Chaos' Heir

In the past, Khan had accomplished many amazing feats, but ordinary soldiers often failed to quantify how incredible they were. They lacked terms of comparison that their narrow perspectives could understand, dismissing most of what Khan did as simply alien and mystical.

However, everyone knew how deadly space was. It was a simple, widespread truth that soldiers learned since the initial stages of their enrollment. Technology had advanced by leaps and bounds in that field, but the dark expanse remained undefeated. Even the mighty, mysterious, evolved warriors respected that reality.

So, Khan's latest feat unleashed an unstoppable wave of gossip that shocked anyone who heard it to the core. No one really cared about the broken training hall. Khan had always been good at destroying things in the end. Still, his casual trip through space became a reason-defying story, something most people wouldn't believe if they didn't see it with their own eyes.

Khan obviously remained outside that social event, and Gordon tried to contain the news. Yet, life in a space station had little to no recreational activities, so the feat inevitably became the main topic among the crews' gossip.

Some tried to justify Khan's actions with his alien knowledge, but almost everyone in Nott Station had seen the absence of techniques during the walk through space.

Others thought the whole space station had fallen prey to mass hallucinations. That wasn't entirely impossible due to Khan's strange powers and remained easier to believe than the fact that a human being could survive in space.

A few tried to link the whole event to technical malfunctions and a series of interferences from the training hall's destruction and the hangar's mana barrier. Anything was easier to accept than the alternative, but to the soldiers' shock, more proof quickly arrived.

Garret stayed true to his word. The workers fixed the training hall in a couple of days, restoring it to its former glory but avoiding replacing the mana barrier's generator. The tool was pointless and superfluous with Khan, hastening the rebuilding process.

However, Khan's transformation made another process superfluous. His demonstration had forced Garret to accept the truth, dismissing any need for rides between Nott Station and the new training hall. Khan could cross the hangar's mana barrier and fly there on his own, saving money on personnel.

Also, as much as Khan tried to be careful with his following training sessions, his strength had reached unfathomable levels. The structure kept breaking every time he isolated himself inside, replaying the same unbelievable scenes as the first time.

The soldiers would prefer to believe they were under some spell, but that idea lost ground since Khan kept performing his impressive feat at specific intervals. He flew naked in space every time he entered or returned from the training hall, forcing the crew to accept that simple but incredible truth.

Even the most incredible events could become mundane after witnessing them several times. However, Khan's feat never stopped mesmerizing Nott Station's soldiers, which turned his trips to and from the space station into regular entertainment that saw many crews gather in hangars or control rooms to witness it.

The trend could easily disturb the many tasks in the work inside and outside Nott Station, but Gordon turned a blind eye to those gatherings. Soldiers needed recreational activities to continue doing their best, and Khan had a way of making them priceless.

First of all, witnessing a human surviving in space was inspiring. The soldiers had lived their whole lives in fear of that deadly environment, but Khan seemed to have conquered it. His feat brought pride to anyone who served him, and allowing the crews to witness the event reinforced his fame.

Second, the events didn't happen too often. Khan always ended up destroying the training hall one way or another, and the workers needed two or three days to fix it. That amounted to four to six trips to space each week, so the gatherings during those instances didn't disturb the ongoing projects too much.

Khan was aware of the growingly heated gazes that fell on his figure, but his attention never lingered on them. He completely immersed himself in his training routine, alternating foreign memory absorption with physical workout, barely taking any breaks in between.

That training routine was obviously expensive. Only a noble family had the finances and assets to allow Khan to perform it in space, but that steep price started to affect his forces, too. Between fixing the training hall and satisfying Khan's hunger, Gordon struggled to make ends meet. Still, that period was bound to be temporary.

After almost a month of that expensive training, the awaited news reached Khan's flat. He was immersed in his mental training at that moment, but noticing the message, he left his habitation in a hurry.

Khan didn't care about money, and his training was going well, but something could still improve everything, and that moment had finally arrived. He ignored the soldiers trying to escort him to reach his destination, only stopping when Garret's usual stern face appeared in his view.

"My Prince," Garret called, showing the way inside a relatively small room. "It's done."

Khan entered the room to find a series of consoles standing at the oval platform's sides. He recognized Nott Station's teleport, but Garret had modified it over the past two months he had been there, improving its overall capabilities.

Nevertheless, the teleport itself didn't interest Khan. He only cared about the new available location that he could reach with it. Getting there wouldn't only improve his overall training. It would also add a practice he couldn't perform while surrounded by synthetic mana.

"Will it work?" Khan asked.

"I made the appropriate adjustments on both ends myself," Garret confirmed, nodding at the scientists behind the consoles. "It will strain Nott Station a bit, but it will work."

"Nott Station will only benefit from me not being here," Khan commented. "Let's do this."

Garret couldn't help but agree, but his stern expression didn't falter. He moved aside, joining one of the scientists behind the console while Khan stepped on the oval platform.

"Make sure to send my ship, too," Khan ordered after reaching the oval platform's center. "I don't want to risk being stranded."

"I already put a team on it, My Prince," Garret revealed, focusing on the console's screen. "Establishing link. Destination: Coravis."