Volume 1 Prologue: Ante Fabula

A gamma ray burst.

"Block it! Now!"

A desperate cry was heard.

"We- I can't hold it any longer! I really need your help!"

A shout so audible was heard as a sphere was slowly being produced out of a person. He cried for help as his allies ran towards him after blocking one of the most dangerous burst in the current universe as if it was a spray of water absorbing into a sponge.

"Guhhh! Aarghh!"

The essence of his life, his ambience, and any proof that he was a being who's existing were slowly concentrating towards the center of his body.

"Just, just wait and hold on! I will need just ten whole seconds! The stardust. Yes! The stardust from an NGC Cluster! I can attempt to regulate the gravitational deviations coming out of your body using that dust as a supplement to my lacking ambience!

A woman had her voluptuous chest swinging as she cried out loud to assure the man that help would soon come. However, time was still ticking and it would soon run out.

Seven seconds.

As they communicate through their respective ambiences, although time was slowed, or rather, their comprehension or cognition was increased, a few milliseconds was still a few milliseconds. In the vacuum of space where the concept of infinity might not be an impossibility, and nothingness is much more of a threat than anything, a few milliseconds is worth its weight in hydrogen.

Four seconds. Three...

Yet the last of those ten-thousand milliseconds was being wasted, as a consequence of their communication, as the person in the middle of this whole tragedy lost his body to the apex predator of the cosmos, or it is safer to say, he became one of them.

Still full three seconds before fully accumulating her ambience, the woman who offered her help earlier became a helpless weeping girl as a soundless implosion appeared all of a sudden in front of her. Although it can be said to be light-years away, it still made the woman feel that her ally died in her arms.

A fraction of a second was all it took, an extra fraction of a second could've prevented it all. It is just that, the balance tipped towards the negative.

The ten other people who were a witness to this all went silent. Grief, pain, regret and guilt. All sorts of negative emotion flooded their non-existent physical human hearts as they saw the weeping woman's eyes slowly losing their shine to the point that it can be compared to a cadaver's in a morgue.

Well, we should pro'lly follow these guys' example as they started to move on. However big the emotional impact of the events was to them, there is still a problem that needed attention right in front of their eyes. A remnant of a star eight solar masses big is in a rogue mode about to gobble up everything in its way.

A threat.

A threat to the planet they've done a favor to and its surrounding star systems. It was now a lifeless floating big sphere of infinite energy and density. If left to do it's business, it would disrupt the system of stars around it in no time. Waiting a few million years for it to become stable is a choice only available for brainless barnacles sticking to an old boat as that choice will destroy life anywhere in at least a hundred light-year radius in a few day's time as it moves.

"Let's try to compress it. Nergal, do your job. Collect the ambience left from the remnant and the sphere. Let's use it as the fuel to compress it to at the very least the size of Sol. Oruzje, use these condensed ambience to compress this as much as you can. Mul... I want you to help Zhe control these large amount of ambience to-"

Flick.

As he tried to console her, he received a flick to the forehead so he stopped his sentence midway. The currently-devastated woman walked towards Zhe's direction. They know it was painful for her. It was comparable to burying her dear one herself after witnessing him die. No, it was not comparable. It's exactly what was happening.

***

Seven whole years passed and they did nothing but try to condense the blackhole. Seven whole years was the time it took for them to condense it and meet their requirements. It did not increase in size since it was monitored. A comrade helped contain the unstable gravitational force within a set radius of three light years.

After seven years of condensing, it is now time for them to fully disperse the sphere and convert it to pure ambience. Although it may seem like cannibalism, they have no choice but to absorb the rest of it to make it safe for the surrounding systems and end this whole affair...

***

A person was walking on a corridor heading towards a certain door. The almost two meter man in height yawns as he felt the day's work coming back to hunt him. He just wanted to slump on the bed even without cleaning himself after eating dinner with his family.

"The sky's as beautiful as always..."

He did a bit of talking to himself as he stared at the current scenery up on the night sky. He approached the bath room and took a dip in the bath. It was already prepared by the servants so it was ready to welcome any tired person who wants a bath, which fits the man's current description.

Almost falling asleep after getting cozy in the bath for thirty whole minutes, the man got up. He started heading directly towards his bedroom. He laid down as soon as the prepared and organized fluffy mattress met his eyes. He made himself comfortable and relaxed as he slowly closed his two pretty eyes.

Just before falling asleep, a murmur came out of his mouth.

"Another revolution passed..."

The ordinary, uneventful day for that man ended after laying on the bed for a few seconds.