Chapter 264 - Escape From The Ninth Dimension

It was almost like I was eating dirt and, the spreading of sand, a terrible, terrible texture. The feeling of throwing up but not being able to- the need to- ueggh!

And- yeah, I didn't really want to remember those dark times… of the past. 

The stone wasn't actually leaking any form of radiation, so I thought it was drained or something. 

But I was wrong. 

It was only the outside that was inactive, the inner layers were totally rich in energy. 

As I ate the stone and desperately looked for water, which wasn't here, something felt warm. My stomach started to rumble and heat up. Within a moment, I felt my stamina return and I was about to overflow.

Never underestimate frigggin uranium!

My mouth and teeth were in bad shape though: and my eyes might or might not have leaked. Mom was definitely going to slap me the next time I complained of toothache. 

Oh well. Beggars couldn't be choosers. 

I focused over our heads and used a barrier to protect the two of us just in case. 

A ball of plasma formed. That was the easy part. In order to make it into a star- I had to constantly feed it energy and also constrict and pressurize it enough so it didn't just collapse under its own gravity. I had to also be fairly close to it because of that and that meant stuff was about to be burned. 

"Get me more!" I screamed.

Though I was more than full, just creating a football-sized one had drained one-third of my stamina. And I needed a lot more to make this bigger.

This world was really draining if nothing else. 

"On it, kid." He ran back inside the cave.

Just keeping the plasma ball stabilized wasn't a problem and didn't require much energy but- the light was attracting more and more Blanches. I had a feeling we didn't have enough time. 

There wasn't much light in this world- so just my plasma was enough to brighten up this whole part of the planet, which in turn meant, almost all the Blanches were here and they had me surrounded. They were even coming from space- maybe this wasn't such a great idea.

And they came in all sizes. The typical ones were a bit taller than humans but some were the size of my feet while others were maybe about five-six meters tall. 

Most were just random-looking, but there were some who looked fairly humanoid but still pretty tall, at least taller than humans. 

But then there was the massive one. It was maybe half the size of the whole Battlesuin mansion and I had a feeling it could see me, cause even though it didn't have any eyes it was facing me. Instead of just going to the light like the rest, it stayed a fair distance and just stared. 

Very creepy.

The heat was keeping them away, that was true but there was just way too many.

And they'd almost covered the light from the plasma ball and they were swirling like water. 

Now, that was a sight I never thought I'd see in my life. 

"Kid!" I heard a shout from behind me and the old man was himself surrounded but he threw a rock at me- a bit bigger than the one before.

I caught it, ate it and continued supplying the plasma ball with more and more energy.

Terrible- absolutely, terrible!

Eventually, the small ball turned as big as a truck but that was all I could muster up. Both from a stamina and a survivability perspective, this was my absolute limit.

I used my barriers and powers as best as I could to manipulate it and throw it past the atmosphere into space. But it wasn't working and this thing was too big. The use of the barriers was helping but not as much as I wanted it to.

"If I let go now, the thing will just fall on this planet. Go get Marg!"

Most of the Blanches just went toward the truck-sized star on the edge of the sky and they stayed a fair distance to avoid the heat. 

'Doesn't look like they're dying like you said, geezer!' I gritted my teeth and just focused. 

Yeah, no matter how I looked at this, this was too much. And even with all the extra stones and energy, just keeping that thing from falling was now draining me much quicker than I thought.

This was a bad idea: really.

But I couldn't lose focus, I still had a bit of stamina and my Holo signaled it was already twelve hours. 

He'd be here any second.

Or at least I hoped he would. 

"What now, kid!?" The man was back and he had Marg.

He sure was fast on his feet.

But I wished he didn't carry her like a potato sack. Sure didn't have time to say it out loud though. 

"Either wait out here or try to leave this planet?"

Neither seemed feasible. If I moved an inch from this spot, that'd be it for the planet. I had a feeling they couldn't get off this planet without me. 

So, in the end, this was really a bad idea. We'd failed big time and it was my fault for not thinking this through. 

Why the hell did I trust this old geezer who I just met anyway?

Sirgh!

And the thing started falling.

I'd just almost run out of stamina, perfect!

Too perfect, too perfect indeed. 

My feet started to go cold and my vision blurred. 

"Ach!" I groaned but still tried my best. I had to hold my saber to make barriers and I had to focus hard to keep it floating- so far, neither were working. "Enira, come out already, I need your ass right now!"

She didn't respond.

"There you are!" But someone else did. "Good job with the spectacle. I couldn't have found you otherwise."

He'd appeared out of nowhere. 

"LIEUTENANT!"

"My limit is two, at most. I'll take them with me, while you keep that thing floating. I'll be right back for you." He didn't even question me about the old man, there just wasn't any time. 

"Nah, just take the missy. I'll keep the kid company." The old man handed Marg over to Lt. Demeris.

Lt. Demeris looked slightly confused for a second but eventually nodded and disappeared. 

"You sure? I thought you were stuck here for over 4 decades."

And the star was falling. I was just merely able to slow it down. 

Pant!

Pant!

He snorted. "I've got patience kid. Besides, it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth knowing you'd die or something."

Why did I need a geezer half my size who had one foot in the grave, worrying about me?

Oddly- that made me feel slightly warm. "Hey, don't go around killing me that easily." I chuckled. 

He laughed and held his hands up. 

The star sped up and started falling rather fast. 

A small ball formed in the middle of the old man's hands and soon afterward a beam fired: the beam was an inch thick and it pierced straight through my truck-sized sun in a nanosecond. Just like that. "Explosion!" He spoke the words like he was speaking French or something. 

The sun stopped- that was good- but- something not so good started to happen.

The sun collapsed and, in a flash second, shrunk so much that I thought we were going to die. And that too was a valid concern as it exploded the very next second.

"The hell you doing, you damn geezer!"

I only received a rather ominous laughter in exchange. 

I formed a large barrier but- we were going to die.

'I'm gonna die.' Bright- that was the only thought apart from death ran across my mind.

Bright- bright- too bright… no sound- just bright-

Flames were coming our way- a vigorous, hot flames: plasma.

But I smiled. I got to save Marg- 

Maybe this wasn't a waste.

I did want to spend more time with her though- with my family- with everyone. I wanted to mess around a little and yet….

Tears formed but they evaporated as my face started to burn. 

This was it.

"Rather flashy way of doing things-" The Lieutenant appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the two of us, and all three of us disappeared- or rather we teleported. 

I was saved.

***

The moment before we'd teleported, everything was too bright, so once we did teleport, things weren't so bright and I was almost blind for a second.

I could have sworn I saw the large Blanche look straight at me though.

I couldn't see much but, I could see the geezer next to me though. Also, my face burned and ears stung… argh!

"The hell was that for, geezer, you almost killed us!" I held the guy by his collar and a second later realized that was a mistake as his whole collar ripped and came off. 

A little more force and the rest of his clothes would have turned to dust too. 

The background noise and the horns, and the murmurs were like killing my ears. Why did people have to be so friggin loud?

He laughed. "Been stuck with them for over four decades kid, tis- was my way of saying goodbye and freeing them." He grinned.

My eyes were still adjusting but we were kind of in the open and there was sunlight.

Too bad, I couldn't make up much, as I had a big blinking purple haze over my vision.

Seriously, just how bright was that explosion?

But- I was glad.. Perhaps a bit too glad.