Chapter 346: Third Phase
Coop waded through shallow water, blindfolded, but still seeing. He was moving slowly, as if he was carefully choosing each step, overwhelmed by an inundation of detail.
The lighthouse loomed behind him, shining like a massive lantern of ghostly energy. The spectral relic housed in the lightroom was like a barely contained turquoise star when viewed within the monochromatic world of mists. It pulsed and warped its surroundings as it emitted waves of immense energy into the settlement territory. Its center was difficult to look at, shining with such intense power that it felt like staring into a continuous slow motion welding arc, especially when compared to the soothing gradient of gray that was prominently displayed throughout the spectral plane of mists. The thin panels of glass hardly diminished its potency and the splash of unusual color bursting from its core only enhanced the impressive display.
Off to the side, the mana well was even more expressive, erupting with a constant flow of deep purple and bluish black, highlighted by tiny pops of vibrant neon pinks and greens. The energy flowed gradually, as if its staggering size forced it to be nearly still. The plume was constantly climbing high into the sky before drifting toward Ghost Reef’s center, barely influenced by unseen forces as mana interacted with itself. The Coral Forest poured energy into the territory, expelling it like a partially frozen fountain, letting it flood thousands of feet into the air before streaming away.
If Coop hadn’t claimed the domain, he was pretty sure the settlement territory and the mana well would have been clearly distinguished from each other. The entrance was like a sealed membrane that was now allowing energy to freely pass through.
Coop took a moment to direct his attention toward the sky, subconsciously tilting his head to glance upwards, despite the blindfold, in an effort to make sense of everything. The monochromatic world of mists presented depth through an indistinct vaporous fog, making it feel like the whole world was wrapped in a blanket of gossamer froth. The abyssal depths were the opposite, like sinking into the completely open ocean, without any obstructions limiting the sharpness of perception beside the natural nadir of light itself. Both were visible at the same time, not exactly competing, but still distracting from each other.
Outside of the two conduits of energy, the atmosphere itself was a constantly shifting medley of nebulous currents. Even the calm clouds contained visible amounts of concentrated power, like they had been electrified before the breeze carried them over the island. Whether the sky beyond was an endless black abyss, a misty vapor, or a clear blue depended entirely on the whims of his brain and its ability to both distinguish and regroup his perception.
Further back, mana overlayed the fortified walls of Ghost Reef, standing slightly taller and barely thicker than the stone itself. The overlapping layers of actual stone and stone constructs made it seem as if it had all been rebuilt by solid oversized blocks of translucent mana after being reinforced by Balor and Jones. Each block was enormous, with only the borders seeming solid enough to be visible on their own. He felt like it was a crystal fortress on a stone fortress, existing in every plane of mana.
Another jet of what seemed like pure mana energy, a clear white spotlight, disturbed the atmosphere, extending from the civilization shard to the edge of the settlement territory above. It was a pure font of power, slicing to the top of their territory, then bleeding along the perimeter. Ghost Reef was a beacon of activity, and not just because of the many residents. He better understood how Dan the mana scout and Lyriel were both able to isolate shards, even from great distances.
The many ghost ships also had their own flares of aquamarine energy drifting from their sails, blending into the atmosphere like the streams of smoke from a candle extinguished by a swirling breeze. They were camouflaged against the horizon by virtue of matching energies. Even the ocean itself contained energized currents, with the reefs sending waves of cosmic steam toward the surface like hot coals dropped into a freezing meadow, further complicating the landscape. He was seeing too much.
Combined with Presence of Mind, which gave him a panoramic perspective centered on himself, extending a distance based on his own mana level, and Coop honestly felt like he was inhabiting an avatar in a third-person open-world video game. He was fully immersed in the setting, feeling the warm waves as they splashed against his shins, smelling the salt on the breeze as it caressed his skin and cooled his sun-kissed limbs, and each individual grain of sand as they scattered between his toes with each step, all while having his consciousness expanded beyond the single point.
At the same time, he could clearly recognize that it was another beautiful day on Ghost Reef, with the sound of palm fronds rolling in the wind and lazy waves lapping onto the beach. He wasn’t losing anything from enduring the additional stimuli. Everything was simply enhanced and overlaid upon itself.
It was extremely weird. He could ‘see’ the horizon like normal, but he could also sense it through supplementary means, and each revealed a different distance. His vision was simultaneously clouded, obstructed by mana, while being heightened at the same time, so that the information passed to his mind even if light never reached his retinas. It didn’t seem like something he could maintain all the time, like Lyriel, unless he was willing to permanently mute his normal senses.