Since I was left alone at home, I went out. The plan was to spy a little on Celestine, to check how is she doing out there, hunting without Tihana or me, but it never came to happen.

I was keeping my distance, watching her from the roof of the buildings, as she was heading toward the goblin territory with a bunch of hunters, in my crow form, when my thoughts got invaded.

"Peter, we need to speak", The Great One said in my mind.

I sighed heavily, which was quite weird as a crow, but immediately shadow walked to Loistavadvaar.

Bathing in the silver light shining from above, the fake High Queen Ixa was already waiting for me. Levitating slightly above the ground, with her eyes closed, and the long arms put together on her tights.

- What? - I asked.

The Great One opened his eyes.

- An opportunity was born. The research vessels, monitoring the strange psionic signals, were able to calculate the path the entity sending it is taking, on its way to the empire. I am able to take us closer to that being. Maybe close enough to communicate. We could find out what that being is, and what its goal is.

- And what if it's hostile? - I asked.

- Then we will leave and prepare for battle - he answered me.

- What if it will follow us? Shouldn't we be more careful? - I dug deeper.

- If it could follow us, it would be already here. The distance is very big. Even I wouldn't be able to cross it. Half of it would probably still be too much. Moreover, it appears, that this being is unable to travel instantly. I believe it's taking a more conventional approach - he explained.

For me, the 'Shift of presence' skill was still a bit of a mystery, as I wasn't fully sure what its limitations were because I preferred to use 'shadow walk' anyway. For that skill, the distance didn't mean anything, but I needed the anchors to travel from one point to another in an instant.

- So when are we going? - I asked.

- Druoag is finishing his preparations. We will leave as soon as he is ready - he informed me.

- Shit - left my mouth, and I immediately looked at the device.

- You don't have to upgrade yourself. Even if the entity is hostile, we will be able to leave with ease, and then prepare for the battle - he said to me.

I was happy, that I didn't have to crack my mind on what upgrades I should acquire to get the biggest impact, without knowing anything about the potential enemy. I would even smile, if not for the fact, that the whole situation was making me more annoyed.

I made a throne of pure blackness for myself - out of void essence, obviously - and sat down to wait for Druoag, to finish whatever those 'preparations' were. A few minutes later, The Great One briefly vanished, returning with a massive alien creature with a nasty jaw full of sharp teeth, five-fingered hands armed with sharp claws, wearing a red and gold armor, which seemed to be weirdly fluid on his titanic body.

- It's good to see you again, Peter - he said to me.

He was similar but slightly different. Maybe the break changed him, but Druoag looked younger to me.

- Good to see you too - I replied, and smiled.

Then I left my throne, and got a single step closer to them, but not more since The Great One immediately moved us to a different place.

We landed on a meteor, slowly drifting through the empty space. There was no oxygen, so I had to do a little trick with air magic because otherwise, I would die. The lack of atmosphere also didn't suit me well, but my body was able to endure that.

My friends seemed to have no problem with the conditions we found ourselves in, but it soon stopped being an issue for me too. Simply, something else began occupying my mind. Literary, in this case.

We all felt a sudden surge going through our brains. It was like an announcement, that there was something out there, and it noticed us.

I immediately braced myself, activating all my necessary skills. Druoag 's reaction was similar. He grew in size, and his appearance changed, once again, to the battle form he achieved back in Loistavadvaar, to fight the High Queen.

Then we got surprised once more A sudden wave of thoughts, millions of them, washed over us. It was a whole history of feelings, ideas, and weird actions, of a creature being born. It was an entity much different from what I could even imagine.

Massive like a whole galaxy, born from small particles, like multi cellar organisms, which communicated with themselves forming a personality. It was lonely. Growing far away from anything alive. Observing the deaths of stars for a very long time.

historical

It searched through the vast space for others, similar to itself, but was only able to discover simple minds, which it found hard to communicate with.

Eventually, though, its search was lured towards us, pursuing signs of the battle of at least two psionics. It came to look from a distance, but the fight was gone before it could get close enough. It still kept traveling, though, to find out what happened, pushed by curiosity.

It portrayed itself as friendly and peace-loving. It showed us that it hates conflict, and wishes to coexist. It doesn't want to be alone anymore.

I was surprised by that so much, that I looked to the side, to check the reactions on my friends' faces, but they had blank expressions. Clearly trying to consume a vast amount of informations. Like an ocean full of thoughts.

I couldn't blame them. For me too, it was a really strange experience.

The Great One then pushed his thoughts forward in an open way, so we all could feel them, and analyze them. It was kinda like an open conversation, but just with thoughts. Which, actually made everything way more clear, than using something as primitive as words.