The dojo was still, save for the slow pulse of magical energy flowing through the layered barriers.
Six shikigami clones moved through their designated drills.
These weren't tethered to Nero's reserves, they drew from the barrier grid itself, a system he had refined to make his training autonomous.
Following the Shatterveil, Nero had decided to reshuffle their focus.
One clone was dedicated solely to Muso, still clawing at the edges of the incomprehensible.
The other five had a singular focus, pushing the limits of his technique to sustain more clones simultaneously, without magical degradation.
Nero stood in the center, letting his senses stretch out.
He could feel the way the energy in the dojo pulsed, stable yet dynamic, the barriers humming like the undercurrent of a great tide.
He had his own separate path to walk.
For now, spatial principles were his alone to refine.
The Shatterveil had altered something fundamental.
It deepened his understanding in ways he had yet to fully quantify.
Before entering that cursed land, he had already refined his Apparition beyond conventional limits, reducing its noise to a mere whisper.
But now… something was different.
He took a slow breath, feeling the ebb and flow of space around him, no longer just an observer but an active participant.
He had always known that Apparition was a forceful technique, a brute-force approach to manipulating space. But mastery lay in subtlety.
Nero stepped forward and vanished.
No sound. No flicker. No shift in air pressure.
He reappeared across the room as if he had never left.
The clones froze, eyes snapping toward him.
A slow smirk tugged at his lips.
Silent Steps.
Before now, there had always been a faint disturbance, a trace of noise, no matter how refined his technique had become.
But now, it was as if he had never left the space he departed from.
Instead of forcing himself through space, he was walking with it.
One of the clones whistled. "Well, that's new."
"Figures you'd have a breakthrough after taking a little vacation in hell." another muttered.
Nero rolled his shoulders, feeling the balance of magic and motion.
"It's not a breakthrough, it's a correction. I understand it now. Silent Steps was never about suppressing noise. It was about alignment. I've been trying to force space to obey, but space doesn't resist if you don't force it."
Nero took another step and vanished again, reappearing effortlessly at the far side of the dojo.
No sound, no disruption.
It felt natural.
It felt right.
Yet, it still wasn't enough for him.
Silent Steps was a foundation, not an endpoint.
He closed his eyes, standing still for a moment.
How far could he take this? If he could erase the disturbance of Apparition, then there was nothing stopping him from moving freely through space without resistance.
Another step. Another effortless instant shift in location.
The movement was smooth, clean.
But there was still a pause, a fraction of delay.
The thought process required to activate it.
If he had to think about where to go, even for a moment, it wasn't truly instinctive.
That delay could be fatal in battle.
Nero exhaled slowly. "Reaction speed," he murmured. "That's the next thing to remove."
He turned back to his clones, his mind already spinning with the next phase of refinement.
His understanding of space had risen, and with it, new questions emerged.
Could he take Apparition beyond simple movement?
Could he refine it into something viable for combat?
His thoughts drifted to his lessons with Professor Vellian.
Her sharp gaze, the measured tone of her voice as she outlined with clear-cut assessments, the flaws of using Apparition in battle.
Reaction speed. 'Even a fraction of a second can be fatal.'
Loss of situational awareness. 'You lose awareness mid-Apparition. That can be exploited by an enemy.'
Risk of materializing into danger. 'Land wrong, and you die.'
She wasn't wrong.
But limits existed to be broken.
If he could refine his spatial control, he wouldn't just be evading, he would be attacking from angles no one could predict.
He curled his fingers slightly, remembering something else she had said once, almost offhandedly.
'True spatial mastery isn't just about movement. Change where you are, and you change what's possible.'
That had stayed with him.
A deeper application, something beyond mere movement.
What if space itself could be wielded, not just traversed?
The concept Vellian had hinted at, the idea that space could be manipulated to become akin to bridges of space that formed only when stepped upon, no longer bound to fixed points.
Translocation that carried no traces.
He exhaled, flexing his fingers as he considered the weight of that knowledge.
He instinctively felt that it was possible. He just had to find the right structure.
Silent Steps had been the first breakthrough, guiding movement instead of forcing it.
But what came next? Could he apply that same principle to something beyond travel?
Could he weave his growing spatial understanding into his attacks?
His movements weren't the only thing bound by physical constraints.
His strikes, his reach, even the effectiveness of his magic, all of it was limited by where he stood, by how fast he could react.
But what if… that wasn't the case?
What if his attacks weren't restricted by distance?
What if he could strike, not just where he was, but wherever space allowed?
The idea sent a thrill through him. It was theoretical, untested, and dangerous.
But so was everything before he had mastered it.
Six days. That was all he had before meeting with Dumbledore.
A slow grin tugged at his lips.
"Let's see how far we can take this."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
50 chapters ahead on Patreon (Suiijin): Chapter 219: The First Bond