342 From Space to Void to Nothing (2/2)

These two phrases meant nothing to Edmund or the dragon, but meant almost everything to Nova.

As an elemental made out of one of the core essences of the universe, there were powers that he himself were not able to use despite the comprehension he possessed on them, or at least, not at his level of power. For spatial elementals, that power was the control over collapsed space.

Many erroneously referred to the space within the void as ”collapsed”, but that was incorrect. The structure of the space within the void was broken into an infinite amount of cards that, while still connected to each other, were extremely well shuffled.

True collapsed space, on the other hand, was fully destroyed space. A sinkhole that lead into the nothingness that lay beyond, where space itself had ceased to exist. An appropriate method to compare the three types of space, would be to look at stable space as a whole mirror, shattered space as a cracked mirror, and collapsed space as a frame with only fragments of glass left on the edges.

After realizing what lay behind these yellow barriers, the pieces of the biggest mystery within the void began to come in place, and finally, Nova realized what the truth was.

”It was these monster's fault.. It was them all along.” Said Nova as city-sized boulders were broken apart and swallowed into this vortex of collapsed space. He then turned to look at Edmund, and said ”I don't think we can get away now..”

Edmund looked back at him in confusion, then turned to look at the increasingly bigger vortex that, once reached a size large enough to fill the cavity where it had formed, was once again covered by the two yellow masses.

Once completely hidden, the behaviour of the originally pulsating mass changed, and instead of pulsating, it began to tremble.. causing for the space within the monster's stomach to tremble alongside it. The trembling became more and more violent, until finally, it stopped abruptly. The protruding yellow mass deflated as if the vortex inside it had lost all of its mass, and only moments later, the body of the monster lost any form of spatial formation that kept him protected against the destructive power of the shattered space.

The monster had become like a normal being made out of flesh, but before the shattered space could tear his body apart, an explosion that could be compared to the power of a dying star, but completely made out of spatial essence, pushed through the molecules of his body without damaging it.

The explosion moved through the monster's body and reached outwards, expanding for millions of kilometers per second. This spatial shockwave was able to further shatter the pieces of space that were contained within the affected area, and it was clear that, if multiple of these explosions happened at close intervals, the whole area would collapse altogether.

Thankfully, this explosion only went off once, then retreated back into the monster's body as fast as it expanded.

While the wave of spatial power moved back into the monster's body, Nova dashed in the direction of one of the walls of the monster's stomach, while forcibly dragging Edmund and the dragon with him. The moment it looked like he would crash against the meaty surface, however, was when a thread of spatial essence invisible to the eye pushed through the monster's body, and one it reached the other end, extended in thickness until forming a clean path for the three to go through.

After the three went through, the wave of spatial power entered back into the monster's body, and the connection that made the monster's body unaffected by the shattered space, reappeaedr.

Nova immediately tried to teleport away, but the scene that was enveloping in front of him left him aghast.

Multiple massive rifts had appeared all around the monster's body, and through each of them, were numerous tentacles that tried to grab as much as they could before taking it back into the monster's mouth, and work as fuel for the next explosion.

Unfortunately for them, the monster was not distracted to a point where he wouldn't notice their presence, so he immediately moved one of his tentacles in their direction in an attempt to get a hold of them and pull them back into its mouth.

”Damn it!” Exclaimed Nova as the massive tentacle moved against him with enough power and speed to disturb the spatial essence around the whole area. Luckily, they were covered by his spatial essence, which when struck by this massive tentacle, threw them in the direction of one of these massive rifts.

The impact of the blow was enough to send them directly through, and travel through space while fully unconscious.

After an unspecified amount of hours, Edmund woke up to see himself, Nova, and the dragon which they had picked up only moments after the disaster, travel in space at a mind boggling speed. He immediately tried to stop their motion, but unfortunately, the remnants of Nova's power were still enough for him to keep him locked, and force him to shoot through the emptiness of space without any form of control.

When Edmund turned around to look at the direction where they were headed, he saw what looked like a grain of sand come his way. This grain of sand, however, immediately grew to reach the size of a pebble, a rock, a fist, a human head, a house, a mountain.. And it didn't show any intention of stopping.

At first Edmund hoped for that grain of sand to be a small pebble that would disintegrate against their barriers, but it was only after this grain became as big as an entire planet, that he began to panic.. After all, the planet was headed his way.

”NOVA! WAKE UP!” He screamed in an attempt to wake the spatial elemental, but it was already too late. The spatial essence that protected their bodies began to burn off due to the planet's atmosphere, which was thick enough to restrain Edmund's power into his body.

In a matter of seconds, he found himself freefalling from a height of tens of thousands of meters.

Muffled by the copious amounts of air that entered his mouth, he screamed, ”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!” The ground became closer and closer, but no matter what he tried, his immortal essence was simply not able to push through his skin.

In the end, unable to avoid the impact, Edmund covered his face with both arms, and waited for it to happen.

However, it never did.

When he opened his eyes, he, Nova, and the dragon were floating about half a meter above the ground. In front of him, stood a wolf cub with a fluffy black mane around his neck, a long thin black tail, and crystal clear eyes.

”You look like shit..” said a familiar disembodied voice that came from behind him.