CHAPTER 27: ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

As his muscles worked beneath his skin to strengthen, he stood there, watching the figure as he clenched his fist.

"Do it," the soft voice came from the defeated figure, who motionlessly laid there. "I’ve lost, therefore–I have forfeited my right to live."

Seeing the enemy accepting his fate, even beckoning it, it brought pause to the rookie, though it didn’t change what needed to be done; Seven understood that. He stepped forward, watching the coughing invader.

All that was left was to deal the crushing blow–

VRRRRRRR.

The air fluctuated, vibrating with an intensity that brought him to pause, for just a moment. Just as he looked up, the communicator hissed in his ear with nothing but static. A blinding pillar of light crashed down right atop the wounded Fulminare.

While for half a second, he was utterly confused by the existence of the sky-descending shine, he quickly understood what it was: a withdrawal for the Fulminare.

"What? I lost...why save me?!" Alta shouted up through the radiant pillar.

The sight of the golden-skinned man became obscured within the light as Seven quickly ran over, sprinting desperately, "I’m not letting you!--"

He reached his hand out, attempting to grab ahold of the figure, only to step into the light just before it withdrew. As soon as he crossed the threshold into the blinding glow, a weightlessness overtook his body.

It wasn’t a linear ascent; the sensation was as if his entire essence was being propelled towards something far, far away, beyond the territory of the world itself. He lost all sense of time, distorted by the light, pulled further and further until–

"Nngh...?"

The blinding shine faded as he found his feet touching solid ground, no longer endlessly being pulled upward. As he sat on his knees, staring down at the foreign, beige material beneath him, he refilled his lungs with air.

He carefully picked himself up to his feet, taking in the scenery he found himself in, finding no words or thoughts able to be permeated through his mind at the sight. On but a single bridge, he stood amongst the cosmos itself; planets of ice, of sea, another completely covered in trees.

In the distance, one planetary body was born completely of mechanized steel, protruding arms from its sides large enough to grasp worlds. None of it compared to what sat at the other end of the universe-settling bridge he stood on: a ship larger than any world, or perhaps any star, he’d seen.

’What...is this?’ He questioned in disbelief.

Staring up, the sense of scale made his body tingle; his palms began to sweat as he studied the sheer size of the worldly vehicle. Countless objects flew through the depths of space, some resembling the shape of sea-faring ships, others irregular shapes like golden squares, entered the colossal location.

As he watched the jaw-dropping scenery, a distinct, animalistic sound carried itself through the lively cosmos. He turned around, witnessing a creature larger than moons drift through space; a whale of titanic proportions, emitting its call before sinking back into the vast realm of black matter.

"Hey, guys...Can you hear me? What I’m seeing...It’s unbelievable," he muttered, attempting to relay his words through his earpiece, though found only static feedback.

Any of the pain or fatigue in his body was washed away by the sheer curiosity awakening within him. It was out of a fever dream; the vast scenery of the lively, occupied universe. He caught himself from losing focus, setting his sights on the bridge next to the bare cosmos, towards the lower levels of the titanic structure.

’I don’t know if I can make it back, but I’ll need to find out whatever I can–this is uncharted territory,’ he decided.

With careful steps, he began to cross the lengthy bridge. A misstep would lead him only to the boundless void of space; the abyssal sea overlooked by foreign worlds.

While he wasn’t an expert on the matter, he was surprised he didn’t simply float away. The only guess he had was that the bridge itself served as an anchor of gravity. He was careful with each step, not wanting to test his fate in the jaws of space.

All he could do was stare at the structure that dwarfed Earth, unknowing of how many millions of lightyears away he may be from his home.

"I’m going in," he quietly relayed, hoping perhaps his words could still be transmitted.

Across the bridge a rectangular object rose from the flooring, intercepting his path. It opened with an enigmatic, black doorway, seeming to welcome him wherever it led. It wasn’t simply "dark", it was entirely absent of anything but a pure, black veil.

He crossed the threshold, briefly passing through a sightless void of nothingness before arriving on the other side. The complete exposure to the cosmos was absent; he found himself within a black chamber, filled with cubes of varying sizes–some able to fit in the palm of his hand, some surpassing skyscrapers.

A hum filled the isolated area; a subtle, but distinct sound that unsettled him. Just by existing there, he felt he was an unnatural presence there–that he didn’t belong.

’This place...The architecture is completely unlike ours,’

he observed.

The cubes, small and giant, stretched upward into rectangles, while others compressed. He approached the flat side of the nearest object, looking at the black surface curiously. Carefully, he reached his hand out, inching closer until his palm made contact–

The air escaped his lungs.

Beautiful fields of luscious grass; a metropolis of pearlescent buildings; a family at a dinner table, holding hands not unlike humans. A people of light-blue skin, but vaguely humanoid in appearance.

Joyful laughs amidst a spring picnic beneath a world of three moons; the grief of losing one’s loved one; the birth of a son, unconditional love; family. In the shadow of the metropolis, slums housed the unfortunate, forced to survive on scraps, devoid of common decency, forgotten by their world.

From the resentment of the slum dwellers, a glorious revolution sparked; a city set aflame, civilians mowed down by weapons that released plasma; a world on fire.

"Hah–"

He snapped back into reality, breathing out as he blinked a few times, processing just what he witnessed, as if peering into memories foreign to him.

’What...was that?’ He questioned, looking at the surface of the cube.

As he stood there, deciphering just what it was that infiltrated his brain, a sound echoed through the space—

"—"

It sounded like words, only completely unintelligible to his ears, like grating steel with a deep hum.

[...Translating...]

["FOREIGN EXISTENCE IDENTIFIED IN SUB-SPACE PLANETARY STORAGE."]

As the system relayed what echoed through the chamber of endless cubes, he felt his blood pumping in his veins.

In the area above him, a tear formed in the empty air, giving way to the figure that tore through. It slithered out with a lower body like that of a serpent, and its upper body that of a hulking humanoid bearing four arms, each equipped with weapons beyond human revelation.

Of dark-gray skin and hair like tubular dreadlocks, the masked lifeform drifted above, tracking the intruder with its plastic eyes.

[Lifeform registered.] ["???"]

[Classification: Supreme Superhuman, Stage Six | Threat Level: Disaster Magnitude 8.5]