I stood at the edge of the zone, my body relaxed, my mind steady.
The time Arkas had given me here had long passed. I was sure he was somewhere close, either watching me or getting ready to pick me up.
But before that happened, I wanted to test the results of my nonstop training inside this place.
What surprised me most was that the waves never stopped coming.
They just kept launching, again and again. I'd even changed my position once, trying to track where they were originating from. At first, it looked like they were coming from the left. But when I moved in that direction, they began appearing from the right.
That only meant one thing, there were still forces here way beyond me.
I let out a quiet breath and braced myself again.
"Come on. I'm tired of waiting."
To trigger the anomaly early, I pulled out my staff, spun it in my hand, and slammed it into the ground.
Violet Essence rushed out of my body and into the staff, which shot it into the earth. The ground trembled, then erupted as a wave of stone burst upward, sending debris flying in every direction.
The moment it settled, the Essence around me surged.
"It's so easy to rile you up," I muttered, smirking.
That was another thing I'd figured out: the more chaos I caused, the quicker the zone responded. The gravity sequence triggered faster if I made noise.
Within seconds, a wave of silver-teal Essence slammed into me.
Gravity spiked.
But I remained calm. I lifted my left palm, and violet Essence erupted from my body in a flare. I began sending pulses of it outward, colliding with the surging Essence ahead.
After three or four pulses, I finally grasped part of the silver Essence, the one linked to the Law of Space.
I grinned and waved my hand.
The air around me trembled as I dispersed the gravity pressing down on me. The silver Essence obeyed, swirling into a soft current that wrapped around my body. Gentle. Controlled.
But it wasn't over.
Another wave surged forward, this one angrier, more violent.
It felt like the zone had realized I stole something from it.
But it was too late. I was in control now.
I condensed the silver Essence around me. Space itself shuddered.
I didn't yet understand how the Law of Space truly worked, nor could I convert my own Essence into that attribute, not yet, but I had found a way to bend it with the help of my violet Essence. That was enough.
I compressed the silver energy again, folding the space in front of me.
Another wave came crashing in and hit the folded space, shaking everything.
I stayed focused, folding another layer. The next wave collapsed on itself as it touched the warped zone.
I stole more silver Essence from it.
I tamed it and let it circle me calmly. It was kept in place by threads of violet Essence still interwoven to hold my control.
Time Essence, however, was a different beast.
Even with violet Essence, I couldn't dominate it. It required too much—more than my current output. Still, I stood firm, staff in hand, barefoot, shirtless, waiting for the next wave.
And when it came, I repeated the same process.
Again, I stole more silver Essence.
I started walking forward, gathering more and more. But the more I absorbed, the more violet Essence I needed to keep it under control. Fortunately, I had the Generator Core.
It burned like a furnace inside me, constantly producing what I needed.
I was a living engine with endless fuel and infinite will.
By the time I crossed three-quarters of the zone, I was surrounded by a cyclone of silver and violet energy, centered completely around me. To anyone unable to see Essence, the zone looked empty, with just a lone man standing quietly.
But to those who could see Essence? They'd witness a storm forming around me, one I had complete control over.
I decided this next one would be my final wave before stepping out of the zone.
I flexed my toes into the earth to steady my footing, focused deeply, and waited.
One of the side effects of this intense training was how sensitive I'd become to the space around me.
I could feel distortions, ripples like waves through water.
And when the new wave surged, I felt space groan.
To me, it was like an explosion had gone off somewhere unseen, and the force was rushing straight toward me.
I didn't wait.
I moved to meet it.
I raised my right hand and whispered, "Go."
The ground shook. The air cracked. The cyclone around me twisted, condensed, and reshaped itself into a massive falcon, fifty meters wide in my perception.
It took flight, wings of silver and violet flaring as it soared toward the incoming wave.
Both forces clashed midair.
Boom.
For one terrible moment—
Space folded.
Time halted.
And my eyes widened.
"Fuck."
Where the collision struck, space collapsed, folded inward, and detonated in a pulse of teal and violet energy. And with it came a gravity wave, but not like before.
It wasn't a acting vertically. It was horizontal, like a sword had slashed across the zone, sending a sharp pulse of space-cutting gravity straight at me.
I didn't know what would happen if it hit me. And I didn't want to find out.
I roared, slamming my will into the remaining storm around me.
The Essence obeyed.
The falcon reformed again and raced to intercept the pulse.
But it wasn't enough.
I activated [Psynapse Boost]. Time slowed. My mind sharpened.
Only one thing stood out.
Essence Shift. Shift the state of my generated Essence to space attributed Essencec.
The falcon was built from violet and silver energy. I focused on the violet. I roared again, forcing my will, enhanced by my Psynapse, into the falcon.
The Essence resisted.
I screamed louder.
Still no change.
So I went for the second-best option.
The falcon surged forward, and just before impact, I clenched my fist.
It folded.
The space-attributed Essence compressed on itself in a burst.
I didn't expect what happened next.
The compression triggered a rebound, twice as fast.
I grabbed hold with my will and anchored it in place.
And then, I saw it, a shimmering wall, almost invisible, only noticeable because it was dotted with traces of my violet Essence.
Folded space.
My control reached out.
The wall moved at my command.
I swung my arm and placed it directly in front of me, between myself and the approaching gravity wave.
The wave hit.
The wall shuddered.
And like a stone dropped in a calm lake, the pulse dispersed without reaching me.
Silence.
No damage.
Just calm.
I stared at the shimmering wall of compressed silver and violet Essence… and then I let it go.
The space around me returned to normal.
And then the notifications came.