Chapter 616: Garden of Stars [Monthly Bonus 3]
"Oh... there’s a Silverwing in this time as well."
Evan muttered at the sight, more intrigued than surprised.
It had feathers as white as snow, with silver patterns on its two outstretched wings that were almost a hundred metres in wingspan. Its eyes, sharp and piercing, glared at them with an intensity that matched the gleam of its sharp beak and talons.
It looked at them—no, at Evan—with narrowed eyes, but before it could speak, Jamie dangled a pair of keys in the air.
The metallic jingle echoed through the cavern, drawing the attention of the ’Silverwing’, its sharp gaze now on the keys Jamie had gotten from Uvton.
After a glance back at Evan, it seemed to lose interest, lowering itself back to the ground with a slow descent.
It settled once more, folding its wings with a low huff, and within moments, it was asleep again.
"You know that guy?"
Arthur asked Evan while watching the Silverwing settle back into its slumber with curiosity still lingering in his gaze.
"Well, my Harbinger of Ice skill had to come from somewhere, didn’t it?"
Such was Evan’s response to him. The Rogue Hero then around them, motioning to the vast, frost-laden expanse of the cavern.
"This place is the ’Cavern of the Frozen Harbinger.’"
From the name, it was clear that Evan’s skill was connected to this location.
"Come on, let’s go before the law of time starts going crazy again. You should know, why, don’t you?"
Jamie called out to the two boys, using his spatial power to isolate the space around Evan.
His Harbinger of Ice Skill was also a Unique Series Skill, and the reason why the Silverwing had focused on him earlier was because he possessed the same Skill as it did.
Unlike his Mystic Eyes which were tied to his Hero Status, the Harbinger of Ice Skill was different. Still, Jamie didn’t want to take chances with the law of time so he protected Evan with his spatial power.
They continued forward, following Jamie’s lead deeper into the seemingly empty natural ice cave.
But soon, they saw that this cave was not as ’empty’ as it seemed.
They came across something strange—an enormous rip in the fabric of space itself, stretching across the cave like a jagged scar.
It seemed almost unnatural, as if someone had violently torn space apart but then attempted to stitch it back together, leaving a crude, uneven seam.
Jamie approached the tear without hesitation and then pushed the keys into the thin air just before the rip, twisting it as though unlocking an invisible door.
The moment the key turned, the space before them shuddered.
The ragged tear shifted, its edges no longer jagged but smooth, transforming into a swirling vortex of deep purple energy.
If it wasn’t for the Frozen Cavern’s wall, then they would have been able to see the full appearance of the aurora-coloured tear in space-time that was hidden within the Frozen Walls.
Without saying a word, Jamie stepped forward, and the two boys followed close behind him.
Just like when they had first gone to Gozon, the sight beyond this Dimensional Rift was also a breathtaking spectacle of swirling stars in the vast sea of space.
This sight lasted a few odd seconds after which they exited the rift and emerged on the other side.
[Welcome to the ’Regal Void Expanse’ Realm]
"This place is as beautiful as ever, huh?"
Evan spoke as he looked up at the skies, prompting the other two to do the same and the sight that greeted them was beautiful.
"You’d think you’d get used to it after seeing it multiple times but it only gets better each time you do."
He spoke once more, unknown thoughts crossing his mind as he beheld the sight of the sky above them, adorned with a myriad of twinkling stars.
"Hm? This place’s gravity is different from Aidos."
Arthur looked away from the sky, not considering the beautiful sight to be anything new. Evan nodded in affirmation, giving an exact figure of the gravity difference.
"It’s close to 1.5 times higher. Or at least, that’s what it was when I last came here."
In front of them was a massive forest filled with sky-scraping trees. Its canopy was dominated by tons of birch trees, and their crowns allowed for beams of light from the sky to descend for a motley of plants to grow in the grassy ground below.
To Arthur, this was the kind of place one could easily get lost in.
Jamie, however, seemed to know his way around and Evan...had a map.
The forest didn’t seem to have any dangerous or powerful monsters lurking around, and the only real danger was getting lost—which wasn’t a danger anymore since 2 out of the 3 of them knew where they were going.
Eventually, they arrived at the centre of the forest, escaping the sea of tall birch trees and into a massive artificial semi-clearing.
In front of them were more than a dozen Sequoia trees; known for their enormous heights and widths in comparison to other trees.
These here were so tall that they seemed to peek into the clouds.
When the trees came into sight, two people appeared in front of the group of three, a man and a woman wearing waiter uniforms.
"Welcome to the Garden of the Stars."
They simultaneously gave their greetings to the trio with a light bow, and Arthur’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.
"Are they homunculi?"
"Close. They’re Automations."
Jamie corrected his guess and then stepped forward, waving the keys he collected from Uvton as he spoke.
"We’d like a table for three."
"Very well."
The male automation nodded as he spoke while the female one led them to a teleportation circle nearby.
After stepping onto it, they were teleported to the top of one of the massive Sequoia trees, or rather, one of the massive tree stumps.
Despite being cut off, these trees were still alive, perhaps because of the high energy concentration both in the atmosphere and in the soil.
They were standing at the top of a massive circular tree stump more than twenty yards in diameter, high enough that they could see low-altitude clouds floating around them.
The automations led them to the centre of the stump, where a wooden table lay. It had elaborate decorations scarved around the edges, but the top was perfectly smooth.
Three wooden chairs were arranged on all sides of the table, and atop the table were three wine glasses, three sets of silverware, and the same number of white plates.
At the centre of the table was a candelabra, the candles unlit.
"Is this a restaurant or something?"
"Technically, yes."
Evan responded to Arthur’s question as they took their seats. The Rogue Hero gazed around with a nostalgic look in his eyes and just then, an unknown voice rang out.
"Huh? Someone found their way to this place."
All heads turned in the direction of the voice and saw a man in a blue jumpsuit, holding a robot arm with wires sticking out of the joints and spinning a screwdriver on his other hand.
Chestnut-coloured dreadlocks gently hung over his round, engine-oil-stained face and his amber eyes showed surprise as he gazed at them.
Then, he spotted Jamie and his eyes widened in surprise and recognition.
"J-man!"
"Oh, Bryant."
The man, who Jamie had just called ’Bryant,’ slipped the screwdriver into his pocket and strode towards them.
Jamie stood, extending his hand and they dapped up effortlessly, their handshake morphing into a brief pound hug.
"What’re you doing here, Bryant?"
"I was running some maintenance on the automations for Revi. I only came out because I saw two of them got dispatched and wanted to see who ended up here at this time."
Bryant responded to Jamie’s question, holding up the automation arm in his hands before turning to the two boys at the table.
"?!?!"
His eyes widened when he looked at Evan, and he dropped the automation arm he was holding in shock.
"What the-?! How old are you?!"
He suddenly asked for Evan’s age, and though he was a tad bit confused, Evan answered honestly.
"...16?"
"Just 16?! What the hell happened?!"
There was so much lack of context in his words that Arthur was confused, however, Jamie and Evan seemed to somehow understand what the man was asking about.
"My World’s perfectly fine. I’m just temporarily separated from it for a while."
Evan responded to Byrant’s question while Jamie gave Arthur the much-needed context to their conversation.
"Byrant here is a Rogue Hero, just like Evan. The same way Heroes can identify each other on sight, so can Rogues.
Most times, Rogue Heroes are usually Heroes who’d survived the destruction of their home worlds, so Byrant is worried that Evan might have had his home world destroyed at such a young age."
When Jamie told Arthur this, their contextless conversation suddenly made a lot more sense to him.
Byrant then turned to Arthur, his eyes widening ever so slightly as he asked.
"Aren’t you that godslayer guy who made a mess on Toverus?"
"One and the same."
Arthur responded, before extending his hand for a handshake and introducing himself.
"Arthur Vaughn. Progenitor godslayer."
"Byrant Locks. Spirit King."
Byrant accepted Arthur’s hand and shook it, surprising the teen godslayer a bit as he didn’t expect to randomly encounter a Race King like this.
The man didn’t seem to notice Arthur’s slight surprise as he picked up the automation arm he dropped earlier and turned his focus back to Evan.
"You said you were separated from your world temporarily, right?"
"Yeah. It’s complicated to explain."
Evan responded and the man didn’t press him for details, instead, he asked a question to get a general idea of the circumstances.
"The reason you got separated...is it related to your efforts to protect your world?"
"Yeah. Tried to stop a bunch of lunatics from wiping out the entire continent. They still ended up killing about 2.5 million."
Byrant observed Evan’s body language when he spoke, noticing how the boy seemed downcast at the mention of the deaths he’d failed to stop.
The Spirit King placed his hand on his chin and sunk into his thoughts for a few seconds before he spoke up.
"Hey, Kid. Come with me for a second. I got some advice for you."
His expression was completely serious as he spoke, and he even put away the robot arm he was holding into a subspace while gesturing to Evan.
Evan glanced at Jamie and the Byrant noticed this, letting out a dry laugh as he spoke.
"Don’t worry. If J-man brought you here then you’re obviously not someone I can mess with. He’d kill me before I can try anything funny."
Jamie laughed at Byrant’s words, but Arthur and Evan couldn’t help but notice that he made zero efforts to deny them.
Shrugging, Evan got up and Byrant pulled him over to an empty table some metres away, sitting him down there and speaking to him in a low voice.
It really seemed like he was giving Evan advice, though Arthur didn’t know what was being said as the man had muted the sound of their conversation.
Arthur turned his gaze around and saw that besides them, there were no other beings on this or any of the other tree stumps.
"This place is empty."
"Indeed. It’s not so easy for people to make it to this Garden."
Jamie responded, reminding Arthur of the fact that the rift they had come through was sealed and the keys to the seal were in the possession of two powerful god Kings.
