“How big was that mana crystal to cause that kind of explosion?” Baba Yaga asked.
“The size of your fist, Yaga.” Salaark replied. “But the crystal was just the trigger. The real cause was the energy involved in the experiment. I used my full power to forcibly extract my life force from the Spirit Crystal, generating a vacuum.
“What was left wasn’t dimensional magic, but a crippled, unstable mix of elements that endlessly absorbed the world energy in an attempt to reconnect with my life force. I was dumb and prideful, so I refused to accept my failure.
“I poured more and more mana to stabilize the crystal and keep the life force away from it until it was too late. When I realized how much energy I had fed to the unstable elements, they had already reached the point of no return.
“You know the rest.”
“Back to the drawing board, then. I’m glad we had this conversation.” Friya and the other women swallowed hard.
For the first time in their lives, they welcomed failure with open arms.
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