The spaceship accelerated, reaching sublight speed within seconds before surging further, five times the speed of light. Following the coordinates charted on the grand elder's map, the ship arrived at its destination after three weeks by the reckoning of planet Sabiru — the equivalent of two weeks on Earth. In the control room, the ship's artificial intelligence announced that they had entered the Golden Sands Star Region, a domain inhabited by mythological creatures, where danger lurked in every shadow.
The ship slowed and descended toward an unfamiliar planet. Its gravitational pull was four times stronger than Sabiru's — and Sabiru's own gravity was already six times that of Earth's. The moment the ship crossed into the planet's atmosphere, it adjusted automatically to compensate, gliding down to land atop a mountain marked on the map.
The cabin door slid open, and the grand elder flew out. As an elementary god, the planet's crushing gravity meant nothing to him — but Solanky, ever cautious, had already suited up in gear built to shield his fragile body. The grand elder tucked the ship away into his own self-created pocket space, then shook his head with a quiet sigh. "How can such a powerful bloodline be trapped in a body this fragile?" he murmured to himself. "I only hope something here can help him awaken it. If this works, the clan will gain another ancestor-level power."
The grand elder and Solanky flew toward a stone castle standing a short distance from the mountain, landing together on a stone platform before its gates. The moment Solanky's feet touched the platform, the ground beneath him blazed with light, and the castle's massive stone doors groaned open — pushed by a golem-like being who stood fifty feet tall.
Both the grand elder and Solanky froze in shock; the power radiating from the golem rivaled that of a god emperor. The golem introduced himself as Gido, guardian of the castle, and asked to see their talisman.
The grand elder produced the map. Gido's eyes lit with excitement as he beckoned them to follow, briefing them as they walked. "This castle is called the Fortress of Destiny. From the outside, it spans fifty square kilometers — but within, it holds a space of seventeen light-years, layered with countless individual dimensions and timelines, home to more mythological beings than can be counted." Both Solanky and the grand elder reeled at the revelation; only a being at the dimensional god level or beyond could compress a space of that magnitude, teeming with that many living beings.
"Every being here carries the second stage of the first-grade bloodline," Gido continued, "and in the deeper spaces, even mythological beasts with third-grade bloodlines make their home." He stopped before a door. "We've arrived at the Temple of Destiny," he said, pushing it open.
The moment they stepped inside, Solanky's body began to shake violently. He collapsed to the ground. The grand elder reached for him instinctively — but before his hand could land, a terrifying aura erupted from Solanky, one that dwarfed even Gido's presence. The golem staggered, his power crushed into total submission the instant the aura brushed past him. Elsewhere in the fortress, the screams and pained growls of powerful mythological beasts and beings echoed through the halls.
"Who is he?" Gido demanded.
The grand elder only shook his head. He knew Solanky's bloodline — but this aura, this overwhelming might, was something entirely beyond what he understood.
Deep within his own mind, Solanky's consciousness drifted into a boundless expanse where countless multiverses stretched in every direction. He looked around and saw dimensions layered far beyond the physical, beyond even the third. Then he looked down at himself — his body had swelled to nine hundred million light-years, a size that felt, somehow, like his true and optimal form. Power surged through him, vast enough to unmake every dimension before him with a single thought.
Then a voice rose from within his own consciousness. "You suppressed your own power," it said, "the moment you chose to seal your spiritual energy inside the supreme source artifact — choosing instead to rely solely on your perfect source god bloodline, even before you were born into this plane."
"Who are you," Solanky asked, "and why are you telling me this?"
"I am a body you created in the future," the voice answered, "born to guard the boundless spiritual energy you sealed within that artifact. I placed the map on Sabiru myself, to draw you here — because I saw that you had sealed away your memories as well. I've come now, as we agreed, to be released from my duty and return those memories to you."
Something stirred in Solanky's mind — recognition. "Fine," he said. "But only under two conditions."
The voice answered eagerly, asking what they were.
"First — you don't interfere, no matter what happens. Second — I'll raise this body's level to match the bloodline it already carries, using an equivalent measure of spiritual energy, until I reach the master of creation level. Only then will I draw on the boundless spiritual energy."
The voice had no room left to bargain and accepted in silence, watching quietly from then on.
Solanky glanced around the vast space. "I have to say — I love what you've built here. Release some of these mythological beasts and beings into the outside world for me. And let a sliver of the boundless spiritual energy loose as well."
The voice hesitated. "If you do that... won't you simply absorb it all back into yourself?"
Solanky shook his head, and understanding dawned on the voice — Solanky existed across past, present, and future alike, and could set himself outside the bounds of his own gift.
The voice complied, releasing two-thirds of the beings from the fortress's hidden spaces, scattering them across different worlds and dimensions beyond the castle walls. With a single thought, Solanky let loose 0.1% of the boundless spiritual energy, flooding a region nine hundred billion light-years wide — though he bound it with restrictions, solidifying 40% of it into what he called source crystals, spreading them across a trillion light-years of space. A mere 0.0001% of that energy surged through the grand elder, and in an instant his power and bloodline leapt from the first-grade elementary god level to the second-grade god of gods level — rivaling the founding ancestors Bayoka and Stella themselves. His body swelled to six hundred thousand kilometers tall, surpassing even them. Through it all, time in the outside world hung frozen, still.
Solanky turned inward one last time. "When I wake from this," he murmured to himself, "I'll forget everything that happened here. And this body will grow, slowly, until it finally matches the bloodline it was always meant to carry."