Chapter 25: The Projects
The next day after the forceful return of Leviathan back to the core worlds, Vexis still recovers from being smacked in the face in Naiki's private lounge in the Leviathan while sitting on her knees. Luckily for her that Naiki did not use full force to whack her. "Uuu…Darling smacked me…." Vexis rubbed the impact on her forehead. Ilya only comforted Vexis while Lenora tries to calm the still-fumed Naiki. Breaking his promise, Naiki uses his power to teleport into the hidden facility inside the Leviathan with Lenora trying to hold him. He lights it up briefly using his electrical discharge. The pitch-black darkness is finally lit and able to see what is hiding in it. Thousands of red glowing eyes responded to his presence in their formations while they wait to be deployed. It was Naiki's death mark task force. One of the most elite fighting task forces in the cybran empire that is half living metal-half post-human, fighting in the shadows as they are covered by the same normal dark mist that Vexis can generate and have a 'blink' ability that can warp as far as their eyes can see. They are armed to the teeth with weapons such as matter disintegrators, extendable laser scythe gauntlets, multiple plasma pods at their backs, and more. He trained them without the notice of his people and guardians since they vowed to be one of the emperor's cards of aces.
One of them steps out of formation, warps, and stands at his side. Saluting with a left-hand fist on its left-back. "When the time comes, I will need you to spread out on the unoccupied part of this galaxy and relay me every information you can learn." As he says that, all of them nod, and the one that is near him returns to the formation with its blink ability. The red eyes finally disappear and total darkness returns once more with Naiki remaining in silence. He wanted to return to his pocket dimension since he is materializing something in there but the wary emperor thinks it's not a good time to do that yet. Returning to the private lounge with his electrical teleportation abilities, Lenora quickly tries to hug him after his sudden disappearance. She receives some electrical shocks as her fur stands up remaining fluffy poof for a few seconds as Naiki shakes his head at her. Vexis still looked at him and wanted to apologize but Naiki just ignored her. He sits down at the bar floating chairs while tapping out what he wanted. A bottle-like canister of liquid plasma electron materializes in front of him.
"So, any thought of what you have done…dearest wife?" He says it evenly in the earshot of others with an intimidating face at her. Vexis did not make fun of the situation she is in. "N-naiki, I take the mobile planet terraformers including Leviathan to terraform Estcallia in 5 days. The terraformers take a long time since her planet is badly damaged and has an unstable orbital cycle. While that is done, Leviathan is the only capable of instantly mass-producing materials throughout the use of the planet in just a single cybran day." She explains the situation, dropping her title. Naiki drinks the sparkling red blood-like liquid directly from the canister. Ilya that is sitting with Lenora on the sofa realizes what he is drinking, it was the liquid that can be used to create endless power for lightning arc emitters weapons. "M-master, that is nasty…" Ilya says it slowly, it catches his attention as he looked at her with his red glowing irises. Ilya is quick to respond by looking away with her ear arching towards the view outside of the massive warship.
Lenora only looked at Naiki with worried eyes. "Then…?" Naiki utters the single word to Vexis while looking back at her. "I-I wanted to make it a surprise to Lenora when she returned to Estcallia with all of the damage to her planet fixed," Vexis says her piece of words in defense. "…Then…?" Naiki makes a deep tone of his word while tilting the canister. "I…am sorry. I should have asked it from you first." She politely apologizes as Naiki finishes down the last portion of the liquid plasma electron. "You know that we are building a planet craft that is a larger warship than the Leviathan here? With the severed link of Leviathan to the Gigaforge shipyard at sector Zardanes; we have to delay the construction. I wonder how should I punish you this time…? Maybe a time alone in the confinement chamber again?" The crossed Naiki directed his verbal anger at Vexis. She just remained silent. "Master, how big it is?" Ilya asked out of curiosity while seeing the report on her planet's progress. "Bigger and wider than the capital planet at sector Oseldia. Class 4 planet size if you wanted the more accurate one." The snow leopard is so surprised by what Naiki just said; she just slouches back to the sofa in shock. Layla that just arrived under Naiki's direct order sits at his side while making a drink for herself, picking her favorite type of alcoholic drink while mixing it with another type of liquid.
"Master already has a virtually perfect knowledge of all movements in this galaxy thanks to the space observation station and planetary-scale computing complex mainframes, it is a perfect time to begin constructing a planet craft for a galaxy to galaxy travel and maybe on other universes. This information alone is entrusted to me." Layla pops the fruit on top of her drink and takes a sip of it, she joyously expresses herself about the drink she had made. "With me connecting to the mainframe and leviathan it will take around 12 normal months, without me doing so, it will take around 5 years. Since Vexis here broke the Leviathan link to Zardanes, it is now 2 decades." Naiki says to Layla while the others listen. Vexis is surprised that she also cannot sense the construction using her powers.
Layla looked at Vexis. "Vex did what?" Naiki only responds by shaking his head after hearing Layla's question. Vexis extremely regret what she has done. "That's enough, Vexis learned her lesson; you can sit properly now, so…did you manage to restore the Estcallian capital planet?" Naiki eases up the mistake that Vexis have done. She immediately sits at Naiki's side while explaining her latest achievements. "Yes, it has been completed and returned to normal. The problem is repopulating it back there. Kelsey already told me that they are already comfy living at Iresta." Materializing a bread from the Leviathan's connected inventory, Vexis eats it slowly while reaching out to one of the racks behind the bar. The arctic fox knows that Naiki loves a bottle of Zinfandel and tries to give it a taste.
Lenora voiced her opinion while changing positions near Naiki. "Naiki, can the Cybrans live there for a while since we are still recovering and rebuilding?" Layla twitches her ears hearing Lenora call Naiki's name directly and not like the two of them. Vexis is aware that Lenora is much bolder than Layla and Ilya. She plays a hand signal in Layla's view; signaling 'someone is jealous' with a smile. Layla only crosses her arms in response. After a short thought, Naiki responded while filling up his canister with the wine that Vexis just opened. "Fine, I will send a colony convoy there mixed with some military personnel." With just a click from his gauntlet, the order is sent to one of the core planets. All of them have a short conversation before Naiki asked them to get some rest back at the spire as he will return late. Vexis refuses and wanted to remain at his side only to be forcibly dragged back by Ilya who follows Naiki's orders coldly to bring the arctic fox back.
With the lounge emptied, he closes his eyes in the focus of feeling his powers. It is more stable than before and easier to control, he only has to think about which powers to use when the time is right. "Thanks, Araki…" Naiki was able to detect his presence even though Araki just have arrived out of nowhere. "I see that you have mastered some of your abilities very well. Can I have a drink too?" Araki sits on the floating chair near him. Naiki just casually materializes soda drinks for both of them. He slides one over to Araki. "Your empire is getting busy." He stated to the emperor. "Yeah, need to at least control half of this galaxy before we need to take a short break. So far, the problem is that abyss creature. How was your day?" Naiki casually says what he had in mind. "Mostly fine. Naiki, you will beat them; the only problem is not to let your guard down even if you already feel like winning. Try to use some of your powers. I think it is okay now since you are in control of it and it not controlling you." Araki gives his opinion and disappeared like a cloud of dust with the drink he is holding. Naiki only shrugs while finally able to use some of his powers including his 7th and 8th senses. The information flow feels lighter and does not burden him anymore.
He notices Zarck is texting something to him in his 7th sense from leviathan and makes it much clearer with his 8th sense using the mainframe with the space observatory. Zarck chooses his words wisely and Naiki is quick to change the attention to somewhere else. He overwatches the southern galaxy as the major factions continue to fight. Only two nations try for diplomacy but were quickly rejected by others since they wanted a show of force. The fallen empire quickly rises as the Staican Dynasty after they put out the internal conflict. "Hmm, who should I side with this time…?" Naiki says it while pondering the thought until the message from Zarck finally reaches him. He reads the already known content; saying that the weapon has been completed and in large quantity. Naiki only needs to think of the words he wanted to say and it is immediately sent to Zarck. After giving the orders to Zarck, Naiki cancels the observation. He immediately uses his electrical teleportation abilities and arrives at his private quarters in the spire back at Seraphim One. It is silent as the lights are out and only the night light from the moon illuminates a certain part of it.
Naiki peeks into his open room to see all of them sleeping on his bed, secondary bed, and sofa. He shakes his head seeing them sleeping dead tired in their sleeping dress without even bothering to cover themselves with blankets. The emperor takes a few blankets and places them on each of them, he presses the automatic door silently as it closes without a sound. Walking from the main room to the operations room that he told Vexis and the rest to stay away from, He enters it. Sitting down at the main chair, he connected himself to the main link. Countless idle space shipyards are hiding in one of the systems, Naiki executed another of his plans to make a few autonomous armadas that can be controlled by his crown. Directing his next attention to the unfinished planet craft warship; he takes command of the facilities and does it by himself while sleeping, returning the construction to its normal schedule completion.
The next morning, Lenora awakes first while being spooned by Vexis. Surprised by the blanket, she wakes up Vexis by tapping her hand. "Mgh, what is it, Lena?" Vexis opens her red iris eyes before being fully aware of the time. She looks around and notices that all of them have a blanket on top of them from the nearby drawer. Sitting down properly on the bed, Naiki is not there with them. The empress uses her tracking powers to see Naiki but he cannot be detected. "Lena, check the living room while I take a shower," Vexis says to her before yawning. The Sakhalin fox nods and opens the door; it immediately greeted the girls in the room with delicious smelling food from the living room making the other two partially wake up. Layla reacted normally and folded each blanket and put it inside the glass drawer while Lenora goes to the living room to check it out. "Wake up Ilya, it's morning." Layla shakes Ilya lightly by the shoulder. The snow leopard is quick to jolt awake after forgetting she was supposed to pick Naiki up yesterday at the Leviathan and ran off to the living room to see him sitting there. She is quick to apologize to him as Naiki shakes it off and asks her to eat up the food that he had made.
"Morning Naiki." Lenora greeted him normally. Naiki only nods while watching some entertainment on the image projector. He enjoys watching the army groups having a challenge of who can beat the other one first with a narrator explaining the moves and tactics of each army. He munches the still warm multi-layered pancake that he made and they are several neatly placed at the table for his wife and regents. "Have a good rest?" He says it to the approaching Layla as she sits down. The fresh-up Vexis joined sitting at his side while grabbing a plate of it that looks like a disk. "Darling, why I cannot normally sense you like before." Vexis opens up the question after all of them are seated and eating his prepared food. "Simple, I have mastered the power isolation and life signal barrier. That is why you cannot detect me before being smacked." He answers while sending a tip to one of the army groups to beat the other one. "You're using your powers?" Vexis stated it with a warning. Naiki nods before answering and disabled the life signal barrier only for Vexis. "Araki says I can use them now since most of it is controllable." He pauses the thought as she is relieved of the anomaly. "In three days, we will attack the abyss. Zarck is transferring the arsenals into Shultz forward armadas." What Naiki stated makes the empress and regents take the situation seriously.
Watching the end of the mock battle, the general of the force that Naiki gave him tips won. He thanked the Emperor live at the broadcast and saluted full-heartedly at the optical camera drones. Naiki only laughed a little since he is interfering with the battle and directly sends a generated voice opinion of him to both generals that they have fought a good battle with a lot of room to improve. His companions look at him of how he does that but not Vexis since she has the answer.