Marty faintly groaned as he came back into the realm of consciousness. His body felt extremely heavy, accompanied by a feeling of being pricked from the inside. In his haziness, he noticed that one side of his body was warm. It was a sensation he was not unknown to as he could tell that someone had snuggled up beside him. Having lost the knowledge of where he was due to him going unconscious, Marty thought little of it as he had become used to it. Once he began to get feeling back in his hand, he noted that he was groping a fleshy part of his partner’s body.

Marty did not recoil his hand upon the realization of where his hand was. Mentally, he already confirmed that it was neither Shiro nor Callie and his hazy mind could think of no one else would be so intimate with him besides his wives-to-be. Time slowly passed as Marty faded in and out and semi-consciousness. Eventually, he became aware enough of his surroundings that he realized that what he was sleeping on was not comfortable as it was, literally, hard as a rock. He wondered why this was for a moment before he heard a slight moan next to his ear. Although it immediately sounded like a familiar person, it took him a second to realize who it was, and the realization forced himself to awaken.

Embarrassed with shame, Marty slowly removed his hand from Angelica’s lower cheek. His eyes snapped open only to see that Angelica had snuggled up and fallen asleep against him, sleeping soundly. He looked around his surroundings gently to ensure that she would not wake. 

Marty was surprised to find that he had more energy than expected, given that only a few hours had passed by. However, when he saw the case, he realized that she had given him medication. It gave the body energy and increased its regenerative ability, which would also include restoring stamina. Additionally, seeing the flesh on the case and her bandaged hand, she seemed to have wounded herself to obtain the medicine. When he noticed that, he couldn’t help but look at her more gently.

Marty healed her hand with Emotion Magic as he recollected and reflected at just how easily he had accepted someone was sleeping at his side. He had gotten used to and enjoyed that by now. Then, a thought struck him like a lightning bolt. If he enjoyed having someone sleep at his side so much, what about his future wives? The answer to that was obvious as they had all snuck into his room just to sleep in his presence multiple times. 

Given that Marty had not crossed the final line with any of them, it was still possible for them all to share a huge bed, which they’d also done. However, this would be impossible in the future. Even now, he wouldn’t be able to sleep next to every one of them in a week, much less if his harem increased as his girls insisted would happen. Thinking this, he couldn’t help but put a seal on the good feelings he had towards Angelica. After all, those feelings were the precursor to him bringing home a new girl.

Steeling his resolve, Marty continued to heal her hand as he sent out the SRIN he had control over to replicate into a more substantial force. It was at this point that Angelica began to stir. Her heavy eyelids half lifted open, and she lazy looked at Marty, who met her gaze. After a couple of seconds, a silly smile appeared on her face as she watched him.

“Morning Princess,” Marty said stoically.

Angelica blinked a few times and tilted her head before her eyes snapped open and she scrambled away from him in a panic. “You… You didn’t do anything indecent, did you?” She asked as she covered herself in a panic.

“I would never intentionally do something indecent to a woman.”

“So, you did do something unintentionally!” She retorted back.

“How could I? The last thing I remember before finding you so close to me was thrusting my sword through that beast’s eye.” Marty replied.

Angelica let out a humph before she suddenly froze and tilted her head because her whisper had just told her that he had lied out of embarrassment. This meant that he remembered what he said after, but pretended he didn’t. She was slightly confused as to why he would lie, and it bothered her. “I hope you don’t mind that I saw your face after your mask broke.” She said, trying to change the subject.

“Thanks for reminding me, Princess,” Marty said as he took out a replacement mask. “I wear this mask to hide my identity on my planet as those who consider me to be an enemy will be unable to target the people I care about. Just keep my appearance to yourself.”

Angelica nodded before she shyly looked to the ground. “Say, could you call me Angelica instead of Princess? We just went through quite a lot together, and I would like to know your actual name.”

Marty had an impulse to accept as he genuinely did not care for such a thing as nobility, but he stopped, turned around facing away from her, and began to check outside. “Princess, we don’t have much time to become friendly. I’m still heavily injured, so we either need to move out now to finish this quickly so I can heal or wait until I’m healed. Given that a protracted battle is more disadvantageous to your mother, we should get going now.”

Angelica slightly nodded. Even though the reason sounded somewhat truthful, it also seemed a bit forced. Then, her eyes shot wide open because she heard a whisper say (creating distance to stop our emerging feelings). This whisper made Angelica flustered. [Our emerging feelings? I have feelings for him? Does he know it? He has feelings for me?] She thought chaotically as her ears turned a deeper shade of silver. [I… I like him.]

“We should go to the wreck and gather what supplies we can,” Marty replied as he retrieved his sword, completely removing his attention from Angelica, entirely unaware that his attempt at creating distance between them had splendidly backfired.

“Wait a minute. How long were we out for? My mother?”

“It’s been about five hours. It was relatively early in the morning when we arrived in this area, so the afternoon has just begun. You don’t need to worry about your mother too much as the limited number of SRIN that can be controlled means that they have to focus more on efficiency. Based on the system readouts, they only took out the long-range engines as well as forced the ship to crash. Generally speaking, most of the systems should be just fine. This includes an EMP, shields, and weapons, which means that the individual SRIN will be of no threat, long-range weaponry will be ineffective, and the large size SRIN required to cause harm will be inefficient. That being said, a protracted battle is extremely unfavorable as the SRIN do not require any rest and can replenish their numbers. It is imperative to locate and destroy the Mother SRIN as quickly as possible.”

Angelica nodded. “So, we’re going to get supplies at the crash?”

“We are. I already sent my SRIN to replicate from the wreckage.”

“Isn’t that bad! What if they go out of control?”

“That is impossible. The reason why the SRIN go out of control is that the normal SRIN increases the computing power of the Mother SRIN, which then frees itself from control. In this instance, I am like the Mother SRIN, but I do not receive any benefit or risk from the number of SRIN I control. Instead, I’m limited to the amount of SRIN I can control as my brain would become too chaotic. After all, getting information from several hundreds of thousands of machines can be very taxing depending on the level of detail.”

“That’s both reassuring and amazing,” Angelica replied with a sigh of relief. “Wait a minute! The ship is a prototype, and many systems are somewhat expensive and will be hard to recreate. Do you think it will be possible to…”

“Don’t worry. I’ve instructed them only to replicate from the hull and non-repairable systems.”

“Thank you.”

Marty nodded as the two of them continued to walk on.

As they walked to the crash, Angelica tried to start a couple of conversations but fell short. She realized he seemed to be ignoring her. Giving up, she puffed cheeks in a pout and followed him.

Indeed, Marty was ignoring her. The seed he had already noticed would only bloom into a flower if he paid attention to it. Only by ignoring it could he safely keep it from budding. Naturally, he could simply immediately leave, but ending this incomplete would’ve left a bad taste in his mouth.

As they neared the crash, Angelica couldn’t help but have a cold shiver down her back as she saw the ever-expanding swarm of SRIN slowly engulfing the crash.

“We’ll have to wait a bit further until they’re finished,” Marty said.

Angelica nodded.

“By the way, I’ve been wondering for a while, but those wings are not a normal Sylvering trait, right?”

“Eh?” Angelica muttered before she looked behind her. It was only then she realized that her wings were wholly uncovered. She had spent most of her life hiding them, so she had not even realized that they were exposed. She briefly flailed her arms around in a panic as if to try and cover them, but quickly calmed down. “I’m sorry you have to see something so ugly.” She apologized.

“Ugly? There’s nothing ugly about them.” Marty replied. “By the way, are your wings the reason why we survived the fall?”

“Not really. Shortly after we started falling, a circle appeared below you, and we slowed down to a crawl.”

“It worked?” Marty mumbled.

“What worked?”

“Well, my brain can function similar to a computer. I discovered that I could set conditions and reactions to my subconscious brain, which can cause autonomous actions. For example, I’d given some thought to the ways I could be killed, and one of them was falling from a height while unconscious as it almost happened once. I created a program in my head that if I were both unconscious and falling, I would create a gravity magic circle which would reduce my gravity enough that the wind resistance would cause me to fall slowly. I haven’t been able to do any field testing, for obvious reasons, but I’m guessing I’m kinda lucky I set it up anyway and that my mind realized I was falling.” Marty replied with a sigh as he continued to watch the SRIN devouring the ship.

“That’s kind of cool.”

“Coolness aside, I should think of some other ways to utilize it,” Marty said. There was a short pause while the two of them continue to watch the SRIN replicating. “By the way, it doesn’t seem very likely that the ground should’ve survived as intact as it did from the force of the crash.”

Angelica looked up towards the crash started moment to herself. “You’re right.” She replied as she took out her tablet and began to scan the ground.

Marty, who heard her mumbling, was surprised as she had been mumbling complex equations and solved them mentally. With Marty’s memory and computer-like mind, he did the same to come to his conclusion, but he was surprised to find Angelica also had a similar natural capability.

“What the!” Angelica exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Adamantine! There’s a vein of adamantine here!”

“Isn’t that rare?”

“We’ve only found half a dozen adamantine veins before. Besides the Mother SRIN, no other adamantine examples have been found.”

Marty suddenly broke out into a smile. “Well, I was wondering about the best way to deal with the Mother SRIN, so this is quite welcome.”

As Marty spoke, half the SRIN suddenly broke off from the crash and down into the adamantine vein.

“Kya!” Angelica screamed before she bolted back to Marty, having been momentarily surrounded by the SRIN. As she heavily panted, Marty could not help but snicker, prompting her to glare at him.

Ignoring Angelica’s look, Marty sat down, cleared some space, and began to work.

“What are you doing?” Angelica asked.

“Removing the gunpowder from these bullets to create more appropriate ammo.”

“Gunpowder?”

“When lit, the expanding gas from the gunpowder propels a projectile at a high velocity.”

Angelica looked at him with a blank expression before a look of realization appeared upon her face. “That’s brilliant! It’s so simple! I can’t believe none of our scientists in our history have thought of something like this!”

“Yeah… I guess so.” Marty replied with a slightly amused expression.

Over the next half hour, Marty and Angelica engaged in small talk. Given that Marty was preoccupied, and it was against his nature, he ended up ceasing giving her the cold shoulder. Once he was finished, there was a row of sniper ammo made of adamantine SRIN.

“I’ve been wondering why we haven’t seen any enemy SRIN in the area,” Angelica said as she looked around.

“I cannot be completely certain, but I believe that is because of their limited manpower. They’re most likely using some SRIN to patrol the area around the crash to prevent reinforcements from appearing. Because the amount of SRIN that can be created is capped by whoever’s controlling the Mother SRIN, they need to focus their manpower. Given that the ship was shot down, that objective was completed.”

“I guess we’re lucky then.”

“That we are.”

...

After the ship was disassembled entirely, Marty and Angelica stood before all of the remaining equipment. There were several ‘black boxes’ that Angelica was quite happy retrieved as they contained essential data regarding the ship and sensor information that would be invaluable to her for the research. Additionally, there were several containers of medicine, weaponry, and other equipment. He took medicine, some portable ‘batteries,’ and plasma bombs into his space ring while the two of them both took a pair of plasma pistols, and Angelica took the only remaining plasma rifle. Additionally, the two of them also wore a personal EMP device, which intermittently sent small EMP pulse around the wearer’s body, which would prevent any individual SRIN from invading. Generally speaking, the body produced enough electromagnetic interference to block individual SRIN, but the slightly conglomerated ones could still cause damage; hence, the EMP pulse generator.

“You’re confident in your shooting ability, yes?” Marty asked Angelica.

“So long as I know all the conditions, I can calculate were need to shoot to hit a target.”

“I see. In this case, you’ll be covering me as I melee SRIN.”

“Are you crazy!” Angelica yelled at him. “It’s dangerous to get into melee range with the SRIN, much less the Mother SRIN.”

“That depends on the weaponry,” Marty replied as he took out Kuroka. “The enemy of all metal, including itself, is heated adamantine. Against normal SRIN, both my sword and plasma weaponry will be effective in destroying them. It takes time for them to reassemble to full functioning order, and the SRIN that are directly impacted by the attacks are completely out of commission. However, this is different for the Mother SRIN as it is covered in adamantine armor. Adamantine reflects plasma rendering them completely useless. However, a projectile of adamantine or my sword should be effective in destroying it. Even though its body is mostly made up of other SRIN, the Mother SRIN does have an irreplaceable core. So long as that core is destroyed, the Mother SRIN will cease to exist. Conversely, if only the core is left and there exists enough SRIN, the Mother SRIN can completely recover.”

“I know most of that already,” Angelica said with a sigh. “It’s still going to be very dangerous, and you’re still injured.”

“So long as I don’t take too much damage, it shouldn’t be a problem. At any rate, if we are going to do this, I should let you get used to this.” Marty said as he handed her a large sphere.

Angelica warily took the giant ball of SRIN into her hands, slightly miffed by the weight.

“I’ve set this group of SRIN to act to your voice. Say sphere, and it will turn into this. If you say gun…”

“Gun.” The moment Angelica said ‘gun,’ the sphere morphed into a giant sniper rifle.

... 

Over the next 10 minutes, Marty introduced her to its functions. Unfortunately, due to the lack of resources, she couldn’t have any practical experience using it as he only had enough SRIN to create ten rounds, all of which were in a single clip.

“I’ll take the sniper rifle for now as it is a little heavy. Do you have any questions?” Marty asked.

“How are we going to find Mother SRIN?”

Marty smiled. “Already done. Intelligence is the sharpest weapon in a war, so I sent some SRIN to gather information. The Mother SRIN is roughly close to the forces of the SRIN that are attacking the ship right now. It’s a location that cannot be targeted by the ship, but also not too far to be reinforced by the Army of SRIN. Once we engage, we only have about five minutes to take out the Mother SRIN before reinforcements come.”

“Understood, what do I have to do?” Angelica replied with a serious expression.

“There’s a sniper’s perch in the area. You’ll use the plasma rifle until we fully engage with the Mother SRIN, which you will use the sniper rifle against. I will leave some SRIN with you to help defend you should any of the nearby SRIN turned to attack. I will draw their attention with a ground assault to focus the Mother SRIN’s attention. 

“I will also have some SRIN at the ship to monitor their withdrawal. Three minutes after the reinforcements withdrawal, I will cease confrontation and teleport directly to the Mother SRIN. At that point, we will have two minutes to exterminate the Mother SRIN before I assess the remaining time. Their reinforcements may be slowed depending on the intensity of your mother’s counterattack. Do you have the means to contact her?”

“I do, but any type of signal emitted is captured by the SRIN, revealing its sources, so I have ensured that nothing that can generate a signal is active.”

“That’s good. Once we begin the engagement, both of our positions will be revealed anyway, so you should contact her and tell her to press the offensive as soon as she notes any SRIN retreating to give us more time.”

“I understand, but I have one more question. How are we going to get out of here?”

“We’re going to fly,” Marty said with a smirk.

Angelica flinched. “Not magic? I can barely fly my own, much less with another person.”

“I can fly my own,” Marty said with a smile. “The reason why I don’t want to use magic is that it is not an inexhaustible resource. The mana used to fuel it is a byproduct of the soul and requires time to replenish. Even now, I’m currently not at full strength and would prefer to have every bit of mana available once we begin the fight.”

“I understand. But if not magic, how are you going to fly?”

Suddenly, two red draconic wings made of Ki appeared behind Marty. “What? You didn’t think you’re the only one with wings, did you? Let’s go.”

...

Sounds of machinery and explosions perpetuated throughout the area surrounding the large crashed ship. Currently, the remaining crew had taken to protecting only a small section of the ship where the most useful and vital stations were. This gives them less of an area to protect, but it also gave the SRIN resources to replicate and replenish their forces. The shield both slowed the SRIN’s advance as well as prevented any external plasma fire, but conversely, plasma fire could not go beyond. A combination of the ship’s guns, as well as the crew’s additional fire, had successfully pushed back the SRIN, but the fatigue from continuous fighting was beginning to show.

Within the ship itself, the Empress was monitoring the situation with her full attention. She was well aware that it would be impractical to attain a victory without reinforcements, so protracting the battle for as long as possible was her highest priority.

“How long until the next personnel shift?” The Empress asked.

“10 minutes, Empress.”

“Good, they’re fighting well.” The Empress replied as she continued to look over the monitors. Suddenly, she noticed something strange. “Give me confirmation that some of the SRIN are retreating.”

“Empress, they appear to be doing so.”

“Why?” She asked herself.

“Empress, receiving an emergency audio transmission with the princess’s credentials.”

“What! Answer it immediately!”

<Mother? Mother can you hear me?> Angelica’s said along with occasional plasma fire.

“Angelica? Why are you still here? Didn’t you go for help?”

<I sent the ship for help, but a friend and I are attacking the Mother SRIN right now.>

“You are doing what!” The Empress shouted, voicing the thoughts of all the dumbfounded crewmembers.

<Look, Mom, I want to talk to you about everything that’s happened right now, but some of the SRIN are retreating, right? Now is your chance to counterattack and buy us more time to take out the Mother SRIN.>

“… I got it. You better stay alive, so I can scold you later, you hear me?”

<Thanks mom.> Angelica replied before she ended the transmission.

“I want every able-bodied woman out there and every functioning gun firing immediately. As soon as we have the advantage, temporarily shut down the shields and push as far as possible.”

“Empress, this is not advisable.”

“My daughter is out there fighting right now for all of us. I’ll be damned if I don’t give my everything to support her!”

 

Marty slowly walked among the wreckage of the SRIN used for combat. In one hand was a plasma pistol and, in the other, was an unlit Kuroka to deflect plasma fire. For whatever reason, the combat SRIN would take the form of natural lifeforms, most likely the decision of whoever was controlling them. Setting his sights on another SRIN, Marty cracked into a smile. “Now that the warm-up is over, it’s time I paid you guys back in full.”

Marty’s body exploded with red Ki as it formed a Ki Dragon that immediately rushed to and crushed a combat SRIN. In response to the sudden increase in threat, the number of standby SRIN decreased as they moved to engage. Marty slowly walked around the perimeter without breaking stride as he swung Kuroka deflecting plasma bolts. He was quite surprised to find that not only did his ability to know where to fire with ranged weapons was valid for the plasma pistol, but also with the deflected plasma bolts.

After about a minute of taking heavy fire, the combat SRIN finally decide to charge them all at once. However, Marty Gale Stepped out of the way, which caused them to bunch up and subsequently be riddled from fire from the two of them.

After fighting with the combat SRIN, Marty began to understand why they were so troublesome. His abilities did not make combat for him too difficult, but the SRIN would require massive firepower to be dispatched. At this point, he ended up taking out over half of the combat SRIN, but only effectively took out 20% as they could reassemble together. To thin the numbers, Marty suddenly had an idea. He commanded his SRIN to quickly create a device that was similar to a signal jammer. However, it did not block the signal but created a remarkably similar one. The idea was to create enough of a disturbance between the Mother SRIN and the SRIN for him to take them over. Over the next minute, he found that it was successful, though he had to maintain his focus and spend some time doing so. Unfortunately, only about half of the remaining SRIN had come under his control, it was becoming progressively harder to take them over, and he had run out of time. Marty ignited Kuroka to heat the blade as he commanded his SRIN to fight the enemy SRIN. The Mother SRIN was not very different in shape than a normal SRIN. Having analyzed it, Marty realized that the shortest distance to the core was from underneath, but decided not to attack it from there because he could easily be crushed. After all, a giant adamantine covered insect-like machine twice the size of his Ki Dragon weighed an incredible amount. This left the attack to come from above. Unfortunately, though the Mother SRIN was relatively immobile, it had plenty of plasma weaponry that could regenerate. As a result, the first attack would be the most important one.

< “Angelica, I don’t think we are going to make this a protracted fight against the Mother SRIN.”>

<Then what are we going to do? >

< “Your mom must really love you. She went all out on the retreating SRIN, so we have a little extra time, but we need to try to end this one strike; otherwise, it will all be for not. I’m going to teleport above and immediately try to take out the corner one strike, but it is not a guarantee. You need to use the sniper rifle to help me take out the guns as quickly as possible, so I can make a follow-up strike.”>

<Got it, I’ll do my best.>

< “As soon as I teleport, take out all the guns you can on your right of the Mother SRIN.”>

Marty collected the remaining adamantine SRIN and turned them into gauntlets onto his hands after putting away the pistol as it would soon be useless. As he was doing that, he collected his combat SRIN and dual casted teleportation circles on them. Those SRIN immediately appeared flanking the Mother SRIN and engaged the remaining SRIN protecting it. This caused the additional benefit of momentarily causing the Mother SRIN’s fire to be focused on Marty’s SRIN. 

Backhanding Kuroka, Marty teleported right above the Mother SRIN immediately thrust his sword down using gravity magic to increase the impact which left only the hilt above, slightly short of the core. The Mother SRIN reacted to Marty’s presence immediately, and all 12 plasma guns swiveled towards him.

*Bang!* The first shot from Angelica struck true and instantly disabled one of the plasma weapons. The next moment, the remaining 11 all fired on Marty, who promptly Gale Stepped and avoided all the fire. At this point, both of Marty’s gauntlets had a small endpoint of the sword sticking out from them, both of which were lit with black flame as he had engraved the same magic as Kuroka onto them. The punch immediately cut into the plasma weapon and, with a flick, sliced through it. Over the next five seconds, both Marty and Angelica miraculously were able to take out all the plasma weaponry. However, one of the plasma weapons had nearly already reformed.

< “Angelica!”>

<Got it! >Angelica shouted over the comm as she fired at the reforming gun while Marty simultaneously Gale Stepped to his sword. He clasped his gauntleted hands together, which immediately change their shape, and within a second, Marty had a large hammer in his hands. He swung with all his strength, Ki, and even included max level gravity magic. With a bang, the hammer struck the handle, and Kuroka immediately shot through the Mother SRIN and shish-kebabed the core.

Suddenly noticing the enemy SRIN ceasing function, Angelica beamed. <Sir Knight, we won! Sir Knight?> However, Marty did not respond. Instead, she heard a slight moan.

Suddenly, the realization that he could’ve been severely injured crossed her mind, and she immediately abandoned all her weapons and bolted towards the Mother SRIN.

“Sir Knight? Sir Knight?” She shouted over and over with tears in the corner of her eyes. Then, she heard a moan. She quickly flew over to the source, and when she saw Marty, she covered her mouth and gasped. 

To ensure that the blow was successful, Marty put nearly all he had to attack and very little in defense. Additionally, the resulting aftershock from the adamantine on adamantine, with the extra force of the gravity magic, furthered the feedback. Angelica found Marty with one arm bent in the wrong direction and bone protruding from the other.

“Sir Knight!” Angelica shouted as she landed next to him. Her hands fluttered over his body as she wanted to help but was worried about touching him.

“Give me a second,” Marty said through his teeth with his pale face drenched in sweat.

When she saw the sweat pouring down his pale white face, she could no longer hold her tears back.

Marty was in no mood to console her. Instead, he used his Ki to pop his arm back into place. He couldn’t help but groan when it snapped back in. After taking a couple of seconds and deep breaths, he finally brought attention to his broken arm. With a grimace, he cut the skin beyond the protruding bone then use his hand and Ki to reposition the bone. After he finally managed to do that. He took out some of the medication and smeared it over his open wound before taking a swig of the liquid medicine. Then, he commanded some of the SRIN to create an arm cast while the rest cannibalized the Mother SRIN and retrieved Kuroka. He was depressed that he only had a little more emotional strength left to cast Emotion Magic with, which he wanted to save for an emergency or to leave.

“Are you okay?” Angelica asked.

“Ya, I just need to take a breather,” Marty replied, breathing heavily and waving her off.

< “Eh? Yes, mother, we were successful… Can I contact you later? My friend was injured... I’ll talk to you later... Sir Knight, do you need any help?”>

“Can you help me stand up? My legs still feel a little shaky.”

Angelica nodded and helped him up.

“Now, we can go.”

“Go?” Angelica asked just before a purple circle appeared underneath the two of them. The next instant, she suddenly found herself within a ship. There were many surprise gaps, but everyone recognized the Princess, so none drew their weapons. “Mother!” Angelica shouted as she ran over.

“Angelica! Thank goodness you’re okay.” The Empress replied as she hugged her daughter.

“Right mother, let me introduce you to-” Angelica began to say, but stopped when she realized that Marty had disappeared with a flash of purple. [He left? Without saying a word? Do all males do this?] She thought as tears began to spill from her eyes.

The Empress, noticing her daughter’s expression, hugged her from behind. “Angelica, would you tell me what happened from the beginning?” She asked gently, calming Angelica down as she drew her into a separate room.

After the Empress calmed Angelica down, Angelica proceeded to tell her mother everything that happened. As the Empress watched the changing expressions on her daughter’s face as she recounted everything, a sense of melancholy came over her.

“And then he just left. Without a word.” Angelica said, holding back her tears.

The Empress sighed. “Angelica, I envy you.”

“Envy me?”

“You know that the reason why I became Empress is that your father and I stopped the initial SRIN invasion 20 years ago that cost the previous Empress’s life. Just before I was about to die, he came down from the heavens and saved my life. Out of my gratefulness and worry for our Empire, I didn’t see an obvious truth. It was all a game to him. Looking back now, I realize that his strength was not something I could comprehend. He pretended to like me to seduce me. Why me? Most likely, it was just a whim, and I fell for it completely. After we saved everyone and came home a hero, I gave him his reward that night. Then, he left.”

Angelica looked at her mother, surprised. Her mother had never said a negative word about her father before, which was the primary cause of their estrangement. “Why are you telling me this now?”

The Empress sighed. “Regardless of his reasons, your father did save our Empire, and he is your father. I didn’t want you to grow up hating your father. I’m telling the truth now because I don’t want you to compare them. Your ‘Sir Knight’ is very different from your father.”

“But, I don’t understand why he left.”

“Angelica, you like him, don’t you.”

“What? I don’t like him.” She denied vehemently.

“It’s all right. Girls fall easily for the hero, after all. I don’t believe there’s a man alive who can resist my daughter’s charms, which means that he had another reason to give you the cold shoulder. But, if the reason why he helped you was not for your body, then he had another reason. With help from your ability, it’s safe to say that his reason was that he is a nice person who wanted to help you. However, if it were that simple, he would have no reason to leave immediately. I believe that he likes you and is aware of your feelings for him, but cannot accept those feelings.”

“Why do you think that is?” Angelica asked, flustered as she couldn’t see anything wrong with her mother’s logic.

“As I said, girls love heroes. Given his nature, it wouldn’t be that surprising for him to have a sweetheart. It’s a pity that I cannot say for sure.”

It was then that Angelica suddenly had an idea. She hesitated, but then ran the photo of him she took through the Internet. When she saw the result, her chin couldn’t help but tremble as she sat down listlessly.

The Empress took the tablet and looked over its contents. When she saw the results, she made a relieved smile. “Well, it’s not the worst-case situation.”

“What do you mean this isn’t the worst-case situation?” Angelica asked, depressed.

“He has ten wives, including aliens. From my experience with other races, there are two types of males that have multiple women. One that lusts after women and one that loves women. Given his character and the fact that he left, the latter is the case. This means you still have a chance.” Empress said with a chuckle.

Angelica came out with a small smile, but it faded. “But should I? Ignoring the problem of me finding him again, would his wives be okay with it? Wouldn’t that most likely be the reason why he left in the first place?”

“Perhaps. But if you don’t go find him, nothing will happen.”

Angelica bit her lower lip out of embarrassment at her mother’s stare, but a flash of resolve filled her eyes.

 

“Damn! Damn!” Within the cave surrounded by electronic equipment, a humanoid male shouted. His body was nearly identical to a human, except his head was huge and veiny and had a device on it that seemed to connect him to the computer. “That woman foiled my attack 20 years ago somehow managed to stop me this time without that freak. Oh well. It’s only a small setback. In five years, I can re-create the Mother SRIN and eliminate that incomplete bastard race. I can’t wait to see the look of despair on that Empress’s face when I return them to their rightful place beneath me.” The humanoid said with a twisted smile and maniacal laugh.

“Wonderful plan, it’s a pity I’m here to stop it.” A voice suddenly resounded behind him.

“Who?” The humanoid asked as he turned around just in time to see a flash of silver as a coin went through his head.

Without a change of expression, Marty walked up to all the electrical equipment. He naturally found this mad scientist’s base of operations quite some time ago. However, he did not attempt to take it out because he would be unable to take over the Mother SRIN in a reasonable amount of time. If Marty had killed him, or if the mad scientist had become desperate, the Mother SRIN would’ve been able to create more SRIN escalating the difficulty tremendously. Thus, Marty deemed the best course of action was to take out the Mother SRIN first, removing the risk factor.

Marty used his mind to access the computer. The information he found there was massive in scope and would require much research. After taking a glance at the research over on the Mother SRIN, he came to the idea to utilize the SRIN with androids like Anna. This would take much of the load off of his mind without risk of losing control of them to complete fine-tuned automation. After Marty had accessed all the information, he was relieved to find that the mad scientist had only backup information locally so he could safely take the information without the worry of someone else finding it. After he had removed the database to his space ring, he then withdrew some plasma bombs from the ship and placed them around the computers. Just before he was about to leave, a cold shiver ran down his spine, and every cell in his body screamed one thing; run!

Marty immediately Dimension Doored and, the second after he left, another person was suddenly standing in the room. Marty, who was watching through some SRIN he had left behind, was shocked to find that this man was Legion, the head of Hydra. However, he was suddenly scared because the speed that Legion had just shown was not something he could comprehend. He instantly detonated the plasma bombs, which successfully destroyed the equipment and body, but a small area around Legion’s body was completely untouched by the explosion and debris. Through the SRIN, Marty continued to observe Legion.

Legion sighed as he looked around the destroyed room. “It’s a pity I was late. I’ve yet to find technology similar to this, and it would be useful in my organization.” He mumbled to himself.

Through Marty’s observation, Legion only appeared a little disappointed, though he couldn’t be sure as Legon wore a mask. The loss of this technology seemed to be of little importance. Legion looked around the room and smiled with haughtiness. “Interesting. I did not think that there was anyone else within this universe that could control the SRIN. It seems I miscalculated. Are you watching now, I wonder? Well, in case you are, I guess I should introduce myself. I am Legion, the head of Hydra, an organization that spans universes and realities. Why did I create such an organization? Because I wanted to gain power, I made myself a little game. I created an organization to take control of everything in existence. Impractical, but even immortality is within my grasp, so I will have plenty of time to do so.

“Now, since it is a game, it must have rules. One of those important rules is that I will not directly affect anything that occurs within these universes of which I go to and spread the roots of Hydra. After all, a game that I’m guaranteed to win with my brute strength is boring. Once I find something useful to my organization within the universe, I will create a branch to obtain it for the organization as a whole. In this instance, you are fortunate. Besides the technology of which I could already re-create, the only other thing of interest to me was the SRIN. The only subordinates I have in this universe were both the SRIN and this crazy fool of who you’ve dispatched so nicely. In other words, I’ve lost.” Legion said with a laugh. “It’s so strange. There are only a few universes of which I’ve ever lost, but I’ve recently lost in two different universes shortly after taking root. Well, it’s of little significance as universes with this level strength don’t particularly interest me, but I digress. Congratulations, I will withdraw from this universe and never return. However, I feel bad for the two new universes. After all, when one head gets cut, another two will grow.” Legion said before his figure quickly faded out and disappeared as if it had never been there, to begin with.

After Legion disappeared, Marty finally let out a long breath. He hated the feeling of being a chess piece, a puppet on the string of others whims. However, it’s what happened not only here, but in Miyuki’s world. If not for Legion’s vanity, he could very easily be dead now. Moreover, after Legion’s speech, he became extremely wary. Legion carried about an air of haughtiness and arrogance but also a calculating calm, which worried him. Such a person was the most dangerous as they would always stay in the shadow and checkmate you before you were even aware you were playing a game. Most likely, they would also break the rules when they appeared to be about to lose. However, no matter how sane Legion appeared to be, Marty could only diagnose him with an extreme case of a god-complex.

...

With a tired sigh, Marty appeared in his underground base. He had waited many hours on the alien planet until he parallel jumped back to Earth. He pondered his own mortality, collected the enemy SRIN, healed most of his wounds, and ensured that Legion had left. After he changed into more casual clothing, Marty went back up into the mansion.

“Welcome back.”

“Back already?”

Freyja and Miyuki said along with the other girls who were all cleaning up from the breakfast they had just finished eating.

“What’s wrong?” Freyja asked as she approached him.

Marty came up and gently embraced her. “I almost died.” He said softly. Though he spoke quietly, he garnered the attention of all the girls.

“I’m not sure what happened, but you came back.”

“Freyja, I’m afraid.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m afraid of dying, not for my death, but leaving you and the others behind. I’m afraid of not being strong enough to protect all of you. But to become strong, I constantly need to risk my own life. But most of all, I’m afraid of myself. Since my soul fused with Shiba, there has been uncontrollable darkness and despair within me. It surfaced when I thought Kuromi was going to die, but I feel like I may lose control if one of you died. Freyja, what should I do?”

Freyja didn’t say anything as she couldn’t seem to find the right words.

The next thing Marty knew, a weak bolt of ice was shot at him. Marty flicked the ice bolt with Ki and dissipated while everyone looked towards Miyuki, who had an angry look on her face. “Then it’s straightforward, isn’t it. Don’t die and get stronger. Also, we’re not so weak that we need you to protect us.”

Marty looked at Miyuki as his eyesight suddenly became bright. Even though what she said was kind of silly, it helped break him out of his negative thinking. He walked over to Miyuki and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Thanks.” He said with a smile. Surprisingly, Miyuki’s face took on a shade of red, and her face showed her embarrassment.

“Miyuki’s weak on the defense,” Freyja said with a laugh, which promptly caused Miyuki to glare at her.

Noticing the subtle flash of envy in the other girls' eyes, Marty went around and hugged the other girls before he retreated to take a nap. Freyja joined him as he told her what had transpired before he fell asleep on a lap pillow.

End of Day 1