Death... and me

2746  This Voice...

"Well, it still doesn't change the fact I didn't want to get you involved," Romario commented.

"I guess we're past that point now," Rean mused, a hint of curiosity in his voice. "But, Dad, I'm really intrigued. How did you plan to utilize the Fragments to restore the foundation?"

Romario's voice grew serious. "The task is far from simple. Merely returning the Fragments to the Foundation Pillar won't suffice. We need a model, an integration point, to replicate the structure on a smaller scale. Only then can we hope to mend the Pillar."

He continued. "In my Pocket Dimensional Realm, I have this model I've been working on ever since I found out about the breaking of the Foundation Pillar by the Extinction Sphere. Once I collect all the Fragments, I will be able to merge this model into the Pillar itself. That should fix all the cracks and unify both sides."

The twins' group were even more surprised now. The Soul Gem System... Wasn't it doing exactly the same thing as Romario? It created a Foundation Pillar that they believe to be a copy of the real thing. It even used the Fragments themselves to fix the cracks in this model. Even its name had 'Integration' on it.

"Well, there is a lot of time still," Romario spoke. "I will take my time and find the Fragments one by one. The Lingan Universe hasn't returned until now, so they probably can't find this Universe's Location. Talking about Fragments, Rean, Roan, do you have the Fragment from the Floating Islands of Time? No, forget it. That Minokawa, Jeskli-Go, definitely kept it for himself. I will find a way to take it from him later."

The room was completely silent. Romario seemed to have no idea about what was happening outside. Not to mention, he was wrong about the Fragments as well. "So... that's basically it," Romario concluded. Yet, he noticed no one was saying anything, and that silence continued for a while until Romario spoke again. "I know it seems like a lot of information, but you shouldn't hold back. Just ask away. All I ask you is to not spread this information outside."

Finally, Rean couldn't help but start. "Ahem... You see, Father, although I'm not sure it is Lingan Universe that is coming for us, there are definitely some visitors about to arrive in our Universe in the next years. In fact, some of their scouts have already made an appearance."

Romario's expression froze as he got up from his chair in haste. "WHAT?! Are you serious?!"

Rean and the others nodded. "Absolutely serious. Let me give you a resume of the situation outside." There were way too many things to talk about, so Rean just used a Divine Sense Message to share it all at once with Romario.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Romario put his hands on his head. "They even went after the Chaos Origin Spear! That's not good! That's not good at all! This Universe is not prepared for it!"

"Chaos Origin Spear?" Everyone asked at the same time, puzzled.

Romario noticed they didn't know about it. "It's that tower you mentioned to have appeared on the Loporrits' Planet. It is known as the Chaos Origin Spear. Of course, it is not a spear, but it acts like one. It is the Chaos Origin Spear that has the power to pierce through the barriers of a Universe Chaos Origin Source and capture it. That's the sole reason for its existence."

"Back then, the Ruins of the Stars had already released it by the time I started my sabotage of the Spaceship," He recounted his version of the story. "With my sabotage, the connection with the Chaos Origin Spear disappeared before the Spaceship could pull it out with the Chaos Origin Source. The Chaos Origin Spear appearing in the Loporrits Planet seems to have been nothing but an aftermath of the loss of control over it."

"It even had its own protective barrier, created by the Foreign Fragment," Romario didn't stop. "Only something like that could possibly interact with the source. Did you really manage to remove it from the Chaos Origin Source?"

Rean and the others nodded. "We did. The passage to the Chaos Origin Source has been completely closed. The tower... Chaos Origin Spear crumbled right after we managed to send the Fragment out of this Universe."

Romario sighed in relief. "Good, good... Without the Foreign Fragment, the Chaos Origin Spear would indeed lose all its power. Crumbling afterward is to be expected. Your Universe Experts did well, you did well..."

Still, he wasn't feeling any happier. "We are still in deep trouble, though. With the Universe separated into two parts, Lingan Universe will definitely have the power to easily pierce through and acquire the Chaos Origin Source. Once that happens, this Universe is done for."

"Well, the Universe is done for regardless if they steal the Chaos Origin Source or not," Roan commented. "With both sides separated, it is slowly deteriorating. It's just that it would be much faster for it to come down if the Chaos Origin Source is taken."

Romario narrowed his eyes. "It makes sense. I haven't heard about another Universe being split into two before, so I don't know the repercussions of such an event. But how do you know it?"

That was the issue. To explain further, that implies telling Romario about the Soul Gem System and everything else, including Sister Orb. Even Juliana, who was aware of the most of things, became silent. She understood that her Son and Roan couldn't just trust Romario straight away like this. He caused way too many problems before.

*Zush!*

And yet, before the twins could even reach a decision, a sphere of White and Dark Light appeared in the middle of the room.

"Sister Orb?" Everyone didn't expect that.

[Yea, yea, yea, it's me.] Sister Orb spoke before paying attention to Romario. [We have met before, haven't we?]

Romario was taken aback for a second before a realization came to him. "This voice... this presence... The Universe Sentience!"

And as always, any Golden Tickets and Stones are welcome. ;)