Chapter 584: Star with a Consciousness?
Evan would not lie. The amount of care he had for the fates of planets that weren’t his own was rather...minimal, to put it nicely.
But the sheer scale of this loss was far too large.
All those stars were part of the galactic plan to push the star over the edge and into the supergiant territory.
Once that happens, the laws of physics and the universal laws holding it together won’t be able to keep the balance anymore, and it’ll collapse under its own gravity.
"But how is that... fair?"
Evan’s voice was barely a whisper and Jamie shrugged in response.
"It’s not about fair, Evan. It’s about survival. The galaxy needs a new core eventually.
If the old black hole can’t hold the galaxy together, everything will spiral out of control. So, a contingency was put in place."
Arthur, who took in the situation far easier than Evan did, shifted his gaze to Jamie, and he crossed his arms.
"But how is all of this controlled? Who or what makes sure the Star of Lightning does what it’s supposed to do? This doesn’t seem like something left to chance."
Jamie’s expression shifted slightly, a bit more serious now.
"That’s where things get... interesting. You see, the Star of Lightning has a consciousness."
"A star with a consciousness?"
Arthur blinked with an incredulous expression.
To Arthur’s knowledge, only three groups of celestial bodies should possess consciousness.
Planets, Galaxies, and Universes.
No other forms of celestial bodies should possess consciousness. Stars certainly shouldn’t possess consciousnesses.
At the very least, as far as Arthur knew, there was no star with consciousness in the Hell universe and he thought the same of the Valmone universe. However, right before him, Jamie was telling him that the star of lightning he was looking at was something that had a consciousness.
He rubbed his temples, trying to grasp what Jamie was saying.
"I mean, I get planets and galaxies, but a star?"
"Yup. The star’s consciousness is supposed to oversee this entire process — the absorption, the supergiant transition, and the eventual collapse. All of it."
Jamie grinned humourlessly as he continued, dropping another bombshell.
"But here’s where things get icky. The Star’s consciousness is missing."
"..."
Silence fell once more, the weight of that statement hanging heavily in the space.
Arthur stared at Jamie in disbelief.
"What the fuck? Missing? How the hell does a star lose its consciousness?!"
First of all, he was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that a star could have consciousness in the first place. And Jamie was telling him that said consciousness was missing.
Where the hell did the consciousness of the star go?!
"It shouldn’t be possible. But some hundreds of thousands of years ago, it went AWOL. Just vanished."
Arthur shook his head after Jamie spoke, still not fully understanding this situation.
"This star’s consciousness should be tied to its gravitational field, right? Just like planetary consciousnesses?"
"That’s the theory. But the Star of Lightning is already an anomaly in every sense of the word.
It should have kept its consciousness within its own gravitational field, but, well... here we are.
Currently, it’s like a body without a soul."
Arthur’s jaw clenched as he realized what Jamie was getting at.
"A star of this size, without a consciousness... that’s a disaster waiting to happen."
"A Disaster the Galaxy does not need. As such it is currently in stasis. It’s been put in suspended animation to prevent any... complications."
Hearing Jamie’s statement about the SOL in stasis, Arthur’s mind immediately jumped to the next question.
"Who put it in suspended animation? The galaxy’s consciousness?"
"No, actually, it was the Causality Enforcers. But—"
Before Jamie could finish his words, Evan cut in.
"Hold on a second, Arthur. Did you just say ’galaxy’s consciousness’? What the hell do you mean by that?"
Evan asked, turning to him with a confused expression and Arthur raised a brow in response.
"You know about planetary consciousnesses, but you’ve never heard of a galaxy’s consciousness?"
"So, you’re telling me that somewhere behind all those stars..."
Evan pressed his hand to his temple, as he gestured towards the massive band of light in the distance.
"...that black hole over there has a consciousness?"
Given the Consciousnesses of planets formed in their cores, he was assuming the consciousnesses of galaxies formed in their cores as well.
Arthur and Jamie both nodded in unison and Evan took a deep breath. He floated silently for a good ten seconds before finally nodding.
"Yeah, I’m not going to think about that too hard. Let’s just continue like normal."
Arthur and Jamie couldn’t help but laugh at Evan’s exasperation. The way he just decided to dismiss the entire concept of galactic consciousness with a sigh of defeat was a classic Evan move.
"That’s one way to deal with it."
Arthur chuckled, while Jamie clapped a hand on Evan’s shoulder.
"You really know how to tune out the madness, huh?"
"Sometimes, it’s the only way to survive with you two around."
Evan rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. The boy decided to completely ignore the fact that he was every bit as ridiculous as Jamie and Arthur were.
Meanwhile, Arthur turned towards Jamie and noticed the Hybrid’s expression shift when his gaze settled on the Star of Lightning again. There was a flicker of something in his eyes, almost like nostalgia.
"What’s up?"
Arthur asked, curiosity piqued and Jamie shook his head with a light chuckle.
"Ah, nothing. That thing just reminds me of an old friend."
"Friend?"
"Well, I call her a friend. She doesn’t like me one bit, though."
He laughed in response to Arthur’s single-word question, the sound casual, but there was an undertone of amusement.
"Who?"
With a smirk, Jamie casually tossed out the name.
"Kaylatheurge."
The moment he spoke the name, Arthur and Evan’s reactions were immediate — but for very different reasons.
’Kaylatheurge? The Spirit Empress?’
That was the title of one of the five Race Emperors in the Valmone Universe; its Monarch Realm Existences.
Evan, on the other hand, didn’t speak his thoughts aloud but his mind was racing.
’Why would Jamie mention Kayla after looking at the Star of Lightning? Could it be...?’
He didn’t finish the thought, but a sense of unease crept into his chest.
Jamie, oblivious to their reactions, continued with a grin.
"Yeah, she’s a lightning spirit and all. The Star of Lightning kinda reminded me of her."
"So, what about her?"
Arthur asked curiously and Jamie shrugged nonchalantly as he responded.
"It’s been a long while since I’ve seen her. Every time I show up, she usually tries to bolt the other way. Can’t say I blame her, though — I’m not exactly her favourite person."
He paused, then added with a mischievous grin.
"But hey, maybe after we’re done showing Evan around the black holes, I’ll pay her a visit. Could be fun, right?"
Arthur shook his head with a wry smile. Typical Jamie. It didn’t matter how much Kaylatheurge disliked him; Jamie still found excuses to show up and bother her.
But there was one confusing part about this. A contradiction.
Arthur wasn’t aware, but on the intergalactic stage, it was a well-known fact that Jamie and Kaylatheurge were close.
Yet here Jamie was, claiming the Spirit Empress avoided him like the plague.
"Hey, you wanna come along?"
Jamie tossed the invitation at Arthur and the boy didn’t see any harm so he responded positively.
"Why not? Let’s make a trip out of it."
Then, the both of them turned to Evan, who had been oddly quiet throughout the conversation.
"What about you?"
During their little meeting where they deduced the energy factors behind the spell that sent Evan to the past, they confirmed Evan had some sort of relationship with the Spirit Empress.
At the very least, she was present when he got sent back in time.
They posed that question to him with that knowledge, and Evan hesitated for a second before answering.
"Yeah, I do want to see what she looks like as the Spirit Empress."
Hearing Evan’s choice of words, Arthur narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
’As the Spirit Empress?’
Something about the way Evan said that didn’t sit right with him. It was almost as if Evan was insinuating that the Kaylatheurge he knew wasn’t the Spirit Empress in the future.
Arthur didn’t voice his suspicion, but he filed the thought away for later.
Meanwhile, Evan didn’t seem to realize the way Arthur had interpreted his words and was already focusing on the next part of their interstellar journey—the reason he agreed to come to space in the first place.
"Shall we go see the black hole now?"
When Evan asked that, Jamie clapped a hand on his back and spoke with a smile.
"Chill, we can go see the black hole anytime. Why don’t you just stop and admire the view for a sec?"
He gestured towards the band of starry light stretching across the vacuum of space.
"Look at that—the heart of the galaxy. The Greater Universe is a big place. Well, we’re still in the galaxy, but it’s not much different."
The sight was indeed breath-taking and Evan had to admit it had a timeless magic to it. But something else that Jamie said stuck with him.
"The Greater Universe, huh? That really exists?"
At the sound of his words, both Arthur and Jamie turned to him, incredulous expression covering their faces as they spoke in unison.
""Of course, it exists.""
Hearing their words, Evan froze, confusion clouding his thoughts.
"...Why did I just ask that?"
The words seemed to have left his mouth before he even realized it, and as soon as he realised this, a sharp headache surged through his skull.
He pressed his fingers to his temples, wincing. His mind began sifting through his memories—memories of his past on his home planet...his original planet.
Evan had originated from a planet with advanced astronomy, and the theory of the Universe was something everyone believed in.
Yet, he had always subconsciously disbelieved it.
The boy scratched his head as he had this thought and seeing his rapidly paling expression, Arthur called out worriedly.
However, Evan’s ears did not catch the sound of Arthur’s words.
Despite knowing about other worlds, despite knowing that he was in a galaxy called ’Orithya’, why did he subconsciously disbelieve the existence of the universe?
In the future, Evan had been on Aidos for years and never really had a reason to leave it, so he hadn’t put much thought into it.
But now he was in the past and had been taken into space by Jamie, seeing other stars and planets with his naked eyes, he realised something was wrong.
DON’T!
That word resounded in his head and his migraine grew worse.
Evan asked himself why he accepted that planets, stars and galaxies existed, but not the universe that held all of those things together.
DON’T REASON IT!!!
