Vastoth flew through the endless expanse of the Divine Realm, his humanoid form cutting effortlessly through golden clouds. His eyes narrowed with quiet focus as he suddenly froze mid-flight and hovered silently amid the clouds.
A faint, unfamiliar sensation brushed against his consciousness. He turned his head sharply to the right and narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on the distant horizon.
The horizon looked and felt subtly warped, as though the laws of space were bending unnaturally in that direction.
"What could be the source of this feeling?" he murmured, his voice laced with curiosity.
He hovered in silence for a minute, his mind racing with possibilities. It was rare that anything could disrupt his connection to the spatial laws.
His instincts told him to be cautious, but his curiosity was stronger than any hesitation. "I can't ignore this," he muttered to himself, his hand clenching slightly at his side.
"Whatever it is, it's powerful enough to distort the space of the Divine realm. It's worth investigating."
Without another word, he changed his course, turning sharply towards the source of the sensation. His aura flared briefly as he sped up, moving deliberately and precisely.
The closer he got, the more intense the feeling became, tugging at his very essence like a gentle but insistent force.
The vast expanse around him began to change subtly. The air grew dense, almost heavy, and faint ripples appeared in the space ahead, distorting his vision like heatwaves rising from the ground.
He slowed his pace, his cautious nature taking hold. "Whatever this is, it's not ordinary. could it be another primordial? Or maybe a powerful treasure?" he thought.
As he pressed forward, the sensation grew sharper, and the faint ripples transformed into visible distortions. Space itself seemed to twist and fold, revealing glimpses of something hidden just beyond the veil.
His eyes gleamed with anticipation, and he flew fast as he prepared to uncover the source of the mysterious sensation.
After a few minutes of flying, he arrived at the source of the sensation. What greeted him brought him to a sudden halt, his eyes widening in disbelief, and his mouth gasped.
A colossal mountain appeared before him, its sheer size commanding awe, but it wasn't the mountain itself that made Vastoth gasp.
His sharp eyes locked onto something far more extraordinary, something that defied even his vast understanding of the Space law and the divine realm.
He moved closer to the base of the mountain to see clearly, each of his steps cautious. His eyes narrowed and he saw chaotic space phenomena unfolding around him.
The air here shimmered with an unnatural clarity, and the very fabric of space seemed alive, twisting and bending in impossible ways.
One must know that even for someone like Vastoth, who has the deepest mastery of space laws, it is nearly impossible to twist the space of the divine realm this easily. But here, it twists and bends so easily.
Vastoth became completely absorbed in the spatial phenomena, his focus consumed by the mesmerizing distortions in the surrounding space. He could feel the laws of space so vividly that his understanding of them expanded—albeit slowly—faster than when he meditated alone.
But his trance was abruptly broken when the ground beneath him trembled, fractures spreading outward with startling speed.
Glowing fissures snaked across the surface like veins, each one pulsating with an ominous energy that seemed to resonate with the very fabric of the space.
As he stared at the fissures, analyzing their patterns, an overwhelming sense of danger gripped him. His instincts flared, a primal warning urging him to move immediately
He turned back sharply, his face pale with terror. Behind him, large shards of fragmented space rushed towards him, resembling jagged, broken mirrors.
They reflected warped images of the surroundings, some showing glimpses of distant stars while others showed terrifying voids.
Vastoth darted through the shards in hurried, fluid motions, his body weaving expertly to avoid the deadly fragments. Yet, despite his efforts, a small shard grazed his outstretched hand.
For a brief moment, he felt nothing, but then, as if the shard had passed through butter, his finger was severed cleanly. The missing piece vanished into the void, swallowed by the shard's fractured surface.
He landed abruptly, his breathing heavy. Beads of sweat formed on his brow, though he hadn't yet noticed the missing finger.
"If I had been a moment slower, I would have been injured," he thought, his heart still pounding from the narrow escape.
It wasn't until he sat down to examine himself that he realized the truth: his finger was gone.
His eyes widened in disbelief, and a shiver ran down his spine. Fear gripped him tightly, but a strange thrill coursed through his veins alongside the terror.
His lips curled into an uneasy smile as the tension in his chest shifted to something almost exhilarating.
"Imagine…" he muttered to himself, his gaze lifting to the mountain's peak.
A monolith stood there, its form both inconspicuous and unmistakable. "What I could uncover if I fully explored this place... or if I reached the top," he thought.
His eyes gleamed with equal parts dread and ambition, the flickering glow of the fissures reflecting in his gaze. Whatever lay ahead, Vastoth knew he couldn't turn back now.
He moved with measured caution, taking deliberate steps as he approached the base of the mountain. With every breath he took, the air mixed with divine energy shimmered more intensely, and the ground beneath his feet pulsed with unstable spatial energy.
Looking up, he saw that the mountain peak stretched far beyond his line of sight, towering even over his gigantic humanoid form.
But it wasn't the height that was the true obstacle between him and the monolith. It was the chaotic spatial phenomena swirling around it: unpredictable, volatile and far more dangerous than any climb.
With each step he took towards the mountain, the phenomena became increasingly erratic—fractures that twisted light itself, swirling vortexes of banishment and ripples in space that made the terrain seem both impossibly close and unfathomably distant.
He paused briefly, his eyes scanning his surroundings, analyzing each distortion. His instincts screamed at him to remain alert.
"The deeper I go, the more dangerous it becomes," he thought as his eyes lifted toward the peak of the mountain.
The faint outline of the monolith became slightly clearer now, its glowing patterns flickering faintly through the distortion.
With a determined look on his face, he rose into the air, ascending slowly. He flew with control, moving deliberately as he scanned the space around him for phenomena that could trap or harm him.
With each mile upward, new threats emerged—waves of fractured space curling outward like tidal surges and jagged shards drifting unpredictably, their edges gleaming like cosmic blades poised to slice through reality itself.
Nonetheless, Vastoth pressed forward, his focus unbroken, driven by the desire to uncover what lay at the peak.
After hours of relentless flight, Vastoth finally reached the peak of the mountain. The air was thick with chaotic divine energy, making every movement a struggle.
Dense and volatile spatial phenomena surged all around him. Each step forward was a calculated risk, as if reality itself were daring him to advance.
If he moved even slightly to the left, he would be greeted by jagged shards of fragmented space, and to the right, swirling space storms manifested, tearing and twisting space.
These phenomena appeared without warning, their randomness adding to the treacherousness of the journey.
Vastoth stopped briefly, closing his eyes as he fully activated his consciousness. He expanded it outward to scan for any shifts in the spatial currents.
His heightened awareness allowed him to anticipate where the next anomaly might arise, but even then, the unpredictable nature of the environment kept him on edge.
Slowly and methodically, he began to move toward the monolith. He took each step carefully, his body tense yet controlled as he navigated the chaotic spatial phenomena around him.
The towering monolith loomed closer, its glowing patterns clearer now, radiating a strange harmony amidst the surrounding chaos.
After hours of struggling, Vastoth finally approached the monolith. The chaotic spatial phenomena that had plagued his journey abruptly ceased, giving way to an eerie stillness that hung heavily in the air.
The area around the monolith appeared untouched and serene, as if existing in its own reality. The sharp shards, swirling storms, and warped distortions had vanished without a trace.
Relieved, Vastoth allowed himself a moment to breathe. The oppressive tension in his chest eased as he cautiously stepped closer to the monolith.However, something unusual occurred when the distance between him and the towering bluish monolith narrowed to about a mile.
No matter how far he walked, he didn't make any progress. There was no visible barrier or push; everything around him appeared unchanged. Yet the distance to the monolith stretched endlessly, as if space itself were warping to deny him.
With each futile step, frustration gnawed at his mind, and a creeping doubt began to whisper, "What if he was trapped in an endless illusion?"
He paused, frustration flickering across his face as he sat down on the marble-like ground. His blue eyes fixed on the monolith, glowing faintly with curiosity and determination.
For minutes, he contemplated the strange phenomenon, analyzing the structure and the forces at play.
After hours, he arrived at a conjecture: "The space surrounding the monolith is infinitely stretching, creating the illusion of infinite distance."
As if responding to his thoughts, a single line on the monolith's surface lit up, its glow cutting through the tranquil air.
The rest of the line remained dim except for a faint glimmer near the bottom. Vastoth studied it carefully, his mind racing.
"This must be tied to mastery," he murmured, his gaze now thoughtful. "The more one understands the laws of space, the more the line lights up. Perhaps… it reflects my own progress."
Curiosity drove him, and Vastoth extended his consciousness toward the monolith. What he discovered left him stunned.
The spatial laws surrounding it were unbelievably clear and straightforward, so much so that even someone with no prior knowledge of space would quickly become adept.
A rare smile crossed Vastoth's face, his excitement barely contained. "A place where space reveals itself so freely," he muttered. "This… this is a treasure beyond comprehension."
His earlier frustration was replaced with a sense of exhilaration. The monolith no longer felt like a challenge, but an opportunity, a gateway to perfecting the mastery of space itself; the infinite stretch of distance now felt less like a barrier and more like an invitation.