Chapter 215: Peer Into Space.

“Alright! Enough of that. Time for some space magic!” I announced after hours more of testing, and an entirely decimated patch of forest to show for it. The intricacies of my Devil Eyes were interesting, but it was clear to see that they would not make the crucial difference against my truly powerful enemies.“I wanted to see if your eyes affect different creatures differently next,” Moonwash complained blandly. “But I want to see how much better you’ve gotten at space magic too.”

“All things have their own resistances and vulnerabilities, so that answers your question. But yes, I’m just dying to play with it too.” I grinned as the space mana began to pour out of me. It saturated my surroundings, and I felt the mana with clarity like never before. With a flex of my will, this area of space stretched, twisted, and turned.

I took one step forward, and then another. Space bent in front of me, my view of the world distorted. I felt a slight lurching sensation as I passed through it, and then my hooves landed an inch away from where most of my senses thought it

It was no big surprise. That was one of the easiest spells to cast for one of the most difficult elements to learn. It was the entire environment of the Folded Planes Wonderzone.

I knew a lot of the theories already. I was just never good enough at the element to actually use them in battle. But now it was time to actually learn.

I bent the space in front of me again. This time, I took the time to scrutinize it. The way this patch of our infinite dimension rippled according to all the world’s motions, even as I tried to hold it in place. The way it slithered and creaked with effort, when I did try to move it.

I continued my calm stroll. I used my new space magic to change the space in front of me. I twisted and turned around my path, despite only stepping forward in a straight line. I redirected myself to smash against a tree, and its trunk shook as I came to stop.

“That was stupid,” Moonwash commented.

“You know it was on purpose!” I complained.

I continued walking across the forested terrain. I compressed the space in front of me, and covered the span of two steps in one. I strengthened my magic, and the world seemed to just crash towards me as I covered more ground with each step of my hooves.

This much was still within my grasp before my evolution. The problem arose when it came to doing it quickly mid-battle. I could not compress space fast enough if I was actually moving at my full speed.

Then again, I never really tried all that hard. I was too comfortable sticking with the mana I naturally produced. They were just so much stronger, because the constant deep exposure gave me unrivaled understanding of the element, but also because of some magical significance in having the magic within my blood.

I sped up. I saturated the space in front of me with magic, and the mana moved with me as I jogged forward. Each step became the equivalent of more. It became harder to maintain as I transitioned into a proper run. I just did not have the time to fully compress the space in front of me before I passed through.

So I didn’t do it in full. I started small. To cover just a finger’s length more in distance with every step. Once I could do that consistently, then I compressed the space before me even further. I grew faster despite my hooves not putting any more effort. And then I had to readjust all over again, once I did start to push my legs harder.

It would be the work of many sessions before this could be practical to do at all during serious combat, but I had the blueprint. I knew what I needed to do. I was no stranger to hard work and putting in the effort.

“,” I reveled in my own ego for a moment, “I need some

I at the wildlife hiding around me. Curse saturated my eyes, and them in turn. I could’ve melted them with my stare alone, the pathetic weaklings. But I shall allow them the mercy of dying in combat against the devil herself!

One of the best spells to cast with this medium. It manifested almost as powerfully as striking the enemy with a miasma of it. My devil eyes could theoretically cast almost any spell now, but these mental effects remained its best use case. I just had the ability to adjust my curse now, no longer locked into the usual intimidation and fear factor of my cursed stare. I could command my enemies with a glare!

The time I spent on the intricacies of my Devil Eyes was not in vain.

A fox jumped out of the underbrush. It pounced for my leg, only for its aim to be fouled. The animal hit my armor at an angle that broke its skull and had it sliding right off. Not that such a creature could harm me even if I sat still and did nothing.

It was only the first of many.

Countless monsters and animals came boiling out of their hiding places. They felt the same rage that I felt, and they were found wanting. Together, they formed a storm of claws, fangs, and horns. I stood unmoving in the face of this torrent… and I remained untouched.

The tiger on the lead growled in rage-filled confusion as it collided against a tree instead of me. A bird monster flew across the space I twisted, and landed on the prior beast. They killed each other as the tide of enemies kept on coming. Soon I was surrounded by a marching swarm, but they could only chitter distortedly in my ears, their advances futile.

It took them way too long to start pouncing at me from behind as well. The monsters had squeezed and tumbled into each other as they ran past my unmoving form. Now I faced attacks from all directions as countless beaks, talons, and kicks came rushing at me from all sides.

A weak push grazed my shoulder from the tongue of a giant chameleon. The fist of a boxial gorilla slid through my sides. Vines tickled me in passing, when they instead wanted to wrap me up like a present. Fire licked only at the surface of my armor, before most of it was redirected toward their own forces.

They ripped each other apart without me having to do anything.

completely literal magic.

I nodded to myself, and then burned the churning mass of bodies and corpses with my hellfire. The hellflames turned out to be so much hotter when cast normally by my horns and not through my eyes, that it actually spread slower because of how quickly it evaporated its own kindling. Though it did still spread, through the very earth beneath our hooves.

Moonwash stared at me, her butcher knives in hand. “I was going to use those.”

I rolled my devil eyes. “They’re too weak to bother. Come on, I’ve got other things to test.”

“That’s nice too…” She paused in indecision. “Okay. Let’s do that.”

The space around me distorted in the most chaotic of ways as we made our way up a different mountain. The world began to look like an abstract painting, the colors blending into each other. I felt this shifting push and pull all across my body, but it would not be enough to harm me, especially now that my body had only grown so much stronger.

That was yet to come.

Space crumpled and expanded. It pushed and pulled against itself harder. Reality shook upon their collisions, in a way almost reminiscent of friction, but different. And then, finally, something Imperceptible, except with my own spatial senses, but the effect on this word was certainly obvious. It was a spontaneous slice that severed space and anything in it!

Both my body and my armor were too tough to be affected by something like that.

But that was only the first.

I increased my magical force. Space churned in a storm. Reality fractured and healed, and so did I.

My armor was scratched. My skin was cut. The wounds went deeper, actual holes began to open in my metal. I was caught in a blender, and my hearts quickly mended the fine cuts left across my flesh.

“Oh shit.” A slice had landed onto my head, and severed part of the brain inside. This weakened the protection provided by my demon brain to the others for a moment, and my other minds buckled from the disparate desires and sensations of my many elements.

I swiftly ceased my magic once I realized what had happened. I panted, despite no real exhaustion. That was a terrifying surprise.

“Are you okay?” Moonwash rushed to my side.

“Y-yeah. I’m fine. Just fine.” I took a deep breath. “It’s… well, my demon brain is my bulwark against the corrupting influences of my mana, and that just lagged for a bit. But really, it’s not any worse than when I use Resentment, so it’s all fine. I was just surprised, is all.”

“I’m glad you’re fine and it’s working as intended. But that could be a weakness. I need to craft you a better helmet.”

“That’d be great! But don’t beat yourself up over it. This is temporary because of my recent size change.”

“It’s an interesting size,” she stared at me silently.

“I agreed huskily. “Let’s handle that For now… You can do a controlled dimensional slice, right? It goes where you want?”

“Yes,” Moonwash confirmed.

“Can you show me?”

“Of course.”

Moonwash took out her space wand and focused. Mana filled the air, and that was how most space mages were even able to observe the spatial fabric. The mana resonated with the that existed in reality, and a string of that mana intersected the user’s brain–in this case, Moonwash.

As for me, I observed it all keenly through my spatial senses. All three brains were captured in rapt attention as space began to shift in accordance to my girlfriend’s will. She took control of two panes of it, so close to each other. They didn’t really have a but these two masses of space surged against each other anyway like two blades crossing and sharpening each other. The event deployed a dimensional slash that split a tree in half!

It was the very one that Moonwash had aimed for, along with the ground beneath it. It was hard to even see the cut, for it was so fine. The magic my girlfriend enacted was all planned and executed to perfection, unlike the chaotic mass that I built.

I immediately tried to do the same thing, calling upon my mana, controlling it with my horns, and enacting my understanding and interpretation of the same beautiful spell Moonwash just used!

Space collided with each other, reality bent itself to a fine point… and then it all bounced back to normal.

I failed.

“Gah! I thought I had it! Space is such a complicated element.”

“I know. It’s one of my favorites.”

I looked at Moonwash, and then chuckled. “Sure. Yeah. I don’t disagree. I’ll have my fun training this to perfection as well.”

We neared the peak of this mountain. A grin split my face as I could already feel the hostility of the being at the top. I splayed an arm in front of Moonwash to get her to stop.

“Stay here. Actually, it might be better if you scooted back a bit further.”

“Why? I want a better view.”

“This is about to become a very dangerous warzone. Come on.”

“Haell, you’re forgetting that I outlevel you again.”

I paused.

“Alright. Maybe you’ll be fine. But! I want this one on one battle, and you’ll get in the way of that. Besides, that same strength of yours would allow you a good view even from much further away, won’t it?”

“That’s not untrue. Fine. I’ll be watching. I’ll score you based on your performance.”

I snorted. “Sure.”

She ran back down as I resumed my climb, satisfied. Soon, I got a good view of my endrasen foe, and the nest it was guarding. There was no need to taunt it, for the eagle beast bellowed out screech after just a few more steps.

My smile only widened. I unsheathed my new temporary greatsword, its pristine blade soon marred by my curse.

The monster then flew high into the sky, hovering only for a split second before swiftly crashing back down into the mountain like a meteorite!

It was aiming right for me, and I only met it head on! My greatsword collided with the bird’s talon, and an explosion of wind and sound echoed across several mountains. Earth magic radiated past me, but I was no stone to be shaped and shattered. The wave of mana reached the ground weakened, still able to summon a great deal of spikes that closed around me like the maw of an iron maiden!

They broke against my armor, and metal crumpled in turn. Holes were punctured at parts, and I spit out a globule of blood as multiple sharp implements skewered shallowly through my guts.

I did not lose this exchange. The endrasen’s talon was outright by my blade. It flapped its wings in alarm as it let out its shrill cries.

I did not heed its call for mercy or surrender. My sword bit into its torso next, and the metal was to be even heavier by the grace of my , but all that weight was only transferred up to my arm.

Well, the Mutation’s description mention that it would only work for my body. , I knew that by weaving mana through a material, I could have that be treated as a part of my being. That’s how my cursed armors worked, the vengeance of carapace and steel blending together with the vengeful spirit of my own inner curses until they could hardly be distinguished from one another.

I knew that this could work for my dimensional weight distributor too. I owned the knowledge of the world during my evolution, and that was the insight it gave me.

But that would again have to for later. Hah!

I grabbed the dying endrasen and finished the fight by slamming my weighted fist onto its skull. The monster survived the first hit, but not the second, and its skull’s contents spilled out by the third.

That was when I felt a sudden premonition. Urgency and terror. A message, a signal, from Pandemonium.

Just like when Angerly was captured. I rushed over as quickly as I could, but my efforts were in vain. I failed to save her. I lost not only her, but Luine too. I made a decision I could not take back. I enacted The Burning of Gardine. It was not okay. It would never be okay again.

And then I realized that the alert my manor friend was sending wasn’t actually that urgent. It was just a mild alert.

I snorted. I chuckled. I giggled like a child. I laughed til I was sick to my stomach.

I teared up a little, from my eyes that could so easily kill.