Kevin had spent each boring day training his energy cultivation technique. He felt his senses become sharper each month and his vitality increase. The energy in that artificial dimension was abundant and Kevin made sure to take advantage of his stay there. In between breaks, he would feel his cell glass with his palm for a few minutes and resume his training.
Sometimes he and some inmates were allowed outside their holdings and into a controlled and supervised space that looked like a cross between a playground, a gym with few and alien equipment, and a track field. Kevin would run around the track field that was as big as a football (soccer) field easily without losing breath consistently to confirm his progress in his cultivation journey.
Khan was normally seen as the top dog among the inmates and was treated with the respect that came with that title and had some privileges that the other inmates could only dream of having. But throughout Kevin's stay in the second year, he was already more physically capable than most of the inmates. The inmates that had a humanoid-like appearance would usually challenge Kevin to an arm wrestle which was usually spectated by all the inmates and even the mechanical guardians.
Kevin won most of those matches easily but was still defeated by three other inmates. These inmates were of course the universe's worst criminals who were either kept alive because of their political value or forbidden knowledge that they had or they were simply too hard to kill and were thrown here to rot for the rest of their lives.
After Kevin turned fifteen he had already ranked up in the hierarchy that inmates had already set and was just a rank below Khan which meant that only one inmate stood between him and Khan. Kevin had made so much progress in such little time thanks to Jack's teaching which was considered a forbidden and lost art and his desire to leave the null void.
Kevin had reached the stage in his cultivation journey where he could affect matter/objects with his energy and cause it to levitate, pull, or push with a little difficulty. He had little to no equipment to practice on and lift. His bed and its frame were frilled to the floor and he didn't want to ask Khan to give him some heavy materials through his privileges so he could use them in his cell to practice, he wanted to at least leave a few cards up his sleeve.
One fateful day when Khan was playing some kind of alien sport in the recreational zone for inmates with a cube alongside other inmates, he excused himself and called the attention of Kevin who was stretching on the wall but was trying to use his Petrosapien traits to create crystals on the other side of the wall.
Khan could tell what he was doing and sighed to himself,
"What if you do what you want to do and a foreign object is detected at the other side of the wall eh? You would blow your cover and would be sent to the cosmic coal mines to slave away for what little years you have left in you!"Kevin understood what Khan was trying to say and only looked foolish. He might have gotten stronger over the years but he was still a teen that relied on his brawn more than his brain.
"Whatever, I am sick of this place." Kevin spat on the floor and removed his hands from the walls. He hadn't thought through his plan but had just about enough time to reflect and wanted to leave even if he had to brute force his way through numerous mechanical guardians. He believed his training over the years would see him through and was not wrong but he still needed a way to cross the harsh conditions that awaited him just outside of his holding.
He could only cross it previously because he used the Ectonurite's (Ghostfreak) traits to become intangible and cross that part of the null void to find the philosopher's orb.
"I feel even worse. I am tired of this reality, I was here a year before you came but now that I have confirmed that the philosopher's orb and one other item I have been looking for is here, I figured it was time to leave." Khan explained as he leaned on the wall next to Kevin. The humanoid tiger towered over Kevin and almost blended in with the environment with his peculiar black and white stripes.
His eyes had a purple glow as his presence tried to suppress Kevin.
"Wait a minute. You wouldn't happen to be talking about that cursed orb that nearly killed me on my way here. That thing is a fool's paradise, I am lucky to be alive!" Kevin was at first surprised to hear of that orb since he survived death and eternal madness just because he still had some concentrated energy from the Omnitrix in him that dispelled out of his body and caused a fluctuation in the infinite transfer of knowledge from the orb.
He still kept some hidden, lost, and valuable knowledge in him that he would still use later on but some of them were repressed due to the amount that was released in seconds. The information released was like water trapped in a hose and put through enough pressure that when released would be able to cut diamonds.
If the host that is accumulating the knowledge doesn't have mental fortitude that is many times more durable than a diamond in the instance given, the person would experience near-infinite madness due to the consistent destruction of their mind's consciousness and would eventually die in seconds!
That is why the philosopher's orb is a forbidden item but intelligent life is still drawn to its promise and power which makes it seem like the apple in the Garden of Eden."It's not for everyone.
"Anyway, I have a plan, do you want in?" Khan said while casually looking at and moving his claws as if admiring their beauty.
"If you are thinking what I am thinking, then I am in!" Kevin replied with his hands folded as he assumed a JOJO pose.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS CHAPTER? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!
Read over 70+ chapters on Patreon, patreon.com/HeavenlyEnel.
Make sure to check out the other fanfics.