CHAPTER 157: THE CONVERGENCE TRIAL (2)

[Designation of Champions in progress... Twelve from each world shall be chosen. Selection parameters– Age limit: Two and a quarter soul cycles. Priority: Greatest compatibility with origin. Secondary: Highest magical attunement... Identified candidates will be marked.]

Komi slammed the door to the weapons room open. "Quick, Zephyr! Grab anything you can."

[Marking in progress...]

The Voice Of The World continued without care for anyone’s current state.

[...]

Zephyr grabbed the closest weapon to him in a haste — a dual set of swords hanging on the wall.

And just as he did, he felt his entire being thrum. Like it was affirming a higher calling.

[Marking complete. Planet 7. J–22. 02–0038. Beta ^3 Champions identified.]

This was it.

Time seemed to slow down as Zephyr glanced at Komi, who was staring at him wide eyed in panic.

He could feel a slight weightlessness begin to take over his body, as he slowly lost control of his basic motor skills, levitating into the air.

[Phase One Initialization: All chosen shall be gathered to the Convergence Trial World. Total participant count: 17,643,988.]

[Total sentient world count: 1,470,332. Allocation: 12 champions per world. Verification complete.]

[Commencing transfer...]

All of a sudden, there was a short beat of silence until just right after, Zephyr was yanked out of the pocket space like he was a puppet doll, flinging the dual blades he held out of his hands.

Komi yelled a few words after him, but he was zooming away with such speed that it was all unintelligible to him.

He tore through the pocket space barrier and into the real world where a bright light beamed down from the sky, drawing him upwards with increasing speed.

His gaze was involuntarily pointed upwards, like origin wanted them to look only to the future ahead. But Zephyr really wanted to see what was behind.

He wanted to see the pocket space. Wanted to know if Komi was going to be okay...

But all he could see around himself was a blinding spattering of rainbow colors... until even that started to morph into clean, straight lines.

He had picked up so much speed that his thoughts of just a few seconds ago had been forgotten.

All he could think of was light. All that colored his view was light. To the point where he felt like even he was light.

Like he had been broken down into little, minuscule fragments of light that contained every information of his entire being, consciousness included.

It continued like that... until abruptly, he stopped, fully pieced back together like it had never even happened.

He could think again.

Feel again.

See again.

He tried to grasp on to the rapidly fading after-feeling of that form of travel. The lingering sense of the immensely vast expanse of space he had just traversed...

But it was gone before he could hold on to it.

So instead, he turned his focus to the giant orb that took up his entire view.

It was a planet.

An aquamarine colored planet, touched with large splotches of greens, reds, browns, greys and whites here and there.

Aegis had just wanted to send him a notice to burn the image into memory as clearly as he could, but he was already on it.

The beam of light that carried him had slowed to a coasting speed as he got closer to the planet. And along with that, he had also regained control of his limbs and could turn his head to see out of the beam clearly.

Just like him, millions of little points of light streaked towards the planet like a convergence of meteorites, coming from all angles. All the champions from every corner of the universe, converging onto this single planet in blazing light beams that, all together, lit up the darkness of the void around them.

It was picturesque... an image every single one of the champions would remember... if they made it out alive...

The thought jarred Zephyr out of his mesmerized state, sharpening his mind into focus.

This was no playground.

Millions of these points of light were converging on this planet, destined to never return.

According to the history he’d learned, it could be as little as one person who would come out alive... or only up to twelve at the maximum... so long as it was only champions of one world left standing.

He clenched his jaws in determination... He had to be a part of those survivors... even if he was the last man standing!

He went into full alert mode, scanning the planet for major points.

The planet itself was not particularly big... At least on the scale of normal planets, it was only like a moderately sized moon.

One had to remember that it was catering only to 17,643,988 champions. So for that number, it was actually still very large.

And everything it didn’t have in size, it made up for in variety.

The planet was brimming with a plethora of natural activity. Lava caked, volcanic grounds could be spotted towards the horizon as Zephyr got closer to the planet.

Bright, white ice caps coated the top of the planet. A giant, swirling storm could be spotted smack in the middle of a large ocean, sending shivers through all who saw it.

A slightly prominent, snow-capped protrusion could be seen in what looked to be a rocky, mountainous region of the planet. It was the tallest point that Zephyr could see from his rapidly shrinking vantage point as he got closer to the planet.

He scanned quickly, looking for major water points, forests, open savannahs, places he could take advantage of, and places he could hide if need be.

Every single closeby favorable feature to where he was going to land based on his trajectory.

Unfortunately, he was headed for the equator of the planet. A place that seemed to be mostly desert. With only small swatches of green land — Oases — within.

He noted about five favorable directions to travel that would lead him out of the desert and towards greener lands with more water.

And as he got closer to the planet — close enough now that only the desert and its fringes took up his entire view — he started to chart out multiple routes to travel in those five directions.

Up until he finally landed on the hot desert sand, sinking ankle-deep into the sand as the beam deposited him softly.

Zephyr breathed out, holding a hand up to block the rays of the sun entering his eyes as he took in his surroundings from the ground.

He spotted a figure in the distance, about two miles away (3.2km). They had just landed like him and were taking in their surroundings.

The person spotted Zephyr just after he had spotted them, and they both paused.

Zephyr doubted the person could see him just as clearly as he could them. His own eyes had been modified down to the molecular level by his embedded nanites, so he knew his senses were far more superior to others... at least every other person he had seen so far...

But for this person though... Zephyr wasn’t so sure.

From that distance of 2 miles — a distance a normal person was supposed to be squinting their eyes, trying to make out the details of a figure — this ’person’ was staring straight at Zephyr unblinkingly.

"What the fu—?"

"Can he actually see me?" Zephyr muttered in disbelief.

Even he was squinting to see the person’s face, and he could only make that out barely...

A tense wariness began to creep on him as he realized he might not be the most unique person on this planet like he previously thought.

The universe, even if only a Tier 3 one, was a vast place, and life from every different corner had evolved and adapted in their own way. Developing features that look normal in regards to their natural environment, but looks superhuman in another...

Like now...

This ’guy’s’ eyesight was incredibly insane!

How many others were on this planet like him, with their own unique features that made them basically superhuman for this environment...?

This ’guy’ staring at him... What else could he do that Zephyr didn’t know...?

Zephyr reoriented his mind, shedding off any prior ’standard’ knowledge of what was normal.

He decided to treat everyone here with extreme caution, like they were stronger than him by default...

Unless the person proved otherwise, he was going to continue to think of them this way.

Zephyr suddenly jarred back to attention, spotting some movement in the distance.

"Fuck! He has wings?!!"

He saw a black mass spread out from behind the guy. A pair of thick, feathered wings that spanned more than twice his height.

Zephyr had just dug in, subtly starting up a few spells out of the bird guy’s view subconsciously, ready for any fight that was about to start, when the toneless ’Voice of The World’ cut their preparations short.

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A/N: This Chapter’s special thanks goes to ispoutcosmos for the Golden Tickets and Inspiration Capsule Gift! Hope you keep enjoying!

Cheers

Astrl