Kyle stood in empty space for several seconds.
The conversation he had with the man was still stuck in his mind.
Somehow, this conversation felt important.
It felt different from all the conversations he had in the past.
Even though the other side basically hadn't told him anything about them, he felt like the conversation had been more… honest… personal.
'When was the last time I actually talked to someone like that? Not just randomly shooting the shit. Not just talking about superficial stuff.'
The conversation he had with Swamp Dragon after coming clean about his status as a "former" Parasite came to mind, but that also didn't completely fit.
Kyle viewed Swamp Dragon as a friend, but he still felt like there was quite some distance between them. Of course, that mainly came from the fact that Kyle still had to keep some things secret.
'Sebastian was the last person I could be completely honest with,' Kyle thought.
Sebastian and Kyle had talked to each other many times, and they had also talked about their pasts, their goals, dreams, and so on.
'My dream, huh?' he thought. 'I thought my dream was to keep growing stronger, but that's not exactly it. I want to be stronger, but more than anything else, I just want to be able to have agency.'
'It's just that having agency is almost the same thing as having supreme power. If you want true freedom, you need true power, and when you have true power, you also have agency.'
'It's almost the same thing, but not completely.'
Kyle thought about the mysterious man.
Why had he been here?
How had Kyle managed to attract the attention of such a powerful person?
The ease with which the mysterious man had removed the Lord's Blessing meant that he was more powerful than the Lord.
The Lord had to have contacted someone to save Kyle, but he couldn't possibly have called someone this powerful just to save a random Parasite.
But then, how did this powerful person find out about Kyle, and why had he come personally?
'Can't be my power. Yes, I used to be a Legendary Transcendent, but there have to be many of those just in the Array of Stars alone. Powerful people live for millions of years, and even if there is only one Legendary Transcendent every thousand years, there are probably still hundreds or thousands of past Legendary Transcendents in the Array of Stars.'
At that moment, Kyle had an idea.
'Can't be, right? That would be far too coincidental. '
He remembered how the powerful person had seemed like someone in the Wisdom Fire Realm.
'What if the Lord contacted him, not knowing that he was this powerful?'
'In that case, he would be a Parasite like me. The Lord could order someone like this to save me.'
'But then, he would have the Lord's Blessing, and the Lord must have met him to give him that Blessing.'
Kyle scratched his head. 'Yet, he could remove mine so easily.'
'I'm a double-agent. What if he's a triple-agent?'
'How would you even do that?'
'He even said that he also didn't like the God of this Cosmos. I would assume that the Array of Stars is a fan of this God since they are the Cult's enemy. Does that mean he also doesn't work for them?'
'Is he just playing both sides? Is he just juggling two identities while following his own agenda as well?'
Kyle sighed.
'Nah, can't be. I mean, the triple-agent thing is possible, but I severely doubt that the Lord just so happened to contact the one triple-agent with unlimited power to rescue me.'
'Even if that's the case, why would he unveil his identity to me?'
Kyle thought back to how their conversation had gone.
'In the beginning, he completely acted like a normal guy who just so happened to accidentally save me. He only started to unveil more things after we talked for a while.'
That was when Kyle realized something else.
'He never even told me to keep his identity or involvement secret. Does he trust me that much?'
'I doubt it. It's probably because of my power, or more precisely, my lack of power.'
'Most likely, even if I gave my very best to unveil him, somehow, it wouldn't have any effect.'
Kyle looked at the Planets in the distance.
"Freedom, huh?" he spoke to himself.
'I would love some freedom, but it feels so distant.'
'It's like back when I was on Earth and dreamed about becoming a millionaire. I really wanted to be rich, but it felt unachievable.'
Kyle shook his head to regain his bearings.
'Enough thinking around! You want to be free, right? Well, then you'd better get back to work and grind!'
Kyle's perception lightly passed over the Lord's Blessing.
At this moment, this thing felt more annoying and oppressive than before.
'I'll just use this thing as my reminder. My first goal is to remove this and not die.'
'I can't tell anyone else about it, or I will die. That leaves two options.'
'One, become powerful enough to remove it on my own.'
'Two, fulfill my mission. I would be kicking the Array of Stars in the balls, but afterwards, I would technically be free of the Cult. It's just that I would have made a terrifying enemy at that point.'
'Not sure exactly how powerful the Array of Stars is, but it's a Higher Supreme Organization. That means they have at least one person in the Twelfth Realm.'
'Based on how the levels of worlds are split, the Twelfth Realm is probably the highest normal one. One to three is Tertiary. Four to six is Secondary. Seven to nine is Primary, and logically, ten to twelve should be Supreme.'
'The Thirteenth Realm should be the Realm of the God.'
Kyle took a deep breath of nothing.
'Looooong way to go.'
Kyle closed his eyes for a moment before opening them with conviction.
'Just gotta get going!'
'First, how do I get back?' he thought as he looked around.
There were a couple of distant Planets, but otherwise, there was nothing around him.
'Wait! Wasn't there a Planet here just a second ago?' Kyle thought.
Kyle couldn't see any storms, metals, or clouds.
It looked like he was just in a random spot somewhere in space.
The next moment, Kyle looked at his communicator and activated it.
Earlier, it had said something about unauthorized access.
But this time…
'Is this thing broken?' Kyle thought as he waited for a display to pop up.
Yet, nothing happened.
He shook the ring around a bit, but it still wasn't reacting.
The next moment, the display suddenly popped up, but instead of a warning, Kyle saw a system message.
"Forgot to reactivate your Communicator," the message read.
'Wait, what?' Kyle thought.
Then, the message vanished, and a red display appeared.
"Unauthorized access!"
Kyle scratched the back of his head.
After around five seconds of blinking red lights, a new button popped up.
Request access.
Kyle shrugged and pressed the 67 button.