Chapter 208: Knowledge Lost to Time

Early Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer

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*tap* *tap* *tap* Walking past Ilios, I spread out my aura and quickly found an odd engraving of some sort a couple dozen meters ahead, but couldn't make out any details because of the fog's interference. That was when I really started wondering... -What is this fog anyway?-

I idly thought about it as I walked closer, but nothing ever came to mind.

From what I could tell, the fog was practically intangible. Even when I packed my aura as densely as possible, I could only barely detect the faint existence of the energy that made up the fog. -If it didn't mess with me reading my aura and feel so abnormally cold, I probably wouldn't have looked close enough to notice it...-

After giving it a little more thought, I started getting close to the engraving and moved my questions to the side. -Whatever it is, I'm sure I will figure it out in due time...- Standing right over the engraving, I squatted down so I could make out the details with just my eyes.

"What.. is this?" It was a rectangular engraving about 3 centimeters deep and 5 centimeters wide, but it was completely full of crystalline mana.

-It looks like a tubular mana core, but the mana composing the shell looks too random... Almost as if it was a.. clogged rune or something...- As I spread out my hundreds of meters of aura again to try and get a better scope of the engraving, I quickly noticed that I could only see a portion of it. -What the actual f*ck...-

From what I could tell, it was indeed a rune of some kind, but it was nearly a kilometer across, and saying it had sat there for thousands of years would have been a grave understatement. -This might even predate the Great War...- I could only look at it in awe.

But the longer I stared at it and tried to figure out what it was for, the more complex I noticed it was and the more curious I became.

Before I knew it, my curiosity had grown beyond the point where my sense of reason could still suppress it. 

Without a single thought of possible repercussions, I reached back and pulled out my greatsword before holding the tip just above the ring. -Now, let's see how well you clean up...-

*Clink* At first, it sounded like I tapped my sword against a block of metal, but when I eventually put more of the blade's weight on it, the ring cracked and exploded like a mana core. *crackle*

But there was no following noise. There was no wave of mana at all, even though the amount that should have been in it was colossal.

It made me halt my excitement immediately. "Huh?" -Where's the mana?-

I had originally planned to absorb some of it since the ambient mana within the fog was practically nonexistent, but from what I could tell, it just disappeared like it never existed in the first place. -What just happened?-

Thinking I just missed it since I wasn't paying much attention, I shifted over to the next ring, which had more complicated engravings just a few centimeters away.

-Alright... I'm not gonna miss it this time...- Squatting down next to the ring loaded with symbols, I carefully used the hilt of my sword to tap and shatter the brittle shell of mana. *Clink-crackle*

But once again, as the ring shattered, the only mana that escaped into the air was the mana that composed the solid, crystalline shell, and even it seemed to disappear before I could look too closely at it.

I was honestly at a loss for words. I simply couldn't understand where the mana was going. -And for a core like this to not have any mana in it, yet still hold its shape... How does that even happen?-

Moving to the next ring, I did the same thing but tried to follow the mana directly from the shell. *Clink-crackle*

But that only made things more frustrating. No matter how well I focused or made sure I couldn't lose sight of the particle of mana, it would just disappear.

-Am I going crazy or something?!- I was starting to get frustrated that I couldn't see what was happening even when I trapped a singular particle within a block of aura. -It couldn't have slipped out, so where did it go?!-

My curiosity-driven frustration only grew as I moved from ring to ring in a vain attempt to find out what was happening. *Clink* *Clink* *Clink*

Hundreds of separate rings were broken as I tried everything I could think of, but eventually, I started getting somewhere.

By pressing my aura into a particle of mana as hard as I could, I was able to feel the particle, instead of disappearing, shrink at an astronomical rate.

It was finally a step in the right direction, and even though it raised several more questions, I was fine with it. If anything, it made me more excited.

But eventually, as I started getting close to the center of the tree, the fog became too thick for me to conduct any accurate experiments. "Sh*t..." My aura was too clouded to make any reliable observations anymore. -Well.. I guess I have to leave it at that for now...-

I was incredibly unsatisfied with having to leave my questions up in the air when I felt so close to the answer, but I was left with no choice.

The farther I walked into the fog to clean the tubes of mana out of the massive rune, the thicker the fog became.

A few minutes and several thousand rings later, I found myself running my hand across the ground and breaking rings with my fingernail. My aura was almost completely useless at that point. -Just what is this stuff...-

Having long since put aside my frustration, I was simply focused on figuring out what the rune was.

And at long last, I was getting to the center. -This is it...- Running my finger over the pea-sized area right below me, I felt countless astronomically tiny engravings. -I just need to unclog that and probably give it some mana...-

But as I thought that, I felt a mass of mana so ridiculous it made my mind go blank rising up through the tree.

It only took a second for me to realize what it was. -The mana from the prayer!- I had actually gotten so caught up in my own curiosity that I had forgotten what I was there to do.

But that didn't mean I planned on changing what I was doing.

In fact, it was quite the opposite. -Talk about a perfect source of mana for the rune!-

Placing my thumb over the last area with engravings, I gathered aura around it and jabbed it into the thousands of separate rings as accurately as possible.

*Cr-r-r-r-rackle* It made an odd noise, but as far as I could tell, it worked. -Now, I can only pray that none of the rings or symbols themselves were damaged...-

Although I didn't want to jinx myself, I knew it was extremely unlikely that there was no damage to the carvings themselves that could cause the rune to not function properly, but I didn't have the time or luxury to check it all.

-All I can do is sit back and watch...- Sitting crisscross over the very center of the rune, I layered my aura around myself to form a protective barrier of sorts and prayed for the best.

That was when it finally happened. *vwowowowmmm* Rhythmic, vibration-like ripples were sent through my aura as the mana within the tree finally touched the underside of the rune.

I was filled with limitless excitement to see what the rune was for, and what mystical purpose such a massive rune served, but as mana flowed into it, I was only left confused. -Huh?-

The immense volume of mana being pushed into the rune was simply run in circles that alternated directions with each layer without funneling towards the center at all.

From my experience, that meant the rune was incomplete or damaged, but I didn't let my hopes get down. -It could still be warming up... Maybe...-

But although that was just my wishful thinking, it turned out to be true.

*VWOWOWOWOWOWM* The rhythmic reverberation of mana from the rune was both soothing and a bit concerning, but before I could do anything about my worries, I noticed the fog, albeit in a small volume, begin to turn and flow with the movement of the mana.

As seconds ticked by, that flow began to increase in volume until it formed a hurricane-like spin over the center of the rune.

I could only watch with a look of curiosity and intrigue as the fog began to spin faster and faster until it got too fast for me to follow.

And then things stayed like that for several seconds.

From what I could tell, the fog wasn't actually going anywhere even though I felt like it was meant to flow into the rune, leaving me with a mound of questions and no answers. -So.. is it really broken?-

I felt an immeasurable disappointment, like I was so close to something but could only make assumptions about what was wrong. -Sh*t.. is it actually damaged?- My high hopes were coming crashing back down

As I was about to stand up and try to look at the outer rings of the rune though, a needle-like dart of mana, incomparable to anything prior, came slamming up into the center of the rune's underside.

*flash* As a bright glow came from the center, the swirling fog was sucked down and funneled into the center of the rune like water draining out of a sink.

*CrAckLE* A completely indescribable sound filled the air the instant the fog collided with the mana in the rune, but although I would have normally been curious about it, I was too busy staring at a glowing beam blasting straight up through the center of the fog funnel.

Questions raced through my mind as I wondered how it all worked and what exactly was happening, but one question trumped the rest. -Is that.. divinity?-