‘How did this even happen?!’ Percy complained, though the question was mostly aimed at himself rather than his host. ‘They’re gods! How the hell did they manage to miss us?!’
Despite his outburst, he honestly understood the reason. Tiberius had remained hidden inside his mentor’s internal world for most of the battle, so nobody had expected him to still be alive.
The bursts of willpower that Percy had used to propel Julius’ corpse away from the warzone had been small, invisible, and short-lived, making it difficult for a group of deities engrossed in a dangerous fight to notice them. Even if the gods had caught a glimpse of the drifting body, they would have attributed its erratic flight to the forces exerted on it by their own attacks.
By the time the mortal had emerged from his collapsing bubble of relative safety, he’d been in the outskirts of the battlefield and concealed behind enormous stone constructs. When the chaos had calmed down enough for Percy and Tiberius to reveal their existence, they had been located too far away for their pitiful, mortal efforts to capture the attention of their would-be saviours.
The surviving deities probably hadn’t expected Julius to produce an affinity-changing treasure either – certainly not one valuable enough to warrant scouring the desolate vastness of outer space for.
‘Should we have tried to signal with my lightning mana sooner?’ the Violet asked, his tone laced with bitterness.
‘Maybe,’ Percy replied, genuinely unsure. ‘It could have easily backfired by getting us obliterated or kidnapped by the bandits.’
Either way, there was no point in lamenting what could have been. The gods had clearly left the area, heading either to the auction, back to their planet, or off to harass more travelling deities – depending on their identities. Percy and Tiberius would have to play the hand they’d been dealt.
‘Hey, at least we don’t have to worry about our own survival anymore,’ Micky privately consoled his fellow aspect.
It might be a callous thing to say, but the Huehuan wasn’t wrong. Even if he failed to reach the auction, Percy could always ditch his host and return safely to Remior. The idea of leaving Tiberius alone to die didn’t sit well with Percy, but he still wasn’t willing to budge on his decision to stay away from the Vault, so he would have to figure out a third option.
Besides, part of him welcomed the opportunity to spend a few days adrift in outer space. One of his main reasons for having dreamt of attaining divinity his whole life had been his desire to explore the universe with his own power. His bloodline had already made that possible in some ways, but the idea of travelling anywhere he wanted with an actual, physical body held a certain charm.
Paying closer attention to his surroundings, Percy suddenly found the endless void a little unsettling. Distant suns shone everywhere he looked, making them appear deceptively within reach, but he understood that Remior was but a speck of dust compared to the mindboggling stretch of emptiness separating his host from the stars.
Percy had travelled to other planets before, but he’d always done that either in his disembodied state – capable of flying at unimaginable speeds and free of fleshly needs – or through divine magic. He’d experienced plenty of hostile environments as well, yet even the crushing pressure of the Atlantean ocean or the bloodthirsty jungle of Takeo’s world felt almost welcoming compared to the pure nothingness that currently enveloped him.
The good news was that surviving in the void wasn’t as difficult as he had imagined. The cold and the lack of pressure were admittedly quite annoying, but a Violet’s body was resilient enough to endure it all. The biggest issue was the absence of oxygen, water or food. Percy had the first two taken care of due to his connection to Remior, and he had enough rations inside his seal to last for weeks.
‘Do you know where the nearest planet is, by any chance?’ he asked.
‘No, but it doesn’t really matter. I doubt it’s closer than a couple of lightyears away, and we’ll never travel that far,’ Tiberius explained grimly.
‘Lightyears?’ Percy had never heard that term before.
‘As the word implies, it’s the distance light can travel in a year. The exact unit of measurement varies depending on how long years are for the faction doing the counting, but it’s a popular tool because nothing can move faster than light – normally speaking. Well… souls can, but that’s not very helpful to us at the moment. Due to the lack of air resistance, if we keep propelling ourselves in the same direction, we will eventually approach the speed of light, but we won’t be able to surpass it. Neighbouring stars are typically separated by a few lightyears, while galaxies can be tens or hundreds of thousands of lightyears across.’
That… didn’t sound right.
‘What about gods? I’ve been carried through outer space before, and the trip only lasted a few months,’ Percy protested, recalling his journey to the void tournament with Lanthaniel. Marador Prime couldn’t have been that close to the Vault.
‘The same rule applies to gods if they propel themselves the old-fashioned way. Even if they pour a hundred times more energy into their flight than us, they’ll only accelerate faster and get a little closer to the speed of light,’ Tiberius insisted. ‘But they have a way around the problem.’
‘Compressing space?’ Percy guessed.
His host nodded. ‘Every deity has the strength and knowledge to do that to an extent, because that’s precisely what keeps their internal world tucked neatly inside their body. Compressing the space in front of them is a better application of power, as it allows them to effectively travel several times faster than light, even though they aren’t technically doing that. Obviously, stronger gods can achieve greater degrees of compression, and those with the space affinity can apply the technique far more efficiently.’
‘Any chance we can manage something similar?’
‘None,’ Tiberius declared, shooting Percy’s hopes down. ‘We simply lack the raw power necessary for it. A skilled demigod with a space affinity might be able to pull it off briefly, but I’m sure you’ve already noticed the second problem that makes mortals ill-equipped to traverse the cosmos.’
Percy had: there was barely any ambient mana here. It wouldn’t be impossible to refill their core, but it would probably take several hours. They would have to use their limited reserves carefully – not that the Violet’s lightning mana would be very helpful in traversing the endless void. Deities weren’t as affected by their environment, since their internal worlds passively generated mana of their affinities.
Before Percy had a chance to say anything else, his host frowned, seemingly noticing something strange. ‘Now that you mention it, you haven’t explained where you’re pulling all this air mana from.’
Percy shrugged. ‘My main body. I can get you some water mana as well if you get thirsty.’
He didn’t bother offering to borrow space mana from Nesha, as he ultimately agreed with Tiberius that it wouldn’t be a viable strategy. Freeing up a clone from his relatives to possess his girlfriend wouldn’t be difficult, but he’d never managed to fuse soul mana to another rare affinity – only to common and composite elements.
Even if he made it work, the clone in Nesha’s body would have to pass the new resource to his own body before sending it to Tiberius, which would greatly lower the efficiency of the transmission.
Finally, his girlfriend was merely a Green. Percy might be able to accelerate his borrowed body to a respectable fraction of the speed of light if he kept at it for a few hours or days – however long it took – and he could even potentially compress the space in front of Tiberius by a handful of times if he managed to replicate Nesha’s spells, but it would still take several months of constant effort to reach the nearest solar system.
His supplies wouldn’t last that long. If that wasn’t bad enough, the cord was currently clogged up by the flow of air mana, so transmitting both resources for an extended period of time wouldn’t be easy.
‘What about our runes?’ Micky asked, still keeping his existence hidden from Tiberius, probably due to being too lazy to introduce himself properly.
Percy considered his friend’s suggestion. Magiscript was indeed a mortal’s best bet at travelling between worlds without assistance from a god. It should be possible to build some sort of airtight spaceship that would recycle resources, store and consume large amounts of fuel, and achieve the necessary acceleration and spatial compression automatically. Wasn’t that exactly what the Vault of Magic or the Void Hand’s space station were?
Percy was sure that he would meet the requirements for interstellar flight if he waited until he reached the Concept realm. Even if he failed to incorporate all his elements into his internal world, he could prioritize Micky’s ice affinity for the ability to generate air and water. However, he didn’t want to have to wait thousands of years or rely on others to explore the universe with his own body.
‘We’ll try creating something like that one day,’ he promised his fellow aspect. ‘Unfortunately, it’s not the sort of thing we can piece together on the spot.’
It also wouldn’t hurt to get an aspect or mana core with a space affinity in the future, but that would have to be weighed against the opportunity cost of picking other rare elements, since all of them seemed extremely interesting and useful.
Having considered every possibility, Percy was certain that they wouldn’t be able to return to civilization with their own strength. Their only hope was still to get rescued by a deity, so they would have to focus their efforts on getting noticed.