BXBX NOVEL Chapter 209: Binding Vow.
"Where are we?" A man asked from behind them, seated on a high throne of iron with one hand rested on the handle while his other hand held his head in place, his hair was violet from the roots to the ends, and his eyes as black as the void he stared at with pupils of pure red, and beneath his left eye was the number 79 the same as the number on the front of the massive ship
Unlike the crew who worked under him, the man wore black, much like their uniforms but it resembled a battlesuit. "These stars are not the same as a moment ago." He stated and the woman started moving her fingers retracing their steps on a smaller floating augmented screen in front of her.
"I have no idea, the breach isn\'t where it was supposed to be either, and all the stars are different indeed, not different as in a separate place sir, but different in physics as well, I think we accidentally jumped universes-"
"That was no accident." The man sat forward and smirked as the gold before him turned to white and the approach slowed. "My brother was right after all, there is indeed a Godslayer here." He grinned revealing his teeth all sharp and zipped like those of sharks. "...and if there is a Godslayer..."
"Vatui are never far behind, but what was that golden light before?" Another woman wearing a similar battlesuit to his with similar attributes in appearance save for her hair being tall and caught into a ponytail and the number under her eye being 120 sat on the handle of his throne and smiled watching Sol slow down before the screen of their deck and stare at everyone inside, clutching his hammer.
He looked at the ship from one end to the next, the biggest feat of creation he had ever seen outside of celestial bodies, but his awe was completely suppressed under the weight of this being a ship that had breached the veil and entered his domain.
"Leave." Sol didn\'t waste any time at all as he spoke, and upon speaking, his voice boomed throughout the entire ship causing most of the staff to instantly fall unconscious while the others covered their ears in shock, several of them even fell to their knees and cowered in fright.
"I want to avoid conflicts as much as I can, I don\'t know who you are and I don\'t care why you\'re here, you\'re not welcomed, leave." He spoke again, and the man on the throne chuckled, drawing Sol\'s attention to himself.
"This one has no idea the vastness of the collective, does he, who doesn\'t know who we are, is he for real?" He asked, and Sol sighed and placed his hand on the glass.
"Alpha, can you identify it?" He asked.
[Unknown compounds, standby...]
[I tried hacking into their system but something is blocking me, not another sentient consciousness like myself but a power much like yours, it is preventing me from gaining any information.] She answered in his head and Sol raised his hammer and tapped the glass.
Sol stared at the woman in white he was sure was the leading pilot. "You won\'t get another chance, if you don\'t start leaving in the next ten seconds I attack." He stated calmly
"A hostile Godslayer... How long has it been since one of these relics had the will to fight back?" 120 asked, stepping forward and smiling when Sol and her eyes locked onto each other, "The one he protects must be of high status, all the more reason to find and kill them." She laughed and as soon as the words left her mouth Sol\'s fist slammed into the glass.
"Whoa, does he think that a strike from his bare fist can even scratch an imperial v-"
*BOOM!* Sol slammed his fist into the screen a second time and the woman did a double-take of the glass when she saw a massive crack run from the top to the bottom and alarms started going off.
"I get it now, he took us to a different universe entirely." The man held forward his hand. "Not that it matters, A Godslayer is only a Godslayer." He clasped his fist and the glass was instantly mended to perfect condition.
"The Vatui he protects is indeed someone special, there are so few these days that it only makes sense that he would be, maybe we finally found one of the nobles that escaped, or maybe royalty this time..."
"Time\'s up." Sol hefted his hammer and leaned himself. "You\'ll learn the importance of caution-"
"Seize him." Number-79 ordered, and all of a sudden there were dozens of people on the outside of the ship, they weren\'t gods, Sol couldn\'t tell what they were supposed to be, but they were all stronger than they appeared -that much was clear as day. "Don\'t kill him, I want to question him myself-"
He was in the middle of giving an order when the soldiers he sent after Sol all exploded when they tried attacking him, sending clots of blood and body parts flying off and hitting the screen.
[Master, is it wise to kill them all? We need information...] Alpha spoke up but Sol scoffed.
"I\'m curious too but if one came, then more will come later on, we can always question someone else when we have enough questions, for the time being though, I\'m going to exercise ignorance and send these ones to hell because I\'m curious where the threshold is that I need to keep on average to not overexert myself or underperform."
[Forced Sun]
Inside of the ship, Sol watched several officers and soldiers, start running around as cosmic fire began blazing and his technique manifested in there with them, he watched unsympathetically as the insides melted and everything went still.
Clasping his fist, he created a tiny star on the inside manifesting a small isolated apocalypse and watching for a response other than panic and fear.
"That\'s enough!"
From seemingly out of nowhere the woman with 120 came from his peripheral and dropkicked him in his side, Sol knew something was off about them, he knew they were strong as the ones who seemed to be in charge but when her heels connected with his armour and broke it he was genuinely shocked at the ease at which something that had survived most of his other battles was obliterated in a single strike.
The kick alone caused a wave of force that tilted the entire ship as he was sent spiralling down reaching out and tearing at space in an attempt to stop himself and only gaining the ability to do so when the glow of his white hair intensified and he exerted more power.
"You have been tested, Godslayer, you are no match for the Emporium, not a single one of you have been for the past few millennia, In the name of the Queen of the Thousand Sun Empire, I order you to surrender the Vatui rebels.
"What the hell is a Vatui?" Sol raised his hand off his armour seeing a few cracked shards float off into space. "I genuinely have no idea what you\'re talking about; you\'re trespassing on my territory I want you gone, it\'s as simple as that.
"You lying little peasant, the Godslayers only manifest where the Vatui reside, the fact that you exist means that you have been in constant contact with one of those traitors, if you fail to deliver them, your entire Gate will burn away into nothing-"
"Yeah... I still don\'t know what A Vatui is, you\'re free to try prying information from me, but I guarantee..." Sol relaxed and sucked in a breath. "None of you are leaving here alive anyway."
"Red eyes... White hair, deceitful, cunning, able to impersonate any other being by a quick study, able to adapt powers so long as they are exposed to it, are you telling me none of this rings a bell?" The woman started walking across the void towards him.
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that some Vatui filth didn\'t awaken your powers, that you just acquired them all on your own?" She roared, and Sol felt his chest tremble from her voice.
"That\'s exactly what I\'m saying!" He snapped back exerting even more power than she just had, and she paused in reaction to it and stared curiously since this was far more power than the usual Godslayer could exert as a Vatui henchman, meaning there was more to them, it was rare but she had experienced this power before.
"You are intimate with yours, I see... You managed to forge some kind of binding vow or contract in exchange for more power." She smiled when she saw the blood drain from Sol\'s face as he felt tremors of rage and fear in the pits of his stomach.
"I have no idea what you\'re on about." Sol narrowed his eyes doing a mental check and finding Ikaris still safe and waiting in an isolated space with Dina and the others while the system relayed to them what was happening in real time through the cloned connected consciousness of Alpha that he had brought with him.
"If that were true, then why do you think of the name, Ikaris, every time I say Vatui?"