Kingsman Return

Ether City

What was that saying again, 'The endless sea of stars is the road leading to the future'!

These words that his father said to him at some point in his youth, continuously resounded in Arran's mind as he traveled across the cosmos toward the home of the Aeth-the Etherium.

Along the journey, Arran was able to confirm some of his doubts, chief of which was the status of the known universe.

From what he found out, the universe was divided into different realms, and these realms further existed in the form of layers, like the steps of a ladder. It is in these layers that the concept of lower and upper realms came into existence.

Let's take an analogy, for example, take a tree as an example, the roots of the tree would correspond to the lower realm in the universe. From the roots onwards, the trunk of the tree, its branches and leaves, and also its fruits would all correspond to a different layer in the universe.

In this way, the layers of the universe could be said to be vast, not only in the number of layers that exist in the universe but also in the number of realms that exist in a single layer. The universe was considered wider than it was high.

The home of the Aeth was located in one of the upper layers of the universe. In a high realm known as the prime Etherium high realm.

Lower, middle, great, and high realms, were just the divisions of the realms in the universe.

The outpost that Arran had just left was located in one of the middle realms that were part of the territory of the Aeth.

It had to be known that the lower realms did not fall under the jurisdiction of any of the powerful races of the universe and were considered free territory by all. But even still, there would be no one who would consider ruling over these realms but would leave it to the native inhabitants.

This was because of one very simple reason, there were no resources worth taking from these realms.

During the time when the universe was still under rapid development, there were boundless resources to harvest and this led to what is known as the age of exploration. This movement led the races of the upper realms to descend to the lower realms to plunder its resources and develop labor for themselves.

But unfortunately, the lower realms were too small in scale to meet the needs of these races and as the resources ran dry, these races packed up and left, leaving behind nothing but barren lands and myths and legends for the later generations.

Sad as it was, that was how the universe worked.

Apart from learning about all these, Arran also got to spar with the warriors of the Aeth. Unfortunately for him, he was trashed so seriously by them that the small pride that he got from defeating Brendell the other day completely vanished.

Not everyone was an intellectual who did not focus on martial prowess. Especially not these battle-hardened warriors who had been through various life and death battles in their long lives. It was impossible for Arran to win against them. But Arran was not discouraged. He had learned something through all the time he spent sparing with them.

Arran finally understood what the difference that separated mortals like him and warriors of the Aeth was.

The major difference was their cultivation of vital energy.

According to commander Margo, all warriors of the universe, in one way or another, cultivate the use of energy.

Be it vital energy as with the Aeth, or spiritual Qi, or mana, or the essence of heaven and earth, it was essentially the same thing. All that it entailed was the use of energy to increase the prowess of the body, for the utilization of different abilities, and the increase of lifespan.

Ultimately, no matter how powerful a person may be, his or her own energy was finite and would come to an end eventually. That is why they are considered mortals.

In other to escape from the coils of one's own mortality, one had to use the energy found in the universe to supplement their own.

This would in turn lead to an evolution in life levels and an increase in natural lifespan being a side effect of this action… amongst other things.

It was said that at the highest point in one's self-cultivation… immortality would no longer be just a fantasy but a reality.

All in all, this helped Arran to better understand the new world he found himself in, and to be honest with himself, Arran was very excited by all the new things that he was introduced to as this served to bring in a much-needed excitement to his already deary life that had been stagnant for a long time now.

Overall this also brought him closer to finding out what happened to his parents and discovering where they had disappeared to.

...

It did not take long to reach their destination.

In the week spent in transit, apart from the time spent sparing with the Aeth warriors, Arran had to be honest with himself that after the marvel of space travel wore off, everything became as boring as hell.

Like watching paint dry.

From what he knew, the Aeth had a faster way to travel. Something about punching a hole through space by traveling at several times the speed of light.

Basically, it was traveling through a personal wormhole, but apparently, because they had to transport some supplies with them, Arran did not get to enjoy this experience.

When Arran had his first look at the Etherium, home of the Aeth, his first thought was, DAMN!!!

That was the only way he could express himself.

The Etherium was a giant planet that was probably ten times the size of planet Jupiter in scale. The entire surface was covered in a thick purple cloud that blocked every form of light from penetrating through.

There were brief flashes of lightning zipping across the clouds and a storm could be seen visibly brewing. There were also three moons orbiting around the planet.

It was an incomprehensibly stunning and beautiful sight and Arran found himself having to catch his breath.

Soon enough, he got himself under control and instead became very worried. How the hell were they supposed to make their way through that!!

Rommel came to his side at this time and said, "Breathtaking isn't it?"

Arran turned to him and replied, "Yes it is very stunning. But how are we going to make it through to the surface?"

Rommel, seeing the anxious look on his face smiled before answering, "You do not have to worry. This space ship is coated in a special material that is unique to our planet and cannot be found anywhere else. With it, we can pass safely through the surface storm. You can say that the discovery of this material was the turning point of our race and the direct link to our success in the universe."

As Rommel's words fell, they were already making their way into the atmosphere of the planet.

As much as he understood what Rommel said to reassure him, Arran could not help feeling nervous whenever the ship was hit by the turbulence as they made it through.

It was like how a person who had just entered a plane for the first time in his life would feel nervous for no reason despite knowing that there would be no danger.

By the time Arran could see again, he was already covered in a film of cold sweat and let out a deep breath he had been holding subconsciously.

No sooner had he done that, that he had to hold his breath again. The sight before his eyes made him take a sharp intake of breath that caused his eyes to almost bulge out of his sockets.

What greeted his eyes was the sight of numerous floating mountain ranges that were covered in thick vegetation. Everywhere his eyes went, there were only numbers upon numbers of floating mountains and below that was an expansive cerulean ocean that went on till the horizon.

Compared to the purple cloud above his head, the planet was filled with different colors and light.

This was the most beautiful sight that Arran had ever seen and he had no time to care for his earlier nervousness.

By the time Arran got over his awe, they were already pulling into the face of a mountain range.

Like all the others, this mountain was suspended in the skies, but unlike others, it seemed to be just one part of a series of mountain ranges that made up an entire large formation. This formation was housing a city that filled up the face of the formation of mountains.

From where Arran was, right before they made their way into the mountain, he could see various structures of different sizes and lights that showed people that walked about giving off a scene of a bustling city.

Inside the belly of the mountain, the walls were filled with stars of light that lit the way for them. With a closer look, one would see that the lights were pieces of glowing rocks that were protruding from the mountain walls.

The ship made its way to a raised platform and everyone made their way outside. Arran was admiring the scenery on the way to their destination, the air was fresh and was not humid even though they were inside a mountain.

He did not know how he made it to where they were going. There, there were a group of people that were waiting for them and upon seeing them, came up to meet them.

Among this new group, Arran could spot a few similarities, and also differences from the group he traveled with.

For one their clothes were different, they were dressed in regal attire and had an air like they were people with administrative authority. They were similar in that they all carried themselves with pride and confidence.

They should have been people with equal status to the group Arran traveled with and judging by the way the man in the lead could look commander Margo in the eye, Arran could take a guess and say that they should be of similar status or strength.

When the two groups came together, the others scanned Arran's group before fixing their gazes on Arran. They were looking at him curiously like one would look at a new experimental piece, one that you wanted to cut up and dissect.

The man in the lead of the other group nodded to commander Margo and said, "you're here. Follow me, the royal council has been waiting for you all this time."

Commander Margo said nothing, opting to only nod her head and lead Arran and his group forward.