Kevin spent each mundane day refining his energy cultivation technique. He felt his senses sharpen each month, and his vitality increased. The energy in that artificial dimension was abundant, and Kevin made sure to take advantage of his stay there. During breaks, he would touch his cell glass with his palm for a few minutes and then resume his training. Sometimes, he and some inmates were allowed outside their cells and into a controlled and supervised space that resembled a cross between a playground, a gym with a few alien equipment, and a track field. Kevin would easily run around the track field, equivalent in size to a football (soccer) field, without losing breath, consistently confirming his progress in his cultivation journey.
Khan was typically seen as the top dog among the inmates, treated with the respect that came with that title and enjoyed some privileges that others could only dream of having. However, during Kevin’s second year of stay, he became more physically capable than most inmates. Inmates with a humanoid-like appearance would often challenge Kevin to an arm wrestle, a spectacle watched by all inmates and even the mechanical guardians. Kevin won most matches easily but was defeated by three other inmates. These inmates were the universe's worst criminals, either kept alive for their political value or forbidden knowledge, or simply too difficult to kill, left to rot in the null void for the rest of their lives.
After turning fifteen, Kevin had risen in the hierarchy established by the inmates, just a rank below Khan. Only one inmate stood between him and Khan. Thanks to Jack's teaching, considered a forbidden and lost art, and his determination to leave the null void, Kevin had made significant progress in a short time. He reached a stage in his cultivation journey where he could affect matter/objects with his energy, causing them to levitate, pull, or push with some difficulty. With little equipment to practice on, Kevin refrained from asking Khan for heavy materials through his privileges, wanting to keep a few cards up his sleeve.
One fateful day, while Khan played some alien sport in the recreational zone for inmates with a cube alongside others, he excused himself and called Kevin's attention. Kevin, stretching on the wall and attempting to use his Petrosapien traits to create crystals on the other side of the wall, was interrupted.
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Khan could tell what he was doing and sighed, “What if you do what you want, and a foreign object is detected at the other side of the wall? You would blow your cover and be sent to the cosmic coal mines to slave away for the little years you have left in you!”
Kevin understood what Khan was trying to convey and only looked foolish. Despite his strength, he was still a teenager who relied more on brawn than brain.
“Whatever, I am sick of this place.” Kevin spat on the floor and removed his hands from the walls. He hadn't thoroughly thought through his plan but had just enough time to reflect and wanted to leave, even if he had to brute force his way through numerous mechanical guardians. He believed his training over the years would see him through, but he still needed a way to navigate the harsh conditions just outside his holding. He could only cross it previously by using the Ectonurite’s (Ghostfreak) traits to become intangible and traverse that part of the null void to find the philosopher's orb.
“I feel even worse. I am tired of this reality. I was here a year before you came, but now that I have confirmed that the philosopher's orb and one other item I have been looking for are here, I figured it was time to leave.” Khan explained as he leaned on the wall next to Kevin. The humanoid tiger towered over Kevin and almost blended in with the environment with his peculiar black and white stripes. His eyes had a purple glow as his presence tried to suppress Kevin.
“Wait a minute. You wouldn’t happen to be talking about that cursed orb that nearly killed me on my way here. That thing is a fool’s paradise, I am lucky to be alive!” Kevin was at first surprised to hear of that orb since he survived death and eternal madness just because he still had some concentrated energy from the Omnitrix in him that dispelled out of his body and caused a fluctuation in the infinite transfer of knowledge from the orb. He still kept some hidden, lost, and valuable knowledge in him that he would still use later on but some of them were repressed due to the amount that was released in seconds.
The information released was like water trapped in a hose and put through enough pressure that when released would be able to cut diamonds. If the host accumulating the knowledge doesn’t have mental fortitude many times more durable than a diamond in the instance given, the person would experience near-infinite madness due to the consistent destruction of their mind's consciousness and would eventually die in seconds!
That is why the philosopher's orb is a forbidden item, but intelligent life is still drawn to its promise and power, making it seem like the apple in the Garden of Eden.
“It’s not for everyone. Anyway, I have a plan, do you want in?” Khan said while casually looking at and moving his claws as if admiring their beauty.
“If you are thinking what I am thinking, then I am in!” Kevin replied, his hands folded as he assumed a JOJO pose.