Chapter 716 Domain Of Man
"[Domain Of Man]."
The moment those words were uttered, the world turned white; like a blank canvas.
Everything within 500 meters—the range decided by the Skill Caster—was swallowed whole in an instant. In the sky, the only people present were Rey, R'azak, Ce'phas, and U'riah, so all of them were brought into the blank world.
It was only to remain this way for less than a moment, though.
Almost as soon as this blank canvas was made, the architect stood at its center and began to breathe life into everything around.
Darkness suddenly began to fill everywhere, resembling the darkness of space. Its vastness also bore resemblance to the deep vacuum, since the space within this domain stretched further than eyes could possibly see or senses could properly perceive.
Then, from within this darkness… light was birthed.
Several fragments of lights in the form of stars became manifest. Distant stars, nebulae, and several celestial bodies emerged from nothingness.
Then, a sun stood at a close distance, with planets trapped within is orbit.
Gravity. Relativity. Electromagnetism. Nuclear Forces. Light. Matter. Energy: EVERYTHING was built and decided on by the architect of this domain.
—Rey Skylar.
'I see now…' His thoughts trailed as his two eyes took in the beauty of the world he just created.
He got to decide just how vast it was, what it contained, and all of its functions. The more complicated the features were, the more energy he would have to consume, but all of this was well worth it.
He had more than enough time to properly set things up, since his first feature upon entering the world was to completely halt the time everywhere—save for his own immediate surroundings.
Hence, the three Dragon Generals were stuck in time.
Even if they weren't given his incredible cognitive speed, they probably wouldn't notice him creating his Domain from scratch if he chose a more simplistic model. But, with Rey being a very curious person, he wanted to see just how far he could go with this—how much he could push his creativity… as well as his energy. In a bid for all that, he went all out and created something vast and beautiful from memory.
And it worked!
'Just as in the Skill description.' He smiled, witnessing the magnificence of space, all seen from within the solar system of Earth.
'Of course, everything is a miniature version of the actual thing. Space, the eight planets, our Sun, and distant stars… this whole space is only as large as a continent—I think.'
He couldn' even create a model as large as a whole planet with its realistic scale.
'Still… to think I could go this far.' Rey beamed to himself. 'This feels incredible!' There was only one major downside.
'It really does consume a lot of energy. I'm nearly out Mana now…' He would have run out a while back if it hadn't been for his Mana Recovery Skill that was now working overtime for his purposes.
The maintenance and constant management of this Domain drained his Mana, so despite recovering Mana, all of it was being burned up nearly instantly.
'The longer I stay here and keep up the domain, the more my Mana is drained. It seems this is the largest I can make the Domain without completely depleting my Mana.'
At the very least, with his Mana constantly being recovered and then taken, this particular model was sustainable.
'I can also save this design, so I don't have to go through the efforts of creating everything from scratch next time.'
Even though this world was mostly made for spectacle, since he could alter any of the variables, it was still an incredible fortress for himself.
Well, he couldn't entirely decide that—at the very least, not yet.
'That's why I brought these ones here.' Rey stared at the completely still Dragon Generals, observing how the world he made interacted with them and vice versa.
'As expected, I can't control them the way I can control everything else in this world, but this entire plane exists and interacts with them as if it were real.'
In essence, even though he couldn't make them hot or cold, he could make the surroundings take on said qualities, which would directly affect the Dragons. That was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to examples too.
The mere fact that they were completely still in his domain was due to a quality he set in the world and not a result of [Perfect Time Stop].
'I should consider the possibility of others capable of resisting the Skill. I thought they would be able to show some resistance to it, since this is an S-Tier Skill, but I guess they're unable to do anything about it.'
Rey couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he was able to upgrade this Skill to the Divine Tier, or better yet… Perfect Divine.
'Well, one thing at a time. For now, I should wrap things up with these three.'
With only a single thought, he was able to change the entire equation of time in the Domain, forcing the three Dragon Generals to regain their complete sense of reality. This was only for a few seconds, though, as they soon lost their minds the moment they realized where they were.
"W-what is this?!"
"Where are we? What did you do?!"
"....!!"
As Rey observed their stunned and panicked reactions to their predicament, he made a few quiet points in his mind.
'It seems H'Trae really has no concept of deep Space. The humans have not explored beyond this planet, but I thought the Dragons might have an idea.' He was clearly wrong about his previous assumption.
'I haven't been to space here before, though. It's not like I haven't thought of trying, but after getting a particular altitude, it gets difficult to advance higher—almost like there's something pushing me back down.'
Rey previously thought it was gravity, but it didn't feel like that. The force was akin to a barrier, and even at his current strength, he couldn't resist it.
In the end, he had no choice but to postpone this endeavor of his.
'I wonder what dwells beyond this planet. Whatever it is… I don't think it wants anyone finding out.'
That very idea only made him more curious, and he sought out the time he became strong enough to tear through the barrier and see what was beyond the sky in the world.
'There is a sun, moon, and even stars. That means space must exist, in some shape or form…' And Rey desired to be the first man to witness it.
'Should be fun and all, but I really ought to get back to this.'
Finally returning his focus to the three Dragons before him, he decided to finish everything with one final experiment.
'This should test out a bunch of things at once, so…' Stretching his hand forward, he put his mind to work and controlled the particles of his Mana that existed in every facet of the Domain.
'First… I'll need a massive star'
Out of nowhere, the sun began to expand—easily swallowing the other planets in the process.
"Arhhhhhhh!"
"What are you doing?!"
"We're all going to die! Stop this madness!"
The Dragon Generals could not escape, or even move at all, thanks to Rey's might.
They could only watch as the mass of brimming light neared them, its immense pressure and heat causing them to wail in incredible pain.
'This is only the start, though. The main thing is…' Rey pressed his open hand and made a fist, demonstrating what he was about to do to the now expanded Sun.
'... Collapse!'
At that very moment, the center of the massive star collapsed in on itself, compressing very rapidly until something new was born.
It was no star, neither was it anything else that previously existed within this vacuum of space.
This was something that ate through vacuums, as well as anything that dwelled around it—an abomination formed from the death of incredible light and mass.
—A true Black Hole.