Bab 192: Chapter 57: Artifact Avatar Modes
There are no atmosphere to speak off on the distant moons, and yet a storm brews. Within the middle of the whirlpool stood Brakagi, now a being of red light.
'Zel! Get as many out of here as you can!' Sensing the impending danger, Zero quickly ordered for Zel to evacuate the area with all of the unconscious artifact users. At the same time, he directed the pseudo-Lock Down at created tiny bubbles surrounding Miss D, Caliditas and Jozzor.
Jozzor was about to sling shot himself away, but the split second of activation time for Sling Shot compared to instantaneous activation of Lock Down meant that he was forced in place without being able to react at all. All of the machines hovering around Zero looked identical, so there is no knowing which one replicates the functionalities of which artifacts.
The only one that has the requisite information is Zero himself.
'Rydel!' Zero said, gesturing towards what was once his enemies. However, if Brakagi is to unleash his full power right here, there is no saying what will happen to everyone around. The two groups of people may be fighting for different causes at this time, they are still all artifact users, and a certain level of connection exists between all of them still.
Reaching out with the Glove of Summoning, Rydel summoned each of the frozen up artifact users to Zel's side, who then brought them all into the Pocket domain at once. Before they could do anything else, a light flashed from Brakagi before a wave of destruction traveled outwards, flipping up the surfaces of the moon and peeling it off inch by inch.
The moon shook, and Zel immediately hopped into the Pocket Domain while calling for Rydel and Zero to join them.
'Artifact Avatar mode....activate!' Zero said with a low tone, and he also turned himself into a being of pure light. Gliding through the battlefield like a graceful dancer, Zero approached Rydel before stopping right in front of him. Then, he turned to look at the wave of destruction which slowly dissipates by the time it reaches Rydel's feet.
'What.....are you doing?' Rydel asked, 'are we not going with Zel?'
'No,' Zero said as he gently pressed his finger against the veins of all existence and felt the disturbance in reality itself, 'my artifact is Code Zero, and it allows me to sense information at all levels of existence.'
Whirling his finger around in a circle and stirring up lines within space time, Zero gestured towards Brakagi, 'and now Brakagi is tearing everything apart, including the fabric of reality itself.'
Rydel followed Zero's direction and looked towards Brakagi, where strange cracks formed around him with light bouncing off invisible mirrors and segments and going everywhere. Balls of energy popped in and out of existence while sparks and strange strings surrounded Brakagi's body.
'Out of all of us...his ultimate power is...' Rydel said, looking down at this hand.
'If anyone of us is truly reality breaking, it is him.' Zero agreed.
'And how are we going to stop him?' Rydel asked.
'By allowing him to break one reality.' Zero said with a cold smile, 'just not ours.'
Reaching out to grab Rydel's left hand, Zero tapped into all of the information pertaining to the Glove of Summoning too.
'I know this is asking a lot, but' Zero was cut off by a strange shock wave travelling outward. There is no atmosphere on this moon, so this strange pull and tug must have been the results of strange gravitational phenomenon as a result of Brakagi's uncontrollable actions, 'but I cannot allow for him to damage the fabric of reality for good here. The destruction is going to propagate to every corner of the universe slowly, and soon everything will be forgone because of it.'
Rydel didn't need any more explanation nor convincing. Nodding his hand, he silently activated his artifact avatar mode. Then, Zero stepped around him with light footsteps before hugging him behind the back. His glowing arms gently pressing against Rydel's chest in a strangely erotic sensation.
'Follow my guide, Rydel.' Zero said, 'and we can contain this.'
'Well, that's all that the glove is good for, right?' Rydel joked, 'welcome to a new universe, Brakagi.'
Reaching out with the Glove of Summoning, Rydel encircled the region of space around Brakagi before closing in his fist. To his surprise, sharp pain eminated from his left palm as if he is grabbing onto a spiky metallic ball. He felt the surface of his skins pierced, his muscles pressed and his tendons pulled.
'Looks like we are looking too close.' Zero said, directing his Pseudo-Mass Projector and pulling the two of them far out and away from the surface of the moon. As the two of them flew backwards through space, Rydel kept on shifting his perspective back and out until his envelops the entire moon with his left hand.
'COME!' Rydel commanded, and closed his fist. However, the damage to space time makes a construction of a space bubble extremely difficult, as he is essentially trying to create a smooth glass construct out of broken pieces. Looking down at his palm, several parts of his glove appeared scratched while streams of blood escaped the bottom of his glove.
Brakagi's has now cracked the moon in half...no...it was rather the tearing of fabric of reality itself that is bringing pieces of moon within them as it broke. Light, sparks, strings and other strange creations appeared to be peeking through what lied beyond, and yet Brakagi is the one that stood in between them. He is simultaneous the gatekeeper and the one that opened the way.
'Damn it!' Pulling back his mind even further, Rydel's body glowed brighter than even the sun of Chang E at this distance as his will envelops the entire gas giant. The propagation of Brakagi's destruction haven't yet reached beyond the gravitational well of the gas giant, so that's what Rydel will grab onto.
There is only one problem, and that's the fact that both Rydel and Zero are still within it.
'Do it.' Zero said lightly into Rydel's ear, sensing his hesitation.
He nodded, and closed his fist.
Rydel didn't know he can warp himself into his hand, but Zero has showed him all the more that his artifact can do. However, as Brakagi's threat of destruction is shifted into the universe within Rydel's Palm, the two of them are then standing directly in the wave of destruction.
'This is...trippy as fuck.....' Rydel said, looking at the colorless bounds of the space created by his glove, 'so this is what it feels to be trapped here...'
'Not too bad if you have enough space, right.' Zero said, when suddenly a crack began to form along his forearm. The same can be said with Rydel, and the pain only came seconds later.
In a moment of surprise, Rydel almost lets everything go, but he knew he mustn't. If the two of them hung on here until Brakagi's artifact avatar rampage's over, then it would only be the universe within Rydel's palm that is destroyed, rather than what lied outside.
'Ouch...' Rydel said, feeling the opening right across his chest and poking his right hand through it before that is open torn wide open.
'Yeah, strange right.....' Zero said, 'this is similar to what dying to a black hole is like, except it's more...discrete than continuous.'
'Yep.....' Rydel chuckled as his throat is lifted an inch from his shoulders, 'this is so weird...'
Despite the pain and the damage sustained to their bodies, Rydel held onto his left fist, while Zero held onto Rydel.
'When it all started, did you imagine that it would all end like this...?' Zero asked.
'I wanted to say the same to you.' Rydel said, looking down at the gas giant that's now been completely dissembled into an rotating ball of hydrogen and other metals with Brakagi being in the center still, 'what you were preparing for all this time...it wasn't Brakagi, was it?'
'No...' Zero said, 'I was preparing for a possibility, a possibility for what lied beyond...'
'And what lies beyond?'
'A quiet universe. Dark, dead, quiet, luke warm.' Zero said, 'in a sense, all of our existence here had been in a bubble.'
'So why are the artifact here?'
'Perhaps it's a chance for us to rebuild the universe...' Zero shrugged, as his right shoulder and arm began drifitng away from the two of them, 'the objects that can affect reality itself are also the ones to rebuild it.....'
'Perhaps with all of our passing, the aspects of the universe concentrated in our bodies can be returned...'
'I thought my last moments will be with Valerie.'
'Hahaha...it was thanks to me that you met her too, right?'
Suddenly, a vertical cracked exploded outward from Brakagi, and everything is shattered into countless pieces of fragments.
Among the chaos, Rydel is still clenching his left fist, while Zero is still holding onto Rydel.
The destruction centering Brakagi was finally finished, when suddenly the torn up bodies of Rydel, Zero and Brakagi popped back into the normal universe.
Zel, who's been watching closely in surrounding space, immediately exited from his pocket domain and hurried towards the three knocked out artifact users.
All three sustained substantial damage, and yet somehow...all three are still alive? Just what happened...
With all of those that are injured during the battle being treated on the flagship of Absolute Being, the battle has finally come to an end with no winners on both sides.
Lady Lily have spent the next day or so going around the various artifact users and treating their individual injuries. Then, she placed the artifact users under Brakagi into cryostasis in case they wanted to break out.
Out of all of the artifact users, Rydel, Zero and Brakagi's injuries are the most severe with strange scars exhibiting all throughout their bodies as if they have been torn apart and sewn back together by a lousy maid.
Rydel woke up a week later, Zero a few days after that, and Brakagi's situation is still unstable. Rather fitting considering the nature of his artifact.
The artifact users and bearers may have wanted to keep things quiet for a few days, but the galaxy simply cannot wait. Zero forced himself to move around the flag ship until he has reached the ward where Brakagi's at, and ignoring Lady Lily's warnings, he placed his hand on the little Rocky and entered deep inside of his mind with Code Zero.
'Now...let's have a talk.'
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone