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Chapter 146 - Toward Departure
🕑 Added 2020-04-21 14:06:30 +0000 UTC
"I'm only going to get Asoko and my children. You don't need to all come with me." I argue with a long sigh. Kamii and Hestia are clinging to one arm each, not wanting to let me go without them. "I'll be back right after."
I returned from the Khurut Sultanate just now from a successful experiment in grand-scale gravity manipulation. If I can do it at the scale of everything up to the horizon, I can expand it to everything I can see as well. That should work for the moon and the solar winds.
They were peeved when I left without warning right after breakfast and came back a few hours later. I only took Flann with me, just as I did when I visited Thorvadis to learn the principles behind gravity. But when I said that I would go on to Armeria to pick up Asoko and the others, Kamii and Hestia jumped me at the same time.
"Either we go together, or you're not going anywhere." The little dark elf says while snapping her pincer dangerously. She told me that as long as she doesn't miss, her curse combo doesn't reset. Apparently, it's based on something as vague as her intention to unleash the power and the relative speed at which she hits something.
In other words, double the striking power that pulverized a large part of Oinos is now waiting to be unleashed. On me, if I refuse to bring her along with me. She knows it won't kill me, which is what she's counting on.
"We will no longer leave your side." Hestia pouts, her red eyes glaring at me intently from below. Her breasts are pressing against my arm and giving me a fuzzy sensation, but I have to stop myself from floating away on them.
"Alright, but we're not going there for fun. We need to go to the Rhodos station as quickly as possible." I glance at Rolan, who's waiting with his group in the background. Next to them are Kamii's party, which looks on with wry smiles.
They all know that this situation is far out of their hands. Kamii stands out among her companions due to her curse, and even then, it was a miracle that allowed her to land that hit on Oinos. Space isn't a place for those who can't survive in it without a protective suit, so I won't be able to take them with me even if we're going to a space station that will undoubtedly have an atmosphere inside.
Right now, the only people who can accompany me are Aurelia and Korenga. Asoko and my children should be able to help out as well, so I'll have to shake them from the most likely peaceful lives they lead in Armeria for this, hopefully, final battle against the Old Humans. After that, only Mataku awaits.
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Exla floats by in front of me. Kerry is sleeping with their head resting on her lap, seemingly unperturbed by the noisy surroundings.
"Yeah, I guess all of us are going on a field trip then." Shaking my head and heaving a long-suffering sigh once again, I give up. I only want Flann to find Asoko and the twins, and then return here right away. It shouldn't take more than an hour, so bringing everybody might delay us more than necessary. But they've all made up their minds now.
After a bit of preparation, Flann teleports the whole group to Kairaki first. We left without taking care of all the devils still fighting in the city, and the upside-down flying fortress was also still hanging in the sky at the time. I just assumed that with Oinos gone, they would get routed or flee.
When we arrive on the terrace of the pyramid, the first thing I find is that Alverost's fortress is still there. The city below is still burning, but there are no longer sounds of battle raging all around us, and I can spot people using buckets to try and put out the fires. The damage is extensive, with the parts gouged out by Ame-no-Murakumo remaining like scars on the land.
It seems that with Oinos gone, the reinforcements from above stopped soon after. Still, having that thing looming over their heads must be an oppressive feeling for the people. Not a single god of Adanak is capable of bringing it down with their powers, aside from maybe Roamukao. But he's not someone they would want to summon in the capital.
"[Who are you?!]" The two guards standing at the door of the terrace point their spears at us and shout in surprise. But then they see Korenga, and their eyes widen. As with Aurelia before, they recognize the Black God, though for different reasons.
"[How is the situation in the city?]" I walk up to one of the men and ask in a commanding tone that leaves no room for arguments.
"[The enemy has been wiped out! The gods are discussing how to remove that thing.]" The other one I'm not staring down replies quickly while pointing at the flying fortress above us. He seems to understand my position instinctively and doesn't dare question my authority, fearing later punishment for lack of respect.
"[We will take care of that. Tell Mereana I said hi.]" Growing more casual, I smile at the guard and turn to my companions. "We're taking over that ship."
With both Oinos and Alverost gone, nobody is in control of the devils anymore. Maybe I can find some useful technology on that ship, and possibly even make the devils work for me instead. It didn't seem like they possessed much in the way of intelligence, so I'm not holding my breath. If they attack us, I'm going to eat them, though.
"Can you find the command center or bridge?" I ask Flann, who closes her eyes for a moment. Then she opens them again and nods hesitatingly. It seems she isn't sure whether or not the place she found is the right one.
"I found the place most likely to be the command center, but detect no life signs on the entire ship." She explains her hesitation, and I look up in surprise. They couldn't have all died since yesterday, could they? Maybe there was infighting over lack of food, or just due to general confusion, but that shouldn't end in every single one dying.
"Let's go." I give Flann a determined look before turning my gaze to my companions with a sigh. "Get ready for a battle... again."
But when we warp back into reality, I find that the room Flann teleported us into is immaculate and devoid of any signs of struggle. It's a command center more than a bridge, as instead of a window to the outside, it has a massive screen filled with smaller windows that show footage of the city below at various angles.
Much like in the mission control center in sci-fi settings, each desk has its own computer terminal, displaying data that looks like gibberish to me. The chairs are in various positions, but each one is empty.
"What happened here?" I look around for clues as to where the crew disappeared to.
"Mataku." Korenga states in a grim tone after sniffing the air. "Was here."
I smack my forehead and sit down on one of the chairs. He most likely came through here after I killed his artificial Crawling Chaos scout. Or he did it after he lost half his mass to me on the moon. In either case, I let this happen because I thought that maybe the ship had already left before I killed Alverost. Or that the gods of Adanak might have found a way to deal with it.
It was my neglect that allowed Mataku to possibly regain some of his lost mass. If I'm lucky, he did it before we met on the moon. But at least he didn't take the ship with him, even though he most likely knows how to use it.
"You're up." I stand back up and shrug off the feeling of regret before addressing Exla. Maybe I could somehow figure out how the controls work, but I'd rather not do so when I'm above a city with a million inhabitants. If I accidentally hit the reverse and made it drop, it would be a catastrophe rather than a joke.
The cloud girl nudges Kerry awake, who looks up with sleepy eyes behind their helmet. A moment later, they realize where they are and jump up in apparent shock.
"It's alright. This isn't the Rhodos station." Exla quickly puts a hand on their shoulder and calms them down. "This is one of Alverost's fortresses. I believe he called this a Mu-class Seed Ship. He always mentioned wanting to leave this planet once he created the perfect form without a need for the Imagination Engine."
She's talking about Oinos in particular. To me, he was already close enough to perfection. Regeneration, godlike physical capabilities, indestructible bones, able to survive the vacuum of space - he had it all. The only step above that would be a Crawling Chaos beyond a certain threshold of mass. I think Mataku most likely achieved that before I took away roughly half of it.
"So, he wanted to bring his values to other planets, huh?" I mutter to myself more than as a question directed at Exla, but she seems to overhear it.
"I would have stopped him. We don't deserve other planets if we can't make this one work first." The cloud girl's expression grows dark at these words. I don't entirely agree with that sentiment, but won't argue about it right now.
We just averted an extinction event and are about to prevent another one. Exla herself said that she couldn't have done anything about the moonfall on her own, and most likely, none of the other Old Humans could have either. If not for the existence of Tokomaha and me, this world would have been destroyed, and humans and demons alike with it. If Alverost had left this planet and seeded another one before then, human and demon culture could have at least lived on wherever he went.
I think I might want to try doing that once all of this is over, and peace returns to the world.
"So, how does it look?" Looking at Exla not moving at all, I ask her with an eyebrow raised. In fact, since I called her, she has done nothing but to sit down on one of the seats in the command center.
"I've interfaced with the ship. No lifeforms outside of us remain here. Everything else in perfect working order, as expected of Alverost." The cloud girl's eyes reflect the screen in front of her, but she isn't looking at it. Her gaze seems distant as if seeing far beyond the scope of this room. She must be using her cloud-like properties to connect to the circuits directly.
"Can you steer it? And how fast does it go?" I inquire while crossing my arms thoughtfully. The sister ship that appeared over Arkaim flew away relatively quickly, but it wasn't at a speed I would consider fast enough to replace the Chaos jet. It's just more imposing to ride in this.
"We can reach the sun within the Earth day. But that only applies to space travel. Inside the atmosphere, it's much slower." Exla explains while nodding and closing her eyes. She seems to have discovered a newfound respect for Alverost. "He really did it. What sci-fi predicted a long time ago, he built all on his own. Of course, with some help from the Imagination Engine."
"What do you mean?" There isn't much time for lengthy explanations, so I'll have to stop her if she starts throwing formulas at me.
"Well, I read that he has an inertia damper and impulse thruster on this thing. All that's missing is a warp drive for faster than light travel." Instead of formulas, she throws out words I don't understand. I was never that big on science or hard sci-fi, so those mean nothing to me.
"In simple words, please." I tap my arm impatiently.
"Alverost found a way to reduce or completely negate the inertia of this huge ship. That is, we can accelerate and decelerate quickly without feeling any of it inside here." After a pause to gather her thoughts, Exla tries again while looking up at me. But even this is hard to wrap my head around, so I'll just nod. "And he's using a thruster that allows us to travel at a considerable fraction of the speed of light."
"So, this ship can go fast, huh?" That's all I take away from this. The first part doesn't click with me much.
"Yes, this ship is speedy." There's evident sarcasm in her voice, but the cloud girl knows that I'm only a reincarnated high school girl who knows nothing of science. "But I hope you realize just how incredible this is."
"I don't really." I shrug. Areteniha can travel from the sun to the surface of the Earth at the speed of light, so going there at only a fraction of that seems not much of a feat.
"I know what you're thinking. But she's a cheat." With a frown, Exla sees right through me. I don't understand how one can cheat the Imagination Engine any more than it already is a cheat, but she gives me the answer right away. "She has a real-time copy of herself in Earth's orbit at all times. A human's mass can't travel at the speed of light, but information can. Whenever she comes down here, she really is only making a clone descend from a space station with her memories."
"So when she appeared over Arkaim yesterday..." I scratch my head when I remember that a lens was all it took to disperse her.
"That wasn't even a clone, but a projection from orbit. But that's what allowed me to find the space station the clone comes from." Pumping her fist in triumph, Exla grins. "She will have to deploy a new one if she wants to know what's happening down here."
"That's news to me." She never told me the result of her search.
"Not worth mentioning. It was a small station with a cloning capsule and some laser systems. A shuttle bay for drones that created the illusion of a voice from the sky." Shrugging, the cloud girl suggests that it really wasn't something worth troubling me over. I've had too much on my plate to also worry about smoke and mirrors.
"Wait, does that mean..." I glance at Kerry, whom Korenga is entertaining by letting them dangle from her muscular arm. The Areteniha that appeared after eight and a half minutes once Kerry put on the Golden Shawl was only the clone who waited that long to give the illusion that she came from the sun? It wasn't even their real mother at the time.
That's cold, coming from a woman living near the surface of the sun. And to think I considered her one of the few Old Humans who aren't evil; I was as thoroughly fooled as her own child. But at this point, I don't think she's ever going to stop seeking revenge for her son. All that's left to do is get this over with - in one way or another.
"Well, let's head to where Asoko is." I look into the room and gesture at Flann to come over. Then I turn to Exla once again. "Can you steer this to Arkaim? But park it somewhere away from the city."
"It's going to take a few hours. As I said, it doesn't fly as quickly inside the atmosphere as it does in space." She nods in assent but feels it necessary to explain the limitations.
"Can't you just space-hop?" The fact that I even know this is a miracle in itself. I've seen something similar in a game before, where an ICBM was fired into space, where it could travel faster than inside the atmosphere. It cut down the time it took for a nuclear missile launched from Russia to reach the US by more than half.
The cloud girl stares at me wide-eyed as if I just came up with something outrageous. Then she closes her eyes and sighs once before turning to her console.
"That's why you're senpai." With a wry smile, Exla states with a hint of admiration in her voice. Does that mean it works, and she simply didn't think of that?
"[What about you?]" I ask Kerry, who drops down from Korenga's arm and looks at me in surprise. "[Are you coming with us or staying with aunt Exla?]"
I feel a death glare bore into my back, but act as if I don't notice it. It's harmless banter between us at this point, or so I'd like to think. And truthfully, Exla is not only millennia older than I am but is definitely the more mature one when she wants to be.
"[I want to come with you.]" But to my surprise, Kerry walks over to me and looks up into my eyes almost pleadingly. It seems that being inside Alverost's ship is uncomfortable for them, and when Exla is busy steering, she won't be able to entertain her as Korenga did.
"[I understand.]" Petting their helmet, I give the onyx-skinned child a warm smile. "See you in Arkaim then, Exla."
With these words, I glance at Flann and signal her to teleport us wherever my other half is located. And according to her, this time, it should be the real Asoko as Mataku destroyed all the artificial Crawling Chaos drones. I'll believe it when I see it.
Space warps back, and we stand on a beach, looking out toward the ocean. I spin around on the spot and see Aoranam village sprawling before me. Even without my Chaos senses picking up the number of lifeforms, I can tell that it has grown to more than twice its size since I left it. There are many people I don't know working in front of their houses - former slave soldiers who stayed here when we set off toward Kairaki.
Among them, I spot Awhina with her mother, who stare at us with open jaws. Seeing the tall and brown-skinned beauty, I nearly forget my objective here and move to rush toward her. But standing just a dozen steps to her right, out in the open communal square is Asoko in the dark-skinned appearance she had when I first met her in the Khurut Sultanate. She's teaching a boy around six years of age how to tie knots, not yet noticing my presence.
"[Chaos!]" A familiar deep male voice calls out to me, and I turn in the direction of its owner. It belongs to Rangi, father of Awhina, chief of the village, and local protector god. "[What brings you back here?]"
"[Rangi! You make it sound like I'm not welcome here!]" In the end, I hesitated to decide on whom to call out to first and had the decision made for me. Well, we parted on a friendly note, so everything should be alright with Awhina. On the other hand, I'm not sure how Asoko will react to being told that she's needed at the front lines again. She came here to retire from wars and all.
"[Oh no, you are always welcome.]" He scratches his head in embarrassment, then smiles wryly. "[But Awhina said you left, never to return.]"
"[I didn't say I would never return! There was just a lot going on in my kingdom.]" That's a huge understatement, but I don't have much time to tell him everything right now. First, we need to take care of the solar winds; then I can come back here for a vacation someday. "[Did you see the God of Growth yesterday?]"
I vaguely point in the direction of where she would have been visible in the far distance if they had seen her. The massive continent of Armeria is roughly halfway around the globe from Ceogath. But I'm not sure where exactly the Adanak kingdom and this particular village are located since there are no maps that also include the rest of the world. Maybe she was just over the horizon, and they completely missed the moonfall.
"[Isn't she with you?]" Pointing past me, Rangi gestures at Tokomaha. The two never met, as far as I'm aware, but Awhina must have told him about her companions.
"[Chaos!]" Speaking of Awhina, she runs across the square and calls out to me.
Asoko overhears the demigoddess calling me and spins her head around in surprise. When she sees me, her eyes widen, and she drops the rope in her hands to walk over as well. But before that, Awhina reaches me and embraces me vehemently.
"[I thought we would never see each other again.]" Separating from me, the demigoddess half a head taller than me looks me in the eyes with a warm expression. Then she seems to remember something and looks up. "[Tahiri, come here! Chaos has returned!]"
I freeze up at the mention of the God of Storm. The last thing I remember of her is her beautiful form sprawled out before me on my bed with her daughter Aratio next to her. And then the sense of loss when they were gone the next morning, without so much as a note.
Suddenly, a thunderclap echoes across the cloudless sky, and I realize that she just escaped. I fly up into the air and scan the horizon using Nymphy's eye template. Only this way can I barely spot the lightning disappearing toward the west.
"[Oh no, you're not getting away!]" I mutter to myself while jumping to supersonic. Exla explained that the mass of a human can't ever reach the speed of light, so even if Tahiri is in lightning form, she's not moving as quickly as actual lightning. At least I think that's how it was when we traveled from Arkaim to the Dark Continent to find Exla.
Or maybe she wants to be caught, as I seem to catch up faster than expected. It's hard to make out where exactly she is inside the lightning bolt shooting across the sky, so I spread out my tentacles in an attempt to grab her from many sides at once. But she suddenly changes her direction at a sharp angle to elude my grasp.
"[You really don't want to see me again?!]" I shout after her, but realize that she's moving faster than the speed of sound.
Thus, the chase continues, as we fly across the ocean, travel over land, instantly cross mountains, and break through the clouds. I don't know how long we've been going at it, but she has turned on the spot several times, trying to lose me with a surprise maneuver. Each time, I've caught up within moments, only for things to repeat.
But this time, I have a plan. As I come close enough to catch her, I activate the Imagination Engine Inhibitor. We're high enough above the sky that there's nothing for her to crash into, so I can do it without worrying about her safety.
The lightning dissipates in an instant, and from within a naked Tahiri tumbles upward into the night sky. I instantly catch her and pull her inside my body. We're at an altitude where the cold temperatures and lack of oxygen could prove deadly after all. Gravity catches me, as the inhibitor also causes me to become unable to fly without using wings.
I let myself fall below the clouds before spreading Hestia's wings and slowing myself down. Then I pull Tahiri out from inside me and carry her like a princess. She shivers in my embrace, though I don't know if it's because of the cold she was subjected to for a moment or her rediscovered fear of mortality in her powerless form. It's similar to what Aurelia went through.
"[Why did you run? Did you really hate it so much that you didn't want to see me again?]" I look at the God of Storm's face, only to find tears in her eyes. She quickly turns away and hides her face between her hands. It was such an unexpected sight that I'm rendered speechless; this is the first time I've seen her this vulnerable.
"[No, it's...]" Tahiri mutters and trails off, but I don't try to make her continue. It's best to give her some time to catch herself.
But time passes, and she still can't look me in the face to continue. I adjust her in my grasp and force her to turn to me. Her cheeks are flushed, and her eyes are swimming as if the emotions are running wild inside her mind.
"[What is it?]" I'm beginning to worry about her state of mind and ask with an eyebrow raised. She shakes her head but remains silent, quietly requesting a little more time. I continue to glide across the sky on Hestia's wings, scanning the landscape with my eyes to find out where we are. We went from a place that was late afternoon to one of early morning, meaning we traveled a pretty long distance in our chase.
"[I was afraid to stay.]" Tahiri finally turns to face me, an unexpectedly cute pout on her lips that makes her look almost childlike.
"[Why?]" Is all I can ask. She could survive getting turned into mist by Zenlith, so what was there for her to fear?
"[... don't make me say it.]" She averts her gaze again, her cheeks even redder than before. I'm growing more and more confused, and it seems she notices that with her sideways glances. Then, seemingly becoming annoyed by my lack of comprehension, she turns to me and frowns. "[I thought that if I spent another night like that with you, I wouldn't be able to live without you! There, I said it! You fool!]"
And she slaps me across the face before crossing her arms and turning away completely. I just stare at the back of her head with my mouth ajar, my mind overloaded by her confession.
"[You are the fool!]" I shake her and shout, causing her to turn around in anger.
"[What?! How dare you-]" But she stops when she sees my expression. I can feel the tears running down my face, as relief overcomes me.
"[I thought something had happened to you, or that you hated me for something I did.]" I squeeze her to me and bury my face in her shoulder. "[You should have at least come to visit after cooling down.]"
"[... that, I could not do.]" The voice next to my ear sounds grave, and I separate from her to look into her rainbow-colored eyes. Her blush of embarrassment has all but faded, and there's only clarity in her gaze. "[Mataku approached me with a proposition I could not refuse.]"
