CHAPTER 348: MANA INCIDENT

A deep horn echoed through the city, vibrating the ice beneath Victor’s feet.

Rhozan gestured toward the center. "The Rite of First Flame begins."

Two Kahr’uun warriors stepped into the circle. With a synchronized motion, they conjured swirling spheres of crimson and blue mana, which collided in a spiraling vortex before erupting into a harmless but dazzling pillar of light.

The crowd roared in approval.

Victor crossed his arms. "Beautiful. Didn’t expect magic could be used in celebrations like this."

"We fight with mana," Rhozan said. "But we also dance, bless, and live with it."

Victor watched the next event: a group of young Kahr’uun performing a coordinated chant while weaving floating geometric symbols of mana. The symbols merged, forming a giant spectral beast resembling a six-legged wolf. The children cheered as the illusion roamed the stage.

Then came the flame-oath blessings, where elders painted bright lines of mana over children’s arms and backs, infusing them temporarily with enhanced vitality.

Victor smiled faintly at the sight. He’d never experienced something like this growing up. Earth’s modern era didn’t have festivals like this... not after the great mana incident.

As the rites continued, Victor felt a small tug on his clothing.

He glanced down.

A tiny Kahr’uun girl that barely reaching his waist, stood there, holding out a polished stone shaped like a tear drop. It glowed faintly pink.

Her large eyes blinked nervously. "G-Great Iruhun... gift..."

Rhozan’s upper right hand covered his heart. "This is an honor, Iruhun. A child offering something to you is a sacred gesture among us."

Victor crouched to her level. "Are you sure? This looks important."

She nodded quickly with her white hair swinging.

Victor accepted it. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

But then he felt compelled to give something back.

"Hold on," he voiced while raising his hand.

A thin aura of frost qi wrapped around his palm. He shaped it carefully, controlling and molding the ice into something small, compact, but recognizable.

Within moments, he formed a miniature ice sculpture. A simple object from the old world: a tiny ice chopper motorcycle model.

He handed it to the girl.

The child gasped so hard she nearly dropped it. Other children rushed over. Then adults. Dozens of pairs of glowing eyes widened.

Rhozan leaned in. "What manner of weapon is... this?"

Victor snorted. "Not a weapon. It’s called a chopper. Something from the surface. Humans used it as a means of transportation. Two wheels. Very fast. Very loud."

The girl hugged the sculpture like a treasure. More children gathered, mesmerized. Adults whispered in awe.

Victor blinked, genuinely confused. "What’s with those expressions? I only carved a chopper from ice. It’s nothing special."

"Nothing—?" Rhozan looked as if Victor had just forged a celestial artifact. "To shape ice with magic so smoothly... and to create such a strange yet elegant design... it is incredible."

"It’s normal where I come from," Victor replied.

"Where you come from...?" Rhozan straightened. "Great Iruhun, tell us. What was the surface world like before the Great Incident? What was Earth?"

Many Kahr’uun, hearing those words, quickly gathered. Even festival activities paused as a large circle formed around Victor.

He realized there was no avoiding this conversation.

So he spoke.

"I wasn’t alive back then," Victor began. "The great mana incident happened forty years ago and earth used to be different. But I’ve seen footages—videos—recordings from before mana changed everything."

The Kahr’uun leaned closer.

"Earth... was bright," he continued. "We had cities made of glass and steel. Still do but it populated the earth a lot more back then. People traveled using vehicles—machines that moved on wheels or flew in the sky. No mana. Just engines, technology, and electricity."

"Electricity?" a Kahr’uun asked.

"Energy harnessed from storms," Victor explained. "Controlled lightning, used to power lights, machines, entire cities."

Murmurs of astonishment rippled through the crowd.

"We had and still have communication devices," he went on. "Small rectangles you could hold in your hand and speak through to someone thousands of kilometers away."

"That is true magic," someone whispered.

Victor chuckled. "It wasn’t magic. Just science."

He would have shown them his phone but the battery was long dead so there was no way to turn it on.

He spoke more, describing oceans, forests, the blue sky, aircrafts, skyscrapers, ancient Earth cultures, music, vehicles, old celebrations, and everything he remembered from his childhood memories and documentaries.

The Kahr’uun listened as if hearing mythology.

"Some of those things still exist," Victor added. "But only inside domed cities. Protected places. Outside is too dangerous now."

Silence fell afterward as the Kahr’uun in the surroundings bore looks of reverence.

Rhozan finally spoke. "Your world... was astonishing, Great Iruhun. Different from ours, yet beautiful."

Victor shrugged lightly. "It had flaws too. But yeah... it was something."

The festival resumed after that, but everywhere Victor went, the Kahr’uun bowed even deeper. Children followed him around like he was the center of the festival. Some tried mimicking the idea of the "chopper" by shaping mana in strange wheel-like loops.

Victor just laughed helplessly.

Rhozan walked beside him with pride evident on each face of the giant’s four eyes. "Our people already honored you. But now? They adore you."

Victor rubbed the back of his head. "Great."

Still... it warmed him. Just a little.

For once, he wasn’t fighting, bleeding, or running for his life.

He was simply... living.

And the first day of the Kahr’uun Tradition Fiest passed in laughter, glowing lights, drifting mana, and stories of two worlds.

...

...

Victor woke up the next morning with the strange yet oddly soothing sensation of warmth radiating from the crystalline walls.

He stretched as he stepped out of the crystal palace-like guest chamber they had given him. Several Kahr’uun attendants standing outside immediately bowed so low their foreheads nearly touched the icy floor.

"Great Iruhun, may the morning bless your body..." they chorused reverently.

Victor sighed.

"For the last time," he raised both hands with pleading desperation, "just stop bowing. Talk normally. I’m literally just a guy who woke up late."

They exchanged looks, visibly confused as if he had asked them to perform advanced calculus with their toes.

One finally straightened, but still stiffly.

"As... as you will, great—"

"No. Don’t call me great anything."

"Y-Yes, great I– I mean... Victor..."

"Perfect. Progress! Small, but progress."

He left before they "progressed" backward.

---

Rhozan met him near the central courtyard, where dozens of young Kahr’uun were gathered for daily training.

Their use of mana down here was very unique and fluid. It seemed as though it was much more bountifully down here.

Upon seeing Victor, the youths dropped into coordinated bows.

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Oh for f— Okay, everybody stand up. And breathe. And talk to me like normal people. Please."

One brave young Kahr’uun who seemed to be around seventeen with a tall lean build and ice-blue eyes, raised his hand timidly.

"Can we... greet you with a fist-to-chest salute instead?" he asked.

Victor considered it. "That... actually sounds cool. Sure."

Immediately the group brightened and saluted in tight unison.

Rhozan chuckled quietly. "You’re good with them."

"Yeah," Victor muttered, "because I’m preventing them from giving themselves neck problems."

The youths pulled him into their morning activities which involved ice disc gliding, crystal resonance games, and even mana-tag, which involved tagging floating glowing spheres that moved unpredictably when touched.

Victor found himself laughing more than he expected.

A girl of around fifteen approached nervously, holding a tiny glowing sphere.

"Do you want to try the Crystal Echo game?" she asked.

Victor nodded. "Sure. But only if you stop calling me ’lord.’"

She giggled. "Okay... Victor."

The game was fascinating: the sphere echoed mana pulses, and players had to mimic the pattern to keep it steady. Victor, with no mana failed miserably.

The sphere exploded in his face with a harmless poof of glittering powder.

The girl burst into laughter, and soon Victor joined her.

’This place is fun,’ he realized. ’Weird, but fun.’

---

Around midday, the city grew louder as more Kahr’uun youth gathered for communal crafts. They carved ice sculptures, wove mana-infused fabrics, and played with condensed frostfire threads.

Victor assisted where he could, mostly being a walking disaster with their delicate materials.

At one point, he sat with the little girl from yesterday who gifted him the small woven crystal charm.

She had the ice chopper tied around her neck now, proudly showing him she treasured the moment. Fortunately, they technically lived in ice so there was no way Victor’s gift would ever melt.

"I made another one!" she beamed while passing him another gift. "This one is in the shape of... uh... whatever you are!"

Victor raised an eyebrow. "Wow, thanks. I look like a spiky potato."

She nodded very seriously. "A very shiny spiky potato."

Their laughter was cut short by a sharp crackling sound.

Mana fluctuated wildly from across the workshop.

One of the young Kahr’uun boys faltered while handling an unstable mana crystal.

The crystal throbbed, flickered and then—

BOOOOM!

A burst of frost-blue explosion swept through the hall.