Outer space, Damocles

“Your Majesty, your spaceship has been retrieved along with the culprits that commandeered it. Among the culprits were civilian tourists…” a 3-star officer reported.

“Mere tourists dare to cause this Emperor trouble?” Emperor Polemos showed signs of contempt before he ordered, “Assign them the lowest rank citizenship and throw them into hard labor.”

“They shall work like slaves to atone for their sins!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” the 3-star officer answered, but then he shortly hesitated, “But…”

“What else?”

Emperor Polemos glanced back at the 3-star officer with a frown.

“Among the tourists, we also captured the Federation’s Regulators. They claim to have been caught in the mess while trying to stop the tourist from tampering with the controls, but this subordinate is unable to confirm the truth of the matter.”

“How would you like to deal with them, Your Majesty?” the 3-star officer inquired shortly after.

“The Regulators, you say…?” Emperor Polemos uttered.

Shortly after, Emperor Polemos furrowed his brows in deep thoughts.

Recalling the series of events, Regulators always seem to appear where the Lord has been; this couldn’t have been a mere coincidence.

“The tourists will be sent to hard labor as planned. As for the Regulators, arrange a separate room for us. I will meet them shortly.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

…

Shortly after the 3-star officer left the main control room to fulfill his tasks, Emperor Polemos left some instructions for the control crew before heading off to the arranged room.

Upon his arrival, the pitiful appearances of Ceone and Cetwo came into view.

Nevertheless, Emperor Polemos was not interested in their story and only came for one reason, and one reason only.

“Emperor Polemos—”

Ceone and Cetwo greeted, but Emperor Polemos raised a hand and stopped them from speaking further.

“You two have been following in the tracks of my Lord. Before we speak any further, state your intentions clearly,” Emperor Polemos demanded before adding, “What does the Federation want?”

Ceone and Cetwo glanced at each other.

They have been thinking up strategies to woo the True Immortal and bring the person over to their side, but perhaps their approach had been wrong from the start.

“Then, we won’t hide the truth from Emperor Polemos. The Federation is facing a crisis that concerns the fate of the universe and requires the True Immortal’s help. I wonder if Emperor Polemos can arrange for us to meet the True Immortal?” Ceone politely requested.

“The fate of the universe, huh?” Emperor Polemos muttered before nodding, “It can be arranged.”

“Thank you, Emperor Polemos. We are grateful for your cooperation,” Ceone and Cetwo expressed their gratitude.

However, Emperor Polemos shook his head and said, “Don’t be. I’ve had some business dealings with the Federation before. I can at least do this much for the Federation.”

The Federation’s space technology, amongst other advanced technologies, had always piqued his curiosity.

Although he had yet to get his hands on their advanced space travel technology, he had never given up trying.

“However, whether my Lord accepts the arrangement or not is up to my Lord. I can’t help you any further if my Lord refuses to meet you,” Emperor Polemos stated.

“We understand,” Ceone nodded and said, “We’re grateful for all the help you can give us.”

“Nevertheless, this Emperor is quite curious about this so-called crisis that concerns the fate of the universe,” Emperor Polemos mentioned before asking, “How about you tell this Emperor more about since we are on that topic?”

Once Emperor Polemos raised the question, the two Regulators fell silent for a moment before Ceone said, “Where should we begin? How much does Emperor Polemos know about the beginning of time and the universal cycle?”

“The beginning of time refers to the point that the universe had not existed forever, but rather, the universe and time itself had a beginning. As for the universal cycle, it should be about the birth and rebirth of the universe.”

Shortly after saying that, Emperor Polemos adds, “However, this Emperor doubts these are the answers you were looking for.”

“No, Emperor Polemos’s answers were mostly correct,” Ceone said with a shake of her head before continuing to speak, “However, the Federation no longer views the universe as THE universe but A universe.”

“Are you implying there are multiple universes out there? If we are talking about parallel universes, then there is indeed an infinite number of universes. Still, no one has been able to travel between these parallel universes to prove they exist—”

Emperor Polemos’ speculation was quickly interrupted as Ceone shook her head.

“Don’t get us wrong. Ignoring whether parallel universes in alternate timelines exist, we were indeed talking about this universe, the present timeline we exist in,” Ceone corrected.

“As you know, the Federation is situated in a chaotic space in between the dimensions. The environment isn’t friendly, but it does enable us to extend our reaches to most parts of the universe and observe it as a whole.”

“However, ever since the start of the Apocalypse, the universe, which has always been spherical, has begun stretching in the form of an inverse pyramid, similar to a bottomless tower or balloon with a hole, spilling all its air outside.”

“This process naturally pulls every existing world and realm closer together. Earth is just one among several worlds that is experiencing the overlapping of multiple other worlds and realms. We call worlds like these, Super-worlds, or Super-Earth for your world if you prefer.”

“Not all worlds are fortunate like this. There have already been multiple instances of worlds not overlapping, but close enough to be pulled by each others’ gravity and generate a world destructive collision.”

“Nevertheless, the point is that the universal changes have caused tears in the chaotic space, leading to the discovery of an endless expanse of chaos that exists outside of our known universe—or rather, our known reality.”

“Inside that endless expanse of chaos, we’ve discovered remnant traces of celestial bodies, which indicates that another universe used to exist before the formation of the current one. This also means that the beginning of time is much, much older than we initially thought.”

Emperor Polemos sat through Ceone’s lengthy explanation with a blank look before he furrowed his brows.

“Okay… But what does all this have to do with the ‘crisis’ the Federation is facing?” Emperor Polemos questioned.