Chapter 516 A Cosmic Game of Wack-a-Mole Part 2
After Rose and the others walked through the rift that Daniel had created, they found themselves in a small room formed out of stable s.p.a.ce, outside of which was nothing but a sea of what one would believe the interior of a bag filled with gla.s.s shards to look like. There was no doubt in their minds that, had there not been six walls that separated them from that s.p.a.ce, their bodies would be ripped apart.
"Welcome to Conclusion"s domain." Said Daniel from behind the four dumbfounded cultivators, who anxiously turned to look at him.
When the four young women turned around, however, before their eyes could land on Daniel, they couldn"t help but notice the star-sized monster that was casually drifting beyond the thin and seemingly weak room that Daniel had constructed. "W-WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?!" Screamed Ca.s.sie in horror.
In response, Daniel turned to look in the same direction towards which the trembling finger of the red-haired girl was pointing. He had already felt the presence of the concept of collapsed s.p.a.ce contained in the bodies of the monsters that inhabited Conclusion"s domain, but when his eyes landed on this one in particular, he couldn"t help but feel flabbergasted himself. He had been inside the void of his universe countless times, but never had his eyes set onto a beast of a similar size.
"That is.. A Universal Destroyer. A particularly big one too." he said with a mildly surprised tone.
"What d-do they do?" Asked Rose, who was just as unprepared as her three outer disciples companions towards the appearance of such a creepy and enormous monster.
"They destroy universes.. Obviously." Responded Daniel with a deadpan face. He could not help but recall how his son had asked him the same identical question the very first time he had taken him into the void. However, while these young women were terrified, Eli"s eyes were full of curiosity, and his heart devoid of fear. To see his son trust him to a point where not even such a fiendish creature could scare him, was one of Daniel"s favorite memories of his life as a father.
Before Daniel could lose himself in his memories, he turned towards the center of the safe room he had created, and in it, he ejected a faint amount of his personal essence from the tip of his finger-A power which once free, morphed into light essence and took the shape of a cylinder about two meters tall, with just as wide a diameter.
Once this construct was fully formed and stable, Daniel moved his finger towards the upper part of the cylinder, and as his finger landed on a specific point, a small light blue dot of light emerged from his finger, and stayed in place. "This is where we have entered the void." He said before repeating the action one more time.. this time leaving a white dot near the edge in the eastern part of the cylinder, about a meter and a half from the bottom. "And this is where your sect is. I need to know where the portal for the multiverse is.. Be precise."
"Is that.." muttered Rose.
"Your universe, yes." Responded Daniel with a hint of irritation.
Once again, Rose and the others turned to look at one another with dumbfounded expressions, warning Daniel that nothing but more questions were coming. This time, the first one to ask was Dawn, who said, "How can you possibly pinpoint the exact position of our sect in a universe you are not even from?"
"Just answer the d.a.m.n question!" Daniel barked out in response. He had already answered numerous questions in hope that this would make these four young women more collaborative, but he had never guessed that the inhabitants of such a powerful universe would act like curious children in front of him.
This general ignorance was caused by the lives that these cultivators conducted. Shut in their homes, consuming their essence cores all day ever since they had been taken out from their stasis.. Prohibited from studying nature, exploring the universe, or experiencing events that were very common even in inferior universes.
Daniel was used to being interrogated by the many students of his academy, but never when he was so pressed for time. This outburst was in demonstration that, while he didn"t show it, he was still feeling slightly nervous. However, when after his outburst he noticed on their faces expressions that he would have only expected to see if he had threatened to throw them out of the safe room, he started to feel guilty.
"Look.. we cannot stay here long. I will answer more of your questions once we are in a safer place, but for now, please tell me where the portal is.." Said Daniel with an apologetic tone before taking a spall pause. He then added, "Unless you"d prefer waiting for that monster to notice us, and attack us. I can guarantee you that it has the power to break these walls."
While Rose, Lilith and Dawn knew that Daniel was probably joking, Ca.s.sie could not stomach the idea of being surrounded by this monster"s eyes-covered tentacles. The idea alone sent a s.h.i.+ver down her back, and formed gooseb.u.mps all over her body. "Here! It"s here!" she said while stepping into the cylinder and pointing at a point about a foot lower than its very center.
Daniel quietly turned to look at the other three young women, who nodded at him in confirmation.
"Very well." He said before opening his hand near the spatial ring. He then used a wisp of his consciousness to fish a small rock out of it. Any of Daniel"s friends would have recognized this rock as a piece of his artifact, but to the four young women, it was only a common-looking rock which, oddly enough, emitted an essence identical to Daniel"s.
The moment Rose saw this rock, her first instinct was to ask Daniel it was, but after remembering how annoyed Daniel had been from all of their questions, she chose to observe in silence as Daniel wrapped both hands around it, and moved them outwards right after. The stone followed his hand"s movements, expanding in size until it could fit perfectly in Daniel"s opened arms.
When the rock reached the meter in diameter, it suddenly turned to fine sand, which instead of falling on the floor around and onto Daniel, floated in place as if constantly picked up by a gentle breeze.
Once surrounded by it, Daniel puffed his cheeks, and blew at the floating cloud of sand, which flew towards the walls of the s.p.a.ce-made room and went through its walls without encountering the slightest amount of opposition. They then disappeared inside various microscopic rifts.
The moment each of these specks of sand would disappear, a golden dot would appear in the cylindrical map, showing exactly to which part of the stable universe each fragment of shattered s.p.a.ce was connected. From hundreds to millions, these small golden lights kept appearing until finally, they suddenly stopped, showing on the tridimensional map like a mist made out of pure gold.
As soon as these golden lights stopped appearing, Daniel stepped into the cylinder, and began to erase them with his palm, leaving only the one closest to the portal indicated by Ca.s.sie just a minute earlier.
Contrary to Lilith and Ca.s.sie, who were keeping their eyes glued to the oddly peaceful body of the universal destroyer that was floating just outside of their safe room, Rose and Dawn had chosen to observe attentively what Daniel was doing. "What are those golden dots?" Asked Dawn, forgetting about Daniel"s previous reaction to her question.
Daniel could have easily answered this question by revealing that each grain of sand was as much a part of his body as his flesh and blood were, and that he had thrown them outside in hope that one of them would find the fragment of broken s.p.a.ce that was closest to the interdimensional portal.. But instead of answering, he stood up and walked towards the edge of the safe room he had created.
He then extended his arm past the wall of solid s.p.a.ce, and while ignoring how the closest shards of s.p.a.ce began to rip and cut the skin of his arm apart, he reached for a specific fragment that was constantly grinding against the surrounding pieces, and as he got a hold of it, he pulled it back into the safe room. "This is the closest we can get.." He said while bringing the fragment of shattered s.p.a.ce near the remaining golden dot.
"It"s not that bad.." Muttered Rose with a hopeful tone. Initially neither her or her companions could understand what Daniel was doing, but after seeing the entire process and its result, she was able to connect the pieces together.
From what she had understood, the rock that Daniel had taken out of his spatial container had an extremely powerful connection to him. This was proven when, after he turned the rock into grains of sand and threw them back into their universe, Daniel had been able to feel the position of each grain, adding them to the map based on their position. Once the map was completed, Daniel had found the one closest to the interdimensional portal, and erased the others.
Even in theory, this entire process was mind boggling.. And that was because in order to take into account the position of millions of grains of sand at one time would require a significant mental power. But, at this point, Rose had become immune to Daniel"s strange abilities. She had seen enough to believe that his belonging to Destiny"s sp.a.w.n was not a lie, and that it was likely that he possessed many more mysterious methods than he had shown.
"It"s not that close either.. We still need to cross through a few thousand light years on our own. I reckon it would take us about two hours of superluminal travel to get there." Said Daniel while playing around the shard of the shattered universe with his fingers.
Then, after a few minutes spent in a pensive state, Daniel"s fingers stopped. He turned towards the four young women, and said, "We"ll have to make do. Just remember to stay behind me when they"ll reach us, and everything should be fine."
"That"s it?! We cannot avoid encountering them?" Asked Lilith nervously. While she had always been the most distrustful of Daniel, now that they were all in the same dangerous boat, she had chosen to have faith in him. However, Daniel"s casual att.i.tude and simplistic plan had completely shattered her hopes.
"I did say everything will be fine, didn"t I?" Daniel repeated before pinching another piece of broken s.p.a.ce from outside of the safe room, and pulling it in. He then locked the first one into a small box of stable s.p.a.ce, and left it near the tridimensional map.
Before the four young women could ask him what he was doing, Daniel used the second shard to slice one a rift big enough for him to walk through, and so he did.
The four young women looked at one another with confusion before finally deciding to follow him, but when they approached the rift, they noticed that Daniel was simply floating on the other side, whistling and seemingly waiting. His eyes were closed and the middle finger of his left hand was tapping on his right wrist, around which his left hand was wrapped.
"Wait there." Said Daniel before resuming counting seconds with closed eyes.
After about twenty-five minutes, Daniel opened his eyes, and once again reached the safe room in the void by stepping through the portal, which began to close right behind him.
Before the portal could close completely, the four young women were able to see the figures or around ten people dressed in red robes, who had appeared just in time to see Daniel escape from their grasps.
Daniel, seemingly amused by the expressions of these blood cultivators, randomly picked a few more sharts of s.p.a.ce, and repeated the same process over and over again, until finally, he picked the original shard connected to the closest point to the interdimensional portal, and used it to open a rift. This time, however, Daniel did not walk through it. Instead, he pulled another stone from within his spatial ring, and gave it Dawn. He then said, "Keep this with you and head for the portal. Go at your fastest speed."
"What about you? Aren"t you coming?" Asked Lilith who instinctively thought that Daniel was abandoning them, and would escape on his own.
"Who says I am not coming." Said a familiar voice that came right from within the rock in Dawn"s hand.