Kyle, Sebastian, Star Genesis, and Manny were traveling through the ground, breaking through the hard stone. At this moment, they were very deep underground.
As Kyle traveled, he felt a burst of anxiety. He was trusting Manny with his life, but what Kyle was doing right now was really pushing his trust.
From time to time, he looked into his Soul Space at the object sitting in the middle. Yet, calling it an object was not accurate.
It was… something, and it was quite strange.
It had been a week since the team had split up again. The last week had been filled with uncertainty. After all, if the Overseer decided to take a look at the world, they might die. They had essentially bet that the Overseer wouldn’t get any information about Humanity’s current state within that week.
The thing Manny had created wasn’t completely finished. If he had more time, he could improve it more, increasing their chances of success. Sadly, they just didn’t have a lot of time. It was possible that the Overseer would never look at them. It was also possible that they would only look at them in a couple of centuries. However, they were not willing to bet their lives on it.
When Manny had created it, the others looked at it with a feeling of discomfort. In a way, it felt like the relay, but it was also different in one important aspect.
This thing was alive.
Manny had designed it so that it looked like a Demon, albeit a small one. It was a couple of kilometers tall, but it could also shrink to a size of just a couple of centimeters. It had black scales and was quadrupedal. Human arms with claws stretched out of its back, similar to how needles stretched out of a hedgehog’s back. All in all, by appearance, one would think it was a Demon.
This thing was made of the same stuff the relay was made of.
Of course, when Kyle had seen that thing for the first time, he had asked several questions.
First of all, how could this thing be alive? Kyle had already tried to create life, and it had failed. How could Manny create life?
“That’s because this thing isn’t technically alive,” Manny answered. “For the Cosmos, this thing does not count as a living being. It’s like a fire. Fire looks alive, but it’s not actually alive. It still interacts with its environment, proliferates, spreads, and dies, but it’s not alive.”
“Everything in existence is based on Energy. If something has more Energy, it has more existential weight. You could view Energy as a form of currency in a society. After all, people often say everything revolves around money. If you have a lot of money, your weight in society also increases.”
“I get that,” Kyle had answered, “but this thing is pretty strong. I mean, it’s about as strong as a Primal, but that’s still a lot. How does that work? I thought you needed a Spirit.”
“That’s what I was trying to explain with the money metaphor,” Manny had said. “This thing is made of Energy, which represents money in this metaphor. However, it’s not made of entire bills, complete Energy Stones, or Contribution Points. It’s just a part of it. Imagine 20% of a bill, an almost-depleted Energy Stone, or 0.2 Contribution Points.”
“You were on Earth, right? I know some people who also were on Earth. Tell me, if you had 100 small pieces of different bills, would you be able to exchange them?”
“No,” Kyle answered. “As far as I know, there’s a 50% rule. You have to present more than 50% of the same bill to get a new one. Otherwise, I could cut off a quarter of eight bills, exchange the 75% complete bills for full ones, put the small pieces together, and get another two bills. If it worked like that, I would have infinite money.”
“Exactly,” Manny explained, “and that’s how this thing works. It’s made of partial Energy, which can only be created due to rules set for Experimental Worlds. You could say that this thing is an exception to the rules governing life.”
“That sounds risky,” Kyle had answered back then. “Wouldn’t that have the potential to break the Cosmos?”
“No, it wouldn’t,” Manny had said. “There is a fundamental and unchangeable truth. Energy, Death, and Balance are the most fundamental and most powerful forces in existence. The only way to create something even stronger is to mix Energy and Death. Except for Brutality, these three forces are the strongest.”
“If you break Energy down like this, you are actively handicapping yourself. One single part of Energy can never live up to the potential of Energy. That’s because Energy is already perfect. In the infinite history of the Primordial Chaos, countless changes have occurred, and yet, Energy and Death are still everywhere. If there were something better, there would be no Energy and Death anymore.”
“That’s why the Cosmos permits these experiments. It already has the strongest weapons and sturdiest armor. There’s no risk in letting people create weaker weapons and weaker armor out of stronger weapons and stronger armor.”
“This thing I’ve created technically has as much Energy as a Crusher, but it only has the weight and power of a middling Primal. Even more, the more broken Energy it has, the more unstable it gets. If it ever reaches the weight of a New Sage, it will collapse since it wouldn’t be able to support its own existence anymore.”
Kyle looked at the thing inside his Soul Space with worry as he remembered his conversation with Manny. Yes, it was only as strong as a Primal, but it was inside his Soul Space.
There was a reason why nobody transported living things in their Soul Space. One’s Soul Space was the least defended place. Even a Transcendent would be able to kill Kyle as long as they were inside his Soul Space.
When Manny had asked Kyle to put this thing into his Soul Space, it had been like he had asked him to put a living cockroach into his brain. As long as it stayed completely still, everything around it would keep operating normally, but if it moved just a tiny bit, several small but important blood vessels would break, which might result in death.
Kyle had been fine with transporting Manny in his Soul Space, but this was not Manny.
This was a living, moving thing. It had a mind, desires, and quite some power. Kyle did not know it, and he did not know what it thought. This thing was a complete unknown to him.
And yet, he had essentially handed his life to it. What was even worse was that entering and exiting a Soul Space needed agreement from both parties. If this thing, for some reason, didn’t want to leave Kyle’s Soul Space, he also wouldn’t be able to push it out.
“We’re here,” Manny transmitted to the others as he suddenly stopped moving.
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000 per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.
/user?u=27791050