Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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Cedric will wholeheartedly admit that he said those words out of fright and trepidation. It wasn't his intention to be rude; he's just frazzled because, out of all the things that he could see as soon as he regained consciousness, he was not expecting it to be a planetary-sized eyeball.

The air seemingly went still after he uttered his words. Cedric mentally scolded himself, thinking that he had messed up. Although he couldn't be blamed for it, it doesn't change the fact that his words were somewhat rude and disrespectful.

This entity, whatever it's supposed to be, was strong. Obscenely strong. Cedric didn't doubt this, even for a second. The only reason he's not having a mental breakdown just yet is because he could tell that this 'entity' wasn't a demon. It wasn't human, but not a demon either.

"Come on, now. That's a bit rude. I'm more than just an eyeball," the entity said.

Following that, Cedric then saw a massive wave of stars covering the eyeball from above and below. He saw shooting stars colliding, space warping, and time stilling at the very moment it happened, but at the very next second, the eyeball reappeared in his vision.

'Did it just...'

"I've got eyelids too," the massive eye sheepishly stated.

"Of course you do," Cedric absent-mindedly replied.

His initial guess was right. It blinked just now to prove the point that it has eyelids. Cedric didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this. That said, this should be a sign that this entity didn't mean him harm, right? If it does, Cedric will be dead by now.

"I'm sorry. I'm just...really confused, I suppose." Cedric sighed and admitted this. "How did I end up here? The last thing I remember is that a...fair lady wanted me to experience something, yet all of a sudden, I woke up here. I'd appreciate it if you could enlighten me about this."

"Well, there's no other way to say this, really. I snatched your consciousness and drew you into this place because I found you interesting," the eyeball replied.

Cedric felt a headache coming.

"Right, of course, and I guess I'm powerless to resist something like that."

A little bit of sarcasm and petulance were present in his words.

"Yeah, that's my fault. But hey, I didn't take you simply because I was merely interested. You qualified for a life-changing opportunity that I'm guarding too; that's the bulk of the reason why I took you in," the eyeball stated.

"An opportunity?"

"Yes!" The eyeball exclaimed. "The consciousness of your world originally intended to expose you to the raw sight of the world beyond your own. From what I saw, that would've opened your eyes to the real state of your galaxy, allowing you to make plans and such. If you're lucky, you might even gain deeper insights about your Concept Laws."

'It knows...' Cedric muttered to himself. 'This entity knows about Acala and the Demon Race.'

Cedric suddenly turned wary. He still remembered that Acala was considered a 'rare resource' by the Demon Race. And although this entity isn't a demon, it might also be interested. This was enough for Cedric to psycho-analyze everything from this point on.

"Your world's extremely tiny." The eyeball sighed. "Moreover, it is isolated. If I wasn't alerted to your potential, I would've missed you completely."

"I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but... what are you?" Cedric asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

"#@_#<÷&,@#-!!"

"Argh!!" Cedric clutched his, feeling an immense headache all of a sudden.

"Ah, shit! My bad! Sorry!" The eyeball panicked and sent out a small beam of light towards Cedric.

The moment this light touched him, Cedric felt the pain dissipate like smoke. He released a sigh and felt comfortable once more. Deep down, he's astonished by this.

"Err, haha...sorry!" The eyeball shyly stated, "I got a little too comfortable. I forgot that I'm speaking to a Native. I guess I'm just pleasantly surprised that you could speak my language, and that made me excited. It's been too long, after all."

Cedric stilled all of a sudden.

"I'm speaking your language," he thought hollowly to himself.

"Yeah! Wait, you didn't know?" The eyeball asked, and it has a brow; it's probably furrowed right now.

"I didn't... yeah, I guess I am. But how?" Cedric asked nobody in particular. "I knew that it's possible that there are other living beings other than humans and demons, but this is my first time seeing and talking to one."

"Oh, so that means you can subconsciously understand and speak my language despite this being your first time? That's weird."

"Yeah, I guess it is," Cedric muttered, feeling a bit frazzled by this.

"Oh well, whatever. If you don't get it, then you don't get it. I mean, I work in your favor, so just run away with it," the eyeball dismissively said. "But, to answer your question, in your language, I could be considered a Titan."

Cedric looked at it in wonder and whispered, "A Titan, eh. Yeah, I guess that description fits. Wait, you can speak my language now?"

"It's really not that hard."

If it wasn't for the fact that Cedric couldn't see the entire body of this entity, he would probably see it shrugging as it replied.

"What's your name, sir?" Cedric asked. "My name's Cedric, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Well met, Cedric. And please, don't call me 'Sir'. I'm barely a 100,000 years old. I'm quite young, all things considered. Call me Big Brother Han, or just 'Big Han' will do."

'Barely a 100,000 years old, he says..quite young, he says..damn! This is nuts.'

'I mean, I guess that's why he sounds and acts like a teenager, but still! That's insane! '

Cedric knew deep down that Big Han wasn't lying. If he was, Cedric would be able to tell. That doesn't make this less shocking, though. 100,000 years—what a foreign concept! Even though he had seen the glorious life of the godking, this kind of lifespan still left him dazed.

While Cedric was dazed, Big Han shifted his gaze and looked at a distance. The way his pupils dilated and his vision zoomed in across several galaxies to look at the general area where he picked up this child would put Cedric's abilities to shame.

Not only this, but within seconds, Big Han more or less learned everything he needed to know about that world and the human race.

"Oh wow, you humans are something else."

Big Han's words slapped Cedric back to reality, causing him to stare at his massive eyeball again.

"Small, inauspicious, and incredibly supressed, yet every single one of you has potential. I guess this is partly because your world has innate spirituality. It's a pity that the Space Pirates saw you first."

"Space Pirates? You mean the Demon Race?"

"Well, they don't stay at one place, and they loot wherever they go while disregarding consequences. If they're not Space Pirates, then what are they?" Big Han rhetorically asked. "They're not the only ones. There are a lot of nomadic races who traverse galaxies, plundering everything that holds value."

"To us, it doesn't matter what they look like. So long as they do those things, they are space pirates. None of them would dare come close to this place because they will be eradicated before they could finish a whole sentence."

Big Han's words chilled Cedric to his core. He felt as if he was dreaming. It sounded cruel, but it made sense. This also gave him more perspective on how vast the galaxy truly was.

"You called me a Native earlier."

"We use that to describe beings that we never saw before and never knew about the existence of the Cosmic Alliance. It sounds offensive, I know, but once you see the real prosperity of our civilization, whether you like it or not, you'll realize that it makes sense why we call you that."

Cedric pondered for a bit before asking, "So, you're not trying to claim ownership of my world?"

"Heavens, no!" Big Han exclaimed. "No offense, but your world's like a piece of candy to me—a nearly expired one at that. Oh, don't look at me like that; face it, the Space Pirates pissed all over your world and it still hasn't been cleaned up. Who would eat something like that?"

Cedric wanted to say something to refute that; he truly does, but he knows that Big Han was right. It's just that the way he describes their situation, it's insulting as much as it's hillarious.

The grave threat that they're facing is laughable in front of an existence like Big Han. Such disparity really leaves a bitter taste in Cedric's mouth.

"You said something about an opportunity?" Cedric asked.

"Right! Gosh, I nearly forgot about it because I got too excited to converse with someone again after such a long time. Ahem..." Big Han cleared his throat before saying, "Your potential is amazing considering that you're a native; that's why I took you here."

Something materialized in front of Cedric. They looked like tokens.

"The green tokens contain information about the opportunity I was talking about. As for the violet golden token, you should only use that once you've learned everything you need to know about it."

"Refine these tokens so that you can store them in your soul. That way, they will follow you once you return to your body."

Cedric nodded, and he did just that.