Rivers of the Night

[Death Walk].

Theron stumbled out of a flash of darkness and swirling Water Mana, his body collapsing into a heap. It felt like every bone in his body had been broken, and that wasn't too far from the truth either.

Pain the likes of which even he had rarely felt before pressed down upon him so fiercely it was hard to find a part of his body that wasn't radiating with pulsing waves of pain signals.

He pushed himself over, trying to look at his surroundings.

[Death Walk] was supposed to work in conjunction with his Third Eye, so he had been very reluctant to use it in this valley. The only way to direct where he would appear was by using his senses, and if he didn't do so, it was very possible for him to suddenly phase into a rock and die without knowing what happened to him.

If not for this, the range of the [Death Walk] he created could have had a range of over 400 kilometers, but it instead had just 250 kilometers so he could micromanage the exact landing location.

However, what happened if he couldn't use his Third Eye at all?

Theron's range ended up halving again, falling to just 120 kilometers or so as he tried to use senses other than his Third Eye to direct where he was going. This should be enough to get out of the range of the Humanoid Ice Spirit Beast, but it wasn't enough to guarantee that he wasn't going to be out of danger.

But in an oddity of all oddities, when Theron finally managed to roll himself over and look at his surroundings, he realized that he wasn't in a place that felt natural at all.

He was lying in lush grass, greenery so thick it blocked the skies hung over his head, and it was actually… warm.

At first, Theron thought that he had teleported far enough to be pushed outside of the Forest of Ice, but he dismissed this idea immediately.

There was no location on the Hall of Ice and Heart planet that should have this level of greenery. The Ice Mana concentration on this world was so thick that even the warmest temperatures were frigid. But there was also absolutely no way that Theron had teleported far enough to end up off-world either. That didn't make any sense.

Unless…

Theron's eyes flashed as he thought of the situation at the north pole of the Nightingale Planet. It felt like history was repeating itself.

When you reached the extremes, you often found yourself looking right at your opposite as though you were staring into a mirror.

Theron pushed through the pain, pulling himself up to his feet. When he looked at the point leaderboards, he couldn't help but shake his head.

His points were calculated based on Ice Spirit Crystals that he collected, not just from kills. That was why the leaderboards could detect his points changing, but the video feed couldn't actually watch his actions in the valley.

He had killed the Quasi Dome of Heaven Realm Ice Spirit Beast wolf, and that should have logically been worth a thousand points. But the leaderboard hadn't registered it at all. Unless he managed to find that Ice Spirit Crystal again, he wouldn't be able to partake.

Though, he honestly wasn't sure if he even wanted those on the outside to know he was capable of killing such an existence—even if it was just based on a small trick of the eye and taking advantage of the environment.

Theron finally managed to stabilize himself, pressing a palm against a tree. But that only lasted for a moment before he hurriedly pulled his palm back, looking at the frosty blue that was forming over it.

'Dangerous.'

The region looked so lush and green, but the moment he touched the tree it felt like he was thrust right back into the freezing chill. But why hadn't he experienced the same thing while lying on the grass?

Theron tried to take a strand of Mana from the air and found it to be rich and lively.

Slowly, he began to heal himself, taking in more and more of the Mana, stripping what Water Mana he could from the heavy Ice Mana in the air.

He moved and cultivated in unison, but his confusion was only growing deeper. Was this the core region?

He was hesitant to use his Third Eye. If touching the tree had been so dangerous, he imagined the danger of using his Third Eye was much the same.

However, the feeling of the Mana here was just so… great.

It was like he was sipping dew from the tallest mountains in the world, and he found his injuries were rapidly healing. In about half a day or so, he felt that he would be back to 100%.

Given the state of injury he was in, and the fact that the more powerful the body, the more challenging it was to heal, this was shockingly fast. Especially since Theron was moving and not sitting in focused meditation.

As much as Theron was tempted to sit and meditate in one place, though, doing so in a place he was unfamiliar with, without any cover, and where an enemy might come out at any moment would be the pinnacle of foolishness.

He needed a better understanding of where he was first.

So, he walked, slowly pulling Mana into himself while pushing greenery and shrubbery aside.

Every step was deliberate and focused—or as focused as he could be when his internal organs were slowly spilling into the cavity of his torso.

Make no mistake about it, his current state was terrible. There were probably a very small percentage of people across the universe that could even be moving with this level of damage.

The worst part was that Theron's damage was also tied to his soul as well after pushing [Songful Blade] so far.

There was a crunch at Theron's feet, and he pushed aside another line of trees. But he instantly stopped as he sensed something.

First came the voices, then came the wave of heat and cold.