Act 1: Ch.20 - Endless Ocean

Holy! That's an insane amount of Ethos and power.

As I entered the training room that Lazuli and Rei were using, I was greeted by an immense wave of power and a huge tornado of energy. The inner/centre of the tornado glowed red while the rest was an electric blue.

Looks like someone's been getting strong.

Strong is an understatement Trio! She's as strong as you in your most recent fight with Diablo and Kara!!

It appears she is Unus. Though I don't quite think so. It would be more accurate to say she's as strong as the Diablo and Kara combined from that fight. Remember, I was still suppressing most of my power when fighting them before then beating them completely when I got serious in that suppressed state. Annoyingly though, my siblings are no doubt probably already stronger than that so I should train a little bit myself before they get a little too close to my level and catch up to me.

The tornado disappeared as I finished my thoughts and the figure of Lazuli slowly descended onto the ground. What looked like blue energy covered her entire body, minus her head/face, like some kind of armour and her red hair was glowing like fire while streaks of blue within it glowed even brighter.

Looks like she's found her Capere Form, if that's her full power I'd say she can at most destroy the first few Outer-Realms, possibly more.

Lazuli returned to her base state, her hair turning back into its original crimson colour, put on her glasses before turning round to face me with a big smile on her face.

"Boo!" Rei said from behind, failing to startle me.

"You do know I knew you were there the whole time, right?" I said raising an eyebrow as I looked at the female Demoreal red skinned face.

Somehow, I could tell she was blushing slightly which seemed impossible when looking at the beautiful red colouring of her skin.

"Shame," Rei replied, shrugging her shoulders. "No harm in trying."

As she said that I noticed her, previously filed down horns, had reappeared, curving upwards slightly above her head with each horn around eight inches in length if I had to guess. They were an oil black in colour.

I was taken out of my thoughts when Lazuli embraced me in a hug before I hugged her back.

"It's good to see you Nova." She said as we let go of each other.

"Good to see you to." I smiled.

"So, is there anything that you wanted your grace?" Rei asked innocently.

"Actually, there is now." I replied. "I originally just came for a quick hello and to see you and Lazuli's progress but now I want something else."

"Oh?" Rei raised an eyebrow.

"I want to scale Lazuli's current power and Ethos."

Lazuli looked confused.

"Scale my power and Ethos?"

"It's when someone reads your power and Ethos to get a rough outline on how strong you are as well as your potential." Rei explained helpfully.

"I just scaled Shion and Kuni and they've met my expectations currently though I want Kuni to unlock his Capere Form and Shion to transcend the Concepts of Space-Time before we proceed with the negotiation meeting." I continued. "Rei, I take it Lazuli here has achieved both?"

"Not quite," She replied shaking her head slightly. "Lazuli has achieved her Capere Form but has not transcended Space-Time just yet, only the concept of time currently."

I nodded as I held my chin between two fingers.

"I understand."

"I'm sorry if I've l-let you down N-Nova." Lazuli apologised, falling back into her habit of stuttering.

"No, it's fine, please." I said reassuring her. "It's not an easy task and you're not behind any Kuni and Shion either, I'd say even now your still stronger."

Lazuli seemed to relax at that, letting out a sigh of relief.

"So… do you want scale my power and Ethos now?"

"If you'd let me." I said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Your grace, this is Rei, pretend this isn't happening so not to arouse suspicion from Lazuli.

Rei surprised me but did what she asked and explained what scaling was to Lazuli to clear any doubts from her mind as well as let Rei speak to me.

Before you do the scaling there's something you should know beforehand.

What is it?

Lazuli may have unlocked her Omuni.

What!?

Only for a moment, it hasn't happened again throughout the rest of the training. To be honest I don't think even she realised it.

Take me through what happened.

We we're sparring and she was lying on the ground on her last legs, completely out of energy, as I stood over her preparing to knock her out with a punch. But I missed.

How does that link to her Omuni?

Your grace, the punch was from point blank range and you know how much I praise myself on my accuracy. Not only that but she suddenly had a surge of energy and landed a punch that sent me flying. The chances of both me missing my attack and her suddenly getting that amount of power to pack a punch like that is 0.5%.

I see but how do you know that's her Omuni?

Because when I got up on my feet and looked at Lazuli, the pupil in her left eye was a crimson red infinity symbol. She then passed out immediately after that.

That sounds like an Omuni to me but what could the ability be then. Possibly the manipulation of probability or maybe a simple boost in power?

I don't know myself, but I just thought you should know your grace.

My focus went back to Lazuli who was in front of me.

"Ok, I'm going to do the scaling now." I announced calmly to Lazuli who nodded in response.

After being given to ok, place my index and middle fingers on the top of her chest, just below her neck, while placing the same fingers of my other hand on her forehead.

"Now activate some of your power," I instructed. "nothing fancy, so don't transform, just something that shows of your Ethos."

Lazuli closed her eyes, and the outline of her body began to glow an electric blue.

Ok, now let's see what we're dealing with.

I closed my eyes temporarily before opening them again and found myself somewhere else completely.

I opened my eyes to find myself falling.

I'M FALLING!?

I seemed to be falling out of the sky with no land of any kind in sight, while the sky was a dark blue with red clouds floating within it. I turned in the air to look down and saw an ocean that stretched on for as far as the eye could see, never ending. Eternal. Infinite in size.

W-what the hell? You seeing this Trio?

I… c…an't …ear …ou…

Trio! Unus! Duo! What's going on?

Right as I finished my thought, I crashed into the ocean sinking deep, deep under water. I swam up to the surface before sucking in a deep breath while treading water to remain afloat.

Ok let's get a bigger view. Huh?

I tried to activate my abilities, but nothing happened.

"What's going on?" I muttered to myself.

Why can't I hear my Ethos or use my abilities? This has never happened before.

Suddenly the infinite ocean began to surge and churn before the sky went jet black as the water changed into the electric blue colour the sky once was while crimson foam and bubbles bounced on the surface.

"Novarion Cosmos, Son of Viro Cosmos."

A voice called out from every direction as the water aways in front of me exploded up into the air like some kind of reverse-fountain, before said fountain receded back into the ocean leaving a figure in its place.

The figure's outline told me it was a woman of some kind, with fiery long red and a glowing skin that was the same electric blue I kept on seeing. She also had glowing red eyes.

"Who are you?" I called out to the floating woman, even though I already had an idea on who she was.

"My identity doesn't matter right now, plus you've probably figured it out the rough idea." The woman responded, her voice echoing from all around me.

"I've heard a lot about you kid," she continued. "I probably know a lot more than you'd like with me to, while also being very knowledgeable on your family…"

She paused before smiling slightly.

"Descendant of Cynthia."

My eyes widened in surprise.

"How do you know that name?" I asked in shock. "The original Cosmos is long dead."

The woman began giggling which nearly turned hysterical.

"C'mon, you're kidding, right?" She sighed. "As an Ethos how could I not know about your ancestor, nor the family line she created. After all, she's the only being in all of existence to ever have children with an Ethos."

The woman raised an eyebrow at my reaction.

"Did you not know that?"

"I heard rumours and stories, but I never thought they were true." I said slightly dumbfounded.

"Think about it child," the Ethos said. "Out of all the different families within the different kinds of Ethorians across all of the Relics, why were the members of the Cosmos family always so strong and ahead of the rest? You're already a human Ethereal hybrid which should make you very weak but instead you and your siblings seem to be full blooded Ethereals, not hybrids. In fact, you three are the strongest Ethereals alive next to your father. Why is that?"

"B-but that doesn't make any sense," I retorted. "I was born weak."

"Think of it like puberty boy, you were a late bloomer. As soon as you evolved into an Awakened Ethereal you started getting immensely strong very quickly. Why? It because you've got the pure blood of an Ethos running through your veins! Apparently, Ethos life force/blood ages like a fine wine since each generation of your family seems to be stronger than the previous generation. You're part of the ninth, right?"

"But all the power I gained wasn't because of hereditary reasons?" I countered.

"I'd say that Grand Devourer Unique Skill you were born with and like to keep secret, only contributed 10% to your power." The woman bit back. "Hell, even Ragnarok can be explained by this!"

"Wait what!?" I shouted in surprise.

"Ask your Father about the birth mark you once had, the one that disappeared along with half of your power. Add Crest of the Cosmos to that question as well when you ask him. He might spill."

What is she even talking about, I mean I do remember having a strange birth mark on the palm of my hand but what does that have to do with anything?

"I know a lot more than you'd want me to know, Nova Cosmos." She grinned slightly. "I mean, I do like name Azura."

I felt myself tense up as mixture of shock and frustration.

"How the hell do you know that name!?" I bellowed, anger making my blood boil.

The woman shrugged her shoulders.

"Doesn't matter. In fact, I'd say it's your time to leave." The Ethos taunted but before I could say anything else, she continued. "You're a very smart person Nova. I'm sure you know what this seemingly infinite ocean means for the scaling of Lazuli. Until next time, I'll be watching through your friend's eyes."

I tried to say something, but I was sucked under surface of the water and so dragged deep into the depths all light disappeared.

My eyes opened suddenly as I threw myself away from Lazuli, heaving heavy breaths.

"Nova! Are you ok!?" Lazuli said, her and Rei both coming towards me, wearing worried expressions on their faces.

I tried to process everything that had just happened as they helped me up.

Nova!

Nova!

Nova!

Can you hear us now?

Yeah Trio, I can hear you. Did you see or hear what happened?

He only heard bits and pieces but me and Unus heard it clearly and filled him in.

What she was saying was true Nova, I'm 100% sure.

How do you know for sure? Do you know the Ethos who I guess is my ancestor?

I'm one of the oldest Ethos's so I was around when the story of an Ethos hooking up with an Etharion. As for the identity of the Ethos in question I'm not at liberty to say.

Ok, I'll have to take that for now.

"I'm fine. Thanks for worrying." I said putting everything to one side of my brain to think about later.

"So, what's Lazuli's scale?" Rei asked while Lazuli looked at me, anticipating what I was going to say.

I thought back to the endless sea.

"Her power and potential is something else," I answered, turning from Rei to look at Lazuli. "I saw what looked like a seemingly endless amount of power however you can only gain access to it through small amounts at a time. Like drawing water from an ocean through a straw meant for a smoothie. I haven't seen anything like this before."

Lazuli didn't speak as her eyes seemed to dart from her feet, to me, to the walls of the white room.

"I can't tell if that g-good or b-b-bad" she stuttered quietly.

"It's new and different," I said trying to comfort her. "but it's good as well. You have insane potential, and this also helps Rei on how to progress with your training and choose the best method to do so."

I tilted her chin, so her eyes looked into mine.

"I can't wait to see what happens."

She smiled at that before embracing me in a tight hug.