Chapter 89

Their battle stopped some short distance away from me.

Two demons faced me and Vorte took a position next to me nonchalantly.

"You!" The furry demon said with a harsh tone, pointing his index finger at me. He seemed quite upset at me for some reason.

"Me?" I replied with a casual smirk, trying to provoke him.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"No idea. You're all just a bunch of burglars. You even harmed my esteemed guest here! Now, explain yourselves!"

"Blasphemy! To dishonor the contract given by His Esteemed, you shall face the consequences."

"Oh? A contract? I think you got the wrong person. You better leave before I get angry." I unleashed a high pressure energy blast at them.

"You may have evolved and altered your form but you cannot fool me."

Unfortunately, my energy blast wasn't strong enough to intimidate them.

"Blah, blah, blah. I heard nothing. Go away, ugly face! You locked me in here for no good reason. Do you want to die here? I mean, that's fine by me." I covered my ears to lessen any hearing damages from his annoying outburst.

Strictly speaking, he wasn't ugly but he wasn't pretty either, or at least I couldn't make heads or tails on his face. As a demon who evolved from the beast races, he naturally evolved with combat as priority. As for any refined beauty, there was none. I couldn't even tell which animal type he evolved from, but if I had to guess, his face was something like a mix of a horse and a dog or something like that.

"Anyway, Vorte, we're trapped in my subspace. What do we do? Are they killable?"

"I see you have evolved without trouble. In that case, this is a good time to get accustomed to your new powers. Go ahead, I'll assist you should you need it."

Unable to believe what I just heard, my jaws dropped.

"Huh? One versus two? You aren't going to help?"

"Unnecessary." Vorte replied.

"How dare you mock us!!" That furry demon screamed.

"Hold on," I held my hand up to stop him, "by the way, it's a bit late but what's your name? Also, can you talk quietly? It's impolite to talk so loudly, you know?"

"Grr... Behold, my name is Juus!"

"Such a lame name, but whatever."

"You! How dare you!"

Then I turned to Vorte, "Is there anything I need to watch out for? I don't want to get cursed."

"You cannot be targeted therefore you cannot be cursed. Fight to your heart's content." He smiled amiably, his face slightly wrinkled.

Awwh... I love that old man's smile!

"Alright, will do! This'll be the warm up session before the boss fight! Eheheh..."

Despite what I said, I couldn't rid myself of my anxiety. Who wouldn't anxious when it came to fighting demons with those sinister abilities and traits?

"Ah, right, your name is Oortez, right?" I turned to the reptilian demon who was gazing at me with utmost focus as if I was some rare specimen. 

"Yes, and you, whatever you are, grew too fast. We'll let you live if you're willing to be my test subject. It was unfortunate I didn't have the foresight to claim you early on."

"First come, first serve. You bum! And guess what!?"

"What?"

"Wrong! You snooze, you lose! Unlimited Strawberries Grow!" I shouted with glee while unleashing a magical attack through [creation].

A long time ago I watched a movie of a guy creating countless blades out of thin air in his temporary reality. Blades and swords just weren't my thing so I opted for the strawberries because it was my unique symbol within this world. It was a privilege of a progenitor perhaps.

The empty dark subspace just a moment ago burst into vibrant colors. These strawberries didn't have to be physical or real. Blue, red, white, green, small and large strawberries, all of them were illusions within this world of mine, strictly speaking, half illusions. Vines, leaves, and everything grew wild covering the entire storage space. And, they weren't just any random illusions, they were filled with dangerous explosives that could either freeze or cook someone alive. Some were tainted with lethal and paralyzing poisons. Whether my new magic worked on demons was unknown to me but that was where these two volunteers came in.

"I call this... Strawberry Fantasy World! Hehehe... If I can't escape this place, then neither can all of you! Eat this!"

Just to be sure, I locked down my subspace with my [creation] ability. Although I couldn't interact directly with the interference that prevented me from leaving, I could at least control everything within. Who would have thought there came a day I needed to lock my own subspace from burglars? Anyway, that option to lock my subspace only became available to me after evolution which was why I didn't lock it before. Perhaps it had to do with access to |void| trait. Otherwise, the only other method to limit access was through time adjustments.

Simple attacks wasn't going to work on them so instead I made the magic explode around them while I retreated to safety. With every strawberry that exploded, it would set off a chain reaction forcing surrounding strawberries to explode up to a certain radius.

I quickly covered Vorte and myself in a sound blocking barrier. It wasn't just any sound blocking barrier either. It was created with the help of |void| which nullified all magical attacks. Energy that interacted with this barrier would be absorbed and recycled for me to use.

"Vorte, what does exactly |chaos| trait do?"

The explanation provided by the voice wasn't that clear on special traits that I didn't possess. I only had a gist of what they did.

"From what I understand, it controls heat and perhaps entropy to some extent."

"Seriously? That's quite obnoxious... Anything else it can do?"

"I do not know. They have not shown it to me likely because ascended traits each balance one another in some way."

"I see. By the way, now that I've evolved, will you still be on my side?"

"I am a guardian therefore I seek balance and ward off aggressors. In this situation, I am on your side. However, should you ever become an aggressor yourself, we will stand on opposing sides."

"I don't know. There are still places I want to visit. Being viewed as an aggressor or invader, I can't make the decision. But, you know, I'll try not to get on your bad side! No promises though!"

I continued, "By the way, what exactly does <mass> mean under the spiritual stat? Is it like the density of my mana?"

"Approximately, it is one's spiritual mass." He replied. "It's physical equivalence would be your physical mass. The more mass you control, the more powerful you are overall."

Looks like I'm right! Awesome! That means I just have to keep condensing and gathering more mana.

After the dusts settled, two demons emerged unscathed. However, since they weren't physical life forms, their appearance didn't match their health. Both of them had suffered notable damages for the explosions.  

Interestingly enough, within my subspace, energy conservation was my friend. Unless something external absorbed the energy, my mana was never going to run out unless I fully surrendered my soul. That of course would never happen.

I removed the barrier surrounding us.

"How did you like that? Had enough yet? Or do you want another round? You can't beat me in my world!" I taunted the two demons. One of them was obviously raged while the scholarly lizard demon seemed only a bit irritated.

"I'm taking my leave. This isn't worth my time." Oortez began backing off.

"Did you think you can leave? No one's leaving here today." I said coolly.

"Are you stupid? Don't let power get to you. I don't want to get involved in Juus' rampage. Can't you see what state he's in? I'm out of here! For your information, we have your child in custody." He warned before disappearing.

"What? How did he just disappear?"

The last part he said was quite concerning. That meant they managed to kidnap Smoothie somehow while protected by elite guards. However, since I was dealing with demons, what he said might be completely false. True or not, there was nothing I could do about the situation outside hence I decided to just leave it at the backburner for now.

"I believe it was [seeker of knowledge] that allowed him to teleport away quickly. I sense that he's still within your subspace. Perhaps he's waiting for you to unlock the exit and sneak out." Vorte answered.

"That slimy lizard!"

"Pay attention to the opponent before you. His status is abnormal."

Jus had been silence the entire time while he appeared clearly enraged. I could tell that energy was quickly converging into him from out of nowhere. His stats were skyrocketing, with <force> approaching what appeared to be the next ceiling which was 999. As if all that wasn't enough, his eyes were radiating bloody red.

Oh crap, his insane abilities and traits... If he can maintain that state while being unkillable, I'm screwed! What a cheater! That must be the hellish berserker state... Ehh... But I hardly provoked him?

Even in my current state with mana filled to the brim, I could not match someone with capped physical stats.

His <speed> stat was enhanced and stopped increasing at 499, likely the same case for his other stats that weren't visible to me. As for his spiritual stats, <mass> had capped. His <luck> actually dropped to 1 which was likely a side effect for increasing his other stats. 

"Vorte, can you help me with this? I have a feeling that my barrier won't stop him from reaching me."

Unlike my |void| trait, I had a feeling his |force| trait would work much better against physical attacks. Demons and guardians were supposed to counter each other anyway. I was just a third wheel.

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