“I don’t really care if you cry~ On the real you should’ve never lied~”
Darkness was present on all sides and only silence reigned within the abyss. The only thing giving it life was the singing of a certain man who was currently falling through it.
‘Damn, I’m so bored.’
Damien had already been falling for what he assumed was at least an hour, but he had yet to reach even something close to the bottom of the abyss.
It wasn’t even that he simply sat still and fell, he actually tried multiple times to accelerate his fall to no avail. He extended his awareness as far down as it could go, only for it to be met with darkness.
He constantly teleported downwards at his full 10-meter range, but as time passed, the speed of his fall had exceeded the distance he could travel with teleportation, making it a futile task.
In the end, Damien had succumbed to boredom and began singing random old songs he had heard in his childhood. He didn’t really listen to music that came out in his own era, but instead listened to the old classics his father and mother would always listen to.
‘2016 was really the golden era of music. The shit they made before I left earth was trash in comparison.’
Damien lamented the fate of the entertainment industry in his time as he fell. When another hour passed, he got bored of even this.
Realizing that his fall wouldn’t end anytime soon, Damien put away all his stray thoughts and assumed a meditative posture in the air.
He didn’t even need to tune out his surroundings for concentration since the abyss was void of noise and light, but he slightly numbed his physical senses so he wouldn’t become too conscientious about the ever-increasing speed at which he fell.
Once he had adjusted his state properly, Damien closed his eyes and began to meditate.
It had been a long time since he sat still and focused on comprehension. Although he wanted to focus on awakening his time affinity, there weren’t enough noticeable time essence fluctuations in the atmosphere for him to do so.
He didn’t have the comprehension level on time to simply use the ever-present essence for his cultivation.
Since it was like that, he decided to go back to his roots and focus on space.
‘I’ve been practicing and comprehending space for so long, but can I truly call myself an expert? Even though I’m only a 3rd class, I feel that my comprehension is still relatively exceptional at my level. Still, it isn’t enough.’
Whenever Damien comprehended space, he always focused on a certain concept so that he could create a new technique. He used the ideas he already had in his head to guide his comprehension.
So far, there were a few different concepts he had comprehended. Spatial destruction was the vein he usually focused on, with Spatial Collapse, Bladeless, and even Dimensional Severance being heavily influenced by it.
Another concept he had decent comprehension on was distance. Horizon Break, which ignored distance, and Starfall, which shortened distance to call forth celestial bodies for him to use as hammers, were both influenced by this concept.
Other than these two, there were many miscellaneous concepts that he had some understanding on, but he hadn’t truly expanded on them much.
‘My current level is titled as Dimensional Magic. Distance is a concept that can be related to dimensions, so is transport, but other than that I haven’t really taken the time to study what makes Dimensional Magic different from the Spatial Magic I had before. I haven’t delved deep enough into the concepts related to it, which is why its skill level hasn’t risen much since I obtained it.’
The closest thing he had to true Dimensional Magic were the abilities he gained and used as a Celestial, but those abilities came to him almost instinctually. They didn’t count towards his comprehension progress.
‘4th class has a close connection to comprehension, and even 3rd class has some reliance on it. I should take more time to cultivate diligently along with leveling up. This way, I can exert a higher degree of power. Currently, my physical body and devour skill are the main reasons I can fight above my level.’
As Damien analyzed his current state, he never stopped absorbing and comprehending the essence of space that constantly surrounded him.
As time passed, his body began flickering in and out of existence as if he was merging with space itself.
‘Dimensional Magic isn’t simple. It relates to crossing, destroying, and even melding with dimensions. Perhaps it even has connections to three-dimensional space.’
Damien was used to thinking about power on a grander scale. He would always think about the biggest and most destructive uses of his power first. As he had always considered what Dimensional Magic would look like at its peak, he never stopped to think about what he could do with it at his current level.
‘Instead of focusing on dimensions, plural, I should put my focus on the dimension itself. It’s not that different from what I’ve been doing with space since the beginning, it’s just a far more profound and complex application.’
As Damien delved deeper into the secrets of Dimensional Magic and understood how he could comprehend it with his current power level, his body became more and more incorporeal. Spatial essence rushed into his figure to nourish him even without his conscious call, flowing through his physical body and attempting to transform it.
‘If it’s like that, then…’
Many hours passed and Damien suddenly felt like he was on the cusp of gaining serious insight. But at that moment, his comprehensive state was interrupted by a large number of growls and roars that came from the surroundings.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground shook due to the impact of countless heavy footsteps. The tremors spread like shockwaves, abruptly waking Damien up.
‘Damn! I almost had it! Wait, hm?’
He suddenly noticed that he was no longer falling through the abyss. At some point, he had landed on the ground. But there was no impact.
‘Wait, I’m not even on the ground right now. Holy shit!’
He realized that he was actually in a relatively precarious position. His body had become largely incorporeal while he was merging with space during his comprehension, so he hadn’t impacted the ground at all, even though he continued to fall.
Instead, when he reached the ground he had sunk into it. At the moment, he was occupying the same space as the ground itself.
‘This is the same thing I used to amputate Elitra’s legs back then. Luckily I’m still incorporeal, or I would’ve been blasted to meat paste immediately.’
Damien carefully observed the surroundings and spread his awareness.
‘I’m not too deep underground. I should be able to reach the surface with relative ease.’
Damien carefully glided through space. He was like a fish in water, or rather, he was the water itself. It was as if he was one with space, having no physical form to speak of.
As he waded through space, he reached the surface and popped out of the ground. Only at that moment did his concentration break, allowing him to materialize into the physical plane once again.
‘That state must’ve been a residual effect of my comprehension. If I had just been able to gain that spark of insight I felt, I probably could enter and exit that stage consciously. Fuck! Someone just had to come begging for death.’
Damien’s eyes held a bloodthirsty glint. He was truly pissed that his training had been interrupted.
He glared into the darkness around him and felt the approaching beast tide through the tremors of the ground.
“You lot…allow this Young Master to teach you why you shouldn’t go around courting death!”