82 Chapter 82
(AN: Okay, so there's a bit of explanation due for the almost week-long absence. When we began writing the content of the chapter, I realized that the size of the following chapters will continue to increase as more and more characters are introduced.
This would be an obvious trend as we go forward with the timeline, and reach more and more content of the original sources.
So we (or mostly I made the decision and pitched the idea), to change our format and instead of rushing the daily/bi-daily chapters out, let's just take our time and write a huge one, that encompasses all the currently active storylines.
So, as you can already see (if you are on mobile), this chapter is pretty huge, with over 10K words of content. :)
We will go forward with this format, with releasing most likely one chapter a week but with at least 10K words and probably growing it to 15K and 20K as we go forward... :D
Anyways, enough of me babbling here... :D)
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Unsure of how to react to the question aimed at her, Bey'on or Reaya remained silent whilst digging as deep as she could in her target's mind, trying to find more information about this delegation and Xan as a whole.
After a brief scan, she revealed a small smile and answered confidently.
"No Fen, they called me back to the office. The delegation will be handled by Mestra and Inana instead."
Surprised by the answer, the man, Fen-Kod, continued with his bombardment of questions with confusion in his eyes.
"What? Mestra and Inana? You mean the Mestra Ken-Boz, and Inana Vor-Gal the two demonesses, the Head Scientist, Pim-Ra's little 'assistants'?" He shook his head, trying to process the news. "Since when did Pim care about the Xans? He hated their guts to the core, blaming them for his failures! Just what on Krypton is he planning?!"
Shaking his head whilst smiling wryly, he continued cursing under his breath for a short while, though Bey'on didn't bother listening. Most likely he had some argument with this so-called 'Pim', but Bey'on didn't care enough to dig into this man's boring mind to discover the truth. She tried to keep her act, but it got increasingly harder as time went on. This man began to irritate her to no end.
Still, due to her sheer willpower and desire to gain entry to the Research Facility, she managed to keep her demeanor, and stood stagnant, waiting for the man to finish his little tantrum.
After some time, Fen seemed to calm down, venting his pent-up emotions. Realizing what he had just done, he coughed, attempting to hide his embarrassment, before he spoke with a much calmer apologetic tone.
"Well, if that's the case, I'm sorry how they just played you, Reaya. I know how much such an opportunity would have meant for you, but it seems it just wasn't meant to be. Anyway…" Changing the subject, he waved at the woman, motioning for her to come and follow him. "Come, let's go inside then. At least what we are doing has some actual value unlike what those two bitches and their master is doing!" He scoffed at his words as he spoke about them.
Nodding, Bey'on silently followed behind the man, keeping the friendly smile on her face. Reaching a closed crystal door, Fen calmly placed his right opened palm on the door frame, whilst turning his face towards Bey'on continuing his ranting.
"Still… the nerve of that asshole! Interrupting your work to send you off to meet and waste several days preparing to meet the Xan Delegation, only to pull you out just before they would arrive and place his two little bitches instead. This is a new low, even for him!"
As he continued cursing, a faint sound of a bell ringing could be heard signaling that the verification was completed. In the next moment, the crystal door slid open, revealing the inner workings of the Erkol City-State's First Research Center.
Bey'on eyes were shining as she spotted the various groups working in the distance. Her thirst for knowledge growing, she had a hard time controlling her emotions and not just forgo all the subtlety she had been doing so far and just go on a rampage inside this dreamland.
Following behind the man, she stepped inside just before the door closed behind her. Just as she did, her figure quickly faded, turning invisible once more, as she didn't want to continue this pointless chat with this annoying man.
Just as her figure completely vanished, Fen turned around and looked at the door. Seeing how the woman is no longer behind her, he looked at the door with confusion.
"Wha-? Where did she go?" He glanced to the left and right, looking for Reaya's figure, only to sigh with discontent. "Damn… I really wanted to use this as a chance to get closer to her… Just my luck!" He frowned, turning around and walking away. Soon enough, his figure vanished amidst the long halls of the large, complex structure.
'Finally…' Bey'on heaved a sigh, observing the fading figure of the man. Although it was good that she could gain entry without raising suspicion with his help, he was way too annoying for her to continue accompanying him.
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Whilst standing still in a corner to wait for the man to go away, her thoughts went back to the information she gathered from his defenseless mind.
The Xan Delegation or Xan, in general, is a neighboring, similarly-sized City-State on Krypton. In fact, to the residents' knowledge it is the second of the Big Three cities, or in other words, Governing Bodies of the planet. Besides Erkol and Xan, the largest of the three, Kandor is the third and largest member of the triumvirate.
Over 80% of the planet's population live in one of the big cities, with over 40% being a resident of Kandor, the Crystal City that is protected by a large dome. It also serves as the de-facto capital and main governing body of the planet, being the home of the Word of Rao, a religious cult ruled by the mysterious Voice of Rao, a being that is rumored to be the physical manifestation of the Will of Rao, the ruler of the Kryptonian Pantheon, the Sun God. Not much is known about the High Priest other than that its otherworldly voice can cause the frail-minded to shiver in fright, and to bring joy to those with great devotion and faith towards Rao the almighty.
(AN.: I made a minor mistake the last time, mixing the city of Erkol and Xan. Xan is to the west, not the east, so the delegation would be expected to arrive at the WESTERN gate instead of the EASTERN. Sorry, it's not that easy to find a complete map of the planet.)
Xan, the oldest of the three, is at the northern parts of the continent Erkol, settled slightly to the northwest of Erkol, both of them being on the same continent, whilst Kandor was ruling the Lurvan continent, the largest of the two. Between them was the Dandahu Ocean, a massive body of water with a myriad of sea-life in its seemingly endless depths…
Xan, whilst not as technologically focused as Erkol, was a very militaristic state, with an even larger army. Still, while Xan had the numerical advantage, it couldn't be said to be the stronger of the two, as most of their army was composed of soldiers with a few land crafts, like armored vehicles and tanks. Erkol on the other hand could utilize its full technological and scientific advantage if the need came, with its massive airforce and even mechanized battle armors, or in short, Mechs.
These were bipedal, metal monsters, twice or sometimes thrice the size of an average soldier, equipped with a multitude of armaments. Photon cannons, lasers, ballistic rockets for range, or the energized blades if it ever came to hand-to-hand, close-quarters combat. It was rumored that every mech had the strength and power to contend with a full group of 6 soldiers…
Still, the fierce, savage, and brutal combat style of the Xan soldiers made them a fearsome opponent, not to be belittled.
For decades, the two states kept up a tense, fragile peace, unsure of what the future held for the both of them…
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Once she completely lost sight of Fen, Bey'on turned her invisibility off and as her figure appeared at the entryway, she began to walk forward at a relatively slow pace while darting from left to right basking in joy as her eyes saw nothing but eager scientists, followers of the same ideology all around.
As she continued walking through the hall, inspecting all that she could, she soon noticed an interesting sight to her right side. A large, metal, robotic hand was holding a colorless crystal in its hand slowly raising it towards a strange, seated weapon-like machine. A white-robed, elderly figure was sitting in the weapon's commanding seat using a joystick to move the device and turn the device aiming at the middle of the crystal. Around the elder, a group of four youngsters, his eager assistants were scribbling data on a device that held similar qualities to Bey'on's holographic notepad albeit with cruder design and using the same crystal-based material than what most of the structures and even devices were relying on.
As she kept meeting the same material, Bey'on's interest in the seemingly basic crystal reached new heights. Seeing how this particular experiment was aimed at these crystals, she turned to the right and casually approached them, making sure to keep her distance, for now.
"Get ready everyone! Let's start at 10% for now, slowly increase it as we make sure everything is safe and steady!" The elder handling the weapon yelled at his assistants.
His raspy voice carried great passion and a substantial amount of unmasked avidity. Those that knew him would understand the restlessness behind his tone. After all, this project was his life's work. If he could get at least some of the expected results here, it would be his greatest achievement in his arduous life.
"Yes, professor!"
"At once, professor!"
"I'm certain that you will achieve great success this time, professor!"
Multiple voices resounded at the same time, the little 'birds', the assistants chirped in their comments acquiescing to the order or doing their usual attempts at ass-licking. A brown, short-haired, bespectacled youth ran behind the device and began typing, inserting the required commands to begin the test.
Soon, as his fingers rapidly typed in the keywords, the weapon began to emit wheezing sounds, at the start in a rather faint tone but as the seconds continued to pass and the device began to spin up to its capacity, causing it to gradually increase in volume.
Red and yellow-colored hue surrounded the sharp, crystalline end of the weapon. The air blurred as the particles began to heat up due to the sheer amount of heat it was releasing. A few moments later, the weapon reached its firing-state, and with the bespectacled youth's press of a red triangle-shaped button, a visible, thin line of energy was fired at the colorless, glass-like crystal held in the robotic arms palm.
As the beam of plasma hit the surface of the crystal, a surprising reaction became visible. The previously hollow, colorless, empty-looking crystalline container turned white with a small, bug glowing orange-colored seed materializing inside it, turning into its core. As soon as the seed became visible, the professor raised his right hand, ordering a silent stop to their experiment, and quickly left his 'commanding' chair to walk closer and inspect the results.
At the same time, Bey'on's curiosity obtained victory over her reasoning mind, as she subconsciously approached the robotic hand.
As she approached the device, the elderly professor noticed her figure approaching from the far side of the room. He noticed as her eyes were glinting with the ever-burning fervor of the curious mind, he could feel her passion just from her trance-like stare as she kept her focus on the crystal and its tiny glowing magical seed inside of it.
With a slight smirk on his face, the elder reached out to the woman, inviting her closer.
"You there!" He glanced at Bey'on. "Reaya, right? Not sure what you are doing here, but it doesn't really matter anyway! Quickly! Come closer, and tell me what you see!"
Surprised by the invitation, Bey'on needed a second to process his words before she silently nodded and walked next to the man. Leaning slightly closer, she carefully observed the surface of the crystal and the tiny, glowing seed-like energy swirling inside of it.
The orange, colored gaseous substance seemed to be having a mind of its own. As Bey'on leaned in, she became visibly excited, her previous, relatively calm state was replaced by an eager, fast-paced whirlpool. The small seed of energy bounced off the hard, transparent walls of its container, agitated to get closer to the woman.
This sudden, unexpected reaction surprised the aged professor, he delved into his thoughts, caressing his medium-sized beard and chin in the process.
"Hmm… That is interesting…" Glancing at his apprentices in the back, still surrounding the firing device, he gave them a shout, waving at them, motioning to come closer.
"You four, what are you standing there still? Come over here and note down every detail! This is marvelous! Incredible! Groundbreaking even!" The elder's passion, his excitement could be unquestionably heard through his words. He kept darting back and fro, alternating between the crystal and Bey'on.
Meanwhile, as his assistants began to scribble and type down the results, and even the unexpected reaction of what Bey'on's presence meant, the elder stepped closer, next to Bey'on, reaching out with his hands with an excited grin settling over his face.
"Reaya! You are incredible! I want to invite you to join my work! As you can see, the crystal is reacting to you for some reason that I want to explore!" Fearing that she might decline his offer, he raised his hand, silencing her before she would have a chance to respond, and continued.
"You are, absolutely, not allowed to decline this offer! I will make sure that this will be beneficial for you as well! What is your current project?" He fired the question, but without waiting for a response, he waved with his hands, scoffing as he continued. "No, don't answer, it doesn't matter anyway, it can't be anything close to the importance of this finding!"
He looked back at the little orange energy-seedling inside the crystal as it continued to swirl and hit against the walls trying to escape.
"You understand the importance of this, don't you?!" His eyes were almost glowing like stars at this point, he was completely lost in his passionate heat. "This will change everything, EVERYTHING!"
He glanced at his assistants, yelling out at them.
"You all! Write it down! We finally created the first reactive crystal! We have to do some more tests and see its storing capacity, and all the other traits… Get on with planning! Bring me a full schedule at the end of the day! Got that! Now go! I have some more work to do with Miss Reaya here!" He scoffed, shooing off all his assistants.
As they ran away after acknowledging his order, the professor's attention went back to Reaya, who kept looking at the crystal with curiosity. Finally, as there was a breathing room between the fervent speech of the elderly professor, she spoke up.
"So, what is this crystal anyway? Why does it seem to be reacting to my presence?"
Leaning closer, she was about to touch the surface of the crystal with her right index finger when the elder's hand firmly grabbed her wrist.
"Hey!" He yelled out. "Don't just go and touch it! Do you have any idea how this surface is?! We just blasted it with a continuous beam of plasma! What are you doing?!" He berated angrily, before taking an exhale to calm down.
"Look, Reaya, I really want you to join up with me and work on this crystal. I can show you my notes and all the data we have already. This little seedling…" He looked at the orange swirling seed of energy with a kind, fatherly expression. "...this is my life's work, my ultimate achievement… I don't have the exact numbers yet, but if my preliminary calculations were correct, then it has at least ten times the storage capacity, not to mention it should be able to reactively shape it's size and form to accommodate our needs, meaning we could use these as storage devices AND a new, much better building material in the future! Come let me show you!"
Like a child, he rushed off with a heated, excited face-pulling, tugging the surprised Bey'on along, who was wondering, what should she do now. It was a lie to say that she didn't want to learn more about these potentially marvelous new devices, but she wasn't sure if she could keep her play up for long enough to not cause the elderly professor to begin doubting her persona.
In the end, before she could decide, she was pulled along, diving knee-deep into the play. However, she didn't panic, her face remained calm, and as she was pulled towards an office door, she began smiling. If what the professor said is true, then she should do everything in her power to learn the method of creating these crystals for Spencer and unmistakably herself.
Just as she was about to be pulled into the office, a bright white light flashed through the sky, blinding everything for a brief moment, before fading just as quickly as it appeared. As the blinding light slowly faded, the people all over Krypton looked up with shock visible on their faces. From the usually four moons visible even in daylight, the closest, Weather, was now missing. In its place, nothing could be seen… at least from the ground.
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Inside the council rooms in all the City-States, as well as in the deepest halls of the Voice of Rao, a figure wearing a golden, six-faced mask, looked up at the sky, as a long sigh left its lips. A moment later, the figure stood up and with hurried steps, it left its hallowed room and approached a group of priests inside the large, adorned hall of their Sacred Temple. Amidst the flash of light, millions of lives were extinguished, causing great grief to the Sacred One.
This catastrophe must be investigated thoroughly. Did the Erkolians do something they shouldn't have? They were already warned about the sacred words of Rao. Did they still go against it? Or maybe it was something else?
As the masked figure walked out from the hallowed chamber, The group of high priests quickly knelt in front of it. It spoke in a low-toned, raspy masculine voice, revealing his gender.
"Send a missive to Erkol, ask them to give a satisfactory answer. If they truly did the unthinkable, they should be prepared for the Holy One's wrath descending upon them!"
Saying the command, the figure turned around and walked back to his chamber, not giving any chance for the group to respond. As the chamber doors closed behind him, the High Priests quickly got to their feet and sent out the word all over the High Temple. Minutes later, a small golden aircraft left its landing pod behind the temple, and flew towards the west…
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Unlike the others around her, Bey'on only gave a slight smirk looking at the rubble in space that she could clearly see unlike the Kryptonians before turning away from the sky and focused back on the elderly professor, who followed her shortly. He seemed to be mostly unaffected by the loss of such a sheer amount of lives, and a celestial body in the process, his focus remained on his work.
"Hmpf! Those idiots at the council have done it! Now they will have even more trouble weighing them down than before!" He scoffed with contempt once, then as his thoughts went back to the crystal and the experiment he had just accomplished, the excitement returned into his eyes. Pulling the girl inside his office, she quickly shut the door behind them.
"Anyway… Here we are!" With a wide arced wave of his arms, he presented his office like someone would his treasure trove to Bey'on.
Looking around, Bey'on could see dozens of broken, shattered remains of crystals on the ground, in various states and colors. Probably 'remains of earlier, failed experiments' she thought to herself. On a desk at the other side of the room, there were several other, intact crystals, brimming with a faint colorless light, stacked upon each other before a dark, matte, rectangular-shaped device with a fitting, shaped hole in its middle. To its right, there was a large transparent window-frame made out of some strange, glass-like material.
Ignoring the trash and littering fragments all around the room, Bey'on walked to the device and the pile of crystals before picking up one at random. Looking back at the smiling elderly scientist, she asked with curiosity.
"What are these?"
Already expecting the question, the elder walked to the other side of the desk and picked up another, similar crystal. Smiling smugly, he inserted it into the hole. Immediately, as the crystal was slotted into its rightful place, the entire device suddenly turned on, emitting a low-pitched rhythmic beeping sound.
As the noise became faster and increasingly higher-pitched, he spoke with pride.
"This… This is my life's work, all the data I stored over my last 40 years working on this project!"
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Trying their hardest to find Spencer's signature, they were met with failure each and every time. Desperation began to set in the eyes of Shaya, and even Cassa started to show signs of worry over her face.
Only Milo remained stoic and stagnant even under the duress of this new possibly disastrous revelation. He looked at the glass tubes and calmly observed the two strange, monstrous creatures floating inside the liquid.
"It's pointless the worry about him, we can do nothing to help him at all." He spoke after a while. "Look at these two instead. If Spencer would truly be…"
His words, stuck in his throat for a moment, before rephrasing it, he managed to continue.
"...missing… they would have felt it. Remember, these two have a connection with him. Spencer is their master, so they would be in distress if anything would have happened to him. Look at them now, they did not even do as much as flinch."
Content with his theory, he looked at the two girls, with a reaffirming smile plastered over his large face.
Looking at Ego and Tiger, and seeing how calmly and nonchalantly they reacted or did not react to the feeling at all, the girls began to calm down. The worry faded from Cassa's expression, and with a scornful look, he harrumphed at the sight of the floating creatures inside their glass tubes.
"Hmpf! What could happen to that bastard! He has way too thick of skin for anything to penetrate it!" Albeit she sounded harsh, she secretly heaved a sigh when Milo wasn't looking at her.
Shaya did not speak at first, but walked closer to the glass container holding the once-purple tiger, and gently touched the glass with her delicate hands. Her eyes blurry, a thin trail of liquid escaped the corner of her eyes. She took several, long seconds before she managed to collect herself enough to turn towards Milo.
A thought that she first felt when they 'exercised' with the invading humanoid soldiers, she suddenly spoke with clear determination.
"We should go out and explore this world."
Surprised by her sudden exclamation, Milo looked at the girl with an incredulous smile. He asked with a mixture of a curious and knowing glint in his eyes.
"Why? What's with the sudden exclamation Shaya? Didn't you just wanted to mourn and weep whilst waiting for Spencer and his lady to return?"
Although the mention of the similar-looking woman caused her heart to hurt as it was wrapped in thorns, she shook his head.
"No. We should do our best to be useful, and also to gain some experience. We are in a new world, we should do our best to explore. We were already attacked by the inhabitants once, and while that may have been the result of Spencer, we should still do our best to understand the current situation. Also…"
She looked at Cassa, a small smile curved on her lips.
"...I don't think Cassa could stay cooped up in such a closed-up space for much longer!"
"Hey!" Cassa immediately retorted, but seeing the smiling expression finally donning on her friend's face, she stopped her trailing thoughts, and quickly changed, playing along. Returning the smile, she nodded, before looking at Milo. She clenched her right fist as she raised it into the air. "Yes! I will go crazy if we stay here any longer. I can't even stand the smell of that monster! The sky was similar to our home, so why shouldn't we go out and explore, at least a bit?"
Listening to them, as they spoke with such determination, the smile on Milo's face curved even wider. His eyes turning crescent, he nodded at them and spoke out with an inquiring tone.
"Are you girls sure? Although we weren't told directly, I am pretty sure that Spencer expects us to stay on the ship lest any troubles would come to us."
"Hmpf, what could happen to us? We are the Fashacalli! The last remaining fighters, survivors of our tribe and race! What could possibly hurt us?! Worst case, we will just fly away, and return to the ship!" Cassa spoke confidently, her fist still clenched as she raised it before her eyes. A faint glow could be seen as it gently coated its surface.
"Also, the ship's AI as it referred to itself, would protect us…" Looking up, she spoke in a louder tone, as if addressing a distant being. "Right, ship?"
Answering her, the crisp voice of the ship's AI, Hex responded. Its voice came from all around the lab they were still staying at.
[Affirmitive, Mistress Shaya. Also, I was named Hex by my creator.]
"Right, Hex." She nodded towards the ceiling, before returning her gaze to the bald giant. "So? What do you think? Should we go then?"
Helpless against the duo, Milo could only acquiesce to them, silently nodding, as he heaved a defeated sigh.
Turning around, the trio soon left Bey'on's lab, walking towards the direction of the large metallic door that they previously disembarked from to meet the soldiers.
Arriving before it, Milo looked up at the ceiling. Raising his voice, he spoke loudly, addressing Hex.
[Hex, could you open the door for us? We would like to go out!]
As they weren't strictly prohibited from leaving the premises, Hex did not deny their request. The metal doors slowly began to slide open, revealing the same military base which they used as their landing pad. The only difference was the lack of soldiers that were spread out in front of them the last time.
Before they could even take a step further, the now-familiar voice of Hex resounded from the walls all around them.
[Please make sure to be safe, and don't hesitate to call out my name, if you are ever in need of assistance. Have a nice time, Master Milo, Mistress Shaya, and Mistress Cassa.]
Waving at the ceiling awkwardly, Milo laughed lightly, stepping forward and once more stepping on the surface of this new world.
"Guard the ship while we are away Hex! We will be back before you know it!" He spoke between his bellowed laughs, as he casually strolled forward with the girls in tow.
"Stay safe Hex!" Shaya waved goodbye as well, as she left, whilst Cassa simply shook her hands, not talking at all.
As their foot stepped on Krypton's surface and as the door slowly closed behind them, they all took their time to slowly take in everything they could see. Sending out their fasha in an invisible pulse with them being the center, they scanned the environment for several miles.
As their senses engulfed the landscape around them, surprise flashed across their eyes.
"This place is incredible!" Cassa was the first to yell out, voicing her surprise as she felt the myriad various lives surrounding them. Apart from the similar, bipedal, similarly structured being towards the west, they felt a vast expanse of water, a huge ocean with a blooming plant- and wildlife amidst the depths.
To the north, they felt boundless grasslands, with small and medium-sized critters living out their happy existence.
However, the most incredible, and shocking find was the lush gigantic forest biome that they felt from their south. They felt all kinds of life forms, ranging from simplistic critters to fierce predators, of all sizes. From tiny insects to armored giants, the south provided a bit of everything.
Although the energy they sent out couldn't travel very far, they could still feel an incredible variation, much to their surprise and shock.
"This…" Shaya looked ahead, not finding the words to her surprise.
"So…" Clapping his hands to garner their attention, Milo turned towards the girls, the smile not leaving his obviously excited face. "Where to? Apart from going to the west to meet the inhabitants, I am up for any direction!"
As it was her friend's idea in the first place, Cassa simply shrugged her shoulders at the question and turned towards Shaya.
"I don't mind either way, although I have to admit… The south sounds much more interesting than the other two. Neither of us has a water affinity, so we would be having significant difficulties breathing under the water. As for the north, I don't have an opinion, I don't mind either way.
Thinking about it only for a few brief moments, Shaya pointed towards the south, where they felt the many incredible forms of life. She felt that was the direction that held the most chance of healing their wounded hearts.
With a confident smile edging her lips, she spoke out.
"Let's go and explore what mysteries this world holds for us!"
With the same smile donning their faces, the trio slowly left the premises of the Erkolian military base and embarked on their journey to explore this new world whilst hoping to patch and heal their shattered and wounded hearts and souls.
Completely unaware of the dangers they were soon going to face...
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In the empty, vast expanse that is space, a glorious nebula of mesmerizing colors could be witnessed, and at its very center, three glowing orbs of varying forces could be seen spiraling in a circle at an imperceivable speed whilst creating a devastatingly powerful gravitational field around it. As the orbs came closer to each other, they collided into a flash of light and energy, only to soon slowly fade away to reveal the newly reformed Spencer at the very center.
From a faraway distance, his body could be seen in perfect condition, but as we drew closer, he continued to grow larger and larger. Soo much so that he was large enough to be spotted within the nebula without much issue. Approaching his body, he was exceedingly larger than before, being roughly the size of a large planet, when taking a closer look, his sheer mass granting him a gravitational field equal to it and more.
Spencer's body had fully formed as his eyes slowly opened to bear witness to the reality surrounding him. Whilst doing so, he immediately felt a pulse being released from his chest, quickly bringing him out of his haze.
"My head is killing me! Looks like that's what I get for pulling that crap!" Moving his arm to hold his head, he felt space and the particles around him give way to it. Quickly grabbing his attention to that anomaly, causing him to move his arm around a few times to make sure.
Not only did he notice space acting differently around him, but his attention was also caught by the vast array of colors and energy that encompassed him with his body at the source. Starting to move around the pull of space was even stronger than before, his gravitational field pulling a few of the particles as he moved out of the nebula.
"I feel.. bigger..."
Realizing that he may not be the same size as before, he wanted to figure out how large he could possibly be at the moment. Feeling for the nearest planet or planet-sized object to him, he found one roughly the size of the earth rather close to him and promptly teleported himself to the celestial body. Appearing next to it, he immediately grew confused as he didn't see it, looking around briefly, his eyes made contact with the bowling ball looking celestial body before him that was currently being torn to fragments by his gravitational pull on it.
Greatly shocked by what he was seeing, he watched as the planet was utterly destroyed by him simply being near it. Its fragments make contact with his body and break up even further. "This is ridiculous, I can't do anything at this size!", Closing his eyes, he began to focus.
Gradually his body began to grow smaller in scale, though the gravitational field remained, his size was steadily returning to what it was before. After several passing moments, Spencer had returned to his original height, albeit slightly taller as he wasn't sure how big he was compared to a normal person, but once his size adjustment was completed, he examined himself.
Though there wasn't much of a change to his physical appearance, his numerous veins and nerves were irradiating a gentle blue light that was exceedingly visible from the surface of his skin. Along with these veins, he could feel the immense amount of energy that flowed within his blood, or more accurately, was his blood.
With this feeling that was growing within him, he felt an urge to release it and "test" himself to adjust the output of it all. He began searching once more for a target to test himself as his mind landed on not just one celestial body, but an entire solar system, and from what his senses were telling him, the solar system held no forms of life that he would need to watch out for.
"Perfect...But, before I forget!" Recoating himself in the perpetual biofield that he constantly wears to manage any effects he might passively release on the world around him, his gravitational pull was quickly drawn in and contained within it, allowing him more freedom with his movements.
Once he was sure that his gravity field was contained, he quickly teleported himself to it. Arriving in seconds, he appeared next to the third planet in the solar system whilst stretching his neck and fingers. Extending his palm forward which was promptly coated in his aura which was now filled with crackling energy particles, he replicated a grabbing motion as the planet was then just as quickly surrounded by a faint azure glow.
Forcefully clenching his fist, he spun around and aimed at the next planet closest to him, playing out the action of throwing, an action in which the planet followed, being quickly launched like a fastball at his target. The two planets quickly collided with each other at a tremendous speed, fragmenting both of them into the space around them.
Releasing his hold on the now-destroyed planet with the other it collided with, he opened his palm once more and brought it around his chest level, briefly entering his inner world to tap into this new source of energy he attained from absorbing the blue star into himself. As he was in his mind space, his attention was immediately brought to the shining blue core residing there, which he quickly sought to draw power from without hesitation upon seeing it.
Returning to reality, a small luminous dot formed above his palm, sharply growing to the size of a tennis ball, as he channeled what seemed to him as a decent amount of nuclear energy into it to destroy a planet, though the quantity felt much lower than the energy he used to destroy the Wegthor moon, the quality was much higher, allowing him to channel less of it to have the same effect with more destructive properties. Holding what was effectively a star in his hand, he was elated to witness its formation.
Looking at the next celestial body on the list, he teleported above it and casually let the ball fall to the planet below. He laid witness as the ball of nuclear energy blew through the atmosphere and touched the planet. The planet immediately took on a brilliant glow as the ball fused into its surface. Without much waste, instead of exploding, the planet instantly evaporated into a cloud of expanding energy.
Spencer was stagnant as the expanding energy brushed against him like a gentle breeze. Once the light show was finished, he brought his attention to the remaining two planets. Flying towards one of them and drawing back his fist, he released the biofield over it as he breached the atmosphere in an instant, punching the surface of the planet with roughly five percent of his strength, promptly creating a massive hole through its center as the planet soon broke apart into a debris field with him at the center.
Covering back his hand, he pointed his index finger at the next to last planet, making what would look to be a finger gun. He channeled more nuclear energy and created another small star at his fingertip, shooting it as a beam towards the planet. A hole was created through its core as the residual energy also destroyed it within moments.
With that being the last, Spencer had effectively destroyed the entire solar system within a minute or so of real-time.
Now with only one thing left to do, he approached this system's yellow star and grew to the size he was before he came to this place. He reached out his hand and began to absorb the energies of the star to fuel the core in his body, though he could already generate his own in an instant, absorbing a star supplied him with a euphoric sensation, greater than taking any amount of ecstasy.
Due to him already having experienced absorbing a star and its much smaller size than the one he absorbed before, the process only took a few moments. His veins grew more luminous as the yellow sun was ultimately absorbed into his body. His body also grew larger as he absorbed the star. Removing his hand, his body glowed a brilliant light as he released a pulse of energy into space, the energy quickly dissipating as his body dimmed back to normal whilst he also shrunk himself down.
"I'm getting addicted to this." Breathing heavily, he channeled all the energy into the core within his body, causing it to vibrate vigorously before stabilizing.
With a mere thought, he created another ball of nuclear energy floating in front of him, but this time around, he allowed it to continue growing, pulling in the matter around it to sustain itself without his aid. It continued to grow in scale until it was roughly the size of earth's moon but carrying more mass than any star ever recorded, on the very edge of becoming a black hole, it taking on the same concentrated bluish platinum color as his aura whilst it rotated at high speeds.
Leaving it in place of the yellow star he has just absorbed, he examined his creation with excitement before turning around and looking at one of the planetary debris-filled areas. He extended his aura covered hand in that area and rewound time on the destroyed planet, instantly restoring the planet to its pre-destructed state before placing it in a suitable area to orbit his star.
Teleporting on the surface of the planet, he snapped his fingers and used his elemental and conceptual affinities to create a crude massive altar-like construct from the matter around him. Walking to the center of the altar, he sat in a lotus position and examined everything around him.
"Now…let's begin!"
Raising both his arms, the entire makeup of the planet immediately began to change drastically, varying forms of matter could be seen swirling around the entire planet with him at the center of it all, trees, plants, water, grass, valleys, oceans, clouds, all sprung into existence as Spencer manually terraformed the barren planet and filled it with lush plant life.
Forcing a little of his blood to drop onto the altar floor, the energy within it quickly began to spread out from the altar, rapidly expanding its reach until it spread to the entire planet, providing sustenance whilst spawning various forms of dangerous lifeforms with a mixture from the endless streams of DNA within his body unbeknownst even to him upon its surface.
All of this transpiring in roughly a few minutes, he sat up from the lotus position and began walking outside of the altar to further his tests on the no longer desolate planet. Upon exiting the altar, he was met by all the different forms of life and lush plants that he has created by shifting the matter around him.
Sensing the first of his many lifeforms directly ahead of him, he teleported it in front of him and watched as it writhed around trying to move whilst he examined its form with intrigue, as even he didn't know how his DNA would react when it came to creating life forms in his image. The creature had excessively dominant features turned towards violence, despite its size being slightly bigger than that of a modern-day dog, its skin was dark, scaly, and thick. Its lower jaw was split into two sections and it carried sharp spines that protruded from its back down to the tip of its tail.
The creature continued to lash out trying to maul Spencer with its incredibly sharp teeth, swiping at the air with completely feral eyes, much to his amusement of how violent a creature made from his blood could be. Invading its mind, he made it docile without much issue, placing it in front of him and letting it go about its life.
Due to these creatures being made from his blood, he could control them as he pleased without much issue, and with a single drop, the planet was filled with millions of lifeforms large and small ranging from many different scales of potential. With his hands relaxed behind his back, he floated high enough in the air to see the world below him, before he promptly fast-forwarded time on the planet by several thousand years once he reached a suitable height.
This did not take long, roughly a few seconds, and once he was finished, he scanned the planet to get a rough estimate of the vast amount of life on the planet. Spencer then proceeded to take a little bit of time to explore the surface and the various lives formed from his blood. Though he didn't spend much time doing so, mostly reading the minds of some of the creatures and seeing what their instinctive natures were and how they reacted to the environment, some of them held intelligence, it wasn't developed to a high degree. This exploration only took a few hours to do as he moved across the entire planet in only a few hours to carefully analyze all the creatures here. Once he was done, he returned to floating above the Altar.
Retiring to the ground below, he started his next phase of experimentation. He wanted to start with his affinities, coming to the realization a while ago that since he left the now destroyed homeworld of the Fahsacalli, he hasn't expanded upon or tried to further understand the usage of his affinities, considering he could terraform an entire planet and create life with just the knowledge from the Elders he absorbed, he was eager to further his control over these affinities.
And so he began.
Starting with the air affinity, he further integrated and analyzed the knowledge of the Elder who mastered its usage. Seeing a few techniques that he could make use of, he immediately teleported another lifeform in front of him and expanded the air molecules within its body, causing them to expand as well as blood began to seep from their eyes and ears. Their eyes popping from their sockets as the creature quickly exploded into chunks of flesh and organs.
The creature's remains were quickly absorbed into his body whilst he looked for another. Bringing his next target before him, he manipulated the atoms in the air to make the necessary ionization to effectively create a bolt of lighting, in which he aimed at the creature who was thus charged with a large amount of electricity. Soon enough the creature also exploded from the surge of energy that destroyed its body from the inside out.
Absorbing the remains of this creature as well. He repeated the process of taking new test subjects. With each new method he attempted, from suffocation, oxidization, poisoning, sound amplification, vibrations, crushing via air pressure, temperature manipulation, vacuum creation, air constructs, as well as creating natural disaster scale hurricanes with a thought, causing large scale damage that he quickly reset.
Going from creature to creature to test his affinity with air and its uses, he had done everything he could think of with this affinity. Seeing as he had done all he could do, he moved on to the next.
Harnessing his affinity with water, he brought yet another defenseless creature before him and raised his hand whilst extending all five fingers. Moving them around, he began manipulating the creature's motoric functions by manipulating the water contents within its body, using the creature akin to a puppet, before swiftly boiling the water within its body to as hot as possible before evaporation, effectively killing the creature in one of the slowest and most painful ways possible.
Bringing up his next target, he did the opposite, changing the viscosity and properties of the water contents in its blood to be acidic and much more, before freezing the water entirely, causing ice spikes to protrude from random parts of its body, killing yet another subject. Next, he teleported over his planet's oceans. He created steam by heating the water below him via vibrating the water molecules. After creating steam, he created ice spears by condensing the steam.
Releasing his control on the spears, they returned to the ocean below, creating even more steam, but this time around he condensed it into what would seem to be a cloud, changing the properties of the water within it to make it denser, similar in texture to cotton candy, he placed his hand on the cloud and watched as his hand was met with some resistance. Showing a smile he sat on the cloud and continued his research.
Slowly raising his left hand in the air, the water around the entire planet began to shift as a massive wave that could be seen from above the atmosphere of the planet formed. Stopping the wave in its motion, he reset the water as it was and moved on to the next affinity in the chain, the earth affinity.
Flying his way to a mountain range whilst still sitting on the cloud, he looked below to see a variety of creatures around the area, all of them having a rather heavy-built appearance with bulging muscles and thick plated armor around their bodies, but he paid no mind to them. Breaking off a small piece of the mountain range, he brought it before him as he began to drastically change its molecular structure to create a variety of alloys and earthen elements, ranging from Aluminium, Beryllium, Chromium, Copper, Gold, Titanium, Clay, Coal, even different forms of a diamond.
Tossing the diamond that he made to the side, he turned his attentions to the ground below, changing it as he pleased, creating sand, mud, a form of quicksand, and lastly, he proceeded to vibrate the molecules within the earth below to form a massive lava pit, effectively killing everything in that could have possibly still been alive at that time.
Not stopping there, he began to send vibrations across the entire planet, subsequently spawning apocalyptic scale earthquakes, wiping out a large amount of the population on the surface, only for him to rewind time and bring everything back to how it was before.
His last elemental affinity unmistakably being fire, he generated a ball of fire by heating the molecules above his palm. After its creation, he began changing the temperature and properties of the flame to varying degrees, densities, colors, and intensities, from a stove fire to as hot as the sun, burning everything around him from simply being formed. Next, he solidified the flame into an extremely hot plasma to then create constructs from it, forming two lances in which he subsequently fired at the mountain range.
The two lances piercing through the mountain and leaving a hole of dripping magma in its wake.
Seeing as he already had the gist of how far he can go with his affinities, he undid all the damage he has caused thus far on the planet and teleported back to the altar.
Floating above the altar.
"With these alone, I can already manipulate matter using all four of my elemental affinities down to their most fundamental parts. With the addition of my conceptual affinities, I can go even further, it��s only a matter of time before I can effectively embody these affinities! But! That's for a later date..."
Placing his arms comfortably behind his back, he began to manipulate the matter around him using his mind, creating a large temple over the small altar he had constructed beforehand, rocks, trees, and even the fundamental particles in the air split apart whilst they converged over the altar, quickly condensing to construct a temple made of a material as strong as diamonds.
Casually walking on the air to enter his now-massive structure, he was about to enter to begin his meditation to expand and further his knowledge on the blue star core within his body, but before he could enter the temple, he sensed two lifeforms entering the atmosphere of his planet. Observing them with his mind as they landed at a random section of his planet.
"Hmmm... I would have never expected to have visitors so soon."
Interested in who could have possibly entered his newly-formed world, he made his way to the location he felt their presence whilst flying on his cloud.
---------------
The two lifeforms that entered the atmosphere soon landed on the surface.
"Why did you need my help in examining this planet in sector 2813 Tomar-Re? I was still on duty in my sector!" A female figure called out to and questioned her colleague on why he dragged her from her sector to assist him.
He looked at her with a concerned look as he was still examining the planet," Hear me out Agath! The last time I came to this barren solar system, 4 maybe 5 planets were residing in it, none of those planets held a single life… But now, all the others are gone and the star in the sky looks significantly different than before! Not only that, this planet is now rich with lush plant life and animals."
"That does seem to be something worth checking out." She had her hand on her chin contemplating what she has just been told, "But where should we even start? We know nothing of this place!"
"That is true, but we must see what could have been the reason for such a drastic change in this system."
Tomar-Re and Agath were both about to start exploring the new, unknown world when they suddenly heard the rustling of plants close to them. Quickly grabbing their attention, they immediately pointed their fists at the area the sound originated from, their fist glowing green as they aimed at the plants.
"Scan for heat signatures!"
Seeing as there were no signs of further movement, Agath called out to the small glowing ring-like device on her fist to search for any heat signatures around them. Though a thorough search was performed by the device, still, nothing was found in the area facing the plantlife.
Noticing that nothing was around them, the two withdrew their fists and proceeded with their examination of the planet. Unbeknownst to them, a large almost transparent lizard-esque creature the size of a bull jumped from the bushes and tackled Agath, much to their abrupt distress. Tomar-Re quickly attempted to shoot the creature off of the struggling Agath, but he was just as quickly incapacitated by another of the same creature tackling him.
Both of them struggling to get these creatures off of them, they failed to notice six of the same creatures slowly approaching, undoing their camouflage whilst gnashing their sharp, rowed teeth that dripped a potent neurotoxin like fluid from their maw.
"I can't break free!" Tomar-Re frantically assaulted the creature with punches to the throat and abdomen, but it was to no effect other than to agitate it further.
Agath was on the verge of being eaten alive as she was much weaker than Tomar-Re. Both of them were extremely desperate at this point, causing Tomare-Re to blast a hole through the stomach of the creature using his ring, causing it to jump off of him due to the sudden pain inflicted upon its body. Turning his attention to Agath, he blasted a hole through the side of the creature to get it off of her.
Both of them taking the opportunity to escape, they immediately flew above the trees as they were at a massive disadvantage on the ground.
Agath held her arm and winced from the pain she felt when the creature was on top of her and managed to slash her across her forearm.
"...Those monsters are extremely dangerous, they were on top of us before we even realized it...", She spoke with fear as she could have easily been killed if those creatures managed to easily cut through her suit with their claws.
Thinking they were safe in the air, they began to regain their composure. They watched the creatures below whilst they simply circled below them in wait. Both Agath and Tomar-Re were focused as their attention was drawn by another much larger version of the creatures slowly fading into existence as it undid its camouflage, its body sporting red skin instead of the green the others held with a much more intimidating appearance. The creature looked at the two whimpering ones that Tomar-Re shot a hole through, nudging their bodies whilst making a similar sound.
"Are they talking to each other?" Agath looked in wonder and fear of the intelligence these creatures seemed to hold.
As they communicated, one of the injured creatures looked up at the two that believed themselves to be safe at their current height. They were quickly stripped of that belief as the larger beast glared at them with flared teeth and red eyes, its legs bulging whilst it launched itself at the two.
Swiftly tackling Tomar-Re out the air before he could react, slashing at his body as they plummeted to the ground, the large red beast swinging its double sectioned claws at the man who created a shield of green light to block its attacks. The shield grew less useful as the creature continued its assault, creating webbed cracks on its surface.
Tomar-Re was filled with fear as the red beast gave him no openings to exploit with its unending ferocity, the two inevitably slamming into the ground while leaving a trail of disturbed soil and trees.
Agath tried to help Tomar-Re, but the creature immediately turned around and jumped into the air once more, kicking Agath back with its hind legs while using the force behind the kick to return to its assault on Tomar-Re.
Feeling as if he was about to die, he tried many fruitless attempts to escape, even trying to shoot a hole in the abdomen of the red beast just like it did the other smaller ones, stopping it briefly, but the beast looked down at Tomar-Re and flashed its teeth in a manner that looked like a sadistic smile, which chilled his spine upon seeing it.
The hole in its abdomen quickly healed whilst it continued its assault on his waning shield. Agath attempted to shoot at the creature, which it promptly dodged, leaving her to shoot Tomar-Re's shield instead, the beast then proceeded to spit out balls of a clear liquid at her.
The liquid brushed against her shoulder, prompting an audible hissing sound as the liquid began to burn through the part of her suit that it came in contact with, causing her to shriek in pain.
The creature continued to ignore her and returned to Tomar-Re, as he was the one that harmed its kin. As the beast lunged at him, he was barely managing to get to his feet, incapable of currently defending himself against his rapidly approaching death.
He looked up and watched as the creatures drew closer to him, quickly realizing he could do nothing to save himself. Even Agath was too slow to react, causing him to close his eyes in fear, expecting a gruesome death by the hands of this creature, he waited for its razor-sharp prongs to tear him to pieces.
But it never came no matter how long he waited for it to happen, the cold embrace of death never arrived, causing him to slowly open his eyes to witness the fangs of the creature centimeters from his face, its body halted in time in front of him, stopping his once inevitable death.
---------------
Watching the fight from start till now, Spencer deemed it necessary to stop it as the two individuals were being utterly massacred by the red creature.
"Who in their right minds would harm one of the babies from this group of creatures… You got a death wish or something?" Spencer brought the temporally locked beast towards him and teleported it to its pack before teleporting the three of them to his temple.
The two visitors were still too much in a state of shock to register what was happening. Spencer noticing this snapped his finger and cleared their minds of any distress, allowing them to quickly comprehend their current situation and allowing them to regain their composure and bring their attention to Spencer.
"Thank you for saving us, Mr...?" Tomar-Re looked at Spencer who leisurely sat on his cloud looking down at them.
"Spencer for your information… But the more important question is, why are you on my planet without an invitation?"
Spencer snapped his fingers and healed them of any injuries they may have suffered, astounding them while filling them with questions.
"We c…" Agath was about to speak but was cut off by Tomar-Re
"This planet was not listed for this solar system, the other planets are also missing and this system's star has been changed considerably. Would you happen to know anything about why this has occurred?" Tomar-Re spoke respectfully as he addressed Spencer's question, hoping to get some form of intel, though he held his suspicions about what sort of being Spencer could be.
"Oh... is that all?" Spencer raised his brow and stood upon the cloud he was on.
"If it wasn't obvious enough from me flying on a cloud and teleporting you a few dozen miles to my temple… that was me." Spencer took a bow and watched as the two backed up slightly at his declaration.
Tomar-Re looked at Spencer with some fear in his eyes, but he stayed strong to his designation as the guardian of this sector.
"If that is true... We need to bring you to Oa for further interrogation. Something like this must be reported!" Tomar-Re began walking towards Spencer in the hopes that he might cooperate with them without resistance, manifesting handcuffs to place on him.
Spencer observed as he approached him with the handcuffs, "Let me stop you right there, do you really think I'm going to simply let you arrest me on my planet?" He then brought the cloud to the floor, stepping off of it, "In case you didn't guess the answer, it's a no."
Spencer scanned their minds and found that Oa was only a few dozen light-years away and swiftly teleported them to it with a casual wave of his hand, ridding his planet of their disruptive presence.
"They'll be back, most likely with assistance…" Spencer stepped back on his cloud and went to the very center of his temple. "Now that there aren't any more interruptions, it's time for me to try something I've been thinking about for a while now."
Forming a small, golf ball-sized star with the mass and nuclear energy of an average small star, he infused it with the life affinity, effectively bestowing it its essence, before adding in the space affinity as well, creating a spatial bubble around it to prevent any kind of outside source from interacting with it.
Harnessing some of the matter around him, he surrounded it into the densest crystal he could create with his control over matter, creating a shell denser and more resilient than any diamond possible, going to the point of interlocking the bonds down to the molecular level.
Taking his newly created core with the nuclear strength of a star, he allowed it to float at the center of the temple as he sat in a lotus, placing all of his focus on the object, his eyes shun a blinding light as all of the matter within the temple began to scatter and swirl to the center, converging around the core in the shape of a humanoid nervous system and brain. Although a different color, the resemblance was still there. Piece by piece, Spencer added in new organs and bodily functions down to the very design of the cells.
He continued to add the organs, veins, blood, cells, bones, etc, reinforcing all of them to a degree that was acceptable by his standards, whilst also connecting them all to the core, allowing for everything to feed off of the energy it generates.
Unto the next phase of creating the muscles and skin to cover it all, he took reference from a non-newtonian fluid, springs, and gum, granting the muscle cells the ability to rapidly expand or contract when under significant stress to counteract and rebound the weight being placed against them, granting them a massive amount of flexibility and power.
When creating the skin, he constructed it to harden down to the cellular level when exposed to sudden blunt force or impacts, which the addition of padded armor-like epidermis, he also went as far as to create a few special organs and bone structures within the body to act as a form of shock absorption and dispersal.
Returning to the brain, he formed much smoother, closely connected neural pathways in the brain to allow for a faster reaction time in any situation as well as greater data storage over much longer periods.
And just for the fun of it, he gave it a tail that held a spear at the end of it.
Examining the fully formed body floating horizontally before him, he dropped yet another sliver of his blood on the currently lifeless body's forehead, watching as it seeped into the skin and rapidly flowed through the entirety of the body, the veins glowing similarly to his as he bestowed it with a list of abilities to his liking.
Once his blood had settled in the body, it bulked up considerably. Its armor grew thicker as its skin took on an almost charcoal black, dark tone.
Making it float vertically so he can examine his creation, he smiled at its thick, white near-impenetrable armor, it's black, almost impervious skin, and its stinger-esque tail that held a long dagger looking blade. He was very happy with his handiwork.
"I think I'll call you Penance… a little cringy maybe, but I like it." Snapping his fingers, the eyes of the creature sprung open vigorously, frantically looking at its surroundings with a murderous gaze.
Making a permanent mental link with the creature, Spencer and this creature was now one. He could see everything it saw as if it was a second brain. "It's okay, relax a little." Hearing the creature's murderous thoughts bombarding his mind made him quickly understand that this thing would hold zero regard for any form of life it came in contact with.
"Before I let you go crazy in your new home, I want to test something."
Moving closer to the creature, he plucked it in the chest with what he estimated to be one percent of his actual strength, which in itself was enough to destroy a small moon at minimum. Penance was immediately sent flying but was quickly teleported back to Spencer within the same timeframe.
A visible hole could be seen in its chest where Spencer plucked him, though it almost instantaneously closed as the creature's armor grew thicker in response to the damage. "Seems like my blood works wonders for you doesn't it?... Go, have your fun in the meantime, when you get back I'll see how much you've grown."
And with that, Spencer's creation quickly rushed past him and jumped through the temple walls, simultaneously using one of the abilities it was bestowed and multiplied in mid-air, forming four identical copies before scattering for the nearest lifeform it could sense in the area, massacring and absorbing anything that moved.
Leaving Spencer to simply sit back and watch the show.
