Chapter 77: Temporalis

Sen stood alone in the center of his room. Mori stood just outside, ensuring he wasn’t interrupted. Temporal magic was fickle. Though he was probably the most adept at handling it in the world, it wouldn’t do to mess with dangerous power while distracted. 

He held out a flat hand and delicately carved through reality like a martial artist chopping through wood in slow motion. Beside him, the temporal essence sphere he’d received as a level-up reward bobbled in the air. 

The slit in reality now floated before him. A tear in time and space itself. He’d opened the way to the temporal world, now it was time to tear out a new piece of it for himself. He pooled his mana and took a step forward, forcing his way through the portal. 

It was time to create a new temporal world of his own. One that would last. Now that he had the resources and time, it was foolish to continue trusting his most valuable belongings to an unstable world that could shatter at any moment. 

His foot left the soft carpet of his dorm room floor and landed on a simple rune floating in an endless void. A void not unlike space itself. Bright stars dotted the infinitely stretching abyss as far as his eyes could see and beyond. The scene reminded him of punishing the demon in the dungeon during the academy war, and then again of his more recent battle in the invasion of Harpis Castle. A battle against a demon whose name he’d purged from his own memory. The soul of that wretched creature floated out there somewhere, suffering eternal torment in a place devoid of time itself. 

It brought a smile to his face. 

But pleasant reminiscing wasn’t the reason he’d come here today. He wasn’t here to destroy, but to build. Temporalis. It was the name he’d assigned this place, though it had no meaning beyond a loose reference to time itself. The nature of Temporalis made it ill-suited for a home. It was great for battle, where you could force an opponent beyond the runes and ensure they were lost forever. Or if you wanted to hide certain techniques from prying eyes. But that type of environment wasn’t exactly ideal for rest. No, if he were to create another temporal world where he could truly be at ease, he needed to separate it from this place entirely. Just as he had before. 

He would rip a portion of Temporalis apart, assert his control over it, and bridge the gap between this place and the physical world. Creating a refuge somewhere in the in-between. This exact setup was the reason his notes had been scattered across the physical world and not lost in the temporal plane when he first traveled to this time. They’d been sent back into the world rather than abandoned beyond the flow of time completely. 

Mana poured from his body in waves. But unlike a wave with its ebb and flow, the mana did not return to him so quickly. It pressed outward, stretching even beyond the confines of the white rune circle that kept him safe from this place. As soon as it did, he felt the burn. For every inch his mana forced itself forward, the temporal world clawed and tore at it. If his mana were a waterfall, the space beyond the rune was the sun. But Sen’s will was great, and under his direction that waterfall made progress. He burned through steep reserves of his mana to steal more and more territory.

[Master, surely you have seized enough material now?]

Sen shook his head. “No. Not yet. I do not intend to simply replace what was lost. I want more, Tutor. So much more, and this world will yield all that I require.” He closed his eyes and forced his mana out even more quickly. The sensation felt like exhaling with already empty lungs. By the standards of his own time, he was a god-level magician. He would not bend to any force, even one of nature. 

When he’d taken all that he needed and then some, he focused. Cracks formed around the borders of the space he had stolen. 

“Usurp Time and Space - God of Magic Maxima!” He felt his authority overrule the area he claimed and smirked. “Yield to me.” 

And it did. The cracks exploded like shards of glass, severing the hold Temporalis held over this stretch of itself. 

He held out a hand, and his mana and the material he’d cut apart formed into a small sphere in his palm. Sen blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, they were in a domain entirely under his own authority. This one was a black void, with no stars in sight. 

He opened his palm. “Temporal World Maxima.” 

The temporal magic essence sphere that still floated beside him shot forward. All the material he’d cut apart from Temporalis flowed as well, coalescing with the magic contained within the magic essence sphere and his mana. 

An explosion of color surrounded them. One moment Sen stood among a pitch-black void, the next a wooden room the size of a large warehouse. As he willed it, the place changed before his very eyes. The warehouse began dividing into separate rooms and spaces. The room shrunk to a more reasonable size and turned into an entrance hall not unlike what you might see at a guild. 

Wooden chairs and tables formed around him in the style of a tavern. On the far wall, a bar appeared that stretched across the room. Shelves appeared behind the bar, and on either end doors that would soon lead into a kitchen area where food could be prepared. To either side of the room, two staircases manifested along the wall. They both led to a second floor, molding into a balcony that overlooked the tavern. The balcony led to a single door in the rear wall of the second floor. That would be Sen’s room. The second floor was open-concept. It had railings that stretched to encompass walkways with a row of doors on either side wall. 

Tutor was silent for a moment. [That’s a lot of bedrooms.]

Sen’s eyes fell. He’d never created a temporal space with others in mind. With the thought of others joining him regularly. But…perhaps they’d need those rooms.

Mori and Ilm would need their own spaces here, of course; it only made sense. Thankfully, Tutor didn’t point out the obvious. He’d made far more rooms than the three of them needed. 

“We can use the extra rooms for storage,” he said, as if to explain their presence. But Tutor knew his thoughts well enough. They both knew he hadn’t created the extra rooms for storage. He’d been thinking of his other friends. 

[Master…are you thinking of the future? About the fact that we’re going to have to leave them soon?]

“Let’s focus on the matter at hand, Tutor.” 

He flexed his legs and jumped. He didn’t even need Encapsulation here, not in a world where he held ultimate authority. With a swat of his hand, the door to his bedroom opened, and it was a simple matter to summon his old bed once again. It formed in the center of his bedroom, his red blanket bringing a vibrant red into the room. This room alone was two or three times larger than his previous temporal world. Sen had really overdone it this time. 

He held a hand out toward the left wall and pictured his familiar waterfall. He wasn’t in the mood to decorate the room fully, but a bed and a waterfall made for quite the comfortable space in his opinion. Several droplets of water formed and fell uselessly onto the wooden floor. 

Sen frowned. Right, the essence sphere fueling it was destroyed alongside the others when he came to this time. He’d deal with that later. He’d deal with it all later. Tutor’s words were bothering him. For now, he still had a room at the academy. It wasn’t as if he needed a new place to sleep quite yet. 

And yet, the reality of his plans still weighed heavily on him. 

“We’ll leave furnishing the place to Mori. He has a better eye for these things than I do. But there’s one other thing I wish to do before we leave.” 

He returned to the front door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the void once more. Though he hadn’t transferred all of his belongings from the damaged temporal plane yet, he could still access them here. An earth essence sphere appeared before him, and he drew on its power. It shot forth and embedded itself within the void. A small patch of grass formed where it landed.

Sen chuckled at that. “I suppose this is a good opportunity to use our new modifier. Imbue essence Bloom-Maxim.” He used his usual maximizer for now; he’d experiment with the Garden Maximizer another time. 

The grass spread quickly now, until Sen stood not in a void, but on an island. Grass and dirt stretched in every direction, and Sen was pleased with the size of it all. He had enough room to place two or three more buildings and still have plenty of land left over. He willed the air surrounding the island to turn into a light blue resembling the sky rather than a dark void. 

For a moment, he stopped and enjoyed the beauty of this place. A calm in the storm of everything that had happened recently. The revelation that the dean had worked for a specter that was stealing the techniques of students. That a treasure trove of information and knowledge had been within reach only to slip away in the explosions caused by a vengeful Remias Brightsail. The betrayals of Withershade and Calabari, the work of the Cult of Harpis, and even the flesh golems made with his own stolen knowledge. So much had happened over the school year that it was difficult to process it all. But it solidified what was to come. What he would need to do. 

[Master…what is this?]

Sen chuckled, allowing his mood to brighten. “Soon, this will be our new home, Tutor.” 

He looked to a stretch of land to his left. “I think we’ll build facilities for crafting there. We have the house for sleeping, of course, and we have enough land leftover in case we need to build anything else. Perhaps some appropriate lodgings where we can house spirits we form contracts with should the need arise. Xochi should certainly enjoy spending time here over the old temporal world, at least.” 

At the mention of his name, Xochi crawled out of Sen’s pocket and looked around with wonder. 

“But the best part is…” He held a hand up and a door appeared in front of him in mid-air. It was translucent, and he waved a hand through it to demonstrate that fact. 

[This technique is like the one the Cult of Harpis was using, isn’t it?]

“It is. It’s a spell we can teach to others, allowing our allies to come here freely.” Mori and Ilm could access this plane just as easily as he could now. He could place doors wherever he wanted, and only his allies would be able to activate and access them. Now wasn’t the right time, but one day he’d show them this place. 

Sen smirked. “Well, we should get back. We have a lot to do if we’re to be ready for next week.”

[About that, are you sure about this plan of yours? It’s…risky.]

Sen smiled and thought about the week ahead. 

Next week the fourth-year students would undergo their graduation duels. In that, he saw many opportunities. 

“It’s worth it,” he assured Tutor. The next few days would move quickly, so he wanted to build this place while he had time. His temporal world would be important in the days to come, and he could no longer risk relying on a broken version of it. His mind had already moved past the particular plan Tutor was worried about. Sen looked forward to something else entirely. 

He’d made a promise to Snake at the Brightsail Ball, one he intended to keep. 

Those who gathered in the stadium next week would be in for a number of surprises; of that, Sen was certain of that.