Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

Following the soul contract, Oortez divulged information regarding Smoothie.

Apparently, another group was responsible for ambushing Smoothie and her party shortly before the two of them infiltrated into my subspace. As for Smoothie's exact location, he didn't know.

What a useless lizard... I should just skewer you and roast you on a bonfire. But then again, you won't be tasty. Scaly things... Yuck!

Next up was the details regarding the most urgent situation which was who or what was preventing us from leaving my subspace.

According to him, De Planck had casted an entropic barrier around my subspace as insurance that I wouldn't escape. Strictly speaking, it wasn't in the shape of a barrier but in the concept of a barrier. Unfortunately, Oortez didn't know all the details, or at least he wasn't willing to disclose any to me.

From what I understood, |chaos| trait allowed one to manipulate entropy and generate chaotic energy. The more powerful a being was, the more he or she could make use of their special trait or ascended trait. In this case, De Planck likely made an exit condition that could only be satisfied with an extremely high entropy value. This would prevent anyone or anything including useful signals from reaching the intended destination.

Since I had no way of manipulating entropy within or around my subspace, I was kind of stuck. Moreover, inputting coordinates into my [creation] menu wasn't going to do a thing if not even a link could be established with the other side because likely the other side wasn't receiving any coherent signals. 

That begged the question from me, "How come neither of you used that barrier on me or Vorte during the battle? I don't believe I could have countered it?"

"You don't understand the difficulty of controlling it. Just the fact you can smoothly manage your |void| trait proves that we have lost."

"Elaborate?"

"It's a matter of capability. I can't control something this size or are you too stupid to understand?" He snickered.

"Ehh!? I can't say I'm the brightest but... That's a bit harsh!"

I kind of understood what he meant though. From the outside, my subspace was non-existence in size. However, from the inside, this place was huge. In terms of setting up and fine tuning a barrier, the smaller one would obviously be easier. That probably meant these two demons that invaded couldn't use it, or at least, Oortez couldn't. As for Juus, he already bit the dust.

Even if they could use their entropic barrier, my void barrier didn't interact with theirs which meant I could still disrupt and kill them faster than they could scream "ice cream."

"Well, I think demons are more stupid. So now you're here trapped with me. Why even bother invading if you could just seal me away?"

"This is why I hate your kind. Why even bother having a head if you aren't going to use it?" He barked, losing his scholarly cool. I kind of knew why but I wanted to hear it from him directly.

Verbal harassment... Ow... I'm taking lethal damage! Not.

"Hey... I didn't ask you so you could harass me. Just tell me how I can get out?"

My plan to brute force my way out had to be re-examined. Initially, I was going to keep testing coordinates until I could leave but it looked like things were more complicated than I anticipated.

I kept trying to think of a solution by myself since that useless lizard wasn't going to offer any help.

There has to be a way to establish a link. Hmm...

A few minutes later, having lost his patience, Oortez growled, "You're wasting my time! I could be studying archeological sites, researching spells! You dimwit, figure something out already!"

"Calm your horses! I think I got something. I mean, if you had just answered my questions, I could have came up with something already. In the first place, I didn't put up that barrier. If you weren't such useless piece of trash, we would have been out already." I retorted with some mild insults. I figured perhaps insults were how demons got to know each other. Clearly, their civility wasn't as high as their stats.

After that, instead of a constructive brainstorming session, we threw insults at each other until I ran out of useable insults, which, at that point, I locked him up with my void barrier. It couldn't be helped that he was better at insults.

I'm salty... I'm not that stupid, right? Maybe I should have asked for higher intelligence instead. I wonder...?

Most importantly, I lost the idea I had prior to our verbal battle.

Since I had no idea on how to leave, I decided to ask Vorte.

"Vorte, I need hel-, I meant advise! How do we leave this place?"

"I have been meditating on that."

"Okay... And...?"

"Look within and the answer should become apparent."

Okay...!?

"Uhh... So you want me to meditate?"

"Indeed."

He didn't even bother opening his eyes to look at me.

Am I unattractive? Are you shy? You won't even bat an eye at me.

I tuned the time flow between the core and the second layer of my subspace. This way, Oortez wouldn't self destruct out of boredom by the time I found a solution.

I sat on the carpet in my room with legs crossed.

Hey voice, is Vorte asexual? Is that why his clan died out?

I waited and wait but no answer came.

Oh I see, you're as speechless as I am. I guess the questions are too profound even for you. Alright, then how about why do I look the way I am? And, I would like to know if I can reproduce like humans! Please answer!

[Your lineage affects your appearance. You lack a physical body therefore you cannot reproduce sexually.]

That's just so sad! Oh then how do I... make offspring?  

[You may choose soul creation.]

I can do that? Really?

[Yes.]

But I can't create soul cores. Please teach me!

[You may segregate a portion of your existence and insert it in a fey core or a qualified vessel. With sufficient growth and experience, a soul core may be formed naturally. There exists an alternative method but you have not the qualification to perform such feat.]

I was very much interested in all of this. Even if I could never leave this place, things could still get lively around here.

Oh neat! I guess I'll forever be alone in a way but it isn't so bad. So, how do I segregate a portion of my existence?

[You must part or liberate a portion of your soul from your celestial core. Due to your existence value being below standard threshold, the chance of failure is deemed extremely high. This procedure is not recommended at this time.]

Oh wow... I'm learning something new. What's this existence value and how do I increase it?

[It is the total mass of your soul. Knowledge of the method was previous imparted.]

Ah... I guess I should work on that.

Thankfully, there was ample energy to go around.

Okay, next question I hope you can answer. How do I overcome that chaos barrier?

This time, I waited and waited but no answer came.

Okay, one last question before I leave you alone, was that chaos barrier there before I returned to this body?

[Yes.]

Thank you. That's all.

I had all the answers I needed.

The final question I asked the voice was the most important question to this puzzle. Since the answer was the one I desired, all I needed was to connect the dots and take action.  

In any case, I had to first strengthen myself.

There's only one path for me. Time to push onward. The world waits for no one.