Chapter 35 - The Curtains Flew - part 1 - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

  “Literally anything that has ever crossed your mind can be useful in your training, Frank!” Laetilia stated, sitting across from her new apprentice in a remote corner of the Dojo. Petra and Frank had just finished their day's physical training, but Liora remained training alone, blurring at super-speed as she executed katas against artificial targets; she’d turned her new copy into a sort of commander for sparring drones.

  “Anything, really? You know, I spent a good part of my life on Earth inside pubs, grumbling, playing pool with my friends, and maybe drinking a little more than I should,” Frank confessed without shame but with a pint of regret. He waved goodbye to Petra as she entered her portal back to the ship.

  “That might even be a better starting point than mine, I guess,” Laetilia replied, a touch of sadness in her voice as she tries to capture a distant Liora with her eyes. “Most of my memories were of my time being spent doing tasks. The little that was left was invested in the things that truly mattered. Come to think of it, even before that, I was always with my mother through all her years of engineering college. Yet, my social interaction during that whole time was almost nil.”

  “Doesn’t sound much different from a human teen. Makes me think of my own youth, years spent pursuing a History degree... By then, it was my dream. But I ended up dropping out to take on odd jobs. The money was barely enough to survive. If I’d had the time I have now, I′d have done something very different, maybe...” Frank replied with a half-smile, shrugging.

  “That’s funny. Beni said he also tried to study something, but didn’t pass the exams. He remained alive on Earth for only a short time. He told me that he was an anarchist under a dictatorship, and they killed him during a protest when he was still very young.” Laetilia paused briefly, observing Frank’s reaction, then added, “Things are pretty grim in Gate now, but they say that it used to be different. There was a time when people didn’t even consider they might one day die.”

  “Aha, exactly! Everyone here is young and immortal. This is a utopia." Frank said, as if he’d just gotten a pebble out of his shoe.

  "A utopia, you say, I am not so sure, but is this bothering you?" asks Laetilia, observant.

  "Well, not only; it′s Rocatrista actually, every time I get back there, it′s like everybody is disconnected. They lost many friends in Metropolis, all the sumas may have been gone forever, and the world is a mess. I felt some sadness in Tommy′s eyes, but it′s so soothed that it annoys me deeply, and I don't know why." Frank burst out.

  "Chill out. Magic may mess everything up when you go there; it′s also risky, as it draws too much attention. But that is not the fuss; Tommy can′t be sure of anything, as information is still under Metropolis's control. I saw that things got better on Rocatrista as the leash weakened, but those guys are titanized against years of tyranny; besides, time has passed to grieve their losses. Is that too different from your people on Earth?" Laetilia reflected.

  "Back on Earth is the same shit about control, but also, every so often, some dictators, afraid of looking weak when the reaper is knocking on the door, brag about living forever as a God, but it was always for themselves only. The hell with them all, parasites, choking on their own lies!” Frank grumbled, enraged with his memories.

  “I see, but only the totalitarians thought about it? I mean, was it forbidden to think about being immortal?” Laetilia asked, disbelieving.

  “Because it wasn't some happy magic with soft consequences. Some of the ideas were sinister, involving things like killing a bunch of people to keep themselves alive. Never worked, I hope so.” After a pause, Frank continued, “But I'm forgetting something. There was religion, too, which dealt with a kind of immortality more like what you have here. I learned that everyone has an immortal soul. If I'm a good person, I get to live happily ever after in heaven; if not, I'll suffer forever in hell.” Frank let out a laugh of sheer perplexity and prodded, “You think maybe we’re in paradise, Laetilia?”

  Laetilia just smiled back, shaking her head no, and resumed her point. “But wasn’t there any planning for immortality, then? Was it some kind of taboo? At the very least, there should have been biological life extension, right? Most civilizations, sooner or later, ended up greatly extending life through science alone, and without needing to kill anyone, as far as I know.”

  Frank answered almost immediately, “We’re born knowing that everyone dies someday. It’s wrong to think you can live forever without consequences. It’s not natural! I mean, there wouldn't be room for everyone on Earth. If everyone lived forever, we would have destroyed the planet even faster. Worse still, if it were just for a handful to live forever.”

  “You say it's wrong to think about everyone living forever? Why?” Laetilia pressed, socratizing. “After a while, civilizations tend to shrink slowly while using their resources more efficiently, so it doesn't seem like a resource problem to me. Was your Earth different?”

  “Actually, in my time, the population in some places had started to drop… But that′s not the thing, my parents both died in a war. Then, my life was hell until the end.” After a pause to lower his voice, Frank continued, "I think things were a long way from a world where immortality would promote harmony among people in my time. It would probably be a source of even more brutality, unfortunately.”

  “Is that so? A good portion of species did indeed meet their end, killing each other in wars or exhausting their resources too quickly, but not all of them,” Laetilia commented. “Not that it was easy, but on the original Earth, humans seem to have found a way. As for your Earth, Frank, I can’t say. Does it really matter?”

  This information struck Frank. He asked, “I didn’t know that! I looked up only a few things about the original Earth in the suma database, but not much about the future. Laetilia, in what year did humans on the original Earth achieve immortality through science?”

  Laetilia paused a moment before answering. “Well, I'm not entirely sure. Beni told me something about it, comparing it to his own past, because he didn't come from the original Earth either.” After a few moments of silence, Laetilia continued, “What I do know is that the technology of your era would have needed about 80 years to develop an efficient method for effective biological immortality. That’s assuming a common project for all of humanity, with total investment of resources and time. But the technical aspect is only necessary, not sufficient.”

  “Well, 80 years only... As I said, in my time, not a decade went by without a new war, and people kept killing each other. And even if it wasn’t for the wars, there was a full deck of other crises and conflicts. A common person’s life was worthless. It was hard to survive, let alone be healthy... It was impossible for me to seriously consider immortality, even worse for everyone, outside the realm of divinity or magic. Maybe my world really is very different from the original Earth…” Frank lamented.

  “I’m not so sure it’s that different. There was a very turbulent period on Earth in the mid-21st century, a time shortly after you kicked the bucket, with the risk of civilizations collapsing. Many versions of Earth ended right around that time. But on the original Earth, after the crisis, there was an era of greater appreciation for intellect and ethics, which led to breakthroughs in science. None of it was immediate, though. The oldest earthling I knew in Gate that said he was immortal back then was born in the late 24th century.”

  “More ethical societies? You′re joking for sure! If I had to bet, I’d put my chips on people fighting to survive after an apocalypse caused by humans themselves! I took little from my history classes, but one thing stuck with me: people never learn. It's always the same stupid mistakes, followed by the same consequences, just on a grander scale each time,” Frank retorted.

  “You talk as if humans are essentially evil, and that’s not true, Frank. Rational beings respond in a strikingly similar way when things get ugly, and that goes for everyone. Look at what happened with Metropolis, and that’s been millennia of crisis since the cataclysm. None of it was humanity’s fault, or any particular species’, for that matter,” Laetilia conjectured.

  After a moment of reflection, Frank replied, “Thanks, I guess. Let’s set societies aside. Tell me more about you. What are you thinking of doing after we get back to civilization? Could this knight's power be a problem when dealing with people?”

  “A problem? Maybe... You can handle that fear effect by working on your social skills. The bigger problem today is prejudice, not the powers themselves. In that little village on the hot hill in the middle of nowhere, it was much smoother than Beni and I expected. We actually lived there for a good while, and I have fond memories of that time. So, when I get back to civilization, I want to live for much longer among different people and one day become a great leader! Sometimes I even dream of being elected mayor of Metropolis!” Laetilia mused.

  Frank, startled, said, “Come again? That’s not at all what I would have thought of you. In fact, I’m more used to turning up my nose at politicians, and from what I’ve heard you say, I think Beni agrees with me on that point. But that doesn’t matter. You’d be the best politician I’ve ever met. Should I start calling you Mayor from now on?”

  “I’m practically Beni’s opposite. He got quite upset when I mentioned it, and we argued about it countless times. He told me I reminded him of his teacher on that point. It seems Seneca was a sort of judge-knight on ancient Earth, from a wealthy family. Anyway, it’s all just happenstance, because in Gate, people end up changing a lot,” Laetilia pondered, her voice lacking confidence as her memories were from Beni talking about Seneca and the Roman society.

  “So knights like to train their opposites?” Frank smiled, trying to understand. “But politics, Laetilia, why?”

  “Diversity is a lot of fun, Frank. If you are concerned about knights, for me, if a person cares about others, that’s enough to start the training. That’s also why politics. I have great hope in people, and I think you′ll make a fine knight someday,” Laetilia answered, crossing her legs on the floor.

  “Jeez… people barely trusted me back on Earth. I just hope I don’t disappoint you too much. Aren’t you being a bit naive?” Frank asked in a lower voice.

  “Maybe. Indeed, I don’t know much of the world, and what I've seen is already awful enough. But I prefer naivete to prudence born of fear. Just remember the beginning of our journey when we left Rocatrista,” Laetilia replied with lightness and conviction. After a pause, she continued, “Have you ever tried trusting people more, Frank? Including yourself?”

  Frank shakes his head, recalling his moments with Silas before the words came out of his mouth, “For a long time, I thought it was just me making bad choices, and I was paying for my mistakes because everyone else was so much better. With age, I came to the opposite conclusion and started distrusting everyone. It was only after coming back to life here that I changed my mind again. Now I think the responsibility is shareable, and it does very little good to find someone to blame. But knowing stuff is the first step, right? Maybe that’s why I chose to study history. Anyway, here I am talking about politics and society, when I don’t even know what happened in Old Metropolis.”

  “No one knows everything that happened in Metropolis when the old city felt, much less us, traveling far away. I know a few specific things, sourced from what was known as the Academy. For instance, I know that something accelerated the process of ending the last multiverse’s cycle, but in a defective way. And beyond the various consequences of that, the knights failed to foresee the problems in time, much less do anything to prevent the cataclysm,” Laetilia described, remembering her training.

  “Is it some obligation for the knights to know that? I mean, would that even be possible? Aren′t they just blaming themselves?” Frank asked.

  “No, and no,” Laetilia replied, waving her arms. “Knights have access to power, but not unlimited power, so yes, there are responsibilities. However, I think what happened in Metropolis was more about intentional propaganda than any kind of knightly martyrdom or self-punishment. As for obligations, I don’t think that’s the point. Many knights try to understand past multiverses, but it’s complicated. There’s no sure method, and we’re fumbling in the dark even with fundamental things, like: What are we all for real? What were our ancestors, like Kalis? Rational beings that knew about Gate′s origins? What does rationality exactly mean?”

  “That one seems easy. We’re a handful of matter capable of thinking silly things like: What are we?” Frank ventured.

  “A good dodge, Frank!” Laetilia smiled. “But why does the ability to think such silly things make us potentially revivable here? And why does Gate seem to preserve us all in some way? And what if there were no Gate? Would we exist only while we were alive? Would we disappear forever after death? Even if we were remembered as characters in a poem that reflects us perfectly, for a grain of time, we could even have a fleeting life within the minds of others, but would it truly be us?”

  “Well, if it weren’t for Ramirez accidentally bringing me back, I don’t know what would have become of me. My end, forever, maybe. The present seems to me like the real world where things happen, and my life on Earth a distant dream; sometimes, more like a nightmare… But why are we talking about mortality again?” Frank inquired, trying to determine whether all this was part of his training, and let his thoughts slip through the telepathic channels for a few moments.

  “We can start the training from various points, but it was you who brought up this issue, wasn't it?” Laetilia asked.

  “I don’t even know how we got here from the topic of political grumbling in bars,” Frank laughed.

  “Ha ha! We’re still on politics, but now it’s a qualified grumbling, a knightly grumbling,” Laetilia shared the moment. After a while, she herself continued, “I’m kidding, but we can take another path. You were saying that this is real life. It wasn't before?” Laetilia insisted.

  “On Earth? I don’t know. But here… It’s kind of hard for me to evaluate my own non-existence, almost the same as thinking about whether I existed before I was born. At least now I have a greater certainty about what’s real,” Frank hazarded.

  “You’re sure now, are you? I’ve never met anyone who knows if the multiverses are truly eternal cycles or if one day they will all end, nor how it all began. We know there’s a starting point in space-time, and it’s somewhere right beneath our feet, and before that, perhaps time didn’t even exist. As for the magic of reviving people, no one is sure how it works, and the methods are quite bizarre. But even with science and technology, which are similar in any multiverse, our civilization in Gate has already traveled a much longer path than on your Earth. We know how many things work in great depth, but the number of doubts is also proportionally greater. And those are questions of increasing complexity, to the point where understanding the borderline science questions becomes as great a challenge as understanding the answers. And still, hypothetically, there will never be an end to it, nor a complete model,” Laetilia concluded, pausing several times.

  “I get that, more or less, but I feel more alive now. It’s as if the past is hazy to me,” Frank confessed.

  “Why is that?” Laetilia shot back.

  “Well, I guess it wasn’t just because of the booze!” Frank joked, remembering his past. “I don’t know for sure. My life on Earth was a mess. I used to think alone in my Buick sometimes, reading something to fall asleep, but in the past, life was just a sequence of problems. No matter how hard I tried, nothing seemed to make a difference.”

  “And what more did you dream by that time, Frank?” Laetilia asked.

  “That depends. When I was young, I dreamed about grasping the world around me, maybe finding some connection to get answers about the loss of my parents. But later, it was a struggle to survive and pay the bills; it was one day at a time. It’s only very recently that I’ve started to think about what I’d really like to do. One thing is certain: my desires have changed radically since I came to Gate. It seems absurd, but here I feel like I have more control over my destiny. But my desires and judgments keep changing. Maybe that's why the past already seems so distant,” Frank pondered.

  “So you’re moved by affections? Personal impulses? It was the same for me, initially. Curious… Perhaps because we’re almost isolated from society on our journey, it’s harder to have any kind of external anchor, isn’t it?” Laetilia asked.

  “Nah... I used to think that way before we faced that fire serpent. Then I realized that all the people from Silas' past were enslaved. And there’s nothing to stop the same from happening to the people of my old world,” Frank thought.

  “The people you were fond of? Does the idea of being a hero appeal to you?” Laetilia asked.

  “The people I once loved, certainly, yes. Most are just memories from my childhood. As I got older, love was gone, to the point I don’t even know if I could call anyone a friend. As for being a famous hero… No. Not unless it could be done quietly. If I saved the world, I'd obviously be very happy, but if no one knew about it, I think I'd feel even better than if I were famous. But that’s not it...” Frank thought as he gave way to silence.

  After a long time, almost submerged in thought, Laetilia returned to the topic and said, “If it’s not that, then what is it?”

  “I don’t know. When I’m alone, my mind wanders, and I think that if someone else had brought me back to life, I could be in a state of slavery or worse right now. After I was defeated and frozen by Adarian, that prospect of being desecrated grew even stronger. I can’t be at peace thinking something similar could happen…” Frank paused for a brief moment and continued, “But, Laetilia, it’s not because it’s a personal threat. I feel much safer now, even though I know the risks are immense. It’s that I don't like standing by and watching. If I can do something, I’m going to try.”

  “I’m not sure I understand. If your bond with your past is weak, and if by the end of your life on Earth you keep just a few friends, then where does this altruism come from?” Laetilia prodded.

  “Altruism? Maybe, but it's something easier to feel than to explain. Like a duty to myself, perhaps, so that things can start making sense again,” Frank answered genuinely.

  “Cool. So, shall we stop the conversation here and start the training? Sound good?” Laetilia smiled.

  “Oh, so none of this was part of the training until now?” Frank asked.

  “Well, nop, the first part of the training involves you trying to understand what happened through fragments of records from people who lived in ancient times. If we were at the Academy, this would be accessible directly in the monoliths and shards. Luckily, you won’t need any of that because I have a huge archive of those records. I asked you a few things now because it’s good to start with material that has a stronger connection to the student, but also out of curiosity,” Laetilia smiled.

  “I see. So the learning is divided into parts?” Frank asked, adjusting his position on the floor.

  “Yes, the first part is just preparatory. I’ll teach you some of the Ancestral Tongue, and you should have some facility with it because of the Vabala. In the meantime, as I’ll be by your side, you’ll notice a certain uneasiness. It’ll be the same whenever you get close to knights. While this can be overcome with familiarity or, at the limit, with social superpowers, the training in the knightly arts tends to aggravate this effect. So, by the end of the first part, you’ll be prepared to decide whether you want to dive in or not. Keep in mind that this can be inconvenient, but it will hardly be as severe as what happens with Kalis. In this first phase, we also train our sensitivity to other knights, so that we can feel each other’s presence across the universe. It was like when the Golems accelerated and I was alone and panicking; Beni sensed I was in trouble and contacted me, even though he had no communication magic. It was a very risky thing for him to do, with him being in Metropolis,” Laetilia said, calmly and deliberately.

  “So it will be easy for anyone to realize I’m a knight? And if knights continue to be hunted, that will be another problem for me,” Frank worried.

  “Exactly! But even if someone has no idea what a knight is, the feeling of strangeness will be present,” Laetilia replied, raising an eyebrow as if questioning Frank’s decision.

  “Okay, so after the first part, if I decide to continue, there’s no turning back, and I’ll become a walking source of weirdness? And after that? What are the other parts?” Frank asked, narrowing his eyes in thought.

  “After that comes a bit of physical training, to use your will to alter the reality around you, but only in potential, as if you were leaving your personal signature wherever you pass. And yes, after that, there’s no turning back. However, in this latter part, you still won’t be able to do anything fun, unlike magic, where you can use mana wildly,” Laetilia warned.

  “Okay, so it would just be a potential?” Frank concluded.

  “That’s right! After you’re prepared, you can learn the techniques, and then you’ll use that potential to do something. Usually, the first technique is absorbed by apprentices like a sponge. Since we are travelling, it’s most likely you’ll learn the same technique I did, but that would already be great,” Laetilia stated, more enthusiastically.

  “Is that all?” Frank questioned.

  “That’s it! Beni only learned up to this part. There are years of specialized training in the Academy’s houses, but that will have to wait,” Laetilia advised.

  “And the part about the artifacts? And about Seneca and that story of the first house?” Frank remembered.

  “About artifacts, that’s just knowledge I can pass on to you later. Well, if you want, you can try talking to Kalis directly, but it’s very difficult. Neither Beni nor I has ever managed it properly. As for Seneca, I don’t know…” Laetilia scratched her head.

  “What’s going on with Seneca? He could teach us one thing or two.” Frank questioned.

  “I really don’t know if that will be an option. In the city where the King’s people went to live, no one there knew anything about knights, but they heard that you guys were looking for Seneca. When we explained it, some of them even thought about finding Seneca for training as knights too, but Beni said he is not accepting apprentices, but I don′t know why,” Laetilia explained.

  Before Frank could say anything, Petra interrupted everyone telepathically: “Good news, everyone! I just tested my new spell. I learned that flying magic Amanda used and tried it on myself. Want to come to the bridge to test it?” Laetilia sends Frank a mental nudge: "Let’s end here for today."

  Frank got excited and answered Petra: “Awesome! I′ll be there in a minute. I learned my new one a while ago, but there’s not much hope to test it, and it seems pretty weak. It’s the one that makes insults cause real damage.”

  Petra sent a mental laugh: “Frank, what the hell is that for?”

  “So, it seems a bit silly, but from what I understand, I can use it remotely; I just need to know where my target is. For example, I can use it when I’m in Rocatrista in ghost form. I can also use it through group telepathy on a target you all are perceiving. And there is more, if I’m watching live TV and use it to curse someone on the show, not only the cursing words but the damage will reach the target,” Frank imagined.

  “I’ve never heard of such spells! The amount of trouble coming with it is enormous, but it does seem quite useful in certain situations,” Liora interrupted, joining Frank and Laetilia.

  “I’m already here on the bridge with Petra, everyone! The force field is still in mid-development, but the ship is at 100%!” commented Silas, who had been completely absorbed in his projects for the last few days.

  Everyone passed through the portal to find Petra floating in the middle of the bridge, borne by four pairs of angelic wings made of an intense white light. She looked down with her arms crossed, still in her training clothes.

  “Nice pose! Does your magic come with an angel cosplay, Petra?” Frank smiled.

  “Sure... When it gets close to the end, the wings slowly fade one by one, to give you time to descend if needed. It always lasts about a day. I ended up testing it on myself first,” she commented back.

  “Can we train with them as we did with Amanda′s?” Frank got excited.

  “That’s the idea. We already used them, so no big surprises, except that this one seems much stronger. I got more news. I started the School of Creation Magic. The first spell provides Silas with magical material that’s practically unbreakable, and he ended up upgrading our gear! That’s another reason I called you all here,” Petra smiled, full of pride.

  Silas stood up and presented the improved versions of the equipment, which were visibly brighter and emitted a clear, almost angelic light. Frank nodded effusively, as if celebrating along with Petra and Silas.

  “Well, let’s test this for real. I’m going to use the flight magic at full power on all of us and on the ship! Ready?” Petra asked excitedly.

  Everyone nodded, thrilled. After a few moments, the five of them had angelic wings and were floating around the bridge, now dressed in their equipment, which also emitted a nearly blinding light. The ship’s speed also increased considerably; its maneuverability, however, improved to unbelievable levels, because all impact from acceleration was magically nullified by its colossal wings.

  Observing the ship's new maneuvers, Frank realized the flight magic provided an incredible combination when he tested a few strikes with his flexoclava. He immediately said, radiant, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! This… I can anchor myself at any point and apply my full force. There are no limits. I don’t have to worry about being thrown back!”

  Silas immediately confirmed Frank’s excitement with data, and his eyes widened. He let a mental comment slip through telepathy: “By the stars…”

  Liora looked at Silas, who replied in thought: “By my calculations, Petra’s magic combined with Frank’s strength training is already powerful enough to split planets in half, even more than that. Just be careful not to hit Gate with it, please. I’m serious, because Gate tends to hit back.”

  “Come again? No digging holes?” Frank was impressed.

  “Holes aren’t a problem, but if you hit some of the veins, it could be a minor inconvenience, because they’re tough. Now, if you go through everything and manage to hit Gate’s core, that is, the outer walls of the Underworld, then things will get really ugly. I know this from the ship engineering manuals, from recorded cases of crazies trying to cross Gate’s core with warp drives and needing to be revived afterward, things like that,” Silas explained.

  Petra interrupted with great excitement, given the major progress in their training, “So, Frank? I think we’re well prepared to go back to Cernutos now!”

  Before Frank could answer, the automatic yellow alert went off, coming from one of the long-range sensors; everyone froze while Silas and Petra went to check what it was.

  “You think it’s Seneca?” Petra questioned while trying to get a reading.

  “Nope, the signal isn’t coming from the ground, but from space,” Silas said, as he connected several terminals, redirecting Petra’s precision sensors.

  “Whatever it is, it’s far away but approaching above warp speed,” Petra warned, with great concern. “It will be here in seconds!”

  Liora was already at the piloting controls and announced, “Initiating evasive maneuvers!” as the ship began to execute erratic movements with great ease.

  “Attention! It’s for certain now, the thing is coming straight for us!” Petra stated, realizing the evasive maneuvers weren’t having much effect.

  “Could it be Biggus’s people?” Frank asked, cracking his neck.

  “Doesn’t seem like it…” Laetilia said as the bridge began to darken. She immediately unsheathed her sword, which was already absorbing light like a black hole. She thought aloud, “Wha…”

  “Do you need to use that thing?” Petra asked, her voice filled with tension.

  “I’m not using anything!” Laetilia replied, trying to understand what was happening.

  Frank and Laetilia felt as if Kalis was calling them, as they looked at the pitch black blade. They both heard a sound out form nowhere, something like, “éfa-rr?fo, jebu vi.” They looked at each other, perplexed.

  “So, what is it saying? Has it done this before?” Frank inquired of Laetilia.

  “Nope! She has never done this before. Usually, she only wakes up when we talk about her,” Laetilia replied with a doubly grim expression.

  “Any ideas, people? Something’s coming, and it seems to be homungous. I’m starting to detect gravitational anomalies coming from space,” Petra worried.

  “The first word from Kalis sounds like a name to me, in the language of a very old multiverse. I think something ancient is coming,” Laetilia concluded.

  Liora climbed slightly with the ship to reach maximum speed in a straight line; she locked the course while prepping the ship’s weapons for an immediate response. Meanwhile, Silas directed the visual feedback from Petra’s sensors to the main screen. An ethereal cloud with waves of energy began to appear across the firmament right above the ship, and it seemed to be matching their speed.

  After a few tense moments of silence, from a rift that tore the fabric of space, a huge, rock-like sphere emerged, slightly bigger than Earth’s Moon. Planet-sized shockwaves could be seen pulsing beneath its rocky layer.

  “It looks like just a meteor…” Frank said, hoping to be at least minimally correct this time.

  “Attention!” Petra interrupted. “This thing seems to be liquid on the inside. The probes can’t penetrate deep enough, and at the source of each of these shockwaves, a creature is bursting forth, flying straight in our direction!” On the ship’s main screen, one of Petra’s sensors zoomed in on one of these figures: a rock-skinned demon, its color varying from brown to purple, with enormous wings that vaguely resembled something biological, their frames appearing skeletal but clearly unnatural given the speed at which they moved.

  “The main mass seems to be inactive, but that’s not the case, because it appears to be the source. There’s a star graph with energy edges in hyperspace connecting each of these demons to this sphere,” Silas warned, interpreting the data from the probes at a frantic pace.

  “The first ones will reach us in 2 minutes... No! Maybe less!” Liora stated, realizing that sub-warp speed would be of little use. She rose from the pilot’s seat and looked at Petra.

  Petra noticed and removed her headset connected to the probes, answering, “Portal? Or…”

  “Hmmm…” Liora looked at everyone, hoping for an answer, and noticed a fleeting, changing expression of fear on her daughter’s face.

  “Everyone, I think this thing came for me,” Laetilia said, looking at the stone sphere on the screen and trying to find some logic in it. She extended one palm in its direction, as if she were answering an invitation. But the fear parted, and, resigned, her sword firmly gripped in the other hand, she stood ready for combat.

  “Hey! What if we flee into Petra’s universe?” Frank questioned, trying to help.

  “I don’t know…” Laetilia replied, holding her gaze, noticing that the first demons were completely focused on her, as if they could perceive through the ship’s walls, while a horde of such demons formed right behind the ship. She concluded, “Maybe it could buy us some time.”

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