Gomor 241 was a dwarf planet covered in ice, silently orbiting its pale star. It was neither as mighty as a true planet nor as insignificant as a mere piece of rock. It had rounded into a sphere by its own mass; its internal matter had found its place, and its form had long since accepted its fate. Its surface was shrouded in thick layers of ice; this ice reflected the weak light from the star, imprisoning the planet in a constant state of cold and gloom. Its orbit was not its own. There were other objects sharing the same path; some smaller than itself, others nearly its equal. It lacked the power to drive them away and the will to rule over them. Thus, it neither became a master nor resigned itself to the fate of a piece of debris. Gomor 241 hung in the cold and solitude like a half-sentence: large enough to exist, but not strong enough to stand alone in the universe. And most importantly: Gomor 241 was a planet that nobody cared about.
No agriculture could be done; no water could be found. The ice on its surface existed not for life, but only for a frozen void. Its atmosphere was nearly non-existent; no wind blew, no life was found. It was too far from its sun; the light it received was not enough to warm it. No port could be established, no colony could grow, no future could be imagined. It appeared on maps only as a number, and routes simply bypassed it. Gomor 241 was not a place to visit, but a cold void passed by without being noticed.
That was why it was a more-than-perfect planet for those who wanted to disappear from sight.
In the middle of this icy nothingness, a single-person spacecraft landed. When the hatch opened, a robot emerged; its height, approaching three meters, looked almost mocking inside the cramped cockpit. Its body was covered in thick armor plates; each designed not for simple impacts, but for continuous warfare. Its joints featured non-freezing alloys and hydraulics that worked perfectly even below zero. A machine gun integrated into its mechanical body, carried on its left arm, was set to mow down areas without target selection; the heavy metal sledgehammer on its back was the final tool of persuasion when range ran out. Its sensor eyes did not look for light; they read heat, vibration, and intent.
This was not a reconnaissance unit. It wasn't exactly a guard either. This robot was the embodiment of an investment. Years of accumulated wealth, insurance policies, covert agreements, and silenced reports had all condensed into a single purpose. And this investment was a death machine.
In the middle of snowy terrains and a great storm, this robot, walking through the snow-covered ground, moved with great confidence despite appearing to be in the middle of nowhere. Its destination was predetermined; not a single step it took was in vain…
Then, the robot's sharp eyes saw a darkness amidst the snow. A black speck… As soon as it saw that black speck in the whiteness, the death machine quickened its pace. With every step, the black speck grew, becoming more distinct. Finally, the dark speck became so clear that something resembling a massive science facility, roughly the size of a container, became visible.
As the robot advanced toward the massive gate of this science facility, cameras turned anxiously toward it. The moment the facility's turrets activated, the robot tore them to pieces with its machine gun. It seemed this facility had no security system other than a few turrets…
Reaching the massive metal gate, the robot smashed it open with successive blows from the sledgehammer on its back. As the metal gate shattered open, the warm air inside the facility rushed out, already beginning to melt the snowflakes near the door.
Upon entering, the robot found itself in a simple science facility. Unfinished scientific formulas hung on a hologram board, numbers and symbols trembling as if frozen in the air. On a large table placed in the center of the room were various measuring instruments, dismantled machine parts, and modules whose purposes were not immediately clear. None were new; they had been used, repaired, and repurposed many times.
The walls were far from sterile. Metal panels were full of scratches, weld marks, and hastily made additions. The facility resembled the temporary shelter of someone who didn't plan to stay long, rather than an organized laboratory. Cables on the floor stretched haphazardly; energy lines were connected to portable power units rather than a fixed grid. But these power units were anything but ordinary. In the words of other scientists, they were biomechanical power units. They were the products of a science where biology and mechanics coexisted—a science often called useless.
The robot turned on its sensors. The room was cold but not dead. Faint heat traces left by recently operated devices had not yet vanished. The formulas on the hologram board were not ordinary energy calculations; they were about density, stability, and limit values. On the opposite wall of the room was a black glass. The owner of this facility was likely on the other side of that glass.
"I know you're here!" the robot shouted. "Why don't you show yourself?"
When it dropped its sledgehammer to the floor, the entire science facility shook.
First, a shadow appeared in front of the black glass. Then the glass itself parted silently, as if it had ceased to be a solid substance; an invisible door opened. The man who stepped out felt as if he didn't belong in this place.
He was tall, fit, and very much in control of himself. The dark coat he wore was more of a statement than a mere garment: its shoulders were exaggeratedly padded, and its slim cut wrapped his body with threatening precision. On the shoulders and collars were metal spikes as sharp as a punk fan would choose with pleasure; they were not unnecessary, but a conscious challenge. No matter how dark the tones of the coat, the bright red inner lining revealed itself with every step, refusing to be overlooked.
Underneath the coat was a black, slightly shiny shirt. Too clean, too pretentious… A few buttons at the collar were left open consciously; his chest was clear, almost smooth. This openness evoked a sense of indifference rather than an invitation—a self-confidence that saw no harm in being looked at.
His hair was meticulously cut: short on the sides, with the top combed neatly back. There was no mess; every strand knew its place. His ears stood out a bit, but it was hard to tell how much of that was anatomy and how much was due to the cybernetic eye attachment he wore. There was a light shadow of a beard on his nose and the tip of his chin; apparently, no more grew—either a genetic limit or a conscious choice.
The real weight in the man's face came from his eyes—or rather, it should have. Because in place of his eyes was a cybernetic eye attachment flickering with blue lights. This was no ordinary virtual reality headset. It was a piece integrated by the removal of the eyes, connected directly to the nervous system. It sharpened vision, layered data, and connected the brain to a computer as naturally as a limb when needed. Thus, his eyes were lost behind that cybernetic attachment.
Because of this attachment, the man's gaze was unreadable. It was unclear what he was thinking, what he was scanning, or whom he was targeting. It was as if he had erased human expression and replaced it with a cold calculator. Based on his facial features, it was quite possible to say this man had an Asian phenotype, as ancient people would call it.
"Who are you?" the man asked. The brightness of the blue light in his goggles dimmed. He looked at the robot as if squinting his eyes. "And how did you find this place?"
"Ah… dear Lee Kon Jae, you are an expensive cybernetic. But what matters is not how expensive you are, right? It's why the SWR invested that money in you…"
The man named Lee clenched his fist and shouted: "I… I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Really? Are you going to cast aside the million-dollar investments the SWR made in you? Ah… what a cruel age we live in. How ungrateful people have become… If the greatest data engineer of the known world is like this, then heaven help us…"
"Who sent you?"
"Ah… a friend sent me. A friend who opened their eyes in your lap, who depended on you at all costs to live. Perhaps one of the offspring you left stray…"
One could see Lee knitting his brows in anger despite the implant in his eye. At that moment, a massive shadow appeared on the black glass behind him. With horns reaching toward the ceiling, this shadow resembled a demon, or perhaps another creature…
"Did that creature send you…"
"Yes!" the robot said confidently. "The creature named Volem sent me. Did you know they could speak? They have incredible memories too."
"They cannot be spoken to."
"Yes… but as far as I can see, you can talk to them too," it said, pointing to the shadow behind the glass. "How? Ah… the Incompatibles… they had a language, and there are only two people I know in the universe who can speak it. One is the intelligence agent Lee Kon Jae. The other is…"
"Polxaurneskova of Justan… also known as Po… the man who found the God Particle! This… this is you…"
"Yes, my dear friend, it is I."
"Impossible!" Lee shouted. Hearing Lee's anger, the creature on the other side of the glass began to roar as well. "You died! We were standing over your corpse on Titan! Your soulless and cold body was in my hands! You should be in the depths of hell!"
"I have returned from the depths of hell, my friend," the robot said, bowing in a serenade.
"How… how can you still be alive?" Lee said with a trembling voice. It was quite interesting that his voice trembled despite being a cybernetic.
"Ah… because of that damn Titan, I almost tasted absolute silence," the robot said. "Because the SWR didn't want any secrets to leave Titan. That's why most intelligence agents were on that planet without knowing what was happening. They couldn't make sense of the missions, couldn't see the results, and so much more… But some knew what was happening on Titan. I was one of them. I knew what the facilities built there were for, what secrets they revealed. But the SWR was going to tear those secrets from me and push me into eternal silence. The greatest discovery of centuries would be in the hands of a few authorities, erased from the minds of the people."
"The God Particle…"
"Yes… that damn particle. That particle was my greatest discovery. But just as every revolution first devours its own children, that great discovery was going to devour me. That's why I had to die and be reborn elsewhere. At that time, cloning technology wasn't very advanced. It wasn't even possible for a clone to carry the creator's memory. No one knew that a cloning performed with the God Particle could make this possible. No one but me… That's why while living on Titan, I created two clones. One would be the real me, while the other would be held in reserve."
"I made my clones on Titan and had them shipped as cargo to my science facilities on other planets in test tubes. The SWR thought they were simple experiments. After all, there was no one in the SWR with a brain except Dante Shade. Then, I planned my death."
"This…" Lee said, "…this changes everything. You… you are one of the few people in this universe who knows the God Particle. You are its discoverer! If that's the case, that makes you one of the most powerful people in the universe."
"If knowledge were power, a scholar should be able to easily defeat an officer," the robot said. "But we certainly don't live in such a universe. But I must also tell you this, Lee: I do not know the God Particle."
"What does that mean?"
"This is my greatest tragedy. Perhaps it is a divine punishment of my existence, a sorrowful fate, or an existential void. The original Po had created two clones. But he integrated the formula of the God Particle into a single particle. If the main clone died, this knowledge would pass to the backup. If the clone was killed, this knowledge would pass to the original. If both were killed, the knowledge would vanish. But something interesting happened… perhaps due to an error or a twist of fate, both clones came back to life. I… I was the backup clone."
"I have the knowledge of the God Particle. I know what that particle is, I know what it does. I remember the team, I can still feel the pain I suffered during the experiments in my circuits. But those last two weeks… the period from the discovery of the formula of the God Particle to Po's death—I don't have that!"
"So you're a useless piece of junk…" Lee said, brushing his hair back with his hand.
"Yes… I absolutely was!" the robot shouted, its voice rising. "I was a useless piece of junk. I had woken up naked in a lonely pod. The formula that was the only reason for my existence, to which I had dedicated my life, was not in my mind. As a useless empty box, accepting the error of my existence, I could have wished for death, but I didn't! I was Po of Justan! If I found the God Particle once, I could find it again."
"So I went on a quest. I traveled from planet to planet trying to collect Incompatible relics, but SWR forces were constantly in my way. If there was a power as mighty as the SWR, it was Emperor Claudis. That is why I pledged my loyalty to his yoke. For centuries, I helped him in his jihads. Building machines, creating weapons, and so much more… In each of his jihads, I worked meticulously to uncover the secrets of the besieged planet, to reveal the secrets of the Incompatibles. I became a priest of Cyoh Katum." The robot chuckled slightly. "I built the ship Cham… that spaceship with a powerful artificial intelligence that even intimidated the SWR…"
"The ship that caused the death of Emperor Claudis…" Lee said. "…it doesn't seem like you did a very good thing."
"There are many secrets you don't know, Lee," the robot said. "About the death of Emperor Claudis… and about what happened after him."
"Well…" Lee said, not taking his eyes off the robot. "…are you privy to those secrets?"
"The only thing I am certain I am privy to," the robot replied, its voice cracking for the first time, "was the chaos itself that awaited the CLAUDIS colonies after Claudis died."
After a short pause, it continued. "I was there in those days. I watched the barons, our queen, and all the other nobles lose their minds for fear of losing their power and drive the colonies into madness. Power paranoia rotted the order like an epidemic. Laws collapsed, loyalties were sold, innocence became a bargaining chip."
Its metal body trembled slightly. "As these images were engraved into my memory… they began to cause discomfort. And finally, I understood: to not be a part of that chaos, I had to run from it. That's why…" it said quietly, "…I cast myself far away from CLAUDIS."
"I set out to search for Incompatible relics among alien ruins. While the Incompatibles destroyed their entire civilizations, aliens must have acted cautiously like humans. I thought that at least on a few planets, I could find a sign of the Incompatibles among the alien civilization ruins. That's why I joined Exosanguis."
"But I noticed something interesting there. There was another Exosanguis member tracking the relics I found that could be Incompatible, trying to discover secrets like me. Another relic hunter… Then I followed him, watched him. I learned that this relic hunter worked for a scientist named Ukar. Ukar worked for a man named John Crowrift. And then what happened? Ukar died… John Crowrift gave this relic hunter another job. And I volunteered for that job."
"Thanks to that job, I was able to find you. Because the damn job was to transport a cargo. And what was that cargo? The creature named Volem… As soon as I saw that creature, I realized something was wrong with it. If the God Particle were to take flesh and bone and create an incompatible creature full of anomalies, this would certainly be it. Then I started talking to it, asking it to open its memories to me. The moment it said its name was Volem, some pieces began to fall into place. The creatures named Volem created by the Unify company… It means those creatures that brought the end of a planet were created with the God Particle… Only my other twin could have created this." The robot smiled. "For the first time, I feel so close to my other half…"
"You still haven't answered my question… How did you find this place?"
"Volem told me about its creator. It said it was created here… on Gomor 241…"
"No…" Lee said. "…there is only one Volem here, and it is behind this window right now." He pointed his finger at the shadow waiting on the glass behind him.
"Very interesting… It seems the limitlessness of the God Particle is indeed undeniably dangerous. It means they can wander in each other's memories… especially despite being at the other end of the universe. Just like clones created with the same God Particle being able to carry memories… Then every Volem is a clone of the original Volem, is that it? So where is the progenitor Volem?" He pointed his finger to the other side of the glass. "It's there, isn't it?"
"Ah… yes… I have the original Volem from Unify…"
"And the one who gave it to you was John Crowrift, right? That man… who is that man?"
"A secret from the past… and this secret is not one you should be privy to. But the reason he gave the original Volem to me was because he didn't want anyone to use it to create Volems without John knowing."
"So that creature…" the robot said. "…why did he need that creature anyway?"
Lee opened his palm and moved his fingers as if a puppeteer playing with strings. "By coming here…" he said, "…you made a big mistake, dear Po. It was quite nice to talk to an old friend. There is no one left from that cursed organization anymore. But the past must stay in the past… So I have to ask you to leave the house."
"I haven't received an answer to any of my questions."
"If you truly seek answers, then you can ask him personally," he said. At that moment, the demon-like shadow on the glass behind Lee came very close to the glass. When the creature pressed its hand against the glass, the entire glass vibrated. As the glass, unable to bear the weight of the creature, was covered in cracks: "Then I must summon him… He is the progenitor of the Volems…" At that moment, a great scream rose from behind the glass. As this terrifying scream rose, the robot took its hammer in its hand and gripped it tightly. "He is the supreme subject, the king of the Volems, Aether Primus!"
As if hearing its name being called, the creature shattered the entire glass and threw itself out of its chamber. This creature was different from standard Volems. It had likely metamorphosed and evolved during its centuries of captivity. Knowledge existed in the robot's mind that creatures created with the God Particle evolved and adapted very quickly.
Its body anatomy had transformed from a frail body as thin as a toothpick to the powerful anatomy of silverback gorillas. Its veins, shining like glowing cables, were evident in its muscular arms. The veins in these arms flickered as if an electric current were constantly passing through them. Like a gorilla, its forearms touched the ground. Its sharp and long fingers leaned backward despite the fist it placed on the ground. Its huge, circular grinding mouth looked at the robot while open in the same way. What was different was that the two antenna-like horns on its head were tilted backward this time instead of upward. Something interesting was that a bright blue light glowed exactly where the creature's heart would be. Could this glowing thing be its heart? Additionally, at many points on its body, there were cables emerging from under its skin and spreading around. The fact that these cables looked like organic cables added a very chilling atmosphere. But what really made this creature terrifying was its size, which was over three meters.
As the creature's angry roar continued, the robot took its sledgehammer and took a stance. One thing it knew about the creatures called Volem was their ability to use energy as a weapon. But instead, the creature named Aether suddenly lunged forward and struck the robot with its horns.
The robot crashed through the broken gate of the facility and flew outside. While the snow slowed its fall, it was trying to stand up. Visibility was zero outside. But that creature, three meters tall, should be quite discernible despite the blizzard. It immediately began to tweak its internal software. It entered the audio filter and tried to filter out the sound of the snow as much as possible, but with snow falling this heavily, it would be impossible for any filtering software to work. Instinct… what came into play here was instinct. Would any visual module help?
The creature emerging from the snow struck the robot's back with its claws. Then it climbed onto the robot, which was thrown to the ground, and opening that huge grinding mouth, it began to scream in the robot's face. The robot was sinking deeper into the snow under the tons of weight. Even the metal plates on its chest were caving in.
"You can't grind anything other than something biological, can you?" the robot said. Because while the teeth in the creature's mouth rotated like a circular grinder, it did nothing but watch our robot.
Then the creature raised its hand, extended its claws, and began to scratch the robot's heart repeatedly. It was likely planning to reach the robot's core and absorb all its energy when the robot pointed the machine gun attached to its arm and began to fire at the creature's face. Although the bullets passed through the creature's thick skin, they couldn't go deep because they lost momentum. But this was enough to hurt the creature. After all, the creature named Aether Primus had been raised in a glass jar, far from pain.
While the creature disappeared among the snow, bleeding from the wounds inside its mouth and on its head, the robot managed to get up from the ground with difficulty. After straightening up, its foot slipped and it stumbled in its attempts to walk, but it was able to stand upright with the support it received from its sledgehammer.
If it tried to follow the bloodstains falling on the white snow, the blood would have already been cleared by the storm. Through the snowflakes constantly blowing left and right before its eyes, it barely noticed the creature suddenly pouncing on it. It raised its sledgehammer and swung it at the creature. As the creature moved backward from the blow, the robot could only see the snow erupting from the ground and the black metal of the sledgehammer. But it knew from the vibration on the ground that the creature was only a few meters away. When the creature lunged for a second blow, another sledgehammer strike… this time the sledgehammer strike was right under its chin.
The creature, hit by the blow, fled among the snow while the robot placed its sledgehammer on the ground and leaned on it. Its sledgehammer was covered in blood… the only thing polluting the white ground was the sledgehammer in its hand.
The robot tore off the piece of metal from its forehead that had fallen over its eye and threw it aside. Its body was so damaged that it didn't know how much longer it could endure. Therefore, it realized it had to activate the second stage of the plan.
It began to dig into the snow with its sledgehammer, then fixed the sledgehammer into the snow.
"Energy must flow," the robot said. "Heat moves from hot to cold… electrical potential flows from high to low. Even light spreads from where energy density is high to where it is low… My Volem friend suggested this."
While slamming the sledgehammer hard into the ground, it also tugged at the handle. Finally, with a few wrist movements, it was able to turn a metal circuit inside the handle of the sledgehammer. When the handle of the sledgehammer turned like a screwdriver, a great amount of energy was emitted.
The creature, noticing the distraction of the robot busy with the sledgehammer, suddenly attacked from behind the robot. It lunged at it while digging its claws into the robot's joint. The robot once again began to be crushed under hundreds of kilograms of weight. While successive claw strikes tore its chest, the bullets it fired one after another no longer frightened the creature. Thanks to the God Particle, this creature had already adapted to the pain of bullets. Pain was no longer a terrifying thing for it.
"This is it!" the robot said. At that moment, the sledgehammer opened like a flower, and a crystal structure appeared in its center. "You are exactly where I want you!"
The creature screamed and delivered a blow using both hands to shatter the robot's head. At that moment, the crystal structure inside the sledgehammer suddenly began to draw energy. Yes… this sledgehammer was actually a bomb. It needed a heavy charge of energy to explode, and once active, it would try to draw all the energy around it. The Volem creature was a creature full of energy. There was energy in its veins, its skin, even in the breath it took and gave. "Energy must flow!" the robot shouted.
At that moment, the blue light in Aether Primus's heart began to glow more. While energy flowed from Aether toward the sledgehammer in the form of a blue light, Aether began to shrivel like a fig left to dry. It was in its death throes. To ease its pain, it let out a scream that vibrated the snow floating in the sky. Moreover, as it lost energy, its massive body became weak, and its supreme evolution reversed just to provide energy savings. The adaptation speed of the God Particle was revealed once more.
With no soul or energy left in the creature, the sledgehammer closed. Then a few "Beep" sounds were heard. The robot straightened up slightly and threw the Volem corpse, light as a bird left with only skin and bones, kilometers away. Then the bomb made its final "Beep" sound.
With that, there was a massive explosion. The snow rising with the fury of the explosion almost reached the limits of the planet's troposphere. Within seconds, the robot was reduced to dust and ice. With the opening of the snow-filled clouds in the sky, perhaps that land saw such beautiful sunlight for the first time.