Ethan looked at the only thing that was still sealed, an ancient-looking metallic tome chained up from all sides.
"Should I just unseal it?" Ethan wondered as he examined it.
"No, just to be safe, I'll go to the Dancing Library before I unseal it."
His consciousness faded, returning to the surface world.
Then, closing his eyes, he began to focus on the unsealed spiritual connection he shared with his beloved beast companion, Kagetsu.
A few seconds passed.
Then, the surface beneath him began to darken, as if his shadow were expanding and turning darker than any normal shadow, like the sky at midnight.
The shadow grew larger than Ethan himself before separating from him, becoming a massive, living darkness.
From within that shadow, a figure emerged, as if the darkness itself had taken form.
From that void, a pair of red eyes opened, staring directly at the man sitting cross-legged.
In the next instant, the figure lunged at Ethan with a speed he couldn't even begin to follow.
But instead of a bloodthirsty monster, what landed in Ethan's lap was a puppy-sized being with a lizard-like tail.
Its fur was as black as the night sky, its large, round, red eyes gleamed with life, and its tongue lolled out like a puppy meeting its favorite human after a long time.
"I missed you, too," Ethan murmured, hugging the little shadow creature in his arms.
The monster's long, snake-like body coiled around his neck as it lovingly rubbed its round face against his cheek.
"I'm sorry, once again I had to die and leave you all alone," Ethan said softly, scratching its soft, squishy neck.
"Mrrp!" Though Kagetsu, the shadow spirit, could not speak, she clearly understood every word Ethan said.
"Will you take me to the library?" he asked.
In response, Kagetsu purred, then leapt from his arms.
Her body morphed into a huge black cape that completely enveloped him in darkness.
The cape twisted and condensed, forming a sphere of shadow with Ethan inside.
Moments later, it shrank, disappearing entirely into the surrounding darkness, and with it, both Ethan and Kagetsu vanished without a trace.
....
The Dancing Library was not just a library; it would be more accurate to call it a miniature city, one that didn't connect to any other world.
In fact, it wasn't even a world, nor a part of one.
It was simply a city-sized stretch of flat ground.
It should have been impossible for such a place to exist, but it did, because it wasn't merely a place.
The Dancing Library itself was a living being, a sentient existence with its own will and consciousness.
When Ethan first discovered it, the Dancing Library had been nothing more than a small, two-by-two sentient room.
At that time, Ethan was in his third world, living as a werewolf.
He stumbled upon this strange room in the middle of nowhere.
Out of curiosity, he investigated it and, to his surprise, realized that it possessed both a soul and sentience, but it was dying.
Ethan helped the sentient room recover from its dying state. In gratitude, the room acknowledged Ethan as its master.
Over the years that followed, Ethan continued to nurture it.
Gradually, that tiny sentient room evolved, transforming into a massive stadium-sized structure.
As for Kagetsu, Ethan met this little creature while researching a unique dimension that connected all spaces within the universe, while simultaneously existing as part of the universe itself.
In simpler terms, Ethan had been attempting to achieve one thing, but instead, something entirely different was born.
That something was a shadow spirit, no larger than a sugar glider at the time.
The spirit was friendly toward Ethan, and enchanted by its cuteness, he established a spiritual bond with it, naming it Kagetsu.
Over thousands of years, Kagetsu grew into a massive, dragon-shaped shadow spirit.
With Kagetsu's help, Ethan finally managed to reach the mysterious dimension he had been studying, later known as the Shadow Dimension, or as Ethan preferred to call it, the No Man's Dimension.
As the name implied, it was a realm of shadows, a place devoid of light.
There was no sun, no worlds, only endless darkness scattered with lifeless rocks and space debris that had failed to become planets.
It was a dimension where no living being could survive, a void accessible only to those capable of wielding a rare energy known as Shadow Essence.
It was the perfect place to hide something precious, and coincidentally, Ethan needed a safe haven for his sentient city.
With Kagetsu's help, he transported the Dancing Library into this No Man's Land.
By then, the sentient city had grown into a vast miniature metropolis.
Ethan didn't just expand the once-small room into a massive flat expanse; he shaped it into a city of interconnected structures, each with hundreds of rooms housed within a colossal dome.
Every room was the size of a grand hall, each one storing unique treasures, resources, books, scrolls, herbs, medicines, weapons, and countless other artifacts collected from the many worlds Ethan had lived in.
All of his priceless and irreplaceable possessions were securely stored within the Shadow Dimension.
The only way to enter the Dancing Library was by using Shadow Essence, an energy that, as far as Ethan knew, only Kagetsu could wield.
There was a reason Ethan called it the No Man's Dimension, because it was truly a realm where life could not exist.
Even Kagetsu did not originate from that dimension.
In fact, Kagetsu had been an accidental creation, born from Ethan's experiments to draw power from the Shadow Dimension.
Although lifeless, that dimension was saturated with an immense, mysterious energy known as Shadow Essence.
Even though it came from a realm without life, it was still one of the many powerful forms of energy in existence.
And so, with Kagetsu, his spiritual companion who could command Shadow Essence, Ethan alone could enter that forbidden place.
...
Travelling to the Dancing Library was not a new experience for Ethan; it always felt like his vision blackened for a moment before returning to normal.
And when he opened his eyes, he would already be standing in the Dancing Library, just like now, as he stood before one of the five massive domes, each even larger than the biggest football stadiums on Earth.
These domes formed the core of the Dancing Library, surrounded by smaller buildings that served limited purposes.
But the five domes were the most important of all.
Ethan had built them to serve the purposes he deemed essential.
Since the Dancing Library had already accepted him as its master, it gladly reshaped itself to match his desires.
The five domes were all enclosed within an even larger, world-sized spherical dome, one that protected the library from the Shadow Essence of the No Man's Dimension, ensuring no harm came to anything inside.
The five domes that made up the Dancing Library were the Dome of Home, the Dome of Resources, the Dome of Energy, the Dome of Library, and the Dome of Nature.
Ethan had named it the Dancing Library back when only the Dome of the Library existed.
But now, the library was just one part of something much greater.
"Maybe I should change your name. What do you think?" Ethan muttered with a smile as a life-sized mirror appeared in front of him.
But instead of his reflection, the mirror showed an emoji-like face made of shifting blocks, a pair of eyes, and a line for a mouth, much like the emotive AI displays of advanced technological worlds.
However, this was not an AI.
It was the spirit of the Dancing Library, communicating with Ethan through the mirror, one of the many forms it could take.
Words appeared across the mirror's surface:
{I missed your presence, Master.}
"I missed you too, Syn… but I'm back now and this time, I'm not planning on leaving you again," Ethan said with a warm smile.
In response, the emoji on the mirror curved into a smiling expression.
This place was called the Dancing Library, and the spirit that resided within it was known as Syn.
The Dancing Library and its spirit, Syn, were the same.
...
[A/N: If you liked this chapter, don't forget to donate some POWER STONES and add it to your library. No pressure! Thank you for checking out the novel.]