Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 45: Infinite Mana Vein

The small hairline rupture on the shimmering golden chain didn’t make a loud sound like breaking glass or crumbling stone. It didn’t make any sound at all. But the split second the tiny crack appeared on the first Cosmic Lock, Luna’s entire universe fiercely turned upside down.

From that impossibly small crack, an obscuring beam of pure white light rapidly fulminated outward. It wasn’t normal elemental light or the warm light of the sun and moon.

It was the first primordial creation. It was the Infinite Mana Vein. The single line of infinite mana squeezed through the small crack and ended up hitting Luna’s mortal soul like a speeding freight train.

"AHHHHHHH!" Luna screamed loudly in sheer, unadulterated pain.

His mortal soul jerked, staggered backward in the dark void with immense push. The blazing white energy cascaded into his spiritual veins. It felt like swallowing a live, boiling volcano. His mortal container, his fragile human brain, groaning and physically threatened to tear itself apart.

This was the terrifying Mana Catastrophe the ancient scrolls had warned about. This was the exact moment where proud historical geniuses brutally exploded into bloody mist or mutated into mindless, distorted monsters.

The infinite mana rushed, pushing against the walls of his mind, demanding more space. It wanted to expand endlessly. It wanted to shatter the rest of the golden chain and unremittingly flood into the mortal vessel until it proudly burst.

Hold it! Luna screamed inside his own mind, his intellect working at a hyper focused speed. Hold it tightly together! Do not let the crack spread!

He couldn’t use his normal gravity magic outside in the real world right now, but he could use the concept of gravity inside his own soul. He clamped his hands abruptly around his own soul. He mercilessly applied thrashing internal gravity around the broken golden chain. He forced the tiny, hairline crack to stay small, refusing to let the crack grow even a single, millimeter wider.

It requires unwavering precision and accuracy. If his concentration slipped for even a fraction of a second, the heavy golden chain would shatter, and he would instantly, vehemently explode.

But Luna Zephyros did not slip. He had been lazy his entire life, because he never actually needed to try hard. His talent was always enough. But right now, with Soltheia’s beautiful, happy smile burning in his memory, he truly tried with everything he had.

He locked the tiny crack in place successfully containing the single, roaring drop of unstable infinite mana. He successfully achieved the impossible state. He had safely touched the Infinite Mana Vein and lived to tell the tale.

The single drop of infinite mana started to work inside his dark void mind.

The rasping voice of the Black Mist Knight was still rapaciously echoing in the void. "Kael’thos... Vaneer... Submit..."

But the chant suddenly sounded weak and annoyed. It sounded like a tiny, annoying mosquito buzzing angrily next to a roaring waterfall.

The thick chains made of solid black mist that were binding Luna’s wrists and ankles instantly touched the pure cosmic energy flowing through his soul.

HISSSSSS!!

The dark mist chains hissed, vaporized instantly. The sharp, jagged dark daggers that had stabbed into his precious memories disintegrated into harmless, empty air. The fake, rotting dark poison that had infected the beautiful memory of Soltheia’s bright smile was purged. The dark rot vanished, and her happy face proudly returned to his mind, shining and untouched.

The dark void inside his mind was washed clean. The suffocating darkness was replaced by a calm silver light.

"NO! IMPOSSIBLE!" the Black Mist Knight roared, screaming loudly inside Luna’s mind. For the first time, the commanding voice completely lost its arrogant composure. It was mumbling in panic. "YOU ARE MERELY MORTAL! YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY TOUCH THE PRIMORDIAL VEIN!"

Luna’s mortal soul slowly stood up straight in the shimmering void. He rolled his shoulders with a cracking sound, feeling a strange, new, massive weight of power settling into his bones. He looked down at his bare hands. They were flickering with the faint aura.

"You talk way too much," Luna said coldly, his voice echoing with a confidence of regaining his authority that shook his mind.

****

Outside, in the cold reality of Moonspire Hill.

Luna’s physical body had stopped spasming in the dirt. The blood stopped flowing. The painful scrapes on his pale knees and hands visibly healed themselves in a single second, leaving no scars behind.

The spine chilling gale that the Black Mist Knight had brought to the mountain shattered, returning the normal, cool night wind back into the jagged terrain blowing away the lingering, toxic black mist.

The Black Mist Knight was still standing over Luna’s fallen body, expecting the young boy’s brain to melt.

But slowly, gently, Luna placed his bare hands on the ground. He pushed himself up from the dirt. The Black Mist Knight actually took a step backward. Dark, jagged boots crunch loudly against dry rocks. The knight tried to retreat.

Luna slowly stood up to his full. He didn’t bother to dust off his messy black training uniform. His messy silver hair defied gravity, floating gently around his pale face like he was submerged underwater.

He slowly lifted his head, opening his eyes. They were not his pale, lazy eyes anymore. His irises were shimmering with a pure silver light. It was the light of pure cosmic energy which was inside his fragile body.

The gravity around Luna’s boots broke down. Small black rocks poised up from the dirt. They drifted into the air around him and then silently disintegrated into harmless, invisible atoms.

The Black Mist Knight raised its dark sword with both of its gauntlet hands. The toxic black mist streamed from its dark armor, trying to gain his domain on the mountain.

The Knight opened its mouth beneath the helm, preparing to chant its destructive, alien language once again.

"Xylo... Kael..."

"Shut up!" Luna commanded softly.

He simply spoke one quiet, calm sentence.

But his quiet voice carried the crushing weight of a falling star. The Black Mist Knight was terrified, and silenced instantly. It failed to speak the rest of the dark curse. The dark sword trembled in its armored clenching grip.

"You invaded my mind," Luna said coldly, taking one step forward, with hands shoved in his pockets. "You tried to destroy my precious memories, and to rot the beautiful image of the girl I am going to marry."

Luna slowly raised his pale right hand, his glowing finger pointing at the towering, dark Knight.

"You made a fatal tactical mistake tonight bastard," Luna stated, his eyes devoid of any mercy. "You broke down the thick barrier between us. You built a direct, two-way bridge into my brain so you could torture me."

The Black Mist Knight realized what Luna was saying, trembled, shaking in terror. It turned around, trying to swing its sword to carve a quick escape portal into the dirt.

"Ah, ah, ah," Luna mocked, slightly waving his index finger. "It is rude to run away after you already broke into my house bitch."

Luna understood his entirely new, dangerous power. He didn’t just have dark gravity anymore. The tiny, cracked seal flooding his brain with infinite mana had mutated his natural magical affinity.

Because his fragile mind had been forced to adapt a brutal invasion just to safely survive... his unlocked cosmic power manifested in that exact moment, his basic mind powers awakened into Mind Manipulation. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"If you can freely walk across that psychic bridge to hurt me," Luna whispered softly, his voice echoing inside the Black Mist Knight’s own head. "Then I can easily walk across that same bridge to break you."

Luna closed his glowing, pale hand into a tight, clenched fist. He unleashed his newly unlocked, infinite presence across the invisible psychic bridge that the arrogant Knight had foolishly created.

Luna plunged into the Black Mist Knight’s own perception. It was a disgusting, and disorienting experience. The inside of the Dark Knight’s mind felt like swimming through a freezing ocean of rotting black tar. It was filled with distorted whispers, endless screams of dying victims, and corrupted thoughts.

But Luna ignored the dark, rotting garbage. He was armed with the pure light of the Infinite Mana Vein. He pushed through the psychic defenses of knight like a hot knife smoothly slicing through the warm butter.

He clutched firmly, the central core of the dark knight’s visual perception. Out in the real, physical world, the Black Mist Knight instantly petrified. Its dark sword dropped from its armored hands, clattering loudly onto the rocky ground.

The Knight clenched its dark, empty helm with both armored hands. It let out a terrifying, agonizing scream of brutal pain.

Luna stood still on the mountain, controlling the monster’s brain from the inside.

"Let’s see exactly how you like it.." Luna whispered.

Inside the Knight’s mind, Luna scrambled the vision, forcefully scratching the knight’s optical nerves from reality and the fake, horrifying images flew into the creature’s dark brain. The knight witnessed pure agony and fear.

The Black Mist Knight stopped seeing the cold mountain. Instead, it saw millions of holy silver swords descending from the sky, piercing through its dark armor over and over again. It loudly heard the deafening, roaring laughter of Luna mocking his pathetic, dark existence.

The legendary assassin from the shadows was reduced into a trembling mess on the rocky ground. It fell onto its armored knees, clutching its own dark helmet, trying to rip its own fake eyes out just to stop the fake visions.

"You are weak," Luna’s voice perfectly echoing the same insult the monster had used on him earlier. "You are entirely nothing."

Luna pushed a little deeper into the dark, rotting mind. He didn’t just want to torture the monster. He was an intelligent royal general. He wanted some valuable information, and needed to know what these dark things were planning.

He shredded the knight’s defensive wall in mind, searching for hidden, secret memories. Then, he suddenly saw a blurred flash of a scary vision.

He saw a massive army of thousands of armored Black Mist Knights standing silently in a ruined, burning kingdom. He saw dark portals mangling the bright sky open, and entirely in the center of the dark army, he saw a massive, skewering silhouette sitting on a throne made of broken, grey stone.

It was a terrifying figure wrapped in thick, dark chains, radiating an apocalyptic power that made even the Black Mist Knights bow their heavy heads into the dirt. Before Luna could find the name of the silhouette out of the dark memory, the Black Mist Knight’s mind reached its breaking point.

The Knight screamed one final word loudly. "Zul!"

The monster used its last shred of dark mana. It didn’t try to fight back. It tried to activate an emergency, unstable escape spell.

An anomalous pitch-black portal ripped open beneath the kneeling Knight. The dark monster staggered backward, falling through the black portal like a stone dropping into a step well.

The dark portal vanished instantly. The Black Mist Knight was gone with a face of terror caused by a simple, young boy. The second the dark connection was severed, Luna grappled for clean air. He stumbled backward, holding his aching head, his messy silver hair dropped smoothly back down over his sweaty forehead. The normal gravity on the mountain safely returned to normal. Luna collapsed onto his back on the cold rocks.

He was utterly exhausted, his physical and mental body screaming in pain. He was drenched in beads of freezing sweat, but he was actually alive. He lay still on the freezing mountain for a very long time, staring up at the bright, beautiful silver moon.

He thought about the terrifying, dark vision he had pulled from the monster’s mind. The massive dark army, and the scary silhouette proudly sitting on the broken stone throne.

"This isn’t just a simple, local monster outbreak," Luna whispered quietly into the night air. "A forgotten beast is trying to return to the world."

Luna slowly forced himself to sit up on the dirt, dusting off his training uniform. He cracked his sore knuckles, an intense determination settled over his pale face. He turned around and began walking down the steep, mountain path toward his manor.

He needed to pack his combat gear and needed to hire the fastest, most expensive royal transport carriage available in the entire kingdom. He needed to travel to the Solaris Kingdom immediately. He needed to find Kairos, Ignis, and Terravarous right now.

The dark shadows of the forgotten were officially moving in the dark, and if they didn’t prepare themselves for the coming nightmare, the fragile world would be erased from existence.