A few days ago, I had met a man, who just like my step-brother in the past, can also absorb corruption. And now, sitting face to face in front of me, seated as well with a table between us, in the negotiation room.
My plan was simple. Negotiate with this man, so I can take advantage of his ability to deal with corruption faster. Only if it could had been so easy.
Half an hour was wasted on just trying to get him to sit, from what I found out. He claimed to have never visited any of the headquarters of the pure before, only surviving outside his whole life. But after managing to get him seated properly. I decided to start the conversation first.
"So, are you willing to listen to my offer?" I asked, waiting for his answer. As he thought, before answering. "Sure."
I nodded slightly, and told him my offer. My offer was simply this, that he absorbs corruption out of all the corrupted monsters they dealt with, and in return, I will allow him to do whatever he wanted, it didn't mattered whether he helped or not, all I wanted was him to absorb the corruption and purify the corrupted like he was doing with the dragon a few days ago.
He thought about it for a moment, thinking of the benefits and downsides. He was free to do whatever he wanted, in exchange for purification of the corrupted. It wasn't a bad offer, but he wanted to know the answer to the alternative future.
"And what if I refuse?" He questioned. I simply stared at him, forming a small smile with a cold expression. "Then I will simply, have to kill you like I killed my step-brother who had the same ability as you do."
I expected some fear from him at my threat, but instead, I felt something grazing my throat. I glanced down slightly, and saw a shard made up of ice, right at my throat, ready to pierce through it. A small trace of blood leaking from it.
As I processed my situation, he gave a threat back against me with a dark look with no expression on his face at all. "I am not some weakling, who can be killed so easily. If I wanted, I can make a hole through your throat right now." I couldn't remember the last time, someone could make me feel threatened.
"I see." I replied back, my voice a bit quieter and more serious. Flicking the shard away, I looked at him, waiting for his answer to the offer.
He looked at me, before answering. "Alright. I will accept the offer." Good, that was what I wanted. "Good." As I stood up from the seat, and was about to head out. He added something else to the offer.
"But the condition is, that you have to ensure, no one else finds out about this ability of mine." I stopped at my tracks, right near the doorway, as he continued.
"If I am correct, your step-brother wasn't killed because of refusing but because of being found out about his ability, correct?" I didn't say anything. "I will take the silence as a yes, then." He added before continuing. "Ensure, that no one finds out about this other than you and me. And I will be going according to our contract."
I nodded slightly before heading out. When was the last time, someone caught me off guard? Still, even if he accepted the offer, I still have to be careful about him. Even if I am one of the strongest here, he could catch me off guard twice.
And he was also smart enough to realize it, that the headquarters would not wish to risk something worse than the usual corruption, which was the reason my step-brother was killed. I took a small glance at him, swearing that I had just seen him grin a bit, which vanished right away as he was muttering something without any expression, again.
I wondered, why did he accepted my offer so easily? How did he figured out the reason behind my brother's death so quickly? And why did he had the same ability as he did? Sure the two looked alike, but the difference in their behavier was vast.
It wouldn't be shocking if he just got reincarnated with a different essence, and mind.
That was my thought regarding the similarities as I headed down the stairs to the control room. Entering inside the omnivision of the headquarters. A few greeted me, some took a glance at who entered, others just ignored and continued with their work.
I leaned down towards the chair of one of the persons in front, and questioned. "How long until the take off?"
The person, a woman, who was passing time scrolling through her phone, glanced at me before looking back at her phone. "Around half an hour, the mana transfer from the planet to the headquarters is almost."
"I see..."
Bonk! The sound of the woman's head hit hard by me, echoed clearly in the room. Everyone sighed, knowing full well why. "Next time, instead of focusing at your phone. Focus on my eyes instead, Nyxelle." I gave her a cold look.
Nyxelle, the woman, rubbed her head before giving a sharp annoyed look with a small pout. Calling me a meanie, before her pouting stopped as she focused back on the control panel.
Just as I was about to look around, a notification popped up on the large screen in front, marking the power supply room as red, indicating that too much mana was absorbed and the mana stone needs to be replaced.
Nyxelle turned back to look at the others. "Looks like the corruption got pulled in again didn't it? The mana stones would be replaced already otherwise." She mentioned, before continuing with a sigh. "So who is going to go and deal with it there?"
When everyone was about to debate on who will go this time. The notification slid away on its own. Everyone froze and Nyxelle immediately turned back to the screen, the problem already fixed.
When everyone was about to question who did that. A very casual and calm voice just called them out from the entrance.
"Hey, what am I supposed to do with this?" It was him. That man who resembled my step-brother so much. Holding a dead beastman's head, a wolf to be exact in his left hand. A sharp blade in his right.
He held the head in front of us. "It was in the power supply room, where should I keep this?" He questioned. We figured it out that he killed it, but I couldn't help but ask him a question out of curiosity.
"How did you knew where was the power supply room?" I expected him to try and make up an excuse, but to my expectations. The answer he gave, was something I couldn't argue against.
"I looked at the map given in the middle of this place, and remembered the map from there, when the notification came, I just looked at that map to see where was the problem."
Clean answer and it made sense as well. There was a large map at the centre of the headquarters after all.
"Good speed." I complimented.
"This is normal for me." He replied back.
Someone started whispering. "Wait doesn't he look like him a lot?" The others caught on to that statement. "Wait he does resemble him a lot."
First some whispers, then it turned into a gossip, then a whole clear conversation in the room. I tried to focus away from the noise, as I saw him leaving. So I followed him, realizing I forgot to ask him one key thing.
"Wait!" I called him out at the hallway. He turned around a bit, glancing at me while I was staring at him with a sharp look. My eyes sharp enough to pierce his soul.
He stared at me, knowing full well that I was about to ask him something but pretended to not know that. "You want something?" I could see the slight amusement at his face.
I clenched my fists in annoyance before letting go, taking a calm breath before speaking. "You didn't truly looked at the map, am I correct?"
"What are you trying to sa-"
"You already know what this place is, don't you?"
The look on his face remained the same, then it fell off as he sighed. He stared at me with a sharp look as well. His gaze causing my nerves to freeze, literally. I tried to move my arms but couldn't. "Wha-"
"Its just a body instinct, nothing else... Your body knows that I can kill you easily."
"Yo-!"
He shushed me with his finger. A calm smile on his face. "Ah ah ah. Let's not get mad now, shall we?" My patience was trembling further, as he continued. His tone immediately changing to a threatening one as I saw his eyes look as dark as the depths of hell itself. "Just don't interfere with what I do, and I'll do as per our deal from earlier."
He slowly moved back, his finger leaving my lips. He turned around and started heading out of the hallway. I halted him with one final question.
"Who even are you...?"
His movements halted for a moment, as he thought. "Let's see..." He glanced back with a warm look. "Call me Lunethra for now."
"Lu... Nethra?..." A name that sounded familiar to me yet also not. Like a name which I never heard before but felt, as if I knew it.
.
...
...
Tremor! The ground started to shake, the rocks on the ground started to move as well, followed by a loud noise of the combustion of gas, as the ground started to split apart, revealing the hidden look of the headquarters below the ground.
A whole Interstellar civilization, using the planet as its source of energy to fly off, the planet beneath it. As all the mana of the planet was transferred into the headquarters power supply room. The planet had nothing left to sustain itself. Mana was a fundamental source of the mortal after all. It didn't mattered how low or high the concentration of mana was in something or someone. If they ever reach zero, they are bound to face their doom.
And just like that, the planet started to erupt, as the headquarters flew into space. The planet, left behind, exploded, destroying countless stars nearby. Nothing left of it. Leaving behind a void like crater.
"Well, next planet it seems..." Nyxelle muttered, operating the now revealed spaceship in the control room. She pressed a button to her side, a microphone came out, as made an announcement through it throughout the entire headquarters.
"Everyone, please go do your respective duties in the headquarters. The Interstellar spaceship. The H-200 has taken off. I repeat...!"
While the announcement was going on, I was sitting down against the door of my room. Breathing heavily. My face flushed, as I clenched the area around my chest tight, clenching the clothes along.
"Wha... What did he... Do to me?" I thought, as I remembered what happened before the take off.
Before the take off, after I had muttered the name "Lunethra", he had said this to me.
Make sure to remember one thing when around me, Lunaria... There is nothing more dangerous than our ego.
After that, he had somehow reacted faster than I could and hit me in the exact same location on the chest with some unknown ability which was visible through the blood like red mana that appeared on his hand, which had caused me to pass out and he had dropped me at my room.
I was now clenching that area of mine the entire time hard after that stab. Not just after waking up, but even when I was passed out.
"I'll kill him for this eventually..." That were the words that I muttered, before I got to the bed and passed out on it.
The H-200 roamed in the space, swimming through debris that were so small in comparison to its true size, they got destroyed just from hitting the spaceship fast enough, while others just bounched off.
Everyone in the spaceship is always prepared for their destinations, yet this time. I might be the only one, who won't be ready.
.
...
.....
Clang! The sound of iron clashing echoed loudly in a place with nothing but just a piece of rock, on top of which, there were two people fighting. There was nothing else at all. No stars, no galaxies, no planets no sky, no nothing.
It was as if, this place was something abstract in itself. It was the only logical answer to its nature.
"I brought you into this realm, just so I can counter your power to manipulate time... But its still a challenge to fight you." The first person, a man who was doing all the strikings, said as he panted in exhaustion. He had sharp ears, indicating it was an elf, a high to be exact as the ears were more sharp than a normal elf, his grip on his sword loose from exhaustion.
The other person, a woman, holding a folding fan near her face,she closed it, revealing the smirk on her face, a black cloak covering her figure from head to toe. "Oh so that's why you brought me to this place to fight huh? The abstract side of this planet, so that I can't use my power due to the concept of time not existing here, huh?"
"It was a smart move..." She said as she smiled in a cruel way for a moment. "But you seemed to have underestimated my ability it seems... Was, is and is to come." Her eyes gave a soft glow of blue for a moment when she said that.
Time froze in that realm. The man froze in terror. The woman had frozen time in the realm for everything except for the two of them.
"H... How did you do that?" The man asked in fear. The woman pretended to not know. "Hmm? Do exactly what?~" She said in a teasing tone.
"How dod you froze time in a realm where time doesn't exists at all!?" He yelled in shock and terror.
The woman said nothing at first, before she started to giggle, and then bursting out into a whole laugh.
"My power was never about just manipulating time you fool of an elf!" She yelled back, the realm forming white cracks from the sheer pressure of her yell.
The elf froze in shock at the reveal. "What...?"
The woman continued in amusement. "I can indeed manipulate time but that's not the limit of the extent of power."
"Instead of actually having the power of manipulating time. I have the power to put the concept of time into anything and then manipulate the concept. Including this realm."
The elf after hearing that was left stunned. The power to make anything be bound to the concept of time and then manipulate it, even for something that originally lacked it. It was too powerful. Sure there must be a limit to it right?
As if reading the thoughts of the elf. The woman continued. "There is indeed a limit to my power, that limit it myself. But here's the thing."
"I don't have a limit to how much I can grow." She said in a dangerous tone.
"You can't bind someone's power which they control through their ego."
"I believe I can overcome anything with my power, that's why I can grow stronger to the point, where my past self is just a mere illusion from which I turned more real."
"This is our nature. The nature of those who are the ultimate self believer. As long as we truly believe, we can surpass anything and do anything. Even returning from the dead."
With those words, the woman opened her folding fan and swinged it to the side. Causing the head of the shocked elf to get sliced and then fall off, followed by his body later.
There is no one who can beat me. My self belief will always keep me at the top. I'll kill everyone because of whom I lost my child.
I'll kill every single one of you.
Those were the thoughts of the woman, as she closed her fan again, her body fading, as she left the realm.
Planet elvian. The planet of the elves, with this mysterious cloaked woman as well. Known for its nature, and also the next destination of our H-200, the headquarters.