For Justice and Matt it seemed to last for several days. Fortunately this allowed them to absorb a large portion from the crystals' energy they were holding. However Vector's body had been integrated with the excess energy from the other divine spiritual crystals as well as his own.
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When Vector had started absorbing energy from the crystals he had, he noticed something. A tiny amount of extremely dense energy was hidden inside of them. The one in the indigo crystal was larger and more complicated than the other two.
Unknown to Vector these bundles of energy were formations.
They had just started to activate when he had noticed them. He was able to sense the intent that had been imprinted in the concentrated energy. This was due to his immensely powerful soul that had been fused with a primordial being shortly after his birth. His perception, soul and comprehension of cosmic energy had always been incredibly powerful due to this.
The crystals had all been trapped. When someone began to absorb energy from them, each one would immediately detonate with the power of a supernova.
The indigo crystal however wouldn't detonate. It would teleport whoever held it and anybody close by into the Pit.
The Pit was used as a prison for the most powerful criminals throughout the innerverse and the CosmicSea. It was also known as Forbidden region 0001. This region spanned an area 200 000 light-years across at the center of the Cosmic Sea.
The 1000 most dangerous forbidden regions throughout the cosmos were numbered according to their level of danger. The Pit was at the highest categorization of danger at number 1.
Unknown to all those outside the Pit, it was also a thousand times bigger on the inside. It was composed of an immense void where many ancient temporal monstrosities were trapped as well.
Time for the creatures native to the Pit went by a quadrillion times faster than for the rest of the universe.
One second outside was almost 32 million years to the native creatures inside the Pit. There was also no spiritual energy except space and time, so everything that existed there fed off of time.
This also meant that anyone appearing in the Pit would immediately be swarmed by creatures that would devour them, eating their time as well as their bodies while those from outside would essentially be like a statue.
Vector, Justice and Matt appeared in this void creating a blast of multicolored light as they arrived. Justice and Matt's bodies froze in place when Vector lost his concentration as he noticed they were surrounded.
Vector looked around in a panic.
'Where the…Huh?! WHAT THE F**K ARE THOSE!?'
His pupils turned to pin pricks as he sensed hundreds of 30 m long creatures in the vicinity closing in on them like sharks circling their prey.
'No no no no… where the hell is this? FUCK I'VE GOTTA FIX MY BODY!'
Gritting his teeth he started doing the Cosmic breathing exercise. His body started absorbing all the energy of the blast. It entered him at a shocking rate. A whirlpool of energy formed for a moment as it flowed into his body.
The energies mixed together. The properties of the light and metal energies held his form together while repairing it. His body was being rebuilt with all the energy he was absorbing.
'Ahhh! It's not enough. I need temporal energy. I can't fuse everything together permanently without it. F**k! Those things are circling like vultures! Ok… Gotta hold it together.
His eyes widened as he sensed the surroundings..
F**k why is there only spatial energy here?! Wait, those things are almost pure soul and time energy…'
At this point the monsters, which resembled black winged insectoid serpents with a set of blade-like forelimbs and sword-like tails, rushed towards the group.
Vector blasted one with lightning. The creature simply swallowed it and sped up. He tried again with a wind blade but the creature just ignored it.
Then he tried hitting it with time energy in the form of a white lightning blast. Which it ate and then roared happily as its eyes glowed white.
'What the f**k?! Did it just eat time!? Well that's bad…'
He then tried slicing it with spatial energy. An enormous crescent blade composed of indigo energy split the space in front of Vector bisecting the creature.
The creature's body dissipated into the surroundings releasing soul and time energy. Which was immediately absorbed by Vector along with the remnant spatial energy from his attack.
He was still doing the breathing technique. In truth he was always doing it. He had been practicing doing it at all times since he was 12.
At this point in time he was actively absorbing energy as fast as he could trying to fuel the complete remaking of his body.
'It's working... I was getting worried for a second there.'
Vector sent out more of the blades slicing the approaching creatures to pieces. After killing them and refining the energy he finally finished remaking his body. Then he looked at his friends floating there motionless.
'I gotta find a way out of here. Wait… Please say that's not what I think it is.'
All around him even larger versions of the creatures rushed towards him. These were between 100 - 300m long. He launched a spatial blade at one.
The creature roared as the blade sliced its side but it only seemed to anger it as it sped towards him.
'How are these things this tough?'
As the creatures approached, Vector was left with little choice. He fought with everything he had. He formed two katana like blades of spatial energy and prepared to defend his two friends that were for all purposes frozen in place.
He felt a sense of imminent danger from them. No matter how fast he pushed himself out of sync with time they simply devoured the excess temporal energy and maintained their speed. These creatures made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time. Fear.
The weakest ones were as strong as S ranks. While something much bigger and more powerful moved in and out of the edges of his perception. All the while the smaller creatures tried to kill and devour him as he fought. It was the most harrowing event of his life. He nearly died many times.
Slashed and pierced by the creatures' claws, losing limbs only to regenerate them and continue the battle. Attempting to out devour the time and soul energy being released as the creatures died so that he could keep fighting.
This also continued to temper and refine his body and soul.
This went on for what seemed like years, with Vector trying to figure a way out as he fought.
Eventually after fighting off the never ending swarms of what he had dubbed time eaters; Vector finally saw hope in the form of a fist sized indigo crystal that was floating in the void.
He searched around the area trying to detect any Spatial fluctuations from the object that had brought them here.
'Yes, I finally found it!'
He looked at the swarm of creatures that had been temporarily beaten back. Then he looked beyond them to the colossal creature that seemed to be hundreds of kilometers long.
'NOPE! We are leaving now!'
Vector manipulated the spatial energy that was still in Flux due to the teleportation that had just taken place. He grabbed his friends and pulled them through the hole in spacetime he had managed to reopen.
They reappeared back in Matt's room which was now charred black with carbon shadows being the only thing left of the content of the room.
As they came out of the rip in space Vector landed on his feet, but quickly sat down in exhaustion. The other two landed face first on the floor.
Matt and Justice took a deep breath as they sat up. Then they looked at each other with their eyes open wide.