Death... and me

Kentucky was surprised to see all the robots stopping and the other defensive mechanisms deactivating. "This..." he then looked at Rean. "That doesn't make sense. This place has lost contact with the Ruins of the Stars, hasn't it? It's literally on the other side of the Universe. When you made that ID of yours, this place had already been built isolated. How can the system in this place recognize you?"

"It's because of this guy." Rean smiled as the terminal spilled a card out. It was an ID card that Rean got back in the Ruins of the Stars. Because it was bound to him, only he could use it. There wasn't any point in giving it back to Tanxan, so Rean kept it. Not only Rean, Roan and Luan also had their own cards, although only Rean is here at this moment. "As long as it was something with the same system at the Ruins of the Stars, it would recognize my ID."

Kentucky landed on Rean's side, looking at his card. "I'm surprised your father didn't turn OFF this feature in this place."

Rean nodded. "He probably thought there was no need for it and that it would require way too much work. Or perhaps I'm wrong, and he did want someone to find this place someday. Who knows? The fact is that this facility's defense system now recognizes us as members of the same organization and won't attack us anymore. I truly didn't want to flee."

Kentucky looked around, now paying more attention to the equipment spread through the place. "Just what was this place, then? From what you said, your father fled with an emergency escape ship. Yet, this place is obviously not a spaceship at all, so he had to build this. What did he do it for?"

Rean pondered a bit. "Well, you probably still remember that my father took the soul worms, right? Perhaps this was the place where he produced them in bulk, waiting for the day he would enter the Heavens and dominate the angels. Of course, this is just speculation."

Smile then flew to one of the nearby automatic doors. "Well, we have plenty of time to investigate. If there was some enemy in this place, he would have shown himself by now."

Kentucky returned to his humanoid form and followed Rean. "Aren't you afraid of your father suddenly paying a visit? I mean, what if he left a way to warn him if this place received some unexpected visitors? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we are absolutely not his match."

Rean crossed the door and continued through the corridor. "I doubt that to be the case. If anything, my father most likely took everything he wanted from this place already." Rean then remembered something and spoke out loud. "System, tell me the ID number of the last crew member to be in this facility."

-Request accepted-

-The last crew member to appear was Romario Faran, ID number ER184395370.-

Rean nodded, satisfied. His authority was truly enough to completely take control of this place. "Very well. Tell me the last time Romario Faran was in this facility."

-Romario Faran's last appearance was 1275 years, seven months, three weeks, and eleven hours ago. The time used for this calculation took this planet's time system as the main display. This facility has been in hibernation and auto-maintenance mode since then.-

Rean was taken aback. He wasn't sure how long he had been out of this side of the Universe. Now, taking this time into consideration, that was probably within the time he died on Earth. "Oh, right! I could have done just that."

Rean quickly spread his Divine Sense and covered the city above, knowing that there wasn't anything there earlier. Soon, he found the day and year. "I see... so it has been 1281 years since I left, uh?"

Kentucky quickly warned him. "Maybe on this planet. However, don't forget the time displacements and things like that. It might be 1281 years here, but it might as well be a million years in other places."

"I know that," Rean agreed with him. "But the time in other places matters little at the moment. What matters is that my father left six years after my 'death' on this planet."

Kentucky pondered about it and remembered something. "That's weird. The Angel Race had been under your father's control for a much, much longer time. Six years is far from enough for him to spread the soul worms all over the Heavens."

"You said it yourself," Rean spoke. "Perhaps it was the time displacement." However, Rean quickly shook his head. "No, forget what I said. The time difference would still be too big."

Rean then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, let's leave the time aside for now. System, please specify this facility's purpose."

-This facility has been built with the primary objective of nurturing Soul Worms based on the subject ID ER184395370.-

Rean and Kentucky nodded. They were right; this place was used to create the soul worms Romario used to dominate the Angel Realm. "System, do you have any information about Romario Faran's plans other than the Soul Worms?"

-Searching...-

-Some of the research carried out by Romario Faran was linked to the Celestial Laws Manipulation.-

Rean and Kentucky looked at each other. "Isn't that exactly what the experts like Huban and Kafan said the next level above Divinity Realm should be capable of doing without having to pay any prices?"

For Huban, Kafan, and those similar to them to manipulate the celestial laws, they must pay the price of forgetting the laws they had comprehended. They can comprehend those laws again after doing it, but depending on the damage, it might take between a few hundred to tens of thousands of years to recover their lost power. They believed the next realm, the one they failed to attain, should be able to do it without any price to be paid.

Rean quickly asked another thing. "System, was it related to surpassing the Divinity Realm?"

-Affirmative-