Mason's POV

  I heard voices around me and slowly opened my eyes. I found myself strapped to some sort of upright bed.

  “He's awake…” I heard Varko’s taunting voice.

  “What is this?” I looked around. I was in a jet, similar to ours, but smaller. Varko punched a button on the dashboard, and many holograms came up.

  “You didn't kill him after all…” I heard a female voice say.

  “Ha…that would have been hilarious,” an angry voice yelled.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Varko rolled his eyes.

  I looked around and found six holograms lined up.

  “Any complications?”

  “...well.” Varko started, but he got interrupted.

  “If there were, I hope you neutralized it,” one quietly said.

  “Calm down, Grimzar.” Varko sighed. “A few unprecedented things, but other than that. It's fine.”

  “Varko.” A voice boomed out. I felt chills as I heard it. It sounded like a cold-blooded war commander, and I was stunned.

  “Have you received this human’s scan results?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Varko was not intimidated at all. “He's got pulse energy in his veins.”

  “How many percent?”

  “Ninety.”

  I heard murmurs from the holograms.

  “A pulse born?”

  It seems like they know about my abilities.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Yeah,” Varko pressed a couple of buttons. “A purebred Pulse-born.”

  “Which makes him an ideal wielder of the Cube.”

  The cube? L-CUBE??!

  “Hey, uh… Sorry to interrupt you, Mr. War Commander, but umm…”

  The war commander turned to me. “Human…” I am no war commander; I am the right-hand man to the overlord Drax. He is the true war commander. You may call me Marmatov.”

  “Okay, Mr. Marmatov. I'm Mason, by the way, so, uh, can you like let me go? I'm not really a Pulseborn. This is just one big understanding.”

  “Ha!” Another female sniggered, “The human’s capable of lies as well.”

  I swallowed hard. “Then what if the Cube disintegrates me? I'm human, and from what I've heard, it's capable of destroying worlds…”

  “Galaxies,” the silent one corrected.

  “If the cube’s transfer is complete, you will be under my lord’s control. You will become a server to the greatest entity in the universe.”

  “And if it's not?” I felt my chest tighten.

  Varko sniggered, "That's the fun part. You die.”

  I gulped and tried to wrestle free, but my arms had been locked down, my feet were strapped down, and my chest was covered with some sort of armor.

  “Begin the transfer.” Marmatov said in an authoritative voice.

  “This won't hurt a bit.” Varko’s eyes twinkled as he pushed a button. I was sent hurtling out to space, still locked up.

  “L CUBE in position,” I heard him yell into a mic. A beam of light surrounded a huge crater-like object, and it directed the crater to me.

  “No!” I yelled as the crater dissolved and a cube came into view.

  It was a perfectly shaped cube, light blue in color, and crackling with electricity.

  It was floating right towards me…at my chest.

  Then it made contact. It hit my chest, and for a minute, nothing happened.

  “What happ—”

  Then a blinding light erupted from the cube, and I was electrocuted. Every nerve, cell, and bone tinged with raw electricity coursing through my body. I screamed for it to stop, but it didn't. It fried my brains out, and my pulse energy amplified the electrifying sensation I felt.

  They didn't stop the transfer… I don't think they could even stop it. It went on for some minutes, but it felt like hours, days even.

  Then it stopped. I felt weak, but I remembered what Marmatov had said about dying. So I slowed my heart rate down, and I “passed out.”

  “What's going on?!” I heard Marmatov bellow. I went limp and didn't move as Varko retracted me back to the jet.

  “He's dead?” I heard one ask.

  “Hilarious!” The angry one laughed.

  “How is he dead? If a purebred pulse born couldn't handle the L cube, what could possibly handle it?”

  Varko sighed. “What now?”

  “I guess we have to report to Lord Drax…”

  Their master…

  “He's not going to be keen about this.” Marmatov sighed. “We need to keep searching… but for now, send him to the Nullum…”

  Nullum? I held myself back from twitching.

  “...we'll retrieve the cube after he decomposes.”

  “Alright, alright.” Varko sniggered. Then I heard the sound of a button, and the holograms switched off. The engines revved to life, the jet jolted up, and it began travelling in a direction. We travelled for some minutes until we came to a stop. I couldn't open my eyes yet…

  “Here we go.” I heard Varko stand up from his seat. Then the door opened, and I fell out of the jet. I floated in space and felt a pressure like a vacuum sucking me in.

  When the pressure stopped, I opened my eyes and found myself in a dark space. I couldn't find Varko’s jet, nor could I see any stars.

  “Where am I?” I said out loud.

  “Just great…” I looked around and decided to head east…

  Or was that north?