WebNovels

Chapter 80 - What is Freedom?

Sylas's team ship sputtered before slowly shutting down.

"The engines reach their capacity! If we push them any more, they're done for. At our current descent vector, we should reach the location for the third exam in roughly a few minutes." The little orange pilot reported, with a surprisingly deep voice that didn't match his appearance whatsoever. 

Nara's head snapped over to him. 

"A few minutes?! The other teams will be on the ground and at the well before that. If they defeat the guardian before we get there, we all fail!"

"All is fine." Sylas cut in, his tone flat and arms folded. 

"No need for panic. We hold our vector and arrive at the location on our time. We'll be fine."

Finn's gaze drifted to the window back towards the moon. 

"Come on, Kaito…" He muttered out.

Nara heard him and scoffed. 

"Shut up." She mumbled out just loud enough to be heard by him.

Finn's head turned just enough for one brown eye to lock onto her. It was cold and steady.

"What did you say?" He asked calmly but intently.

"I said shut up." She repeated even louder this time. 

For a moment, the air in the cabin tightened as the two stared each other down from opposite sides of the ship.

Sylas moved in between them with both of his hands raised. "Not now you two, we've got one mission—get to the well and defeat the guardian. There is no need for personal problems—"

"PROBLEM!?" Nara snapped. 

"The problem is that runt and his delusional boyfriend Kaito thinking he can take down the captain when neither of them can even pass this exam! Give me a break! If he's not here by now then it should be obvious already…"

She turned her chair fully to face him.

"Maybe he was never meant to be a star traveler in the first place."

The cabin went dead silent. Even the tiny pilot was peeking over his console like a nosy neighbor watching some drama unfold across the street out their window.

"I don't care what you think." He said, voice low but filled with a heat everyone in the ship could feel. 

"You can call me cook all you want. Call me delusional. Weak. I don't care. You know why?"

He turned his chair fully around to face her directly.

"He never talked down to me. He never treated me like I was nothing. He treated me like a warrior. A friend. He asked me to stand and fight with him to change this universe for the better. And I don't plan on letting him down."

He stood up from his seat and his green essence began to flow around him subtly.

"When Kaito shows up, we're going to beat that guardian together. And after we get our licenses—" He held up a mean ass middle finger to her. 

"—we're going to kick both of your asses."

Nara's expression hardened, her eyebrow twitching. She wasn't angry, she was pissed! Extremely pissed, yet… she didn't say anything. 

Sylas watched the exchange with surprise across his face. He looked between them, then gave a small, almost-grudging nod.

"Save you all's war for after the exams." He said, sounding faintly amusement. 

"You two settle this later. Sit down and prepare for landing."

The ship's alarm screamed through the cabin.

"We're inside the atmosphere! Vector locked. We'll reach the exam location in thirty seconds." The small pilot announced.

Finn's green essence dimmed to nothing before taking a seat. Nara scoffed, turning back around to the dashboard in front of her.

The flickering blue hue of the countless monitors bathed Astra's body in a cold light. Her four red eyes remained locked onto the screen as she watched the final moments, the small back and forth with a subtle smile crawling up her smooth porcelain face.

"…Fascinating." She murmured as she stared at Finn through the screen.

From across the room, Ari'Va's voice broke her trance. 

"Director Astra! You're going to want to see this." She called out with urgency.

Astra turned her attention from the feed to where Ari'Va sat watching over a separate terminal glowing with pulsing red alerts.

"What is it?" She asked.

Ari'Va hesitated, her trembling hand pointing towards the monitor. 

"We–We've lost signal…"

"Lost signal?" Astra tilted her head slightly. 

"Clarify."

Ari'Va gulped hard. 

"All three teams that arrived first at the well… we have no transmission, no essence reads, not even a single vital signature. And that's not all… the head guardian's essence. It's gone."

Astra's four eyes narrowed. 

"Gone?"

"Yes. It's like the entire well was swallowed." Ari'Va's fingers flew across the terminal, pulling up the live drone feed from orbit. 

"Here, switching to drone seventeen's visual feed."

The main monitor shifted, projecting a grainy overhead image onto the massive central screen.

Rust colored dust… rolled across a cratered terrain. Chunks of ground were gouged and cracked. But that wasn't all…

Blood. 

Limbs. 

And bodies laid scattered.

Gasps and muffled cries spread through the control room as station workers covered their mouths in disbelief. Ari'Va turned away from the screen, hand trembling over her mouth.

But Astra… she leaned forward, her eyes locked not on the carnage—but on the faint silhouette at the edge of the screen.

"Who is that?" She asked.

Covered in the dust cloud stood a towering humanoid figure with shoulders as wide as a car. 

"That's not…" Astra whispered, more to herself than anyone else. 

"…that's not the same guardian."

Her tone wasn't full of panic, only calculation. Ari'Va took a sharp breath and stood straight up immediately.

"I'm contacting the nearest Ranger outpost! This—this is a class red emergency. We can't let this go unreporte—"

"Wait." Astra shouted, raising a single pale hand.

Ari'Va's voice hitched. 

"Wait? Ma'am look at that screen. Those examinees were ripped apart by whatever that thing is! We don't know if this—"

"And precisely because we don't know…" Astra cut her off, her voice smooth and terrifyingly calm. 

"We watch. We observe. This… anomaly… presents us with a rare opportunity."

Her eyes turned back to the live footage, expression unreadable.

"We will now see the truth of this generation of ascendants. Their resolve. Their instinct to survive. Their capacity for madness… or greatness." 

The room remained silent as all of the workers exchanged anxious glances, but none dared to speak against her.

"Divert all operational drones in orbit to the well and begin live combat monitoring. I want a clear view of every angle as Sylas's team lands."

"…Yes… ma'am." Ari'Va said softly, her green face pale as she relayed the orders.

The screen zoomed in slowly as the swirling dust parted slightly.

Just before the feed glitched, they caught a glimpse of pure black eyes.

Whatever this entity was… it wasn't meant to be part of the exam.

The starship touched down onto the battlefield, its landing gear kicking up thick clouds of blood-stained dust.

Hissssss

The ship's hatch opened.

Everyone stepped out one by one and as they did, the stench of death hit them immediately.

"…What in the stars.?" Finn whispered, staggering forward. 

His trembling eyes scanned the battlefield. Scattered limbs, lifeless bodies, twisted and mangled husks of other examinees' ships. Blood of various colors and other alien bodily fluids soaked the ground.

"What in the stars happened here…?"

Their tiny orange pilot peeked from the ramp, his toothpick sized legs shaking so hard he nearly dropped the datapad in his paws. He quickly darted behind Sylas, gripping the edge of his white pants.

Sylas placed a calm hand on the little guy's head, shielding him with his body. 

"You'll be fine. I swear on my life… nothing will touch you."

The dust rolled in thick waves as the wind howled across the wasteland. That's when Nara squinted and stepped forward.

"Wait…" She pointed across the clearing past the carnage. 

"Who the hell is that?"

They all turned.

A figure emerged slowly from the dust. It was towering, monstrous, and built like a linebacker had a baby with a tank that stood on tree trunks for legs. It was easily over three meters tall. Its skin was dark grey and had eyes black as the void.

The creature didn't speak at first. It just stood there… menacingly.

Then in a deep guttural voice, it spoke.

"…It's none of you either."

Finn's eyes narrowed.

"None of us…What does it mean by that?" He whispered to himself.

"You four. Would you four be able to answer my question? The ones before you, well… they couldn't." The creature said as it tilted its head slightly and took one slow, deliberate step forward.

What… does it mean… to be free?"

Before anyone could react, a blur of blue essence streaked through the air above the behemoth. Lius, the thalorian that went nose to nose with Kaito before the race had appeared from the sky, body battered and broken but eyes burning with rage.

"DIIIIE YOU MONSTER!!" He screamed out.

His axe came down, aimed squarely for the creature's bald head.

But it never landed.

SHK!

A fleshy grey, grotesque arm burst out from the guardian's back neck catching him midair by the throat.

"What—!?"

The next moment, he was flung across the battlefield, his body skidding and bouncing through debris until he tumbled to a stop right in front of Finn.

Finn dove to his side to help him, but the moment he bent down, time seemed to fracture and come to a snail's pace.

A transparent massive grey fist of the creature barreled toward him, just ahead of the real thing.

"It's fast—too fast!" He thought to himself urgently, bracing his body for the blow.

SHHHHHHH-CLANG!!

But it's arm was sliced clean off.

Its hand crashed to the dirt, twitching.

Sylas stood in its place, sword drawn, expression unreadable.

The creature glanced down at its bleeding stump.

"…Fascinating. It seems—"

CRACKK!!

Nara's scaled foot collided with its temple, nearly decapitating it. The force sent the guardian flying dozens of meters before it slammed into the hull of one of the downed starships. 

BOOOOOOOM!!

The ship exploded, sending metal shards, dirt, and rocks in the air and around the battlefield.

Finn blinked, stunned, before quickly turning back to Lius. 

"Hey—stay with me! What is that thing?! Is that… is that the head guardian!?"

Lius coughed blood, barely able to lift his eyes up to see. 

"That… thing… it killed the guardian…"

Finn's eye shot wide open and his heart dropped to his feet. 

"…What!? Killed it!? What do you mean? But how—? Where did it even—"

"Why don't you ask me yourself?" The deep voice of the creature came from behind the flames and smoke of the explosion.

It walked out of the wreckage, its missing arm already regenerating, green blood rolling down its torso as new muscle and bone morphed into place of its damaged body.

"…Regeneration…?" Finn muttered, horrified.

His CPI scanner flickered to life in his eyes.

????: 675,000 CPI

His throat dried instantly.

"Six… hundred and seventy-five thousand CPI." He aired out.

The creature stood tall once its regeneration was done.

"…What does freedom mean to you?" It asked, face calm and composed.

No answer, just the sound of Lius's broken breathing. 

Finn's mind was racing. 

"What is going on? Where is the exam organizer? Who—no, what—is this thing? Calm down, Finn… Analyze the situation. It doesn't matter how it got here. What matters is—it's here. And it's not going to stop."

His eyes scanned its body.

"It's essence… it's like a cosmic well guardian… but that regeneration? No. That's beyond C-class. Even B-class. Only A or S-ranked guardians should heal like that…"

"—I'll take first swing." Nara said casually, interrupting his panicked thoughts.

"Don't be greedy. The grey betallite is mine." Sylas said calmly with his arms folded. 

Finn blinked. 

"Are you two seriously arguing about who gets to fight it first!?"

Back on the station, Ari'Va's jaw dropped. 

"They're insane. Ma'am should I send one of your clones to put an end to this?!"

Astra sat quiet with her eyes fixed on the screen. 

"No."

Ari'Va turned to her alarmed. 

"But ma'am, they'll die!"

Astra smiled.

"This is the path they chose when they stepped into the cosmic stream. The universe has decided. Who are we to intervene? …Besides." She leaned forward.

"You're underestimating our little ascendants."

Ari'Va turned slowly back to the monitor and her eyes bulged.

Nara walked toward the guardian.

She unsheathed her blade revealing a jagged, chipped thing that looked more like a murder weapon than a sword. She raised it to her side and the scales on her arm began to pulse, one by one.

She exhaled and a thin cloud of smoke left her lips.

"…Ignite."

FWWOOOOOOMMMMMMM!

Her blade exploded in a hellstorm of fire. Her sword glowed like it was dipped into a pool of lava.

Finn staggered. 

His CPI scanner kicked in again.

Nara: 450,000… 600,000… 775,000 CPI

His jaw dropped. 

"So this is… Nara's power…?"

Sylas smiled faintly. 

"Let's see what Elara's teachings forged."

The creature tilted its head.

"How is she able to increase her essence output? The others couldn't…"

Finn's pointed ears twitched slightly. 

"So it can't suppress its essence properly… But still… even that healing shouldn't be possible…"

But he didn't have time to think.

Because Nara was already walking forward dragging her molten sword behind her leaving a trail of scorched ground behind her.

"I don't know what or who you are, but I know this…"

She looked up, her yellow slit pupils glowing and her wings spread wide as the flames coiled around her.

"…I'm the last thing you're ever going to see."

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