Rivers of the Night

With a normal spear, Theron could probably only split it two or three ways before he risked permanently damaging the blade. After all, Dark Mana didn't teleport—it deconstructed and then reconstructed. If he used it on his own blade, he would be effectively dividing its power and allowing enemies to attack it at its weakest points.

However, with a spear as powerful as the Nightingale Ancestor Spear, it could even be split upwards of half a dozen ways without issue. If Theron's Dark Mana was more powerful and he could protect the blades more, or even reinforce them more, going upwards of a dozen split attacks at once wouldn't be an issue.

In fact, it could be said that the only reason Theron was limiting himself to half a dozen was because he was being conservative.

Normally, a blade like this couldn't be so easily deconstructed in the first place. The only reason it could be was because it had become an extension of himself after refinement.

He didn't want to put such a good weapon in danger because he was being greedy.

Plus, what were the odds that he would ever need to attack more than six locations at once? Even if he was facing more than six enemies, he was just a single person—there was only so much surface area he had to be attacked.

Even if he was in the middle of a battlefield, facing off against thousands of enemies, at most three or four could comfortably attack him in unison.

When he put things like that… six was almost overkill. Theron doubted he would have to use that many any time soon. And by the time he did, he would have Dark Mana powerful enough to split it far more ways.

Finally, there was [Shadow Flush].

This technique was the most straightforward, and Theron only needed to improve it further. It formed a cloak over his body and was able to pierce into the earth to "flush" attacks down into it.

Theron didn't turn a bug into a feature this time. Instead, his process was several times simpler.

He found a way to combine its function with not just his body, but his soul as well, allowing it to apply to his Echo.

When he activated his Impenetrable Octopus Echo and his Immortal Jellyfish Echo, he was able to extend the cloak formed by [Shadow Flush] into the silky strands, increasing the surface area even further.

If this was activated, so long as a person was beneath the level of a Lower Arcane Quasi Cloud Resonance Mancer, Theron could simply stand in the same location for hours, days, weeks even, without the slightest harm to his own flesh and blood.

This was how enormous the gap in defenses would be.

They were just three Silver Resonance techniques, but in Theron's hands they were sharper, stronger, and more potent than maybe any Gold Resonance technique.

And the best part was that their Mana cost was so low that they were even more efficient.

Sure, if Theron wanted, he could probably make even more powerful Gold Resonance techniques. Maybe they would even be comparable to Cloud Resonance techniques at that point.

But ultimately, his doubters were right about one thing… he was just a Silver Mancer.

His vast advantage in Mana was one thing on the continent, but the geniuses he would be facing off against soon wouldn't have such a severe disadvantage against him.

That said, this didn't mean that Theron would simply rest on his laurels.

There was one thing that he could still do to improve, other than mastering more Laws, of course.

The Nightingale Pavilion's Spells.

He had learned quite a number of Spells in the Nightingale Pavilion that day. He just hadn't learned any of them because they were Dark Mancy Spells and he was a Water Mancer, obviously.

However, that was no longer the case now, was it?

And there was one Spell in particular that had caught his attention.

[Death Walk].

When he first saw it, he realized it was a Spell that combined healing, defenses, and a movement technique all in one. However, the foolish Nightingale Empire had only been capable of understanding the technique as a powerful teleportation skill.

It was because Theron studied this technique that he realized the secret of a truly powerful Spell: Laws.

[Death Walk]'s true function was that when practiced to Adept, it could sense a lethal strike ahead of time and trigger automatically. Not only would it instantly heal you from fatal damage, but it would block damage that was too great for it to heal—on top of teleporting you a very long distance away.

From Theron's calculations, it could teleport you as much as 100 kilometers away in a single instant.

The only catch, of course, was that this Spell had to be prepped ahead of time, and while it was prepped and active, it would permanently hold onto a decent segment of your Mana.

If you were a Gold Mancer on the weaker side, it might need as much as half your reserves before it was satisfied.

For Theron, if he tried to use it now, it would still need about 40%—and that was because he could only use Silver Mana right now.

However, if he learned the Laws he needed to help [Death Walk] along, he could reduce the cost exponentially.

In addition, with [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils], he could Entangle with Gold Mana. If there was a way that a deadly strike could trigger [Death Walk] through his special pupils, he just might be able to reduce this cost even further.

Unfortunately, he was facing a huge problem.

Part of the Meridian Pathways he needed for [Death Walk] to work properly had been replaced by Water Mana Meridians. They couldn't be used at all.

There was a very good chance that Theron had a useless Spell on his hands… but he had to try.

And as he was doing so, he had no idea that the Nightingale Sect was practically crumbling without him, while Lyra was at the center of the storm.