Chương 428: B6 - Chapter 48: Brand new world

One moment, Zeke was immersed in the spiritual plane, pushing against the immovable will of the cube. The next, he found himself staring at the dim glow of the artifact resting in his hands. His breath came in short, uneven bursts, and a deep, lingering fatigue settled into his bones. What had just happened had drained him—not just physically, but on a level he couldn't quite define. Wait… dim glow? Then, he felt it. A presence—faint yet undeniable—lingering at the edges of his awareness.

It was not a voice, nor a thought, but something deeper. A connection. It was subtle, like an unseen thread woven into the core of his being, binding him to the cube in a way he had never experienced before. Slowly, he turned it over in his hands, his fingers tracing the intricate etchings along its surface. No longer did it feel cold and unyielding, an inscrutable puzzle meant to keep him at bay. Instead, it pulsed softly—almost imperceptibly—as if responding to his touch.

For the first time since acquiring the artifact, it was no longer an unresponsive enigma, repelling his every attempt to decipher its secrets. More than that—it seemed to be... listening. That was the only way he could describe the strange sensation. Zeke forced himself to stay calm. Rushing in blindly had brought nothing but frustration before. This time, he needed to proceed with caution.

"Alright," he murmured, steadying his thoughts.

"Let's see what you can do." He reached out with his mana. Unlike before, there was no battle of wills, no cold defiance from the artifact. The connection between them had solidified. The moment he willed it, something deep within the cube responded. A trigger had been pulled. Yet, instead of panic, Zeke felt an overwhelming sense of rightness. It wasn't an attack, nor a trap—it was an invitation. He chose to trust it.

A ripple of energy surged through him, foreign yet strangely familiar, as if it had been waiting for him all along. Then, space warped. Waves upon waves of spatial mana erupted from the cube—more than he had ever put into it, more than he had ever had to begin with. It was as if an ocean had been compressed within the artifact, now unleashed in a flood of raw power. At least ten times his entire mana reservoir surged outward, gathering into an intricate formation above the pool.

The air itself twisted, bending in ways that defied natural law. A deep hum resonated through the chamber, vibrating in his very bones. Then, with a final pulse of energy, reality tore open. Before him, a portal materialized. Light and shadow swirled at its edges, an impossibly intricate weave of spatial magic unlike anything he had ever encountered. Zeke barely had time to process the sheer scale of what he was witnessing.

This wasn't some crude teleportation circle or the structured gateway spells he was familiar with. No—this was space itself, bent and reshaped with effortless mastery. It was a level of magic that should have been beyond reach. His heart pounded. If the cube could do this, then he had only begun to scratch the surface of its true potential. Taking a steadying breath, he stepped forward and crossed the threshold. The transition was seamless. No sudden lurch, no disorienting shift.

One moment, he stood in his chamber; the next, he was somewhere else entirely. A boundless expanse of white stretched in every direction, infinite and featureless, like a blank canvas awaiting its first brushstroke. Zeke turned back. The portal remained open behind him, revealing the chamber of the Alexandria as if through a perfect window. Beyond that, he could even see the world outside, still moving past as the ship sailed on.

The view was surreal—his physical world framed like a mere picture in the vast nothingness of this space. Other than the portal itself, there was nothing here. No walls, no floor, no sky—only an endless void of soft, glowing white. A weaker mind might have crumbled under the sheer strangeness of it all. But Zeke was more impressed than frightened.

"A stable portal," he murmured, experimentally pushing his hand through the threshold before retracting it. This shouldn't be possible. Every book he had ever read on Space Magic insisted that stable, permanent portals were a theoretical impossibility. But here it was, defying every known law. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. A slow smile spread across his face. He turned back to the vast expanse before him.

Time to see what other secrets the cube had in store. Zeke took a cautious step forward, then another—but before he could take a third, an unseen force halted him in his tracks. It wasn't a wall or any physical barrier, but something subtler, more elusive—an invisible boundary pressing against him, restricting his movements. Frowning, he reached out with his senses, probing the edges of his confinement. Almost immediately, the space responded.

Thin, glowing lines flickered into existence, etching themselves into the floor in a perfect square around him, as if acknowledging his curiosity. That was… unexpected. He had only meant to test the limits of this strange realm. How had it reacted so directly? It was almost as if— Realization struck. This space wasn't just passive. It was responding to him. His heart pounded as he decided to test a theory. Closing his eyes, Zeke envisioned a sunlit meadow—a place pulled from the depths of his memory.

Rolling fields of wildflowers, golden under a clear blue sky. The crisp scent of fresh earth, the distant rustle of trees. Feldstadt. One of his favorite spots near home. His parents had taken him and his sister there when they were young, and the image had never faded. It was as vivid in his mind now as it had been then. When he opened his eyes, his breath caught in his throat. The void was gone. Sunlight streamed down in golden rays. Wildflowers swayed in a phantom breeze, their petals vibrant with life.

The air was thick with the scent of summer—warm, fresh, real. Even the distant rustle of leaves whispered through the landscape, exactly as he had imagined it. Zeke let out a slow breath, half in awe, half in disbelief. The implications were staggering. If he could shape this space with nothing but thought, then what were its limits? How much of it was truly under his control? Time for some experiments. Zeke pictured a bar of gold appearing in his hand. Nothing. Next, he imagined a bucket of water. Still, nothing.

Interesting. He shifted tactics, focusing instead on something that already existed within the space. He envisioned the distant stream altering its course, redirecting it to pass by his current location. This time, the space responded. A moment later, cool water lapped at his feet, the cheerful gurgling of the stream filling the air. That worked, huh? Crouching down, Zeke scooped up a handful and took a sip. The water was crisp and clean, just as he remembered from his childhood visits to the countryside.

Real water, not some illusion or hollow construct. This was getting more intriguing by the second. For the next several minutes, he immersed himself in experimentation, pushing the boundaries of what he could influence. Every discovery led to more questions, more possibilities. What about this? And if I try—? Oh? Like a child with a new toy, Zeke explored with unrestrained curiosity, delighting in each small revelation. But eventually, the fun had to end.

Once he was confident he had a solid grasp on the fundamental rules of this place, he took a step back, letting his mind settle. There was still so much to uncover, but for now, he had learned enough. These were the rules, as Zeke understood them: He had the ability to shape the world around him, to manipulate the space and the elements within it. However, there were clear limitations. He could not create anything that required labor to form or craft.

The world would only respond to his thoughts with the most basic, naturally occurring elements. Anything more complex—anything that needed to be worked into shape—remained beyond his reach. For instance, he could conjure a tree from the ground, cut it down, and then carve the wood into a bucket. But he couldn't simply imagine a fully-formed bucket appearing in his hands, crafted and finished without effort. Why that was, he couldn't say… as of yet.

But even as excitement surged through him, a nagging frustration settled in. His world was still constrained. Though the illusion stretched endlessly into the horizon, the actual space he could move within was severely limited. He could take only a few steps before an invisible boundary halted him once more. Frowning, Zeke pressed a hand against the unseen wall. Solid. He clenched his fists and struck out with all his might. Pain shot up his arm. He winced.

He might as well have punched a wall of dwarven-forged steel—at least that would have a chance of denting. This? This was completely unyielding. This wasn't a barrier of stone or metal. It felt exactly like his own [Spatial Barrier]—not a physical obstruction, but a conceptual one. A hardened construct of space itself, woven from mana and will. His mind raced. If the World Anchor no longer intended to constrain him, then these limits weren't deliberate.

They weren't restrictions placed upon him by the artifact itself. They were a reflection of something else. Something beyond the cube's power to change. With a thought, he made the boundaries of his prison visible again. The rolling meadow shrank as deep furrows etched themselves into the grass, forming a clear perimeter around him. Small… That was his first thought. There was no way an ancient artifact of such renown could offer so little. Surely, there were storage bags with more capacity than this.

If this was truly the full extent of the World Anchor's power, then its creator must have been utterly mad. But if it's not the Anchor, then it can only be… me? The realization made Zeke wince. Of course, it would be him. As a Grandmage with an average Soul at best, he should never have been able to bind the cube to himself in the first place. The only reason he'd even managed to do so was because of Khai'Zar's intervention. Damn.

The question now was: which part of him was responsible for this underwhelming result? Instinctively, Zeke released his Spatial Mana, pressing it against the invisible walls of his confinement, attempting to understand the space with his own perception. This... felt strange. It wasn't a contest of might or strength, as he had expected. The struggle to expand his confines felt less like an exertion of force and more like solving a puzzle—an intricate, abstract challenge.

Zeke immersed himself in the task, his mind fully captivated by this new puzzle. At some point, he found himself sitting down, meditating within this odd space. Time slipped by unnoticed. Minutes turned into hours, and before he knew it, day had faded into night. It wasn't until the sun rose again the next morning that Zeke finally opened his eyes. He exhaled a shaky breath, utterly drained, yet a wide smile stretched across his face.

"It seems something amazing has fallen into my hands this time."