The four of them stood in the Gemstone Council’s meeting room, which was now empty, desolate.

The few surviving members of the Gemstone Council nursed wounds, a lack of healers causing them to only be healed to the point that they would survive. More than three fourths of the Gemstone Council was dead, most of the strongest gone. The ranks would take a while to fill up once again, and the School would be vulnerable to attack in that time.

The king entered the room, walking elegantly. His staff tapped on the ground with each step, creating a rhythm along with his hard-soled shoes. Tap-tap-tap.

Jay didn’t bow. They were too strong do need to do that, at this point. The king was only here to try to persuade them to remain.

“We’re leaving. That’s it. Nothing you can do to change that,” Drake said, his eyes conveying the fact that this was an absolute and would not be challenged.

The king opened his mouth anyways, but the four of them ignored the nonsense he was spouting and addressed the Gemstone Council. “We are the Faceted Stars, for the last ones were welded out of Everything by Onyx, who is now dead,” Jay said.

The Council grumbled for a few moments before falling quiet. “We need to replenish our ranks, but the four of us-” Jay waved a hand at the other three standing around him. “Also need to leave the planet.”

One from the Council stood. Quartz. “Kiddo, I can take up my title of Diamond once again till there’s someone else who can fill the position.”

Crystal stepped forward. “Thank you, Quartz. That is all.”

The Council, as one, stood and bowed towards them, and they bowed back before breezing past the king, to the outside world. Jay nodded towards the stars, and they ascended, flying at incredible speeds straight up. As the atmosphere thinned, they went even faster. Jay no longer needed air, with Amon’s merge, so flew without restraint, exiting into space. Immediately, he noticed a difference. Gravity was far more chaotic up here, and he had to be careful with his Force manipulation. His Blood, Bone, and Flesh worked fine, though, as he unsheathed a bone shiv by peeling back one of his fingers.

Fire worked fine as well as Jay let it dance across his fingertips, a small burst of light illuminating his hand.

Drake was suddenly next to him, his main element, Darkness, abundant in space. It sustained him, kept him warm in the cold emptiness of space. Crystal rose after him, a small flame burning around her. Lightning sparked as her Magnetism pulled her in slow circles around them, small flickers of flame appearing, at times. She’d recently found her talent in Wind, and had a sphere of self-regenerating air around her head, using fire to keep herself from freezing.

Last but not least was Catherine, her signature sapphire hammer hefted on her shoulder. Water surrounded her, carrying her up, and she breathed it as if it was air. She nodded to them, the movement revealing the lava underneath her armor that kept her warm.

Crystal connected their minds, an advantage of her psionic abilities, and they started speaking. “All right. The Monsters seem to have retreated,” Jay spoke, seeing no enemies out to kill them. The Monsters, just a few months prior, had invaded their world through the Metallic Council, but whether through arrogance or ignorance, had missed their chance to take over, the army they had sent destroyed by the four of them. Us five, don’t forget me!

Of course I wouldn’t forget about you. Who do you think I am?

Someone who wouldn’t hesitate to tease me.

Jay was taken aback for a moment, but they both knew it to be true. Amon, I would never dare to tease you!

Amon, who he had a deep bond with, resided inside of him and controlled his soul. She could convert it into quicksilver and manifest it in the real world, and he, himself, was made out of his soul. Because he was made of his soul, she could manipulate his physical body, shifting it into quicksilver to block attacks, create weapons, or do all sorts of things.

His mind flicked back to when they’d formed the bond. Together. Forever, Amon repeated, speaking their words verbatim.

Crystal spoke through the mental link they had. “So, where are we going now?”

Jay pointed towards another star with another solar system orbiting it. “Peridot-remember, that woman who could see the future whenever she looked at fire? Said we wanted to go over there. Apparently, there’s four habited planets around that star, and would be the first steps to growing stronger.”

Without a reply, the four started flying towards the distant star, flying at a speed all of them could match for a good while. Even though they were traveling at incredible speeds, helped along whenever they passed close enough to an object with enough gravity for Jay to launch them faster than before.

Drake also had them teleport constantly, shortening the distance as much as he could. Crystal’s magnetism-which, at this point, acted more like gravity-pulled them unerringly faster and faster towards the star.

Catherine’s… water, earth, and lava weren’t very useful in moving faster.

They started to near the star, and Amon created a face for herself out of Jay’s chest. I don’t see any planets.

Jay spoke in the mental link. “Amon doesn’t see any planets. We have to go around the star.”

Drake started gathering Aura, the energy he specialized in, for the largest jump yet. Jay fed him his own reserves of Aura, and Drake nodded thankfully before they disappeared into darkness.

This teleport took more than a moment, and Jay got to witness the plane of darkness all around them, pure black everywhere he could see. “This doesn’t compare to the void, though,” he spoke in the link.

Catherine replied with a mental snort accompanying it. “Void never showed us the void. Is this from your memory?”

“Yeah,” Jay replied.

Eternity, the greatest force of good in all of existence had died, and, unwilling to see the world he loved so much burn, took up the burden of life again in the form of Jay. His soul was Eternity’s, but he refused to think of himself as Eternity. They were not the same person. Jay would be better, and the few mistakes Eternity had made would not be done by him.

He had a box of memories, locked up in his mind. Eternity’s memories, locked to prevent him from becoming Eternity. Small memories leaked through every once in a while, though, a given due to how long Eternity had lived, and his eidetic memory making every single second of his life remembered and recorded.

The teleport finally ended, and Jay immediately grabbed the gravity pulling them towards the star behind them, and twisted it around, yanking them away from the star, which was a bit too close for comfort. Drake was panting, having used so much power in the teleport. We’re here, Amon said giddily in his head, and Jay looked around, quickly spotting a planet.

It was quickly approaching, and Jay sent a message. “Prepare to enter atmosphere.”

Jay dropped like a stone, accepting the planet’s gravity. He gathered his force and projected some of it like a knife in front of him, cutting air around him as he fell. Just before he hit the ground, Jay directed all the force from his fall upwards, landing with a sonic boom as the air above him was forced away.

Crystal fell more slowly, her magnetism letting her repulse the ground. Catherine floated down, water surrounding her, and Drake simply teleported to the ground before nearly keeling over.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Jay tapped Drake, checking him with his Blood, Bone and Flesh. There were a few problems in his body, which had drawn on his flesh after running out of Aura. Jay lifted his chin up, cutting his finger, and Drake drank the single drop of blood Jay forced out before he healed it.

He gained control of Drake’s body, though his will was strong enough Jay would be forced out if Drake didn’t want him there. Jay didn’t exercise much of his control, simply healing Drake, as he’d done to all his friends before. Bones fused together, flesh healed, and Drake was as good as new.

Drake got up. “Man,” he said, the first actual speech any of them had heard for quite a while. “Has anyone told you that it feels really weird to get healed by you?”

Jay chuckled as Amon poked her head out of his chest. Her quicksilver could flow between the threads in his clothes, so her head simply went through his clothes. “Drake, you’ve told him that the past four times he’s healed you.”

Drake looked to the side. “I… suppose I may.”

Jay slapped him on the back and helped him to his feet before walking over to Crystal and Catherine. “Anyways, do either of you have an idea on where a city is?,” he asked.

Crystal yawned, and pointed at a nearby sign Jay had somehow left unnoticed. “Arcadia. Twelve or so miles that way,” Catherine said, a yawn exiting her as well.

The four of them started walking, Drake effectively a normal person without Aura boosting his body. As he recovered some, they started jogging, wanting to make it to the city before nightfall. While they could fly, none of them wanted to after flying between solar systems, an experience none wanted to have again.

More signs littered the road, each with a lesser measurement of distance, until they saw the city in the distance.

There was a flat, grassy plain outside the massive stone walls. A metal gate was inset in them, currently open. A single guard stood outside, emanating an intense feeling of power, though not too much for them to handle if it came to a fight.

They waited in line until it was their turn, and then talked to the guard. “Heya, man.”

The guard nodded to Drake. “Hello. Might I assume that you’re the ones who descended from the sky?”

Jay nodded. “When’d you find out?”

The guard shouted a question in a language Jay couldn’t understand, and received a reply in moments. “A couple minutes ago. I’ll tell them it was just a bunch of space travelers, and to drop the investigation. So, what brings you here?”

Crystal answered for them. “We’re here to check out the city. Our own planet is pretty backwards, so we went for a trip.”

The guard nodded. “Alright, you can go in. Try not to cause trouble, please!”

Jay nodded. “I’ll try to keep their noses out of anything stupid.”

The guard smiled exhaustedly, and waved them through, already starting to talk to the next person. Almost immediately once they got through the gates, they were assaulted by light and sound from all around them.

Magical lights stood out everywhere, music playing from all directions, and people walking in a massive stream. Jay lifted off the ground, and the others followed, none willing to walk in the ocean of people.

Exiting the gate area, they started to wander a little, looking for a place to sleep for a while. After all, they’d been flying for god-no, no one knew how long.

Quickly, they found a suitable-lookin hotel, quite a fancy one. Jay walked up to the counter. “Do you take gold?”

The receptionist nodded, and Jay brought out a bag of gold coins. The receptionist winced in sympathy. “I’m sorry, but we cannot take nonstandard coins. I do not know where these were created, but they are not standard. However, if you melt them down into pure gold, I could take it.”

Jay shook his head and took a good look at the receptionist. She was about as tall as he was, and sported flaming red hair that almost looked designed to bring one’s attention off the power she wielded, more than most people in the city, but not as much as them.

“I have gems. Will a diamond be enough?,” Jay asked.

The receptionist motioned, and Jay pulled out on of his bigger diamonds. He’d acquired them to test with the ring Void had given to him, but none had enough significance to work. Void, the previous leader of the gemstone council, also known as Onyx, was now deceased. After dying, he’d given Jay a ring with the ability to convert gems with enough significance into a lattice within his body. Currently, he only had an onyx lattice, but he’d get a strengthened body as he gathered more gems.

The receptionist pulled out a device which seemed designed to value items, and poked the diamond. Her eyes widened, and she nodded. “Easily. I suspect my bosses won’t like me warning you, but-” she leaned forward and dropped her voice into a whisper. “This is far too much. It’s enough to buy all of our penthouse suites and more.”

A brief word with Crystal settled Jay’s mind. He handed the diamond over. “Keep the rest. You’ve been nice enough. We only need two suites, and keep the change.”

The receptionist’s eyes sparkled, and she stepped back. “T-thank you, sir!”

Seemingly out of words, she handed Jay a pair of keys. He tossed one over his shoulder, and Catherine caught it. The woman led them to a machine she called an ‘elevator’, which lifted them straight up, the building surprisingly tall. On the thirtieth floor, the elevator stopped, the doors smoothly opening to let them out.

The woman tapped on a door and another door across from it. “Right here. Now, if you’ll excuse me?,” she asked.

Jay nodded, and she left, presumably heading back down to the desk. Opening the door, he acquainted himself with his suite, Drake following him in. Catherine and Crystal took the other room.

“These are like the old man’s quarters!,” Drake exclaimed, looking around. The few times they’d talked about the king, he’d called him ‘the old man’.

Jay nodded. “How is that diamond worth this much?”

Drake shrugged. “Resource shortage?”

Jay went and sat down on the bed, ready to go to sleep. Drake jumped onto the bed next to him, and Jay raised an eyebrow, his eyes still closed. “Hey, there’s only one bed in this place,” Drake said. “Don’t roll onto me and it’s fine,” Jay said.

“No promises.”

Jay woke up, Drake blessedly not having rolled onto him. He floated out of bed into a standing position, not feeling up to properly moving his sore muscles out. On the other side of the bed, Drake groaned. “Do I have to get up yet?”

“You have until we get Catherine out of bed.”

Walking out the door, Jay met Crystal, and they nodded at each other, continuing into her suite to wake up Catherine.

This was a herculean task. Catherine did not want to get out of bed, and, eventually, Jay performed the ‘yeet’ maneuver, involving using Force to flip Catherine out of bed and onto her feet. She stubbornly refused to let go of the blanket, clutching it to herself until Crystal spoke. “I’ll set it on fire if you don’t get rid of it. The diamond we gave her should be enough to cover the expense.”

Catherine dropped it with a tired huff, knowing when she’d lost the fight. Jay nodded to Crystal, sharing a bit of joy in a successful operation before exiting the room and returning to Drake. “Drake, we got Catherine up.”

Drake sighed and got out of bed, slowly stretching his tired muscles. He liked to stay in bed, but never needed any rough handling. “Alright, alright. Let’s go.”

Jay had fire modified to cleanse, to get rid of dirt and dust, run across him, burning off all that he’d gotten on him while flying through space and running through the city. He repeated the same treatment to Drake, who nodded at him just before they walked out the door, Catherine and Crystal standing there. “Why’d you have to get me up so early?,” Catherine complained, but it didn’t have any bite behind it.

Jay just smiled at her, and they left the hotel. Jay nodded to the receptionist. “Can we book the rooms for three more days with this?,” he asked, pulling out a few topazes.

The receptionist examined them for a moment before nodding. “If you book us for a significant amount of time instead of a couple days at a time, your money’ll go farther. Double that, and you’ll get thirty-five days, but just that handful and you’ll get twelve.”

Jay doubled it, and added a couple extra. “Keep the extras,” he said, walking out the door.

Drake instantly recognized what he was doing. “Once is random, for someone nice. More? Are you trying to get her to join us?”

Jay nodded to him. “We have far too much money, y’know. I stuffed as much as I could in Void’s bag, and that thing is massive. Besides, we can make more if necessary, with our skill. People are more valuable. If she has enough skill, I’ll invite her for a while, and either just let her join the Council of Fools or let her tag along, if her personality works with us.”

Crystal shrugged. “Just ask us next time. Please?”

Jay winced. “Sorry. Not the best judgement, I suppose.”

Crystal directed her gaze to him, then lifted into the air. “Where to now?”

Drake pointed out a sign. “A fighting arena.”

Catherine nodded. “Sure.”

They flew towards it, landing directly in front of the arena and walking in. Time to see how they matched up to this planet’s combatants.