Am I me?

How could i even tell?

When I awoke I was alone in the church. Even Vigi was gone. How long had I laid there?

It felt like years.

My memories, if they were even mine, felt jumbled. I could remember Earth. In fact those memories felt stronger than my own.

Am I not Drew?

Perhaps I'm the Earthling?

But wouldn't I know my own name if I were from Earth?

No, i must have be Drew. Then that means my mind had properly returned as my aunt surmised it would.

I waited a moment but nothing came, no voice ringing in my head. Was she being shy suddenly? She had normally been so boisterous.

"Are you there?" I asked out loud feeling slightly dumb for not knowing my great aunt's name.

Nothing came, the room was silent.

But it wasn't empty. Across from where my body had collapsed, encrusting the central altar was a large interlaced gem.

It had countless thousands of facets extending along the fractalite crystal. It was primarily a deep red color but some of the tips shone black or white. If i were to guess it's the mana forms individual colors. Black for corrupt mana, and white for pure.

I reached my hand near the delicate crystal but as I neared a bad feeling grew in my gut.

This object is dangerous.

It holds endless energy inside it. Enough to kill the world while in a gaseous state. Who knows how much more dangerous it could be in this condensed form.

This is the condensed barrier. The mana from every man woman and creature in the bay for hundreds of years. I had really done it then. I had succeeded.

But in doing so I destroyed my aunt, hadn't I?

No voice resounded so I took my thoughts as truth. She had never mentioned any danger to herself, what about the other worlds? Were they harmed by this? Had I made a terrible decision? She told me to trust, so does that mean I wasn't doing wrong? Was she okay with this result?

I wish I could ask her those things.

I stretched my neck and peered around the empty church. The time warping tear in the ceiling had completely vanished.

I could also now see again with mana vision.

The whole area seemed to be slowly refilling the vacuum of lost mana, in more average amounts this time. It seemed I had been successful even at such high cost.

I walked outside and I confirmed my thoughts. The snow was melting quickly due to the regained heat in the area. From the amount that had already defrosted i assume it had been a real day since I cleared the area. There were already some areas where reddish clay was visible.

A heavy stream of water was cutting the path I had taken to get here. I noticed there was a main road from the original city underneath all the snow. It was in surprisingly good shape for its age. But the heavy flow of water still prevented me from a comfortable walk.

At that time words I had spoken with myself passed through my mind once again.

I was 'overlooking something' the Earth mind said.

It's now obvious what it was. All this snow, it can only go one place. And that place is currently in its most dangerous state. I truly hope canal construction has progressed well. I pray nobody was near the river when the snowmelt began, its surely a whirlwind by now.

My theory was confirmed when the ancient Goldianus city road met up with the river. It was flowing heavily. Chunks of broken ice had piled up on both shores and were dripping rapidly

The river was noisy, the brownish water sloshed against the shore splashing the melting snow and quickening its defrost.

It was moving quickly, I really wished I could move that quickly.

Oh. Well I supposed I could.

I lifted a nearby log and focused on it with my mana.

Once it accepted my mana I began manipulating the grains of the wood like clay. I took the thick log and squeezed it flat like a pancake, I then extended the block shape long and thin into a surfboard shape. It wouldn't need to be perfect. I would use my mana to protect it, it just needed to flow through water predictably.

Once I felt satisfied with the makeshift surfboard I rubbed a bit of the excess bark off the bottom and carefully stepped on. While standing on the board on the shoreline of the roaring waters i felt a moment of panic. The feeling was quickly replaced by desire to see my child though. It was very possibly I had already missed the birth.

With a pulse from a large chunk of mana reserves I carved a wide divot into the dirt below me.

It slowly filled with water lifting the board I stood on.

I gave a small pulse of mana to the water behind me and it shot towards the filthy roaring waters.

I've never surfed before. Hell I don't think 'I' had even seen the ocean. But with mana it was a breeze. From time to time a large rock would set me off balance but a single pulse of mana in the correct direction easily righted me. It was convenient, fun even, but I didn't have time to enjoy.

I had caused this natural disaster, I had to be sure my people were safe.

The deeper I ventured in the winter area the worse the waters became. A few times I was completely submerged by large rapids. I almost stopped after the third hit but my body healed quickly from the damage so I continued. How could I let a few broken ribs slow me?

I neared the Winter village. In theory it should be ok. The river ran a hundred feet from the village and the ground was planed at a slight incline.

From the looks of it the water level had only risen about a foot and a half at this point, but it would only grow higher the further I went. The real dangers would be to Godrick and Havas who sat close to water level. I pray the canal was completed in those areas.

As my board grew closer to the village I assessed it for any damage. The water had risen up the long bank and shifted the ice quite a bit. A few large chunks had knocked into a some houses but it didn't cause too much damage.

Several people were gathered along the shore watching the quick moving water. Others were pushing the more dangerous chunks of ice away from the village with long sticks. I threw them a solemn wave while simultaneously evaporating the ice near the shore.

A few villagers dropped jaws while few others waved back at me likely not noticing the ice.

It was the least I could do.

I continued down the river.

From the rate i was moving I figured I could probably make it to colgate within a few hours. I wanted to check in on the Ents but I figured being older trees they would likely endure, if not enjoy, the event.

No, humans were my priority now. In particular Godrick and Havas. Oh, and perhaps the lock as well. I'm sure they have no idea how to handle this. I just hope I can ride ahead of the major damage.

I neared the border of the fall zone, I would enter the ents domain soon, and then pass by Colgate. From there it would be a long surf to Goldrick.

The river was now two feet above its original iced over path. Each river that merged with the Coil made it ten fold more dangerous. The ice was likely a worse enemy currently than the rocks. I wish I could fly.

It was now eight occasions that I almost died if not for my massive mana stores and rapid healing. Come to think of it my rapid healing was the only thing that had never been explained to me. But my last link to that world was gone. Perhaps Joye knows. Oh or degin, he is apparently ancient.

Oh, I maybe could fly, sort of.

I forced more mana into the board. Each grain of wood began to glow a deep yellow before the chunk morphed into a more narrow streamlined board. The speed of the board exceeded twice the river's, and increased further whenever I pulsed mana.

I ripped through ice and even rocks as they entered my path. I had to be careful to stay on the river or I would carve a large gash into the bank and have to restart my travel. But it was surely faster than just surfing.

I barreled down the river.

I planned to completely surpass the Colgate bend with a wicked jump, since they were a safe distance from the river. But my plan veered off when I detected a familiar aura amongst the gathered crowd.

It was one I could never forget, it was that of my soon to be wife. And from the sensation of the mana she was still pregnant, I had succeeded in my ultimate goal. But the fact that she was here worried me. Why had she chosen to teleport while pregnant? I had told her to be extremely careful about it and now she was late into her pregnancy, it would only be more dangerous now.

I rocketed the board into the bank purposefully and leapt from the board towards the crowd that was watching the spectacle of the flood. And here I had planned to show them an epic stunt.

Next time I suppose.

Claire approached me and quickly embraced me into a hug.

I too was extremely happy to see her, but I was also extremely cautious of her bulbous belly. It was a bit of a shame to see it on such a beautiful girl. But the fact that 'my child' was the reason made it more beautiful I wager.

"Why are you here?" I asked glancing around for either Susan or my mother, none were present so I was sure she had teleported here.

"I was at the Inn. But Susan got word of a terrible flood damaging the lock. I got worried about you, and the people up here, so I came to see if they had heard anything. I knew it was dangerous but I had to come." She said carefully prodding her wide stomach.

"Damage to the lock?"

"Mhm, she said a few people were repairing a chain when the flood hit, they were washed away. The water also ripped the chain from its post."

"How many?"

"Eight," She began before coughing lightly when she noticed my teary reaction. "And another twenty six in the village below the lock. The spillway ramps for flooding were…"

She trailed off as I fell to the ground, I understood the issue.

I couldn't stop the tears. And why should I?

I'm a seventeen year old kid, I shouldn't have seventy three notches on my belt. First the thirty nine mercenaries, I could chalk that up to an accident if I liked, but it wasn't. And now thirty four villagers and craftsmen. They weren't accidents.

And they were innocent.

I made this choice.

The knowledge that this would happen was in my mind, I had just overlooked it.

I had overlooked this damage.

And it wasn't even over yet.

It would only get worse.

What have I done?

And how many more will die from my actions before the day is over?

"Then this was…" Claire said before quieting herself when she realized what I was so upset about.

"This was due to my over confidence."

"You only did what you thought was right."

"Without thought to anybody else, I wanted the world the way I thought was correct, so I changed it. And those actions killed those villagers, it killed the craftsmen, it killed my aunt."

"Mom?" Claire began, her eyes widening.

"Oh, no, no. Joye is fine." I assured her after glancing with mana vision towards her mountain top, she was indeed fine. "I refer to the disembodied intent of our great great great aunt who resided within the mana of the church."

"I see, removing the barrier removed the power?" Claire asked.

"I hope it's that simple, it's possible the two worlds she maintained were lost as well, I thought of nothing though. If the world are indeed gone I suppose 73 is a trifle compared to the thousands or even millions that must have lived there."

"Those deaths aren't on you."

"Of course they are."

"But you just…"

"I tried to carry the world on my shoulders. I tried keeping everything to myself. If I had discussed this with anyone at length I would have noticed the problem with the snow melt, yet I didn't. I'm supposed to be a duke, yet I can't even remember that snow turns to water and flows into rivers. What kind of a joke is that?"

It was only then that I realized I was making this ruckus in front of my very pregnant girlfriend and a large group of my citizens. And I was ranting about my own incompetence. Some duke.

"We should go." Claire said gripping my hand firmly and gripping the air with the other hand. She easily ripped the void open. She must have undergone lots of training during those months I was gone.

At the end of the day the total was two hundred and fifteen.

The next day the total increased to two hundred and forty six due to death from injuries.

The event was later known as the Flood of Blood. The name had nothing to do with the tribe.

As the river was known as the 'Scar' and many deaths were caused by the flood, it was only natural to equate the clay seeped waters with blood.

The event would carry my name for eternity.