"You... you... you..."
Pierce's trembling finger pointed at the glowing blue cube in the hologram of William's hand.
"Aren't you on Mars? How... how is this possible?"
"Why wouldn't it be possible?" William said, controlling the Tesseract with his mental energy as it floated above his palm. "Old man, this is the Space Stone. You know what 'space' means? If you can harness its power, you can manipulate space itself—teleportation, confinement, folding, cutting, even spatial collapse. So..."
Before William could finish, he suddenly froze in place, and the video feed abruptly cut out. Several minutes later, a golden beam of light appeared in the middle of Pierce's office. Moments after, William materialized in front of the anxious and uneasy Pierce.
"God, I feel like the luckiest man alive," William said with a grin. "And you, right now, must be dying of regret."
"F*** you! Give it back!" Pierce roared, lifting his gun.
Snap! William snapped his fingers, and Pierce's raised hand suddenly locked in place. No matter how much his brain ordered his finger to pull the trigger, he couldn't move it.
With a wave of William's hand, the gun flew out of Pierce's grasp and into William's palm. "If you don't want to die, let's have a little chat."
The moment William had first grabbed the Tesseract, he had been pleasantly surprised to discover that he could absorb its energy. Although the energy did not remain in his body, it flowed into his small, one-cubic-meter storage dimension, causing the space to expand as though being stretched by an external force.
To William's delight, the energy circulated through his body without causing any pain. Instead, it felt like it was subtly refining him. Within less than a minute, the magical bottleneck that had blocked him from advancing to a higher-tier mage for two years was shattered.
In an instant, William felt almost godlike. His mental sensing range expanded to over a kilometer, and every object within the Yellowstone base became vividly imprinted in his mind.
Testing his newfound power, William extended his hand toward an electric golf cart within the base. To his astonishment, the hundred-kilogram vehicle lifted effortlessly into the air under his mental control.
This feat would have been impossible before. Now, not only was he able to do it with ease, but it also felt surprisingly light.
Turning his attention to another cart nearby, he levitated it as well, followed by a series of other objects. Only after simultaneously raising fifteen items and feeling a slight strain did he release them all.
"Sunday," William said, excitement in his voice. "Calculate the total weight of what I just lifted."
"One moment, sir," the AI responded. Several engineering robots scanned the objects, and Sunday soon reported, "Sir, the combined weight of the fifteen items is approximately 0.94 tons—nearly ten times your previous lifting record."
"Ten times? No," William mused. "This number will continue to increase over time."
He clenched his left fist, feeling the heightened strength coursing through his body. His physical abilities were improving steadily as magical energy kept flowing into him. The sensation reminded him of the time his magical prowess had surged in the hidden vault beneath New York's Trinity Church.
"My power... is this still just at the level of a high-tier mage?"
He marveled at the surging magic within him. Spells that had previously drained his energy or required preparation now felt effortless. Even activating his ancient physical enhancement spell no longer caused the strain it once did.
With this realization, William grew eager to test all the magic at his disposal. However, when he tried to store the Tesseract in his dimensional space, something remarkable occurred—the stone anchored itself at the center of the storage dimension. A stream of energy began to flow outward from the stone, circling the space before re-entering his body.
Fortunately, the energy was manageable. Just as William started worrying about being overwhelmed, the excess energy retreated back into the stone.
The most immediate benefit was a deepened affinity for spatial magic. With just a thought, he conjured a mirror dimension within the base—its scope far exceeding his expectations. It seemed that if he wanted to, he could envelop the entire base in the mirror dimension, though it would tax his mental energy.
Within this dimension, William experimented with various spells, discovering that not only had their potency increased, but his control over magical elements had also improved significantly. Flames appeared with a mere thought, igniting much faster than before. Their temperature had doubled, and they spread as far as his mental senses extended.
"This... this..."
A chilling realization struck him. He could now kill ordinary people without lifting a finger. As long as he was within a kilometer of his target, he could incinerate them, electrocute them, drown them, or suffocate them at will. He could even telekinetically lift someone into the sky and let them plummet to their death. The thought alone sent a shiver down his spine, prompting him to shake it off.
But the more he tried to push the idea out of his mind, the more vivid it became. With a sigh, he forced his attention elsewhere.
Dispelling the surrounding flames, he raised his hand and closed his eyes in concentration. When he opened them again, a dark, ominous void manifested in his palm.
"Is this... spatial collapse?" he muttered. "It looks a lot like a black hole..."
As the collapsed space slowly expanded outward, the entire mirror dimension began to tremble.
"N-M! Did I just create a disaster?" William panicked for a moment.
Fortunately, the Space Stone was no ordinary artifact. Now that William could control its energy, a single thought was enough to halt the collapse. Spatial energy surged from his palm, enveloping and stabilizing the expanding void. The black hole-like phenomenon dissipated within seconds, leaving the space fully restored.
William waved his hand over the area where the collapse had occurred, confirming that everything had returned to normal. With a sigh of relief, he muttered, "That wasn't magic... that was a real black hole."
"But," he added with a grin, "it looks like no one will be able to trap me with spatial magic anymore. Unless..." He paused and chuckled. "Unless they can surpass the power of the Space Stone."
Then he smacked his forehead. "Wait, I'm not the Space Stone itself. I can't fully harness its power yet. Damn it—I still need to be cautious. I don't want to get caught off guard and screw this up."
(End of Chapter)
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