Pef woke up as his senses told him the ship had docked.
"Hey Zorkel. Hungry?" he asked rhetorically.
The demon nodded cautiously. He had seen his master kill three Greater Demon while he was only a High Lord human. Now he was the same tier as himself, a Greater Human or whatever name they used.
Furthermore, he now held the fabled ancient mace of the Soultraders. His plans for rebellion would have to be postponed. This human might be able to kill even an Archdemon now.
A wonderful smell engulfed him, as the human produced two trays filled with exquisite dishes.
Zorkel began wolfing down the food, glad that his master provided such good care.
"I'll need you to visit every planet I just bought from Arazmodel and free the slaves. But enslave the demon guards and have them mine for jade instead. Then bring the jade and the people with white or golden souls back to me." Pef ordered while chewing his meal.
Zorkel nodded but then raised a clawed finger. "I'm not a trader."
"Neither am I. Offer the guards the choice. Serve me or die. Some of them will accept and take the vow. Then feed them with the cores of the others."
"There are only nine jade mine worlds in the list. I'll go there first, then return. Will take about two weeks if I can use the ship." Zorkel mused while reading the jade slip.
Pef nodded thoughtfully. Having a high ranked demon in his service was proving to be quite a boon.
"You have an inner world, I expect?"
"It's a lava world. Humans will likely die during transport." Zorkel explained with a shrug.
Pef switched his attention to his own world and the avatar.
"Reason, a word." he said gently.
"How puny. What do you need, Pef?" the woman asked with her lips tight. It was a bit weird to see, but she probably had a good reason for that behavior. Her real words did warp reality.
"Zorkel needs a livable section in his inner world. For our new recruits."
The weapon tapped her lips, deep in thought.
"Not worth it. He would probably corrupt them en route. I'll modify the ship instead. As it happens I do have enough energy now, and your demon will return with more jade." she replied after a while.
Pef returned to the table, watching the demon chug down a jug of precious wine. Well. Maybe not that precious.
"Go wait outside, Zorkel. I'll fix the ship to carry my humans in comfort." Pef said as the meal was over.
As the demon obeyed, Pef drew out the gun.
"Point and shoot, eh?" he mused out loud, pointing the barrel at the nearest wall.
A dull noise like a vibration of an earthquake made the gun tremble. The universe waved, ship distorting and reshaping with a groan of metal.
A few seconds later, the flux stopped and Pef scanned the ship for changes. Twelve sections had been added to the sides, each with their own life support and amenities.
The ship itself had elongated and doubled the number of magic propulsion engines.
A turret with a short barrel had been created on top, possibly a defense weapon.
And on the bridge, a key slot had been installed, key inside, a metal spike with a jade plate for a handle.
Pef poked the key for a second.
'Master key VLS Liberty. Authorization Veritas 1-1-0-5. Command level one. Current users: Pef Xi. Level two provided for subordinate Legion ranks. Level three provided for auxiliary forces.' the glove exposed as it read the security on the jade plate.
Pef smiled at the degree of initiative and competence of his weapon. Then again, he was already used with his glove, who took planning and predictions to levels not even dreamed of by the best oracles.
A Legion weapon a tier higher was obviously even better.
"Sometimes I wonder why they even need people to carry these weapons. It would be cheaper to just send them on missions alone." Pef muttered with a sad voice.
"It has been tried, in fact. The General didn't like the results." the gun spoke in his hand.
With a flick of his wrist, Pef slung the gun around and stored it in the glove.
"It was rhetorical!" Pef muttered as he blinked outside the ship. Of course, you wouldn't like what autonomous weapons would do, unsupervised. Shattered planets and dismantled stars, if the golith scepter was any clue.
'Get going, Zorkel.' he sent to the Greater Demon.
'I'm going. New ship seems faster too.' he replied with an awed tone.
Pef stayed in place, watching VLS Liberty undock then fly away.
A sharp pain in his temple announced the new arrival. Pef cursed and turned around.
The Elf King was standing behind him, his aura pulsing with divine energies. Still, now that he had a comparison, having observed the Archdemon for a few seconds, the ruler of the elves seemed much weaker. Perhaps one third of the demon's power.
'You stole our vestal, human.' the King complained with a mind pulse as strong as an attack by a lower tier.
'I won the tournament. Even got a Greater Demon for a pet.' Pef replied calmly.
The Elf King hesitated for a second. 'You're not a Chosen though. Nor is your demon.'
Pef drew out his gun. 'I got my prize anyway. A Tier 7 weapon, fully sentient, universe-wide range. Plus the demons sold me a thousand more planets.'
The elf eyed the gun with wary eyes. 'Be that true, I still want our vestal back. Her work is too important.'
Pef smiled widely. 'Vela is not available for a couple of months. However, I'm sure you and your duke can spare the time and manufacture mind stones. It's pretty easy, after all.'
His telepathic interlocutor glared at him for minute. 'Verzinel is dead then?'
Pef took out the named demon's core. 'He was in my way.'
The Elf King measured the core with his senses, then nodded. 'So he is. And you're a Grand Duke now as well. Must have been a sight to see, a human winning the Hellsreach.' the elf admitted with a bit of sadness.
'Probably not. Everyone who saw the finale is now mad or dead. The capital was burning when I left.' Pef replied in a gentle tone.
Then he blinked himself on the station.
Another squad of Guards were now manning the instruments. "Sir!" they exclaimed as he appeared inside the command bridge.
They were all Core ranks, which was quite decent for new recruits. Xie must have trained them to exhaustion.
"Can we get a more modern station?" he asked softly, while pointing the gun at the floor.
A high pitch whine sounded, his elbow recoiling from the discharge. The station folded up and down, then a wave of yellow light flashed around, transmuting the metal of the armor and docks, while the demonic instruments changed into something similar to his own variants from the Eel.
Perhaps a minute later, the change stopped, the station becoming real again. Maybe more real.
Anyway, the air itself smelled crisp and new, and the station was now a proper battlestation, equipped with a dozen turrets and a dozen brand-new hangars, each containing a small dropship.
One part of the station contained a garden, with various cultures, including the Legion maize.
There was also a gym and a library and even a modern kitchen.
"Sir, what happened?" the leader of the Guards asked a bit panicked.
Pef took out a mind stone and created a schematic of the new station and the capabilities, then handed it over. "Upgrades. Read and familiarize yourselves with them." he explained while tapping the stone on the man's forehead.
A couple of minutes later, the VLSS Voidtrader captain opened his eyes and handed over the stone to his XO. "Just read it. Damn Legion Soldiers are such bullshit." he muttered, then looked around sheepishly.
Luckily for him, Pef had already left, as he wanted to see his wives.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Locking in on the ones away on some task or another, he whispered to the gun. "Let's recall my dear wives, shall we?"
A short snort resounded from his gun.
The inner world grew loud all of a sudden, as tunnels made of qi and quasi strings plucked the women from their outer world locations and translated them to the beach.
"I'm back!" Pef proclaimed loudly.
A flurry of hugs and kisses piled on top of him, before they noticed the new woman.
Lin poked his avatar's shoulder. "You're supposed to ask me." she seethed between her teeth.
"Oh, you mean the armored woman over there? That's the power word gun. Her name is Reason." Pef said with a smile.
To his surprise, Reason made a short bow, fist over heart. "Honored to meet you again, my lady."
Lin glanced between Pef and the strange woman. "You mean, before..." she said with an airly gesture meant to signify a previous life.
"Exactly so, my lady. But if you do not remember yet, nothing to worry. Still crafting, I suppose?" Reason asked in a friendly tone.
"It's new and exciting for me. But yes. These new metals are great, especially gold. I even made a spaceship!" Lin gushed, explaining her ideas in detail.
Pef took Aria to the side. "Any problems?"
"Nothing major. A couple of injuries among the civilians, but no deaths. A lot more injuries during recruit training, of course."
Pef shrugged. He had been injured many times himself. Then he took out the leaf necklace. "Try this on."
Aria held the flimsy chain in her palm and scanned it for a minute. "I can feel it. Almost like a plant seed." she whispered, mostly to herself.
"I think it's something like my knife. Give it some blood and affection." Pef urged her on.
The green-haired goddess thought for a moment, then squeezed a drop of blood from her lips and kissed the pendant.
Slowly, almost like a flower seen in slow-motion, the leaf opened and wrapped itself around Aria's body, forming a chest plate made of leafy scales and green qi.
"Yes my dear. I'll give you a bit more qi." Aria coo'd in a loving tone.
The armor grew shoulders and a longer along the torso, almost like a dress. Then it folded back, returning to a pendant shape, now wrapped around Aria's neck.
"Thank you Pef. Feels like a long-lost sister I never knew I had." Aria said in a moved tone, and hugged him tightly.
Suddenly time froze again. Reason appeared beside Aria, poking the necklace with a sad face.
"Careful with that thing, Soldier. Your wife doesn't have the training to use a Veridian Garden. It will drain her of life, like it did many times in the past. One use per century at most." Reason explained with a soft voice, lips still not moving.
"What does it do?" Pef wondered, eying the pretty necklace with suspicion.
"To put it simply, it shapes life. Also, it controls life. Calling it an armor is a disservice. It's an army formed from any living matter nearby. If none are present, it will make them, drawing life from the wearer. Loyal, resilient puppets with little sentience. But they can and will bury an enemy in bodies."
Pef closed his eyes, trying to envision the uses of such a power. Unending armies, marching on, regardless of loses. No wonder their Veridian Legion was exterminated when the occasion appeared.
"Sounds very powerful. Let's hope we never have to deploy that army." Pef whispered with a grimace.
"Hmmm. Never is a long time. You will use it someday. But you won't like it." Reason said with a wry tone, then vanished.
Time returned to its normal flow, and he patted Aria on her back.
"The use of the Garden is restricted to my direct orders. Imagine a forest uprooting itself to battle an enemy. Now include beasts and animals, even demons or humans. Marching in step, conquering galaxy after galaxy. Let's not abuse this power, okay?" he whispered in her ear.
Aria froze for a second, then hugged him tighter. "I can already do that with ants." she replied in a soft whisper.
"Well, you're also just a Tier 1. Plus, you remember our cities falling to termite swarms back home. Ants are already strong enough to devour forests and people."
"I know. Not to mention frogs or tigers. Soon I'll be stronger than Gaia." Aria said with a sob.
"You already are, silly. Now go and fix my forest. Some idiot burned half of it with a volcano." Pef said, pointing towards the glowing mountain in the distance.
Aria laughed and flew away.
Pef turned and met Xie standing arms crossed and looking upset. "Yes, my love?"
"Where is my present?" she asked with a pointed tone.
Pef cursed the day she met her, and started inventorying the newest loot.
On a whim, he took out a bow, made of some spirally blue metal, but without a string.
Then he drew and released a qi arrow towards the moon, blowing out a tiny chunk at the edge. Most of the damage was his own Tier 3 power, but maybe Xie wouldn't realize it.
"You like it?"
Xie hesitated, then eyed the moon again. "Let me try." she said, taking possession of the bow, then launching her own arrow.
It didn't reach the moon, but the arrow did explode in a cataclysmic cloud, which then continued on, and reached the moon after a minute. A million tiny explosions doted the moon, scarring the poor thing with more craters.
"It works! But I'm too weak to shoot fast arrows like you." Xie mused, eyeing the bow with some doubt.
"Keep it anyway. We'll go demon hunting soon and you'll gain kills faster." Pef offered with a smile.
"Oh. That sounds nice. I'll stay and practice here then. Mi'ridolor would suffer too much if I train there." Xie decided with a firm nod.
Pef went to check on Vela, finding her sitting alone in bed, and playing with a mind stone.
"How is my favorite sick elf?" Pef asked jovially.
Vela glanced at him with sad eyes. "You know many sick elves?"
"Nope!" he said cheerfully.
"I'm bored, sitting here alone. I hear people outside, they laugh and have fun." she complained with doe eyes.
"We can sit on the beach, if you want. The girls haven't seen each other for some time, and need to catch up."
"Okay, I'd like that." Vela said, perking up, arms raised to be carried.
Pef picked her up, and swiftly scanned the mind stone while in transition. Lia had written a history of the Monarchy, then inscribed on the stone. He guessed it would be boring just to read it, instead of making it. The history, not the mind stone.
They stood on the warm sand, and watched the fireworks, as Xie bombarded the moon with colorful xi explosions.
"My King wants me back." Vela whispered in a worried voice.
"But you're not a slave, to belong to another. Plus, he can make stones by himself. At his tier, he won't ever get cold or tired." Pef said while laying down on his back, expanding his mind towards the distant stars.
Perhaps a thousand stars, but he was the one to create them. One day, he would add planets and life as well. Godhood was like that, imposing his wishes on the universe, more in this one then outside.
Made him wonder what kind of life he would find inside the worlds of Elf King, or the Archdemon.
How many souls he would doom, if he killed them.
Perhaps that's why the General didn't destroy her enemies, and preferred to convert or mindwipe them. A Tier 7 or 8 would contain countless universes filled with life of all kinds, most of them not deserving of death.
"I can feel myself transforming. The new cultivation is so strong. So many techniques and adaptations. So fast and advanced. The rest of the galaxy are only young children in comparison." Vela said in a reflective tone.
"Perhaps. It's not perfect anyway, or at least the version that we use. Too many glaring holes, especially in regard to the mind and heart. As you well know." he mused in a low voice.
Vela took his hand with her feeble hands. "You're wrong, Pef. At least in regard to heart. I can feel my own heart forming, the creed of the Legion condensing like a mind stone. I can feel it among the others. I read the history of the Monarchy, the perils you had to defeat. That took heart, and someone without one wouldn't be here, liberating a thousand planets from slavery."
Pef smiled grimly. He wasn't the hero she thought him to be. Self-interest and enlightened tyranny. He was here to steal a gun. The rest was fortunate looting.
"You cannot return to the elves, Vela. Not that they would survive if we fail. One day, the door at the edge of this universe will open and hordes of monsters will rush in, eating everyone or worse."
Vela nodded hesitantly. "They have already begun, haven't they? The demon scepter, the soul vows, the slave collars."
"A scout maybe. Or a lost weapon. But yes, that's how it starts. But then it gets a million times worse." Pef admitted with a sad voice.
A puppy with curious eyes jumped on Pef's chest, appeared from nowhere. He petted it with a bit of amusement and amazement. The puppy bit his hand with white glowing teeth, then ran off, jumping into the sea.
"We have dogs here?" Vela asked in wonder, while Pef smiled.
"Not quite. That puppy can devour the moon in one gulp." he whispered gently, holding up his palm.
The wounds were closing slowly, but the fact remained. His avatar should have been invulnerable, and yet...
"Your hand is not bleeding." Vela observed curious.
"I am not here in the flesh. And that puppy isn't either. But you can go and play with him. It's yours now." he answered with warmer voice.
"Mine? Really?" Vela perked up, then walked shakily to the seashore. "Here, puppy! Let's play!"
Soon, they were tumbling in the small waves, splashing and yelping with joy.
Lia sat down next to him, observing the scene with cold eyes. "Another weapon." she deduced with her superb skill.
"My mind is weird, isn't it?" He complained in a low tone.
"Well. At least the moon doesn't have breasts. Yet." Lia replied with a suspicious glance at the moon.
Pef blushed a little, and gulped. His gun did have a female avatar, after all. Thus breasts.
"Anyway. The demons will counter-attack once the things calm down on the capital. Six months I think, maybe less. Plenty of kills and ranks for our family." he said instead.
"More training. Here, where we would not die in accidents." Lia concluded with a milder tone.
"You do that. I'll go see Nellie. Maybe she will still marry me, if I beg." he explained with a grin.
"Don't beg, you idiot! Give her the diadem and praise her a lot. Cook for her too. It's not like she has better candidates in this galaxy." Lia growled at him, poking his head.
Pef smiled and hugged her in response. "You're the best! I'd be lost without you." he exclaimed in a cheerful voice.
"I know. Doesn't make this easy." she muttered in his neck.
"Nellie would be a great help in the coming battle. She might reach Tier 3 before that, with a bit of Pef love." he whispered in confidence.
"And you get more breasts to yourself." Lia muttered amused.
"You know me so well, beloved wife." Pef said jokingly, then dispersed, his avatar evaporating in her arms.
A few blinks later, he burst into the elves' hidden capital, one buried under a mountain and twenty layers of wards.
Pricks of mind flays assaulted his shields, but he was now too strong for such defenses. Being a Tier 3 had its perks. Another jump, and he arrived in a command center full of elves commanders and generals.
Magical consoles and sensors illuminated the room, as was a huge holographic map of the galaxy.
Of course, the blonde siblings were there, overseeing some colored arrows aimed at the nearby galactic arm.
"Whoa! A military campaign?" Pef asked, studying the layout with interested eyes.
"Pef!" Nellie exclaimed, holding a hand up, to stop elves from over-reacting. Lucky for them they obeyed.
"Indeed! You'd think people had forgotten I own this planet. So eager to break the contract that keeps them safe..." Pef exposed with a loud voice, just as the Grand Duke arrived to the rescue.
"It's not a current operation, Duke Pef. Only a contingency, for when you had left, and the demons return." the elf said with a peaceful voice.
"Guerrilla attacks, mostly jade mines and mana pits. Hit them where it hurts?" Pef asked rhetorically, while memorizing the map.
Quite a good plan, if they had the troops and training to achieve it. Which, he doubted. Might still work, as the demons were not united and not that smart as they thought.
"We do have a small mountain of stones to power new ships and gates, which yourself had given us." the elf Duke observed with a small smile.
"Yes. And I approve of this plan. Seems well prepared, for most part. And as Verzimel is dead, the demons would need a few months to re-organize. Still, there's a problem." Pef said with a raised finger.
"We should have asked you..." Nellie said in a small voice.
"See? Not so hard. Plus there's been other changes." Pef said approvingly, while marking his own list of owned planets to the map, three of them overlapping the elves plan.
"What are those worlds?" Ceres asked while stepping closer to the map.
"Those are my other planets in this galaxy. My agent is already en route to liberate the slaves and collect my minerals. He has in fact reached this world." Pef said, poking one of the nearest planets.
"The Greater Demon?" the elf Duke asked after a second of waiting.
Pef guessed he had just asked his King.
"What? He's useful, for now. Anyway, the demons won't just take it. They'll probably sacrifice Arazmodel and break the contract, when they have amassed enough armies."
"They still have the damned staff." Nellie complained with a weak voice.
"Yes, they do. But, I also have one of my own." Pef answered by summoning his gun and holding it up.