Kingsman Return novel Chapter 13

What was that saying again, 'The endless sea of stars is the road leading to the future'!

These words that his father said to him at some point in his youth, continuously resounded in Arran's mind as he traveled across the cosmos toward the home of the Aeth-the Etherium.

Along the journey, Arran was able to confirm some of his doubts, chief of which was the status of the known universe.

From what he found out, the universe was divided into different realms, and these realms further existed in the form of layers, like the steps of a ladder. It is in these layers that the concept of lower and upper realms came into existence.

Let's take an analogy, for example, take a tree as an example, the roots of the tree would correspond to the lower realm in the universe. From the roots onwards, the trunk of the tree, its branches and leaves, and also its fruits would all correspond to a different layer in the universe.

In this way, the layers of the universe could be said to be vast, not only in the number of layers that exist in the universe but also in the number of realms that exist in a single layer. The universe was considered wider than it was high.

The home of the Aeth was located in one of the upper layers of the universe. In a high realm known as the prime Etherium high realm.

Lower, middle, great, and high realms, were just the divisions of the realms in the universe.

The outpost that Arran had just left was located in one of the middle realms that were part of the territory of the Aeth.

It had to be known that the lower realms did not fall under the jurisdiction of any of the powerful races of the universe and were considered free territory by all. But even still, there would be no one who would consider ruling over these realms but would leave it to the native inhabitants.

This was because of one very simple reason, there were no resources worth taking from these realms.

During the time when the universe was still under rapid development, there were boundless resources to harvest and this led to what is known as the age of exploration. This movement led the races of the upper realms to descend to the lower realms to plunder its resources and develop labor for themselves.

But unfortunately, the lower realms were too small in scale to meet the needs of these races and as the resources ran dry, these races packed up and left, leaving behind nothing but barren lands and myths and legends for the later generations.

Sad as it was, that was how the universe worked.

Apart from learning about all these, Arran also got to spar with the warriors of the Aeth. Unfortunately for him, he was trashed so seriously by them that the small pride that he got from defeating Brendell the other day completely vanished.

Not everyone was an intellectual who did not focus on martial prowess. Especially not these battle-hardened warriors who had been through various life and death battles in their long lives. It was impossible for Arran to win against them. But Arran was not discouraged. He had learned something through all the time he spent sparing with them.

Arran finally understood what the difference that separated mortals like him and warriors of the Aeth was.

The major difference was their cultivation of vital energy.

According to commander Margo, all warriors of the universe, in one way or another, cultivate the use of energy.

Be it vital energy as with the Aeth, or spiritual Qi, or mana, or the essence of heaven and earth, it was essentially the same thing. All that it entailed was the use of energy to increase the prowess of the body, for the utilization of different abilities, and the increase of lifespan.

Ultimately, no matter how powerful a person may be, his or her own energy was finite and would come to an end eventually. That is why they are considered mortals.

In other to escape from the coils of one's own mortality, one had to use the energy found in the universe to supplement their own.

This would in turn lead to an evolution in life levels and an increase in natural lifespan being a side effect of this action… amongst other things.

It was said that at the highest point in one's self-cultivation… immortality would no longer be just a fantasy but a reality.

All in all, this helped Arran to better understand the new world he found himself in, and to be honest with himself, Arran was very excited by all the new things that he was introduced to as this served to bring in a much-needed excitement to his already deary life that had been stagnant for a long time now.

Overall this also brought him closer to finding out what happened to his parents and discovering where they had disappeared to.

...

It did not take long to reach their destination.

In the week spent in transit, apart from the time spent sparing with the Aeth warriors, Arran had to be honest with himself that after the marvel of space travel wore off, everything became as boring as hell.

Like watching paint dry.