A few days had gone by without a hitch and the city was bursting with activity, especially urban development work, light poles, sewers, electricity and also gas, town gas.

Chlorophylle wondered why, because there was magic, and I told her that magic was for the elite, but the common people were exploited by the guilds, and that our society had to be based on sharing, not profit. Everyone should have access to the base. No exceptions.

Everyone had returned to the capital and Romas wanted to see Chloro alone and have a private conversation with her.

Romas calmed down a little and then took his goddaughter's chin to look at her face and her mouth and her horns, which protruded from the back like the horns of an antelope.

They were alone in the garden adjoining the imperial chamber, the dragons being busy elsewhere

"He didn't miss you, wyvern... How are you feeling, sweetie? Are you in pain? Are you still yourself? Do you feel like blood? How do you see us?"

She hugged him, but the power was tenfold. It was like a powerful mercenary hug.

Romas felt the little girl's strength and muscular power.

"Sorry, godfather, I didn't mean to hurt you... my strength has increased tenfold... I'm not afraid anymore, and I feel stronger. I'm starting to feel confident now and I still have the same culinary tastes.

Let's just say that I'm not a great aesthete, but I think I'm beautiful too.

I understand all languages, and I even talk to animals..."

Romas "And your teeth... do you have venom?"

She lowered her head...yes...let's say it incites respect...even arrogant demons and Imps are wary. But I've never bitten anyone yet... just a rabbit to try, before eating it. It doesn't kill, but paralyzes and kills in the end. I also have a stinger that cancels the effect. It can also be used to revive a fibrillating heart, to heal".

Then Romas asked him the burning question.

"I want to know... Did Mir rape you? Did he charm you or force you? Did you know you'd become a dragon?"

Chloro: "Mir. He's my man. He means everything to me. Without him, I'd be dead."

Romas: "He had one mission: to protect you! Not to become your ... lover ... and certainly not your husband. He's an animal! "

Chloro: "I'd be miserable without him. And he's far from being an animal... With him, I can say anything and ask anything. He's gentle with me and he's never hurt me... And I'd like to have children with him! And I know it's possible!"

Romas: "But there are handsome princes, noble knights and you could have a normal baby!"

Chloro: "Godfather, I don't want to quarrel with you, but where were you when the coup d'état took place? My knights all turned around...even childhood "friends"... There was only Mir...

He protected me many times and gave me back the pleasure of living. I wanted to die or let myself go, I was so unhappy... I love this dragoness body and hope to be able to transform completely and climb into the clouds with my new family. The wyverns are my real family. They won't betray me, not one of them has bowed to Xayda's pressure... not one. I admire them, and I think they're better than humans."

Romas nodded. "Still, humans can work wonders too. Don't you miss the way you used to be?"

"Not at all! I'm breathing! The world belongs to me and I live! I really live! And I can fly too and I'm free now. I won't know hunger and cold and fear and and.... You can't imagine when we make love... it's true love, in body and spirit. Everything is wonderful, and when Mir takes me between his paws, I feel as if he's giving me all the maternal love I've been deprived of... He's the only one who can heal my heart, my soul... And the magic is now natural, as if I were walking barefoot in soft grass and the dew was caressing my skin.

Everything is wonderful, godfather. And where Mir goes, I go. I'll go to the bottom of hell if I have to, but Mir means more to me than anything."

Romas looked over his shoulder and saw me in the distance, my back turned, playing with Kroa and joking with Sacha.

"I understand better, Chloro... Thanks!"

Then they went about their business, Romas now convinced of our sincere love. But he wouldn't let me mate with other wyverns either, Romas, rejecting the very idea of concubinage or even harem.

"Tss. She's changed... she only sees him now...but that's my fault... I should have been there and protected her from those degenerate nobles. Then he thought again...I'd have been killed...either way, by the guards, or the mutineers..."

He sighed, as if to drive something vicious and inadmissible from his lungs.

"Mir... Mir.. "

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I stopped talking for a moment, sensing that someone was talking about me or about me... and I turned my head instinctively and saw Romas in the distance... He must have settled a score with my wife...

Occasionally, I spoke with Taller, though I was wary.

Taller: "The town's development work is progressing rapidly while retaining its charm and life is good now, but the mages and the academy seem to be suspicious of us and we can't seem to get the hang of magic. Could there have been an event or instructions limiting access to knowledge?"

I then settled into my huge office, on a large cushion, and a voice-activated computer had been offered to me, along with a large screen.

It was easier for my calculations and work on the portal, but also for accessing data banks, technical works and publications, and how to program a matter synthesizer.

Taller was getting on my nerves and he could see I was busy with my calculations, so I worked to redo my notes on the portal I'd activated by accident.

I redid my calculations based on archive radio broadcasts, planet positions and precession to get a sound database.

Then I realized that the portal couldn't work fully with science, which led to my disintegration on arrival or during the transfer. My soul being ejected from earth to here and with the accumulated energy, reincarnating into the most powerful species available at the time. In other words, a viable egg.

Spiritual protections and magical shields were needed in addition to gravitational protection fields.

Indeed, the passage through nothingness between entry and exit led for a fraction of a second, but could, by relativity, be an eternity, let's say, the actual duration of the journey affecting us. It's a very difficult concept, but let's say we have a sheet of paper that represents distance A to destination B. How do we get there? The quickest way to get there is to fold the sheet of paper and punch a hole from A to B. But...what's behind it? In AB?

And that's where the danger lies. You end up with your negative, and sometimes you're frozen for the duration of the journey or for eternity, your soul torn from your body or mixed up with objects. A disaster.

In a way, I'm doing okay. I'm alive, I've got a new body and I'm happy - that is, until these fanatics arrive to ruin everything, not to mention the system gone mad.

After a year, Vecna informed me that more and more humanoids had the viral "smell" and Sacha confirmed that humans had more and more phlyctenes. Umbrella was secretly devouring members of its cult and visitors to the ship.

Dumas scared me.

I distrusted her like the plague and had a plan.

She asked for a sample of my blood so she could clone me and create an army of sentient wyverns. Who would do my bidding.

During a private meeting, she made me the following proposal.

"Emperor Mir, you know as well as I do who we both are. I know that your status as a demon lord affects you and you know that my ambitions are the conquest of the universe and to seed life therein. Your mind is scarred by my abominations, zombies and unnatural guardians. But that's how it is: you're the black king, I'm the red lady and the earth is the white king. As far as I can see, you've not interfered with my plans, and I've respected your free will like any self-respecting civilized being.

I can understand that you don't want to reform your flesh any more, and I have to admit that the evolutions and adaptations I could propose would bring you nothing more, apart from minor things, and would affect your appearance, which is truly beautiful. Wyverns and dragons are truly superb creatures, built to withstand time, wear and the extreme conditions of space. Everything you need to conquer the universe... You see, there's no need for cryogenics or absolute food reserves, and your hibernation replaces all that complex, fragile machinery. You're creatures of space. That's why I haven't tried anything, and I've respected your integrity.

The Portait can be built in space with rapidly generated clones and bring Magestia and your draconian empire and Umbrella a glorious future."

Actually, I didn't give a damn...blah blah blah.... A few drops of blood and she'd leave me in peace... I'd rather that than an ambush and all the rest...

Meanwhile, Kroa and Sacha were inseparable, especially as she was running away from Krii, who still couldn't get over the insult.

They were at the relay antenna, a sort of radio telescope, and Kroa was playing with Sacha, watching the stars in broad daylight on the magic screen.

And, as if by chance, they came across the lab, or at least the remains of the building in orbit.

Kroa: "Sacha, do you think that if we shoot a beam of light or a radio message into the lab, it will reach the earth? or if we could see the earth through the 'hole' if they activate?"

Sacha: "Yes, it's likely... maybe, but we'd need a lot of luck."

She leaned her head against Kroa's arm and put her cheek against his scales. Her paw was on the desk and he was a normal size, just a little taller than the little hero.

"Say, Sasha, if you ever went back to Earth, would you have any family?" "I don't know, I don't think so...nobody cryogenically frozen for me...I'd probably have little cousins, from an aunt who died of old age. Maybe a bank account if everything hasn't been taken over by the state, declaring us dead. Does that bother you?" "No, not at all, but I'll go where you go and I hope you'll continue to love me once there."

"Of course, Kroa..but I hope we can stay together."

"Sasha, I don't know what I'd do without you. I'm more attracted to you than to any other wyvern.."

"Stop lying to yourself, Kroa... you're like mir, an animal and it's normal to have concubines.... Chlorophylle wouldn't last with Mir's desires. It would exhaust her..."

Kroa: "I understand... sometimes it's hard to think..."

Sacha: "Oh... look, the radar echo is getting deeper... I've got data... We're seeing another system.

Kroa: "Try a message! Quick!!!"

"We have to isolate it! The "others" might hear!

Kroa: "Wait, yes, we'll combine it with the "message" spell and the condition is: Audible beyond the portal".

The little wyvern cast one of the spells she'd learned at the academy, and aided by Sacha, the microphone turned luminous red, attesting to the presence of magic.

"Hello? Hello? Earth? It's Sacha Goldberg from the Artemis mission! We need help! " Then, a few moments later : "KRr KRrrr....General Neuville! Responsible for monitoring long-distance missions. Please confirm!"

"It's Sasha! we're alive on Alpha! help! we can't talk long... the portal is unstable.."

"Miss Goldberg, you should be dead of old age! cryo is a failure on long-distance..."

"NO! Professor Brilliant is here, he's alive! I-I'm a clone!!! Umbrella is going to attack and is preparing an armada. They've got the long-distance portals... "

"General: Umbrella is lying and has faked the whole mission... we'll stop here!"

"General, Dumas has the Colussus! It's not destroyed, the Ark is here and they've been bombing cities..I have the code to my pistol to prove it's me! Here's my military code!"

The general's AI assistant confirmed the codes.

"Wait a minute! The ARK and The Colossus are on Alpha?"

"Yes, there are millions of us, it's like Earth in the Middle Ages but Dumas is turning the planet into a factory for his armada. They're about to descend on Earth."

Then communication was cut off.

Earth's AIs received a radar echo from a facility a century out of date.

With extrapolation calculations, they noticed that there was a kind of gap in space-time, a mini fissure linking Alpha and The Sun.