章節 164: Chapter 29: Plans to save a world (500 k!)

'Huh.'

Now that there is a challenge in front of him, Rydel certainly won't be one to back down. The rest of the bearers cleared away as a group of medical droids picked up Zel and took him away as Elmyra exited with him. The rest of the group sat in the corner of the room overlooking the planet below that's still plunging towards the sun and waited for the beginning of the experiment.

'Don't disappoint me.' Zero said as he gathered himself in the corner and pointed his hand towards the diagonal corner, 'I will head towards that direction.'

Rydel nodded towards him and slightly rolled up his left sleeve just to make sure there won't be any loose bit of clothing bothering him. Then, Zero began moving, Rydel very easily traced the space around him before activating his artifact and warping Zero into the space within his palm as the leader of Absolute Being poof-ed out of existence.

'It's actually quite like a magician's trick...' Alrith joked, but nobody laughed along with her. The rest of the group held their breath as they looked Rydel hold out his fist to show that he has him quite literally controlled in the palm of his hand.

'Right now, I will just warp Zero around, changing his spatial positioning.'

Then, just like a magician, Zero appeared right in front of the wall behind Rydel, and he almost walked face first into the wall, however, all of his forward momentum was killed and he simple reappeared as a snap shot of his previous gait pattern as he awkwardly returned to standing.

'Nice reaction.' Rydel commented, 'did you feel anything weird?'

'Weird? Reaction?' Zero turned around with his eyes almost popping out of his eye socket, 'how about all of my forward momentum disappearing and me reappearing right in front of the wall? I felt as if I am dead.'

There are veins popping out all over his forehead as his body struggled to process the sensation he had just gone through. It doesn't feel good to have the conservation of momentum violated...it felt like his entire existence has just been slapped on the face, and every cell in his body knew something is on, and yet none is able to process what has just happened.

'So that's what happens when I warp something.' Rydel explained it to the rest of the room, who mostly have a general idea of how it works with Rydel's artifacts, 'On the most basic level, my artifact allows me to alter the location of anything in space, which is what I alwasy thought for the longest time.'

'But you can also kill momentum...' Zero continued, slapping hard on his legs to stop it from pulsing and trembling after that out of body experience, 'and you can also give them.'

'Ready?' Rydel asked, raising his hand towards Zero before calling back to his earlier comment, 'don't disappoint me.'

'Fuck.' Before Zero can prepare himself, Rydel has already picked him up and warped him away using the glove before giving him a gentle toss, throwing him across the room. Knowing that Zero will probably need some time to react, Rydel made sure to release him in the air. As Zero reappeared in the air and flung his arms and legs like a distressed land animal before face-planting into the ground regardless due to the forward momentum.

'So?' Rydel asked, and Zero held out a finger towards him, indicating that he might need a minute after that torture. Then, he got up and said.

'This should work, assuming you can warp a planet.' Zero said, pushing himself up so he can directly face Rydel, 'but can you?'

'Do or do not, there is no try...' Thinking back to this famous quote from the ancient times on Old Earth, Rydel nodded firmly towards Zero.

'I hope you enjoyed that, because I am not doing anything like that again.' Zero growled towards the groups of bearers that had been having the time of their lives seeing Zero willing suffer at the hands of Rydel, then he pointed his finger at Cellica before leaving the room behind, 'I will alert Lady Lily and Sir Deva right away. Stay in contact.'

'Rydel...' Ol said, looking at the young man that was once brought into the group now stepping up and saving an entire planet. Just thinking of how much he has grown is already enough to stir up some emotion inside of him.

'I know the fact that we have performed the experiment before doing the real thing kills all of the narrative tension,' Rydel said, looking at his groups of friends, 'but we ain't doing anything stupid in this book. We are scientists...while most of us are, and we make sure there is the highest chance of success for whatever we do.'

'But...how are you feeling?' Alrith asked, as she saw through the faced that Rydel is putting up to try to calm both himself and his friends. He was like that on the Poseidon 5 before too...

'...I don't know.' Rydel admitted, 'warping a planet is infinitely more difficult than anything I have ever done before, and yet knowing Brakagi has affected a sun made me.....'

'Rydel. Don't compare your artifacts to the others.' Ol stood up and headed towards Rydel before placing two hands each on Rydel's shoulders, 'you know it. Just focus on what you must do...search the feeling from deep inside of you. You are capable of doing this, all of us know it.'

'When it comes to saving others, you will always go beyond your previous capabilities.'

Rydel nodded appreciatively, but none of the encouraging words seemed to be able to calm his rapidly beating heart. Warping a planet...that's going to be a tall task regardless of who you are and what your artifact's powers are. All known intelligent life in known galactic history all started from planets of different conditions. Then, the intelligent species gained ability to gradually affect their environments with the advancement of technology. But even then, the ability to move entire planets are still stuff of dying myths and legends. The feats of the gods, even in the post modern age.

And now Rydel will have to do that exact thing, and worse yet, their enemy is capable of something way crazier. If he can't save the planet in front of him, there is absolutely no way that he can even stand in front of Brakagi and confront him when the time comes.

Just as Rydel doubted the limits of his powers, Valerie approached him and leaned in close with her arms reaching around Rydel in a tight hug.

'I will do whatever you want tonight after you have done it.' She whispered into his ear, and her seductive voice sent a jolt of electricity all throughout Rydel's body.

'You know, it's hard as it is to concentrate...' Rydel said, but instead Valerie hugged him tightly and won't let him go.

'Don't underestimate yourself, Rydel.' Valerie said, 'remember when you warped a ship to save me?'

'When it counts, you are always there.'

Those were certainly a crazy time...Rydel smiled as his mind traveled back in time. He was one that was alwasy unsure of what to do, unsure whether he will be able to go through all of the necessary tasks at the Absolute Academy and passing the four tests just for a chance to save Dolon again. And yet, he did it with the help of his friends.

'I love you.' Rydel found himself caught up in the moment as Valerie's body became stiffened after hearing this before she turned and kissed him on the cheek.

'You idiot. Get ready.'

'I will.' Rydel said, now with all of the doubts and questions hidden away into the depths of his mind. All that's left is his trust for his friends and the mission at hand.

'You ready?' Cellica, now once again taking the role of communications between Rydel and Zero, asked, though there appeared to be a little bit of blush on her face after watching the intimacy shared by Rydel and Valerie.

Rydel offered her an apologetic smile and nodded his head.

The light flickered from the holographic projectors in front of him, and the position and trajectory of Olympus prime is once again showed on it.

'We have very little how you like to frame everything, so please guide us through how you want to do it.' Cellica said, relaying Zero's instructions.

'When I perform any sort of warping, I perceive things from the perspective of my...frame of reference.' Rydel said, being introspective of how he usually operates, 'so if I am to displace the planet towards a new orbit, it would be best if I am facing towards the right direction.'

The ship rattled in response to Rydel's words, as Olympus A is now obscured by Olympus Prime and the window now overlooked the darkness. Then, a entire region of space is highlighted on the holographic map.

'The highlighted areas you see are the safe orbital zones. If you wish, those will be overlaid on the window too.' Cellica explained, 'so it appeared that dropping off Olympus Prime anywhere in there should be fine.'

'Overlaying it would be helpful.' Rydel said, despite the fact that the success and failure of this mission is more dependent on the size of the planet rather than the accuracy of the summoning, it still is nice to have a target to go for. Rydel didn't have to wait too long, as a rectangular block is projected onto the window in front of him, and showed the regions of space to aim for. However, representing entire regions of space is going to be incredibly redundant, so to avoid populating the entire window with information, the modelling unit made sure to only present the slice of the orbits that Rydel needed to see.

Be ware that this is still a set of temporary orbits, and it is hard to know what the inevitable exit of Olympus B will do. But that will still be weeks away at this point, as both groups had already agree to cross one bridge at a time.

'Right.' Rydel said, 'what about the velocities?'

'Each orbit will have a designated orbital velocity, however, since there are a range of velocities that will work within the area.' Cellica answered, 'Olympus Prime actually already has enough momentum going, it just isn't going in the right direction.'

'How convenient.' Rydel joked.

'Well, it's more like that there are a large margin of error.' Cellica said as Rydel looked at her as she shrugged, 'not my words.'

'Fine.' Rydel said, 'I will first try to feel the boundaries of the planet first.'

Then, taking a deep breath and planting his feet into the ground, Rydel reached his left hand forward and activated the Glove of Summoning. His mind connected directly with the artifact itself as it glowed brightly, soon filling the entire room with nothing but it's shine. Rydel slowly ramped up the intensity of his artifact usage as his mind began to travel far out and away from the ship that he is on. Zooming out as if his soul has been ejected from the planet's gravity well, Rydel continued to breath calmly and slowly, as a strange warmth is now emanating from his gloves.

Then, he felt a gentle stretch and tug as if a strange torture device has been attached to his fingers and started pulling it apart. He felt for the boundaries of space that encircled Olympus Prime, and yet he is still nowhere near covering all of it. Right now, his soul is looking up to the planet looming all over him, powerless to do anything, let alone trying to hold it in the palm of his hand.

Rydel needed to zoom out more. The planet is big for any individual being, but when compared to the scale of even the Olympus system itself, it is nothing but a tiny pebble in the grandness of space. Rydel needed to continually zoom out his focus and intention, stepping further and further away from the planet.

His eyes are closed, and all of his being is focused onto the artifact, and he felt himself being thrown back even further from the planet's surface, as the seemingly boundless city planet is now gradually becoming smaller and smaller from his perspective. Now, Rydel reached out again as a dull pain extended out from the roots of his fingers.

He gently felt the space around the planet, and slowly closes it in.

Cellica watched on at Rydel, as she was forced to deactivate her artifact and turn on her protective eye wear because of how much energy and light Rydel is giving off at this moment due to his artifact activation. She turned her head to see a shadow looming over the planet beneath, obscuring the sun lights and lighting up the automatic lights of the city planet down below. Right now, if anyone were to look up, they would have seen the hand of the gods swallow everything.

Rydel continued to extend his will through his outstretching fingers, and it finally covered the entirity of the planet, however, he hasn't actually closed his hand. Remembering the painful sensation, Rydel let everything go and suddenly dropped onto his knees.

'Rydel!' Cellica hurried to his side as the lights went off from his artifact, 'are you okay?'

'I am fine.' Rydel lets go of a long held breath, 'but I got it. I can warp away a planet...but it will have to be done quickly, or else...'

Rydel looked down at his left hand, in particularly his lower arm as multiple bruises have already formed all over the place as the nanotechnology enhancements hurried to fix whatever damage that was inflicted onto him. Before, the limits of artifact usage were in that of the mind, meaning any chances of artifact overuse will lead to the user being knocked unconscious. However, with more rigorous training and strict, concise and clean mental focus when using the artifacts, the limitations then becomes that of the body, as evident by the strange injuries and pains now suffered by Rydel. That's where the true values of the enhancements lie, as the change and improvements in the mind can often occur much quicker than that of the body.

'Good.' Cellica said, her eyes turned to the side as she listened in to what Zero has to say, 'The designated trajectory of the planet is shown in front of you, please adjust for the perspectives when you are ready.'

'Few issues.' Rydel said, interrupting Cellica as he thought back to all of the sensations that he felt during the whole of it. Normally, instincts will tell you that the surfaces of most rocky planets are rough, and yet everything felt incredibly smooth and flat when you are zoning out so far that everything is compared to the diameter of the planet itself. However, Olympus Prime shouldn't have felt that smooth.

'He's right.' Zero said, sitting back with eyes open as he looked onward out the window of the command room of the flag ship towards the orbital rings, 'can you not feel it? Any of it?'

'Nothing...not even a little bump.' Rydel said, looking down at his slightly shaking left hand as he clenched it firmly with his right, 'and if I extend out even further, I might crush the rings onto the planet's surface....'

That sounded ridiculous, but those sort of ridiculous god-like feats is exactly what Rydel is afraid of at this very moment. This poses a massive issue, as the only reasons Orbital rings are able to be holding it's position in the various orbital heights is because of a balance between the centripetal force of the spinning masses and the gravitational pull of the planet. If the planet's gravitational fields is suddenly removed, the orbital ring will lose what's holding it together, and the only that will be maintaining structural integrity will be that of the tensile strength of the spinning mass, meaning structural failure is inevitable.

The rings will break apart and fly out in all directions, and that's not just going to be a problem for the citizens of Olympus Prime, but also for the other ships orbiting in low orbit right now.

It is an absolutely horrible idea to perform the warping right now. However, nobody in the galactic senate is going to be believing in his plan of letting a single person move an entire planet, regardless of what he is saying about the artifacts.

So right now he must be weighing the few options that he had. He can immediately call for an evacuation of all those that lived around the planet's orbits, which is mostly empty due to the previous weeks of evacuation efforts, however, obviously there are those that are unwilling to change their life just because a politician and a CEO says so.

If he were to put forward this plan, not only will nobody listen to him, it will actually be damaging to the overall evacuation effort. If he were to not act and let everything happen, most of Olympus Prime would be wiped out in a matter of days.

Clenching his fist, Zero accidentally crushed the handles of his seat in the command room. This is no easy choice to make, but he had to do what he can.

Give it a few hours. Finally, he's decided...give those that needed to get the hell out of here some time before he make their decision for them.

'Alert all the organization, groups and people to evacuate the orbits by either leaving the planet's gravitational well or go back down onto the surface.' Zero ordered before turning to his head to the modelling unit, 'you have five hours. I want you to hack into as many monitoring systems as you can and deliver a false report of a orbit wide asteroid phenomena, that should give them enough of a motivation to get out of here. The longer we delay this, the further Rydel's warping would have to go, and we cannot waste any more time!'

'Zero said he will give 5 hours to those that needed to be evacuated.' Cellica said, as she placed a hand on Rydel's shoulders, 'Sorry, but it looks like saving the world is quite a bit more complicated and troublesome than any of us previously thought.'

'Yeah.....no kidding.' Rydel chuckled, as the tremble in his left hand has finally whittled down, 'I need some time to let my left hand recover too. I don't want to do this with anything but a perfectly ready body.'