A/N: Chapter 17 has been revised. It should be better than the last.
*****
Sirius’ physical body was enhanced several dozen times by the green trait. However, it was limited by his current ‘capabilities’. The green trait did not magically spit out prowess. It merely skipped out the time and effort done to achieve a certain result. Everything was based on his ‘current’ state , in that whatever results he would achieve after training for years, he would receive on the moment he triggered his green trait, [Heaven Sometimes Rewards Hard Work].
Whenever it triggered while he was a normal human, all he received were years of training as a human. No matter how much he trained, the physical body has a specific limit. As a human, he would never be able to become ‘superman’ even if he trained for dozens, or even a hundred years. That was why whenever the green trait activated for physical enhancement, it all went to waste after some time. He no longer improved.
Only after taking in the super soldier serum did he achieve explosive results through the green trait. His physical body had long surpassed that of humans, capable of carrying several tons of force at a time. The green trait gave him the effect of physical training spanning years, ultimately allowing him to reach his current limits and control his strength perfectly. It wasn’t an exaggeration to call him a humanoid war machine, capable of facing a three-meter-tall mecha on his own.
Yet, it was this war machine that found himself in a daze.
Sirius could no longer remember how he went back to his room. His heart could not stop beating rapidly. He blankly touched his swollen lower lip.
Wooosh-!
The glass-metal door of the space station opened automatically, revealing his cozy personal room. It was a special place located at the farthest end of the space station, only accessible by two people—him and Herta.
As soon as he stepped inside, the translucent glass turned frosted, becoming opaque. The entire flooring was covered with wool-like white carpet. A designated section for removing the footwear was built on its entrance, along with the shelves for them. The entire room wasn’t big, though it was fitted with a huge bed along with a mini-bookshelf. Nearby, a workdesk was stationed, holding a sleek, curved computer screen. It was paired with a white mechanical keyboard and a lightweight wireless mouse—an unfitting sight to this otherwise masterpiece of a space station.
Sirius took off his pair of blue sneakers and placed them on the shelf. As soon as he stepped inside, he felt the carpet’s fluffiness through the soles of his feet. His tense body relaxed. His eyes drifted towards the comfortable king-sized bed. He loosened his long dark blue tie before falling onto it.
“Ha…”
Sirius could care less about his white long-sleeves being wrinkled. He rolled on the bed, his eyes facing the top of the room’s white ceiling.
“I really did it.”
He doesn’t know how to process his complicated feelings. It was, in some ways, ironically similar as to how he never truly understood himself. Joy sprouts spontaneously, and so does sadness.
At this moment, Sirius does not deny experiencing the former. Inwardly, he was afraid of disappointment. It wasn’t similar to the ‘disappointment’ back when he was mindlessly chasing Herta’s back, but the disappointment of the other party lacking the slightest bit of empathy—that she never viewed him as a human being to begin with.
Logically, he knew Herta does not owe him anything. If not, she was the one who carried him to his current status. Within this world where countless dangers lay, it was questionable how he would have lived as comfortably as now. Perhaps he would be out there battling the century-long cold, or the Antimatter Legion that appears on the drop of a hat. Hell, there were even the remnants of The Swarm that continued to terrorize the cosmos. Worlds fell under their relentless attacks, penning countless tragedies he could not even begin to see.
Finally, there was the Lord Ravagers of the Antimatter Legion. One such being wiped off an entire galaxy on the face of the universe. Perhaps he, Sirius, might as well become a part of that unassuming life who did not know how they died.
So much logic was pasted inside his head. Yet, he could not suppress the fear of that disappointment…
The fear of not being treated as a friend.
‘How selfish of me.’
A sense of disgust welled up to his heart, though it soon calmed down. Sirius was not as narrow-minded as before. He understood the irrationality of being a human being. All he could do was accept it as the truth and change for the better.
‘Being self-aware has its perks… and downsides.’ He thought of Herta and wondered, ‘How was she able to do it?’
The mere thought of discovering more of her human side wiped off the rest of his thoughts. It was not just satisfying. There was something else contributing to this expectation of his. Though he hasn’t noticed it himself.
In a manner akin to Amphoreus’ cycles, Sirius’ thoughts went back to square one—to the slightly swollen lips of his. The passing of time allowed it to heal significantly.
‘Practicing how to kiss…’
Before long, Sirius found himself browsing on the web, preparing for the next assessment he would face.
*****
A month passed by swiftly. Nothing much changed from Sirius’ daily activities. The most important decision-making capacity of the Herta Space Station was passed down onto him. He was the one who ticked off the checkboxes—the highest operating officer beneath Herta.
Whenever he was doing something, he would chat with the First Mirror every now and then. What he found strange was the not-so-subtle hints coming from it. Unsurprisingly, they had all been extremely helpful for Sirius’ course of action for that day.
“Madam Herta is a bit annoyed today.”
“That’s rare…”
Sirius faced away from dozens of virtual screens containing diplomatic agreements. He turned around to the First Mirror’s side.
“Please bring up her ongoing studies for today.”
His fingertip touched the sleek surface of the mirror. He dragged out a ray of light, which soon turned into a virtual panel. The light split into several parts, listing down the active experiments within the Herta Space Station.
“Minute improvements of the Synthesia Beacon… No. The creation of synthetic carbon steel fiber… no. Shelf life tests for artificial skin…”
The Herta Space Station was a massive ‘ship’. Its length was measured to be 7.19 kilometers long. Among its hundreds of chambers, there were controlled experimental sites. It wasn’t surprising to see Herta conduct dozens of experiments all at once, each receiving her full focus.
Before long, Sirius found the one responsible for her bad mood. His eyes stopped on a forty-page ongoing research paper entitled ‘On the Nature of the Imaginary Tree’. He then checked on the active experiment she was doing now.
‘The nature of souls…’
He fell silent, instantly guessing a reason why Herta delved deep into it. The nature of souls was the very thing a “Fool” on Earth sought of. He found out that upon death, the “souls” of humans head straight to the Imaginary Tree. They are broken down into the most basic energy unit of the universe, ceasing to exist. It is why ‘resurrection’ does not exist in this world; dying meant complete obliteration.
‘Was she looking for her parents?’
At the thought of it, Sirius felt helpless. At least in their current position, they could do nothing about it.
Just as he thought of it, the entire space station shook.
Rumble-!
Soon after, a series of alarms resounded all over the place. There were no red lights as Herta thought they were “too cliche”. Sirius grasped onto the control panel made of white iron, easily regaining balance.
“Phase one, two, and three of the Space Station’s security system has been activated. The breached sections had been isolated…”
The First Mirror spoke of the emergency reports. While listening to it, he opened the camera feeds as well as the written report logs.
“Path Energy… Destruction?”
For a moment, he felt at a loss.
The Doomsday Beast and the Antimatter Legion invaded the Space Station mainly because of the Stellaron Hunters. They lured them inside the Space Station, turning them into distractions while they went off to do their real agenda.
The point is, they shouldn’t have attacked the Herta Space Station more than ten Amber Eras in advance!
‘It’s my existence. I changed everything.’
Sirius shook off his desire to know the truth. The important thing now was that the Antimatter Legion had come knocking on their door, infesting their sanctuary with their presence. There was even a large Doomsday Beast attempting to enter the docking bay, which caused the station’s shaking.
“The main bridge is safe for now. Send them off to other places.” He said as his eyes went back to the clusters of alert notices. “I can hold this place off. If all else fails, there is Herta.”
“Understood.”
A few seconds later, loud metallic noises came from the corner of the bridge. On the edges of every room, a compacted metal box emerged. Lines split apart across its body before it turned into various combat robots. They all varied in shape, with some humanoid and some bearing tracks as feet. This was Sirius’ main proposal considering any act of ‘foreign invasion’ throughout the Herta Space Station.
Its plight at the first chapter of the game was deeply remembered by him. Herta wasn’t present during that time. Though it was more apt to say that the station’s security systems had their shortcomings. As far as he could remember, Asta, the future helmsmaster, and Arlan, the security department head, were the ones responsible for it. Herta wasn’t the one mainly responsible for its plight, though she was still responsible for a part of it.
Hundreds of metallic bodies soon headed off towards the affected areas of the space station.
‘A traveling mechanism similar to teleportation…’
The game did not fully expound how the Antimatter Legion penetrated deeply into the Space Station. But with the surveillance systems here, Sirius pinpointed what their methods were.
It was a simple space jump, just that they penetrated space with the Path Energy of ‘Destruction’. The ‘distance’ between two points were thus destroyed, allowing them to traverse in an instant.
As for why the Doomsday Beast wasn’t able to do the same, there was naturally someone who prevented its descent.
“I don’t want to pick up a dead body by the end of this.”
The familiar high-sounding, borderline sarcastic, voice came from the First Mirror’s surface.
“I’ll try my best to live at the backlines, I suppose.” He responded. “Was their invasion a part of your plan?”
“Your words made me think of something.” A visible pause came from her end. “There is no harm testing this little station’s security.”
Sirius felt a bit speechless by her reasoning, though he understood it.
It was stated in the game that the Herta Space Station was merely used to ‘stuff’ her unwanted Curios. The Stellaron she sealed in the future suffered the same fate as them. This gigantic space station, which was a piece of art, was nothing but a glorified warehouse.
Only because they were starting out did she use it as her home. In the future, Herta did not reside here full-time. Had she been here, the Antimatter Legion would have not dared touch it at all!
Hence a question presented itself now—
“What did you do to earn their ire?”
“Nothing much. I just gazed at their Aeon briefly.”
“...”
His speechlessness was cranked to the absolute maximum.
‘Only she could treat this lightly.’
Amphoreus, one of the worlds in the cosmos, took 33,550,336 cycles for one to be able to gaze and graze Nanook's cheek. To be able to look at the Destruction Aeon, it took them millions of cycles, each thousands of years long.
Yet Herta was able to do the same through her research. Such was the ‘unreasonable’ aspect of this cosmos. Power does not follow the typical RPG-esque progression that starts from level one. Once gained, it allows someone to soar through the skies!
After a while, the effectiveness of the security system designed by Sirius showed its power. There are a total of five levels to it. The first three levels were able to deal with the lots of those minions and ‘elite’ bosses.
“The power reactor has entered a state of overdrive. Phase four and five has been activated.”
Rumble-!
The pressurized main bridge experienced large tremors, as if something ‘huge’ was being taken out of the space station’s body. It was the ‘main weapon’ installed within the space station.
A sense of anticipation came from Sirius’ heart. Although Herta was the one who completed the designs, its prototype did come from him. It was one of the products of his green trait.
‘An antimatter cannon against an antimatter legion… What a good match-up this is.’