beneath certain dim lighting.

Theron took a step and hopped over the crater, landing by Blackmaul's head.

The entire plaza was quiet, deathly so. It was hard to believe that just 10 minutes ago they believed that some sort of back door had been opened up for Theron. And now… now he had defeated their First Senior Brother as a mere Silver Mancer.

How were they supposed to accept this?

Theron raised a foot and looked like he was going to crush Blackmaul's head. However, not a single soul dared to say a single word, much like none of them dared to say anything when Blackmaul attacked Theron without a word.

"That's enough."

Theron's lip curled in a smile. His stomp turned into a kick and he punted Blackmaul's head, sending the latter spiraling toward a pillar a familiar figure stood on top of.