Chapter 72: Chapter 34: Test of Mind - Absolute
'You have come a long way, haven't you, Rydel?'
Rydel was reaching for the arms of the chair as the man in the hologram spoke, and he froze for just a split second before all of his training and discipline forced him to act like nothing had happened. Anyone with a trained eye would be able to notice the slightest pause in his motion caused by shock and confusion, Rydel hoped deep down that the man missed his reaction, despite how unlikely it will be.
'I am sorry, Sir, I am Rold.'
'I am the leader of Absolute Being, Rydel, and I am also one of the users of the artifact. You may call me...Zero.'
There is no mistake now. For one reason or another, this man sitting right across from him knew exactly who he is, and most likely why he is here.
'How did you know?' Rydel asked, dropping the faced that he knew meant nothing anymore.
'Let's start way back, Rydel.' Zero said, his voice calm and poised coming from a point of certain victory, 'I know that there is a group of artifact users opposing our methods. It's only natural that as much as half of all available artifacts get activated in such a short span of time, that many will group together. There are certainly some that are located in remote regions here and there throughout the galaxy. But out of all of us, it's really you guys, that are the most dangerous ones.'
This is really really bad. Rydel pretended to be listening closely to what Zero is saying, but his head is going in a million directions. Should he break out of the room and try as hard as he can to escape from here? Should he get to Wolfana and warn Cellica about the leader of Absolute Being knowing so much about them? Or has his previous 'untapped' transmissions with added security from Cellica's side still not enough to ensure that his infiltration will remain under the radar?
'But, that's not a bad thing, and I completely understand.' Zero continued, as he looked closely at Rydel's reactions, 'you assumed that we are only in it for selfish reasons, correct?'
'The first time I have interacted with any of your forces was when you sent one of the users to break into my school and steal one of my equipment.' Rydel shot back, 'how else would we think?'
'It does seem very suspicious.' Zero seemed to agree with Rydel's sentiment, to his surprise, 'I apologize for that, but I gave Lady Lily a bit of a tight schedule then, and she took some reckless routes. But trust me, I am not selling arms to any terrorists or funding any insurgencies around town.'
'Then why?'
'Before I answer that question, could I ask you one thing, Rydel. Where did the artifacts come from, and why are they here?'
Rydel couldn't possibly answer that. In fact, nobody from the bearers can. But from the sound of it, Zero seemed confident that him and him alone had the truth, and he is probably right.
'I am sure you know the great darkness surrounding the regions of space around here?' Zero, satisfied with Rydel's silence, continued on, 'one of the activated artifacts was the Eye of Cosmos, and unless the bearer happened to be a neutral party, he/she would have been able to see the great darkness. Not many beings were able to see it, apart from the trailblazers of the great expansion era.'
'I do know the great darkness.' Rydel nodded, 'but can you get to the point?'
'Do you know what's beyond the great darkness?' Zero continued on, his mannerisms now starting to annoy Rydel.
'Something dangerous?'
'Not exactly a helpful answer, is it?'
'Do you have a better answer?'
'Yes.' Zero said, 'consider this the power of my artifact. What's lied beyond our systems, are a greater universe full of beings and civilizations of unimaginable power. And we are hidden from them.'
'And I guess I am supposed to just take your word for it?' Rydel wanted to act like that was crazy, and he wanted to laugh his lungs out. But deep down, from the way Zero spoke, and from the way Ol and Cellcia talked about it when he first met them, Zero is not lying. At least not lying about all of it. However, Rydel needed more than a sincere answer and fragments of memories from his past to be convinced.
'There had been a great war, and the twenty artifact being placed in this region of space and hidden away was the result of that war.' Zero said, 'I have not been able to see beyond the great darkness, and I don't think you guys could too. But I have been preparing for it...I have been preparing for another great war.'
'This great war of yours...' Rydel found himself drawn to Zero's words uncontrollably like a moth diving into the flames. What is he hinting at? A great war?
'I see you as being an incredibly important piece in this coming war, Rydel. So allow me to bring you back to my past.'
Before Zero obtained his very own artifact, before Sir Deva and Lady Lily, before the Absolute Academy, before Absolute Being, there was him, the future leader of this organization hidden in the darkness. He was always intrigued by instruments spelled out and talked about in the legends, artifacts of incredible power, summoning the power of thunder, that of the ocean, that of space and time. With a single swing, ancient beings and gods were able to move mountains and shape continents. He knew that deep down, such thing cannot exist, but the tales of a single being possessing enough power to fight against reality and its rules fascinates him.
Is it possible for one to possess such power?
Human society has progressed too far to have not seen or discovered any of these legendary artifacts, and the realms of modern science simply wouldn't allow such condensed and raw power to exist. The law of nature and rules of physics deemed that it just wouldn't make any sense.
It's not possible.
When he turned sixteen and left for senior education, and he left the fantasies back home. He sought truth.
Over the next few years, he, like many aspiring physicists, devoted their passion and academic career towards understanding what the Great Darkness is, the shield, the dark sheath of spacetime that pins the three civilizations within this set region of space. The experimental studies have time and time again shown that there is certainly a bigger universe out there, and yet nothing physical can seem to breath the barrier, now nick named the Great Darkness.
'So, why do you want to study at this institution?' The admissions officer asked uninterestedly. This is the sixth interview he had to conduct that day, and Zero on paper is just another candidate.
'I...I want to figure out the truth about the Great Darkness!' Zero said.
'You know, there are professors here who has spent twenty years trying to figure out the truth about the Great Darkness.' The officer said with a mocking tone, 'and if you check the news, it's still a mystery.'
'It won't be. I planned everything out, for the next five years, I will find the truth.'
There was enough funding in the end, luckily for him. And hence, he began his journey. He knew that this journey is going to be long and difficult, so he started preparing himself for it. To him, this is the great crusade. He trained his body and his mind in preparation for intense study and research at the institution, so when most people can only do ten hours worth of work in a day, he is able to do twenty hours worth of work in the same amount of time.
His parents ran a galaxy-wide trading business, so money is never scarce for him, and he filled the gaping hole left by the neglect with the endless pursuit of his goals. He will find out the truth, and he will do whatever it takes to do so. He needed a lot of time, and he needed to use all of that time as effectively as he can. Simple mental and physical training won't be enough, and by the time his first year has finished, the end was nowhere in sight. He looked around the lab, and saw an old professor entered with a walking crane and a floating coffee cup.
NO! THIS IS TOO SLOW!
He needed to find a way to surpass his physical limits, an then, he went through the procedure.
He can now work more and faster, with less fatigue. But still, the end is still no where in sight. The truth that seemed to be always slipping out of his reach even after he followed the comprehensive plan to the dot. He needed something better...no, he need to be better. With smart compartmentalization, he now dedicates five percent of his time into looking solely at improving one's ability to function better and faster, and it didn't take long for him to encounter the methods used during the time of the Great Expansion, the pinnacle of human scientific efficiency, where the entire human civilization was converted into a machine of constant growth and progress.
The elites at that time used techniques similar to the ones he was using before, but they took it a step further.
'Nanotechnology enhancements...' There had only been biomedical applications of this technology at this age, as the regulations within the settled regions forbid the use of this technology for enhancement purposes. Zero will not be slowed down by measly regulations. Taking all of his research with him, he planned an exhibition towards the Great Darkness near the edge of space, but the very first stop is the wild regions.
It surprised him, and the realms of the Grey Wolf turned out to be way more developed and advanced than he thought, and the societal elites in the Grey Wolf's region brought their 'dirty' nanotechnology enhancement technology along with them. With a bit of money laundering from the settled regions into the Grey Wolf's region, he got the procedure done.
There is a certain kick when one can think and learn as fast as Zero could at that time, and he wasted not a single minute before taking his experiments and equipment on a single shuttle and flying towards the Great Darkness. He had too many theories to test, and too many things he wanted to find out.
The journey towards the edge was not an easy one. After a year of travelling on a space ship, the main food printer had gone broken, but thankfully he had a backup of everything, and Zero has learnt how to fix every single thing on the ship, including the ship itself.
The communications chatter was cut off after year two, and Zero actually appreciated the quietness.
Another three years went by, and he had ran out of the materials to read.
Another five years went past, and he knew that the institution would consider him to be another one that's given up in his pursuits and rusticated. Funny enough, he might be only one left in his pursuit.
And then, he has finally reached his destination, the Great Darkness, the edge of known space, the prison of humans, Aquarians and Rockies.
None of his experiments produced any useful data, let alone any positive results, and the Great Darkness is quite literally a rock hard physical barrier that the ship ran into, almost damaging everything in the crash. From a certain perspective, Zero is at the rock bottom of the entire universe as far as humans know it.
Sitting by the landing ramp, Zero wondered if this it the end of the road for him. If anything, he wanted to touch it, the Great Darkness, and edge of known space.
And if there is a God out there, it rewarded him with the answers he had been looking for. Not a usable set of data to prove his hypothesis, but rather, an artifact. It didn't give him a solution, but it gave him an answer.
The artifact itself is placed along the outer boundaries of the pockets of space that house everything the three species had ever known, and he learnt about the truth, and the history of everything. If Ol's artifact is a tool of accessing knowledge, then Zero's artifact is a tool of storing knowledge.
He learnt about why the artifacts are here, about the fact that there are twenty of them spread out around the galaxies at the dawn of life, about what it would take for the Great Darkness to truly go away.
'I once thought the Great Darkness is a prison.' Zero continued on, 'but after that, I learnt that it is a shield. It is protecting us from the greater universe.'
'It sounded like you belong to the church of the walls.' Rydel joked, but Zero was still dead serious.
'On the contrary, it is necessary. Our civilizations at the current stage is not ready for the greater universe, and the artifacts are the only chance we can even the playing field with the beings outside, but if we exposed ourselves before that time, it would only mean disaster for all of us.' Zero said, 'The Great Darkness is not our enemy, but someone out there wants the artifacts, and the artifacts are hidden here to be out of their reach.'
'Right...'
'There is a time limit that we all must abide to. With the development of our technologies and the total energy output of our civilization nearing that of the civilizations outside, the Great Darkness will not be able to negate us anymore. The artifacts themselves also give off a huge amount of a particular energy signature, and the Great Darkness will be gone for sure by the time all twenty artifacts are activated!'
'And we will be introduced to the universe...' Rydel understood what that meant, and in a way, he appreciated that Zero is telling him all of his.
'Yes. Yes!' Zero nodded hard, 'That's why I created Absolute Being, and that's why I started studying the artifacts. We need to stay organized, and we need to get ready! We will be a force to be reckoned with when we enter the great stage!'
'And by getting ready, you meant...gathering power by any means necessary?' Rydel said while shaking his head, finally understanding it all after Zero laid it all on the table, 'Your intentions are for the greater good of us all, but your methods are something that I cannot acknowledge, if what you were saying was true.'
'And who are you to lecture me?' Zero laughed out loud, his words cutting deep into Rydel's flesh like Aquarian blades, 'and what were your methods when you came here to save your friend?'
Rydel had no response to that. He is a hypocrite, and he ain't innocent either. He supposed that he has been using the excuse that they are in the wild regions, so the normal sets of laws do not apply. That is true, but that doesn't mean he can just go out and do whatever he deems is necessary to get the job done.
If he did, he would be no different from the organization that he is trying to oppose. But even so, is there much point for him to oppose them? What exactly are the bearers planning to do with the artifacts?
Rydel knew that Zero was telling the truth, he could feel it. And if that's true, then what else are the bearers doing except opposing the progress of Absolute Being in their quest of preparing huamanity, Aqurians and the Rockies for the next stage in their evolution?
This isn't it. Absolute Being has been doing bad things in the name of good. And he was no different.
Something had to change, Rydel now finally realized the magnitude of the mistakes he has made reaching this point, but there is little time for him to dwell on the past. He needed to move past this version of himself, and grow beyond the pathetic being that was Rydel Daera of the old. He will emerge out of the wild region a new man, and a man of purpose. He cannot ignore Zero's words about the threats that lied beyond the Great Darkness, but he cannot allow Absolute Being to use that as an excuse to destroy and shape the galaxy as they wish.
'Absolute Being is in the stage of transition. In the next few years, we will step out onto the galactic stage, and we will become legitimate, believe it or not.' Zero didn't let his attack linger, but rather moved on to the next topic of discussion, 'then, everything we do will be legal, and if your friends still choose to oppose us, then you will be on the other side of the law, and you will be treated as such. So to prevent that from happening, I wished that you could join us. You can be just like Dolon, you can remain in our ranks and only act as a trainer. You don't have to do any missions for the organization as we only needed to keep you in check and in good health when the time comes.'
'NO!'
That's what Rydel thought he was going to say, but instead, he hesitated.
'The organization must be kept in check, but what you really wanted do...I can't oppose it. As much as I wanted to say no, I believe you, deep down.' Rydel couldn't believe those are the words that were coming out of his mouths, but those were his true feelings, 'I will not join your ranks, but...I will not actively oppose you if you don't step out of line.'
'Consider me...neutral from now on. But be ware, once all of this is over, you will answer for whatever deeds you have done in the settled regions. And I will answer for what I have done...here.'
'I can accept that arrangement.' Zero seemed surprisingly happy with what Rydel said, 'And with that, I am comfortable leaving you to your own devices here in the academy.'
'Really?'
'Well, your next step would be to challenge Dolon, as that is the only way you will know her locations, correct? I will not stop you from doing so.'
'Why? Why would you risk it?'
'Because I know your true feelings now.' Zero said confidently, 'this conversation has changed you, and that's to our benefit. Our goals align whether you realized it or not, despite our preferred methods being different. You aren't one that can turn away from something as important as the future of our galaxies, that is something I can see from your past actions.'
That's true, and Rydel cannot deny that. He cannot turn away from the truth. He looked down at his left hand, and the dark purple lines across the glove pulses with each beat of his heart.
'I am not in charge of the Academy anymore, so I supposed I will leave you to it. I am sure that no matter whatever happens, we shall cross paths again. Good bye, Rydel.' And with that, the transmission is finished, and a message popped on the screen, indicating that he has passed the Test of Mind.
This is it. This is the end of the line for him.
The next step, the Test of Brawl, would be when he will face against Dolon once again. Zero confirmed that she is still alive, just like he thought. Now, it's time to make further arrangements with Zel.
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