Eight Layer Sub-Space (Chapter 292)

The time he needed was five minutes.

Realistically, that was the absolute maximum his allies could endure against Belpher.

So Oscar was forced to pull on the threads of space once more.

“Kgh…!”

As he yanked the strands, a wave of dizziness struck.

The six lines of his mana circuits swelled as if they would rupture, and blood spilled from all seven orifices.

His vision blurred, the world fading into pitch-black.

“Sp— Oscar!”

Lloyd’s voice rang out, but he had no space—no consciousness to spare for a reply.

Every nerve he possessed was focused solely on maintaining Itaca inside the seven-fold subspace.

“Over here! Treat him!”

At Lloyd’s shout, two priests rushed to Oscar’s side.

Warm holy power sank into him, soothing his body that was about to burst.

Haa… haa…

One more layer.

Only by adding one more layer could he reach the time he aimed for.

Though unseen to others, Oscar was gripping over a hundred spatial threads.

‘Can I really wrap one more layer…?’

Dozens of painfully realistic reasons not to flashed through his mind.

His mana circuits were already at their limit.

Failure could cause mana runaway.

He could die.

Even with seven layers, Itaca might start recovering its holy power…

But the reason to do it was only one.

‘Simply because… I must.’

There was no noble justification.

Even if he failed to encase Itaca in an eight-layered subspace, no one would blame him.

This entire situation wasn’t even his fault.

‘But still…’

Oscar tightened his grip on the spatial threads.

Unaware, a faint smile appeared on his lips.

‘It’s been a while since I felt this. This level of pressure… it’s fun.’

He wasn’t someone who ran from crisis or fell silent under weight.

No matter how hard or impossible the task, he completed what was required of him.

‘Please… just five more minutes.’

His mana circuits burned hotter than ever.

The blazing mana that surged through them now felt more like molten lava.

Every time it rushed by, it scraped the circuits, sending waves of agony through him.

“……!"

The pain was too overwhelming for him to even scream.

He knew that if he let out even a sound, he would faint immediately.

Tears brought on by the agony mixed with the blood on his face.

Oscar barely held onto consciousness and pulled one final thread.

The eighth subspace wrapped around Itaca.

‘From now—five minutes.’

Just as he closed his eyes to focus on maintaining it—