Sovereign of the Karmic System

"What are those?" Asked a now clear-minded Dawn as she noticed the dozens of spherical objects contained in the crate that Daniel had opened, and most likely, every other.

"You'll know in about ten minutes." Responded Daniel with a grave tone which revealed a great degree of urgency. He then stood up, and used the control over the space within the ship to lift the hundreds of crates, and stack them into an orderly bunch before covering them with a layer of spatial essence that prevented others from seeing, or even perceiving them.

As he finished handling the crates, Daniel stretched his left arm outwards and forced every perfect essence sphere to detach from the ship, and rush towards his palm, above which they orbited like a miniature solar system.

"What are you doing?! You promised that the ship would go to us as it is!" Said Lilith with worry the moment she saw Daniel remove the valuables from the ship that, now, belonged to them.

Her first reaction to what Daniel was doing, was to think that he intended to go back on his word.. and that he was currently taking her and the others away, so that he could kill them before using Cassie's permit to go through the inter-dimensional portal. But, luckily, her worries were proven wrong when Daniel put the elemental spheres into an empty spatial ring, and casually tossed it at her. "Pipe down, will you?" he said.

Lilith grabbed the small ring and immediately pushed a small portion of her consciousness into the space that it contained. Her expression eased as, inside the ring, she saw every single sphere that were previously mounted into the ship that Daniel had promised to give them. She then looked at her companions, to whom she faintly nodded in confirmation that Daniel was, in fact, not trying to cheat them.

The four of them then turned to look at Daniel, who stood in the middle of the now grey and unwelcoming space with closed eyes, and noticed that his lips were moving rhythmically, almost as if in the middle of counting, or keeping time.

"What are you doing?" Asked Rose with confusion. Daniel's actions were taking them away from safety, and he did that only minutes before their turn to leave the universe would arrive.

"Stand behind me, and hold hands. Do not move away or let go, no matter what happens.. do you understand me?" Asked Daniel while keeping his eyes closed, and reserving a portion of his attention to keep counting, as well as to maintain the course and speed of the ship.

Rose and the others looked at one another with confusion, but then, they hurried towards Daniel, where they held each other's hand while standing as close to one another as they could.

Time went by slowly, one minute after another just like it had always done, and yet, seemingly slowed by Daniel's constant counting.. The seriousness in his voice pushed their nerves to the edge, as shown by how increasingly hard it was for them to stand still, or remain quiet.

In their minds, Rose and the others imagined the dangers that would suddenly appear in front of them, and the closer they got to the time in which they were scheduled to use the portal, the more prevalent and terrifying these thoughts would become.

This went on until only a couple of minutes were left, a moment in time in which Daniel was able to distract them from their fervid imagination by moving a hand behind his back and wiggling his fingers, hinting to any of them to grab his hand.

Dawn was the first one to react, and she grabbed Daniel's hand just in time to witness the sudden arrival of around ten blood cultivators, and a young woman, whom she recognized as Saha. They had appeared only a few meters away from them, on the opposite side of the grey and unwelcoming space.

"If I feel the slightest flow of mana, I will strike to kill." Said the leader of the group, whose face expressions Daniel had seen more than once during the brief conversation the two had when the former was still in Saha's body.

"Nice to see you again!" said Daniel with a smile one would only expect to see on the face of a long lost friend. He then raised his left arm in surrender, "Don't worry, I would not be able to open a portal even if I wanted to.. Because of this damn space.. Before you do what you have to do, however, can you tell me what would have happened if I got into that portal? Would you have followed us?" he asked.

"Take him, before the ship leaves the stable space.. Take all of them." Ordered the person to whom Daniel was talking to, to his followers. "Father will be pleased.." he then muttered.

At the mention of his father, Daniel's lips curved into a smile. "Isn't it odd that such an old entity is still so reliant on their father?" he asked. A simple question was able to get under the skin of the leader of the blood cultivators.. "Did he punish you the last time you've failed?.. Did he.. Oh man, how many spanks are we talking about?"

The blood cultivator tried to maintain his calm, but as soon as Daniel started to imply that his father and him shared some sort of disturbing relationship, any form of rational thought disappeared from his mind. He then approached Daniel, and with a snapping motion, he grabbed his throat, and lifted him off the floor.

"Laugh while you can. I promise that my father and I will spend a great deal of time finding the most painful way to kill you." he said while smiling maliciously. He then put Daniel back down, let his hand slide onto his shoulder, and added, "After that, I will go to your universe of origin, and look for anyone you know, anyone you've ever met.. I will take my time in dealing with them."

Disgusted by the man's expression, Daniel weakly pushed his hand off his shoulder, and with a now serious face, he said, "Thanks, this is all I needed." He then disappeared from where he was standing, almost as if he had never been there to begin with.

The sudden disappearance of Daniel sent a shiver down the spine of the blood cultivator, who, in less than an instant, turned around to see that the bright red light which indicated the position of the legacy, was now in the proximity of the inter-dimensional portal. At the same time, he noticed that Saha, the slave whom he had used to obtain permission to travel, and whom he needed in case he would need to use the portal to follow Daniel into the Trigate, was now gone as well.

Unwilling to think of what would happen if he allowed Daniel to leave the universe, the blood cultivator opened his mouth to give his orders, "DON'T LET HIM G-" However, before he could finish, an ominous feeling creeped up from behind him, followed by the shockwave that flattened the him and the other blood cultivators against the walls of the ship's formation before shattering it, and allowing for the immense amount of energy to expand outwards.. and show a degree of power that, in comparison, would put the death of the biggest star in the universe to shame.

-----

The content of the chests that Daniel had left on the ship was something that Rose and the others could have never hoped to recognize.. After all, each of those spherical objects had been invented, perfected, and mass produced by Virgil, a member of Daniel's group.

In the past few years Virgil had started a business of his own, a company specialized in the study, invention, and mass production of most of the technology present in Daniel's system. Under his guidance, Virgil Tech had made several technological advancements that had been found incredibly useful in increasing the quality of life of both mortals, and weaker cultivators.. and yet, the item for which they were best known for throughout their universe, was the Essence Battery.

Born as a simple bomb whose power was determined by the type of essence that it had been charged with, Virgil had perfected this item to a point where each one could store the full power of a hundred cultivators at the peak of the godhood stage.. A result that he had only achieved thanks to the help of Daniel, the person for whom the production of these batteries was strictly reserved.

The hundreds of crates present in Daniel's ring, each filled with dozens of essence batteries that had been painstakingly charged with a hundred times the full extent of Daniel's power, were his strongest weapon. One that could erase an entire interstellar cloud, and that had required the intervention of multiple members of the independent faction, to stop the shockwave from washing past the entire area, disintegrating the planet, and striking the millions of cultivators in the process.

-----

"W-What the hell was that?" shouted Lilith, who, along with the others, was staring at the massive supernova that had brightened every corner, and even the opposite side of the planet.

"NOT NOW!" Said Daniel while tightening his grip around Dawn's and Saha's wrists, and hurrying towards the inter-dimensional portal as fast as he could.

"COME BACK HERE! YOU BASTARD!!" said a disembodied voice that resounded throughout the entire system, and caught the attention of every single cultivator present in the planet. Then, before anyone could volunteer to meet the voice's owner, it continued by saying, "Kill them.. KILL THEM ALL!!"

The last shout was charged with vast amounts of blood essence, and was powerful enough to dispel the still present inferno of essence caused by the explosion and reveal the mauled bodies of dozens of blood cultivators, who, as soon as they command of their leader, charged at the planet with blood-thirsted eyes.

"Shit!" exclaimed Daniel while trying to navigate through the ripples of space caused by the unaffected portal, which were greatly slowing the movements of Rose and the others.

In the few moments that it took for Daniel to reach the portal, the blood cultivator was able to slaughter dozens of opposing and unprepared cultivators, who threw themselves at him in an attempt to stop him only to be absorbed, and added to the power at his disposal.

"YOU ARE GOING NOWHERE!!" Shouted the leader of the blood cultivators to the top of his lungs. In his voice, Daniel could hear a deep thirst for blood, which paired with his murderous emotional aura that his body emitted, ensured him that there was no more place for words, or for capture.. He wanted to kill him, and he would do the same with anyone who would stand in his way..

The extremely stable space was nothing in front of the power of the blood cultivator, who shot towards Daniel with his fist cocked behind his head, and enough power in it to collapse space.

Left with only instants to live and no other choice, Daniel decided to use his last resort.. He pushed outside of his body as much power as he could, and morphed into a time essence which automatically merged into the stable space that was surrounding them, and into an extremely peculiar form of essence of spacetime. Given the concepts of time that Daniel had inserted into the surrounding space, he had hoped that he could project himself and the five young girls into the near past, just long enough to allow them to avoid the strike, and reach the portal.. But, alas, this time luck did not seem to be on his side.

As he approached, and the members of the independent faction moved aside to avoid his attack, the enraged blood cultivator struck the solid space with all the power that was left in his body, bending the very fabric of spacetime, and pushing the now solidified part of space in which Daniel was trapped, directly towards the inter-dimensional portal. Contrary to its usual passive and stable presence, the surface of the portal reacted to the blow with massive ripples that extended all the way to the edge of the portal.. One of these ripples met the nearby Daniel in space, and the moment its translucent surface touched him, it pulled him in along with the others.

The last thought that was able to form in the mind of the leader of the blood cultivator, right before being struck down by dozens of members of Competition's domain, was that once Daniel had gone through the portal, instead of dimming, the red light which indicated the blood legacy had disappeared altogether.