"I am opening the gate"
Mark continued looking at the 28 small crafts that had silently joined them, the 28 mobile auxiliaries that had followed and escorted Luna as she went looking for Mark, their scent was very faint, however, it was definitely there
'...Horrors just within my imagination, neat'
Besides the auxiliaries another glaring thing were happening ahead, the superheated space that lit up the sensors of his new ship, as Mark looked ahead at it he struggled to comprehend it, however the natural laws of reality were being violently broken and for once it wasn't him doing the breaking
'... No, not broken, just bent to the extreme'
As Mark held an unnatural domain over gravity he somewhat instinctively understood what was happening ahead of him before any of the sensors on the ship did
'But punching open such a tunnel will only last for a few nanoseconds at most, unless… Yeah, a stabilizing agent'
Right on cue, a rod of metal punched through before it split apart and widened the portal to the size which allowed the two ships to pass through, a moment later Luna's voice sounded out through the radio as the Ficer circuitry of Mark's new ship had a ripple of foreign data go through them
"I've remotely patched your ship to ease the portal travel, sister told me to let you go through first"
"Right… Well then, see you on the other side, Luna. You too, Alissa."
Receiving no response Mark carefully moved his shiny new ship towards the opened portal, as it neared electric currents arched off the portal stabilizers and burned microscopic debris and contaminants from the outer hull, a moment later Mark lost control of the ship as the autopilot instantly took control to avoid any portal glitches and the following several megaton mishaps such things were likely to cause
'...Ugh… I feel sick'
Passing though the portal was completely painless and without any problems, however Mark still felt violently ill for a few moments after he emerged out from the other side, his ship automatically deployed its landing gears and touched down on the body where it had arrived, after Mark stopped feeling sick, he took a look at his new surroundings and discovered an endless plain of smooth metal panelings spreading out from the single solitary landing pad
'Not the grandest welcome…'
Extending his senses back into his ship Mark quickly discovered his control over it had been completely restricted, a few moments later, the front of the cockpit opened up, a silent order for him to step outside
"...Alright, I'll play along"
Retrieving his sword Mark rose and flew out from the cockpit and moments later touched down on the smooth metal paneling, not even a moment later the entire landing pad where his ship had touched down sunk down though a lift, by the time Mark had turned around the entrance had been covered up again
"Is that how it is?"
After addressing one that had been intensely observing him since he passed through the portal, Mark let out a sigh and picked a random direction before he started walking
'It feels like returning from a vacation to a miffed cat'
With such thoughts on his mind Mark continued walking ahead, however about a day later he no longer held such optimistic views
'...'
However Mark still felt the same intense observation on him as he had when he touched down, and so he started focusing on finding the source of this gaze, mostly out of boredom at this point. However, when he extended out his senses further Mark discovered something else that was slightly more… Troubling
Looking straight down Mark felt his body vibrate with a horrid chill
"...Is this a fucking star?"
Extending his senses down Mark felt the immense stellar power of the body he stood upon clearly, the heat, radiation and dreadful light contained under the solid metal panels which harvested the raw power of the star
"A dysphonsphere...? No wonder the gravitational pull is so damn high…"
The more he sensed, the clearer it became to him, the construct he stood on was decidedly a megastructure designed to harvest almost complete energy output of the star… As Mark stared down at the roiling star underneath his feet, the metal paneling he stood on morphed around and formed a text plate which corrected him
"A blind star? Right, the other word isn't dramatic enough… Was the name your invention..? No, okay"
Mark watched the text that had been morphed into the paneling slowly disappear as it was morphed back into its original shape before he asked
"So, how long are we going to play this game?"
No answer followed, however Mark felt an ever so slight shift in his surroundings, clearly 2nd stage of the 'game' had been started by his question
-
'I wonder what sister is doing…'
Having finished going over a treatment plan and being there with Alissa when it started along with a doctor, Luna made her way towards her sister's quarters. As she walked though the streets of their settlement, people stopped and greeted her with a silent bow, their population had steadily grown from similar efforts as the one Luna had taken on to recruit Alissa, though most here were by now 2nd and 3rd generation, having been born here
'Morale seems to have held up while I was gone… population is rising too…'
By now about 3000 souls inhabited this previously uninhabited system at the far edge of galactic space, the nearest other settlement were over a half a million light-years away. This isolation had been by design, not only to avoid the turbulent reality of civilized space but also to extend the amount of time it would take for any of the ancient powers to realize a new star had been blinded
'We should have at least a century… Well, that stalker might have started to figure us out by now, but they should be able to do anything drastic within a decade'
Stepping onto an elevator, Luna waited as it traveled downwards about a hundred floors before the doors opened again to a vast open space
"Sister"
After calling out Luna stepped off the elevator and looked around, she initially scanned the ground floor which were filled with a different chairs, sofas and other comfortable seating arrangements before she looked up towards the large hollowed out carven and spotted her sister, she was floating around currently upside down as she stared intensely at a few holographic screens
"Sister"
Calling out again to no avail Luna let out a sigh before she assessed her private gravity engine mounted in the wall next to her sisters' and soon floated up, silently out of her sight, she sneaked up behind her before she silently grabbed her sister's ears, which earn her a surprised scream from her dearest sister before she complained
"Stop! How many times have I told you to stop sneaking up on me like that Luna!?"
Luna however didn't relent and silently applied force to her sisters ears, twisting them until Lisa tapped out
"Ow! Ow! Alright, alright, I'll get down!"
As the two floated down Luna finally relented, however, she didn't stop the scolding there
"How many times have I told you floating around like that is bad for your body?"
Lisa pouted before she leaned back into her sister's embrace, there she stayed silent as she watched the holographic screens where Mark was pictured, currently he was ripping apart a humanoid android with his bare hands as his sword twirled around him, deflecting and blocking an onslaught of laser fire from the hundreds of other androids that were assailing him
"...Are you going to explain that, sister?"
Lisa turned her face to the side before she spoke
"I was making up courage while watching him for a bit… Then I explained the name of our blinded star to him and he asked me if I was done 'playing games'! Like I totally wasn't going to go see him a few moments later!"
Luna let out a sigh, she figured something like this would have happened, that's why she had gone to visit her sister, even now Lisa loved Mark far more earnestly that she did, her love had grown to resentment as he was gone, but by now it had reverted to simply anxiousness over their meeting. Thus when Mark had misunderstood Lisa's tepidness as a 'game' it had ticked her off, taking control over the security androids Luna made sure to record the tactical data from the brief exchange before she powered them all down and spoke
"You know, he wanted to come back to us too?"
"...Really? Then why didn't he?"
"You might learn that if you actually talk to him instead of throwing this tantrum"
"...Alright"
-
Steadily Mark was going into a killing frenzy, as his focus heightened while he cut apart androids, directed his sword, morphed his body his mind drifted further into idle thoughts
'The formation is way too tight to utilize their weaponry…'
Mark's blade rotated around him as it twisted between pinpoint laser shield and blade that precisely cut apart combat androids, meanwhile Mark's form constantly shifted, his hands and arms switched seamlessly between rending claws, long thin blades and incredibly dense mauls that each cut, tore and smashed mechanical joints and Ficer circuitry
'Move up already…'
Mark form shifted between a myriad different colours and shapes, each tailor-made to deflect, defuse and endure the increasingly vicious mechanical assault, as the android armies' numbers continued to swell despite the speed he tore them apart Mark started considering that Lisa really meant him to die on the surface of this blinded star
'...If it is a warrior's death for me, then I suppose I will accept that'
As Mark fought with a ferocity he would have never himself imagined capable of when he had raged through the underground facility on the red moon so many years ago his mind was a polar opposite of what it had been back then, where rage and violence had dominated his mind then, only serenity and indifference washed over him. He knew his position was untenable, he knew his life was held in the hands of whoever controlled these androids, yet he cared not, even as the probability of dying here increased, he found no great will inside him to overcome
'I suppose this is what my troops referred to when they talked about growing old on the field of battle…'
However just as Mark accepted his approaching death, the androids stopped before falling over, like dolls with their strings cut
"...Huh"
Making a sound of pure bewilderment Mark gradually restored his body back to his preferred appearance, then he grabbed his sword as came back to him
"Well, I guess the game is… Over?"
Mid-sentence Mark felt something shift, one moment he were on the surface of the blinded star, the next he was floating in an endless sky, in front of him were a figure of light and dark, it had a shape and it was without a shape, the thing was mindbending to even perceive, yet Mark was unable to look away
He knew at once what it was, it was his creator
"Hi..?"
Nothing changed as Mark spoke to his creator, yet understand was instantly bestowed upon him, even though he understood nothing of the mindbending creature in front of him, understanding was still forced into his mind instantly
"Oh, you are without a name? Creator is good? Alright… What did you want to tell me?"
Mark didn't need to wait long before more understanding were bestowed on him, however what he learned wasn't exactly something he had expected
"Priase? Have I done something to earn praise for? I accepted death, what does that mean?"
Even more understanding was forced onto Mark, he saw it, his creator was a being out of different realms of reality and he was a nail, or at least part of it, that passed through these layers of reality… Not only that, but having feasted as much he had and now accepted death he had reached the stage needed to punch through the next 'layer' the next reality
"Right… So what happens now? I need to entrench further so I don't get knocked out like the last one..? Alright"
With that Mark was about to ask another question, however the next moment he was back on the surface of the blinded star
"...I feel tired"
Mark sat down, his mind raced about the things he needed to do to further 'entrench' himself on his creator's behalf.
Even if he hadn't been made to understand what would happen if he failed, he could still piece bits and pieces together from the understanding that had been forced onto him
'Guess I'll have to drag this reality into compliance, kicking and screaming if it comes to that… Obviously failing will mean my death… But after having been named a Scourge I don't have the heart to bear what will happen to this reality if I were to fail…'
Looking up Mark saw a ship touching down a few hundred meters away, as the ramp came down, he saw Luna stepping out along with Lisa, who looked just as he remembered, her long platinum blonde hair flowed out behind her like a waterfall and her light gray eyes were as animated as he had remembered
'She seems nervous… Heh…'
Mark flashed a smile which seemed to immediately ease Lisa's nerves, rising to his feet Mark spoke
"You really don't look a day over 200, Lisa"
Lisa's eyebrow twitched a bit before she shot back
"And you don't look like a backwater warlord more than I expected either, Mark"
The two stood silently looking at each other for a few moments before Lisa rushed forwards and embraced Mark tightly, a moment later Mark embraced her back and muttered
"It's good to see you again, Lisa"
"You too, Mark"