I paused at this moment and rubbed my eyes as I digested this part of the domain. There was a passive state of this ability that froze everything around me, and although this cost Anima, for me, the cost was negligible; the main focus here was not this effect, but the active one, Enter the Stillness.
If I understood this clearly, this active ability was almost familiar because it reminded me of the loop, and I could almost see how I had been able to awaken it.
I mouthed, "the moment before the lightning struck." It almost made thematic sense when I thought about it, almost as if I was able to pause time with this power, but it was not truly pausing time; if I activated it, then in that area, time would cease to move, except for me.
This power was ridiculous, and if I understood it right, I could not yet use it because my domain was fractured, meaning it was incomplete, and until I gathered all nine shards and then found a way to piece them together, I would never gain access to this overpowered ability.
However, this was a window to the sort of power I would expect to gain at the Sovereign Tier, the sort of power that went beyond anything I knew or understood.
There was more information to dig into about the domain, but I could not focus on this; I had other things to pursue, especially when you take into consideration that I was inside enemy territory.
I glanced at the knight that was frozen in place before I focused back to my status screen, and the next item of note was my Resonance, especially Darkness Resonance.
I had been a bit too overwhelmed with everything that had been happening in the pyramids when I was fighting the demons that I did not fully delve into what it meant to acquire Force Resonance. I just took it as a side effect of pushing my body past the limits, but acquiring Darkness Resonance was rather shocking.
For a mage to gain Resonance to an element or field, they needed a long time to understand and wield the power of that element, and my Lightning Resonance was born from something like that.
I knew that for Mages like Arcanists and Sovereigns who lived for a long time, they may be able to acquire other Resonances, but those Resonances would be weakened and would never match their primary element, and gaining more Resonances should be significantly harder with every new one you acquired.
How was I able to easily gain two Resonance outside my primary element? Was it related to my channels? This may likely be the case, since I had a significantly larger number of channels than an average mage, and maybe the barrier that held them from gaining more resonance for them was a thin bubble for me.
Nevertheless, I did not intend to focus on pursuing power outside my primary field, or I would risk being stretched too thin. Of course, the loop technically gave me infinite time, but until I was fully assured that this mechanism was failsafe, it would be foolish to stretch myself too thin and learn other spells from various disciplines.
For now, Resonance was going to give me something more important than any spells I could acquire from other fields, and that was immunity to those elements and fields.
Recall that every Tier that I attain in Resonance, the power of my spell not just increased, but I also gained immunity to the element of my Resonance. In that case, my Lightning Resonance at the Arcanist Tier meant I was immune to all lightning spells up to the Arcanist Tier, but I may be hurt by lightning spells at the peak of the Arcanist Tier or the Sovereign Tier.
My Force Resonance at the Adept Tier meant that someone like Commander Rel, who primarily wielded force spells, would not be able to hurt me, even if I did not raise any defense against her.
I squeezed my hands as I began to imagine what this path could mean for me. If I could acquire Resonance without the restrictions that all mages suffered, then there may come a time when I would be immune to well... everything.
The path to gain resonance for all elements and forces was a long one, but maybe this was the path that I was going to be walking on from this point onward.
I allowed the status screen to fade away; everything that I did not dwell upon would be slowly taken apart in time. The world below me was burning.
∞
I could feel the darkness pressing against the edge of the field, but it could not enter. For the first time since I had woken in this place, I was truly free from this thing.
But freedom meant nothing if my home was ash.
I looked at the frozen knight, and I reached out and touched its helm; the Inscriptions on its surface flickered, responding to my will. I was a Master Engraver now. I could read the language of magic, and I could speak it.
There was no need to create a lightning pen; my threads could serve this task well enough. I traced a line on the knight’s armor, and the Inscription I had just drawn glowed with a faint silver light.
I had just copied the Inscriptions in the armor again, pushing out the darkness essence of the Sovereign, and filling it with my Anima. Inside my domain, I was able to see the essence of darkness, thick like oil pouring out of the armor, but it could not vanish while inside my domain.
However, the darkness was like acid, and it was eating at my domain. I frowned as I felt the difference between the essence that a Sovereign controlled and my domain.
I focused on this essence, and I slowly ground it down, and by the end, my domain had shrunk by almost a third, but in a few seconds, it regained its previous volume.
This was likely a small part of the essence of darkness from the Sovereign, and yet it took so much from me to erase it. I knew that this may not be what my domain was suited for, but this gap was a humbling thing to experience.
I sighed and then released my domain, causing the knight to drift to the ground, and the world rushed in, and the darkness followed.
I turned away from the knight and looked at the passage ahead. The facility was still intact, my Tribulation was over, and everything had returned to what it once was, but I was not the same boy who woke up here a few loops ago.
It would not be long until Seed knew I had left my vat, and suddenly I no longer had the desire for this game.
I looked down at the metallic floor... I wanted to go home, to see if my home still remained.