Pri Worlds Aidos and Gozon were located on opposite sides of the Orithyia Galaxy, separated by over 200,000 light-years—a distance far too great for a single spatial jump.
While Jamie could have made the journey alone in one go, with four mortals in tow, he had to make several stops to ensure the pressure from the spatial tunnels wouldn't overwhelm them.
After picking up the two girls from Aramis, Jamie inford McEnda II of his absence to avoid triggering any search parties, then opened a series of Cosmic Gates to lead them to their destination.
About half an hour later, the group of five exited the final gate, floating in space just outside the Omicron Star System.
Encased in Jamie's Cosmic Energy bubble, they gazed down at the system's central star—an enormous, radiant sun—surrounded by planets emitting so much light and energy that was impossible to miss.
"What the hell?! Aidos is Type II?!" Evan exclaid, his voice filled with shock as his eyes were drawn not to the star itself, but to the enormous structure surrounding it.
Aside from not having all his previous incarnation's mories constantly in his head, Evan didn't have much recollection of Aidos' stellar environnt. 'Prisma' Evan had avoided Aidos like the plague for obvious reasons, and the few tis he did visit, he typically used gates that led directly to the surface. His range of activity was also limited.
So, the sight of Aidos' ho star system was a new experience for both incarnations.
Beside him, Arthur turned with a curious look and asked, "Huh? Type II? What does that even an?"
Though still shocked, Evan quickly explained.
"Back on Earth-V, we have this concept called the Kardashev Scale to rank civilizations.
Type I civilizations are supposedly able to access all the energy available on their planet and hypothetically, they should be able to control natural events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
But a Type II civilization? They can harness the energy of an entire star."
Pointing at the luminous mass before them, he asked, "And unless I'm seeing things, isn't that a Dyson Sphere wrapped around Aidos's star?!"
From their vantage point, lightyears away, they could see the entire star system. As Evan had said, a massive structure encircled the star, capturing a huge portion of its energy and channelling it into enormous conduits that stretched across the system.
Its reflective surfaces shimred like a mini-sun.
"You guys call that a Dyson Sphere? That's not what we call it back ho, but I'll admit, the na sounds cool." Arthur casually comnted about the construct around the star, and Evan snapped his head toward him, incredulous.
"You have one of those back ho?"
Arthur gave a silent nod, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, and Evan was left speechless by the casual admission that Arthur's ho planet in the Hell Universe was a Type II civilization.
"Wow, I feel like I should've expected that."
Evan muttered, though a hint of disbelief still lingered in his voice.
Orbiting the star were colossal space stations and wormholes that connected the system's various planets. These wormholes pulsed with intense spatial law energy, allowing for near-instant travel across the massive distances between worlds.
But even though it wasn't the largest planet in the system, there was no mistaking which one was Aidos.
The powerful energy emissions they could both see and feel were enough for even a first-ti visitor like Arthur to know which planet was the Intergalactic Hegemon.
'It's not small by any ans. But it's not as absurdly huge as Gozon…'
The thought crossed Evan's mind as he took a mont to properly observe Aidos from the outside.
Comparing it to Gozon was probably inevitable, given the complicated relationship between the two planets—both now and in the future—but in hindsight, not the best comparison.
For starters, Gozon was roughly the size of a brown dwarf. That was fucking huge!
Aidos, on the other hand, was relatively normal. Just about 5 billion square kilotres in surface area.
From their current position, the planet's atmosphere glowed with energy, and its enormous moon—almost one-fifth the size of Aidos itself—floated nearby like a vigilant guardian.
Clusters of space stations surrounded the planet, buzzing with activity as ships docked and departed. So vessels vanished into glowing wormholes, zipping across the system to other worlds.
"So… can we go down now? I wanna see my mum."
Beatrix broke the short silence that lingered after Evan's remark, drawing everyone's attention to Jamie, whose eyes were locked on sothing in the distance.
"Hmm? You guys done sightseeing?"
He sounded a bit distracted, clearly more focused on whatever had caught his attention than their conversation.
"Yeah. Please take us down."
Jamie gave a small nod and turned his gaze away briefly before conjuring a Cosmic Gate to Aidos's surface. But just as he did, he noticed sothing and he glanced toward the planet with a wry smile.
"Well, they've noticed already."
No surprise there. Even though he used Cosmic Energy, he was still manipulating space—and Aidos was the ho of the Main Entity that governed Space across the Universe. There were definitely detection chanisms for spatial activity there.
Still, Jamie didn't seem bothered. He opened the Cosmic Gate and pulled the four of them through, dropping them at their destination, right in front of a vast garden with a huge palace looming in the distance.
"Stay here. Lem deal with these guys."
With that, Jamie stepped back into the gate and vanished without another word.
Barely a second later, Beatrix jumped forward with a bright grin and spread her arms wide.
"Welco to my House!"
"House?"
Evan raised a skeptical brow, glancing between her and the massive palace behind her.
"House??"
"What? It's a big house."
Beatrix shrugged nonchalantly while Arthur chuckled at Evan's expression, which read, "That's definitely NOT a house."
But his amusent didn't last long. The space around them distorted, and five figures appeared just a few ters away.
Five won, all dressed in pristine maid uniforms, bowed gracefully before Beatrix, their voices respectful and composed.
"Welco Back, Young Mistress."
They then turned to Artemisia and offered a second greeting.
"Greetings, Lady Delgasso."
Artemisia gave a simple nod in response, while Beatrix jumped at them with a grin on her face.
"I'm back!"
The maid in the centre caught her with ease but kept her at arm's length, halting Beatrix's attempt to throw her arms around her. Beatrix pouted in protest, but the woman remained composed, addressing her in a calm, even tone.
"Young Mistress, how may we address your guests?"
Beatrix's mood flipped back to cheerful in an instant as she bead at the group.
"These are my friends, Arthur and Evan!"
The maids offered a synchronized greeting, bowing slightly. The lead maid, however, studied Arthur with a curious gaze, her eyes narrowing just a touch, as if trying to figure sothing out.
Beatrix ignored the subtle scrutiny and quickly shifted the woman's attention back to herself.
"Is my mother ho?"
At the question, the lead maid turned her gaze to the white-haired teen and replied.
"Lady Rilene is currently unavailable. She's away from the planet on official business."
Beatrix's expression fell at that, the smile fading from her face as disappointnt settled in.
Just then, Artemisia lifted her gaze to the sky, catching sight of streaks of light slicing across the clear blue, parting clouds in their wake.
"Are those...?"
Evan began, his curiosity piqued and Artemisia answered before he could even finish the question.
"Race Kings reacting to Jamie's sudden presence, yes."
A 'Demon King' of Gozon showing up on Aidos was no minor occurrence, after all.
Turning back to Beatrix, who still looked a little deflated, Artemisia asked, "Should we stay here?"
Beatrix tapped her chin thoughtfully, then shook her head after a brief mont of consideration.
"Nahh. Let's just go around. There are so places I haven't visited in a while."
Her eyes brightened as she turned toward Evan.
"Also, there's this particular place that sells a lot of strawberry varieties—"
Before she could even finish, Evan was already right before her, eyes glowing with excitent.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go NOW! Strawberries are the number one priority in the Universe! Where are they!?"
Arthur broke into laughter at Evan's sudden outburst, and Beatrix giggled, the playful energy returning to her face.
She waved at the maids and asked, "Can you beam us to Epsilon?"
The head maid silently nodded and conjured a spatial gate before them.
"Thanks!" Beatrix said brightly, grabbing Evan's hand and pulling him through with a grin. Artemisia and Arthur followed just behind, and the portal closed quietly after them.
And just like that, the group of four began their tour of Aidos.
◇ ◇ ◇
Tour: A journey taken for enjoynt, typically involving visits to multiple locations.
And for such an activity, a 'Guide' was almost always essential. Whether in the form of pamphlets, brochures, or locals familiar with the area, sothing—or soone—to offer direction was a must.
For Evan, who was touring past Aidos, he wanted both.
Which was why, the mont they stepped out of the gate into what appeared to be a living room inside a building located in a place called 'Epsilon'—wherever that was—he turned to Beatrix with a question.
"Do you have a world map with you?"
"Hmm? I don't."
Beatrix replied with a puzzled blink, unsure why he was asking. Before either of them could say more, Artemisia silently reached into her pocket and tossed a tablet his way.
Evan caught it mid-air, glancing from the modest-sized pocket to the 12-inch-wide tablet, silently concluding that it must be so kind of magic pocket.
[…weird…]
[…he's strange…]
[…feels like her, but different…]
Faint voices reached Evan's ears, and he turned his gaze to their source, eting eyes with the crowd of low-rank spirits peeking at him from outside the window.
The mont they realized he was looking, they scattered in a panic, leaving Evan to shake his head with a wry smile before turning his attention back to the tablet in his hand.
When he powered it on, a large icon labelled 'World Map' dominated the top right of the screen. He tapped it without hesitation, but the mont the map loaded, he froze, his footsteps coming to a halt.
"Evan?"
Beatrix called out to him, her voice tinged with concern, but Evan didn't respond. He just stood there, unmoving, eyes locked on the map in his hands.
Ti Difference automatically activated, the seconds seemingly stretching to eternity as Evan sighed.
'I thought I understood…'
He truly believed he had grasped the scale of the devastation Aidos had suffered during the 'Great Valmone War' he learned about from his previous incarnation.
'But it appeared I understood nothing.'
Indeed.
As of Year 1054 of the 51st General Calendar, Pri World Aidos of the Orithyia Galaxy had a surface area of exactly 4,900,180,000 km², with a diater of 39,495 km. Light could circle the planet roughly 2.42 tis in a second.
Its Moon had an area of 980 million km², orbiting at a distance of 1,948,908 km.
Nearly 80% of its surface was covered in water, with only 1,001,600,000 km² of land—just 20.45% of the planet's surface.
This land area was divided between the millions of islands scattered across the planet's massive oceans, and its three continents: Alpha, Beta, and Dark (forrly Delta).
But the numbers displayed at the bottom-right corner of the tablet screen, directly beneath the map legend told Evan a totally different story of Aidos.
As of Year 1054 of the 50th General Calendar, Pri World Aidos of the Orithyia Galaxy had a surface area of exactly 5,400,842,810 km², with a diater of 41,462 km. Light could circle the planet roughly 2.3 tis in a second.
Its Moon had an area of 900 million km², orbiting at a distance of 1,868,111 km.
Of its surface, 46.9% was covered in land, with a total surface area of around 2,535,862,124 km².
This landmass was divided among the millions of islands scattered across its vast oceans, and the TEN continents dominating the planet's surface.
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