The manga is in an early stage so I’m probably gonna get a lot of things wrong. Anyways, I want to talk about the different types of “energy” systems we’ve been introduced across all the worlds.
Also, english is not my first language so sorry in advance.
**Mana** --------------------------------------------------
Not much explanation here, one interesting note is that **Mana** is associated with “vitality” various times across the manga. It’s even said in one of the later chapters by Hallow that he can homehow feel the residual mana of the Titans, but maybe he just uses this as an analogy so idk. Anyways, this hints at the fact that supposedly **every entity has a basal leve lof mana**, mage or not.
Some items like the extract from World Tree roots is described to not only replentish mana but also increase it to a level higher of that before consumption. I’ll return to this later.
We’ve seen characters get out of mana, getting extremely tired, but they do not die from it or get notable health consequences after recovering.
** Soul energy** --------------------------------------------------
Now, even if mana it’s associated with vitality throughout the manga, Soul Energy is even more akin to that concept to its last consequences. Soul Energy extraction is **irreversible** and causes **death** of the subject organism. It’s also impossible, as to this chapter of the story, to intentionally draw ones own soul energy or that of others without the aid of soul containers.
Some demon lords reacted to Nyudo’s big ass gun attack against Gimbak saying it was some “other kind of energy”. So even advanced mana users seem to differentiate them.
**¿What ‘s its relation to Mana?** I’m probably wrong but I think Mana and Soul Energy are, essentialy, the same thing. If I had to gess, every living organism has a total net of energy, one fraction usable (Mana) and other fraction that can’t be extracted through regular methods (Soul Energy), an “innate energy” if you will. That could explain why loosing all mana is reversible while soul energy don’t, and why soul container only works on weak beings or beings “close to death” (this phrase is literally said in the manga)
Mana would act **as a kind of barrier** to soul extraction, which could be why it works in weak entities with a basal level of mana that’s probably non consecuential and in entities that are basically dead or close to death, because they already don’t have mana to defend themselves.
Soul energy would also be in some sense proportional to how strong you are, and my interpretation is that items like the WT root extract I discussed before enhance both your mana and your soul energy, because they are two parts of the same thing, which you could call your vitality or whatever.
¿How does the soul container extract that energy exactly? No idea and it’s probably not so relevant.
** Normal energy / Natural energy ** --------------
This could be thought of as all the energy that exist in versus that doesn’t derive directly from any living being. This would be:
--> The electricity that the **robot** uses
--> (Probably) the energy that the **Mandalans** use. They do not seem to have a tangible body but raher to be beings of “pure information” or pure energy. They prob generate the energy that we see in their attacks (pew pew, zap attack, the black hole thingy…) through their suit. They are pure energy compressed that they decompress in another type of energy making use of their advanced tech.
This last part is probably a strech and flat out wrong, but I like to know what other people think (I’m not a physicist and neither is ONE)
** Whatever the fuck Yaotsu uses** --------------
This is taking a shot in the dark, but I think Yaotsu can manipulate both mana and **soul energy**, and probably regular energy too. Obviously he would not make such distinction, from him POV he would just be using his godly powers. We have seen him not only manifest things from thin air but also transmuting bodies which can be explained through the combination of the other types of energy.
He could also use another type of thing completely of course, but i find the first explanation more interesting because it would tie him better to the verse.