48th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

Finally alone in his room, Newt stood from his bed and sensed something off. He stopped and examined himself, but failed to find the source of his discomfort. Newt took a careful step, but his leg jerked too fast, too far. He panicked and froze, one leg up, just about to touch the earthen floor.

What the?

He looked at the pitcher of water on his nightstand and carefully lifted it. Three pints of water amounted to barely any weight to him ever since he had entered the second realm, but they seemed lighter than he remembered. Much lighter.

He looked at the table but decided not to lift it.

I might break something.

Instead, Newt hopped in place. He exerted his muscles to just barely lift himself off the ground, but jumped over two feet, nearly hitting the ceiling.

All right, my body is stronger. Much stronger.

He moved a bit, striking air with his fists and chopping with his palm before reaching a conclusion.

It's like I've broken through into the realm, but my mind and senses didn't keep up. Is that because I was unconscious while the change happened, or is there another reason? What's my realm?

Newt closed his eyes, and wandered his realm without disturbing Magmin, but found it unchanged.

That's strange; my body got stronger without my realm advancing?

After confirming that fact, Newt did simple, safe exercises. By the time he left the room, he was mostly used to his body, free of jerks and displays of dichotomy between his senses and muscles. He went to the northern training area and found it identical to how he remembered it.

Several students and most champions shot him curious glances when they thought he couldn't see them, but nobody said a word as he entered an empty training ring. The outside sounds disappeared, and he spent his time jumping, doing flips and handstands, slowly pushing the limits of his body to get familiar with it.

The session lasted an hour, and by the time he finished, Newt was confident he would not cause any incidents with his outbursts. And since he did not want to manipulate mana without his master, he headed for the Chamber of Tomes.

"Greetings, Lady Mageknight," he whispered and bowed to the old librarian, who nodded in acknowledgement but remained silent.

Newt went to search for the information on the topic which interested him the most, the Blood Cult, but he quickly found there was no mention of demonic cults or their techniques on the shelves of the index room. He bit his lip, then went to see the librarian again.

"Lady Mageknight, pardon my intrusion," he bowed respectfully. "I wish to see any information on the Blood Cult we might have."

The air in the room turned solid, and the welcoming, warm old lady turned into the edge of a razor-sharp sword.

"Why do you require such information?"

Newt's shoulders were stiff, and he felt the need to shrink his neck as he gulped. "My master mentioned them, and I want to know what she was talking about."

The tense atmosphere thawed.

"I guess I'll need to have a chat with Leucaena. As for you, young man, there's no reason to worry about the Blood Cult at your realm. They are bad people, doing bad things, and once you reach the fifth realm, you will learn more. Until then, ignorance is bliss."

Wolf nodded. Lady Thunderwing had said nothing new. If members of the Blood Cult were demonic cultists, siphoning blood from people to advance, they were definitely bad people. The only new bit of information she revealed seemed irrelevant, yet Newt mulled it over.

Why the fifth realm?

He bowed and thanked her. Just as he was about to turn around and leave to find another book, Newt decided to ask the question he was itching to ask.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Forgive my directness, but do you know what happened to me, Lady Mageknight?"

Lady Thunderwing stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head.

"I saw what happened. I witnessed it. I can even tell you what happened, but I don't know why it happened. As far as I know, this was a unique incident. Don't waste your time searching for other instances; we have no recordings of anything similar. I checked."

Newt bit his lip. "And about the changes to my body?"

The odds were she didn't know, but it did not hurt to ask. Much to his surprise, the old librarian answered without a hint of surprise. "Search for 'Heaven's wrath,' and Mana body reforging."

Newt bowed and followed her instructions.

Three index books later, he sat in the reading room, focused on the first book he had checked out.

Heaven's wrath was a phenomenon striking man and manabeast alike upon reaching the sixth realm and each realm beyond. Starting from that realm, the amount of mana drawn by a single individual grew too large, and the world wished to obliterate the awakened to preserve and regain its energy.

That was one theory. Another stated that the heavens feared the rise of an ultimate being, who would subject them to his or her will, sending their wrath to smite the awakened while they were at their most vulnerable, at the embryonic stages of their new realm. Each punishment one suffered was stronger and more fearsome than the last, and anyone who intervened would suffer a punishment of their own, only hurting the person undergoing their trial.

Some authors, on the other hand, thought it a trial, a test of the heavens for the right to advance to the next realm. The last option sounded absurd to Newt, but the whole topic helped him understand some things better.

How it was possible for wealthy clans to decline. Being rich was a requirement for realm expansion, but it was far from being the only requirement. Several individuals falling to heaven's wrath were all it took to sever a clan's inheritance and traditions spanning tens of thousands of years.

As always, danger came hand in hand with opportunity. Heavens meted out the punishment using the awakened's element, and surviving it reinforced the body and its affinity to the element in question. Newt also finally discovered why there were only four elements. The tribulation came in four different elements, mixing them to smite the awakened with their own element, thus giving birth to the most orthodox division of elements.

Huh? I bet Dandelion doesn't know this, or at least he didn't know it when we discussed mana and realm-shaping for the first time.

Newt kept reading and found a section mentioning a hypothesis that the enhancement of the physique during the heavenly punishment happened naturally as mana over-saturated the body. Another interesting bit of trivia was that manabeasts suffered from stronger tribulations than humans of equal realm.

Then things turned grim. Awakened needed absolute safety when undergoing their heaven's punishment, since it was their most vulnerable time, and hostile organizations often employed assassins to target their rivals during these periods of weakness.

Newt flipped the pages in fascination, finding references to accounts of the Explorer's Gate's champions undergoing their own heavenly punishments.

Newt read booklet after booklet in which long-dead champions first introduced themselves, their element, and their techniques before explaining the trial the world put them under. No two accounts were alike, and the intensity of heaven's punishment varied within the same realm, but some elements were common.

The world or the heavens, authors disagreed on who was meting out punishment, always used their element or an approximation of it. The heaven's wrath involved the spells and techniques the mageknight themselves used, polished and often improved, serving as the base for the mageknight to advance the technique and make it truly their own.

And then, in the fifth account Newt read, he found what he was looking for.

'The sensation truly is odd. Good, but odd. Like waking up in someone else's body, or wearing clothes that don't fit. It took me the better part of an hour to get used to the changes.' Lord Hail Shiningstar mentioned towards the end of her account.

Newt closed the book and gazed at a distant spot ahead.

So, I have experienced some sort of heaven's wrath. The heavens testing, punishing, or blessing me, depending on who you ask.

Newt returned the books and went to find Obsidian, still deep in thought, considering all the implications of the unique event.

This is definitely related to Magmin, but is it because I used his cores, or techniques, or because I carry around a piece of him inside my realm? Could it be something else? Dandelion said he emulated my technique to shape his own realm. Did the sun smite him as well?

Newt wanted to write a letter to his friend, but he had no idea where Dandelion was. The chances that he was still in Thunderbluff were slim, he had mentioned he would move deeper into the empire, to Glory City, searching for better libraries, better resources, and better opportunities.

He is extremely competent, but I don't think he can survive what happened to me if he needs the protection of a tenth realm master. I hope he's alive, and that this has nothing to do with the techniques I shared with him, but what else could it be?

Newt quickly arrived at another possible reason. His core was anomalous. Humans consumed manabeast cores when forming their own, but Magmin's still existed as a separate realm.

Maybe heavens want to destroy me because I'm faulty, or maybe some limit that should exist doesn't exist on my core? Maybe they can't tolerate the duplication that happened?

Newt did not know, and he had a feeling he would take decades or even centuries to find the answer.

I hope this was a onetime thing.

He reached his dorm and found light under Obsidian's door. Whatever the mystery was, it would have to wait. He had a duel he had been postponing for a while now.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.