Chapter 24
Atherion
"In this subspace—called an Atheric Environment—time passes much slower than the real world, a day in the real world is about a year in here," Jae-Woo explained.
"Although, your age will still go by the standards of the real world," he continued, earning a relieved sigh from both of the boys before him. "All of these books are written by archmages of Atherion."
"What exactly is this Atherion you speak of?" Arthur asked, the hesitancy in his voice gone as he finally started to understand what was going on around him.
"Atherion is the power this subspace is made of. It is what forms everything in this universe, even the ambient mana around us. But because it is so powerful and great of a power, we humans can never manipulate it, the best we can do is influence it, like I did to form this Atheric Environment."
When the both of them looked at him with puzzled expressions, Jae-Woo let out a calm sigh before speaking once again.
"Think of it as a glass of water, you can shape the water inside the glass but you can never mend or shape the glass without shattering it." He explained, patient as always.
"Now think of the water in the glass as mana and the glass as Atherion. You can freely manipulate the mana but you can never manipulate Atherion without breaking down your body."
"Then how exactly do we influence it if we cannot even shape it by our will?" Ha-Jin asked.
"Good question," Jae-Woo praised before starting to explain, "you may not be able to manipulate Atherion because you do not have a core like the Mana Core that would allow you to manipulate the Atherion around you but what if you could shape it without taking it inside your body?"
"Ho-" Ha-Jin asked but was quickly cut off by Jae-Woo.
"Shush now! I brought you here to study on your own!" He chided before melting into the shadows of the Atheric Environment.
The both of them looked at where Jae-Woo had melted into the shadows and then at each other with confusion. Why were they even surprised at this point?
Brushing away the surprise, Arthur walked over to one of the shelves, navigating through the numerous books lined in Alphabetical order. Confused, he ran a hand over his hair, he hadn't thought about how they would find the basics. Just then, an ethereal glow emanated from one of the books lined in the mid sections of the first shelf.
Arthur's eyes shot up, his honed instincts instinctively darting up to the glowing book. He took the ladder placed at the side, climbing it slowly until he reached the mid section of the shelf. He slowly took the book out of its place on the shelf and the ethereal glow subsided, dissipating into thin air.
He looked at the cover of the book. "Basics of Influencing Atherion" it said. He took another one of the same book from just beside the book he had just taken. He tossed one of them down to Ha-Jin who caught it with ease.
Arthur climbed back down and walked over to a table, pulling a chair out and plopping down. Ha-Jin sat opposite him.
The book when opened emanated a soft violet hue before dissipating. Arthur flipped over to the first page before he started reading.
'Atherion is the founding element of the universe. It consists of 3 forms namely: Gravium-Space
Vitae-Life
Apertrium-Time
These forms are called Atheria, each capable of bending the laws of reality and physics if manipulated. If anyone who can manipulate these forms appears in any part of the human world, they are to be imprisoned, interrogated or executed if they pose a threat. Although, manipulating Atherion also indicates the human a half bred dragon or a dragon in disguise for if a human were to manipulate Atherion, due to the lack of the proper organs required for its manipulation and the strong toxin it contains, the mana veins and nerves in the body of a human body would burn and melt, effectively killing the human.'
Though neither of them had learned about the basics of mana manipulation, both of them knew by instinct the difference between mana veins and mana nerves. Mana veins carried the Mana that would augment—steel—the body, making the Strength and Defense stats increase depending on the amount of Mana used. Whereas, Mana Nerves on the other hand, carry Mana to be discharged or used as spells.
Both of them continued on reading, Ha-Jin lagging a lot further behind as he had just recently learned how to read. Arthur, who had studied and been taught his entire life could read almost impossibly fluently and quickly.
'History of Atherion: Atherion was brought to the continent of Drakrath by the dragons who used it to create numerous intricate runes, powered by Atherion. Though at first, Runes could only be accessed by the dragons for the humans had not learnt how to influence Atherion during the dragons' reign. Only after they fled from this continent did the humans get the chance to study Atherion and its capabilities, leading to the top mages finding a way to influence it using their impossibly skillful mastery over the forms of Mana and their respective Mana Arts.'
The book continued to explain unnecessary—or so they thought—information on Atherion before it finally moved onto the Basics and Practicals.
Though Ha-Jin lagged behind in the reading, giving Arthur a head start on practicing the basics, when he sat down for the Practical portion, Arthur was dumbfounded.
He knew that both of them were geniuses, even though his genius overshined his. But this, this was totally unexpected. As soon as Ha-Jin sat down, crossed his legs and entered a meditative state, his body exuded a soft violet hue. Dark violet particles—which Arthur assumed were Atherion particles—clung to his body.
Arthur seemed to have a natural talent for influencing Atherion as well, but not nearly as great as Ha-Jin. When he focused on Ha-Jin more, he sensed something right next to his Mana Core. It couldn't be his heart, the heart lay opposite to the Mana Core… so what exactly was this cracked and ragged…sphere in the middle of his chest?
He had awakened a Unique skill of his when he was a child.
[Emperor Eyes are being activated]
The Interface displayed the notification before him right as his eyes glowed a dazzling gold, peering into the foreign object located in the middle of Ha-Jin's chest. Suddenly, he felt his vision blur.
Thinking it was because of his eyes, he tried to deactivate them but failed to do so. This was beyond weird, this had never happened, he had perfect control over his eyes though it exhausted him if used for a long period of time.
He tried to push himself off the ground but his legs went numb, he tried to reach out to the chair beside him for support but his arms did not respond. Suddenly, his mind went blank and everything went dark as he collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
***
He searched within the endless darkness inside what he could assume was the foreign cracked sphere situated in the middle of Ha-Jin's chest. There was nothing inside this dark place, it was an empty, dark vacuum inside which anything failed to exist. He floated about in this dark environment, his body seemingly incorporeal. He floated around for some time until a few ideas came to mind. He tried to summon Mana, trying to absorb it, trying to have it flow through this incorporeal form but it failed.
This place was weird, its environment seemed devoid of Mana, which existed everywhere.
Mana… Mana exists everywhere…. Mana is made up of… Atherion! That's it! Atherion!
He tried what he had learned in the textbook and tried in the Library, he tried to influence Atherion.
Suddenly, the Environment lit up with a soft, warm violet light, the Atherion attracted to Arthur's incorporeal form.
It was mesmerising, Arthur looked at the miniscule Atherion particles floating about and leading themselves towards him. It was a beautiful sight. It made his mouth fall agape—at least it would have if he weren't incorporeal at the moment.
However, before the Atherion reached Arthur, the glow of the Environment dimmed before vanishing completely, returning to the endless dark vacuum.
A dark figure crept up behind him. It was humongous. Arthur could feel its strong presence, too afraid—too petrified—to look back at the monstrous figure.
The large monstrous figure opened its humongous maw, so large that Arthur could see its fangs even without looking back. But, before it snapped shut on him, he forced himself to look back. It was a draconic head, releasing huge amounts of Atherion, so much that it would have killed a human with the sheer amount.
Why the hell is this monstrosity inside Ha-Jin?!
The one thought crossed his mind before the draconic maw snapped shut on him, devouring him whole. The feeling of death crept up on him.
Wait, this incorporeal form wasn't my soul, right…? Did I really die like this?!
Worry and fear sent chills running down his spine, had he really unknowingly thrown his life away trying to explore some random sphere in the middle of Ha-Jin's body?!
Suddenly, he jolted awake, panting for his breath. He quickly propped himself, his pupils shrinking in the fear of death. His eyes darted around frantically. Noticing the familiar yet unfamiliar environment of the Library, he relaxed. His eyes glanced at Ha-Jin.
Looks like he's still meditating.
Thoughts stormed his mind like a raging hurricane. What had that draconic figure been? What was that environment full of Atherion? Just what other mysteries did Ha-Jin's body contain?!
Let's see… The thing in Ha-Jin is a sphere but it's cracked and ragged almost as if it's… incomplete… Almost as if it were a cracked…
No way in hell…! He can't actually have it!
He scrambled to his feet, grabbing a pen from the nearby pen stand standing on the table where they sat. The pen Arthur grabbed, accidentally hit the stand, sending it tumbling across the table, the stationery strewn across the table with a clatter.
Even after all this noise Ha-Jin remained concentrated, unaware and unbothered by the noise being produced in the background. This was weird, definitely weird!
He wrote down all what he saw, he had to show this to Jae-Woo and Orpheus, he couldn't dare forget this suspicious piece of information on the boy and so he wrote until half of the title page of the book was covered in his speculations.
He set the pen down, composing himself as Ha-Jin could wake up at any moment. He did not want him to be suspicious of Arthur. They had a whole year left in the Atheric Environment. Despite his suspicions of Ha-Jin, he had to make the most of this opportunity.
And so, he sat down, following Ha-Jin's position. He couldn't let Ha-Jin surpass him, he was far too dangerous to be around if he managed to surpass him.
He meditated for what he thought as an hour but it could have been a day, they didn't know how the time flowed in this space. Right as he pulled in the Atherion towards his body, a pulse ran through the Atherion composing the Atheric Environment.
Arthur jumped to his feet, surprised by the sudden pulse in the environment. He looked around in surprise, his eyes sweeping over the space, looking for anything that could have caused that pulse in the Atherion.
Just then, a single brilliant flash of violet light enveloped the entire Library, bathing it in a blinding wave of Mana with a little trace of Atherion.
Arthur covered his eyes with one hand, holding onto one of the shelves with the other. The blinding light faded, the wave dissipating alongside it.
The room filled with smo—steam. Emerging from that steam was an individual that Arthur recognised to be Ha-Jin although his black hair seemed to have faded to a light brownish colour.
He panted, trying to catch his breath as he spoke in a hushed whisper.
"I-I think I did something…"