Chapter 71 - Research and retrieval

After a brief moment of lamentation, Spencer turned around, facing the trio.

"So, what's your plan now?"

"Well…" Milo answered since the girls were still trying to overcome the shock they got over the whole ordeal. "We were originally looking for you… But as we found traces of the Ancient One's return, we have to go back and warn the Elder!"

With Milo's were, the girls finally managed to come back to reality.

"We have to go now! We can't waste any more time! This is an emergency!" Cassa exclaimed, remembering the incredible power spikes they could feel during Spencer's battle. As she spoke she and Milo already began to slowly lift off from the ground and levitate higher and higher in the air.

She looked down at her friend who kept looking hesitantly alternating between Spenser and them.

"Come on Shaya! We have to go back! The others could be in danger!" She looked at Spencer and sighed. "He can protect himself. You saw his power, don't you?! Now, we have more important things to worry about!"

"Uhm… I…" Shaya however couldn't decide what to do. Seeing this man was the first time ever since losing him that her heart didn't hurt. She didn't want to lose sight of him again.

Noticing her hesitation, Spencer couldn't help but sigh as well. He waved at the girl, signaling to go away and follow her group.

"Shaya, you should follow Cassa and Milo. Don't worry, I still have more work to do, so I can't leave just yet. Besides…" His face revealed a vicious smile. "I still have to pay back to that old fogey for his victory in Round one! Our match isn't done yet!"

"Uhm." Eventually, after several painfully long seconds of silence, Shaya came to a decision, and nodded at Spencer, with a brighter smile than before. "You have to come back! You just promised!"

"Promised? When did I…" Spencer asked in confusion, albeit to no avail as Shaya instantly bolted away with great speeds, Milo and Cassa quickly following her behind. Before flying off, however, Cassa gave one last glance at Spencer. Her face also hid a mixture of emotions, but unlike her friend, he managed to cover it up with a scowl.

Milo simply waved at Spencer, with the signature aloof expression of his, and silently followed after the girls, leaving Spencer alone once more.

Spencer kept following their fading figures for a while, before shaking his head with a brighter smile. Despite his best attempts, he still couldn't avoid making connections with the local residents on this planet. His original plan was to just simply gather more power before returning home, but just like the previous time on Mars, things weren't as simple as he planned.

Now, however, he needs to return to his ship and once more dive into the depth of his core. He needs to figure out how to proceed. He still couldn't figure out what's the peak, the prime state of the Fashacalli. There's incredible potential in the power they held within their bodies, but he would need to be able to successfully reach the top first then merge it with his own to properly utilize it. Otherwise, not to mention that he wouldn't be able to properly utilize either side, he could also cause a catastrophic reaction and destroy his cores.

While he wouldn't die, as he is practically incapable of that, he could potentially lose millions of years of work, and once again be forced to start over. That, he couldn't risk.

---

He sent mental commands to Tiger and Ego who was still waiting just a couple dozen miles away, at the same spot he left them and left towards the ship once again.

His figure vanished, only to reappear high above the sky. With a sonic shockwave, he flew towards his ship at incredible speeds, arriving in a second.

Reaching the side of the ship, he entered through the bubble that formed on its side to let him in. Not wanting to waste any more time in his progression, he immediately rushed to his lab on the ship, only accessible by him. Spotting Bey'on about to walk past him in a trance whilst working, he snapped her out of it the same way, as usual, this time having a brief grip to enjoy the firm softness as well, causing her to yelp in surprise. Before she had the time to file a complaint, Spencer had already entered his lab, leaving her rubbing her butt in annoyance.

Swiftly entering his lab, he immediately locked down the entrance and began experimenting. Subtly extracting the blood he took from Milo and placing it in a bio replicator for it to be scanned before it is replicated to increase the size of the blood sample. Though he could do this himself, a larger sample would make the absorption go much faster.

Spencer sat down with his legs crossed and entered his mind space, examining the near-endless sky of DNA before him. Quickly finding and bringing forward the three orbs containing all of the fashacalli essences he has absorbed thus far, he examined them once more. One was just floating as an orb composed of a green light(life), another holding a deep dark red hue(fire), and the last releasing a brilliant orange glow(time). Bringing all of these hardly golf ball-sized orbs above his outstretched palm, he then began to infuse them with a mixture of his personal energy and fasha, spawning an immediate vigorous reaction within his body. The orbs vibrated violently as they began to slowly grow in size, density, and hue.

Subsequent to their growth, Spencer's body on the outside began to release scolding steam at a rapid, unregulated rate, growing in intensity every passing moment.

"Activating the containment procedure." The Hex AI promptly surrounded Spencer into a dome to transfer all of the energy released to power the ship further.

Spencer continued to channel the mixture of energies into the orbs. Meanwhile, his body was rapidly changing to a randomized degree, tattoos would form and vanish from his body at different points in time from various colors. After some time of doing this, he reached the limit of what the essence could handle before falling apart, all three of them now being the size of a basketball.

Seeing as he was now ready for the next stage, he briefly excited his mind space as the dome opened, approaching the bio replicator to retrieve the sample, taking out Milo's blood which was now artificially replicated to reach 5 gallons. Promptly absorbing the blood into his body, he reentered the dome, and his mindscape, watching as the new violet-colored(Space) orb formed before him.

Doing just as he did with the others, he had redone the process and was now holding four essence orbs carrying the different affinities.

"Let's hope this works..." Spencer hesitantly compressed the orbs into one singular orb in an instant, ensuring an immediate blast of energy into the dome's inner walls.

Applying all his concentration to fuse the affinities, he ignored all outer distractions that could hinder him, the orb in front of him twisting and swelling violently as he bound them together. This process of twisting and swelling continued for roughly 2 hours, his body continuing to progressively change throughout the whole process.

His once black tail was now a grayish-white color as his frame grew much larger than he was as a fashacalli. He could feel his body emanating a powerful aura whilst he felt a rather unexplainable connection to the concepts of space and time. These were the final results before he finally managed to merge all of the orbs into one.

"Huh, this feels rather unique!" He couldn't explain what he was feeling at the moment, but it's definitely something he has never felt before. Although he felt he was unlike any fashacalli in the history of their existence, he still felt as if something was missing.

"I need to gather the other affinities quickly, but first I need to retrieve Ego and Tiger." Leaving his lab, Spencer walked to the ship's command hall and instructed Hex to go down to the planet's surface so that he could retrieve them.

Before the ship began its descent, He realized that he would need a bigger ship to accommodate those two brutes. He placed his right hand on the side of the command panel and sent a mental command to refigure the ship as he supplied the necessary energy for the change.

Subsequent to doing this, the ship quickly began to grow to a size larger than that of an aircraft carrier, the two wings in the front fusing together whilst the back of the chip expanded into a warp drive. While he was at it he created an artificial environment for Ego and Tiger as well as increasing the size of Bey'ons lab.

Receiving a mental embrace of appreciation from Bey'on before she continued her work, he allowed the ship to continue its course down to the planet quickly breaching the atmosphere, the bioship made its way to pick up his two missing pets.

Whilst he was going through the motions, chaos was brewing a distance away.

----

Already on the planet's surface, the being known as Aethros could be seen rapidly approaching one of the many tribes of this planet, his tribe of origin, the tribe that made his life nothing but pain since he was a mere child.

Aethros approached the tribe and watched as its people went along with their daily lives not knowing of the calamity that was to come. Seeing their carefree lives fueled his rage like no other, making him contemplate simply blowing up this tribe and moving onto the other. But he didn't want to end it in such a manner. A quick death was too good of an escape for these people.

Making his way over to the Elders temple, he swiftly killed all of the guards that approached him until he had arrived at the Temple's Hall.

"It's been a while...O' wise Elder!" Aethros spoke to the figure known as this tribe's Elder in a condescending tone, observing the shock that was plastered on his face.

"No!... It can't be! The Elder of this tribe was shocked beyond belief as subtle fear began to wash over him, backing away trying to see an opening to escape.

"It can!" Aethros immediately rushed at the Elder with a sinister grin on his face, making this Elder the first of his many victims.

---

With a sudden burst of energy alerting him, Spencer recognized the energy signature to be Aethros almost on the far side of the planet, other than Aethros, he noticed a large area of rapidly fading energy signatures trailing Aethros's path.

"Who would have known he could be so helpful?" Spencer could only see this as an opportunity to retrieve the other affinities he needs to unlock the prime of the fashacalli species, then he can promptly be on his way.

Notifying Bey'on that he was leaving the ship, he instructed Hex to take over the task of retrieving his pets before exiting the planet's atmosphere.

"Time to gather some samples!" He grinned a little as he made his way over to the fading energy signatures.