Chapter 34: Requiescence (Part 2)
The warm light from the gigastructure enters the slice of Alderson disk as the night cover moves away from the slice where the leviathan was docked. A cold breeze blows on top of the hill as the trees sway in motion. The dawn of the morning is tranquil; until…
"Hey kiddo; wake up!" Colin shouted near Naiki's portable room.
He wakes up slowly responding to Colin's call and watches the amount of sleep he has done, it's not enough since he started to enjoy sleep. Naiki covers himself back in his liquid sleeping gel for a better rest.
"Five more minutes…" He answers back to Colin.
Naiki rolls over to one side as he is greeted by silence once more while mostly suppressing his otherworldly powers. As he is about to sleep again Colin shouted.
"Ah, Vexis! Visiting the Emperor again? He is still sleeping, why don't you wake him up."
Hearing that, Naiki immediately solidifies the gels and shoves them back into the canister. Frantically, he materializes his normal clothes and storms out of the room. The younger guardians hold their laughter at Naiki's fast response reaction.
"Morning sleepyhead,"
Colin says to him with a grin. He and the others are waiting for Shultz to brew up a batch of high-caffeine coffee. Naiki look around to see where is Vexis, he did not see her.
"Fucking A, Colin..."
He utters the words while showing disbelief towards Colin, standing at his side. Naiki inhaled and exhaled sharply while enhancing his primary powers back to full state. It is enough to create nearby sparks of electricity and change the flow of air. Colin is surprised by it and falls to the ground. Satisfied, he grinned back at him.
"There! Much better and energized!" He says in satisfaction as Colin gets up.
"It's a good sight that you can control your powers now,"
Shultz speaks while throwing the canisters of coffee to the nearby members. Shaun did not notice the canister since he is speaking to Ivanov. The canister smacked at his cheek and Ivanov grabs it before falling to the ground. A laughing scoff from Zarck who sees it as he reminds them to at least be aware even while having a chat. Lastly, Shultz holds three canisters as he hands them over to Colin and Naiki. All of them gathered up and discuss what to do next.
"Grukev, what's next on the to-do list?" Naiki asked the field marshal.
"Hey, you should ask me since this is my place," Shultz says to him.
"Okay then; Theatre Admiral. What is your recommendation?"
Shultz thinks a bit before giving him the answer.
"Since the majority of your leviathan crew preferred the inside the underground disk commodities, we will stay on the top and enjoy some activities near the snow area at the 3rd continent of this piece of slice."
A strong idea was given by Shultz, the Soviesky brothers stand up in excitement since their favorite sport is snocross.
"Hahaha, my sons are excited about snocross. We still keep that tradition back in my home sector. It's a fun way to burn up stress." Grukev laughed away as his sons sits down while drinking up their coffee.
Shaun is clueless about that since they did not have that sort of sport on his planet, even though they have snow and icy areas. Zarck explained to him in detail. Shultz wanted to ask for the gears; he suddenly changed the subject to Naiki with a cattish smile.
"Maybe; Naiki alone can get a chance to see his wife, regents, and ladies of the guardians naked in the sauna nearby."
The others spit out their coffee at what Shultz just said while Zarck tries to clear out his throat. A slight distaste of that topic, Naiki swapped out the coffee inside his canister with cold fusion liquid as the see-through part of the canister is watched by the others. He looked at Shultz with a raised eyebrow.
"What, getting tired of seeing their naked bodies every day?"
"Oi, your daughter is in that group too…" Naiki warned him.
"Heh, not that I care if the emperor sees it."
Shultz finishes off his coffee smiling while looking at the artificial sky. The others recover their composure.
"No, you are a bad father figure… Drop that topic…" Naiki scoffs at his answer.
"Should we use the threaded one or the hovering one?" Shultz asked the rest of the group about their preferences.
"Well, pick your poison." Colin who dislikes that sort of sport says to them.
"I'm going to cheat and use hoverboards as snowboarding. You fellas can use what you want."
Naiki says in his piece. This surprises the circle because of his radical ways. Sokolovsky wants to try it since he can put it to the test if deployed directly to Ilya's frozen capital planet. They all agreed on their snow equipment and pack things up without leaving any trace of their being on that hill. Zarck further asked if Naiki wanted to still enjoy the scenic and not use the teleportation stations. He immediately nods at him as the others are clueless about what Zarck is about to bring down.
A hovering speedster with a closable roof is deployed from a nearby teleportation portal. It is large enough to fit all of them. Without further ado, Naiki jumped on board with Zarck driving it.
"Come on, we haven't got all day and the journey there is very long without using the teleportation stations." Zarck sounded off to the others.
They quickly embarked on the speedster after stowing the gear at the back. The speedster sets off at a decent speed while the Zarck checks on the route. At his side of the seat, Naiki lay back and watches some of the crew members playing volleyball in the nearby open facility. He is happy that the crew enjoys their time off as same as they did.
"Zarck; this is the untested prototype in our facility, right?"
Ivanov who knows it well; nervously asked him. He looks back at Ivanov while the others are waiting for the worst.
"Yeah it is, so put your seatbelts on gents as we are about to go faster than this."
He answers back. The others look worryingly at Naiki, he trusted the machine since he can feel it operating at normal performance without a problem. Zarck immediately turns on stage 2 of the speedster; closing the roof and extending its jet thrusters with micro gate sensors extended at its front. Immediately it picks up exceptional speed hitting up to Mach 3.5 speed while micro jumping across the endless continent.
"Aaaaaahhhh!" Shultz, Ivanov, and Colin screamed out while the others buckle up.
Naiki laughs with the excitement of the speed including Zarck at his side. The others remain buckled up and stayed silent. In the short 2 hours, they arrived on the other continent. Zarck parked the speedster, opening the roof to let the fresh cold air reach their faces. Naiki decided to jump off even before it landed.
"Emperor! That's dangerous!" Shaun shouted at him.
"Nah, n-no worries. Sooner or later you will get used to it." Colin assured him as the older guardians know of Naiki's capabilities while he holds the urge to throw up.
As the speedster landed, they see Naiki stretching. Shultz sees his daughter playing a snowball fight with Lenora below the mountainous slope. Nearby is the sauna where Shultz mentioned including some recreational places that they can go afterward. A quick equipment swap from the provision handler, they bet on who is going down first to the finishing line. Shultz stayed near Naiki and Grukev, he managed to see Naiki catch a glimpse at the sauna.
"Why don't you go and give them a surprise." Shultz smug at Naiki.
"I am not that desperate like Vexis." He says to Shultz. He laughed at Naiki's statement while Naiki materializes his hoverboard.
"Ak chu!" Vexis sneezes inside the sauna.
"Did you catch a cold before entering here Vex?" Layla who sits at Vexis's side asks.
Vexis rubs her nose while looking at the half-dead Ilya laying down flat nearby. The spotless snow leopard flops her ears downward, and cannot endure the temperature that Vexis have preferred. The other two female guardian members decided to take an early leave because of work, leaving the girl's side of the team roomy.
"I think not." Vexis assumes with her moody tone.
Svidana just bask in the heat since the nation that she was from had the exact facilities and she often used it to wind down with the other Valkyries. Lenora and Altia joined in after filling their fun. Vexis take pity on Ilya before she gets dizzy and dehydrated, she leads on to the enclosed spring bath. It has a few staff there taking a bath themselves. They are surprised by the presence of the Empress, Regents, and female guardian members.
Without further ado, Layla ran off while throwing her towel at Svidana's head to jump into the hot spring. With fast reflexes, Vexis intercepted her and grabbed her by the back of her neck.
"Wash yourself first before entering the hot spring, rowdy fox. Did you not learn that from the visit to the far south system?" Vexis puffed at Layla who think it is like the beach.
"Eh?" She looked at Vexis.
Lenora leads on while holding Layla's hand from Vexis to sit down at the nearby stool. Vexis clearly in a bad mood since she is separated from Naiki. She sits down at the far side of the regents.
"Five days…it's too damn long! And this is just half of day two!" She vented out loud.
"Empress, calm down…"
Altia who sits near her tries to persuade the arctic fox. Vexis eyed Altia from top to toe. The female admiral stops washing her body seeing Vexis's behavior. Vexis suddenly turns away and grabs a bucket of water after assessing Altia's figure.
"Six out of ten…" Vexis rates her while popping all of her tail from her main tail.
"Wha-, you're rating me for what?"
"Nothing" She dodges the question like a pro.
Ilya wailed slowly as Svidana poured cold water at her as it was the right temperature for her. Layla switches turn to wash Lenora. The Sakhalin fox watches Vexis gently flow the water at her soapy tail and flicks it upward to clear out the excess water. She does it repeatedly with her other eight tails. Vexis caught Lenora looking as she blushed lightly; having a straight view of her figure to the arctic fox.
"What?" Vexis asked while grabbing her towel.
"Y-you have beautiful tails…" Lenora speaks softly as Vexis smiles a little.
"Of course, she has. Pity that Vex did not show it often to the others. It's not as bushy as the one tail when she uses her nine tails."
Layla gives the information to Lenora. Vexis playfully wags it around before combining it back into one. She enters the hot spring first with the others following after as the other staff left. The regents are neatly lined up at the edges of the large hot spring. Layla puts a hot towel on her head with Lenora at her side closing her eyes and sinking into relaxation, Ilya tries her best to cope with the heat while Svidana just lay back while resting her arm at the marble edge of the hot spring.
"Let's see how these girls have grown…"
Vexis speaks in her thoughts, Altia cautiously sits at Vexis's side while she eyes the regents in their birthday suits. Layla is the first one in her view.
"Meh, still the same 7." Vexis flicks her wet ear as she watches Lena next.
"7.2, no no. 7.4. Plus, that slender body frame."
"Eh, Ilya has grown a little…"
Vexis compares her melons with Ilya's. Then there's Svidana she sets her eyes on.
"Huh, larger than all of us…"
She suddenly gives a mischievous smile.
"Vex, are you rating our figures again?" Layla says out of the blue.
The shock on Lenora, Altia, and Svidana's faces at Layla's words is seen clearly. The snow leopard casually floats her shrink tail on top of the water.
"No, but actually yes. But here is the main point question."
Ilya and Layla look focused at Vexis.
"Why the hell Svidana never flirts with Naiki but the other regents have?"
The question that Vexis asked caught Svidana off guard and nearly slip further into the hot spring.
"I am merely fulfilling my duty as the regent of the west. I do not need love interests since it can be a distraction." The Valkyrie answers with a normal tone.
"Oho, what if Naiki wants it?" Vexis prodded further as the other stays in silence.
"If the Emperor orders for it, I will grant it." Svidana coughs a little after answering Vexis.
Vexis concludes that she is the submissive type. With a grin, Vexis warped behind the gap of Svidana. She grabs hold of Svidana's chest which surprises the others as they make room. Layla immediately dives and surfaced near Altia with Lena while Ilya just scoots over to the other edge of the hot spring.
"You needed to be ordered huh, with this rack of yours I'm sure you are selling it hard for the others that liked you before."
Vexis fondles her melons hard as Svidana moans. She tried to elbow strike Vexis to stop, but the arctic fox dodges it and plays with her nips.
"Muhgn, stop…" Svidana pleaded.
"I bet if I touch you down here, you finally broke out of your soft shell." Vexis naughtily says it at her right ear while tracing down her left hand downwards.
"I said stop!" Svidana shouted.
Layla sees where this is going and pulls Altia and Lenora into the water. Svidana that is still resisting finally balls up her phoenix flame in her left hand and throws it directly at Vexis's face. Ilya sees this and slowly sinks into the water. The impact was enough to be scattered in the enclosed hot spring and turned on the auto fire extinguishers.
The water was hot enough to the sensitive Ilya that she accidentally freezes off some of the hot spring and extinguish Svidana's flame. Vexis warped at another end while putting out the flame at her right ear tip. The others emerge from the now cold water and remain silent for a minute with Svidana recovering her composure.
"Empress I am respective of your decisions, but you cannot force others of your own ideals," Svidana advised Vexis as she scoffs at her.
"Fine, your choice is yours…"
"But if the emperor wants me for a night, you cannot object as same as the others here. For now, let us just enjoy the hard break that we earned." Svidana continues her strong statement.
Vexis dropped her naughty behavior and turns her attention to Lena.
"Lena, whose flame is hotter; mine or Svidana?"
The next question quickly picks up interest amongst the regents. Lena has felt both types of flame and asses her thoughts.
"Yours," She answered.
"Wait for a second, Lenora has survived of your black eternal flame Vexis!?" Ilya quipped in while Svidana heats the cold spring back to the normal heat.
"Nearly died because of it. In the regent worthy duel." She looks at Vexis who casually plays one light of flame on her finger.
"Seesh Vex, that eternal black flame of yours alone is enough to burn out a planet to the core and you are using it like a toy," Layla warned Vexis.
"Well, someone almost hit her with a fatal lightning strike so I have to at least step in the match," Vexis says while wondering what is Naiki doing. Altia suddenly floats in front of her.
"Altia?" Vexis called for her but she did not respond.
"Ah crap, she fainted…" Vexis stands and pulls her out of the water while being scolded by Ilya to the other room. Lenora does her best to at least heal her.
Back on top of the sloped mountain, Naiki nearly run off balance while standing on his hoverboard.
"You okay there Naiki?" Grukev sounded off seeing Naiki nearly fall from afar.
Naiki only gives a thumbs up while he searches for Colin. He is at the far end of the bench enjoying his electronic smoke with a cup of tea in the other hand. Satisfied to see him enjoying the break in his way, Naiki starts his run with the Soviesky family. Grukev started strong with his hoverbike, limiting the hover near the ground. Sokolovsky decided to give Naiki a boost while the other three race on with their father.
"All right Emperor! See you on the other side!" Sokolovsky waved at him, and this motivated Naiki to go on all out.
Seeing Shultz and Shaun gliding near him in their wingsuit while Zarck darts off to face with Grukev, he gives a casual grin at Shultz and boosts off using his electrical powers combined with some air tactics. He passes Sokolovsky at a fast speed that makes him double back to look in disbelief.
At the front, the three of four brothers fight to be in second place behind their father. The youngest brother Rokosovsky throttle down on the jump, not knowing how high it was. His brother Zigorsky rev past him at medium speed taking the jump full on while bracing on the landing. Another shadow raises on top of him, it was the oldest brother Ivanov doing a slingshot stunt to the right, holding the end of the snowmobile with his left hand while his right hand showed a gun figure aiming at Zigorsky.
"Showoff!"
Zigorsky shouted at him that left him laughing while sitting back at his snowmobile before the landing. Out of their attention, Naiki came blasting off the snow at their faces and takes second place, and comes side by side with Grukev.
"Naiki, slow down! We are near the finish line!" Grukev warns him but Naiki just speeds away. Reaching it first, it was too fast to slow down even while his right-hand hooks into the snow.
A line of people comes out of the building, making him shout from afar.
"Watch out!" He shouted.
Out of options, he dematerializes the hoverboard and takes the ground for impact. It recoiled him on the ground; sending him bouncing off and landing on one of the people.
"Awh, I swear I am going to chew this person for lunch; ruining my day further."
"Sorry…" Naiki pops his head from the cushion.
It was in surprise that he landed at Vexis as she tries to stand up. She opens her eyes that it was Naiki and immediately hugs him back to her chest.
"Oh, darling! I thought it was somebody else. What'cha doing here?" She asks the squirming Naiki trying to take a breathing room.
"Mixed Snocross…" Naiki answered while the others are dumbstruck that Vexis gets her wish to go and meet him.
"That explained the hard landing." Vexis kisses his forehead.
Grukev stormed to see what happened including Zarck. They sighed in relief that Vexis catches him. The other part of the circle follows in to see the situation after stowing their gear.
"Sweetheart, can you let go now?" Naiki sweet-talked to Vexis.
"What? No! Enjoy your fluffy refreshed cushion a little bit more~" Vexis nuzzles him while she wraps him in her nine tails.
Out of options, Naiki tickles her waist, finally giving him a slip to get out of her hold. Both stand up and fix their clothing.
"Why don't all of us go and get something to eat?" Shultz recommended it to the others.
"We are about to do the same until master came down crashing out of nowhere." Ilya answers.
Naiki laughs a little as he playfully rubs Vexis's left ear. Shultz looks at his daughter who slowly made her way toward him. He hugs her briefly without questioning why some part of her hair is a little shorter than before with a slight burning smell. Ilya and Layla cling to Naiki. He is surprised that Vexis did not resort to jealousy and just leads on while she hugs Lenora and Svidana. All of them make their way to the nearby diner.