“There’s no more Extinction around here… What did you do? They simply disappeared almost as if they were never there in the beginning!”

  “I just sent them to the Void. But that’s literally and not only figurately.”

  No need to be that surprised, I think. It wasn’t anything to warrant such surprise as I simply made those Extinction particles “travel” between dimensions. Even if they are still active when I did so they are not strong enough to extinguish my magic, allowing my Void magic to do its job. By doing this, those particles won’t be able to gather more magic energy to themselves as the source that was supplying them with such, is now gone. One of the properties of the Void is that, just like I’m able to construct Void Constructs, I can also construct a new dimension, a Void Dimension in other terms. Basically, I forcefully moved those Extinction particles to the Void Dimension and once inside of it, they were gone in the very next instant. While the Void itself is different from Extinction, they have a few similarities. The biggest one is that they both “extinguish” whatever they come in contact with. Ah, although it seems I will have to explain this to Miranda as she seems curious about what I really did.

  Indeed, while the face mask hides the girl’s face, making it impossible for others to see how her eyes are expressing themselves, her body on the other hand, it’s more than able to express itself.

  “Since the Extinction particles were quite weak, by using the Void I’m able to forcefully move those particles between dimensions. Of course, having in consideration how dangerous these Extinction particles are, I moved them to a Void Dimension. Once there, since they cannot refuel themselves any longer, they quickly disappeared the next instance.”

  “So that’s what you did my Empress… For some reason I thought the Void was stronger than Extinction. I do understand that it will depend on the user in both realms but, the Extinction was created to destroy and only that.”

  She’s not wrong to think like that, just in the same way that someone who thinks that Hydro is stronger than Pyro. After all, Pyro’s weakness is in fact Hydro, so it makes sense to think in such a manner. Extinction is close to being, if not already the weakness of every single element out there in the world, I dare to even say those that have yet to be discovered. Every single property that Extinction has is to literally extinguish anything that comes in contact with, eradicate is another good word to express what it does. But what makes this even more terrifying and straight out a horror from a fairy tale it’s the fact that, while it’s extinguishing whatever it desires, it actually uses part of it to fuel itself so that it can keep going forward, either until it’s done or maybe even for eternity as it can actually spread itself around as its desires so require. The Void on the other hand, disperses whatever it comes in contact with and then consumes it afterwards. Just as the body is a representation of billions of molecules stuck together, what the Void does is breaking said connection, therefore the “disperse” term as part of those molecules that were forcefully disconnected, a good percentage of them are scattered to the world while the rest is consumed by the Void. The opposite of Extinction, the Void does not fuel itself as it’s doing its job meaning that only a part of a body can be dispersed and then consumed. Yet again, another opposition to the Extinction, the Void can also be used for several other actions such as creating. Ah, that does not make sense at all after all, how is it possible for something to destroy anything on its path to also be able to create anything that it so desires?

  But that’s the Void for you. The strongest element that was created by myself and that dummy.

  “You’re not wrong to think like that but, that’s exactly what happened. After all, with enough fire you can vaporize a whole ocean. It won’t be easy of course but the possibility is there. Though, enough of our chit chat, show me the fissure.”

  And so, both the girl and the Empress walk up towards where the fissure is.

  They don’t take long to reach the fissure and from what it seems, it still is tightly shut by those glass threads, ones that still seem sturdy enough to withstand the force that is being dealt to them as said fissure tries its best to reopen itself yet again. However, without help, proper help that is, it’s only a futile attempt from the fissure, one that is done naturally rather than having a will to be open. Just as a human naturally breathes, the natural state of a fissure is to be open as otherwise, it would not be one. But, once they are close enough the Empress quiets down completely, carefully inspecting the closed fissure. She brings her tender but also pale right hand towards her rather sharp chin while her left hand holds the elbow of the right arm. But this position only lasts for a few moments as it seems she thought of something as she faces the girl before doing anything.

  “Can you tell me where this will lead us to? Were you able to sense the other side? Something at all?”

  “No, my Empress, unfortunately I couldn’t sense anything past this point. When I tried to do so, the only thing that I could sense were the Shadows traversing the space, anything else and I simply didn’t get any feedback. It’s almost as if there’s nothing in there to give said feedback…”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Well, that’s exactly what happens. The “path” between universes is as empty as the abyss itself and the reason for such is because said path is in the middle of the Sea of the Universe. When you use the skill Magic Sense, there’s simply nothing to give you feedback because of this small factor.”

  It’s that simple but, there are ways to circumvent this inconvenience. What the skill Magic Sense does is simply send a signal in the form of a wave to the world around the user and depending on the user’s mastery of the skill, the strength, accuracy and of course range will vary. It first starts in the strongest form possible, slowly or not losing strength as it traverses through the space. Any time that hits anything with magic, it creates a secondary wave but one that will only travel towards the user, giving him all the information needed in the process. In the Sea of the Universe, thanks to the massive distance between universes it’s basically impossible for the skill to pick up anything. As there is a path between the universes it shouldn’t be the case but, the same ends up happening. Why? Two reasons, the first one is the most obvious, the distance between these two universes. It might be greater than the maximum range that the skill has, making this happen because of it. The second reason is because of the path itself and the fissures/openings/cracks and so on, whatever name they might have and their properties. Both might be caused by magic however; they are not made by such. They are a simple consequence of tearing the fabric of space itself and then creating a connection between universes. It’s that “simple”, a phenomenon that can be caused naturally or with magic. But as I mentioned, there is a way to find out where this path will lead us to.

  “More than I even, you understand how the skill Magic Sense works. You know well that, if there is anything without magic said skill won’t pick it up. Since the Shadows are made of magic, you were able to sense them; however, both the fissure and the path are not.”

  “That explains it then, why I was having such a hard time sensing anything besides them. Although, is there any way to know where this will lead us to? If we cannot sense it, how are we supposed to know without entering it? It might be a trap and we are walking directly towards it.”

  “While I doubt these ants are smart enough to prepare an ambush, you’re not wrong in thinking in such a manner. But the solution to this is much simpler than what you think. First, open the fissure.”

  Without hesitation at all, the girl opens the fissure. It was a simple process on her part, one where she gently cut the glass threads one by one, allowing for the fissure to slowly open itself as the “fact” that was forcing it to be closed is disappearing one by one. A few short seconds later, it’s fully open. One could expect this area to be instantly swarmed by Shadows and it’s more than evident that the Empress thought of the same as she has her right arm raised up, pointing with the palm of her tender hand directly towards it, ready for anything that could appear the very moment that the fissure was open. However, reality is often disappointing, meaning that nothing of that sort happened. Though, the girl quickly noticed her Empress action and with it, without saying a single word she also got ready for anything that might appear but since that didn’t happen, confusion fills her mind as with a simple usage of magic sense, she is able to sense absolutely nothing yet again.

  “Hmm, my Empress, is there something wrong? I cannot sense any Shadows inside of the path.”

  “I know that, but the moment you opened the fissure I was expecting for the Shadows on the other side to quickly enter it. Maybe they haven’t sensed that the fissure is open on the other side? Maybe they even closed it on their end?”

  That last part wouldn’t make much sense as if it was the case, the very reason for why this fissure is still here is because there’s a path and if that one disappears, so does the fissures in both sides. In this case, you cannot tear the fabric of reality without first creating a path for the other “side” as otherwise you are simply opening the “door” to the outside, to the Sea of The Universe. It’s much more likely that those ants haven’t noticed that the door is open but to be honest, it actually works to our advantage as we won’t have interference. What I will be doing is simple as since magic sense does not work here, we simply will have to scout by using physical means but in this case, neither I or Miranda will enter the fissure. By touching the fissure I’m able to already have access to the path and from there, in front of the palm of my hand by gathering a little bit of magic into it and since I’m already touching the fissure, the magic will actually appear inside of it rather than in the outside. A simple ball made of magic, one that is roughly with 10 or so centimetres in diameter, more than enough for what I’m about to do. Although, I should explain to her as she seems curious but also confused about what I’m doing.

  “Since it’s difficult for us to sense anything past this point, what we have to do to circumvent this is by using physical means. You can do this for example just like that little rat is doing or, by using a little bit of magic and then by having some sort of connection to it, you can figure out the end of this path.”

  “I can understand the first example as she’s using some sort of moving mirror or crystal ball. That alone allows her to physically see the space around the moving mirror. The second example however, I cannot understand what you mean by that.”

  “It’s much simpler than what you might be thinking but, I will explain it to you. By having a physical connection to anything that has magic, you can know how much magic said body has. There are a few ways to hide this but, those are the exceptions and not the rule.”

  “Not only that, with the correct amount of magic control you can then use said body as a means to traverse your magic through. In other words, rather than activating a magic circle in the palm of your right hand, you can do it in the palm of the left hand of the other person.”