With a single push, the giant arm had propped the Mana Fetus' gigantic body up by half.
"As expected, how very humiliating!" Killer J swallowed his spit as he saw the Mana Fetus' naked upper half and commented.
The Mana Fetus was originally a matured elf. Most elves grew up to be around 5-6 meters tall, sometimes there were even those who reached 7 meters, so evidently, the Mana Fetus used to be a well-matured elf.
But now, the only thing that remained of the Mana Fetus' chest was a large hole, where one could look through from the front to see the back, as well as visibly witnessing the flowing mana within the elven body. For any lifeform, having their body forcibly modified to this degree was a great humiliation.
A cloaked man sitting three seats away from 'Negary' suddenly pressed his hand against his own chest. A few pieces of written text flowed from the palm of his hand onto his entire body, preventing the mana within from going berserk.
A mana whirlpool had just manifested within the banquet hall, with the eye of the storm being the chest area of the Mana Fetus.
Looking at Mana Fetus, 'Negary's' expression also became stiff briefly. If he observed it carefully, he could even see that there were traces of cracks on the skin.
〖 This is… going into labor? 〗
'Negary's' expression became a bit strange, but quickly returned to normal. This was merely a self-birthing ritual, for entities who had reached a certain level, after fully understanding the principles of giving life, they could even produce offspring by themselves.
Literally self-cest.
The Mana Fetus was originally a dependent God who followed the Scion of Life, one of the three Lord Gods of the elves. From the Scion of Life's name, one could generally infer her Pathway; in the elven society of the past, the Scion of Life's job was to incubate new elves and ensure that the elven bloodline would be healthily passed down.
However, the Scion of Life was already devoured by the two Righteous Gods with relations to the concept of 'Life', Eulogy to the Ocean Depths and Life Bearer, not even given an opportunity to resurrect herself.
As a dependent God to the Scion of Life, the elf who later became the Mana Fetus hadn't reached the level of manifesting her own Pathway but had still reached the third stage of release, where the Seed of Truth within her [Origin] had begun to bloom. The Mana Fetus' ability was to absorb nutrients and transfer them to the next generation.
If one could not resist the mana tide, they would simply become nutrients; but if one could prevent oneself from turning into nutrients, come into contact with the Mana Fetus, enter her body, then be successfully birthed, they would be the recipient of the nutrients contained within the Mana Fetus.
This was essentially a chance to literally be reborn. While one would not necessarily obtain a second life, their body would certainly be greatly improved from its essence, after all, the essence of elves as a lifeform far surpassed that of humans.
The bodies of all living beings had their limits, and overcoming a limit was never an easy task. However, the limits of an elven body were much higher compared to humans.
After being rebirthed by the Mana Fetus, the essence of one's body would be altered, while they wouldn't actually become an elf, their essence would be no different to elves. Their perception of both mana and the world would change, even a mundane individual would become an extraordinary genius among humans thanks to this change in perception, a true qualitative change.
This was the true target of competition during the night of the Mana Banquet.
As they observed the disgusting belly of the Mana Fetus slowly coming into view, the gazes of several people were already practically burning.
For those who had reached this level, having a good understanding of themselves was the most basic requirement, and quite a few people here know that they had already reached their limits. Having heavily modified themselves through various magic rituals, unless they resorted to coming into contact with Evil Gods and risk being fully assimilated, the Mana Fetus was their best opportunity for another qualitative change.
'Negary' had no intentions of going inside the Mana Fetus to undergo rebirth, as he was already doing something similar in nature. The appearance of the Mana Fetus had caused a mana whirlpool, which further concentrated the already mana-thick atmosphere, coupled with the golden sphere's [Lord of Evolution] ability as well, the first Divine Embryo's incubation period had been reduced considerably.
In fact, 'Negary' was already experiencing symptoms like nausea, slight aching pain in his reproductive organs, as well as abnormality within his life signs.
As 'Negary' raised his hand, he could clearly see cracks appearing on his hand. His current body was already undergoing the process of turning into his 'past body'; when this process finished, his past body would completely crumble and allow him to enter his second life.
〖 This is quite inopportune 〗
After 'Negary' thought this, the battle had broken out.
The first to act was the cloaked man who sat three seats away from 'Negary'. He was the first to have to react when the mana whirlpool manifested, which proved that he was also weaker than everyone here, even if only by a little bit. Of course, strength varied greatly when it came to actual combat, which also depended on various other personal and environmental factors, so he chose to act first and gain the initiative.
A large amount of written text had already manifested at the feet of the cloaked man at some point, which formed a circle with the cloaked man at the center.
In the very next moment, all the text abruptly glowed. The mana that had become stirred by the Mana Fetus had been absorbed into the text, which instantly formed a magical ritual. Because of his proximity to the cloaked man, 'Negary' was also enveloped within the ritual.
〖 A formation master? 〗information regarding this cloaked man's identity flashed through 'Negary's' mind.
Mages were people who relied greatly on preparations during combat. Things like spellcasting catalysts, magical rituals, mana environment, etc.… were all pivotal in determining whether or not a mage was powerful.
However, there was a kind of mage who didn't require quite as many preparations before combat, which were formation masters. Only people with an extremely strong natural spirit sense as well as an acute sense of perception of their surroundings would be able to become a formation master.
A qualified formation master must be able to use their own mana to manifest formation runes that only they could understand, thus creating magical rituals in very little time.
Due to the prerequisites as well as this world's environment, formation masters had always been rare and most likely considered to be weak. However, under the specific circumstances within a mana tide, a formation master would be able to display their true strength.
"The essence of a formation master is the ability to fully grasp and control one's environment, and within this mana-thick environment, my strength has been increased two-fold" a mouth could be seen moving beneath the formation master's cloak: "Formation – Thick Earth!"
The pressure within the entire ritual became twice as strong, causing 'Negary's' figure to somewhat sway. It truly must be said, this environment wasn't too friendly towards someone who was about to give birth.
"Formation – Distant Heaven!"
The formation master didn't stop there, as more text continued to flow from his body. As these texts overlapped with the previous formation, everything within became blurry, even the formation master's figure instantly appeared to have grown distant and unreachable like the sky above.
〖 Pseudo space expansion through overlapping mana? 〗
'Negary' quickly saw through the essence of this so-called Formation – Distant Heaven, but some abilities couldn't really be resolved by just understanding them.
Looking outside the formation, he could see that the people outside were also fighting one another, some of the mana fluctuations were strong enough that 'Negary' could sense them as well.
At this point, the formation master continued:
"Three-stage Forbidden Formation – Vitality Siphon!" the formation master's third formation began to spread.
The black text slithered like snakes and quickly became overlapped with the previous two formations. A different kind of power began to act upon 'Negary's' body as if it was trying to absorb his vitality.
"Humans are also a part of the environment, which means people are also a part of what a formation can take advantage of" the formation master declared.
In a world like the Moon Tree world where the amount of mana in the atmosphere was essentially zero, formation masters have had no choice but to be creative and took advantage of other things to create their formations.
By using the people inside as a source of energy for the formation, he siphoned their vitality to maintain the formation, the Distant Heaven formation protected himself while also trapping his enemies within, while the Thick Earth formation would restrain the enemy's movement. The three Earth-Heaven-Man forbidden formations had overlapped to overcome each other's shortcomings and supported one another.
"As soon as you fell inside my formation, you had already lost the initiative!" the formation master's eyes were cold: "I've already realized my limit, without a greater spirit sense and perception, my formation expertise cannot possibly improve. I will mercilessly remove all obstacles in my path, and you will have no one but your own luck to blame for falling into my homefield"
In the barrier, 'Negary's' expression was growing increasingly stranger.
