"Let's stop for a minute," Umbra shook Giza's hand prompting her to do just that and turn to him. "Get out of here,"
"Is sothing the matter, My Lord?" She asked, extending her free hand and opening a rift from her dark dinsion to reality.
"No," He retorted pulling his hand away and sucking in a breath as he exited. "It's suffocating in there."
"It has only been a week, my lord, you seem to be adjusting rather slowly," Giza chuckled. "I have spent all of ti in there, but it seems you may need so more ti to adjust-"
"Don't patronize ," Umbra snarled, setting foot down on the world she had stopped on, there were no inhabitants visible, but he could tell that beings of great power resided beneath the surface. "Where are we?"
"I assud you would want a little exercise after a week of doing nothing but travelling empty space, so I scouted soplace dangerous for you to do just that," She smiled.
"Also..."
"Also?" Umbra raised his brow.
"As you are currently, it is impossible to face Zan'el and not be underminded or killed without my aid, you need to have at the very least the power to best so of his generals to have a standing with him, you need to be able to best all of them to get an audience, becoming stronger still takes precedence."
"Then why am I stopping here, I could just devour-"
"Your mana alone will not do this ti, you already have bountiful amounts not far from Sol's, what you lack is the skill needed to utilize said mana and control the room, you do not yet have what it takes to impress the Emperor of the Grand Collective."
Umbra; the arrogant mirror of Sol who had not been humbled by a vast gallery of more powerful enemies couldn't understand what she was trying to say, from his perspective if an enemy showed up all he needed to do was overpower and crush them, her words felt like an insult.
"Am I getting through to you, My Lord?" Giza asked when she saw his brows furrow and his lips thin.
"Are you looking down on again, Giza?"
"Again?" She took a step back, almost shocked at what he said. "When have I ever? My only wish is your growth and success as they align perfectly with my plans-"
"Bullshit, everything you've said over the last few days has either been a quip or an insult, do you take for a fool?!" He snapped, reaching for her blouse when she took another step backwards and pulling her closer. "Don't lie to , Giza, I am the darkness, just as much as you are; I can see right through you."
"Please," The little care she had been showing towards his developnt dried and her deanor once again beca that of an uncaring dark deity. "Release and calm down-"
"I'm not done-"
"You are." Giza flinched, gnashing her teeth and shuddering, her eyes glossed over with pure black and the mana he could sense from her disappeared completely leaving a husk talking to him, void of mana, pure Void. "I do not know exactly what happened in the realm you were trapped in when Sol Vestic and Ikaris left Atla."
"However, I have always watched over you, before when you were Sol, and now that you are Umbra.
I am loyal to only you, the personified breath of darkness, and I will continue to be," She slowly took his hand, forcing his fingers free and standing properly again. "I will always have your back and will always support you, Umbra, I gave my word."
"However," She opened his palm and rested her finger in it tracing the creases, glaring at him while their eyes focused in on each other. "I have already explained that my mortality is not yours to claim, so things I will not allow you to do to , and threatening with violence rests at the very top of that list."
"You-"
"If you continue to threaten and not listen to when all I have is your best interests at heart My Lord, if the day ever cos that you attack because of your impatience, your arrogance or misplaced anger, then I will be the one to personally end your existence, not Zan'el, not Ikaris, not Sol Vestic... ; the one you nad Giza."
"Fuck," Umbra cursed, dragging his hand from her and walking away when he started to feel the blood in his veins turn to ice and the hair on his neck stand on end. "Don't ever do that again."
"Are you calm now, my Lord?" Giza caught his hand again, resting her cheek against his shoulder while the mana that filled her body returned, allowing her voice that had distorted to return as well.
"What's the deal with this place anyway, I can sense a tric shit-tonne of powerful beasts just beneath the surface."
"This is a restricted Zone, designated the most uninhabitable unit by the Emporium, the only way through it is a full-scale war from one end to the other." She smiled stomping on the ground. "And that is owed all to the beings that reside here and nowhere else in the entirety of the Grand Collective."
"This is Makka, the planet of monsters, each born with divine levels of power, and maturing quickly to Primordial levels of strength, they are extrely territorial, feeding on anything they can get their claws on."
"If that's true then why haven't they attacked us yet?"
"Because I am here." Giza answered slowly fading from his sight mid sentence. "There are about Seventy billion remaining on their ho-world after the last war against them failed, another Ten billion scattered across the expanse of their verse. "Most are comparable to Ikaris as of current, so slightly weaker, and others stronger."
"They have a hive mind, but no nexus which controls them, they adapt to anything thrown at them overti, and they are sentient, capable of strategies, this will not be easy, my lord, good luck."
With that last explanation and well-wish, she was gone from sight and senses, the ground began shaking as soon as she was no longer there, fissures began growing and opening all around him.
"Do you honestly expect to fight Ninety Billion monsters by myself when I have the option to leave?" Umbra scoffed.
"Will you though?" Giza replied from far beyond the system crossing her legs and taking a seat on a thriving world full of people. "Will you run away, my Lord?"
Contrasting her usual approach of destruction and absorption, she had taken a seat at a random outdoor restaurant, smiling as a waitress approached her.
Here was a strange world where everyone had a pair of foot long antennae protruding from the tops of their heads which they used to communicate telepathically, they were made of a flexible keratin shell with small round balls of hair at the ends that stuck out when they spoke.
As such, without uttering a word the waitress halted and fell to her knees, crying when she got a proper look at the being that had visited them; the infinitely dark.
"Please, spare us," The woman was in the process of lowering her head when she heard Giza chuckle.
"Very well then, throughout the region I have co to realise that this is not only the most intellectually advanced, but also the most adaptive system, I will give you a chance, treat to the most delicious food your howorld has to offer, read my mind, create sothing never conceived before and blow away, if you do, you may have many more years of life left yet."
"But should you fail, today will be the last."
***
"Run away...?" Umbra fud watching the first monster erge. "Even if they are a hundred billion, I am stronger than Ikaris, no number changes that fact, why would I run away?"
The beast before him had no eyes, yet it turned to him as soon as it erged, relying on psychic link to tether to his brainwaves like a computer, it was as large as a polar bear, lean and musclular and biped with arms as long as a baboon's, sharp rectangular claws on each finger and toe with a short tail and a thick neck at the end of which it housed a massive mouth full of large serrated shark-like teeth.
The body was a mixture of scale-like skin covered by short fur, but the man was more interested in the brain since they were supposed to be smart creatures, because of the mouth and nostrils occupying all of the space, there was not even enough room for a brain on the head.
"What the fuck is this?" Umbra paused staring at the creature, but a mont later he was reacting when the mouth started closing down over his head, it happened so fast that he didn't even realise he was dodging until his fist connected with the creature's abdon and sent it into orbit, roaring and flailing.
"As strong as Ikaris, does that also apply to speed as well?" He asked himself, balling his fist when several dozen more began erging while the one he had sent flying started descending with the use of wings that he was sure weren't there before.
Despite the blow he was sure should have killed it, the beast was fine, it only seed enraged and more hungry.
"Do they scale to the sa or higher than Primordial Vatui durability?"
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