Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

My eyes were fighting against me as I tried to keep them open, and they tried all they could to close. This was my first time hitting 0 MP on the magicule side instead of mental energy. The, I think, couple of times my mental energy hit 0, I was out could immediately. I wanted to go to sleep, but I couldn't, at least not in this place.

"I can use my skills again." The butterfly on my snout, the actual dungeon, said.

I felt something around me, but with all my skills deactivated, the world felt muted, as if seen through a pair of monochromatic lenses. The only thing I could feel was the soft touch of the temporal energy emanating from the singularity I had created. The energy was pulsing outwards, washing over me like a blanket.

"Apparently, whatever you did with the spider stabilized this part of my domain, which, I must remind you, you broke." It said, again. "I can feel you've exhausted your magicules, and seeing you're the only way to fix this, I will help you."

A rainbow colored cube fell right in front of my face. Its iridescent light shone in my face with an almost mystical light.

"It's a cube of solid magicules," the butterfly explained to me. "You just need to absorb it."

I tried to grab it, but the moment my right hand left the ground, I collapsed. I was only able to stay upright because my weight was distributed through my four members and they were in a 'locked' position. I slowly pulled my arm towards the cube. The progress was slow, and it felt like I was trying to move through molasses.

I eventually was able to touch the cube and immediately felt magicules flooding into my body through the finger that was touching it. My finger started to hurt after a few moments, pale blue cracks spreading through it.

"You might want to remove your finger unless you want to lose it." The dungeon warned me, which I complied with and pulled back. The cracks very slowly started to mend themselves, and the pain that was starting to spread from my finger started to fade.

"What was that?" I asked. That was the first time I saw something cracking because of magicule flow.

[Rozemyne Limit is the natural limit of the quantity of magicules each material can store without structural failure. Rozemyne Cascade is the chain reaction any material that has passed its Rozemyne Limit undergoes. It consists of a violent release of all the magicules stored in the material itself. Creatures are able to increase this limit by leveling up as their tissues become adapted to higher levels of magicule concentration.]

"If too many magicules pass through something, it explodes." The dungeon explained together with [Knowledge Library]. I was a little surprised that my skill had given me that much detail about it instead of just saying it wasn't available.

Opening my status screen, I saw my MP had jumped back to 20%. The fatigue that had built up in me was starting to fade as my strength returned a little, and I was able to get back on my feet with just a bit of effort.

"It seems the corrupted part of my domain won't generate anything else while you're inside this pocket of normal space-time." The butterfly said. "I will keep a magicule cube here for whenever you need more magicules, but you'll need to go out there and fight."

"I imagined it would be something like this." I sighed.

Looking at the cube, I used [Magicule Manipulation] to touch it and felt how heavy it was. I wouldn't be able to move it, but I didn't need to move it. I changed my visualization of the skill to instead of a phantom hand a series of miners. The result was a continuous stream of magicules being broken off the cube, with me absorbing the released magicules.

Dividing my mind to keep one parallel thought into breaking and absorbing the magicules of the cube, I stepped out of the area the temporal singularity created.

The change was like night and day. Inside the singularity's radius reality is whole, but outside? It was like space-time had broken up and was just space, with time barely a remnant in the form of the corrupted temporal energy that floated through reality.

A lone figure appeared in the distance. My heart dropped when I recognized it was Jack, the person trying to kill me.

"How is he here?" I asked out loud. "I thought we still had a few days."

I took a step backward. Jack seemed confused for a moment before noticing me, grinning as he did so. He started to walk towards me, pulling the sword he used to try to pierce my heart. I could see the distortions in space as he placed his hand inside it and pulled the sword.

I instinctively started to walk backwards with each step he took towards me. He seemed to be preparing his attack as I felt an enormous quantity of magicules begin to gather on his sword and his legs. My heart was pounding in my chest as my mind replayed my last encounter with him over and over.

"It's another echo." I barely heard the dungeon speaking to me. "Another fragment of the future."

Even knowing this did not help to fight my anxiety. He could be an echo of the real thing, but he was real enough to kill me, just like the spiders and the trio of adventurers before. I just didn't think I was able to defeat him. He was at a much higher level than I was. I entered this dungeon to level up precisely to be able to defend myself against him, for fuck's sake.

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Even worse. The trick I used to fight against him last time, reversing time, was not an option in a place that would fall apart the moment I tried it. I was completely outmatched against him. Was this how everything would end? Killed inside a broken dungeon?

Jack launched himself with a powerful jump towards me. It was so fast that he would already be on top of me if I hadn't accelerated my mind to the maximum I could using only [Mathematical Cortex]. At this speed, he would take about thirty seconds to reach me. It was fast, but I at least could do something. I would not give up and just let him kill me.

Passing my anxiety and fear to another parallel process, I began placing layer upon layer of magicules in an hexagonal pattern in front of me using [Magicule Manipulation], at the same time I compressed them to at least try to make a shield, I casted a wind spell on my open wings to push me backwards to at least try to get out of his range, but my hope for it was almost none.

The barrier I was doing manually suddenly fell into place as my new skill took over of creating it. I saw as the magicules I was trying to layer on top of each other by pure force easily clicked into place and almost seemed to blend into other layers in a way that increased the overall strength of the barrier and decreased the amount of magicules used by almost half.

Seeing how effective the skill was, I pushed more and more magicules into it and, at the same time, decreased the size of the shield, which was now starting to expand into a bubble around me, into a single hexagonal cell that I was able to move around me however I wanted.

As I imagined, Jack was still too quick for me to get out of the way, and he was on top of me in almost no time at all. His sword came crashing towards me, but I was able to place the shield on its path.

Sword and shield met, and for a moment, I thought it would resist Jack's sword, but then it bucked and cracked. The next thing I knew, I was being thrown to the side with enough force to push all of the air in my lungs out, leaving me gasping for air as I pushed more and more magicules I was still absorbing from the cube into the barrier skill.

He came at me again, and again I placed the shield onto the sword's path. It resisted enough for the impact of the sword to throw me back inside the temporal singularity's radius before breaking and needing to be cast again, which I did so but would take too long.

I didn't know how well time inside the radius would hold when I manipulated it, but I could sense it was several times stronger than time outside of it. I, unfortunately, didn't have any other option that I could think of. Jack was simply too strong for me at the moment.

Jack lurched at me, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye. As I was pulling on the temporal energy around me, Jack suddenly turned into neon green particles that faded out after a few moments.

"I said my skills work here." The butterfly flew in front of me as it said it. "I can send these echos back to where they came the moment they crossed the threshold."

I sighed as my back legs gave out, and I sat down. My heart was beating like crazy and felt like it would explode at a moment's notice. It simply was too much for me. I couldn't fight Jack, and I barely defended myself against him. If it weren't for the dungeon, I would already be a goner.

I looked over at my skill list, trying to find anything I could use against Jack if he appeared again once I exited this 'safe zone' I had created accidentally.

[Time Manipulation] was out. I couldn't use it outside of the 'safe zone' unless I wanted to create another rift. [Magical Programming Language] I already tried once on him. The spells bounced off his clothes. [Multi-Layered Barrier] was the one I just gained.

My eyes went to [Elemental Breath]. It was the only other skill I could use to attack, but I wasn't sure what a beam of temporal energy would do in this place… I really didn't have any other skills to use, so I had to risk it.

It took me thirty more minutes to get up and leave the area. I had the [Elemental Breath] skill ready to be triggered.

The moment Jack appeared some distance away, I cast the barrier and kept pouring more and more magicules into it while trying to keep the smallest size possible to increase its strength. I accelerated my mind and waited for him to come within range.

Jack didn't take that long to notice me and summoned his sword before jumping with his incredible strength toward me. The way space distorted and opened a hole for him to pull his sword felt different somehow to me, like I was on the cusp of something.

Just as he crossed the mental line I designated, I triggered [Elemental Breath]. I felt as a torrent of magicules flowed through my body into the base of my neck, concentrating there. I noticed there was something wrong at that moment. The temporal energy that usually builds up wasn't able to condense there. There were still a lot of magicules in the base of my neck, but I wasn't sure how I would eject that much power if it wasn't transforming into temporal energy.

The pressure in my neck increased. It felt like it would explode because I couldn't generate the temporal energy necessary to use the breath attack. Did I screw myself? Was this the end? Killed by my own skill?

As the dread began to settle in my mind, something changed. The amount of magicules that was ever increasing on the base of my neck changed into something else I could barely feel, and it travelled through my throat before being released through my mouth as a thick beam of deep blue energy.

I saw Jack changing his posture mid jump, trying to use his sword to cut through the energy coming towards him, and was enveloped by it.