Just outside the Shattered Continent, a spaceship hovered in the stillness of space. Whenever sunlight reflected off its surface, it shimmered and emitted a hymn like a hungry child receiving milk. Some runes flickered in and out of existence.
Inside the control room, instead of a full crew, there was only one person. This person gazed into the distance, directly towards the sun.
“The information you requested has arrived. Please have a look, Eternal Selena,” said a gentle voice. It was nothing but an AI system that the Galactic Alliance used in their spaceships. From the simplicity of everything, it seemed customized. Only certain individuals could request this from the Alliance, yet this serene woman who gazed into the sun without any expression had it.
With a nod from the figure, the spaceship returned to its normal state, losing its previous form. However, with its sleek black outlines, it still emanated the same extraordinary feeling.
As the ship finally descended into silence, the figure’s appearance was revealed in the sunlight. She had luscious black hair, serene brown eyes, and a beautiful figure. As an Eternal, beauty was a common trait among those who carried the weight of time and space, gaining temporal and spatial independence. She was even beyond that. However, being an Eternal was not just about beauty; they were powerful and hard to deal with. The Eternal title was given not because they had an endless lifespan, but because they could potentially live an eternity even with outside threats.
Every stage of the Immortal Realm focused on what cultivators could do in any situation. As long as they weren’t suppressed by anyone above Eternal, they could survive in any place and situation in the cosmos. They had limited invulnerability, environmental adaptation, and let alone the laws of the universe had reduced their original meaning when they were at their peak due to their Existence level.
Hence, using this chance, she walked to the airlock that would not only protect the ship from the vacuum of space but also from any external threats and energies that might try to invade. Including Demigods!
After she used the necessary protocols, she floated in the vacuum of space, and the environmental adaptation started to do its thing. Due to the restriction of the Luvi Empire, only during the times of the Galactic Competition would it be allowed for any being to set foot in this place—or float, in her case.
She gazed into the shimmering energy around the infamous place known as the Deserted Continent. The main material on the whole continent was sand. What most wouldn’t know was that those sands had invulnerability, just like an Eternal. Looking at the flat world that was as large as a complete world, she couldn’t help but wonder how it came to be. She looked at the Ephesus City, the Sect, and the weird construct at the heart of the Empire, with radiance that all kinds of people going in and out. However, every time she did, her senses were removed gradually. Three Eternals…
Even though she had warned the previous Emperor of the Empire before he leaked any information, which she doubted he would have since she knew he sensed her before, she couldn’t have done anything but report to the alliance. After all, if they could still live here without losing power and land for millions of years, she didn’t want to experience what they had in store for those who coveted this place.
While she was basking, she connected to her InnatePad, and a tattoo of a disk appeared on her neck before disappearing. “Give me the information on the participants.”
She listened to the AI speak while she went further and further towards the sun, ignoring the shimmer of the technology that embraced the Deserted Continent rising in frequency. She noted that the beings she was supposed to accompany would be very troublesome. She would have to take advantage of the benefits of the Evolved Formless stage to be able to accompany them all without affecting their battle. After all, if any Immortal intervened, she was supposed to protect them. As for those above Immortals, she could only run or give away that part of her Existence. It had happened before, and the only deaths that resulted were due to Demigods.
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“When this is over, I won’t have to do this anymore.” She chose not to complain. Once she became a Demigod after this…
She noticed that space nodes were trying to pull her. She ignored it. With her space comprehension, from this distance, the sun’s general relativity couldn’t affect her. Although Eternals couldn’t manipulate space and time right after their breakthroughs as their realm didn’t grant it to them, nothing stopped them from researching their ways to manipulate them. She decided to morph into a bigger form to expose herself as much as possible to the sunlight. Her clothes shimmered as she grew with an incompressible ease and beauty as if it were natural. It was natural because the laws allowed her. She had long reached the 9th stage of Eternal Independence to do a lot of research into the 8th stage Formless abilities.
She could be considered very hard to kill. Who could kill her when she left a piece of her Existence in a faraway land in case she got into trouble? As a single powerhouse that only had contract with the Galactic Alliance, this was her only choice.
In size, she stopped at 8849 meters. Then she manipulated the surroundings to absorb more of the photons and neutrinos the sun released. By researching the changes and differences compared to more natural reality constructs, she was sure to enhance her power even in the Demigod stage. If she could unravel the mysteries of the Existence of each particle, she was sure to use it wisely to form a light body. It would be a priceless advantage.
Hence, she became more addicted. However, she seemed to get too close as the shimmer of the energies surrounding the atmosphere of the Deserted Continent came alive. It didn’t attack her, no. It got into defensive mode as the tones of the red sun started getting darker and darker. Eternal Selena raised the suction of energy until right before everything nearly became pitch black.
She reappeared in the ship as she put distance between herself and the phenomenon. Her heart started beating, twisting the surrounding reality, making everything blurry. Her form rapidly changed as she let out a sigh that calmed her and the reality around her. Silence remained as Eternal Selena thought of the gains. It was worth the risk.
Those who rejected her gaze in the Empire saw this and shook their heads. They had also done the same when they became Eternals. However, they had the backing of the Deserted Continent. She didn’t. From the looks of it, if she had been a little later to escape, even her ship, which could survive Demigods for a few seconds, would not have helped. This was an enormous amount of time for them. Even then, this amount of time couldn’t have been enough to survive what would have come moments later.
The Empire watched what happened, not just the Deserted Continent. Since they last saw this, new generations had not seen this happen. Only those who witnessed it live could see this view, as it could not be recorded. Divines couldn’t be looked at or recorded if they didn’t allow. However, once in a while, they would allow. Even Divines would want to be remembered. Today was one of those days. As they looked into the eye, the eye watched them back. Red and dangerous, right at the heart of the red sun. The children who were gathered across the worlds of the Luvi Network, the cultivators who didn’t exactly join the Empire but lived and protected their family in here, and many spies who were lucky enough to see a Divine were all breathless.
Some were a few years old, and some were centuries old, but they had never seen anything close to similar happening, and only heard of it from their closed ones. The myths, the legends, and the Divine, all at once gathered to create this mysterious view that would make some see cultivation as pointless, as they would doubt if they could reach its realm, while some would start chasing Divinity.
Eternal Selena gazed into the eye and released her Will as powerfully as she could to apologize. The eye was unmoved for a second before it left a single particle that was so powerful, it could power a natural solar star, yellow dwarf star to be exact, for 4.6 billion years. Normally, an Eternal and above could make constructs that would never fade. However, that would make them spend as much time as the energy they were giving. And the Divine being already made it clear that this small yet extraordinary particle was more than her current worth. She was given this only because she dared.
The Luvi Empire, having ruled for millions of years on this continent, gained countless benefits. However, they also earned it by living in the light of a Divine. After all, who could sleep at night when they could die tomorrow just because they were close by? Eternal Selena simply couldn’t. Sensing just this particle, she could tell that even with the minimum benefits the Divine graced them through the times, they more than likely weren’t afraid of even ten more of it.
However, it did not reduce its worth as it belonged only to her!