Zol and his crew had to make only one jump to cover the distance of 500,000 light-years. Hyperdrives were powerful enough to cover millions of light-years, so the short distance barely counted. However, the time spent in the wormhole increases as the distance increases.
...…..
Within the void, in the surrounding areas of the Fornax Dwarf galaxy, now a dead zone of chaos, a wormhole opened, and a ship zoomed out and came to a stop a few tens of billions of kilometres away from the destroyed galaxy.
Zol was notified of their arrival and quickly changed into his battle suit, a suit that combined protection with aesthetics. It had green and black hues over its parts. Unlike the armour worn by other hunters below the Class S, the preference for the armour of Class S hunters was made with protection, manoeuvrability, and communication.
Class S hunters were a higher form of life compared to other hunters and humans. Due to this, they were unharmed even in the cold void of space and did not require oxygen to live. The elements barely had any effects on them as well, at least, not from those generated from abilities.
Zol quickly exited the ship and left instructions to his men to be ready for anything while he went and checked on the veil tear.
Once outside the ship, Zol flew the rest of the distance to the galaxy in front of him. His speed was way faster than light speed as he covered a lot of distance in a short time.
To the normal eye, the galaxy appeared normal, except for the explosions happening. However, when one had the ability to see the entire spectrum, what they saw was entirely different. It was a whole new world of colours.
Zol observed the waves of mana and explosions within the galaxy with his piercing gaze that could see far distances. Amidst the chaos, his immediate attention was captured by a massive circular veil tear, which appeared in an assortment of colours. Its beauty was mesmerizing, but it concealed great danger.
"Mason, I'm here. Where are you?" He focused on his heads-up display already connected with Mason's. A few seconds later, a reply came in.
[I'm still on my ship. I've already noticed your arrival and making my way over.]
Zol acknowledged and continued his flight path. When he got to a few million kilometres away from the edges of the galaxy, he came to a halt.
The veil tear was now more than twice the distance away from where he came to a halt. Any closer, and he would venture into the waves of cosmic mana waves happening all over the area, displacing celestial bodies and causing all manner of mayhem. It was a death sentence to anyone who ventured inside.
However, despite all this destruction going on, the pulsing veil tear stood out from the rest in the vicinity. It was a few light years in diameter and the aura it gave off sent chills down the spine of Zol.
'Mason was right, this isn't normal.' His display could not read the energy coming off that thing. While it was massive, there were other veil tears out there that were larger, but none gave off such vibes.
Sometime later, Mason arrived close to him as they both faced the veil tear pulsating as if alive. Mason disengaged his headpiece, revealing his face.
"Hey…" Mason waved at Zol, prompting him to also disengage his headpiece. While there was mostly no sound, the presence of mana in the universe allowed Class S hunters to communicate by causing their vocal cords to vibrate and directing said mana to the person they wished to hear them. They could literally hear sound in the void.
It was a skill that came naturally to Class S hunters and mana was surprisingly a good medium for sound transmission in the void.
"Any changes in the last hour?"
"No, not really. But the intensity of the pulse seems to be increasing slowly. We're not sure what exactly is causing it." Mason said.
His team had already deployed some researchers earlier to see if they could determine what was strange about the veil tear. The only thing they came up with was that the pulse was slowly increasing and the aura around it was more eerie than what they were used to.
Zol looked back at the veil tear in silence. Divine sense was useless when directed to veil tears as they swallowed them and gave nothing back. This was also why no one knew what was behind veil tears, veiled spaces and where they led to; only that they popped out void creatures.
And speaking of void creatures, the ones in the Fornax galaxy were busy devouring and destroying anything in sight. However, because they mostly ranged from Class F to Class C, the rate of destruction they caused was slow and it would take them forever to completely devour the galaxy, or in this case, the combined might of multiple parts of other galaxies brought together.
"Mm… Is the council informed already?" Zol asked again. Though it was only a few hours since the phenomenon was discovered, information had already reached the council.
"Yeah… Those old geezers never let anything bypass them. But I doubt they will do anything since we're already here."
Zol listened to his words and then sat cross-legged in the void. Since there was nothing happening right now, they might as well wait here. Their missions sometimes keep them in space for long periods.
"…" Mason was speechless. Why sit right before the spooky area? Even as they floated in the void, the aura from the veil tear constantly washed over them.
"Is there a reason why you're seated here instead of returning to your ship?"
"When have you felt an aura of such intensity before?" His words made Mason think briefly. He turned his attention to the pulsating tear, observing it calmly before sighing.
He didn't have to be a genius to understand what Zol's intentions were. Getting used to such aura in a way, increased their tolerance to it. And while it was not the energy itself, it was more than enough to help them increase their strength even just a little bit.
Naturally, they had to keep an eye out for any void creatures and cosmic mana waves that may come their way.
Mason sat crossed-legged beside his companion and began to cultivate.
'Hopefully, it's not what I'm thinking.'