The silent, absolute eradication of the Zarlac base sent a shockwave through the underworld, just as Astra intended. But on Vesper, it had a different effect. It solidified his status from a leader into a legend, a force of nature as dependable as the sunrise. With the immediate external threat neutralized, a new, profound energy settled over First Stone. It was the energy of peacetime, of deep, unshakable security. And with that security came the freedom to dream bigger.
Astra stood once more before the World-Seed in his Cradle laboratory. The crystalline orb pulsed with its patient, green light. For decades of subjective time, it had been a theoretical endgame, a symbol of a power requirement so vast it was almost abstract.
It was no longer abstract.
His power level of 485,000 was not just a number; it was a well of cosmic energy so deep he could feel the gravitational pull of the Seed's potential. The Data Crystal's knowledge was now integrated into his very being. He understood the principles of biogenesis, the energy-to-mass conversion ratios, the delicate dance of creating a self-sustaining ecosystem from a single, encoded template.
It was time.
He did not do this on Vesper. The energy release would be catastrophic for the fledgling colony. He took the Seed and the Ouroboros to the most barren, lifeless corner of the Vesper system—a dead moon orbiting a gas giant, a place of dust and silence.
He landed on the desolate plain and placed the World-Seed on the regolith. It looked impossibly small and fragile against the infinite gray.
He began.
He didn't just pour energy into it. That would have been like trying to power a supercomputer by hooking it to a lightning bolt. He conducted.
Using the [Circlet of the Architect] and his Cosmic Energy Manipulation at a level he had never before attempted, he wove a symphony of power. He channeled the faint light of the distant sun, the gravitational pull of the gas giant, the background radiation of the void, and the immense, focused torrent of his own Ki and Mana. He fed it into the Seed not as a raw blast, but as a complex, multi-spectrum infusion, perfectly matching the template buried within its core.
The Seed began to glow. Not just green, but with every color of life—the deep blue of water, the rich brown of soil, the vibrant green of flora. It pulsed, and with each pulse, it grew. It sank into the moon's surface, and roots of pure light speared down into the barren rock, cracking it, transforming it.
Astra stood at the epicenter, a conductor before a cosmic orchestra. The air shimmered with nascent atmospheres. The ground trembled as continents of fertile soil were born from dust. Water, fresh and clear, bubbled up from newly forged aquifers. The very satellite began to grow, its mass increasing as the Seed drew matter from the quantum foam.
It was not an explosion. It was a blooming.
In the space of an hour, the dead moon was gone. In its place was a new world. A small one, barely a thousand kilometers in diameter, but perfect. It had rolling hills covered in alien grass, forests of crystalline trees that sang in a gentle breeze, and a shallow, silver sea that teemed with simple, glowing life. The air was sweet and breathable. A tiny, gentle sun—a captured fusion reaction held in a stable orbit—warmed its surface.
He had not created a copy of Vesper. He had created a complement. A Sanctuary Moon. A place of ultimate peace and biological perfection, a testament to the World-Seed's template.
[World-Seed Germination: Complete.]
[New Celestial Body: "Sanctuary" registered.]
[Biosphere Stability: 100%. Self-Sustaining.]
[FACTION MANDATE: Vesperian Ascension - Phase 2 Updated.]
[New Objective: Integrate Sanctuary into Vesperian society as a place of healing, research, and spiritual growth.]
Exhausted but triumphant, Astra returned to Vesper. He didn't announce his achievement with a grand speech. He simply opened a small, stable portal between First Stone and a meadow on Sanctuary.
The first to step through was a child, a young Saiyan girl who had been born on Vesper. She looked at the singing trees, the glowing flowers, the impossibly clean air, and she began to cry. They were tears of pure, uncomprehending joy.
The news spread. The Vesperians came in small groups, walking through the portal into a world that felt like a dream. They didn't build here. They didn't farm. They simply were. They walked, they meditated, they healed old wounds both physical and spiritual.
Astra watched from a distance. He had given them security with his power. Now, he had given them solace with his creation. The Sanctuary Moon was more than a resource; it was a soul for his people. The Architect had not just built a city or an army; he was now building an entire way of life, complete with a heaven of their own. The seed had been planted, and from it, a new kind of world had been born.