1828  Blame Yourself

"Well, there are a few possibilities. I thought about the potential fail safes the flagship could have, there could be a sudden activation when a human was killed with its abilities. After all, Shield Cross Stars would have a vested interest in making sure their Officers weren't corrupt, and an even larger interest in making sure that if their flagships ever ended up in enemy hands, it wouldn't be able to turn against them.

"Of course, that ability's scope and range would have to be limited, or else there would be too many checks and balances stopping the Shield Cross Stars Officers from doing their duty. So, the number of humans that could gain such protections would likely be limited to the nobility, which is why he would have to send his son.

"So it seemed that their Patriarch was goading me into attacking and killing his son and his protectors so that the flagship would shut down and become unusable. At the same time, he would gain the favor and reward that came with not only the return of such a valuable military asset, but also my capture as well.

"It was a smart plan, and the perfect cover. That idiot Richard was the perfect fall guy too, he was useless for everything other than the blood running through his veins.

"But then I thought of another possibility.

"The logistics of sacrificing a useless prince for the favor of Shield Cross Stars made perfect sense on the surface, but there were a lot of problems with it. Setting aside the fact that killing your own Prince would cause a blow to the prestige of your Empire, recapturing the flagship didn't come with any guaranteed benefits either.

"There was a bounty on my head, but that bounty is chump change in the face of a family on that scale. At the same time, there was no particular bounty for the flagship, so the Chaotic Water Sector was basically essentially just hoping that they would likely get a reward for their service.

"Doesn't it seem a bit stupid for a Patriarch to take such a risk with no real tangible reward?"

While Leonel's bounty was plentiful to an individual, to a large scale family or organization, it was practically pennies. What was a mere 10 000 kilograms of Seventh Dimension Ore to people who worked on that scale? That might be enough to run a single high class city for a few years, but a single family might have hundreds of those cities under their control.

This was done on purpose by Shield Cross Stars. They preferred small teams, vigilantes and bounty hunters to chase down criminals. This was so that any prestige that came from capturing such criminals could only be enjoyed on an individual basis.

One could imagine the kind of issues Shield Cross Stars might run into if a large organization or family became famous for catching many hard to snag criminals. At that point, why should Shield Cross Stars exist? They might as well be replaced by said family or organization instead.

Aina nodded faintly to Leonel's words, seemingly seeing a bit of a picture forming. But the logical leaps that remained still seemed too far apart.

"But then I thought of something else. I learned about the Cloud Race in the Void Library, they're an interesting race of people indeed. Their brains are amorphous and actually take the shape of real clouds. They're incredibly intelligent as a result because their memories, thoughts and synapses aren't tied down to a physical form or even a tangible limit.

"That aside, the Cloud Race has tiers of nobility a lot like the Rapax, and those tiers manifest in runes that float within their "Cloud Figure", or in other words, their brain. The more concentrated and dense the runes, the higher class they are and the more talented.

"These runes, however, have one path that they follow, and that's the path of deception and mimicry.

"The reason the brain capacity of a Cloud Race member has to be so large is because when they become someone else or pretend to be someone else, they're taking into account thousands, millions, billions, or even trillions of variables all at once depending on their talent and strength.

"The details don't really matter, but what's important is that when it comes to scanning, understanding, organizing, compartmentalizing, and then spitting out a summary, the Cloud Race is practically untouchable in this regard.

"And then I thought about that Captain Wimword fellow who turned out to be a Cloud Race member, and Captain Urrith and Zylgella as well. All three of them had taken the risk to become high class somewhat speechlessly. Hadn't she just barely been able to speak before? What was with this quick 10:23

recovery?

Officers of Shield Cross Stars.

"You have to wonder why?

"When I thought to that point, I suddenly thought of something else. What if the entire point was to get the ship to shut down so that they could scan how it worked and reverse engineered it?

"What if in the middle of a war, all of Human Domain's greatest weapons just stopped working because it recognized the death of a Cloud Figure as a human instead?"

Aina's eyes widened as she sat up slightly.

If what Leonel was saying was correct, didn't that mean he had just saved the Human Domain from a calamity it didn't even know was coming? copyrighted © content.

Wait, who was to say that he had stopped it? What if there were others of the Cloud Race on the same mission that had had far more success?

Aina calmed down and her gaze narrowed. "Wasn't that all just speculation, though? You could have been wrong."

Leonel laughed. "Like I told you at the beginning, the moment they found us, I knew they were members of the Cloud Race. I only became doubly sure after Wimword, Urrith and Zylgella escaped.

"In my exchange with Wimword, he used a very special movement technique that exposed his race, but he didn't have to do that. In fact, I'm pretty sure he exposed himself on purpose."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because the Cloud Race only really has one obvious weakness," Leonel said. "And that weakness is that they can't scan a new target unless they release their Cloud Figure."

Aina's head snapped around and looked toward Leonel who was smiling.

"You mean…?"

"Yeah. The reason they were able to lock onto me and find us in the middle of nowhere is because Wimword likely has a near perfect replica of me in his Cloud Figure, a replica he likely passed onto the Patriarch of the Chaotic Water Sector who then used it to hatch this scheme."

"Then that means…"

Leonel nodded, but a cold and domineering light danced within his irises.

"Since they failed the first time, and even suffered such a severe loss, next time they come, they'll bring a lot more fire power, and that fire power might not just mean weaponry."

Aina blinked, the undisguised indifference and confidence in Leonel's eyes making her feel somewhat hot again.

Leonel felt something grab him below and he blinked out of his thoughts, looking toward AIna somewhat speechlessly. Hadn't she just barely been able to speak before? What was with this quick recovery?

"Don't give me that look, you only have yourself to blame," Aina smiled a toothy smile. "Now come please your mistress."