Aldred watched as the Celestial Schemata made their retreat, wary that they would attack him or his allies.
But they did not. Peacefully, they left the atmosphere of the gas planet.
Aldred let out a breath at finally defeating the enemy, although too bad that he failed to kill Vortimer.
His crew ran up to him.
"Aldred!" Shinari inspected his body, especially his shoulder. "Are you okay?" She was worried sick.
"Don't worry about me. I have a strong body." When Aldred smiled, the horn and the fangs vanished.
"Aldred, do you also have a transformation power?" Cleome asked.
"You can say that. You guys know I can turn into objects too, right?"
That explained it. If Aldred could even turn into rocks and stone, then turning into something else should be possible as well.
They thought nothing of it after that, thinking that it was just one of Aldred's weird abilities.
Smiling, Aldred was glad that his crew was safe. Still, he couldn't help but felt a surge of power flowing through him after that battle.
It was as if he had broke through a barrier. The Celestial Schemata pushed him for two whole years with endless laser beams and kinetic projectiles, the pressure must've had done something to his body in some way or another.
'If only I could access my stats. The system said that I can't access it frequently in this galaxy.'
However, he felt like he still had one more barrier he needed to break. He could only feel it.
Shuzib walked in with the Eye of Clairvoyance and the Time Stone in hand.
"Congratulations. Now it's time to continue to the next step."
"Is that pun intended?" Aldred chuckled.
Shuzib rolled his eyes.
Salamander laughed before he put his arms over Aldred's shoulder. "Let us return to our spacecraft and have a feast!"
…
The Celestial Schemata.
A group consisting tens of thousands of warships with dozens of Destroyer-Class battleship amongst them, traversing in space in might and glory.
However, only Vortimer and Quantum, standing in the bridge of their flagship, Astral Sovereign, knew what a humiliating defeat they experienced.
Vortimer was silent as he stared at the massive screen in the control room, depicting the scene outside his ship.
Quantum was standing behind him as always. His arm and leg had been fixed. He was always quiet, in fact, no one had ever heard him talk.
"Brother," Vortimer called to him. "We will get what we want. I promise you."
Suddenly, one sentient robot carefully approached the master. "Lord Vortimer. Why did you not order us to bombard the planet with our Destroyer-Class warships. Even just one ship could destroy the whole planet all at once."
"I do not want to destroy the stone. That human doesn't know how fragile the stone can be. That's why he dare to use it so recklessly."
Vortimer turned around. "Typical human behavior. Always doing something without much thought."
"So what are we going to do next, my lord?"
"It seems like our strength are not sufficient just yet to do as we please in this region. There is only one logical thing we can do."
Vortimer waved his hands, and the screens changed, revealing the various forces traversing in space.
"A predator got stronger after each hunt." Vortimer's eyes glinted.
…
Meanwhile, Aldred and his crew was throwing a feast in the ship.
Salamander, Shinari, Cleome, and Aldred were dancing while they played the loudest phonk music they could find.
"Did they do this after every fight?" Shuzib asked.
"Ocassionally," Cellaeth replied. "I thought all human do this."
"No. Not all. Only the weird ones."
"I used to believe all human are weird," Cellaeth commented.
Shuzib smiled bitterly. "Some are weirder than the others."
After a whole hour of partying, they finally got tired and sat down.
"That was great!" Cleome shouted before she drank her soda.
Overall, everyone was having a great time.
"Aldred." Cellaeth approached.
"Yes? Do you need anything? A soda perhaps?"
"No. I want to ask you a question."
"Ask away."
"How did you have so many power and abilities?"
Everyone was curios as well."
Cellaeth continued. "It's weird. You have all kinds and a variety of power. I've seen you summon clones that have the exact power and weapons as you. I've seen you use fire magic, then I've seen you manipulated the soil and rocks with ease. There was a time you pulled out water out of thin air and used it to surprise your enemy."
"I did that?" Aldred acted foolish.
"Don't play dumb! Explain yourself!"
Aldred jokingly raised both of his hands. "Didn't I tell you that I am not from this galaxy?"
"I heard that all the time. How does that explain your power? Does everyone in your world has magic like you?"
"Well, not really. Alright, I will spill the beans. I am actually different than the people in my world, most of that is because of my parents."
"What did your parents do?"
"Well, they are powerful. Not just powerful, but extremely extremely extremely powerful."
"Just how powerful?" Shinari asked. She was curios of Aldred's parents and had thoughts about meeting them.
"Uhh…" Aldred wanted to say that they could erase galaxies and explode an entire universe, but no one would believe him.
"I guess they have the power of one hundred Destroyer-Class warships."
Everyone gasped.
"A—are they really that powerful?" Shinari was shocked.
Salamander rubbed his chin. "If what you said is true, then your parents could destroy a planet with a flick of their finger, and erase an entire armada with a sneeze."
"That cannot be possible!" Cellaeth retorted. "You are lying! Nothing. Especially not a human could do something like. What you said is only possible in stories of ancient time when gods actively battled against one another."
Aldred scratched his cheek. What he said was only the fraction of his parents' power. Thankfully he did not say anything more.
"If your parents is so powerful, then why are they not coming to your rescue?"
"They do it to test me," Aldred said, recalling the last time he met his sister who told him about the test.
Him falling out of that castle was intentional in their part because his growth was extremely slow.
Aldred bitterly remembered that his father became the demon king at age five.
Ugh… just thinking about it put a pressure in his head.
It was far worse than being compared to the neighbor kid next door.
"I didn't know your parents are that powerful," Cleome said. "You must be a royalty in your world. An army of millions under your command."
"Hmmm, well. It's not that dramatic."
Everyone was shocked that Aldred did not deny the fact that he was a royalty.
Aldred wasn't sure himself either. His father was a literal demon king, his mother was basically the ancestor of vampire, and he also had a small empire back in his world.
And, it was true that he had millions of soldiers under his command, undead and golems included.
"No wonder you are so strong," Salamander said. "I couldn't accept it at first, but now I will admit that you are far superior than us. But, I will keep trying to catch up to you to the best of my ability."
"I didn't know how to react to that," Aldred said. "But if that motivates you then it's a good thing."
"Talking about parents," Salamander started. "My parents used to have a workshop of their own. I used to play with the tools and press buttons I shouldn't press."
He chuckled. "It was a great time. I love my father. I couldn't imagine having anyone else as my dad except him."
"Me too," Aldred said. He had almost forgotten his true parents; the abusive ones.
'No, no. My true parents are Hujarar and Eve.'
Still, he could not help but recall his father and mother on planet Earth. Their names had long been erased from his memory and their faces fade as time went on. Despite that, the feelings and the trauma they gave him was still carved in his heart.
Though it wasn't as painful as it used to be.
"My dad would always show me cool stuff he worked on," Salamander continued. "There is this one thing that catch my eyes the most. A power armor. It was mostly made out of scrap metal, but the ones my dad made was amazing. It immediately made me fall in love with power armor. Now, years later, I can even buy my own power armor."
Aldred smiled. "But won't it be even better if you can make your own power armor."
Salamander looked at him. "Yeah, it will be so much better. But from an efficiency standpoint, it's better for me to buy it for now until we finished this journey."
"Why?"
"The machines required to make your own power armor is too expensive."
Aldred laughed. "I always hated financial problem. We'll think of something."
