Chapter 23: Slip up…

(Mai’s POV)

That manmade creature that Marinkia killed… Whatever it was in the end, at least it was now dead. Mercedes prevented me from trying to help Marinkia kill it.

In her words, it was an experiment made just to kill our kind. In its presence, we would be as weak as a human would be. As in, we would be easy prey. This is where Marinkia, not being fully evolved, truly helped her out.

As we walked over to her side to praise her for killing the monster from the inside, something happened. Of course, it was heartbreaking when she was swallowed up. But we could still tell that Marinkia was alive.

If it took any more than a few hours, we would summon our entire undead army to fight that creature. But our wife had easily dealt with it. And she didn’t even seem tired at all. Was it wrong to think that she was very, very cute and attractive, as well as amazingly beautiful while she was completely covered in blood?

Mai: “Marinkia!” I yell in panic.

The, what was supposed to be yet another fun and small meeting between us, turned into something horrible. Banging onto the glass with all my strength, it was too late by the time that it broke due to me hitting it.

Marinkia was nowhere to be seen… In a rage, I destroyed the machine. What this thing was… I had no idea. But I needed to vent my anger at losing my wife!

Mercedes: “Mai! You need to calm down!” She exclaimed, holding me by my shoulders, using a lot of force to stop me.

Mai: “Stop!? We just lost Marinkia!” I yell, with tears flowing down my face.

Mercedes: “Calm down, try to sense her.” She advised.

Mai: “…”

Mercedes: “See? She isn’t dead at all. Instead, she was teleported somewhere else.” She said with a smile, releasing her hold over me.

She was right… I could still feel that Marinkia was alive. And did she say that Marinkia was teleported? I wasn’t aware that we had access to such technology. That bastard, Grant, sure hid a lot of things from his supposed people…

Mai: “But… she is very far away…” I say with a sad tone.

Mercedes: “That she is. But Marinkia isn’t like a normal mate. Even still a human, she is very strong. She can survive until we find her.” She replied with a calm tone.

Mai: “Can we find her?” I ask.

Mercedes: “Well, if you didn’t destroy the teleportation device, then we could have easily made it to her side.” She said with a scoff.

Mai: “…”

Mercedes: “For now, we just need to the password to this PC. Once we do, then we can more accurately find her location.” She proposed.

Mai: “Okay…” I reply with a pout.

I’ll admit to being rash and destroying that device… But I am not fully to blame for this. Being a Numen is a drastic change, one that I haven’t fully adjusted to yet. One thing that I’ve noticed… is that we feel emotions far stronger, and more detailed, than humans feel.

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Some Searching Later.

Looking all around the place, we couldn’t find any password at all. With fear that the monster had eaten it, and the password was written down, it might have been destroyed by its stomach acid by now…

Luckily, Mercedes gave up on finding the password, and decided to do the harder method of hacking the PC herself. Wait… how can she use a PC!?

Mai: “Mercedes… I know that we’re very worried about Marinkia, but how can you use a PC?” I ask with a curious tone.

Mercedes: “Do you think that our kind wants to return to the stone age?” She replied with a laugh.

Mai: “I guess not…” I reply.

Mercedes: “Before the war, we had installed our kind in various parts of Grant’s empire. He controlled it all, but there were still many people who helped make it work.” She explained.

Mai: “Huh? What does that mean?” I ask with a head tilt.

Mercedes: “Basically, we stole all of Grant’s inventions and tech. He thinks that we will die out by our food supply, which is humans, dying out, but that is wrong. Our human farms are state-of-the-art, and the humans won’t ever die out.” She answered.

Mai: “Huh? So our kind still uses PCs? Why don’t I have one, then?” I ask with a thinking pose.

Mercedes: “Because you have been slumming in this almost captured district. When you go to one of our major cities, you will be given a new PC and ID.” She explained.

Mai: “I kinda want one now, though… I am a super internet addicted girl, after all.” I say with a pout.

Mercedes: “For now, just wait until Marinkia evolves.” She replied.

Mai: “Why?” I ask.

Mercedes: “Don’t you want to enter one of our cities with Marinkia in tow? There, we can get our marriage certificates, and you two can get new PCs and IDs together as well.” She replied, returning her focus on hacking the PC.

Mai: “Ah, you’re a genius!” I happily praise my sister wife.

Since I wanted to find Marinkia as soon as we can, I kept quiet. After all, I am sure that hacking a PC would require a lot of focus. In boredom, I decided to cut up that monster. For no reason at all, really.

Much Hacking and Uh… Monster Body Hacking Later.

Mercedes: “Motherfucker!!” She yelled in extreme anger.

Huh? What happened?… Since meeting her, I haven’t ever heard Mercedes swear like this. Did something horrible happen? Marinkia didn’t end up somewhere bad, right?…

Mai: “What’s wrong?” I nervously ask.

Mercedes: “Annoyingly… we cannot go find Marinkia.” She replied, rubbing her head in annoyance.

Mai: “Why not?” I ask with a confused tone and expression.

Mercedes: “You don’t know this yet, but the progenitor of our kind was the one who started the war. And also the one that changed us. She was the one who turned you. The only one that can make direct Numens.” She explained.

Mai: “What…” I say with a shocked tone.

The one that marked me before I turned into a Numen… It was… Wasn’t it just a little girl? Was that little girl really the progenitor of our kind?

Mercedes: “Krul Tepes, is her name. And don’t mistake her appearance of a little girl. She is far older than us, for example.” She replied, seemingly seeing my mental turmoil.

Mai: “That name has to be a joke, right?” I ask with a forced laugh.

Mercedes: “I guess so? Apparently, from what I’ve heard from older people of our kind, she likes to change her name every so often. She is also very cheeky…” She replied with a sigh.

Mai: “And what does this have to do with our wife?” I ask the more important question.

Mercedes: “The location that she teleported to… it’s Krul’s hunting ground. Specifically, it is where she goes to rest and hunt for fun. Looking at the recordings from security footage, she was the one who let that monster out.” She explained.

Oh… so she let it out to get revenge on the people of this lab? How fitting…

Mai: “Isn’t that okay, then?” I say with a smile.

Mercedes: “Krul Tepes… loyal to her newest name, is very cruel. Not to mention, she isn’t there at the moment. Currently, she is hosting a ball in the biggest city of ours.” She explained with a grim tone while looking at the news section of her PC.

Mai: “Then…” I try to say more, but her next words cut me off.

Mercedes: “Marinkia is now in a sealed off district that is used for hunting by our ruler. Inside… well, do you remember those glowing eye zombies?” She asked.

Mai: “I do… Our wife killed a lot of them.” I reply with a nod.

Mercedes: “I am a very special Numen, and so are you. Krul put a lot of her DNA into making us, so we have access to information that others do not. For one, those zombies come from her hunting ground.” She explained.

Mai: “So… some of them escaped?” I assume.

Mercedes: “It would seem so. But that isn’t the only problem.” She said while bitting her nails.

Mai: “…”

Mercedes: “Krul has a special breed of humans in her district. Ones that act like savage animals. Her favorite things to hunt. As for the zombies… they are all feral. Think of Axel, but far worse…” She said, slamming her balled up fist on the PC, destroying it.

Mai: “…”

This is bad… not only did Marinkia accidentally invade our Queen’s special hunting grounds, now she has to deal with crazy humans and special undead. Can… can our wife even survive?…