Chapter 30: The Aster Kingdom
Vexis yawned on the early day she woke up. She sees Naiki hugging her tail tightly with his face buried in it. "Darling; you know that you cannot get the tail without the body here," Vexis says in a medium tone as Naiki hears it. He quickly grabbed her and nuzzle his face with her tail. Vexis laughs lightly and grabs a quick kiss from Naiki. Both wear their normal attire and leave the room. "Hmm, quite early I guess," Naiki says to his wife who nods. A few mansion guards notice them and some quick approach him. Vexis is very wary since some of them are holding their swords grip. "Sir, Ma'am; where are you going to? We are ordered by the king to guard you since the war is still going." One of the guardsmen spoke to him. "What's your name?" Naiki inquired about it. "Liam sir." He acknowledges it. "Liam, why don't you give us a quick tour around the military training area? I am fascinated by the mage soldiers that I managed to catch a glimpse of before." Liam nods and leads the way while the other guards continue their duties. They pass through other facilities and they are lightly guarded, some of them even dozed off out of tiredness.
Shortly after the quiet walk, they arrived at the place Naiki wanted to see. A few of them are training to hit their targets on various ranges with their rifles. Vexis sees them charging up the rifles with their mana. "Huh, so that's how they used the mystical arts these days…" Vexis says it while Naiki did not understand a single word she just said. "Magic darling." Naiki takes some time to understand and goes to see how they do it. Naiki, Vexis, and Liam approach one of the magi soldiers that finish reloading his rifle. Naiki watches him nearby while Vexis watches over the regents using her bracelet. He fired rapidly; emptying the clip much faster than the others, accurately hitting the targets. The magi soldier finally noticed Naiki and signals him to come closer. "Want to try it?" He says to him while handing over the rifle. Naiki grabs it as the magi soldier nods at him to fill up the charge of the rifle. He tries so hard to do so but nothing happened, even Vexis is weird about what has happened with the soldier scratching his head.
"Ahahaa, you are asking too much soldier. He probably hasn't had mana in the first place." A black wolf said from afar as she watches Naiki, she approaches him as Vexis sees the muscular tall wolfess. "Why do you hand it to him in the first place? Weaklings…" She says the last word while eyeing Naiki. This triggered him as Vexis decides to let him wreak havoc for once and signal the other two to back away from him. A sudden step from Naiki fills the sky with storm clouds as his red iris lit. "What in the wulf did ya just howlin' say about me, ya little fur rag?" His amplified monstrous voice echoed in the training area. Vexis snickered watching the wolfess beginning to feel fear of him.
"I'll have ya know I was throned on my empire that controlled half of the galaxy and I've been involved in numerous executions of high-ranking enemies, and I have over 15 million confirmed kills." The storm cloud lit up at the exact time he says those words and continues to corner her while continuing his sentence.
"I am adopted in endless and prolonged warfare and I am the top autonomous unit controller's expert in all of this galaxy." Some of the lightning hits the ground near him as the frightened wolfess back away while he keeps the pace. "Ye are NOTHIN' to me but just another she wolf's bitch!" He slaps the last words to her near her face as the last lightning nearly hits her. "Okay darling, calm the fuck down and back away from the fur rag," Vexis says to him while pulling him away. The wolfess recovers her composure. "If you're boasting that much, why don't we settle this at the dueling area?" She did not give up and provoke him more. Naiki gives a short egoistic huff. "You wanted to be sent at the gates of the afterlife? Okay…"
Vexis only gives a cynical smile as Naiki and the wolf step into the dueling area. The rain finally started the cause of Naiki's weather manipulation as both prepared for their positions. Liam served as the referee for the match, his right hand sharply rises to signal the start. His hand slowly falls to start the match. Before even the wolf can react, Naiki launched at lightning bolt speed and punched her straight in the abdomen. The recoil was enough to send her flying to the other side of the training area and slammed at the wall even though she just barely uses her mana shield in time. The impact was enough to send shockwaves to the palace. "M-mons…" She passed out even before finishing her words. The nearby trainee remained awestruck but quickly brings her to the medical facility, Liam was surprised to see who this person is, especially his powers. Vexis just claps her hands seeing the show. "That should teach her a lesson," Vexis says to Naiki who goes to his wife.
"Naiki, what happened?" Val that just arrived with Evelyn questions him. "Nothing much, one of you wolves wanted a spar with me, I decided to entertain her." He answers with a short snicker. "We will take a break at the lake nearby, come to us if there are serious matters." Vexis delivers the thoughts of Naiki to them and both leave after fixing the broken wall with their powers without the guards. This surprises the nation's rulers and onlookers seeing more of their powers, especially seeing Naiki's material shift abilities. Both of the cybrans skipped the city since Vexis disliked many people and traveled by jumping in the air to their location; Naiki enjoyed the air time and decided to land directly in the lake, making a huge splash. Vexis who sees it laughed as she landed at the side of the lake. Naiki then materialized one of the spare luxury corvettes in his dimension directly in the lake. Nearby Aster citizens see the materializing corvette as Vexis warped directly on top of it, Naiki follows after. "Let me grab some of the floating cushions and some drinks," Naiki says to Vexis. She just enjoys the view as she leaned at the outside structure of the corvette.
Naiki returned shortly with the cushions and drinks. Out of surprise, Vexis received a call from Iresta; she immediately leaves Naiki on the bridge and answers the call. Naiki did not suspect anything and continued his plan, turning on the floating cushions, popping the drink, and sitting back to relax. A few minutes later, Vexis returned with a distressed face. Naiki looked at her and ask away. "What, is it that time of the month?" As soon as he said that, Vexis side kicked Naiki into the lake while holding half of her powers back. Naiki emerges after getting kicked and looking at her. "Since when do I have that time of the month huh!? Are you forgetting that I am Infertile including Ilya and Layla!?" Vexis shouts at him. Naiki teleported back at the corvette bow. "Sorry about that," Naiki apologizes shortly. "I hate you…" Vexis sits on the floating cushion while looking away from him. "Well, I love you…" Naiki counters back while hugging her.
"Okay, what's wrong my wife?" Naiki nuzzled her right cheek with Vexis wanting him to hug her more. She grabs a quick smooch before answering. "Tomorrow is Lenora's birthday after we counted the overall galaxy time-lapse, Kelsey told me just now about the birthday celebration. She didn't give the details, only said her birthday is tomorrow." Naiki sits down on another floating cushion while hugging his wife's tail, Vexis lay down on his lap. "This is difficult, our nation never had birthday events before. The cybran citizens completely wiped it off existence and replaced it with major militaristic events like invention day or something else, I also nearly forget how to celebrate birthdays." Naiki says his piece. "Huh, you celebrated it before?" Vexis asked. "Mmm yes, back at our lifeless old homeworld. I think there are other events too, about aurora days or something and more." Naiki looked at the city view on the right sight while talking about the events.
"Can you remember the details? Come on darling this is important." Vexis pushes him a little to make him remember. "Oh, that's it! food and cakes!" After Naiki said that, Vexis stands in excitement on top of the floating cushion. "Okay first of all; cake, how big?" she immediately asked Naiki. He makes an indirect size with his hands on how big it is. The width is enough for at least 6 people to have multiple slices. "Since we never celebrated it before, let's all of us celebrate it in one go." Naiki shared his opinion. Hearing that, Vexis jumps off the cushion. "Okay, darling! I'll be right back! Going to return at the leviathan quick and get most of the stuff!" Naiki gives a thumbs up before she warped away. Clear of any people nearby, Naiki materializes a few spherical audio amplifiers and directs them to float nearby the corvette. He turns on one of the garage techno songs loudly and enjoyed it all by himself while drinking some cold soda from his materialized portable straw.
An hour later, Vexis returned with most of the foods in her bracelet inventory. This surprises her with how loud Naiki is playing the music at the audio amplifiers. "DARLING, IT'S TOO LOUD!" Vexis screamed out at top of her lungs to him. Naiki immediately turns the volume down. "That nearly rapture my eardrums since I enhanced my hearings…" Vexis says to him as she materializes the food that she collected. Both of them placed it neatly in the corvette's hall including some neon light decorations. "I don't think we needed the light," Naiki says to her but she just goes with her instinct and lets it be. With all the preparations completed including the teleporter room turned on, Vexis makes a false call to all of the regents, away from the sight of the decorations and food. All of them answered spontaneously.
"Girls! I need some help! Naiki has fallen ill!" Vexis puts on a poker act at all of them. "What!?" Ilya is the first to respond. "How could that be, are we betrayed!?" Layla vented. "Wait regents, calm down! Your highness, how bad was it!?" Svidana asked. Lenora awaits Vexis's response with a worrisome expression. "Heavy fever and he keeps calling out the regents. We are onboard corvette ID 26A001E" Naiki holds his laugh at the nearby room. "Naiki!" Lenora ran off to a nearby teleportation room, the other regents followed after setting their armadas to act on their admiral's orders as the communicator shuts down, they set the location of the teleport to the corvette ID. Vexis counted the minutes before they arrived. Lenora arrived first, panting in the teleportation room on the corvette with the other regents. "Naiki!" Lenora cried out for him and all of them searched the private quarters, they finally reached the hall as Vexis waits for them.
The light décor lights up as they entered it with Naiki already sitting nearby and Vexis smiling warmly to greet them. "Happy birthday Lena," Vexis says to Lenora. She immediately ram-hugs Vexis. The other regents remained puzzled about what have happened. "Seems like you are fooled by the Empress here. Anyways, since all of us are here, let us celebrate this day as all our birthdays. Happy birthday all of you." Naiki explained it to the others as Lena turned her attention to embrace Naiki. "Master, I thought you are ill." Layla confusingly says it with Ilya going to check him limb by limb and his temperature, Svidana stands at his side out of worry. "I'm fine. Now Lena, go and make a wish and take the first slice of that cake." She quickly takes a long kiss from Naiki as the others watched and cut the first slice of the cake. The first slice is handed over to Naiki, he takes it with the spork and retreated to the bow of the corvette before the other started a quarrel with Lenora kissing him.
As he waited, they did not start it; instead, they enjoy the moment since it is the first time the three cybrans celebrated their birthdays. "Vex, do you remember our birthdays?" Ilya asked. Vexis takes a long time to answer, she only shakes her head. "The three of us are not given our birthday. The guardians are strict about it since we are born from an experiment. That explained why we are different from Lenora who is a full anthro since our DNA is turned into mostly 70% human and 30% anthro." Layla informed them. Svidana is surprised by this including Lenora, especially the experiment part. "The three of you did not have a birth date?" Svidana asked again for confirmation, and Vexis steps in to answer. "No, only the years since all of us is born at the same time. I think it was 108 normal years or 36 cybran years." As Vexis answers that Lenora nearly dropped her cake. "You three are that old!?" Svidana is in surprise saying that. Layla only nods as Ilya gives a short chuckle. "Then how old is Naiki?" Lenora asked away. Vexis replied that after drinking some of the water from the portable straw she materializes. "I think darling is around 110 years with the appearance of a 25 years old human, the three of us aged faster at first and started to slow down during our 20s. Now that all of us are ageless, the three of us are stuck at the age of 24." A sudden thought comes to Layla. "Don't tell me that the both of you take the nanoparticle infusion at 24…" She asked the Valkyrie and Sakhalin fox. Both nods as Vexis laughs. "So, his wife and regents are 24 years old. That is quite a surprise." She stated at them as all of them laughed.
They eat the foods that Vexis brought, the five later turned their attention to Naiki who is outside at the bow of the ship while listening to some music and laying down. He looked up at them approaching him. "What? Do you want to gang up on me again?" Naiki says to them, Vexis only directed Svidana with her head nod. Svidana lightly steps toward Naiki and sits properly in front of his head, she pulled him and puts his head on her lap as the others sit down nearby. She gently stroked his hair as Naiki gives a weird look at her and the girls. "What is this?" The question Naiki asked out of what she did catch the attention of the others. "Affection," Svidana answers with a warm smile. "Disgusting!" He blatantly rejects it, this surprises Vexis who has done it before to him but received a different reaction. "Give me more…" Naiki continues his rejection with acceptance, making the others burst into laughing and Vexis rolls at his side while holding her abdomen. After they catch their breath Vexis opened herself to Naiki and the others while sitting down.
"Naiki, Layla, and Ilya. do you remember that I only have one tail at first?" Naiki seems surprised that Vexis called his name directly. "Yes," Ilya and Layla answer shortly. "You do have one tail before, even in your other forms. Where did the other 8 come from?" Naiki asked seriously. Vexis lets out her breath sharply before answering. "Of the number of souls that I devoured." Her answer shocked the others including Naiki. "Naiki; I have devoured 9 million souls, creating that empty void in Lena's sector. If I haven't done that to power myself up after consuming the suns and planets, I cannot find you…" She pauses as the others wait for her to continue. "That is why I hate being in crowded places. It makes me have an uncontrollable hunger just to devour their souls and can read their minds easily. I can be fine with the soldiers since they reflected at me with their soulless gaze, but not the civilians." Vexis heartbreakingly tells her curse since she just received the information herself.
"The other nine-tailed foxes at that village told me about it. That is why I countered it back with eating too much sometimes. I should just consume the suns and not the planets too." She says the last bit. Naiki laughed as all of them looked at him who takes the news lightly. "Well, at least you cannot get fat by eating too much food since your dark matter powers recycle all of them." Naiki taunted her to do something while giving a grin. "Why you…!" Vexis says it and pinched Naiki's cheeks while both rolled around, Svidana gives room since she thinks Naiki deserved it. They go on for about 3 minutes and Naiki finally pinned his wife down, sitting on top of her abdomen. Vexis blushes since Naiki did not say a word while still pinning her down. "You listen here carefully, I don't care if you chew 9 billion lives for breakfast or you eat too much, you are still my wife. I don't pick you out of your capabilities, powers, or being ageless as same as me. I wanted someone that can be always at my side, that includes all of you." Naiki looked at the others while saying his last word. He pulled her straight out of the pin and hugged her while Vexis is still stunned like a doll. "All of you are precious to me, especially you!" He nudged her hard and continued hugging her. "Don't break down on me now, Vexis!" Without noticing, a single light from Naiki's powers transferred to her during the embrace. It makes her feel the warmth of Naiki's care and turned into a counter to her hunger, giving her another power that she will awaken soon.
Vexis snaps back to reality and smiles at Naiki, she hugged him back before pushing him away. Naiki feels a little cross that she does that but it was with good intentions as the others hugged him. She joined the regents hugging him as Lena expresses her gratitude. "Naiki, thank you for the birthday celebration." The others say the same to him and finally calmed down. Naiki decided to take on the girls and go shopping after trading some resources for money in the least crowded area. Vexis takes the chance to purchase a maid dress to embarrass Naiki later. They skipped the jewelry area, which surprised Naiki. "Huh? my wife and regents don't want to go in the jewelry?" Naiki asked them. "No, I dislike jewelry unless it is useful for me. You already know that, right?" Vexis answers first. "Besides, they are useless in battle. Only just accessories. The bracelet you give us is enough." Ilya answered after her and the other nodded. "Okay." Naiki shortly replies. "I do want them to wear some jewelry, maybe I should make some with functions for them. Very picky girls, wanting the stuff that I created." He says in his mind while blocking Vexis poking into his thoughts. The regents take their time to get some usable souvenirs, especially the fusion crystals. After the shopping, the regents returned to their flagships; saying their goodbyes to the Emperor and Empress. Out of boredom, both decided to do a competitive lap at the lake and finished the remaining day stargazing at the corvette before going to bed.