As usual, Trazyn and Monika sleep on the bed without wearing anything, these past few days they've all grown up a lot. Monika is still asleep while Trazyn is thinking about something.
It was a few thousand years ago, in an imperial world that was long forgotten. In that solar system, the sun is going to explode within a few years. No one expected that would happen, so during the retreat it was really messy. Only a small portion of the population has already left from the ships. The rest of the population mostly were dead due to the intense particle radiation from the sun occasionally emitting randomly throughout the days. The people that were outside the building were all infected with the radioactive disease and died within minutes.
It was brutal. Trazyn was near that planet at that time, he spent a year and a half there just to observe the action of a couple. He still remembers their names, the guy's name was Cellus Akioctus, the girl's name was Mirien Vartrix.
Cellus's parents died the first time when the sun emits the radiation, they melted in front of his eyes. Mirien's family was lucky enough to get on the ship but not her. She was left behind. The local government that was still standing released a type of medicine called: Dreamer. It exists to soften the hopeless feeling of the individuals on the planet. In the first few years, most people died due to suicide and hopelessness. Some are devoted to chaos, but the chaos god will not care about a place that is deemed to be doomed.
It was near a school court where Trazyn found the couple:" Hey! What are you doing here?" Mirien waves her hand to Cellus. Cellus is having a backpack on his back and walking towards a classroom.
"Don't ignore me!" the girl runs towards him and slaps him on the back. " What are you going to do today?" She smiles like a honey pot.
"Doing exam papers." Cellus finds a seat in the classroom and takes out a few old exam papers from years ago. The girl however is not amazed by the response, she starts to touch his head. Wanting him to talk to her.
"Remember the time when we had classes here? It was fun, you were sitting next to me, and I was just constantly teaching you stuff." Mirien sits on a table, the sun on her back makes her orange hair looks blond. Her light blue eyes fixate on Cellus. But Cellus doesn't want to respond. He's too focused on the questions.
"Talk to me." Mirien is saying that with a mad tone, but Cellus just responds with a simple: what for? Mirien is extra mad, she then stands in front of him:" if you don't i will tell you the answers before you can answer them."
"Wait what?" Cellus suddenly stops writing and looks at her. Even in the face of doom, she still dresses cutely, she wears a school skirt with a white shirt, her jacket is sliding off her shoulder, but she decides to keep it there.
"Heehee, how about we do something fun? Like you confess your love to me." Mirien puts her hand on the exam paper while beaming with energy.
"Not interested, can you please let me finish the papers?" Cellus said calmly, this is not the first time they knew each other. They were classmates before the doom. She sits next to him, what she usually does is always pull-out pranks on him. That's why he is always beware of what trick this girl can pull out.
"Mmmmm" that's the noise of frustration, but then she has a bit of evil grin on the edge of her eyes:" Do it or I will burn all your paper" She suddenly pulls out a bottle of gasoline from her back as if she knew that she's going to use it.
"DON'T DO IT, I WILL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT BUT JUST DON'T BURN MY PAPERS!" he suddenly stands up and puts away his papers. The girl is again beaming with energy.
"Well, try to confess your love to me. Make sure it's heart filling." She puts her hands on her back.
" Mirien, can you please be my girlfriend?" Cellus is asking like a machine.
"No, I don't because the way you deliver it is horrible. Maybe you do want me to burn all your exam paper…." She then opens the bottle cap which is full of gasoline.
"WAIT ! Let me try again." This time Cellus is being a bit more serious:" Mirien, remember the time when you gave me that soup when I was sick? Even though it was the most horrible thing I've ever tasted in my whole life, it got my heart beating. I was at that point suddenly in love with you."
"You dare to say my cooking is horrible?!" Mirien is mad again, but her cute face makes it look good. And then her face turns into a grin:" Well, that was acceptable. Sure, I will be your girlfriend!"
Before Cellus could say anything, she leaps a bit forward and wraps her arm around his neck, she gives him a kiss. After the kiss, she asks:" How did it feel? Did you feel more in love with me?"
" Not really, it was really my first kiss." Cellus is still answering blankly:" Can I get back to do my tests?"
" The multiple-choice answers were A,D,B,C,A,A,C,B,D,E and A." She said it while having a smirk.
When Cellus checked the answer, it was all correct:" How did you…."
"Well, I can't believe that it will take you that long to do these easy questions. However, it is the girlfriend's duty after all to accept the undeveloped parts of your own boyfriend." She then leaves out a quick sigh.
By the time they are stopping to goof around, the day is almost night. They bid farewell and promise to meet each other tomorrow.
Suddenly Trazyn's mind snaps back to reality, It's Monika. She changes her sleeping position, for a second, she's awake, so she puts her head on Trazyn's shoulder and goes back to sleep.
This reminds him of that night when Mirien moved in with Cellus and that night they had their first time. But it didn't really end well, due to the medicine: dreamer. All emotions are oppressed, even when they were having sex, none could feel anything.
"I appreciate you trying," Mirien said it with a slight grin, but Cellus suddenly fell down from the bed and started having a stroke. Mirien quickly takes out the medicine from his backpack and puts it in his mouth. After a few seconds, Cellus came back to normal. This is what happens when their medicine effect is gone. In the end, they will die horribly, and both of their medicine is in a single-digit number.
They know their end is near, that's why they want to make it the best of their lives. They went fishing, even though they knew that there's no more fish in the sea due to the pollution while building the starships. But seeing Cellus trying, Mirien jumps down into the ocean and starts to grab the fishhook while looking at him with a big smile;" You did it! You got your fish!"
Cellus is a bit terrified:" What are you doing?! Get up it isn't safe in the sea!"
But Mirien pretends that she didn't hear that, she yells:" YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY THAT YOU WOULD GET SUCH A BEAUTIFUL FISH, AREN'T YOU GOING TO CHERISH IT?!" She then swam upon the land.
"This girl…." Cellus shakes his head, but deep inside he's moved by this girl, even at the end of the world this girl can always make his life noisy and thus make his colorless life a bit better.
"How did it end?" Monika asks Trazyn. Apparently, Trazyn said all of it out loud. He didn't even notice it. But Monika hugs Trazyn closer, she's curious about what happened next, but she also knows that the ending is deemed to be tragic.
Eventually, their medicine was gone, Mirien put the last one in Cellus's mouth while they were having their last kiss. Even Cellus didn't want it to happen, but he decided to stay with her till the last minute. On a starless night, Mirien starts to have a stroke but this time there isn't any more medicine left. While Mirien is almost out of consciousness she said the last: I love you, to cellus. This whole time Cellus was holding Mirien's hand. Even afterward his hands were bleeding because of the scratches, but he still feels calm.
The second day, he's gone to school again. Doing the exam papers, but this time he did the ones that were prepared by Mirien. Which is full of questions about her and the story about them. Her beautiful handwriting seems contradictory to the silly question on the paper. One of the questions is: What does Mirien like? The answer to that question is: she doesn't like anything, she loves them. So, if you want her to like you then you should make her fall in love with you.
"Why was he so obsessed with the exam papers?" Monika asks Trazyn.
"Because it gives a unified answer, even though it's an open question there are still boundaries. In that chaotic world, exam papers probably were the last bit of peace in his life." Trazyn answers it with a rare seriousness.
"I really wanted a good ending…." Monika wraps her arm tighter; she doesn't want to feel the harsh coldness in her heart.
"I did preserve a photo in my gallery when they were first kissing. It's digitized by art, but it was still good. When we get back, I will show you that." Trazyn kisses Monika's forehead.
" Promise?" She looks up with her innocent looks.
"Promise" Trazyn replied.
"I am sorry, but I need to leave for a while," Trazyn said to Monika after their lunch.
"Why?" Monika is a bit curious about what Trazyn needs to do without her.
"Imotekh had some trouble restoring the Tomb World. I need to give him a hand." Trazyn was just about to transfer back to his mechanical body, Monika stopped him.
"Don't you want to show what you did to Imotekh? I think it's better that you keep your human body and impress him with it." The truth is that Monika is used to the human form of Trazyn, she doesn't want to see him in his Necron form again.
Trazyn thought about it a bit, then he put away his old mechanical body:" I guess you are right; it might take a bit of time, so be sure to keep yourself well." They then shared a deep kiss.
"I will be waiting for you…." Monika said it then she saw Trazyn disappear in a blink of an eye. She suddenly feels empty, or lonelier. It's her against the world again. She walks back to the hotel where they originally were.
Elrene is as usual cleaning the tables, she's surprised that Monika came back alone: "Where's your friend?" She refers to Trazyn.
"He went to do some things..." The way Monika talks sounds like she was abandoned or something. In fact, she would've wanted to join Trazyn, she had never seen how a Necron tomb world looks like and that occasion sounds like a rare opportunity. But Trazyn didn't even think about bringing her with him.
"Oh?" Elrene stops her work and sits across Monika:" Do you want to talk about it?" She's seen too many people like Monika, most of them ended up breaking up, but seeing her and Trazyn, Elrene decides that she needs to help out this couple a bit.
Monika nods then puts her chin on the table, she usually isn't like this but the sheer changes in life hit her a bit harder than she thought.:" I feel like I've never lived my own life…. A slight chance of other people can affect my mood this much…." Monika let out a long sigh.
"Have you ever thought about it because the fact that you feel like this means you found the right person?" Elrene is a good listener and she's very good at consulting other people.
Monika slightly raised her head:" I guess you are right…. All I can think about is what I should do before he comes back." She thought about the boring days when Trazyn went away, she couldn't help herself but shiver a bit. Monika suddenly asks Elrene:" Have you ever met someone like this?"
Elrene is a half-elf, she can't live for thousands of years but she surely can easily live across centuries without changing her form a lot. Right now, Elrene is in her 30s if it's calculated equivalent to a human's age: "Hmmm, let me think about it… I've been with so many men at this point...I don't really remember anyone in particular." She suddenly holds Monika's hand:" But I believe that you are doing the right thing by waiting for him."
She lied about not remembering anyone's part, she has a picture on the first page of her notebook, it's a man but with a physique of a monkey. The guy wears armor and holds a stick, on the picture Elrene calmly sits in front of him while he stands on the back. Monika has seen that picture, that's why she didn't really confront Elrene about it. She always believes that people have a reason to lie. Especially when it comes to relating to people.
"I did however make some friends in this place and had fun with them." Monika changes the subject.
"Oh? Who are they, are they good people?" Elrene takes back the hand that she was holding Monika with.
"I don't know if you know her, her name is Glissa." Monika was not aware that Glissa is the leader of the resistance, while Elrene lives on a phyrexian rule territory.
Elrene knows that this girl lives outside the conflict of their war, that's why she did not really remind Monika about it:'' Oh, I do know her. She lives in the forest, right? How is she?"
"She's mean!" Monika is still not over with the time when Glissa kissed Trazyn and taunted her about it. But when she thought about the good times her face looks more relaxed:" But we also had some good times as well. She isn't a bad person, but I could tell that we are similar to each other."
"So… what do you think of yourself?" Elrene asks.
"I…. I am not sure." Monika lowered her head, she's thoughtless about this. Her whole life is based on what other people see her, so she takes points from how others react to her presence.
"Why is that, also can I call you Monika from now on? I like your name; it fits with your character~" Elrene smiles a bit. It's more like a smile of a forgiving mother seeing her lost child.
Monika is intrigued, no one even Trazyn has commented her name like that:" Really? What's so special about my name?"
"I am not sure, but it just sounds right. If I call you something like Jane, it wouldn't really match with your looks and your character." Elrene pours a cup of drink to Monika. "Maybe this is what happens when you have a fitting name."
Monika feels a bit embarrassed but she's thankful that Elrene is talking to her about her nonsense:" Th... thank you for your compliments, by the way what kind of drink is this?" she points at the strange green liquid.
"We call this elixir of forgetting about love." Elrene drinks another sip, from her expression this drink doesn't taste good.
"That's a strange name… but I will try it anyway." Monika sips a bit from the cup, she suddenly feels like her mouth is going to melt due to the sheer sourness.
Elrene smiles:" if this thing really works, I wouldn't keep drinking it." She then takes another sip.
"Is there someone you want to forget about?" Monika asks.
Elrene didn't really answer that question, she just kept sipping the elixir. Seeing this, Monika stops her persuade, this elven woman in front of her probably has some sour past that she wants to forget.
They both just kept drinking in silence, at some point their eyes fixed on each other and the awkward silence between them made them realize how dumb the whole conversation was, which made them burst into laughter. "Tonight's food is on me," Elrene said.
Monika said that she doesn't need to do that, she can pay for it. But Elrene just waved her hand:" I am happy that I can talk to you again, seriously it's on the host."
At night, Monika lies on the bed, seeing the chair where Trazyn used to sit on is empty. She felt lonely, and yet she's not upset. Meeting Trazyn is already good enough for her, she's as simple as that. She's always trying to make Trazyn feel something that he could never do. She feels accomplished about it, she's teaching an almost all-knowing person something, it is these little moments they share that tightens their bond with each other. Monika pulls out a notebook and starts writing, in there, there are the stories that she never told anyone about.
Trazyn may seem to not care that much about Monika but in fact, he did. He always tries to find the things that would make her happy instead of mentioning the things that make her upset. He always tries to tease Monika because it also makes him feel accomplished, he makes her mad because he knows that Monika's mad means that she starts to care about something. He also knows that Monika looks bad when she's crying because he's seen her do that in the gallery. That was probably the time when Trazyn cared.
Monika slowly slides back on the bed, after writing some events about the past few days. On the bed, she's thinking that she's glad that she has met someone like Trazyn in her life. She buries her head in the pillow, after a few minutes there's some sobbing noise coming under it. She misses him but she decides to keep it to herself. The most she can do is to let Trazyn not worry about her constantly and instead she can impress Trazyn more. Thinking about this, Monika wipes away her tears and falls asleep with a smile.
On the next day, Monika is trying to improve her skills, after thinking about what happened last night. She wants to make Trazyn proud of her. So, she asks Glissa to help her with her training.
"You do realize that I am a queen, right? I have way better things to do instead of sitting here seeing you keep hitting targets." Glissa yawned a bit, Monika's accuracy is unpickable, no matter how many times she moves the target she can always hit the center.
Monika pinned a sword on the ground, she's thinking about how else she can improve her abilities instead of keeping increasing her physical strength. She can't be like Trazyn who has superhuman strength or Nova that has the talent that outranks most of the soldiers in the imperium.
Glissa suddenly mimics a short growling cat noise and wraps her arm around Monika's shoulder from the back, she's bored. But this gives Glissa an idea. Maybe she can teach Monika about magic.
"Magic? Are you sure I can do it?" Monika looks at Glissa with a suspicious gaze.
"Yes ! I taught Traxex her ice magic, surely I can also help with yours?" Glissa is beaming with energy, she finally finds something to do.
"What kind of magic can I get?" Monika is curious.
"No, no, no" Glissa waves her index finger:" It's what type of magic, there are a lot of types in this world. From what I am seeing, your sword skill is kind of magic-based."
"How?" she's very confused. The only thing she does is to think about having a sword in her hand and it appears.
"Did you gain the power by having a sentence in your head?" Glissa asks.
"Yea, it was under an extreme situation, and I just repeated it once in my head. Then I can use it anytime I want. But I didn't really understand the language though." Another sword just appeared in Monika's hand, then she changed it to the power sword.
"Is that all you can do? Can you make it bigger or something like that?" Glissa asks if she's trying to figure out how to help Monika.
"I can but it needs to be some I've seen or own." She then changes her sword into a dagger.
Glissa suddenly has an idea, she pulls out one of her magical daggers from her holster:" Can you try to make this?"
Monika carefully inspects the weapon, then she activates her power, suddenly another dagger that looks exactly the one Glissa has appeared in her hand.
"Impressive!" Glissa has never seen anything like this. So, if her estimation is right then as long Monika sees or understands any weapon, she can create the exact same copy. "Can you try to use the skill that's infused in the weapon? Just point it to the target and it should work."
Monika nods as she points her dagger towards the wooden target, nothing happens. Glissa takes the dagger over when she does it. A blaze of lightning shoots out from her dagger and burns the wooden target into a cinder.
"That's weird, maybe we can try something else." Glissa pulls out her sword on the back, it's a sword that reeks red flames. "Try to make this one. It's a magical weapon that has passive effects, normally I don't really use it because it's really not useful if I can just activate the ability by myself."
Monika holds the sword, suddenly another identical sword appears from her other hand. "I guess it worked!" She's happy about this discovery.
"Can you try to swing it and compare the differences? The thing about this sword is that it will inflict hellfire on the enemy who touches it. And the traditional methods cannot stop the fire." Glissa explains to Monika about this weapon.
Monika can't really tell the difference, so she throws the one that she made onto the wooden target. It caught on fire and burned into ashes. "It worked!" Monika hugs Glissa.
Glissa didn't expect Monika would react this way, but she still rolled with it.
"Thank you Glissa! Let's go get something to eat!" She then holds her hand to the tavern.
"Welcome back, little missy. I see you brought a-" Elrene didn't expect Monika to bring Glissa with her. The truth is that Glissa and Elrene knew each other. Then something minor happened a long time ago that caused Elrene to leave the stronghold.
Glissa also recognized Elrene, but instead, she chose to ignore it. Because this time she made a new friend, and she couldn't care less about a traitor.
Monika didn't really sense the inner conflicts between these two, because both of them are all focusing their attention on Monika. Instead of fighting among themselves, they want to prove that they are better than the other one. So, it became a competition of trying to bribe Monika.
"Little missy, today's tab is on me. Because you brought your friend with you. It might help me with my business." Elrene said:" pick whatever you want on the menu."
"Monika, after eating, came with me to the stronghold. I will give you all my magical weapons." Glissa is a queen after all, but right now she has devoted all her energy to this little competition.
Monika didn't know how to respond with all of those good offers towards her, she just mechanically kept nodding her head.
After eating, Glissa has brought out her ultimate weapon: rose cake. She extracted the knowledge from Trazyn and thus she knows if you want to make Monika happy then the rose cake is the best weapon. She prepared it before coming to meet with Monika.
Monika apparently is more impressed by the rose cake Glissa brought, but after eating all of that food she really couldn't have more room for rose cake. "Thanks, Glissa, but i am really full now. Maybe we can eat it later."
"Yeah sure, we can try it when we are at my castle." Glissa gives out a smirk to Elrene.
Knowing herself cannot compare to Glissa, Elrene just turns her head away. Monika sensed something but she didn't want it to stop. So far this is the best thing that happened to her in this place. Except of course finding her love. But none the less Monika decides to help both of them fix their relationship secretly.
Somewhere in the deep core of the planet, Trazyn appears in the middle of the grand hall of the tomb world, He sees Imotekh is busy adjusting some machines." My friend, how have you been?!" he said while having a grin on his face.
But Imotekh responded to him with a spear almost in his face:" Who are you, you dare step foot in my realm?" Imotekh did not recognize Trazyn due to his human form.
"Imotekh it's me! I did it! I did what the silent king wanted!" He's really proud of himself for this achievement.
"Trazyn? How did you do it?" Imotekh is indeed impressed by Trazyn, despite Trazyn usually being shown as an irresponsible buffoon but he does have the ability to surprise him. That's one of the reasons that Imotekh didn't dismember him a long time ago.
Trazyn spent a few hours telling Imotekh the procedures and what he needed to be aware of the whole transformation phase. After listening, Imotekh asks:" why didn't you find a stronger host? Humans are known to be weak." He then remembers the insignificant pet that always follows Trazyn:" Did you do it because you want to impress that pet of yours?"
Trazyn didn't deny it:" Well yes, but also there's the miracle that I am here standing in flesh and bone."
"I've heard enough of your bragging; I will soon test this method myself then report to the silent king." Imotekh turns back and continues to fix the machine.
"Did you fix the web way?" Trazyn asks
"Not yet but I am making progress. It's trying to reconnect it by itself so there's really nothing I can do more here." Imotekh sits on the staircase.
"So… why did you summon me here?" Trazyn is confused, why would Imotekh do something so unnecessary.
"Report about the world above ground." He looks at Trazyn coldly. If people have to compare Imotekh with Trazyn, then it's basically the difference between Nova and Noel. But Trazyn has more tricks compared to Noel.
Trazyn gave Imotekh a beautiful presentation about the world above ground. Imotekh just replied with a chuckle. Sometimes clowns make your life more interesting.
"Maybe you should go out and have some fun, staying here won't really help." Trazyn is trying to let Imotekh change his opinion about other organic life forms. Of Course, he needs to make sure that Imotekh wants to step outside first.
"Like this?" He points to his mechanical body.
"No, but you can have a body like mine, so people won't really tell the difference." Trazyn sounds like Monika at this point.
Imotekh's gaze is like the death himself, he's trying to find the reason why Trazyn wants him to do so. But he didn't realize that Trazyn just wanted him to enjoy the benefits of life.
"Alright, but I am doing it because I need to form a report to the silent king." He gives a picture of a man to Trazyn." Can you make anyone look like this?"
Trazyn looks at the picture:" Ouf, you sure about this? Who is this anyway?" he's a bit disappointed about Imotekh's taste.
"He was a general I once fought. I executed him but he was a true warrior. If I have to have an avatar, then he is the most suitable one." Imotekh didn't really get the insult from Trazyn.
"Fine… I will do it, but when we are outside, I need to be with you. Just for the security's sake."
Trazyn doesn't want Imotekh going around killing stuff that he doesn't like.
After a few hours of tinkering, Trazyn is ready to transform Imotekh into his brand-new body. After a few minutes of conscious uploading, Imotekh wakes up in his new body. Just when Trazyn talks to him, he gives a sign to let Trazyn shut up.
He kept deep breathing in his body, the feeling of air entering and exiting his lung is something that he has been long forgotten. After a few minutes, he puts up the clothes that Trazyn prepared for him.
Even in his human body, Imotekh still looks extremely intimidating. He chose the look of a middle-aged man with short silver hair. Despite the looks, Trazyn made his body more enhanced even surpassing his own. Because if Imotekh finds out Trazyn is making him weaker than him, then there will be consequences waiting for Trazyn. Surprisingly like Trazyn, it took Imotekh only a few more minutes to fully adjust himself to the new human host. Imotekh's blue eyes are still as piercing as when he was in his Necron form. Even an aspect of his present reeks the power and dominance.
"If I may say something, the Storm Lord." Trazyn said it with a very low voice:" I think it's better that you can make yourself more neutral because right now everyone can feel that you want to kill everything you see."
Imotekh nods, not being spotted among the peers is a common tactic while infiltrating. Normally the Necron doesn't really need it because they can just phase into another dimension and appear next to the target. Before both of them leave the tomb world, Trazyn tells Imotekh that it's better they walk instead of constantly teleporting. Imotekh simply nods in reply, he doesn't really feel like talking in his new body.
"Sis?" Monika's voice woke Nova up from her sleep, when she opened her eyes, she sees Monika is holding her hand. They are seemingly in the Academie, they were still young back then and everything was pure and simple. They lost their parents a few years ago but eventually, both of them got back on their feet. Nova just finished her entry exam for the ghost program, a program designed for the elitist of the elite. In her memory she has finished everything perfectly, it's just she got a minor concussion from the last fight against a simulated Xeno monster.
Monika's worried eye is fixated on Nova, she is rushed to the hospital the moment she has heard the news about Nova's condition. Monika is a sensitive person, she will always come to her sister no matter what she is doing, after all, they only got each other in this world. At least this is what they thought. A few years later, Nova has met their brother. But soon, Nova finished the program with the speed that no one could achieve and went back to the military and eventually became the youngest Major this planet has ever seen. Nobody knows how or why she would try this hard, as on the planet there hasn't been a real threat for a long time.
One day, Monika bought a lot of food for Nova to celebrate her promotion. But when Nova came back, there's nothing but emptiness. Monika tries to help Nova but eventually, she pushed Monika away further and further, thus their current relationship. Just when she's about to go further in the memory she suddenly woke up.
Nova found herself awake bound on a cross-like structure. Her plan worked, she slightly looks at her gear, she didn't really lose anything. So, she assumes that the owner of this place hasn't seen a combat stealth suit before.
Before Nova tries to get herself out of the bindings, the door suddenly opens. Nova quickly pretends that she's still asleep. A weird-looking humanoid enters the room, looking at Nova, and starts scanning her with a half bio half-machine scanner.
"This being structures differently than the subjects before. Must examine immediately." He then turns away but what he didn't realize is that Nova already got herself out from the bindings. She kicks him to the wall and activates a device that can jam all outgoing noises and signals. She designed this device to kill Trazyn but it seems like she can do some test runs beforehand.
She steps her boots on that person's shoulder:" Tell me everything." Nova bashes off that person's mask. It's a being that has a twisted face, it has multiple eyes all across its head and all of them are looking at Nova.
"The organic shall not escape from the facility, the Core Augur is in this place." while it speaks, it makes the sounds as if there's water in its mouth.
"I guess it can't be helped…" Nova pulls him up from the collar and stares her eyes into its eyes. Nova's eyes turn into a deep sky-blue color. She uses this power only when it's impossible to extract knowledge because it costs her a lot of stamina and most of the time she needs to rest before she can continue more work.
After a few seconds, the creature starts to have a seizure and stops moving with purple blood coming out from every hole it has. Nova saw everything, from how the phyrexian conquered the world to the experimentation this place has done on different organisms. "This is indeed a hellhole." but she's glad that her sister didn't end up in a place like this. She however suspects that people like Trazyn would be glad to put Monika on one of those crosses to trade for benefits.
Thinking she didn't kill Trazyn in the bar almost a year ago, Nova is at some point disappointed in herself. If she could've done this faster, then all of this wouldn't happen. But that day seeing the smile on her sister's face, she starts to think that whether Trazyn treated her badly or not. Because Monika is not the brightest but surely, she's no idiot finding out people that might hurt her.
After a little rest, she feels a bit better. Nova quickly activates the stealth mode on her suit and starts walking around the facility. The first impression Nova has of this place is that it looks like a gigantic laboratory. It has pipes all over the place and sometimes you can hear the scream of people through the air vent.
But Nova has been through worse, the things she had done to reach her position are really way beyond this. She sees a group of people walking towards her, but they just walked past. From their conversation apparently, they need to form a report about the death of the green praetor to their core augur. Nova decides to follow them to 'meet' this core augur who rules this place.
As they walk into a big lab, a shrimp-looking 'person' that has full metallic features all over his body is working on a body. After some tinkering, it moved and collapsed in a few seconds. It spoke with hissing mechanical noise but it's still recognizable:" The non us can dispose of the imperfects, then we may communicate verbally."
After a wave of collapsing noise, Nova revealed herself:" if I am not harmed, I will harm no others." Nova pulls away from her weapons and stands in front of that thing. She has no fear in her eyes, but she is impressed by how easily this thing detected her presence. " What are you?"
It did not answer, it put one of his fingers on Nova's chin and inspected her carefully:" The not us is organic yet the power it emits is astonishingly high. I would personally vivisect the non-us, but it might harm self in the process."
Nova scoffs:" huh, I see you know your stuff. I am Nova, and I am here to find someone. If you can provide interesting information, then I shall leave in peace." Nova can't just extract the knowledge by force, because this being in front of her is non-organic. Her mind-reading ability doesn't really work for this thing." Are you the core augur of this place? Your minion has something to report but I can do it instead if you want."
"The non us is right, but the information you possess means nothing to me. I however possess the knowledge that you desire. What can the non us give to the core augur to trade for knowledge?" It speaks logically, unlike the other lesser beings that Nova encountered, this being in front of her is on another level. Despite it being said that Nova is stronger than him, she's still very aware of her surroundings.
"What do you desire from me?" Nova has no choice but to talk reasonably with this being.
"The secret of not us' power. You provide me that, I shall lead the not us to the being it seeks. "It doesn't seem to have eyes, but Nova can feel the 'stare' from this being.
"Very well, I shall trade with you. But if you planning to do anything on me or screw with me. I will make sure this place burns down the ground." Nova squints her eyes to intimidate the being in front of her.
"Not us will be satisfied." Then it moved a pile of bodies on the ground to let Nova sit on that. Nova just waves her hand to pass the offer.
After spending an hour talking with each other, Nova told that thing the secret of her power and the being in return showed where Monika is in a mirror. Nova sees Monika is hitting targets with an elf woman. "Is there a way that I can get there?" Nova asks
"Not us's demand is already satisfied, I shall do no more." That thing stops responding to Nova.
At Least Nova has a general direction. Before she leaves Nova asks that being its name, but it just continues to dissect the body on the ground.
As Nova finds another servant in this facility, she finds out that the place she needs to go is called the tangle and it will take around a month by foot if she moves quickly. "A month… dammit Monika you just can't let your sister have a bit of peace in her life." Then she set foot to one of the nearest human villages nearby. She hopes that she can get some sort of transportation that can get her there faster.