The pitch-black, crushing iron core of Mars was completely silent, save for the faint, musical hum of the baseball-sized Planetary Cultivation Seed in Ash's hand. The pressure of the entire planet rested on the spatial and force fields Ash had projected, holding the millions of tons of solid iron at bay.
Ash and Sovereign Orrin Reyes stood in the small, calm pocket of space they had created. It was time to begin.
"Alright," Ash said, his voice calm in the absolute dark. "Let's build a world."
He didn't use his Space Law to bridge the gap between them. Instead, he tapped into the vast, terrifying processing power of his Mental Universe and opened a direct divine thought connection with Orrin.
Their minds linked at tens of times the speed of light.
