Reborn With A Technology System In A Fantasy World-Chapter 238: Galactic Concordat (3)
Adrian spent the remaining time cultivating and restoring his energy.
A few hours before the 24-hour deadline, a planet-wide command was given. Everyone was to temporarily return to their homes and stay locked in. The celebratory streets of New Haven and every other city fell silent, leaving the world quiet, waiting.
Left for one man to stand guard.
Adrian stood on his high balcony, his eyes fixed on the sky. He had done all he could. His status panel showed the local time. Exactly 24 hours had passed since the silver ship’s departure.
He returned his gaze to the heavens. Not more than five seconds passed until he saw it. A flicker, then a streak of white light that resolved itself into the same, perfect, disc-shaped ship.
This time, it did not hover at the edge of the atmosphere. It descended with an astonishing, terrifying speed, its silent fall more dreadful than any roar.
In the blink of an eye, it was upon the ground, hovering a dozen meters above the central plaza of New Haven, the place where their victory had been announced. The sheer, effortless power it radiated was suffocating.
Many who were watching from the windows of their sealed homes were either paralyzed with fear or struck with a strange, hopeless awe.
Adrian, however, looked at the ship with a cold, serious expression. He was waiting, expecting an alien to come out of it.
Five full seconds passed, but nothing happened. The ship just hovered silently.
Then, the same calm, dispassionate, and all-powerful voice echoed.
{The 24-hour period of amends has concluded. No amends were made. Do you have anything to say before judgment is served?}
Adrian took a deep breath, his entire world narrowing to this single, desperate moment. He had one card to play, a one-in-a-billion shot.
"I have the Ven Key."
There was a silence from the ship, a silence so profound and so long that it felt different from its previous, cold presence. It felt like... surprise.
The silence stretched for a full ten seconds before the voice spoke again, its calm, dispassionate tone now laced with a faint, almost imperceptible tremor of disbelief.
{...How bold of you to make such a claim. Let me see it.}
Adrian didn’t hesitate. He had left the ancient, mysterious key in his pocket for this very purpose. He drew it out with ease, the Xqvëjn Key, with its strange weight in his hand. He raised it high, so whoever was in the ship could see.
{Place it on the ship.}
Adrian flew out from the balcony and landed in the ground. He walked closer, his footsteps the only sound in the dead-quiet city.
He stood directly beneath the floating silver disc and tossed the key upwards. It didn’t clatter against the hull. The ship’s underside seemed to open, allowing the key to pass through it before closing once more.
Minutes of silence passed. Adrian stood his ground, his fate, and the fate of his entire planet, now in the hands of this alien machine.
Finally, he heard the voice once again. Its tone was completely different now. It was no longer the voice of a judge, but of an administrator.
{Authentication successful. The Ven Key has been verified. People of Thanad, prepare to ascend.}
Before Adrian could even process what that meant, a colossal beam of pure, white light erupted from the ship, enveloping not just him, but the entire city of New Haven.
What happened next was teleportation, but it was nothing like the instantaneous, clean [Translocation] Adrian was used to.
The moment the white light enveloped him, his senses were annihilated. There was no up or down, no sound, no feeling of movement. There was only an absolute, blinding, and uniform whiteness.
For one, it took an insane amount of time. Seconds stretched into minutes, and he had no way to mark their passage.
He tried to reach out to his Vassals, but he couldn’t sense them. That made Adrian’s instincts to scream at him to resist and tear his way out of this formless prison. He felt certainty that if he gave in to that instinct, he would be left behind.
But he didn’t dare to do so. He had full knowledge of the situation he was in. To be left behind was to be annihilated.
Adrian clamped down on his panic, forcing his will into a state of passive acceptance, and endured.
After what felt like an hour, he finally felt a change. The oppressive light faded, and the sensation of a solid surface returned to his feet.
Adrian observed he was in an open space, standing on a floor of seamless, glowing white. The "sky" above was an artificial dome of such an immense scale that he couldn’t see the edges, its light a perfect, neutral white. He looked around and saw the source of the sudden, rising panic.
Thousands of people were materializing all around him in shimmering columns of light. Dwarves, Elves, Humans, his Alliance Council. They were all here.
Children were crying. Many were trying to cast their magic. But a good number looked physically ill from the unusual transport.
The chamber, or whatever it was, was impossibly large, easily holding the entire 6,000-plus population with room to spare.
Before Adrian could even begin to calm the panicking people, a new voice spoke. It was clear and it cut through the din with an effortless authority.
"Who is the leader of this contingent?"
The crowd, hearing the strange voice, instinctively quieted. They were surprised to understand this one, but they acted first. Seeing their Sovereign, Adrian, standing tall and calm in their midst, they parted for him, a wave of displaced people creating a path to the front.
Adrian walked forward, his eyes locking onto the being who had spoken.
He looked human, except he was easily eight feet tall, impossibly slender, and had a blue skin.
He was wearing a simple, dark-red, high-collared uniform that bore a single circular insignia on the chest: a simple silver circle, bisected by a single, vertical line, with the letters GC within it.
He held a data-slate in his hand.
"I am," Adrian replied calmly.
The tall, blue-skinned being looked him up and down.
His eyes seemed to scan him with interest. After probing Adrian’s unblinking gaze for a long moment, he finally turned his back on him and gave a simple, curt command.
"Follow me."
