Chapter 557: In The Presence Of The Artifact

Two more days passed in the silence of the void.

The mood aboard the ship had grown heavier after our talk with Primus and Anjee. No one said it out loud, but we were all thinking the same thing, the Eternals’ strength was beyond anything we had imagined.

Now, we stood together on the front deck, gazing out into the endless stretch of space.

We had finally reached the marked point on the map, and the moment I looked out into the void, I knew we were in the right place. The scene unfolding before us was something no map or description could have ever prepared me for.

Right before my eyes, I was watching the universe itself at work.

A massive mirror floated in the darkness, its edges lined with glowing veins of gold and blue, while arcs of red lightning danced wildly around it. The scale of it was hard to grasp, it was enormous, at least hundreds of times my height. Even from this distance, waves of invisible force rippled out from it, striking our ship like distant tremors from an earthquake.

Shards of broken light drifted in from every direction, drawn toward the mirror as if obeying a silent command. Each fragment fused with the growing structure, piece by piece, like a puzzle being solved by the hands of creation itself.

The process was slow, painfully slow and I couldn’t tell if it would take hours, days, or even years for it to be complete.

But as I stared at it, something about the mirror felt eerily familiar. The glow, the pattern, even the faint hum that reached my ears, it reminded me of the Awakening Mirror from the academy, only this one was bigger and alive. It pulsed, breathed, and radiated a presence that made my Essence stir on its own.

"What do you think it is, old man? Is it a Genesis Rune?" I asked Dante, who stood beside us, his gaze fixed on the colossal mirror forming in the void.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "No... it’s not a rune, that’s for sure. It feels more like an artifact, something ancient, being rebuilt or reawakened. But I can’t say for certain until it’s complete."

"How long will that take?" Steve asked.

Dante let out a quiet sigh. "Again, I can’t say. Could be hours, could be days. Whatever it is, it’s not following any natural flow of Essence I’ve seen before."

Before I could respond, Anjee suddenly spoke up, his tone nervous. "I don’t see the Ferans anywhere yet. As I mentioned earlier, I’d like permission to hide my identity before they arrive."

Primus turned toward him, his eyes narrowing. "What are you afraid of, tiger? Didn’t you say yesterday that you were ready to follow us till the end?"

"That was yesterday, demon," Anjee snapped. "Today is today. If the Ferans see me here, they’ll call me a traitor. My presence could complicate things for all of you."

Knight drifted closer on his shadowy cloud, his faint grin visible through the haze. "But are you a traitor, Anjee?"

"I’m not," Anjee growled. "I’m doing what’s right—for my family, for my clan, for the Ferans themselves."

Knight chuckled darkly. "Then why hide? Unless you’re just a frightened cat pretending to be noble."

Anjee bared his teeth, his aura flaring for a second, but he said nothing.

I stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "It’s fine, Anjee. You can’t hide from a transcendent being anyway. If they come, they’ll sense you the moment they arrive. We’ll just have to fight them head-on."

He looked at me uncertainly, but I gave him a faint smile. "Besides," I said, turning back toward the mirror, "right now, I need your help. Tell me anything you know about that half-formed mirror."

"We don’t have any record of such a mirror," Anjee said after a moment’s thought. "There are only two mirror-type artifacts I’ve ever heard of.

The first is the Disguise Mirror, currently held by someone in the Prime Galaxy. As the name suggests, it allows the user to alter their form and conceal their identity. A rare treasure, but nothing compared to what we’re seeing here."

He took a short breath before continuing. "The second is the Mortal Coil. That one’s stranger, it lets you lower your rank."

"Lower your rank?" I frowned. "What’s the point of that?"

Anjee gave a small shrug. "It’s mostly used by people who want to avoid being sent to the front lines.

But its true purpose is in attribute transfer. A Grandmaster can willingly step down to Master rank and transfer their previous rank’s essence and attributes to someone else. It’s an irreversible process, you can only do it once in your life. The Mortal Coil is said to be in the hands of a powerful faction in the Prime Galaxy."

I nodded slowly. Both those artifacts sounded incredibly useful in their own ways. Still, a hint of disappointment lingered in me. After everything we had seen, the storm of light, the raw energy forming in the void, it felt underwhelming if this massive mirror was nothing more than another ancient tool.

"Then why," I asked, turning to Anjee, "did you say you were sure this was a Genesis Rune?"

Anjee’s golden eyes flickered toward the half-formed mirror. The red lightning reflecting across his fur made his face look tense and uneasy. "Because, Sir Billion..." he said slowly, "when we first came here, there was no mirror, only the raw confluence of creation itself. Essence storms, light without color, the kind of energy that burns the soul if you look at it too long.

The mirror must have begun forming afterward. That’s why I still believe it’s the Genesis Rune, maybe its form has changed, or something else has fused with it."

I nodded, glancing back at the massive structure as it let out a ripple from time to time.

"Let’s not just float here in the open," Dante said, his voice breaking the silence. He turned toward the ship’s controls. "We’ll land nearby and keep our distance. Better to wait and watch. The Ferans won’t take long to show up."

"Sounds like a plan," Steve muttered, gripping the railing as the ship tilted slightly, descending toward a cluster of dark asteroids orbiting the glowing mirror.

As the ship began to move, I kept my eyes fixed on the massive, half-formed structure in the distance.

It was too far for my perception to reach, and even my domain couldn’t extend that far, otherwise, my Right to Insight would have revealed some of its secrets.

Still, I could sense the density of laws swirling around the mirror-like artifact. They pulsed in chaotic harmony—fire, lightning, space, even fragments of time—all converging as if drawn to the same core.

North and Ragnar sat cross-legged behind me, their eyes closed in deep meditation, absorbing whatever fragments of law they could touch.

But I couldn’t bring myself to meditate anymore. I had been doing that nonstop for a week, pushing every one of my laws until they finally evolved to major. And now, no matter how much I focused, they refused to move even a little. It felt like hitting a wall too vast to break through just by will alone.

So instead, I turned my thoughts toward what came next, my skills, refining them, reshaping them, maybe even forging something new that connected my laws together. And beyond that... my next rank.

But I wasn’t ready to ascend just yet. Not before I understood what this thing was. Whether it was a Genesis Rune or an artifact born from creation itself, I needed to see it with my own eyes before taking my next step.

Our ship cut through the dark void and glided toward a massive meteor field. Each rock was scarred with deep craters, glowing faintly from old collisions.

Dante maneuvered between them with practiced ease, guiding us down into one of the larger craters. The landing was soft, barely a whisper against the rough surface.

"I’ve activated the camouflage mechanism," Dante muttered, his eyes still fixed on the mirror in the distance. "We should be invisible to any scanners or perception fields for now."