Chapter 28: Ascension (2)

Floating above Dax, the nun Abby was crying blood, with mana particles floating around her as she was possessed by the archangel Solaris. With no weapons on him at the moment, and facing an unknown opponent Dax decided to buy some time.

"How do you do Solaris, if I can call you that? My name is Dax, I'm a Qiton form the Alpha 4 clan"

(UNIT 1 IN POSITION.)

"I CARE NOT FOR YOU NAME, FRAGILE ONE."

Responding to Dax's attempt to make friends, Solaris channelled mana trough Abby and used it to rip multiple rocks out of the ground around her.

"NOW PERISH"

Throwing the rocks towards Dax at a staggering speed, Solaris clearly aimed to reap his life

"Give me combat control!"

(ROGER. LIMITERS RELEASED, 'EYE OF ARGOS' ONLINE.)

While Dax ran and dodged rock shards flying towards at him with paper thin margins as his left eye lit up as his reactivity improved greatly.

"Can't we just talk about it!?"

"ANNOYING! JUST DIE ALREADY."

Unsatisfied with her ability in killing the pest running around dogging her attack spells, Solaris switched up tactics and momentarily stopped her assault.

(UNIT 2 AND 3 IN POSITION.)

(Finally! link me, pattern black)

(PREPARING FOR FULL MIND DOMINATION. WARNING: COMPLETE MIND MELT IN EFFECT. EXPECTED CORRUPTION AT 100% PATTERN BLACK NOW IN EFFECT.)

"OKAY! Last chance, disengage or I will consider an enemy of the Galactic Empire!"

"HOW PREPOSTEROUS THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A GALACTIC EMPIRE"

"[Then engage and be destroyed! CODE BLACK NOW IN EFFECT - 3 REX DELTA 04 ADDED TO ARCHITECTURE, ALL RAM AND PROCESSING POWER INTEGRATED. TOTAL CONTROL HANDOVER COMPLETE. ICI ENTERING SLEEP MODE]"

As Dax removed his eye patch it was his turn to threaten as his voice turned artificial, pointing his left index finger at her face while his speech was overlapping with ICI's cold and mechanical voice.

"IS THAT A THREAT?"

"[It's a promise. As my executioner you have failed by letting me live this long, I have no further need for evasive manoeuvres. PHALANX NOW IN EFFECT, GUARDIANS ACTIVE]"

Forming a meter long and sharp ice crystal in front of her extended hand, a small smile formed on Abby's face, presumably a result of the creature possessing her.

"GOODBYE."

Setting the ice crystal flying towards at a speed faster than any magic attack Dax had seen before towards her target, the nuns smile bloomed fully. It never reached its target, however, as the crystal shattered a few meters from Dax, with the sound of some kind of far off explosion following a second after.

"[Does that usually happen for you?]"

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"[Me? Nothing at all, That wasn't me, it was me]"

"ANNOYING! I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!"

This time several ice shards appeared all around in the air all around her, all pointing at Dax. But not a single one of the spells even got formed completely however, as they all shattered before completion.

"[Is that all you can do?]"

"WHAT IS HAPPENING!?"

"[Long range combat is severely lacking in this world.. But I guess that's most likely because of the presence magic has….]"

For about 2 minutes Solaris continued trying to kill Dax with Ice crystals or later the use of rock shards, which all proved entirely ineffective and never reached within a meter of Dax as they all disintegrated.

"[This is really a nice plaza, you can see most of the outer wall from here~]"

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING"

"[You really can't see them?]"

"WHAT ARE YOU-"

Stopping mid sentence, Solaris looked around at the outer wall that was visible to her and spotted 3 human like figures either having crawled halfway up the wall or standing on top of it.

"WHAT ARE THEY?"

"[They are me, a commander of the Galactic Empire. Kill me and they'll return to their base directives]"

"BASE DIRECTIVES?"

"[Re join the fleet. But with me removed they will do so without my temper, without my…. Kindness. You angels have already proven unwilling to respond to diplomacy and have the ability to appear anywhere so you'll all be eliminated first."

"THAT'S-"

"[Impossible? You didn't even see my drones before I told you about them so don't kid yourself. They'll most likely secure an orange cylinder in the possession of the capital, the cylinder contains exotic fuel that should be enough for a 100 megaton fusion bomb, that would be sufficient to turn your little mountain into sterile glass]"

"THEY'LL NEVER REACH THA-"

"[No probably not no, that would make the next strategy Exterminatus I'm afraid]"

"EXTERMINATUS?"

"[Elimination of every threat to the mission without any humane consideration. That would come in the form of igniting the atmosphere, killing all life crawling on this dirtball planet.]"

"!!! YOU WOULDN'T DARE!!!"

"[No I wouldn't, I still kinda need to breathe so I would just sterilize your little fortress with nuclear fire, but by fighting and possibly killing me could lead to that.]"

"YOUUUU!!!"

Enraged by Dax's treats, Solaris stretched out her hand and summoned a 4 meter long sword made of some kind of glowing crystal.

(So immature.)

Taking a stance readying for Solaris' charge, Dax dogged right before he was impaled and quickly grabbed Abby by her hair/veil as a sword extended from his mechanical arm, stopping right in front of her eye.

"[Checkmate]"

"YOU THINK THAT WOULD STOP ME!"

Still trying to kill Dax, Solaris moved her sword and attempted to stab Dax in the chest, but her sword got obliterated by well placed rifle shoots from the 3 drones on the other wall.

"THEN!"

In her next desperate attempt, Solaris let go of her sword and turned Abby's hand towards Dax's chest and quickly formed an ice crystal that shot forward and attempted to pierce Dax's heart. The ice crystal never pierced Dax's chest however, shattering on impact instead of reaping his life. In response, Dax retracted his sword and made his mechanical hand split open, as 3 metal rods extended from it

"[could you still chant if I boil this nuns brain?]"

"SO YOU WANTED ME IN CLOSE RANGE TO BEGIN WITH... COME TO THE MOUNTAIN AND WE'LL TALK PEACE IN PERSON, UNTIL THEN YOU'LL NOT BE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC"

Realizing her defeat, Abby closed her eyes as the presence of Solaris slowly disappeared from the plaza.

"[Oh and make sure the capital don't touch the orange cylinders if they have any, we don't want them vaporizing themselves~]"

"FINE, YOU REALLY DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY ASK A LADY DO YOU?"

As the pressure of Solaris completely disappeared Abby dropped unconsciously into Dax's arms.

"She was quite interesting…"

Gently wiping the tears of blood off Abby's face as he checked her condition, Dax realised that he had found a new source of entertainment with a smile on his face, and almost certainly sending a chill up Solaris' spine, wherever she was.

Finding no issue with Abby's condition, Dax left the unconscious nun at the entrance to the temple and moved away from the plaza surrounding the temple, as curious onlookers arrived. Finding himself in an alleyway some distance away, Dax breathed a sigh and disengaged mind melt.

(MIND MELT TERMINATED, STARTING POST DOMINATION CLEANUP AND EVALUATION)

(Move units 1-3 back to the mansion)

(ORDERS CONFIRMED, UNITS 1, 2 AND 3 DISENGAGING FROM COMBAT AREA.)

"Good. It's a bit early but let's head over to the Red Boar"

Arriving at the Red Boar late afternoon it was mostly empty, except for the barmaid Rose and the hostess Lillian working to prepare for the evenings' customers.

"Ah Dax!"

Spotting Dax first was the red haired barmaid that quickly ran over to him and bowed

"Welcome to the Red Boar"

"Thanks~ Could you get me a beer?"

Dax handed Rose a large silver coin before wavering to Lillian and sitting down at an empty corner table.

"H-here you are, and here's the change"

Rose quickly got a large pint of ale for Dax and carefully set it down on his table, along with a whole slew of different smaller coins made of silver and bronze.

"Thanks, Rose~ That's a lot of change"

"O-of course it is! No one orders a beer with a large silver coin!"

"I sincerely apologize my dear princess Rose, but this lowly knight only managed to secure these coins trough great mortal peril!"

At some point, while Rose had complained about Dax's method of payment he finished his ale, and gotten down on his knee, before grasping her hand and issuing a 'knight like' apology.

"W-w-what are you talking about!?"

After making Rose bloom fully, Dax tossed a gold coin to Lillian.

"I have some friends coming a bit later, I hope that'll plenty to cover all future expenses"

"A-are you insane?"

"Only in the best way possible~ Now could I please have a portion of your lovely shepherd's pie?"

About 14 beers and 4 shepherd's pies later, Dax's first associate arrived in the form of Alice. She wore a green one piece dress instead of her usual leather uniform and nervously peeked in the door of the busy bar before finally spotting Dax sitting inside.

"Ah, there she is~! Come come, Alice~ Oh and Rose get me another beer~"

"Are you sure, you've had like 15?"

"No actually nevermind."

"H-he finally-"

"Give me 2 beers and one for Alice~"

"..."

Giving Dax a tired stare, Rose went over to the bar counter.

"Alice~ Come over here and have a drink~"

Briefly trying to wave Alice over, Dax appeared sad as he disappeared from Alice's sight.

"Where did he?-"

Not even getting to finish her sentence, something picked her up from the floor.

"Kyaaa! How did you?"

"Qiton martial arts~ now now, have some beer~ I'm paying"

"O-okay, but just one, I need to write up reports tomorrow"

---

"Is it over here Redmond?"

"Not sure.."

As the sun had set Blue Phoenix was looking for the inn/bar Dax had mentioned as their meeting point.

"Nnn, it's over there"

As Laura pointed you, she had found the Red Boar, with the help of her night vision unique to her specific race of beastkin.

"Good job Laura, I could really use a beer!"

Eduard quickly ran ahead and opened the door to the inn, before freezing in place.

"Hey, Eduard what… What is that?"

"Nn… I… Have… several… questions."

Inside of the inn was completely packed with customers, except in the very centre at the bar, where a large open area had been cleared, and in the middle of all that-

"♪♪ If I offer you my souuuul

Will you carry me aaaaway?

I cannot be the only oooone

To be dehumanized agaaain- ♪♪"

Dax was singing some unknown song with his all while stomping his feet and hitting his chest with his arm, creating an aggressive rhythm, and leading to the whole bar being in silent awe. Finishing up his song as Blue Phoenix walked in, Dax received the whole bar's thundering applause as he grabbed and emptied a beer.

"Ah, my friends~ Come come! Have a beer, it's all on me tonight~"

"Oooohhh really~ In that case, I won't hold back!"

watching Eduard make his way to the bar, Redmond followed by Laura walked up to Dax that somehow had gotten his hand on another beer in the meanwhile and was in the progress of downing it.

"Dax are you… Okay?"

"... Wasted?.."

"Extremely so~ Well not as much as Alice~"

Pointing to something behind him, Redmond turned around to find a completely smashed Alice having fallen asleep on a table.

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah~ Alice made the foolish decision of challenging me to a drinking competition~ ICI what's the score~?"

[134-14. COMMANDER DAX IN THE LEAD.]

"I-is that so? But should you really be drinking, are you not healing the Ranger captains daughter?"

"I still am~ In fact I'll make take that first step at sunrise"

".. Bad.. Idea?"

"Not at all~ ICI time to detox~?"

[COMMANDER DAX WILL BE FORCEFULLY DETOXED IN 4 HOURS.]

"See? Now drink and have fun~"

"Okay then, I'll take you up on that suggestion!"

With a large, bear like smile, Redmond went over to the bar, leaving just Dax and Laura.

"...Is… It.. Safe… For.. Me?"

"I'll check~"

Briefly looking around, Dax walked over to a nearby empty table and jumped on top of it.

"Excuse me for a second!"

Waiting for the bar to quiet down, most the eyes in Red Boar gathered on Dax.

"Anyone in here has a problem with beastkins speak now!"

""""""...""""""

"Anyone think beastkins are the most precious thing in this cruel world and must be protected at all cost~!?"

"""""OOOOOOHHHHH!!!!""""""

Being met with tremendous approval from the other patrons, Dax showed his child like smile to Laura, that responded by taking off her hat and getting a drink.

"Now I just have a few more things to say before we continue this wonderful evening~ In my culture, we remember our fallen that can for some reason or another not be buried normally in a special way. I recently lost 480 brave souls that worked under me. Most of them I raised myself, from children all the way to adulthood, all of them I considered family. Please help me in serving their memory by honouring them with a send off that can rival parties of the old gods. Every single form of alcohol coming from this lovely bar will be covered by me! Drink, party and help me celebrate all those idiots following me to their way too early and unfitting demise!!"

Shedding tears as he raised his glass, Dax was meet with thunderous applause.