Chapter 20 Am I Pregnant? No, It's Worse

Inside a gigantic circular room that looked like an ancient throne room, with the floor made of shiny marble and the ceiling very high decorated with chandeliers that shone brightly with magical light, every part of the wall was decorated with intricate carvings while red flags with the symbol of a Crimson Dragon was hung high, that place, that made almost anyone who saw it gape could only be described as "Supreme splendor"

If ones just look at it, then they would certainly think that this was a part interior of a magnificent palace, but there is a clear difference in the room, divided into two parts, the upper and lower platforms, on the lower platform there are many people dressed in fine ceremonial uniforms, busy with their hologram monitors and tasks, they are all first-class crew who serve the owner of this place, meanwhile, on the upper platform that takes up two-thirds of the room, there is a red gold throne that is popular in the Empire, decorated with seven gems of different colors, the throne is guarded by knights in pure white armor with two horns on their helmets, lined up neatly on the left and right, holding their spears which are very powerful artifacts.

Sitting on the throne that exuded a majestic aura, a black-haired and green-eyed man sat casually while leaning on one hand, wearing an emerald green robe decorated with jewels and gold.

In front of him was a giant window that was the entire front of the room reflecting the scenery of outer space, revealing that the magnificent palace room was actually a spaceship cockpit.

Staring at the scene in front of him, laser lights and spaceships flying like fireflies in the dark night, while right in front of him the hologram showing the battle situation was displayed clearly like miniatures.

"Your Highness, are you sure about your decision?" one of the knights with an Earth dragon symbol on his chest asked.

Hearing that, the man glanced at the knight without moving his head, glanced at by those cold eyes, the knight trembled behind his thick armor.

"Are you stupid?" the man spoke as he straightened his back, hearing his answer, the Knight immediately fell to his knees "M-my deepest apology for my stupid question Your Highness...."

Looking at the kneeling knight, the man sighed tiredly "Do you think I will escape from those insolents?"

"N-not at all your highness... but at this rate, like this-"

"Silence" hearing the man's words, as if the world had stopped, not only the knight but also everyone and everything in the room fell into silence.

Standing from his throne, the man walked past the hologram, with all eyes on him, only the sound of his footsteps could be heard in the enormous room, walking to the edge of the upper platform, hundreds of his remaining loyal subordinates standing below, looking at him with respectful eyes.

"Listen all of you!!" with his words, everyone there fell to their knees in one motion, after a few seconds of silence, the man spoke dignifiedly.

"listen to my words! And listen well! I! Arlain Felfantaria Duraim Herseim The Great! will never run away from battle! Even if the entire universe is against me! if you haven't fallen to those traitors! Follow me to the bitter end!"

Along with his words, cheers and shouts of praise rose from his beloved subordinates, as he made his last declaration

"VICTORY SHALL BE OURS! I!! ARLAIN FELFANTARIA DURAIM HERSEIM THE GREAT!! WILL LEAD YOU TO THE GLORIOUS VICTORY!"

"BOOOOOMMM!!!"

At that moment, the rebels entered the room in droves as a brutal final battle began.....

Amidst all the fighting, as the knights blasted away their surroundings with nothing but their physical strength and the mages cast their forbidden spells, on one of the hundreds of screens in the room, on one of the higher chairs in the center, was a picture of the Earth reflected inside a floating hologram, a beautiful blue planet, beneath it were the coordinates of the Earth on a map of the Empire's territory.

This was the chair of General, Hana Felfantaria Duraim Herseim, and next to it was an SOS signal that was playing over and over again automatically, despite all the blood and chaos inside the capital ship, the message was spreading through the FTL signal.

The message was....

(Abort Mission to Terra! For all Fleets! Abort Mission to Terra!! The Crimson Dragon has been ambushed at these coordinates! Traitors have taken over the entire ship! His Majesty is in danger! Abort all missions! Saving HIs Majesty comes first! I repeat! to all Subjects of the Archduke of Duraim Heirseim! Abort the Invasion!!)

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"So...am I a wizard now?" Jake asked as he ate something like ice cream? While hiding behind the counter in the cafeteria, althought he wasn't sure what flavor this bright blue ice cream was, it sure made his tongue feel funny.

"You idiot, You think becoming a wizard is as easy as having mana? If you tell this in the academy then they will certainly burn you alive!" Arlain immediately scolded as he swayed on Jake's head.

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"What's that... a reverse witch hunt?" Jake muttered with a spoon in his mouth, but Arlain shook his slime body in protest "Hold on with your nonsense for a second! What kind of horrible creature was that?!"

"What?" Jake asked back in confusion, Arlain had indeed told him that they had faced a monster that suddenly appeared, but he himself had never realized it, so he was confused by Arlain's question.

Realizing Jake's confusion, Arlain could only furrow his nonexistent brows "you really can't see it?"

"I didn't see anything?" Jake answered hesitantly.

"But that monster sucked your mana!" Arlain shouted, hearing Arlain sounding a bit scared for the first time, Jake could only bite the spoon in his mouth with a doubtful face "I didn't notice anything, wait a minute, isn't it scary that whatever that thing is sucking on me?"

"For a being to take someone's mana without them even realizing it..." Suddenly, A realization dawned on Arlain making him ask hurriedly "Jake, since when can't you use your mana?"

"Huh? I never had mana, didn't I tell you?"

"Could it be?!" Arlain thought of a very bad theory making him mutter to himself half-panicked.

Seeing Arlain who looked scared and panicked which was a first for him, Jake also started to feel uneasy, like seeing a doctor who was shocked after reading his medical test results, most likely the results were not good...

However, Arlain was busy with his own thoughts that were spinning at high speed, if Jake, a Terra Humanis who should not have mana, suddenly had mana after being cut off from that creature, then that meant Jake had mana from the start, but that creature had taken his mana secretly without him realizing it, so long that he never even felt his own mana.

In this galaxy there are many creatures that live by taking mana from other living creatures, starting from small rodents that are usually kept as pets like Muchins and Laumas, to dangerous monsters like Liches or Gaharianas, there are also some sentient ones like Dryads to Fairies.

But still, Arlain has never heard of something that can take another creature's mana without being noticed at all, because mana is the energy of life, losing mana to a certain level can cause several effects starting from loss of consciousness to death, And yet Jake can have zero mana without any visible effects.

There was so much confusion in Arlain's mind, how did that creature steal mana without him realizing it....

"Jake, how do you feel?" Arlain suddenly asked after whispering to himself for some time, while Jake who had already had his third bowl of ice cream to relieve his worries, answered innocently "Hmm, how is it... I feel warm inside, and I feel like my body aches are gone? I also feel more energetic, although it seems like my appetite has increased, this ice cream is for humans right? I can't feel the tip of my tongue"

"What about killing people?"

"Uhh... I don't think there are any police here, but like I said it's not as bad as I thought? I mean, I'm scared, but also relieved?"

"So the thing didn't affect your mind that much... maybe it just amplified the feelings..."

"What happened exactly?"

Hearing Jake's answer while ignoring his questions, Arlain once again fell into his own thoughts, while Jake looked at him with a judging face before taking his fourth bowl.

Maybe this was the creature's ability, but it was hard to believe... maybe there was a trick to it...

As Arlain thought so, he imagined himself falling prey to the creature and suddenly losing his mana, under normal circumstances that would mean he would die, but assuming he could live without any problems like Jake, then... he would immediately try to find out the reason for his sudden loss of mana.

"Oh, I see?!"

"W-What?!"

Arlain's scream surprised Jake who sucked a spoon in his mouth and made him headbutt the table above them, and hit Arlain's body as a cushion but Arlain didn't care.

There was something more important.

If Jake never realized that he had mana that means the creature had been absorbing Jake's mana like a parasite for so long, since he was born...

When Arlain told this to Jake, his reaction was disgust and a frown "You're telling me an interdimensional being has been living as my parasite since I was born?"

"That's right, this is one of the greatest discoveries in the galaxy, such a dangerous creature, I've never encountered anything like it..." Arlain said seriously, if the creature preyed on anyone other than Jake, then that person would have died easily, if he thought about it again, perhaps the reason Jake was able to survive the creature was because he adapted after living for so long without any mana at all.

But still, Jake's adaptation was too fast even if it had happened since he was born...for that to happen...

"What kind of creature actually sucked me?" Jake asked curiously, hearing his question, Arlain answered "Red eyes that flowed blood, I could smell undead from it...then there was a rotten hand that came out, I think it was some kind of undead but also very different..."

"Isn't that a ghost?!"Jake shouted.

Hearing those new words, Arlain asked "Ghost? So you know that creature?"

"no, no, no, ghosts only exist in fiction, it's a famous myth back home" Jake answered half-heartedly.

"I guess it's not just a myth anymore, Jake" Arlain said before continuing "Some myths are based on some level of truth, So what kind of creature is this ghost in that myth?"

"I said it's based on a myth, not that there's only one, I think there are tens of thousands of horror stories related to ghosts, it's one of the most popular things on earth, many say they've seen them, although it can't be proven by science, uhm, there's a lot off the top of my head...the slit face lady, some well ghost, there's also at least one that likes to kidnap children-"

Hearing Jake's explanation, Arlain asked one thing in a flat tone "Jake, are you saying there are a lot of them?"

"yes?" Jake replied not understanding that Arlain had frozen above him.

If there were many such creatures..... Arlain didn't want to admit it, the thought was stuck in the back of his head, all this time he assumed that Jake was special because he had mana, but if there were many such creatures... what if the reason the humans on earth didn't have mana to use magic was because these creatures ate their mana... no way, this was impossible... there were 7 billion humans on earth.

If that were the case, Earth was not the first planet without mana or magic, those beings had sucked all the mana from the planet itself and all its inhabitants.

For every human born into the world, those beings immediately linked themselves to live with the mana of the humans there,

Caused the humans of Terra to be unable to use magic, and instead adapted to live without mana altogether...

Arlain had heard that there were concepts of magic and mana on earth, of magical beings, at first he thought it was strange that the Terra Humanists had such accurate knowledge without ever having come into contact with magic... but it turned out to be remnants of a bygone history.

How many thousands of years had those creatures been there... and how many of them were there...

Interdimensional beings capable of stripping the mana from an entire planet entirely... and they at least had brought one here...

At that moment, Arlain realized that the situation might be worse than he had ever thought...

"Arlain, my stomach feels very warm, I'm not pregnant, Am I?"

"No Jake, it's much worse than that"

"what the hell?"