Rivers of the Night - Chapter 653
Chapter 653: Void
BOOM.
Cyclones of Aether raged in the surroundings.
Deep within Theron’s body, his Cores shrank and then shrank more, concentrating into points of light so fine they didn’t seem to be Cores at all.
No longer were they Silver, but they weren’t Gold either. But neither did they carry hues of the Mana they held either.
There was no oozing of blue and dark light. There was no light at all.
It was like Theron had become exactly what he proclaimed to be.
Nothing.
There was nothing left that this place could ever take from him, nothing that the Heavens could ever take…
Everything that could be taken had long since been.
Now he would be the one that did the taking.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Rushing waves of crashing Mana spun toward Theron in waves that suffocated those in the surroundings. It was just Gold Mana, and yet it came in such large quantities and in such concentrations of Water and Darkness that there didn’t seem to be any real air left to breathe.
Those that were lucky enough to not turn into statues hacked and wheezed on all fours. Only those strong enough to protect themselves from the currents managing to show the slightest bit of self-control.
But even so, even the Elders themselves were in a terrible, sorry state.
The momentum of Theron’s breakthrough was completely unprecedented. And his Cores neither looked like the Cores of a Gold Mancer or a Cloud Mancer. In fact, right this moment, Theron wasn’t using Cultivation Techniques at all. It was like his Mana was being led not by Runes or methods of long past, but instead by his emotions, his rage, his fury.
It collapsed into a black hole, growing denser and denser. And as it did so, his power responded in kind.
It was an unprecedented form of cultivation, one so fundamental and real that it had truly returned its roots to the very start of simplicity itself. It removed all sorts of steps and complex thought processes, leaving nothing but the most primal representation of cultivation…
Evolution itself.
To grow, to strengthen oneself, to reach stages that those before you never had.
Despite the sheer amount of Mana that Theron seemed to need for his breakthrough, everything finished within a matter of seconds. It was like a guillotine falling from above. Large and looming, glistening with silver light, it took some time for it to ramp up to its full speed. But the moment it fell, it snapped with the acceleration of a point of light streaking across the night skies.
And then Theron’s aura entirely settled down.
Somehow, the depths of his pupils seemed deeper and more unfathomable. If one looked away from him for a moment, it was almost easy to forget he was there, as though he had melded into the environment so perfectly that he wasn’t there at all.
Both there and not, both present and not.
He was nothing.
But he would take everything.
Every drop of Gold Resonance Water and Earth Mana on the continent had been bled dry in a flashing instant of time, and yet somehow it seemed that Theron had yet to completely stabilize. He needed more…
And this world simply didn’t have enough.
Lyrah’s eyes were wide in shock. She didn’t need anyone to tell her…
If Theron went all out, she didn’t stand a single chance.
How could a Quasi… No, how could a Gold Mancer possibly be so powerful?
How powerful would he be at Cloud Mancy? How powerful would he be at Quasi Dome of Heaven Resonance?
How could so much power come from such inferior cultivation?
Lyrah’s hair suddenly stood on end as her head snapped to the side.
At an unknown moment, a woman with beauty beyond words had appeared. Her white hair was so long it graced the ground with its presence, and yet it came out entirely unblemished.
“Matriarch!”
Lyrah hurried to bow to a knee.
Her words seemed to snap the other Elders out of it, and some of the stronger students, but it seemed that the weakest amongst them was still stuck in some sort of spell cast by Theron.
One after another, those aware of the Hall Matriarch’s presence knelt without hesitation.
There was another name for Dome of Heaven experts. They were known as Royal Mancers by many, existences that were nobility amongst cultivators and to the Heavens as well, for that matter.
This was the first cultivation level that one could be said to have a real stake in the world and real sway amongst the Heavenly Mandates. It was much the same way a king would reward territory to his nobles. A small strip of the skies would forever be owned by a Dome of Heaven expert.
As such, as long as you were a part of the Martial World, this level of respect was the bare minimum to be afforded by such an expert.
The Hall Matriarch, however, said nothing at all, not even when her disciple called out to her and kneeled as well.
“Who is this?” the Hall Matriarch asked softly, watching Theron’s back.
“This is a disciple I have taken in, Great Matriarch. He is not an official member of our Hall just yet and he is currently a disciple of the Nightingale Sect.”
The Hall Matriarch looked over at Lyrah for a moment as though trying to assess something peculiar before looking back toward Theron.
“Are you aware of what you have just witnessed?”
“No, Matriarch.”
She fell into silence once more. The Matriarch didn’t seem in a hurry to say much of anything at all.
“… A Mandate Core. Also known as the Voidwrought Core.”
The words held no meaning to Lyrah at all, and yet it felt like lines of pressure descended onto her just for having heard them.
It wasn’t just her, but everyone who heard the word lost balance, their faces smashing into the earth before them, pressed down so firmly they couldn’t even look up.