Her mind worked quickly to decipher why he would do such a thing. But it wasn’t fast enough because not even halfway through her conjecture, he appeared with his hands clasped together.


    Tswii!


    Her eyes widened when she felt the insanely concentrated energy melding together as he brought his hands together in front of him.


    zu zu zu zu Zu Zu Zu Zu ZU ZU ZU ZU ZU ZU


    There were crackles of lightning as the concentrated energy shook violently due to a need for a release. And the redhead would give it.


    “[Sunset Flash!]”


    Ka..DRUUUUUUUUU!!!


    .


    |DxD|


    .


    With golden energy rushing out of his hands, a massive blast wave rushed towards the clones like a giant thruster of flames. This distance between Igor and the army of clones was just barely over a kilometre…which was very unfortunate for the clones.


    With his attack having been fully charged, the massive energy wave reached the clones before many even had the chance to barely turn around.


    BOOOM!


    “HaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA!”


    Channelling more ki into the attack, Igor had absolutely no qualms painting the sky gold. The blast expanded up to several kilometres in diameter alone, making it look like a giant fiery golden sword from a distance.


    DRUUUUUUUUuuuuuuu…..


    After over ten seconds of constantly painting the sky golden, Igor gradually reduced the output of ki until he finally cut off the ki supply to the attack.


    “...”


    Although his arms still tingled a bit from discharging such a large amount of ki at once, Igor did not dare let his guard down. He could feel that several energy signatures had locked on to him, but he couldn’t figure out where they were.


    [Did they hide in the Teleportation Zone?]


    He wouldn’t put it past his clones to pull such a move. Given how wide the blast was, it was the only move the clones could make since their bodies would immediately dispel if they tried to block it.


    But still, hiding in the Teleportation Zone like that was an idiotic move. This was just proof that their general intelligence was a bit (severely) lacking. After all, clones have no self-preservation.


    And like he guessed, it didn’t take long before multiple signatures that were locked onto him shattered.


    “Stupid clones got lost.”


    Feeling the threads subtly connected to him vanish by the hundreds, it served to prove his guess that as the clones stayed longer and longer in the Teleportation Zone, the chaotic space inside would affect their ability to maintain the connection they tethered to the original.


    [Teleporting like that without preparing? Of course they’d get stuck there.]


    Grumbling with his arms crossed, Igor was annoyed at the fact that this fight he was having was cut off when things were just starting to get fun.


    “Damnit. Should I have stuck to just physical skills?”


    With his eyes closed in thought, Aurelia did not utter a word to disturb him. Having given him a few metres of space, her magic circles still rotated ominously. The silverette was not even focused on Igor. Her scribbling was furious as she recorded all the findings transferred to her through the magic circles.


    From the power of Igor’s blast, to its after-effects, nothing was left behind.


    [Lord Igor is truly powerful and continues to grow stronger. As I write this, I can feel that the fabric of space in this very vicinity will be volatile for the next minute or so, making standard teleportation nigh-impossible.]


    She was not off the mark. If normal ki had been used, nothing would’ve happened. But since his [Sunset Flash] was powered by demi-ki, the density of the energy was able to briefly warp space, causing a few minor fissures and tears that would destabilise any normal teleportation magic.


    It was only due to this environment being the time chamber that the fabric of space here was especially strong. Were this to happen on Earth, crackles of lightning would’ve been a common occurrence as the fabric of reality slowly repaired itself.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    But Igor couldn’t care less about the effects of his technique.


    [Should I chase after them?]


    He was more concerned with his next course of action. To even consider such a decision, it could be seen that the redhead was under the influence of battle lust. Like a hungry lion that had its gazelle snatched away, he was equally anxious and wanted to resume the fight as soon as possible.


    [Although the space there is chaotic, they should manage to hold on for a few minutes before they dispel.]


    The idea he had in his head was a massive risk. If he couldn’t find a way out of the colourful dimension, he would be stuck in there forever. Without an energy signature to lock onto, the Instant Transmission would become useless.


    “...”


    Taking a deep breath, the blonde opened his eyes.


    “I’ll do it anyway!”


    Gruu!


    Powering up, the blonde clasped his hands together like he was holding a ball. Slowly…


    Crack…Crack…Crack…crackle…crackle..crackle.crackle crackle crackle


    …a dense ball of swirling red energy formed between his hands. It was small, barely the size of a tennis ball. But gradually…


    Zuuuu….


    …under his nurture, the ball grew bigger and bigger until it was finally the size of a watermelon.


    “Haaaaa…”


    Letting it hover on his hand, Igor looked at his creation with a trace of sweat on his face. Compared to some of his more generic attacks, it paled in comparison in terms of attack efficiency. But that wasn’t the point of its creation.


    With the unblemished red sphere slowly rotating above his hand, he removed his hand from under it and let it hover by itself.


    “If this backup measure is here, it should give me a strong enough signal that will allow me to return here.”


    Placing two fingers to his forehead, the blonde grinned.


    [I’ve never fought in the Teleportation Zone before, but I bet it’ll be fun.]


    Tswii!


    With the blonde vanishing, Aurelia was left alone with her notebook and a dozen magic circles hovering around her. She was confused why Igor suddenly vanished, but was not overly concerned.


    “I wonder what he’s up to now.”


    Looking at the orb that he had simply left behind, her interest gradually rose up.


    “...”


    She tried to restrain herself, but with a ripe chance to analyse his demi-ki in full detail like this, she couldn’t bring herself to relinquish it.


    “Well…a little analysis wouldn’t hurt.”


    Su!


    Instantly appearing in front of the sphere, her magic circles hovered around the sphere like cameras, her observation magic working overtime to analyse this strange sphere. As dignified as she tried to be, she could never fully restrain herself when it came to a subject that interested her.


    [For him to leave it like this, it is obviously not an attack.]


    Like an inquisitive scientist, she looked all around the sphere, her mind processing the input she gained from the magic circles.


    [The makeup of this sphere was definitely not created from the perspective of attacking. The vibrational frequency makes it more similar to a ball of air than a sphere of destruction.]


    Bringing her finger close to it, nothing happened.


    [Even if a normal human were to touch it, nothing would happen. In fact, there may be some advantageous benefits. It does however contain a large amount of energy organised in a structurally self-reliant manner. If it is like this, it should maintain itself for the next…oh?]


    Receiving additional input from one of her magic circles, the sudden change in findings surprised her.


    [It’s already burning its own energy? How fascinating. Was Igor trying to recreate something similar to the Sun? But for what reason…?]


    From the massive amounts of demi-ki that the sphere was slowly releasing, she could already tell that at this rate, it wouldn’t even last five minutes before it burnt itself out.


    “Such a short duration. Finding the opportunity to study Igor’s ki in detail doesn’t come very…often.”


    It was then that slowly, the dots started to connect in her head. It had been a few years since Igor caused trouble, so her vigilance against him had become lax. But with his sudden action, her mind that had been in hibernation slowly woke up.


    “This is pure demi-ki that is not structured to attack. It releases high amounts of energy at a constant rate and will only last for a few minutes. Disregarding the health benefits, this does not fall into the category of offensive techniques. In fact…this behaves more like a distress beacon.”


    As she delved deeper into her prognosis, her eyes slowly widened.


    “No…”


    Not all the clones were dispelled. She could still feel their existence, and she knew where they were. With one of her circles having caught the brief multitude of spatial fluctuations, she knew they had used the Instant Transmission.


    And since they did not appear anywhere else, there was only one location they could be in.


    [The Dimensional Gap…]


    Those minor details that she ignored played back like a reel in her head. His sudden frustration and him suddenly vanishing after leaving this orb, this orb that would act like a beacon.


    All of this pointed to one thing.


    “Damnit!”


    If her guess was right, then Igor was going to fight the clones who also most likely fled to the Dimensional Gap*. And if he went to the Dimensional Gap, then it would make sense for him to leave this orb here, because he was relying on it to come back.


    “Damnit, Igor!”


    Cursing her heart out, Aurelia was much more frustrated than normal. This wasn’t the same as him lifting extremely heavy weights under extremely high gravity while also wearing heavy weights.


    This wasn’t the same as him trying out a technique that could potentially cripple him if he failed to execute it.


    This wasn’t the same as him stealing a batch of clone scrolls and fighting a dozen clones while blindfolded with his arms tied behind his back.


    This was entirely different because, she wasn’t there this time. If something went wrong, she wouldn’t be able to help him. If this sphere fizzles out and he hasn’t returned by then…


    “No…”


    Drip…Drip…


    She didn’t want to think such things.


    “He’ll return, Aurelia.”


    She could only hope that he came back.


    “He’ll definitely return.”


    Standing quietly next to the sphere, her heart tightened.


    “He…he has to.”


    Besides the sphere fizzling out, she didn’t want to think of the more grievous scenarios.


    “Please…”


    .


    AN


    .


    <ol>


    <li>If her guess was right, then Igor was going to fight the clones who also most likely fled to the Dimensional Gap*</li>


    </ol>


    Explanation: In case anyone hadn’t figured it out yet, the Teleportation Zone is the Dimensional Gap.


    If you’re interested in reading ahead, here’s the link:  <u>[email protected]/HolyGambler</u></a>