WebNovels

Chapter 57 - Chapter 56: Ascending to Neutronium

[Hello readers, some of you said you needed illustrations to fuel your imaginations so I will be posting them on my newly created discord server, https://discord.gg/kn6m47t9. I will be pasting it in the comment section for you to copy.]

The time for preparation was over. Elias stood before Kaelen in the vast, silent Nexus Spire, the air thick with anticipation. His internal systems were humming with pre-programmed arrays, the million Stellar Devourer Furnaces had filled his vaults with trillions of condensed star pills, and the blueprints for the Entropy-Reversal Singularity Core and the neutron star skeleton were perfected. This was it. The moment to finally bridge the gap between concept and reality, to truly transform his existence.

"Kaelen," he said, his voice softer than usual, a warmth in his cosmic eyes. He reached out and gently took her hand, squeezing it. "The next phase of my transformation is... significant. My body will become unimaginably dense. I will weigh approximately 4.8 quadrillion kilograms." He paused, letting the staggering number sink in. "That's roughly 10.6 quadrillion pounds, or the equivalent mass of five billion aircraft carriers, all concentrated within my human-sized frame."

Kaelen's breath hitched. Her eyes widened, trying to comprehend the sheer scale. "Five billion... but Elias, that much mass… wouldn't it...?"

"Yes," Elias finished gravely, understanding her unspoken question. "That much mass, concentrated in such a small volume, would generate insane gravitational forces. Without absolute, continuous control, it would immediately collapse into a black hole, or quite literally tear apart any planet I stood on, rip it to shreds just by being there. So, I can't do this here."

He looked at her, a gentle smile on his face. "I've located a suitable empty dimension, one of the countless forgotten pockets of space floating around the universe. It's stable enough to contain the initial surge, and isolated enough that my transformation won't accidentally collapse a star system or disrupt reality for anyone else." He squeezed her hand again. "I will be back. Wait for me."

Kaelen nodded, a mix of awe and worry in her gaze. She didn't try to stop him, understanding the necessity. "Be careful," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "Come back to me."

"Always," Elias promised. With a final, lingering look, he dissolved into a shimmer of quantum light, vanishing from the Nexus Spire.

The empty dimension was a canvas of pure void, stretching infinitely in every direction, devoid of stars, planets, or even stray cosmic dust. It was the perfect, sterile environment for the colossal undertaking. Elias materialized in its absolute center, taking a deep, conscious breath that vibrated through the emptiness. He closed his eyes, his form settling into a deep meditative state.

The transformation began.

First, the Entropy-Reversal Singularity Core. Within the intricate landscape of his dantian, the theoretical blueprints snapped into concrete existence. Elias directed immense amounts of raw Qi, channeled from his newly vast pill reserves, towards the minuscule point he had designated as the core's heart. With his Quantum Divine Sense (QDS), he began to apply the Law of Order at a fundamental, sub-atomic level. He wasn't just concentrating energy; he was forcing it to invert its natural inclination, to shed its inherent disorder.

A silent, internal storm raged within him. It felt like the very fabric of reality was being unraveled and rewoven inside his dantian. A nascent micro-singularity, smaller than an atom, began to form, drawing in the surrounding chaotic Qi and universal energies. But instead of compressing it into more chaos, it filtered, it processed, it reversed. He felt an unprecedented surge of energy, not explosive or destructive, but pure, coherent, and perfectly ordered. It was a cosmic roar of power, not heard with ears, but felt deep in his soul – the sound of the universe bending to his will. The singularity hummed, a stable, self-sustaining font of limitless, refined energy. It was done. The Entropy-Reversal Singularity Core was active, an infinite wellspring of organized power, ready to fuel his ascension.

With the core integrated and stabilized, Elias shifted his focus to the next, even more physically demanding, phase: the neutron star skeleton. This was where the Laws of Gravity and Matter would be pushed to their absolute breaking point, within the confines of his own body. He directed the raw, ordered energy from his newly active Singularity Core, channeling it through the newly constructed sub-arrays and quantum anchors within his existing skeletal framework.

The pain was immense, not a physical agony in the traditional sense, but a profound, fundamental stress on his very being. It was the sensation of every atom in his bones being crushed, forced to merge, their electron shells collapsing, protons and electrons combining into neutrons. It was the universe trying to reject this unnatural density, and Elias, with his iron-clad will and precise QDS, forcing it to comply.

His QDS became the conductor of an impossible symphony. The Laws of Gravity were warped, localized gravitational fields applied internally, crushing his bones from within. The Laws of Matter were twisted, forcing the very nucleons to fuse into a neutronium state. The Laws of Order meticulously guided the compression, ensuring uniformity and preventing structural defects. He felt his bones compacting, shrinking, becoming impossibly dense. It was like his entire skeletal structure was being reduced to a perfectly formed diamond, then to a pinprick, then beyond, into the very essence of neutronium. Every second was a millennia of internal struggle, a battle against the fundamental forces of the universe that sought to pull his transformed bones into an uncontrolled singularity.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity compressed into moments, the process stabilized. A shudder ran through Elias's body. The transformation was complete.

He opened his eyes. Outwardly, he appeared unchanged. His skin, hair, and clothes were exactly as they had been. But the very space around him warped. Without moving a muscle, his presence alone began to distort space around him, creating subtle ripples and cracks in reality at a fundamental level. Mini black holes, fleeting and infinitesimal, threatened to pop into existence and immediately vanish, remnants of the immense gravitational forces he now contained. Each subtle shift of his weight created a localized gravity well. He was, literally, a walking, breathing monument to density and power.

He weighed 5.1 quadrillion kilograms, a walking cosmic anomaly.

With a focused effort, Elias immediately began to reign in the immense, passive power radiating from his new form. His QDS, now fueled by the almost infinite output of the Entropy-Reversal Singularity Core, began to meticulously dampen his gravitational field, containing the cosmic forces within his own body. He focused on making his immense mass feel normal, appear normal, to not destroy this empty dimension or unwittingly affect the outside universe. Slowly and painstakingly, he brought his external presence under perfect control, making him seem as light as a feather, yet knowing he was, in reality, heavy as a god.

He took a tentative step. The space around his foot briefly compressed, then snapped back into place. He tried to walk, to move naturally.

And that's when he realized the problem.

His body, now a vessel of unimaginable density and strength, felt… stiff. Incredibly stiff. His joints didn't flex with their usual fluidity. His movements were precise, powerful, but rigid, like a cosmic statue attempting to dance. He tried to bend his arm, and it moved with a creak that was more conceptual than audible, requiring a deliberate effort of will.

Elias tried to punch the air that didn't include any energy, and the force was staggering, creating a localized shockwave that cracked through the dimension and the outside universe. But the punch itself was a rigid thrust, lacking any grace or natural flow. He raised his hand to rub his forehead, and his arm moved like a heavy, perfectly engineered hydraulic piston.

"Oh, for crying out loud," he muttered, a genuine exasperation in his voice. He sighed, the sound echoing strangely in the void. He had achieved impossible strength, unimaginable density, an unbreakable frame. And now he was stuck moving like a cosmic action figure. The irony wasn't lost on him. He had perfected his body into something capable of wielding infinite power, only to find himself moving like a brick. The boundless universe held yet another unexpected problem for Elias Vance.

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