People always deem something unknown as either fiendish or godly. But the world is never that easy. Only those who see beyond the veil cast by universe can uncover the mysteries hidden in it.
Since he was a young man, Ephistios was always one with a curious nature. But, being in one of the the most remote areas of the galaxy, at first he could only satisfy his thirst for knowledge by reading books and researching magic.
Saying that he was 'born' would be a wrong phrase actually because his body was actually made by a natural cosmic phenomenon. His soul was given birth to by a very timely death of a star's soul. So it can be said that his existence itself was a abomination.
He always had this insatiable thirst for knowledge. It was like his very existence was screaming to him to discover the cosmos and gain knowledge way beyond mortals. That's why he left the planet to go on a journey.
So, even though he made many friends and enemies throughout his journey for pursuit of knowledge. He still eventually left them to continue his journey. In his 10 billion years of his life, there was no place he could call home. Not even the planet he started his journey on.
Now you may ask- why? It was because that planet was simply a place he fell into after floating in the void for millions of years. To sentient beings born from the embrace of cosmos- either intentionally or unintentionally, their sense of being form slowly as they age which meant that until he was at least billions of year old, he didn't even feel the need to have someone or somewhere special enough to provide as an emotional support.
When he came to age and got to actually feel his emotions clearly, even his mind that was at the pinnacle of intellect, couldn't hold its own and he fainted for a thousand years. After waking up he could understand his foolishness and began to regret some decisions of his life.
"No... I still have time at least those who are alive I could still meet with them." said Ephistios as his gazed pierced through the cosmic cloud out the window and landed onto a huge cluster of new born galaxies surrounding a huge cluster of stars larger than some of the new galaxies, these are actually artificial stars made by humanoid beings of anatatos galaxy.
If someone has as much insight as Ephistios they could see that these stars were arranged in a form that they attracted the surrounding mana from the new galaxies and increasing their own life spans. The technology and time required to make these were way outside of a mortal's mental capacity. From this anyone could tell that the species living in that galaxy were all either cultivators or mages.
"Even though a nature-born being like I became old but that galaxy is still thriving...tsk killing those bastards changed nothing huh." he said as his amethyst eyes were filled with disgust and disdain.
As a nature's child he already had a certain amount of disgust for other beings because of being favoured by the universe and the fact that these so called 'supreme' beings, proclaimed themselves as the most advanced civilisation in the entire cosmos, didn't really help to lessen that disgust.
"Fu...but I still have to go there to meet them or I would regret it my whole life.....she should still be alive since she cultivated the nebula extraction life art" Ephistios sighed as he thought about his million year research of vitality and its origin. It turned out that vital energy is the closest to the force made by a newly born star. By cultivating that art having a life span of at least a trillion years is no big deal. Not mentioning the fact that her pure nebula physique made her almost immortal with that art.
His life span on the other hand has come to it's limit since a natural being could live only upto a ten billion years- which is the average life span of a star of average size.
Ephistios smirked as he thought about his life span nearing it's end "Now that I gained my emotional logics......it's ironical how the cosmos that gave me birth itself, is going to take my life away....hmm so this is how betrayal feels like huh...tsk" being emotionless for almost all his life, and eventually coming to feel them, he liked it very much.
"Ah...it's exhilarating.... I wish I could feel it more....but now is not the time" he said as he took his gaze away from that place which was trillions of light years away. He walked away from observatory to the secluded area at the core of this spherical shaped artificial star- which looked anything but artificial from outside. This ship is at an extremely secluded area at the 28EEA4CB1 cosmic space of eastern unknown starry plain. Cosmic spaces are generally named in hexadecimal system.
The place was neither grandiose nor too plain, but it still gave an aura of otherworldliness. The place was enshrouded by darkness which in reality is nihility itself the purest essence of void, there were minute shining pearls hanging in an oder that made them fly themselves without any need of mana. There rhythmic movements were too lifelike, it was as if though that this place was separated from the outside universe and is a universe in itself, which actually is true.
This is a independent universe made by Ephistios as a power source of this ship.
Going in deeper there were many clusters of pearls arranged closer to each other than others. In the deepest part of this artificial universe there is a large red pearl of size of about a fist is floating majestically. Today its going to become something else altogether- specifically a pulsar. Actually it'll be a long time before that; today it's going to explode.
Ephistios made this star through millions of years of calculation and; trial and error such that the day it enters supernova phase his life span also comes to an end. Of course, he had a reason for it.
His soul was made upon the death of a star. Then what if he used all his vitality magic and soul mana to rejuvenate his soul while under the impact of supernova. Now, many would think of this as plain stupid or even psychotic but Ephistios who has done billion of years of research would never make such a shallow mistake. He had came up with many theories that support this experiment, and in case something goes wrong his another part of soul which contains all his memories is stored deep inside this star which will be reborn when this star becomes a pulsar.
And if his experiment succeeded his blood and soul will have the power of an entire universe since this star will become a black hole and devour this universe.
To be real the experiment isn't going to fail it's just his inner scientist telling him to make a control measure.
"Now let's get this shit over with.... I want to meet her as soon as possible.....and this is not exactly the most ideal look to talk to a girl with..tsk" Ephistios said as he glanced at his clothes.
Being the nature's child he should look young no matter his age; but the amount of time he spent in seclusion and research on a bunch of crazy things made his life span shorter and his body quality worse even though he was born with the stellar physique.
Though his clothes were tattered and torn like rags and his face looked old with wrinkles all over it that sharp jaw and an unusually upright shoulder gave him a majestic and authoritative look. His aura, though gentle and amiable, still looked ethereal and mystic.
He had gone through millions of cosmic tribulations and even the wrath of sentient universes. His life span just burnt through like diesel and he had hundred of curses flowing in his blood. But he didn't care as he knew that as long as he continued his research all thus could be solved one day.
And it was true, the divine power in those tribulations helped him create nihility to make his own universe and those curses flowing in his blood is going to be used as a fuel to make his bloodline stronger once the black hole devours it.
"Oh... how i would love to see the faces of those witches when they know that i used their curses to strengthen myself...ah vanity truly is a beautiful feeling." Ephistios smirked.
"Ok, enough self-indulging let's speed up time of death shall we?" he said as his hands formed countless seals in a matter of second and the time around him became explosively fast. Then after exactly 10 secs he made another set of seals and the time became excessively slow