The figure walked toward Gabriel and Michael. It was staring at the ground.
It had on a trench coat, a cowboy hat resting on its head, covering its face. It was giant, at least 8 feet tall.
Michael shouted out, "Who are you?"
The figure responded, in a language unknown to both brothers. They looked at each other confused.
The figure muttered to itself, still slowly approaching the brothers.
It was about 10 feet from the brothers when it reached out its palm, a small, earpiece-looking object in its hand.
The creature looked up, revealing its face. It had tusks, like a boar, protruding from the sides of its mouth, it was pale, its head as massive as its body, a long scar ran down the left side of its face.
It spoke again, pointing at its hand, gesturing to them to grab the object.
Michael hesitantly reached out and grabbed one of the objects. He put it on his ear, covering the helix and lobe.
Gabriel did the same, staring at the figure while doing it.
It spoke, "Hello, young ones." His voice was rough, yet he spoke elegantly, "My name is Xortaal. What are your names?"
Gabriel and Michael looked at each other in bewilderment.
"I'm Michael" Michael pointed at Gabriel, "And he's Gabriel."
"No need to be startled, for I am friendly." Xortaal smiled at the brothers, "How did you two survive in this world? No planet survives this creature, yet you two have even prevailed against a thrall."
"Our town survived; we think it was because of our proximity to this... Thing." Michael tried to understand why their town was allowed to live when the rest of the world died.
"You do not understand me, child. This creature kills everything that comes near it." Xortaal reiterated, "How is this planet not gone anyway, it usually explodes the planets after it is done feeding."
"What is this thing?" Gabriel jumped in with a question.
"They are servants of an ancient false God of hunger, Lo'Cheth. They are called Nungdas, which means hunger probes in the language made by the cult that followed Lo'Cheth. In the past, they probed planets to gauge if they were worthy to be eaten by their God, but they went rogue after their god died. They scattered themselves around the universe, destroying planets in their wake."
"So, we're not the only planet that was destroyed?"
"Yes, but you are the only planet to survive this long, the markings in the other room indicate this probe was here since ancient times, the creature you two killed was modeled after the dinosaurs that roamed this planet."
"Interesting." Michael's chin was in his hand, pondering the implications behind this.
"What are you then? You're not human." Asked Gabriel.
"I'm a high orc, from the universe B-24 in the Hypertree multiversal cluster. I'm also a junior hunter for the Veiled Sky."
"Hypertree Multiverse Cluster? Veiled Sky?" Michael raised these questions, not understanding Xortaal.
"The Hypertree is what it sounds like, a cluster of universes in the shape of a tree. The Veiled Sky is a bit more difficult to answer, I'll just have to show you. Grab my hand."
He reached out with both hands. Gabriel and Michael grabbed a hand each.
They suddenly felt a pulling force, pulling to seemingly nowhere. Their grip tightened to Xortaal as they tried to not fall off.
"You'll get used to it soon enough," Xortaal smirked.
All three were pulled out of existence, leaving the chamber empty of any life except the seeds.
They were spinning, it felt like they were being pulled at the speed of light.
They stopped suddenly, disorienting the brothers, while Xortaal just smiled at them.
They were floating in nowhere.
"This... Is the Space Between."
"It's beautiful," Gabriel muttered.
What they saw were like stars, making up the shape of a tree, each singular light giving off a different color, creating a blend of beautiful colors.
"Each of those lights you see is a universe."
"Wow." The brothers said at the same time, they were bewildered, enraptured by the beauty of the sight of the mystical tree in front of them.
"You two lived in that universe, T-327" Xortaal pointed at the middle of the trunk, a beige-white universe, slightly dimmer than other universes.
There were thousands of universes making up the trunk, branches, leaves, and roots of the tree.
The roots of the tree were pitch black, along with the space in between them. "Why are the roots like that?" Queried Gabriel.
Xortaal sighed, "Don't worry about it, it's nothing."
"Are you sure?" Michael looked at Xortaal with suspicion.
"Yes, it is nothing to worry about."
Gabriel turned around, seeing multiple other clusters of universes. One looked like a donut. He pointed at it. "What's that one called?"
"That is the Hypersphere cluster."
"Why is there a hole in the middle?" Gabriel pointed out.
Xortaal sighed again, "We don't know yet, the organization that controls it doesn't let information leak."
"Young Gabriel, let me see your arm." Xortaal grabbed for Gabriel's arm. He touched it.
"I-I don't feel anything."
"My my, that is not good, let's get you to a hospital quickly."
They felt the pulling force again. They still struggled to hold on, but being more experienced now made it easier.
They appeared in the sky. Below them was a city. The buildings grew into the sky, sleek, white buildings. Some buildings floated, powered by seemingly nothing. The ground could not be seen, and buildings built so high the surface has been forgotten in the past.
Cars floated around them, flying in organized lanes, they drifted effortlessly between the buildings. The engines made no noise; the only noise came from the drones floating about and traffic lights.
"This is the base for the Veiled Sky, it's called the white city. The entire planet is a city. We're currently in the medical district." Xortaal pointed out, "That building is the main hospital."
"How are we flying?" Gabriel said with a scared look on his face.
"I didn't know you were scared of heights." Michael snickered.
"Shut up."
"We are flying because I have telekinesis. My species evolved it." Xortaal informed them.
They floated slowly towards the building, weaving in between cars, stopping as they waited for them to pass.
The front door of the hospital was extremely busy. Hundreds of different species, some green, some purple, some tall, some short, piled up at the door.
Xortaal squeezed through the crowd, Gabriel and Michael in tow.
"Why is it so busy?" Gabriel pondered.
"Riots, there were a few last week protesting the ban on genetic engineering. It got violent, a few people got sent to the hospital."
They got to the front desk, the line being quite short. It only took them 5 minutes in the line to get to the desk.
The receptionist was a female alien, sitting behind the desk, they could only see her head. She had purple skin, and keratin spikes on the top of her head acting like hair. She had a round head, and pink, round lips.
"Hello, this boy can't feel his arm, wound comes from..."
"It was a gun, a pistol," Gabriel spoke.
"Yes. A primitive pistol, still using physical bullets." Xortaal clarified.
"Doctor King! Take the child to the emergency room." Shouted the receptionist.
A human doctor walked over to the receptionist, she handed him a sheet of paper with the information on Gabriels' injury.
"You're a human?" Asked Gabriel.
"I am indeed. I come from universe L-12."
"I didn't know humans populated other universes," Gabriel muttered.
"Humans are all over the multiverse, didn't your friend here tell you that? By the way, can I get your autograph Hunter Xortaal, my daughter loves you."
"Yes, no problem."
"You're famous?" Asked Gabriel.
"All hunters are famous, even the newest ones." Clarified Xortaal.
They reached the emergency room promptly.
"You can't feel your arm?" Asked Dr King.
"Yeah."
"Not good." Dr King stroked his chin, "At this point, there are only two options. One, we can cut off your arm entirely. Or two, we can transplant a robotic arm.
Gabriel looked solemnly at Dr King, "Those are the only options? With your advanced technology, you can't even give me a new arm?"
"Well, we could've in the past, but the ban on flesh transplants a few years ago means we can only transplant robotic limbs." Dr King looked down at his sheet of paper.
"Ok, transplant a robotic arm then."
Gabriel was transferred to the operating room. He was placed on the table.
"You're going to go under anesthesia, Ok?" Said one of the masked nurses.
Gabriel nodded.
They placed an oxygen mask on his face. Gabriel felt himself slipping out of consciousness as the mask lay on his face.