My Talent's Name Is Generator

An hour passed.

For that entire hour, I continued moving through the Soul Sea, repeatedly using Echo Reversion to leap from one previously visited location to another. Each jump carried me enormous distances, but every transition consumed a tremendous amount of Soul Force. I compensated for the expenditure almost immediately by continuing to refine the black ocean within the Dawn Core.

By the time the hour had passed, nearly five percent of the ocean had been processed.

The countless souls contained within that portion had already been completely refined, their remaining Soul Force separated from the black substance and gathered within my Dawn Core. I deliberately kept that energy there rather than allowing it to enter my Soul Sea, leaving it suspended around me as a vast white mist that grew denser with every cycle of teleportation and consumption.

Yet as the distance between me and the Prime Territory continued shrinking, another problem began occupying my thoughts.

Defender Aurora.

She had accompanied me into the Null Realm, but she had disappeared long before we reached the Twelfth’s prison. I had never discovered where she had gone, and now the situation had changed completely.

The Wardens would eventually realize that the Twelfth had been freed, and when that happened, they would hunt us. If Aurora was still somewhere within the Null Realm, I needed to know where she was before I left. More importantly, if she was in danger, I couldn’t simply abandon her here.

I needed to find her.

I made another Echo Reversion jump and emerged at the next location. Instead of immediately preparing another teleportation, I stopped and took a long breath. I had already suspected that using the All-Knowing Eyes for a question involving Aurora would come at a considerable cost, and I didn’t want to spend that price unnecessarily.

I began refining the black ocean again.

Another portion was separated, isolated and consumed. The process continued while I remained suspended above the Soul Sea, and by the time another substantial amount had been refined, the total portion I had processed had reached ten percent. All the souls contained within that ten percent had been completely refined, leaving their purified Soul Force suspended inside the Dawn Core like a vast white cloud.

Only then did I decide to ask.

I focused my consciousness and invoked the All-Knowing Eyes.

Location of Defender Aurora.

The moment the question formed within my mind, I felt an enormous pressure descend upon my soul.

My expression changed.

The Soul Force within my Soul Sea began disappearing at an alarming rate.

It wasn’t being consumed gradually. It was being devoured.

The pressure around my eyes intensified until they began trembling, while an immense amount of Soul Force continued pouring out of my Soul Sea. Within moments, nearly eighty percent of the energy I had accumulated there was gone.

I immediately opened the connection to the Dawn Core.

The vast reserves of refined Soul Force I had deliberately stored there surged outward and flooded into my Soul Sea, replacing what had just been consumed. The white mist that had accumulated around me rapidly thinned as enormous quantities of energy were transferred into my soul.

But even that wasn’t enough.

The All-Knowing Eyes continued consuming. Half of the newly transferred Soul Force vanished almost immediately.

Then my vision changed.

The Soul Sea disappeared.

I found myself looking at Aurora.

She was injured.

Blood leaked from the corner of her mouth and several wounds across her body, while her clothing was torn and stained. She appeared exhausted, yet she remained standing in the middle of an unfamiliar landscape.

Three figures surrounded her.

Their appearances were obscured, almost deliberately blurred by the vision, but their presence was impossible to mistake. The pressure radiating from each of them was immense, carrying an authority that immediately exceeded anything a Saint could possess.

Demigods.

My expression hardened.

There were only Demigods in the Null Realm who possessed that level of authority.

The Wardens.

Aurora was surrounded by three of them.

The realization sent a jolt through me.

Then the vision began moving.

The perspective pulled away from Aurora and the three Wardens, rising higher and higher until the landscape beneath them became smaller. The enormous rock upon which they stood gradually came into view. It was so vast that it resembled a planet, its surface surrounded by layers of clouds and violent tribulation lightning that constantly illuminated the darkness around it.

The vision continued retreating.

Farther.

And farther.

The enormous rock became smaller, revealing the vastness of the Soul Sea surrounding it. Then even the Soul Sea began shrinking as the perspective continued moving outward, crossing enormous distances and passing countless regions of the Null Realm.

I watched helplessly as the vision continued its impossible retreat.

One region passed.

Then another.

Then another.

Until finally, the perspective reversed.

It began moving toward me.

The countless regions of the Null Realm disappeared one after another as the vision crossed the enormous distance between Aurora’s location and my own.

Until the vision finally reached my current position.

Then it vanished.

My consciousness returned to the Soul Sea.

I opened my eyes.

For several seconds, I remained completely still. I knew exactly where Aurora was.

And the realization brought another problem with it.

She wasn’t somewhere along my current route. She wasn’t even remotely close to the direction in which I had been traveling.

She was in an entirely different part of the Null Realm.

Worse, three Wardens were already there with her.

I looked toward the distant horizon. The twelve-hour countdown was still running.

And now I had another decision to make.

For several moments, I remained suspended above the Soul Sea without moving, weighing the two choices before me. Aurora was somewhere in an entirely different direction, already surrounded by three Wardens.

My first instinct was to turn around and go to her. She had entered the Null Realm with us, and whatever had happened between her and the Wardens, I couldn’t simply pretend I had never seen that vision. But the problem was that I wasn’t a Demigod. Even after everything I had gained here, I had no certainty that I could actually help her against three beings who stood at a level above mine.

I didn’t even know why they were fighting her in the first place. Aurora had been a guest of this realm, so the fact that she was now surrounded by three Wardens suggested that something far more complicated was happening behind the scenes.

Then my thoughts returned to the Prime Territory.

The list of things waiting for me there was already long enough to make the situation seem absurd. I had to confront Verilux, defeat him, deal with the Eternals, obtain the contracts and somehow alter the clauses that bound the civilizations of the Prime Territory to them.

At the same time, I had to accomplish all of this without provoking the Demigods into intervening. If the Wardens or another Demigod decided to send me back into the Null Realm before I could change the contracts, there was little chance I would ever find another path into the real world. Everything I had worked toward would end before I could even begin.

Yet the vision of Aurora refused to leave my mind.