After stepping back from the crater, I explored the area a little further but not for too long. Not only did I need to watch the time I spent before heading back, I also needed to conserve my Astral Power, a difficult task with the strange Astral Power in the air constantly damaging me if I stopped protecting myself. Not that there was a lot to explore, it seemed that even the malformed monstrosities I had seen a little further away didn’t dare to get too close to the crater, so the only living things I saw were some strange moss-like growths. Maybe fungi, maybe lichen, I had no idea and my desire to investigate the spongy black stuff was fairly limited. I briefly considered trying to destroy it, there was a passing resemblance to the Withering Fungus, but given the situation, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to.

A quick series of experiments showed that I couldn’t just blast the stuff out of existence, none of my primary elements showed any real effect, and to make matters worse, the stuff had spread all around the crater. I couldn't remain in the area for long, nor could I destroy the stuff quickly, so, quite frankly, there was little I could do about it. My best bet would be to hope that the stuff was similar to some of the extremely specialised organisms from before the change, like bacteria that could live in geothermal vents deep in the ocean, a biome that’d kill just about everything else. But not those microbes, they thrived in the deadly conditions but only in those deadly conditions. Put them into any other environment and they’d die off just as fast as anyone else would die in their preferred environment.

If that stuff was the same, my only fear was that they decided to turn the rest of the planet into their preferred biome, if they tried that, we’d all be in some serious trouble. The Astral Power in the air was hazardous, not just to my general health but also to my nose. I did not want to become Jade the noseless Wonder, thank you very much.

Once I felt that my time in this area was up, I started to retreat. Just like I had on the way in, I was carefully monitoring my power expenditure, knowing that I was running just the same marathon as I was moving in. Well, the same distance but a different track. I had moved around the crater and was running in the same direction I had run on the way in, meaning I was moving to the other side of the Charland. Thanks to the strange spatial warping inside, I’d only have to walk about two kilometres to get back to where I started once I left the effect and I wanted to see if there was anything I’d want to take an interest in on this side.

Maybe another node or some other magically significant location I could study and abate the disappointment about the central crater. Such an interesting location and I couldn’t even try to study it, not with images from the glacial moraine lingering in my head and the way a small crystal of Eternal Ice had destabilised when prodded a little too hard. If this crystal destabilised in a similar way, only adjusted to fit its massive scale, the result would be… bad. As in, apocalyptically bad, with fire, poison and death racing across a whole lot of real estate. Considering it a magical nuke might be the best analogy, especially given that it gave off deadly radiation just sitting there.

That thought was almost enough to bring me to a halt as I considered whether I needed to decontaminate in some way to make sure none of my companions was affected by some sort of lingering contamination, especially not Luna. She, or Alex, would likely be those affected the easiest, their lower levels and Endurance almost demanded so. Not something I wanted to risk, meaning I’d have to come up with something.

Darkness Magic, most likely, it gave the broadest options to decontaminate, maybe with some Water mixed in as Water was a cleansing element, with only Fire being able to compare to it. And I wasn’t about to set myself alight, even if it meant my ashes would be free of contaminant. Hel, I couldn’t even be confident that cleansing with Fire would work, given that part of the contamination came from Fire Astral Power.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

So, Water and Darkness, with a focus on Darkness, thanks to the runes of Devour and Magic. Maybe something similar to the trick I had used to wash myself before learning how to conjure water. Back then, one of the problems I had run into was that I could cleanse my body of everything that wasn’t part of it, but my clothes, not so much. Those would be cleansed away just like the dirt, not something I was willing to risk out here. Or with my Cloak, that thing was rather important to me. But something to do later, once I had left the area crawling with monsters behind.

As I continued on my way, my mind flickered once again to the crystal, wondering what it was. Or should have become? The closest thing to that sort of power density I could imagine was a Nexus but it wasn’t one. Or at least it didn’t feel like one, it felt less natural, like the difference between smelling a flower directly, enjoying the subtle fragrance, and getting a nose full of the cheapest deodorant that tried to mimic the same effect. There were similarities, but one was a lot more pleasant and smooth than the other.

Here, the crystals in the crater were akin to that harsh, chemical scent that tried to be something fruity or flowery but didn’t manage. Which left me with the question, where did the power come from? Magic, to my understanding, worked according to the laws of thermodynamics and didn’t create or destroy energy, it merely shifted it from the Astral River into physical reality and back. Which, in turn, would mean that for some reason, the giant lump of crystal that was boiling away the water in that crater like some overengineered teapot was drawing energy out of the Astral River and into reality. Only that it wasn’t doing so like the Nexuses did, it was far more haphazardly than the balanced and controlled Nexuses I had seen on Mundus.

Maybe that lack of balance and control was because the world was still settling. That might make sense, though it wouldn’t explain why I was unable to feel the Nexus unless it was some sort of Poison Nexus I was lacking the affinity for. Which, while possible, didn’t feel quite right, leaving me almost as clueless as I had been before, wondering just what the hel that thing was, where it came from and, maybe most importantly, where it was drawing its power from. And that power might just be the crux of everything in this area. Why, or rather how, the strange spatial warping existed, stretching space within this small area to an incredible degree, maybe even where the weird architecture came from, though I wasn’t willing to just explain that part away with ‘power’. No, I felt as if there had to be some sort of organising tool involved, even if it was one that only copied and pasted.

The area felt random but it also was sufficiently organised to look like an industrial area, which made little sense. But, just like everything here, it might be something I’d have to file away and investigate at some later point, with better tools and maybe even some interested allies.

And enough power to make the various critters calling this place home irrelevant. They continued to try catching me as I was running past and, curiously, it looked like the critters were similarly distributed like they were on the other side. First the malformed monstrosities of flesh and other material and as I made my way outwards, the malformation got less, with some giant monsters thrown in to keep things interesting.

Or maybe the giant monsters were simply those hopped up on Node power, allowing them to get to their larger size and greater power but costing them their allies in the process. It wasn’t a fully logical explanation, most beings would keep at least some of their kind with them, if only to breed, but it was one that might fit. Granted, it also might be wildly off-base, but that came with the territory of incredibly sparse information.

Luckily, it didn’t matter and my run back out went fairly smoothly, allowing me to make good time and reach the outer edge of the Charland without getting charred in the process. Exhausted and fairly filthy, yes, but I remained uncharred and the Sun was only just rising above the horizon, annoying me with its hateful light.

Now, I only had to find the others, decontaminate and then, I could fall into my bed and sleep for a day or five.