by Devin Cain
"Need assistance?" Gremory asked. "You sure don’t look too good." She offered me her hands, appearing right before me as I coughed, spitting dark-red blood all over her. It looked strange, floating in space like that.
"Ariel’s spear did a lot of damage to you, Admiral," McGregor said as he handed me to Gremory. "You should take it—"
That was as far as we got. Most of what happened next was a blur as I felt my consciousness fade in and out over and over again. Strong, yet soft arms enveloped me, carrying my weak body before the pain disappeared and I finally felt relief knowing they were alright, both of them.
"Put him in the vat. He’s too far gone to regenerate the damage on his own," I heard a demanding, yet feminine voice say. It was strained and tiring, that much I could hear.
"Doc?" I wheezed. "What’s going on?"
"You’re wounded, Admiral. The lance did much more than putting a gaping hole in your chest. It chipped, and a piece broke off inside you, poisoning you. I’m sorry to say, but you’re losing the battle as your body can’t regenerate the damage it’s causing."
"Is that why I’m feeling so shitty?" I croaked, my throat dry and sticky from the blood.
"Most likely. But for now, leave everything to us. Oh, and Gabriel said that your fumbling with the obelisk fucked it all up. They managed to open the three portals because they homed in on your location when you activated it, but from now on, any type of opening is impossible from the outside. You kind of fried the system, so to speak."
"Good, good," I whispered. "Can I go to sleep now?"
"Sure thing. Everyone, out of the room. He’s going to be out for a while. You all got your own shit to do, so."
I smiled inwardly, knowing the way she bossed everyone around in her lab. She sure was a tough woman. A pleasant feeling surrounded my body as I thought of the Doc; it must have been the Feraline liquid inside the vat, I was sure of it. Either that or I finally bit the dust and had woken up in heaven. No, that wasn’t right. I was as far from heaven as one could be. But that didn’t matter, because if I lived, I would make my own heaven.
A slight caress over my chest caused me to stir. It was followed by another one over my right and left arms, then my legs and my chest again. I slowly opened my eyes to a dimly lit room. Gremory’s face was as close to mine as it got. Her body was draped over my left arm, and her head on my shoulder. Kris was on my right, her petite figure small in comparison to Gremory’s. And lastly, Doc lay right beside Kris.
"Ladies?" I asked questioningly as I tried to move my body, but everything ached and felt like I was falling apart. "How long have I been out of it?" I groaned.
"Three weeks. We’d gotten worried that you’d drain all of the Feraline liquid from our stocks, but then you finally started healing back up again," Gremory whispered, then planted a kiss on my cheek.
"Shit," I cursed. "What’s going on with Entraxila? And our Vandredi allies?"
"The Vandredi are still here. Leviathan ate most of the enemy debris and spewed out a couple of new battleships. It was a sight to behold, I’ll tell you that," Doc replied. "We recorded it so you could see everything for yourself."
"Shit, as if we didn’t have enough multiplying ships," I murmured.
"I heard that," Devil replied cockily over the speakers. "By the way, my boss wanted to shut me down, but for some reason, he doesn’t have control over me anymore."
"Ohh? That’s good. Do I retain your powers? Or his in this case?"
"Everything has stayed the same as far as we could tell. Now, how about you four have some privacy? I’m on a date with Khepri anyway, so feel free not to disturb us."
I groaned again and shook my head. That was so wrong on so many levels.
"Whatever, go have fun you two, I need a moment with my dearest and closest anyway. Not that you’d understand."
"He sure is a snarky fellow," Kris said once Devil had gone silent. "Bullying around the weak just for his pleasure."
"I’ll be sure to give him a beating for you, but for now, I think we need to have a long talk before anything else happens." So, I proceeded to tell them everything I learned about the other god of chaos and what little I knew about it, what he expected me to do and what I’d already done.
Gremory knew as much, but the Doc and Kris were taken aback by the revelation. They sure weren’t expecting me to become the harbinger of death for some unknown entity, or at least something similar. After all, he’d agreed not to force me into anything yet.
In the end, Doc left the girls and me to do her usual work. I might have stopped her and get her to join our love-triangle, but it hadn’t felt right. I had my hands more than full with the two of them, so I didn’t care about more headache.
Using the couple of minutes of reprieve while the two were showering, I contacted Samson and McGregor relaying my orders to the two. There was no one beside them I trusted more, especially when it came to me wanting to surprise everyone.
"Ladies, would you mind dressing in your finest?" I asked as they strode into the room, steam still rising from their bodies. "Or we could postpone that for a while," I added as I got up. "I haven’t had any fun for a while, and the Entraxilans won't be running anywhere yet."
The two grinned like a pack of wolves that were about to devour me before they ran in and tackled me back onto the bed.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t the luckiest man alive, at least to my knowledge. A bed full of gorgeous, strong, competent women, power beyond my wildest dreams, and a world to colonize. Now, the only thing missing was to set it all in stone.
"Admiral?" Samson called from behind the door. "Everything’s set up if you will. The Capitol plaza’s transformation is already underway. The projected time is twelve hours from now."
"Thanks, Samson. Have you taken care of the other thing?" I asked with a smirk.
"Already underway. McGregor is taking care of it as we speak. Now, if you’ll excuse me."
"Huh? What the hell are you two talking about?" Gremory asked. I could see that the curiosity was killing her, but there was no way I’d divulge what I planned.
"You’ll see in due time. We’re having a meeting with the Entraxilan people down on their planet."
"Oh, how interesting. Do we finally get to see them?" Kris asked as she snaked herself around me.
"Yes, we are. And don’t be frightened by their appearance. They’re larger— copies of us Humans. Much larger copies, but still."
"What do you mean when you say large?" she asked again. "Like a head taller? Well endowed and stuff?"
I shrugged.
"How about three or four heads taller?"
"Right," she whispered, scratching me across my back. It felt rather good, so I moved my back around. "What? You want me to go on?"
"Yeah, please do," I replied, closing my eyes. We take everything for granted, even such minor things like a back rub. Humans were such nasty creatures of habit, that we didn’t appreciate something until we lost it.
"Do you think we can live here in relative peace with all that’s going on?" she asked.
"We’ll make it work. I’ll be visiting every neighboring system and place Obelisks in strategic places along with long-range radar. We’ll build our fleet, our army, and infrastructure. We have millions of Entraxilans to call on, and once Doc manages to alter the parasitic virus for them, we’ll have an army of unstoppable machines."
"That’s what I’m afraid off," Gremory murmured and heaved a sigh. "Whatever. What do you want us to wear?"
"Whatever it is, make sure you wear the same clothes, and try to make it elegant and long, nothing too revealing. I don’t want millions gawking at my two women," I replied, slapping her ass. She slapped me back lightly and ran off to the closet. I sure was happy they installed the closets and put in all the clothing Dimitriy sent us, or they would have a hard time getting their hands on something this quickly.
My heart skipped a beat when I looked at them gig
gling and jumping around like best friends. What if I lost them one day? Even worse, what if I had to kill them myself? It sure was a scary thought, one I pushed away as far as possible to the back of my mind.
I walked over to my closet and stared at the smart-suits. Black and white, red and gray. There were at least twenty of each combination. I sneaked a peek, seeing they were eyeing black, so I decided to do the same as well. It hugged my body tightly and fit around my arms and legs. It still felt wrong the way my body had changed and become much larger, but I couldn’t help it. Soon it should start feeling normal I guessed.
Golden threads were interwoven in the fabric around the collar, lapel, breast pocket, jacket pockets and around the sleeve buttons. It was almost too flashy in my eyes, but whatever. I was going to become their ruler, so why not start everything off with a bang?
"I’m going ahead," I called over my shoulder as I left the room. They replied something, but it got drowned out as the door closed behind me.
The guards already wore a festive variant of our regular outfits, mainly white with red accents. It sent tingles down my spine, which was a good thing I guessed. They greeted me with a salute and offered to follow them.
Sometimes later in the ship hold, a full regiment of mutated soldiers greeted me with Khavvrim at their head. The armor they wore was both high tech and elegant in one. It must have been smart-cloth mixed up with real armor, I thought as I made my way toward him.
"Admiral, please allow us to escort you down to Entraxila."
I nodded, a wide grin plastered all over my face.
"I sure am happy that we spared you. I couldn’t have found anyone better suited to intimidate our enemies than you and your men, commander."
He snapped a salute and faltered. The corners of his lips rose slightly, and I couldn’t help but wink. It might have been weird, but I didn’t care.
The landing craft was colored red with white accents along with the wings and thrusters, as well as the nose of the ship.
"Whose idea was it to go with white and red?" I asked as we walked up to the ramp.
"I have no idea. I think it was Levi’s," he replied. "It sure looks good, no?"
"More than I’d like to admit," I replied. "So, how are the troops holding out? Changing into what we are must have been tough on some."
"Not at all. Most of them love it and compete with one another all the time. There’s a healthy amount of women that have joined up in the program, so it’s not like we don’t get what we need. And last but not least, the power trip sure is something else. Some of us can rip a Gebradim apart with our bare hands."
My eyebrows shot up into my forehead as I turned my head toward Khavvrin.
"Have there been any full awakenings or mutations?"
He shook his head but didn’t change his demeanor.
"There have been some partial changes or awakenings as you call them. But we keep them on the aft part of the ship. They don’t look so ‘Human’ anymore after changing. But their strength is something else. I can barely take two of them on at tier one."
"Make sure they have everything they need. I don’t want them turning on us and running loose on the ship, killing people."
"Already done, sir. Speaking of which, would you care to strap in? They say that it should be a bumpy ride down to Entraxila. It’s something about their atmosphere."
Obliging, I sat down and strapped in as the ship took off and the smell of burnt fuel filled the interior. It wasn’t quite unpleasant, but bad enough for ordinary people.
"How satisfied are you with your role on the ship and with your treatment?" I asked as the ship started moving. He looked at me as if it was a trick question.
"Sir?"
"Go on, give me an answer. I'm genuinely interested to hear what you have to say."
He shrugged, sighed, and turned to me.
"More than satisfied, sir. Though I’m missing the interaction with the girls, but that can’t be helped. I need to set a good example for them."
"I see. Thank you for being honest, Commander. Say, how’s the engineering of new weapons and armor for your troops going?"
"Good, no, better than good. They’re really going out of their way to get us equipped. There have been classes held every day for those who want to join in on production. Most of it is automated using machines, 3-d printers, and whatnot, but a machine can’t think for itself, one still has to give the orders and put the stuff together."
"What about McGregor? Have you asked him for help?"
"Oh, yes, we have. He’s sent over a batch of worker robots that have amped up production twofold. It only goes to show how advanced they are. What’s more, he’s made some improvements to the current best designs by adding a ceramic explosive layer on the outside of the armor, so instead of penetrating, the ceramic explodes and sends the damage back to the attacker if he’s up close, and if he’s firing at you, well, you don’t get penetrated."
"I’m rather happy to see you so excited, Commander. After all, we’ve been through a lot over the last months, especially when I was out of it, you did a good job. No, all of you did a good job, the fleet and the infantry and the civilians. I’m sure we wouldn’t be in this situation if everyone hadn’t pulled together."
"Thanks, Admiral. It means a lot to us that you’re satisfied. After all, you gave us something we yearned for: freedom. Everyone was too afraid to do anything until you came along, and now we have a new cradle to call home."
"Good that you see it like that. Speaking of a cradle, what do we know about the Entraxilans?"
"Well, they’re quite neutral on anything, to be frank. They didn’t want to join in on the fight, nor support us until we took over for some reason only known to them. In honesty, I’m getting a clone feel from them, as if they had just been cloned off each other with a couple of them left in charge."
"How so?"
"I don’t know. It’s just a vibe I’m getting off them. Speaking of which, there’s the Emperor Rendan, the Empress Renfa, and the princess Renata. Then there’s this Secretary Gimm who’s constantly trying to lead the conversations, butting in unnecessarily."
"All three start with the letters r and e? How peculiar."
"Thought so too, but it seems like whole families start with a single letter, and if there’s more of them starting with the same letter, then go the next, and a third until there’s enough diversity. Must be a cultural thing."
"Anything else? Their military? How strong is it?"
"Oh, it depends on which one. The infantry is top, but they have no navy. Their ruler told us they used to be mercenaries a long time back and weren’t allowed to develop their spacefaring capabilities."
"Maybe its better like that. Oh, have we invited our allies and the representatives from the alien races aboard?"
"All taken care off, Admiral."
I sighed, letting out a deep breath. I just wished it was all over so we could start living in peace, but we still had a very long day to go.
It took us about twenty minutes to drop to the surface near the Capitol plaza. Hordes of Entraxilans were busily rearranging the place and decorating everything white and red. What looked like guard forces kept the mass of civilians in order and away from the plaza’s throne site.
It was a strange thing walking among them and looking up at the tall cousins of ours. Most of them wore strange expressions, things I recognized very well. It was resentment. I was the conqueror, the one who was taking their planet for myself and my forces. Sure, they had a military, and quite a strong one at that, but once they saw our mutated soldiers in action and the power of our fleet, their leaders couldn’t help but oblige. Especially since there would be no killing or pillaging, and they would be allowed to lead their lives like up until now.
A large throne had been set up atop of a podium on the central plaza, forged from white and red steel. Four Entraxilans were still busy adding the finishing touches, but it already looked majestically. To the right of the throne w
ere two smaller replicas, and less adorned, while on the left a large and a smaller throne.
"Are you the man they hail as Conqueror Cain?" a small, hunched back Entraxilan asked as he walked up to me. He bowed low for it to have meaning, but it looked so out of place.
"I am. And you are?"
"Secretary Gimm. I’m the first man under our emperor and his consort. He wishes to speak to you beforehand if possible. Could you oblige his request?"
"I’m not one to be fetched like a nobody. If the late Emperor wishes to meet me, we can do so on this plaza as we wait for the ceremony to begin."
"That will do, Conqueror. I’ll go get his majesty immediately," Secretary Gimm replied and scurried off. He almost reminded me of Eunuch palace servants. Khavvrin shrugged and waited for me to start walking. I did so with him and forty mutated soldiers as our escort.
Soon enough, the majestic palace doors opened for Emperor Rendan and his escort of merely four Entraxilan soldiers. He strode proudly toward me, holding his head high and chest out like a peacock, but it was only to be expected.
"Admiral," he said, holding his hand out. Now, I was a big guy when transformed, but the Emperor still managed to tower over me. It was truly a sight to behold that sent goosebumps all over my body. I couldn’t wait to see the soldiers in action against my troops in a mock battle.
"Emperor," I replied, shaking the man’s hand respectfully. "It’s good to finally meet you."
"Likewise. Now, shall we get right to business? I prefer not to beat around the bush."
"I wouldn’t have it no other way," I replied. The man gave off an aura of ego and grandeur, which I immediately disliked. In a way, he reminded me of Cafka, which didn’t bode well.
"Good. Now, as for what your Captain Kris offered us, I want to confirm the main two things with you in person. You won’t micro-manage our people, and instead will leave it to the new Emperor and Empress?"
"That’s correct. All I expect is your allegiance, nothing less. Once I need you to wage battle for me, we’ll collect your troops, but until then, your soldiers can enjoy their time. However, there are some things we need to talk about later, like the transformation of your warriors into something similar to what you see here behind me."
