The transition through the star-spanning gateway was not a gentle one. Aziel, Lena, and Rylan were plunged into a maelstrom of blinding light and disorienting force. It felt like being torn apart and reassembled simultaneously, their very atoms stretching and compressing across unimaginable distances. The roar of the activated gateway filled their ears, a sound that was both a triumph of ancient engineering and a terrifying reminder of their cosmic insignificance.
When the dizzying sensation finally subsided, they found themselves not on solid ground, but adrift in a cosmic void. Below them, a colossal, dying star pulsed with a dull, malevolent red light, its surface roiling with flares and dark, swirling gases. Around them, the blackness of space was punctuated by distant, cold pinpricks of other stars. The silence was absolute, a profound contrast to the chaos of their journey.
"By the void," Rylan gasped, his voice a shaky whisper, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and awe. He was clinging to Lena's arm, his usual bravado utterly vanished in the face of the cosmic spectacle. "We're in space. We're actually in space."
Lena, though equally stunned, quickly regained her composure. "Aziel, where are we? Is this... is this the dying star?"
Aziel, his senses fully engaged, felt the overwhelming presence of mana radiating from the star's core. It was immense, raw, and incredibly pure, but also tinged with the melancholic decay of a dying giant. This was indeed the place his ancestors' memories had guided him to. "Yes," he confirmed, his voice resonating with a new depth. "This is it. The mana here is unlike anything on Earth. And somewhere within its heart lies the Ethereal Quartz."
His infinite transformation ability hummed, reacting to the sheer density of mana around them. He extended his hand, and a shimmering, translucent mana-bubble formed around the three of them, providing a breathable atmosphere and protecting them from the vacuum and extreme temperatures. It was a testament to his rapidly evolving control.
"Alright, so we're floating in space around a giant, angry ball of fire," Rylan muttered, trying to regain some semblance of his usual wit. "Now what? Do we just... swim towards it?"
Aziel looked at the dying star, his mind sifting through the memories from the Sanctuary of Echoes. His ancestors had not simply collected the Ethereal Quartz; they had understood its creation, its delicate balance within the star's core. He saw visions of them descending into stellar interiors, cloaked in powerful mana shields, navigating currents of plasma and gravitational anomalies.
"The Ethereal Quartz forms under immense pressure, at the very heart of the star, where the mana is most concentrated and pure," Aziel explained. "It's not on the surface. We have to go deeper."
Lena's eyes widened. "Into the star? Are you serious?"
"It's the only way," Aziel stated, his resolve unshakeable. He began to channel mana, strengthening the bubble around them, preparing it for the unimaginable pressures and temperatures of a stellar descent. "Rylan, I'll need your scavenging instincts. The Ethereal Quartz isn't just a crystal; it's a living part of the mana flow. It will be subtle. You need to focus on sensing anomalies, unusual energy signatures within the star's chaos."
Rylan, despite the obvious terror in his eyes, nodded. "Unusual energy signatures? I'm good at finding things that shouldn't be there. Especially if they're valuable."
As Aziel propelled their mana-bubble towards the dying star, the fiery surface below grew larger, more terrifying. Columns of burning plasma erupted thousands of miles into space, painting the void with transient, searing light. The closer they got, the more the mana-bubble shimmered and strained against the star's gravitational pull and extreme heat.
"This is getting... toasty," Lena gritted out, beads of sweat forming on her forehead despite Aziel's mana-field. She activated her own nascent mana-sensing abilities, trying to perceive the internal structure of the star, a dizzying whirlwind of energy.
Suddenly, a massive solar flare erupted directly in their path, a wave of incandescent energy large enough to swallow a planet. Aziel instinctively reacted, reinforcing the mana-bubble with every ounce of his will, but the impact was still tremendous. The bubble shuddered violently, and they were thrown backwards, tumbling through the void.
"Hold on!" Aziel roared, focusing fiercely, drawing more mana from the bubble's interior to stabilize them. The heat inside intensified, and the air crackled with discharged energy.
Rylan, despite being shaken, pointed a trembling finger. "Aziel! Did you see that? Just inside the flare, for a second... a flicker! Like a cold spot in the fire!"
Aziel focused his enhanced vision, his eyes piercing through the afterimage of the flare. Rylan was right. A fleeting, almost imperceptible point of absolute cold, a void of mana, had appeared within the raging inferno. That was it. The Ethereal Quartz. It wasn't just a crystal; it was a singularity, a point where mana had collapsed upon itself to create a perfect focus.
"That's it!" Aziel exclaimed, a surge of triumph mixed with grim determination. "The Ethereal Quartz manifests as a point of absolute mana density, a void within the flow. Rylan, you have an incredible eye. Lena, can you help me lock onto that frequency?"
Lena, pushing past the pain, focused her mana-sensing, working in tandem with Aziel's far more powerful connection. Slowly, painstakingly, they began to triangulate the exact location of the Ethereal Quartz, a needle in a cosmic haystack.
As they prepared for a second, more calculated descent, Aziel felt a subtle shift in the surrounding space. It was not the star's natural activity. It was a deliberate presence. A chilling cold, far more refined and malevolent than the dying star's heat, began to press in.
"I feel you, anomaly," a voice echoed, not through the void, but directly into Aziel's mind, a voice like the grinding of cosmic ice. "A foolish pursuit. You underestimate the reach of the Divine Sovereigns. And the determination of their chosen."
Astraeus.
Aziel's eyes narrowed. He hadn't expected Astraeus to follow them through the gateway so quickly, or to be able to project his consciousness across such a vast distance. But the Divine Sovereigns' power was more pervasive than he had anticipated.
"He's here," Aziel warned Lena and Rylan, his voice grim. "Not physically, but his presence. He's found a way to track us."
"Great," Rylan mumbled, pressing himself against the mana-bubble. "Just what we needed. A cosmic stalker."
"We move now," Aziel declared, ignoring the chilling voice. "We have to get the Quartz before he can manifest fully or send his minions." He pushed the mana-bubble forward, directly towards the tumultuous surface of the dying star, aiming for the 'cold spot' Rylan had detected.
The descent was brutal. The mana-bubble screamed under the strain, its purple light flickering. Aziel poured more and more mana into it, his face contorted with effort. Lena and Rylan, though terrified, kept their focus, assisting Aziel with their nascent mana control, trying to stabilize the bubble's integrity.
As they plunged deeper, the heat became unbearable, the light blinding. They were entering the heart of a stellar inferno, seeking a cosmic needle in a cosmic haystack, while a celestial assassin's presence loomed over them. This was the true test of Aziel's Cosmic Rebirth, a desperate gamble against the very laws of the universe.