“Why?! What purpose does this serve?!” I roared at Krahinn who was laughing maniacally.

“If you want the strong, fun to surf the murder lizard needs to be mad!” Krahinn retorted as the dragon was already forming his next attack.

“What did you do?! Why is this dragon so mad at you?!” I inquired as it unleashed a massive slash of .

I reinforced the right before Krahinn and I were launched fast enough for me to hear a pop behind us. Krahinn laughed excitedly as he was doing multiple flips from the sheer velocity the launched us at. What is this ? It is taking attacks from the dragon like a champ. Mine was wavering a bit, but I quickly repaired it. My took a hit from fixing it, yet I knew for a fact the dragon’s attack would’ve killed me if it properly connected. The dragon was speeding up, launching multiple attacks at us. Krahinn happily rode the with the largest smile in the world on his face. Who was this? I one hundred percent could believe that Krahinn antagonized them somehow.

“As hurtful as your lack of faith in me is, and while it might be generally true, I am actually somewhat innocent this time!” Krahinn defended himself.

“Bullshiza!” I snapped at him. Krahinn just kept laughing.

“He started it! I just kept it going!” Krahinn explained as the dragon tried roasting us again.

“Is he some type of ?!” I asked as my was draining a bit from maintaining the .

“Lords no! He’s a type of !” Krahinn answered. Hang in there . Currently, Krahinn and I had enough speed to do full laps around the aether storm in a matter of seconds. My was draining quicker the more speed we obtained.

“I can’t keep this up!” I informed Krahinn.

“Ugh. Children are so weak.” Krahinn sighed as the dragon kept up its assault.

Before the next barrage, Krahinn grabbed me and activated my . I wish I knew how he did this. It was obnoxious that Krahinn could manipulate my at will. The dragon went berserk trying to attack us, but Krahinn launched us through a portal he made in a matter of a second. I launched across some sand, skipping across it like a stone as my eyes began watering from the smell. We were back in the Wastes. I looked around, seeing I flew easily a few miles before I had stopped moving. My clothes were mostly tattered cinders at this point. I still have underwear at least. In an instant, I was back in front of a laughing Krahinn.

“That was fun!” Krahinn declared as he picked me up off the ground.

“Who was that?! Why would you intentionally go somewhere that is waiting for you?!” I snarled at Krahinn.

“Oh, we’re not done.” Krahinn informed me with a laugh.

I wanted Krahinn to clarify as a massive portal opened up while a much smaller form of the dragon descended into the Wastes. It let out a massive roar, glaring at Krahinn. Ipnerslei folded into existence next to me and pulled me aside as Krahinn laughed at the dragon. Krahinn summoned a red cape, taunting the dragon like it was a bull. The dragon descended upon Krahinn, slashing its claws. The entire Wastes shook as Krahinn deflected the attack to the ground. The sand exploded as a massive earthquake shook from the sheer force of his attack. And another. And another. And another. The dragon was attacking nonstop, each attack shaking the Wastes as Krahinn was dodging by the thinnest of margins.

“Who is the dragon? Why do they want Krahinn dead? Is aether storm surfing an actual past time?” I asked Ipnerslei.

“That is Hoggdin, an . Surfing is considered dangerous because it’s exhausting of and you can get trapped, but with Krahinn you’d be fine. As for those two, they’re both idiots who can’t make friends.” Ipnerslei explained. For some reason, that completely tracked.

“So are they friends?” I checked. Ipnerslei laughed.

“No. Not at all. Well, kind of? Neither would ever say that. Hoggdin and Krahinn thrive off each other’s suffering.” Ipnerslei clarified with a chuckle.

“What started this feud?” I inquired. I tempered my expectations as I imagined it was something hilariously petty knowing Krahinn.

“Good guess. Their death match started over a novel.” Ipnerslei confessed as she was clearly struggling not to laugh.

“A novel?” I probed, getting a sinking sensation of what it entailed.

“Krahinn believed that the protagonist should’ve remained single, which is a big shock from him. Hoggdin, in his infinite wisdom, enjoyed the fact the hero found love and had a family. As you can tell, civility and calm heads won that day.” Ipnerslei answered with a sigh.

"This entire feud began over who an imaginary character should end up with?" I checked, making sure I wasn't missing something.

"Hoggdin liked it and brought it to Krahinn, who promptly acted like his usual, asocial self. Then neither of them would drop it and here we are." Ipnerslei confirmed with a grand hand wave.

“I’m amazed Krahinn could read.” I added on with a sigh. Ipnerslei laughed at that.

Krahinn and Hoggdin continued their match as the Wastes thankfully couldn’t get destroyed much more. Hoggdin did a particularly wide swing which Krahinn used to slam what looked like a small sun into him. Despite being quite far away, I could feel the heat radiate off of it. Hoggdin looked fine as he resumed his assault. Krahinn kept blasting Hoggdin with the small suns as Hoggdin thrashed around, launching breath attacks, and once in a while launching that seemed to feel like their goal was to annihilate the Wastes. Krahinn was casting numerous at the same time to bombard Hoggdin with. The two were too fast for me to follow well as the fluctuated violently.

“How long are the two going to fight?” I probed after the match continued.

“Given the insults haven’t started, you have at least two hours.” Ipnerslei sighed as she summoned chairs and tea for us.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” I told her with a polite bow.

“For Krahinn roping you into this mess, ask him about Hugminn.” Ipnerslei stated. I had no idea who or what that was, but I was going to gladly take her hint.

“It’s a who. You know, since we have time, I can show you how to shield your mind from an .” Ipnerslei informed me.

“Thank you so much!” I said excitedly.

“I’ll demonstrate the flow once, but my might hurt as it’s not as compatible as Krahinn’s.” Ipnerslei warned me.

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I nodded excitedly as she put a finger to my forehead. Her definitely felt unpleasant as it flowed in my mind, but the trick seemed surprisingly simple. It took me roughly thirty minutes to replicate what she showed me. Ipnerslei gave me a small round of applause once I was successfully doing it. This is it? It was similar to when I practiced , just rather than engaging the I flowed my through my brain in an odd way. It felt like it was some part of me not directly attached as usual. Wait. Is that what was? Training the mental space in your brain to process the information of and ? From Uncle Nez’s lectures, was mostly about conceptualization of an idea, visualization of the effect, and the mechanics of how it worked. and were of . You could link minds through . Was that why allowed beings to talk telepathically? I never thought much about it.

“What are you thinking?” Ipnerslei probed. Her entire body was made from light, so it was hard to gauge any form of expression.

“Is the reason let’s you talk telepathically and read thoughts linking the mental spaces of ? That even though it is a concept, it is envisioned so much that makes it possible?” I inquired. Ipnerslei let out a noise I didn’t comprehend.

“I. I mean, you’re not wrong. At a technical level, what you said is correct.” Ipnerslei confirmed as she thought about it.

“ has several , among them is . Usually, most are grouped on what they can most easily influence, and what they can be envisioned to influence, correct?” I asked. If that was right, I could use my to influence other things other than physical spaces.

“Ah. That’s what you’re getting at. Yes. You can likely do what you’re thinking.” Ipnerslei informed me.

So, if I wanted to expand my mental space into some sort of , could that be done? A virtual space of my mind that I projected outwards. Would that work? Concept, visualize, and mechanics. Okay, so it would be a virtual space, the space of my thoughts. But how would it work? Would it be like a room? Maybe the blank voids when I talked to Kron? It wasn’t a bad starting point. I’d visualize it as a small room, made out of my to be in that odd space where my formulated in my mind. I began trying to cast the , but the first attempt fizzled. What was wrong? My visualization or the mechanics? I could clearly imagine a blank, empty space thanks to my many meetings with Kron, so it likely wasn’t how I was visualizing it. It’s how it would actually work. Was there something I can borrow from? A concept? While I was thinking about it, I turned to see Krahinn and Hoggdin fighting some more.

“You loveless, forever alone, beak faced forler!” Hoggdin snarled at Krahinn.

“What an extensive vocabulary you possess you dimwitted donkey. It must press your imagination to come up with such elaborate, well-structured insults.” Krahinn mocked as he was visibly starting to get the upper hand.

“Why does Hoggdin try when Krahinn is clearly the stronger of the two of them?” I pondered. Ipnerslei chuckled.

“Why do you try against the Void King?” Ipnerslei asked me in return.

“Fair point, but I doubt either of them are as motivated by this as the Void King is to kill me and I am to survive.” I retorted as the two continued to hurl insults.

“Krahinn bent the space around you into a ball for wanting to leave. Have you not seen how petty he is?” Ipnerslei chuckled; she might have had a point.

“I will concede you are not wrong.” I confessed. Ipnerslei laughed a bit more.

“You sound like Krahinn there.” Ipnerslei teased. I gave her a bit of side eye while looking back to the show.

“I choose to be alone; your lovers are imaginary!” Krahinn snapped at Hoggdin.

I chuckled a little at that. Wait. Imaginary. How did imaginary numbers work again? I racked my brain for a bit, remembering the best I could how the math worked. They were a component of complex numbers. Not useful. How did you represent them geometrically? What was that again? That’s what I needed. Come on Nil, think. They are useful in representing wave functions. Thanks brain, that’s the information I was looking for. I sat there mulling it over as Krahinn and Hoggdin kept fighting each other, with the two mostly trading expletives rather than actually attacking each other. Krahinn was no longer casting multiple at once. I needed to ask him how he cast in parallel so well. It clicked. Perpendicular; the imaginary axis is perpendicular to the real axes. Would it be a space perpendicular to reality? That blank nothingness made perpendicular to the current Realm? It was an idea. Maybe the wave portion wasn’t a bad idea; instead of a perpendicular axis, make the space in phase with my thoughts. What happened if I did both? Use my thoughts to make the time standard, and some weird perpendicular axis to which Realm I’m in to make the space. surrounded the Realms of the Lords. With this better mechanical base for the , I went to try again.

To make sure that I had the highest chance of success, I engaged my and activated my . I drew in some ambient to make sure I was topped off. Did a quick checklist of what was needed and took a deep breath. This should be controlled enough not to have . The world began going grayscale as I began formulating the . Ipnerslei shifted nearby, looking at me with great interest. Krahinn snapped to attention, immediately pivoting towards me. Hoggdin did as well as I continued to cast the . The foundation was there, so time to cast. Krahinn lunged towards me, yelling something I couldn’t understand as his voice was heavily distorted. I could feel the space expand rapidly as I dragged us all into my . All around us was a blank void like I imagined. I did not mean to bring all four of us in here, but I didn’t suffer any ! Krahinn was standing in front of me, looking incensed.

“What?” I asked, not getting why he looked furious. My took a sizeable hit, but nothing horrible. I was slightly nauseous but was fine.

“Do you have any idea what you just did?!” Krahinn snarled at me.

“Where are we?” Hoggdin inquired, having seemed to calm down. He sounded a bit nervous.

“Did Nil just? Did he recreate what I think he did?” Ipnerslei checked, sounding like she was struggling to keep her voice under control. A horrible sensation was crawling up my spine.

“Um, try to create a mental space that exists outside of the nearby Realm? This should be a stable void of my own thoughts and if I did it correctly.” I answered Krahinn.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. It is fine. It. Is. Fine.” Ipnerslei repeated as she clearly began taking composing breaths.

“Wait. This is a space of this kid’s ? This look. Wait. Oh. Oh no.” Hoggdin added, giving me the insight that a dragon’s face could express terror.

“Yes, you two! This is as bad as you think it is! Ipnerslei, what the forl did you tell Nil?!” Krahinn growled, all nine of his eyes glowing with .

“Yelling is not going to fix this. Krahinn, I understand you are upset, but I kindly request that we assign blame and vent said anger after we are no longer in danger.” Ipnerslei requested, her voice sounding like it was hanging in by a thread. Krahinn let out a deep breath as his made me want to curl up into a ball.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized. Krahinn’s eyes shot to me.

“You don’t even understand why I’m mad.” Krahinn snapped, his voice sounding ready to attack.

“I don’t understand what’s wrong with this .” I confessed. Hoggdin let out a half laugh half I’m so doomed sound.

“How do we get back genius?” Krahinn inquired as he shot his hands out in annoyance.

“I’m guessing it’s not as simple as ending the .” I said weakly.

“What do you think happens when you collapse this space if we’re inside it?” Krahinn pressed as Ipnerslei and Hoggdin were both laughing at each other. If those two are this nervous, this has got to be bad.

“I’d imagine it would not end well for those inside.” I answered, starting to look away.

“Good guess. Now, how do you think we properly reconnect ourselves back to Ygdazi without unleashing a massive surge of that could kill us?” Krahinn continued. I. I thought I could just end the .

“When you create and form your own spaces, you need to properly exit and then close them. They are highly destructive and unleash massive when they are improperly closed. Now, you might think this makes a great attack. Don’t. It’s a good way to kill yourself and everything nearby; it is basically betting you are more durable than your opponent. These , especially this one, do have a combat use, but we’ll get to that when you are not PHYSICALLY SEVEN!” Krahinn roared at me.

“So what do we do?” I asked sheepishly.

“I imagine die.” Hoggdin answered while nodding his head.

“We have Krahinn, so if there is a way out, he’s the one who could manage it.” Ipnerslei retorted, her voice sounding incredibly controlled.

“Why is this so bad? Why can’t Krahinn just make a tunnel or portal?” I checked, hoping they overlooked something simple. I knew that wasn’t right, but I was hoping.

“Because you idiot, YOU MADE THIS PLACE! YOU NEED TO CAST THE TO GET US OUT BECAUSE IF I TRY IT, THIS ENTIRE PLACE WILL EXPLODE! AND BETTER YET, BECAUSE YOU CAST IT WITHOUT THINKING OF THE RETURN TRIP OR FINER DETAILS, I DON’T KNOW WHERE IN SPACE WE ARE!” Krahinn yelled at me.

“I think I moved the time too.” I confessed. Krahinn’s eyes were twitching violently before storming off in a huff.