Spatial Manipulation System

Chapter 16 - Unexplainable Encounter

"Dave, come on, just one step," Hei Yu urged as she tried to encourage Dave, who ran with gritted teeth. 

Filled with guilt as she watched him, Hei Yu fired freely at the incoming horde of wolves chasing behind them. For the first time, she saw exactly to what lengths Dave was willing to go to protect, and it made her feel fatigued and guilty at the same time. 

7 minutes ago. 

They had just come out of the woods and were now well past Dave's childhood home. It would only be a few minutes to the open field where the Plane could land. But all of a sudden, before them appeared a creature unlike any they had seen until now. 

Sporting the usual red eyes of all mutant beasts, this creature had the physique of a man except for the jagged spikes all over its naked black skin. It seemed like it had just walked out of a fire after having been burnt to a crisp in it. Holding a large sword, it stood on their path silently watching as they approached, behind it, a pack of wolves chased. 

About fifteen feet away from this new strange creature, Dave and Hei Yu stopped and glanced behind, where the wolves stopped too. 

It wasn't that they were too afraid to approach; they did not seem to care for the man, but we're very cautious about Hei Yu. While mutation did nothing to change their animal and hunting instinct, it seemed to instill in them a strong desire to feed and live. 

And knowing Hei Yu could kill some of them, caused them to hesitate, but they needed to feed, so they also would not leave. 

"Can you hold off the wolves?" Dave asked suddenly, and Hei Yu turned sharply to him. 

"No!" she replied incredulously. This wasn't the time to fight, and he was in no shape to engage that creature before them. 

Something about its stance and sinister gaze gave her a chilling feeling. 

"Hei Yu, we cannot escape this time, that thing is sentient." Dave shook his head, keeping his gaze trained on the figure with the broadsword. 

"How can you tell?" Hei Yu asked, her voice lowered. 

"Its stance and amused grin are a giveaway, don't you think?" Dave replied, and Hei Yu finally settled to observe this strange creature. 

Two horns jutted out of its blackened face, red at their tips as if still burning from some intense heat. 

"That's a demon!" Hei Yu exclaimed all of a sudden, earning a displeased glance from Dave.

"You think something so ugly can be a master of temptation?" he asked, sneering. 

As if offended by Dave's words, the creature grunted and tightened its grip on the broadsword as it adjusted its stance. 

"It really is sentient," Hei Yu muttered. 

"Take care of the wolves, don't try to push them back, go for the kill." Dave urged, and before Hei Yu could ask why, he rushed towards the Demon, a buzzing blue spear materializing in his hand. 

Dave ran, ignoring the crippling pain in his leg. Halfway through, he twirled the spear to his left side and performed a sweep as he made to run past the Demon. 

But this strange creature would not simply stand there and wait for death. It smiled, its white teeth almost blinding Dave in bafflement as it raised the broadsword before itself in a block. 

The sword and spear connected, and Dave's eyes widened in shock. 

His spear was not material, it could not make physical contact with anything material. It was merely a manifestation of a disturbed region of space that only he could touch. At contact with any material object, it would tear the very fabrics of space through the object, effectively tearing said object in two regardless of its toughness. 

Yet, this broadsword could touch his spear as if it were material. 

"Surprised?" the creature spoke, sending more shock through Dave as their weapons pushed against each other in a tug of war. 

Standing across from each other and staring sideways at the other, they exchanged glances. 

"What you control is a fundamental natural principle that is present in every region of reality. Many can do what you can, but you have found a way to do it with such intensity that you manipulate reality itself at almost no cost. You are an anomaly, and must not exist," the figure spoke some more, its voice deep like a growl but also smooth and soothing like the voice of a male opera singer without any inflections in tone. 

"What are you?" Dave asked hesitantly as he formed a whirlpool of space in front of his face to shield himself from the ash coming out of the Demon's lips as it spoke. He had no idea if it was poisonous.

"Edmond is my name, and I am an Apostle of Entropy." 

Dave squinted in confusion. 

"Edmond," he called in a serious tone. 

"Your breath stinks," he smiled, and his spear vanished, sending both of them past each other as inertia acted on their forms.

But Dave covered himself in a bubble of space and spun around against inertia, sending a Spatial Blade at Edmond's back. Then he teleported to his front and materialized a shield, holding it in front of Edmond to bash it into him. 

All of a sudden, there was a sharp blink, and then a burst of enormous energy folding and twisting space itself, and it rushed forward to swallow everything around it. 

Dave immediately teleported to Hei Yu, who was entangled with furious wolves, and touching her, they both vanished into the small dimension he had carved out of space earlier in the bunker. 

They didn't stay long, though. Following Hei Yu's calculations, they appeared back on the path, the wolves now only dried husks of themselves, and right in the epicenter of this heatwave was Edmond the Demon. 

"Neat trick," Dave sneered at the creature who stared at him with a frown. 

"Where did you go?" the creature asked, feeling a rush of confusion. 

"Somewhere you cannot exist," Dave replied, although he knew he was bullshiting. While he was not a stellar student in school, he was very well aware that entropy occurred everywhere, especially in outer and chaotic space.

"Since my inception, I have never been outplayed. I will find you again, and you will die."