He remained seated on the bed after that, reflecting on how little he had learned about the universe surrounding him. With a frown, he looked around the room.

  ‘I almost forgot…’ he thought. Remembering the medical instruments on the table, he lifted his shirt. ‘Yeah, I figured it’d be like this.’

  The wound on his abdomen was completely closed, but a large scar covered the surface of his skin.

  ‘Did he use some kind of regeneration ability on me? Maybe that’s why I feel so tired. How many days have passed since I killed Manto?’

  Every time he thought about it, his sense of time became more distorted. A wound like the one he received in the Arena would normally require months of rest if there wasn’t a healer-type Empath nearby. The human body was stubborn and always tried to heal as quickly as possible, but even then, regeneration wouldn’t be anywhere near this fast.

  ‘Well, I can leave that for later. Right now, I want to think about what people call Sephiroth.’

  Kaulai had mentioned that Gates appeared due to an excess of Sephiroth in the environment; that meant it was the name used across the universe for Calem Energy. Simply calling it “Energy” was technically correct, but the terms used in other galaxies were still a mystery to him.

  Information like that had to be handled carefully. For now, Nova lay back on the bed, relaxing his mind to better organize his thoughts.

  “Umbra Trail, Azazel, Phareon… Those three galaxies came straight out of Kaulai’s mouth.”

  Being so small was… overwhelming.

  ‘With so many planets in the universe, how long will it take me to get home? I’ve asked myself that question so many times,’ he closed his eye, exhausted. ‘Every time I learn something new, the distance between my destination and me only keeps growing.’

  Sleep and exhaustion whispered in his ear—making his eye feel heavy and clouding his mind with thoughts.

  ‘I need to figure out how to get out of here before they kill me.’

  The terrifying image of the Lycan attacking without mercy, and the horrible sensation of losing control of his Spectrum, would haunt his nightmares…

  ***

  Hours later, Nova found himself in the prison hallway. He was barefoot and groggy. His hair was a mess, and his clothes were torn.

  “Huh. Looks like this is how things are going to be.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Just as Kaulai had said, the door to the food room was already open. He approached cautiously, peeking his head inside as if he didn’t fully trust the words of the alien who had saved his life.

  ‘Wow… What the hell is this?’

  Silver walls, a massive oven, and a strange kitchen setup filled the area, making it look like the workspace of a professional chef. One entire wall functioned as a refrigerator—its glass door revealing bizarre vegetables from unknown places, along with large cuts of meat in various colors. A large rectangular table stood at the center of the kitchen.

  ‘I think this is making me a little sick…’

  With a crooked smile, he stepped inside. It had been two months since he’d eaten anything decent, but he wasn’t about to blindly trust what he saw. I mean—the meat in the fridge was completely green! It looked like it had been soaked in a tank of toxic waste, because if the lights went out, it actually glowed in the dark.

  ‘My mom taught me not to be picky with food, but this is way too much…’

  Just looking at the ingredients gave him chills and made him nervous, but complaining like a whining kid wouldn’t get him anywhere.

  “Let’s see… They want me alive so they can force me to fight other monsters. That means nothing here should be harmful to my body… hopefully.”

  He nodded, determined not to be intimidated by the ingredients. First, he washed his hands at the sink, then turned toward the fridge.

  “You’re going down.”

  He was ready to cook.

  He cut up some vegetables that didn’t look too alien and set them aside. Then he moved toward the stove, but frowned when he saw all the buttons on the glass panel.

  “Isn’t there a manual that explains how to use this thing? I’m not going to blow up or something, right?”

  He searched, but found nothing.

  “Well, you can always trust intuition in situations like this.”

  Later, the central table of the kitchen was covered with various improvised dishes. There was stew made from green meat and vegetables that, in flavor and texture, resembled some found on Terra. Nova prepared soup, cold sweet juices, and a few snacks using fruits that didn’t look quite as terrifying.

  Nodding proudly at his work as a chef, he said:

  “Sometimes the simplest things can save your life.”

  That was the voice of experience speaking. If it hadn’t been for his strange obsession with botany, he would never have escaped alive from that desolate desert—let alone defeated the serpent with the last seeds he had left.

  “Now…”

  His eye glowed darkly. Malice seeped from his being. Holding a spoon, he aggressively attacked all the food on the table. He didn’t waste a single crumb, devouring everything so fast that not even the tiniest particle escaped his jaws.

  By the time he finished demolishing what lay on the plates, face pressed against the table, he let out a long sigh of relief and satisfaction.

  “Food won’t be a problem anymore, but…”

  He felt irritated. Even though this place had food and shelter, it also guaranteed death. And that, after all, wasn’t good—because Nova…

  “I want to go home!”

  The following days of recovery were all the same. Sometimes Kaulai would appear to say a few mundane things or to check on Nova’s condition. Their interactions always boiled down to the kind of casual conversations two neighbors might have, but at least they didn’t get along badly.

  You could even say Kaulai was a pretty decent guy—despite his alien toad-like appearance…