Rivers of the Night

The first thing Theron tried to do was replicate the technique. For all he knew, maybe the replacement Water Meridians he had worked exactly the same as the Dark Mana pathways he had lost. So, if he just circulated the technique "normally," it would trigger much the same.

Theron knew this was a bit of a foolish idea. No, not a bit—it was very foolish.

Randomly circulating your Mana with the intent to trigger a Spell was one of the first things they taught you NOT to do in the academy.

Randomly circulating your Mana was fine. But if you did so with intent to complete the final steps of Spell casting, then you could easily go into Cultivation Deviation.

Undirected or imprecise deployment of Mana could lead to ill effects that could cause backlash as bad as death.

But Theron chose to do so anyway.

This was because now that his Dark Mana Control had improved, he had a sharper understanding of it as well. The portions of Dark Mana pathways his Water Mana pathways had now taken up should be related to the defensive aspects of [Death Walk]. And, as far as he was concerned, this was the most useless part of the technique.

The automatic trigger upon death, the healing, and the teleportation were definitely by far the most important aspects.

However, unsurprisingly, Theron immediately found issues and stopped before the rune-casting portion of the technique. If he had finished the process, he might have found his body parts scattered all across his room, and this time there would be no reconstruction.

Theron didn't seem disheartened by this. He already knew what would happen.

Even seemingly "useless" parts of Spells were there either for important redundancy in case another aspect failed, or as a stabilizing factor.

Something like a defensive portion could even be important in ensuring an outsider couldn't interfere with the teleportation and leave Theron's arm a hundred feet in the skies while the rest of him was buried in a ditch somewhere.

The fact Dark Mana deconstructed and reconstructed only made it all the more important to ensure that this didn't happen.

'Then stabilization is really what's needed, then. In that case… the Law of Preservation, the Law of Control, the Law of Balance, Inhibition, Stillness… it could be perfect.'

Theron's eyes blurred as he began to rework the Spell.

It was the most powerful Gold Mancy Spell the Nightingales had. It was technically just a Runebound Grade Spell as far as Theron could tell. But in this world, the value of a Runebound Grade Spell was probably no lesser than that of an Arcane Grade technique given the way they maneuvered around their use.

And its difficulty was about the same as well.

It could be said that this was the one and only thing the continent was superior to this world in—at least from what Theron had found.

[Death Walk] wasn't exactly forthcoming with what Laws it needed to be used with. But if Theron was correct, a Spell that needed to be paired with Laws was a lot like an Echo. It was a soul, and so long as the Law was compatible—or rather, comprehended in a path that was compatible—then it could be used to enhance the Spell properly.

…

Theron tried again, and again, and again.

Every time he tried to cast the Spell, he used his sharp senses to feel the failure before he cast.

The fact his Third Eye was so powerful made walking through these feelings almost casual. He had the soul of a Quasi Cloud Resonance Mancer. There was nothing that this Spell could do that could escape his attention.

The closer he got, the sharper the glow in his eyes became. His Mana circulated faster and faster, and his Echoes began to thrum with excitement.

'The way I've comprehended Laws like Control or Preservation don't work for this Spell. I use them to chill my Water Mana, slowing their molecules until they ebb into a crawl. However, [Death Walk] is ultimately a teleportation skill at its core… using those aspects on it would be like stunting its best abilities. It needs to move me, deconstructing the atoms that make me up and reconstructing them somewhere else… so…'

Theron began to pair the stillness Laws with those of his heated path. Namely, the Law of Flow and the Law of Release.

He needed a combination of stabilization and release, of calm and frenzy.

His cooling path and heated path were excellent for this. In fact, he found that if he tweaked the timing just right, he could even improve the Spell.

Slowly, [Death Walk] began to morph. The circulation pattern remained the same, but now it was a Dark and Water Mana Spell. On top of that, it infinitely approached the power of an Arcane Spell, something that only the likes of the Hall of Ice and Heart would have.

But now… it had been created in Theron's palms.

Theron's eyes radiated a glow as bright as day.

There was only one aspect left. He had already succeeded, but it still required 30% of his Mana reserves.

The good news was that this was effectively just 15% of both of his Cores, but he felt he could do better. He could do so much better than this.

So he did.

Finally, he began to tweak the circulation patterns, tying them into the unique patterns of [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils]. What he wanted was for the two of them to trigger at the same time.

If he was in a situation where he was going to die, he couldn't give a damn about exposing [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils] at that point. So, he would go big or go home.

As Theron did this, he found his comprehension of the technique deepening even further and felt infinitely close to breaking through the Quasi barrier and truly stepping into Cloud Resonance.

BOOM.

Theron's body shuddered and he suddenly flashed.

For just the briefest of instances, a look of unbridled, unfettered arrogance flashed in his eyes as his mane-like hair danced.