Book 9 - To The End Of The World Chapter 11
Journey Into The Void
The powerful ability of the third level islands left many of the visiting lords red-eyed. These zones could be cut out of special elemental planes, or even the abyss and hells. Such places could be used as training grounds, resource farms, or even just a beachhead to start draining the target plane dry. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to acquire this place even if the brand wasn't tied to the individual. How were they supposed to chase out a family they didn't even dare to fight when they were supposed to?
Once he'd given the tour, Richard sent these lords back and allowed his rune knights to camp on the island. The butler had already set off to prepare a contingent of masons and mages; once a suitable place was built, he would station a hundred rune knights here to act as a permanent defensive force. At the same time, he planned to move Fuschia back from Alice's side, having her act as the guardian of this island. Waterflower would be sent over in her stead, assisting Alice against tougher individual opponents. His other followers would return to Faelor, while a large number of rune knights would return to their original stations as well/
Once everything was organised, he packed his bags and put his three divine weapons in their spatial sheath, proceeding to the royal island to look for Apeiron. He had to walk through nearly a thousand masons and mages that were busy clearing the debris and fixing any spell formations; it would take a while to rebuild the palace.
Apeiron was waiting in her lonely residence, her restlessness clear the moment he laid eyes on her. She jumped up as she saw him, saying icily, "I'm ready, you?"
"Same."
"Drink this first," she tossed a small vial to him.
Richard caught the vial, shock crawling up his face as he opened and sniffed it, "Ice dragon?"
"Mm, I had one myself."
The elixir of an ice dragon was extremely rare, and its functions were comparable to those of a flame potion. It granted its owner the ability to control the laws of ice for a few days, also granting near immunity to the element and adding frost energy to any attacks. Most importantly, ti could greatly enhance one's understanding of ice laws, something that was especially true for Richard whose analyses were already mind-numbingly quick.
Any potion that could enhance one's laws was immensely useful, but Richard opened the vial and gulped it down without so much as a thanks. He knew that this expedition would be very dangerous, so he wouldn't stand on ceremony. The Eternal Vortex was an infamous danger zone in the void, and he would be entering it during his first foray into void exploration. He would have to make up for his lack of experience with every ounce of power he could muster.
As he sat down to meditate, wisps of cold air were emitted from his body. The temperature of the hall quickly dropped until a layer of frost formed on the walls, enhancing some of the cracks that had been formed by their earlier battle.
A while later, his eyes shot open, "Let's go."
Apeiron nodded her head, walking to Richard's side and hesitating for a moment before grabbing his hand. He drew an outline in the air with the other one, dragging her through a portal into the endless dark.
When they turned around, Norland had turned into a resplendent star. One could barely make out the outlines of three continents through the crystal walls, floating amidst the endless sea. This was the first time Richard had witnessed this magnificent sight, and after a few minutes of basking he built a new portal and walked through.
......
Portal after portal brought the two thousands of kilometres away at a time, taking them into the depths of the void. Apeiron demonstrated how warriors travelled between planes during the long journey, using her energy to tense the void and send herself bouncing a thousand kilometres away. Her travel speed was even a little higher than his, but her means also consumed a lot more energy.
Richard's title from the Eternal Dragon started proving its worth even more. Every portal of his could take him more than a thousand kilometres forward, vastly superior to the few hundred an ordinary legendary mage could manage. His energy consumption was almost negligible as well, to the point that Apeiron quickly gave up on travelling herself and just clung onto him as he shuttled them through.
The void was anything but empty. It seemed from Norland to be a black curtain with thousands of stars upon it, but each of these stars was an individual plane that could be reached with enough travel. In theory, there wasn't even a need for the coordinates from the Eternal Dragon to move between planes, but even the closest plane to Norland would take Richard weeks to get to at his fastest speed. The furthest planes could take years.
The most prevalent threat in the journey was the chance of terrifying energy storms, popping up out of nowhere and threatening to wipe out their barriers. There were also enormous screens of light that wriggled around, and Apeiron had him detour quickly every time they came across one. These screens didn't look large, but they spanned tens of thousands of kilometres and took dozens of ports before one could escape. Some were slow and others were fast, but they were all deadly even to epic beings. These screens were formed by the collisions of multiple energy storms, and whenever they were caught in one Richard had to teleport himself and Apeiron back to his demiplane for shelter.
The demiplane was the core of what mages superior explorers. Whenever they were tired of moving, they could just use their soul connections to leave a mark in their location and port back home, giving them time to rest and recover. They could thus resume their travels once they were rested.
Richard had built a small hut in his demiplane, storing food and some necessary materials. However, the place was tiny compared to those of other mages, to the point that pathetic was an accurate descriptor.
"Why is it so small?" Apeiron asked during their first visit, but just as those words came out she cried out in surprise and pulled a rock out of the ground, "Wait, is this elemental earth?"
"Yep," Richard nodded, prompting a look of surprise. An entire demiplane made of elemental earth was invaluable; those of most other mages were simply built from natural minerals. With this knowledge, his demiplane was actually too big, not too small.
Richard headed into the hut to get some food, using the liquid from the mana pools as water. This allowed the two to recover quickly, meditating for only a few hours before they returned to peak condition and could embark on their journey once more. When they returned to the energy storms, they separated and went their individual ways. While he teleported into the distance, she bounced through the void while flickering in and out.
About midway through their travels, Richard and Apeiron chanced upon a plane that was covered in raging flames. The crystal walls had already been broken, and the fire was so hot that no living beings could survive. The two sensed tyrannical auras from within, coming from a few strange and ferocious beasts, but as those beasts approached the flaring of their own auras quickly repelled them. The beasts panicked and retreated slowly, scrambling away once they were far enough.
"They're kind of like space pirates, they probably destroyed this place," Apeiron explained.
"Let's... Ugh, forget it, we don't have time," Richard glared at the beasts and turned away, forming the next portal.
Even the supposedly empty sections of the void weren't completely free of danger. There were occasional black holes in the area, threatening to absorb anyone who dared get too close. They could at least sense the larger ones and avoid them in time, but the smaller ones were especially dangerous; whenever Richard's portals ended up too close to one, it would take great effort to free themselves of its pull. Thankfully, black holes were an embodiment of the interaction between order and chaos; Richard could use his divine spells to neutralise them and escape.