Chapter 585: Into the Chaotic Void
’This isn’t just about Aidos...ever since Earth V, I’d always doubted the existence of the Universe, deep down...’
DON’T TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHY!!!
’And what the hell is that thing in the back of my mind, telling me NOT to think about it?!’
DON’T!
DON’T!
DON’T!
"?!"
Evan’s hand shot up, and before Arthur or Jamie could react, he slammed the heel of his palm against his forehead with a forceful *BAMM!*.
His eyes squeezed shut as he growled under his breath.
The sudden pain wasn’t enough, though. Frustration building, Evan’s icy energy with gold-lamé particles flared around him as one of his Unique Skills, Harbinger of Ice, activated.
In an instant, icy frost spread from his palm, creeping across his forehead and over his entire head, encasing it in shimmering layers of ice.
Frost misted off him, his hair and skin now glistening under a frosty sheen.
Arthur and Jamie could only watch in stunned silence as Evan stood there for a long moment, his thoughts encased in the cold, allowing the overwhelming mental pressure to dissipate.
Then, just as quickly, the ice shattered and evaporated. Evan’s hand fell to his side, and he took a deep, measured breath, his head clear, the chaotic storm of thoughts now calm.
He blinked a few times, exhaling the last of the frosty breath, and looked at both Arthur and Jamie with a calm gaze.
"Alright. I’m good now."
The distant ringing in his ears became a dull hum as he focused on Jamie and asked.
"Can you take us outside the Galaxy? I want to confirm something."
A chorus of voices echoed in his head, telling him there was "nothing there," but he dismissed them with a mental shove, forcing himself to stay grounded.
"Outside the Galaxy? Dude, you look like you shouldn’t even be outside your bed! You have zero idea how pale you are right now!!"
Arthur’s voice was tinged with worry, but before Evan could respond, Jamie placed a firm hand on Arthur’s arm, shaking his head in quiet insistence.
"Let’s take him."
"...what?"
The silver-haired teen turned to Jamie, eyebrows shooting up in disbelief, his expression blatantly asking if Jamie was crazy.
"He’s got months to stay in the past. He can see outside the Galaxy on another day. You literally just said something similar a few moments ago.
What’s so different now?"
True, Jamie had said something similar. But that was when he’d been assuming Evan wanting to see a black hole was just a curiosity.
Now, it was a bit different.
A tiny magic circle manifested in front of Jamie’s eyes, glowing with the golden energy of the law of fate.
"What’s changed is that this isn’t just curiosity. Something’s gnawing at him, and I think it goes deeper than we realize. He might not get another chance to confront it like this."
"Might, you say?"
Arthur didn’t think this was a situation where he Might not get another chance. After all, Jamie had pulled out the law of fate here.
He’d definitely seen something with it that made him change his mind.
Turning to Evan, Arthur saw that the little bit of the boy’s expression he could see was one of unshakable determination, as if he wouldn’t back down, even through the obvious strain.
"Fine."
Arthur finally agreed, waving his hand dismissively. Not like it was his mind that was facing the strain anyway.
If Evan wanted to still go out, then whatever happened was on him.
As for Evan, he heaved a deep breath, taking a look at the band of starry light in the distance.
He wasn’t entirely sure what he would find out there, beyond the stars and outside the boundaries of the galaxy, but he knew one thing: he needed answers.
The constant gnawing at the back of his mind—the questions, the doubts—demanded clarity.
The only way to get what he wanted was to face whatever it was that these voices were trying to deter him from seeing.
Seeing that everyone had reached common ground, Jamie snapped his fingers and activated his Authority of Space to conjure a Cosmic Gate.
This one enveloped them from below, rising and swallowing the three of them in a swirl of cosmic energy.
◇ ◇ ◇
As Arthur felt the familiar sensation of Jamie’s spatial portal envelop him, his body was instantly tugged forward.
It was as if the fabric of space itself had folded around him, pulling him through an unseen corridor between the stars.
The transition was smooth at first, like slipping into a current of water, but then it intensified—space warped, time distorted, and his senses stretched thin as they tore through something.
The walls of the spatial tunnel shimmered with cosmic energy, twisting and rippling, until suddenly—they hit the barrier of the galaxy.
Arthur felt it, a heavy, invisible force that pressed against his very existence. For a split second, his movement stalled, as if the universe itself hesitated.
But Jamie’s power surged, cracking through the galactic boundary like lightning through glass. A ripple of resistance washed over Arthur, then snapped apart, flinging them beyond the galactic veil.
The energy shift was immediate.
Arthur immediately sensed the abrupt change in cosmic ambience. The familiar concentration of energy in the galaxy was left behind, replaced by an overwhelming torrent of raw, unfiltered cosmic energy, as if the Universe had been dialled up to a frequency beyond mortal comprehension.
’Damn. Must be nice for non-cosmic superiors. They don’t have to deal with this shit...!’
Arthur cursed as the sheer magnitude of the energy hit him like a tidal wave, momentarily flooding his senses for an instant.
But Arthur quickly adapted. He adapted even faster than he usually did back in the Hell universe, an obvious outcome given he was much stronger than the last time he left a galaxy.
In barely five seconds, Arthur’s attunement to the laws of space and time began doing their work, filtering out the noise.
After his senses recalibrated, he looked around to take in his surroundings.
Light reached his eyes, illuminating the chaotic void and Arthur gazed down upon the vast, spiralling disk of stars below them.
The Orithya galaxy, a beautiful whirlpool of luminous light and dark arms, stretched out beneath them like a grand star sea.
From this vantage point, Arthur could see over half the galaxy’s enormity in all its glory.
Beyond it, scattered across the vast expanse of space, were other galaxies, their shapes and colours varying, each separated by millions of light years.
Some were spiral-shaped like the one below them, others elliptical or irregular, shimmering with hues of red, blue, and white. It was a sea of galaxies stretching endlessly, like islands dotting the dark universal ocean.
"Well, this is certainly quite the view."
He turned to glance at Evan beside him and immediately noticed the boy was unconscious, his body limp and floating.
Evan’s face was pale, his breathing shallow, and Arthur realized the truth instantly.
’The energy shift was too much for him.’
Unlike Arthur, Evan had never ventured outside the protective bubble of the galaxy, where the ambient cosmic energies were far less chaotic.
The higher the cosmic energy concentration, the higher the concentration of the other dozens of energy types derived from it—magic power, prana, demonic energy, holy energy, devilish energy and so on.
So out here, in the chaotic void, the ambient energy was too overwhelming for Evan who didn’t have even partial Cosmic Superiority.
However, Evan possessed a power from future Artemisia, Adaptive Evolution.
This power was currently working on overdrive to make Evan adapt, so Arthur just let that happen while turning his gaze back to the galaxy below him.
"You seem used to this."
Jamie’s voice reached his ears and Arthur nodded without shifting his gaze. To say he was merely used to it would be an understatement.
Arthur had lost count of how many intergalactic trips he’d taken over the years.
’I’ve only been on one Inter-Universal trip, though.
Would be two when I go to Draco Sirus, and maybe, I’d see if I can go to Olympus after that?’
Arthur wished to visit his father’s home at least once, but that was easier said than done. Olympus may be his father’s home, but it was also a god-dominated Universe.
Its master was Zeus, a god King who would eagerly behead Arthur the first chance he got, and Arthur was sure his Sub-Cosmic regeneration wouldn’t help him if he got beheaded by the Master of a Universe.
If he wanted to go there, then it’d need to be during a time when Zeus was away and in secret as well. His movements would also have to be restricted to Southern Olympus, an area where Zeus couldn’t easily interfere as that was Hades’ domain.
Just as he had that thought, Arthur noticed Evan awakening and he turned towards him, using the exact same words he had used when Evan first came to Aramis.
"Hey, you’re finally awake."
Evan spun toward the sound, his movements sluggish as though he were underwater. And there he saw Arthur, arms crossed, floating upside down, his tone dry and unimpressed.
"Took you long enough."
Before Evan could respond, another voice rang out—a lighter, more playful one. Jamie’s voice.
"Come on, Arthur. The only reason you’re perfectly conscious is because you’re a Sub-Cosmic being.
Evan doesn’t have Cosmic Superiority, so the abrupt change in pressure after we left the barrier knocked him out cold."
Evan blinked, shaking off the remaining grogginess, before refocusing on the direction their voices came from.
The darkness around him wasn’t as thick as the Rogue Hero had first thought. A faint glow illuminated their figures, revealing a tiny orb of light hovering between Arthur and Jamie.
As he focused on the orb, Jamie followed his gaze and grinned.
"Oh, you can see us well now? That’s good. The light from it should reach your eyes any moment now."
"...Light from what?"
