Crack

Cracks () also known as "World Cracks" (世界を砕いた罅) is a term to refer to strange fissures found throughout the New World and Nazarick in the aftermath of what the inhabitants call the "Catastrophe" or the "Incident" (異変を) in Mass for the Dead.
== Background ==
A Crack is a phenomenon formed in the space of reality itself. They are found throughout the New World as a result of a phenomenon that occurred roughly half a year before the transportation of the Great Tomb of Nazarick to its current location. They are found throughout the New World, glowing eerily purple, emitting strange energy, and releasing monsters. Due to the new dangers caused by these anomalies, it sparked upheaval in the order of the world, as well as the downfall of several nations, like the Roble Holy Kingdom and Dragon Kingdom. For the sake of survival, some nations, such as the Re-Estize Kingdom, Baharuth Empire, and Slane Theocracy, have put aside their differences to sign the Tripartite Agreement and create the Tripartite Alliance to better understand and safeguard themselves in the new world. 
Prior to the Incident, a group had sensed the approaching disaster and gathered to confront it. Among their members was a very long-lived dragon who set out to recruit others such as Olasird'arc Haylilyal. However, none of them returned from their battle against the cause of the Cracks, and it was believed that they had perished.Mass for the Dead Chapter 14: Mountain Range Lord
== Mechanics ==
So far, the cause of these phenomena is unknown, as nothing in the written history of the surrounding nations mentions it. A few denizens of the New World have formed their own conjectures. Some hypothesize that the Cracks are a creation of a deity; those from the Slane Theocracy believe it is a sort of divine test.Memory of Chaos: Ian Als HeimMemory of Chaos: Evileye Others in Nazarick believe that there is a sort of intelligence behind them. 
But what is known by the inhabitants of the New World is that monsters that go near the fissure lose their minds. According to one theory, there seems to be some kind of poison leaking out from the crack, affecting organic matter and creating a new breed of mutated creatures known as Contaminated Beasts.Mass for the Dead Chapter 01: World of Chaos Infected creatures are not the only danger, as these Cracks give birth to unique creatures known as Chaos Beasts. These beings are wrought entirely of a strange substance known as Chaos Stones. The Cracks act as gateways to the New World from another dimension known as the Chaos Zone. Occasionally, the Chaos Zone spills out into the New World for brief periods, bringing legions of its own ilk, before retracting back into itself.
Additionally, it has been noted that the Cracks have disrupted the magical laws of the New World. In fact, transfer magic is difficult and may not work. Resurrection magic is also impossible, as was discovered by Nazarick.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Ultimate Battle Swimsuit Attempts have been made by Nazarick to glean what lies beyond the Crack, however, their summons are immediately lost when they cross the threshold. Even when a summon is tied with a rope, it is immediately broken. It is assumed that the Crack connects to a world where the conditions for living and nonliving materials are impossible.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Life in a Different World with the King of the Immortals 
Based on Nazarick's experiments, Chaos Beasts can be summoned by using Chaos Stones as catalysts. The Cracks also appear to be connected to other worlds, as they can also summon other beings, but so far only the Crack on the 10th Floor of Nazarick has displayed this summoning characteristic.Mass for the Dead Special Event: 2020 New Year – Advent of Shiramochi-ō Unlike the Cracks in the New World, Cracks found on other worlds are brief and possess none of the noxious contaminants, nor do they release Chaos Beasts. Furthermore, these Cracks instead draw things towards them, only closing until something has crossed into it. The beings that use these Cracks are able to safely cross over into the New World without any ill effects.
Furthermore, Nazarick, via Shiramochi-ō, have learned that the Cracks are connected to the mysterious place called the Sea of Possibilities, a dimension where information flows freely can be used to shape reality. Still, more worrisome entities that have emerged from the Crack are not the masters, but merely the minions of whatever caused the phenomena, but even those originating from beyond the spatial phenomena are not privy to who they are or what their motivations are.Mass for the Dead Special Event: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Ruler of Death
It was originally believed that Cracks could only form in one given area, but through a bizarre turn of events, a record of three Cracks have simultaneously manifested in the same location. According to the investigation of the Sorcerer Kingdom and the Slane Theocracy, such an instance happened in Kalinsha. It was hypothesized that formation of multiple Cracks in a region could be triggered when a massive number of people gathered in one area. In Kalinsha's case the military build-up in the city attracted the anomalies which resulted in the collapse of the entire city. The same happened to E-Rantel after Crown Prince Barbro Andrean Ield Ryle Vaiself brought his army to retake the fortress city by force bringing the same fate that befell city in the Holy Kingdom. Demiurge while hypothesizing that there was a relationship between density of people in a given area and the emergence of the Cracks, also believed that the phenomena could be the work of an intelligence manipulating events from behind the scenes.Mass for the Dead Chapter 15: Crackling World
After the attack, which would be known as the Calamity of Cracks or Invisible Disaster, the city of E-Rantel was left in ruins with many people either dead or missing. Among the missing were members of Nazarick's own: the protagonist, Solution Epsilon, Slimeko, CZ2128 Delta and Yuri Alpha. Despite their disappearances, Momonga was able to determine that they were still alive due to the NPC status console in the Throne Room. Some months passed when the protagonist finally returned and Nazarick was able to learn that the missing were taken to the "other side" of the Crack, the Chaos Zone. Form his testimony, it was revealed that the dimension contained a "chaos environment" that caused all creatures be they living or even non-living to be rendered immobile and unconcious once they cross through the threshold of a Crack and onto the "other side".
Using the research on Chaos Stones from Sophie Noia, Demiurge with the aid of Pandora's Actor and the Chief Blacksmith were able to create a new gear that would enable a user to safely traverse through the "chaos environment" without any ill effect. The equipment was given to the protagonist and the remaining members of the Pleiades to launch a rescue operation.Mass for the Dead Chapter 16: Name of God
Another world-wide disaster occurred regarding the anomalies which saw to the Cracks manifesting in inhabited cities and unleashing mists of miasma throughout, causing chaos and turning those who breathed it into feral monsters. It was determined that the mastermind of these sudden Crack appearances was the work of Enhela Read Gahi who was revealed to be a creation of the Devourer of the Nine Worlds. But the intent of using the Cracks as weapons to destroy humanity were wrong as the priest claimed that his function was to prepare humanity and help them evolve into stronger beings by contaminating them with miasma and later curing those the worthy. 
The plot of activating all the Cracks were all of Enhela's handiwork as he possessed total control of all the Cracks thanks to his hacking ability that was granted to his via "Divine Right" from his god. The intent for this was to locate the Great Tomb of Nazarick where the protagonist, also the creation of the Devourer of the Nine Worlds, swore his allegiance to by extending his "Divine Right" throughout all the Cracks in the world to locate the one within the Throne Room. It is later explained by the priest that the Crack that sits in the Throne Room is unique as it alone is outside of his god's direct control and is perhaps responsible for the denizen's immunity to miasma.Mass for the Dead Chapter 18: Salvation of Mankind
Upon witnessing the divine right's application, in which it was capable of overwriting the management system of a dungeon, Demiurge hypothesized that the phenomena's power stemmed directly from the other side of the Crack which also had the power to change an a dungeon's internal structure. 
From the protagonist's use of his own "Divine Right", it is learned that the Devourer of the Nine Worlds is also on the other side of the Crack.Mass for the Dead Chapter 19: The Battle to Conquer Nazarick
A year later since his defeat, the Sorcerer Kingdom received new information from a group known as the Mercenary Knights, being who like Enhela were born from the Sea of Possibilities, though had no association to the mad priest. According to them they were dimensional travelers who used the Cracks to visit other worlds and took on new roles.
In their current world, the Crack phenomena was present and was releasing Chaos Beasts, though was minimally compared to the status of the New World. However the world was slowly moving towards destruction, prompting the group to appeal to the Sorcerer Kingdom for aid.Mass for the Dead Part 2 Prologue: Pilgrim from Beyond 
== Trivia ==
* A Crack has permanently formed in the 10th Floor of Nazarick, right where the Throne of Kings once sat. However, over time the denizens of Nazarick eventually discovered a way to use leftover Chaos Stones to summon Chaos Beasts and control them.Mass for the Dead Prologue In some cases, they are able to summon other beings from other worlds.
* At least ten confirmed permanent Crack phenomena exist in the New World, three of which are in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Though the numbers could me more as Enhela Read Gahi caused multiple Cracks to be formed throughout all inhabited cities of the Tripartite Alliance in an effort to locate Nazarick.
** The ones located in Nazarick are in the Throne Room, the 6th Floor, and the 4th Floor.
** Outside of Nazarick the Cracks are located in the Tob Forest, the Azerlisia Mountains, two in the Abelion Hills, the Northern Cave, and Kalinsha.
** Oddly according to Bigosa, there were no reported instances of a Crack manifesting within the Dwarf Kingdom and thus Chaos Beasts were never seen.
**The Crack in the Azerlisia Mountains is unique in that it does not produce the standard Chaos Beast, but instead a weird variant known as Ice Chaos Beasts made in the image of the Frozen Giant. The creation of this monster was not natural as it produced via an accident by happenstance when the Crack was partially buried with miasma-contaminated soil which caused it to produced a earth/snow armored Chaos Beast mutant. Later the process was replicated by Demiurge at the same location for study and to use the unique Ice Chaos Beasts as worthy foes in training.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Valkyrie Memories 
**There is a Crack on a island near the Mysterious Island though it formed underground.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Islands of the Unknown and Chaos 
* According to a time-space organization, the Cracks are unique anomalies that distorts space-time and are highly unstable. Through experiments conducted by Nazarick it has been shown that the distortions could be temporarily lifted by attacking the Cracks to create a brief calm to allow a route to another world.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Magical Girl and the King of Magic 
** However the method is not always a guarantee, as the spatial distance between two worlds needs to be taken into account, the narrower the divide then the more likely a stable path can be created.Mass for the Dead Special Event: A Spider and an Undead, So What?
** Through experimentation Momonga has roughly devised a way to open a portal to another world. Using Chaos Stones to be placed in close proximity to a Crack, after the Chaos Beasts are culled and then using spatial magic when the stone acts as a catalyst.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Sasaki, the Mage and the Undead King 
*Upon Shiro's induction into Nazarick, Momonga seeks to learn more about the Crack as he feels uneased with how little he knows about Shiro and the Sea of Possibilities.Mass for the Dead Special Event: Dyed White and New Year's Ruler
==References==
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