Clear skies and a blue sea stretched out for miles in all directions as a humongous figure appeared to disrupt this serenity.
A menacing Three-headed Hydra with a complex expression on its monstrous face floated peacefully above the waters as its three heads gazed upwards. Noah had used {Spatial Travel} in the small window that Sect Master Inuit provided and made it back to his homeworld safe.
In his Spiritual Land, he had a wide variety of beings collected, many of whom he could not bring himself to look at at this moment in time. He observed the large body of the Dictatorial Kaiju- Hydra, as he felt its tremendous strength that made him feel like he was at the top of the world.
Yet at this moment in time, he felt weak.
He felt weak as he thought of the enemies he did not even have knowledge of that forced him to run. He felt weak as he closed his eyes and recalled the images of despairing faces all over Atlantis as they felt their world break down.
This feeling of weakness...it had been a long time since he last felt it. Maybe his mind was still affected by the saddening cries of the Lost World when its core was being ripped apart, maybe he was just exhausted mentally after running around the Lost World of Atlantis for so long, only to run as it was destroyed by foreign enemies.
He let out a sigh as he deactivated his many skills, feeling his large body change as a tingling sensation spread throughout and he became a two-meter tall Atlantean with shining golden hair.
He floated in the skies above the sea that was between the United Federation and the Blessed Empire as he thought about how to even face the beings who had their home entirely destroyed.
He was in his thoughts when a small white light shot out from the Spiritual Land anchored on his body, and the figure of Sect Master Inuit appeared in the skies with him. Beings usually needed his authorization to enter or leave the Spiritual Land, but this mysterious Sect Master continued to do surprising things. His gaze looked older and wizened as he looked around the new world they were in and spoke out.
"Try not to despair too much over the fallen. For many beings, the time of their deaths is already written, and they cannot do anything to change it."
His gaze traveled around Noah's homeworld as he seemed to know a great deal of things. Noah listened to this as he asked a question he was pondering in his mind.
"What about my death? You mentioned you foresaw it."
The eyes of the Sect Master sparkled at this question as he looked at Noah with a smile.
"Yes, my techniques showed me of your end, and yet here you are, very much alive. That is one of the things about death, too mysterious for even someone like me to give you any more understanding. Maybe your time was actually today in that destroyed world and my interventions stopped it, maybe it wasn't really your time and events flowed as they should have. It's too complicated to wrap our minds around this idea for beings of our level, so we can put them aside for now and focus on what to do next."
Cryptic words that didn't add anything useful to his knowledge were all that came out from the Sect Master's mouth as Noah stared into his white eyes and nodded.
"Before we get to your goals, tell me more about the force that took down the Lost World as if it was nothing."
The whiteness in the eyes of the Sect Master flashed as a frown appeared on his face.
"Ah, yes. The Celestials. Beings from many different worlds that banded together to supposedly maintain the order of the Universe. There are very few forces that would even dare to stand against them."
Incredulousness was all that was on Noah's mind as he heard of the identity of beings he had falsely played as some time back.
"The World Engine that Atlantis created was a piece of technology that defied the norms, allowing the Lost World to actually change and mask its position in the Universe with but a thought from the World Core. After finding out about this, The Celestials sat on their high chairs and decided to wipe out the world that was playing around with such dangerous technology under the name of restoring and maintaining the order of the universe."
The wizened Sect Master swept his eyes across the vast blue sea in Noah's homeworld as he continued.
"It was all under the name of maintaining the rule of the universal laws. Worlds should not be able to do what the Lost World was doing, so they stopped it. It was as simple as that. They didn't have any malicious feelings towards the beings in that world, and they didn't hate or despise any of them. They were just...doing what they believed to be the correct course of action, it didn't matter that an entire world would have to burn for it."
Noah felt his hands slightly trembling in anger as he heard a bit about the ideology of the superpower he had only briefly learned about in his memories. The cries of the dying Lost World reappeared in his mind as it seemed the effects of it which caused tears to unconsciously fall from his eyes still lingered.
Even more saddening were the cries he could hear in his Spiritual Land where the remaining Calamities of the Sea and a few tens of thousands of Atlanteans and Merfolk resided. He still couldn't bring himself to face them as he only knew a portion of what they could be feeling right now.
He knew only a little about the despair and anger they were feeling as he had gone through an event where he lost those dear to him as well, but it was never at this stage. It was never this big. He let out a sigh as he asked the Sect Master,
"Knowing all of this, why exactly did you travel to the Lost World to find someone like me?"
A brilliant smile erupted from the face of the wizened old man standing in front of Noah as a grand story was weaved out.
The World of Cultivation.
It was a Prime World, a powerful world where some of the recognizable powers in the universe played in.
What did a being that earned the title of Sect Master in this world want with a budding individual in a far corner of the Universe?