Chapter 101 - Seclusion

October 13, 2021, Hinohara

It has been three weeks since Red secluded himself in his cave under the hill.

Aside from taking naps from time to time, all he did was to tinker with the wooden chip that Fumio acquired from the Oonishi.

Being able to see through the dark by infusing spiritual energy to his eyes, he did not even bother to set up a light source.

If someone will shine a light on his eyes currently however, they will either be bothered, worried, or scared away by how red they are.

These red eyes, for most of its opened hours for the past three weeks, have seen nothing but the surface of the wooden chip.

The wooden chip in his hand, is something he did not expect to fiddle with for such a long time.

During his initial examination, he figured that the wooden chip is simply a fragment of a larger spirit treasure or object that a certain being made. Even though it is but a fragment, it can be utilized on its own.

One of its uses, as Tezguniuth told him a few weeks ago, is to act as a focal point of magic for summoning demons or angels. After taking a real close look, however, with his spirit sense, he was able to see millions of lines comprising the treasure fragment, making him take the small wooden chip seriously.

He immediately recognized these lines, as insights; a certain being's understanding of a certain natural law. And these insights are what that certain being may use in many things like making spiritual treasures, cultivating, or plain old fighting.

In this treasure fragment's case, it contains a certain being's insights on the natural law of space.

These lines of insights however, are basic for Red. So basic in fact that he figures it was made by a being that is even younger than an embryo in a pregnant woman's womb in comparison to his own age.

Using his eons of wisdom regarding natural laws of the void, it was easy for him to read and understand the insights left on the wooden chip in just a day or two, and has figured out the treasure fragment's use according to its structure.

While he has already understood the insights on the objects, what took his time was his work in re-aligning the lines to their logical arrangements. He also went all out on his use of his spirit sense on the project so he had to spend time to sleep like a non-superioris to restore it.

Thankfully for him, his work for the past three weeks is about to finish.

With just one last tug of his spiritual energy, *tk* he aligns the last line of insight on the object. The next moment, the irregularly shaped wooden chip, suddenly *click* snaps to take a form of a wooden cube.

He immediately jumps away from the wooden cube after feeling a force coming from it. The wooden cube, free from Red's grasp, stays floated in the air, and *Vwommm* a small yellow shockwave like energy explodes out gently from it, making the pitch dark cave bright for a second.

The energy, passing through Red, makes Red disappointed. It is because it is not made of spiritual energy, but of this realm's autochthonous or native energy.

After the small shockwave, the cube falls to the ground and from it, starts to form a glowing yellow oblong ring around three meters in height and two meters in width, immediately brightening up the dark cave. The middle of the oblong ring is nothing but a billowing veil of yellow light.

"Nice…" Red smirks in recognition at the space-time phenomenon.

Through his understanding of the insights and from his own experience, he knows that he is now looking at a portal. A portal to the dimension hidden inside the wooden chip.

He is not too eager on exploring it just yet however.

He walks towards the portal, picks up the wooden cube, slips a sliver of his spiritual on it, and *tk* disarranges one line of insight. The wooden cube *click* snaps back to become a wooden chip, and the portal immediately dissipates after.

He then realigns again the line of insight he previously disarranged, and *click* the wooden chip again transforms to a wooden cube. Then, a small blast of autochthonous energy comes out of it, before forming a portal once again.

He nods in satisfaction, noticing that the scene happened perfectly like before, assuring him that the treasure fragment is at least consistent.

He then proceeds to deactivate, and reactivate the portal a few more times by disarranging different lines each time, and to his satisfaction, the portal and the wooden chip are working consistently.

*click* After deactivating the portal one last time, he pockets the wooden chip and walks to the entrance of his cave.

While he is excited what the dimension at the opposite side of the portal offers, he will rather not enter it yet. Instead, he pushes the stone door of his cave open and calls upon one of his demon sl*ves through his soul connection to them, and waits.

.

An hour later, Red has already tried out a few more features of the treasure fragment without actually going inside the dimension inside of it.

Suddenly, "Master?" Rizretheen arrives at the entrance of his cave and she calls out to him in caution. Caution perhaps brought upon by the pitch-dark cave.

"Enter." Red says as he materializes yellow flames to brighten the cave up.

"Greetings, master. You're finally looking for my… companionship?" Rizretheen smiles coquettishly at Red as she joins him.

"I have to say… This is the perfect place. Just us two? We can be as loud as we want."

"You wish. Heh." Red chuckles in amusement, but he is in no mood to joke around.

"Instead, I have a task for you." He says as he activates the treasure fragment.

Rizretheen is both mystified and apprehensive at the portal that appeared in front of them.

"Y-you don't want me to go in there, do you master?" She asks nervously.

"Oh? How do you know you can go inside it?" Red asks in interest.

"It's like the gates of hell, but much smaller. But it couldn't be a gate to hell because I don't feel hell from it." Rizretheen explains.

"I see…" Red takes Rizretheen's words as a clue.

"Alright. Yes. I'm asking you to enter it." He then orders Rizretheen.

Rizretheen does not want to, but she cannot fight the compulsion from her soul connection with Red.

"Also, here. Wear this." Red hands her his watch.

Rizretheen takes the watch and wears it before entering the portal without hesitation.

As soon as Rizretheen disappears from the veil of the portal, *click* Red deactivates it.

He then waits for ten minutes before *click* activating portal once again.

A few moments later, Rizretheen dives out of the portal, and falls face flat on the ground.

"…" She hurriedly stands up and looks around and to her relief, she finds Red.

"Master!" She then dives Red for an embrace.

"*sob* *sob* Master, I thought you already abandoned me!" She starts sobbing on Red's chest.

"Okay… Okay…" Red this time, feels that Rizretheen is genuinely crying, unlike her usually crocodile tears which she uses to make men's hearts go soft for her.

"Why would you think I abandoned you? What did you see inside?" He starts questioning as he pats her back rhythmically.

"Nothing." Rizretheen says.

"Nothing? How about the huge stone I threw in there?" Red asks.

"Oh. It's in there. Aside it and the ground made of stone, there is nothing else. Nothing blue skies." Rizretheen reports after calming down.

"Alright. Alright." Red pries Rizretheen off of him.

"Let me see." He then takes his watch back from Rizretheen, covers its face with his fingers, just to give himself the suspense.

He then takes a deep breath, looks at the watch's covered face before quickly uncovering it.

"PHEW…" He exhales deeply out of excitement.

Before he handed Rizretheen his watch earlier, he saw the hands of it portraying 11:07 AM. After trapping it with Rizretheen for ten minutes inside the treasure fragment's dimension, his watch is now displaying 3:08 PM.

Four hours has passed inside the treasure fragment's dimension, meaning 1:24 time ratio between the real world and inside the treasure fragment.

"I'm sorry I left you in there for that long." Red apologizes to Rizretheen.

"Please, don't send me there alone again. You can join me next time." Rizretheen is now back to herself.

"I'll reward you instead with some vacation days." Red promises.

"No need, master. Just play with me for four hours. The same time I spent trapped in that place." Rizretheen clings to Red's arm and starts rubbing her well-endowed body against it.

"How about I give you an anti-anti-demon magic clothes?" Red instead changes the subject.

"anti-anti-demon magic clothes? What's that?" This gets Rizretheen's interest.

"Yes. I can give you clothes that can block out demon-trapping talismans and sigils." Red says.

"T-that means… I can go anywhere I want?" Rizretheen's eyes glisten.

"Well, not anywhere. You can simply walk over simple ones like the ones in public places. You still can't go inside Shrines, Churches, or anywhere that has powerful trapping magic." Red explains.

It is enough for Rizretheen however.

"Thank you! Thank you master!" Rizretheen gives Red another tight hug.

Red meanwhile, smirks. He is going to give those anti-anti-demon magic clothes to the other demons anyway. Rizretheen is simply going to get them earlier by a few days.

"Uhn… Now go." Red compels Rizretheen to leave him alone.

After closing the stone door of his cave, Red reactivates the portal once again.

He then punches a feet deep hole in the ground, drops the treasure fragment in it, and covers it with soil.

Figuring that no one will enter his cave anytime soon, he enters the portal.

*whoosh*

Aside from the sound of the veil of light brushing against his ears, he does not feel any other unpleasant feelings after crossing it. It is just like walking through a doorway with bead curtains.

He then looks around and sees how accurate Rizretheen's description of the dimension is.

It is a boring, yet vast expanse made simply of a flat land of stone, and an endless clear blue sky without clouds in it. The square shaped land, around the size of twelve football pitches, looks like it is floating in the sky.

Red dashes to one edge of the land hoping to see what is below, but just a meter or so from what he assumed is a cliff, he bumps to an invisible barrier.

"I see…" he nods in understanding, knowing that it is the lateral limit of the dimension. From that understanding, he assumes that there is also a vertical limit to the dimension.

He then looks down and stomps his foot on the stone ground. To his surprise, he failed to even put a dent on it.

He infuses spiritual energy to his foot, and tries again.

*slam* the ground is still unharmed. He gets curious at what the ground is made of, but he decides to study it later.

While he finds the dimension very useful in the future, he is also disappointed by it. 

"Dead. And no spiritual energy."

Finding nothing else to do, he sighs.

"This place needs some décor.." He starts planning as he leaves the dimension.