Staring at the silent entrance of that ancient monstrosity of a spaceship and thinking that this was either going to be a brilliant plan or an extremely stupid one that would get Veneri vaporized. Knowing him, both possibilities were equally likely.
The invisible laser spheres had already faded back into whatever cloaking field they used. The skeletons lying around us explained the power of those lasers because every single one of those people had probably thought they were about to discover something incredible before getting erased by that defense system.
I crossed my arms and looked at the entrance again.
"We have to get inside."
Ely glanced at me.
"That's obvious."
"No, I mean we really have to get inside. There is absolutely something in that ship and whatever it is has been sealed away for five hundred thousand years."
"And you have a plan?"
"Yes," I said, pointing toward the massive sealed gate. "Darling, you're going to slow down time and run straight to the entrance."
He stared at me.
"That's the plan?"
I ignored the tone.
"The doors clearly require an energy trigger to open. Once you reach them, you just release enough energy into the mechanism and the system should unlock."
He looked back at the entrance thoughtfully, then shook his head.
"That might work, but there's a problem."
Elyonari folded her arms.
"What problem?"
Veneri gestured toward the empty air where the laser spheres had appeared earlier.
"Even if I slow down time and get to the entrance, I still need to release energy to activate the door system. And the moment I do that, those spheres will have enough time to fire. Also, unlike arrows, lasers don't exactly travel slowly."
He was right. Even with slowed time, the moment he stopped to interact with the door, he would become a stationary target. That would be more than enough for the defense system to erase him.
"I can distract them. When I shot that arrow earlier, I counted the firing points. There are twenty-eight spheres."
That's actually amazing. Is she that good in aiming that she counted all of them?
"Twenty-eight?"
"They fire simultaneously and prioritize any object approaching the entrance. I can shoot thirteen arrows per second at maximum speed."
"Only thirteen?"
She gave him a dry look.
"Do you want to try?"
He immediately shook his head.
"No, that's terrifying actually."
"If I fire continuously toward the entrance, the spheres will detect multiple incoming targets. They'll prioritize destroying the arrows instead of you."
"That's actually brilliant, Ely. The spheres target movement and incoming threats. If we overload them with variables, their targeting priority might shift."
"Exactly. That means while I'm busy shooting arrows, Veneri runs for the entrance."
"Well then, now I'm interested on how this plays out."
We spent the next few minutes confirming the exact positions of the spheres. Ely fired several more arrows toward the entrance, carefully observing where the beams emerged each time. Every time a laser was fired, the sphere briefly flickered into visibility before disappearing again. One by one, we mapped their positions. Twenty-eight of them are floating in a loose defensive grid around the entrance. Once Ely confirmed the final position, she lowered her bow.
"I know where they all are now."
"Good."
I looked at Veneri.
"Wait for her to start shooting first. You do not want to be the first moving target they detect."
He gave me a thumbs-up.
"Noted."
Ely stepped forward, planting her feet firmly into the grass. The wind stirred her silver hair as she raised the bow once more. She drew the string back. Energy gathered around the materializing arrow.
"Ready?"
Veneri activated his Mystic Eyes of Time. The wind slowly blew as the golden and sapphire patterns appeared within his irises.
"Ready."
I linked my perception with his immediately.
One of the advantages of our connection was that I can share sensory data directly with him and when he used the Time Divinity, I could experience the slowed perception alongside him. Which, by the way, is a very strange sensation. Time doesn't actually stop. It just becomes incredibly slow.
Ely released the first arrow before her drawing speed as so fast. In no time, thirteen arrows flew towards the entrance. That is not an exaggeration, by the way. Her arms moved so quickly that they became a blur.
The invisible spheres activated instantly. One after another they materialized around the entrance as their targeting systems locked onto the incoming projectiles. Beams of concentrated energy shot across the air, intercepting the arrows mid-flight and turning them into ash with violent flashes of light.
The moment the spheres began targeting them, Veneri fully activated his Time Divinity.
To us, the world slowed down until it was nearly frozen. The arrows hung in the air like suspended streaks of emerald light. The lasers moved like painfully slow threads of light crawling through space.
Veneri sprinted forward. From Elyonari's perspective, he disappeared almost instantly. From my shared perception inside the slowed timeline however, I could see everything unfolding in clear detail.
Each step he took crushed the grass beneath his feet as he accelerated toward the entrance. Lasers flashed past him, moving slowly enough for him to dodge them with minimal effort. His speed in slowed time was absurd. Within seconds, he reached the base of the enormous entrance. He placed both hands against the surface and released a lot of energy on it.
The mechanism inside the door reacted instantly. A deep vibration rumbled through the entire structure. The gate began unlocking itself but the moment that energy surge occurred, the defense system noticed him.
Several spheres shifted their targeting priorities. Lasers began turning toward his position.
Using every ounce of strength in his body, Veneri grabbed the edge of the colossal gate and pushed. Even in slowed time, the sheer mass of the door resisted him. The moment it opened enough to trigger the mechanism, Veneri released the Time Divinity.
Reality snapped back to normal speed. The sudden shift caused a violent chain reaction.
All the lasers that had been fired during the slowed moment suddenly reached their impact points at once. A massive explosion erupted behind him as the gate blasted open with a thunderous roar as the internal mechanisms fully activated. The force from his speed and the explosion created a shockwave that tore across the meadow like a storm.
When the light finally faded, the enormous doors stood open. The spheres flickered once and turned visible. Twenty-eight black orbs floated silently in the air. They stopped firing.
Ely immediately took off from her position and flew toward us. Veneri stood near the entrance. He was bent slightly forward with his hands on his knees, breathing hard. Ely landed beside him.
"You okay?"
"Using the Time Divinity like that… is exhausting."
"To me, you were faster than my arrows. My arrows move three times faster than sound."
He chuckled weakly.
"I pushed the Time Divinity to the absolute limit to the point where time almost stopped."
I floated beside them, staring at the open gateway. The interior of the colossal vessel stretched into darkness beyond the threshold.
"Well, congratulations. You two just broke into the oldest spaceship in Spheraphase. Let's go in and see what's inside, shall we?"