How and why the undead took another step up the power scale was something the Core briefly wondered about before it had to constantly start repairing the walls stopping the creatures from coming inside and killing everything around them. There was no way it should have happened naturally, right? It didn’t make sense for that to happen. The moment that the Black Mana had hit some kind of density- requirement, though, all the creatures gathered had just increased in size and power. It was scarily powerful.

Yet… was that the secret to increasing a creature’s level? It just needed more of the coloured Mana that it was created with? That seemed entirely simple yet also… very dangerous. There could have come a lot of skill requirements for when it was a creature made of a mix of different colours instead of just black, though. It was certainly something to think about at a later time.

Not at the current one, however. The Core was having enough trouble as it was, taking in massive amounts of Mana so it could continually strengthen the barriers holding the creatures out. While there might not have been much the exoskeletons could do again flat rocks, their ferocity and constant bashing against the stone made it more than possible to make a small bit crumble. And with every slam, there was, more and more did just that. Without the Core making suer to stop the all would have already been lost, the creatures attacking with more and more power.

And they would get more powerful as time went along. While the creatures hadn't reached level three, there was a place where there word ‘yet’ fitted in nicely. The Black Mana coming out of the creatures did nothing but grow in density, slowly but surely overtaking the Mana already present in the room. The Core was feeling its control being lost. But not yet. Things could still be manipulated, the stone was still able to be repaired.

Multi-tasking was an ability the Entity had in plenty, luckily enough, it was more than able to spew rocks down from the ceiling in a desperate bid to crush as many as it could. The creatures grew wise to this, however, their ability to detect disturbances in the Mana-Current was more powerful than they should have been. If anything was spawned above them, they would move to dodge. Every single time it was repeated, the [Undead] would always know. Those creatures had seemed perfectly able to sit still during their first level, yet the increase had made them smarter. Or, it had given them a connection to their queen more powerful, giving them the ability to react to certain stimuli better.

The Core truly had no care for the actual reasons, only knowing that it hated them. The time required to make bigger and more effective pieces of rock made them able to detect it in time anyway. The only viable option would be to make a piece big enough to encircle the entire room, yet the Core knew that it would take several minutes in a situation where barely one could be used. With nothing better to do, the Entity was forced to start using [Arcane] boxes, reinforcing them with as much Mana as possible before trying to ram them into the different creatures. It worked for a while, though the boxes were quickly overtaken by the now-distracted swarm.

Techniques held for a moment or two before it all crashed down, the reinforcement not able to survive the extreme and utter power of twenty [Undead] ant desperately trying to gnaw through it. And with that Mana bursting open, the COre had to watch as nothing a single piece of it was returned to the Entity, everything put over to the creatures instead. It was horrible, and it despised it.

What could beat the Black Mana? What could be done? The Core did the best it could to answer these questions, its mind not able to operate at the need levels. Everything was pressing down on the ENtity, the lack of ground making it hard to be rational. More rocks were thrown around, some even hitting the few unaware ants left, yet it did nothing in the long run, the main group of Undead quickly adapting yet again. It was terrible yet there was nothing to do.

The Core needed to focus. Black Mana. It needed a weakness. The universe wouldn't have allowed such a thing to exist if there was an equivalent that could beat it. But what could that have been? There was nothing that worked, every piece of Mana thrown at it simply absorbed? In fact, how was there even anything but Black Matter left? If the energy was able to consume everything, why had there not been an entirely black world? That fact in itself was something that very clearly needed some answer. Down in the deep and dark caves, the Black Mana worked so effectively.

Yet if it was true for everywhere else, then it had to have been already victorious. And since the Core had survived for as long as it had, seeing no obvious signs of Black other than the one which the Queen held for herself. There had to be something, lest all the Core would see was Black. What was different everywhere else? What came to save the people from the black and the darkness that came with it. Sarah had said it so many times, yet he just couldn't remember-

The Core instinctually shot down itself before there was any chance of it going into the tone of those fits. But then it thought back to what it had just heard. Sarah? That was clearly a name of some kind. A person, an entity, something alive and different from the Core. And it had known the answer, had told the Core what the answer was. Yet it wasn't able to remember. If the ‘Sarah’ had the answer then there was no need to stop the crackling in its mind. There was no other way. It had to give in to it.

What had it thought about before? Something about Sarah knowing it all, her always telling him of everything no matter how much he wanted to listen. He never listened, always acting as he did but focusing more on that acting than opening up his ears. How he regretted it, seeing that body lifeless, the legs twisted, the arms broken, and the neck without a head to call its own.

The sight had always haunted him, keeping him up at night. Yet that sight also refused to let him forget the one thing that helped him close his eyes.

“For after the darkness came the light, the white, the one that could save us all. There is no need to be scared when you know he will come for you too.” How he had listened to that every night, repeating it in his own words just to make sure it was permanently burned into the front of his mind. If he ever forgot, he wasn't sure he would forgive himself. That was what he had sworn, son of the-

The Core forced itself out with a cry of pain, not sure what was where and when it was what. Everything slowed to a standstill and then sped up beyond its wildest imaginations. It felt like vomiting yet there was no mouth to release it with nor a stomach to get under control. Yet even without either, it both understood and feared having to use such instruments ever again, even the eyes causing refusal of the mind. Nothing made sense about what had been seen.

Except for the quote. The one thing that had caused it all. ‘For after the darkness came the light, the white, the one that could save us all. There is no need to be scared when you know he will come for you too.’ What did that mean exactly? It had to be related to what the Core sought, lest the ideas wouldn't have ever crossed its mind when thinking about it. That was something that had been done often with those painful bursts of information about a life it hadn't lived. They came around when it thought about something else close to it, the Core’s mind automatically starting to intertwine the different aspects of its memories. It needed to be thought of as such.

The sentence needed to be the answer. After the darkness came light? That was meant as a correlation of sorts. When the darkness was there, the light was there to replace it. But did that meant that the light was the reason for the darkness leaving or was the darkness leaving the reason that light would come around? There were no other things that hinted at anything else, though the light seemed to be seen more as an entity by the end. Did that mean it was a specific person that was being talked about or was it more abstract?

It could have been a look at something that could be seen as alive, reacting to things in a way that a… rock wouldn't be able to do? Did that mean it was Mana? The energy had repulse that governed its reactions, the Black, as an example, swallowing up everything in its path. That meant that to combat the dark one needed light. If the dark was a euphemism for the Black Mana, that meant the light was… White Mana? Was that right?

…

No answer came, to the point where the Core was confused at why it even asked. Who had it expected to answer? Nothing made too much sense when that crackling in its mind came around, yet that didn't mean that some amount of sense couldn't be found in a few places. Inside the spectrum of coloured Mana, Black and White were never found. They were a part of the spectrum but in a different way than what colours like Blue and Green were. Instead, they were gatherings or the absence of all the colour in the coloured mana. It was still manipulated to have the ability t be coloured but in the creation, it had been granted either all or nothing. That was what the Core thought it to be, at the very least.

Black Mana was like a void, sucking in everything in a desperate bid to grant itself what it sought yet never being able to get that. The White Mana was the opposite, being without any real need to gain more, just staying where it was as if it had found serenity. While such traits were closer to a personification, it still made sense to think of them as such. Black wanted it all and White wanted everything to be as it already was. The Black didn't accept reality, forcing the dead to live and those alive to die. It was a lack of normal reality within that Blackness. And the white was the opposite, fastening reality as it was, though it could still be used for many things. Or so the Core believed, the theory behind having every other colour leading the Entity to believe that it could do… anything that other colours could. Except for what the Black could, of course, but that was less of a negative and more a positive. Something to cheer for instead of being saddened by.

Yet what happened when the two met? The theory up until then left no clear winner that could be found. And… the Core would agree with that. They were perhaps equal in power even, only able to cancel each other out. But, what happened when one had more Mana to use than the other? What happened when an Entity could fight a limited gathering of Blackness, spending hundreds upon hundreds of Mana-Points each second for the sole purpose of making the darkness fall.

For if the darkness fell, the light would come. If the light would come, the peace would be had. If the peace was had, serenity would be found. And that would lead the Core to live a life where it could be without fear, without looking over its shoulder. It could be happier than it was ever allowed to be, just because a single mistake let it all fall to ruin.

New [Skill] has been acquired!

You have learned: [Light-Mastery]

The Core barely looked at the screen before starting up the conversion. It was like it had always known how to do it, why it worked, and in what ways it could be used. The sheer will and desire were holding it together, more and more Mana forced into a single beam of energy, all of it being created with White Mana. It was created inside the new room, just in the middle of all the [Undead]. The Mana seemed to split every single one of the creatures’ focus over to it, the White Mana seems to be the thing they hated the most. Every single one of the creatures sprinted towards the middle of the room, pushing and trashing to get close to the energy. The Black Mana in the air came after that, it all shaping into a vortex of Movement, Mana, and pure Will holding it together. The Core could feel the Black Mana trying to wrestle the energy out of the White yet that same White Mana was trying the same to the Black. It was a fight of control, a fight of whose reality was allowed to exist. The White wanted peace for the creatures which had already died, wanted peace of the air that was being forced into being toxic for those alive.

The Black had no such desires. It just wanted everything, wanted it to be seen by all, consumed by all. The Black desired to be everything. And the White wasn't going to let that happen without a fight.

Each side gained and lost ground with time. The Black Mana seemed to become more and more fueled with time, the very bones that the creatures had been made with decaying more and more, each splinter of bone granting unimaginable power to the struggle. The White Mana, on the other end of the culling game, was getting just as much help from the Core. The Entity had stopped very another thing it could do, all its attention given on supplying the White Mana with as much as it required to win. It was being given out by the hundred, enough Mana being taken out of the air that a stronger wind was being generated. IT was enough for an awful sound to be made, the air whooshing through smaller spaces. It reminded the Core of much of the whistling Undead. But there was nothing to do about it, everything needing to continue.

White was supposed to gain the upper hand, yet such a thing was refused instantly. There was nothing that worked, nothing that made the Black go away. It all stayed on equal ground, each point of White Mana being matched with a Black one. It did not make sense. Ignoring the creaturs, there should have been no source of energy. It was almost as… the Black Mana was feeding off the White. While only one could consume the other easily, the byproducts still existed. Each blow from the waste cost energy, energy that was spilt out. The Black was taking every one of those blows and then taking the energy gained from it as well. There was nothing it wouldn't go down to, no blows too low. The Core would have to do the same.

Refusing to go at all, the Entity began the use of Intent. The Black was inherently formed to destroy all yet the White was nothing like that. It desired Balance and nothing else. It would attack back when attacked but never truly go on the offensive. Without that being done, the Core knew it would fail. So what was there to do? Well… the instincts of the Mana had to be changed. Intent needed to be used.

And what did the Core order the Mana to do? It ordered the restoration of the required reality through the destruction of the darkness. And that was all that was needed before the White came at the Black with destructive power, every piece of energy held inside coming out at once. The Darkness had nothing to feed off since everything was used at perfect efficiency. The White was a tool above all else and it could be harnessed with the right mental state. When the Core desired balance above all else, the White colour was at its strongest. And that was shown in how little was used, and how quickly the tides began to turn.

A [Skill] has been improved!

You have understood [Light-Mastery] more deeply

It was ignored yet again, the information gained being utterly useless. The Core didn’t need to know how to heal more efficiently or how to communicate over distances. It needed the balance brought back to its rightful place. And the [System] was hampering that by bringing in messages during fights. But, there was nothing else done about it, focusing entirely on the battle in front of the Core.

The Vortex of Energy had grown with each second, the Entity coming in at several thousand having been pumped inside. It was hard to control, nearly impossible in fact, the only saving grace being the sheer simplicity of the Intent. Without it, nothing of that calibre would have been possible. But… at that moment, it was more than possible. It was the fact of life. After the darkness came light, just as Sarah had told him. And the Core would honour those words, for they had brought it into the realm of knowledge needed to win.

And win the Core certainly did, more and more of the Black Energy being consumed by the White, purified into the simply Mana it was always intended to be. The void of darkness was taken away from Mana’s list of qualities, replaced with the peace and easy-goingness that was needed from simple energy. One did not need the desire to consume. One could simply be. And that was the only thing that the White Mana showed off to the blackness.

Through a minute or two more, the last of the [Undead] fell, the black Mana that had kept them going falling into its natural state once again. There was nothing else that needed to be done at that point, the Entity having won the battle. Fifty undead had been destroyed, the Black Mana having been annihilated completely and utterly. The only thing left was fifty empty exoskeletons, each of them having had a living being inside once. Yet that entity had long ago been flushed out, replaced by the Black Mana’s innate desire to consume everything it could get its hands on. The Core felt hatred and disgust at the thought but knew at the same time that nothing like it would be felt again on their part. Quietly but respectfully removing the exoskeletons from the ground, it was all turned into the Mana in its purest state, allowing it to join the Core’s side once and for all.

The next time it came across an [Undead] in the making, it would purify it before anything. The ability to do such a thing was more powerful than anything else. Just like it had been saying before, it was a gift worthy of the Core’s attention.

You have lived up to your title of [The Ancient One]

For your actions and reasoning, you have been granted [3] Attribute Points!

… How nice. The gift of using the painful information was even more powerful. The Core believed that something like that had been the reason the [Leader of the Colony] had gained just as much of a title. Perhaps she had been the icon for the masses? There were only a few thoughts in that direction. But… looking into the [Status-Screen], the Entity tried to figure out what it needed to upgrade. Three points were a lot, after all.

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

-

Level:

9

Class:

Core

Race:

Core

Title:

The Ancient One

Health:

160/160

H-Regen:

0.15/sec

Mana:

140/140

M-Regen:

0.13/sec

Stamina:

-/-

S-Regen:

0/sec

Basic Stats

Strength:

-

Wisdom:

14

Vitality:

15

Intelligence:

12

Dex:

-

Willpower:

14

Available points:

3