GOD FORMULA

02 Backstory

"There is a key, and I know of it, Griffin. The key to what you call the God Formula! The unholy equations you used to build machines and play with the rules of nature!"

Griffin was originally from the planet Galateaa. Once word got out that he had invented Aegis, a technology that could make ordinary humans superstrong and give them access to magical arts and mana, it was a media circus.

Humans were smart and contributed to the advancement of civilization. However, brute strength and mystical magic were realms that belonged to the other races—cyborgs and mages, respectively. Griffin's invention leveled the playing field and, in fact, changed the game itself.

Augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics, cyborg technology, and magical arts were already in use. Aegis could defeat them all without breaking a sweat. The governments of all six habitable planets—Gehenna, Galateaa, Golbad, Tellurian, Tagat, and Teleflat reached out to him to join them. 

Aegis not only enabled magic but also boosted existing abilities exponentially. That is, cyborgs and mages could also exponentially increase their power. This would shift the interplanetary locus of authority depending on who monopolized it.

The offers of lavish gifts, political power, and top government positions poured in for Griffin. He rejected them all. These governments were greedy and malicious. Every planet wanted to subjugate the others. He built Aegis to establish universal peace.

Then came the threats. The ruling Covenant government of G*****a attempted to intimidate and threaten him into submission. Hounded by officials, the mafia, and terrorists, Griffin fled from his home planet.

The thirty-year-old scientist went into exile in space. After a year of travel, he reached Teleflat and prepared to build an artificial submarine settlement. He could hide from bounty hunters and raiders under the adverse weather conditions of the planet.

Back to the present, it was only a few days before the monsoons began and brought in the planetary flood. Griffin could have lived in his submarine home throughout the seventeen years undetected. Unfortunately, his pursuers arrived before Teleflat's maelstroms could cloak him from detection.

"Answer me, Griffin!" Dagon roared, snapping him back into reality. "Answer me or I'll behead you where you stand!"

The scientist sighed. "I have destroyed all my research, Dagon! There is nothing to give! Besides, the ability to see God Formula is genetic. Not everyone can understand or write the equations."

Griffin was not entirely lying. He had indeed disposed of most of his chronicles and literature. All he intended to leave behind was some rudimentary knowledge. However, the scientist was being untruthful about the key.

Aegis was the progenitor of all God Formula powers. It was technology that rivaled God himself. However, the AI needed a vessel—the chosen one.

The chosen one. A human with 100% genetic affinity to God Formula. He could literally see the equations that the creator of the universe had weaved and replicate them. 

Unfortunately, Griffin himself wasn't the chosen one. In fact, his God Formula Affinity was weak. That's why he wasn't able to tap Aegis and unlock its true potential. That's why a Gehennian warrior like Dagon could easily defeat him.

Prince Dagon was beyond furious. He had not traveled over three hundred million miles in space to be dismissed with childish excuses. "Do you take me for a fool? If there is nothing to give, then how did your unholy AI build adamantine armor and let you perform magical attacks? You're just a human!"

The Gehennian warrior pointed at his weapon, half-buried in the soil. "My Zweihander is known as a god-killer. It should have cleaved your body into two with the very first strike! You have survived a dozen attacks! How do you explain that?"

Griffin went silent, not because he lacked answers. He was the only one who knew how to write and execute the God Formula. He was prepared to die with that knowledge.

A chilly breeze blew from the north. Clouds approached from the same direction, heralding an oncoming storm. "Imbecile!" Dagon roared. "You choose silence? You shame your miserable race of dirt-eating humans! A weakling like you shouldn't wield powers like Aegis!"

"Even with your unholy gadgets, you are still pathetic—a worm wriggling in the mud. Since you won't give up Aegis to me, I will have to take it by force from your corpse. We can resume our fight. You can show me how powerful your God is!"

If it were any other adversary, Griffin would have breezed through the battles—cyborgs, mages, tellurian monsters, and so on. Aegis technology was far more advanced. Moreover, the adamantine armor was unbreakable.

Dagon, however, posed an unsolvable problem. He was a rakshasa—a race born and bred on Gehenna, the innermost planet of the Rusus-Afel star system.

Gehenna had the harshest environment among all habitable planets, with temperatures averaging over the boiling point of water. On the other hand, the atmosphere had twice the regular oxygen levels.

The Gehenna inhabitants had mutated and evolved over millennia under those hellish conditions, adapting to the hostile weather and habitat. The end result was the mighty rakshasa race.

Dagon was one of the crown princes of Gehenna. He was a black rakshasa, a fully evolved pure-blood of their race, and thus rarest of the rare. His powers, vitality, and long life made him and his kin appear like immortals.

Once fully evolved, black rakshasas lived for over a thousand years. Disease and aging were rendered ineffective as long as they had a supply of dark mana erupting from the mantle of Gehenna. 

If any species were to be called gods, they were the black rakshasas.

However, Dagon was a youngling, only 320 years old, equivalent to the teenage years among humans.

Dagon gestured condescendingly at Griffin. "Answer this question and depending on what you say, I will decide whether to give you a slow or quick death…"