Chapter 152: It is... looking for me
The spatial tear trembled once again.
This time, the reaction was completely different from before. The blue-purple line less than two meters long suddenly bent violently, its two edges twitching continuously as though something on the other side were forcibly tearing it wider.
Boom!
A wave of energy surged through.
At least during the first instant, Ethan could not see any color within it, but the entire aerospace center immediately reacted. Old metal plates kilometers away from the tear began vibrating simultaneously, the ground emitted a deep humming sound, and countless energy detectors set up by the various races around the area all shot to their maximum readings at once.
One of humanity’s devices emitted a piercing warning.
Crack!
The measuring crystal mounted on top exploded outright.
Inside the temporary resting area, Ethan, who had been sitting beside the metal table with Laira and Ruo Yan, immediately raised his head. Mumu was sprawled in the corner, its soft body occupying nearly a third of the available space. The moment it heard the explosion, its entire body puffed up, its two golden eyes staring toward the entrance.
"Mumu?"
Ethan had just stood up when his left arm suddenly trembled very slightly.
If the Primordial Armor had not already become almost a part of his body, he might have overlooked the sensation. Ethan lowered his gaze just in time to see an extremely thin silver line run across the metal surface before disappearing.
"Ethan?" Laira immediately noticed his movement.
"It is nothing."
The moment he finished speaking, another explosion came from outside.
Boom!
This time, the entire airship hangar shook.
Qing Zhu, who had been sitting near the entrance, immediately stood up. Her usual lazy smile disappeared as her pale red eyes looked through the half-collapsed roof toward the spatial tear. Qing Lian also set down her teacup. Neither woman needed to exchange a single word before acting at the same time.
Qing Zhu raised one hand. Green symbols appeared around her five fingers before flying into the air, while Qing Lian merely flicked her sleeve.
Hum!
A transparent barrier immediately covered the entire resting area, just as the strange wave of energy outside swept toward them.
Boom!
The barrier shook violently, ripples continuously spreading across its surface.
Ruo Yan stepped beside Ethan, her gaze still fixed on the energy outside.
𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
"What is that?"
"Not sure yet."
Qing Zhu observed the fluctuations running across the barrier, her expression becoming even more serious.
"Do not touch it recklessly."
Laira frowned. "Dangerous?"
"I do not know what it is." Qing Zhu turned to look at her. "That is precisely why it is dangerous."
Outside the resting area, chaos had already broken out.
The various races camped around the spatial tear activated their own defensive methods at once. Some raised red energy shields, others used crystal pillars to form domes, while several enormous creatures simply placed their own bodies in front of their formations.
However, there were still those who looked at the energy with a completely different expression.
A nonhuman covered in silver-gray skin stepped outside a barrier. Three small horns grew from his forehead, while both arms were covered in rings of red symbols. Ethan had seen this race when he first arrived here. He had heard that their bodies could absorb many different kinds of energy to strengthen their flesh.
The nonhuman raised his head and stared at the energy sweeping across the sky, greed quickly appearing in his eyes.
"It is only unclaimed energy."
An elder behind him immediately shouted, "Come back!"
The nonhuman did not stop. He spread his arms, causing all the symbols across his body to light up at once.
"Come to me!"
Boom!
A stream of energy was immediately pulled toward him.
For the first few seconds, nothing happened. The nonhuman even laughed, convinced that his judgment had been correct.
But that smile quickly froze as the skin on both his arms began to swell.
It was not muscle growth.
Black masses of tissue grew from beneath his skin, rapidly extending into twisted structures resembling tree branches. His hands deformed, his fingers gradually fused together, and even the three horns on his forehead began growing crookedly toward both sides.
"Ah..."
The nonhuman lowered his head and stared at his body, his voice quickly turning into a panicked scream.
"Aaaaah!"
The energy he had just absorbed suddenly transformed into something completely different. White flames erupted from inside his body, burning outward through layer after layer of flesh.
Fwoosh!
Everything happened too quickly for those behind him to intervene.
Within only a few breaths, his body, more than two meters tall, had burned into a blackened lump before crumbling apart in front of everyone.
The entire area immediately fell silent.
Another nonhuman who had just stepped outside his barrier quietly turned around and went back inside. The greed from moments earlier had vanished, and no one else showed any intention of trying again.
Qing Zhu looked at the pile of ash outside and repeated only one warning.
"Do not absorb it."
Laira immediately turned toward Ethan.
He was still staring at his left arm.
The second tremor had appeared, far clearer than the first.
What caught Ethan’s attention was that the Primordial Armor did not seem to reject the energy outside at all.
It was responding.
Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly and activated the Eye of Truth with a thought. In his vision, the world before him immediately changed, and the seemingly chaotic energy gradually revealed its true structure.
It had its own flow.
There were convergence points, sections that collided with one another and broke apart, while countless streams of energy continued circling the spatial tear as though searching for some kind of object.
Most strangely, every time the Primordial Armor trembled, part of those currents immediately changed direction toward Ethan.
’This is not a coincidence.’
He walked toward the entrance.
Laira immediately blocked his path.
"Where are you going?"
"Outside."
"No."
The answer came instantly.
Ethan raised his head and looked at her. With her height towering far above his, Laira only needed one step to almost completely block the entrance. Her arms were folded across her chest, her expression serious enough to leave almost no room for negotiation.
Ruo Yan also stood up. For once, she was completely on Laira’s side.
"I agree with her this time."
Ethan looked at the two women.
"That thing does not want to hurt me."
"What makes you think that?"
Ruo Yan asked while grabbing his right hand.
Ethan simply raised his left arm.
"This."
Laira lowered her gaze.
The silver lines across the Primordial Armor flashed again. Almost simultaneously, a stream of energy that had been rushing past outside the barrier suddenly changed direction and lightly struck the protective screen near Ethan’s arm.
Tap.
The sound was not loud. It almost sounded like someone knocking on a door.
Laira fell silent.
Ruo Yan also did not know what to say for a moment.
Mumu, which had been lying behind them, heard the sound and slowly shuffled closer.
"Mumu?"
Just then, the distant spatial tear released another massive explosion.
Boom!
This wave of energy was several times greater than before.
Mumu’s entire body jolted.
"MUMU!"
It immediately turned around and squeezed its enormous body behind Laira and Ruo Yan. Its head tried to wedge itself between the two women, but its body, more than three meters tall, remained completely visible on both sides and even towered far above Ruo Yan’s head.
Ruo Yan turned to look at it.
"Mumu."
"Mumu..."
It immediately lowered itself further.
The result was that its belly spread outward on both sides instead.
Laira watched for several seconds before asking, "Are you hiding?"
Mumu nodded seriously.
"Mumu."
Ruo Yan silently raised a hand and rubbed her forehead.
Even Ethan could not help laughing.
"I think everyone can still see you."
Mumu looked down at its own body, thought for a moment, then began compressing itself thinner.
Splat.
From a Slime more than three meters tall, it transformed into a Slime sheet nearly four meters wide lying behind the two women.
The situation did not improve at all.
Laira reached out and pushed down the part of its head that had begun crawling onto her shoulder.
"Stay still."
"Mumu."
Ethan shook his head, then looked toward the entrance again.
"I will only test it a little. If anything goes wrong, I will come back immediately."
Laira still frowned, but this time Qing Lian spoke from behind them.
"Let him go."
Everyone turned toward her.
Qing Lian was looking at Ethan’s left arm. She did not know what the armor truly was, nor did she know what transformations it had undergone, but the resonance between the Primordial Armor and the energy coming from beyond the spatial tear was already too obvious to ignore.
"I will maintain the barrier," Qing Lian said. "If anything goes wrong, I will pull you back."
Ethan nodded.
Laira finally stepped aside, but her hand remained on his shoulder for a while longer before letting go.
"If anything feels wrong, come back immediately."
"I know."
"Do not force yourself to endure it."
"Mm."
Ruo Yan looked at him and calmly added, "I will remember those words."
Ethan immediately recalled how many times he had said "I am fine," only for things to eventually turn out very much not fine.
"I will come back."
Only then did the two women truly let him go.
Qing Lian opened a small gap in the barrier.
Ethan stepped outside, and the instant his foot left the protection of the barrier, all the energy around the resting area suddenly stopped.
Dozens, then hundreds of invisible streams of energy that had been rushing in different directions simultaneously changed course.
Those outside immediately noticed the change.
"What is happening?"
"Look over there!"
"It is that human!"
Ethan remained standing still.
The first stream of energy approached, causing Laira behind him to unconsciously clench her fist while Ruo Yan’s fingers were already raised in preparation.
But what happened was completely different from what had happened to the nonhuman earlier.
The stream of energy brushed past Ethan’s shoulder, then slowly wrapped around his left arm, rubbing lightly against the surface of the Primordial Armor like a creature sniffing for something familiar.
The second stream quickly arrived, followed by a third.
They ran along the seams in the metal, then flowed back outside without entering Ethan’s body at all.
Through the Eye of Truth, the previously chaotic energy currents became increasingly clear.
Ethan slowly raised his left arm.
’It is looking for this.’
Its target had never been him.
It was the Primordial Armor.
A very strange sensation traveled through his arm. It was not like words or any clear consciousness, but more like an instinct that had slept for far too long finally recognizing something familiar.
Ethan tried changing the route.
The Eye of Truth locked onto a stream of energy touching the armor’s surface. Instead of forcibly absorbing it like the nonhuman who had just died, Ethan allowed it to follow the metallic pathways across the Primordial Armor, pass through its internal structure, and only then slowly guided it into his body.
Boom!
His Heavenly Gate trembled slightly.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
The energy that had entered his body had completely changed. Its violence and chaos had vanished, replaced by an extremely pure stream of energy that was even easier to absorb than most Energy Crystals he had ever used.
’The Primordial Armor is converting it?’
Ethan tried again.
Success.
The second stream of energy was quickly converted, followed by the third.
By this point, he understood what he needed to do.
Ethan expanded his capacity to receive it.
Boom!
Dozens of streams of energy immediately surged toward him, causing the entire Primordial Armor to blaze with light.
The aura around his body began to rise.