(A few months later, within the Time Stilled World, Moltherak’s Floating Island, Leo’s POV)
Leo stood with his palms faintly open as a steady current of crimson aura flowed out of him in a thin, controlled stream, drifting through the chamber like a searching tendril, while Moltherak observed him with expectant eyes, as he could see that Leo was close to the breakthrough he had waited months for.
Over the past few cycles, the faint tremors Leo detected had grown clearer and more frequent, as the once-fragmented sensations slowly began aligning into patterns, until standing here today he could trace not just scattered weak points but full sequences of them lodged along the invisible fabric of the fourth dimension.
"There... another one," Leo murmured as his aura brushed against a shallow dip, then another one a short distance away, as this time the points began to form a curve, almost like the ridge of a hidden pathway carved into the darkness behind the three-dimensional world.
"You are correct."
Moltherak said as he nodded slowly and stepped ahead.
"You now sense them consistently and accurately enough for us to move on to the next stage....."
Leo’s eyes sharpened as he straightened slightly, because he knew what the next stage was, and he had been waiting for this moment ever since he first sensed the temporal grain.
"You have spent years learning how to detect the weak points but detecting alone is worthless unless you learn how to pierce through them.
So now we begin the true act of space tunneling, which is learning how to break through the dimensional wall."
Moltherak explained as Leo exhaled softly and retracted his aura, only to then unflur it again in a tighter ribbon, as he hoped that it remained stable enough for the demonstration.
"So, how do I break it?" he asked.
"Push? Tear? Shatter?"
He enquired as Moltherak shook his head slowly in denial.
"None of those. The fourth dimension does not behave like matter. You cannot tear what you cannot grasp. You must strike it with precision, not force... which is why you will shape your aura into a single condensed point."
He explained as he lifted a claw and tapped the air.
"Form a hammer... or an arrow... or a dagger.... whichever shape is easier for your instincts. The idea is the same. You take all the aura you possess, every drop of killing intent, every grain of spiritual pressure, and compact it until it becomes dense enough to crack the membrane."
He instructed as Leo nodded quietly before extending his aura in the shape of a dagger.
*Thrum*
*Thrum*
The air around him vibrated as he compressed it tighter and tighter until a needle-like point shimmered faintly as his dagger’s tip, its edges vibrating with unstable focus.
"Good. Now listen carefully, because this is the part that determines whether you live or suffer a fate far worse."
Moltherak lowered his voice as the chamber dimmed slightly.
"The biggest worry when performing space tunneling is that, the moment you step into the fourth dimension, the very fabric of the universe begins to notice you...."
Moltherak began, as Leo’s brows drew together in confusion.
"I don’t know how else to put it.
However, simply said, the moment the membrane breaks, cosmic backlash will strike and the void beyond your perception will try to swallow your consciousness whole.....
If you face it bare, you will feel a loneliness so absolute that your mind will believe that the universe has abandoned you, and it is possible that you will never return from that sensation intact."
Moltherak warned, as Leo gulped hard.
*Gulp*
"Then how do I endure it?"
He asked, as—
"You do not endure it, you block it."
Came the reply almost immediately.
"Before you strike the weak point, you must activate your aura shield, because that shield will absorb the backlash, numbing it, softening it, preventing the void from touching your mind.
For without the shield, the backlash will imprint directly onto your consciousness, and you will be crushed beneath the illusion of eternal isolation."
Leo’s grip tightened as he pictured the sensation— the universe going silent, every sound vanishing, every sense stripped until only the endless cold remained.
"Is that what happens to warriors who fail?" he asked quietly, as Moltherak’s expression darkened.
"Some lose their speech for months, others scream for nights on end, and a few never emerge again. The void makes them believe they were born alone and will die alone, and that truth breaks them."
*Huff–*
Leo inhaled deeply, steadying his breath.
"So step one... sense the weak point. Step two... form the dagger. Step three... cloak myself in the aura shield. Step four... strike. Step five.... Step in?"
"Exactly," Moltherak said as he nodded in agreement.
"And today, you will open up the fourth dimension, however, you will not step into it."
Moltherak instructed, as Leo closed his eyes and unraveled his aura like silk around him, layering itself across his skin until the familiar pressure of the shield wrapped around him, snug and reassuring, like armor forged from his own will.
"Alright, let’s do this!"
He muttered as the weak point flickered again, a soft tremor near the far wall, as he shaped his aura into a condensed dagger and drove it forward with absolute precision, the point humming sharply as it cut through the unseen membrane.
*CRACK—*
The world did not simply split— it vibrated, as though the entire chamber were a taut string plucked by an unseen hand, the floor buzzing beneath his feet while the walls rippled faintly as if made of stretched liquid instead of stone, as the very air thickened in an instant, turning dense and heavy like a storm collapsing inward.
*FSSHH—*
The tear widened a fraction as a thin, wobbling line of distorted light carved itself across space, bending the chamber around it into impossible shapes; straight edges curved, shadows elongated and twisted upward, while colours bled into each other as if the laws of vision had begun to unravel.
A low pressure throb pulsed outward from the crack, making Leo’s ears ring as the oxygen around him seemed to thin, each breath tasting colder and emptier than the last, as though the rupture were sucking the warmth straight out of existence.
"What... what is this pressure?"
Leo mused, as it was at that moment that the cosmic backlash struck.
*BZZT*
The sensation was unlike usual sound or force, almost as if it were a silent tidal wave crashing directly against his consciousness, a crushing presence that pressed against his thoughts and tried to hollow them out, whispering of endless emptiness where no stars were born and no voices ever existed.
But thankfully for him the aura shield held, as although the crushing weight pressed against his consciousness, it soon dissolved and was absorbed by the shield before it could reach his thoughts, leaving behind only a faint ringing in his ears instead of the suffocating dread that should have accompanied it.
*Pah!*
Leo gasped softly as the crack widened for a fraction of a second, revealing a swirling void beyond— immense, cold, endless— before collapsing shut with a violent snap.
*SWOOP*
Moltherak nodded.
"That was your first tear in the dimensional wall. Clumsy, unstable, incomplete... but good enough."
He encouraged, as Leo exhaled long and slow, his chest burning with a strange blend of exhaustion and excitement, as he saw a glimpse of the world beyond for the first time ever.