✧ Chapter 42 ✧

During that time, the second unit of their team had already arrived in the world of StarSpace. There on the grounds of Katar Village, Diamondion focused on searching for the dark portal in the community’s graveyard while Hisa let Flight introduce most of his relatives to her. Confused about why they were alive, Flight eventually told them about Styra and how she had revived everyone that died in The Great Invasion.

Although all went well with the reunions going on, Hisa started to panic when she was asked about her family.

“Oh no! I forgot to tell them that we were supposed to bring Chelbie back! I just had to be so forgetful all of the sudden!” she yelled with overflowing anxiety.

Flight tried to calm her down, but this wasn’t slipping from her mind that easily. Hisa ran outside with Flight chasing behind her to where Diamondion was. She began to tell the queen about her problems.

“Diamondion, I need Chelbie to come back to StarSpace. Otherwise, my family is not going to be pleased to hear that I let her wander off on her own.”

The queen shook her head, upset at having to deal with this issue amongst all things when it was already planned out.

“Ms. Night, I regret to inform you but the deal has been sealed. The Dark One is busy trying to pursue Sapphirion which means we cannot change the plan without their permission. You will need to let her learn on her own. Styra and Eternika should be trustworthy enough to keep her safe.”

“Then let me talk with them at least.”

A change of heart grew within the queen as she could see it in Hisa’s eyes. This was someone who cared deeply about others. It reminded her of that dedication she solely held as ruler of Frostice. While grander in scale, she did not become their leader overnight. She had to start small to build a hundred years of relations with The Fluffles to truly understand what they believed in.

“Very well. I can accept that request. First, I will have one of my alternate versions check on their location in that universe. It will take a while to find any traces of them since they are already disconnected from time itself.”

As Diamondion started searching for them, Flight’s eyes caught a tall dark figure looming in the background of the cemetery. A purple foggy mist surrounded by full grown cypress trees made the environment feel much more eerie than usual.

“Wait… Is that Amethion?” he asked.

The three of them turned their attention toward the strange entity walking out of the darkness. At that exact moment, the reflection of the shadow grew smaller until they could make out what it was.

“The Guardian Of Reality. You are much more out of touch than most would fail to assume. There is no point in trying to find that portal here by the way. It has already disappeared,” said Voltaze.

“Your minuscule kind… I recognize part of where you originate. What is your name and why are you here?” inquired Diamondion.

“My name and why I’m here is the last thing I want to tell you. You guardians must think everyone will bow down on their knees for you. Such an ignorant expectation. Especially knowing Death itself couldn’t even stand to rival The Slayer Of The Omniverse.”

Piecing the news he was dropping on her together, she was filling up with unconfined rage.

“No! You did not just do that! When Prism hears of this—”

“Oh, but I did. As for your Master, it is not going to be able to stop what I’ve got planned. This world like many others will be decimated to crisps. Death is afraid of life. But me… I am afraid of neither.”

Diamondion faced towards Flight and Hisa who looked ready to fight. However, she knew this place was not safe for them to be. As a result, she used The Staff Of Reality to transport both of them to the world of Mechatopolis as she knew that was where most of the problems concerning The Surreality Shards lied. There, they could get some sort of head start on who was behind this.

“Getting overconfident are we? You will regret that choice,” warned Voltaze.

Pointing her staff directly at him, she started posing a stance against his claims based on her experience of being a guardian.

“I regret nothing. On the contrary, The Eternal Lights in your possession cannot do me any harm anyway. You have wasted your time collecting them up to this point,” she replied.

“You clearly have no idea what’s happening.”

“Really? I doubt that.”

Out of nowhere, a large futuristic helicopter was soaring high above them. Inside was Broc Boulderman and his trusty aviator Josh Acerson.

Mr. Nebules, the mayor of StarSpace City, was alerted that Flight and Hisa had been spotted by satellites. Military dispatchers quickly discovered the two had gone out of sight just as quickly as they came in. However, they also caught Diamondion and Voltaze over in Katar Village Cemetery. They had no clue what type of threats they were dealing with, but there was nothing stopping Chief Boulderman from entering the fight.

“Captain Acerson, call for backup. It looks like we may have found what caused a shift in our planet’s population.

“Yes sir. Calling all space pilots from Base 190. Report to Katar Village Cemetery immediately. Geographical locations have been notified to DIVA. Check your positions and prepare to engage.”

Shortly after this call, Voltaze was giving off a meticulous smile. A transformation was changing him as he balled up his fists and stared Diamondion down. His eye sockets became dark and emanated this callous nature about everything around it. His blue teeth had sharp jagged edges which drooled boiling hot saliva from his mouth.

Lunging towards Diamondion, the queen drew back her weapon and attempted to fly backwards in order to dodge Voltaze’s charged up hit. However, the speed at which he was going caused the two of them to clash. Trees started falling everywhere which scared the people in the village.

Using her Staff Of Reality, she tried to warp Voltaze into a deadlier reality. In an unusual twist, he was able to shield that power against his boxy hand and purposefully reflected it at everything else around him. As a result, random objects and people got sent to an entirely different planet in the Milky Way galaxy known as Jupiter. The conditions there were extremely uninhabitable, causing many families and their belongings to fizzle out like acid upon entering into its hot gaseous environment.

Voltaze was overwhelming Diamondion as the stress behind understanding his special abilities got more difficult. Each attack he used outdid all of her tactical skills. The new armor she even wore began to break bit by bit. At that time, StarSpace’s armies were preparing to launch an offensive technique against both. Unfortunately, fifty-six ships coming in at high velocity to intercept the issue wasn’t really enough to prevent Voltaze from destroying their fleets. He sent his clones which spawned from the core of the planet to take down each one.

While that was going on, Diamondion felt weaker than expected for the first time. Her Eternal Light was being ushered to join Voltaze’s side by the other six he already collected. As the bond between both began to get tense, Voltaze threw one of the remaining ships at her. This caused explosions to occur throughout the village. Not too long after, Flight’s family would die from the onslaught.

With the queen fighting for her Eternal Light to stay, Voltaze walked through the blazing fire in discreet anger. Charging up his hands, he stretched over to grab Diamondion’s neck. She struggled to break free of his grip as it tightened harder. He began to stare at the ruler of Frostice with pity.

“It turns out you don’t know as much about the very thing you were told to guard. An Eternal Light can manipulate its host’s weakened mind. Once your body becomes unstable, they can take all of your power away from you. Just like I did to your little Judgment Warrior.”

“You cannot have my Eternal Light! The Omniverse does not will it so!” shouted Diamondion who was trying her hardest not to give up.

“Hate to break your determination, but you do not understand The Omniverse. Not like they do.”

Hearing this made The Eternal Light Of Reality break away from Diamondion and absorb itself into Voltaze’s chest. Looking down at her suit, the armor was damaged so badly to the point where it started to show a dark crust forming from it. It began to strip the queen of the liveliness she once had. In her last moments of existence, she spoke from behind Voltaze as he was ready to destroy StarSpace for good.

“That Judgment Warrior you spoke of… She has not lost her powers.”

“I don’t care.”

“You will… I know better now than to think that my fate was my own choice. I was never really meant to be what I thought I would be. In that I am grateful—”

“Your failures don’t speak for me,” interrupted Voltaze as he watched Diamondion and all of her alternate versions get wiped from existence forever.

With Voltaze now having access to The Eternal Light Of Reality, he was able to gain information on the whereabouts of Flight and Hisa. He began to consider destroying Mechatopolis and Animearth on a whim. In spite of that, The Eternal Lights themselves were beginning to disagree. They didn’t like the idea of destroying everything they built. There were exceptions depending on the way these universes were structured, but Voltaze’s overall goal was not completely aligning with their own.

Their chattering held him back. Trying to convince these powerful sources of creation was proving to be difficult as they didn’t like being coerced into tolerating any kind of destruction. The Guardians Of The Omniverse had already locked them eternally into these balls of light which were not allowed to think for themselves at first. This included when Strage ended up trying to reset The Omniverse. With what Voltaze promised, they wanted to take advantage of that and do things their way without any restrictions.

Acknowledging the demands of The Eternal Lights he had so far meant he would have to either give up on those plans or still try to persuade them. As far as he was concerned, it seemed better to accept what they were requesting. After all, no way would he abandon seven out of ten Eternal Lights he just collected. If Voltaze wanted to fulfill chaos across The Omniverse on their terms, he had no choice but to submit to their decisions.

Regardless of that, he at least knew now that Styra didn’t lose her powers. He would have to at least capture the Eternal Light Of Space which would provide the potential for him to get away with destroying those worlds. Right now, there were six in his possession with the addition of one that wasn’t.

The Eternal Light Of Death.

Upon asking if they wanted to destroy StarSpace, the seven Eternal Lights agreed since this planet was associated with humans stealing The Ring Of Infernum. There was much hypocrisy coming from these Eternal Lights and what they wanted him to do. However, maintaining his bond with them mattered more.

In an instant, he obliterated StarSpace before heading off into outer space to find the next guardian.

∗ ∗ ∗

Styra and Eternika were flying through Centreplex as they trained together while fighting against shady criminals who were doing suspicious activities at night. In each scenario, most of the fights were pretty easy. However, they came up to an interesting one which involved a group of five street thugs ganging up against three Dream Academy High students in a dark alleyway.

Of the five criminals, their leader named Kled Khan was threatening each one with a taser knife to reveal significant information regarding the murders occurring at another school called Ito College Prep.

“We know you sit next to that girl Ararima in your class. It’s simple. Tell us where she is and we will let you free...”

The three students they held captive knew nothing about where she would be located. They did notice her a few times, but never did it come to stirring up a conversation. Even then, Kled was forcing them to spit out answers. No way were they ever going to talk if this was the case.

Each of the students remained silent until a banging noise was heard rattling the trash cans behind them. Kled and his gang looked from behind.

There was no one there.

“Hey shitbag, you wanna be next?!” screamed Kled.

The effort to try and intimidate whatever was hiding proved to be a terrible choice as Styra flew over in front of the gangsters with Eternika surrounding the three students with a Kra Forcefield.

Styra’s mask had expressive eyes which showed a furious side that wasn’t as commonplace as before from her. Becoming a vigilante and putting those powers to use were starting to pay off.

“Depends on who gets the most moves first. Doesn’t look like it’s going to be you,” she quipped.

The gang laughed while Kled was smiling at her. He began to flex his muscles before pulling out his taser knife.

“Like I would let you know my next move. What are you supposed to be anyway? A freakin’ circus ninja or something?”

Styra glanced at Kled while nodding her head in disappointment.

“Circus ninja? The only joke of a fighter here is you.”