Chapter 164: 164
The simple, grey portal stood open in front of them, a quiet doorway that led from the silent, perfect peace of their new home back out into the infinite, chaotic cosmos. Rhys stood before it, his family at his side.
Sera, in her child form, held his hand tightly, her pitch-black eyes wide with a mixture of excitement and a little sadness at leaving their new garden so soon.
Emma stood on his other side, her face hidden behind her veil, but her posture was calm and her green eyes were full of a quiet, scholarly curiosity.
Yuki leaned against the crystal railing of the platform, her arms crossed, her expression a familiar, unreadable mask of boredom and amusement.
"So," Yuki said, her voice the first to break the peaceful silence. "The garden is planted. The old weeds have been pulled. Are we finally going somewhere interesting?"
"That’s the plan," Rhys said with a small smile. He looked out at the vast, swirling vista of the cosmos visible through the portal. "But where?"
The universe was an open book now, its pages infinite. They could go anywhere, do anything. For a man who had spent his entire mortal life trapped in a single, dying province, the sheer scale of the freedom was almost overwhelming.
"The book my mother left," Emma said, her voice a quiet, steady anchor in the face of the infinite. She held up the ancient, star-flecked leather-bound volume. "It is not just a key to the portal network. It is a star chart. A map of the known worlds as they were a thousand years ago. It is old, but it is a starting point."
She opened the book. The pages were filled with intricate, hand-drawn maps of constellations and galaxies, with her mother’s neat, precise handwriting filling the margins with notes and observations.
"My mother was a scholar," Emma continued, her voice full of a sad, proud love. "She did not just seek freedom for herself. She sought knowledge. She cataloged dozens of worlds that are accessible through the network. Worlds with strange laws, unique forms of life, and forgotten histories."
She pointed to a specific page. It showed a small, spiral galaxy with a single, brightly shining star at its center. "This one," she said. "She called it the ’Nexus’. The ancient texts said it was a crossroads of the universe, a place where a thousand different cultures and races met. It was a center of trade, of knowledge, of power. If any place in the universe has the answers we are looking for, it would be there."
Rhys looked at the map. The Nexus. It sounded like the perfect place to begin their new journey. A place where they could learn about the new, unsealed universe they now found themselves in.
"Then that is where we will go," he said, his voice a simple, decisive command.
He looked at his family. "This will be a new life for all of us," he said, his voice serious. "The worlds out there are not like the one we left. They are full of ancient powers, of beings whose strength we cannot yet imagine. We will be strangers in a strange land. We will need new identities. New faces."
He looked at Emma. "You can no longer be the fallen princess of House Lyra," he said gently. "That name carries too much history, too much pain."
She nodded, understanding. The name ’Elara’ was the name of a ghost, a hunted victim. She was not that person anymore. "Then I will be Emma," she said, her voice a quiet, firm declaration. "Just Emma. A scholar. A traveler."
He then looked at Yuki. "And you," he said. "The name of the Celestial Fox is known and feared. Seduction is... too conspicuous. Yuki is too cold."
She shrugged, a lazy, elegant motion. "Names are just labels," she said. "They are unimportant. But if it will make you feel better, you may call me whatever you wish... as long as it is not boring."
"Then you will be Yuki," Rhys said. "A quiet, mysterious companion. It will suit the logical half of you." A faint, playful smile touched his lips. "And the other half can consider it a challenge to be interesting without a flashy name."
She rolled her eyes, but a small, amused smile played on her lips.
Finally, he looked at Sera, who was looking up at him with her wide, innocent eyes. "And you, my little slime-ball," he said, ruffling her silver hair. "You will be my daughter. Sera. That is the one truth in this universe that will never change."
She beamed, a look of pure, unadulterated happiness on her face.
He then thought of himself. He was no longer Rhys, the exiled disciple, the Grey Ghost, the monster of the Azure Province. He was a god, a primordial being. But he did not feel like a god. He felt like a father, a partner, a man who had finally found his place in the universe.
"I will be Rhys," he said simply. "A simple traveler. A gardener."
With their new identities decided, they were ready.
Rhys turned to the grey portal. He held out his hand, and the portal began to change. The simple, grey doorway expanded, the chaotic vista of the cosmos within it shifting and changing as he focused his will.
He was not just opening a door; he was choosing a destination. He focused on the star chart in Emma’s book, on the specific, cosmic coordinates of the galaxy known as the Nexus.
The image in the portal swirled and then solidified. It showed a new world. A world of impossible, towering spires that reached for a sky with three suns. Flying ships made of a strange, crystalline material moved between the spires, their paths a silent, graceful dance. The city was a vast, sprawling metropolis, a true crossroads of the universe.
"Our first step," Rhys said.
He took Sera’s hand. He looked at Emma and Yuki. They both nodded.
Together, the four of them, a strange, broken, and powerful family, stepped through the portal. They left their new, quiet garden behind and took their first, tentative step into the vast, unknown, and now-unsealed universe. Their journey, their true journey, had just begun.
They arrived not in the center of the bustling city, but in a quiet, secluded alleyway on its outskirts. The air here was different from the pure, potent essence of the Boneyard Desert. It was a chaotic, dizzying mix of a thousand different energies, the psychic residue of a million different alien minds all living in one place.
The first thing they did was change their appearance. Rhys, with his new, divine control over the laws of creation, did not need to use a skill. He simply willed it. His plain, unremarkable face shifted, becoming that of a simple, unassuming traveler with kind eyes and a calm expression. Emma, with her Mind Sovereign power, shrouded herself in a subtle psychic field that made her seem ordinary, a simple, veiled woman who would not draw a second glance. Yuki, with a roll of her eyes, suppressed her overwhelming celestial aura, becoming just another beautiful, if aloof, woman. And Sera, with a happy giggle, changed her silver hair to a simple, common brown.
They were a family of travelers, nothing more.
They stepped out of the alleyway and into the main street. The city was a storm of sensory overload. The streets were filled with a thousand different species of beings.
There were tall, insect-like creatures with multiple arms, short, stout, rocky beings that moved with a slow, grinding gait, and elegant, floating creatures that looked like they were made of pure light.
The sounds were a chaotic symphony of a hundred different languages, the smells a dizzying mix of exotic foods and strange, alien perfumes.
"This is... incredible," Emma whispered, her green eyes wide with a scholar’s wonder as she took in the impossible, vibrant life of the city.
Even Yuki, the eternally bored celestial being, had a flicker of genuine interest in her eyes. "Well," she said, a slow, predatory smile spreading across her face. "This might not be so boring after all."
Rhys just smiled. He looked at his family, at their faces full of wonder and excitement. He looked at the vast, alien city that was just the first, small step in their new, infinite journey. He felt a sense of peace, a sense of rightness, that he had never known before.
He was a god, yes. He had the power to create and destroy worlds. But in that moment, standing in a crowded, noisy street in a city on the far side of the universe, surrounded by his strange, broken family, he felt something far more profound.
He felt human.
Even Yuki, the eternally bored celestial being, had a flicker of genuine interest in her eyes. "Well," she said, a slow, predatory smile spreading across her face. "This might not be so boring after all."
Rhys just smiled. He looked at his family, at their faces full of wonder and excitement. He looked at the vast, alien city that was just the first, small step in their new, infinite journey. He felt a sense of peace, a sense of rightness, that he had never known before.
He was a god, yes. He had the power to create and destroy worlds. But in that moment, standing in a crowded, noisy street in a city on the far side of the universe, surrounded by his strange, broken family, he felt something far more profound.
He felt human.