Chapter 159: True mana (Final part)

[You see, whenever I go through an upgrade I unlock more memories from the All-father's main consciousness.] This time the system was talking directly to the trio without need Blake's help to convey the message.

[You know about the unknown energy the black fog produced, its real name is mana.] The system drew their attention to the 9 tubes in the other room.

"Huh?" The system's words totally confused the trio.

"If that is mana, then what do we use to cast out spells." Having gotten used to the system's 'special' way of explaining, Blake was the first to recover and ask the question which was on everyone's mind.

[Remember when I told you guys that the black fog converts mana to what I call the true mana, it's all wrong.] The system explained. [Just like every form of forbidden magic, the black fog is more destructive than we thought. It doesn't convert, rather it breaks down everything it comes in contact with to the lowest form of life, mana.]

[Now, to clear up your confusion. What you all know as the mana is only an altered version of the real deal.

The mother-stream is the source of all forms of energy and it constantly supplies every realm with mana, but the form the mana takes depends on both the laws of the realm and the distance of the said realm from the center of the mother-stream.]

[For a realm like earth, because it is way farther away from the center of the mother-stream than Infinite realm and because the realm's laws don't support mana, the inhabitants can't use magic.]

[As for Infinite realm, it is the closest to the mother-stream and supports magic, also it receives the highest amount of mana, but this mana is tainted by dark matter because there is still some distance between the realm and the center.

So, when the mana gets into infinite realm, the laws of the realm convert the mana to the different elements which then combine to form fake mana.]   

"So, you are saying the reason why we can't use magic on earth is that the planet stops us?" Brian asked.

[Yeah, but even if the realm's laws support mana, the level of impurity in the supplied mana would be at an astronomical amount due to the distance of Earth from the center of the mother-stream, meaning its inhabitants won't be able to reach Demigod realm.] The system explained.

"What is this dark matter you talked about?" Blake asked.

[Get comfortable because this takes to another tale.] If the system had a physical body, the trio would have circled around him as it was about to speak about another shocking revelation.

[The universe was nothing but darkness and void until the mother-stream came into existence… Now, don't ask me how the mother-stream came into being because I too have no idea...] The system quickly gave a warning that made the trio erase the question from their thoughts.

[The mother-stream created the universe, galaxies, planets, and their inhabitants. Now, all these can be considered as living things, but remember the mother-stream seeks balance so it created what we know as dark matter.

It had been present from the beginning and is known to contain impurities that reduce the size and potency of true mana, but even to date, not even the greatest researcher knows any use of dark matter apart from the one mentioned.] The system said.

"If no one knows much about dark matter, doesn't that mean that Zultra, the researcher behind both projects knew a lot about dark matter since he found a way to destroy the impurities gotten from them?" Blake asked a sensitive question that made everyone deeply ponder.

[That question has been on my mind and I can't wrap my head around it, but that leads us to a bigger question. Who is this Zultra?] For the fact that he had shown such level of genius and the realm still hadn't heard of him meant there was something 

….

2 days ago.

Zirrack arrived at the border of the forest and the Bulian hills, but instead of moving forward he flew into the forest and began looking for traces of the trio.

After close to 30 minutes of a high-speed scan of the outskirts of the forest, Zirrack found their energy signatures at the area they fought the alpha warg.

'Even during their break, they are making me proud.' Zirrack thought with a smile on his face, as he saw beasts feeding on the corpses of the wargs they had slain.

With his realm being leagues and planets above those of the beasts in the area, Zirrack needed close to no effort in distorting their senses, making their vision, smell, and hearing blurry even though he stood 3 feet away.

'At least their trail isn't gone…' Zirrack said as darkish purple flames erupted from his body, burning everything including the beasts and corpses to ashes before taking off at a high speed while following the trail.

In a matter of seconds, Zirrack was back at the border, but this time he didn't slow down. He kept raging on until he arrived at the spot where the warp gate had opened up.

'Let's see where that leads us…' Zirrack followed Blake's energy signature that led to gravely injured Rugor.

"Hey, old man you need to look at this…" Zirrack showed Walden the injured Rugor.

"From how barbaric the cuts and injuries are, it's quite clear that this was done by a beast. The question is how strong is it and how many are they?" Walden said, but when his gaze returned to Zirrack he saw that he had phased out and a wide grin was on his face.

"Any info about any form of spatial energy?" Walden asked, snapping Zirrack out of his reverie.

"I detected spatial energy at the reported sight and even from here I can sense residual spatial energy scattered all over the area." Zirrack said.