✧ Chapter 27 ✧

Buzzing fluorescent light bulbs set the mood for a dark damaged room growing with more corals from up under the cracks in the ground. Styra and Omnikra found themselves next to this large dead fan inside of a pipe that was seeping a continuous water flow into the metallic floor's draining system. Further observations proved that they were out for hours after landing here. When Styra tried to use the Eternal Light Of Time to find out where the others were, the light turned dim. This confused her. No matter which one she tried to use, it did not work. Failed attempts became more obvious as she realized how truly hopeless the situation felt. She was at the edge of an unknown universe against her will and she had no idea where they were. Even Omnikra never recalled visiting this place at all.

Tears swelled up inside her, dropping like light rain during a thunderstorm. Heavy panic was made known through her shaking fingers. In order to find them, she would have to fly through outer space. She was afraid of flying off into the cold soulless emptiness that was much more deadly than even Polar Plaza's erratic temperatures. She noticed a closed metal door with a sign on it that was far across from where they were now. The words read:

Property Of UVOCA. Authorized Personnel Only.

Hunched back, she sat with her hands squirming in tandem with that mental agony scratching her sanity while holding her legs together with them. Omnikra, hearing all of these displaced thoughts, began to connect the dots on their problems with the Eternal Lights.

"I think I know why they're not working, although this might be obvious. The Heptarion Force operates under Prism's command. Prism must have put the clues together when either Sapphirion or Diamondion told it about what was going on. By using the Eternal Light Of Hierarchy, it must have disabled you from using each one that ended up being collected."

"Omnikra, I want you to kill me," interrupted Styra, who stared at it with tired eyes.

The weapon wasn't liking her derivative attitude. She went right back into her old ways as if there was nothing that could be helped.

"No, Styra. At this point, I am a positive part of what you have grown to become. I get that you lost a lot, but what sense does it make to abandon everything you care about because it seems conflicting?"

Silence perpetuated the fuel to anger Styra into trying to punch herself in the face. Out of care, Omnikra created Kra Forcefields around her hands to try and hold the fists charged with power from landing against her face.

"I deserve to pay for all of my crimes! I am nothing but a nuisance to you. You're always agitated with me, even when you don't act like it. I'm not The New Guardian, but no one listens to me! Every time I do my best to achieve something for someone, my fragility causes me to lose it. This was my responsibility. To protect everyone I cared about. There isn't a reason for me to exist for what I've done. Whether you are born without hope or with destiny, life is both a gift and a punishment. Me, I earned that cruelty. My powers didn't save anything. It only further destroyed what was peaceful. I tried to change everything because I couldn't be satisfied. Let me face that cold truth for once. I am not special. What right did I have to dictate the way things could have happened? There's always a trade-off for existing. I shouldn't be anything. My inner self doesn't know who I want to be. I want it to stop trying," she sobbed.

The conversation paused with Omnikra speechless at how perseverant she was in her negativity. In all of its years, thwarting the dangerous obstacles universes had to offer, this time it saw its own selfishness. By trying to control everything according to what the inscription said, that broke the real values and characteristics of itself. It broke Styra as well. Forcing every ally to help her find the Eternal Lights and care for her goal. She had thought that, by knowing who she was, that she could keep everyone she cared about safe. The truth was simple. They were probably in another dangerous reality left for dead.

"We were both wrong. We also have a chance to make it right. Hating ourselves for being alive is not something you should have to blame yourself for. It is worse to cause others suffering and provide nothing to make up for the damage we have caused them, even when we are at our lowest. Whether you think they deserve it or not, no one ever really does," said Omnikra.

Guilt resurfaced within Styra. Except this time it was really different.

"What if we can't stop them from harming themselves?" she asked.

"If it is hard to learn that you can create your own values, expect to be challenged eventually. Everything is not the same, but there is a certain truth to finding self-worth. I think for the first time, I'm seeing that you don't need to have every outside force shape who you are to create a true identity. That identity is a choice. In order to make the right choice, sometimes we have to let it go. I say this because many times, one can be so obsessed with having or losing it all, that when they do… It will become pointless. Death is on no one's side. Just like life, it can deceive you into thinking there will be something good to be gained from its objectives if you can't be you either way. We are being tied between two inescapable parts of what makes us real. Being forced to trust what you didn't ask to be. What created us is unknown and you can't say it won't bring you back to life after you die. One you may fear worse than the last. To experiment with that darkness inside of you, it does not offer you peace of mind."

Their situations may not have been the same, but the weapon's wisdom made sense. She wasn't giving what she cared about the freedom it deserved. Instead she had been prioritizing control which created a trapped sense of safety that never existed to begin with. Why would she assume she knew life and death when she rejected the understanding of it all to justify her end?

"Despite what I feel right now, I shouldn't have tried to control my guilt. It turns out, it has been controlling me all this time. I fought to become better for others but it has only made me worse. I kept making the wrong decisions for others when they trusted me. Life and death may have given me despair, but it can't force me into submission. I have my own path I want to follow, but I'm not going to let it hurt those I care about either way. If judgment ends everything, I will be giving it a new name now."

Styra stood up facing the metal door in front of her.

"Like a warrior?" asked Omnikra.

She smiled with confidence at the weapon with a rejuvenation of pure energy surging outside of her.

"Like a warrior," she said.

Busting through the doorway, they started to walk down the large mysterious hallways. On the right side, open doors showed different laboratories around the facility. On the left side, window panels stretched alongside them revealing an ocean that covered the entire place like an underwater aquarium. Styra became awestruck at the view, placing her hand on the squeaky glass. As she stared at herself from the reflection made by it, something strange began to catch her eye. Another image reflecting off of the glass was a piece of paper pinned on the other side of the hallway. Pulling the paper down, she began to read it to herself:

LIQUATICS LABORATORY INC.

UVOCA MISSION STATEMENT:

Our world has been experiencing strange oddities that do not belong. Their existence must be documented, experimented, and confined to label what is currently mysterious or unknown. While we at UVOCA are aware of such occurrences, the aim is to construct valid explanations about where these oddities come from to ensure the safety and civility of what is common knowledge and sane. Reporting an oddity requires more than one witness's encounter with it to be justifiably proven as one. These oddities are things that originated out of chaotic ambiguity. They must be stopped.

Pinning the paper back up, Styra was about to leave the place when a strange noise came out of nowhere. Thinking it was inside a laboratory called TR-5750 that was two rooms down, they peeked from a lower position of the door's entrance to find a set of illuminating orange eyes inside of a dark gaseous portal fixated on this man with a bald head and dark cloak making a proposition before him. Hiding away from being spotted, she was able to eavesdrop on their conversation. From what it sounded like, they had arrived minutes ago to find Styra and Omnikra here. Diamondion had recovered the Shard Of Surreality, causing her to alert not only Prism but the guardian who created these shards. Omnikra informed her mind that this was Spessarion, Keeper Of Surreality. He was both one of the tallest and strongest of the Heptarion Force. As it turned out, he was also the guardian inside the anonymous portal.

"That ring is the only one that can cause any lifeform to perish on immediate contact, even those with regenerative powers of their respective universes. My concern applies if we are using that against the fugitive. We don't know what may happen since my sister tried to send the creature to outer space only to receive adverse effects," said Spessarion to the bald man.

Styra wondered why there were three Reality Orbs, three Surreality Shards, and now one Death Ring to add into the mystery of their endeavors. She nodded to Omnikra that they should leave now without being seen, heard, or caught. As soon as they started to fly off once again, they went from the deep ocean spectacle in the hallways to a giant room filled with many cryostasis chambers holding human beings that were asleep. It was a strange sight to witness. Beyond that were highly secured containment prisons with numbers plastered on each one they saw.

This must be where their "oddities" are kept, Styra thought to herself. Pounding and screaming sounds could be heard from around hundreds of doors as they passed by them. In the last area of the facility was Liquatics Laboratory's main lobby. Its headquarters seemed to not only be deserted of staff, but instead a vacant location in general just by looking around the glass structured disk towering the place as if it could've been a well known landmark. The main lobby itself had the accessibility of stairs or elevators which were similar to the Nebules Tower's structure as well when it came to design. In the middle was a huge UVOCA logo that they flew by as well.

"The exit is up and out. We're going to have to go to the Infinite Infernum. If Spessarion has been dealing with the Ring of Infernum, it is likely he talked to Strage. The possibility of your friends ending up there from what Diamondion may have said is pretty bad. I have been there myself but you will have to follow me to know where to go," said Omnikra.

By the time they reached the outside where the wind blew stronger and stronger, Styra was curious about something else.

"Right. So just one more question. Who is Strage?" she asked disconcertingly.

The weapon paused with intense concern.

"Strage is… Death," it said hesitantly.

Styra's eyes began to sink into the depths of water before her waving calmly. Death. No, this couldn't be right. She was worried this would come sooner or later. Her legs collapsed outwards. Hands fell flat. Tears came running down as if an unstoppable force was squeezing this inertia of pain through her emotions. What happened to the tripedyras when they died? She couldn't do anything. What happened to Flight, Hisa, and Chelbie when they died? She wasn't there to fulfill that promise for them. Odds were set against her intentions. If Strage really did do what it had done, then she had to make things right and return what was wrongfully taken. Ironically, she wanted to use the Eternal Lights now to bring them back to life when it was the first rule not to do so.

Wars against life led to death. As for wars against death, they led to resurrections. Life was never perfect, but she was going to change that now. No one would have to die or feel pain ever again like they did. She trusted that vow in hopes to restore what had been lost. Opening her eyes with a steady anger, she stood up to face the vast ocean as she stanced with stillness.

"Then we level it up a notch," she replied.

With not a second to lose, Styra ran across the futuristic dock and gave way to flying slightly above the water with The Kra Force surrounding her own essence. They shot up diagonally into the sky and its twinkling atmosphere. The increase of speed left an exertion of strength much to be desired.

When they passed the planet's outer boundary, the cold, reminiscent shock of space almost made her feel like staying still. With effort, she struggled through her memories. This caused her to fly slower than Omnikra. The weapon noticed and decided to do something it had never done before. Upon summoning itself to her position, the four blades flew around Styra, matching her velocity, trajectory, and orientation. Due to being synced in movement, the blades felt her power. As a result, this boosted her past light speed so she could travel into another galaxy. However, the race across space and time did not end there.

An asteroid in one solar system was coming close to causing the extinction of a random planet from her viewpoint. Seeing it beforehand emerged a deep feeling within herself that chose to incinerate through the thing that also destroyed her home. With one hit, the force of her and the Kra Blades sent the asteroid flying away as it disintegrated from existence. The faster she went, the stars looked like streaks of rainbows painting themselves in a dark blue canvas. One by one she blasted through thousands of rocky asteroid belts, flew beside millions of icy comets, and best of all: accelerated among billions of universes. Colorful branches of light flashed inside of these purple celestial bubbles racing alongside her as what was void made the experience unbelievable. They were scattered everywhere she went. For once it was the most fun she had in years. There was nothing stopping her. This was what Emeraldion meant by "beyond the mind".

It was an unlimited and freeing experience not afraid of not knowing.