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Chapter 371: Unidentified Zone (6)

There was only one condition for using the high-tier spatial magic, Absolute Stillness.

“The control of cognitive load.”

No matter the situation, one must maintain the quantity and density of one’s thoughts.

It sounded simple, but this was by no means an easy task.

“First, you must block off the senses that require cognitive processing.”

It was human nature to want to use convenient tools when they were available.

Thus, not only sight and hearing, but even mana detection—the privilege of mana users—had to be avoided.

This was to reduce the amount of cognitive load allocated to the information those senses brought in.

“Next, to exclude emotions, you must attain the state of a clear and tranquil mind—like a bright mirror and still water.”

Confusion, anger, fear, anxiety, doubt.

When humans feel emotions, their cognitive load spikes instantly.

Thus, emotions too must be blocked.

“You’re saying to block both senses and emotions….”

In other words, for that moment, one had to become nothing more than a doll.

Oscar scratched his head.

“Just hearing it makes it sound difficult. Can’t I just crash into it physically and refine it through trial and error?”

“That much, I cannot allow.”

The thought-form nodded firmly.

It was completely different from his usual easygoing demeanor.

With a face more serious than ever, he gave a warning.

“Let me tell you one thing. The reason I lost my wife… was also because of this magic.”

“…!”

The one thing Master Ado had regretted his entire life.

The experience of losing the person most precious to him due to his own mistake.

‘And to think it was because of this magic.’

Oscar, whose vigilance rose instantly, muttered.

“It’s a far more dangerous spell than I thought.”

“It is far more powerful than other spatial magic, and so its danger is equally great.”

To aid understanding, the thought-form lightly drew up some mana.

“Now then, this is reduced to one ten-thousandth of the size and power of the magic I usually use.”

A small mass of mana, about the size of two finger joints, floated before him.

It was barely enough to properly cast a single well-honed Wind Cutter.

“As I said, the activation condition of this magic is absolute stability. Blocking all senses and emotions of both mind and body. It is crucial to drastically reduce cognitive load so that the threads of space cannot have any flow whatsoever.”

“…What happens if you fail?”

“See for yourself.”

The threads around the thought-form all stopped moving at once.

However, perhaps because not all emotions and senses had been completely blocked, two or three threads fluttered slightly.

‘That much is nothing.’

Just as Oscar dismissed it as trivial—

“This is the result of an imperfect casting.”

“…?”

A question rose above Oscar’s head upon hearing those words.

After all, the Absolute Stillness currently displayed had no visible flaws.

‘It still feels as if all time in the area has stopped.’

The magic was confined to a tiny square space, barely 2 centimeters across, in front of the rock where the thought-form sat.

“Well?”

“To be honest, I don’t see much difference from the original—”

Before he could finish speaking—

‘Hm?’

At the very center of Absolute Stillness.

The space around the two or three faintly trembling threads warped without any warning.

That warped space rapidly expanded in the blink of an eye.

“…!”

In the process, it erased everything it touched.

Rock, trees, the ground—nothing was an exception.

By the time one could blink, everything between the two of them had vanished.

It looked as though that portion of space had been cleanly cut out with scissors.

Considering the tiny size of the Absolute Stillness that had been cast, the destructive power was incomprehensible.

“This is the spatial collapse phenomenon that inevitably occurs when Absolute Stillness is incomplete. Once it erupts, even I cannot do anything about it.”

“……”

Did Master Ado lose his wife in the desert while using this magic?

Oscar muttered, his face filled with bitterness.

“It really happens in an instant.”

The rampaging space devoured everything around it in the blink of an eye.

Just as a sword has no eyes, this space too has none.

“That is why you must train and train again until you can use a perfect Absolute Stillness. It is a magic that tolerates not even the slightest mistake. Of course, someone as talented as you may master it faster than the original body.”

“When do you estimate that might be?”

“At least a year.”

A year… too long.

Given that something could happen as soon as tomorrow, there was no room to train leisurely.

Especially now, the quiet Great Emperor was what concerned him most.

Noticing his thoughts, the thought-form spoke.

“No matter how distant the destination, if you take it one step at a time, you will eventually arrive. Do not try to rush it all at once—learn it slowly, as a task of a lifetime.”

That was true.

There was no need to close the fourth spatial rift in haste.

It would be better to resolve everything he was curious about here before closing it.

“Ah, come to think of it….”

Something came to mind, and Oscar asked.

“Have you ever experienced a subspace suddenly changing?”

“The subspace changing? What do you mean?”

“Well….”

Oscar explained what had happened while transferring the dragon’s records into the subspace.

The thought-form frowned.

“…I have no idea what you’re talking about. Does that even make sense?”

“Then would you like to see it yourself?”

“Please!”

As they opened the subspace and moved inside, the thought-form’s eyes widened.

“Well, in all my life… no, I’ve already died. In any case, this is my first time experiencing something like this.”

“What do you think about this phenomenon?”

“Let me take a closer look.”

The thought-form walked around the subspace where information was being engraved, and even viewed some of the memories directly.

In the process, he realized that this was not merely a record and let out an exclamation.

“Ha!”

After pondering for a long time, he seemed to reach his own conclusion and nodded.

“I think I understand what it feels like.”

“Really?”

“Yes. First, let me ask you something. Do you understand what kind of place the subspace is?”

“My master said it is a rift between dimensions.”

“That is correct.”

Using overwhelming mana and spatial magic to tear a crack in a dimension and utilize that opening—

that was the basic mechanism of subspace.

“Subspace is fundamentally an extremely closed-off place. Even the normal concept of time does not apply.”

“Ah, is that why the time ratio changes whenever subspaces are layered?”

“Indeed. After all, you are opening another dimensional rift within a dimensional rift.”

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The thought-form continued his explanation.

“In my view, this vast record accumulated by the dragon seems to have gone beyond the definition of a mere record.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“This… is flowing.”

Flowing?

Oscar blinked.

“You mean these massive records have acquired a new property?”

“A number is just a number. But what happens when numbers are connected in sequence?”

“They gain consistency and form certain rules.”

“Exactly. These records, written over billions of years, also seem to contain a great flow of time.”

A flow of time.

Then did that mean the flow of time was being added to his subspace?

“When I went to meet the Sage of the Star, he once said that the attributes of time and space are called divine authority.”

“Time flows endlessly like an unstoppable river, and space stretches infinitely like an unfillable sky. A famous phrase.”

“Then if an unceasing river and the sky mix together, what happens?”

“I do not know.”

The thought-form shrugged.

“Even if the original body were alive, he would not be able to answer that question. It lies in the realm of the unknown.”

“Hmm… I hope nothing strange happens.”

“In my opinion, it will not harm you. Rather… since the concept of time, which did not exist before, is being added, won’t the things you can do increase?”

“Ah.”

The moment he heard that, what came to mind was a personal training room.

He had once tried it before, but failed because the time ratio was forcibly unified.

The thought-form nodded upon hearing this.

“I believe it is entirely possible. Of course, that assumes this engraving process comes to an end.”

“…When on earth will this process finish?”

“Who knows? Perhaps it will not end until before you die.”

The thought-form chuckled.

“More importantly, those lizard fellows must be in quite a panic. Their most treasured possession has fallen into the hands of a mere human.”

“I’ve actually been thinking about how to use this situation.”

According to Seiro, he was only the vanguard.

That meant the entire dragon race would soon return to this star.

‘Even if I know they left to save the star….’

He did not fully believe those words yet.

He intended to verify that part once the engraving process in the subspace was complete.

“Hmm.”

At that moment, the thought-form suddenly clutched his head and staggered.

It was the first time he had shown such a reaction, and Oscar asked in alarm.

“Are you alright?”

After quickly steadying himself, he looked around the subspace and spoke.

“…I am fine, but for now, it would be better to leave this place quickly.”

After coming outside, he sat on a rock to rest and said,

“As you know, I am a thought-form. A being created based on a certain past time period experienced by the original body. But suddenly, the flow of time rushed in, and it seems I was swept up in it.”

“Is that bad?”

“Well… this is also my first time experiencing something like this, so I do not know. But will anything truly happen?”

As always, he smiled lightly.

“The conversation has strayed quite a bit, but what we must do is clear.”

Training.

* * *

Absolute Stillness was a magic that could only be manifested by emptying the senses and emotions and restricting cognitive load to the extreme.

The training method for this was simple, if one could call it that.

“Empty yourself. Everything about you.”

“….”

The training began with emptying.

Emptying the five senses was already somewhat familiar.

He had experienced it once while training to feel the threads of space.

“Discarding the five senses is clean and straightforward.”

His previous life also helped in this regard.

When one rolled through countless battlefields, there were often moments when one had to paralyze one or two sensory organs.

The problem was what came next.

“Emptying emotions is not as easy as it sounds.”

It required attaining an immovable heart that would not waver in any situation.

It was like asking a human to become a dragon.

‘Looking at it now, Edna was truly ruthless. How on earth did she manage this?’

As an observer, the most necessary quality for recording only the truth without personal bias was precisely that immovable heart.

Of course, dragons had near-infinite time, so they could simply achieve it eventually.

‘I’d like to train inside the subspace where time flows slowly, but….’

After that incident, he felt reluctant to enter the subspace together with the thought-form.

There was no harm in being cautious.

That said, training alone was not very meaningful.

It was difficult to judge for oneself whether one had truly emptied all emotions.

On the day when Oscar’s training with the thought-form entered its first month,

a small spatial crack appeared on one side of the forest.

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