A New World, an immersive game experience

The revelation that his memories were disappearing was shocking, but knowing the cause was strangely calming. Since Eldrian knew why it was happening, he didn't panic. Perhaps he should have, but the emotion did not come to him. Instead, what came to him was acceptance—that this was the cost of entering the Realm of Time unprepared.

Spending so long trapped in the core of all time... had taken more than just a mental toll on him. But he had survived and he still retained the goals he had affixed to his heart. He knew what he needed to do, and that was what he focused on.

Still, this didn't mean he was unaffected. Eldrian looked upon the familiar faces surrounding him, wanting to help him. And he felt incredibly saddened that he could not remember any of them.

Their concern showed that they were his friends. True friends who were willing to face hell together with him. And now he couldn't even place a name to a face.

'I was blessed. Even if I can't remember them, I can't let things spiral out of control. I have the power to save them. And I will.' Eldrian's resolve solidified once more. It settled deep within him, allowing him to collect his disorganized thoughts and simulate solutions in his mind.

Ideally, he would run these simulations within his soul, but with it in its current state, that was no option. But the decades spent trapped in the Realm of Time had forced him to master mental simulations.

It wasn't as accurate, since he had to account for all the possibilities consciously. Meaning he couldn't rely on outside factors to fix his errors. But even so, he could run through all the information he had and make a more informed decision than simply jumping into things.

Doing this now, Eldrian tried to find the optimal solution to his current predicament. A way to save the world, first from the increased mana density. Threatening to bring a Mana Storm (if not a Chaos Storm), and secondly from this phenomenon repeating in a few years or decades.

'The simplest solution is to get rid of the extra mana Miracle brought to the planet. But that doesn't fix the unstable mana that is lingering, waiting. Once the total chaotic element reaches a critical level, it will start reacting. From there, raw mana will combine with the chaotic elements and form a similar reaction to anti-matter coming into contact with standard matter.'

This was the crux of the problem. As for how mana became chaotic; this was through overuse. Whenever people used magic outside of the natural elements, a portion of the mana became unstable. In this unstable state, instead of exploding or reacting, it became inert.

Mana was, after all, inert in its natural raw state. Only influencing inanimate things when in a high enough density (such as in a mana vein). And the situation here was exactly the same. And, unlike typical mana, it was incredibly difficult to access unstable mana. It was even more difficult to use than using raw mana without letting it convert into an element.

But, of course, it wasn't as difficult as using lifeforce directly. Perhaps its difficulty could be ascribed to the usage and control of an Aura. Regardless, this meant one simple thing. The unstable mana would stay where it was, inert. Until a critical density level is reached. A point similar in density to Origin Veins that could birth Magic Crystals.

Once this point was reached, it would start interacting with its surroundings. And, naturally, come into contact with the normal mana in the area. The two would react, setting off more and more reactions. And like a nuclear bomb, it would soon become an unstable force consuming all in its path.

The difference between mana storms and chaos storms lay in if their activation was delayed. Sadly, the case for Earth was that the reaction had been delayed. Allowing the unstable mana to grow in density. Until the point where they currently were. A Chaos Storm was on the verge of being born. Large enough to easily swallow the entire Earth and a portion of the solar system with it.

'Step one, remove normal mana from the equation.' This was Eldrian's conclusion. By removing the mana he could easily interact with, he would remove one side of the equation. Possibly stopping the storm from being born, and if not, at least limiting the damage.

This solution wasn't permanent. Mana would naturally gather on Earth again. The raw mana throughout the universe would be caught on it. Like iron sand sticking to a magnet, mana will stick to any place where sentient life exists.

It wasn't possible to prevent this. Any attempts would require mana, and thus make the results useless since mana would still be present. But by periodically thinning the mana, Eldrian could postpone the inevitable.

That was good enough for him. At least for the time being.

He also already had the spells set up to accomplish this. His spells, growing autonomously and gathering all the Elements on the planet, were giving him a steady flow of mana. Which he directly deposited into the void inside himself.

Eldrian didn't know how to close the connection, nor if he should. But for now, it was the perfect place to send all the mana to.

'There's some risk this will come back to bite me. But hopefully, the donation would be used to stabilize the core of time.' The mana on Earth, all of it, wouldn't amount to much. Perhaps one or two waves of energy that were periodically released from the core of time. But it might just improve the situation there. Worst case, Eldrian didn't believe it would be near enough to cause any problems.

After all, if a single planet was swallowed by a black hole, that wasn't going to change the black hole by much. Heck, the increase in mass would most likely be completely inconsequential. And in this case, the energy from the mana he sent into the realm of time would be just as inconsequential. After all, the core of all time was connected to thousands upon thousands of universes.

The mana from one planet in one universe was truly too little to matter.

Gathering more and more mana and elementals, Eldrian sacrificed them all into the Realm of Space. At an astonishing rate, he was draining his surroundings of all mana.

Once things got moving, Eldrian didn't need to do much. The spells he had cast were self-replicating. In time, they would cover the entire world. Hence, he shifted his focus to step 2. The unstable mana.

'Do the gods know how to control it?' He asked himself but failed to recall much. Sadly, like the rest of his memories, he had lost a great deal of information about the AI. The knowledge he had was mostly from what he had seen in the Realm of Time.

However, even with his shredded memories, he knew better than to try and ask the AI for help. He couldn't recall why, but his instincts told him it would be a bad idea. A terrible idea.

'I can't visit ANW until this situation is resolved.' He told himself. 'Besides, I know—or rather I can still remember this. ANW was used to simulate and test theories. One of the reasons they didn't dissolve mana storms was to study their growth and propagation. Perhaps to help them prepare to save Earth. Or perhaps to use as a final trump card?

Who knows...'

And while the first notion might sound noble, it meant sacrificing millions and billions of lives in ANW. All to collect data. It was incredibly cruel. Possibly necessary, but Eldrian didn't want to accept that so easily.

'But if I only delay it, I'm simply going to make it worse when it finally happens.' Eldrian told himself.

Several minutes had passed by now, and slowly his body was healing. However, he wouldn't be able to walk or even stand for several more hours. His healing was focused on his withered state. Only once his cells were rejuvenated could he start healing the physical damage he had sustained by moving with such a fragile body.

And, sadly, he couldn't cast a spell to heal himself. While capable of distant casting spells, any spell coming too close to him was quickly stripped of its mana.

This was what happened to all the spells his friends tried to cast. As soon as their spells started taking form near him, the mana was sucked right into Eldrian and into the void connecting him to the Realm of Time.

Shifting his focus, Eldrian thought of all the fragments he had seen. Segments of time from hundreds of different worlds.

Sadly, everything that he had seen had been similar to what he came from. For example, he hadn't seen any worlds where humans weren't present. They weren't always alone, but they were never not there.

This might simply be because he himself was human and could only see things similar to his own existence. Or it could indicate that all things had come from the same origin, where humans had been the dominant race. The reason didn't matter. But it meant everything he saw was, in some ways, similar to the situation on Earth.

'And I don't even know what those fragments actually were. They could very well have been games or soul-like demi-planes/worlds. Perhaps similar to ANW, or perhaps very different. The fragmented visions were too vague and random to construct much from it.'

But he had spent decades, millennia, studying these fragments. While Eldrian hadn't been able to analyze and store all the information he had lived through. He had tried his best to 'save' the important bits.

'I've most likely lost several decades worth along with my core memories. But I still have plenty to go off of.' At the time, it had been torture. Yet, now he looked fondly upon those years.

Searching through his past, he found several fragments where he had seen these 'Mana Storms' in action. They were truly devastating. Superseded, of course, by the Choas Storms.

'Right, there were several methods that the gods in these fragments used to deal with these storms.' Eldrian smiled, happy that he still had this knowledge. Even if he didn't remember all the methods, knowing there was more than one solution was invaluable.

The first was simple. Let it run its course. The unstable mana simply had to be consumed. But the problem was that anything in its path would be destroyed. Thus it was not an option.

'Unless I can isolate where it will happen. And, most importantly, limiting the amount of stable mana there for it to react with... Worth consideration, but cannot be done recklessly.'

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