STEP!

The final figure walked out last, and at first glance, he looked the most human, but only at first glance.

His body was enormous.

Over five meters tall, covered in densely packed pale muscle that stretched tightly beneath skin filled with faint scale-like textures.

His long white hair drifted wildly around him while two thick black horns curved backward from the sides of his head.

Unlike the others, his eyes possessed visible pupils, and they weren’t crimson, but golden.

They were vertical and predatory.

Black scales covered sections of his shoulders, throat, forearms, and lower abdomen, blending naturally into the rest of his flesh.

His hands were monstrous, and there were more than two, a total of four to be precise.

Each finger was thicker than a human wrist, ending in massive black claws.

The muscles in his arms continuously shifted beneath the skin, carrying enough visible force to make the space around them distort faintly with every movement.

Behind him moved a massive two-meter-long tail covered in layered black scales, slowly swaying through space.

The surrounding darkness of the Void was reacting to him differently.

It was like he was a hole within a sea that all water rushed into to fill. That was how the darkness of the Void rushed toward him, making a bizarre spiral of golden light linger around him.

He stepped forward, all three aligning in one smooth line, with not one person stepping out farther than the others, making it hard to tell who exactly was the leader.

Yet the four-armed being slowly stretched one of his fingers outward, pointing directly at White.

"We’ve found him. We’ve found the Prince."

His words were beyond clear, echoing directly even to the three who remained inside the ship.

At that same moment, the notification panel flashed.

[Congratulations, Host Has Come Across His Fused Body’s Race.]

"Umbrawyrs..."

White muttered beneath his breath, looking at the three.

"The jet you stepped out from..."

Galaxy Altherion’s voice echoed toward them.

"What happened to those who were originally in it?"

The jet they had arrived in had sent the signal, yet instead of meeting with the resource-search Galaxial Explorers, these aliens had stepped out instead.

What may have happened to them was quite clear. Still, it was better to hear it directly from them.

But the reply that came wasn’t quite what they had expected.

STEP!

Even in the depthless Void that held no ground, the sound of that single step still echoed as they all watched the one with the katana step out.

His hands gripped the katana’s hilt tightly as he leaned slightly forward, legs apart in a proper Katana drawing stance.

"Unworthy."

Before the word had completely fallen, three different flashes of light appeared.

The first was a simple arc of dark light so black that even within the darkness of the Void, it seemed blinding, and it moved with insane speed.

In fact, it didn’t even seem to move at all, but rather, it seemed to teleport directly before Galaxy Altherion’s neck.

The second light came from none other than Galaxy Altherion himself, who exploded outward with stinging rays of golden light as he instantly crossed both arms against the approaching slash of darkness.

The moment both connected, Galaxy Altherion’s eyes widened.

A sharpness so extreme that resisting it felt like trying to withstand the weight of an entire world.

A black hole cracked open behind his back from the force as he was blasted backward, hurtling toward the jet.

At the speed he was moving, his collision with the jet was unavoidable, and if he struck it, the vessel itself would be ripped apart...that was where the third light came in.

It was a flash of blue lightning as Llumino suddenly appeared beneath the jet, raising it high into the Void just as Galaxy Altherion shot beneath it, narrowly missing the vessel.

CLINK!

The sound of the katana being sheathed echoed out as White, the only one still standing in his original position, watched it happen before turning his gaze behind him.

There, twenty kilometers away, Galaxy Altherion had finally come to a stop, shock written across his face as he looked at his arms.

Both wrists had almost been sliced off, barely hanging by the bone, but instead of blood, golden rays of light spewed from the wounds.

Furthermore, they were already healing.

Turning his head upward, Llumino was high in the sky, having lifted the jet away to avoid its destruction.

His insane speed had saved the ship from destruction.

White turned back to the Umbrawyrs, who also happened to have their eyes fixated on him.

"You shouldn’t have done that."

"They’re a Lower Life Hierarchy..."

The Umbrawyr with the four arms said, two of his hands pointing toward both Galaxy Altherion and Llumino in the sky.

"We don’t answer to those on a Lower Life Hierarchy, as they’re unworthy of our speech!"

"They’re my people, including the ones you killed in the jet you came out of."

White claimed, only to watch a dot of crimson light shine upon him.

It came from the tallest Umbrawyr, who had his arms folded.

"You speak without knowing the truth."

He said, continuing

"We don’t kill Lower Life Hierarchies. We hunt them! But the ones in the jet were already dead, killed by the Nagarasks."

He claimed.

"Their images matched what we’d been told to find, and so we took their jet to search for you."

"Do you kn..."

He was explaining, but then,

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPLE!

A powerful surge of golden light burst from behind them as White turned back to witness what seemed like a second sun appearing within space itself. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Unworthy?"

The voice was like the roar of a divine being as Galaxy Altherion floated in space, becoming so brilliant that his physical features vanished entirely, leaving behind only the faint silhouette of a golden figure.

The radiance pouring from him was so overwhelming that even the Void surrendered its darkness, transforming into a boundless sea of gold.

"May I then show you the power of an unworthy being?"