Chapter 408: Friend

Van's eyes reflected the darkness; his hair almost being pulled back even as he ran through the expanse of space. His eyes then slowly moved towards the right; and slowly, light flashed through them as they reflected a blue, somewhat green beam streaking through the darkness.

And soon, his eyes once again returned to the front as they followed the beaming light.

"Tch," Van could only grit his teeth as the golden lightning that surrounded his body grew even more violent. But alas, even with his movements growing faster, the blue laser of light slowly became smaller and smaller-- and soon, he could not even see it.

"..." A small sigh then escaped Van's mouth as he momentarily stopped in place, shaking his head before streaks of lightning once again emerged throughout his entire body.

***

"...Still too slow."

"Pft, how can you even call that slow, King Evans? You're now at 1.42 C. That's officially your fastest record and is faster than light by almost 50%"

With Van now staying more than a month in Vivati's galaxy, Ameera seemed to have grown closer to him and started loosening up; no longer having the stuttered and cowering tone in her voice.

"I need to recharge the battery," Ameera then let out a long and deep sigh as she jumped from her ship as soon as saw Van approaching her, "Seriously, going through Hyperspeed almost 3 times every day is not good for my health, King Evans. I feel like I deserve some sort of a raise?"

"Aren't you already the highest-paid individual in the whole galaxy?" Van breathed out as he sat on the ship's stairs.

"Am… I?" A hissing sound loudly whispered through the air as Ameera pulled out the ship's batteries, "Does that mean all of these aren't above my pay grade anymore? Have… have I finally made it in life!?"

"...See you tomorrow, Ameera."

"Right, right! I better celebrate all of this money before I die of over-hyperspeeding."

"...There's such a thing?"

"...No," Ameera said as she ran away with the batteries, "But I might become the first!"

"..." Seeing Captain Ameera saluting as she ran away, the only thing that Van could do was shake his head as he started massaging his legs.

It would seem that Queen Vivati was right with her theory. Van's speed could be improved by self-actualizing-- the only thing to find out now was to what extent?

Van had thought that he was the fastest thing in the world before he got to Vivati's galaxy, he felt like a snail as soon as he realized what their ships were capable of.

And now, with something to compare his speed with, he was slowly getting faster and faster. Perhaps the reason his AGI Stat was a [????] in the first place is that he decides what his speed is.

"..." Van could only imagine if he had this kind of speed when he just awakened his System-- he would probably find himself in a pancake since his body will not be able to handle it.

But now… he truly was turning more and more into a god. It was no wonder Athena considered Hermes to be the strongest of them all-- even stronger than their very own king, Zeus. If only Hermes was here, then maybe his speed would increase even faster.

"Van."

Van's thoughts were then disrupted as his vision was suddenly filled with a white, wooly cloth.

"...Vivati," Van breathed out as he grabbed the towel in front of him, revealing the various golden bangles wrapped around Queen Vivati's wrist. Van glanced towards Queen Vivati's smiling face for a couple of seconds, before wiping his face with the towel.

"How are things on your side?" He then said.

"It's going quite well, actually," Queen Vivati answered as she sat beside Van, "Van-1 has already successfully returned from the Barrier for the 100th time now. All the ships are safe for travel and some have even met with other life forms outside the Barrier."

"Van-1… I don't remember having approved of that name," Van furrowed.

"What can I say? The people like it," Vivati chuckled, "With this, you don't even have to personally go through the different worlds; we can just do it for you. And we even have hologram presentations prepared so that the other worlds could easily understand our message."

"I… see," Van sighed, "I suppose I got lucky I found this galaxy as soon as possible…

...and what about the big one?"

"The big…? Oh, the Solomon is about 75% ready," Vivati slightly stuttered as she looked at Van, her expression a bit awry.

And as her words reached Van's ears, he could not help but let out another sigh as he stood up from the stairs, "Let's just get this over with, how much more blood do we need?"

"You've already given too much today, Van. Please don't spoil them."

The scientists have thought long and hard; burning their minds with trying to think up of ways to replicate Van's blood so that they could coat their ships with it-- but alas, it was to no avail. No matter what they tried, the results were still the same; the blood withers away.

Van, however, had proposed something they would never think of asking-- just downright getting the blood from him. With his regeneration capabilities, they were able to successfully obtain a drum-full of his blood; 250 liters, daily. Which was enough to fully coat an entire small ship.

Van could probably go for more, but Queen Vivati forbade getting more than that amount. But with the colossal mothership they made solely for traversing the Barriers, Solomon, the blood he was putting out truly was not enough.

"...And what about Van-2?" Van then once again sighed as he looked at Vivati.

"That's actually why I am here," Vivati let out a small smile as she too, stood up from the stairs.

"Really?" And here I thought you missed me?"

"...I did."

And with the two leaning in closer together, the two looked each other in the eyes…

...before Vivati pushed Van away and the two burst out in a small chuckle.

"Let's go check it out."

***

"..."

Van immediately blinked numerous times as soon as he entered the monitoring hall. He was used to scientists flocking the room and has seen this kind of scene numerous times-- but this crowd was something else entirely; it was almost as if all the scientists in the galaxy were gathered here.

"What's going on?"

And as soon as Van's words whispered in the air, all the scientists scurried away like cockroaches as they moved to the side, quickly making a path for Van. And as soon as they did so, Van's eyes widened in shock as he saw the familiar silhouette being shown on the biggest screen.

"...Athena?"

"You know my name?"

"!!!"

The gasps of the scientists almost deafened the entire room as they all looked at each other; their eyes filled with an almost uncontrollable excitement, "Quick! Analyze the language! Analyze it!"

"It's me, Athena," Van then breathed out, his words piercing even with all the noise around him.

"Could it be… King Evans!?"

Athena's figure grew bigger on the screen as she moved closer to it, "Are you inside this… spaceship?"

"No." And as soon as Van said that, Athena quickly backed away as a hologram appeared in front of her-- showing Van in full view, "I am on the other side of the Barrier."

"The Barrier…" Athena muttered as her eyes slowly moved around, "I see… So you really were able to pass through the Edge. We've been trying everything we could ever since our path has been blocked by this-- What happened to your hair?"

Athena then flew around the hologram as she looked at Van from head to toe, "You've been letting yourself go ever since you left, huh."

"...So you've also been trying to pass the Barrier?" Van completely ignored Athena's statements.

"Yes, but we have been unsuccessful-- but I could see that the world you're in has," Athena placed her hand on her chin as she looked at the red ship, "Vanya detected your presence at the edge of the galaxy, so I had Angela teleport me somewhere near. But then I saw this…

...spaceship. I suppose the world you are in now is quite advanced?"

"I suppose you could say that," Van said as a smile slowly formed on his face.

"You've been gone for years, when are you planning on coming back?"

"Soon. I just have things I need to finish."

"You seem to... be unusually relax since the last time we saw you. Too... relaxed."

"Something I learned in solitude all these years of traveling through space, I guess?"

"..."

"..."

"...Let's go."

With the two talking to each other, Queen Vivati ordered the others to leave. She took a glance towards Van's smiling face, before letting out a small wry smile of her own; her steps reluctant, but still moving.

However, before she could leave the room--

"Wait, I want you to meet someone."

Van suddenly dragged her towards the imagery platform responsible for rendering them through the hologram.

"This is Queen Vivati."

"G… Greetings?" Queen Vivati could only wave her hand as she was suddenly introduced by Van.

"Greetings," Athena greeted back as she squinted her eyes, "Queen… Vivati? Could it be that you found another wife?"

"N… No," Queen Vivati quickly waved her hand, "I am the World Leader of one of the planets in my galaxy."

"I see," Athena squinted her eyes as she looked at Queen Vivati from head to toe.

"Well, we almost had a child together," Van then suddenly said as he shook his head, "But she's just a friend."

"King Evans…

...Friends don't almost have a child together."