A few days later
Inside the bridge of the spaceship, Captain Charles stood at his station and directed his crew to monitor the travel.
"How long till we arrive at the first obstacle," the captain asked, his expression grim.
Neither he nor his crew wanted to venture into the Nether Regions, but when his lord requested his assistance, refusal wasn't an option.
"In fifteen minutes, sir," replied a female operative, her fingers deftly swiping and issuing commands across the system interface.
"Mm," Charles nodded, his gaze fixed on the streaks of hyperspace lights.
As part of their journey to their location, the ship would have to make occasional stops to determine a way through the cosmic storms of death and phenomena plaguing the Nether Regions.
Going in blind could disrupt their hyperjump, potentially displacing them to locations no would could survive.
They could end up in a massive black hole millions of light years away—or worse, in a veiled space where survival was impossible. And those were just a few of the dangers lurking in the Nether Regions.
'God, have mercy on us,' the captain thought with a gulp.
"Hm?"
The soft slide of the door revealed the presence of Hunter Zol as he walked in.
The crew members would have stood on their feet the moment he walked in, but he explicitly told them not to, seeing as how they were in charge of piloting the ship.
"Lord Zol," Charles greeted with a respectful bow as Zol stood beside him. He acknowledged the man with and nod and then said, "Your estimates said today, right?"
"Yes, and in about…" he glanced at his wrist and then continued. "… about 14 minutes."
Zol turned to the captain, noticing the expression of fear on his face. And despite the captain's efforts to hide them, it was very clear to Zol's senses.
"At ease, Charles." He placed a hand on Charles's shoulders. "Traversing the Nether Regions is dangerous, not impossible."
The captain felt embarrassed but still nodded. Anyone would feel fear if they were asked to go where they were going.
Also, he had to say strong for his crew's sake. 'I can't panic now, not when we're almost at our first stop point.' His eyes burned with resolve and he turned forward.
Zol himself had made the others understand where they were going to pass and instructed them to have their suits on standby. They can't afford to be caught with their pants down, after all.
Eventually, the ship popped out of hyperspace and came to a stop, hovering in the void with the slight humming of its engines.
Captain Charles visibly gulped despite his resolve to stay strong. Pretending to have not noticed, Hunter Zol looked ahead. They were finally at their first obstacle and it wasn't an easy one to go around.
Several billion miles away from the ship was what was known as The Eternal Maelstrom.
It was a rotating storm of cosmic dust and plasma that stretched thousands of light-years across.
At its core, a pulsar spun at near-light speed, casting beams of light that acted like cosmic lighthouses.
These beams were not just markers in the vastness of space—they were strong enough to vaporize anything in their path, a deadly dance of light and destruction.
It was a true death zone, and anyone attempting to cross it was qualified to be called a madman.
While that was the case, all hope was not lost. In that vast storm of chaos, there was a small opening that appeared once in a while; sort of a buffer zone where the chaotic elements take a breather.
That was what they targeted, but the opening was brief. In less than a minute, the zone could disappear and anything that didn't make it through by then would be swallowed and never seen again.
"Tell your men to get the hyperdrive ready and on my mark," Zol instructed the captain who nodded and motioned to his men.
None of them looked calm as their eyes revealed their fears. They were terrified, but they also believed in the captain and their Mortal God.
After their preparations, they added a magic barrier to protect against the void energy mixed in with the chaos.
Zol unleashed his divine sense, ranging several hundred thousand kilometres in radius, towards the Eternal Maelstrom.
One could miss the opening if they were paying attention. After several seconds of waiting with the crew's anxiety at its peak, Zol detected the opening and immediately gave the directions.
"That way!"
The crew didn't dare delay and swiftly took action as they activated the hyperdrive again, creating a new wormhole bolted inside.
With crossed fingers and held breaths, the crew stared at the passing lights of the hyperspace with heavy hearts.
And as they expected, a second after they entered, the hyperspace changed its normal behaviour.
From a normal tunnel of lights, the hyperspace became a deformed tunnel where the lights appeared to be bent by extreme gravitational forces, akin to a black hole trying to suck the space in.
But the space held—it was called a buffer zone for that very reason. For some time, the tunnel would not collapse upon traversing.
Then, as quickly as they entered, they exited the tunnel.
"Whew!"
An involuntary sigh escaped the crew's lips as some leaned back in their seats with hands on their chest, taking in deep breaths to calm down.
But that was just one of the many obstacles, they'd be facing on their journey—both in and out.
Finally, the crew were able to catch their breaths and took a look outside. That was when they noticed something.
"Is that a ship?" One of the operatives couldn't help but mutter.
"Yeah, and it appears to be recent." Their systems were taking a scan of the ship and it confirmed their words.
Someone or some people had been here, and while it wasn't strange to find broken down or even destroyed ships in the void, their location was unique.
Once someone made it through the Eternal Maelstrom, they were pretty much safe until they continued their journey.
Finding a destroyed ship meant they failed to make it through their jump in time before the full force of the gravitational waves returned.
"Someone is also searching for the boy."
Zol heard the captain say, but his expression remained unreadable. Only he knew what he was thinking.
"Let's move on, we can't afford to waste time." Zol instructed several seconds later.
"Yes, sir!"