Over the next few days, Zion trained relentlessly inside the storage area, pushing his nanosuit for hours on end.

The confined space was filled with the sounds of metal clashing, the training module resetting endlessly as he forced himself through the same level over and over again.

Finally, as his surroundings shifted back to the ship's storage bay after clearing Level Twenty, Zion collapsed onto the floor, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

[Congratulations, Host,] Uriel said calmly. [You have reached the required neural synchronization rate.]

Zion laughed weakly, staring up at the lights above him.

"Finally."

His muscles burned, his limbs felt heavy, and even his throat was dry. Yet, he'd finally done it.

He raised a hand for a moment, then let it fall to the floor again.

After slowly steadying his breathing over several minutes, he pushed himself up again, heading straight for his private shower.

'Though I knew it was inevitable, actually having all requirements reach one hundred percent feels satisfying,' he thought, smiling from ear to ear.

Reaching his shower, he quickly took off his sweaty clothes and threw them aside. Finally, he stepped under the shower and turned on the hot water.

He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the water stream down his face.

'Uriel,' he thought, wiping the water from his eyes. 'Do you have any idea what I'll get for reaching D-rank?'

[Yes and no,] Uriel replied simply. [Like all suits, you'll gain access to one or two standard weapons.]

It paused for a moment.

[But I couldn't tell you what kind or how many unique weapons you'll awaken.]

Zion nodded slowly.

'Doubt I'll use the standard weapons much,' he thought, his mind wandering back to the Blue Mane crew he'd wiped out. 'But who knows? Maybe a shield or a throwable spear could be nice.'

The standard suit features weren't really interesting for him, at least not at D-rank.

'They'll only become relevant at C and B-rank,' he thought, brushing his hair. 'The gap between ranks will increase massively from there on.'

Normal C-ranks awaken an external suit, which increases their physical features in exchange for some energy.

As for B-ranks, their external armor would evolve, giving them the ability to transform it into a full-on mech suit of up to fifty feet tall. Not to mention their ability to transmute their energy into other energies, such as forces of nature.

Zion let out a sigh, shaking his head. 'And I need to kill something like that in five years…'

Even now, he wasn't entirely sure if he'd made the right decision. Rushing to kill someone that strong could potentially expose him to other parties, like Uriel had said.

"I'll just have to deal with it when the time comes," he mumbled, turning off the water.

As he stepped out of the shower and clothed himself, he walked back to the control room.

"Uriel, how long until we get to Planet D-418?" he asked, throwing himself back in his chair.

[At our current pace, only two more days, Host,] Uriel replied, its voice calm and quiet.

Zion tapped his armrest, unsure what to do next.

Then, he sat up straighter as an idea popped up in his mind.

"Uriel, can you already tell me more about your past?" he asked, curious. "I still have yet to find anything related to your kind."

Uriel remained quiet for a long time while Zion patiently waited, not having anything better to do anyway.

Finally, after nearly five minutes, it spoke up.

[We were at war,] it started, its tone somber. [As I mentioned last time.]

Zion perked up, nodding once.

[But it wasn't just any kind of war. It was a war till extinction, one that would continue until the last person of either race died.]

'Race?' Zion thought, immediately noting it.

Uriel remained silent for a moment, as if trying to filter what it could and couldn't say.

[I won't be able to tell you much more about the war,] it said. [As it's far too sensitive if certain entities are still around.]

[But what I can tell you more about is your suit.]

Hearing that, Zion raised an eyebrow. "My suit?"

There were indeed many things he'd been thinking about in regard to his suit. Countless simple but also intricate questions popped up in his mind immediately.

'Everything around the suit is sketchy and strange,' he thought, stroking his chin. 'From how it got to that specific planet, why it chose me, or even why it wasn't used in the war itself.'

He hadn't decided to press on it, as he wouldn't be alive without its powers, and he hadn't really cared as long as it gave him his revenge.

But to say he wasn't curious? That would be an understatement.

[Last time, I told you the suit was sent away on an inheritance vessel,] Uriel continued, snapping him out of his thoughts. [But that wasn't the full truth behind it.]

Zion remained silent, though his eyes narrowed slightly.

[Just a month before our crash, we'd gotten news that someone compatible with the suit had been found,] Uriel said. [We were transporting the suit to him with the hopes of turning the tides of the war. But alas, that never happened.]

Silence fell in the control room as Zion stared ahead, processing the new information quietly.

"Thank you," he finally said. "That was indeed something that didn't make sense to me."

Uriel didn't respond right away.

[You deserved to know that much,] it said eventually. [Nothing more.]

Zion nodded slowly, his gaze drifting back to the dark stretch of space ahead.

"So in the end," he muttered, "everything came down to timing."

[That is often the case,] Uriel replied. [Though, in hindsight, even if we'd gotten the suit to the compatible person, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the war.]

Zion tilted his head slightly. "Why is that?"

[Our opponent was simply too powerful,] it answered. [He would've never given us enough time to raise the suit to its full potential.]

Zion felt a chill roll down his spine. A civilization powerful to such an extent wasn't something to laugh at.

'But thankfully that was thousands of years ago, and those people can't be around anymore,' he thought. 'As much as I would've wanted to avenge Uriel's race, it would've been nothing more than a suicidal mission.'

Their entire race failed to defeat them. What was he meant to do when he didn't have a crew, let alone millions of people to fight for him?

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