"What do you mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes slightly as I tried to understand what she was sensing.
"I mean that it feels like a foreign entity entering my private space," she said slowly, her gaze still fixed upward as if she could see far beyond the sky itself. "My instinct is telling me to eliminate it... but at the same time, something else is warning me that it’s dangerous."
I let out a small chuckle, shaking my head lightly. "That part is true. It is foreign... but let’s not go against it. Not yet."
She glanced at me, studying my face for a moment before nodding. "If you say so."
Then her expression shifted again, a hint of excitement returning.
"Come," she said, extending her hand toward me. "I’ll show you something."
I didn’t hesitate. The moment I took her hand, space folded around us.
In the next instant, the garden, the capital, even Vaythos itself disappeared, replaced by the vast openness of the void.
We stood between stars. No, actually we were drifting at insane speed.
Not through space in the usual sense, but across it, slipping from one region to another as if distance no longer applied. Planets appeared and vanished around us in quick succession, each one distinct, each one carrying its own identity.
"This one," she said softly, her fingers tightening slightly around mine as she guided my attention forward.
The void ahead of us warped, and what appeared next was a river.
A massive, flowing current suspended in space, stretching across an entire region like a glowing artery carved into the galaxy. It shimmered in shades of silver and pale blue, its surface rippling as if it were liquid, yet it held its shape without dispersing into the vacuum.
"What is that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"Essence flow," she replied. "A natural stream formed over time. It connects multiple systems."
I watched as fragments of rock, debris, and even small creatures drifted along its current, carried across light-years without resistance.
Before I could study it further, the space shifted again. Now we stood in front of something far stranger.
A cluster of floating structures. They resembled fragments of land suspended in mid-air, each piece rotating slowly around an invisible center. Strange vegetation grew across them, roots hanging freely into the void, while faint pulses of energy moved between the fragments like veins.
"Those aren’t planets," I said.
"They’re broken worlds," she answered. "Failed formations that stabilized instead of collapsing."
We moved again. This time, the darkness ahead felt... heavier. At first, I thought there was nothing there, but as my perception adjusted, I began to see it.
A shadow, not cast by anything, not created by light.
It existed on its own. It stretched across a region of space, distorting everything around it. Stars behind it bent unnaturally, their light warping as if being pulled into something unseen.
"What is that supposed to be?" I asked, my voice lowering slightly.
"A void scar," she said. "Left behind after something tore through space and never fully healed."
The moment lingered for a second longer before she moved us again.
Regions passed in blurs of light and darkness, each one carrying something unique.
Then, we stopped. The void around us stilled.
"There’s one more thing," she said, her voice softer now.
Before I could ask, the space around us dimmed slightly, and instead of moving us again, she projected something directly into my mind.
A vision.
I saw the galaxy.
The Blue Spiral, vast and magnificent, stretching across the void in its familiar formation.
Then, a ripple appeared.
Violet.
It started small, barely noticeable at first, forming at a single point before expanding outward. The moment it began, I felt it. The speed. The scale.
It spread rapidly.
Faster than anything I had seen before.
System by system, region by region, the ripple moved outward, passing through stars, planets, and empty void alike, leaving behind a subtle but undeniable change.
"What is this?" I asked.
"My connection," she replied calmly. "Once it reaches the edges... everything within will be fully under me."
I watched as the ripple continued to expand, its speed increasing rather than slowing down. Entire sections of the galaxy were covered within moments.
We stood there, suspended in the void, watching it unfold. Time seemed irrelevant.
The ripple didn’t take long. What should have taken ages completed in what felt like mere moments. The wave reached the outer edges, touching the very boundaries she had spoken about earlier.
And the moment it did, everything changed. Right before my eyes, the projection shifted.
The Blue Spiral...
Turned violet. Not completely, not in a way that erased its original form, but layered over it, as if a new identity had been placed upon the old one.
And then, faintly....I saw it.
An outline.
A phoenix.
Its form stretched across the galaxy itself, barely visible, like an illusion that existed only for a moment. Its wings curved around the spiral, its presence subtle yet overwhelming. I looked at Vivi. She didn’t say anything. Just a slight smirk on her face.
"It’s beautiful," I said, my gaze still lingering on the fading projection of the galaxy.
"Thank you," she replied softly, her voice carrying satisfaction.
For a moment, neither of us spoke, and then she suddenly said, "You know, I was thinking of creating a new region of our own. Twin stars, multiple worlds, something designed from the ground up instead of inherited. We’ll place it near the center of the galaxy and bring people from Vaythos there as well. It’ll become the new center of power in the Blue Spiral."
"I like that," I said. "It will be stable... and controlled. A place that grows under our design, not under the remnants of what came before."
She gave a small nod in return. "Good. Then I’ll start planning it soon."
There was a brief pause before I continued, my tone shifting slightly.
"Now that you’ve finished your evolution, I can finally move on to the next thing I’ve been delaying."
She looked at me again. "Where?"
"The Crimson Zone," I replied.
The change in her expression was immediate. The lightness from before faded, replaced by something far more serious.
"I can already tell you that it’s not normal," she said, her voice quieter now, but far more focused. "It’s not just a region or a phenomenon. It’s... consuming things."
I frowned slightly. "Consuming?"
"Yes," she nodded. "Laws, matter, essence... everything. Wherever it spreads, nothing remains behind. It doesn’t corrupt or transform. It devoures."
That made me pause. Even I hadn’t expected that.
"And there’s more," she continued, her gaze narrowing slightly. "I feel more danger from it than I do from the system itself."
I looked at her properly now. That... was not something she would say lightly.
"Understood," I said after a moment. "Then I’ll go and see it myself. Figure out what it actually is."
Before the tension could settle further, I exhaled lightly and shifted the topic.
"But before that," I added, a faint smile returning, "we should hold a celebration. We just wiped out the Eternals from the Blue Spiral, and on top of that, the galaxy just changed hands."
Her expression softened slightly at that.
"A celebration?" she repeated.
"Yes," I said. "The Order will handle it. Something big. Not just for us, but for everyone. A clear message."
She tilted her head slightly, considering it, before nodding. "That sounds... nice."
"And," I continued, glancing at her with a hint of amusement, "I’ll prepare a gift for you."
Her eyes lit up instantly, the earlier seriousness fading just enough.
"A gift?" she said, a small smile forming. "Now I’m definitely interested."
"Let’s go and meet others. They are dying with excitement to see the new Vivi."