2035 C.E., Earth

The next few moments went by in a blur. As soon as the shroud fell, I sensed hundreds of astral beings within the Old World’s sector of the Astral. Somehow, the shroud had hidden them and blocked my senses from extending into the Physical. Their mana exuded the same foreign properties of the shroud evoking images of darkness and death within my consciousness.

I had no experience combatting others of my kind but I had prepared for theorized many possible strategies. Luckily, every single one of the signatures I sensed was far below my current power which I could rely on speed and brute strength. I immediately began disassembling their bodies forcefully ripping them into their most basic components in the Astral and flooding their core structures with my mana until they ceased to be a separate entity merging with my consciousness. It was a ruthless and efficient tactic although its cruelty was unmistakable. I was essentially doing the Astral equivalent of dismembering a man limb from limb then eating his decapitated head whole while his mind was still active enough to watch.

However, I didn’t care, ignoring their cries of pain and thwarting their attempts to retreat.

They had descended upon my home like a swarm of locust. The sheer agony within the cry of mankind’s souls and thoughts of these parasites feeding on Libbu’s mana pushed my focus into overdrive. I became a machine pulling apart and harvesting the invaders like cattle in a slaughterhouse.

Essentially, I was manually performing a similar process as the one I performed on Libbu to preserve her core structures but instead of maintaining their integrity, I assimilated them by flooding the structures with enough of my mana to removed any trace of the offending astral being. I didn’t stop there though. I could’ve converted the newly-subsumed structures into mana to fuel my rampage but I saw that as a waste. While no longer an independent consciousness, these core structures still had the capacity for thought. So, I distributed them throughout different parts of my body reinforcing their connection with my will and imprinted directives on their blank minds to better manage my astral body. As for all of the other structures outside of the core, I left them alone to float in the Astral; they would lose their form and dissipate into raw mana eventually without being bound to a framework to support them, much like flesh decomposed when separated from the body.

Despite my work, things were not going well. The primary issue was the number of my foes. No matter how many I destroyed, more continued to appear, and try as I might, I couldn’t find the source. I had long since created a cluster of structures within my body to detect concealed beings within the Astral but no amount of scanning revealed these hidden foes and I sensed nothing entering my sector.

Where are they coming from? Perhaps their mana makes them specialized for obfuscation…? I wondered as I tore through their number.

Thanks to my growing networks of sub-core structures, which from here on I’ll refer to as sub-cores, I didn’t need to pause on my warpath to test my theory. I directed one of the sub-cores to analyze the mana within one of the structures I ripped off of an unfortunate being and waited for the analysis to complete. It took longer than it would’ve if I devoted my full attention to it but I wasn’t confident in leaving the battle to my sub-cores. They were fairly new additions after all and I didn’t know the full range of their capabilities.

The sub-core eventually finished its task and I became aware of the results. The mana like the shroud that had hidden the Old World had a gaseous texture akin to mist and the chill of the grave. It had an insidious quality to it; several times I felt it attempt to circumvent my attention, almost as though it contained a compulsion directing my mind toward other things with it sapped at my mana reserves.

This is… dangerous. If this mana seeps the channels I built into the Old World, what will happen to my Libbu? I had no idea what would occur since Libbu was a special case but I feared the answer wasn’t pleasant. Interacting with the foreign mana was like suffocating to death in a dark room filled with dry ice. I easily kept the small sample I had contained but dread crawled its way into my mind. This mana is too unique. Do other sectors of the Astral have different mana or is there a more powerful astral being producing this mana?

The second thought caused my anxiety to spike. I could sense hints of a larger Truth within the mana that seemed to support my fears. I stopped tearing through the endless onslaught of minor astral beings when I suddenly had a thought.

What if these weaklings are a distraction for something larger?

The notion of a higher-order entity slowly working its corruption into my astral body while I dealt with its minions. I quickly checked my mana reserves and found them uncompromised. However, I didn’t lower my guard. I checked my defensive structures and traps. They were intact and even better, working as intended against any astral being who escaped my wrath. In the time that I had stopped, dozens had entered the Old World through by manifesting themselves but they were weakened by my restrictions. I hoped the humans could hold their own.

Next, I changed my concealment detection structures. I had made a crucial error in my design, an error born of ignorance. I made them with the assumption that other astral beings would use pure mana to hide. My lack of experience in dealing with others of my kind would cost the Old World precious time. I dedicated a sizable amount of mana to the project which incorporated several adjustments based on the insights into the dark mana that I’d gained from the analysis. While detection structures finished, I took stock of my astral body again with a few of my sub-cores taking extra care to check my internal defenses and make small adjustments according to my newfound understanding of my enemy.

I had little time to appreciate my handiwork after it was resolved.

As soon as my updated detection structures activated, I sensed four enormous mana signatures manifested in the Old World, each of them on a different continent. The astral beings responsible weren’t as powerful as I was but they were more powerful than anything the humans could face alone.

I needed information; I needed to dream but I couldn’t do so because my dream state limited my ability to use mana. Any handicap to my mana usage could become an opportunity for the mass of minor astral beings around me and despite my adjusted detection structures, I wasn’t convinced I was seeing all there was to see. I’d spent a lot of time in the wilderness of the Old World among savage beasts and hostile environments. Predators who used stealth like these astral beings rarely attacked their prey outright. They stalked them, watched their movements, and struck when they saw weakness. I would not expose my throat to the potential threats that lurked in the shadows.

Perhaps… I don’t have to make myself vulnerable to dream… The thought came abruptly as I wracked my mind for an answer. It was so obvious I became a little frustrated with myself.

Before the invaders, I could only focus my mind on one point in the Physical or the Astral unless I was dreaming. However, I had grown, not in the magnitude of my strength but in the versatility of it. I had assimilated a few hundred sub-cores from astral beings of varying strength. Like I had delegated the tasks of my astral body, I could use them to split my concentration to encompass multiple points while keeping my true mind vigilant. It would be a strange experience but I would have to manage; I had to for Libbu’s sake.

The segmentation of my mental faculties clicked into place like second nature. Unlike the analysis of the dark mana, I didn’t have to wait for the sub-cores to finish processing the information they took observed; they simply delivered it directly to me. The effect was very much like watching multiple events transpire through one’s periphery if one’s periphery spanned multiple continents of the Old World. The separate flows of information nearly overwhelmed me but I adjusted quickly.

When my gaze fell upon the incursion sites of the four strongest invaders, I was surprised. The humans were not so helpless after all.