Compared to the active but so far fruitless effort I had performed for my new Power Augmentation, my Spirit Augmentation appeared right when I needed it to.

  [ Augmentation Unlocked!

  You have acquired a new Augmentation for your Spirit Attribute.

  Augmentation: Manifestation ]

  I knew the clicking sensation that accompanied learning the new Augmentation. It was the same feeling of a puzzle piece fitting into place that accompanied the others.

  Only this time, the effect of Manifestation appeared as soon as I had attained it.

  The tidal wave of acidic spit aimed upwards never reached me. Instead, the tiny purplish-black orb I created with a focused shot of mana threads drew a heavy chunk of the acid globs towards itself. A spark of purple energy revolved around the tiny sphere, which was now obscured by the sea of greenish yellow acid surrounding it.

  I was momentarily distracted by the monster’s frustrated scream, but then I focused on my new creation. There was a strange tether between me and the orb of pure gravity. That… didn’t even sound right, physically speaking, since gravity wasn’t exactly a substance or energy that could be seen or given form in any way.

  And yet, I had created an orb of it. Just more proof that I needed to stop thinking about Gravity as, well, actual gravity.

  Interestingly, the tether had diminished. The feeling of the connection between me—between my whirring mana core, rather—and the orb of gravity had sprung up as soon as Manifestation had worked.

  Also interesting that the sphere of manifested Gravity was exhibiting attractive forces, just as I’d expect natural gravity to do. Could I use Siphon to repel things, though, like I could with Field Manipulation? Something I’d need to test when I had time.

  Now, with the orb surrounded by a mass of monstrous acid, the connection grew somewhat fainter. I wasn’t sure why.

  The bigger issue was that manifesting Gravity had driven me over the edge of mana exhaustion. Although, the fallout from mana exhaustion didn’t materialize. Just as I had tested after my mana core’s awakening, Threaded Reinforcement came in clutch.

  My body crossed the first threshold of its capability to channel mana, the normal limit that went hand in hand with mana exhaustion, and then dipped into the cracks of Threaded Reinforcement strung throughout my whole body. Well, they weren’t cracks any longer, I supposed. They were now real threads.

  Threads that slowly extinguished as I pushed my mana-channelling-capacity past what I normally would have been capable of. Like my first test, they left a glimmering afterimage—a promise that the threads would regenerate in time.

  I wondered if I would even need mana potions anymore. Although, I swallowed one down since I had a bit of time. Should help regenerate the threads of Threaded Reinforcement.

  New magical energy swirled to life within me. The monster continued screeching, though I curiously noted it wasn’t emerging any further from the pit it had crawled out of. Maybe it couldn’t do so. Which meant killing it would solve the problem the hole represented.

  It was growing desperate, throwing up more of its acidic spit everywhere. Most obviously didn’t reach me, as the globs coming in my direction were simply incorporated by the orb of gravity. That further impaired the connection between me and the gravity orb.

  Oh, so that was it. The more mass the orb was surrounded by, the more it dissipated.

  I wanted to move it around to use it directly. The tether sensation was weaker than before but still present, still strong enough for me to try and use to nudge the orb. But nudging wasn’t going to cut it in the middle of a fight like this. Looked like there was a lot more training on my post-battle horizon.

  So instead, I used Field Manipulation on my palm to create a repulsive field. One that flung the gravity orb in the direction I wanted it to go.

  Of course, its flight carried it out of the range of Field Manipulation before long. But that was fine. I had aimed correctly enough. Just as the monster opened its maw once more to spit out its acid, the gravity-held glob I fired back landed on its head.

  It screeched out as acid exploded all over its chitinous face. Earlier, when I had made its head slam down with Gravity, I had briefly noted how the acid spilling around its mouth had gone on to start dissolving its armourlike body once it was outside its mouth. The same thing was happening here. There was just the added benefit that its eyes had been vaporized by the acid too.

  I went back down. Now the monster was spraying its spit haphazardly even as it cried out in its sightless state. Time to end this.

  This time, when I focused on Manifestation again, I brought out both Gravity and Flare. The problem was that they weren’t attached. I didn’t have Infusion with Flare—which made me consider whether I ought to get that as an Augmentation too—so I couldn’t infuse the deep purple orb with heat energy.

  I also couldn’t have Gravity affect Flare either, because I still hadn’t learned the right Affix for it. Would have been great right about now, but the Weave was apparently not willing to be too kind.

  The monster’s rain of acidic spit was coming to a close as it prepared to attack me directly. Even if it had lost its eyesight, it could swipe its gigantic body around until it struck true.

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  Which was why I hurried to finish it with Manifestation. The orb of Gravity fired into the monster with another repulsive Field Manipulation and Siphon combination.

  Unsurprisingly, it left the gathered heat behind, but that was fine. As the Gravity Orb—I was going to stick with that name—shot in, I focused Manifestation entirely on Flare to create more and more heat energy everywhere. Volatile, explosive heat that was seconds away from bursting like its driving Aspect demanded it to.

  I didn’t let the energy erupt just yet. It took a bit of sweat-inducing focus on Concentration, but I managed to mould the ready-to-blow heat into a wide wall with Capacity.

  When the Gravity Orb struck, the monster’s chest area exploded at the very moment the orb struck. I gawked a little as the worm-ant screeched out in agony. That had to be the most destructive ability I was capable of yet.

  Of course, there was no time to stare or be impressed. Manifestation had created a wave of boiling heat around me, so much so that even I had begun to sweat. Perfect. There was so much energy swimming in the air, so much rippling waves of faintly orange warmth, that the air itself had started miraging faintly.

  I released it all. Manifested Flare was like mana. As if all the heat wanted to do was explode outwards, same as how mana wanted nothing more than to turn into tangible Aspects.

  A veritable avalanche of scouring, burning, vaporizing energy slammed into the wounded monster. Helpless and already debilitated, the worm-ant couldn’t resist or even dodge as the explosion that scoured both across and within its body burned it alive. Its screech reached the highest pitch I had heard yet, but it was also the shortest.

  Seconds later, the charred, smoking corpse of the monster slumped forward and crashed to the ground, with the hole still miraculously blocked up.

  As ever, liquid blackness slowly seeped out, but I couldn’t worry about that now.

  No new notifications had arrived, but that was fine. I had already received sizable rewards from killing the rider. It also made sense since I hadn’t spent a great deal of effort to take care of the worm-ant afterwards.

  I took a deep breath to steady myself, then took a few moments to find my mace. Bless Aurier. It had regenerated to its original shape perfectly.

  With that done, I used Siphon to lower my weight before shooting straight upwards with a jump. The last time I had leaped, I had decided against letting myself get distracted by how the rest of the battle was going all over Ring Four. I had no idea how long I had taken to deal with the underground ant incursion, but I knew I had no time to lose.

  This time, when I was airborne, I took in what was going on. I had a unique vantage point most people didn’t. It would be silly not to take full advantage of it.

  What I saw wasn’t encouraging in the slightest. Little pockets of fighting had broken out everywhere. The bombing from the huge bomber bug above us had obviously stopped. But now, the Blight Swarm had started the more expected avenues of attack—that was, charging in through the outer boundary of Zairgon to rush through Ring Four to reach the other Rings.

  In several areas, the monsters had been lured into the kill zones we had prepared ahead of time, where heaps of insect corpses were slowly piling up.

  But that didn’t mean Ring Four had suddenly become the battleground that would make or break the rest of Zairgon’s defence. We weren’t anywhere near numerous enough for that. So many of the insects had simply flown over the defences to charge in and attack the walls of Ring Three. Some had risen even higher than that to ascend towards Ring Two.

  Those last ones didn’t last long. The higher up Zairgon I looked, the more I saw the flare and flash of hundreds of Aspects going off. It was rather awestriking to see how almost the entire city was embroiled in the war.

  My attention narrowed to the areas of Ring Four I could see—the other sides of the volcano were out of sight. I had to determine where I was most needed.

  None of the flying bug squadrons had come in my direction yet, likely because they believed the ants had this area covered. Even if they did come to the realization that the ants were dead and headed this way, I couldn’t let myself be distracted by them.

  Far off to my right, I spotted the Anymphea struggling against a few bugs that moved a little too fast. It was strange to see them actually needing to put in significant effort, but there were a lot of dead monsters piled high all around them. No doubt the Blight Swarm’s stronger monsters had gone on to tackle them.

  It reminded me that I had been lucky in facing opponents I was capable of handling. If the same kind of monster that had faced off against Councillor Lassikhio had appeared before me, I’d have been toast.

  I left them and took quick looks elsewhere. At one location, some of the Scarthralls were leading a group of defenders against a horde of wormlike monsters.

  At another location, Hamsik was doing his best to fight off a gang of scythe-bladed mantises. They ranged in size from ones no bigger than chickens to a couple that could have toppled double-decker buses on their own.

  Then there was the spot where a group of defenders were retreating from where they had been overwhelmed at a kill zone, leaving a trail of human corpses behind them.

  My heart clenched tight in my chest when I spotted that the nearby residences had been torn apart, monstrous bugs still feasting on the people who hadn’t been able to retreat to Ring Three or more secure areas on Ring Four.

  I was struck by the fighting occurring everywhere. The blood, the sheer number of monsters seeming to pop in everywhere, the growing number of human bodies, the sheer massacre everywhere. People were fighting back to the best of their abilities. We weren’t overwhelmed yet. But at this rate, we would be—

  No. We had done so much to prepare. We were still fighting hard, all over Ring Four. We weren’t going to fall. I wasn’t going to fall.

  I took a deep breath, then focused on my Ignition Charges.

  This was the kind of situation I had reserved them for. I desperately wished we had some form of long-distance communication to take advantage of just then. Whatever. We’d make do.

  I focused on Gravity as Ignition Charge made my mana core whir faster and faster. Cracks spread out from the mana core, quickly solidifying into the threads I was familiar with from Threaded Reinforcement.

  But it wasn’t just the mana threads. I recognized the insidious slithering accompanying the expected mana.

  The Netherthreads, as Councillor Se-Vigilance had called them.

  They brought the familiar depressive baggage I had no intention of dealing with just then. Now I wished I had tried gaining those insights the Councillor had talked about to find a way to remove the malign influence of the Netherthreads. Where was the time, though.

  [ Ignition Charge

  Ignition Charge empowers Aspect of Gravity. Charges remaining: 3

  Gravity: Orbit ]

  Void-purple threads emerged from my body as I floated in mid-air. They sparked, turning into zapping lines of dark violet energy that shot towards the objects I had selected to orbit me.

  My selection hadn’t been very specific. Lines of sparking Gravity connected with the bodies of dead ants, with the corpse of the humanoid one, with the debris littering the area. They all rose, arcing high into the air to start revolving around me, a faint aura of purple surrounding every single one of them.

  Turned out I could control both the radius and the speed at which they orbited me. But, as with my new Gravity Orb thanks to Manifestation, there was a give-and-take here too.

  I hadn’t experimented as much yet, but it looked like the farther I pushed out the orbiting object, the slower its maximum speed of revolution became. At a certain distance, the object simply fell out of orbit to crash back onto the ground.

  This was no time to test things out. I simply drew everything in a little closer and made them revolve around me faster and faster, raising their speed and momentum. Turning them into blurs whirring so fast around my body that they felt almost like a cyclone, the wind whipping at my robes and hair.

  Turning them into cannon shots. Shots that I proceeded to launch across Ring Four.