Then he tilted his disguised face to look at me, a faint smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

"Being my friend comes with a lot of risk, kid," he said evenly.

"Is that so?" I raised an eyebrow. "Then why don't you tell me your real identity?"

"Not today." He laughed, the sound low and rough, echoing softly in the cabin.

I scoffed but couldn't help a small smile. The man was a vault of secrets, and each time I pushed, he gave me just enough to keep me curious.

The ship had already cleared the asteroid belt, its hull shivering as the engines drew in power.

The air inside hummed like a plucked string, Essence gathering and building with each heartbeat. My skin prickled as the energy wrapped around us, forming a shimmering bubble in the void.

"Hold on," Dante said casually. "Jumping in three… two… one."

The ship's frame vibrated once, and then reality folded.

Colors bled together like spilled ink, stars stretched into long silver lines, and my stomach lurched as the Essence flared brighter than before. For an instant, there was nothing, no sound, no movement, just the crushing weight of the jump pressing on my senses.

Then the bubble snapped, and space unfolded again.

We emerged into a new place. Ahead of us floated a massive planet swirled with stormy blue clouds.

Just off one of the moons, a jagged asteroid hovered lazily, spinning on its axis. Its surface looked cracked but strangely symmetrical, as if something had shaped it deliberately.

Dante slowed the ship, eyes narrowing at the sight. "There," he muttered. "Right on time."

The engines finally quieted, and the hum faded into a low vibration under my boots. I felt the shift in gravity as the ship angled downward, its hull catching the pale glow of the planet's moon. Long streaks of silver light ran across the panels as we drifted closer to the floating asteroid.

The place looked dead, just a jagged rock turning slowly in the void.

"Do we have another teleportation circle to jump from here?" I asked, leaning over the viewport, peering at the drifting rock.

Dante shook his head slowly.

"Nope. Nothing left to help us. From here, we force our way into the world."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean from this rock to that far-off planet? Have you gone senile, old man?"

He exhaled through his nose, his voice calm and flat. "Not sure which part you're failing to comprehend. Since we don't have anything else, this is how we go."

"Who said we don't have anything else?" I shot back. "We have this ship. Let's just take it straight down."

He scoffed and tilted his head toward me. "Of course not. You've no idea how costly this machine is, kid. They'll start firing the moment we breach their world's protective space."

"But the ship must have defenses," I pressed.

"It does," he said with a small nod. "But I don't want to use them."

I blinked at him. "This is just stupid."

He chuckled under his breath, the sound more like a growl. "Kid, why don't we make it fun? Race me. See who hits the atmosphere first. You should enjoy moments like this. It's about a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers from this rock to the planet. Go all out. See what you're really capable of."

I hummed, letting his words sink in. My fingers curled against the railing as I pictured the flight, nothing but black space and the planet's glow rushing closer, Essence screaming through my veins. A slow smile spread across my face.

"Well," I said, "I like the idea of racing you."

Dante's eyes narrowed behind his disguise, and I caught a glint of something, maybe excitement, maybe challenge. The ship drifted to a halt above the asteroid's surface, its stabilizers humming softly.

"Then let's see if that talent of yours is more than talk," he said, his voice almost playful now.

The ship drifted lower, cutting through thin dust clouds before settling inside a crater. The landing struts hissed as they met the uneven surface, and the engines wound down into silence.

For a moment, there was only the faint crackle of cooling metal and the whisper of our own breaths inside the cabin.

We walked out together.

As Dante moved ahead, his form began to shift again, his disguise fading like smoke.

The frail old man was gone. In his place stood a towering figure, middle-aged but built like a beast, muscles coiling under his plain clothes, shoulders broad enough to block the faint glow of the moon behind him.

He was easily seven feet tall, maybe more. It was strange how naturally he wore that form, as if this was who he truly was.

We stepped onto the barren rock.

The surface was cracked and glassy in some places, probably from past impacts.

In the distance, the planet loomed. Even from here, I could feel the tug of its gravity. It felt alive.

Dante raised his hand. A fireball the size of an apple formed above his palm, glowing bright orange.

"The moment it extinguishes, we begin," he said.

I gave a short nod and took a few steps aside, putting distance between us. My eyes locked onto the planet's surface. My breathing slowed. The thought of what was coming sent a rush through my veins.

I focused.

My perception stretched outward, reaching through the Essence scattered across the void.

I called on the law of space, and the void bent. The particles ahead of me thinned, then parted, like a curtain drawn aside to clear my path. The tension built around me, pressure gathering in waves as the Essence inside my body resonated with the emptiness before me.

The fireball in front of Dante flickered once, twice… then blinked out.

The instant it vanished, I released everything.

BOOM!

A blinding surge of violet light erupted beneath my feet. The surface cracked apart, shattering under the force.

Fragments spun into the air, glowing red from the friction as Dante and I blasted off toward the planet, two streaks cutting through the endless dark.

The stars blurred into white trails around me. My speed climbed past anything I'd ever felt before.

Every second felt stretched thin, like I was slipping between moments. The planet grew larger with terrifying speed, its swirling clouds and glowing atmosphere expanding in my vision.

Essence screamed past me, distorting space itself. I focused harder, stabilizing my body, weaving a thin barrier of space around myself to cut resistance.

Dante was a distant flare to my left, and was behind me quite some distance, his Essence burning like a controlled star.

The planet's protective layer shimmered ahead, an enormous translucent dome of energy that wrapped the entire world.

The glow grew brighter, closer and in the next instant, I was right in front of it, seconds away from impact.

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