Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

With a quick push on space using [Spatial Manipulation], I changed the gravity taking hold on me, moving myself out of the way of Jack's sword that an echo threw at me just a moment before, taking the opportunity I was down to try to kill me.

Reorienting myself, I boosted myself with just a wind spell and a flap of my wings, as it's cheaper than doing it with gravity. I was on a tight MP budget right now, I couldn't waste it trying to deal with the infinite wave of Jacks that were about to start appearing around.

I reached one spider in less than a second. I quickly scooped it up and adjusted the angle of my wings to keep myself going toward the next one. Before I reached the next one, I reached out with [Time Manipulation] into the spider's core, triggering the same instability as the first time, but now things were a little different.

I could feel what to do to untangle the mess of temporal threads and they just as easily slipped out of the knot when I pulled on them. The whole process that several times easier now than before, and I wasn't sure as to why, my best guess being a mixture of the new skill, the level ups and the new title.

The result of the process was the same. Another sphere of pure time pulsed from the singularity that formed. I didn't waste time waiting for it to finish before I was already on top of another spider doing the same. I only took a moment to check how much MP I had left. 6 thousand MP left, around half, which would be nice if I wasn't doing some very magicule intensive things trying to fix this place.

I had to dodge a sword flying or melee attack from the various Jacks that were starting to appear. I was too focused on my task to allow the panic attack to settle over me… Well, more precisely, I was putting it all on a single parallel process and letting a single part of my mind suffer because I just couldn't afford to let anxiety take control.

Sometimes, I couldn't continue as there were simply too many Jacks coming at me, so I had to tear holes in reality moments before they attacked and stitch them back up after they disintegrated into the nothingness. That only took large chunks of my magicule reserves. I had 3 thousand still.

I could see how the new skill [Automatic MP Regeneration] worked as whenever I didn't use skills or magic, my MP regenerated way faster than without it. It was only because of it that I was still able to keep going. Whenever I felt the mental exhaustion of using too much of my mental energy start to take hold, it would slowly fade away as the new skill regenerated it. Even magicules themselves were being regenerated at a faster rate than normal thanks to the skill.

Another spider, another sphere of normal reality. After having done it five more times, I took a few minutes to rest. I was low on magicules, mental energy, and even something I noticed as my mental energy regenerated, something I could only describe as my will, was low. The will thing I noticed because even when my mental energy was rising, I was feeling more and more mentally exhausted than it should be possible. The dungeon even provided me with some water and fruits to eat, which I practically inhaled the moment they appeared.

When I was back to around half my MP reserves, I started to push myself in the air again, using only a wind spell and my wings to fly towards the spiders. I couldn't rest longer because as more and more of the spheres I created, more and more spiders appeared trying to destabilize this pocket dimension, and more and more Jacks started to appear. Even some other people started to appear, I saw the adventurer trio I fought before and other people I didn't recognize as well.

Thankfully, the more of the spheres I created, the easier was to deal with the ever increasing numbers of enemies as I simply had to adjust my wings and pass through the middle of one, and when they tried to follow me through it the dungeon would simply send them back to their original timelines.

[Mathematical Cortex] helped me a lot during the flights as I could calculate the angle I needed to change my course how I wanted and even how much thrust I would need to provide for several of the tight turns I needed to make when a sudden Jack appeared right in my face. I swear I saw both of my lives flash before my eyes as I twisted my body and pulled myself with [Spatial Manipulation] to avoid a diagonal slash he made towards me. Even my wings felt a little weaker after that.

The system's voice echoed in my mind. I used one of the many moments where I checked my remaining MP just to confirm that my attributes increased slightly, nothing egregious like the skills I received here.

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I kept dodging, flying, grabbing spiders and turning them into the temporal singularity zones for a little over three hours, although it felt like days. It was non-stop flight and fights. I was completely exhausted.

"You may rest for now." The dungeon's avatar, the butterfly, said as it landed on my snout once more. "There is a sufficient number of points I can control throughout my domain that I can start to influence it little by little. I am already expanding the zones, it's just a matter of time now."

My only response to what it had said to me was me closing my eyes and allowing myself to truly relax since everything started. In no time at all I fell asleep right where I was.

I was awake an unknown amount of time later when I felt space and time shift and move around me. I looked around and saw the white space I was in starting to distort and slowly transforming back into the maze of corridors where it all started.

"Good. You're awake," I head the dungeon's voice coming from all around me. "I have managed to restore my domain to what it once was. I am essentially rewinding my version of time. You are about to be placed where this all began. Please do not break time again."

Reality shifted all around me, and then I was back at the same corridor I was when everything started. Even the spider that bit me and started it all was at the same place and coming right for me– wait, what?

I used both [Time Manipulation] and [Spatial Manipulation] to crush the spider in all the four different timelines it could evade into. I sighed in relief after seeing the glitching remains of the spider.

Once more, I felt the presence of something around me, staring at me outside of my field of view.

"Since the last time I tried to forcefully move you ended in no change, I am kindly asking you to leave my dungeon and never return." I heard the dungeon's voice from all around me. "I even cleaned the corrupted temporal energy from the corridors and stopped the moving walls. Just for you to get out of here the quickest way possible."

"I don't know if I should be thankful for it or if I should be offended," I said to the dungeon, who ignored me.

Shaking my head, I made my way out of the maze and back into the initial room where the four doors led with the crystal thing on the ceiling. Looking up at it, I saw that one of the two lights in the middle of the circle was way brighter than the other. If I were to guess, There would be another lever somewhere else on the maze, probably in a different timeline that I would have to pull it for the next floor to open up, but unfortunately I was being kicked out of the dungeon and so I wouldn't be able to see the other floors it had. Not that I cared, though. I only came because Farahio made me…

I walked out of the dungeon without looking back. The moment I crossed its domain to the outside, I stumbled as the four different timelines merged back into one in a rather forceful manner. Probably this wasn't the proper way to exit, but neither the dungeon nor I cared enough about it.

I could see how space and time interacted naturally outside of the dungeon and how strong and malleable space was compared to how time just flowed through everything, pushing them literally into the future. I wasn't able to use my new skill inside that white void, but I was sure here, outside of the dungeon, I would be able to use it to the max.

Grabbing the clothes Farahio bought me that were near the entrance where I had left them, I threw them on my back and exited the dungeon completely. Farahio was sitting on a wooden chair beside a wooden table, taking a sip of something that I could tell was strong just by the smell, and I wasn't even close to him yet.

"Ah, Denaru. You're back," Farahio said once I was near enough. "It seems we have a small problem."

I raised my eyebrow at him. "What kind of problem?" I asked.

"The mage's guild tracked me down and will probably give the information to the M.E.C. if they haven't done already." He said. "Besides, they probably already checked our destination with Valkhin's Transports, like I said yesterday. Meaning we will have to change our travel plans."

"How so?" I asked.

"Instead of going north, towards Dorarma like we were doing, we are going to go south. We will pass through Brostin and then to Grord, where my aunt will pick you up. I called in a favour from her. She will take you outside of Elotron and help you get to Dracius. I won't be able to accompany you, but don't worry. I can assure you my aunt will do her best to help you." Farahio explained to me.

"I see…" I answered, giving it some thought. "There is no other way, right?"

"Can you say with confidence that you can take on Jack one-on-one? And then take about six more people like him at the same time?" Farahio asked.

I paled a little at the thought of six people like Jack trying to kill me.

"By your reaction, I assume not." Farahio correctly guessed. He then got up and stored the table, cup, and chair back into his ring then turned to me and pointed to the clothes on my back. "Give me those. I'll store them for you while we fly."

I have him the clothes and he stored them too. "When we need to enter a village or a city I'll give them back to you. I assume you will not want to draw attention to yourself?" I nodded to his question. "

Farahio then jumped and was impassioned upwards by a raising gust of wind. I also took flight and flew behind him as we made our way back towards the south. We were going to pass near where I first fought Jack, and the thought of him finding me again, even after Farahio telling me we were going to fly far away from the roads, made me feel anxious. My claws twitched as I kept looking downwards whenever I thought I saw him, only to find some weird creature that was darker in coloration.