novelraw Chapter 358. Infinite mana
Chapter 358. Infinite mana
"Orion, I am not feeling well," William said weakly as he lay sprawled across the grassy field beneath the open sky.
His chest rose and fell heavily with every breath. His skin had turned unnaturally red, and faint waves of heat radiated from his body like steam escaping from overheated metal.
"Well, you were about to explode from excessive energy usage," Orion replied calmly inside his mind.
William grimaced and pressed a hand against his forehead. "What the hell? Then why isn’t the sun regeneration working?"
[Your body is neither injured nor exhausted. It is overflowing with mana. Regeneration only activates once actual damage occurs. However, in this case, the backlash would not manifest as minor injuries. You would simply explode outright.]
A warning screen appeared before William’s eyes.
If you intend to stop right now, then you will be able to recover safely. But if you choose to continue, it will not end well for you.
William stared at the message with an ugly expression.
Then Orion added another line.
[Although...]
"What?"
If the sun is directly overhead, you can still regenerate the body after an explosion. However, if it is not in the presence of the sun, there exists another revival method through a soulmate’s blood.
William’s eyes narrowed immediately; he remembered reading about this effect, and it was surely very broken.
Tamasya would have to grow your body using her own blood because she possesses the soulmate mark.
William slowly sat upright, staring blankly into the distance for a moment before speaking again.
"What do you mean by ’reconstruct’? Like... growing me back like a tree or something?"
[No. She would need to pour an immense quantity of mana into her blood to rebuild her body entirely. If she manages to collect your splattered remains and drops her blood on them, the process becomes significantly easier.]
William’s face twitched. The mental image was horrifying for him to even think about.
"And if she doesn’t have enough mana?"
[Then you die.] Orion answered without hesitation.
William clenched his jaw tightly.
"Can’t she just wait until she becomes stronger and revives me later?"
[No. There is a time limit.]
Orion’s voice became slightly more serious.
[The limit depends on how long it takes for your soul to leave this realm and fully cross into the Astral Plane. Once that transition completes, revival through the soulmate mark becomes impossible.]
A chill crawled down William’s spine.
For a while, he remained silent before muttering quietly, "Then I need to make her stronger for my benefit."
The thought lingered heavily in his mind. He had joked about death many times before, but hearing the actual mechanics behind it made the situation feel disturbingly real.
After calming himself slightly, William leaned back on his hands and looked up toward the sky.
"So after death, souls enter the astral plane?" he asked curiously. "That’s the first time I’ve heard about it."
[Yes. Information regarding the Astral Plane was only recently unlocked.]
There was a brief pause before Orion continued.
[Also, I suspect that Sunchaser originally died in this world and somehow ended up existing as a spirit within the Astral Plane, though this assumption may be entirely wrong. However, I do not know how he managed to avoid entering the reincarnation cycle and remained conscious as a spirit in the astral plane.]
[Once he returns, you should ask him directly how he accomplished it.]
William frowned deeply.
"Where the hell is he anyway? I haven’t seen him since I woke up. He doesn’t answer my calls either."
[After your death, Velma offered to train him so he could grow stronger. He was emotionally unstable at the time and accepted her offer. He is currently undergoing secluded training within her domain.]
William’s brows immediately furrowed.
"Is that even safe for him? And why does it sound so suspicious on Velma’s part?"
[Most likely. Since she failed to kill Lux, she is attempting to create circumstances where you owe her favors. She still wishes to use you as an ingredient in one of her rituals.]
William’s face darkened instantly.
"No chance in hell," he said sharply. "I’m not becoming some ritual ingredient. Fuck that witch. We’re bringing Sunchaser back."
[You cannot.]
"Why not?"
Orion sighed audibly in his mind.
[Seriously? You still do not understand? How many black holes did you cast earlier before you got cooked? literally]
William awkwardly looked away.
"...Four."
[Velma exists at a level where she could likely cast hundreds of Black Holes stronger than yours without requiring access to an Aether seed.]
William grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck in irritation.
That comparison was enough to kill whatever confidence he had built earlier. He had been celebrating infinite mana just moments ago, but now he was once again being reminded that the upper realms operated on an entirely different scale.
At this point, if Velma truly came after him, he would probably have no choice but to seek Goddess Nir’s help.
"Tsk... whatever," William muttered before changing the topic entirely. "Tell me something. How long can I actually use this so-called infinite energy before those warnings start appearing?"
[That depends on the spell and the output.]
Orion began explaining patiently.
[Before your previous death, your mana cultivation had already reached Full Divinity. Your body adapts by naturally creating a vessel capable of handling energy at that level.
[Even after your original core was removed, your body itself remained at the full divinity standard. Once the Aether Seed is integrated with you, your energy cultivation effectively returns to that level immediately.]
As long as you use spells that your body could already handle during the Full Divinity stage—including lower forms (1st, 2nd, and 3rd forms) of God-rank spells, you may not receive warnings until very late into overuse. In some cases, you might not receive warnings at all.]
[However, once you begin using techniques beyond your vessel’s intended limits—such as Black Hole, which you struggled to cast even during the time you temporarily reached the True Godhood stage — the strain becomes dangerous.]
William clicked his tongue.
"So the issue isn’t the amount of energy available..."
[Correct.]
[The limitation is your vessel.]
[If you attempt to draw more energy at one moment than your body can safely process, the result will be identical to before. Your body will fail catastrophically.]
William let out a long sigh.
"So there isn’t a clearly defined limit."
[No. You would need to physically test the limits of each spell individually.]
[Which is also highly impractical for lower-ranked spells. Your current vessel can sustain them for absurdly long periods. Some would require days of uninterrupted casting before meaningful overload symptoms appear.]
William slowly leaned back against the grass again.
"Damn..." he muttered with a grin slowly creeping onto his face again. "So this really is infinite mana and spiritual energy."
[Yes, although it may not be as broken as you currently imagine. You can surely dominate most of the people in the scarred realm, but it’s not the same case with upper-realm beings.]
William’s grin weakened immediately.
"What do you mean?" William asked, but he had an idea what Orion was about to say.
His thoughts instantly drifted back toward Lux.
Even now, he still remembered how absurdly overwhelming that fight had felt. Lux had shattered his spatial domain with a single punch as though the god-ranked spell meant nothing.
[Beings from the Upper Realms do not use mana or spiritual energy.]
William blinked.
[They utilize energies that exist higher within the hierarchy of the Aether Energy Tree. Compared to those energies, mana is fundamentally inferior.]
William’s expression gradually became more serious.
[Even God-Rank mana spells become weak before higher-order energies.]
Orion paused briefly before giving an analogy.
[To use an example from your previous life, it is similar to comparing coal to gasoline as fuel sources. Coal simply cannot produce the same output as gasoline, regardless of quantity.]
[Likewise, mana can never fully match the output of superior energies.]
William stared silently at the system screen floating before him. His excitement slowly faded as the implications settled into his mind.
[Don’t feel down though, right now, you can do a lot, especially when dealing with demon lords. hehe!!!]