Two translucent and pearlescent lines appeared in mid-air. The separation process took time as Elijah felt resistance, but eventually, in between the two parallel lines, was an undefinable space. A void of nothingness, similar to below the whirlpool, and was slowly becoming a deeper black as the lines separated.
In the background, Abel had his crooked eyes wide open in disbelief. Part of him wanted to stop the potential catastrophe that was about to occur, but another part of him was curious. "Keep going!"
Sweat was beading down Elijah's forehead, and eventually a three by three square of absolutely nothing was created — situated between two lines of space. A rock was thrown into the empty space, and started to disappear before it even touched the hole. Cracking noises began to radiate from the square, and shortly followed with the space filling back into the environment.
"What the hell have you just created kid?!!"
"Uhm… You might not know what that was, but I think I just created a temporary black hole." Elijah was confused as he thought about the void. The void did not absorb anything it touched like his spell just did. So what exactly is the void?
"Temporary black hole?"
"Yes. A black hole is like a rip in the fabric of space, only usually it acts as a vacuum that pulls everything into it as it gets bigger. Once a blackhole is made, it cannot be destroyed…"
Abel threw his head back in astonished ment. "So you're telling me you just created a blackhole that can disappear?"
"Yes. I'm not sure if I will use that spell until I am stronger. It was difficult to separate the space, but even more difficult to keep the space separated. Even while manipulating the environment… I think I used over half of my mana capacity…"
The spell was fascinating for Elijah, but at his current strength, It is impractical to use this spell. One good thing did come from this. He is only a red core, and is not limited to basic spells. This isn't the case for anyone else. Especially for Raylen when he condenses fire into a beam of energy. The fire can only condense so much with his quality of mana. If he had an orange or yellow core, he could make full use of its power. A literal railgun fueled by fire!
Or perhaps, the spell was nothing more than a loophole in the progression of magic. Black holes were never supposed to exist if these elements are what make up the physical world.
The question was, what were the limits for someone at the cyan core level? Maybe our imagination isn't strong enough to reach those limits. Or maybe anyone with a cyan core just needs more experience, experience of almost incomprehensible events.
Elijah gave Abel an update on the status of the kingdom, and mainly complained about the food shortages that were bound to happen. Based on what the outside looked like, and taking into account the horrible weather, It would be a lot more than three months until the wall is retaken…
Elijah left by flying into the whirlpool.
The current took him by surprise as he didn't realize how tired he was by expending so much mana, which gave him whiplash after exiting the whirlpool.
Finding the entrance he flew into was extremely hard, and made Elijah curse out loud for over half an hour. It was daytime and there was no choice but to find the entrance.
By closely observing the inner city, he was able to determine where the west side was, then took a couple of trips in the whirlpool while riding the wall. What he was looking for was a cave that was not lit by anything, but lights faintly glowing in the distance on the right side of the entrance when looking at the walls.
Elijah began to jump up and down while shaking off his body, and decided to jog for as long as he could on the way back. There were a whole lot more people walking around the residential area of The Catacombs, as well as multiple large carriages taking hunters to the point of crossing.
The streets and buildings outside were overcrowded as usual, but not as much as the mountainside. All farmers were also commoners, and lost most of their belongings. Now they live in the cheapest parts of the inner city, and the residential areas of The Catacombs.
Elijah walked through the grand wooden door, and was greeted by George who was on his way out of the estate. "Elijah! Novius and Alexia were looking for you. I am heading to a magitech gathering, so I won't be back until after dinner time. Have a good day!"
Elijah said his goodbyes, and greeted his mother.
"Elijah! That's good to hear and all, but I have a surprise for you!" Phloria walked in for a tight hug.
Don slowly walked around the corner while pushing his wheelchair. "Hey son."
Elijah heard the resentment in his voice, and responded in a grateful way. There was absolutely no reason for Elijah to hate his father for the way he acted towards him since he knew the reason. "Oh… You are walking. Are you Recovering faster now?"
"Yes. I am, although it's only a temporary solution. Please don't tell anyone."
"What do you me–." Elijah stopped his voice as he realized what his father was doing.
He was injecting the pure mana in his core to his body, which would technically give him more strength and allow him to walk without the need for nerve endings being activated, albeit, at a cost.
"I know what you are doing. Please stop father. You don't need to hurt yourself just because you are in a rush. I know you want to contribute to the kingdom, and rejoin the hunters, but you must recover. I will not tolerate anyone I love dying." The last sentence felt fake to Elijah the moment he said it. He didn't understand why.
"How do you know what I am doing? How do you know what I am feeling?!" Words of confusion, then anger came from Don's mouth.
There was nothing he could do, so he decided to walk away as his mother tried to stop him, but resided in hugging Don as she led him to sit down.
Many thoughts ran through Elijah's mind. 'Why was Don acting like this? It can't be just because he wants to heal, and help the kingdom again. It can't be just because he feels like he is a waste of resources.'
Julian was in the living room and heard the conversation become heated, and joined in after Elijah left.
Knock Knock
"Come in…" Novius was seen tinkering with metal scraps. "Oh, hey Elijah. Where did you go after the hunter guild?"
"To the whirlpool." Elijah didn't lie to Novius, but also didn't tell the full truth. Based on his suspicion there is a reason why everyone in the kingdom believes there is no life outside the walls, keeping quiet about a mystery underneath the whirlpool is best, for now.
"Ha! I knew you did something like that. Right now Alexia is bathing, and I am finished up on an addition for her staff. Something that can be recalled to her, and attached to the end of her staff." Novius said while using a special looking pen to draw a rune onto a pointed spike.
"Wow! That's impressive, and based on how it looks I can guess how she will use it!"
"Honestly, it is a really simple magitech piece that has only taken me less than a day. I just had to have Harry's father fabricate my drawing since it is a little complicated for a red core mage. I am finishing the runes right now."
The spike that Novius was drawing a rune on was one of two, and the spike would attach to the end of Alexia's staff to give her more damage potential. When the spike is inserted into a beast, the rune can be activated to push the spike forward, and then can be recalled to the exact position as when it was connected. Metal runes are quite powerful with the element of magnetism. Essentially, an attachment for her spear that allowed her to draw blood.
"Novius, how are these runes created?"
First, a confused expression appeared on his face, but followed with contentedness. "I'm sorry, you grew up in the outer region. Magitech is less prevalent there. First off, almost every runic symbol the kingdom uses has been found in different places of The Catacombs. Thankfully, we are very smart and have found similarities in the aspects of runes, allowing magitech guilds like my father's to create new runes never found before. My father calls it, 'Trial and Error'."
This knowledge was something Elijah should've asked about earlier on, however, it was absolutely necessary. Runes were never used for hunter-related equipment with the kingdom's focus being on developing the magic of the individual.
'That name… is rather befitting of the process. Perfectly named.'
"Does that mean the invisible runes you created were not because of a rune being found in The Catacombs, but an idea you created yourself?"
"Yes!" Novius practically dropped to his knees as if waiting for this moment a long time ago. "I came up with the idea myself after studying the light runes my father made. We never even found the light rune inhabiting the chandeliers of the estate, but made it simply through trial and error! Honestly… I'm not sure how I was able to come up with the idea, but it turned out to be a success after just a few days of trial and error!"
"You are truly something Novius. I may be on the path to ultimate strength, but you will be by my side as someone with a mind of equal value."
"Haha! That is exactly my intention! I want to pave a new path for the people of Astraea by inventing better equipment fueled by magical runes. The only problem is the blackrock required to create the runes. Miners sacrifice their life every day for the sake of travelling to depths never seen before. There is a rock we call 'blackrock' that is extremely brittle, and acts as a medium for the rune to come to life. When mana is pushed into the rune for the first time, the rock stabilizes into a nearly indestructible rune… I fear that we will run out of ways to mine that rock, leaving us to rely on everything we have at the moment…"
This fact didn't come as a surprise to Elijah. He knew runes had to be more than just writing a symbol on a piece of metal. Already, he knew each symbol had to be perfectly accurate with only small deviations for a rune to come to life.
"Let's continue to grow stronger together, Novius. Who knows, maybe the unexpected will occur, leading to the discovery of a nearly limitless amount of blackrock."
Clasp!
Elijah and Novius' hand tightly gripped each other in the forming of a new level of brotherhood.