A Whole Lot Of Shit To Understand

"State your business. This is secured property from the Her-" One of the Bulldogs from the thieves was at the front, but not too separated from those behind it. A person who seemed like their boss spoke out but was cut off by Elyor's voice without even making an effort, causing the entire already noiseless space to turn much more silent. "Withdraw your people. Give me the crystals. Those terms in exchange for your survival, you will only be delivered to the nearest Kingdom for containment."

“... We will not! We won these crys-” The boss shouted again. But Elyor gave the order, and Heian Ciemnosc felt the boss’s shouting containing hope and restlessness. It was like the selling of these crystals was of utmost importance. “Fire.”

… …whsshh…

Though there was no sound, Heian Ciemnosc could see the many tiny and thin trails from the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s Fighters and Frigates on the enemy spacecraft as he zoomed out with his fingers so that the asteroid and the battle could be seen along with the Carrier farther away. Compared to the asteroid, where only less than 10,000 people could fit. And that’s without considering the installations within having fully cleared out the asteroid. It was about 30 times smaller than the Carrier.

Heian Ciemnosc was surprised. He could already tell the Carrier was already big-looking when he came out to space. Even as he turned around and looked left, right, or up and down, he couldn’t see the end of the Carrier, though it was majorly due to its shape. The Crimsonbreaking Carrier was, as he was told by Alyona, the most seen appearance within Carriers. Only it has a second layer of armor separated from its main body. Its main body was like a thick and long circular building with many hatches from the small, and the main hangar would open up and free up to thousands of spaceships each.

Its second layer of armor was thicker than 1 km, and it surrounded the entire Carrier. It was gigantic and simply a monster without life. It was seamlessly attached to the Carrier by strong but short limbs that would project outwards when required, offering an incredibly great defense to wait for the enemy to realize its fortifications and for the Crimson Breaking Faction to prepare a plan.

In all that exists and there is, and after several foot, hand, neck, and tummy massages, Alyone told him that only those in the 5th Step can actually have more than 1 or 2 Carriers, while the rest struggle to even get enough money to get a Frigate. Yet, the Crimsonbreaking Faction had a Carrier and upgraded its defenses to a level any fleet could be exterminated by the Crimsonbreaking Faction instead. Which had already happened. Yet, that was only part of reason they were infamous, incredibly well respected, and feared!

Heian Ciemnosc looked down at his panel, ignoring the several weapons that the front, middle, and rear of the Carrier had. Its color was mainly black, with dull, obscure crimson colors forming shapes of tongues, shapeless limbs, and irregular shapes, as if it was breaking the black apart.

Looking at the battle still ongoing, but now with less than 7 enemy Fighters remaining, while only 2 Fighters were in need of repair, but wasn’t urgent, Heian Ciemnosc felt like this battle was just a simple walk in the park for the Crimsonbreaking Faction due to their advantage in numbers and quality. The many more dozens of Fighters against the number of enemy Fighters was already advantageous enough to secure most of the Soldiers’ lives. But the addition of 5 Frigates, one for defense and the rest for offensive aggressiveness, was the reason they destroyed these thieves.

“Pick up the crysta- watch out!!” Elyor was about to send some more dozens of hidden Sweet Carolina Fighters to safely retrieve the loot when he saw a change he was most terrified of!

Just before, as the thieves’ boss contemplated his loss and the reason to even care anymore, he noticed a singular little spacecraft far away and in front of the Carrier, which already marked today as their sadly death day. In a fit of not giving an ounce of care for any life, not even his own, even perhaps expecting the Carrier to shoot at them directly and hopefully accidentally hit their own people. The thieves’ boss pressed a button, and all of his Bulldog’s missiles shot into space towards that little speeding spacecraft.

Ta… ra… ra… ra…

Heian Ciemnosc could hear the guns shooting bullets nonstop. He didn’t know if they were lesser or more potent than the pure energy shells. Nor did he know what the spaceships were made of, as all were the same. But half the Fighters changed their aim to detonate those missiles, but they were too fast and moved about however the fuck they wished. In the end, only 3 missiles made their way out of the rain of bullets and sped towards Heian Ciemnosc.

“!!...” Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes widened incredibly slow yet fast at the same time! He realized he had no time to react! He wasn’t told anything about the speed that these things could travel! Not yet! He didn’t even know what the differences spacecraft went through, from traveling in the air to space.

… puh… puh…

At the last moment, Elyor’s Frigate sped towards him. The mini-turrets that had been active so far were suddenly enthusiastic as if addicted to chicken blood and began to crazily spit tiny bullets from their mouths towards the 3 missiles shot at Heian Ciemnosc. The first one at the rear exploded almost instantaneously, giving Heian Ciemnosc a chance to wake up and put his hands on the spacecraft speeder’s panels. He took the primary control and gripped it tightly after pressing the buttons. And at that very moment. The second missile exploded, but missiles were much faster than a defensive Frigate.

The first missile had an electric burst as it extended over a distance of a couple tens of meters. And when the defensive neared, its shield effectuated and showed itself, with a few cracks appearing on it at its front as it dashed through it.

The second missile was different, as it created a tremendous bubble of striking, dark orange, which immediately burst into several dozen meters before becoming static and slowly dissipating. But by then, the last missile kept shooting in the speeding spacecraft’s direction. When Heian Ciemnosc saw it, his heart was calm, but he had thought his heart would’ve been pounding instead… from how excited he felt!

Whoooh-...

His spacecraft rotated, its lower belly showing as a gun like those the Frigates have attached to it. These spacecraft are obviously not for the sake of a battle, and having a single weapon on them, even just a missile, would make it fly and travel weirdly, either by air or space. But this was Heian Ciemnosc, who they were bringing on a mission. They couldn’t leave him helpless in a spatial battle of spacecraft. They were as dangerous as peal Third Step cultivators fighting their asses off, with those still at that Step but not at the peak turning into meat paste with just the shockwaves.

Ta… ta ra… ta ra ra…

Though Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t hear the shots firing into space towards the incoming missile, and the sudden, powerful, forced motion of the spacecraft rotating had his whole body in pain. He could feel the shots from the weapon as it faced the missile, slowly coming to understand the shooting method and the accuracy. Heian Ciemnosc ‘played’ with it as he moved the spacecraft tiny bits.

There wasn’t a weapon system on the spacecraft, only a button to go pew pew, and Heian Ciemnosc had to move the entire spacecraft in order to shoot with it. The difficulty was immense, and he was hurting like hell. The weapon kept on firing, and Heian Ciemnosc kept moving the spacecraft as little as he could in the course of 5 seconds, which was enough for the missile to come and strike Heian Ciemnosc’s spacecraft.

“...!!”

Puh…

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

At the very last fucking moment, Heian Ciemnosc thought he would be hit, the missile showed signs of its tip becoming scrap, and after another set of bullets hit it, a fated shot went flaring up in and disappeared into the projectile. After half a moment, the projectile’s body had a lightning-like crack spread from its tip to its engine, and an instant later, it exploded!

Its explosion was much different. It had no expansive shockwave like the previous 2 missiles. It instead burst forward to Heian Ciemnosc’s spacecraft still and had a bout of harmful navy blue energy smear forwards. The missile’s body was gone, but its contents continued moving as that bout of energy continued to trek forwards slowly. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t notice, and Elyor’s defensive Frigate was still rushing in. But Elyor was at least half a minute from reaching Heian Ciemnosc’s spacecraft.

Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t aware of the navy blue energy coming to get him. The moment he heard that booming sound, he immediately rested. His body was upside down, for it didn’t have a gravity device or array formation since it was a speeding spacecraft. And just the mere movement of his blood down to his head made his entire face hurt like it was being torn apart.

At some point, he exhaled heavily but softly, took the primary control with his hands, and moved and rotated the spacecraft to recuperate in a better posture. That was when he saw the navy blue energy. But at that moment, the navy blue energy reached his left chest, and he felt his body disintegrate! The glass of his speeding spacecraft had been broken into by the energy. His clothes were torn to shreds around his left chest while Elemental poisoning from the universe seeped in.

Heian Ciemnosc felt his skin disappear, eaten away by the havoc of navy blue energy. It wasn’t an unforgettable pain, and with his left chest disappearing, it was less pain that he could feel before the skin was gone. His eyes looked into space, surprised, and no time to respond. But when the navy blue energy began tearing his body, it stopped.

“...” He recomposed and looked around his cabin. Elemental poisoning was still seeping in, and he started to feel choked. He didn’t seem to mind the particles, deadly poison even for Alyona. And just as Heian Ciemnosc looked to the right outside his speeding spacecraft, instinctively, he saw Alyona standing there, sending her right arm forwards and her left hand holding nothing as it faced upwards from where she was standing.

The navy blue energy receded backwards, his chest hurting and droplets of blood falling into free space while her right hand went forth. With an open palm, she simply exerted a kind of energy he was unaware of. Yet, that energy flew at a momentaneous-fast speed. It reached the asteroid and went through the remaining enemy-Fighters and the Fighters. The former became dust, leaving their pilots and crew to rot in space, while the latter were fine like a boat anchored to a raudy port.

As for the asteroid, it was blasted into tinier particles of dust, and only when it was blasted into dust did Heian Ciemnosc see a shadow of a wave made out of her transparent gray energy flying farther for a bit before dissipating.

“...” Looking down to her left, she saw Heian Ciemnosc with his left chest bleeding out, not that slow anymore, and smiled. Their eyes looked at each other, his were understanding, and hers were prideful.

Whoooh.

Elyor’s defensive Frigate showed up t last after it was all done. Through the panel, though the sound was muffled to the utmost, Heian Ciemnosc could hear the Vice chairman, Elyor, give orders to retreat to safety and to receive punishment. Then the Vice chairman came out of the Frigate to face his sentence.

With his head lowered, Elyor floated in space 3 meters before him and Alyona, ashamed as he stood with a straight back. Alyona looked at Heian Ciemnosc and then at Elyor with meaning in her indifferent yet blaming eyes. Elyor caught on to it, and as he did, Alyona began speaking without opening her mouth. Heian Ciemnosc could somehow hear her ‘thoughts’ or whatever they were.

“You will not receive any salary for a hundred years. You may still receive tips and donations. But when I tell you to ‘make some connections’, you do as I order, whenever I order, and with whomever I order you.” Alyona’s words were as such, they carried intense reprimand, and Elyor nodded but did nothing more. His face was guilty, and he accepted this punishment.

“I can spare these soldiers from punishment due to your negligence.” Alyona added. Elyor looked up, surprised and expectant. He was ready to do whatever the shit she put on him. Alyona continued, her voice sounded steely in Heian Ciemnosc’s brain, and read through with his pardoned Spirit Sense. “First, Heian Ciemnosc will be given a Bulldog to pilot on his own during the next missions, every mission you go to.”

“Lastly, go on a date with Grietta. Start it before making me annoyed with your stupid situation. You are my Vice chairman, not some prince. Either start getting married or break off relations. My Faction is no place for love struggle. You either do so; or I’ll break you apart myself.” Alyona hid not her voice from devices, and the defensive Frigates and any other spaceship that set out for battle could hear their communication.

“... Understood.” Elyor had nothing to say. He assented, lowering his head even more, feeling even more ashamed that the boss noticed this. Yet never knew she already did. But Alyona wasn’t finished. She looked at Heian Ciemnosc, meaningfully but differently this time, and added, “But you’ve lost her heart. Now, though you have to recuperate it, she’s no longer inclusive to you. You’ve lost the right to have her for yourself. You know that, don’t you?”

“...!” Elyor looked back up to her boss’s face. If he was curious so as to how she found out about his little drama, then he now knew it was since long ago, possibly even when Grietta and he comforted each other after the 9th year of the war after the Great sAge’s death.

“I… yes, I’m aware. Sigh,” Elyor acquiesced again. He felt defeated, not because of the boss’s and Heian Ciemnosc seeming intervention, but of his own actions. If he wasn’t so casual and willing to dance around every garden of all kinds of flowers, he found. He wouldn’t have disappointed Grietta nor annoyed his boss. He fell… really shameful now.

“Mn. Now, Heian Ciemnosc,” her arms crossed. Alyona nodded and turned to her left while Elyor returned to the Frigate. Heian Ciemnosc looked back up at Aylona with his adorable darkest eyes and put a smile on her face. “There are 50 tons of crystals here. What should we do with them? I’ll leave it to you.”

Heian Ciemnosc: (O∆O)

After harming Elyor’s reputation as a man, Alyona was on a streak, wanting to test Heian Ciemnosc and let everyone know his decision and the end of their payment for this mission. He only had 1 advantage, they had all gone from possibly losing years of their salary to gaining it all back, and their boss even looked at him as she did. That was something. She flicked her left hand, and a little hill of a transparent crystal appeared in space, a layer of light green flashing across its body every once in a while.

“H-how much is a ton worth in… your best buyer?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, tentatively and with his eyes narrowing worriedly, Alyona’sr weakness. Sure enough, she answered truthfully with a beaming face and dazed eyes.

“From 10k to 50k. But it might go up to 66k now,” Alyona added in the end, sober and staring at Elyor before adding again. “If the clerk is female.”

“Then… 25 tons to the mission giver and 25 tons for your people.” Heian Ciemnosc said, letting them have 100k from their contractor and 1,650,000 from the ‘black market’ in case they got a female clerk to attend them or a group…

“...” The communication channels were silent. Visibly, everyone was with their mouth left ajar, not believing such a ratio. Heian Ciemnosc thought they were unsatisfied. He didn’t understand how ‘clever’ and ‘righteous’ one has to act when handling these missions. And should an enemy associated with these missions survive to tell the tale…

But firstly, nobody saw Alyona take the crystals, not even Elyor. Secondly, they were all dead, killed by her after he was attacked by them and injured, which he noted down. And thirdly… it seemed just fair to let their contractor believe a lot was already sold. And besides, half that amount may be good enough for the contractor’s expectations. He had, after all, taken a bit too long to issue the mission, which was lightning-fast taken by Vice chairman Elyor.

“Not ‘your’ people, our people.” Alyona came to his cabin, opened it, and brought him out, and grabbed him by the collar. The moment she finished her words, she showed him to them, his left chest still bleeding, and her words ended, only for a thunderous chorus to eclipse them.

“WOAAAAHUUUU!!” - “We’re getting rich, boys~~, girls~~!” - “I’m buying myself a fucking Frigate. I’ve saved decades for this!!” - “I’m buying your wife!” - “She’s free, though! Like the little boss’s future wife!” - “HAHAHAHAHA!” - “Bwahawhwahahahah~~!!” - “Long live the boss’s man!” - “Long live boss’s gratitude!” - “Long live thieves!!”

“...” - “...” Heian Ciemnosc and Alyona looked at each other. Mirth was actually there, in the middle of their gazes, as he slowly fell unconscious, and the cheering grew louder. Vice chairman Elyor, hearing some comments, some cheers, and their laughter got his long face break into a chuckle and a smile before then joining the rest in behaving like pirates as they went back to the Carrier, escorting Alyona, who princess-carried Heian Ciemnosc from the back.

Meanwhile, at the modules of the carrier, every single living soul watched the scene from outside and heard everything to be heard. Smiles crept on their faces. And some just chuckled, shook their heads, or cheered in celebration. In one of those sections, a bedroom with a beautiful, always joyous young woman looked at the screen, a gladdened tear falling down her left cheek as she lightly smiled. Especially as she stared at a dumbfuck of a blond fuckboy.

…