Galactic Barrier
Onerth Galaxy
March
Year 715
"This feeling never gets old..."
"Mhmm. It doesn’t."
Nicole replied to Arthur’s words as she felt the shift in gravitational force that hit them the instant they bypassed the Onerth Galactic barrier and entered the Galaxy itself.
There was a soft, almost imperceptible vibration resonating through the Star ship they were in, accompanied by a noticeable decrease in the ambient energy concentration.
The imdiate sight that greeted them was nothing short of breath-taking. In the distance, a colossal star, one that dwarfed their star ship in size bathed everything with the surrounding light years in its light.
Arthur yawned lightly as he looked at the swirling nebulae and star clusters further in the distance, muttering sothing to himself about the trip taking too long.
"If you were gonna complain about the distance, then why did you co along in the first place?"
The voice of one of his friends and classmates in the academy rang out, followed by the speaker’s appearance as he walked up to where Arthur and Nicole were.
In semi-formal attire, the boy; Edward, was a striking figure with his long, neatly grood brown hair and piercing blue eyes.
"It sounded like a good idea at the ti..."
As Arthur yawned a reply, Nicole silently picked up his hand and held his palm over his mouth, before returning her gaze to the star map on her phone, gauging the distance between their current location and their destination.
"It’s not so far off anymore. We should arrive in a few hours."
Arthur peeked at her screen and looked at the predicted movent path of the ship, tracing his hand across to draw another path.
"We could use this way, it’s shorter."
"Unfortunately, that path has been blocked. We have no choice but to go around like this to avoid being pulled by the gravitational field of the black hole that has taken root here."
"Oh, I see."
Edward heaved a silent sigh and walked away after seeing Arthur and Nicole carry on with their discussion while completely ignoring his presence.
"They’ve been like that for the past few days, huh?"
"Tell about it."
He replied to Layla’s words before calling so of the Star Ship crewn and inquiring further about the ’Black Hole’ that Nicole had spoken about.
Naturally, they were already aware of such an impedint to their path and had already begun deviating their trajectory to go around it.
"I would ask my Father if sothing can be done about this, it’s making travelling to Uclite harder."
He dismissed the crewn with those words and re-joined Layla in the break room where they waited out the rest of their journey.
Just as Nicole had stated, they arrived at their destination, the High-Ranked World Uclite, in a few hours.
Uclite was ho to the Onerth Galaxy’s Galactic Ruling family—a family that Edward happened to be a part of.
Just as Layla and Nicole had gone back ho soti earlier, Edward was also doing the sa, just that he had put his journey off until the Sports Festival was done.
But after that, he could not put it off anymore, especially since his father had personally requested that he co ho.
"I knew this was going to happen when I saw his ssage, but still..."
Edward sighed softly when he saw the rows of servants and soldiers lined up on both sides of the aisle right outside the Star Ship’s boarding stairs.
At the edge of the aisle was a man who could only be described as an older, bearded iteration of him, commanding a regal presence in resplendent royal garb.
Or rather, it would be more apt to say that Edward was a younger iteration of this man.
A beaming smile adorned his face the instant he set his eyes on Edward, spreading his arms wide as he shouted out.
"Welco back, my boy!"
The smiling High-Human took a ’step’ forward, suddenly appearing in front of his son and pulling him into a tight hug which the boy had no choice but to reciprocate.
It was then that the man noticed that besides his son, others were exiting the starship at the sa ti, tilting his head to the side as he asked.
"You brought friends with you?"
"Yes, he did. He dragged us along on a five-day journey to another section of the universe, and made sure to brag about his ho world on every single day."
Edward didn’t even need to turn back to know who was speaking, and the introduction that ca right after only confird his conviction.
"Gooday to you, Na’s Arthur. And I gotta say, this place looks wonderful; I can understand his bragging a little bit."
"How about we go through that head of yours and fish out the mories of bragging; if they even exist!"
"No worries, I have a mory stone with them stored separately."
"..."
Edward was left speechless by Arthur’s reply, and even more speechless was his father who clearly recognized who Arthur was.
The servants lined up on the sides of the aisle rose their bowed heads and sneaked peeks at the person who had sohow rendered both father and son speechless, but a lot of them had no idea who the boy was.
Finally, Edward snapped back to reality and then turned to his father before speaking.
"et Galactic Ruler Jankin Castillo, the one who oversees both Onerth and the nearby smaller satellite galaxies."
Gesturing to Arthur, he continued.
"And this id—I an, this boy over here is Arthur Vaughn, and he happens to be a Prince of our Devildom."
"What do you an ’happens to be’?"
"I have no idea what you’re talking about."
Seeing the little banter between the Prince and his son, multiple thoughts flashed through Jankin’s mind, but he adopted a polite smile and greeted Arthur officially.
Edward went on to introduce both Layla and Nicole, mostly so the servants and others around would know who they were and not ss around.
After all, even Nicole’s father who was a Count had the sa level of authority as Edward’s father, even though the latter was stronger—a High Tier Deity Realm existence.
On a side note, the two girls had more normal introductions than Arthur.
In the sa instant that the girls were introduced to Jankin, the man felt a gaze on him for a brief mont, one that was not part of the hundred-plus servants and officials around the star ship.
When he spread out his energy to sense, his perception picked up five other existences on the sa level as himself.
’Well...makes sense considering who these kids are.’
His expression and mannerisms did not make it seem like he noticed anything, but when he held up his palm to indicate the number ’5’, the watchers in the dark knew they had been discovered.
The man kept up his polite attitude with Arthur’s group, and he had planned to treat them to a grand reception, but Layla interjected when she heard the orders he gave out.
"No need for any extra special treatnt, just treat us as you would any of Edward’s friends who ca over to visit."
"Yeah, what she said."
Despite Layla and Arthur’s words, there was no way that the man could treat them in the sa manner he did his son’s ’normal’ friends. Even more so for so of the servants who were scared of even being within sight of them.
While not as grand as Jankin originally intended, he did have a banquet to welco his son ho, and to inform the other Galactic Nobles in attendance of Arthur, Layla and Nicole’s presence.
In a way, he was indirectly telling them his son was close enough with the Devildom’s prince and a Grand Duke’s daughter that they ca to visit him.
Anyway, the three t with Edward’s elder siblings who were around and chatted with them a bit, after which the banquet finally ca to a close.
◇ ◇ ◇
Later that night, when the teenagers had gone to bed, Jankin was seated on his throne with his chin propped up on his palm as he listened to the reports from his eldest son about the tasks he had assigned him.
Among Jankin’s children, this one was the one whom the man had intentions of passing his throne onto when he retired within the next few ten thousand years.
He wasn’t too old, but he was already a superior stage Low-Tier deity.
After they finished discussing official matters, the younger man finally spoke up regarding his younger brother’s friends who had co over earlier in the day.
"So that was the Prince people have been making so much noise about, huh? He does not seem like m-"
"Hold your tongue, boy."
Jankin cut his son’s words off, readjusting his seating position before he continued.
"Do you expect that the Devildom’s Prince and that Grand Duke Eryrth’s daughter would co all the way over here alone?"
The mont he said that, he locked his blue eyes onto the figure who suddenly materialised a few tres behind his son, shocking the Crown Prince who had not sensed anything at all.
"Good evening, Ruler Castillo."
"Identify yourself.
Jankin knew this person was obviously soone from the Burning Realms; the Universe’s Capital Cluster, but even so, he wasn’t going to act all servile with a ’re bodyguard’.
"My na is not necessary. Just address by the title conferred by my master: Number Five."
The mont he heard that title, recognition flashed through the eyes of both Jankin and his son. They had both t Conrad before on official business, especially when there was an issue with so of Arthur’s potential assassins hiding in Onerth.
So they had also t the man who was always not too far from Conrad; Number One.
Hearing this one call himself Number Five ant that he was one of the numbered subordinates of Conrad’s as well.
"Five, huh?"
"Yes. I’m just a lowly servant in service of His Grace, sent here to deliver a ssage."
"..."
Jankin remained silent and Five took it as his cue to continue.
"His Grace wishes that you would let the Young Lady and her friends experience things ’as they are’, without interfering, unless their lives are truly at risk.
Since you would most likely assign them guard, he wishes those guards do not go over the top with their protection."
Basically, he ant even if they went to a random planet in Onerth and get the shit beaten out of them, the guards were not to interfere unless they were really about to die.
"Is that so..."
Jankin nodded as he spoke, before tapping his hand on the armrest of his throne, sending out waves of power as he activated his Galactic Ruling Authority and scanned the entirety of Onerth.
"So, there were not five of you, but ten, huh? Oh well. You can leave now."
The man dismissed Five with a nonchalant tone, ignoring the look of light surprise that appeared on Five’s face when he saw how unconcerned Jankin looked about the fact that there were ten other Deity Relam existences in his Galaxy.
After Five left, Jankin turned his gaze back to his son who was silent throughout the conversation and spoke.
"Edward’s strength has risen greatly during his ti away. I think it’s ti to pass on the ’Numbered Sword Ascension’ technique to him."
"Huh? Already?! Should you not wait for him to be at least Superior Grandmaster?"
"With the kind of people he’s hanging around, he’d be on that stage in no ti."
Jankin got up from his throne and continued before the Crown Prince could say any more.
"You understood it best, so you’d be in charge of teaching him."
"But what about the matter of Star E9A1?"
Hearing the young man’s question, Jankin placed a hand on his chin and pondered for a few monts before coming to a decision.
"Delegate it to your Second Brother, but you still retain full control over the administrative matters."
The man then coalesced a gem of energy, imbued with his authority as a Galactic Ruler and tossed it to the Crown Prince who bowed and received it.
Walking out of the throne room and looking at the night sky outside the window, Jankin heaved a tired sigh while muttering.
"I’d rather deal with a dozen black holes than deal with this situation."
The man walked down the hallway while thinking of who he was going to delegate the matter of dealing with the black hole on the star path to Uclite.
◇ ◇ ◇
The next morning, as early as six, when the sun hadn’t even risen properly, Edward found himself in a large training ground with his Eldest Brother whom he wasn’t really close with.
"The Numbered Sword Ascension has Five Forms.
First of Sword: Cresent Moon.
Second of Sword: Dancing Shadows
Third of Sword: Storm Slash
Fourth of Sword: Stormbreaker’s Surge, and
Fifth of Sword: Annihilation’s Embrace."
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