Rivers of the Night - Chapter 685

Capítulo 685: Any of Them

[Apologies, this is today’s third chapter. Go back. I accidentally uploaded chapter 3 as chapter 2. If you don’t see chapter 2 updated, please go to your setting and clear your cache. I should have uploaded 3 total chapters today]

Theron was curious about what the Nightingale Ancestor Bird meant, so he continued to ignore the attendant, pulling out the booklets. Each one was simple and laminated, looking as though they had been bound quite recently.

Normally, something that was truly valuable would definitely be written in a jade of some sort and definitely have failsafes in place as a result. But something like this was only reserved for information people didn’t care all that much about.

It was odd to say that about something that cost him a total of 30 Gold Mana Crystals, but it was clear in this town that this was about what went for common.

He flipped open the first one, curiously scanned it, then opened the second and then the third.

His fingers danced in the air as he read all three at the same time, not pausing. His eyes glazed over, the reflection of words and diagrams flashing in his eyes one after another.

He flipped to the last page of them all in just ten minutes and immediately frowned.

Theron tuned out the Nightingale Ancestor Bird’s words.

‘They’re connected.’ He realized this immediately on just his first read. ‘Formation theory seems to be based on Meridians. But if that’s the case, then the complexities of it can also be widely variable. This seems to touch only a very curious Race, one that I’ve never heard of before.’

Theron only knew of Humans and Beasts; he had never seen anything else, or heard of anything else for that matter.

Although he was aware of the Demon Corps’ existence, as far as he knew, that was just some scary name someone with a bit too much time on their hands came up with. He wasn’t sure that they were actual Demons, or what that would even mean should they be—

Theron’s eyes narrowed.

No, that wasn’t true.

During the Nightingale Ancestor Bird’s explanation of his family’s history with the Umbra, what had he said? He said that they descended from a Race known as Asuras that weren’t quite Demon…

That should imply that not only was there this Asura Race, there was also a Demon Race that they seemed to be close with. In what regard? Theron had no idea.

In fact, that oddity led him to another problem.

How had he known that this came from another Race? It was almost like he felt it intuitively—the shift, the change in the air, the difference in Mandates and laws.

WHOOSH.

There was a current of air that wrapped around Theron, lifting his hair and then letting it descend.

‘… I can’t believe this. The Angel Race really does exist…’

Theron caught the edge of the Nightingale Ancestor Bird’s words and finally tuned in to what he was saying.

‘The Angel Race?’

‘They…’ The Nightingale Ancestor Bird paused as though he feared speaking it aloud. Theron didn’t really blame him—after hearing the word Voidwrought nearly shatter the knees of everyone around the Matriarch of the Hall, he felt like there was more power in words than he gave them credit for.

Slowly, the Nightingale Ancestor Bird gathered his thoughts and focused them on a set of carefully constructed sentences.

‘The Angel Race is also a Race that Humans descended from. They have Meridian systems so complex that they rival the most ancient of Beasts. It was said that there wasn’t a single form of Mana they were incapable of using, no matter how ancient or obscure. They were the perfect Mancers.

‘The real reason they were crowned as deities, though, is because their Meridian Channels were studied long after their deaths, and they became the foundation for one of the most powerful doctrines of formation theory in all of existence.’

‘One of?’

The way the Nightingale Ancestor Bird was explaining things, it seemed that they should pretty much be the undisputed best. Although they were apparently gone now, this didn’t change Theron’s assessment.

Everything came to an end no matter how powerful you were. The death of the Angels was almost certainly not a measure of a limit of their peak—it only painted the picture of how weak they were at their end.

‘Yes, one of. There have been many Ancient Doctrines, and many modern-day formation theorists feel the Angel Doctrine is too complex. Being able to control all Mana isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially in the hands of someone who can only control one—or even two in your case.’

Theron nodded to himself. He agreed with this. If this formation theory required a comprehension of all aspects of Mana, it would be impossible for him to maximize, and there certainly weren’t another dozen-plus Elemental Spirits lying around to give him extra Cores and affinities.

And even if there were, where would he get something for Flux, Spirit, and Soul Mana?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt this Race was very odd. How could a single person even master so many disciplines?

Theron paused. That was right. How could a single person possibly master so many disciplines?

Even if the Angels were capable of controlling all forms of Mana, would they?

There were dozens of Elemental Mana types alone, each one with dozens more variations. The paths you could take Flux, Spirit, and Soul Mana down were no less complex.

It wasn’t that Theron believed himself to be infallible and that anything he wasn’t capable of, no one else would be either. But… it was fishy.

When he was looking at those formation markings just now, he found something interesting.

They just fit together… so well, as though they were always meant to be together.

But separately, they were whole as well. If you had read any one of these books individually, you would have gotten the same general gist of the information, and the same general foundational understanding of Runes.

How could something feel whole despite being separate?

‘The same way all Laws can be applied to any Mana form… so long as you try hard enough…’

How many different Mana forms could he have applied the Law of Density to? The Law of Reflection? Pressure? Any one of the dozens of Laws he had learned?

Too many.

Not just too many…

Any of them.

Theron’s eyes glowed with the fiery heat of enlightenment.