Elderra Cosmic Circle 3926.
While traveling through the empty darkness in a space rift bridge - on my continuation in search of a place full of the "need" of sentient beings for accumulating resources - I caught sight of something peculiar beyond its distorted walls.
As I wasn't expecting to see anything in this part of the cosmos, finding something truly intrigued me. Of course, I wouldn't pass it by without checking it out!
My actions were decisive. I got out of the bridge to observe what it was from a distance. What I saw stunned me for a second, and then my excitement went through the roof!
In this part of the cosmos, where I was expecting there to exist only broken, dead planets and dust particles, sentient life was presented in front of me. And not just one, but five living individuals.
These five were very different in appearance than the humanoids I got used to so far from seeing on my visits, but I could understand with a glance from their posture and formation that they were no doubt as sentient as them.
They clearly didn't have anything underneath them to support them, but they were apparently "standing" in the empty space in a circle formation, just as if they were standing on a tangible surface. How they did it was still under investigation.
As organisms, they didn't seem to rely on air like most races of the cosmos were and their physical characteristics were too dissimilar from each other to call them members of the same race - following the standards I recorded from other races so far of course - but still held a couple similarities between them that made me doubt that reasoning.
Although they had various different characteristics, like one who had claws for limps while another had tentacles, and one who was half the height of the other, their black, as the space around us, skin and its similar glossy texture, seemed to point to the fact that they were indeed members of the same race, but a race very different than all the previous ones I had encountered so far.
I found this race interesting with its individually varying body characteristics and its peculiar power to stand and survive in the empty space, so I decided to stay a little longer to continue to observe them.
Keeping a safe distance away from them, I saw them gesturing left and right, pointing sometimes at each other and sometimes randomly around them, all the while moving their mouths. In general, they seemed to hold a conversation between them.
Each of them had something to say, as if they were taking turns to say their piece. The conversation went on like that for a while, and when it seemed they would continue on for forever, they abruptly stopped.
Right after, one of them raised its claw-filled limp up. It was followed by one with a twisting mass of tentacles.
One after another, differently equipped limps were raised up like their owners were following a specific pattern or plan.
In my pleasant surprise, I immediately figured out that their actions were part of some kind of team activity.
It was a rare opportunity for me to participate in something like this, whatever activity it was, so I instantaneously transformed into a form suited to belong to one of their race's members.
Immediately after, I teleported right between two of them and raised my newly transformed clawed limp after the fifth one raised his.
My movements were swift and natural, deemed to be called perfect. The five acknowledged my raised limp and me as their own without any pause to their actions, proving to me that I had successfully integrated into their group. Indeed, my actions were flawless!
And that was what I thought, for a few moments at least, until the five slowly turned their heads towards me.
They were looking at me with their pair of beady, single, or multiple eyes with a strange look. There was no anger or surprise in their eyes, only pure confusion.
I remained with my arm raised for a good while; all the while being stared at by empty gazes.
I didn't know what they were thinking at that moment, but they sure took their time to finish their thoughts.
When they finally broke the silence, they did so loudly.
Almost at the same time, all five of them hurriedly backed off while shouting at me and at each other.
Disappointingly, the group activity seemed to be over by the looks of it; I probably had lost the timing to join.
Nevertheless, since that group activity was over, I lowered my arm and waited to glean what other group activities they would hopefully initiate.
I didn't have to wait long. Two of the beings, one with a body full of tentacles and another covered in thorns, screamed, as they both rushed towards me in great spirits. They were clearly excited to start the new activity.
The first one to reach me was the one with the thorns. He stretched both his upper limps towards me in a bid to touch me. The thorns adoring his arms protruded outwards and lengthened in an effort to reach me as early as possible.
His speed was slow, of course, and I had ample time to study every single detail of his movements and characteristics before he could really reach me.
At the tip of every elongated thorn, a small fluctuation of space manifested, forming miniscule black holes. As the being was charging, the tiny black holes were constantly swallowing the surrounding space particles and dust in their path.
Closely following behind him, the creature with a body full of tentacles was also beginning to make its move.
The tentacles warped around its body, wriggled and shot out at once. With every single wave they made with their movements, a ripple was produced, disrupting the space around them. When two or more of these tentacles were close to each other, the total disruption caused was amplified. The more tentacles were close to each other, the more powerful their final disruption was.
This peculiar race obviously had a connection with the space element and, to some extent, had ways to manipulate it to their will too. The discovery was fascinating to say the least; the experimenter in me was rearing to test their capacity of control and limits.
The first one I experimented on was of course the closest to me, the thorny one. Mirroring his tiny black holes at the tips of his thorns, I conjured my very own, taking extra care to make it as harmless as possible and send it forward.
The charging being didn't have time to stop after catching sight of my conjured black hole. Only a surprised look managed to surface on his face as his thorns' tips reached my manifested black hole. The moment they made contact with each other, his many tiny black holes were swallowed by my own; there was no struggle, no time for suspense.
But the devouring didn't stop there. His arms followed suit and immediately after his upper torso. Then came his head and lower body. Lastly, what remained of his feet were swiftly swallowed too without a toe left. All were devoured by my conjured black hole in the blink of an eye.
After witnessing the result, I was shocked as all the others still present were. I never anticipated this turn of events, and neither did they by the looks of them.
Especially so, was the shock on the wriggled, shapeless face of the tentacle being, as it was its turn to face my manifestation.
Without the time to back off, its tentacles started to madly wriggle about and converging into a single mass. The combined space ripples each of them produced, overlapped, producing in turn a single intense wave of disruption that was more like a tremor than a ripple, shaking the surrounding space in its wake.
When the tremor though met with my black hole it vanished at once, failing to even shake its calm surface.
There was no suspense of what occurred next, as the tentacles began being swallowed too. Very soon, the tentacle being followed the same fate as its thorny companion.
Following the "disappearance" of both beings, the surrounding space was quieter than it normally was if no one was around. Everyone was left speechless.
'This is turning into a really awkward moment...' I thought, as probably for the first time in my existence I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do next.