Chapter 35: Unsettling Wind
At the upscale diner, they enjoyed each other company of idle chatter. Vexis goes all out, trying all types of foods with the regents who are barely able to fit any more in their stomachs. Naiki was able to tell Zarck of the issues of unbalanced technology development. He quickly checks out if it's true using his information projector from his glove and equalized the balance back to normal. The day goes on with some of the boys wanting to get mementos for bringing back with them to their home sectors. They all decided to stay in a mansion that Shultz built in his free time. The guardians know where they are staying, moving straight to their room after their long walk inside the underground facilities. Altia hugs a plush toy that she gets on the trip to her room near her father's room.
"Oh no no no, you are staying in that room. The other rooms are not suitable for you." Shultz redirected Naiki, Vexis, and the regents.
He leads them to one of the doors and waved them goodbye to sleep. Naiki thinks it was a room with multiple beds, the question is answered when he opened the door. A large bed with a few sofas sets in front of a cozy fireplace. There are a few working desks near the balcony and some portable games neatly lined on the shelf.
"Damn you, Shultz…out of all of the available rooms, you have to fit all of them with me…" He cursed Shultz for taking the opportunity on him.
Vexis gives a slight smirk at him, heading to the bathroom for a quick shower. Ilya, Layla, and Lenora walk past him to the sofa just to not think about work and start to search for some games on one shelf. Svidana waits for him to enter first while looking directly at him. Naiki just gives a low grumble groan and enters it. He sits on the chair outside of the balcony and reads something from his gauntlet. The girls take turns showering while having a good digital board game and converse about their govern sectors.
"loosen up a little; darling. You look like you want to eat the projected information." Vexis's words surprised him since he is absorbed in reading the material.
"Is that the information on the legends in Aster's capital planet?"
"Yeah, on how they know who has mana and not. They have to take a prerequisite test and further train them on the strong elements with which they are good."
Naiki answers her while she sits at the side of the chair. Lenora decided to join in while she started stargazing the artificial night.
"What about you two? Is it the same as them of your powers?" Lena asked.
"No, I think not. Vexis here needs dark matter for her powers, it is no problem to her now since she can generate it herself at a decent pace. If she needs more, she can chew planets for energy or souls…or from the dark matter dimension."
Vexis nods at what Naiki just said to Lena.
"I, on the other hand, think it was from the curse that expanded in my body. Expanding into multiple types and singularity-breaking powers. It does not tire me if I used it; but the more I used it, the stronger it becomes…"
"And more human less myself turns into." The end of his sentence catches Ilya's attention.
"Don't say that master, you are still the one that we met at the beginning of our life. Even though I sometimes change whom I'm supposed to be, we are still the same." Ilya tries to comfort him.
"Except for your growing title from ice queen to ice calamity regent." Layla joined in while leaning at the corner of the balcony window.
Ilya just gives a faint laugh at her title. Her hardcore training for her controlled sectors got her a new title since they trained from the icy planet to the desert planet for her army group's adaptation abilities.
"Even I did not know that I have ice and cold manipulation abilities at a large scale earlier on, master did you do something to us when you fix our genetics?" Ilya who randomly speculates asks him about it.
"No, only reconnecting your broken genes with the human ones, reverting them to your original would kill you since your transformation has already started. Vexis is the one that I changed since she required stability in her transformation, which is why she needed dark matter… I am sorry about your spotless fur Ilya." Naiki answers the best he can of the faded memory.
Ilya stays silent, feeling guilty for asking that question. Svidana who is last from the shower enters in.
"Master, it's already past midnight." Svidana changed the glum mood of the conversation.
Naiki just nods cluelessly. Vexis waited for this moment, pulled him straight to the bed with her dark matter warp, and pin him down while laying on top of him.
"Hmm, seems like I caught myself a Naiki." She snickered triumphantly while Naiki makes a disapproving face.
The regents are surprised at how quick it was. Ilya takes the advancement and lay down at his left elbow. Layla follows after, at his right side; smooching Naiki's neck. Lena looks where she could fit in, she makes her way to Naiki's left leg and cuddles it. Vexis slowly pats the right side to give a cue to Svidana. She ended up agreeing and goes to his right leg.
"Hehe, wow; lucky you darling. For having so many women at your side~" Vexis takes a kiss from Naiki.
"Without my consent at all and got squished by all of them. No funny business all of you, I want to sleep peacefully." He warned them.
"Okay~" All of them agreed to it in different warm tones. However, Naiki did not enjoy it since he is the center of the heatsink with his abilities suppressed.
In just a few minutes as the girls are about to doze off. He suddenly yelled.
"Argh! It's too hot!"
Vexis who gets thrown at the end of the large bed flick her tail as her plan was ruined. The regents sit at the corner of the bed, thinking that Naiki was mad at them, and look directly at Vexis.
"Just use your temperature null powers already," Vexis says to him.
"No! I want to sleep like a normal human for once and not use my other powers just for sleeping, just like when I am camping with the others." Naiki disagrees heavily while crossing his arms.
"Fine! Change of plan!" Vexis returned her answer.
She briefly looks at the ceiling since it was tall enough and transforms herself into her mythical beast form near the fireplace. Naiki quickly sinks in one of her tails while cuddling Vexis's face as she smiles pleasantly. The other regents did the same since they had already slept in Vexis tails once as they all slumbered to sleep.
[Seraphim Primaris – Current time]
The cybrans in the capital planet enjoy their daily lives, and few of the stronghold soldiers patrol the sky lanes and the ground. Some academy students walk in groups to the nearby facilities for a quick breakfast as all necessities are free for the cybran empire's people. Their sincere smile is the thank you they give for the free items they received as all of them are warm-hearted with each other as they are blessed to be in an empire with abundant resources.
The tranquility is disturbed as one of the people spots something out of ordinary from the sky of seraphim. A large quantity of white crystals appears floating in near orbit. The word spreads as the military forces remain on standby for action in case something bad happens. It did; unknown soldiers bearing the mark of a golden blade warp down through the crystals and start attacking resource production facilities across the planet. Multiple support vehicles follow in coordination for a fast strike. In the starting chaos, already two important facilities suffer moderate damage in the seraphim one sector; where Naiki's spire is located.
Cybran soldiers responded viciously and strike down those who did not wear their colors and begin to destroy those crystals. Unable to cause further damage, the unknown forces turn their attention to at least reducing the population of the planet. They think the cybran citizen just roll over and perish but were proven wrong by their unity and zeal.
"Cybrans! Resist!" Yelled a captain of a nearby force to the civilians.
The ones that hear it immediately take cover based on what they learned during their academic days as basic education. The elderly and young people neatly exited the conflict zones into the underground safe routes tactically placed in the gigalopolis. Weapon racks emerge from the nearby blind spots across the gigalopolis and the civilians take them to fight side by side with the military forces; while others use guerilla tactics to wear them down as the military forces finished them off.
The situation immediately turns into a minimized controlled destruction with the last unknown enemy forces trying to punch into the capital spire. The palace elite guard makes quick work of them without the enemy being unable to heavily retaliate. One such unknown soldier is captured by them and immediately takes any weapons off him and accessories; his heavy armor was burned out and only his clothing remains. The soldier's plan failed to teleport out of emergency as the crystal necklace he is wearing is taken and crushed in front of him.
The second sudden strike in space is anticipated by the active armada on duty. The enemy fleet is small compared with the whole five armadas; numbering almost 7 million crafts guarding it. The enemy fleet tried to bombard the capital planet, but no such projectile impact can punch through the planetary shield system that Zarck has been improving for the past decades. The skirmish only lasted 2 minutes as they begin sweeping protocol in case of further attacks. With the debris of the enemy's fleet being recycled, the defense armada commander relayed it to the ground force commander.
"Seraphim ground command, enemy fleet vanquished. What's the situation on the planet?"
"This is seraphim ground command; status from red down to yellow, remain on alert. We are reporting the sudden attack on the guardians. The Emperor cannot be bothered with trivial matters."
As both of the commands relay their current status, a sudden burst frequency comes into their range. It immediately announces their intention.
"People of the black red menace. You have conquered our ally's planets and destroyed our fleet and forces just by siding with the Aster Kingdom. This is only a portion of what you have done to us. Know this, we will not stop until your capital planet has fall."
The transmission cuts. A moment of silence turns into a burst of laughter from the cybran people that heard it.
"The Emperor will unleash his wrath on you, The Empress will sate her vengeance on what you have done! And we will be merciless toward you, fellow competitor! We are like a tidal wave and won't be stopped that easily!"
The zealous citizen of the empire yelled out his will followed by the war cry of the cybrans.
[4 Hours after the attack]
"Naiki, Vexis; wake up, wake up!" Lenora cried out for them as they are still deep in sleep at the comfort of each other. Her voice slowly reaches Naiki who opens his eyes slowly to look at the Sakhalin fox. Naiki takes a moment to adjust to the surroundings and sees the worried look on Lena. Vexis hears her too and starts waking up.
"I bring grave tiding Naiki," Lena speaks softly.
"What day it is today?" Naiki asked her.
"It's Milday Naiki, yesterday was Triday of our 9 days a week."
He finally sees the other regents aren't here with them. Naiki stands up with Vexis changing back to her anthro form. The emperor did not revert to his full powers and watches Lena's gaze for her to continue.
"4 hours ago, the core sectors have been attacked by an unknown enemy force. They have transmitted this."
Lena proceed to play the recorded message. Naiki stays as calm as possible with Vexis at his side listening to the message. They listen closely to the message, ending with a short buzzing tone. Gritting her teeth in anger, Vexis wanted to swallow the enemy's nation whole. Naiki just stays in silence for a brief moment.
"How bad was it?" Naiki asked Lena who did not want to meet his raging gaze.
"At Seraphim; 130 production facilities moderately damaged, one teleportation relay network lightly damaged, 23 thousand people have perished and two thousand injured." Lena pauses before continuing.
"The guardians are assessing the damage on the other planets while the other regents coordinate the damage recovery using their flagships as support. Layla is currently at Seraphim."
Naiki clenches his left fist, and Vexis sees it and wanted to take action immediately. Vexis who reads his mind dropped her emotions and immediately does what he is thinking; warping them at the Seraphim citadel spire. They are greeted by one of the elite guards.
"Your highnesses, we have captured an enemy soldier." A guard reported to Naiki.
Naiki just asked him to direct where the soldier is being held up and goes there with Vexis and Lena. He sees him at the other end of the enclosed cell and just stares him down.
"You are not getting any information out of me! We have suffered enough already!" Yelled the soldier to Naiki.
Vexis turns a deaf ear while Lena being herself just smiles at him while handing him a packet of edibles through the small laser field-like tray hole. Naiki looks at Vexis who is smirking non-stop and gives a cue to Lena that they are leaving. The soldier is surprised by this and goes to the laser door.
"What? You don't want to get any intel on me?" He asked directly at Naiki.
The guards that escort him prepare to use the negative gravity tool to make him fall flat to the ground, Naiki halted him.
"No, I have got what I needed. Enjoy your stay here while we pay a visit to your Empire…"
Naiki walked away with the others, leaving the prisoner baffled. After a while, he immediately discussed the information outside of one of the heavily damaged facilities; sitting down at one of the resting spots. Layla's flagship hovers above it while deploying nanoparticle drones to boost the repair.
"The one that attacked us is called the Valian Empire, they are led by Empress Xenevis Valian." Naiki gives out the detail while taking over the whole planet's automated drones with his crown and fixing the damage their enemy has done.
"We attacked their fleet including their allies that threatened the Aster kingdom and seized their flagship. Their Empire has fallen before due to lack of resources after a long fight with another empire, without them knowing; their allies take the opportunity to leech out the remaining resources from their former territories."
"Desperation can cause a lot of hasty decisions," Vexis stated to Naiki with Layla and Lena looking at him.
He just nods. Ilya, Svidana, and Grukev teleported in from a nearby teleportation station, Vexis waved at them. As all of the sat down, Naiki explained again with Grukev opening a channel for the other guardians to listen in. They concluded to retaliate fast and finish off the others.
"Grukev, about the other core sectors; how badly was the scale of destruction?" Vexis tactically asked since Naiki did not.
"They use the same tactics, striking production facilities and lastly the civilians. Just minor damage and casualties," He answered.
"The Valian Empire soldiers are shocked that we have way too many forces including the civilians fighting them. Our people are fanatically devoted to protecting their Empire and its rulers." Shultz in the com gives his words to Naiki.
Naiki lay back and sighed at his people's whims. Thinking about what has caused them to be that zealous and fanatical. As he was deep in thought, a group of civilians assisted in clearing up some of the debris. Seeing this, he now remembers the struggle that they have faced before to come this far.
"We will strike straight at their capital planet," Naiki stated as the others silently listen. Vexis smiled knowing Naiki have another plan in his sleeves. Naiki looks to Vexis who waits for him to say what he wanted.
"Sweets, you are going to lead the regents and finish up the other alliance members, no more hiding our identity. While I including the other guardian members; will handle the Valian Empire with the 1st Armada." Naiki says his piece to Vexis who casually searches for battle tactics in her bracelet she used before for a quick refresh.
"Master, the whole 1st armada? you are serious?" Layla in shocking disbelief asked Naiki.
The mentioning of the 1st Armada makes Ilya and Layla stand up in surprise as Naiki begins ordering the 1st Armada to return to Seraphim. Before, both know Naiki is going to do something drastic if he deploys the 1st Armada into action.
"Why don't you bring Svidana and her new armada?" Vexis recommended it to him.
Svidana remains on standby to order her armada to escort Naiki.
"Svidana's armada is helping Colin stabilize his sector, they got hit hard since most of the warships are manufactured there," Grukev answers the best he could.
Naiki immediately turns his attention to Shultz's projection, the other guardian members are seen relaying the order to their command structure.
"Shultz, how was the situation there?" Naiki converse with him while the others stay quiet and watch.
"30 of our autonomous space shipyards are heavily damaged, the other 70 remain untouched. A last-ditch effort by them to just ram their warships and destroy the space yards."
"Are you with us to hit their capital planet?"
"Not this time Naiki, Altia is going with you. Give her my 2nd Fleet of the 1st Armada, she will do well under you. I will inform her right away." Shultz gives his answer.
"Svidana, thank you for assisting Colin to recover the debris in space before it hits our planets. You have my gratitude." Shultz thanks Svidana who watched from afar and nods acknowledging him.
Naiki nods and cuts the communication after the conversation ended.
"Regent of the west," Naiki calls out Svidana.
The Valkyrie politely bows at Naiki and awaits his next words. She stands in full attention and is not like the rest of the regents who just sit casually.
"You are going to escort the Empress and lead the spearhead against the Valian Empire allies. Show them the might of the Imperial Cybran Empire's new Valkyries."
"As you command,"
Svidana answers with Vexis's reaction to her advice not being taken. Vexis decided to take a peek at what is Naiki thinking and the shock on her face is seen by Lenora.
"You are going to deploy all of the Death Mark army groups including the Lightning Assault divisions?"
"You need your 'own' elite forces, right? Svidana has trained her Valkyries hard for you. I will use mine." Naiki supports Svidana's long request to directly serve under Vexis. The Empress is touched by Svidana who looks at her with an assuring smile.
"Death Mark, who are they?" Grukev who did not know of the secret army groups that Naiki trained in the Leviathan ask about it. The regents also did not know about them.
"Argos Death Mark or Naiki's 'personal' executor soldiers. They can warp around the galaxy just like me but have a short two-system range to refill their energy for a day; they have low-level telekinesis and have a multitude of weapons including equipment that can materialize from their gloves from the inventory of the Leviathan. Trained silently inside the Leviathan without the rest of you knowing about it and are more fanatic that a normal cybran soldier."
Vexis pauses for a second and looks at the frightened regents and Grukev that dropped his laser assault rifle. Naiki just give a stern look at the sky as the Leviathan arrived first before the rest of the armada; overshadowing one of the Seraphim's two moons.
"Other notes about the ADMs; One of them is as strong as a hundred elite guards due to their engineered body. They have zero regards for living beings and will execute whomever the emperor told without second thoughts. None of them will listen to others wanted to command them except it comes straight from Naiki and their 'own' chain of command. Believe me, I have tried." Vexis gives further detail to the others.
"The hell Naiki, you should at least tell us about it. I am going with you this time. Don't say no to me. I will prove we are still the best ground forces of the Cybran Empire." Grukev picks up his rifle while saying it to him, Naiki just chuckled at his request and nodded.
"It is their wish to serve directly under me; I am merely fulfilling it. Now, let's go and introduce ourselves to the Valian Empire. It seems they have forgotten to extend their lives warranty."
Naiki sarcastically says it. The others stay silent about Naiki's dark humor except for Vexis who gives a soft laugh.
Empress Vexis leaves with the regents to continue planning their offensive as their armadas return to their positions, renewing their attack with more cunning tactics Vexis have prepared. With all in motion, the 1st armada begins to warm up for its operation, which will be well remembered by the Valian Empire with whom they messed with.