1390 Life's Answer
Unaware that he had just escaped an undesirable encounter with a very, very annoying woman, Varian raced through the cracks of space.
The laboratory had a trick up their sleeve he did not anticipate.
They didn't just strengthen the space to make sure that space awakeners from the Jai Empire couldn't teleport away easily.
No.
For the strong or sneaky space warriors who might manage to escape the space restrictions, they put another trap.
"Your mom!"
A curse rang somewhere in the boundless gray inner space.
The space storms continued unabated in some regions while large rocks floated around at mind boggling speeds.
Space, as he learned long ago, wasn't flat. It's like an onion. There were layers to it. Another simple way of looking at it was that each space layer was a realm in and of itself.
The outer space was the so-called world that most people live in. But the inner space too was a world in and of itself.
Even though there was always a constant pressure by space force, pushing everything outward, many things managed to exist in this realm.
And that included—
"Rooooar!"
An ash-skinned creature that resembled the fusion of a bat and a dragon effortlessly moved between two space tornados, each of which was producing enough pressure to tear apart a rank 7 in an instant.
The U-shaped head of the creature had no eyes or mouth. Even the aura coming out of its body was nearly integrated into the rich aura that's moving from the inner space towards the outer space.
If it just curled up, its body would seem like a smoothly cut boulder, perfect for a nap in the wilderness.
So when Varian accidentally jumped on the sleeping beast to take a nap, chaos ensued.
"You don't even have a mouth! How will you eat me? No, wait, you don't have a mouth, so how are you even roaring?"
Varian ran his mouth off even as his body jumped from one huge rock to another.
This time, he was super cautious and scanned each rock before jumping onto it. One of this rank 8 creature coming after him was enough. He didn't need more.
"Those sinister old men!"
When he appeared in the inner space, Varian thought he'd appear in Hortus in a few more seconds.
But a treasure from the laboratory activated and messed up the entire thing, throwing him into a distant region.
If it was someone else, they'd have ended a few billion miles even further in. If the patterns from the journey applied, then that region was filled with rank 9 beasts or possibly higher.
He managed to end here only because he used the power of slivers and twisted the external force in the last moment.
After all that hardwork, he wanted a small break. And that's why he jumped onto that creature cosplaying as a smooth rock.
The beast flapped its bat-like wings.
Gray chains were created by strengthening space and they locked around his arms and legs, instantly locking him in place.
Then, the space around Varian began to break apart. Unlike normal space cracks, these had a tinge of blue in them. The same blue that was on esoteric patterns of the creature.
His skin cracked like an eggshell and blood was sucked into those space cracks. Varian struggled to move but the hold was too much.
The creature seemed to relish the process as it slowed down.
Even though there was no expression on its plain face without any eyes, nose, mouth or ears, Varian's soul power sensed the feelings of this creature.
It was smug.
And it was telling him—
[Your blood is delicious! Delicious indeed! So nutritious! I'll keep you alive and feed on you until you collapse.]
He did feel his blood inside that creature's belly.
It seemed like due to this very hostile environment, these creatures closed up all natural openings into their bodies. That meant no eyes, nose, mouth or ears. However, they used the power of space to create that link.
It was a facsinating discovery. If Varian was a researcher into evolution, he'd have stayed there for at least a year to study this remarkable creature which was the living example of life's answer to adversities—evolution.
But he was not.
Using his soul power, he communicated with the creature.
'Did your parents abandon you?'
[Huh? What?] The beast seemed enraged as evidenced by the sudden space blades that sliced into his body and cut his flesh.
'If they didn't, they would have told you—don't eat the food a stranger offers.'
[The hell are you trying to s—arghhh!]
The apparently aura-rich blood in the creature's belly spewed out a tremendous power of death and eroded the vulnerable insides of the creature.
The prime reason this species even evolved a fully closed body was to protect its insides—which meant they were vulnerable.
And thanks to this successful evolution, the species never had to content with dangers inside their body. So, the internal defense was decreasing with every generation.
By now, it was ridiculously low.
[Arghh—Stop, stop, I beg you! I know the remains of some hu—guh!]
The power of death ate up the creature from the inside, breaking through its chaotic aura defenses before it finally reached its head.
The power of soul hidden inside the blood erupted at once, attacking the creature at its most vunlerable place at point-blank range.
The creature's agonizing screams stopped and its body stiffened. Then it spasmed violently for a few moments before halting all together.
Varian raised his palm over the creature's head and his sizzling blood returned back along with some of the creature's aura.
And before he knew it, there was a click.
[Space Rank 7: 0/10,000
Space seems endless. But 'Endless' is not unaccessable with the right power. For the proficient, space is small.
The answer to the past and the future both lie in space.]
He didn't understand the System's cryptic message before he let out an exclamation.
