Ascension of the last Celestial

When Valerian pulled Arthur into his pocket dimension, Arthur was more than confused at the tear in space that appeared just out of nowhere, but he didn’t really have a chance to resist as he was pulled into it by Valerian’s mana.

The transition was seamless, no discomfort from normal teleportation or a weird feeling from leaving their dimension and entering another one.

The inside of the pocket dimension was just a pure white room, though calling it a room would be wrong; it was a massive hall that could fit thousands of people.

Arthur crashed down on the hard white floor before he could bring up his hands, so he landed on his head, but luckily it didn’t do any damage besides the embarrassment as he could see Valerian trying to hold his laughter in from the side.

"Comfortable?"

Rubbing his nose, which slightly hurt from the fall, Arthur turned to Valerian.

"Maybe a warning would be good before you pull me into a fucking space rift!"

The loud screaming paired with the slightly red nose created an image that sent Valerian into a fit of laughter.

Arthur ignored his friend and turned to the more interesting part.

Standing up, Arthur looked around the white space. There were piles of different things lying around; he could see clothes, utensils, and more stuff someone could use in their day-to-day life. A weird smell came to his nose, it wasn’t bad or obnoxious, the best way to describe it would be freshly baked bread?

Then he turned to the food section of the space, and it left him baffled. There were multiple crates with all kinds of foods, vegetables, or fruits. The crates had light blue runes engraved on them to keep them from spoiling and always stay fresh. The raw meat section was definitely the largest, as there were almost as many crates only filled with raw meat and chicken as there were vegetables and fruits combined.

Farther back, he could even spot what seemed to be a shelf filled with bottles that looked like wine bottles from Earth.

"So that’s where you got your stupid apples from."

Now it made sense that Valerian seemingly always had an apple to chew on, but there was something that made Arthur question his friend.

"Where did you get all this food from? Are you rich or something?"

The sheer amount of food stored inside the pocket space was enough to feed hundreds of people for days; there is no way a normal person could afford all that.

"Eehmm, well, in a way, I am rich."

Seeing him dodge the question, Arthur didn’t push further, respecting the boundaries of the friendship they have built.

"So what do we do now? Do we just wait until it’s day again, because I’m not really tired and don’t need to sleep."

As Arthur raised the question, Valerian also fell into thought. Arthur was A+ and as such, going without sleep for a week doesn’t really make a difference as the mana will keep him awake and lucid, and well, Valerian didn’t really have to sleep. So now they had around 8 hours of free time that they somehow had to bridge.

But luckily, Valerian came prepared for any kind of situation, so before he left for the Voidwoods, he packed every type of game he could find. He had board games, card games, and much more.

Willing a deck of cards to appear, he walked over to Arthur and sat down cross-legged, gesturing for him to do the same. With another thought, a low table appeared that was made for the exact height of someone sitting.

Since they were inside Valerian’s private dimension, he could control everything there. It wouldn’t be wrong to call him a god within this space.

"Do you know any card games?"

Valerian wanted to know if he had to explain any rules to Arthur or if he knew the card rules of this world.

Arthur looked at the deck of cards in Valerian’s hands, and his eyes widened in shock and recognition.

"Don’t tell me... Valerian, give me those cards now!"

Caught off guard by the sudden excitement, Valerian complied and handed him the cards. As Arthur shuffled through them, the excited look in his eyes reached a new height.

"No way, there is no way it’s here..."

"What are you talking about? Can you make sense, please?"

Arthur’s eyes snapped to Valerian, and with the excitement of a little child, he spoke.

"These exact cards were in my previous world! In my home world, this was known as UNO! The greatest card game ever created!"

Valerian looked at his friend with a confused face.

"Wait, so both worlds have created the exact same card game? How did this UNO work?"

Arthur began to explain the basic rules behind the game.

"Huh, the cards are the same but the rules are completely different."

"How are the rules of this world?"

Valerian shook his head.

"Doesn’t matter, this UNO sounds way more fun. Let’s just play that."

Arthur obviously agreed, and they began to play UNO in this pocket dimension.

They played multiple rounds and all of them ended in the same; Valerian lost miserably. I mean, it’s not really a surprise as this was his first time playing, but it still hurt his ego.

Arthur on the other hand had the time of his life. After dying and being reborn, he could once again play the game of his childhood, even if it was inside a different dimension with a horned new friend that was a candidate to become a God. If he were to explain his situation to his Earth self, he would for sure be labeled clinically insane.

And like that, hours passed of them playing UNO for the entire time, going as far as not even making breaks to eat and instead just nibbling on fruits while playing.

Stretching his sore muscles, Arthur stood back up with a triumphant expression. His grin was as wide as his face, and the reason for that was simple: he completely and utterly decimated Valerian in every round they played.

"Haa, it’s fun to be better than you," Arthur said teasingly, to which Valerian just replied with a snort.

"Let’s just leave..."

Not wanting to look at Arthur anymore, Valerian channeled his mana in the same way he did before to establish a connection with the outside world. After the distortion appeared in his hand, he once again poured an absurd amount of mana to make the rift bigger so that both could fit through.

And like that, Valerian and Arthur left the dimension to resume their search for the S+ rank monster.

Stepping back into the forest, Valerian immediately enveloped Arthur in his mana as the rift appeared in the same place they entered, which was high in the air.

"Wait, can you give me one of the apples?" Arthur asked before they resumed their search.

Valerian let out a sigh and a perfectly round red apple appeared in his hands, which he then threw over to Arthur.

Arthur bit into the apple and he was surprised by the flavor.

’That’s the best apple I have ever had! Where did he get all of them?’

While Arthur was occupied with the phenomenal apple, Valerian began to extend his spatial perception outward to its max.

Feeling the space mana pass through his body, the hair on Arthur’s neck stood up.

Instantly, they shot forward and began to cover an insane amount of ground in just seconds.

Seeing as Valerian had the searching part handled, Arthur thought of the dimension they just exited.

’Would it be possible to trap someone inside a dimension?’

The reason he was thinking about it was because during his stay there, there was one thing he clearly felt. It was absolute helplessness; it wasn’t that he was scared of Valerian inside. It was just that he knew that if Valerian were to decide that he should die, there was nothing he could have done while inside the space.

It made sense; after all, it was a dimension that was created by Valerian’s space affinity. He controlled everything there; if there was someone he didn’t like inside, he could just decide that the space they occupied was empty and they would disappear into who knows where. Maybe they would just be ejected back to the real world, or they would be sent to an endless abyss between dimensions.

The thought of the power of the dimension that Valerian used as a convenient bag sent shivers down his spine.

’Maybe there is a [Skill] in the shop that works similarly?’

He opened his shop and began his search for a skill that could maybe replicate that or counter it.