Chapter 207: Searching Thoughts
"You mentioned this planet had gems as a power source," he said. "But the alien race came and took them. Now you’re saying there are more hidden—under the capital? Or... castles?"
The ache of Kikaru’s absence still clung to him, the sight of Dot’s still form pressing deeper into the back of his mind.
"How do you know that? And how does any of this help him... or help you?"
The godless crucifix tilted his head slightly. His silver eyes narrowed, the faint smile at the corners of his mouth tightening, not fading. He studied Elias’s soul for a moment—silently—then exhaled once through his nose, low and even.
"You see, most planets naturally have soul energy flowing through them, as I mentioned before," he said, his voice humming through the Expanse. The mist at his feet coiled tighter, and the spires behind him gave off a low, shifting vibration, as if reacting to the memory being spoken aloud.
"When a world has that energy, it becomes a foundation. A source. But the fourth-dimensional lens doesn’t just see sources. It sees frameworks. Lattices. Circuits. Shapes that haven’t been made yet."
He stepped lightly to the side, the obsidian tiles beneath him aligning.
"When he ascended—when Alec first crossed over—he looked back at this place from that higher view. And what he saw was potential. So he acted. He crafted a power source from raw soul energy and embedded it deep into the soil of that world. Not a generator. Not a weapon. A seed."
The crucifix paused, his gaze sharpening. The red veins across his hands lit brighter than before, branching upward toward his neck.
"The planet’s crust became the incubator. Over time, that core gem—the master node—reproduced itself. A network of lesser gems started growing upward from beneath the ground. Small fractures turned to crystal. Crystal became fuel. Fuel became conflict."
He looked back down toward Elias.