Touching upon the Concept of space was a bit disorienting, as the core gained a perception of extra depth to all of existence. It could suddenly sense further layers to reality, as well as a feeling that everything was somehow interconnected. The core had experienced new senses before, when obtaining memories from those who died within its domain or when it had perceived the world through the senses of its creatures.

The perception of space was something else entirely, as it was the realization that there was more to reality than could normally be perceived.

It did not take much testing or probing of this new Concept for the core to realize that this was the power that allowed the kaiser dragons to send their spawn and lessers to other planets.

However, there was an oddness to the Concept of space, as unlike the lesser Concepts which the core had already mastered, there was no sense of others to be found. Space was a universal Concept, and thus each being could fully master it without restricting or limiting the power of another.

The realization that there were layers to space was interesting, and the core could see applications to its dungeons, making them extend into directions that should be impossible, overlapping layers, or making them much larger than the space they occupied.

The core also found that it could create four-dimensional mazes to confuse dungeon delvers more than had ever been possible in the past.

Thinking to start small, the core took a single dungeon and started working on layering the space within it. It was a dungeon with an undead theme, but its size had been limited due to being both within a city and close to a coast. There was more than sufficient death-affinitied mana to work with, but simply not enough room to expand the dungeon adequately, and so the core stretched and expanded sideways through layers of space.

Doing this caused the core’s perception of the dungeon to twist and warp as the dungeon started to occupy the same space as the city around it, just on a different layer of reality.

There was no reaction from the dungeon’s occupants, but that was part of the reason the core had started with an undead dungeon; the undead were practically immune to most mental or sensory effects.

More than any other Concept, the core felt a natural understanding of the space, as it meshed so perfectly with its dungeons. As more things were attempted, greater understanding of the new Concept allowed for even more possibilities.

The core even shifted its main self out of phase with the rest of the planet, essentially isolating itself and freeing it of most possible causes of harm.

Portals that connected different parts of dungeons, or even entirely separate dungeons, also became possible.

As time passed, delvers started to find themselves occasionally emerging in different locations than the dungeon they had initially entered, sometimes even ending up on an entirely different continent with no way home.

Both compressed and expanded space became frequent features of dungeons, and people learned to never trust their eyes, as things could be far different from what they saw. Dungeons became more challenging and confusing. They no longer just challenged delvers’ combat skills, but also their memory, navigational skills, and ability to adjust to the incomprehensible.

What was even more interesting was that while the core could not assign the Concept of space to any of its underlings or creatures, it had discovered that it was possible to create spells that could make use of what the Concept allowed, and much like how Azthak had once teleported to the entrance of a dungeon, the core could grant spells of teleportation and spatial manipulation, though they were much weaker than what the core was capable of, due to having the Concept of space.

With so many dungeons and creatures to test things on, the core’s mastery of the new Concept rose precipitously, and before much time had passed, it started to feel what seemed to be strands connecting its planet to other places.

When those strands were examined, the core realized that they did not connect to the planet itself, but to the various eldar dragons who remained on the planet. It was a curious thing to see, but the core already had a few ideas about what it had found, given the knowledge it had gained from Yur.

It was an odd thing to stretch the core’s perception along those strands, as the core was not stretching across physical space, as when its perception had spread across the planet, but was somehow pressing through layers of space to touch upon those connections that had been sensed before.

There was a slight reaction, and the core knew that something had sensed what it was doing from the other end of the strand.

Was it a kaiser dragon, or something else?

There was no resistance, so the core continued to press further and further. It pushed through multiple layers of space, going further than it had ever tried before, but then felt the strand returning to the “surface” level of reality.

There was resistance at the final layer, and the core had to push slightly with its Concept of space, but it did not take much effort.

Suddenly, the core could sense a cave. As it took a metaphorical step back to examine the overall situation, it could see that it had essentially pierced a tunnel through space to allow its perception to extend to another place. This was more or less a far, far more elaborate version of the portals that the core had placed in various dungeons.

It pushed to spread its perception through the cave, and instantly felt the air vibrate.

Years of absorbing countless years worth of memories from humans and other creatures had allowed the core to use its mana perception to interpret the movement of air and read the sound that was being produced, so even without a sense of hearing, the core had developed an ability to listen.

“Trespasser, thou art rude to enter mine domain without leave. Wilt thou not reveal thyself? Thy pure mana is unique, and it hast been long since we have communed with another such as ourselves. Should thou be here in peace, in peace wilt thou leave. Speak, and reveal thyself to us.”

Unfortunately, while the core had developed many abilities, controlling anything in a place that was not within its domain remained impossible. While its perception had entered the cave, the core had not claimed any of the area for itself, and had no way to extend its Authority, which meant that it had no way to communicate with the being.

The core spread its perception, searching the cavern. It was massive, and seemed to be a single massive geode, as the walls, ceiling, and floor were all covered with crystals. The crystal floor had been covered with valuables the likes of which the core had never seen before. It was mostly gold, but there was a tremendous number of other precious metals, as well as gemstones, weapons, armors, and jewelry.

Sure enough, the core quickly found a compatible opal, and tried to push a bit of itself in to make a sub-core. That should allow it to establish enough of a domain to communicate-

The opal was abruptly crushed.

The core could sense that spatial forces had been used to not simply crush the gemstone, but to completely remove it from existence.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Not only dost thou not reveal thyself to us, thou hadst the audacity to try to claim mine territory? Begone!”

With that, a fusion of mana and multiple Concepts worked in tandem to push the core’s perception and mana out of the cave and back along the spatial tunnel it had extended itself.

Upon returning to its planet, the core instantly saw that the strand it had followed was still there, but was somehow shielded against it. There seemed to be no way to return to that planet.

As the core started to examine other strands that it had noticed, a recurring detail; every last strand that led away from the planet through layers of space led into what the core could only describe as a divet in space.

Interestingly enough, there were many other divots in space around the planet.

Given the consistency, the core reached out and started probing a random divot, pressing through the layers of space. Progress was slow, as there was no strand to follow. However, at each successive layer that the core pressed through, after searching around a bit, the core would discover another divot, sometimes several, and then would continue further to the next layer.

Deeper and deeper the core pushed, reaching much further than it had when following the strand that had led it to the kaiser dragon.

Eventually, the spatial layers started to grow stronger, and the core had to press harder and harder to reach the next layer. In addition to that, the divots shrank and became more subtle. Each layer took more effort and more time to see where to go next, until, finally, the core was unable to continue. There was no divot to be found at all, and the layer was too tough to push any further.

The core did not want to retreat, unless absolutely necessary, but there seemed to be truly no way forward.

The core stubbornly persisted, searching about for anything that could allow it to proceed, but there was nothing.

Just as the core was about to retract its attention through the layers of space, it noticed something. It was not a divot in space, but the smallest of bumps. It examined the bump, somehow poking it with its perception.

It was indeed a weakness in the layer of space, but this did not lead deeper, but back to the surface layer of the universe.

Piercing through the bump sent the core’s perception into a shallower layer of space that was noticeably weaker than the previous layer.

After examining the layer, the core found another bump, as well as a divot, and quickly put the pieces together to understand its situation; divots sent it deeper through layers of space, bumps returned it back towards the regular layer of reality.

The core quickly sped up, piercing through multiple layers of space in just a few moments. Each layer was successively easier, and the core’s experience helped it to move faster and faster.

Before long, the core’s perception had returned to the top layer of space, and it found itself looking at a new planet. It was quite similar to the core’s home planet, but the fact that the core’s perception did not encompass the entire planet made it quite clear that it was not the planet it was familiar with.

An unfamiliar surge of excitement ran through the core as it realized that there were more planets for it to conquer and claim. More gods to suppress, more creatures to harvest, more dungeons to create and farm. There was simply so, so much more!

The core was not at the end of its conquest, but only at the beginning.

However, it first needed to find an appropriate sub-core on this unknown planet in order to truly begin…

***

Amani was sneaking through the jungle that belonged to the Suni. For months, mana levels in the Sunis’ territory had been rising, and Amani’s tribe could not continue to sit back and just watch.

After arguing with his father, Amani had made some preparations and sneaked out of the village with just Vastal and their two hunting dogs.

While Amani did not get along very well with Vastal, the man was the best warrior in their tribe, and he also agreed with Amani that something needed to be done about the Suni.

They continued to stalk through the jungle as quietly as possible. Fortunately, the rainy season had just finished, so while the humidity was almost unbearable, the ground was soft and the fallen twigs and leaves were damp enough to make almost no sound as they passed.

They pressed forward for days, scouting the Sunis’ territory, though always keeping some distance from their villages.

They saw a few hunting parties, but oddly enough, the hunters did not show any hint of unusual behavior.

After more than a fortnight of scouting the region, Amani was preparing their evening meal when Vastal burst into their small camp with wide eyes. “You need to see this, now.”

Despite being united in purpose, the two men still did not get along at all, and they rarely spoke to each other, silently carrying out their self-assigned tasks. It was highly unusual for Vastal to approach Amani in such a way, so he quickly grabbed his weapons and raced after the fleeing warrior.

After just a few minutes of jogging through the jungle, Amani could feel it. This was what they had been searching for. The mana levels in this area were shockingly high, and the change was extremely distinct to their senses.

Vastal did not so much as glance backwards at Amani, and continued his reckless charge forward.

Finally, they arrived at a small clearing. The jungle’s canopy hung overhead, blocking out the sky, but for about ten paces in every direction, there were no trees or undergrowth to be seen.

There was no missing what Amani was supposed to see, as right in the exact center of the clearing was a stone doorframe. There was no door, and they could see straight through the doorway, but something about the door seemed twisted.

Amani moved to the side, to get another view of the doorway, and he instantly saw a problem; it was impossible. The doorway stayed still, and yet Amani was always directly in front of the opening. No matter how he circled the clearing, he could never catch so much as a glimpse of the side of the simple stonework.

He glanced at Vastal, who shook his head at the unspoken question. The doorway never moved, never turned, and yet it always faced both men directly.

It was almost nauseating to see how the world twisted around this doorway, as though all paths in existence led straight to it.

Amani closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to erase his growing sense of vertigo. After a moment, he realized that things were not going to improve any time soon, so he opened his eyes again and looked at Vastal. “Have you gotten close enough to touch it?”

Vastal shook his head. Instead of staring at the doorframe, his eyes had never left Amani since the moment they had entered the clearing. Amani felt like that was a very wise decision, given how his stomach had started to churn.

“Cover me. Well check for traps, and then see what we can learn from the stone itself.”

Vastal nodded, and Amani took a deep breath. He stepped across the fallen leaves that cushioned his steps, but it was still clear that the ground below was stone, and not the earth of the jungle.

Oddly enough, while the leaves were thick, there was not a single twig to be found, so Amani’s progress was nearly silent.

Vastal kept both of the hunting dogs at his side as he scanned the area, his eyes never leaving Amani for more than an instant.

Amani’s eyes flitted about, first examining the ground in front of his feet, then the doorframe he was approaching, and then his surroundings. He was nervous, and he felt like he was being watched, but could not see any sign of an observer.

After slowly working his way across the clearing, he arrived at the stone structure. He reached out with his obsidian battle ax, poking at the stone.

It felt like normal stone, and nothing happened, so Amani stepped closer. He cautiously reached out with a hand, and again, the column felt like normal stone, even if he did not recognize what kind it was.

There were etchings in the top cross-piece, though Amani did not recognize the images. They did not seem to be the familiar pictograms, though it was clear that something was written there.

The stone looked rough, yet was smooth to the touch. After trying to circle the structure, only for the disorienting shifting to happen even when he was right in front of the doorway, Amani poked his weapon through the doorway, checking for any invisible traps.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Vastal tense up, and then shake his head.

No traps to be seen. Nothing strange at all about the stone structure, aside from how it warped reality itself.

His nerves somewhat settled, Amani finally took a step forward. He wanted to see if he could see the backside of the doorframe by passing through it.

That step was the last time that Vastal saw Amani.