Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

"Oh hi! I didn't know humans had white dragons as pets!" I woke up with the finger of the most powerful person I had met so far poking my head and muzzle like she does every time I sleep on Henry's bed.

I looked up at her and rubbed my eyes. My head was still throbbing and my MP was half full. I really wanted to tell her to come back later and go back to sleep, but I knew Mavi would come soon to invite me for breakfast, so I would need to fully awake whether I liked it or not.

"Hi…" I said with a yawn that I couldn't quite suppress.

"What?" She said as my mouth was fully open with my yawn, stopping me from answering right away. "You can talk?"

"Yes, I can," I said after closing my mouth. "I'm different."

"I see" She nods at me, finger on her chin. For a moment her eyes felt like she was considering grabbing me and leaving, which I was sure she would totally do, as she almost managed to do it before, but then shook her head muttering "not now".

I felt the shock when someone uses [Appraisal] on another and this level of a hit I took, and the fact that I barely saw the flash of magicules moving from her to me, was the only things I needed to know she had just appraised me, which I was starting to understand why humans looked down on appraising other people as it was a rather uncomfortable sensation mixed with the feeling of being completely exposed. Not that I would actually stop from doing this to others, call me hypocrite. I have the skill, I will use it.

"Oh wow. You weren't kidding. Three [Unique] skills?" Her eyes widened and she picked me up like I was a small dog. I almost shouted for her to drop me and that I wasn't a dog, but before I managed to do it, and probably regret saying it, Mavi entered the tent.

"Sir dragon, Lord Henry has asked for your par…ti…cipation?" He looked at me and then at the elf girl in confusion. "Sir dragon, would you mind introducing your friend?"

Mavi's interruption was probably the only thing that saved me from being kidnapped by the calamity in front of me. She looked from me to Mavi and then back at me, and then opened her mouth like she just remembered where she was.

"Oh right!" She said, confirming my thoughts as she placed me on the bed again and vanished from my sight, appearing right in front of Mavi, startling the guy before she just shoved the card on his face.

"Do you know what or why is the hundred and forty two?" She asked.

I paused. one hundred and forty two loops? Oh wow… I really lost track of time with the loops. To be fair, it's not like I know how much time has passed since the loops started and I don't even know how much time I spend on each loop. I have a feeling it's close to 12 hours on each loop, if I don't interfere with anything and let things play out and the loop resets. but it's much sooner whenever I do something.

Let's consider 12 hours as the standard amount of time I spend in each loop, for 142 loops that is… 10 times 12 is 120, 10 more is 240, 20 more is 480, more 24 for the 2 is 504, then 100 times 12 is 1200, more 504 is 1704 hours in total, now to divide it by 24… Wait. I can just divide the total number by two, as each is half a day… I'm stupid. 142 divided by 2 is… 140 is 7 times 2 times 10, so 70, then more 2 divided by 2 is 1…

I had spent a little over two months in the loops!

…I somehow felt being made fun of by the System with this new skill, but I won't complain. A new skill is a new skill after all, and if the System is giving them I will take them.

While I was in my little world, the calamity elf had left the place after leaving a confused Mavi in her wake. He recovered enough and it so happen to align to when I came back to reality for him to ask about breakfast again, which I accepted as I had no reason to decline it, mostly because the loop would end after a few hours still and I had nothing better to do as I wouldn't be able to prepare myself for another try as I had already given away all the crystals I had and I didn't think the cave had recovered enough for me to go there and make more.

During the breakfast Henry let slip that the crystals I gave him were so pure they were worth a fortune. Of course, Henry being Henry he thought I was trying to make connections with his family and trying to buy favors from them as the food and his tent weren't worth anywhere close to the true price of those crystals.

I tried so hard to maintain a neutral expression that I thought the System would give me another skill for acting. What do you mean the crystals I made as a byproduct of my main spell were worth that much? If I sell them I'll be rich and able to buy all the games on Steam and the computer of my dreams… Oh, wait. They don't have computers here, I forgot.

Still. I wasn't sure of how to react with that information. They were pretty much worthless to me, with the exception of the time crystal and magicule crystals, which I needed to make the spell to finally break the loops. I guess I could take some with me and try to sell them later, though that begs the question of how I would transport them. I don't think they have backpacks that would fit for a dragon… Or maybe they do. I really need to learn more about this world to prepare myself for when I go search for my friends. I wonder if they will keep being my friends, even if I wasn't human anymore.

"...Darnas. But I would still like to ask you about this person Mavi told me about" Henry asked. I was so zoning out I lost most of what he had said. I've been doing that a lot lately, I guess spending two months with your own thoughts will cause this.

"... So?" Henry prompted me, again, which brought me back into reality once more.

"Sorry" I apologized for the distraction. "I don't know her. She appeared from thin air, probably some kind of teleportation. The only thing I know is that she is incredibly powerful, much more than I am" I answered with a half truth. I knew she was the Witch of Pride and one of the calamities, whatever those were, but I didn't feel like sharing that fact.

Henry asked a few more questions after that, but I had no answer so he had to leave it at that, which he didn't seem to enjoy. I spent the rest of the loop lazing around on Henry's bed as I made a few adjustments to the final spell. If I was going to lose access to the bed because of the meaningless nature of whatever I did during the loops then I would use it as much as I could, even if doing so carried the risk of being kidnapped by the elf.

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After the loop reseted, I went to the cave and cast the spell one more time, picking up the crystals that I now knew were worth a fortune and went back to where I started the loop. Casting the final spell once more and then placing the time crystal with a few magicule crystals on other points to serve as batteries for the spell so that I wouldn't need to use my own to charge them.

It ended up in failure, explosively so. I saw the signs of the spell overloading and was able to run enough away that the resulting explosion just caught me by the pressure wave. I still ended up with a few broken bones and incapacitated for the rest of the loop as I had passed out, only waking up to a mouthful of dirt on the next loop.

Spending a few more loops abusing my Henry's bed privileges I was able to finally crack what I needed to do, so, in my next loop I picked up the crystals and made the spell once more, putting the time crystal in the middle and eight other magicule crystals, there were that many magicules on that cave, in an octagonal pattern around it spaced evenly.

I watched as each crystal powered a small part of the whole spell and, with regulators for the flow, the entire circuitry. The energy was then inserted into the time crystal before being reabsorbed by the spell, flowing through specific channels to not fuse with other parts of the spell to avoid it going out of control like several other attempts.

The emerald green energy flowed like water through the spell and then shot out of eight points in the border of the spell at an angle, each exit point was positioned between the magicule crystals. The beams of temporal energy connected in the middle and formed a much larger beam that was easily the size of my closed hand.

The beam hit the tree like a truck, spreading throughout it like an energy shield on those sci-fi settings, but instead of protecting this was a form of attack, sort of. I watched as the tree started to fade in and out of reality, and I even started making a vworping sound as it happened. I just couldn't help myself, it was exactly like a tardis taking off viewed from outside.

It took several moments, but the tree eventually vanished from sight and the holes where the roots should be were filled with dirt and grass, almost as if the tree never existed in the first place.

I grinned for a few moments, but then I shot up, raising both my hands up as I shouted. "I DID IT!". For two seconds I stood there, grinning like a child, but then I lost balance as I wasn't used to using my hind legs, which were digitigrade, to stand up like a human could and the weight of my wings and tail dragged me down and I fell backwards. Still, I kept giggling like a playing child for a full minute before I needed to breathe.

Taking a moment to breathe in and out, calming myself down, I knew the next loop would be the last. I didn't have proof, and I should probably test the spell on the actual boronita instead of a tree, but I had a feeling deep down that it was almost over.

I picked up the remaining crystals and traded them for food and more time on Henry's bed. I really wish I could take it, but whatever. When the elf woke me up by poking me, I simply said to her that I wished to sleep more and to return later, which broke her train of thought so much that she didn't even notice Mavi entering and stuttering to invite me. It was fun to see her brain having a blue screen of death. It lasted for a few seconds, though. She recovered enough and asked Mavi about the number one hundred and seventy. I stayed awake just enough to hear the number before going back to sleep.

It doesn't matter how many times it happens, but going from unconsciousness to sudden consciousness because of the reset is disorienting enough I failed to jump and landed on my side, at least I didn't get a mouthful of dirt this time. But anyway, this loop would be the last.

I didn't know if time would simply continue after I closed the loop or what, but I just wanted to end it. It's been fun while it lasted, for the most part, but I needed to be able to leave this place and find Leo and Alex.

I went to the crystal cave and cast the absorption spell, taking one last swin through the underground lake in it. After it had finished, I picked only the time crystal and the magicule crystals. I didn't want to risk a disruption of whatever kind, not that near the boronita.

After fifteen minutes of walking, I reached the cave with the boronita. Preparing only took a minute as I just needed to pull the code for the spell with [Magical Programming Language] and cast it while using [Magicule Manipulation] to hold every stray pulse of magicule coming from casting the spell. After it was done I inserted the crystals in their respective slots and the spell finally activated.

My anxiety shot through the roof as I watched the flow of magic and temporal energy in the spell. The moment the time beam hit the ore I was holding my breath, but when it didn't explode immediately and it started to spread through the ore I sighed in relief.

Then I saw it turning white, just as it had fully enveloped the ore.

I half expected the loop to end right there and then, but when it didn't the only thing in my mind was confusion. I watched as the spell was holding off the explosion from actually happening. Even though it was fully encased in time energy I could feel it. It was like staring right at the sun. If I felt that calamity elf was strong, this is on another level altogether.

The bubble around the boronita started to distort. My anxiety peaked right then and there, and I instinctively reached to it with [Magicule Manipulation] and was surprised when I felt the temporal bubble to answer to my will. One look at the crystals and I saw they were half-gone. The spell was designed to be like my [Elemental Breath] skill. I knew I could use temporal energy in a chaotic manner with it, and the spell was the opposite. It was designed to create a beam of temporal energy with a single purpose, to push whatever it hit out of the timeline.

I pushed the bubble with my will and the deformation in it turned back into the stable bubble it was, but I couldn't rest. The explosion happening inside of the bubble had enough energy that my brain couldn't even comprehend, but I knew I couldn't let it out. If the bubble lost integrity and popped, it was over. I wouldn't get another change so I needed to make it count.

The sphere of pure energy tried to expand and I pushed it back. The only reason I was able to do anything to it was because it was already halfway out of reality, I was just pushing it the final length. The bubble started to tremble and I held it together with only my will. My MP was draining at a fast rate, but I didn't care, couldn't care. If I didn't give my all to it the bubble would burst.

Eventually the bubble started to diminish in size with me keeping the pressure. I felt like I heard the System telling me something, but I didn't have the mental power to listen to it. It was almost done, I just needed one more push.

The spell broke apart, the crystals were used entirely, but the explosion wasn't gone. With the only source of power gone the bubble started to expand and weaken.

"No, no no no no" I said. I needed to do something, anything. Without the spell I wouldn't be able to push the remaining energy from exploding in my face. With most of my mind trying to hold it I looked around.

The other crystals were in the cave with the lake, too far for me to get them. The only things with me were loose rocks, the walls, ceiling and…

The cave was filled with the thin mist of temporal energy. I had forgotten it was seeping back after I had drained the entire cave system of it, but how could I use it? I couldn't create another absorption spell or I would be pulling the energy back instead of pushing it, and I didn't have time to come up with another spell.

I felt [Elemental Breath] tingle inside my soul. Of course! The spell was using the same principle of the skill, of being a beam of pure temporal energy. I just needed to somehow use my breath attack to give it the final push.

I took a deep breath, feeling the thin temporal energy in the cave converging in front of me, a small bead of emerald green formed and then it exploded forwards. I was using everything I had in this last breath attack.

The beam of temporal flames hit the bubble, empowering it and pushing it out of reality. I cut the skill in the middle, feeling a small backlash from the unruly energy running wild inside of me. The cave was dark and in the place where once stood a giant sphere of boronita was a sphere of pure darkness the size of a car.

"It's over?" The moment I said it, pure temporal energy came rushing in from the black sphere, covering every square centimeter of the cave in green. I was thrown around just like the last temporal explosion I caused.