CHAPTER 293: AETHEL

"Great, we’ve got time," Irana said quickly. "If you’re feeling okay, you should join the New Sages Tournament too. What do you think?"

Darian turned to her and nodded. So Irana explained. This tournament was organized by Planet Number 51 of the universe, called Blue Pole — the second most powerful human-inhabited planet.

The whole tournament revolved around a Supreme Artifact. This artifact had been discovered a few centuries ago during an S-rank mission, where several human planets joined forces to complete it. In the end, it was decided that all humans in the universe should benefit from it, but that Blue Pole would be its official keeper.

In short, the artifact had to be nurtured by its owner for decades before its system could be activated and used. This Supreme Artifact was actually a kind of training and testing array.

Only 100 people, up to 50 years old, were accepted into the array. These people would be tested in contests of knowledge, skill, and senses. At the end of it all, the reward from the array was a magical technique based on their ranking.

"Magical technique?" Darian asked, confused, since he’d never heard of that before.

Irana nodded:

"It’s something from a universe with power. Techniques from other universes involve things that Spiritual Guardians don’t naturally possess. We depend on our spiritual root, which distorts reality. That’s why we normally can’t use things from other universes. But this Supreme Artifact is special — it can analyze a person individually and always give them a technique they can use, even if it’s a bit weaker than it should be. That’s why we call them magical techniques."

"So... there are infinite different techniques available?" Darian asked, intrigued.

"Yes. It was created by an immortal divinity. Every human-inhabited planet in the universe gets invited to participate, and this has happened dozens of times. Every time, all 100 awardees receive completely different techniques." Irana paused, then sighed. "As for Earth... they get invites too, but since they’ve never placed among the top 100 and the costs to participate are high... in the end, they stopped going a long time ago. That’s probably why you’ve never heard of it."

Of course, participating wasn’t free — Blue Pole burned through a ton of resources to nurture the Supreme Artifact. When thousands of people from other planets joined the tournament, they had to pay a hefty fee to make up for it.

Darian nodded. Admitting they were way weaker than other planets was hard. That’s why Earth’s empires ignored the invites and kept that and many other things hidden.

"My mother will pay for everything and more — she’s on Blue Pole right now and will talk to you later. I had to tell her you gave me the blessing... she wants to repay you as much as she can," Irana added, her eyes bright.

Darian nodded calmly. "Alright. If I don’t have to fight, I guess it’ll be fine."

Niara climbed onto his head, and Darian got up and left the room.

"Tomorrow we’re heading to Blue Pole. Since you’re here, wanna see my planet?" Irana asked, and they agreed.

They were in a massive building, made from shiny, unique materials native to that world. As they walked through the halls, Darian saw a few humans... but something caught his attention: they were all incredibly short.

Irana was only 1.50 meters tall, but in fact, she was slightly taller than the average human on her planet.

Noticing his look, Irana commented, "This is a common trait in humans. Our race adapts easily to the environment. On your planet, Earth, there are many different biomes and humans have various ethnicities, right? On Planet Aethel, there’s only one environment inhabited by humans, so we don’t have much diversity. Also, the planet is a bit over twice the size of Earth, and that affected our height because of the gravity."

They stepped into an elevator, and soon after exited through a door. The moment they stepped outside, Darian felt a dense energy flowing through the air and seeping into his body. As he breathed, his whole body seemed to hum.

Aethel was Planet Number 22 in the universe. It was like Earth’s capital... no, way, way better. The entire ground was covered with materials from other universes, forming a massive array that nourished the planet with energy.

In their universe, natural power was scarce, but on the biggest planets, by using resources from elsewhere, it was possible to create a magical environment like this.

All life born in a place like this was naturally adapted to that energy, making it much easier to grow as a Spiritual Guardian. For humans, who were especially adaptable, the difference was like heaven and earth.

After feeling that energy, Darian looked up at the sky and saw a small, distant sun. The sunlight here was much weaker than Earth’s, and the climate was therefore much colder.

It was early morning, and the sky had a peculiar golden hue, very different from Earth’s.

Irana explained that the planet had only one inhabited continent, where humans had managed to develop. The rest was frozen and uninhabitable. But since the planet was much bigger than Earth, that one continent was about the size of three Earth empires combined.

All the humans here had light eyes, very pale skin, and were short in stature. Still, they radiated a unique energy. Even those who never became Spiritual Guardians could easily live over 300 years.

Darian and Niara were taken in a flying artifact that looked like a floating ship. Irana showed them the massive, gleaming city and then the surrounding areas, with architecture unlike anything they’d seen before.

She told the history of the place: before the first Awakened appeared, the humans on that planet didn’t have technology like Earth’s and lived in small towns. But they were always ruled by a single person.

There had been only one major internal war in the planet’s history — the war that united everyone under a single ruler. After that, there were only isolated disputes, but a relative "peace" remained.

Of course, the level of that peace depended on whoever was in charge at the time — sometimes it was an idiot who made everyone suffer, sometimes not. But the unity among humans was never broken. Even today there were still some problems, but nothing unmanageable.

That’s why, when Heaven’s Will created the Spiritual Guardians, their society organized itself quickly and everything flowed the way it was supposed to... very different from humans on Earth and other planets, who took centuries to stabilize.

According to Irana, their current position as the 22nd planet in the universe was due not only to their adaptability but also to luck. In almost every mission they took part in, they ended up finding extremely useful artifacts to help their people develop. That made them stronger fast — impressively fast.

’Luck?’ Darian thought, surprised.

So far, from all the humans he’d seen here, none had black karma, which was common on Earth. Most were gray or just slightly dark. The fact they’d come so far was probably thanks to the favorable karma of their people.

Irana herself had pure white karma, while her mother, the current ruler, had a very light gray tone. According to Irana, the ruler was chosen first and foremost for their contribution to the planet. And to contribute, you had to find things on missions that were useful for everyone — meaning karma and luck were essential.

Her mother wasn’t the most powerful person on the planet, but power was just one attribute needed to govern — not the main one.

Hearing all this, Darian reflected. On Earth, a culture had been created that even set Spiritual Guardians apart, calling them High Humans, while ordinary humans were left in decaying, unsafe cities where everyone had to fight to survive.

The reasoning behind this was that such an environment favored the appearance of more Spiritual Guardians... but at the same time, it forced many to commit questionable acts just to stay alive. This made the average karma of people deeply black.

What he saw here on Aethel was the opposite: the unity of everyone, and always favoring those with good karma, had taken their people to where they were now — even if it meant having fewer Spiritual Guardians overall.

The day went by quickly, and Irana took them to see all the most striking places. It was fun to enjoy the natural beauty of an alien planet — some scenes reminded him of Earth, while others were completely unique.

In the end, Niara was in heaven when they went to the best restaurant on the planet, where they served all the local specialties.

Everywhere they went, Irana was known by everyone, but nobody treated her with exaggerated reverence or tried to suck up to her. Aethel was a peaceful place to live, and people had respect, but not worship, for the Spiritual Guardians.

When the new day came, the three of them — along with about a dozen other humans from Aethel — boarded a large flying ship. And so they departed, crossing space toward a faraway galaxy.