Eventually, they turned back toward the open space leading out of the cluster, their footsteps slower, their attention already shifting elsewhere.
They were just about to leave the area entirely when Michael stopped.
It was abrupt enough that Rynne halted a step later and turned to look at him.
"What is it?" she asked.
Michael did not answer right away. His gaze was fixed on nothing in particular, eyes unfocused as his senses extended outward again. He frowned slightly.
"Rynne," he said, his tone casual but his posture anything but casual, "is there any kind of rock or stone that can block soone's senses?"
She blinked at the question, then relaxed a little.
"There are plenty," she replied, shrugging lightly. "But as long as the person sensing is strong enough, none of them can fully block perception. They just make it harder."
Michael's eyes narrowed.
"That's not what I asked. I should phrase myself better."
Rynne paused.
Michael turned to face her properly.
"Are there materials strong enough to block the senses of people at our level?" he asked. "Not weaken. Block."
Rynne did not answer imdiately.
Her expression shifted, the casual confidence fading into sothing more guarded. She followed Michael's gaze without him needing to gesture.
"You're sensing sothing," she said slowly.
"Yes," Michael replied. "Or rather, I'm not sensing sothing where I should be, and strangely everything else looks normal."
That made Rynne inhale sharply.
Michael's description was a bit confusing, but she got the gist of it.
Rynne straightened and scanned the area again, this ti with far more intent. Her armor pulsed faintly, runes along its surface reacting as her own perception expanded outward.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she spoke.
"There are materials that can do that," she admitted. "Very rare ones. Usually space infused. Not only can they distort your senses into
thinking sothing is sothing else, you could also be looking directly at sothing and see nothing at all."
Rynne's words trailed off.
"...Space infused," she finished quietly.
Michael's eyes flicked to her. "Can you sense anything?"
She shook her head slowly. "No. Whatever you're reacting to, I don't feel it at all."
That was not reassuring.
Michael frowned and raised a hand, pointing ahead.
"There," he said. "That construct."
Rynne followed his gesture.
Several dozen ters away stood two stone pillars, tall and narrow, set a short distance apart. They were symtrical, their surfaces smooth compared to the weathered ruins around them. Faded markings ran vertically along their length, too eroded to make out
clearly. They looked like part of a gate, or perhaps the fra for a door.
But there was no door.
Just empty space between them.
Rynne studied the pillars for a mont, then glanced back at Michael.
"What's wrong with it?" she asked.
Michael hesitated. "You don't feel anything strange there?"
She narrowed her eyes and focused again, extending her senses
deliberately. Her armor pulsed once, then settled.
"No," she said. "It's just stone. Old, but nothing special. No pressure.
No concealnt. No distortion."
Michael's confusion deepened.
"...Nothing? Are you sure? You just said space infused materials could distort one's senses," he pressed.
"Nothing," Rynne repeated. "Though it is a bit weird for a structure to last this long, it's made from the sa material as the buildings around us. And when I say stone, I do not an the ordinary kind back in Aurora."
They exchanged a look, then moved toward the structure together.
As they approached, Michael's unease grew. The closer they got, the more pronounced the absence felt. Rynne slowed first.
"If this is so kind of trap," she said, "it's extrely well hidden."
She stepped forward before Michael could stop her.
Straight between the pillars.
Nothing happened.
No flash of light. No reaction. No resistance. She passed through the space where a door should have been and turned around on the other
side, perfectly fine.
Michael stared.
Rynne frowned at his expression. "What exactly are you sensing?"
Michael stepped closer, stopping just short of the space between the
pillars.
"That's the problem," he said slowly. "I'm not sensing anything."
Rynne raised an eyebrow.
"Between the pillars, I can't sense anything," Michael continued. "I an literally nothing. Not even air or emptiness. Just absence. It's like sothing is there and not there at the sa ti, but only around this area."
She glanced down at the ground, then back up. "I walked through the middle. There's nothing there."
Michael lifted his hand slightly, hovering it near the invisible
threshold.
Rynne was silent for a mont.
Then she asked carefully, "Could this be sothing tied to you?"
Michael froze.
He had not considered that.
He frowned and pulled his senses inward, checking himself instead of
the surroundings. For a few seconds, his expression remained
puzzled.
Then his eyes widened slightly.
"...Wait."
Rynne watched him closely. "What is it?"
Michael did not answer imdiately.
He stood there, hand still hovering near the empty space between the
pillars, but his attention had already turned inward.
It was only now that he noticed it.
It was subtle. So subtle that under normal circumstances, he would
have missed it entirely.
He was still using his law.
Michael's Law of Echoed Existence did not behave like most laws.
There was no surge of power when it activated. No ripple in the world. No signature that others could perceive. Unless he deliberately pushed it outward or triggered a skill that visibly consud energy,
there was no clear indication it was even active.
It simply persisted.
If Michael copied the traits of a cheetah, his muscles would reshape,
his bone density would adjust, his stride would lengthen. But once the change settled, that was it. No aura. No lingering fluctuation. Nothing that announced his law at work. He could even turn off traits he did not want.
And if he chose not to expend extra energy, the law sustained itself.
For a very long ti.
Michael exhaled quietly.
He was still copying Wisdom. His tad space beast.
Michael ran a quick internal check, confirming it. The law was active,
stable, and quietly echoing the traits of sothing that did not perceive the world the sa way mortals did.
That explained everything.
Michael was not actually sensing anything between the pillars.
Just like Rynne.
The difference was that his perception had been altered.
He was sensing sothing only a creature like Wisdom could pick up.
User Comments
0 comments from readers