“Say my goodbyes…” There were only a few people I had ever gotten close enough to for that to matter. Johnson and I had grown apart these last few years, but he was still my closest friend. I’d already said goodbye to my parents when I decided to become an adventurer, but I’d planned to go back every once in a while. How could I ever manage to look either one in the eye and tell them they’d never see me again? After they’d already lost their first child?

“How long do I have until then?”

“Perhaps a few months. Perhaps a few decades. It depends on how often, and to what degree you allow the voice to influence you.”

“Can I just not take monster form for a while while I study? Buy time by just lowering the opportunity for the black sun to influence me? Actually, if being a blue mage causes such problems, then why make me one?”

“Slowing down its influence is wise, to a point. We need more time to develop more permanent solutions against the black sun’s ability to find this place. However, for the same reason we made you a blue mage, you have to increase your personal strength and ‘rank up’ within a reasonable time frame, so you can’t wait forever.

As you know, the second cataclysm is approaching. We thought we had at least another millenia or so, and had been operating under that assumption. That is, until the mana wells weakened.”

“Haven’t they always been weakening? They have more ambient mana to absorb due to the neutral mana cycle, and therefore had to lower their effective radius to keep up.”

“That is part of it, yes. But the neutral mana cycle has remained consistent for millenium. It had already been factored into their effective radius. But rather than the ambient mana increasing faster, the mana wells themselves are weakening.”

“How can that be?”

“Because their influence over mana is waning. Or rather, something else is grabbing hold of it. We don’t know when, and we don’t know why, but the black sun is waking. Much sooner than expected. Perhaps even before the second cataclysm fully kicks off, it will gain enough consciousness to recognize and end our project, ignoring the safeguards entirely.

Thus, we had to treat you as the project’s final iteration. But we aren’t ready. There is still so much to do to finish this project. Our alchemy is still only capable of a fraction of what it was before the black sun erased it. This space itself is still far more barren than it needs to be. Thus, we had to make it so the project could still be worked on, even in the case that it is not completed before the black sun tears the universe apart. The only solution we could think of was to make a powered that could take the abilities of other creatures and incorporate them, and the only way to do that is through the ‘blue mage’ class. It is an unfortunate risk, but we do have some safeguards of our own to counteract the black sun’s detection, and prevent the influence of the voice from going too far.“

I pointed to the spell-ball they had in the center of their cavern’s alcove. “Like that thing? What is it anyways, a wide-area calm spell?”

“Not exactly. Calm spells don’t get rid of the voice entirely, only keep someone sane while under its influence. This is designed more as a way of cutting off the black sun’s influence entirely. The subspace itself was supposed to perform that function in later iterations as a way to keep this place hidden even when the black sun fully awakens, but that is no longer an option.

Still, it barely functions in its current form. It’s supposed to be able to stop monsters from spawning, and it’s supposed to be independent from magic. Unfortunately, this version is limited, and we can’t make the alchemical version function in this place yet. That’s why it’s imperative that you rank up.”

“I still don’t understand. Does that mean my rank will impact the subspace? And what does my rank have to do with your alchemy?”

“When we designed your powers, we made sure this subspace would remain stable regardless of growth of the host. You may experience some personal discomfort from increasing the influence of the voice, but the only immediate changes will be greater mana capacity and control, and a bit more personal freedom in regards to your abilities within this subspace itself. We desire to extend that personal freedom to us, but we can only manage to make that permanent with alchemy, and for the time being, our alchemy will only be able to make such a massive change when you rank up.

What you’ve seen us do so far within this subspace is mostly magic. Power that belongs to the black sun. A system built upon alchemy, tainted and twisted for its own purposes, and excluding the use of alchemy for all others. Though the black sun can not see into this place, its power and restrictions still reach here. Though this space allows for us to use some amount of alchemy, it is still severely limited. Fully realizing the power of alchemy here can only be done through the magic that ‘belongs’ to you, and the black sun has not had the chance to taint.”

“I thought you said all magic belongs to the black sun?”

“Effectively so, though there is one notable exception: The moment a creature ranks up. What do you know of the neutral mana cycle?”

“When we use aligned mana, it eventually dissolves back into unaligned mana. As we rank up, monsters and powereds are essentially infused with mana of our alignment. A process that creates new mana from nothing.”

“True, but not the whole picture. The new mana — the neutral mana created when a creature ranks up — is not provided by the black sun. It is created from the interaction of hundreds of mana sources a creature has consumed over time, suddenly fusing and interacting with the magic within each creature to provide them new abilities, typically unique to them.

This is the reason why the black sun used my people to cross into this universe. It wanted to use the creatures of this universe to spread the seeds of its power, and have us grow them in its place. But the universe can only handle so much mana before being torn apart, which is why the universe will end after the second cataclysm.”

“Oh good, so we won’t even get to experience the end of humanity by the hands of monsters.” I said sarcastically.

“Oh no, that will most certainly be in your future. The black sun will use them to collect its sprouted seeds before the universe is torn apart. Even it is not god… Yet.” The ancient abruptly changed the topic back to alchemy, ignoring my frown, as if the end of the universe was old news “But since this power is made from nothing, and controlled by you, in this space cut off from the black sun’s sight, it can be used to fundamentally alter this place without the black sun’s influence. It will, of course, be immediately replaced by the ambient mana you had already absorbed that was created by the black sun whenever you use the new mana. Therefore you’ll have to rank up within this subspace and let us use the new mana as part of our alchemy.”

“And what happens if I rank up outside of this subspace?”

“Then, if the black sun ever finds out about your existence, it will cut this place off from the effects of its magic. Then you — and everyone else here — will die. Only through reinforcing this subspace with alchemy will this place remain stable in that likely event. Besides that, you may find it difficult to rank up outside this subspace.”

“Why’s that? I’ll just need another source of space mana above my rank. I can get that from a Filii Spatium Polypus, or one of the Aurelian mana pools.”

“That’s assuming your alignment is actually space. Remember, your powers are based on a complex system of amalgamations within amalgamations. Although every base has been space-aligned by necessity, and your physical form can only access the space alignment, the integration of so many different mana types into the subspace has changed it into something a bit more complex.”

“Is that why things that enter this subspace are resurrected, and where the light outside of these terrariums come from? They’re not abilities of my space alignment, but rather, additional alignments the subspace itself is capable of?”

“Exactly. For a few reasons, we can’t give our project’s outer hosts too much power or too many mana types, but what’s hidden inside the subspace is less restricted.”

“So I need mana that matches every one of my subspace’s alignments in order to rank up. Where could I find that?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than just finding matching mana sources in your case. That being said, we’ve already made the necessary preparations for this.” The ancient placed their hand upon the terrarium wall, and opened it to the void outside. “Come with me. It’s time you see your body again.”