Chaos Heir

Chapter 1518: Found

The following weeks saw what a united universe could truly achieve when working together without politics or personal interests getting in the way.

Labs, encampments, and proper city blocks appeared on Earth overnight, equipped with the best technology each species had to offer, creating environments where they could work together toward a joint goal.

Masters of crafts that couldn’t possibly exist in the same room put aside their differences to see what could be merged to achieve quicker and general results.

After all, a single solution wouldn’t be sufficient. Each finding had to be adapted to the various species or made general enough for anyone to benefit from it.

The same went for the training camps. Usually, different armies would have unique training regimens. Still, unity would be key in the war, forcing the various leaders to perform joint exercises and come up with battle tactics that could make better use of every species’ innate talent.

It truly was a time of unprecedented development, achieving what individual species wouldn’t have succeeded at in entire years of research. That was the power of candid cooperation, fueled by a common universal threat.

Obviously, Khan led by example in that period. He had always pushed himself more than his peers, and the unclear timeline only forced him to work even harder than usual.

Khan’s unique status and role in the war also made the involved parties pave the way for him as much as possible, saving him so much time that he never had to wait to start the next step of his task.

From moon to moon, with the occasional breaks on smaller asteroids, Khan teleported all over the Thilku Empire’s domain with the Emperor, visiting locations destroyed by the Scarlet Eyes that wouldn’t mind additional damage.

Just like that, Khan experienced one of the most fruitful training sessions of his entire life, only beaten by his time in the Nak’s home world.

Of course, Khan only had one point of his attunement to fill, but that gap could very well be bottomless for him. Yet, by the end of the second week of uninterrupted training, his efforts seemed to have paid off.

As usual, Khan had hurried back to his lead scientist’s private lab after returning to Aynor’s quadrant. Raymond also performed tests Khan had gone through more than ten times, only to finally deliver the results that basically his entire organization had been waiting for.

"My Prince!" Raymond shouted, storming inside the isolated room once the consoles confirmed the deed.

Khan was still naked, standing among the light from the glowing lines that littered that small room, but his lack of clothes didn’t cross his mind when he looked at Raymond’s face.

"Did I do it?" Khan wondered.

"You did, my Prince," Raymond nodded. "The software shows exactly ninety-nine point nine nine."

Khan’s eyes couldn’t help but widen before looking down at his hands. He genuinely felt stuffed, full of something he couldn’t really put into words. He sensed that adding even a whiff of energy would cause a transformation, but that had been his state for three training sessions already.

That was why Khan hadn’t expected that last training session to be the one that would have finalized his plan, especially since his requirements had continued to increase.

Still, Khan’s eyes soon went further down, or back, illuminating his blue scar and the red symbol above it.

Liiza had found the time to help her husband with his training, placing a failsafe that would have prevented him from inadvertently fulfilling his attunement.

The symbol had clearly worked since Raymond had long since accepted that no number of calculations would have allowed Khan to reach a perfect ninety-nine point nine nine percent.

However, that was beside the point now. All that mattered was that Khan had finally succeeded.

"Are you sure?" Khan asked, wanting to hear more than a simple confirmation. Raymond couldn’t lie to him anymore, but the topic was too important to leave to scientists alone.

"I’m not, obviously, my Prince," Raymond declared. "All this is experimental, with most of it developed specifically for you and your task."

Refuting that claim was impossible. A being like Khan already existed beyond the realm of science. Even if Raymond had endless time, he probably would never develop something that could provide certain answers.

"But it’s the best we can achieve with our current technology," Raymond continued. "I developed the algorithm myself, made my fellow scientists check it, and rechecked it now. The math is correct."

Raymond literally had a tattoo that vouched for his honesty. Khan didn’t even have better scientists in that specific field at his disposal, and his own senses seemed to confirm that point.

As strange as it sounded, Khan had to trust that result, even if that put him before the inevitable next and final step. He was now ready to face the True Chaos’ God and get tainted by his energy, which inevitably gave birth to some hesitation.

Khan couldn’t help but look at his chest again, caressing the red symbol, while countless thoughts flared in his mind. He reviewed everything he could, looking for something, anything he might have missed.

Nevertheless, Khan came back empty-handed from that search. He had done everything in his power to prepare himself and the universe for that battle. He only had to win that showdown now.

"Very well," Khan muttered, the lab’s artificial illumination flickering as his resolve infected his aura. He even scraped the symbol away, knowing he didn’t need it anymore.

"My Prince!" Raymond called, as more of the equipment in that private lab started sizzling, seemingly ready to release smoke. "If you could-"

Raymond couldn’t finish his line since everything suddenly stabilized. However, he soon realized he hadn’t been the cause behind Khan’s self-restraint. The latter was looking at a spot behind him, illuminating a poor soldier who appeared frozen in fear under the light of his eyes.

"Speak," Raymond ordered as soon as he noticed the soldier. "Don’t make the Prince wait."

"Mis-," The soldier stammered, gasping when he realized his mistake, overcorrecting himself by shouting. "My Prince, Mister Cobsend! They found them!"