When I stepped off the final stair, I found myself in a circular chamber unlike the others. There were no pillars and no shadow was waiting for me down there.
The hall was perfectly smooth, white from floor to ceiling, with no visible seams or markings. At the very center stood a circular platform, slightly raised, its surface glowing faintly with steady white light.
I walked toward it without hesitation.
The moment I stepped within a few meters of the white circle, the air above it shifted and condensed into two distinct forms.
Two orbs formed at the center of the circle.
One orb glowed faint violet, its surface subtly warping the light around it. The space near it bent slightly, edges of the hall curving inward in a quiet distortion. Even without touching it, I could sense the familiar structure of the spatial law within it.
The other orb shone in soft silver.
Its surface was smooth, but the light within it moved strangely, flowing forward and backward in delicate layers. When I focused on it, I felt the subtle drag of temporal influence, as though the air near it was slightly delayed compared to the rest of the hall.
Space and Time.
They hovered above the circle at an equal distance from one another, steady and stable in their own form. For a few moments nothing happened.
Then they began to move.
Slowly at first, the violet orb drifted toward the silver one, while the silver orb responded in kind. As they approached, the air between them thickened faintly, reacting to the proximity of two fundamental laws.
When their surfaces touched, there was no explosion, no violent reaction.
Instead, their edges softened.
The violet and silver hues began bleeding into one another, the boundary between space and time thinning as the two orbs pressed together and started to merge into a single, unified form.
A point formed in the air where the two laws intersected. Space folded inward around that point, compressing violently, forming a small collapsing sphere. It resembled a miniature void, pulling inward everything around it.
Then the collapse slowed.
The inward pull did not stop; it simply decelerated, as though time itself had thickened around it. The compression stretched unnaturally, each fraction of movement dragged out longer than it should have been.
Then it accelerated.
The collapse sped up sharply, compressing faster than natural spatial distortion should allow. The sphere tightened violently.
And then—
It halted.
Completely.
Frozen mid-collapse.
The inward fold of space remained suspended in a perfect state between existence and erasure. Time had locked it in place. A moment later, the temporal restraint released.
The collapse resumed. The sphere imploded silently and vanished.
I stood there, eyes narrowed.
Both streams separated again, returning to independent forms. I could feel the laws were level 3 major. It was the same level of major law that I currently possessed. This was not something beyond me.
Nothing else happened for a few seconds. I understood what this hall was about. This was a demonstration. I stepped forward and sat cross-legged before the platform. Closing my eyes, I replayed what I had seen.
The key was not simply using time and space together. It was sequencing them within the same point. The collapse began spatially, but time dictated its rhythm. Space defined the structure. Time defined its state. Neither of them dominated. They overlapped.
Saint rank had its own requirement and one of them was fusion of major laws. That is what the hall demonstrated to me.
I began circulating both laws. I called upon space first, shaping it carefully before me until the air began to bend and compress, forming a small distortion that folded inward at its center. The structure was stable, a clean spatial collapse taking form exactly as I intended. Only once that foundation was secure did I introduce time into the same coordinate, weaving it into the collapsing point instead of forcing it over the surface.
The first attempt failed almost immediately.
The moment temporal influence touched the spatial fold, I allowed too much interference, and the delicate balance fractured. The collapse destabilized and unraveled, the distortion dispersing into harmless ripples before fading entirely.
I took a deep breath and adjusted my approach.
This time, I let the spatial structure settle completely before introducing time with restraint. Rather than halting the collapse abruptly, I allowed time to enter as a gentle modulation, easing into the rhythm of the inward pull.
The sphere formed again, compact and steady, folding inward exactly as intended. I began to slow it gradually, reducing the pace of the collapse without disturbing its shape. The inward pull weakened step by step, the motion stretching out instead of snapping apart.
Once I was certain the structure remained stable, I reversed the flow and pushed it forward again, increasing the speed of the collapse so that the compression tightened sharply while still holding its form together.
Then, with precise intent, I froze it.
The collapsing sphere halted mid-motion, suspended perfectly between continuation and completion. It neither unraveled nor advanced. It simply remained fixed in that fragile state, held steady by the interplay between space and time. A faint smile touched my lips as I observed the stability of the fusion.
Satisfied, I released the temporal hold. The collapse resumed instantly and completed itself in a clean implosion, leaving nothing behind. Both laws separated naturally under my control, returning to their distinct currents without resistance. Beneath me, the white platform responded with a soft vibration.
The demonstration was complete, and this time it had been mine. I rose to my feet, aware that the test had been accepted.
The air above the circle shimmered again, and a second demonstration began.
Two new orbs formed. The first one was completely black in color while the other was stark white.
Devour and Assimilation.
Devour manifested as a dark current that consumed light around it, pulling fragments of ambient residue inward. Assimilation appeared different. It did not consume. It absorbed and transformed, its current smoother, blending what it touched into itself.
They moved toward each other.
When they merged, the effect was subtle at first.
A small fragment of energy appeared between them. The devour law pulled it inward violently, stripping it down to raw fragments. Before the fragments could dissipate, assimilation wrapped around them, integrating them into a new, stable construct.
The fusion did not destroy.
It consumed and converted instantly.
A small sphere formed, composed of integrated energy that was no longer what it had originally been. It was refined.
The process repeated automatically. Fragments appeared, were devoured, then assimilated into a growing core. The sphere expanded steadily, becoming denser, more refined.
This fusion was not explosive. It was efficient. Together, they created continuous growth.
I watched carefully. The level was lower for these two laws. Level two major. Less refined than my current devour law, but structured precisely.
The key difference was balance. Too much devour would erase everything before assimilation could stabilize it. Too much assimilation without devour would overload the structure.
I stepped forward and raised my hand.
First a ball of damp earth formed and then expanded to form a sphere. I activated devour lightly, breaking it down into raw components. Before they scattered, I activated assimilation, weaving the fragments into a stable structure within my palm.
The first attempt destabilized.