The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

Chapter 284: The Origin of Mana.

"it's all in the past," Renia spoke up, putting her phone on the table before her and crossing her legs. "Honestly; it was quite the fun turn of events seeing the gods in a fit of rage and shock every day especially my sister who until that point had never been humbled, such a pity, I secretly wished for that time to last much longer."

"As do I," Ikaris smiled at the recent memories of Arkadia before that smile slowly faltered.

"No, I rejoiced at the end of the war, too many lives had already been lost, too many families had been torn apart, ours included; I know that it was brief, but I still trusted Eris, I still gave Han the benefit of the doubt even though we all know he was irredeemable," She paused and conjured a tiny shield in her grasp.

The shield had a hole broken in the shape of a hand through it and there were small bits of dry blood covering the arm straps.

Dina upon seeing the shield held her mouth and stood, approaching quickly and holding her hands under Ikaris's bringing the object closer to her face.

"This... this is the last shield Bruce used before he died," Dina looked up at Ikaris. "How is it still active so many years after his death?"

"Adonai retrieved it before it vanished and trapped Bruce's residual mana within it to keep it from disappearing, after our wedding, he gave it to me in secret, a lot of people like Bruce died, they had no right being on the battlefield; they simply had no choice because of circumstances," Ikaris replied and closed her eyes.

"Aye, of the six who became heroes, Bruce was the only one who didn't belong on the battlefield, he tried his best and died fighting our war, it is a tragedy and a heartache to recall his last moments," Arla added. Discover hidden tales at ???

"There was a war here, a terrible one by the looks of it," Cecelia thought, furrowing her brows as she saw Ikaris's expression go dark and her mood sober with everyone else's as she rested her hand on her belly and looked at Sol who gave her a small smile and kissed her forehead. "Something terrible happened to Her Highness."

"Right then," Alpha broke the depressing atmosphere with a well-needed interlude, gesturing to the kitchen. "Before everyone loses their appetite there is food to be enjoyed," She smiled at them.

"Man," Dina stood first and stretched. "I don't know if earth is the most endangered or the safest planet in the collective now, there are so many people here who could destroy it with a flick of their finger..." She wrapped her arms around Arla who was also in the middle of stretching.

"Aren't you also someone capable of doing that?" Arla gave her a gesture of emphasis. "I feel you often forget your own strength, Dina."

"She is indeed strong, and from what I understand, she will continue to grow exponentially stronger, someday even surpassing Mr Vestic if his prediction is accurate," Keele hummed as she walked, causing Cecelia at her side to glance at Dina, who was poking Arla's cheeks with a carefree grin and laughter.

"Is that even possible?" Cecelia raised her brow at Keele while Jenifer also chimed in to hear her answer since she had been absent and didn't know of Dina's evolution into divinity.

"She evolved from human to apex, from apex to demigod, and from a demigod into a true divine, all within the span of one and a half years," Keele spoke, to put it simply, by her time, Dina was completely powerless two years ago, and within the span of two years she went from being able to destroy a small cottage to being able to destroy half a galaxy, imagine what she will be able to do in another five years, or even ten?"

"Goodness, that level of growth is... Intimidating."

"Indeed it is, but Mr Vestic despite praising her growth is even worse; he went from a threat capable of destroying a galaxy to a multi-collective threat within the same timeframe," Keele sat watching Jenifer and Cecelia take their seats at either side while her mother was off to the side speaking to Renia.

"Granted; he was endowed with his Godslayer powers at the same time, such growth is inconceivable," she added.

"It still makes no sense." Cecelia looked at Keele seriously and then glanced at Ikaris, who was ignoring them in favour of watching Sol play with their little girl while Sara and Alpha continued setting everything in order.

"Vatui are incapable of bearing children, yet she did it, and Godslayers are born, not made, yet he exists, the two of them are bizarre beyond reason and belief, I can't imagine what the child will grow into," She furrowed her brows seeing Sol conjure small mana orbs and watching the baby poke and disperse them, laughing haughtily.

"Talia," Jenifer interjected. "Her name is Talia, and by Alpha's calculations, she already has enough power to challenge her mother, but Lady Ikaris sealed it upon her birth to prevent accidents, so her mana appears as a small pool rather than the gargantuan entity that it is."

"Mana?"

"Magic."

"Magic?"

"Mana is the name given to the power which drives our collective forward at such astonishing speeds," Arla answered from the other side of the table, alerting them that though they were trying to not disturb anyone, they were all far from discreet.

"The Grand Collective drives by what you call Law, but the law did not exist here until Keele brought it here with her fight against Dina," She gestured to Dina and smiled.

"You fought her?" Jenifer looked at Keele and she nodded with a proud grin.

"How else was I going to declare the woman a monster if I hadn't tested her power and seen her growth with my own two eyes?" Keele glanced across at Dina who scoffed at being called a monster.

"This ...mana; where did it come from?" Cecelia asked, thinking that it was the reason Sol was so broken in his every feat.

"I discovered it, rather, I am responsible for its creation," Ikaris spoke up, and Sol along with everyone else around the dining table froze and slowly turned to look at her; she had managed to draw every eye to her person.

"What?" Renia asked, staring at Ikaris with an unusually bright and horrified glare. "What does that mean?"

"As I recall; mana did not always exist here, I generated the first spark when I tried to fight Void before I shattered my soul,"

"She shattered her soul..." Cecelia mused and stared at her hands. "Is that a phrase for something?"

"No, I literally tore my soul apart and scattered it across the collective to escape my pursuers," Ikaris answered nonchalantly since this was by now common knowledge. "Renia, and eighty percent of all divinity within Sol's collective are my direct descendants, I am the first goddess,"

"...What the fuck?" Cecelia's mouth hung.

"I named it Magicul at first, but over time, many different cultures have renamed it Mana across multiple universes where it is abundant enough to reshape the very structure of their realities."

"How the fuck did she tear her soul apart, isn't she supposed to be dead then?" Cecelia continued on her train of thought.

"I could always feel it within myself, but I never had a reason to utilize its power until I was threatened, and after my consciousness was torn apart mana followed all the paths my death-defying stunt created."

"This is news, even to me," Sol stared at Ikaris at a loss for words; it suddenly made sense why she seemed to know everything about it above all else, she could manipulate mana in ways that defied reason and logic creating parodies of reality dwarfing anything he could do with it; even now with his current strength and experience as Godslayer he still sought her guidance when it came to mana-related matters, Ikaris was always limiting herself to tangible magic for the sake of simpler understanding.

"This makes a lot of sense, though," Sol turned his attention to everyone else.

"Ikaris, for as long as I've known her, has casually explained things pertaining to mana that took even Adonai and Dr'ul the most dire and enlightening situations to barely understand; her eyes perceive a world where nobody but her can see," He glanced at her while a bead of sweat rolled down his cheek. "Why would you keep that bit away from everyone?"

"Because," Ikaris sighed.

"With all the understanding I have, I still don't have that much; mana, magicul, whatever you want to call it; the driving force which I exposed the collective to has always been a force I couldn't properly control, sure, I can follow the pathways in my mind and before me to do things others can't, but if I can't explain the thing I'm doing then what's the point of letting them know, it'll just create unnecessary trouble," She sat Talia before herself and made a little ball of light.

"If you treat mana like matter, then whatever you can perceive becomes possible, but mana to me exists in the fifth dimension; I barely understand anything that happens there; it's all formless and... Confusing."

"Oh my," Keele stared at Ikaris shocked. "LAW was determined to be of the third dimension, it is like air, intangible but physically present, sometimes like water, other times like stone or steel; mana in comparison is a power we cannot interact with without the permission of a higher being; someone from this reality, I'm intrigued."

"That's plausible when you consider that only the gods have been able to manipulate mana and grant it to the worlds they preside over, it also explains why even a monster like Void and Darkness herself was unable to use it, only Sitri who had gained mana as a side-effect of existing within the system," Renia nodded.

"You continue to fascinate me, Milady."