Chapter 587: Cosmological Object Sequence [Monthly Bonus 1]
"I’m the Child of Space. In space, I’m more at home than a fish in water."
Jamie just replied with a shrug and hearing it, Evan narrowed his eyes.
"So, you’re saying the ’Child of Space’ skill is that broken?"
"To an extent. You need to be a Deity to use its full power. Don’t also forget that ’Space’ is my main attribute, so it naturally shows even more power in my hands."
The man explained this to Evan and the boy went silent for a moment, countless thoughts swirling through his mind.
On a side note, there was one thing that Evan, Arthur and Jamie had not noticed. This was supposed to be Evan’s first time outside his galaxy, but for a first-timer who’d never seen the sea of galaxies inside the Universe with his naked eyes before, he was rather...calm.
Sure, he was overwhelmed by the enormity of what he was seeing, but that was it. He just displayed the awe one would at something ridiculously big.
"Hey, Jamie.
Just asking, but after this, is it possible that you could...I don’t know, maybe train me on how to deal with your skill?"
"..."
Jamie blinked after hearing Evan’s question, then pulled out a cotton bud from his subspace to check if his ears were cleaned. There was no wax blocking them, so what he heard was really what Evan had spoken.
"...why on Estea would I teach you my skill’s weaknesses?"
Evan didn’t know where ’Estea’ was, but he did expect Jamie’s reaction so he only shrugged nonchalantly.
"Twas worth a shot."
No normal person would willingly teach another person the weaknesses of their skills. But Jamie was far from normal.
The man had a few screws loose and he knew it.
"Oh, well. I’d teach you."
"...."
Rather than being happy that Jamie obliged his request, Evan narrowed his eyes with suspicion.
"What’s the catch?"
In response, Jamie only laughed.
"It doesn’t matter if you knew what the skill’s weaknesses were. Even if you became a High-Tier Deity right now and had that knowledge, it wouldn’t help you much in a fight against me.
After all, the ’Child of Space’ skill is just one of my Unique Skills."
Indeed. Space was Jamie’s main attribute, but it was not his only attribute. The man had other powers he could use to make up for those weaknesses so he wasn’t too bothered.
"I see. In that case, thank you in advance."
Evan bowed his head and Jamie just waved him off, telling him not to mind. It couldn’t be any more obvious that one of Evan’s future enemies possessed the same skill that Jamie did and the boy wanted tips on how to beat them.
After this, Evan went back to inspecting the intergalactic expanse around him, looking around, as if trying to find exactly what it was that the thing in his mind didn’t want him to see.
’Ever since that day I joked about wanting to see a black hole with Laurene... That thing has been in my head since then.
It went quiet for a while, but now that I’m here, it’s louder than ever.’
"...where’s that Rogue star from earlier? We’re so far away that the light from everything else is overshadowing it."
Hearing him, Jamie looked in Orithya’s direction, and then snapped his fingers, casting a simple Tier 3 Spell.
Suddenly, Evan’s vision sharpened, zooming far beyond its normal range until he could make out details on the rogue giant star he had just asked for, blazing off in the distance like a wayward sun, hovering near the edge of Orithya galaxy.
"Whoa."
Evan muttered, as the sudden shift in focus momentarily threw him off. However, after that shift that only lasted an instant, his senses didn’t feel off anymore.
It was as if he was really that close to the star, despite being millions of light-years away. What’s more, the spell had an autofocus, so when he turned towards Arthur and Jamie who were really close, it didn’t zoom into the microfibers of their clothes but allowed him to see them as he normally would, but when he turned to distant objects, it auto-zoomed in on them.
’I should get him to cast it again so I can mimic the spell circle...
Now then, where’s that star again?’
Earlier, when he was still trying to stabilize himself, this rogue star had caught his attention, when he’d first looked away from Orithya to spot the quasar Jamie and Arthur were talking about.
Its burning light was like a torch floating through the endless darkness of space.
"That one’s been floating out there for a while. Pretty cool, huh?
You’re looking at something completely untethered from any galaxy, just drifting through space."
Such were Jamie’s words and Evan gave a small nod, but something in the back of his mind nagged at him.
He felt...off
His eyes shifted automatically, returning to the Orithya galaxy—the familiar, massive spiral of stars, its majestic centre glowing like a beacon. He hadn’t realized he was looking at it, but there it was, tugging at him in a way that was both comforting and unsettling.
"Orithya..."
He whispered under his breath, the word hanging in the cold air of space. He felt that same strange force about to lock his focus onto it, so he forced himself to look away, moving his eyes back to the rogue star, lingering on it for a second time.
And then his focus shifted again, almost instinctively, to the quasar they’d pointed out earlier—a dazzling point of light surrounded by a swirling accretion disk. The sheer energy radiating from it was blinding, but also... captivating.
Arthur traced his gaze to it and turned to Evan before asking.
"Is that the one you want to go after? You’re not gonna be able to see shit, though? Too bright for that."
"I just—"
Evan began, but then he paused. His mind recalled memories of a past event when he had first jokingly voiced a desire to see a black hole to one of his companions in the future.
"Something... pushed back when I first mentioned it as a joke with no real intention behind my words. It’s hard to explain. And then just now, when I said I wanted to leave the galaxy, it happened again."
His hand went to his temple, massaging the spot where the migraine had been throbbing earlier.
"You think something’s trying to stop you?"
Arthur asked while raising an eyebrow and Evan frowned.
"I don’t know. I’m not even sure what it is. But the more I try to focus on it, the more I—"
His sentence trailed off as his eyes shifted again, almost by accident, this time locking onto a strange, nebulous cloud hanging faintly in the space beyond them.
"Hey, Jamie, what’s that?"
Evan pointed at the translucent, shimmering formation in the distance and the other two turned their gazes in that direction.
Arthur squinted a bit since unlike Evan, he did not have a spell enhancing his visual prowess.
"Ah, that one’s just some old stellar remnant. You’re catching the last traces of a supernova from millennia ago.
That’s not what we came to see though. Focus, Evan, you wanted the black hole, right?"
Evan nodded, though his mind felt strangely muddled. The nebula had drawn his attention so easily, like it wanted him to see it.
But he pushed that thought aside, turning toward Jamie again.
"Alright, so where’s the black hole?" Evan asked.
Jamie pointed behind him, a grin playing at the corner of his mouth.
"Just turn around, man."
Evan did as he was told, turning slowly, his gaze sweeping across the emptiness behind them.
His eyes flickered over the familiar dark expanse of space, but as they passed over a strange curved band of light, his mind dismissed it. He was searching for something else.
But he couldn’t find it.
"Where’s the black hole?"
Evan asked again, his brow furrowing. As he turned back toward Jamie, his eyes fluttered shut for the briefest moment—a blink that seemed insignificant.
But in that moment, he had turned his head past the intergalactic expanse around him, and when his eyes reopened, he was looking in Jamie’s direction.
"Evan, don’t you think the area behind us is awful, you know... devoid of stars and galaxies?"
For a moment, Evan was silent, processing Jamie’s words.
His gaze had indeed swept across a void earlier but the area in front of him had so many galaxies, while the area behind him did not. Slowly, his eyes turned back to the same direction.
This time, he didn’t ignore the curved band of light.
The moment he focused on it, something deep inside him shuddered.
"I think I should stop zooming your vision now."
Jamie said suddenly, and with a snap of his fingers, the spell he had cast earlier disengaged. Evan’s vision returned to normal, and now, with clarity, he saw it.
The black hole.
An enormous void in the fabric of the universe, swallowing everything around it. The curved band of light was the edge of the accretion disc—energy spiralling into the singularity like water down a drain.
The emptiness beyond it was so vast, so absolute, it felt like it was pulling at him, beckoning him into its infinite depths.
Evan’s mouth went dry.
"What the...what? That’s... the black hole?"
"That’s the closest one to us now. Pretty awesome, right?"
Jamie answered casually but Evan barely heard him. His mind was spinning, the migraine from before threatening to resurface.
He blinked, trying to steady himself, but as his thoughts cleared, a sudden wave of memories hit him like a tidal surge.
Fragments, unclear and disjointed, slipped away like grains of sand as he tried to grasp them.
The Orithya Galaxy. A Rogue Star. A Quasar. A Nebula. A Black Hole.
Evan had seemingly been looking at random objects, not knowing he had been unlocking something.
And now, all at once, it snapped into place.
[Visual Information of Keys detected in Correct Sequence.]
[Conditions Satisfied.]
Evan’s breath hitched as the overwhelming flood of memories and sensations began to coalesce.
"Vision... seal...?"
