“Very well, I like your fire.” Ares’ fragment spoke. “The truth is, If you had not been among the Spartari today, I would have already burnt out my soul and let the spartari take the artifact as it is currently useless to me. But now that you are here and are like me, I offer you a boon.”

The word ‘boon’ triggered a PTSD I did not realise I had. “What type of boon? And what do you mean I am like you.” The fragment chuckled from wherever its mouth may had been. “I mean you are not fully human correct? I can feel it. you are a scientist like myself, Only you went in a different path.

Where I made cold steel and logic a part of my being, You have taken the best from other creatures and placed them inside yourself. Spartari would never allow this which means you have grown up outside of their indoctrination. The path Spartari has taken is flawed. They should have embraced my gift.

There are devourers of galaxies in the stars and one had already began to probe towards them, and it is their hubris that will be their downfall.”

“Your boon?” I questioned, not wanting to think about Jewel and her devouring of galaxies. “Yes, while I would have fizzled out, I think it is only fair a like minded, strong, battle tested warrior receive some of the energy I have left. Use it as a kickstart for your Psionic growth.

Although if you accept my boon, don’t try to consume it all at once or a sub conscious of my being may form in your Mindspace.”

I thought over the fragment of Ares’ proposition a moment. Soul energy is completely different from Psionic energy and I don’t know how my Mindspace will benefit from it. That being said, I have an Onyx who usually lives inside my head and a hivemind who is one of the most talented Psionic wielders in existence that can help me if something goes wrong.

“Very well Ares, I will accept your Boon… How do I do that?” “I will guide you kindred spirit.” For an ancient warmonger, Ares was an honest and straightforward being. He slowly helped me absorb as much of his soul into my Mindspace and taught me how to compress the energy so I could store even more.

Unbeknown to the both of us however, Zircon had felt the abundance of soul energy in the air and began to absorb a great deal of it into herself as well. The result of which was Ares being confused by how much energy this little human could fit inside his Mindspace.

After a while my Mindspace felt extremely heavy, like when Onyx first took residence. “As you can tell, the energy Siphoned of me has no ties to me any longer. However, I still warn you not to use it all at once as traces of me could still linger.

I nodded in affirmation. I would not use it at all until I got the green light from the hive. Looking up to Ares, he had shrunk rather considerably and was now a third of the original size. I had not absorbed 2/3rd of him though as the process also stripped away a lot of his energy back into the Psionic plane.

“One more thing Apollo, If my Psionic existence is still alive out there, He will remember this discussion we had after I fade. If you ever meet me again, I hope you will join me as ally.”

After saying those words, Ares’ form began to fade as his energy merged with the Psionic plane. If his original form survived these last millennia’s, he would receive the memories shortly, depending how far away he was.

Once Ares’ presence was gone, I was able to leave my Mindspace and open my eyes. As soon as I did, I heard behind me Barriers down, Move! Move! Move!” The mercenaries entered the room, sticking close to the walls as they advanced deeper. I turned around and the shock on their faces turned to relief in a moment. “Targets responsive!” One of them shouted and Caleb and Dolan entered the room.

“Apollo are you ok? You have been standing still holding that orb for close to four hours.” Caleb yelled from a safe distance. “Yea man, we thought you died standing or something.

“Four hours? Yikes, sorry to keep you guys waiting. You see, there was a tough encryption on the artifact. I had to unlock it, sorry for the wait.” I said as I started to make my way towards them. “Apollo stay where you are a second.” Caleb said as he put his hand on his pistol.” I did an Orchid and cocked my head to the side.

“Caleb?” I need you to prove to me you are you and not that voice you kept going on about. I don’t know if Psionic possession is possible, but I read a book about it once and I wont be taking any chances.”

Honestly I did not blame Caleb for his cautiousness. In fact I applauded his action. “Sure no problem, what would you like me to do?” I responded calmly. “Hand over the artifact. If you do, I will suspect you are of sound mind and not a threat. I shrugged my shoulders. ‘If Ares said he doesn’t mind Spartari having it, I don’t either.’ I placed the orb container on the floor and rolled it over to Caleb.

As he picked it up, he inspected it for anything strange before putting it in a sack he retrieved from his back.

“So, we good?” I asked as I crossed my arms. “Well I don’t know any other ways to check if someone is possessed. I assumed if you were, you would be greedy and try to keep hold of the artifact. The fact you didn’t is a pass in my book. Anyone else want to think of something?” He asked the room.

The rest of the mercenaries were silent either because they had no further thoughts on the matter, or they had no idea what had just transpired in the last minute.

After leaving the artifact chamber, I got another hug from Janine and this time one from Mindy. “Stop scaring me to death asshole!” Janine said as stook to me like a leech again. “Seriously though Apollo, two times in a day. Are you trying to break our little hearts.” Mindy said after she pulled back, her husband was staring after all.”

With the artifact retrieved, We made our way back to the surface while I was chastised the whole time.

Meanwhile, galaxies and galaxies away from Elysium, A 15 ft tall being of Machine, metal and firearms had landed onto a warring planet. He had a received binary code SOS from this backwater race of cyborg warriors. They were half flesh and half steel. The Aliens had not embraced the full gift of steel and tried to retain some semblance of self with their fleshy parts.

A mistake on their part considering their enemy. From where he landed on the planet, A literal sea of skittering bug creatures ranging in size were swarming towards his and his warriors location. He had fought these beings before, he had been fighting them for thousands of years and they are just endless. Though that did not deter him.

With a deep modulated voice, he turned to his soon to be new warriors. “You have 5 hours of me and my warriors to hold the tide, in that time you may choose. Abandon the planets you have left and join my legions, or give in to the inevitable and become food for these creatures.

As the giant robot said this, a series of information suddenly bypassed his processors and entered his Psionic existence. “Spartari.” The being said as he looked upwards into the void of space. “So the feeble ones still exist even to this day? Maybe I did not give them enough credit.” As the information continued to flood, he would have smiled a moment if he was still capable.

“That young Apollo, A shame he is embracing the flesh over the steel. I am curious and hopeful for his success though. I will need more allies if this infestation will ever cease.”

Ares’ processors took over his Soul as he had given himself enough for another century or two. For now, he must focus back on purging as many of the creatures before him to prove to these aliens that they should become a part of his forces.

Meanwhile on the planets moon, Prime 3 had just looked up at the planet. She had just finished draining the biomass from this place and could see a strong being tearing apart her warriors. His fleet had arrived suddenly and was large and fast. It was familiar as well. They would show up every now and then and interrupt their hunts.

Prime 4 had let the being escape her maw before and she would not make the same mistake. ‘Perhaps if I kill a being that strong, Main brain will allow me to return and mate with dearest Apollo!’

Ares was not aware, but his strong presence had caused the Hive in that sector of space to go berserk as the possibility of mating was on the line and they all began to fight with even more ferocity than before.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep