Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!-Chapter 623: Back with a vengeance

Alex could only stare into the distant emptiness where entire planets – entire lives – had once existed.

"W-we evacuated who we could..." Captain Venn continued, voice hoarse. "But New Dawn... the entire system... it was gone. The star detonated and took everything with it."

Alex’s hands trembled with fury.

"The only upside is that it took the Lux general with it..." Captain Venn tried to crack a dry joke despite his situation, but it fell upon deaf ears.

Alex forced himself to speak.

"How long ago?"

"A little over a week." Venn croaked.

A week. Ludo hadn’t counted how long he was gone for, but in that time, an entire star system was wiped off the map.

Millions of people. Whole planets.

Gone.

Was it his fault?

No.

But he was involved.

Brontes’ awakening. The Federation spreading their forces thin to continue their expansion. The Lux seeking revenge.

In some way or another, they were all connected with him.

It had all spiraled out of control.

Captain Venn leaned closer to the screen, with clear desperation still painted across his injured face.

"I don’t know why you disappeared or why you’ve just now reappeared... But please, sir, we need your help! The Lux aren’t just going to leave it at that. They hunted every evacuation ship that could survive the initial supernova. They won’t stop at anything until every last one of us is dead. They want us EXTINCT!"

Behind him, explosions could still be seen rocking his ship, and several screams from other survivors echoed throughout the grainy call.

But Captain Venn’s face remained ashen.

"I– I know that my crew and I aren’t going to make it. We’re the last ship that made it out, yet the Lux still caught us in the end. I only ask that you avenge us, sir! Do it for us, and the millions of other people who perished!"

Alex and Captain Venn stared at each other for a second, with Alex silently nodding his head and showing his respect for the man despite just meeting him.

But it was cut short. One last explosion erupted from the other side of the screen, before the communication feed cut out for the final time, marking the end of Captain Darius Venn and the last of his crew.

Alex stood there for a few long seconds, staring at the static on the screen. He slowly exhaled through his nose.

"I swear it..."

He spoke quietly.

"I’ll promise to avenge you."

Even though his ultimate goal of facing off against the system itself had been set in stone with Mikhail’s many revelations in the pocket dimension, he still had a long way before he reached that point.

Alex knew that he needed to be infinitely stronger, even stronger than Mikhail, a Universal God, to pull that off.

To do that, he needed to increase his own rank and class, which required enemies to kill.

And the perfect opportunity had just presented itself to him. Alex’s anger only further fuelled him and motivated him to continue in this direction. The Lux were clearly a threat even greater than the Red Demon race, and even more ruthless.

"I wonder how powerful I’ll get from wiping out an entire race." He muttered through his gritted teeth.

With no more restrictions in the form of rank up requirements holding him back, Alex knew that his rise in power would be swift and terrifying for any foe that went against him. The universe had never seen the likes of something like this before, as the system would never willingly allow someone like him to exist.

And right on topic, Alex felt something inside of himself welling up at that very moment.

It was only then that he thought back to his status, now detached from the system.

Soul Core: [B- 100%]

For who knew how long, he had been stuck at that threshold, unable to rank up thanks to the system needing him and every other being in the universe to pass a requirement before being allowed to progress to the next level.

But now that there was nothing shackling him, that limit had finally been broken.

[Soul Core progress at 100%, proceeding to the next level. Good luck, Alex.]

Alex could almost feel the personal touch Mikhail had put into that rank up message. He could tell that even in death, Mikhail wanted to congratulate and push him to continue striving for more with every rank up.

Just like every other time he went through it, he could feel an incredible amount of power coursing through his body. Every vein, every cell and molecule in his body pulsated as energy continued to permeate through it.

The pain was nothing for him anymore, and so he just ignored it.

But there was one thing that was strikingly different from every other time he went through a rank up or class evolution.

He’d never thought or even sensed it before, as there was simply no frame of reference and he just considered it normal at the time, but it felt as though in previous rank ups there were invisible chains surrounding his heart – only this time he felt they were no longer there.

’So its true... the system really did everything just to stop us from reaching our full potential.’

Despite hearing it directly from Mikhail, and even experiencing a bit of it for himself on his return to the universe, this was the most distinct feeling he’d ever felt that truly made him believe it.

The system wasn’t their friend.

Friends don’t place each other in chains – and especially do their best to hide the fact.

Quickly, the flow of energy Alex was experiencing started to increase, so much so that he even began to feel a little concerned for himself.

After all, while he had experienced such a thing before, it as never on a scale like this.

But then he realised.

He never really experienced the full benefits of a rank up before. The system made sure of that by siphoning a part of that energy away for itself every time.

It was frightening to think about how it did this for every other awakened in the universe, as it could only be on a scale of power currently unfathomable to the present Alex, but that didn’t deter him one bit.

Mikhail had already proved that it could be done.

Only his was a case similar to Icarus.

He’d flown too high in the sky, and managed to catch a glimpse of the truth – only to end up falling in the end because of it.

Alex didn’t plan on repeating that mistake. Mikhail had passed his wisdom onto him for a good reason.

He genuinely believed that Alex could achieve what he himself could not. He was now the entire universe’s only chance at breaking free from a prison that they didn’t even know they were in.

That was the tricky part, as it was only he that held this knowledge. He only had himself to rely on.

Trying to gain any allies was a fruitless endeavour, and only in cases like Brontes, where they became bonded through their souls, could he truly trust someone to have his back.

Even though the Federation and the human race held his love and loyalty, they had already shown that they could abandon him through their previous actions.

He had already outgrown them in a sense.

But that wouldn’t stop him from wreaking havoc on their enemies.

Soul Core: [B 0%]

His rank up came right on que.

It was time for the Lux to pay.