Deep in the night sky, a full moon hung. So far away it could never be sensed, and yet so large it almost felt as though you could reach out and touch it.
There was a subtle ripple across its surface and just the slightest of trembles before it went back to normal.
But almost the same instant this happened, powerful senses capable of overturning a world shot over one after another.
They were a step late. It all happened too fast.
Their senses bombarded against one another in the attempt, reflecting and clashing. There was a hint of rage in each one, but in the end, they chose to restrain and control themselves.
This moon should have been too far away to sense in this way… and yet these powerhouses had.
It was hard to tell exactly what they were looking for, though. Or whether they were really just infuriated because their senses clashed with others, or if it was because of something else entirely.
**
Black Clan. Black Province. Patriarch’s courtyard.
A pair of dark blue eyes snapped open. At first glance, they almost looked black as night. But as they regained focus and a Mana so powerful the air quivered awakened, they lightened, sparkling like reflecting black light.
“Who.”
It was meant to be a question, but as though the man was far too used to being in command, it didn’t come out as one.
His head tilted up, piercing through the ceiling, the clouds, and even the dome above to set eyes on the moon.
But it was already gone. So fast, so fleeting… impossible to track.
There was simply no way that that Sect would have left such an obvious loophole in their plans. The Patriarch bet that even if he had been observing the moon the entire time, he still would have been a step short.
That inheritance had chosen someone. But the question was… who among the True Chosen was it?
The Patriarch’s senses swept out, landing on a particular young woman. But seeing that her privacy barriers were up, he didn’t disturb his daughter.
If they were up, she was either sleeping or taking a bath. They wouldn’t be up during her cultivation because she would know that he would want to step in should she take a wrong path.
That meant that it wasn’t his daughter who had succeeded this time. In that case… it only meant one thing.
Whoever it was had to die.
All across the world, countless Patriarchs and Matriarchs alike reached the same conclusion.
**
Patriarch Gian continued to sit, staring at the soul lamp before him. A sudden ripple caught his attention and he frowned, staring up to the skies.
‘Hm?’
Unfortunately… his senses weren’t as strong as the others. He couldn’t sense exactly what happened just now; he only knew that anything that caught his attention had to be important.
‘Could it be? Who is it?’
It seemed that even the Patriarch didn’t know himself that this was the secret that was held by his Sect.
But what was for certain was that this event would set into motion a great number of things that couldn’t be stopped until they either reached that penultimate moment… or everything boiled over into an Armageddon.
…
While the world was in a state of confusion—or at least the highest echelons of them were—there were some guesses. In fact, many felt that of those with a chance, there were only really three or four geniuses that it could have been.
All of a sudden, the world focused their gazes on these young heroes while their Clans and Sects went on the defensive. Even if they released news that it wasn’t their True Chosen that had succeeded…
Who would believe them?
**
Theron had no idea that so many things had been set off by a simple action on his part. Even now, his body moving and swaying to a rhythm that wasn’t his own.
No longer was he just standing still, allowing his Mana and blood to move on their own. His body itself had begun to move—first subtly, and then in an elegant dance that seemed as though he was gliding back and forth across the barriers of life and death.
Calm and cool, his aura steadily grew sharper and more stable. He could sense Water Mana now in a way that he simply never had before, the Moon guiding him toward a level of control that existed, quite literally, on a completely separate plane.
It was intoxicating.
This level of power, it was the kind he had only ever been able to tap into when it rained. But now it felt like he could touch it beneath the full moon as well.
Oddly enough, if Theron had been awake, this wouldn’t move him. It rained more often than there was a full moon to take advantage of. But even so… it was the principle of it that just felt different.
When facing the young woman turned Water Mancer, Theron had felt something peculiar about her wand. She had tried to take control of his Water Mana. Though it had failed in the end, that was only because she ran out of Mana herself. Theron had dozens of times the Mana store a Bronze Mancer should have, and his spells reflected that.
But what if they had been at an equal level? What result would there have been? What level of control did this embody?
Theron’s body began to radiate a strong pulse of blue.
Unbeknownst to him, his Water Imbued Resonance was evolving, improving by steady leaps and bounds until…
SHUUU.
It was a sound akin to running water, flowing smoothly across soft rock.
Theron broke through in a way none had ever seen in the Nightingale Province.
His Water Imbued Resonance took an enormous leap forward, moving from Lower to Middle, and then Middle to Higher, and then from Higher to Peak…
Before it finally became a Water Manaborn Resonance.
Theron’s strength skyrocketed.