Sword God in a World of Magic

Chapter 584 - Grey Emptiness

Shang entered the Reality Tear, and as soon as he did, his surroundings turned completely grey.

The trees and the barriers were suddenly so far away that Shang couldn't even perceive them anymore.

Everything had just been stretched into infinity, and every direction went on for millions of kilometers.

Except for the back.

Shang could still perceive the barrier and everything else just behind him since that was the spot where he had just entered.

Or, at least, he would have.

The thing was, as soon as Shang's Spirit Sense left the Reality Tear, it stopped moving.

'That's the effect of time acceleration,' Shang thought. 'Time for me is moving so incredibly fast that everything outside this space feels like it's frozen in time, including my Spirit Sense.'

Because of that, Shang could only feel an absolutely tiny spot of Mana and air, and it very, very slowly grew.

It would take years for the Spirit Sense to make any significant progress, which was shocking. After all, a Spirit Sense was basically instantaneous.

'It's shocking how fast time is moving in here,' Shang thought. 'Time might actually be moving billions if not trillions of times faster than the outside.'

'Sadly, I can't train in here.'

As soon as Shang entered, he had already felt how difficult it was to move his Mana.

It was like his entire body was moving in weird ways and that every command Shang sent to his body would be fulfilled, but in a completely unnatural way.

'Training in here might even damage my instincts,' he thought. 'Additionally, there isn't even any neutral Mana in here. I think the only kind of Mana in here is extremely warped Time, Space, and Gravity Mana.'

Naturally, when he had heard about the attributes of the Reality Tear, Shang had thought about training in here.

But, of course, it was impossible.

Everything was in so much chaos that Shang didn't even feel like he was in his own body anymore.

'I guess training in here would be too good. The God would probably even consider it to be cheating. Maybe he was the one that made everything warp in here to this degree.'

For a while, Shang didn't move.

'It's weird,' he thought. 'I feel like I'm wasting time by being here, but I'm literally not.'

'Even a year in here is less than a second outside, and my longevity doesn't even run out.'

'All of this is so strange.'

'It's so unnatural.'

'Well, it doesn't really matter. It shouldn't be a problem to get through this Reality Tear.'

Shang flew forward with all of his speed without using his Blasts.

He was quite a bit faster than before, flying even faster than an Early Archmage.

Everything inside the Reality Tear was isolated, and Shang didn't need to hide any of his abilities.

After flying for a while, Shang used some Ice and Fire Blasts.

He hadn't used them in years, and he wanted to feel them again.

Sadly, the surroundings completely distorted how his Blasts felt to him.

He kept using them for a while, but he eventually stopped.

He didn't want to get used to these strange feelings. If he did, he would feel this same feeling of bizarreness when he used his Blasts outside again, which might screw with his Battle-Strength.

Shang just continued flying forward.

The surroundings felt so strange to him.

There was only extremely warped Space, Time, and Gravity Mana, which felt very unnatural.

It was almost like Shang was not in the real world but dreaming.

Everything was just so wrong and so warped.

There was no sound, and there was nothing for Shang's Spirit Sense to cling to.

It was just monotone emptiness.

Shang had no idea how long he had already been flying.

It could have been just a couple of minutes.

It could have been weeks.

There was absolutely nothing to use as a reference to gauge the passage of time, and the Time Mana itself was completely warped.

Shang had no idea how far he had traveled already or how much time had passed.

He only knew that he was going in the right direction since his body left behind small bits of Mana. Shang could feel these small bits of Mana and could easily tell if he was going in a straight line or at an angle. 

Because of that, Shang didn't need to worry about losing his way.

He kept going.

And going.

And going.

And going.

After an unknown period of time, Shang's mind focused on the warped Mana in his surroundings.

There was nothing for Shang to do in here, and his mind was desperately searching for something to occupy itself with.

Shang desperately wanted to do something productive, even though he knew that there was literally nothing productive that could be done in here.

But that was just how he was.

He always wanted to work towards something.

He always put his mind, body, and focus toward achieving a goal.

This was just his personality and how he was.

This was the person Shang.

Shang kept inspecting the different kinds of Mana in here.

Yet, they all felt so wrong, and Shang felt like it was impossible for him to learn anything about them.

They moved in such incorrect and unforeseeable ways that it felt completely random.

Everything was so random.

Shang tried so many times to make sense of anything, but it was simply impossible.

Shang had no idea how long he had tried to comprehend his surroundings.

He only felt like he had tried to comprehend them for a long time.

But in the end, Shang had to accept that he was making zero progress.

This wasn't something that was just very hard to understand and took many years to learn.

No, Shang would be able to notice that.

There would be tiny signs of order, tiny signs of a pattern. 

None of that was here.

It was just completely random.

Eventually, Shang's mind stopped looking at the warped Mana.

The surroundings hadn't changed.

Space hadn't changed.

Time hadn't changed.

Gravity hadn't changed.

There was just grey emptiness in all directions, except for the small trail of Mana Shang left behind.

This small trail of Mana was the only proof that Shang was actually moving forward.

How long had he been in here?

A year?

Five minutes?

He should arrive soon, right?