"So.. How far do you think they managed to get with that.. core.. thing?" Han Su thought he was still dreaming when he heard this voice.
Keeping his breathing still and not making any sudden movements, he listened to his captors words.
"Well, when I left them, they had just landed on Mars, that's a planet in their solar system. So I estimate it would've probably taken them another..." The other voice stopped. Han Su recognized it belonged to the girl he had followed.
No! This thing captured me.. I can't escape from it.. My poor life.. Just as I came into contact with magic I'm leaving it. He cried inside his mind as his breathing quickened.
No! I need to get away! I need to find a way back to the Imperium. Better yet, the military is searching the galaxy for me! He sighed as he knew that it was impossible. This was a place with magic, it was completely different from the magicless Milkyway. The most magic that existed was a telepathic link between some alien speices.
"100 years or so to find and realize what the Mechanical Core is. Well, there's no point in guessing. You can ask him yourself." Han Su flinched as a finger poked his forehead. "No need to keep listening, make yourself useful and add to the conversation, or are you the quiet type?" Han Su opened his eyes slowly as 2 cute girls appeared in front of him.
"Well hello 'Hero'. I'm Azura, this is Amelia, and that's Wilhelm, we're your kidnappers." Azura clapped her hands with a big smile as she introduced them.
Wilhelm sat in the back writing down everything Azura said. Hearing Azura introduce him, he lifted a finger to greet him as he went back to writing.
Han Su inspected his kidnappers who didn't look like normal criminals. If it weren't for the fact that he was paralyzed and couldn't move, he would have thought that it was just 2 grandchildren visiting their grandfather.
Amelia had her blonde hair in a pony tail as her cute face blushed from Han Su looking her up and down.
Seeing her blush, Han Su wanted to laugh but the murderous glare from Wilhelm stopped him.
Seeing Han Su look at him instead, Wilhelm nodded with a glare.
Wilhelm looked like a sterotypical wizard. A long grey beard and a red robe covering his body, the only thing he was missing was a witch hat and he would look like Gandalf.
"Can you hurry up inspecting us? You don't need to stare at each person for a minute do you?" He shifted his gaze to Azuras annoyed face that was replaced with happiness once he looked at her.
"So, who are you, where are you from, how many of you were summoned?" Azura took a candy from a side table and handed it to Amelia who took it happily.
"This doesn't feel like much of an interrogation. Are you rebels or spies from an enemy country or something?" Han Su asked back with a hoarse voice.
"Oh? Are you thirsty? You should be after your little dream. All that sweat and drool must've made you dehydrated right?" Azura nodded to Amelia who quickly got a glass of water and handed it to Azura.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
After Azura said that, Han Su felt incredibly thirsty, it was almost like he was stranded on a desert planet with no water.
"Water first..?" He managed to hiss out. Azura tilted her head to the side cutely.
Standing up, she walked to him and poured it onto his chest. "No reward if you don't answer any questions." Smiling sweetly to him, she poured herself a glass and drank it slowly in front of him allowing him to see every drop disappear from the glass.
"Monster! Who tortures someone like this!? I'd rather you cut off a finger than this!" Han Su roared as he tried to stretch his neck towards his chest, trying in vain to get a drop.
Shrugging her shoulders, she asked again, "You just have to answer the questions, who are you, where are you from and how many of you were summoned?" She poured another glass about to drink it.
"Han Su, Earth Imperium, 1." Nodding happily, Azura gave the glass to Amelia who in turn helped Han Su drink it.
"That's strange. Only you were summoned? What else was summoned with you? It took the lives of so many Magi and the disturbance was quite big." She narrowed her eyes as she toyed with his laser pistol.
"Me and my autonomous mech." Han Su looked towards Amelia, begging for another drink.
"A mech? An autonomous one at that. How far have you advanced, better yet, what year is it on Earth right now?" She disassembled the pistol and laid all the parts on the table. In the back, Wilhelms eyes lit up as he looked towards Azura. Seeing her nod, he took the pistol and played with the parts, trying to reassemble it.
"The Imperium is an Interstellar Empire, that means we have colonised planets outside of our solar system. Earth was destroyed in the year 2422 by an unknown annomally, a black hole appeared in Earths core and it sucked the whole solar system in. By then we had already colonised the nearest stars so we were safe. But 4 different planets used Earths destruction to their advantage to create their own country. The Earth Interstellar Imperium was one of them, and now, in the year 3405 we rule half of our galaxy, the Milkyway." He spoke even more as he felt some feeling returning to his fingers.
Beckoning her hand, black spots appeared on Han Su's skin that forced themselves out and amalgamated in front of Azura, it slowly started vanishing one by one until they were all gone.
"One last question, do you know of the Sibir Empire?" Seeing Han Su's eyes widen in disbelief, she knew she was correct.
"T.. That! It's a top secret, how do you know of it? No, it makes sense.." Seeing him calm down, Azura raised an eyebrow.
Seeing her look at him like that, he answered, "You're Satan, the Devil, whatever people call you aren't you? A scientist who was in love with Demonology, Magic and the like created a machine that could create a holographic image of anyone. It was tested on some random people and it worked, then we slowly worked up to high level officials of the other countries, all of the results were always correct." He paused with a flash of terror as he looked at Azura.
"We tried imaging God, but nothing appeared, only some smoke. Then, just for fun, the scientist decided to draw Satan. And a cute girl appeared, everyone laughed at him because his machine finally failed, but I guess we were wrong, it didn't fail." He gulped as saw everyone in the room staring at him weirdly.
Then they all started laughing. Han Su sat there in a cold sweat as he thought that he was about to die.
"Ha... That's too funny! I'm no Devil, nor am I Satan. Though I am quite close to them, your machine did indeed fail if it drew me instead of them!" Azura laughed as she patted his shoulder.
"Now, tell me, what is the top secret about Sibir?" She squeezed his shoulder, but seeing him go pale, she let go.
"W.. Well.. When Earth got swallowed by the black hole, nothing happened apart from the solar system being a dead zone. That is until a few highly advanced looking ships holding unknown emblems flew out of the black hole. Until that moment, we never dared to approach the black hole in fear of getting sucked in, but seeing them come out of it, we tried sending a few dud ships to approach them only for them to get sucked in. We also tried to communicate with them but any signals would get distorted and eaten." He sighed as he shook his head.
"Then, about a hundred years later, for the first time, a ship left the event horizon and made contact. We were surprised to see that they were humans and that we actually shared an ancient language, English. At first we thought that maybe they were from a parralel universe but we had no proof, they didn't know of any Earth existed or anything." His voice suddenly became a bit hostile.
"Just as we were about to officially make diplomacy, an enemy spy who had gotten a high rank in the military opened fire on the ship. I won't ever forget how the face of the holographic Sibir diplomat went from a warm smile to a devilish sneer." He shuddered as if he were reliving his worst nightmare.
"A single man. One! Single! Man! Walked out of the Sibir ship. No space suit, no armour. Just a simple robe like the one you're wearing and a metal staff with a black swirling crystal in the middle. He pointed towards the outpost that had been constructed to observe the ships, which held thousands of science, merchant, military and civilian ships. They all started getting sucked into the black hole, one by one. They couldn't escape no matter what. Tens of thousands of people, just like that, dead. The only reason I even know of this secret is because of my relationship with the Supreme General." He tried calming his beating heart as he remembered the scene on the hologram.