Chapter 266: Learning Space Magic

"Alright then," Zara began. "But I have to ask, why the sudden interest anyway? You wanna learn how to deal with Space-attuned ascenders, or what?"

"Ah, that?" Uhtred offered a smooth, easy smile, his tone perfectly natural. "To be honest, I’ve always had an affinity for space magic. I just never really had someone around to teach me."

He paused, looking at Zara pointedly.

"Or rather... maybe I was just too proud to ask before. But after seeing what you can do, I feel a lot more comfortable asking you for this favor."

Zara looked genuinely surprised by his answer. It wasn’t because of what he said about her, but rather his casual claim of possessing a spatial affinity.

"If you actually have an affinity for space, then using it should be something inherent," she said, shaking her head slightly. "I shouldn’t even need to teach you the basics if that’s the case. It ought to come naturally to you based on how you perceive the world around you. The fact that you haven’t gotten a grasp on it yet simply means you’re either overthinking it or doing something fundamentally wrong."

She crossed her arms, studying his face. "Tell me, what do you think space magic actually is? Give me your own definition."

Uhtred thought about it for a second, drawing on what he knew. "Space is the fabric of reality around us... It’s the three-dimensional surrounding that every piece of matter makes a dent in just by existing."

His answer was solid in a scientific sense, matching a basic textbook understanding of physics, but in the context of magic, it was fundamentally flawed.

Zara smiled, though there was a clear edge of correction in her eyes. "You’re right... in a way. But at the same time, you’re wrong."

Instead of just explaining it with words, she decided to show him directly.

"The part you got right is that space behaves like a fabric, and that matter creates a dent in it," Zara said, her voice turning analytical. "Mass dictates gravitational pull. My class, Singularity Sovereign, allows me to manipulate that mass. But I’m not actually altering the physical mass of my own body to do it. That’s where your logic falls short. You’re defining space magic through a purely scientific lens. Once cosmic essence enters the picture, reality stops following rigid physics."

As she spoke, the air surrounding her body began to distort visibly. Light bent around her figure, and almost instantly, Uhtred felt a sudden tug pulling his body toward her.

His feet shifted slightly against the floor of the arena, but he immediately caught himself. He urged his cosmic essence into his feet, locking his body in place to resist the force.

The gravitational pull tugging at him was strong, but thanks to the sheer depth of his Nascent Realm cultivation base, he stood his ground without budging another inch.

Even this is already very powerful, Uhtred thought, monitoring the pull tugging at him.

He could tell right away that if a Mortal Realm cultivator were standing where he was right now, they wouldn’t stand a chance. They would have been yanked clean off their feet and dragged directly toward Zara without being able to resist at all.

Of course, if that same Mortal Realm cultivator were standing much further away, the pull wouldn’t be as strong; Zara was, after all, still a Nascent Realm ascender right now. Her reach wasn’t as wide just yet, so the power dropped dramatically the further away one was. But at close range, the pull was extremely powerful.

"If the scientific definition were all there was to it," Zara continued, taking a step forward while maintaining the pull, "the amount of mass I would need to generate this kind of gravitational pull would render me completely immobile. I wouldn’t even be able to lift a finger, let alone fight."

Uhtred nodded in realization, seeing the logic behind her point.

"So, in essence, this is just true magic..." Uhtred muttered softly. "Intention and Will are still the primary factors, even when dealing with higher forms of Elemental magic like this..."

"Exactly," Zara said. "It’s the same for all magic, really. Though I have to correct you there, Uhtred. Space magic isn’t a higher form of Elemental magic... In fact, it’s not an Elemental magic at all. It is a Fundamental Law."

"Oh yeah, yeah. That’s right," Uhtred slapped a hand over his forehead, letting out a dry laugh. "I think you mentioned that to me once before."

Zara narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze turning scrutinizing and openly judging. The look on her face practically screamed her skepticism: if Uhtred truly possessed an inherent affinity for space magic, how was something as basic as the difference between an Element and a Fundamental Law something he could ever just casually forget?

Uhtred coughed lightly, clearing his throat to play off her suspicious glare.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to elaborate, Zara tacitly chose not to push the matter either. Instead, she dove further into her explanation, breaking down how her class allowed her to interact with space and how cosmic essence acted as the bridge between intention and reality.

Eventually, what had started as a brief explanation quickly turned into an intensive training session.

Zara spent the next few hours breaking down advanced concepts, pausing repeatedly to demonstrate different spatial techniques, gravity manipulations, and even her Skewed Geometry Domain.

Meanwhile, Uhtred focused entirely on her demonstrations, using his sharp perception and Formless adaptability to start replicating the basic moves she showed him.

The dozen or so artificers who had been eagerly watching their initial fight eventually realized that the sparring match had turned into a full-blown lecture. Seeing that no more explosive clashes were coming, they slowly vacated the arena, leaving the entire facility to the two of them.

Hours blurred together. The sun moved across the sky outside, eventually dipping below the horizon as night fell over the city. Neither of them paid attention to the passage of time, though.

Uhtred was thoroughly enjoying the sheer speed at which he was picking up the foundational mechanics of space magic, and Zara was equally engaged, clearly pleased to teach someone who grasped spatial theories almost as fast as she could explain them.

It was long past midnight when the heavy doors at the back of the facility suddenly burst open, snapping them out of their groove.

"What exactly have you two been doing in here for fourteen hours straight? It’s already well past midnight—"

Diya’s stern voice echoed across the quiet arena as she barged through the entrance looking for the two powerhouses.

Her gaze instantly locked onto Uhtred and Zara in the center of the arena, but her reprimand was abruptly cut off, the remaining words catching in her throat at the sight unfolding right before her eyes...