Daniel's planet was currently floating in the empty space right next to Naturae. In exchange for saving their planet, the One With Nature faction had decided to allow Daniel a passage to wherever he wanted to go within the territory of the universal government. Being an ancient faction, they had obtained the right to use the teleportation artifacts in a time where not many were created, so, there were many limitations. This right was obtained not due to their power, but through seniority.
The way the universal government allowed for factions to travel through their territory, was by forming massive spatial formations inside every single galaxy they discovered. These formations would work as beacons that would allow people to teleport from one galaxy to another, reducing the otherwise extremely long travel, to a matter of seconds.
Unfortunately, the artifacts granted to the factions by the universal government had a limited number of uses, and the number decreased faster depending on how far the owner wanted to go. For example, a teleportation between adjacent galaxies would only consume a single use, while teleporting further than that, would require more.
The One With Nature faction, now amongst the weakest factions within the universal government, had a limited number of teleportations left within their own artifacts. Their lack of power or interest in competing with other factions had forced them to the bottom of the list of factions, causing the universal government to become uninterested about their support, and by extent, not deserving of the investment of new intergalactic artifacts.
Daniel was now sitting on a chair inside a comfortable looking room. The lighting was feeble, and produced by a flickering magical white flame that quietly danced in a fireplace. In front of him was a bed covered in a beast's pelt, and on it, was Heimart. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed, still stuck inside his own mind in an attempt to recover the damage that the torture he had gone through had done to his personality.
He had spent the past three hours in this room, and after each minute went by, he felt his blood boil hotter than before. In his mind, was a large window on which was written Daniel's new quest. What was depicted in this window, were the details regarding the elimination of the person who had turned so many people from normal warriors, to bloodthirsty bandits.
Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried, not a single one of his thoughts had been able to formulate an option that could allow him to kill this individual without having to gain a massive amount of power. That was extremely odd for Daniel's system, which in theory, would be able to read any eventuality in the distant or close future, and formulate the quickest path for him to take.
Now, however, what the system told him was that if he wanted to kill this person, he deeded to be stronger than him. Otherwise, there would be absolutely no way he would succeed.
Nevertheless, he had been able to learn what level of power his new enemy was, as well as where he would be in a certain period in the future, and how to kill him.
To Daniel's surprise, this man was one of Iewah's children, which similarly to one of Sewah's sisters who could control people's emotions into doing her bidding, or his brother, who could cause his enemies to bow down to his sight as if he was their ruler, he was able to affect the mind in a more direct way. The mind of other people was his playground, and he did not even require to move from his hiding place to have a massive army willing to do his bidding.
Due to this man's power, Daniel had realized that, while all unique, the powers of Iewah's children could be divided into two categories. One allowed one to develop a person's power through their unique abilities, just like the Swordsman, the Merchant, the Elementalist, and the Shadow.
However, there was a second type of systems that allowed Iewah's children to increase their strengths with numbers, just like the beasts tamed by the tamer, the subjects of the Ruler, the loving followers of Sewah's sister, Daniel's group, and finally, the brainwashed people of this new enemy.. A warrior known simply as "Mindhive".
Daniel was unsure of the exact power of each of these individuals, but since he had heard of the long lasting feud between the Swordsman and the Tamer, and he knew that while the swordsman fought alone, the tamer used her beasts as support, he had assumed that those whose powers were focused on their persona must be extremely powerful individuals.
His guess was not completely false, however, the way one used the system they were given was much more important than the system's abilities.. After all, Daniel's help had created numerous beings who had created numerous young dragons who, with time and luck, could grow into being some of the most powerful individuals in history.
"Staying here won't help him." Said a voice that came directly from within Daniel's own mind.
Daniel knew that nothing of what happened was his fault. However, he was the one that had taken these young men and women away from their lives. He had offered a life of adventures that, now, had brought Heimart into this state.
As these thoughts came and went into Daniel's mind, Aeron said, "I have searched all of his memories.. Each one of them. I could not find one where he was happier than the time he spent with his family, and your group. You haven't taken him away from a peaceful life, they have chosen it."
Daniel remained quiet, but there was no need for him to speak for Aeron to hear the question.
"You could drive them all away.. They might leave peacefully, or die the very next day." Responded Aeron to a question that was never asked.
Annoyed by Aeron's response, Daniel said, "If you are here to annoy me, the-"
He was interrupted by Aeron's voice, which had appeared from out of nowhere, and without emanating a single wisp of spatial essence, and said out loud, "Or you can become stronger, and deter danger before it can even think of coming closer to you or any of your friends."
Once again, Daniel became quiet for a few moments, then shook his thoughts away, and asked, "What is it?" "
"The old man wants to talk to you." Responded Aeron before disappearing.
The moment Aeron disappeared, Daniel turned to look at Heimart, on whose face a faint smile seemed to have appeared, and said, "You better wake up soon. Your wife will kill me if you don't." He then disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was standing a few kilometers away from the trunk of a massive tree. This tree stood at least three thousand meters tall, and with a trunk diameter of at least five hundred meters. The crown was even larger, and inside it, thousands of houses connected by small bridges could be seen. To the very top of the tree, laying on the roof of a massive house, was Xargy in his draconic form. He was basking in the sun, and enjoying its warmth.
Aeron was standing in front of a group of old men and women, who were floating in the air just a few meters away from where Daniel had appeared.
Daniel's planet was so close to Naturae, that it could be seen clearly despite being the middle of the day.
While in the beginning this group of old cultivators were extremely worried about what the effect of this massive planet could have to their home, their worries had been put to rest the moment they had noticed that Daniel's planet did not interfere with their planet's gravity, nor was their Naturae affected by his. It almost felt like Daniel's planet was a ghost planet that lived in another dimension, and could not physically interact with any other celestial body.
What they did not know, was that this planet was an extension of Daniel's body. He could dictate the gravity, or even its composition.
"We have researched.. Most of the planets that you have listed are very far away, and our artifacts does not possess enough power to take you there. The best we can do would be a few thousand years away from all of them, with an exception made for Cato.. we can bring you to Cato's galaxy, but it will take you some time to get to the right system." Said the old man to Daniel.
At first, Daniel had no intention of stopping in this planet. He simply wanted to take Lucious and be on his way to the closest one of his friends. However, the very moment he had formed the next quest to reach his friend, amongst the three options, was to ask for a passage from the people he had just saved.
The group had accepted immediately. After all, Daniel had killed an entire army to help them, as well as challenged a being whose power they couldn't even comprehend.
"Cato is fine." Responded Daniel. He already knew that Cato would be the only possible option amongst the ones he had given, however, he was curious about the workings of these intergalactic artifacts, so he decided to ask either way.
The old man nodded in understanding, but in his eyes, was deep worry.
"What will your people do now?" Asked Daniel.
Dainel's cultivation was not as powerful as this old man's, so he wasn't able to read his mind. However, that was not the case for Aeron who, after having just ascended, could ignore the immortal essence that worked as shield from external powers, and read through other people's minds as if they were a simple humans.
The moment these thoughts passed through the old man's mind, Aeron read them, and moments later, from Aeron's mind, they were read by Daniel.
What Aeron and Daniel read, were the worries that were born out of the situation that had taken place just hours ago. Along with Daniel, he had learned that these warriors were nothing but the puppets of an extremely powerful chosen of Iewah, who had likely ordered them to destroy their planet either for interest, or by chance.
Now that the army which they considered their greatest rival faction was gone, instead of feeling relieved, the old man was worried that the next group that this puppeteer would send, would be even stronger. Even if there was a chance that nobody else would come, and that they were just a convenient target for the conditioning of this group of people, they would still have to live their lives fearing that one day their peaceful planet would be destroyed.
After listening to these thoughts, Daniel sighed deeply. He then opened a portal that lead right next to the tree trunk, and walked through it.
The group of old cultivators were unsure about what he was doing, so they followed him in. When they appeared, they saw Daniel place his right hand against the bark of the tree, and inject a seemingly infinite amount of power which, to the group of old cultivators, appeared to be an extremely odd type of immortal essence.
While this tree was massive, the biggest part were its roots, which reached far and wide into the depths of the planet's crust. That was the reason why Daniel had chosen this tree.
When every bit of the tree was filled with his power, he turned it all at once into spatial essence, which thanks to the tree's intricate roots, quickly became a spatial formation that encompassed the entire planet.
Before completing it, however, Daniel turned to look at the old man, and said, "A bit of your blood."
Daniel's comprehension of spatial essence was now perfect. Space was his domain, and he could do anything he wanted with it. To form a spatial formation that contained an entire planet was childplay, and since he was receiving help from these people, he decided to lend a hand once more time.
The leader of the One With Nature faction approached Daniel while cutting his fingertip with the fingernail of his other hand. A small drop of blood floated from the injury, straight into the crevices of the tree's bark, and the moment they disappeared, the man felt an extremely powerful formation come into place around the entire planet. Its very core was this massive tree, which had merged with his blood, allowing him to control the formation at will.
What they had yet to notice, however, was that from the outside, Naturae had disappeared completely.
