It wasn't just Lucas—Hela's expression also changed the instant the protective barrier disappeared.
The moment it vanished, an overwhelming pressure slammed down on them, forcing both of them to one knee.
Less than five seconds later, Hela was pressed flat against the ground.
"What kind of planet is this…? Why is the gravity so strong?"
Lucas gritted his teeth as he spoke, his retinal interface immediately displaying data.
"Gravity… eighty times Earth's?"
Seeing the calculation from his AI, the corner of Lucas's eye twitched slightly.
Back on Earth, even when training with gravity manipulation, the highest multiplier he had used was under forty times.
Even factoring in all the weighted equipment he carried, it barely exceeded sixty times.
And now—straight to eighty times gravity.
The change was drastic.
This was only possible because Lucas had long trained under extreme gravity. His body—internally and externally—had developed exceptional resistance to pressure.
Otherwise, such a sudden shift would have caused unpredictable damage to fragile organs and blood vessels.
Fortunately, there was another piece of good news.
After being modified by the Tesseract's energy, Lucas no longer needed to breathe.
In other words, one of the Saiyans' biggest weaknesses—being unable to survive long-term in space—had been resolved.
Glancing at Hela beside him, Lucas noted that although she was pinned to the ground by gravity, her internal condition seemed stable.
After all, Asgardians had roughly three times the body density of ordinary humans. Their muscles, bones, and organs were far more resilient.
Lucas wasn't worried.
With her extraordinary physique, Hela would adapt soon enough.
"Are you okay?" Lucas asked.
"I—I'm fine," Hela replied, gritting her teeth as she endured.
If she were at full strength, even eighty times gravity wouldn't trouble her.
On Asgard, she could ignore gravity hundreds of times stronger.
Lucas shook his head lightly and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You—"
Hela was about to snap at him when she suddenly felt an extremely warm energy spread from the point of contact.
Lucas controlled his Ki with precision and speed. In the blink of an eye, it flowed through Hela's entire body.
The pain she was experiencing eased dramatically.
"…Thank you," Hela said a moment later.
She immediately tried to circulate her own energy, preparing to force herself upright.
Lucas quickly stopped her.
"Hela, don't rely on energy to brute-force it. Let your body itself feel and adapt to the gravity."
"Otherwise, your energy will drain rapidly and you'll fall into a vicious cycle of depletion."
"Only when your body truly adapts will you gain the most efficient strengthening."
Hela frowned, but she still dispersed the energy within her body and followed Lucas's advice.
Seeing this, Lucas finally relaxed a little.
He had been worried she'd stubbornly refuse to listen.
With an Asgardian physique, adapting to eighty times gravity wouldn't take long—though moving freely would still require time.
Now, Lucas had to consider something more important.
How were they going to get back to Earth?
"Heimdall!"
Lucas tried calling out the name of Asgard's guardian.
There was no response.
"It seems this place isn't within the Nine Realms," Lucas sighed helplessly.
Since Asgard was out of reach, he had to think of another solution.
He took out a disc about the size of a ring from his pocket, activated it, and placed it on the ground.
[Maximum-power full-spectrum signal transmitted.]
[No signal feedback detected.]
[Apologies, sir. No known human light-wave signals detected.]
[Additionally, the mapping system cannot identify any star constellations matching Earth's star chart.]
Hearing the terminal's report, Lucas couldn't help but twitch.
The earlier messages were manageable—but the last one was troubling.
No recognizable constellations meant the distance from Earth was at least on the order of millions of light-years.
As for the Tesseract…
Lucas was starting to fear it.
That thing was basically random teleportation.
This jump had been relatively safe.
But if the next one sent them into a black hole, a neutron star, or the surface of a star—
That would be a cosmic joke.
Worse still, its energy consumption was monstrous.
If it drained him dry in a hostile environment, there wouldn't even be time to regret it.
Unless absolutely desperate, he decided, he would not use it again.
That left only one option.
He could only hope that the ultra-long-range signal transmitter developed by the Luthor Laboratory would be detected by a passing spacecraft, one that might come to this planet and take them away.
"Still," Lucas said thoughtfully, feeling the crushing gravity on his body,
"this place isn't bad."
He abandoned the idea of leaving immediately.
"Since that's the case, we might as well train here for a while."
"First issue—food."
For someone like Lucas, who possessed immense internal energy, food was no longer a daily necessity.
He ate mostly out of habit—and because the enjoyment of food was irreplaceable.
Even without eating or drinking, he could survive for a long time purely through energy circulation.
One advantage of not eating was that the digestive system didn't need to function, eliminating the need for bodily waste altogether.
At this point, Lucas was nearly a life-form capable of surviving independently in the universe.
As for Hela, there was even less to worry about.
She had survived in Hel for over a thousand years—enduring extreme scarcity—long accustomed to sustaining herself solely on energy.
"I think the first thing we should do is determine whether this planet is safe," Lucas suggested, looking at Hela.
"I agree," Hela replied.
For now, exploration could only be done by Lucas.
Hela could barely walk under the gravity, let alone conduct reconnaissance.
If Lucas activated his Ki, however, he could manage low-altitude flight for dozens of meters.
Of course, his speed wouldn't reach supersonic levels—at best, it would match a standard propeller aircraft.
But under the current circumstances, that was more than enough.
First, Lucas found a section of what appeared to be solid rock.
He gathered his strength and punched it with full force.
Crack!
A web of fractures spread across the rock face, leaving behind a fist imprint only a few centimeters deep.
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
That punch hadn't even used Ki.
On Earth, it would have been enough to shatter an ordinary rocky mountain.
___
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