Chapter 116: Mana Spring
The water ahead shimmered with a faint, iridescent light. It wasn’t the cold glow of frost-moss or the pale silver of distant fish, this was something deeper, richer. Colors moved through the dark like oil on water, shifting in slow, hypnotic waves.
Cindy’s frills flared slightly as she sensed it.
"Gray... do you see that? The mana currents are dense here. Really dense. It’s like... a knot."
’A knot?’
"The currents aren’t flowing like they should. They’re gathering, circling something. Like water spiraling into a drain."
Gray slowed, his senses sweeping the area. The terrain ahead was different from the pale stone ridges they’d been traveling through. The rocks here were darker, almost black, and they rose in strange, organic shapes, twisted spires that curved toward each other like grasping fingers. Between them, the water shimmered with that faint, rainbow sheen.
’What does that mean?’ he asked. ’Is it dangerous?’
"Not necessarily," Cindy said slowly. "But it’s not normal. Mana doesn’t just gather like that on its own. Something is causing it. A creature, or an object, or—"
She stopped mid-sentence, her silver eyes widening.
"Gray, look!"
Ahead, nestled between the twisted black spires, was a pool of light. It wasn’t water. It was pure, liquid mana, shimmering and alive, bubbling up from a crack in the seafloor like a spring. The light it cast was soft and iridescent, painting the surrounding rocks in shifting colors.
Gray approached cautiously, his tentacles extended. The mana pool was small, maybe three feet across, its surface perfectly still despite the bubbling beneath. Tiny motes of light drifted upward from it, dissolving into the water like snowflakes in a current.
[LOCATION DISCOVERED: MANA SPRING]
« Analysis »
A rare natural formation where concentrated mana seeps from deep within the seafloor. Mana Springs are highly sought after by creatures and mages alike, as prolonged exposure enhances mana capacity and accelerates regeneration. However, the dense mana also attracts predators and magical anomalies.
’This is...’ Gray trailed off.
"A mana spring," Cindy breathed. "I’ve read about these. They’re incredibly rare. Even the Marquis only had one in his entire estate, and it was barely a trickle compared to this."
’What does it do?’
"It enhances mana. If you rest here, your mana capacity will grow faster. And wounds heal quicker too. It’s like..." She paused, searching for the right word. "It’s like a natural version of the Spirit Moss Fern, but for mana instead of health."
Gray drifted closer, letting the motes of light brush against his bell. The sensation was strange, cool and warm at the same time, like drinking cold water on a hot day. His mana pool stirred, and he felt it expand, just slightly.
’This is useful,’ he said.
"It is," Cindy agreed. But her voice was cautious. "But Gray... usually places like this attract predators or magical anomalies. This place isn’t safe."
’Nowhere in the abyss is safe.’
"I know. But this is different. Mana springs are like beacons. Everything within miles can sense them. If we stay here too long—"
Before Cindy could finish, the mana spring shuddered.
The bubbling stopped. The iridescent light flickered once, twice, then dimmed as if something had swallowed it. The motes of light that had been drifting upward froze in the water, suspended and motionless.
The water pressure changed. It was a sudden, crushing weight that pressed down from every direction at once. The twisted black spires around the spring began to vibrate, a low, resonant hum that made Gray’s crystalline armor ring faintly.
Then the mana pool cracked.
The surface of liquid mana split open like a wound, and something reached out.
It was a tendril of pure, crystallized mana, translucent and shimmering with the same iridescent light as the spring. It uncoiled slowly from the crack, testing the water, tasting it. Where it touched, the water turned thick and syrupy, saturated with so much mana that it glowed.
[MAGICAL ANOMALY DETECTED]
[ANALYZING...]
[IDENTIFICATION FAILED]
[THREAT LEVEL: UNKNOWN]
Cindy’s voice was barely a whisper.
"That’s... that’s not a creature. That’s the spring itself. It’s alive."
’What do you mean, alive?’
"I don’t know how to explain it. The mana currents are... they’re conscious. This thing has been feeding on the spring for so long that it became part of it. Or the spring became part of it."
The tendril curled higher, and a second one emerged from the crack, then a third. They moved with a slow, deliberate grace, like the arms of something waking from a long sleep.
Gray drifted backward, keeping Cindy pressed against his bell.
’Can we kill it?’
"I don’t know. Maybe. But if it’s made of pure mana, physical attacks might not work. You’d need to disrupt its mana flow, or—"
The tendrils snapped toward them.
Gray pulsed sideways, the water screaming past his bell. One tendril grazed his armor, and the moment it touched him, he felt a cold, invasive pressure, like something trying to push into him. His mana pool lurched, and for a split second, he felt his own energy being pulled toward the tendril.
[-18 HP]
[MANA DRAIN — 15 MP LOST]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 1002 / 1040 | MP: 835 / 850]
’It drains mana!’
"Don’t let it touch you!" Cindy shouted. "If it drains enough, it’ll absorb you completely!"
Gray fired Riptide Slash at the nearest tendril. The crescent blade of compressed water sliced through it cleanly, and the tendril dissolved into a cloud of dissipating mana.
But two more grew in its place.
’It’s regenerating from the spring. As long as that pool exists, it can keep making more.’
"Then we need to destroy the spring itself," Cindy said. "Or disrupt the connection between it and the pool."
Gray stared at the swirling mana still churning around the crack.
’That’ll be hard,’ he said. ’Can’t you just absorb all this mana and make it yours?’
Cindy shook her head immediately, her frills going rigid.
"Of course I can’t. That much mana would tear my body apart. Even my old human body wouldn’t have been able to handle it. This is... this is like trying to swallow an ocean."
Gray moved his tentacles toward the crack, still leaking wild light.
’Then what do we do? Why is this place so lethal now? This is just like a damn trap.’
"It’s because the mana is wild," Cindy explained, her voice tense. "Mana that isn’t bound by something and behaves like an animal. It spreads, it attacks, and it drains anything weak enough to touch it. But..." She hesitated. "Maybe I can try to calm all this mana. Though I don’t know if it’ll work."
’You have to make it work,’ Gray said. ’If you don’t, we’ll both be drained dry.’
Cindy nodded slowly, her small body already beginning to glow with silver light. The mana around them reacted to her presence, swirling like water finding a drain.
"Be careful, Gray," she said. "Usually mana fluctuations like this attract other creatures."
Gray was about to answer when he felt a presence.
Above them, looming through the dark water like a mountain given breath, was a shape beyond comprehension. It was massive, easily the size of the Leviathan that had passed over the kelp forest, its body elongated and serpentine, coiled in slow, deliberate spirals around the mana spring’s territory.
Its skin was a lattice of pure, crystallized mana, translucent and shimmering with the same iridescent light as the spring, veins of color pulsing beneath the surface like a second circulatory system. Along its spine, jagged fins of solid mana jutted upward, crackling with discharge that scattered sparks into the dark.
But it was the eyes that stopped Gray cold.
There were dozens of them scattered across its head and upper body in clusters, each one a perfect sphere of liquid mana that rotated independently, scanning, tasting, hunting.
And every single one of them was now fixed on Gray.
The Mana Wyrm’s body coiled tighter around the spring, and its dozens of eyes blinked in unison. An unnatural, synchronized motion that sent a shudder through Gray’s entire body.
’Fuck!’