The walk amidst the desolated planet was both long and silent, filled with a dreary and solemn mood. Both Morgiana and Noah were in a weird situation where they actually more or less needed each other’s help. Him for information and her for direction.
But at the same time, they both were rather wary of each other as they walked through the treacherous roads of desolation and loneliness of the world they were on.
This made the interaction and overall dynamic between the traveling duo quite awkward as neither of them was stupid enough to believe that the other person did not notice what was going on.
At that moment, Morgiana had put on her armor again and was now following behind Noah.
Meanwhile, she had given instructions to the AI embedded into her armor to keep a map of the terrain that they were crossing and keep a general overview of the geography of the planet as they passed through the treacherous plains.
This information might become handy for her later. Especially if she needed to hide or had to launch a sneak attack of some kind on her enemies.
Her power could help her fight the cold that was constantly trying to freeze her to death but it would be stupid to waste energy for such a thing in the current situation she was in.
'If only I had my Mecha.'
She sighed but did not dwell too much on the what ifs. One should always make do with the means they had at hand.
Even though she didn't have her trusty ship with her and was she was only partially healed. As long as she absorbed some energy from the sun she should be able to fight back long enough for her to escape and defend herself.
This was all there was to it.
Her goal wasn't winning in her current situation. It was to survive until she was rescued.
Noah, meanwhile, was as silent as her as he digested all the information he had received from the girl he had saved.
Space Alliance, Intergalactic Empires, Interstellar Travels, Hyperspace, and so many little yet significant things he had never heard before in his life.
The girl was a treasure trove of knowledge as she made him aware of the vast universe that was beyond the tiny Earth he inhabited.
Through all of this, he was able to understand that Earth was lucky to even have survived at all throughout the billions of years of its existence.
Noah thought for a moment and simply shook his head to dismiss the thoughts.
While luck certainly played an important role in the survival of his planet, mentioning it would be a disservice and insult to all those who had died at the hands of the fucking parasites that tried to devour his home planet.
— ....
Feeling guilty? Heh~ Noah laughed at the Queen’s silence
— ....
Once again he received no answer but Noah didn't particularly care about that in the tiniest bit.
He was simply reassessing the situation at hand here.
If her words were to be believed, Morgiana was a mercenary, a space mercenary. A rather experienced one too with a personal feud against those so-called Forty Thieves.
The current operation had not been carefully planned but this spontaneous situation was also why the Thieves had taken the bait.
'Space, huh.'
Noah felt wistful as he murmured to himself.
His memories were slightly blurry after all this time. Time was really a merciless entity after all, but he still remembered the joy and exhilaration he felt when he first broke through the atmosphere and entered space for the very first time in his life.
Back then Earth had already grown to be a pretty powerful civilizaton that controlled some resources on nearly all the planets in their solar systems.
They had even managed to create bases on Mars and the Moon.
If the Parasite's invasion did not happen, perhaps they would have started conquering the entirety of the solar system as well and jump beyond Type I in one go.
But back then, in their hubris, Humans really thought they were the jewel of space, the only intelligent race alive in the entirety of the vast universe.
Reality had proven them sorely wrong.
Now though, he was learning that all the huge achievements of Earth were practically nothing before the vast civilizations throughout space.
Worse — Because of how hurried they were, they never truly managed to become a Type I civilization in the truest sense and as such never managed to get the protection of the Parlement.
Fuck.
Noah had to fight the urge to laugh at the sheer absurdity that was presented before him by the extraterrestrial girl.
The universe was huge and filled with endless life.
This was frightening.
This was exhilarating.
Virgo would have been jubilant if she was here right now.
He thought quietly about his friends and teammates— people he cherished more than anyone else in his life back on Earth.
Minerva.
Her face was now blurry in his mind. He could not remember her voice any longer. Her image was slowly vanishing, forgotten for all eternity.
But— he would never forget her existence, nor the meaning she held in his heart. The same was true for all his companions from the institute.
Minerva was a lover of wonder. The one with the most inquisitive mind among all of them.
'Ah…'
He looked down and stopped thinking about her, a person from the distant past.
Thinking about them hurt him even more than being eaten alive by a monster while asleep.
The past was the past after all. Now he had to make a plan about whether he would prevail and grow, or fail and die like them.
Their current destination was the part of the planet that was covered by the sun.
This was a part filled with heat, completely opposite to the side that was plunged into eternal darkness and eternal frost.
As for him, he needed to eat something right now to get up his energy levels. Going into another fight without filling up his reserve would be dangerous even for him.
Morgiana seemed to be a trustworthy person from what he had gathered. But he would not let his safety depend on some gamble.
This would be the stupidest thing to do while surviving out in the wild.
'Are you sure you can bring it back once you get enough energy?'
— Yes. But we need far more than you ever managed to absorb until now.
The energy Noah needed was frighteningly high and the beasts on this planet were only enough for his survival, not enough for him to summon ‘that’ thing from that eerie ‘place’.
“Remind me again. What is the type of energy you use?”
“Ah…”
Morgiana nodded her head and began explaining about her situation, “It’s Dark Matter. It’s kinda hard to explain, but basically, it is a story of a long, long time ago. A Super Empire that had reached the level of a Type IV Civilization and finally managed to open the way for Dark Matter usage for the rest of the multiverse.”
“Then?”
“There is no then…”
“Huh?”
“There aren't many records about them. It’s a forgotten era from eons ago. I guess some higher-ups might know more about them but it is not something that I am privy to. Anyway, long story short, the Empire just… vanished from the face of the universe and it’s from the remains of this empire that we managed to learn the usage of Dark Matter in the current Era.”
She lifted her hand and a small flame appeared above her hands.
“The Dark dimension surrounds all of us and comprises 95% of the universe. We call it the place where one can directly observe the Dark Sea, the other side of the universe if you will.”
“Hum… This seems more like magic than technology to me though…”
Noah was intrigued by the power that Morgiana was showing him. He approached her and looked at the flame with keen eyes, trying to scrutinize it from all over.
The existence of this fire made no logical sense in the place where they currently were. It should have been completely extinguished by the chilling cold and the terrifying blizzard that surrounded them from all sides.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Yet. Here it was. Dimly shining but still burning hot as ever. Bravely fighting against the nature surrounding them from all sides.
Morgiana closed her grip and the fire vanished like it never existed. Her breath was a little more hurried but she got a hold of herself pretty soon so it could be said that she was alright.
“Magic or technology. It’s hard to say. In the end, All we know is that nowadays. Dark Matter is entirely part of our everyday life. It’s thanks to it that Hyper Dive became safer and faster compared to the obsolete Warp Drive Technology that allowed FTL movements.”
Noah listened to her in absolute silence, choosing to not utter a word.
He was someone very prideful and he believed that he was better than anyone else. But despite his pride and arrogance, he knew one fundamental truth about reality.
Those who know nothing should shut up and listen to those who did and broaden their horizons. Babbling on when you knew nothing would just be counterproductive and a recipe for disaster and humiliation of the likes that he was not willing to face.
When Morgiana stopped her explanation, he asked her in a voice filled with wonder and curiosity, “So… This fire, is anyone able to conjure it?”
She shook her head in denial before explaining, “In theory, yes, anyone should be able to do it. As long as you are able to use Dark Matter effectively, there is honestly little you cannot do or accomplish. Some people say that this is the path to true omnipotence and I believe in them. But it isn’t as easy as it seems.”
He could not see her face through the mask but he could feel that she was smiling right now, a thing that mildly annoyed him.
“In my case, for example, I am a Djinn. We are creatures born innately through Fire. Fire is our Essence and while we are not immune to it, it can hardly harm us or control us.”
Morgiana was doing her best to explain things to him, detail by detail, and Noah nodded in understanding.
It was not very hard to understand what she was trying to convey with her words.
Most humans were born with two legs and two feet. Theoretically speaking, they could all run, all jump, all fight.
But obviously, there would be some level of differences between them.
In the same way, most animals were born with four limbs. But an elephant could not run as fast as a cheetah.
“The way one uses energy depends on themselves.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that but yeah, basically speaking, you can see it as a program. Hum. You might not know what computers are…”
Noah’s lips twitched in annoyance when he heard her words. Being taken as some kind of barbarian was becoming tiring already.
— Stop swinging your junk in the air then, idiot.
‘Give me clothes and I will.’
He sighed and looked down. Since he would soon enter society again, it seemed like he would have to give up on some of the habits he had learned while staying on this desolate planet.
Then again, if he could go back to Earth he could simply join a group of naturists and travel around with his junk out in the air.
Thinking of Earth, a sudden question came to his lips. He hesitated a little but in the end, he swallowed back the question.
He could ask the question later.
As to whether it was out of fear and apprehension he refused to ask the question, only Noah himself knew.
Though now, there was something else he was curious about. Something that was far more intriguing than the question that he had in his heart, and far less intimidating as well.
“Sooo. If you are a Djinn… Can you grant wishes?”
Morgiana could only look at him like he was looking at a buffoon, speechless as one could ever be…
***
After Noah’s awkward question, and Morgiana’s subsequent bewilderment-filled silence that stretched out for a long time, the two of them decided to just change topics. Morgiana proceeded to give him a warning just in case Noah went on to blabber his mouth to people he shouldn’t.
“I don’t know how and where you heard about us granting wishes, or whatever it is you have heard, but you should be careful when you ask such questions to others based on stereotypes. It can be quite insulting to the individual and may lead to ugly and unnecessary situations that you don’t want to get yourself tangled into..”
She did not seem angry with the haphazard question that Noah threw her way. This was not the first time she received such a question. As for the answer to his previous question—
“The Blue Flames might be able to accomplish what you are asking. They are in charge of the Mystic aspects of our species and are basically the shamans among the Djinns, so to speak.”
‘Blue Flames, huh.’
Noah remembered that when he saw her, she had red markings on her body. Did this mean that she belonged to the Red Flames faction, or whatever she said just now, or anything of the like?
This time, Noah was smart enough to not ask that question to her as she had already pointed out that it would be rude. He also had the distinct impression that doing so would be crossing a line that would plummet their relationship to rock bottom.
If the history of Earth had taught him anything, it was that clear distinctions between individuals of the same races based on flimsy concepts never ended well for anyone.
.
.
.
While the two were talking with each other about the characteristics of a Djinn, Morgiana was observing the results she was receiving from the scanner that she had released into the atmosphere for geographical mapping. The question Noah asked was already behind her. This was nothing to be angry about truly.
However, she was happy that he didn’t push further and asked about her Flames. The color of her flames had been a sour topic for her and she didn’t plan to speak about her issues with a stranger, even though said stranger had saved her life.
Now I need to focus. Give me the stats for my body’s current condition. Morgiana’s thought.
[Basic Healing: Completed Successfully.]
[Current Condition: Stable]
[Currently Accessible Physical Ability: 70%]
[Damaged Circuit: 40%]
Morgiana almost winced visibly when she saw the last part of the report from the AI. She had overloaded her internal circuits when she was pumping herself with Dark Matter like there was no tomorrow while trying to land her ship. But she didn’t think that even after healing this far, she would still have so much damage left to recover. It was honestly pretty concerning…
‘Better than nothing I guess and now I can do some things that I couldn’t while I was injured.’
Now that she was slightly more healed, she could dedicate more resources to the analysis of the geography of the planet.
‘Analyse the constitution of the ground and send me any important information that you encounter.’
[Threshold of importance?]
‘Medium at the minimum.’
Morgiana delivered a swift series of instructions before focusing on the report once more and the fascinating thing she had discovered.
This planet was… Well, in one word, it was odd.
Morgiana had seen many planets in her life. Some were entirely submerged in seas, some simply being nothing more than an endless stretch of sand and dunes.
As such, out of all those planets, a tidally locked planet was nothing rare. In fact, it was quite common when you considered the matter on the scales of the entire galaxy.
But even so…
‘An abyss beast… On this tidally locked planet… Something’s weird…’
Creatures that came from the beyond. Monsters could end entire civilizations if just a significant number of them somehow passed through the breach and invaded this dimension.
The way Noah faced that monster made it clear that this was not the first time he had killed one of those beasts.
There was also the existence of the giant beast snake that Noah killed.
While a tidally locked planet could be easily terraformed, the planet itself had nearly no chance of giving birth to intelligent life.
This could only mean one of two things.
Either this planet had once been terraformed before, most likely by humans from Sol–III, or—
“Say… Do you know anything about those beasts?”
“Hum… Which one are you talking about? Either way, I don’t know about any of them, to be honest. They have always been here as far as I can recall.”
‘Does it mean his tribe had been fighting them for generations already?’
She was still under the impression that Noah was part of a bigger tribe that inhabited this planet. It wasn’t like beings born from chaos didn’t exist, but such beings were equal to high-civilization planets simply by their mere existence alone. They were forces of nature able to explore the universe as they wanted and erase planets as they wished.
She was starting to trace a chain of events in her mind. Inhabitants from Sol-III decided to terraform this planet, but something went wrong and a part of the group was stranded on the planet and had to grow by themselves into this independent tribe that Noah belonged to.
There was some blank space about the way they might have adapted to the cold but everything was possible in this world. Creatures who possessed Dark Matter were rarely bound by normal limitations after all.
Noah didn’t know what kind of idea was cooking inside Morgiana’s head but for now, he was simply navigating in the cold while using the position of the stars to direct himself toward his destination.
The night stars might be different from those on Earth, but the way to use them would never change. It didn’t take long to finally find what they were searching for.
“Where are we?”
Noah grinned as he opened his arms wide and declared in a proud tone, “Welcome to my home!”
With unrestrained pride, he showed her the relatively large igloo that was his home, causing Morgiana to look on with bewilderment plastered on her caramel-colored face.
She had two questions in her mind right now.
…One—
“Weren’t we supposed to reach the part facing the sun?”
…and finally, two—
“You are here alone?”
“I live alone.”
She did not ask more questions. Perhaps Noah had been rejected from his tribe. This wasn’t something uncommon.
The igloo had a standard dome shape and seemed large enough for a small group of six or eight to enter together and live inside.
But no matter how she looked, there was no one in sight as far as her eyes could perceive.
Anyone hidden or in the surroundings?
[Searching:….]
[Result: Negative. No sign of life in a radius of 5 kilometers;]
“So. Why are we here?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I need to eat to replenish my energy. Can’t go on a journey without that.”
Noah entered his igloo all by himself, leaving her alone on the outside of his home. She was able to deduce that he might have saved up some food in his base and was ready to feast on it by himself.
Her plan to weaken him in order to keep a certain balance between the two of them seemed to have crumbled in front of her eyes. She had already done what she could and she didn’t want to make the situation worse by interfering more on the matter.
[Notice: Rare substance found.]
‘Huh?’
She looked at the point in her vision that was marked by her system and rushed toward it at breakneck speeds. Even under the dim light of the side that was facing the darkness of vast space, the item was shining quietly with a distinct golden hue. But she could never mistake it for anything but what it was. There was no chance of doing so.
Instantly, her breathing became heavier like never before. She looked at the material in her hand. She felt like she was about to burst with utter joy and glee at what she had discovered.
“This thing is—”
[Yes, it is Gold]
She fought the urge to scream and gripped the yellowish-golden stone in her hand with surging emotions.
This was gold.
Pure Gold.
One of the rarest but also deemed as the most important material in this entire goddamn galaxy. The premiere material necessary to build the core of any high-end Mecha and spaceship in general.
For this alone, wars were fought and planets were destroyed to extract all the gold that was incorporated into the planet and its core.
Morgiana remembered saying that they had found the jackpot when she saw this planet from outer space.
She would have never imagined that this would end up being true.
But at the same time, this reaffirmed her thoughts about the secrets of this planet. Her face paled and her eyes started to flicker as her brain spun at 120% speed.
If she was right— then this planet was undoubtedly very dangerous. A level of danger that was far higher than what the Forty Thieves could ever hope to possess.
All she could do now was hope.
Hope that those idiots did not end up waking it up while trying to attack and capture her.
Morgiana was a courageous woman.
She did not feel afraid even as she was being chased to the ends of the universe.
She did not feel afraid even as she was crashing down to certain death.
She was used to danger. It was something that would always follow her job description.
But this— this was an entirely different matter altogether.
For the first time ever since she landed on this planet— Morgiana truly felt a horrible sense of paralyzing fear.