Chapter 423: The Systellions
"You… know Sage?"
"What? What do you mean do I-- Wait, are you really not Sage?"
Van and Diana could only exchange blinks as they looked each other in the eyes, and oddly enough, the mutual confusion seemed to have almost cleared out their heads.
"No," Van then let out a small sigh, "He… is sort of my father," he then said. He should have already guessed who Diana confused him with; but since Sage did not even intentionally show himself to Van even once, the thought of him meeting with anyone else completely flew over his mind.
"Your… father?" Diana's eyes widened, "Then did he send you here to assist us?"
"No. I haven't even talked to the guy even once."
"But--"
"It's complicated," Van then waved his hand to stop Diana from asking any more questions, "And you… met with him? How?"
"...When I died in my old world," Diana muttered, "Sage reincarnated me to this place, saying that if I managed to save it from whatever threat that was coming, then he would bring me back to my original world…
...you really don't know?" Diana squinted her eyes during her words as she tried to gauge Van's reactions, but considering he still had a confused look on his face, it would seem he truly did not know anything… or he was very good at lying.
"He… has that kind of power?" Van then furrowed his eyebrows, "Then why the fuck is he not helping us here?"
"Wait… do you really not kno--"
"Let's talk about this later," Van's wings then once again showed themselves, "I need to check on the World Eaters."
"Wai--"
Diana still had a lot of questions, but alas, but was already once again on his way to the outer edge of the galaxy-sized Portal.
And as Van arrived there, he was surprised to see… that the two ships still weren't doing anything. And if he was right, then they haven't even moved from their spot.
They weren't even sending out drones like what Captain Ameera and the others would do in the Space Force.
"..." Van then slightly turned his head towards the Portal beside him. If he entered the Portal right now, would he be able to come back?
"..." No, too risky. Even if he could manage to come back, he doesn't even know what awaited him on the other side. But he can't just float here and do nothing-- he could go back to the galaxy's habitable planet, but he might have already wasted a chapter of his life there.
And so, with nothing else to do, Van decided to approach the two ships once more; and after several minutes, floated between them. It might seem like he was near the two, but the two ships were actually millions of kilometers away from him.
Since Apollo only showed himself when he tried to ram the ship, Van flew within's arms reach of the other sun-sized that he still has not made contact with.
"I want to talk," Van then said after he wore the mask that allowed his voice to vibrate through the space, "The other ship attacked me first, perhaps your side could be more reasonable."
"..."
"..."
Van waited for a full minute, but alas, there was no response.
"...Fuck this," Van then breathed out as he stretched his hands, "Summon Aegis."
His golden shield then instantly materialized in his hand, raising it in the air to see if there would be any reaction from the ship; because if there were any other Olympians inside, then they should definitely recognize Athena's shield.
But once again, even after a full minute, there was no reaction. Van even tried flying around the ship just to make sure he was being seen, but alas, still no change in the ship's activity.
"Alright," Van then slightly scoffed as he nodded a couple of times, "I guess I need to knock again," he then said as he suddenly disappeared from his spot, only to appear several kilometers away from the ship's surface.
Van then placed his shield in front of him, and with a short but deep breath, rammed this shield towards the ocean-like surface. It felt like several needles pricked his entire skin; his entire body slightly trembling as the feeling of numbness quickly made its way everywhere.
And soon, small webs of cracks appeared on his shield.
"!!!"
Van then quickly backed away, and without even a second after he did so, Aegis suddenly and violently erupted into thousands of pieces. The sun-sized ship's ocean-like surface rippled, even producing a humming sound as it did so.
Van thought that it had an effect on the ship, but after a few seconds, the ripples stopped like nothing ever happened.
"... " He then once again waited, trying to see if someone was going to come out, but there was no one-- not even a laser beam threatening to gun him down.
"Solar Fist," Van then whispered as the veins in his arms started to light up like magma, lighting up his flesh and almost making his skin translucent. He only stared at them in awe for a bit… before proceeding to release a barrage of strikes towards the ship.
Both his arms completely disappeared, leaving only a light that blinded even him as he continued to rain down fists of fire towards the ocean-like surface. From afar, it was as if Van was trying to weld open a part of the gigantic ship.
Once again, there were only ripples, this time almost shaking a tenth of the ship with his incessant punching. Surely, the energy of their force shield couldn't be unlimited… was it?
"...Shit,"
But alas, before he could find out, it would seem his fists were the first to give in as they slowly started losing their sense of touch. The skin and little bits of flesh on his knuckles were completely torn, his bones already waving him hello, but quickly saying their farewells as they healed.
"..." Van then waited for another minute to see if the ship was going to respond, but once again, there was nothing.
Van then once again summoned Aegis, which was now once again completely intact.
"...Solar First," and like a crazy idea popping in his head, his arms also started to light up-- it did not stop there, however, as his magma-like veins seemed to make their way through Aegis, causing every chisel and every line on it to glow in fiery orange.
"..." Van then squinted his eyes as he once again appeared several kilometers away from the ship's surface. He then once again placed his shield in front of him, but this time, it started vibrating to the point it began to howl.
And lastly, golden streaks of lightning began to trail from his eyes, surrounding his entire body in a moment. And with a sigh, he disappeared from his spot, leaving only flashes of himself in a sort of snake-like trail.
If this attack still does nothing to the ship, then the only thing that Van could do was wait for Athena and the others to come up with a plan on how to proce-- !!!
Halfway through slamming the shield to the surface of the ship, Van could not help but slightly halt his flight-- not because there was activity on the ship, but because he felt something would go majorly wrong if he proceeded with this advance, as his shield was starting to hum in a deep tone even at the speed he was going.
And so, with a quick and somewhat hasty decision, Van began to spin in place extremely fast.
"Grah!" And with a roar, he released his shield, allowing it to wreak havoc as it left a storm of lightning and blaze within its path. In truth, he could release it at any point as long as it was pointed at the ship, and it was bound to hit from somewhere just because of the sheer size of the ship. But still, with the accuracy he got from Artemis, the shield just went straight.
"!!!" Van then took a long and deep breath as finally, instead of once again hitting an impenetrable brick wall, half of the shield was not embedded through the ocean-like surface, still spinning uncontrollably as it trembled.
And soon, like a small sun igniting and threatening to kill its inhabitants, the shield erupted. Spheres of water, almost a million particles then danced in the darkness as finally… a part of the ship's force field was pried open.
"..."
And finally-- an activity. Van once again summoned Aegis by his side as… a sort of jellyfish-like bubble figure started emerging from the hole that was made. There were people in some sort of white suits inside the jellyfish. And without even a breath, those jellyfish-like… spacecrafts surrounded Van.
"..." Is this jellyfish bubble capable of hyperspeed? Van then thought as his eyes looked at the 6 people surrounding him.
No, they weren't that fast, Van then sighed before focusing his attention on the people floating inside the jellyfish.
"Are any of you hearing me?" Van then said, his tone already somewhat pissed. But once again, even with their presence already here, he was once again ignored as they just continued circling around him.
"Please return to where you came from," Van then continued, "As you can see, this universe is already occupied and at full capacity. Whoever is in charge of you World Ea-- Systellions, tell him that he or she could prevent the loss of billions of lives if--"
And before Van could even finish his words, one of the people floated towards him. And no matter how thorough or how long Van looked at the approaching Systellion, she… just looked entirely human-- and quite young, at that."
"You speak our native language, barbarian?" The Systellion woman then amusedly hummed.
"So you guys can actually speak," Van then breathed out, "I wish to talk to whoever is in char--"
"Look, Adriel! It's talking our language… how amusing."
"...You're right," another one then floated towards Van, "I thought they were just beasts incapable of thought."
"Let's capture it!"
"...What? But isn't this creature quite strong? It managed to break through the shield."
"No, I asked someone to open it," the woman that first approached Van let out a small sigh, "Do you really believe the others? How could someone primitive like this contain almost the same power as the High Priests?"
"That's--"
"Let's just capture it, we'll see what we can do with it inside."
"..." And as the group of Systellions started talking in their own world, Van could not help but let out a sigh. There goes his last hope of achieving peace. If these Systellions really were amongst the young… then there really was no communicating with them.
The Systellions… are treating other races as animals.