Mere moments before, Noah, alongside the other members of Omid’s crew, had been keenly observing the careful and strategic advancement of the deployed team led by Omid himself.
Noah had not been worried even when they had asked him to point to the location where the fabled battle between the Abyss Beast and his crew of Morgiana and him took place.
Obviously, he had made sure to bring the Beast, chasing him as though its life depended on it, to mess up the surroundings far enough that it would leave a lasting mark and would be easily distinguishable before he had started on his plan.
That was the reason why, after giving a few instructions that would lead the crew to the place of battle, he decided to finally do the task he was interested in the most— getting as much information from his future targets as he was allowed.
“How are those big things able to fly like that?”
He asked, like the ignorant barbaric kid that he was portraying to be, causing Phaeia and the others to frown ever so slightly. One of them even had their fingers twitch slightly as it reached for their weapons but they stopped when one of the pirates shook his head.
It was easy to see that she was reaching the limit of her patience but Noah's smile never wavered even as he noticed the clear irritation marring her already outlandish, alien face.
“A barbarian like you may not understand but there is matter in this world. Something that is normally invisible to our naked eye but when handled in a certain way it can be condensed and used to power ships and any other constructs that you may have the fortune to glance your ignorant eyes upon. I do not want to go into details as it’s completely unnecessary. Now keep quiet and relay the directions as you should.”
Noah shrugged and nodded his head. Though he was not able to hear exactly what he desired, it didn’t matter to him in the end. He would just find another way to learn the details soon enough.
“Sorry.”
He looked back at the screen and waited for the opportune time. They all waited for their respective times to arrive. Up until Omid finally found the entrance to the ruins.
Rumble!
When the rumbling and creaking finally stopped, all of them watched on, their eyes glued to the screen, as the gigantic gate lit up with splendid luminous incandescence and unfurled out in the atmosphere.
“This is… This is impossible!”
The Cyclops woman had practically attached her one eye to the screen when the stellar gate appeared before them.
As a scientist whose goal had always been to explore the unknown, this new discovery would be enough for her to even be remembered for as long as the empire existed and perhaps even beyond, spreading to all the nearby galaxies.
A white gate had never appeared or at the very least, had never been recorded to have appeared from the ruins of the Old Empire. This was a new discovery that had the power to stir even the Empire into action.
“We need to go in.”
Phaeia had much less hang-ups than Omid. At this moment she could not think about how secure venturing into the unknown gate would be for them. She was willing to die if it was for science. The hunger for knowledge was what kept scientists like her going, oftentimes to their death…
Noah also observed the gate with clear intrigue in his eyes. But more than the actual white light, what interested him more were the symbols engraved on the borders of the towering luminous gate.
“What are those?”
“Ancient and yet-to-be-deciphered language. We do not know what they mean. But we are slowly doing research into it, one day hoping to decipher it fully, unfurling the secrets they hold.”
Phaeia was so entranced that she did not mind answering this question of the boy. Noah meanwhile had been as confused as he could be. Those symbols jogged his memories and he was sure of one thing.
He knew those symbols. He in fact even learned some of the symbols once upon a time when he was still in the facility and undergoing training to become a constellation. It was a necessary measure as those very symbols were engraved in the Mecha they had been piloting at the time.
What was it again?
‘Sumerian?’
How was it possible? Why was a dead language from Earth somehow used by some super civilization that could rule the entire galaxy? Just what was going on here?
If Noah in the past had only been mildly curious about the ruins and everything surrounding it, now he was starting to feel like something was afoot. His desire to explore the gate increased sharply and he desired to unfurl the secrets that lay within those gates.
It was then—
｢Phaeia. Kill Noah. He is useless to us. As for you guys. Proceed with me. We are entering the ruins.｣
Omid’s voice trickled out from the speaker, powerful and merciless in tone, like a death sentence. He had sent the death order with not a single shred of pity or any emotion in his voice. Like a grim reaper sentencing the dying to their demise.
“.... Ah.”
Noah sighed quietly in the silence that followed and he could feel all eyes train on him. Some were looking at him with pity, others with a faint gloating in their eyes, there were even a few lecherous eyes that made Noah laugh to himself in his mind.
See? I am so handsome, aren’t I? My beauty transcends even the concept of race. Even aliens want to have a piece of me. Whew, my face is getting hot!
— Is it really the moment for a joke?
Nonsense. It’s always the moment for a joke.
Smiling brightly even amid endless desire was the trait of the one who could stand strong through anything and everything. Though of course, the current situation was not anywhere close to despairing for him. He knew they didn’t though.
“Are you going to kill me?”
Phaeia squinted as she observed the smile on the young man's face. She turned on her heels and hastened her steps as she naturally gave the order to down him.
“Sorry boy, nothing personal.”
The members who had clearly intended to do more than simply kill him seemed disappointed but they did not object to her orders. One of them took out a sword and approached Noah before putting the blade just a few inches away from his neck.
It was not a Vibroblade, like the ones equipped by the members that had deployed downward. Obviously, those who stayed back were the weakest of the weak and had the least powerful equipment available to offer. Even so, the blade was sharp enough to cut simple flesh with no problem.
“So this was all a lie?”
“You should have…”
“Stop talking and kill him now.”
“Aye boss. You are taking away all the pleasure.”
The man, in his power armor, did not fear any kind of retaliation. Simply lifting his blade, he grinned to himself, waiting for the moment when fear and despair would appear in the boy’s eyes.
Sadly, there was nothing but a sardonic laugh and deep disdain instead.
“Tsk! How boring. You fail even as simple entertainment. Out with you then.”
He decided that it was a waste of time and continued the trajectory of his blade.
Or at least he tried to…
Whoosh!
‘Huh…?’
Something was flying and it was not Noah’s head. Slowly glancing down, the man looked at the stump of his arm, before witnessing the missing arm in Noah’s own.
“Wha…?”
He was not able to finish speaking or even properly register the information that his eyes were receiving clearly before his head was sent flying this time around. This too was done by his own blade.
Truly a pitiful end.
Bluish blood splashed and spattered the world, covering both Noah and a few of the crew members who were all stricken by fear as they watched the young boy half their size smile eerily as he licked the blue blood on his face.
Had it been the elites specially trained by Omid, they might have immediately reacted, but these were nothing but low-class pirates who never had to fight someone who could actually retaliate properly.
— You are wasting precious food!
‘Don’t worry. They are too weak. One more or one less doesn’t really count for anything.’
He laughed to himself,
“Well… Time to die I guess? Or should I say, time to dig in?”
Thus, all hell broke loose.
***
The faint echoes of running through metal and of hurried steps filled the hallways of the spaceship housing Omid’s pirates. Someone was desperately running away from something, with all their might to boot.
The sounds of the steps were buried by the blaring alarms that resounded all over the ship and the chaotic sounds of gunshots and small explosions brimming throughout the spaceship.
The cacophony of sounds mixed together to create a symphony of death and chaos that rang against the ears of every crew member. It was a symphony that Phaeia did her best to ignore even as she ran for dear life, her eyes filled with horror as the image she witnessed continued to haunt her mind even now.
This was not possible.
This should not be possible.
HOW WAS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?
Such thoughts echoed in the chambers of her chaotic mind but all were silenced by one simple reality. An instinct that was embedded in most living creatures existing throughout the galaxy.
Survival.
Her mind, brilliant as it was and her instincts, even as slow as they were, came to the same conclusion at the same time.
Run!
Flee!
Leave the ship!
Those were her only chances of survival in this chaotic scenario. Only by leaving as fast as her feet allowed her to move could she hope to not get brutally decimated by the monster that they had harbored into their ship.
Ugh!
Nausea filled her lungs, nose and throat, as the haunting memory replayed in her mind once more.
Phaeia was a pirate. Though not a frontline soldier, she had witnessed many crimes, some of them which were too sickening to even describe. She thought she had built up enough resistance already but clearly, she had been wrong.
They all had underestimated Noah, the fucking little boy. The wolf hiding in sheep’s clothing.
He was not some simple native with no power to retaliate against them. Nor was he a simpleton who didn’t know left from right. No… He was a monster.
Purely and simply a monster out of one’s worst nightmares.
｢Gha!!!｣
｢Shoot him! Shoot him!｣
｢My face! Argh!!｣
More and more wretched cries and wailing shrieks filled her ears to the point that her brain started rattling from the sound alone. She wished to simply cut the communication line and silence everything but if she did that, she would be lost with no means of even knowing what was transpiring in the ship— no matter how gruesome and despairing those developments may be for her.
Could she even escape at this rate? The pirate group was being decimated as if they were a bunch of sheep sent to a wolf for the feast of the century. Her armor was not equipped with the ability for high jumps, there were no hoverboards around, nor were there a Mecha for her to maneuver.
What could she even do?
Her mind drifted to two options, hiding or trying to find a way to leave. Beating her enemy never even crossed her mind.
She gritted her teeth. If she wanted to survive, she needed to do it. Changing her trajectory, Phaeia pivoted toward the location of the healing pods. She had to do her best to survive. She must survive, no matter what.
***
Meanwhile, on the other end of the spaceship where the chaos converged the thickest, Noah’s one-sided onslaught was slowly coming to a close. The chaos had turned the spaceship into the spitting image of horror, bathed in blood of all colors and of body parts known and unknown. The place gave off an appearance that could chill any seasoned warrior to their very bones.
Limbs encased in armor and limbs without any coverings could be seen sprawled about everywhere in the multicolored grounds while pieces of organs and flesh coated the walls. The corpses of the pirates, some who still had their eyes opened in disbelief or perhaps agony, littered the ground alongside their blood and internal remains.
In reality, calling this a fight was nothing but an overstatement; it was a pure and unadulterated massacre, the likes of which only made possible through overwhelming strength preying upon a petty group of weak individuals.
Standing in the middle of this bloodbath, Noah was holding the neck of the last pirate with his right hand. Owing to the difference in their size, the pirate could not be lifted fully above the ground; but that small detail did not matter much as his neck was about to be crushed any second now while his eyes couldn’t help but roll in his socket due to the lack of air to his lungs. He was about to die, that was as clear as day.
“Hum… Their sensitivity to pain is similar to humans. The heart, brain and lack of blood are also fatal weaknesses to them it seems. Finally, they do seem to breathe as well. Is it a similarity to carbon-based life forms? Or simply because they are mammals? Are they even mammals? Hmm… so many questions.”
“Please…”
The pirate forced the words to leak out of his jaws despite the intense force tightening around his throat, preventing any air from going through. Noah however, had no care for his condition. His eyes shone with an eerie golden light as he continued to murmur the different points about their biology, the points he had noticed during his fight, causing even more despair to form over the twisted face of the alien pirate.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
During the short fight or the short massacre, whichever fit the context better, that transpired throughout these regions – uncaring for the wounds he received – the young-looking boy proceeded to methodically and surgically destroy each of them in the most varied ways possible.
Pulling their skins, piercing their skulls, blowing a hole in their chests, cutting their limbs, crushing them to pieces. You just had to think of it and he had taken a shot at using any and all methods of cleaning up the pirates that went at him.
Fighting him had been no better than having the first-row seat to the worst horror show in existence.
But for the man, the most terrifying aspect of the whole matter was not simply the method with which he had whittled down their numbers. Nay, it was rather simple, yet more horrifying— it was the look in his eyes.
As a pirate, he had seen many crazy bastards. People who took a sick sadistic pleasure in seeing other people suffer and beg for their lives before slowly dying.
Those people were rather normal in the Sea of Stars. As crazy as they may be, he was able to understand how their mind cracked and croaked. They were predictable to some extent that way… It was a hunger for violence, a trait that many of his own crewmates shared.
But this boy…
“Hum, you have something to say?”
Noah released the hand that was tightened around his throat, allowing him to finally breathe.
Up till this day, he had never realized how painful and precious being able to breathe could be. Droplets formed around the corner of his eyes as he kneeled down before slowly looking up.
Through the blur of his tears, the smile on Noah’s face seemed… Almost devilish, inhumane, cruel, and emotionless…
The same smile, the same gentle affable tone. But those eyes, those ice-cold orbs glancing at him, examining him, dissecting him like watching a corpse on the table, ready for him to dive in and get the secrets out of.
There was no joy in torturing them. No happiness in beating them. No sadness over being betrayed by them.
A smile that was not a smile. A smile that was nothing more than a copy of what should be a smile.
It had taken him quite a while to understand, however, enough of the screams of pain from his companions had gone through his head and he belatedly realized one crucial fact about the boy before him, the perpetrator of this disaster…
From the very beginning, Noah was not even looking at them as living beings.
He was not even looking down on them.
Perhaps in his eyes, they were nothing more than pebbles on the ground whose only worth was providing him with information or satiating his curiosity. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now finally able to speak, the man asked feebly, his voice laced with despair and horror,
“What kind of monster are you?”
What else could this being be other than a monster?
“How can you be so strong?”
It did not make sense. None of what was happening made a lick of sense. He had seen powerful people in his life. Beings who could erase continents from the map in minutes or cosmic beasts who could swallow entire planets like they were having their afternoon meal. Entities, so powerful their mere names shook the galaxy as no one dared to cross them.
But all those people had something in common. The usage of Dark Matter and equipped with an extremely powerful Frame.
How could someone with nothing above the normal level of Dark Matter omnipresent in everyone’s body could actually be so powerful?
He waited, hoping against all hope that he would receive an answer from the apathetic being. At least one answer before meeting his demise.
Sadly, what he heard was nothing like he expected.
Smiling quietly, Noah caressed his head, like a man would pat the head of a pet.
“A monster huh… Well, let me ask you too… Why are you so weak?”
“Hah…”
No more words escaped from him as the hand that was on his head clenched slightly, causing the upper part of his head to completely get crushed under the vice-like grip of the little boy.
“Oh… He even has red blood, huh.”
Noah stood up and looked at the pieces of skulls, blood, and brain matter splattered all over his hand like a concoction of nightmares.
“His brain seems to be relatively larger than normal humans, hmmm. Quite interesting.”
He looked around, wanting to try a few more tests but stopped when he realized that no one else was moving around them anymore.
“Hum? Either my memory is playing me or there should have been one more person here, right?”
— The Cyclops.
“Ah… You are right.”
He sighed and started grimacing as he looked at his clothes once more. The clothes were completely ruined by this point. Not only because of all the blood and flesh but also because of the various-sized holes that were the result of either guns or swords and other similar weapons deployed against him.
Unsurprisingly, the clothes that had been offered to him gave little in terms of actual protection. Perhaps the legend that said the less armor covered, the more defense it gave was not only for women after all?
Chuckling in his mind, Noah moved and rotated his shoulder ever so slightly.
“My regeneration speed increased slightly. Not only that, I have the feeling that all my senses are coming back alive, back to their previous state.”
Noah grinned. Perhaps this was the feeling of fighting actual intelligent people? It was quite the experience.
“Anyway. I initially planned to end that woman first but I got distracted by my experiments. But I guess this is good enough.”
He looked around at all the mutilated bodies surrounding him. The smile stretching his face became the slightest bit more genuine when it landed on the last pirate he had annihilated with his hands.
“A monster, huh…”
Noah did not deny those words. Be it in mind or body, he had long since left the confines of what could be called human.
He knew and understood that more than anyone else. But clearly, the words of the man had managed to upset him slightly.
This was good. As contradictory as this may seem, this anger actually made him quite happy.
“I guess I am not completely a monster yet, then?”
He whistled to himself and began piling the corpses close to each other, uncaring of whether they wore their armor or not.
It wouldn’t make a difference anyway.
“Phew… Now I guess it’s your turn.”
— Finally!
The right half of Noah’s body wiggled ever so slightly. An inky black substance spread throughout his right sclera, dyeing it almost entirely in a dark black hue, leaving only his pupils with a deep shade of scarlet to contrast the black, before moving down to his right arm.
The Dark substance continued to gather and wiggle until it finally transformed into a gigantic black claw with a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. This was soon followed by dozens of bloodshot crimson eyes opening one after another over the entire arm,looking around everywhere before all stopped and looked in the direction of the corpses.
“Bon appétit.”
With that broken French accent, a gruesome feast started, bones, flesh, armor, weapons, and the like all devoured down to the last bit.
Watching all this and ignoring the revolting sight of the dozen eyes moving around, the slurpings and gurgling sounds that were being produced, as corpses were being chewed up like nothing, Noah chuckled and scratched his head awkwardly with his left hand before shrugging.
“Yep. Definitely not a monster at all.”
***
In the ship, growing ever so silent with each passing moment, a frantic Phaeia could be seen fidgeting on a pad as she desperately crunched numbers against a door and prayed for it to open faster than it could function.
Orbs of crystalline tears leaked out of her only eye, fear brimming in the depths mirroring the feelings in her mind. She couldn’t help it.
When the sounds of fighting and the chaos ceased from the intercom, a different sound, far more horrifying than any battle cry, promptly leaked out— the sounds of flesh, bones, and meat being chewed and swallowed. Those sounds were enough to even make her soul shiver in fear, despair, and absolute dread.
Is it a cosmic beast?
Cosmic beasts were beings with no particular civilization who scoured through the the Sea of Stars..
Few deduced that they came from beyond the Dark Sea and possibly were residents of other universes, different from their own. However, the theory regarding the existence of parallel universes, mirroring their own, or the multiverse was deemed to be utterly ludicrous; so much so that Phaeia had no wishes nor time to entertain it.
Some of those mythical beasts were so rare that only one existed in each generation, while others were so prolific that they were deemed as Solar system-level threats, going all the way up to Galaxy level as a rough estimate.
The best example of these beings were the Parasites; deemed a galaxy-level threat and beyond, they had proven their danger scale when these ruthless monstrosities swallowed more than half of the Triangulum galaxy and even went as far as to erase countless solar systems in both the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies. They were steadily spreading their influence, aims unknown.
However, no matter from which angle she pursued this matter, Noah did not seem to be a Cosmic Beast. There was just no logical way for him to be one.
[Password Correct]
[Identity Verified]
[Welcome Professor Phaeia]
“Damn!”
Why were these damned machines taking so long to just give access?
She couldn’t help but utter a tame curse, completely ignoring the fact that she was responsible for all of these extensive protocols.
Thankfully for her, even though the proceedings for accessing the room had been slower than a snail’s slide, the monster— Noah, still seemed to be busy devouring her fellow pirates and doing who knew what else.
The thought was enough to send a shiver down her spine, goosebumps spreading, as she contended herself to be the very next possible candidate on the list of pirates that Noah would likely devour. She needed something, some leverage, some last straw so that Noah would let her go.
However, not everything was set in stone. With a bit of luck, he might not even care about her and trudge on his merry way and leave the spaceship.
Such thoughts swirled in her mind, a defense mechanism to calm her over-strained nerves and soothe her panicked mentality, as the door closed behind her. Finally entering the room, she marched hastily toward the healing pods.
There, in the middle, the sole occupant of the healing pods at the moment registered in her eye.
This… this was her last option— her only hope of getting out of this horrific situation alive.
***
Sadly, Lady Luck didn’t seem to be shining with grace today for her, her greatest nightmare was hot on her tail.
Knock~ Knock~ Knock~
“Hello! Anyone here!? We have come for an inspection honorable madam, please open the door.”
The thrumming knocks followed by that dreadful voice caused Phaeia to pale and almost lose strength in her legs. What made her dread the most wasn’t the fact that Noah had caught up, no. In her mind, deep down in the depths, she knew that Noah would come for her, to rip her to shreds and devour her in one go.
The most dreadful thing about this, odd as it may seem, was the sound of knocking that reverberated out of the door. The door was made from special materials and with a density so high that something like a mere knock should not have been possible to make; not unless you were battering it with a Mecha or another heavy construct of massive density.
Using all her will to keep control of her nerves, Phaeia brought a quivering hand before a blue button to activate the screens that connected to the monitoring cams outside the door. The cam was installed to let her see the faces of the crew members who came to disturb her during her work. Depending on their importance, she often didn’t permit entry.
Now, she couldn’t believe that she would be using the cam to survey the actions of her predator.
The screen whirred to life, and the image of a Noah without a speck of blood on his body appeared for her to see. A smile hung on the boy’s lips, so innocent and bright that it felt like a little boy who had seen his favorite buddy after a long time.
What surprised her more than the smile was the detail that Noah looked obviously different right now.
If before he had the appearance of a young kid, now he looked more akin to a boy in his mid-teens. Furthermore, the scale and amount of Dark Matter that the detectors were showing her was far higher than what she had first examined on him. The quantity had nearly doubled. The detail was enough for Phaeia to experience a sense of nausea. Having put two and two together already, she realized why the monstrous boy had grown, both in age and energy reserves.
Focusing on the screen again, she could see Noah tilting his head curiously before immediately looking to his right, in the direction of the Camera. The monster had spotted the hidden camera already and was waving at it with a heavy smile on his face.
“Hellooo! Would you kindly open the door, please? I have someone I need to retrieve from that location. Oh, of course, you are free to refuse. It won’t change anything no matter what you do so it doesn’t really matter.”
He rapped the door quietly with his knuckles and Phaeia focused on the massive dent that showed the door caving due to the force with which the boy had pushed it. Her mind whirred, remembering the wounds and the damage that was inflicted on Morgiana’s armor, and immediately made the connection.
“You… You were the one who made Morgiana unconscious, didn’t you?”
“Oh? I was caught? Teehee~ Sorry, it was just a prank.”
‘Is this bastard schizophrenic or bipolar or something?’
Her mind couldn’t comprehend his behavior. Someone who had murdered ten people in cold blood and then went on to devour them all in one go shouldn’t have the mentality to act like this.
At the same time, Phaeia lowered her head, her mind cooling down to a chill, as a humorless laugh leaked out of her mouth.
Morgiana had been intentionally wounded by this being called Noah. Meaning, this whole fiasco, from the very moment he made contact with them to now, perhaps even before that, had been plotted to achieve this very scenario. Masterfully, the being had used its deceptive appearance and waited patiently to strike when the time was right. He probably knew from the very start that they had no intention of letting him live.
From start to finish, they had been nothing but helpless puppets, dancing to the tunes of the puppeteer— the monster fitted in the image of a boy. Having no knowledge of his schemes, playing by the strings he pulled with the blissful illusion that they’d been the one in control.
How insidious.
How audacious.
How loathful.
Infiltrating the heart of the enemy grounds, waiting patiently for the right moment, and finally… striking mercilessly when they lowered their guards by biting their ankles first.
“You… You are truly a snake. A venomous snake.”
For a flashing instant, Noah seemed surprised by her remark… and the next moment, a genuine smile bloomed on the young teen's face as he answered,
“You would not be able to understand but… This is the best compliment you could have ever given me. Thank you and just for that, I will make sure you die painlessly.”
Boom!
An explosion, or something imitating the proceedings of one, occurred when the boy’s hand once again struck against the thick metallic door; only this time, with far more power than ever.
“Your name is Phaeia, right? I always remember those who compliment me.”
Boom!
A second shock wave, and the door violently rang as though it had been a gong, clearly already reaching its very limits.
Eyeing the screen with her sole eye, it was evident that his arm hadn’t been spared as he struck the space construct of unknown metals and massive density. Fingers broken, hand bloodied, and even his arm seemed to be twisted crookedly as the monstrous being continued testing the limits of the door’s endurance.
However, even as his body mutilated and broke down, Phaeia couldn’t see a speck of hesitation in the monster’s eyes as the strikes continued… A moment later, it became clear why… his hands were regenerating so fast that she could visibly see his wounds close and the bones realign themselves.
Phaeia knew her time on the land of the living was approaching its last seconds. And for that reason…
“Stop!”
“Hum?”
“If you enter, I will kill Morgiana.”
“Oh?”
“The healing pod she is inhabiting is loaded with an extremely powerful poison, corrosive in nature and capable of killing her in seconds. It was designed to eliminate traitors. I only need to push one button and Morgiana will become history.”
“Huh…? This is a pretty interesting development.”
Boom!
Noah grinned from ear to ear as his hand blurred and punched the door once more, causing cracks to finally stream down the door. Phaeia, meanwhile, had the feeling that she was about to go mad from fear and desperation.
“Don’t you care about what happens to her!!?”
“Oh, I do actually. I will definitely be very saddened if Morgiana dies… After all, it would be my fault that she did.”
“Then…”
“But. Do you even have the guts to kill her?”
Boom!
His laughter resounded the hallways and traveled through the screen like gongs signaling her execution.
“Kill her and I will have nothing else holding me back, don’t you think?”
The smile on his face, the one that never left throughout their short exchange, morphed into a dull visage of boredom and apathy. His voice dull, he said,
“Don't bluff when you can’t even afford to lose.”
His bloodied and broken fists blurred one last time and…
BOOM!!!
The door caved in before shattering into a million pieces; the last barrier separating her from the monster now broken…
Stepping slowly into the medical room, Noah rolled his shoulders as his bloodied hand mended itself back into place.
“Who the hell do you think I am, huh?”
An eerie red light flashed in his right eye as he approached the helpless Phaeia. The first part of the chase was nearing its end.
***
The reverberating sound of footsteps resounded in the desolate spaceship, as Noah entered the medical room, his flesh and bones still creaking and mending themselves anew, while he nonchalantly rearranging his fingers into the right position.
His healing was powerful but it only healed his body, it didn’t revert its body to the previous condition which was why a displaced bone would only lead to problems. However, even though it irritated him that he still had to fine-tune the small details himself, his healing had evolved further, making it swifter than his past, tinier self.
I guess you weren’t all talk after all.
— What did you think? Well, not that it matters. What do you plan to do now?
Kill her.
— What about the other girl?
Save her.
Failure was not a word that had any place in his dictionary. However, that did not mean he would rush headfirst into any situation like a raging bull without any plan in mind.
The one who was in charge of that role, Taurus, had already died long, long ago.
In the current circumstance, it was nigh impossible to save Morgiana without endangering himself to some degree. Noah was already aware of their ability to send mental commands to the different devices and constructs they had for themselves here, and he did not have certainty of being fast enough to reach his target before they did something to her.
Up till now, nothing they had used could deal with him, but Noah was not keen on testing the limits of their capabilities. He was not stupid enough to think that he was immortal and unkillable.
There was no such thing as indestructible in this universe. There was no such thing as immortality either. Everything died one day.
He had to come to terms with the reality that it was impossible for someone, anyone to save everyone. Some things were simply impossible and sometimes it was necessary to move in the most logical way to save the most amount of lives possible.
Heh. I usually left all the planning to Minerva.
Noah was smart enough to understand the situation but he utterly refused to do something as pitiful as bowing his head under the weight of reality. He wouldn’t be where he was right now if he had such a mentality.
— You have not changed at all it seems.
This was the same man who had jumped into a literal fleet of enemies with only three more Mecha and led the last stand of humanity against the Parasites— cosmic beasts of immeasurable power.
I don’t know about that.
He chuckled and gazed at the female Cyclops who clearly had yet to accept her fate. Keeping his face expressionless, he nonchalantly approached the alien woman.
People tended to judge others based on what they would have done themselves and the little information they had.
For Phaeia, Noah was a cold-blooded monster who could kill anyone without batting an eye. Furthermore, from her perspective, there was no way she would actually do something as stupid as sacrificing herself to save someone.
Due to that, she would not doubt his words and deduce that he was indeed uninterested in protecting Morgiana.
It was important for him to instill that mentality in her mind before she was able to catch on. Only by doing so would she move as he desired and envisioned.
He continued walking, endless thoughts whirring in his mind.
Slowly.
Menacingly.
Without sparing a look at Morgiana, nor even Phaeia, simply looking around as if he was filled with curiosity.
“Whistle~ All this stuff is pretty incredible. How did you create all this? I am really curious.”
3.
“I…”
2. Come on.
“...”
0.
“I can help you with that! You need information, right!? I am the scientist in charge of the whole crew, I even have information about our hideouts and know some of Omid's secret accounts as well. If we leave right now, I can teach you everything I know regarding Omid’s organization and help you get an identity as a citizen as well.”
Bingo
Purposely, Noah stopped in his tracks, ensuring that a hesitant expression floated on his face as his demeanor shifted to one of musing.
It was clear as day to him that Phaiea was now grasping at straws as her hostage tactic had gone up in flames. However, no matter how tempting her offer was… he had to keep up his playful facade and make her teeter on the edge; he could not accept the offer easily, lest she might get suspicious.
But at the same time… The information she was proposing was truly mouth-watering. Almost too much. His plan was to rely on Morgiana and set foot in the wider universe before beelining it back to Earth. However, he didn’t have a hundred percent guarantee that Morgiana wouldn’t have any ill feelings at being punched and beaten into unconsciousness by his own hands.
Even though he definitely did not punch her for fun, manipulating her for his own plans and machinations would definitely strike a sore chord in her psyche.
Furthermore, information was perhaps one of the greatest powers a person could hope to wield. If he became dependent on a sole being for information then it was possible for him to be easily controlled and manipulated into doing their bidding no matter how smart and strong he was.
At the end of the day, Noah had zero clue about the outside world, or rather the state of deep space. However, he didn’t want to keep the pirate lady alive either. She was even more untrustworthy than Morgiana was by a large margin and might even lead him into a red hot trap.
‘Hey, I remember that you could obtain the memories of those you killed and devoured or used as wombs, right?’
The prime ability of Parasites, one of the many reasons why their species were considered so dangerous and a pain in the ass to deal with during the war he had fought against them. Be it skills, memories, or anything that made up a human who he was, what made his identity… a Parasite was capable of obtaining everything of the prey they devoured and assimilate it into their memory.
— I do not know how sharing that information may affect you and your bodily functions. You might lose your sense of self if you are not careful. I do not simply obtain memories, I obtain everything, even their feelings, their hopes, their dreams, their desires… I obtain their whole existence. Being part of a hive mind, it is natural for us, without any dangers. That was how we were made. However, for a human, it could easily break their minds… we have already tested some subjects we had procured from your race, so I am positive about that.
‘For a human, huh? I guess soon we will find out whether I am still a human or not. Who knows, right?’
He grinned and focused his senses on Phaeia,
“I am definitely interested in your proposal but… what guarantees do I have you won’t just backstab me? After all, I truly do not know much about you. You know what? If you want to survive, find a way for me to enslave you. Pretty simple, right?”
His eyes roamed her body, flashing with lust and debauchery that only a seasoned rapist would be able to pull off. They were sickening, making Phaeia feel that he was licking her body from head to toe with that alone, causing her to shudder in disgust and horror; she had to will herself to not wretch…
A sight she recognized— this was how many men of the crew looked at her daily after all, thinking that she could not see them with her one eye alone, thinking that she could not make out what was going on in those trashy brains of theirs. It was obvious that for a barbarian and presumed cosmic beast like Noah, dealing with the opposite sex would be done in an even more oppressive way than anything she could imagine.
She may not specialize in low-level civilization but she knew that in many such cases, the dominant gender would use and exploit the weaker ones, treating them as prizes or slaves.
As ironic as it was… The way Noah looked at her and his obvious desire for her body were the things that actually made her lower her guard somewhat. After all, why would he kill her before satisfying his bestial lust?
Her hypothesis was further proved by his wish to enslave her. Noah had already proven that he was not stupid by any means. There was no way he would simply believe in her words. It was normal to wish to have some insurance in place before digging in for the prize.
The thought that she might be defiled did not matter to her. She could survive, survival meant a chance of reversal. In fact, males were most vulnerable during coitus. Surely a hole in his head would kill him, right?
Sigh!
She almost slumped to the ground, her one eye closing as she sighed almost on reflex.
A sigh of relief— at the fact that she could survive
A sigh of bitterness— at the fact that she would have to give up on her pride and dignity as a woman.
A sigh of helplessness— at the fact that she had no other choice to ensure her survival.
… It was also the last sigh of her life.
Whoosh~!
The sound of air being split and the warning of her armor were the only signs she received. But by the time she opened her eye… it had already been too late for her to do anything.
A long black arrow was already upon her and as she watched it, it pierced her eye, went through her brain, and came out of the other side of her cranium.
Standing far away from her was Noah with a nonchalant look on his face and a long spear going from his right side to the end of the arrowed point that pierced Phaeia.
“It would be quite pitiful if a man with a face as perfect as mine had to force themselves on women to get laid.”
Numerous spikes exploded from the haft that was buried in Phaeia's head, completely blowing up her cranium and projecting blood and brain matter everywhere. In the end, her body slumped helplessly, dead as anyone could be.
Seeing her dead, Noah sighed to himself, “I promised you a swift death and I am a man of my word.”
— Are you trying to act cool by talking to someone who is already dead?
Noah couldn’t help but cough in order to hide his reddening face. The voice in his head had nailed him with those words. He couldn’t help but feel shame and embarrassment.
“Stop breaking my flow.”
He scratched his head as he looked at the healing pods where Morgiana was being held. Now that he was paying attention, she was completely naked.
‘Hum… I still look better than her.’
Though the red marks streamlining throughout her body, pulsing with a dimmed light and drifting like a flowing river, intrigued him, he knew now wasn’t the time for him to engross himself in that. He approached the control panel and immediately realized one glaring problem that he had ignored all this time.
“Ah…I don’t know the language.”
He remembered his adventure in the shower and hesitated a bit.
‘Should I just push at random?’
— What if you push the button that is supposed to send poison?
‘Ah… This is indeed quite problematic.’
It would be quite ironic if he ended up killing Morgiana himself after going through all the chaotic acts and the massacre.
His eyes went back to the headless body of Phaeia and his face paled as he started realizing something.
“Please… Tell me you can get the memories even with brain matter all over.”
— I guess you are not so perfect after all.
They sighed and Noah groaned to himself, chiding himself like he was the greatest fool in the universe.
The massacre on the spaceship had come to an end.