Inside the Sixth world, where the light is less radiant and the atmosphere overflows with an eerie silence, we approach Planet Arleen…
The planet's surface breathes slowly, as if the life within fears being heard.
At that moment, Wang and Raymos land, their feet touching a ground that gleams with a faint blue luster.
Gazing at the calm horizon, Raymos says:
"It has been a while since I last came here… The place seems quieter than usual. Where is Lady Arleen, Wang?"
Wang looks at him with a tone bearing a certain heaviness:
"As you know… since that incident a few months ago, Lady Arleen hasn't come out of her room much. She has almost stopped performing her cosmic duties—no supervision over destruction, and no monitoring of the Ruler of Construction or his assistants."
Raymos's face falls slightly, his eyes narrowing with worry:
"So, is the situation really that bad?"
Wang shakes his head slowly:
"Right now, it is seemingly stable, but if things continue like this… our universe's ranking will drop again to the status of lower universes. Balance cannot be maintained if the Ruler is absent from her duty, and if any tournament or battle is held and we lose, the consequences will be severe. We must act; she cannot be left to drown in this stagnation any longer."
Raymos places his hand on Wang's shoulder, a firm look forming on his face:
"I will try to talk to her. Perhaps I can do something."
He then walks with steady steps toward the cosmic palace that rules the planet. Long, silent corridors stretch before him, the walls glowing with a faint blue light that reflects the paleness of the place. After a few minutes, he arrives at a grand door engraved with the emblem of the Sixth Universe. He stops before it, knocks gently… then waits. No response. He knocks again, louder this time. Silence still reigns supreme.
Raymos sighs, slowly extends his hand, and pushes the door open.
The moment he steps inside, he freezes in his tracks.
The room was plunged into darkness, the air cold and heavy, and the humidity thick with the scent of old drinks and materials untouched for weeks. The room was closer to a rocky cave equipped with the most luxurious comforts, yet everything seemed to have lost its value. The furniture was scattered, cups broken, and the curtains drawn, blocking out all external light.
Raymos walks with cautious steps, his gaze shifting through the chaos, until he reaches a small pool in the center of the area, its waters completely still. He leans down slightly, and in the reflection of the water, he sees Arleen sitting inside the pool, reclining listlessly. Her hair cascades over the water like a faint golden veil, and she stares at the opposite wall without any expression.
She was there…
But she wasn't truly "present." The last wisps of steam rising from the pool dissipate as Raymos approaches, his voice faint yet carrying a warm seriousness:
"Lady Arleen... Are you okay?"
She raises her head slowly, her gaze empty as if she is seeing something very far beyond him, then says in a weary tone:
"Oh, Raymos... Have you come to comfort me?"
He breathes quietly, sits on the edge of the water, his voice leaning toward caution:
"It is difficult, yes. But life does not stop, even after great losses. We are still trying to move forward."
She laughs a cold laugh without a shadow of a smile and says:
"What loss? We didn't lose... We were betrayed, and humiliated at the same time, you fool."
He accepts her words with a steady composure, raises his eyes to her, and answers calmly:
"True. What Arios did to us was a betrayal, and that cannot be denied."
But she suddenly interrupts him, uttering his name like a stab:
"Do not speak that name in front of me again!"
She opens her eyes fiercely, and a powerful gust of wind erupts around her, scattering papers and displacing water from the pool's surface. The air grew heavy for a moment. Raymos takes a step back, raising his hand soothingly:
"Alright... Calm down. Just get out of the water and come outside with us. We want to talk calmly."
Arleen contemplates him for a long moment before saying coldly:
"And is there even anything worth talking about?"
"Yes, a lot," he replies without hesitation, "but first, get out of the water... then we will continue our conversation."
Silent minutes pass before she finally stands up. Outside, Wang stands waiting, asking anxiously:
"What happened?"
Raymos replies, exhaling:
"It went as we wanted. The important thing is that she was convinced to snap out of her state."
Moments later, Arleen emerged, dressed in her usual tidy clothes, her hair carefully tied up despite the exhaustion in her eyes. Her stride was slow but steady. Wang bows the moment he sees her:
"My Lady... Welcome back."
She replies with a faint smile, barely visible:
"I had to come out... I confined myself meaninglessly, and boredom became heavier than grief. At least Raymos reminded me that stagnation is worse than loss."
The three sit in the palace garden, the planet's breeze rustling the silver leaves of the trees around them. Raymos says, resting his arm on the table:
"It's good to have you with us again. Honestly, getting you out of that room is my best achievement since I returned from Earth."
Arleen raises an eyebrow:
"And why is that? How are they over there?"
Raymos sighs, his voice dropping a pitch:
"It's hard... especially for my aunt Yuna. Lina has started to accept reality, trying to keep herself busy with work despite her grief. But she... my aunt, couldn't bear it. After that ill-fated day, she completely collapsed. She fell into a severe depression and lives on the hope that Arios will return. She waits for him every day, speaks to him in his absence... until we were forced to put her to sleep with medication."
His voice fades at the end, as if mentioning the name made the whole atmosphere heavy for him. Arleen looks down, a shadow of silent sorrow passing over her face, before whispering:
"Even after everything... it still hurts us."
Wang stands up quietly, his voice carrying a cold reality rather than consolation:
"We—the ruling entities—may overlook many details, and things may pass by us and be folded away. But humans and mortals... things like this are not easily erased from the heart's memory."
A brief silence follows, then Raymos looks at the depth of his words, replying with a frustrated but honest bitterness:
"I agree with you. And the difference here is that my aunt Yuna wasn't just a guardian; she was the one who raised Arios since his youth after our planet was destroyed. She took him into Earth, made him a son to her. Her feelings toward him weren't just a cold duty—it was genuine maternal love. Therefore, she has the right to grieve, and we have the right to bear the pain of seeing her wait for his return every day."
Arleen turns to Raymos, her eyes reading him strictly:
"And do you miss the traitor?"
Raymos's face twitches with a mixture of cold respect and suppressed explosion:
"No. A traitor remains a traitor. There is no forgiveness from me for what he did—wherever he may be."
Arleen does not waver from her seriousness; her gaze is sharp:
"Good, let us leave that bastard behind us. Our work now is more important."
Wang raises his eyebrow, his practical concerns carving into his words:
"Problems have increased since you were absent in that state of yours. If we leave them to grow, fixing them will be harder."
Arleen turns her face toward the palace's inner sky, her voice clear and decisive:
"I will solve them. And it won't just be a mission—it is training for you, Raymos. You will become my next successor, so watch everything I do and engrave every detail into your mind."
Raymos's chest fills with a sort of heavy pride; he nods in agreement, as if the promise of carrying the responsibility had restored his balance. For a moment, the three of them stand, their faces illuminated by the cold light of distant stars, then they set off together—Arleen, Raymos, and Wang—as a single cause moving through the vast space. Their goal is clear and harsh: to fix what has been corrupted among the planet inhabitants, and to enforce the justice that Arleen knows—even if it requires destroying the worlds that deserved their fate or whose resources were stolen.
The universe before them is vast, and the hand of action has begun to move with firm grips. In the First Universe, Arios's space penetration was quiet and focused; the starlight gradually fades before dense, stacked black clouds. He reached a very distant point inside the First Universe, a small galaxy from the outside but filled with aligned black holes—immense numbers spaced out like magnetic particles repelling and holding together at the same time.
Dark, the present voice within his consciousness, did not hide his amazement:
"Look, my lord… what is this massive number of black holes?"
Arios observed the dense formation with a cold, scrutinizing eye:
"It seems they formed from the fusion of several adjacent galaxies… despite its small size, it is a complex problem."
Dark suggested a possibility, to which Arios simply replied:
"Perhaps they were created by those people we are searching for right now."
After moments of flying through the shadows, he arrived at a dark, suffocating spot. He closed his eyes for a moment, vanished from the place, and appeared among the ranks of his army—the army he had previously sent with Rhinos—in this vast cosmic void. A brief greeting, and a bow from Rhinos showing clear submission. Arios looked at the massive black planet as if he read its name, then issued his orders without hesitation:
"Descend to the planet now."
His energy forces descended like a torrent of glowing dots, their fall continuing onto the planet's surface until the landscapes of the land were drawn—black sands resembling charcoal, stretching to the horizon like a dark sea. Arios placed his foot on those sands, his stride leaving an imprint on the dark surface. He looked around with expressions more scientific than emotional:
"Black sand… like charcoal. It seems this place is a desert unmentioned in any previous book."
Then he turned to his soldiers with a stern voice:
"This is unimportant now. My loyal soldiers—disperse and search for any remnants of living beings here."
As if his command was a power button, swarms of his soldiers spread across the black hills like legions of ants and bees, each team breaking apart and distributing according to the plan, beginning to execute their master's order immediately. The energy soldiers spread across the black desert, the sounds of their footsteps mixing with the echo of the winds passing as if whispering names from the past. Arios sat on a massive rock, his arm on his knee, his gaze drowned in the dark, endless horizon. Behind him stood Rhinos with absolute steadfastness, like a shadow that does not breathe, and beside him was Dark, looking strangely hesitant.
Dark leaned in slightly and said in a low voice:
"My lord… if you would allow me to speak."
Arios raised his eyes toward him, with an ordinary coldness that precedes any emotion:
"What is it, Dark?"
Dark lowered his head further, his tone tense:
"In fact, we are being watched… from the moment we left the planet."
Arios's eye reflected a spark of curiosity rather than fear, then he said in a calm tone:
"And who dares? Is one of Nahira's followers watching us?"
Dark shook his head slowly:
"No, my lord, it is not them. But… the feeling is different. The person watching us is clever, hiding very far away, as if they want us to know of their presence. There is no trace of a specific energy, but I feel they know our every move."
Arios shifted his gaze toward the ground, his fingertips touching the black sand, before murmuring in a mysterious tone:
"And is the one watching us now… a person? Or a thing? I feel as if eyes surround me always, from every direction."
Dark did not fully understand the meaning, but he tried to follow up:
"No, my lord. This time is different. The one watching us… knows that we know of their presence. Even so, they show no sign of approaching."
Arios laughed a light, cold laugh, like a joke with fate:
"So what you mean is… intuition? Is that it?"
Dark answered him hesitantly:
"Perhaps, my lord."
Silence enveloped the place once again.
Arios remained looking into the void before him, his mind clear to the point of drowning. Meanwhile, the soldiers were still moving among the black dunes, searching and excavating without pause, while the sky above them seemed like a massive eye watching them all in silence. After long days of continuous searching, some of Arios's soldiers managed to find massive piles of bones, all belonging to giant dragons. They did not stop there; instead, they continued excavating relentlessly, gathering more and more, as if reviving an army of the dead. The bones piled up into towering mounds, a sight alone enough to strike awe into the heart of any creature.
Arios sat in his place, his eyes following the panoramic scene, a cunning smile forming on his face. He said in a quiet voice, yet charged with authority:
"It seems the spoils are coming…"
Then, without hesitation, he stood up and went down to the massive plaza, where the bones were piled like black mountains. He stopped in the middle of them, raised his head to the sky, and said in a firm voice:
"Alright… this matter will take time, so let us cut through all of that. Come, let us begin."
He stepped back a little from his position, then released his command:
"The Empty Shell!"
Suddenly, a shell appeared over the entire dark planet inside a massive transparent bubble, enveloping it from every side, like an invisible shield protecting everything inside it. Then he whispered a single word:
"Extract!"
The place exploded with light, illuminating every corner, and the bones began to unite and fuse bit by bit. As the light cleared, what no one expected appeared: thousands of black energy dragons flying in the sky, completely subordinate to Arios. A terrifying sight; the sky was filled with massive energy beasts, each surpassing imagination in its size and authority.
Arios, amazed, raised his eyebrows and said:
"These… these are the Dark Storm Dragons… I used to hear about them in my youth and also in the ancient books of the Nahira family… Nothing was mentioned about them except two things: their name, and their organization under the classification of the 'Eternal Catastrophe,' and now… I own them easily… This is unbelievable… Hahaha!"
He smiled mockingly, but he couldn't stop himself from suddenly coughing. He said between a laugh and a cough:
"Damn it… I am not used to hysterical laughing… Anyway, what has the total number of my army become now?"
The system window appeared in the sky, informing him in a cold, robotic voice:
"Total number now: 100,000 soldiers, after adding 90,000 new dragons."
Arios raised his hands in the air, as if weighing the world between his fingers, and said with enthusiasm:
"This is wonderful… I have become an invincible force, and yet… this is not enough. I will not withstand my enemies by numbers alone; what is required is that I develop myself, for there are individuals against whom numbers will never be of use…"
He raised his hand and pointed to one of the dragons, saying:
"Descend here and… speak now."
The dragon descended slowly, its energy gleaming a deep black color, but it did not utter a word. Arios, surprised, said:
"Is there not a single dragon among you capable of speech?"
The dragon shook its head in a strange manner, as if saying: "No… none of us is capable of that," then it pointed toward the ground with a peculiar gesture, causing Arios to stare at the spot, feeling that something on the ground was waiting to be uncovered…
Arios looked at the ground with fiery eyes, then turned to the dragon standing before him and said in a low but firm voice:
"What is the matter with you, dragon… Is something wrong?"
The dragon shook its head slowly, as if answering: "Yes… there is something serious."
Arios approached the black sand, placed his hand upon it, and closed his eyes, sensing everything beneath his feet, every atom, every latent force. After a few moments, he opened his eyes, and his pupils dilated with astonishment; what he sees surpasses all his expectations. He raised his energy slightly, previewing everything from the planet's dust, and suddenly, he discovered the mind-blowing truth…
The planet itself was nothing but the massive skeleton of a dead dragon. Arios was shocked, feeling as if the entire earth was speaking beneath his feet, and the idea consumed his mind:
"This… this is unbelievable… all this time… I thought this was just a planet, after that Arios proceeded to…"
He placed his hand on the bone surface, whispering a single word:
"Extract!"
The place shook violently, the bone cracked beneath his hand, and a bluish-black energy surged from every crack, glowing in a terrifying manner, while the colossal dragon began to form gradually, awakening from its eternal slumber. Its massive eyes opened before Arios, like two gateways of wonder and absolute power, and it said in a voice that shook the earth itself:
"My new master… who has awakened me from my eternal sleep…"
Arios stood astounded, unable to believe what he was seeing: a dragon the size of dozens of planets, conversing with him in a voice that fills the entire space, its presence commanding respect and reverence. With all dignity and majesty, Arios said:
"Yes… I am the one who awakened you… and you shall be my eternal servant."
The entire universe trembled from the power of this greeting, and the stars and planets in the far surroundings shook. The dragon said in a deep but respectful voice:
"I have accepted your command, but please… bestow a name upon me, my liege."
Arios paused for a moment, thinking deeply, then smiled a cunning smile:
"What shall I name you… what… ah, I found it! From this day on, your name shall be… Jaelen."
Jaelen spread his massive wings, covering the horizon and space, and said in a voice that filled the entire place:
"My new name is perfectly fitting."
Arios stood for a moment, sensing Jaelen's massive energy flowing from every part of him, a feeling of power and majesty he had never experienced before. At that exact moment, on Planet Nahira, Nahira was sitting on her throne, mocking Gelius at one point, then she suddenly stopped, staring through her window.
Her assistant asked in a puzzled voice:
"Smith… My Lady… is something wrong?"
Nahira replied, her eyes wide with anxiety:
"I do not know… but I feel that a presence has awakened… and it is not far from here." .