Chapter 296 - I Will Show You What I Have Learned
In an unknown spot within the chaotic and infinite void, was a sphere of stable space the size of a meter and a half, and inside it, was a middle aged man who floated while sitting quietly with his legs crossed. He was meditating with his eyes closed, but the feelings shown by his face were feelings of annoyance, and irritation.
"You will never learn if you keep getting distracted.." Said a disembodied voice that came from every single part of the spatial sphere at the same time, causing the middle aged man to frown even deeper than before.
The man finally opened his eyes, and after noticing what was lingering on the other side of the thin barrier of stable spatial essence, he sighed in exasperation. "How am I supposed to focus when I am just centimeters away from those things?" He said while pointing at something on the other side of the sphere.
Lingering in the darkness of the void just outside the sphere of spatial essence, were hundreds of planet sized monsters.
Aside from the impressive size, the form of these monsters appeared to have come straight out of a book of horror stories. Their bodies had no consistent shape, and most of them were made of headless torsos from which numerous massive tentacles come out of. The most horrifying amongst them, were also covered in eyes as big as cities.
"For the fifth time, Edmund.. They won't feel your presence unless there is a fracture that connects the two types of space.. That is why they don't attack the spatial containers, or pocket dimensions." Responded the disembodied voice with a reassuring, and yet slightly impatient tone.
The being to which this voice belonged to, had tried to help Edmund with comprehending spatial essence, but while he had found him to be one of the most talented and passionate individuals that he had ever met when in regards of spatial essence, he also seemed to be easily distracted.
"I'll show you." said the voice just before a small crack formed on the surface of the sphere.
The moment this crack formed, the eyes that covered the bodies of the hundreds of monsters present in the area turned towards him, and their bodies slowly began to float in his general direction.
"STOP IT! I GET IT!!" Shouted Edmund in panic. Any of these monsters could kill him with, and in the blink of an eye.. He had spent the previous few months in the territory of the Void Dwellers, and had met with numerous its inhabitants. From them, he had heard numerous stories about the elite members of the faction and the monsters that lived in the void.
From these stories, he had learned that almost none of the elite members was able to hurt any of these monsters, so he did not believe himself to be able to escape, or even fight against any of them..
"Calm down!" responded the voice as the small crack closed, causing the monsters to immediately lose interest in his small presence, and go back to floating without a purpose.
Seeing that the monsters did in fact lose interest in him the very moment the connection between the two different spaces closed, and that he was out of danger, he sighed heavily in relief and said "I am too old for this.."
"Human brats.. Always complaining." scoffed the owner of the voice in dissatisfaction, before adding "You will surely get old before understanding the concepts of broken space at this pace.. Look at me, we are here together, do I look scared to you? You will never find your family's pocket dimension, nor get out of the void if you don't get your shit together."
After months spent in the void, Edmund had finally managed to find someone who could help him in understanding the concepts of space contained in the void, but he had never expected his training to be this mentally challenging. He was now feeling bad for how he had forced Daniel and Roley to go through such a heavy training when he was their teacher.
"You are a spatial elemental! They can't even see you!" said Edmund while almost pulling his hair off due to exasperation. The two had wandered the void for the past few weeks, and during each moment, Edmund could not help but feel worried that a slight mistake from the spatial elemental that was helping him, would cause him to end up in the chaotic void, or worse, taken by one of the monsters that surrounded him.
The elemental could feel Edmund's state of mind, so even though he was not as docile as the elementals that lived in the normal space, and was much more unruly due to the influence that the many humans from the faction of the Vault Dwellers had had on him, he decided to go easy on Edmund. "Fine.. Just try again." responded the spatial elemental with a defeated tone.
Noticing that the elemental had gone quiet, Edmund closed his eyes once again, and muttered "I know a few elementals that could teach you something about manners.."
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H351, shared galaxy.
The galaxy H351 was considered one of the biggest galaxies within the territory of the universal government. Its size was impressive, and it was rich in resources, and in the number of habitable planets. However, none of the factions had ever managed to own more than a small portion of it.. Making it the biggest shared galaxy in the known universe.
In the outskirts of the galaxy, was a small solar system composed of a red dwarf star, and close to it, a tiny planet which orbited way too close to it.
The atmosphere of this planet was extremely thin, and could barely hold together without being burned off. While the atmosphere still contained enough oxygen and other gases that allowed for human life to prosper, the temperature was off the charts.. And right below deadly levels for humans.
Walking quietly within the territory of one of the cities of this planet called Tria, was Daniel.
When compared to the habitat of the planet, the scene that had appeared in front of him since the moment he had entered its atmosphere, were hundreds of times worse. There was only one word to describe the state of such a planet.. And that was.. Chaos.
While the inhabitants of the planet still tried to live their lives despite all of the adversities, their lives could be considered nothing but horrifying.
The cities which Daniel had visited so far were always being raided by bandits, or tormented by a natural catastrophes.. while the villages which did not have a large number of inhabitants, were always suffering due to lack of food, water, or the tremendously high heat.
Ever since Daniel had set foot on this planet, he had only managed to find a city which wasn't being tormented by sudden volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, thunderstorm, or tsunamis of liquid gases of which the seas of this planet were formed of.
However, while the city was not being destroyed by any natural catastrophe.. The citizens were not living any better than the rest.
The sides of the roads where Daniel was quietly walking in were covered in rotting corpses, cries of desperation were coming from the opened windows of the numerous houses all around him, wooden crosses were erected every few meters, and on each of them, people were crucified.
Not one individual could be seen walking around, and when they did, a gang of drifters would immediately attack them, and kill them. They would then take the body away while looking at it with eyes filled with eagerness, and mouths drooling from hunger.
Those were not the only instances of cannibalism that Daniel had seen in the past few weeks. He had seen one too many scrawny kids with their hands full of the innards, and faces covered in the blood of their parents, women allowing others to abuse them just for the chance of receiving a bit of food, and old trembling people trying to allure desperate people into their houses with the offer of food, just to turn them into a meal.
The scenes were terrifying, and every single one of them added to Daniel's resolution on what he was here to do.. So he walked towards the middle of the city while trying to ignore the numerous horrifying scenes that took place around him.
When he reached the middle of the city, he noticed that an event was taking place.
A large number of citizens were standing around a crater, and at the bottom of this crater, were three people who did everything they could to kill each other in the most cruel ways possible.
The expressions on the face of these citizens, while spectating the show, were not expressions of excitement, but of defeat. They were thin, covered in scars, and did not uttered a single word. They were all either looking at the fight that was taking place in silence, or at the piece of meat that was inside a small box in the middle of crater, which appeared to be the prize for which the three individuals were fighting for.
Daniel quietly observed how one of the fighters bit neck of one of its two opponents, and while he bled to death, his head was bashed by the third warrior, who had picked a large rock from the ground, and repeatedly hit him with it with all of his strength.
Once only one of the three fighters was left alive, the box which contained the piece of meat opened.
The man immediately dashed towards the prize, and immediately bit into it.. But just as he was about to get a second bite out of it, his fingers broke, and his body was sent flying against the edge of the crater.
From the opposite side of the crater, came a young sounding voice which said "Hey! You knew the rules.. Only one bite."
After Daniel made his way through the group of citizens and to the edge of the crater, he noticed the owner of this voice, who was a ten or so years old kid with small horns on his head.
The kid immediately noticed Daniel's presence, as his healthy and clean appearance was completely different from the desperate and dirty look that the citizens of his planet had.
"Who are you?" He asked while standing up.
The citizens who were spectating the show, and waiting for their turn to earn a bite of that piece of meat, moved away from Daniel..
Daniel responded by looking at the kid with narrowed eyes, and saying "Just passing by. Nice place you have here.."
Amused by Daniel's response, the kid's face contorted into a big smile. He then said "Thank you, I have worked hard on it.. But now that you are here, why not join the fun?.. You seem quite calm.. I bet that your pain tastes delicious.." The more the kid talked, the rougher his voice became, and the less human he appeared to be.
However, the very moment Daniel appeared in front of him and grabbed his neck with lightning fast speed, the smile on his face disappeared.
The shock of not being able to affect Daniel's mind with the sufference that was feeding him, quickly settled into the kid's mind, and finally, he understood who he was facing. "Ghg.. you are the.. Ghh.. out..cast.." he said as a hint of fear began to make its way in his head.
"Demons.. You always say the same thing.. Suffering here, suffering there.. And yet you are never willing to suffer yourself." Said Daniel as the kid desperately tried to free himself from Daniel's grip.
After hearing Daniel's words, the kid's body began to transform.
The horns on his head became larger, and grew longer.. His skin turned darker and ruvid, just like stone.. And his body became bigger and muscular.. However, even in his real form, he was still unable to free himself from Daniel's grip.
"I will show you what I have learned from your kin.." Said Daniel as his free hand moved in front of the demon's red fuming eyes.
"AAAAAARGH" Shouted the demon in pain as Daniel's fingers scooped his eyes out.
The inhabitants of the planet looked in shock as the god that their civilization had been forced to fear for the past few thousands of years, was being ripped into pieces by Daniel's bare hands.