Book 4, chapter 12

Stabbing pain jarred Julian awake, his body throbbing all over. His energy felt turbid, his body flooded with foreign energies that still raged through his veins.

Given the ravaged state of his body and energy channels, he wasn't out of death's door yet.

His soul realm was unstable, threatening to burst and kill him. Thankfully, it was looking a lot better after months of recovering.

Groaning, he tossed a few pills in his mouth, the C-grade healing pills enough to help him focus.

He forced his swollen eyes open. He was greeted by the calming void of space, chunks of debris floating around him.

A spaceship-sized chunk of something spun slowly, reflecting the light of the nearby star.

It looked like a two-hundred-meter chunk of tentacle, flash-frozen, and covered in horrible wounds.

Even separated from the Farahar, that chunk of meat radiated intense malice. Spinning end over end, the chunk of meat collided with a chunk of rock.

That created a chain reaction in the debris cloud, as rock, chunks of meat, and fragmented shards of spaceship alloys collided.

It was a truly massive debris field, the remnants of that dead world, the planar space, and the battle.

Unnatural movement amidst the debris caught his attention. Thousands of small drones darted amidst the debris, avoiding the hazardous wreckage whilst they gathered materials.

That was why Julian was still out here, drifting through the cold, dark void of stellar space.

The waivers terror needed major repairs, and this debris field was as good as any to get the proper materials.

They were rather fortunate. Over thirty blood-gorger warships were destroyed in the battle, leaving a whole lot of debris to salvage for repairs. He felt a mental nudge, a proverbial knock on the door of his mind.

"How are you doing, feeling any better?" Sendredie asked, her tone worried.

"The danger of my inner world exploding and tearing me apart has mostly passed. How are the ship's repairs coming along," Julian asked, changing the subject.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Sendredie replied her calm voice entering his harried mind.

"I will take the good news first," Julian said tiredly.

"Well, the good news is that the ship didn't blow up when I added blood gorger components to do an overhaul on the reactor," Sendrie replied.

"And the bad news?" Julian asked.

"The reactor is about as stable as a red giant star threatening to go supernova," Sendredie replied her tone excited rather than fearful.

"Of course it is... Can you stabilize the reactor?" Julian asked, his exhaustion and wounds making his vision blurry.

"I will keep working on it, though no promises," Sendredie said.

With that he let the world river come crashing back, drawing in energy as best he could to help fight off the ailments plaguing his body. It was a pain in the ass, the world river so chaotic from their fight and a planet exploding, that it made drawing in any energy a chore.

Julian awoke from a deep meditation sometime later to the soft thrumming of engines. His eyes shot open, and he sat up, his body screaming from pain.

"Damnit that hurts," He hissed through gritted teeth.

It took him a few minutes of taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart. With his heart rate under control, he scanned his naked body for injuries. After months of recovery, his skin was fully healed, though he had over a dozen new scars to mark his body.

He looked fine, at least on the outside. He still had a host of high-tier concepts invading his body, even months later.

It was remnants of the Farahars, and the blood gorger war fleets attacks. It wasn't life-threatening, though it would hamper his ability to fight until he wore the insights down.

Noting he was back aboard Sendredie a ship, he allowed himself to relax. She must have fixed the reactor and came to pick him up while he was out of it, in deep cultivation.

Memories of that hectic battle came flooding back to his mind. That was a mess. Blowing up that planar space was bad enough, but it was nothing compared to the damage they caused to that dead world.

Their battle had only lasted about a half hour, and yet, the damage was catastrophic. That planet was a cloud of rocks now, which wasn't all that regrettable.

At least they hadn't annihilated an inhabited planet, this time. He had been close to death a few times, even after the battle, but things were looking up now.

He laughed, collapsing back into the pillows. They had actually done it! His jubilation quickly faded as he remembered the end of the battle.

If he remembered right, Sendredie was even more injured than he was, taking the brunt of that final attack. He still wasn't sure how she managed to piece their ship together when he was barely able to remain alive.

She must have sensed him waking, as the door to his room hissed open. His eyes widen as he took in the vicious scar spanning from her chin across her forehead and crossing some of her scalp.

With some of her short, dyed pink hair missing, and that new scar, it did nothing to lessen her usual manic grin. Wearing a soft grey robe that clung to her slim athletic frame, she limped into his room, her every step causing a grimace to cross her face.

Sendredie was not what anyone would call beautiful. Most men would run from the fierce intensity in her eyes, not to mention that manic grin always on her face.

Julian was the opposite. He found that part of her far more attractive than a pretty façade. She might be a bit crazy, but she was fiercely loyal, willing to risk her life and ship to help him.

This went far beyond paying for some debt she owed him from long ago. Spending the last two and a half years with her was a stark reminder that his feelings for her ran deeper than he wanted to admit.

"You look like shit," Julian said, his voice hoarse.

Sendredie snorted. "What? You don't like my new scar, I think it makes me look more dangerous," Sendredie retorted, bobbing her eyebrows.

The effect was kind of comical given one of them was missing where the scar had crossed her face.

"You already looked scary enough without it. That new scar just makes you look menacing," Julian replied.

Sendredie beamed. "Now you are just flirting, if you keep this up, you might make me think you are interested?" she asked.

"So how is the ship? Any luck on the repairs you mentioned before?" Julian asked, dodging her not-so-subtle advances.

"You are no fun," She pouted, though, after a few seconds, her teasing expression turned thoughtful. "Repairing the ship has been slow progress. You mucked up the ship's arrays pretty bad with that last jump to get us out of there. It almost tore us in half." Sendredie said collapsing on his bed beside him, wrapping his blankets around her.

Julian scooted over to give her some room.

"And how is that my fault? I'm honestly shocked I was able to form a gate at all, considering how turbulent space was." Julian replied.

"Are you saying we got lucky?" Sendredie asked, leaning on one elbow and looking over at him with a twinkle in her eyes.

"That about sums it up," Julian admitted.

Sendredie laughed, the sound almost musical.

"I'm glad I came, this has been fun… So, where to next, where is that granddaughter of yours?" She asked.

"Only a crazy person would think fighting a Farahar, and a blood-gorger war fleet at the same time is fun. We blew up a planet and a planar space," Julian grumbled.

"Oh, come on, this isn't the first time we have done that. I actually thought I might die, it was exhilarating. Admit it, you had fun." Sendredie said.

Julian snorted and pulled an amulet from thin air. His body ached all over as he sat up, but he ignored the discomfort, staring down at the amulet in his callused hand. The amulet was a perfect replica of the one he gave Zee back in the planar space. It should be a piece of cake to track her using the sympathetic link both amulets shared. His brows furrowed as if nothing happened when he flooded a trickle of energy into the amulet.

He smacked the amulet, "Work, damnit," Julian said.

"What's wrong?" Sendredie asked.

Julian shook the amulet, as if doing so might actually help.

"What the hell? The damned thing is broken." Julian said.

Sendredie reached out and snatched it from his hand, peering at the amulet for a few seconds.

"Nope, not broken. This one is working fine. The link has simply been severed from the other side," Sendredie said.

His face scrunched up in annoyance.

"That girl. How does she keep breaking my things?" Julian asked, his tone rife with frustration.

Sendredie laughed. "Ohh well, I guess we will have to use the old method. Who knows, we might get another opportunity to fight the Farahar again," Sendredie said with a manic grin.

Julian grimaced. "That's just wonderful... First, we give one of those beasties a black eye, and now we are going back into the Null? I can't wait to piss off the Farahar even further," Julian replied, sarcastically.