CHAPTER 52: CREATING A MANA HEART

He had never been in space throughout his past life, but even he had to admit that what the astronauts saw was beautiful.

The endless stretch of stars, the blue marble of Earth beneath, and the velvet darkness that stretched in every direction — it was breathtaking.

Well, if you could ignore the bits of space junk floating around. Metallic debris glimmered faintly, catching light from the sun, tiny reminders of humanity’s carelessness scattered across the heavens.

Lucius hovered higher, drifting farther from the Earth’s zone. The atmosphere’s glow dimmed, giving way to the raw void.

He tried to speak, his lips moving, but no words came. His voice was devoured instantly by silence.

Sound simply could not travel in space.

At least he could breathe. He wasn’t sure if it counted as breathing, not in the traditional sense.

His lungs didn’t rise and fall the same way, and each inhale felt strange but at least he wasn’t suffocating, and that was enough.

Survival was what mattered.

’I need to create a mana heart,’ he thought, steadying himself in the emptiness.

He remembered the requirement clearly: you needed to be in a place with an abundance of your element, then draw that energy into your body, condensing it until it fused into a second core just beneath the heart.

For him, space itself was the answer.

’System, how long does it take Divine-ranked users to form a mana heart?’

The familiar prompt flickered into view before his eyes:

[For a user with a Divine-rank affinity, the process of forming a Mana Heart will take between 5 to 30 minutes.]

Lucius let out a slow, satisfied breath.

’So it’s not days, then.’ That alone was a massive relief.

Creating a mana heart was the first step toward real strength. Regular mana hearts were small, barely half the size of a clenched fist, forming just below the main heart.

If you had dual affinities, you needed two, balancing them like twin suns in your body. They expanded your storage of mana, stabilized your flow, and sharpened your connection to the world’s elements.

But strengthening those mana hearts — that was the true wall most awakeners ran into. Each layer of growth was a mountain to climb, requiring materials, training, or insights that could take years to gather.

This was why most people couldn’t just rise recklessly in strength. The laws of mana were absolute.

Closing his eyes, he assumed a meditative stance, his body folding into stillness as the void around him stretched forever.

He gathered the space energy that existed in abundance, and it came rushing toward him.

It wasn’t gentle.

It was like being hit with a tidal wave, crashing over his body, tearing through every fiber of his being.

It was invisible to any observer, but to him, it was raw and overwhelming. The pressure squeezed every corner of his spirit.

Lucius spread his arms wide, teeth gritting, and let it bathe him.

[Your Mana Heart is forming...]

The notification rang like a bell in his head.

He felt the energy funneling inward, weaving itself into something tangible beneath his chest.

His breath grew heavier, even though he didn’t technically need to breathe here.

More mana rushed into his body, and when his eyes opened, they glowed a brilliant shade of purple.

The world changed before him.

Space wasn’t just black emptiness anymore.

He could see the particles.

So many tiny fragments of space energy drifted around him, invisible to ordinary sight but radiant to his divine senses. They clustered, clashed, and danced, threads in a vast cosmic tapestry.

[Your Understanding of Space has increased...]

[Your Understanding of Space has increased...]

[Your Understanding of Space has increased...]

He gasped softly, marveling at the sight. "So this is what space really is..."

The flood didn’t stop. It poured through him without restraint, filling his limbs, his veins, his core.

His body tingled, his mind buzzed, and slowly — he began to feel... drunk.

Yes, that was the closest comparison.

His lips curled into a grin. It was like he had downed bottle after bottle of strong liquor, floating in a haze where everything shimmered with impossible beauty.

Then, in an instant, the world shattered.

It wasn’t painful. It was transcendent. One reality broke apart, and another took its place, sharper, clearer. His body trembled, and the grin on his face widened.

[You have formed a Mana Heart.]

[Congratulations. You have become a D-Rank Awakener.]

[Rewards are being distributed...]

The prompts flashed, but Lucius barely registered them.

He simply floated there, basking in the silence of space, feeling the thrum of a second heart pulsing within his body.

It was beautiful.

Time lost all meaning as he drifted there. The Earth turned slowly beneath him, its clouds swirling, its oceans shimmering with reflected sunlight.

He could almost convince himself to stay here forever.

But then his eyes snapped downward, catching the sight of his home planet more clearly. His expression tightened.

"As beautiful as this is..." he muttered. "...I need dinner."

Sound still couldn’t be heard but... it was wild.

He laughed at the absurdity of it, but it was true. He wasn’t about to skip a meal, not after today.

Turning toward Earth, he gathered space around him, compressing it in waves that rippled outward like rings on water.

Then he shot forward, descending like a streak of light. The void quaked as he tore through it.

The closer he got, the more heat he felt licking his skin.

A sharp smell filled his nose, and with a start, he realized —

’Fucking hell, my clothes!’

His robes were burning away, edges turning black and crumbling into dust. He swore under his breath, slowing his descent before he immolated entirely.

The rippling waves of space around him flared, shielding him as he pierced back through the atmosphere.

He drifted lower, calmer this time, scanning the world below. Cities glittered with countless lights.

The sun had already dipped beyond the horizon, replaced by a velvet night.

"Was I up there for hours?" he whispered.

The thought unsettled him. Up in the void, time had stretched strangely, bending and breaking until minutes blurred into eternities.

He had sworn he’d only been gone for a short while.

The intoxicating high began to fade, leaving him with clear thoughts once more. The city below was familiar though muted compared to the silence of the void.

Lucius descended slowly toward the mansion, the space particles thinning as much as possible.

He landed lightly, boots touching down on stone. The front door loomed before him, warm light spilling out from within.

He reached for the handle and pushed. The door swung open —

And he nearly collided with someone.

Vanessa.

She bumped into him, though he didn’t feel a thing. Instead, she was the one thrown back, stumbling a step as if she’d walked into a wall.

Her eyes went wide.

"What the hell happened to you...?" she asked, her voice a mix of shock and disbelief.