Chapter 246: Khalla-Nova.
"I did not experience his power, I at least agree that he is dangerous but isn't it a bit of a stretch to call him a sleeping apocalypse?" The short Captain in glasses sat next to Victor and crossed her legs, playing with the ring on her finger as she reminisced on how the entire collective had shifted to Sol's will.
On his ship once more General Victor Flint was seated with his cheek rested on his fist and his other hand tapping his chair impatiently as they travelled through the dead universe on their way to another.
"I'm telling you, Cecelia, that boy is a proper monster if I've ever witnessed one, I should have killed him when I had the chance," the general answered her inquiry with a trickle of sweat rolling down his forehead. "I fucked up, this will cost the Emporium."
"Sir-"
"He is Ikaris's guardian, Cecelia, he is Godslayer to the most feared and ruthless enemy the emporium has ever seen, even in the prime of her days of battle she stood alone and uncontested, but this man has not only tamed her, he made a wife of her, he made a mother out of her, this can only mean that he is stronger than she is, you know better than I how your kind value power over all else...
he is a devil clothed in angel's gold... so yea, I fucked up," He looked at her after speaking loudly causing the entire cockpit to stare at him in worry. "We have to destroy this entire collective and all of them with it-"
"Sir!"
"What now!?" The general snapped as soon as he was interrupted from his plotting and self-loathing.
"W-we have a reading of the Godslayer's power again, he's appeared in-"
"Take us there immediately!" Victor leapt from his seat and landed before the cockpit drawing his blade and staring out as the pilot gave the order. "This is a thread of luck, we have to make good on this opportunity while it still exists..." He paused and looked at the pilot next to him. "...where exactly is he?"
"The very centre of the collective, sir, their nexus universe."
"Why the hell would he go someplace like that?" He raised a brow. "If he wanted time to recuperate he should have chosen a freshly birthed realm, not the slowest -but I won't challenge his common sense, this is good for us, can you tell what he's doing from here?" Victor turned to Cecelia and she lowered her glasses again, walked up to his side and stared outwards.
"It's strange." She answered squinting her eyes. "There's a large amount of power being expelled where he is and there isn't even a single source of light there aside from him, also, unlike every other nexus I've ever seen, that place doesn't have a single whisper of life inside of it, by the looks of it everything seems to have been destroyed intentionally."
"Godslayers have never been able to interact with the nexus of their collective, but considering how powerful the bastard is it makes sense, he was able to shift the whole fucking thing, after all." Victor scoffed.
"Should I try aiming for it again, or at him this time, Sir?" Cecelia rested her fingers on her ring prepared to carry out his order upon confirmation
"No, he'd just avoid it again, let's focus on getting there as fast as possible instead. He boasted on his ability to be untouchable, but I won't let him get away a second time."
***
"Master, what are you doing, can you explain?" Alpha appeared by Sol's side after he pulled her from The Grey.
"They know my face, they know my power, they won't stop coming, they'll kill every living being in this Collective unless I do this," Sol had an expression of focus as he continued extending his mana as far as he could sense taking hold of every universe by following the pathways of the tree and roots.
Your adventure continues at m v|l-e'm,p| y- r
"But what exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish?" Alpha asked again after nodding in agreement, she observed and witnessed Sol's mana reserves become finite for the first time since his fight against Demon Lord Orion as it took everything he had to grasp the entire collective and keep it from expanding any further, in doing so even the dead and sick parts of the divine tree that had suffered from his previous fights were provided with sustenance again.
"I'm doing the only thing I can do to protect you all."
"Even I?" Alpha was taken aback by his response as she followed his pathways and found the enemies in a rapid approach.
"You've done a lot, the power I have today is undoubtedly because of your system, without you I'd have probably ended up being an average Godslayer, Alpha, I don't want to lose you either, having a guiding line inside of my mind has led to me growing far stronger than myself or anyone else ever expected," Sol sighed and lowered his hands as his hair went from gold, flickered to white and then turned to its original brown.
"You're also a part of my family, you're also important," he huffed and crossed his legs simulating a replica of the tree before himself. "Besides, there are things that only you can do."
"...I see," She nodded again to his words and then looked across the collective at the Emporium ship once more. "Then, instead of asking what your intent is I should be asking what you need of me," She copied his posture. "I am at your disposal, master."
"I want you to prepare the most powerful railgun you can, ignore the ship, ignore everything else and focus all your power on that," Sol closed his blinded eye and looked at her with his good eye.
"A weapon to be used against the Emporium ship I suppose, if I focus all my power from across the collective as thin as possible I may be able to mimic power close to yours destructively, is that your desire?" She asked and he shook his head.
"No, it doesn't need to be offensive at all, I want you to shoot me off into the deep, it'll give me a jumpstart once they catch up, go ahead and calculate anything you need."
"... Master, is your intent-"
"I'm going to Khalla-Nova, to Jenifer's collective." Sol closed his eye and began focusing again.
"Something strange is happening across the collective." Cecelia took off her glasses and rested her hand on the dash before her, pulling up a real-time scan of the closest realm and watching the numbers it processed rapidly falling. "What the hell..."
"What?"
"They're disappearing, the collective is shrinking in the direction of the Godslayer, at this rate we will be inside of the passage again within the hour!" She snapped and looked at the general. "Sir, he's going to run and he's taking everything with him."
"How soon until we reach him?" Victor asked his analysts and watched the three people in a panel by themselves rapidly going over numbers and then look at him.
"We are moving at roughly the same speed as the clusters are disappearing, sir, at this speed, we will be there a few minutes earlier than they all vanish or a few minutes later if the ship develops any complications, we are already going at 200% the threshold, any faster and we face exhausting the core or overheating the main driver, they are partially sentient after all, there's a limit to how much either can take before they need to rest."
"If we're within visual or sensory distance I don't need to rely on the ship, just prepare to attack him as soon as he's in sight."
They waited from both sides, after Sol had taken Alpha outside of the beginning he had left a small tear no larger than a strand of hair, and that allowed her to freely traverse each side and communicate with Ikaris and the others, showing them what was happening in real-time through visual connection.
The general and his ship held their breaths when Origin's border came into view and before they could breach to enter that too vanished.
"There!" Cecelia pointed at Sol and Victor leapt forward madly reaching out and then swinging his sword as the distance between him and the Godslayer collapsed.
"Begone!" Alpha waved her hands and a powerful force crashed into the general's chest and sent him caving through the darkness away from Sol just as he opened his hands wide again.
"Cecelia!" Victor snapped and she rushed out immediately transforming her weapon from her ring and aiming at Sol's head intent to blast him to kingdom come, but again Alpha proved to be a valuable obstacle as she blocked the signal being sent to the weapon and caused it to malfunction and shatter after sparking.
"Shit!" Cecelia tossed the debris aside and rushed towards Sol only to crash into the ship a moment later when Alpha used Dina's [inversion] against her and changed her direction.
"Master, it is ready." Alpha looked over to Sol and he nodded and clasped his hands causing gigantic roots of gold to grow over the remainder of the collective behind them and then vanish in a flash of light.
The light in Sol's eyes went out and he began coughing up crimson blood as he held the small mass of light before himself and shoved it into his chest.
"That direction," He pointed and watched Alpha cause more interference with the ship as it approached while small green rings appeared beneath him like an infinity tunnel.
"Master, I will sleep for a little after this, good luck," Alpha looked at Sol and then vanished when the tunnel of rings began pulling him, after the first ring Sol was gone like a beam of light, and every ring after that only gave him more speed as he righted himself and focused on going faster as well.
"You won't get away from me!!" Victor came ripping the passage between them with his sword ready to cut Sol down, but try as he might he could not reach him, it took only a few seconds compared to the hour they had spent getting there, Sol vanished faster than any vessel could ever hope to travel. "Damnit!!" Victor watched Sol's trajectory and stopped following him when his ship caught up. "Fuck!!"
"Sir-"
"He is headed for Khalla-Nova, destroy him!"
"That is the direction of another collective we might destroy-"
"I said kill him, I'll take full responsibility, if he makes it to Khalla-Nova it'll take years before we have any idea where to find him we can't start a war inside of a sister collective!"
"Very well," the Pilot gave the order, charged the cannon and then fired it straight down the green tunnel of rings that Sol alone could interact with, what he didn't realise until he lost contact was that the General was surfing on the tip of that beam.
"I made it...!" Sol extended his hand when Khalla-Nova came into view but a moment later reclined and bent in pain when the General's sword sliced through his back and the two of them slammed into the barrier separating the collective from the passage.
"You won't-"
Sol grabbed the sword and teleported it out of his back sending it spiralling off into the void only to see the general reach and grab it and turn to stab him again.
"You can't stop me!" Sol reached for the man in a rage as more blood sprung from his mouth and nose as he overexerted himself using the last drop of mana he could spare forcing himself into a state of divinity once more with one inverted eye and his hair half white and half brown.
With this power he caught the blade aimed for his neck through his palm and grabbed the hilt of the sword, pressed his heels against the man's chest and kicked them apart.
"I'll be seeing you, General, mark my words!" Sol crashed through the barrier and pointed to the man, severing his hand and then vanishing before Victor could reach to him again.
"You'll all burn for this!!"