Staring at the void of darkness, Sylvester found himself speechless. 'What happened?' He was sure he didn't feel any spatial distortion, magic, or energy flaring up. So, how did the entire mountain seemingly teleport into nothing?
"S-Sylvester… what is this?" Even Empress Zenith seed to show hints of panic. "Where are we?"
"Certainly not ho," Sylvester replied and knelt down at the edge of the tunnel he had ford. He looked at the endless darkness and used Elder Magic to see the magic in the air. Sure enough, he noticed an endless sea of the sa black eel-like worms tangled everywhere.
'Chonky, do you feel sothing?' he asked, using Solarium Web to express his thoughts.
Miraj nodded strongly, 'Like my belly again, sa as before, Maxy. Where are we? It feels… nice.'
"Was this a trap?" Dalgan wondered.
Sylvester shook his head at that, "No, we're right where we belong. The only way to cross this endless dark space is to master spatial magic. Your previous empress wrote about this in the journal."
"It took more than a hundred years to learn what I do with spatial magic now. How will you master it to… cross an entire uncharted space? It's suicide," Zenith warned him.
Sylvester chuckled, "With the way things are, we're already headed towards suicide, Empress. Let's not waste ti. I need your help understanding your world's runes and magical sches. Teach everything you know so we can leave this place."
"Shouldn't I be the one to cross this space? It'd be faster for to lea—"
"It took twenty-six years to beco as strong as a Supre Wizard, and two more to break beyond that limit," Sylvester blurted to her face. "Besides, the thod she wrote involves more than magic that you can't simply learn without a thorough understanding of the basics."
"Forgive . I'm just worried about the Oracle. If we're too late…" She rubbed her face annoyedly and nodded, "What do you need to learn?"
"This," Sylvester took the book from Miraj and sat down in front of Zenith. He pointed at the magical formulas and the sches that were in the Demon World's language. "Help understand all of this."
Zenith frowned, staring at the other side of the page. "I don't think I know that part,"
"That's physics, don't worry about that." He steered her to focus only on the magical aspect, "Diana… I an, your previous Empress knowingly wrote this down for ."
Zenith nodded and silently began to look through the pages to understand what the whole scope of the written materials was. Sylvester even handed her pieces of paper and pen with the help of Miraj, and watched her write down magical runes in the shape of larger patterns. Sylvester already knew how to speak the Demon Realm language, but the written script was a different thing.
"It's mostly advanced magic. Even I don't know most of it, but I do know how to read it," Zenith said, her brows frowning underneath her helt. "I'll try my best, Sylvester."
"That will be sufficient, Empress."
"Just call Zenith… we're equals in stature, even if not might."
"Self-aware," Sylvester quipped. "Then let's begin, Zenith."
She placed a sheet of paper before Sylvester and began pointing. "These are the core shapes that make up the individual letters of my language. The runes are derived from these as well, and learning one will help you learn the other."
Like a little boy back in school, Sylvester learned the alphabet of the Demon World. Fortunately, it wasn't hard for him. However, the sa couldn't be said about a certain furry cat who tried to study as well.
Clearly, the alphabet lacked any ntion of bananas for him to retain it in his brain.
…
anwhile, back in the Empress' Palace, the Oracle paced back and forth in her room. It had been a month since the Empress left with the otherworlder, and the four Supre Commanders had begun to ask questions.
Knock! Knock!
"Oracle, open the door, or we shall break it! Where is the Empress?"
"We'll count to ten!"
The Oracle bit her lips and tried to find cover for herself. But what could even protect her from the four peak powerhouses of the world? So, at best, she found so cover behind a couch.
Boom!
The door was blown open to pieces. Four tall n in their regal cloaks entered with heavy steps. Their weapons held low as they searched the room for the Oracle.
"Co out, Oracle. Just tell us where the Empress is!" shouted Commander Koznox.
There was nothing she could do, so she rose from her hiding place and stared at the tall n. "The Empress went to a secret training session with the guest Lucifer."
Thud!
"We're late!" Commander Bakillan cried, falling to his knees in defeat. "We should have begged harder."
The Oracle speechlessly stared at the four n. She expected them to pounce on her and try to kill her like they always wished to. "What do you an, Commander?"
"We wanted to receive training from Sage Lucifer," Commander Jaek devastatingly added.
"I hope he'll return."
"How strong will the Empress be when she returns?"
At that mont, the Oracle realized sothing. The four Commanders were sothing much more than just heartless killers.
They were also muscleheads.
…
How long had it been? Sylvester had no clue. Since he and the Empress were in the realm of Supre Wizards, they did not need to sleep and rest. Continuously, Sylvester went from one goal to another, learning everything he could from the Empress.
Starting from the language and then to the runes. Once he was able to understand the runes, everything was easy since magic was mostly similar to what he had in his world. With minor changes, he made significant progress, and by combining it with the physics formulas that Diana had written, he felt like he could make the jump into space now.
'If we were back at ho, you would have received a Nobel prize, Diana. To create an entirely new theory and formula for space travel, explaining the breaking of the laws of physics and proving it—I'm in awe.' He sighed every single ti he looked at the physics side of the journal.
"Are you sure you don't want to train more? You only learned to read it," Zenith asked, seeing him getting prepared to make the jump.
"I don't have the luxury of spare ti, Zenith. If I don't end this trip here quickly, I might not have a ho to return to," Sylvester explained, taking out tal chains from the Chonky Bank. "Tie them to your wrist. If I lose you while traversing space, you might be lost forever."
"Give another," Zenith blurted.
"I don't even care." Suicidal Dalgan was still the sa as ever.
Sylvester quickly gathered all the things they had used over the unknown ti spent there and tied Miraj to his chest with a harness. It confused the other two about what he was doing, but they didn't bother asking.
There was nervousness, but Sylvester didn't show it on his face.
"Do you have the coordinates of my or your world?" asked Zenith.
Sylvester shook his head rather casually. "I don't have a reference point to calculate them. For now, the thods of calculations are useless. They can only help set up a destination that is in line of sight."
"Then how are we going to return ho? I don't suppose going straight from here will get us to my world." Zenith started to doubt if following this plan was the right thing to do. "Maybe we should plan more."
"Nothing will co from doing that. We have no point of reference, no matter what we do. But I do have sothing in mind… Just trust ." Sylvester walked to the edge of the tunnel he had built and closed his eyes.
Opening himself up to magic, he utilized elder magic to look around at the countless eel-like creatures. Currently, they were blocking everything in front of him. In the suitable case, there was supposed to be a tunnel between them.
'A point of reference.' He tried to focus on sothing that he himself wasn't particularly sure about. 'If my mory serves right, I did experience spatial travel before. It should be enough as a point of interest.'
Minutes passed, and then hours went by. Silently, Sylvester remained standing in one place, unmoving like a dead man. Dalgan and Zenith also remained silent the whole ti. As for Miraj, he was snoring in the harness.
"Hmm?" Sylvester reacted all of a sudden and opened his eyes, looking left and right. "Did you hear that voice?"
"What voice?" Dalgan exclaid, as this was precisely what Sylvester had asked when traveling to the Demon World.
Sylvester shook his head and tried to focus. "I-It's the voice of a child. Speaking human tongue."
He focused on it again and heard the words much clearer this ti.
'I'm hungry… Why did Roger hit ?'
Sylvester was now confident that it was the voice of a child—possibly five to nine years old, but certainly not more than ten—a girl from the mannerisms and the changes in pitch. But the content of those words took him by surprise.
'Ah, my hands. It's so painful… why won't he give a brush to wash the dishes?'
Sylvester took a leap of faith and stepped forward while keeping his focus on the voice. He was strong enough to easily pull the two behind himself and floated in the sea of black invisible eels.
But Sylvester could see the tunnel-like path the eels were creating for him. The more he focused, the farther and faster they moved through space.
'Is God real?'
By that point, Sylvester had no clue what this girl was even going through. It seed like abuse.
'If I'm a good girl, will my wish co true?'
Faster and faster, he felt his comprehension of spatial magic rising with each mont. The voice of the girl felt like it was getting closer as well.
'Then, can I have tasty food? An-and lots of sweets… No, no… forget that, I want a big brother, or father… I wanna go ho… I… don't wanna run anymore… please…'
Utterly shocked, Sylvester felt scent through ti and space. So much sorrow and depression that he could taste the foul scent of rotten at. Hopelessness, fear, hunger.
"Who are you, girl?"
_________________
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