175 Speedrun 28

With a single, decisive motion, I ruptured the bubble, tearing apart the dimensional barrier of the Transformers universe.

Unimaginable levels of energy, enough to craft, shape, and sow the seeds of an entire universe, surged forth, only to freeze in time the very next instant.

This space was a realm of my own creation, subject to my whims and authority alone, obediently following my commands. And at this moment, my order was simple: Stop.

Time ceased its relentless march, space relinquished its bending, and all molecular motion came to a standstill within the confines of this reality.

But none of that held my interest in the slightest. My undivided attention was captured by the infinitely dense sphere of light before me, radiating a brilliance that surpassed any star I had ever beheld, brighter even than the accretion disk of the mightiest quasar.

That was the moment I realized, the Transformers universe, and perhaps every other, had sparked from this single white hole. The Big Bang itself might have been nothing more than its birth, followed immediately by its demise as it unleashed all of its energy in one cataclysmic event.

In the realm of general relativity, a white hole remained a hypothetical region of spacetime that could not be entered from the outside. However, contrary to a black hole, energy, matter, light, and information could escape from it.

This brought to mind the ability previously nested within Space-Time Manipulation, one that allowed me to control both black and white holes. Yet, this was my first direct encounter with such a phenomenon.

What impressed me most wasn't its physics-defying, seemingly infinite, yet negative density. Nor was it the blinding brightness that, if time had not been frozen, might have proven lethal on its own. It was the impact the white hole had on the fabric of space-time itself.

Imagine a flat piece of fabric stretched and suspended between two pieces of furniture. This fabric would represent empty space in the absence of massive objects.

Now, envision placing a heavy ball, symbolizing a celestial object, in the center of the stretched fabric. The ball would create a depression or dimple in the fabric due to its mass. This depression would illustrate how a massive object warps the spacetime around it.

In the case of a black hole, this depression would extend infinitely downward. However, with a white hole, the complete opposite occurs.

The space before me bent infinitely towards the imaginary axis, something that would be almost impossible even for me. The moment this white hole would cease to be, it would have sent a ripple through space, akin to a tidal wave, and in normal universes, it was the probable cause of its unrestrained expansion.

(Note: This is my hypothesis, and while it contains elements of truth, please take it with a grain of salt since I am not an astrophysicist.)

The fifteen-light-year size of this dimension was not a mere guess or happenstance; it was a deliberate choice. In just one second, the energy released from the white hole would have traversed 15 light years without violating the universal speed limit, the speed of light.

Many misconstrue the speed of light as merely the velocity at which light travels. In essence, they are both correct and incorrect at the same time. The speed of light serves as a universal speed limit, preventing objects with mass from approaching its speed, while simultaneously permitting massless particles like photons and gluons to travel at this speed, but no faster.

Now, you may wonder how can a universe expand 15 light-years in a second when the light itself would take 15 years to complete the same journey. The straightforward explanation lies in spatial expansion. The Big Bang, or in this case, the instantaneous disappearance of the white hole, would stretch every point of existing space simultaneously at the speed of light.

Nothing would exceed the speed of light, but depending on the reference point, space itself would recede from you at a rate many times faster than light.

However, none of this truly mattered, as this entire dimension needed to exist for only a single second.

Fifteen light years might seem like a relatively short distance, especially when compared to the vastness of a galaxy or an entire universe, but for my purposes, it was far from trivial.

Remaining in my mana form, energy crackled around me as I projected my Authority throughout this entire dimension, bringing its dimensional boundaries within arm's reach. The total surface area of my small pocket of space spanned 2,827 lightyears, and it would prove to be a challenge to enchant entirely.

[Hypercognition] blazed to life, each mental instance burning with intense focus as I shaped my energy, converting it into mana and gradually spreading it across the entire dimensional barrier.

Time flowed only for me, seconds turning into minutes, and minutes into hours, but I stood resolute at the center of it all. As mental exhaustion from simultaneously controlling quintillions of points of mana began to creep in, a thin blanket of it had been spread across the entire inner side of the dimensional barrier. Then, with a well-timed simultaneous thought from all of my mental instances, mana shifted.

Trillions of magical circles, drawing inspiration from multiple magical systems, were simultaneously born. Most had a single task – conversion. Some worked on converting various forms of radiation, others focused on kinetic energy, and still others dealt with matter itself. Yet, they all transformed their respective elements into a uniform energy form: mana.

A portion of this mana would then be used to sustain the enchantments, some were responsible for safety measures like reinforcing, saturating, and repairing the runic sequences, while others were tasked with radiating the mana out of this dimension. After that process, thanks to the temporal enchantment, which reverted time throughout the entire makeshift universe, everything would restart, bringing the entire universe back to just one second before the Big Bang actually occurred.

A grin spread across my face. This was a cheat, a flagrant disregard for thermodynamics, where energy was seemingly created from nothing.

I was finished, the first Universal Engines, henceforth named Reality Marble, was complete. However, I had no intention of witnessing its activation from the front row. While I could disregard all spatial and gravitational anomalies caused by this event, even with my immunity to various forms of energy, I wasn't foolish enough to attempt to withstand an explosion of this magnitude.

So I shifted my frame of reference, reappearing outside of the small marble with its fifteen-light-year radius, and willed time within it to resume its flow.

Like the steady beat of a heart, even in the desolate vacuum of the void, a resounding thump echoed through the cosmos, its intensity reaching a level that even affected the very fabric of space itself. The reality marble pulsed with a brilliance that eclipsed the radiance of billions of stars.

With each pulse, the marble contracted, and crystallized mana formed on its surface. Each successive pulse added another layer, about a kilometer thick, each layer containing mana equivalent to the complete energy reserves of an entire universe.

However, it didn't stop there. The pulsing accelerated to such an extent that they became indistinguishable from one another. Time within the boundaries of the universe sped up, casting my surroundings in a bright, blue hue due to the radiation of mana, while infinitely repeating the cycle of birth, expansion, conversion, and rewind.

From an external viewpoint, the marble continued to shrink, but from within, it maintained its actual size.

It took a precise minute to complete this process. Its size had reduced enough to fit snugly in the palm of my hand. The pulsing and flashes of light that accompanied the release of crystallized mana were now entirely gone, as the security mechanism once again halted the progression of time within the confines of that universe.

Within my grasp, I held a marble containing the energy equivalent of a million universes, and a wild grin spread across my face. "I won't need ten of you," I whispered, gently trailing my finger across the pristine surface of my precious creation. "You alone will be sufficient to fuel Mai for the foreseeable future," I added, my voice tender as if I were speaking to a beloved companion.

However, my work was far from complete. I needed to repeat the process at least once more to craft my staff. Unfortunately, even with the seemingly infinite amount of mana generated by the reality marble, I couldn't simply create my own Big Bang. My ability to control infinity was limited, better yet, non-existent, at least for now.

I also knew that attempting to extract something of this magnitude with the help of the system would be a foolish endeavor. Not only would it cost, more WP than Olivia and I could collect within our lifetime, but also, understandably, the marble simply couldn't fit into my inventory. So I didn't even make the attempt to extract it, however, I also didn't want to transfer it into Mai's realm just yet, as with its energy production, it could significantly accelerate the process of turning a universe into a reality marble.

So I activated Relativity, spreading my awareness across the vast expanse of the void, and tried my luck in locating a nearby world or universe. Thankfully, luck seemed to be on my side this time.

My frame of reference shifted, and I found myself in a new universe, one that was incredibly close to the Transformers universe, so close that it could not be anything but a version of it.

But the moment I arrived, I froze, utterly shocked to my core.

I was in space, everything told me I was in space, yet surrounded by technology stretching on for as far as I could see. I was on a spaceship, so vast that it stretched a complete galaxy.

[Warning: World Tier rating doesn't apply to the current location.]

A warning echoed in my mind, but I paid it no heed. I wasn't afraid of encountering something I couldn't handle, as even if I did, with my current capabilities, I had mastered the art of evading danger.

Time came to a standstill as I extended my Authorities across this universe, only to be astounded by the fact that it was mostly barren, devoid of life except for the colossal starships floating in the sea of stars. Each ship was powered by numerous stars and built around supermassive black holes.

It was an engineering marvel on a scale I couldn't even begin to fathom. Creating something like this would have required the resources of hundreds of galaxies and millions of years of effort, yet there were thousands of these ships suspended in space as if they had grown on trees.

But what surprised me the most was that these ships appeared to be autonomous. Devoid of life, moving forward at an incredible speeds and consuming galaxies at an alarming rate.

I couldn't fathom what had transpired in this universe, but I had a feeling it wasn't a pleasant tale.

With a sigh, I held the reality marble in my hand, focusing all my attention on the axis of time itself, and once again shifted it by ninety degrees.

Layers upon layers of mana disintegrated and simultaneously reappeared as the marble resumed its relentless energy generation, and my reality shifted. The 15 billion years' worth of time in this entire universe compressed into just fifteen frames.

I took a step forward, feeling time split and peel away as I moved gradually toward the moment of this universe's conception. I didn't waste any time, but once again, I repeated the earlier process of tearing apart the dimensional barrier and crafting a secondary marble. This new marble was almost identical to the previous one, yet held a few combat-related additions.

My thought process was simple, perhaps a bit primal in hindsight, reminiscent of my caveman ancestors, but I couldn't help but think: Who wouldn't want to strike something with the weight of an entire universe?

It was a fun prospect. So yes, among the additional enchantments that lined the dimensional barrier of this reality marble, one was designed to shift the immense weight of the entire inner universe into the object it would be attached to—my future staff. Which I already had an idea of where to obtain it and how to craft it.

Reality shifted once more around me, and I found myself back within the confines of Mai's domain.

"Honey, I'm home!" I greeted my dimension with a wide grin, causing both Mai and Aly to look at me with confusion. However, that grin quickly faded as I took in their appearances.

It had been no more than fifteen hours since I left, and the effects of mana drain had already taken a toll on this place. Yet, it wasn't as dire as the girl had portrayed it.

A sigh escaped my lips, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Mai looked disheveled, worn down, like a beggar on the street. Her clothes were dirty, her dress laced with patches, her hair a mess, and she was missing a shoe. However, that wasn't an accurate reflection of her actual condition. She had chosen to adopt this appearance entirely of her own free will.

"Mai... What the hell is that getup?" I remarked with a deadpan voice.

"Umm... Cosplay?"

(A/N: A short chapter today; I'm too exhausted to write another word.)