Master Of None

”Hmm” Looking carefully, Walker found that the bridge which had just opened up recently was interrupting a small stream. The stream had already begun to flow a different direction, but the wind mana coming out of it made the area a little misty.

Nothing else really seemed to be around. No monsters had come looking for the wind mana and the small pond nearby that the stream connected to was peacefully rippling with the wind. Even the plants swayed softly with the wind mana. Out of all these bridges to the elemental planes this appeared to be one that was the simplest.

Even when he reached out and began to alter it, he found that he needed less mana and focus to do so. It even took less time to adjust the bridge. Maybe it was being influenced by the other bridges or the wind elemental planes on the opposing side of the ridge was just a calmer location than the others.

He did confirm more of his ability to sense other bridges through this one though. Since he was having a simpler time of things, Walker was able to latch on to the feeling of another two bridges in the distance. One further than the other but still, he could follow the mana to those places.

Since he was getting more and more of these bridges to the elemental planes done, Walker felt that he was making decent progress. He had already handled one outbreak of chaotic manas due to another connection to a smaller elemental plane. This was the second time now and he had a feeling that it might happen again.

As Walker sped through the air to the next bridge, he contemplated the reasoning that it was so easy to bend space with elemental manas right now. It made more sense that it was because the space mana was feeling pressure from various places and reasons right now.

The elemental planes were stressed since they were growing due to the origin being adding more elemental planes to them to allow for growth. Then again, there was also the being within those elemental planes feeling the pure manas of the world through the naturally occurring runes and reaching out. That mana shouldn’t be passing through space and especially the chaotic space between the elemental planes and the world in the first place.

Yet, it was. Meaning that space was not as solid as it could be. The world was also an issue that could be causing it. The world was growing still, improving.

It had lacked mana and the proper flow for a long time. Now that it was adjusting and becoming what it should be, there was a bit of wiggle room for issues that might arise as it happened. It was like water leaking through a crack that needed to heal, it would get through and until it was properly healed that would just be an issue.

Or at least that was where Walker’s mind went as he realized that it wasn’t just two bridges he had sensed but actually three. He just hadn’t realized that the first was actually right next to another bridge.

His senses hadn’t been wrong or bad, he’d just not realized two bridges could even form side by side facing one another. It would make sense that they would blend together.

What wasn’t bleeding together were the water and fire manas coming from them. A humid fog was settling around them. It wasn’t everywhere though so these bridges were new and not sitting for a long time before Walker had gotten here.

It did present an issue.

Right between them perfectly in the middle Walker could feel space was thin. Space was twisted and bent because it shouldn’t be like this.

Before his eyes, Walker felt the break happen. The humid fog pushed away in an instant and chaotic dark and wind mana began whipping out in strange curves of dark wind. An extremely odd combination of manas that whipped up the Fire and Water manas coming from the twin bridges in to a chaotic mess.

Fire and Water did not easily mix but they had been in an odd balance. Clearly, these bridges shouldn’t be this close and it and made it possible for chaotic mana to slip through.

In this case, the chaotic mana was spilling out while a mixed elemental plane of darkness and wind manas tried to break in to the world in the same way.

After witnessing it, Walker was understandably hesitant and a little shocked. He felt that he was somewhat mocked by existence since this was happening, or maybe it was fate. Whatever it was, he was stuck here now dealing with the issue and would have to figure out what else he needed to do.

Pulling at space mana proved to be a hectic mess. The space mana forming the two bridges was already shaken making it harder to improve one let alone both bridges. Then the space mana where the chaotic manas were bursting through was already connected to whatever the elemental plane was which was full of dark and wind manas.

It was even harder to bring natural mana here too. When Walker channeled it and attempted to use it as a buffer to handle the chaotic manas, he found it was repelled. The force made him feel like he’d been punched solidly in the head.

It wasn’t just that, but the fact that the natural mana was not dense enough to handle the myriad of manas here right now. Each was competing for the space and the space mana was just being stressed more and more. Even with Fleur waking up to take control of the natural mana there was still too much moving mana.

”Fine, one problem at a time.” Walker gave up on enhancing either of the two bridges. He felt that they shouldn’t be this close to one another at all.

He was right though.

Both being here had stressed the space mana too much. Had caused an issue that he now needed to solve. Since the chaotic mana associated with this darkening elemental plane was breaking through then he just needed to bring it entirely in to the world.

After that, he could handle the two bridges and figure out how to enhance them properly.

Completely cutting off any focus from the bridges allowed for Walker to sense the deep and unique nature of dark wind. It was not the same as other manas mixed together that he had encountered. It was more akin to the chilling breeze on nights before larger storms or around the Harvest season when everything was starting to decay and dry out.

The wind moved slower but still chaotically due to the lack of balance, with it the ground showed marks of decay that dark mana carried. This mix was more deadly but also felt necessary. He knew that if this mana was balanced it could fit in to the flow of nature as a place where decay formed and was taken as nutrients for nature as a whole.

Using space mana to begin to drag the elemental plane which broke through and introduced the chaotic manas, Walker felt that there was a lack of life mana within it. There was death mana though. It had a unique relationship of its own with dark mana that most people would assume existed no matter what.

It was the lack of life mana that made it clear why this elemental plane wasn’t able to mix with the other elemental planes. It should have had a small amount of life mana and be able to form monsters, elemental spirits, or plants. Really anything. But because it didn’t have that yet it was just uncontrolled dark wind that decayed and could lead to death.

Dragging in ambient life mana, Walker condensed a small amount as tiny as he could before pushing it in to the distant elemental plane. The moment he succeeded in this the swirling dark winds calmed and stopped reacting with the world’s manas. It was like an ice cube thrown in boiling water. It stopped the boiling but it was still going to need time to cool.

The time allowed him to pulled forward the entirety of the dark wind elemental plane which, like the others, snapped in to place. The space mana being supported pushed apart the bridges to the elemental planes much further than Walker would have imagined.

The dark wind swept ground that carried the scent of decay was dangerous, but there was potential. Small sprouts of black grass had already appeared. As life mana became more in tune with this land and the world, this dark wind swept field would grow.

Now, Walker could only look at the immensity of the area he’d just dragged in to the world. The two elemental planes were significantly further from one another. As if this was what should have happened long ago but had been halted.

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