Zenith: Last Revenant - Chapter 84

Quinn frowned at the sight and the words of the blonde playboy that abruptly barged in, interrupting their promising, ground-breaking work.

“What do you want Pim? Can’t you see we are in the middle of an important work?!” He yelled out with an obvious, displeased tone.

“My, my, Professor Quinn, that is quite rude I must say.” The blonde man, Pim, clicked his tongue with a cheeky, mischievous grin stretching over his face. “You really need to start treating your colleagues with the respect they deserve, otherwise nobody will stay at your side, no matter how ‘groundbreaking’ your little toy project is.”

His continued mockery earned only a scowl from the elderly professor, and an insipid, cold, emotionless stare from the woman, who first grabbed his attention.

“By the way, I wasn’t told beforehand that Miss Reaya has already returned, nor that how you have now seemingly joined hands with you professor. Care to explain this to me?”

Shifting his attention from the grumpy old man to the delightful woman, his grin turned even wider.

This blonde-haired Kryptonian man sent dangerous, uncomfortable vibes, Bey’on felt increasingly disgusted by his mere presence.

“Hmpf, we don’t need to explain ourselves to your Professor Pim. Even if you are the active head of the department, we still maintain some aspects of our autonomy, especially regarding our work.” Before Bey’on could have a chance to respond to the man, the elderly professor scoffed, exclaiming with a disdainful tone.

Just like Miss Reaya, he also couldn’t really stand this arrogant punk, acting all haughty just because he achieved his position due to his family’s connections. He had no merits under his name, and to top it off, he even paraded with two young mistresses as his ‘assistants’ as if it was completely normal.

“That’s where you are wrong, dear old Professor Quinn!” Pim spoke with a haughty, arrogant tone as a large grin began to stretch across his face. “Your aged state makes me question if you are still fit for work, old man!”

“You!” Stunted by the man’s cheeky and arrogant attitude, could only gasp for air. The brashness of today’s youth! “How d-dare you?!”

Before any of them could continue this pointless back and forth bickering, Reaya, or Bey’on in her Kryptonian form, raised her hand between them, putting a stop to this whole shebang.

Looking at the slick-haired Pim, she looked at her coldly, and in an emotionless tone, asked.

“What do you really want, Professor Pim. If you have nothing to contribute please let us work. Obstructing the research of others is a violation that I am sure you are perfectly aware of. If you don’t want me to report this with adequate crystal proof, I would suggest leaving this lab.”

Although she would have loved to burn this annoying ant and turn him in a charred corpse, just like how she believed Spencer would do, she didn’t want to blow her cover yet. The amount of knowledge the elderly professor had was immense, she wanted to experience more of this increasingly more interesting species’ lives.

“Now, now Miss Reaya-” He began, but the woman in question instantly interjected, correcting his phrasing.

“Professor Reaya, please keep in mind the titles. Not everyone got to where they are through family connections, but with their hard work. I know the concept of work is very alien to you, but try to give the proper respect to others. Didn’t your parents teach you basic etiquette?” Her contemptuous look and merciless words were like sharp knives for the previously haughty and arrogant man.

Taking a deep breath to control his rising anger, and emotions, he forced the smile once more on his face as he continued after a long-winded exhale.

“Apologies. Professor Reaya. What I wanted to say, is that there is no need for such an attitude, I am merely doing my job to inspect the current ongoing projects in the lab. You know as the head, I have to make sure everybody is following the guidelines and do not conduct any illegal…” He shifted his attention towards the still angrily shaking elderly professor, continuing with a slightly wider smile, reminiscent of a grin. “…or dangerous experiments. You may not know, but your partner here had a few violations under his name already.”

“First of all…” Raising her index finger in the air, grabbing both man’s attention, and interrupting the resurging conflict between the two once more, Bey’on spoke up with her previous emotionless, matter-of-fact tone. She looked at the little blonde worm contemptuously, using most of her willpower not to kill him on the spot, but to keep up this charade slightly longer.

“…you are not permitted to interrupt the work of others. Inspection, while it is important and necessary, is not your sole responsibility, and should be conducted with a team of the senior staff. Second, with your lack of knowledge and experience, you are simply incapable of supervising any of the ongoing research projects, but instead, are a hindrance. Not just to us, but to the entire staff. Please, in the future, if you wish to conduct such activity, do so with the proper means and with keeping the relevant regulations in mind. As this is your first mistake, I will not report it to the management, but I would highly advise you now to leave us and do not continue with your meaningless pestering.”

Once again, her attitude and merciless but irrefutable facts were fatal blows to Pim’s previous arrogance. He could only grit his teeth even tighter in annoyance and do his best to swallow his boiling rage.

It took almost an entire minute before the man finally managed to collect himself enough to give a light, courteous bow.

“You are right, Professor Reaya. Please, excuse my intrusion.”

As the office door closed behind him, the elderly Professor Quinn, heaved a sigh of relief, plopping down on a nearby chair.

“Huh… I never knew you were so witty, Professor Reaya. That was… incredible!” He added, with an admiring smile adorning his bearded face.

“Don’t worry about it. I hate wastes the most.” Bey’on scoffed looking at the closed door frame for a while longer, before turning her attention back on the elderly professor. With a much lighter, warmer tone, she asked.

“Should we resume the experiment? We were in the midst of something important before that worm rudely intruded on us.”

“Yes! Certainly! We have so much work ahead of us! We can’t waste any more time!”

Nodding with an even wider smile on the woman’s suggestion, the professor jumped up from his seat with such vigor that could shame some youths even, and rushed back to his previous spot, with his tabloid device already in his hands, he was ready to inspect and jolt down the events to their smallest detail.

“Okay, Reaya, once you feel you are ready, please resume your earlier action and step closer to the crystal. Try to slowly reach for it and tell me everything you feel and experience! We need to know the true reason for this strange reaction, it could be the key to unlocking the secrets of the Sunstone Crystals!”

Nodding, Bey’on stepped in front of the crystal once more. Reaching out, she watched with excitement shining in her eyes as the seemingly calm core began to stir, shake with increasing intensity as her hands began to close the distance.

“I feel… a strange sensation… a faint, bȧrėly audible, whispered calling…” She began to narrate the events as was instructed, continuing her slow-paced approach towards the crystal.

Halting just a few inches away from the object, Bey’on continued to inspect the strange orange crystal with great interest. Her hands hanging in the air, just slightly away from the crystal, she turned towards the professor who was vehemently hitting the screen of his device, madly typing something.

“Shall I touch it, Professor?” Bey’on asked expectantly. She had to work her willpower over time to resist the temptation. She felt the calling, as if the crystal’s energetic, magical core wasn’t a lifeless object but an actual sensible being, with its own consciousness. There was a strange connection between her, and these strange objects as it seems.

Finishing his previous thought, it took a minute before the professor looked up from his screen, and giving a quick glance at the woman, nodded firmly.

“Yes, continue the experiment. Be careful and continue describing each sensation!”

Closing the distance further upon the elderly man’s command Bey’on slowly, carefully touched the surface of the crystal. As her delicate singers covered the violent little Sunstone Energy Core, she could feel an even increased vehemence as it continued to crash and collide against the wall, albeit without any success.

“What do you feel? Come on, don’t be silent, let me know!” The professor urged the woman to speak up, seeing her silent, surprised stare at her own crystal-touching hand.

“It’s… hard to explain… I can feel the tremors as the core bumps against the crystal’s surface. I can feel it’s eagerness… it’s will… so to speak…” Recognizing the meaning behind her own words, she shifted her attention, looking at the professor with a shocked stare. “Professor Quinn, I… I think that whatever is inside… has some sort of sentience… It’s a living being!”

—————-

Forced to escape, the blonde, slick-haired man, Pimm, stormed out of the office, rushing towards the end of the hall. In its wake he kept grumbling, and trashing everything it could find and destroy, his rage reached its boiling point.

“Just you wait… Both of you! We will see who holds the power here!” Finding the correct string of symbols, he tapped twice on the unreadable name. The next moment the metallic bracer on his right arm, lit up, as a strange figure wearing a six-faced mask appeared as a hologram.

“Most honored one, the condemned experiments are still ongoing. I may be powerless to stop it at this point… The old man has found a new ally that I can’t do anything against…”

The figure, listening to his words, silently nodded, before vanishing from the hologram, ending the call. Before Pim could fall into further despair, thinking that the chosen one has abandoned him, his device gave a light pinging sound, notifying the man of a new message.

Hitting a few bȧrėly visible buŧŧons on his bracer, he opened up the message and began to quickly skim through the contents of the long-winded report about the incoming vessel.

As he read it, his previous anger and annoyance quickly faded, only to replaced by newfound glee. He turned around, glancing at the door in the distance, where that annoying red-haired woman and elderly professor just humiliated him a few minutes ago.

With a light but menacing chuckle, he turned around, and skipped through the stairs, in a much better mood than before. Quickly crossing through the upstairs halls, he soon arrived at a much more decorated, ornate door.

As he reached for the handle to open it up, a thought crossed his mind…

“I should call back one of them to celebrate. That idiotic delegation doesn’t need both of my ȧssistants after all…”

With the thought in mind, he once again began to skim through the list of names on the circular talisman-looking device, searching for a particular name. Once found, he smirked, and tapped on the screen, awaiting for the call to connect as he opened the door to his own office and entered it.

—————-

As the dust settled, the only reminders of the fierce clash between man and beast were the few strands of purple hair that were left on the ground amidst the charred crater that Milo’s last wild, unrestrained fasha-powered punch created in its wake.

The two female spectators of the battle that just abruptly ended, looked around, searching for the familiar signals of the large gentle giant, sadly without much success.

“W-what has happened? Where’s Milo and that big purple cat?!” Cassa exclaimed, darting her attention from left to the right.

Shaya, surprisingly the calmer and more collected of the duo, looked sternly at the empty air where a few seconds ago the two beings fought. For a while, she didn’t speak but continued to silently stare at seemingly nothing.

“I think he is still alive. Probably got teleported to somewhere in this huge forest.” She spoke eventually after a long heave of air. Turning to her side, she looked at her best friend, before her stern expression changed into a compassionate smile.

“Don’t worry Cassa, that guy is similar to Spencer. He is very hard to deal with. I have a feeling he is probably just waking up somewhere in the forest, just as confused about everything as we are!” She spoke, trying to calm their nerves, and chuckled lightly at the thought of the confused giant easing the tension in the air a little.

“Hope you are right sister…” Cassa responded after a long while. Turning towards the depths of the forest where the fearsome predator attacked, she nodded, seemingly coming to a decision.

“Okay, let’s go search for that baldie! Otherwise, he will never find his way back!” With that said he jumped up in the air, making sure to keep herself below the thick canopy of the trees, and slowly began to fly towards the darkness.

—————-

Somewhere deeper in the forest, in a dark and damp cavern sounds of a pain-filled groaning could be heard. A large figure laying on the dirt with widely spread arms and legs began to stir awake.

“What… what happened?!��� With his eyes still closed, the bald man lubberly, using his right arm as support, while grabbing his head with his head, stood up. His head felt as if he hit and crushed several brick walls.

Slowly, flutteringly separating his closed eyelids, he had to squint his eyes for a while before it got used to the faint lighting of the damp nature-made room.

“God… My head hurts like hell…” The man continued to curse into the air, tightly gripping his forehead, fearing that if he would let it go it would split into million tiny pieces.

Taking several long groans and mȯȧn-filled moments to recuperate, he finally managed to collect himself enough to stand up using the mossy stone walls as support.

Having troubles getting used to the shallow vision provided to him, he slowly began to shuffle forward, where he felt some light gust of air from.

“What happened? The last thing I remember was that the girls and I came to explore a forest, and was ambushed by this large purple cat… What happened after that, and where am I?” Greatly confused by everything around him, he continued to lament as he stumbled forward.

As his body continued its process to wake up, he soon felt some strange, gooey substance dripping from his right hand. Still lost in his own misery, he subconsciously lifted his right arm, to take a look at his own fist. He did not feel any pain and could feel movement as he made some random motions with his hands and fingers, so he wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

Unfortunately, either due to the gooey, thick substance sporting a very dark not-so-cave-friendly color or due to some strange phenomena he couldn’t see anything even after taking his fist inches away from his eyes.

“What is this?!” Halting his steps, he used his left index finger to flick some of the sticky liquid off from his hand and slowly, carefully put it towards his mouth, for a quick taste-test.

Giving it a good lick and slurp, he looked at his hand befuddled.

“Tastes… like… iron and something… like… meat?!”

It was at this moment when finally, the fragmented shards of his memory began to reassemble and create the image of a possible theory of what could have happened.

He immediately began a violent coughing fit and spat out all the lingering remains of what he almost swallowed to the ground, whilst he violently shook his right arm.

“What the… Did I really kill the beast? Is this his blood and bits?!” Due to his reaction, his low-remains of active fasha in his system activated, activating all of the white, colorless markings all over his body and creating some minimal sort of light source amidst the despairing darkness.

Taking another look at his hand, his theory was quickly confirmed, much to his sorrow. Dark-red, semi-dried blood covered the entirety of his fist. What made the sight even more horrific was the fact that tiny bits of a yellow and light brownish matter of unknown origin were mixed within the sticky, hardening coating.

Refusing to think about it anymore, as his befuddled, confused state couldn’t really handle the facts straight, he continued to shuffle around the unfamiliar stone prison he found himself in.

“Just where am I? Why can’t I feel any living being nearby?” He continued to send out signals in search of any signs of life, sadly to no avail. Every time he sent out a fasha-filled energy-pulse, he received no response, as if he was in the middle of an endless wasteland.

Using the walls as support and the base of his navigation, he began to strut around the not-so-huge cave and explore every small bit of it.

Apart from him, there was nothing inside it. Well, unless he would count the thick layer of moss that covered the walls and the increased humidity that was probably a direct and natural result of that.

What was even more confusing was the fact that the only exit was a very narrow hole in one side of the wall, where not mentioning his body, even his pinky finger would have to be forced to fit in.

“How did I get here?! Or better… How will I get out?!” The bald giant, Milo, looked at the tiny, dark hole with slight trepidation.

Taking a long look at the hole that at most could be used as a source of fresh oxygen, Milo let out a tired, but long sigh, as he plopped back down the ground, leaning against the wall. Resting his hands on his knees, he looked in front of him at seemingly nothing, as a mocking, disdainful expression began to settle on his face, a complete contrast to his usual aloofness.

“Just look at yourself you pile of miserable shit!” He yelled angrily at the air. “Look what you got yourself into?! Acting all high and mighty, as if nothing can hurt you, no feeling can penetrate the sturdy walls you created around your heart. Where is that strong attitude now, huh?!”

He disdainfully spat on the ground.

“You fuċkɨnġ disgust me, you giant pile of utter garbage! You lost your home, you lost your people, and now, you lost your last friends. Good job ȧsshole, you got what you deserved!”

He continued to curse in the air, to an imaginary being, as his deep blue eyes began to blur. Not soon later, the first cracks appeared in his strong and conceited tone, but he did not stop. He continued to curse and berate the air, the imaginary being, the ‘other’ Milo in front of him.

As the first brave pioneers escaped from the corners of his large eyes and began to slither down the unexplored only to eventually take a leap of faith towards the ground, Milo clenched his fists tight and began to swing and punch at the air.

“Yes, cry like you did when you Awakanened and shamed your father! Your piece of shit! Just fuċkɨnġ die already! Nobody will care about you! Heck, nobody is ALIVE to even give two shits about you!”

His empty punches soon turned towards the only hard surface he could find, the ground around him. His fists began to lit up, turning bright as the fasha that began to uncontrollably surge inside him created a thin layer, protective as a glove.

His punches first only kicked off some specks of dust, but gradually, the power and intensity behind them increased. He continued to rage and curse at himself, or to be more precise at the ‘other’ Milo, venting all his pent up frustration on the spot.

The tears continued to relentlessly escape and flow from his eyes, however, the white sclera began to change, as dark red began to creep up from the far corners, and eat up the gentle white, corrupting his already faltering mindset even further.

“Just, die, die, DIE, DIE, DIEEEEE!!!!!”

With the last, loud rage-induced exclaim, his white-coated energy fist turned dark once again, and as he hit the ground, a loud, low-toned sonic shockwave was released. A small, dark tear in the fabric of space formed where his fist hit the ground and all the gathered energy was released.

However, despite the strange and eerie-looking hole, Milo felt a strange familiarity from the void that looked back at him…

—————-

“Now let’s make a deal.”

Currently Sitting with his legs crossed in the air, Spencer looked at all of the Guardians as they looked back at him still holding the two Green Lanterns on the floor with his mind as he continued to address them further.

“I gave fair warning and spared them, only to be attacked in the next instance, so I have come to strike a deal, more of a contract that will cause a lot of indignation on your side honestly.” Telekinetically picking the two off the ground, he raised them in front of him, “I’ve already killed the group of soldiers you sent with these two… so unless you want me to kill the rest, I suggest you-” Spencer was cut off by one of the more stoic looking members of the ten of them.

“You hold no power here, Us Guardians are tasked with cleansing the universe of any possible threats! You are just one of the many who believed they could have their way, we…” The Guardian was cut off as a beam of energy slammed into his body, launching him into the wall behind, falling to the floor while soon struggling to get back up.

“Now let me stop you right there… I never said anything about letting you speak! You see, I have plans, big Plans! and I won’t let those plans be interrupted by you midgets, even if I have to kill every single one of you to make my point get across!” Spencer’s eyes glowed brightly as he took glances at everyone else.

Next, a female guardian spoke out against him, ” We Guardians hold power beyond your comprehension, though not as we were, we will not be talked down by a creature such as you!”, The female Guardian quickly flew from her post with glowing eyes as she blasted a powerful green beam of crackling energy from her palm at him, the energy within it converging around his body.

Spencer receiving the attack raised his arm to block it, though he did not need to, the light released from the attack made it hard to see. Countering the attack with an attack of his own, he formed a sphere of his combined energies and slowly pressed it against the blast from the female Guardian, pushing back the attack as he extended his palm. As the beams clashed, Spencer was clearly the winner of this brief battle as her attack was inevitably overcome while she was vigorously knocked back and forced unconscious.

Brushing off his shoulder, he watched as all of the other Guardians realized that he had already knocked down two of them and commenced their attack on him as well, all of them except for one flew from their post with glowing eyes and released the same attack on him as the female Guardian that was now unconscious. Observing as they all attacked him, he did not bother to defend himself this time, This proved to be a mistake.

Though the attacks looked similar in their appearance, once they made contact with his body he felt his body becoming slowly yet gradually unstable as they tried to pull his very atoms apart, it wasn’t simply a physical attack but a metaphysical one as well, his mind and body being affected as they attempted to effectively unmake him with their blasts of cosmic energy. Sensing their plans from the effect on his body, he was slightly surprised that any attack could still cause him physical harm, though small, it was still significant.

Unfolding his legs, he swiftly rushed at one of the Guardians faster than they could react and plunged a hole through his ċhėst using his arm as a spear. Promptly coating his arm in energy to heavily cauterize the hole in case they can regenerate. “I don’t know much about you Guardians, But anyone who interferes with my work is an enemy, and as you can see…” Spencer forcefully absorbed the severely injured Guardian who bellowed as he was ȧssimilated into his body, “I don’t take kindly to my enemies.”

“I…” Spencer was abruptly ȧssaulted by a splitting pain across his whole body as he felt his mind-expanding to encompass and connect to almost everything around him, his consciousness suddenly being filled with knowledge anew, even to him. Whilst this was happening, he remained stagnant in the air as he held his head in pain, wincing every few moments as new knowledge flooded his mind.

Noticing this, the Guardians wasted no time in continuing their ȧssault on him, blasting him with a variety of energies to further disrupt his body, but it proceeded to hold minuscule effects on him, actually beginning to be absorbed by him as he slowly regained his demeanor. “Well that was painful.” As the ȧssimilation was completed, his body had already begun to unlock the full potential of the DNA he received from the Guardian he absorbed, starting to unleash all of the greater abundances of abilities that he learned was suppressed within their bodies over the few millennia they acted as Guardians from the memories he took.

Sensing all of the abilities that were unlocked, he raised a brow in confusion as to why they suppressed them in the first place before putting up his hand, instantly incapacitating all of the Guardians present and held them in the air while he watched them struggle, all except for the one that remained at its post instead of joining the others to attack. Looking up at the lone Guardian, he addressed him.” Why not join the others and attack?”.

The Guardian looked at Spencer and slowly began to descend to him, stopping before him to speak. “I am Ganthet… I simply wish to converse and come to an arrangement beneficial for both sides. You are certainly capable of such, I ȧssume.” Hearing the Guardian going by the name of Ganthet, he showed a slight grin as he released the other Guardians from his grasp, “I like you… on what terms would you like to discuss this “Arrangement” you speak off?”

“However you would like, as long as the terms are agreeable.”

Spencer sat back in a lotus position and addressed Ganthet. “Let’s just get to the point of it all… I will be taking over and consuming numerous planets across the perceivable universe as I see fit… but seeing as you are willing to speak with me on the matter, I will allow you to choose how I can go about doing so, just keep in mind that I will be taking over planets regardless, but you will decide how many Lantern lives are lost trying to stop me.” Ganthet grew wide-eyed as he heard Spencer’s incredibly one-sided arrangement, but he quickly regained himself and looked at him.

Making sure to keep himself composed, though he was obviously immensely opposed to such a plan, he begrudgingly spoke “It would seem we have no choice in the matter.” Ganthet sighed at the powerlessness of the Guardians to stop Spencer, “Seeing as I can’t stop you from carrying out your plan, I’ll be inquiring for you to only disturb planets that are not filled with an abundance of higher intelligent life or planets that have not bothered or gone against you in any manner. That is all I ask.” Stating his side of the deal, Ganthet observed as Spencer began to take the idea into consideration with slight worry coming over him.

After a few moments of thinking, Spencer came out of his state of thought and looked at Ganthet, forming a minuscule drop of his blood in his palm and reaching out the open hand to him “Your terms are acceptable, there is an excess of planets not holding higher intelligent life in the universe.” Ganthet was greatly relieved hearing Spencer completely accepting his terms, shaking hands with him as they sealed the deal. Once they shook hands, Spencer’s blood entered Ganthet’s body.

���A gift from me, to you.” Ganthet was again confused by Spencer’s words before his body released a blinding light as he bellowed and began falling to the ground, only to be telekinetically caught by Spencer. Ganthet’s body began to writhe around as his DNA as all the suppressed abilities within his body were unlocked to their full potential once more. The process did not take long as Ganthet regained his full strength.

“I have unlocked all of your power despite you all sealing it long ago.” Spencer let go of his hold on Ganthet and let him fly by himself.

“Thank you!” Ganthet showed his gratitude by bowing his head slightly, causing Spencer to grin once more before instantly vanishing from the surface of Oa.

—————-

Appearing on the surface of his planet, Spencer had returned from Oa to see what he had missed in the short time frame he was gone. The first thing he did was to create another temporal clone of himself and sent it to the temple to further grow its power whilst he called out to the first temporal clone he had left in the temple before he went to Oa, causing it to teleport in front of him.

Spencer walked over to the clone and locked forearms with it in a forearms handshake, “How’d it go?”.

“I managed to perfect the time and space affinity after a few thousand millennia or so, then I spent some time going further to modify the life affinity a little bit over another millennia or two.” The temporal clone cracked its neck as it was delighted to finally be done with his task.

“What do you mean by… modifying it?”

“I basically found a separate aspect to the life affinity that would allow me to control the dead, souls, deathly energy, and even cause instantaneous death from a single touch! It’s quite effective honestly… let me show you!” The temporal clone scanned for any creature in the area and teleported a small, almost mammal looking animal from the bushes nearby.

“For example…” Placing his index finger infused with the death affinity on the flailing creature, the energy transferred to its body, instantly causing it to shrivel and die as its soul followed by its body was absorbed into the clone, “This is a permanent death, no resurrections, no rewinds, nothing, this death is inescapable by any mortal being.” Spencer’s eyes light up with glee while he listened to his clone explain this new addition to his arsenal.

“Thank you for your effort.”

Seeing that he was done, the clone slowly began to fuse into Spencer’s body to ȧssimilate the new abilities, “There’s a little surprise for you!”, the clone showed a smirk before he was completely ȧssimilated back into Spencer’s body, causing him to raise a brow.

Upon its completion, Spencer quickly understood what he meant, from the moment he had ȧssimilated the clones knowledge and power, his eyes and body glowed a powerful radiance as not only did he gain a massive boost in his physical abilities, he immediately felt his mind and body scatter through all of reality as he connected with time and space itself. His mind and body branching into the different timelines and spatial dimensions, combined with his recent ȧssimilation of the Guardian, he was effectively not only highly nigh omniscient, but as well as nigh omnipresent.

Enjoying the sensation of being scattered across dimensions, it didn’t end there as he felt an unbreakable link to all life no matter the distance, followed by a connection to all the souls of the dead throughout time. Everything flashing before his mind at an immense speed, even the vision of the only child dear to his heart slightly appeared in his mind for a moment before it was overshadowed by everything else.

This all continued for a few moments before Spencer came back to his current timeline, disconnecting himself from it all as he slowly lost his glow, his skin slowly becoming more visible with each passing moment. Soon he could be fully seen without issue, looking relatively the same, although the color of his luminous veins glowing much stronger than before.

Completely integrating all there was, he created yet another temporal clone and gave it the task of perfecting every one of his remaining affinities and energy-based powers no matter how long it takes. “You already know what to do.” Nodding, the clone teleported to the temple and proceeded with the task it already knew it was ȧssigned to, leaving Spencer to commence the next stage of his plans.

With a simple thought, he located his finest creation and called out to it.

—————-

Before this, Penance had already visited the hot, cold, and swamp continents, killing and ȧssimilating a variety of its creatures before moving to the next, it could be observed rapidly swimming through the vast oceans of his planet, rapidly approaching the storm continent Spencer created. Quickly reaching it after swimming for roughly thirty minutes, it launched itself out of the water and placed itself on the continent.

Spending no time observing its surroundings, it immediately rushed further into the continent in search of whatever it could find to add to its list of sustenance. Though the continent held strong winds and powerful lightning storms, Penance was bȧrėly affected by this slight obstruction.

Its search was proving to be fruitless as it could find nothing in the area near it. Continuing to search until it came upon a small hill containing a single life form that it could bȧrėly sense due to the electrical charges in the air disrupting its nerves and making it harder to hunt in some categories.

What Penance spotted was an all-black creature with a highly metallic carapace and two horns with a black orb made of an unknown extremely conductive metal floating between them. The creature was stagnant as it bathed in the lightning that perpetually struck its body without fail. Upon seeing the creature, Penance lounged at it without fail and swung down its massive claws at its back.

But this only proved to harm Penance as its claw slashed against the creature while releasing a loud ringing sound on impact. This quickly caught the attention of the creature as it slowly turned around at the almost paralyzed Penance as a massive amount of electricity transferred to its body as it touched the creature.

Regaining itself and quickly adapting resistance to what had harmed it, Penance once again jumped at the greater and slashed it once again as it turned to face it. Once the claws made contact, the creatures black carapace was only given a white scratch, greatly agitating it and causing it to defend itself by shooting an immensely concentrated blast of electrons and positive ions, effectively shooting a powerful bolt of lightning that slammed into Penance, throwing it across a vast distance away from the creature. As Penance was launched away, the creature proceeded to return to absorbing the bolts of lightning that bombarded its body.

Soaring through the air paralyzed and disoriented, Penance eventually plummeted to the ground, convulsing for a short while before regaining its composure and standing up. As Penance was about to rush back to the location it was launched from to attack the creature once again, it stopped in its tracks.

‘Come back little one, I know you’re having fun over there but we have something to do.’

Upon receiving the command, Penance aggressively grunted before turning itself in the direction Spencer would be located. Crouching down on all fours, It began to lightly bellow as the skin on its back began to painfully split, while two vaguely visible protrusions became visible. The small protrusions swiftly expanded from Penances back while spreading out into massive 30-feet-long wings covered in scales made from a thin yet strong membrane to considerably reduce their weight.

Once the wings were formed, it jumped into the air with them folded before abruptly spreading them as it awkwardly flapped them around to stay in the air. Though struggling greatly for a time, Penance made its way towards Spencer’s location while gradually picking up speed as he grew more attuned with its new appendages.

—————-

Sensing that Penance was on its way, Spencer began his preparations as he waited. Walking over to a clear area of land near his temple, he raised his left hand as he accessed one of his newer abilities. Soon enough his hand was engulfed in a strong green glow of fluctuating energy.

“So this is willpower… It has a strange feel to it…” focusing on the willpower of the countless he has slaughtered, the power he held with this emotion was near immeasurable, as it would be with all the others as he has the minds of countless different personalities and emotions sealed within his body at all times.

Teleporting a few thousand miles away from his planet, he ȧssessed the knowledge of the Guardian he killed and absorbed. Harnessing the energy of willpower as he instantly began creating a massive construct piece by piece, composing every component carefully and efficiently while also making them incredibly dense, forming them individually before putting it all together slowly.

As all of the components began to come together to form a massive spherical construct spanning roughly 1696 miles in circumference, Spencer filled the construct with as many destructive weapons as he could think of. The ones in the most abundance being rail ordinances that fired condensed balls of plasma capable of easily taking out any normal spaceship. Though his most serious addition is the antimatter cannon that he put together piece by piece by making all of the components using the hard light constructs.

Seeing as he was effectively done with his creation, generated a speck of condensed energy in his palm and launched it at the construct, releasing a flash of blinding light and rapidly dissipating radiation that quickly filled the area. Once the light and radiation vanished, the construct could be seen covered in a vibrating energy field that negated the attack.

“That should be good enough for what I have planned!” Quickly engulfing his right hand in his bluish platinum aura, which was quickly mixed with the green energy that represented willpower, he reinforced the almost permanent construct, causing it to take on a much darker green, metallic color than before. After finalizing his creation, he examined it with contentment, “I think I’ll name you The Mortifer, which I’m pretty sure means death bringer or something like that.” After granting his creation a fitting name, he teleported himself back to his temple.

Returning to the area in front of his temple, he looked to the sky to see his glorious living disaster of a creation dive-bombing to his location at full speed. Once it had landed on the ground before him, it folded its wings whilst quickly retracting them into its body.

“Welcome back! Seeing as you take after the more fun aspects of your father, I know you’ll like what we’re about to do… Let’s not waste any more time.” Teleporting himself and Penance to his massive, weaponized creation in the sky, he appeared at the center of the Mortifer where the control room remained, leaving Penance there momentarily before teleporting to the empty reactor room.

Once he was there, he looked at the already formed energy siphoning core, but it lacked a power source to fuel the Mortifer. Approaching the ship’s empty core, he raised his right hand and harnessed an immense amount of nuclear energy before condensing it into a ball of energy that he gently placed into the core of the machine, releasing his hold on the energy and allowing the ship to feed off of its energies, promptly bringing the ship to life in an instant.

Transporting himself back to the control room, he sat in the chair that connected to the entirety of the ship, immediately connecting his mind to it without issue, allowing him to see and feel everything that transpired on the ship. After performing a brief checkup on the ship to make sure all of the functions worked as intended, he focused his mind and used his cosmic awareness to scan across the universe for planets holding mostly lesser intelligent lifeforms.

Locating a planet rich with life, he locked his sights on it and activated his ship’s transport systems, causing the vessel to release a beam of energy which created a tear in space that it quickly entered through, beginning its course to rapidly approaching the destination he had chosen as the first of the many worlds he will consume.

—————-

Exiting the tear in space after a few minutes above the surface of the planet he chose, he made the ship remain stagnant as he stood up from the chair, simultaneously opening a portal leading outside of the ship. “Have as much fun as you would like little one, this planet is now your newest playground.”

Penance looked at Spencer with sparkling eyes as it rushed through the portal without hesitation, launching itself into the outer atmosphere with glee. Whilst Penance, plummeted to the world below, its body began to vibrate violently and convulse as it effectively appeared to erupt as hundreds of itself scattered across the sky on the way down.

After not much time at all, the hundreds of Penance bodies vigorously collided on the planet’s surface, kicking up dust and greatly disturbing the wildlife of the planet. Before the dust from any of the craters could dissipate, the ‘Penances’ sprung from the pits they created and began slaughtering all nearby life, absorbing their mass and essence to perpetually create more powerful clones with each kill.

The planet was now under attack, deaths of lifeforms already reaching the hundred thousands in only what would seem to be a few minutes passing. Even the larger, more powerful creatures were simply swarmed by the ever-expanding horde, leaving nothing to halt the inevitable annihilation of all life on the planet.

Spencer, who was watching this in first person from the now countless Penance bodies teleported to the outside of the ship to observe from above the atmosphere of the planet, waiting with his hands behind his back for the little one to complete the task it was given.

As roughly an hour passed, Spencer could feel that all other life on the planet other than Penance was effectively wiped out completely and absorbed. Teleporting to the surface, he was already surrounded by nothing but the seemingly countless bodies of Penance.

“Did you have fun?”

All of the Penance’s looked at Spencer in a seemingly happy manner, moving around energetically in an almost playful manner as if the planet wasn’t bathed in blood and gore. Seeing this, Spencer cracked a slight smile and shook his head. “I knew you would… let’s move on to the next one, shall we?”.

Penance was filled with visible joviality as all of the other bodies began to converge into a single body, even the ones that were across the planet’s surface quickly raced back to the location of the convergence at full speed by either flying or running. No matter the method, the countless clones across the planet all fused into one within a matter of minutes, much to Spencer’s satisfaction.

“Good to see you so excited… I’ll see you on the vessel in a moment.” Snapping his fingers and teleporting Penance to the vessel. “Time to see if this works as I had hoped.” Closing his eyes momentarily, Spencer’s veins released a blinding light as his skin slowly began to glow as well. His frame was soon only able to be perceived as a luminous silhouette standing amidst a barren collection of plant life.

Releasing the biofield that covered his body, he almost immediately sunk to the core of the planet. Though he stopped himself, following the release of his biofield, an immense flash of furious unimaginable heat permeated the surface, vaporizing everything around him for hundreds of miles. This was promptly supplanted by the massive gravity field that proceeded to break apart the planet into the pieces that converged around his body.

Breaking down the pieces of the planet to nothing but fuel to his mass, causing him to gradually increase in weight though it was extremely negligible compared to what he had already weighed. With Spencer at the center of it all, he was too busy enjoying the pŀėȧsurė that came from the entire process, although the euphoria wasn’t near as close as when he absorbed the star into his body, the sensation was still there.

After roughly a minute passing, the planet was effectively consumed by Spencer and added to his power, causing him to promptly dim and return to his normal appearance. Leaving nothing of the planet that once resided at the location he now occupied. Going over the makeup of everything that this world held, he formed a rough idea of how to execute the following step he was curious about.

Raising a casual hand, he began manipulating the scarce amount of matter that resided in the boundless void of space while adding in his own energies into the mix to further rearrange the atoms in the configuration he needed. Subsequent to doing this, a molten-hot core of pure metal was soon formed without much issue. Following the formation of the core, he created a pure liquid metal outer core to cover the inner core.

Next up forming the lower and upper mantles to cover the rest, before finally creating the crust of the new world. “Now let’s see how to add everything else.” Waving his finger to create deep pits across the new world, he spawned water on its surface and a thick multi-layered atmosphere to protect the planet from outside disturbances. With another wave of his finger plant life began to spawn on the ground in a vast abundance, quickly covering its surface in lush greenery.

This only took a few moments to accomplish in real-time, every wave of his fingers dramatically changing the appearance of the planet and its aesthetic. Placing his hands back behind him as he observed the earth-sized world attentively before eventually seeming satisfied. “Easier than I would have thought… Whatever.” He shrugged his shoulders and started heading back to the Mortifer that was a considerable distance away from him. “Time to move to the next one!”

Once reaching the Mortifer, he entered the control room and sat on the chair that controlled the ship. Scanning the universe once more for another planet holding life. “That was a little boring wasn’t it?”, Spencer looked at Penance who nodded to his question while staring at him unflinchingly.

“Let’s go for a planet with more intelligent life forms this time around. Although I’ll still have to uphold my side of the deal with Ganthet..” Finding a planet that seemed to hold something like a developed civilization, he placed the ship on course, prompting the ship to shoot yet another tear in space before promptly vanishing from view, approaching the next world at an imperceivable speed.