As he stared at the endless empty expanse, Adam could not help but smile. Such freedom was impossible for him before he had awakened his consciousness to a level great enough to allow him to create this new body of his.
He was still getting used to the absurd feeling of splitting his consciousness to control both bodies. If he truly focused, he could sense everything happening on Earth while he was out exploring in space.
Okay, that was a lie. He had no need to get used to it because it came naturally to him. He was just trying to veer his thoughts away from something that was gradually becoming more and more apparent to him.
He was fucking lost!
Everywhere he looked, he saw nothing. The glimmer of stars in the far distance was all there was, and even after moving for what felt like two whole months, he was still nowhere near any actual celestial body.
He was not moving at a regular speed of vehicles either. In the vacuum of space, he could keep accelerating without worrying about resistance that would slow his velocity. He had been traveling for about two months now at nearly the speed of light and yet not even a single space debris could be found.
There was no way he would not have found anything at all. As he looked at the distant glimmering stars, he felt as though they were taunting him, laughing at his foolishness for traveling all the way out here for nothing.
He looked back to where he could sense his main body, he was tempted to just go back. Perhaps it was just unfortunate that the direction he chose was barren. Perhaps he would find something else on his way back.
But just as he was about to turn back, he felt a subtle movement in space. It was so imperceptible that had it not been for the absolute silence and emptiness of this region of space, Adam would definitely have missed it. It was like a tiny ripple of something that touched just the edge of his gravitational field.
Adam looked around, but there really was nothing around. With no other leads, he tried expanding his gravitational field in short bursts to see if it would react to anything. He was hoping to get a clearer grasp on that subtle feeling he had earlier, but what he got was something else.
The feedback he received was like a repelling force that somehow pushed back his gravitational field a bit. The more shocking thing was that it came from just right ahead of him, completely invisible to his eyes.
So like any good explorer, Adam went straight at it. Using his gravity to sense the invisible thing, he finally managed to bring himself within arms' reach of it. He tried to tap it with his fingers, but he felt nothing other than a strange semipermeable barrier that did nothing to stop him.
Noting that his hand did not immediately dissolve into a corroded mess or burn to ash, Adam judged that it was somewhat safe to proceed. He pushed through the invisible barrier and found a whole new landscape before him.
Whatever that barrier was, it concealed this entire region of space very well because in front of him was no barren region. Instead, it was the ruins of a battlefield dating back perhaps thousands of years ago if not more.
There were countless debris that littered the entire region. There was even a giant derelict spaceship the size of Jupiter. And further ahead, Adam could see what remained of a world. It was not yet quite dead, but it definitely would not last more than a century. And judging by the scars on its surface, there probably was not a single life left on that planet.
"That barrier... it must've been set up to keep whatever survived on that planet from leaving this region."
Adam mused as he moved toward the planet. The closer he got, the more his expression turned strange. He was finding his conjecture more and more accurate the more he saw of this strange war-torn world.
In a single word, he would describe it as grotesque.
The mountains that rose to the skies were like gigantic mounds of pulsing tumorous flesh. The seas and oceans seemed to have dried and been replaced with fields of festering grievous wounds likely caused by the war.
Rather than water, the rivers and streams that cut across this disgusting landscape were oozing of fetid pus and and foul blackish blood. This was not a normal world whatsoever. And right before Adam could set foot on this abominable wasteland, the system came with a notification.
[You have discovered the ruined world of Helmin, home to the Corpuscladis.]
[You have made a great achievement by discovering the ruins of an ancient unrecorded war.]
[The Universe thanks you for your contribution.]
[You have been rewarded with immunity to the Corpuscladis.]