[Over the course of the next 24 hours, your task is to travel across all the planets that make up the Solar System. There will be a test on each of them that will put your abilities in different areas to the test.
To clarify, although there is a test on every planet, it is not on the entire planet itself, so it will only take place in a small area of each one. At the end of each of these areas, there will be a door leading to the next planet, which will open as soon as you complete the test]
Listening to Mona's description, Yuuji raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Gid just told me that, why are you repeating it?"
[Because of the ellipsis]
"Elip... Never mind, I don't know how difficult the tests are, so I'll start"
Deciding not to give it any importance, Yuuji looked around, wanting to avoid wasting time in case the tests were too difficult.
After all, given that the tests already covered an area millions of times larger than in the original story, the difficulty had probably experienced an equivalent increase.
Thanks to a special transparent suit that was barely visible and almost imperceptible, covering his entire body like a film, he could breathe properly and withstand the environment of both other planets and space itself. Courtesy of Gid, who had given it to him a second before pushing him through a portal to another planet.
Looking at the ground, it seemed similar to the Moon, irregular and filled with craters, with gray colors even darker than those of the Moon. While this alone might not have been enough to tell him where he was, combined with the enormous Sun visible in the sky, it made it fairly easy to guess.
"To think I'm on Mercury," Yuuji said in amazement. "In the past, I never would have even imagined that one day I'd be on the planet closest to the Sun. I imagine this film is what's keeping me from dying of heat."
As he continued walking around in amazement and picking up some rocks for no particular reason, Yuuji thought of making a small jump, only to find himself jumping just as high as always.
"Tsk, this suit takes all the fun out of it" he complained.
The suit basically replicated all of Earth's conditions on his body artificially, not only things like atmosphere and oxygen, but also gravity, time, among other things.
[Master, you do understand that you would die without that suit, right?]
"...Let's start the test" Yuuji changed the subject in embarrassment. "Now, what do I have to do?"
Although he had been observing his surroundings during his walk, Yuuji hadn't found anything. It was nothing more than endless irregular terrain. Even after suppressing his curiosity and deciding to fly at full speed while ignoring everything that caught his attention, he found nothing.
"Strange. Mona, do you see anything?"
[Master...]
"Sorry, forget it. I'm a little excited and I'm not thinking much" Before Mona could say anything, Yuuji conceded on his own. "Let's try something else."
Crouching down to the ground, Yuuji placed both hands on the surface and concentrated on sensing as much of the area as he could.
Yuuji's goal was simply to use the ground to sense farther than he could see, but, to his immense surprise, he found something much more interesting.
The ground was hollow. Around two hundred meters beneath the surface, the solid ground ended and his senses encountered air. There were also weak points in the ground, similar to cracks, that seemed to weaken the crust's solidity even further. After searching for a while longer, Yuuji finally found a tunnel that led from the surface all the way down, hidden beneath a large rock.
"Mona, how safe do you think this is?" he asked while moving the enormous stone covering the vertical tunnel, which was more similar to a bottomless pit than an entrance.
[50/50]
"I suppose that's enough"
Trusting Gid and driven by his need to complete the tests and return to Lala, Yuuji decided to take the risk instead of investigating further.
Yuuji sat on the edge before jumping inside. He began falling down the shaft at a speed controlled by his Wind Flight for safety, reaching the bottom in a few seconds.
Just to be safe, after jumping, he returned the rock to its original position with Earthbending.
Upon exiting the tunnel, he found exactly what he expected, but even so, he couldn't help being surprised. An entire underground city stretched across the area, probably surrounding the entire planet, using the planet's surface as its ceiling, which was supported by pieces of crust connected from the ground to the ceiling, resembling enormous pillars.
Down there, everything was illuminated by enormous mushrooms, while most clung to the inner part of the ceiling. Other smaller pieces had been artificially placed as lights.
The city was similar to the desert cities on Earth, with houses packed closely together, many of them built on top of one another.
At first glance, Yuuji compared it to Agrabah from the movie Aladdin.
After another ten seconds of falling, Yuuji reached the ground, where he was almost immediately surrounded by the inhabitants of the place.
It made sense, considering he had spent several seconds falling in front of everyone.
Although, seeing that they basically looked human, only with rocky gray skin and darker spots in some areas, Yuuji was a little disappointed.
"Alien."
"An inhabitant of the surface"
"We have to take him to the king"
"Capture him"
'Oh, I understand them' Yuuji thought before reasoning that it was probably another function of the suit. He cleared his throat before speaking. "Inhabitants of Mercury, do you need help with something?"
It probably wasn't the best way to start a conversation with beings from another world, but it wasn't like Yuuji had any idea how to do it.
Hearing the mysterious surface dweller's sudden offer, the aliens fell silent for a second and looked at each other before reacting.
"..."
"...Capture him!"
"Take him to the king!"
"Let's sacrifice him to the Fire God to calm his anger!"
'Well, they're not friendly' Yuuji realized as he dodged their attacks and attempts to capture him. Fortunately, they were quite slow, and their movements seemed to be slowed down for some reason.
Yuuji simply continued dodging and running for a while as he thought about what to do. He didn't want to attack them since that would probably make everything worse, but they didn't seem willing to listen to him and sit down for a chat either.
Finally, with an idea, Yuuji stopped and turned around before shouting.
"Gid Lucione Deviluke!!!" he shouted in the direction of his pursuers, paralyzing everyone at once.
Everyone remained still, unsure whether to advance as they murmured among themselves. They clearly knew the name and the weight it carried.
"Make way!" One of the rocky aliens emerged from the crowd, opening a path with nothing more than his voice as he approached.
"How do you know that name?" Stopping in front of Yuuji, the alien, who wasn't much different from the others besides his slightly more formal clothing and darker color, asked seriously.
"I came on Gid's behalf" Yuuji replied. "He told me you needed help with something, so I came to help"
The alien looked him up and down before nodding. "Follow me."
"Sir?!"
"What's happening, is he being taken to the sacrifice?"
"We must sacrifice him to stop the Fire God's anger!"
"Stop" The alien silenced everyone, clearly having a certain authority in the place. "He is an envoy of the Supreme. He will only answer to the king"
"Of the Supreme?"
"It can't be"
"What if he's lying?"
Hearing the last remark, the alien extended his curved sword toward the speaker's neck.
"Doubting the Supreme is something even the king cannot do. If he is lying, then the king will doubt him, not you"
"I-I understand" the speaker nodded, retreating into the crowd in fear.
"I apologize for the trouble. Please follow me" After dealing with that, he returned to guiding Yuuji through the houses and paths that seemed like a labyrinth.
As Yuuji followed the alien, he found the whole scene quite entertaining, becoming interested in its history. Concepts such as the Fire God, sacrifice, and the Supreme seemed to have a lot of history to explore.
Finally, with his guide remaining completely silent, Yuuji arrived at a house that was only slightly better than all the others. The alien himself remained at the door and gestured for him to enter.
"Enter. If you truly are an envoy of the Supreme, then you will be fine. If not, the king will carry out your execution... personally"
"I understand. Thank you for guiding me..."
"I am Far, the king's personal guard"
"Far, then. You don't seem to have many companions?" Yuuji asked.
"The king is the strongest. He does not need many guards. The rest are dealing with the problems throughout all of Flabia.
Enter. The king is not a patient man."
'And I suppose Flabia is what they call Mercury' Yuuji realized before entering.
There was no door, only a golden net curtain that he moved aside to enter.
Inside, sitting on a cushion atop a red carpet that covered almost the entire floor of the only enormous room in the place, an extremely skinny old man wearing a small red cylindrical hat and a loincloth was meditating, surrounded by smoke.
He opened his eyes upon sensing Yuuji.
"Oh, envoy of the Supreme Governor of the Galaxy, Gid Lucione Deviluke, I welcome you" he said with the utmost respect.
"You know my identity?"
"I know many things I shouldn't, but I do not know the things I should. Perhaps that is precisely the reason you are here"
'So he's that kind of character' Yuuji realized. "Then you know I don't have much time, right? So let's get to the point. Do you need help with something, something that could be a test?"
"*Cough cough* O-of course I knew" the king said, sounding almost convincing. "The truth is that the Kingdom of Flabia is currently going through a total crisis. A problem so great that even I, Sol, king of Flabia for centuries and considered the smartest among all my ancestors, cannot solve it on my own.
But I trust that the Supreme, just as he can solve any problem that exists, can solve this one, and so can his envoy.
I will begin the story, since I know you have little time.
For millennia, the Kingdom of Flabia has maintained a relationship of god and follower with the Fire God.
At first, we hated the Fire God because his mere presence slowly killed us, but after my great-great-grandfather discovered the depths and moved the entire Kingdom there, our relationship changed. In the deep darkness, the Fire God sent his children to illuminate our lives and gave us part of his divinity"
'The Fire God is the Sun, and his children are the mushrooms,' Yuuji easily connected the dots. 'But...'
"What do you mean by divinity?"
"Hahaha, dear envoy of the Supreme, I will show you. The blessing bestowed by the Fire God himself that allows us to use part of his divinity" Clearly expecting the question, Sol smiled proudly before extending his hands toward the sky.
Suddenly, fire emerged from them as if by magic. Perfectly controlled fire that filled the entire room without burning either of them before disappearing with a snap of his fingers.
"Can everyone do that?" Yuuji asked in surprise.
"Of course, although the power depends on how dark their color is. Jojojo, although perhaps it sounds a little ugly to put it that way" Sol joked.
"I see" Looking at Sol again, Yuuji noticed that he was even darker than Far, who had already been darker than the others to begin with. "But I didn't see any of them use that when they were chasing me?"
Hearing the question, Sol sighed. "That is because of the current crisis. The truth is that my daughter angered the Fire God. She killed his children left and right, claiming that they were killing Flabia, pure heresy. With great sorrow, I had to lock her in the dungeon to stop her.
But it was too late. By the time we caught her, she had already killed several children of the God. You must understand that even to illuminate our houses, we can only use external pieces of the children of fire that fall off on their own every few decades. However, my daughter dared to tear them off completely and even kill their origins, preventing their resurrection.
The Fire God, angered, increased the temperature of all of Flabia to the point that living here is becoming increasingly difficult. In an environment like this, using our control over fire would only increase the temperature even further, unless you are as incredible as I am, of course, in which case controlling the temperature of the blessing is very easy"
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+10 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)