Simo

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The dark mist that seeped inside my body did not make me feel anything special. A frown quickly made its way onto my face as I closed my eyes and entered my soul space. The blue 'sky' greeted me, my incomplete statue was still standing in its place, right in the middle of the 'world'. 

A small green hill now stood in a corner, a large contrast in comparison to the blue world. 'Hmm?' I quickly turned my head towards a different corner of the world, a small insignificant area was now masked in the shadows. 

The area was extremely small in the grand scheme of things, but it was nonetheless still present. 'So that's where the mist went to,' I nodded before turning my head and scanning my surroundings. I had many doubts about the soul space in general. 

Firstly why did It look like this? Secondly, the mana elements, they looked no different than when they were in the outside world, but It was an undeniable fact that they change once they enter my soul space, this brings me to my third point concerning said change. 

Once these elements join my soul space, they no longer seem to be bound to the mana stream of the outside world, though when I use my soul space, I can still make them influence it to a certain degree which allows me to in turn manipulate the elements of the stream. 

It's similar to how my cosmic mana works. A thread from my soul space reaches out to the outer world, forming a connection of sorts that helps me draw more power from the elements. It was an interesting method, and with It, I came to understand how certain points work. 

Firstly, the amount of mana inside my soul space helps me draw more elements from the outside world, which means the larger it is the better for me. Now what I failed to understand was, if my use of mana was directly related to my soul space, then how come I was able to use it before I even had a soul space? And my final issue was the fact that we were 'drawing' elements from the stream! Wasn't this harmful to it? Was it really okay for us to 'tame' these elements and make them part of our little 'world'?

For the first part, I had a certain theory, though I wasn't completely sure If it was a correct one, nonetheless It seems like the most plausible, at least for now. My guess is that 'I' or rather 'we' can draw the power of the stream without the use of a soul space, this is proven by the fact that I alongside my siblings were able to use magic before we gained our soul space. 

Soul space on the other hand works as a sort of amplifier, it boosts our connection to said stream by utilizing 'tamed' elements, ones that reside within 'us', and It depends on the number of said elements that decide by how much our connection to the stream is enhanced.

At least that's how I understood it. Another bonus of the soul space is the fact that It can help us establish new affinities with different elements. This point was also proven by the fact that I had now gained a minor affinity to the Earth element. 

I am not sure If this was the same for all dragons, but at least for me, it seems to be true. Now with the appearance of the small shadows at the corner of my soul space, I guess that I should obtain a somewhat of a connection to the dark element.

I don't hold too high of hopes for said connection since the amount I absorbed is insignificant, though it's still better than nothing, and above all, it's a start so I'm already satisfied with what I have. 

Now for my last 'issue' I still wasn't sure about it, I did not hold enough knowledge to make a judgment over whether drawing the elements into our soul space was in any way harmful to the stream, or not. This was something that I had to confirm with the elders. 

After observing the small shadows for a little while longer, and after confirming there were no problems nor any significant changes inside my little 'world' I swiftly exited my soul space. Sidus was patiently waiting for me, I nodded at him before asking. 

"Are you ready to go back?" 

"Yes brother, I need some time to adjust..." He said. 

He didn't need to elaborate for me to understand, his gains from our previous battle must have been quite significant, I nodded approvingly before turning around and slowly making my way towards the exit with him in toe. 

This time, It didn't take us too long before we managed to leave the giant crevice. The sun shone brightly in the sky above making my scales glitter a bit, Sidus's dark scales on the other hand seemed to swallow all light. 

A yawn escaped my mouth as I turned my gaze ahead before exerting strength in my back limbs causing cracks to appear on the ground below, I then instantly launched myself to the sky like a meteor. Sidus was right behind me, though his take-off was silent. 

The way back was silent, none of us said anything as the scenery below continued to change. After landing back at the edge of the floating mountain, Sidus looked at me and bowed his head in respect before speaking.  

"Thank you for your help brother," 

Hearing his sincere thank you, a smile made its way to my face as I nodded. "Don't mention it," He did not say anything else and simply turned around and made his way back towards the cave. 

Once he disappeared inside, I raised my head to scan the sky above the mountain, Essie's figure was still missing. A sigh escaped my mouth before I shook my head. The sun was still high in the sky, and although a part of me wanted to lay down and take a nap, another part was tempted to go out and 'play'. 

'Maybe I can visit grandmother first? I can also use this to ask her about the part of 'drawing' mana into our soul space, and how was it any different than what that monster did?' I frowned when I thought about that. 

'Yeah, let's do that, I'll ask grandma first,' With my mind made up, I once again launched myself to the sky, this time my destination was grandmother's abode.