World Forge

"Who are you?" Arishem asked—or rather, demanded in an aggressive tone. The moment Ian saw him in person, he narrowed his eyes.

"As I said, I am the Sorcerer Supreme, the Guardian of Earth."

"Guardian? Who granted you that authority?" Arishem had lived for trillions of years, so the title of guardian of a mere planet could not stop him or his actions. However, he also wanted to know whether someone was backing this man, giving him the nerve to act so boldly.

"Who granted me the authority? This did." Ian replied, then pointed his finger northwest.

A beam of light shot toward a distant, desolate galaxy and erased it in an instant. Then he snapped his fingers and rebuilt it atom by atom. Arishem's cosmic senses allowed him to experience the entire process.

"I believe you're willing to talk now," Ian muttered.

"What do you want?"

"You should recognize that thing, right?" Ian pointed at the magic array not far away.

"Human, what have you done?" Arishem immediately noticed one of his kind.

"Calm down. He's still alive, and he can still hatch normally."

"What do you want?"

"That's more like it. Now we can talk," Ian said with a cold laugh. "I only want one thing: all your knowledge of Cosmic Energy—including how to build the World Forge. In return, I'll give you this egg and help you hatch it."

"You can do that?"

"Would you like me to demonstrate?" Ian pointed at his magic array, which began absorbing a strange energy resembling Faith Power.

The Celestials needed energy from intelligent life, but it was not faith, because no humans knew of their existence or worshiped them. Due to the similarity between the two, Ian had needed little time to analyze and replicate that energy.

Arishem sensed one