Cely hadn't felt this relaxed and comfortable in ages. The humidity in the air, the soil perfectly adapted to her every need, and basically everything else about this place felt perfect for her.
Slowly, her mycelial-root network stretched toward her daughter to establish a connection. The moment that was done, she could feel the satisfaction from Aria as well.
'Mom, can we stay here forever? It's almost better than your cooking!'
'No, sweety. We'll get back to our travels after a week. Do enjoy this, though! You won't be able to have such a relaxing rest for a while after this. And who knows? Maybe I'll cook something for us here as well!'
Cely couldn't help but feel proud hearing her daughter continuously praise her cooking. She felt like... she might need to elevate it after she got back to Earth. She could also feel intense excitement from Aria the moment she mentioned cooking and couldn't help but mentally chuckle.
'What's so funny?'
Aria seemed a bit upset at being laughed at. This made Cely conjure a mental image of Aria pouting in her mind, making her laugh harder.
The two weren't alone, though. First off was the tree behind the reception desk. Then, the entire room was filled with plants of all shapes, colors, forms, and sizes. From small red patches of grass to vines covering the entire wall and ceiling, and multiple bushes, there was practically no free space.
It was a picture of serenity, with everyone here simply enjoying the atmosphere.
----------
Earth; Site 13
[DATA EXPUNGED]
Nicholas sat in his office looking over paperwork. Ever since Cely was gone, he had to take on a way more active role than he used to have. Though he was the Second Overseer of the Foundation even before her death, he had never really been involved in internal affairs.
He was, by all means, an outsider to Earth after all.
He could remember that day well. The day he woke up in the confines of a small room. His power sealed, and the glaring light of the interrogation room blinding him. He had never felt as weak as that day.
"Who are you? How did you get through our perimeter and arrive here without us noticing at first?"
Those were the first sounds he had heard that day after waking up. That authority, with a face that could topple countries. Nicholas felt love that day, for the first time.
He had known nothing but death and violence before that day. Without a family to speak off and without friends in his entire existence till that point, who would blame him?
Things continued from there. He explained who he was, though he could not tell her how he had gotten there. He didn't know.
Slowly, over decades, Nicholas won her trust. Showing his worth. With each interaction, though she showed him naught but emotionless distance, he could tell. There was something beneath that. Something he had never felt someone feel for him.
He later learned it was pity.
After centuries, the two of them had fully acclimated. And so, Cely introduced her parents. Seeing Chaos and Gaia made Nicholas freeze. He knew them. And they knew him. The couple didn't care about the past, though, since Cely and Nicholas had genuine feelings for each other, they approved of their relationship without a hitch.
They had planned to have a child together once Cely broke through to the next Tier, but fate had other plans.
Nicholas was enjoying the light of the sun on a beautiful day when he got a call on his phone. Seeing the caller, a light smile emerged on his face.
"Darling! Ho-"
"No time. I have learned something I should not have learned. Don't investigate the cause of my death! You know the plan! I love y-"
Cely's voice was frantic and at a pace that any mortal wouldn't have heard anything due to the extreme pitch this created. In the end, before her final word left her lips, though, the connection broke with the sound of an explosion.
Nicholas, stunned, could only look at the sky. The satellite research station Cely had been in having become a huge star shining at day.
Disbelief.
It was all Nicholas could muster looking at this light. Soon, though, his stunned silence shattered as energy erupted from his body, threatening to shatter the sky.
"Calm down, Nicky. You heard her. She used her backup to survive this. If she was truly in danger, do you think we would have let her die?"
In an instant, all that energy was pressed back inside him as Gaia appeared on a rock next to him.
'That's right! They wouldn't have let her actually die.'
And with that thought, his emotions were reigned in as well.
After that, the Foundation changed.
Without her suppression, the Numbered started taking more initiative, since they were no longer under Cely's direct command. While they were still subordinate to Nicholas, they were way less obedient since he was weaker than One and only on par with Two and Six.
Luckily, Six, the least obedient of the Numbered, was stationed in AS-2 under orders of Cely, so Nick had no problem with her.
The rest of them started actively taking command within the Foundation, instead of acting as protectors in the shadows.
The documents in front of Nicholas were about recent events on Earth. One in particular he would have hoped to have Six's help on, but she was stationed in AS-2. The event was the outbreak of an anomalous virus that spread through line of sight, AV-1723.
At some point, the door opened. Dr. James Prag entered, carrying more documents.
"The outbreak has been fully contained, and the serum has been administered worldwide. Though most have recovered, some have yet to be healed."
Hearing the news, Nicholas wasn't happy. A dangerous gleam emerged in his eyes as he looked at James.
"You didn't mention the numbers. What is it looking like?"
Smiling wryly, James could only answer truthfully.
"Of 500 million infected, eighty percent were fully curable. Of the 100 million remaining, half are instances of type three. We do not believe and see no hope in their recovery. Therefore, 50 million people have effectively died irreversibly. Amnestics have been administered worldwide, but the Library's Hand continues to attempt to publicise the incident."
Nicholas's eyes became black, and a red, vertical slit emerged in the center.
Meanwhile, seeing this, James sat down on the chair opposite Nicholas to get comfortable.
At that same moment, the room seemed to distort and grow. Nicholas watched as the walls, which were previously pristine lab walls, transformed into brick walls akin to those found in a castle.
Large, monumental pillars erupted from the floor, which was turning into a stone floor of unknown kind. Gold coins started to pour from the crevices between the floor tiles and the bricks of the wall, filling the floor with mountains and mountains of gold.
Instead of pouring over James and Nicholas, though, the rising tide of gold slowly elevated them. On that note, Nicholas was changing along with the room. Iridescent, black scales formed all over his body.
His mouth and nose pushed out into a long snout, and horns broke from the back of his head. Nicholas's robe unfurled around him, revealing itself to be his wings and also revealing his ever-thickening, draconic torso.
A deep, guttural growl escaped Nicholas's maw as he dropped on all fours onto the enormous throne his chair had become.
His powerful claws dug slightly into the divine metal that made up the chair, his transformation, and the transformation of the room complete.
James wasn't impressed.
Why would he be?
He had seen Nicholas transform quite a lot before. The man had no chill and reverted to his true form at the mildest inconvenience. Honestly, he was more surprised by the fact that it had been almost a year since he had last seen it, considering Cely had died in that time.
"JAMES! TELL ME ALL THE LOCATIONS OF THE LIBRARIES HAND BASES WE KNOW ABOUT! I'LL BURN THEM TO THE GROUND!"
Nicholas's booming voice echoed in the large hall as black flames spilled from his snout with each syllable.
"Sir, if we had any more leads on their current bases, we would have destroyed them already."
"GRAAAARGH! THOSE RATS! I WILL KILL THEM ALL!"
This time, flames spewed through the entire room, making James actually get serious. The force field he had hastily erected around himself trembled and cracked under the pressure of Nicholas's flames. It wouldn't hold for long. Luckily, he didn't need to.
In an instant, the entire room returned to its original state. All the gold and the throne were gone. Nicholas was back to his human form as well, holding the bridge of his nose.
"Sigh... you're right. Although I would love to find them and stuff their damn books down their throats, finding them is the issue. Five."
The moment the word left his lips, a lean, feminine, blue-haired man appeared in the room. A red, ancient number reading the letter "5" shone in his black eyes.
"You called me, Sir?"
Among the numbered, Five was by far the most obedient and honor-bound. His specialty was espionage and intel gathering, so he had been generally spearheading the Foundation's information-gathering division.
"I want you to use any means available to track the Library's Hand. I am authorizing you to use anomalous means as well. Just find the fuckers. We can't have them stir up more trouble while we deal with the repercussions of Cely dying. You know what's at stake."
Five had a serious expression on his face. The authorization to use anomalous means is a huge red flag about the importance of this matter. He knew what Nicholas was worried about, but he had not thought it was already this urgent.
"I understand, Sir. Be assured, I won't fail."
Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, Five vanished.
James watched the whole thing with narrowed eyes. As one of the very few higher-ups of the Foundation who knew about the Numbered personally, it also alarmed him that Nicholas saw it as urgent enough to call one of them.
Each of the numbered was a Transcendent God above the Galaxy Transcendent Realm. Any of them being given direct commands was a matter that could shake the whole universe, not to mention that Five was given the authority to use anomalous means.
'What is so important that even I don't know? Why does it require Five to act?'
James didn't know.