Moving to the center of the crater, Eldrian took out the Mov Crystal in one hand and the voidstone fragment in the other. Picturing Crystoi in his mind and imagining it reappearing before him.


    He followed Skepsi''s instructions, and luckily they appeared to be working. Eldrian immediately felt his mana being drained, flowing into the voidstone fragment.


    The drain was quite rapid, emptying Eldrian''s 3k physical mana in seconds. It then started to drain mana from the Mov crystal, using Eldrian as a conduit.


    The amount of flowing mana was so vast in quantity that Eldrian experienced a fierce pain simr to when the magic crystals pulled at his mana. Be it way back when he first learned magic, or his recent experience in Elomir.


    Gritting his teeth, Eldrian persevered. Used to the searing pain.


    In time, the voidstone—normally as dark as the void in the magic abyss—started to slowly give a soft, dark purple shimmer. Extremely dense andplicated engravings appeared around the fragment.


    Seeing this, Eldrian wondered why everything with extreme quantities of mana always appeared to be purple by color. Not for a second did he try to analyze the patterns. He would need a microscope to even try.


    Mov Crystals were almost ck in color—so dark was the purple. A magic stone instead had its own type of inner light, bringing life to the otherwise dark crystal.


    And a voidstone was pitch ck, like the void it was named after. But now, Eldrian started to see an inner light within the stone.


    It reminded Eldrian of when he had first seen a magic crystal. He had believed the inner light appeared like contained gxies.


    The more he learned of magic crystals, the more this appeared like a possibility—he considered them ck holes of magic—with mana making up the matter. And there were plenty of theories that ck holes spawn or contain alternate gxies or dimensions.


    As the shine grew, not in intensity, but as if it was altering the very nature of the fragment, it started morphing. Changing from a fragment around the size of his palm to a perfect cube—no, to more than a simple, perfect cube.


    Once it was done, Eldrian inexplicitly felt the same feeling he had towards magic stones when looking at the voidstone cube.


    The intricate engravings gave Eldrian the feeling that he could see into the cube. Like it was an item of a higher dimension—a tesseract, the four-dimensional analogue of a cube.


    ''Is this how dimensional storages work?'' Two asked.


    Eldrian didn''t reply. His focus was on the pull he was experiencing on his consciousness. It had started as a small nudge, but was now like a hurried friend trying to pull him along.


    Not wishing to go against whatever Skepsi had done to the voidstone to allow all this (and possibly cause a catastrophe), Eldrian obliged and followed along. As he did, his vision changed.


    Most everything around him disappeared. Though, if he tried, he could still make some things out. However, their appearance was such that Eldrian struggle to make anything out. The information his eyes and mind''s eye were giving him was giving him a massive headache.


    Instinctually, Eldrian tuned everything out but the voidstone tesseract. Its appearance no longer like one simply due to the engravings. But rather like it actually was a tesseract.


    Constantly fluctuating between forms. Eldrian had no idea what he was seeing, but in truth, it was a tesseract in rotation.


    To him, however, it appeared like the voidstone was morphing from one form to another constantly. Constantly changing form, yet he could see inside it as it did. At times, what he saw he could not describe, at other times it appeared like a normal cube, or a type of polygon, or a simple ball of light.


    The center (always changing) shone like the gxies inside the magic crystals. However, unlike with the magic crystals, this one appeared close at hand, like he could touch it if he reached out his hand.


    While struggling to make any sense of what he was seeing, Eldrian felt the pull nudging him to reach for the light.


    Somehow, heprehended that this was a unique ''space''. Something like the insides of dimensional storages, but much different at the same time.


    Reaching inside, instead of actually reaching, Eldrian felt like he was moving, or that the world around him was moving. He failed to make sense of anything until he was inside a cubic room.


    Perhaps a hundred meters in size, the pitch ck walls of the room gave off a soft purple hue. Not just allowing Eldrian to see, but also to take in his surroundings.


    —


    Solvi watched in rapt attention as Eldrian started channeling mana into the voidstone. When the engravings appeared, her attention was fully focused on them.


    That was why, when Eldrian disappeared, she didn''t notice until a few secondster when the Mov Crystal fell to the ground with a thud.


    Ceph, too, had been too enraptured by the voidstone changing shape to react before Eldrian suddenly disappeared. Immediately he tried to contact Eldrian, but to no avail. It was like his attempts were being blocked by some type of barrier.


    Rushing to where the voidstone floated, giving off extreme waves of mana, fear stopped Solvi from reaching out to the stone at thest second. While shecked the survival instincts of a warrior, she did have some natural instinct to avoid risk.


    Ceph, too, had stopped just before touching the stone. Unlike Solvi, he realized just how dangerous such an action would be, and quickly pulled the dwarf away. Already contemting calling to his parents for help.


    "Aren''t you worried!" Solvi cried in protest, yet she couldn''t bring herself to fight against Ceph, knowing that he was worried for her safety.


    "I-I..." Ceph faltered. Then he recalled the bond he and Eldrian shared.


    Focusing on this, he could feel that Eldrian was still alive. However, the bond felt distance. Much like when Eldrian was on Earth. It wasn''t as distant, but certainly more distant than when Eldrian was anywhere in the kingdom.


    "I believe he is still alive, at the very least." Ceph said, exining that he could still feel Eldrian through their soul bond.


    "You guys are soul bonded?!" Solvi asked in shock. She knew they were close, but not this close.


    "It''splicated." Ceph replied. Naturally, her shock was to be expected. It was not amon thing. Especially in recent centuries. However, during the height of all previous invasions, it is something far moremon—thought still only amongst the elites of the races.


    In times of peace, it was perhaps abnormal to soul bond with someone of the same sex—though, if Ceph truly wanted to, he could alter his form to a female.


    He would not, naturally. And it would only be an artificial modification. No child could be begotten from such an act—besides, he did not see Eldrian as a romantic partner.


    Regardless, during the heights of previous invasions, it wasmon to soul bond with your brother and sisters in arms. After all, it was one of the few ways to escape death when facing enemies who knew of resurrection and actively worked to counter it.


    Naturally, their side did the same to the devils. Luckily, devils could not soul bond with other beings. However, that did not make them inferior by any means.


    Their powerful bloodlines often helped them overpower their opponents, and in some cases (like Milgoroth''s) to escape from far stronger opponents.


    AN: Remember to leave ament and vote to show your support!


    :)