Early Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer

*vwoom-vwoom-vmmm* The sound of mana clashing around us filled the air.

It was definitely a bit odd at first, but after an hour of constantly hearing it, I quickly found myself getting used to it. -I guess it should be expected that so many strong people in one place would cause some odd spectacles...-

Casually looking around with my own aura, I watched as the countless other large auras danced around one another like oil and water before rising up a few more meters and suddenly mixing like there wasn't anything keeping them apart in the first place.

It was a simple phenomenon caused by people's subconscious aura control.

To put it simply, while they still had influence over it, it wouldn't naturally flow into neighboring, dense auras. But once control was inevitably lost, the mana would simply lose its attributes and become ambient mana that easily mixes with everything around it.

It was an aspect of aura I had known about ever since I first obtained mana, but seeing it in such exaggerated conditions made it something truly fascinating to watch. -At ground level, there is barely any ambient (absorbable) mana, but just a few meters above us is an ocean of it...- "It's really quite beautiful, isn't it..."

A smile came to Amara's face as she turned around to see me staring up in the air. "It truly is something to behold." Her expression quickly turned warm. "This amount of mana is usually only visible in parts of the Holy Kingdom, during the Coming-Of-Age festival, or in Atlas. Even people like us don't get to see it often..."

"R..right..." I stuttered a bit when she mentioned Atlas. -That’s where Krystallo is going to school, isn’t it? I hope she is doing well...- Feeling a cold blanket of yearning wrap around my mind, I tried to distract myself with some more idle conversation. "If the density of people's auras weren’t so high around here, people would definitely get mana poisoning. Is it really like that in Atlas and the Holy Kingdom as well?"

"Actually, yeah. You need a certain amount of aura to enter the cities where mana is this thick." Without making even the slightest movement, she threw up a silencing barrier. "The use of the mana here is a bit different though."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Well, in those cities, normally it's better for people to absorb, get stronger, and heal, but here, all that mana isn’t for us."

I raised an eyebrow with a confused look.

Amara seemed to find it funny but held back her laugh. "Ahem. Well, all that mana is to be given to the gods. The mana we receive and absorb comes from the Tree of Prayer’s roots beneath us, but that mana is the reason this ceremony is so appealing to dragons."

A look of surprise came to my face immediately. -You know, now that you mention it, there are a lot of dragons around...- Practically 1 out of every 15 people I could see were either half-breeds or pure dragons. "Why is the mana from the Tree of Prayer so appealing though?"

"Haha, well, for one, it's an absorbable attributed mana that gives a refreshed and invigorated feeling when absorbed, but it also gives the younger dragons an opportunity to practice and hone their ability to absorb mana!"

It was like a lightbulb went off at that moment. -So that's why all the dragons I've seen around here are young!- Except for a few younger elders, Amara was one of the oldest dragons I had seen, and she wasn't even 100 years old. "But why can’t they just practice normally, with like, regular ambient mana?"

"Not all dragons are born equal, Vasilias. Some of the less talented dragons struggle to learn the basics of mana even after dozens of years." Her smile turned warm as if she recalled an old memory. "Absorbing the Tree of Prayer's mana during the ceremony helps remove that handicap. It's like being guided by nature itself. Even you, someone who knows more about mana than anyone I know, might gain some insight from it."

She was so proud as she explained it all, that I could only hide my skepticism. -'Being guided by nature', huh…-

Although I didn’t want to show it, I found it a little hard to believe that simply absorbing some attributed mana would really be considered teaching. -If anything, wouldn’t it be better to go to Atlas or something and absorb the denser mana?-

But before I could think about it, I noticed a figure suddenly appear on a tiny wooden platform about halfway down the tree.

It was a wolf demihuman woman with dark grey, almost black hair and vibrant blue eyes. She seemed oddly similar to me and even carried a slight air of strength and majesty around her, but unbefitting that image, she wore a beaming, childish smile.

As she raised her hand, the crowd's chatter that had been non-stop since we got here, turned into a dead and somewhat eerie silence. -It must be starting...-

Keeping a close eye on the woman, I watched as she waved her hand around before lowering it back to her side. -What in the world is she doing...-

"10,890 years." Although she was still a couple kilometers away, her voice was clear, calm, and smooth. "It has been exactly 10,890 years since our beloved gods came to visit us... I'm sure many of you have found yourself doubting your belief at times, thinking 'what if they never come back', or wondering what the point of praying to an absent god was."

A few of the elves and demihumans’ excited looks around me slowly morphed with guilt.

"But such doubts are not unwarranted. Our lords had indeed left us to fend for ourselves, and their absence had indeed left a seed of doubt in the minds of everyone…" Her childish expression turned serious for a moment. "Every fifteen years, we would pray for our families and our health. We would wish for prosperity, and come to this very spot to seek the recognition of our gods… But each time, we would go home questioning if anything would really change." Her smile slowly started creeping back onto her face. "But at long last, the time we have all prayed for has finally come!" Contagious enthusiasm and excitement oozed from her voice.

It only took an instant for it to spread to the crowd, washing away everyone's guilt and bringing excitement back to their faces.

"Our gracious gods have finally returned after so many years! They have come home to rest, and gather their strength once more, so how about we show them just how much we have grown thanks to their previous protection and blessings!" She enthusiastically threw her arms out as all the visible ambient mana within a few hundred meters of the tree became denser and more vibrant.

It was a beautiful scene, but it also sent a shiver down my spine. -What a ridiculous amount of mana...- But little did I know, that was just the start.

"Let's show our lords how far we have come!"

As her voice echoed through the crowd, every single person, without exception, pointed their palms toward the center of the canopy.

-Huh? Is this the ceremony?- Following everyone else's lead, I held my arms up for several seconds before questioning whether I was doing it right.

But that was when the real ceremony began.

*RUMBLE* The Tree of Prayer started to pulsate out of nowhere, sending wide but short ripples through the ground like a heartbeat, but oddly enough, no one thought it was even the slightest bit odd.

-How is everyone so calm?- But I didn't have time to even question it before every single person, draconic, elven, and demihuman alike, started to simply dump their mana into the air.

*vvVwwWwWwOOooOmmMMM* I could only watch in awe as a ceiling of mana appeared above us and stretched as far as the eye could see.

It was a level of mana that instantly put the containment center to shame and even made me quite uncomfortable, but it didn't end with just that, and instead only continued to grow.

I could do nothing but stand there, frozen from awe for several seconds, as the dense sea of mana continued to grow deeper and deeper as people continued to release all the mana they could into the air.

But that was when I noticed that the colossal mass of mana was going to converge at one point at the top of the tree.

At that instant, like a switch was flipped in my mind, my intimidation, nervousness, and discomfort, turned into a deep an almost senseless greed.

-With that much mana.. how much divinity could I make...-