When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin entered the space of consciousness and gazed towards the water ball which was unceasingly gathering water particles.

Following the accumulation of Water Particles these few days, he could clearly sense that the Water Ball was almost reaching its maximum capacity. Only a little more was needed to reach materialization, forming a new magical rune.

This was also a crucial step in the road of magic. The space of consciousness could only hold a maximum of three runes, so when the last rune took shape, this would mean that his system of magic would be finally complete and next, he would only need to refill the rune when necessary.

At the same time, this formation of the steam rune was also a crucial moment in verifying what he called the "3 states in 1" hypothesis.

What could happen to the space of consciousness when all three states of water are assembled? And what differences could the equilateral triangle formed by these three runes create?

Benjamin had a lot of expectations.

So he took a deep breath and threw himself into the process of agglomerating the Water Particles, speeding up the formation of this last rune.

According to time in reality, half an hour passed.

Finally.

Accompanied by a crisp "ding" sound, the Water Ball which was wildly absorbing Water Particles suddenly emitted a repulsion force. Surrounding the Water Ball was a thin layer of particle vacuum belt that was blocking the Water Particles from being further absorbed into the Water Ball.

The Water Particles that made up the Water Ball also underwent drastic change. They collided, bonded...like liquid in a test tube which was constantly reacting. Shortly thereafter, an energy force emerged in the center of the Water Ball.

The whole Water Ball instantly radiated with light.

There it came again!

Benjamin looked at the light and once again felt the familiar sensation of having his heart and soul pierced through.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

He did not immediately chant the Pillar of Steam spell following his light bulb moment. Instead, he walked first to the center of the equilateral triangle, then turned and faced the Water Ball, chanting a spell that was prepared beforehand.

The dazzling water ball bubbled and boiled in that instant.

Simultaneously, there came a sudden loud "Ding" noise; so loud as if he heard the whistling of trains.

He got so shaken that he lost his concentration.

When he regained his composure, the world before his eyes was completely different.

It was a pure blueness within his sight. Countless odd runes hovered above and surrounded him as they spun like the way satellites revolved around planets. Some distorted and soft syllables reached his ears, as if they rang from a long distance but also as if they were whispered to his ears.

He was dazed momentarily but had his alertness recovered instantly.

This was that pure blue space!

He did not have time to be pleasantly surprised or prepare to react. From the moment he noticed the change to the space of consciousness, further peculiar changes multiplied. The soft distorted syllables suddenly became louder, like thinly-flowing streams converging into a surging river.

Damn it......

Benjamin could not react in time; his concentration was wildly shaken; he almost got shaken out of the space again.

Fortunately he had a similar experience and so this time he was more prepared. When the floodwater-liked sound arose, he gritted his teeth, successfully resisted the headache and prevented himself from fainting.

Not only that, he tried to memorize that syllable while enduring the worsening headache.

The last time he was here, he could not remember the syllable for "Water", which became his worst regret. This time, he would rather endure the pain and forced himself to memorize the syllable; he could not afford to be shaken out of here empty-handed.

However, Benjamin’s persistence seemed to have angered the sound. The volume of the piercing syllables which were already loud suddenly became louder, more compact and explosive like thunder rolling by his ears. That feeling was akin to blasting the recording of a skyscraper collapsing to Benjamin’s ears on earphones and with a volume that was ten to twenty times louder than the original recording.

"Water!"

"Water!"

"Water!"

Benjamin could not stand any longer.

His consciousness was shaken violently; he could not think properly, much less try to remember the syllables. It was like there was a bomber plane dropping bombs in his ears; his sanity was slipping and was very close to being shaken out of this world.

Benjamin covered his ears and struggled in pain, roaring hysterically.

--- These blood curdling screams were instead drowned out completely by the echoes of the syllables.

Time passed slowly, the roaring explosive noise shook the entire pure blue space like a nuclear warhead. The countless odd runes were also blown to bits by this torture, not one was spared.

Very soon, the whole world was left with only a pure blue space.

Except for Benjamin.

He was still here, unshaken out of the world, unlike the last time.

The surrounding sound was still growing, Benjamin had already lost his consciousness from the sound; his cognitive awareness collapsed like an avalanche on the mountains. It was as if his brain was cooked thoroughly in high temperature; he could not think of anything but only struggle instinctively. It was as if in the next moment, he would faint completely and his whole being would decompose into powder form from this terrifying sound wave.

However, he lasted through every moment.

He was like a ship which sunk into the depths of the sea, under the erosion of sea water, rusted, bespeckled, deformed...but never falling apart. It was as if a hundred thousand years had passed and he was still floating in this pure blue void, struggling in this God’s punishment-like sound wave.

The persistence lying deep within the corner of a soul, was like a weak candlelight which could not be extinguished no matter how it was blown; guarding the last square of light, stubbornly refused to be engulfed by darkness.

Probably......he did not want to be defeated.

The more Benjamin stubbornly resisted the noise, the louder the sound grew. In the end, even the entire pure blue arena began distorting. It was as if a piece of blue paper, following the endless violent oscillations of the sound waves, was kneaded and finally crumpled into a paper ball, fragmented and broken.

And in this blotch of pure blue, Benjamin’s figure gradually became blurry.

.....

"Young master, it’s time to wake up!"

Benjamin opened his eyes with much effort.

The sun rays of dawn shone through the window and landed on the blanket, while little dust particles hovered up and down in the light. Jeremy walked to the window and opened it. A small gust of wind blew in, making Benjamin squint his eyes a little.

Jeremy quickly shut the window upon seeing Benjamin’s reaction.

Groggily, Benjamin reached out his hand, rubbed his forehead and deeply inhaled the fresh air brought in by the wind.

What ...... happened?

He slowly sat in the bed, leaned against the headboard and displayed an expression of confusion.

"Young master, you had a long sleep. You were awake yesterday afternoon for a short time and then fell asleep again. You slept till this morning. If I slept that long, I would have felt dizzy from so much sleep," Jeremy said while preparing the items for washing up.

"I...slept for this long?" As Benjamin was listening to Jeremy, he slowly formed a thought in his empty mind.

Wasn’t he... wasn’t he forming the third rune in the space of consciousness?

How did it suddenly become the next morning?

He rubbed his tired eyes, zoned out for a bit and finally, gradually recovered from the daze.

After chanting the spell, he entered the pure blue space once more and even resisted through the first sound wave. But afterwards... he could not remember what happened afterwards.

He only remembered that that process seemed to have been excruciating and long.

He probably hung in there for a long time during the echoes of the syllables.

Benjamin felt excited and yet a little scared.

Although he could not recall any of the incidents afterwards, he remembered the feeling, like his whole being was about to explode any time; who knew if it would be a mental breakdown or death the next second.

So horrifying...

Fortunately, from the looks of it now, the sound wave did not cause him harm- he was fine; and did not lose his memory or sanity.

Then... did he remember that syllable?

Benjamin immediately attempted to recollect the syllable in the pure blue space which shook him until he lost his consciousness. However, sadly, the result was the same as before; he simply could not remember the syllable no matter how hard he tried to remember due to the headaches caused by the sound waves.

This made him feel a little disappointed.

Darn it! His effort went to waste in the end.

He sighed and got ready to leave the bed to wash up. But, the moment he got up, he froze- he felt that everything around him had gone through a slight change.

The whole bedroom seemed, in his eyes, a little different.

He noticed the bits of paper at a corner; the ants stealthily climbing in from the window. Even the sound of water gently sloshing in the wash basin; the amount of water in the basin even appeared in his mind... for some unknown reason, everything in his surrounding seemed clearer.

Benjamin got very confused.

What was going on?

Could it be that getting shaken a little longer gave him special powers?

"Hey, what’s going on?" he asked the System silently.

"How am I supposed to know." The System seemed to be in a bad mood; its tone sounded even more impatient than usual. "You faced the Water Ball, chanted the spell and suddenly fainted, until now. I should be the one asking you what’s going on!"

"......"

Right! Water Ball! New magic rune!

Benjamin suddenly remembered the spell he chanted at the Water Ball.

He had already finished all the steps of forming the magic runes, but in that second, he entered the pure blue space and did not even know what happened to the space of consciousness afterwards?

Was the rune assembly successful?

Following that thought, he disregarded Jeremy’s presence who was twisting a towel; he entered the space of consciousness anxiously.

All he saw, in that boundless darkness, were three identical triangular runes hovering above, shining in a brilliant cerulian light. They outlined a perfect equilateral triangle together and their misplaced position were full of geometrical aesthetic.