Saturn continued to walk mechanically as the colony’s floating spheres radiated with different colors and guided his way. These spheres served as home for the lower stars, whose radiance wasn’t bright enough to keep them up in the skies. The more a star approached the land, the faster her light would die down, but if one were to be confined for a long time, the light would instead flicker and leave like a candle’s fire. The ground was mostly used by other species or to raise a special kind of energy that served as food.
Suddenly, Saturn froze on his steps and instinctively turned sideways, facing a mountain. After a few seconds of immobile silence he finally spoke.
“We’re being followed”
“Followed? Are you paranoid? There’s no one near us”. He didn’t mind her comment, he was deadly sure he was being followed and not by just anyone.
“It’s her” he stated, in a matter of fact tone.
They were tailed many times, but none were as skillful in hiding and localizing targets as Venus. No one could run from her, no one could chase after her, no one could do a single thing against her. She was a hungry hyena trying to steal meat from another’s.
Before, Saturn would run in circles till she got bored and left, he didn’t have anything to lose by waiting it out. The same didn’t apply to her, who depended on others to find leads and as such was always gambling and running against the clock. Now they are both against the clock, and in that aspect she is on the winning side. He couldn’t afford to lose time with her, other stars could beat them to the chase.
“We’ll have to walk inside the Shadow World”. The girl almost screamed in horror at his words.
“Do you even listen to yourself? That’s fucking madness!”
“It shouldn’t be a problem if i reach the colony. They ought to have some energy” he replied, unfazed by her shocked expression.
“That’s not the problem, you could die before reaching the colony. Plus, it’s not guaranteed that she’s gonna lose us!” He didn’t argue back, simply gazing east and hoping it was worth the risk.
When the stars disappeared thousands of years ago, their search for the unknown led them to develop strange powers. Although they became acquainted with each other’s capabilities, there were some kept hidden for their own sake, to guarantee no one knew too much.
Saturn gained the power to see a different dimension, a mirrored world in which he could dive in and out at will. This power made him develop a keen sense of prediction and his hunches were always spot on. He called that dimension the Shadow World, the world of the hidden things, secrets and answers, but mostly questions to be. Inside it, all his abilities were boosted to abnormal amounts, but his light wailed that much faster. Its inhabitants, the shadows, could kill him with a single touch.
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His entire body flickered in a dark glow while he entered that hollow space, leaving only a strange afterimage while walking.
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Venus was humming a joyful but creepy song while holding her tracker till the big yellow star stopped showing on the radar. She then stopped walking and a surge of anger possessed her, although her silly nature didn’t let her show it.
“Saturn, dear! I liked you for knowing you just couldn’t fight it, you think you can run away from me? Tsc, tsc, tsc. Well, that just makes me want to chase you even more!” she said, jokingly.
The other stars thought they had secrets to hide from her, but they were so wrong. She was always the one behind the scenes, never doing the act. Endowed with the power of knowledge, none of her tools would help her find what she truly desired – instead, they would provide means of taking it from others. She knew about Saturn’s Shadow World and although it wasn’t guaranteed, she had a way to find him.
By pressing just a few buttons, her tracker found Saturn’s possible locations. The big problem was that in the Shadow World he was on par with every creature and also in another form. As such, multiple dark dots showed on the screen and she needed to find out which one represented her real target.
She didn’t know when Saturn acknowledged her presence, so going East could be a plan for him to outplay her, but at the same time she knew the only way for him to recover energy would be at the colony. She needed to find him before that, as he would be able to walk between the shadows indefinitely when he reached that place.
Opening the case, she once again went to the room, but this time she looked for a weapon. It closely resembled a shotgun with four barrels, but with an enormous scope. She kneeled down and pulled the trigger. Immediately after, four high speed missiles went to the exact location of a dark dot and it disappeared. She pulled the trigger again and again, the dots were being steadily erased. Each projectile would slow the movements in a certain area, which gave her more time to act.
“We’ll trust you in surviving a shot~”