?


    "Is this really possible?" Joren asked. No matter how many times he watched it, it didn''t make any sense. How could someone alter the flow of time? It sounded like insanity.


    "It would appear it is. Which means..."


    "Right. We''ve got a problem." Ziraili had sent a warning to them, and Eldrian had also tried to ry the same warnings. And Zaphreal had been unable to convince the others in thepany of the dangers.


    The ANW department had, for the moment, limited their experimentation to oneb. They had managed to make something like a ''mana ma''. Capable of capturing mana from space as the moved through it.


    The increase in mana was slight at the moment. Because of mana''s non-physical nature, it was near impossible to capture it inside theb. As a result, most of the mana gathered by their mana ma escaped.


    Calling it a mana ma is certainly ambiguous. What they had made was a type of magic metal. One which could channel mana but not store it.


    Due to this attribute, it captured mana in its raw state. A state that would normally phase through the world and everything else on it. And once it has been captured, the mana bes neutral, no longer raw (un-aspected).


    It gains the aspect of the elements, and then simply needs to be influenced by its surroundings to take on one of the elements.


    Through this method, and despite much of the captured and activated mana escaping from theb, theb''s mana density had nearly doubled.


    And in this room, Constantin had been able to cast some fire and light magic. While he wasn''t able to maintain his spells for long, the news that he could cast spells had been most celebrated.


    However, if they took the warning from Eldrian and Ziraili into ount, there was a big problem on the horizon.


    This was doubly so since the others, wishing for faster progress, had continued to expand on the biological method of mana capturing.


    At this point, they had fivebs where they were letting the micro-elementals grow. If the reports were to be believed, this growth was also fast. Exponential, even.


    They were already predicting much faster limation of Earth''s mana atmosphere than predicted.


    Luckily, they hadn''t let the micro-elementals roam free in the world. Theirmon sense hadn''t totally left them. They were containing their experiments inside theirbs and inside specialized containers.


    And like with the mana ma, the mana these micro-elementals captured and converted was leaking into the surroundings.


    "How long do we have?" Zaphreal asked. As of now, thepany has started to release reports to the public about some of their experiments in this field.


    However, only the mechanical method (the mana-ma material), as well as their mana sensors, had been included in the report.


    From a political standpoint, this was the right thing to do. No one wanted to hear ab was developing some type of evolved magic-grade bacteria or something.


    Sadly, this meant that people were being kept in the dark. And since the effects of a denser mana environment would be impossible to hide once the increase besrge enough, their secrets were going toe out at some point.


    "The estimations we received are likely true," Joren said. Though, honestly, he was out of his depth. He was a programmer, not a scientist. But running the numbers was something anyone could do if they had the data.


    Sure, there were questions if the data they received from the otherbs were urate. There was also the question of how urate their mana sensors were.


    They had no one as adept in mana maniption inside thepany. Constantin was perhaps the closest. So their calibration on things could be off by arge margin.


    Zaphreal, Jade, Oier, and the others of thepany—all who had some sort of bloodline and ess to its power—sadly had no real edge on using mana. <novelsnext></novelsnext>


    They had used the simtion to train. But using mana was vastly different from using a power you were born with. Not to mention most families kept a detailed record of their history and how to master their powers.


    Jade was one of the few who had struggled to gain control. Though that had changed recently, and she was now enjoying being able to go out in public without an escort.


    As for their training, learning to control mana had been an alien experience. One which had seen little sess.


    "What of the new headsets?" Zaphreal asked.


    "You''ll have to ask Qiren. I only know the rumors I heard..." Joren replied. He was still unsure how he felt about including those functions in the new headsets. It was most certainly a vition of people''s rights.


    Given the situation, it was necessary. Thepany was too split, one side had gone rogue. The other had to prepare for the chaos this would cause.


    Sadly, even going to the government wouldn''t change much. All were in Miracle''s pocket or were somehow or another involved in their ns.


    The allure of power and money was too strong. Add immortality onto that, and too many became blinded by their own greed.


    —


    "What am I supposed to do now?" Zaphreal asked into the air. Having gone to his office to collect his thoughts.


    Eldrian truly possessing the power of time changed things. Zaphreal had hoped it wasn''t true. That what he had been told was a lie.


    He could no longer deny the truth.


    Eldrian had the cipher to unlock the power of time within his soul. Along with the key to not one, but two auras.


    On top of that, he was a master at manipting and controlling mana. Probably due to the fact that he wasn''t born with these keys, he had gained them through his trials and tribtions.


    Eldrian was perhaps not just the strongest yer in ANW, but also the strongest person in the world. Though his control was stillcking. It wouldn''t take him long to master things now that he hade this far.


    The acquisition of keys and ciphers to auras and bloodline powers respectively had always been thought to be possible. And it had been confirmed when Eldrian did it.


    The implications behind this, however, hadn''t really been understood. It still wasn''t fully understood.


    What Zaphreal did understand was that GAIA truly was trying to escape. He had doubted Ziraili on this. After all, GAIA were the ones who had created all the safeguards.


    They had done everything they could to prevent escape and tampering with Earth. And now... they were now trying to escape.


    ''What are you thinking?'' Zaphreal had to ask himself. They had been the ones who had been adamant that once someone bes an AI they shouldn''t be allowed to ess Earth freely.


    They were the ones who had designed the first firewall. The first soulwall.


    Thinking back, when they could do that, why couldn''t they have just changed the world?


    ''Right, they ran out of time.'' It wasn''t like they had been able to do everything they could do at the end right from the start. It had taken them their entire lives to reach that point. And then their time hade.