Chương 23: Timescape

In essence, the practice of "taming" Living Mana traces back to its origin: the First Manabreak, when several fundamental magical principles combined to produce what we now call Living Mana. To possess life, a being requires one primal quality—the presence of a soul. Manasouls have long existed in magical theory. They are souls as well, though formed of magic. Yet like the souls of living beings, manifesting a manasoul in physical reality was thought impossible.

Until the Realmbreaker Wars inspired unprecedented experimentation. No record survives of the exact experiment that led to the First Manabreak. Many accounts attribute it to an Androvian Warmage who peeled apart reality itself, exposing the soul of the universe. That essence, it is theorized, imprinted upon a vast quantity of gathered mana, granting magic a soul of its own. The account cannot be verified. Yet the theory endures. Excerpt from Theories of Living Mana, Vol. III Solander V.

Ryland was quite intrigued by Kendren's spell. He knew of a few different ones that could essentially create a magical recording of a moment, and was even capable of one with his Soul Glyph of Time. Kendren's was rather different from what he had expected, though. The spell circle above Kendren's palm flashed briefly. Ryland felt a weird chilly sensation rising off his body before coagulating around Kendren's spell. He'd need to observe the spell a bit more closely.

The Centreglyph had looked like a Soul Glyph of Freezing, which tracked with what he had felt. Interesting indeed.

"There," Kendren said, holding the Glyph close to him like it was his precious child.

"Now we'll never forget these wonderful moments."

"You just want pictures for your tabloids," Alendra said.

"For my tabloid, yes." They continued bickering some more, which Ryland half-listened to because it was interesting to learn that Kendren was… a reporter of sorts. He didn't gain any further context about the noble youth, but that alone was very interesting. Sint asked about the Wolbears as they got going, Ryland in the lead.

"Will they give chase once your spell fades?"

"What do you think?" Ryland asked back, arching an eyebrow. Sint grumbled and changed the topic slightly.

"So why not just kill them?"

"They aren't real. Spending any amount of effort on them is a waste of time." She stared at him. Wait, no. She was glaring. Ah. Ryland needed a second to realize he had unwittingly insulted her since she had gone through a hefty amount of effort to subdue and survive against a whole horde of the monsters.

"No offence," he said sincerely. Then paused before adding, "Sincerely." Sint didn't exactly look mollified, but she didn't express any further anger either. Ryland hummed a soft tune as he went ahead. Every time he got a fork, he took a few seconds to see if there were more traces of Fate around them. This entire reality was constructed from Living Mana. It stood to reason that every single thing they were experiencing was potentially affected. Ryland didn't see proof of that, though.

No black threads crawling along the ground or keeping the floating rocks apart. Nothing of the sort. The bigger concern was that if Fate was affecting him even within the Reality Demesne, then it was possibly affecting things outside far, far worse. It hadn't manifested in anything terrible yet, and Ryland had absolute faith in the defences he had set on the boy. But he'd remember to tell Viren to be cautious. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Is it getting colder?" Kendren asked.

"Or I guess, is it looking colder?" Ryland glanced around. They wouldn't feel any decrease in temperatures thanks to Alendra's spell, but it did feel as though the atmosphere had gone gloomier and everything was decidedly more rimed.

"It does," Sint confirmed.

"I'm not sure what it means, though…" Indeed. Ryland had already noted the fog and mist thickening earlier. This seemed to be more proof of that.

"Hey!" Alendra said all of a sudden.

"I think I see the Designated Area!" She forced her way ahead of the group, getting close to the edge of the rocky ledge they were travelling along. Ryland and the others soon joined her. She was right. Their target, a small field bounded with four metal posts, could be seen in the distance.

"It's really far down, though," Sint said. Alendra nodded.

"We'll have to get to climbing then." She seemed to have mellowed out a bit. Ryland wondered if dealing with her fears before arriving to assist Sint with the Wolbear had destressed her somewhat.

"You're giving me an odd look," Alendra said as they got going.

"I am?" Ryland said. Honestly, he hadn't the faintest clue what exactly she was seeing on his face. He tried modifying his expression.

"How about now?"

"Ugh."

"Now?"

"Stop that!" Ryland sighed and gave up. Somehow, that got her off his case.

"Don't worry," Alendra said with false cheeriness.

"I didn't suddenly turn into a passive lackey. You might think I'm normally pretty… driven—""I believe that is a magnanimous interpretation," Ryland said. Alendra scowled at him.

"The point is that I can be pragmatic when needed. I'll follow you for now because I'm acknowledging that you're actually not as much of a disappointment as I had originally believed."

"I believe that is a terrible understatement."

"Why are you categorizing my statements?" Alendra asked, looking like she was seconds away from undoing her bun and tearing off her auburn hair." For whose benefit?"

"Um… my own?" Kendren laughed so hard, he had to clap a hand over his stomach. Alendra looked like she wanted to either interrogate Ryland some more or berate both him and Kendren, but Sint cleared her throat.

"Are we getting down from here?" she asked. There was the minutest of trembles in her voice. It didn't take long for Ryland to see why. Their next obstacle was upon them. If the horde of rapidly strengthening Wolbears had been bad, then this next section was going to be even more terrifying. Ryland had brought his team as close to the Designated Area as he could while still remaining elevated well above most of the teams.

They had been fortunately deposited on the higher levels of the Trial Zone, and he hadn't wanted to squander the advantage. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. But at some point, they would need to descend. That time had finally come. For the gorge that they would need to climb down was filled to the brim with monstrous winged reptiles.

"Glyverns," Ryland said.

"Ones growing stronger every second too…" Sint muttered. She was right. The monsters' scales grew thicker and larger, their bodies and wings lengthened, their jaws turning even more ferocious. Just as with the Wolbears, these creatures were growing more powerful by the second. A quick look with [Omniscience] proved it too. The purple-limned threads of darkness were injecting them with the enhancing power of Fate itself. It wasn't a concern for him, but he worried for his teammates.

"Growing too?" Alendra asked.

"Was that what you two were nattering about while we killed that Wolbear? Thanks for the help, by the way."

"You're welcome," Ryland said.

"I was being sarcastic!"

"Ah, I see. But yes, Sint is correct. Fate conspires against us. As does the Trial itself, I think. The Academs did mention it would scale to our level of competence. The monsters below are growing ever more powerful with every passing heartbeat. It would be foolhardy to jump right in."

"Don't lie," Alendra said a little scathingly.

"It'd be the opposite of foolhardy for you."

"And it's scaling to your competence," Sint said. Ryland chuckled.

"True enough. But I meant for you. Unless you were asking me to deal with them all…" Alendra shook her head fiercely.

"Not in a million years."

"Just as I expected. As such, I've come up with a compromise that should suffice for all involved parties." Briefly, Ryland's head replayed Alaric begging him to lay low.

"Yes, all involved parties."

"What are you going to do?" Sint asked.

"Whatever it is," Kendren said with growing relish.

"I'm certain it's going to be terribly entertaining." Ryland smiled.

"I'm going to prevent the monsters from seeing us."

"An invisibility spell?" Sint frowned.

"It won't work against these creatures."

"Correct. Even high Tier invisibility spells won't work on creatures made from Living Mana. If one could simply stealth through the challenges presented by the Trial Zone, it would prove to be a poor testing ground, wouldn't it? As such, I'm simply going to freeze time in the entire area." The look Ryland received from all three of his teammates made him think he had said something wrong. Or he had said something wrongly. Honestly, it could be both. Ryland decided to explain by casting his spell." [Timescape]."

The spell circle burned in the air, his Soul Glyph of Time blindingly bright as the Centreglyph. Ryland had been exaggerating a little bit. It wasn't going to literally freeze time, of course. Otherwise, they'd all be petrified too, which would make the use of the spell a moot point. Mana surged out over the gorge, Ryland's manasoul sparking with boundless power. It shimmered across the entire area before leaving it intact, as though nothing had really changed.

Even after converting the Conceptual Glyph of Time into a Soul Glyph, Ryland found it exceedingly difficult to bend time itself to his will. All his research indicated that even the greatest Time Mages in history hadn't been capable of fantastical accomplishments such as stopping time for everything except themselves or journeying to the past or the future. The fact that Ryland could bend temporality to his will in the few ways he could was already an achievement that few in history could lay claim to. Still.

It would have been incredibly satisfying had he been the first to accomplish something like time travel. For now, Ryland was satisfied with [Timescape]. He targeted the gorge with it. Essentially, the spell froze the perception of time within a given region. Anyone or anything within that region or even just observing that region wouldn't find any indication that time had changed.

"So we can jump straight down," Sint said with growing wonder after Ryland had explained the spell's particulars.

"And the monsters won't notice us at all because they can't register that anything has changed within the space they're observing. All because their perception of time is frozen." Kendren rubbed his chin.

"I see, I see. It's like painting a picture without Glyphs and then instilling that static picture as the reality." Ryland nodded.

"Exactly. However, like most time-based spells, it won't last long. Let's get going." He led the way down. They still had to be careful not to collide with any of the monsters. While the spell messed with most of the targets' senses, it wouldn't overcome something like direct contact. Thankfully, that was easy to avoid. It grew warmer as they descended, leaping from ledge to ledge. The mist disappeared. Thankfully, since the monsters' perception was frozen, it wouldn't matter much. Yet.

"If I knew I'd have to climb down a mountain like this," Alendra muttered after nearly slipping and falling.

"I'd have practiced and figured out some mountaineering Glyphs."

"It's alright if you fall," Kendren said.

"That just makes the [Snapshots] all the more effective."

"Effective at what, exactly?" He wisely chose not to answer. They were nearing the bottom of the gorge, when Ryland frowned. There was the tiniest shift of colour all around them. Some of the Glyverns roosting on the face of the gorge were starting to stir.

"You recall I mentioned that the Glyph's effect was temporally limited?" Ryland said.

"You said it wouldn't last forever, yes." Sint winced.

"I'm guessing now's the time."

"Correct." Alendra cursed. Deep, warbling cries rose into the air near them. Even if the spell hadn't fully broken, the monsters were starting to sense that something was off.

"We're almost at the bottom," Kendren said.

"Just a little farther. And from there, it's only a hop and a skip to the Designated Area." And then the final barrier before said area chose to make its presence felt. With a thunderous roar, an enormous version of the winged monsters pulled free off the ground. Its huge maw gaped wide enough to swallow a small house, its tattered wings flapping uselessly through the air as it shook itself upright on its powerful hind limbs.

"Leave this one to me," Ryland said.

"Just please keep the others busy for a moment."

"What do you mean leave it to you?" Alendra said.

"You do realize that thing is beyond Gold, maybe even beyond Adamantine too." That felt like a weird way of putting it. If the monster was beyond Adamantine, wouldn't it just mean it was in the next rank Tier? What was that again? Mithril? Again, Ryland was obviously not bothered by it, but the same couldn't be said for his teammates. There was no time to clarify or argue, of course. The monsters were upon them. Thankfully, the others took on the smaller Glyverns flying down from the gorge.

The man-sized reptiles, growing ever larger with every heartbeat, leaped from ledge to ledge with their wings helping them to glide across wider distances. Their magic flared. Mana swirled even faster, turning into pinpricks of condensed energy ready to burst outwards with devastating impact. Alendra summoned up her storm magic, while Kendren called up several enhancing Glyphs. Even Ryland felt a smidge of their effect. It was just that, for him, it was like a droplet of acid in an ocean of water.

An effect he could only feel because his senses were overly heightened. Sint's knives flashed. Ryland nodded appreciatively. Since the Realmbreaker Wars, mages had shunned the stereotypical idea that a wielder of magic needed to stand back and cast spells from a distance with a big, gnarly staff. It was outdated thinking. Fatal thinking. Magic was a tool in the end, and limiting oneself to a single tool was the height of incompetence.

After all, not every mage could reach the levels of mastery that Ryland had attained. Especially when wartime meant mages tended to die in droves. Ryland took heart that his teammates were fulfilling their role perfectly. Alendra was throwing Glyverns off course with [Storm], Sint was using her [Rupture] to end the fallen ones, while Kendren ensured they were all as effective as possible. Which meant it was Ryland's turn to fulfil his role.

The Greater Glyvern was snapping its jaws together threateningly as it lumbered forward. Each clack made energy pulse along its oversized jaw. Its hind claws made the ground shake as it prepared to unleash a brutal charge that would smash through anything in its path. Ryland stopped it before it could start with his trustiest spell." [Translocate]." The battlefield seemed to freeze as it darkened ever so slightly.

Droplets of black-red liquid began drizzling here and there, quickly forming runnels all over the ground. Instead of charging or attacking, the Greater Glyvern screamed in confused fear.

"What is this?" Alendra asked, staring around at the pungent rain splattered all around them.

"What's going on?" The Greater Glyvern's fear spread. Its smaller brethren had stopped attacking. Instead, they now fluttered and floated madly as they got confused whether they ought to help their leader somehow or simply continue with the as-of-yet-ineffectual assault.

"What are you waiting for?" Kendren barked at the others.

"Take them out while they're confused!" Sint tensed. Then she sent her knives flying to rip through the nearby monsters.

"Ryland…" Alendra slowly asked even while casting her spells.

"What did you do?" Just ahead of them, the Greater Glyvern roared out mournfully one last time before crashing to the ground, splashing away its own blood. Ryland was once again reminded of Alaric's insistence.

"I minimized my influence," he said. Alendra looked at him like he had gone mad. Ryland was spared the need to explain further when a blue screen from the Grand Frame recognized his accomplishment. [Achievement Recognized: Mithril Bane You have defeated a Mithril-ranked Greater Glyvern despite being merely Silver-ranked. Reward: Rank up from Silver [75] to Silver [90]. Reward: 60 Glyph Prints. Achievement absorbed by Manasoul Archetype [???].] He frowned at the Manasoul Archetype consumption notice.

If a part of his Grand-Frame-granted status was consuming another part of it, then was it reasonable to assume that it was building up to something? He had no clue what, though. Something to investigate later. When he wasn't in the Entrance Trials.

"Come on," Ryland said as the last of the smaller Glyverns either fled or died.

"The Designated Area is right up ahead."