Chapter 120 - The Gravitational Barrier

Close to the seventh-month mark, the group was already in orbit around the planet Lorien. It appeared to be a desolate, dark, planet, far removed from the paradise it once was.

Imagery scans from orbit showed bones of fallen Loriens, carbon dating placing some bones at the stage of infancy and others at the age of 200-years-old. Surprisingly, even the older citizens of Lorien fought until their ultimate demise.

Elizabeth, Vishnu, Marina, Cindy, John, and Ella watching this began to tear up. Until now they had only heard stories of Lorien with limited memories, but now they were burning with a deep hatred for the Mogadorians.

All this time fighting the Mogadorians, they did so in a bid to survive but now they had grown seeds of revenge in their hearts.

Elizabeth was no different, losing her usual 'I don't care façade' she wept. Marina took it the best as she had memories of some of the events, she could even point out where her parents' bodies laid on the battlefield.

"So the amulets can restore Lorien?" John asked still choking from the earlier sobbing.

"The phoenix stones hold large amounts of energy meant to resurrect the environment and re-strengthen Lorien itself. It will also be where your abilities are the strongest from now on," Alice mentioned in Zeel's place, afraid he would say something detrimental to the current situation. He had the uncanny ability to ruin things when they were looking promising.

"We're heading down, by now you should have enough mastery of your abilities to spacewalk, besides we're only falling until atmospheric re-entry," Zeel said as he opened a hatch but paused as he was about to exit "Don't leave anything you need up here. We probably won't be coming back,"

Not wasting any more time, Zeel, Elizabeth and Alice hopped out into the cold void of space without any protective gear. Their antigravity boots could manipulate gravity in the void of space if one was skilled enough at using them.

"Why didn't we just take the ship?" John asked.

Marina shrugged "I don't know but he always has a plan so, better not question what you can't control,"

"Let's go," Vishnu said as he jumped out, followed by Marina, Ella, Cindy, and then John after taking one last look around.

'Wooooooh'

Zeel could be heard enjoying himself as he used his gravity boots to navigate through the rubbles in orbit.

After a couple of minutes, Zeel entered the atmosphere and could feel his body begin to heat up. Pulling the nearby asteroids, he just passed by towards him; Zeel made a shield of rock in front of himself, reducing the atmospheric burns acting on his body. Similar actions were taken by the members of the Garde some ways behind him in descent.

It wasn't long before they were coming up on a fast-approaching landmass, which the group had no issue in slowing descent until they appeared to be as light as feathers.

"Back home," John whispered, a sentiment echoed by everyone there except Alice and Zeel.

"We came on a mission, I calculate it would take Setrakus Ra a couple more months to get here," Zeel mentioned, and as if to spite him a loud boom could be heard from the vacuum of space.

"Ha-ha, who thought he would be that crazy," Alice said as she began laughing, understanding the full 'gravity' of what had just occurred.

"Did that dude just shatter the gravitational barrier?" Zeel questioned feeling a little disbelieving.

"Gravitational what?" Cindy questioned at a loss of what was happening. All she saw was a white ship floating just above the atmosphere but it seemed to be held at bay by some force.

"When you move too fast without something to keep you tethered you can shatter the gravitational and frictional forces that keep you tied to the ground, once it's gone you float out into space.

However, once you shatter those forces while in space, well basically it's suicide. Think of it as an incomplete warp jump but in one place, which is logically impossible and hence dangerous," Zeel replied as he wondered why Setrakus Ra would take such a risk, an answer which he soon had.

A huge image of Setrakus Ra was projected into the skies of Lorien.

"This is Setrakus Ra, I have taken great risks to reach here, now you the remaining Garde will help me stabilize the gravitational field and bring me safely onto the planet or…." Setrakus Ra said as he pulled a knife and placed it on the necks of two unconscious individuals on board his ship.

"Sarah? Sam?" John said in an almost pleading voice, everyone could hear his heartbreaking from the place they were standing; John turned towards Zeel and said in an almost demonic tone of voice "You said they would be safe,"

"They are I think," Zeel shrugged and said which annoyed everyone there, even Alice was becoming tired of his lack of explanations even when he had planned for almost every occurrence.

"Zeel, you know you plan a lot of contingencies and always have a way out, trump cards after trump cards. I am afraid of the day when you don't see something coming. How broken it will leave us; being blindsided by what we can't see," Alice said in a tired voice laced with a hint of anger.

"Yeah, I actually think I fear when that day comes as well, but this is the way I was thought. Always have a way out, even if you have to go it alone in the end," Zeel replied looking up at Setrakus Ra's ship with a reminiscent look on his face.

The rainbow ring on Zeel's finger suddenly expanded onto his wrist and became the Mbeamer. The Mbeamers could work with thoughts alone, but for truly complex instruction, a series of gestures, thoughts, and calculations would have to be conducted in tandem.

The group watched as the spaceship left in orbit began to crystallize before disappearing into the mirrorverse, leaving behind a huge lump of Emospectruminium wrapped in pressurized gas containers with blue energy swirling in a nearby isolation unit.

The entire contraption appearing as two cones, with a pyramid on top, and a hose connecting all three containers with energy circulating between containment units.

To put it simply, the entire thing looked like a bomb that could end the world a couple of times over.

A primal fear overcame everyone who saw the contraption, negative emotions threatening to surface into their conscious minds but the group managed to suppress it at the last minute; though it was not the same for Setrakus Ra who became ballistic and started cursing Lorien saying 'You took my wife from me over and over again'.

"Red Queen, Lorien, and Mogador are supposed to be relatively close on a galactic scale, have you found the location of Mogador?" Zeel called out loud enough for everyone to hear, but he was truly speaking to his Mbeamer.

"Yes, a planet located in the Andromeda Galaxy, Virgo Alpha Cluster group, Neo Synchron Solar System, Planet Mogador. Home to approximately 3.4 billion Mogadorians," The Red Queen replied as she materialized and stared at Alice instead of Zeel.

"How much reserve energy to sustain deep wormhole diving?" Zeel asked once again, this time even the least brilliant Ella could figure what is about to happen.

"Estimation finished. Not advised, collision with Planet Mogador imminent if deep wormhole dive is permitted. The resulting spike from negative emotions could also affect Lorien," The Red Queen cautioned without a hint of emotions on her face.

"Estimated time of the collision?" Zeel asked, not minding that planet Lorien could also be affected, if a cosmic force was that easy to kill, he wouldn't have the seal on his soul currently.

"Three seconds after initialization," The Red Queen replied after a brief pause causing everyone, even Setrakus Ra to inhale a deep breath.

*BOOOOOOOOM*