[Magic Overload]
The ailment one would experience when the buildup of magic inside of their bodies exceeded their capacity. The magic would flood out of their body until it was completely used up.
Magnius knew that was what he felt at the moment. He could feel something similar to mana bursting from his body and changing the environment around him. He didn't know how to use magic before, but experiencing mana overload was teaching him how.
It was similar to breathing. If mana was oxygen, then his bound spirit was his lungs, and the magic it created was similar to CO2. Similar to how he 'took a deep breath' to increase the amount of mana he absorbed, he could 'breathe out' to use magic. Depending on the way he breathed out the effect would change. It similar to a natural process.
The process felt extremely satisfying, like holding in your breath and releasing it after a long time. Magic overload felt like constantly emptying his lungs. Short breaths in and long breaths out. It was a strange feeling. That was [Magic Overload].
But…
When was it going to stop?
Magnius had already been suffering [Magic Overload] for longer than an hour but it showed no signs of stopping.
Was the amount of mana in the air constantly feeding his Spirit with Mana, letting it continue to shed magic at a faster rate? If that was the case, it must at least be Superior grade.
Magnius stood up and found that it wasn't as difficult as he imagined it would be. His surroundings were being crushed and compressed but he himself was fine. He still felt weight on his shoulders but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. Perhaps his own magic wouldn't affect him as much.
But seriously, what type of spirit was this? He didn't really know of magic capable of compressing surroundings to such a degree. Perhaps earth? But that was impossible, as not only the ground was being affected by the magic, but also the air and trees.
The space around him was being affected.
Space…
Magnius' face took a shape similar to that of a :/
He was bound to a space spirit, one of the spirits he didn't want. A spatial spirit was a rare encounter. They had particularly high mana density compared to other spirits of the same grade. That also meant the space magic they shed was naturally more intense and powerful that that of other magic varieties. But there were two issues which made Magnius want to avoid being bound to a space spirit.
The first was because of the rarity. The exceptional rarity of spatial spirits and elementals made the power relatively unknown. He had no real knowledge of how to use the magic.
The second was the mana density. Because of the exceptionally high mana density of the space spirit, it filled up his mana capacity a great amount, making it improbable he could bind himself to another spirit.
His dreams of forming high concentration water blades evaporated.
Magnius sighed.
FWOMP
And suddenly he was falling through the dark sky. He almost opened his eyes from panic at the sudden feeling of freefall.
"What the f$ck?!"
Magnius shouted out his frustration. The ground was approaching fast, and he was falling headfirst. [Mana Overload] Still weighed him down, causing him to approach the ground at unimaginable speed.
Magnius reinforced his bones with mana and tumbled in the air, rolling so his feet touched the ground first. He executed the move perfectly, transferring the momentum from the monumentous fall into a roll, but his legs still shattered from the impact.
Tch.
He was getting seriously pissed off.
Gravitational manipulation and teleporting? What else would [Mana Overload] cause him to do?
__
After a few more hours of disorienting teleportation and crushing his surroundings with magic, Magnius had had enough of it.
Damn spatial magic.
He knew it was definitely powerful. But it was rigid. He couldn't imagine many applications for it. Being able to teleport would be convenient, but fine control was difficult.
How could he stop it? [Magic Overload] Only stopped when his magic reserves ran out, which meant he had to stop his production of magic. That meant he had to stop his supply of mana.
Magnius stopped absorbing mana and immediately felt the weight on his body multiply tenfold. Magnius went prone, pressed down by the weight.
Now he he had to increase the amount of magic he released. Magnius increased it, and the weight on his body doubled. He could increase the magic power even more but the weight would burst his organs.
Endure it.
Even without pain, the pressure was unbearable.
Endure it.
He felt the pressure in his skull lessen a bit, the spirit's magic thinning out. Magnius learned that must be where the spirit had housed itself, which was sthe reason he hadn't been able to see it inside his body with mana sight.
But still, his magic reserves were almost full.
Endure it.
His bones would crumble like limestone if it kept going like this.
Endure it.
His blood vessels would burst.
Endure it.
His brain would liquify.
Endure it!
The weight suddenly dissapeared, his magic reserves emptied.
Magnius sighed with relief as he absorbed mana into his body. He needed to release magic to prevent [Mana OVerload] from happening again.
__
After escaping from the grasp of Magic Overload, Magnius was better capable of testing the limits of what he could do with his spatial magic.
First was that he could freely control the gravitational pressure in his immediate area. He found he could make his surroundings heavier with a thought, and could increase the intensity however much he desired, but he couldn't make things lighter, for some reason.
Next was teleportation. He could use his magic to 'jump' through space. The range didn't seem to be especially limited, but the farther away he wished to teleport the more unstable and irregular the teleportation would be. He could teleport a few meters with high accuracy, but after 15 meters the accuracy of teleportion would drop considerably.
It also made a loud 'FWOMP' sound whenever he used it, so he wasn't sure about its application in battle.
Magnius knew he must be able to do more with his magic. It seemed the concept of 'spatial' magic was a lot broader than it seemed. The magic was extremely rigid as he couldn't use it to alter his surroundings or use 'creation' as he would with the other magic types, but that in itself presented a lot of possibilites.
…
Maybe he COULD create using spatial magic?
If Magnius viewed 'space' as a concept and created it…
A small black hole appeared in front of him. It looked so bright in his mana vision that it was almost dark. Magnius stuck his hand into it and it distorted awkwardly before disappearing into the black hole. He pulled his hand out again, unharmed.
It worked.
Magnius picked up a small rock and put it inside. He imagined 'closing' the entrance to the space and the black hole disappeared from his vision. He imagined the space 'opening' and the black hole appeared again.
Magnius reached inside the black hole and pulled the rock out.
It worked!
Magnius grinned with satisfaction. He would have a permanent weightless inventory which kept his belongings safe, and it would act as a perpetual drain on his mana (similar to sedia burning her hair) to prevent himself from falling into a state of [Mana Overload].
It also held a lot of application in battle. If Magnius was capable of creating conceptual 'space' where his opponent struck he could absorb the strikes without taking damage.
Magnius grinned even wider as he imagined the possibilites. Perhaps spatial magic wasn't so bad, after all.
__
Magnius encountered an earth spirit a while later, while he was exploring the spirit world. He knew it was an earth spirit from the random rock formations which sprung up around it haphazardly, warping the ground.
It approached him tentatively but moved on almost immediately. It seemed it wouldn't be able to bind with Magnius because of his high grade space spirit.
The environments he experienced were even more varied than he imagined.
A sandy expanse with dry heat and stars.
A dark and cold expanse of snow and ice.
A melting and broiling expanse of molten rock and earth.
A flowing field of plantlife and bright light.
He observed and experienced them all with his mana senses, increasing their sensitivity.
On his journey he managed to encounter a singular minor grade fire spirit which had managed to bond with him, even though he had the space elemental.
He still had no idea what the true grade of his bound space spirit was, but he imagined it must be at least superior grade.
Magnius suddenly found himself back at the gate through which he had entered the spirit world.
How long had it been?
Magnius stepped through and opened his eyes for the first time in months. He was greeted by the sight of Sedia Alimenti smiling at him.
A flicker of heat trickled up his spine as she said;
"Welcome back, Mag."