Alex arrived a fem million kilometres away from the star. Compared to the star, he was insignificant. But size was never a measure of power.
He was hit by a wave of intense heat and radiation that he shrugged off. His armour would have melted had he not coated it with a ward of void energy.
It appeared as though Alex had all the time in the world to solve the crisis before any harm fell on the star system. But even in his sped-up state, he could tell the star was on the verge of collapsing.
'Let's begin.' Alex thought as he sat before the star, closing his eyes to connect with his black hole.
The realm within him had changed drastically and while Alex had been aware of it, he hadn't paid too much attention.
The realm no longer resembled a blank canvas in need of a painter's touch but was now a backdrop of the universe with the black hole as the centre, still drawing in massive quantities of energy.
'And I've still not reached the next bottleneck yet.' Alex pondered. 'Just how much can the black hole take?'
He put a pin in that thought and focused on his black hole. Alex willed it to resonate with the universe around him, and to an extension, the universe outside of him.
Recalling what he knew about neutron stars, Alex focused his vision on the particles that made up the star—neutrons.
Due to their tightly packed nature, they already had a lot of mass, and pushing that mass further pushes them to collapse into black holes.
'What I need to do is try to reverse that process.' Alex reasoned, recalling the words Elina said to him. 'Whatever I can imagine, it's probably possible to achieve.
'Void energy is the fundamental material and energy for everything. Too much mass had accumulated into a very tiny space.
'That means, I have two possible ways to deal with this.' Alex felt like he was on the right path. 'One is to extract some of that matter and the second is to expand the space for the accumulated mass.'
Therein lies the interesting bit. If he expanded the space for the accumulated mass, would what be left be considered a neutron star?
If not, then what does he create as a result? With the changes brought forth by decreased density, pressure, and gravitational forces… probably not.
A gravitational wave hit him, snapping Alex from his contemplative state. Any more delays could cost lives. He quickly got back up and gazed at the neutron star.
With a thought, he tapped into his spatial ability as he focused on the minuscule space holding the mass of the neutron star.
Space in that region wobbled as if it was on its last leg, unable to hold up the weight of everything.
Alex held up both hands in a ball hold. His void energy acted as his hands, bypassing the many accrued masses and reaching the space.
He stretched out his hands as the energy followed his will, gradually expanding the space.
'It's working,' Alex thought with a smile.
Space flowed into the shrunken spot, making room for the accumulated mass. Alex didn't magically increase space as what he did was drag in the surrounding space—sort of like grabbing a sheet.
'But why does it feel so easy to do?' Alex observed with a frown. He knew the answer, but still, the issue bothered him a bit.
There hasn't been any real challenge since he returned. Even if he did meet some form of challenge, his body adapted way too fast, quickly turning the tables.
'At this rate, I'll be bored for the rest of my life. Is this what having overwhelming power feels like?'
It was a beautiful thing to be the strongest, but if nothing ever pushed you, then what was the point? 'Then there were the smug-looking looks on those void creatures earlier… I wonder if they had any actual thing planned.'
He felt bad for thinking it, but he wished those creatures' appearance and confidence weren't for nought. Sometimes, what we wish for may not be necessarily a good thing.
The process was proceeding as expected and the danger the neutron star posed earlier slowly passed.
Alex watched as the neutron star lost its density and pressure, yet somehow maintained its gravitational binding energy.
It became something entirely different. The accumulated matter underwent a change of state, transitioning into a quark-gluon plasma.
Alex wasn't sure what he was looking at, but he felt something within him click as if he finally grasped something profound.
The plasma was mesmerizing to look at, swirling around like a perfected fluid system.
The temperature the plasma gave off was unimaginably high and for a moment, Alex nearly lost control of the plasma.
He snapped out of his enlightened state and quickly isolated the plasma with his void energy, confining it in a separate space.
'The fundamental principles that built the very universe!' Alex smiled brightly. 'The answer was always there yet missed at the same time!'
Alex stared at the plasm with a wide grin. With a thought, Alex moulded the plasma into whatever he wanted. He created fire, water, air, and earth just by manipulating it.
And what drove all this was his void energy—the fuel that drove all in the universe. Alex had unwittingly discovered the fundamental principles and building blocks of the universe.
He allowed the quark-gluon plasma to cool naturally as they bonded to form subatomic particles and then dissipated after forming gas clouds.
But Alex already grasped what he needed to know, what had been bugging his mind since he felt there was something he was missing.
He remembered what he deduced about the uncountable different colours of mana he saw representing mana.
He could use his void energy to call on that mana, but he couldn't use it without having the ability for it.
But now he knew better and could even use it however he wished. 'Was that the reason I couldn't use my mana?'
Alex's own mana in his vortexes was a blend of all the colours. He had everything he needed; he just didn't know what they were and surprisingly, he had been using it without even realizing that was what it was.
"Laws…" He thought out loud.