Chapter 44

'Should I run?'

'I can't, I'm tied to this place. Besides they are more than likely faster than me.' Alex thought while working on a runic motherboard.

From Paul's perspective, it looked like Alex was struggling with the complicated machinery. Instead, he was struggling internally.

'The boy is struggling a lot. I shouldn't step in, but it is difficult to watch this happen. I'll just say that I did it because the temple is on my bad side.'

'Merilda should be enough, if not I can personally step in.'

'Hundreds of thousands, how long has it…' Alex ended his thoughts as he felt himself getting lost in daydreams.

'Think straight you idiot!' He thought to himself while standing in an empty training room.

'Even my spacial energy wouldn't be able to pierce the amount of energy they have. I wouldn't be able to defeat them.' He paused as he thought back to all of his duels and spars.

'Use their power against them.'

Alex created a portal and stuck his arm through. Normally he would have tested it but at this point, he didn't care he was trying everything he could to survive.

His arm disappeared and reappeared behind him. He felt the back of his head with his hand.

Alex pulled his hand out and put it back in. This time his hand reappeared in front of himself before stopping in front of his eyes.

'I turned the portal around and everything was reversed.' Alex sighed as he still didn't understand how his arm wasn't snapped in half. The spacial dimension didn't follow the normal rules.

'If I understood this would it be enough to get to the adept class?' He tried for a few minutes to understand but he couldn't understand it.

'Plan two.' Alex did something that he had been putting off because he couldn't be sure he wouldn't hurt himself.

He scanned his eyes and the nerves that connected them to his brain. He put as much spacial energy into this scan as possible, until the scanning stopped. Alex was organizing his energy creating a perfect copy of his eyes.

'No mass.' Alex thought while gathering a bunch of spacial energy.

The energy became thinner and thinner.

While this was happening created a ball of spacial energy and willed it to reflect his other energy.

Alex took a deep breath as he connected the eyes to his brain. He saw nothing new but he felt the neurons traveling back and forth into and out of the new eyes.

'I'm not brain dead? Good.'

Alex began throwing the thin spacial energy toward the sphere.

The energy flew off most of it exited his range of influence and disappeared nearly instantly. But the energy that did hit the sphere a small portion bounced off and went into his second set of eyes. For a short moment, Alex could see something.

He could see a round object that looked like it was moving.

'So much energy was lost for just a short glimpse of it, but this may be enough.'

Alex removed all of his spacial energy he instantly felt weaker as the energy left him.

He once again shot the energy off. Sending it in short bursts similar to how cameras take videos.

Alex would have enough spacial energy to watch for a few seconds if he sent it in a steady flow. Instead, his energy pulsed as he sent it off in waves.

'Half a minute.' He thought as the object appeared in his sight again. It fluttered like a stop motion film.

'This is. What is this?' He spun the sphere and the object warped and changed its size and shape.

Alex used the energy holding the sphere holding the shape in place to create a small portal. He looked as a rope connecting two funnels got shorter and shorter. Until there was only a hole left behind.

'This isn't enough.' He thought while willing the thrown energy to reflect off everything.

Alex's vision changed as the windows in the training room became opaque. He could see every inch of the room in clear detail, but most importantly, he could finally see both perspectives. He had bought a few seconds more to watch, unfortunately, the room was not sealed and the energy was leaving.

He took off his shoe and tossed it through the portal.

His face became somber as he learned how it worked.

He sat down as the last of his energy faded. His spacial eyes disappeared.

'Time doesn't exist.'

When you travel through a portal you are removing all of the time that it would take to travel that distance.

'Without time we don't truly exist, it was put in place so that we could exist.

After a minute of gathering energy, he created the sphere again. He made it corporeal and felt it. He was picturing in his head how he was feeling it. He could see his hand changing form as he felt the object. It's definitely a ball, but it's all according to my senses, my perspective.

'Does this mean that our world is fake? Is it just a creation that we are able to comprehend?'

Alex tried to see everything normally but as he looked the walls warped, the light coming through the window pulsed, the breath that left his nose created vortexes that swirled everything up creating even more chaos.

He looked up to the sky through the window as his head spun. Alex fell down and held the floor with both his palms. He felt like he himself was spinning moving, no, he was. He had just never noticed it.

Alex's brain was adapting he was not just visualizing it anymore. He felt his perception changing.

Colors faded until he saw the world as it truly was.

He soon lost his ability to hold himself up. Alex fell back, even though his head hit the floor he still felt like he was falling.

He closed his eyes as he took in the feelings.

The world was hazy, always moving. This felt foreign and he felt like he wasn't even on earth anymore.

But it was also so familiar. 'Falling, falling, there seems to be no end. Will I die when I reach the bottom? Is there a bottom?'

He recalled all the nightmares that ended with him waking up covered in sweat. 'Am I even awake?'

'Am I dreaming!?' Alex opened his eyes as focused on flying through the roof and breaking free from this nightmare.

He could feel himself moving. He strained himself as he pushed harder and harder to free himself.

He felt something burst and he fell back to the floor, his perspective returning to normal.

He felt a warm feeling coming from his nose. He reached up and felt it, looking at his hands he saw his fingers covered with blood.

'It wasn't a dream. I was seeing the world from a different perspective. I was flying without using any energy.' He thought while rubbing his aching tailbone that had taken the brunt of the fall.

Alex looked around still shocked by what he had experienced. He could still see the world warping whenever he focused hard enough, but it wasn't to the point that he felt sick.

He also felt a change in his spacial energy, he had broken through. His energy felt different, it felt stronger.

Alex spread his spacial energy and he sensed the world. Everything was clearer, he could sense the spacial mana around him. There were areas with higher and lower concentrations. The spacial dimension was a lot more vibrant than before.

'I've finally done it.'

He should have felt excited but Alex couldn't help but keep thinking the same thing.

'Perspective.'

——————

'What was that? It felt just like the power of the mind, but if it is then I have just barely touched the surface of what it can do.'

'Is this boy really just fourteen? He definitely wasn't lying when he told me he was.'

Drak continued to ponder while watching the boy.

'He has matured a lot since I had first met him, could it be tied to his dark affinity. Is he one of the accursed? He has to be but This is the first I've heard of one who has awakened so many affinities. He must have one that he specializes in, one that grows faster than the rest.'

In the void of the spacial dimension, Drak's eyes grew wide.

'Not that curse, no one deserves to put themselves through that.'

——————

'What is this?' Alex thought with his eyes closed.

He had been using his new spacial perception while focusing on seeing the world from a new perspective. He saw a blue sphere within himself. It was covered in chains, thousands of characters that he couldn't understand were covering the chain.

'A seal?'

He sent his energy towards the chains. He felt his energy disappear and the chains shined as if they were strengthened.

Alex frowned as he realized what he had just done.

He sighed and got up to head to the potions club.

"How did it go?" Taylor asked Alex as he arrived at the potions club.

"I broke through." 'In multiple ways.' Alex replied.

"That's good, congratulations."

"Thanks." Alex said with a small smile.

Alex practiced brewing a potion, succeeding first try as always.

"Alex, can you stay here? I have some things I need to speak to you about." Lockhorn said as the students packed up to leave.

Alex nodded and went up to him.

"You know you can stay here rather than going out, right?" Lockhorn asked with a worried look on his face.

"You know what that means. I can't let you all throw your livelihoods away for me." Alex answered.

"I can always find work elsewhere, and if they do take things to the extreme I am prepared. Remember the potions guild holds you in high regard."

"A high regard that is undeserved. I doubt that I could have ever created the mana potion. I'll be going now, I'll see you tomorrow Lockhorn." Alex said before leaving the room.

"I'll see you." Lockhorn replied while checking to hear from his superiors.

Alex walked slowly towards where the hunting club gathered.

'I won't be able to stop Daniel and Michael from jumping in, but maybe I can save them if things go south.' Alex thought while sensing the many people following him.

Every step he took, he felt like his legs were becoming heavier and heavier. He wanted nothing more than for all of this to end.

"Alex! Before you leave, I have something for you!"

Alex turned around to see David hurrying over to him.

"After seeing how fast you've been progressing, I decided to give you a gift. It's a last-minute thing but I hope you can use it well."

Alex grabbed the journal from his hands. As he opened it he was shocked, all of the remaining basic runes were contained in the journal.

He looked back up only to see David was already back at the mage's building.

"Thank you!" Alex yelled.

He only got a nod in return.

Alex immediately began organizing the runes, he could already see where they needed to go. The last runes flew into place.

After each and every one, Alex felt the space around him shudder.

David looked out a window only to see a golden brilliance.

Alex felt the completed runes surround him before converging around him and entering him before disappearing.

He looked into the distance he felt something calling to him. It was weak but he could tell that it was getting stronger, even if it was doing so slowly.

——————

Above a distant planet was a figure that had no distinct identity.

It waved its hand and an ocean appeared on the planet. Forests grew, mountains rose, and creatures were born into existence. It gave a push and the planet began rotating around the nearest star. It then began drawing seemingly nothing in the void of space.

When it had finished the planet sped up. Countless revolutions were completed around the star. On the planet the life forms changed, they evolved for a while before settling. They created entire civilizations, lived, and died all within a moment.

"There is still too much to recreate." The figure said while looking around to the rest of the vast universe.

It stopped as it felt something coming from an earlier planet. "A minor law. No not just one, all of them. Why such a specific order?"

It stared in amazement. "This is, this is a decree."

A discernible smile filled the figure's everchanging face. "You always reawaken faster and faster every time. Although I don't like your methods, it still considered more of a miracle Than I could ever produce."

The figure looked down to the planet below him. "Let's see, who I should send to invite you here? There are already so many who have reached their pinnacle here. You will do well. Go bring a human boy by the name of Alex." The figure instructed a massive deer that walked in a forest of trees that towered above it.

The deer looked up before bowing and walking through a rift that appeared next to it.