Just a few minutes after Arias and Cheshire finished their little 'exchange,' the sound of helicopter blades could be heard from within the yacht.
Both Cheshire and Arias left the lounge area and went up to the helipad, where the chopper was in the midst of landing. As soon as it did, Ivy and Enchantress erged from it, with two masked n unloading sealed cases behind them.
Ivy was quick to frown upon seeing Arias, whereas Enchantress had a very hard-to-read expression. She often moved her head as if lost, her eyes wandering as if she were curious about everything around her.
Arias ignored Ivy's nacing glare and first addressed Enchantress. "Your job is done. Let Dr. June out."
Enchantress showed visible hesitation toward this instruction, hunching her back and letting out echoed whispers—her way of showing unwillingness.
"Now."
As Arias added this single word, the already cloudy skies rumbled furiously, lightning crackling all around the yacht, with the seas raging alongside it. His voice sent vibrations through the bodies of all who heard it, causing a dreadful feeling to arise.
The two masked n unloading the cases from the chopper clutched their chests, while Ivy, Cheshire, and Enchantress let out subtle, pained groans. Even Raven, who was ditating in her room, stopped and looked around in worry, relaxing only after realizing the voice belonged to Arias.
Enchantress let out louder echoed whispers and soon submitted to the request, her entire figure consud by a thick, dark mist that rotated rapidly around her. As the mist subsided, it revealed a confused Dr. June, who looked around in worry but relaxed after seeing she was safely on the yacht.
"D-did we succeed?" she asked, showing an unsure look. After all, she had no recollection of what transpired when Enchantress took over.
Arias nodded subtly and smiled. "Welco back, Dr. June, and yes, as you can see, the operation went quite well."
As he spoke, Arias gestured toward the cases being unloaded, easing Dr. June's worry. However, sothing still struck her as odd.
"Why does everyone look a bit pale?" she inquired, unaware of what Arias had done monts ago.
"Must be the weather. You should head inside and get so rest; you can study the artifacts you obtained later," Arias charmingly advised, a tone Ivy found to be pretentious.
To her, Arias was as diabolical as they ca, and seeing him put on this farce of an act irked her to the very core. But unfortunately, she was powerless to do anything against him.
"Oh... thank you. Then, I'll do just that. Goodnight, everyone." Dr. June, still a bit confused over what was happening, simply chose to listen to Arias and rest. She said her awkward goodbyes and left for the lower levels of the yacht.
Without saying anything, Ivy chose to do the sa and left, showing a heightened sense of worry as she walked past him.
Cheshire looked more impressed than anything else and ca closer to Arias, showing a smile. "Quite the mouth you got there, boss," she playfully comnted as they watched the two n unload the cases even faster.
"You should head inside as well. It'll be dangerous for you up here very soon," Arias warned, wearing a calm expression. In contrast, his eyes glowed with a powerful array of colors that resembled clustered galaxies.
Looking at them, Cheshire felt an indescribable feeling of inferiority and fear, as though she would die with the simplest of actions. Arias looked at her only for a mont before turning his gaze away to watch the chopper begin to take off.
Cheshire, unusually silent, left without one of her typical suggestive remarks, as her instincts told her to. The mont she was gone, Arias breathed out slowly, and the skies trembled once again, the clouds ominously encircling the area of the ocean where Arias's yacht lay.
Following this peculiar event, Apeiro's familiar voice resonated in his mind. *"You're evolving. There's no need to fight it, Ari. Unleash the power within."*
Arias, who was currently gritting his teeth while looking at the ominous clouds, began to feel his entire being grow lighter and lighter, until he felt like he weighed nothing. Nurous thoughts rushed through his mind, but he couldn't focus on even one.
His instincts all scread for a single action: *release*.
And in the next mont, Arias did just that, his eyes flashing brightly for a second. In that instant, across all corners of the universe, every being saw nothing but bright light for a single mont, and then, in the next, all the light returned to Arias's eyes, casting the universe into a state of dark stillness, which also lasted only a mont.
For many beings, that mont, though odd, felt like a trick of the eye and nothing more. But for so who were unlucky, that brief flash of white and then black brought grave consequences.
For Arias, however, that single mont felt incredibly still and long. As the light from his eyes spread to all corners of the ever-expanding universe, he saw it all. He saw the universe for what it truly was, with all its flaws.
And as the light returned to him, it brought with it an unprecedented level of understanding. But before Arias could even ponder these changes, Apeiro's soft voice resonated within his mind once more.
*"How does it feel to grasp the universe?"*
Arias didn't imdiately answer. Instead, he blankly stared at his own hands and flesh as if they were foreign to him. A look of bewildernt crossed his face as he raised his hand toward the sky and snapped his fingers.
In the next mont, an explosive do the size of several nuclear blasts appeared dauntingly in the sky. But rather than spread, its outer surface expanded slowly.
All who gazed upon the deadly ball of fire that appeared in the sky paled instantly. But before any understanding could be ford, the deadly sight vanished at the snap of Arias's fingers. At that mont, Apeiro's voice questioned again.
*"How does it feel to be nigh-omnipotent?"*
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