Chapter 66: Rescue Operation Part Two (5)

"ANNIHILATE ALL THE DEMI-HUMANS ON THIS SHIP WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!"

"...What nonsense are you talking about?" Morne questioned my incomprehensible behavior. But regardless of his attitude…

Your wish is my command.

My commanding authority was invoked.

Kriekkkkkk---! Kriekkkkkk---!

A strange but threatening siren resonated in all directions. It sounded like a wild giant beast roaring.

Morne's face distorted grimly when he heard the sound. "What? Athen! What are you doing? Why are you in emergency mode?"

At Morne's words, I realized that the broadcasted roar that sounded like the cries of a beast was actually some sort of alarm bell or siren. Perhaps Morne shuddered because it was a pretty high-ranking control persona. It was as if he had heard the word 'Entering self-destruct mode!'.

"You bastard! What the hell did you do!"

It was as if Morne teleported in an instant. When I came to my senses, I was already floating in the air, caught by Morne's strong grip.

"Who knows? Stupid bastards. In the first place, it's your mistake to lock me together with the Legion girl."

"...What did you say?" Morne looked confused at the crappy ad-lib I uttered. It was easy to figure out his facial expressions because he was in the form of a human, and not in his dinosaur form.

"What are you talking about? The Legion caused this current situation?"

"Isn't that obvious? How could I possibly drive the control persona who leads the fleet crazy in the first place?" I said confidently. I openly used my commanding authority right in front of Morne, but I had placed my bets on the fact that he wouldn't believe my ability as it was something that was beyond common sense.

Above all, wasn't there a Legion on this ship?

"That's..."

I stopped at that, because my words made sense and were enough to convince him. There was no way a human being who didn't even have the slightest authority in the demi-humans space carrier could rule over the control persona.

The Union that dominated the universe was afraid of Legion and ostracized them because the Legion's ability to interfere with all and any systems was too dangerous. If it was a common ability that anyone could possess, then Legion wouldn't have been the greatest enemies of the Union.

Kabooom--!! Boom boom!

Explosions started to blast off from the outside. It was difficult to know what had happened because I didn't have the senses to detect that. But Morne, the transcendent, seemed to have grasped the whole situation because the situation that he was in was very different from me.

"You crazy! The armory! No, putting that aside... Wait! Athen! Stop!"

Whooooosh----!

Morne turned ghastly pale and let out a deafening roar. Shortly after, a tremendous suction power began to suck everything up like a vacuum from the far side of the hall.

"Damn it!"

Morne gritted his teeth and seized my neck with one hand. Then, he raised his other hand and the totems around him began to move around, creating a translucent shield around us.

Kriekkkkk--!

Kabooom!

I saw everything outside the translucent shield flying away while being lifted up by Morne. The debris of the collapsed corridor was flying out of the hall and into the sky like it was some dandelion seeds.

"I see. He opened the exit and deactivated the air barrier too!"

I ordered the control persona of Great Sky to exterminate all the demi-humans, but I didn't give clear instructions on the execution. Instead, I gave Athen the vague idea of creating an explosion or utilizing the automatic weapon inside the ship. But upon greater reflection, Athen could simply harm the crew members by throwing them into space.

"You insect piece of shit! Do you know what you just did!" By now, Morne had mustered all his strength in his hands to the point where I suffocated. My head felt numb from the lack of blood circulation.

"Keucckkkk..." I groaned. I wanted to provoke him by saying, 'If you wanted me to worry about your lives, why didn't you treat me kindly?' But I couldn't because I was gasping for breath. However, on second thought, if I made such a provocation, it was highly likely that he would not give a damn about my life. Since resistance was impossible anyway, I might as well bear it for as long as I can.

'Cause my life is precious... Wait, life?' Suddenly, I realized that Dong-min and Bo-ram were still lying on the floor. They both looked fine. 'Why is he keeping them alive? No, he is even protecting them?'

Of course I was relieved that they were alive. Although things turned out hopeless anyways, I definitely wanted them to be safe. But something felt strange seeing that he was protecting them at this point, and not just ignoring them.

Of course, I didn't know about Dong-min who was unconscious, but Bo-ram was strong, and she could survive the storm as soon as her restraints were unleashed, so she did not really need protection. Was he keeping her at bay perhaps because he was worried that she would run away if she survived? If so, wouldn't it be better to just kill her? He was afraid of any future troubles so he had to yield and leave me alive, but why did he do the same for Bo-ram and Dong-min?

"Damn it! I'll have to manage the central system first."

As Morne gritted his teeth and shook his hand lightly, he remembered that Bo-ram and Dong-win were still lying on the floor, so he tied a totem on their backs. Their hands were cuffed together by an invisible rope and they were unable to move. Seeing that their lips were moving up and down without any sound, it seemed that Morne also blocked off any voice they made.

'Why though?'

And seeing that scene, I felt increasingly suspicious. Why? For what reason? Why would Morne, a demi-human whose ideals disregarded life to an extreme point, bothered keeping them alive? Wasn't it widely recognized that the demi-humans had the tendency to not keep any prisoners of war?

Tekea Federation 

Morne No.3

I knew from the moment I first saw Morne's clone. However, I thought it was meaningless because I didn't have a chance of winning even against that clone. He actually overwhelmed us. But what if… what if the clone did not depend on the original Morne's total power or the level of his ability, and was weakened by some sort of conditions?

'Just like the case with Cheong Won, which was a Saint bound by a mission.'

I began to invoke Classification. Though it was in the middle of a pressing situation, it was possible even when he was still holding my neck. The problem now was that instead of just lifting me up like earlier, he was shaking me from side to side like a light backpack; this made it difficult for me to fix my attention on him.

"Where are you going? Aren't you going to let me go?!"

Unlike Bo-ram and Dong-min who were tied to the totem, and I who were dragged by the neck, Celestia was walking on her own legs. However, she was walking side by side next to Morne in a completely naked state, and she seemed to have been deprived of control of her own body.

'...What an amazing scene..'

Celestia didn't even have a single piece of cloth on, and my head moved up and down every time she took a step with her white and long legs. I might even see this scene before me in my dreams later.

'Such needless thoughts!' I shook my head in a hurry to get myself together. What kind of useless thoughts was I thinking about in such a dire situation? I reproached myself.

Celestia looked like she could bewitch anyone who was looking at her, but since she was of a different species, the demi-humans probably didn't feel any excitement from seeing her naked body. As such, Morne looked at Celestia and spoke in a cold voice, "Stop acting out, you just have to be patient for a little longer, human girl, and once you give birth to a child... I'll let you experience the most delightful time ever that you'll never forget it for the rest of your life."

My surroundings were spinning with every strode he took; it seemed as though he had forgotten that he was holding me with one of his hands. And right about then, I barely managed to get rid of all the distracting thoughts and succeeded in invoking Classification.

Tekea Federation 

For non-combat use, Morne No.3 

'It's just like I expected.'

I breathed a sigh of relief at the title that popped up. Because I found out that this bastard kept us alive not because of some reasons, but because he couldn't kill us. But what if he kept this on and dragged us to the intended destination?

He would definitely hand us over to the other demi-humans and that would be the end of the line for us. If I were lucky, I might somehow be able to keep myself alive, but in the case of Dong-min and Bo-ram, they would die for sure.

'I have to stop this.' 

I tried to move secretly. Unlike before when I was restrained by unknown forces, I could move at will now. He took away Celestia's freedom to move, but I could move just fine. I had no idea if he did this on purpose, or he made some kind of mistake, but I thought that I shouldn't miss this opportunity.

Thuck!

"...What the, what's this?"

Initially moving at a high speed, Morne stopped the moment the key was stuck into his leg. I thought he would get rid of me right away, but he was looking at me, his face full of confusion.

"What did you just do? No, that aside, how are you able to move?"

What just happened appeared to be a questionable situation rather than a critical situation. I didn't know if it was a good thing, but it was a relief.

"Thank you for letting your guard down."

"What? Kekeke, I think you're mistaken about something. This body here…"

Morne No.3 seemed to be trying to elaborate further. But it could be the end of me if he changed his mind and decided to get rid of me. I ignored whatever he was saying and turned the key.

Click!

Even though the key was stabbed deep into Morne No.3's skin, I could still hear a metallic sound. And then, just like that, I could feel the hand that was holding my neck disappear.

Shiiiiing!

I lost consciousness.

******

Bang!

"Captain-nim? Focus, please! Things are looking dangerous right now!" Morne's startled adjutant screamed as Morne jumped to his feet. Currently, Morne was engaged in a fleet battle while controlling Great Sky, and the battleship's control persona suddenly began to go wild.

Morne was the Captain of the Great Sky as well as its pilot, and he synchronized with the Great Sky's Iron Heart. Without him in control, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it was possible that the demi-humans would really be defeated by the humans.

"Crazy... This is crazy..." Ignoring the adjutant's screams, Morne trembled. Because the great sense of loss had placed tremendous stress on him.

"Captain-nim?!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" Along with Morne's loud cry, the space itself started to ring with a Wooooom-! and the nearby crew members collapsed while coughing up blood. Yet, Morne was in such a state of chaos that he couldn't afford to worry about the things happening around him.

"What the hell just...?"

A long time ago, Morne acquired great power and authority through much hardships that felt as though he died and was reborned a hundred times. But now, he could not sense the power he had obtained then. He was of royal blood before he ascended to the level of a transcendent. In exaggeration, that power was his favorite power which had also allowed him to attain the strength of a transcendent, but it was completely gone.

Krooooom---!

Morne's Aura was boiling up. He awakened his soul, blocked off all interference from the outside world, and then invoked the Ultimate Magic Adantha's Morning to recover his body and soul to their best condition. But, it was to no avail.

Krieeekkk! Bang!

Morne stopped controlling for a brief moment but Athen, the control person of Great Sky, began to go berserk again. That wasn't all. On one side of the screen, Albatross, the battleship of the Leonhardt Empire, could be seen attacking Great Sky.

In terms of battle strength alone, the Tekea Federation should have an overwhelming advantage, but the situation didn't turn out as per their predictions. The fighter jets and Gigas of the Tekea Federation couldn't approach Albatross as Hyun-il's Transcendence Skill, Fenrir's Howl, could blow away all enemies that came within a certain range.

"Captain-nim! It cannot go on like this any longer! We have to use the God Spear Alieta…!"

Normally, no one would have spoken to Morne when he was in such an unusual mood. However, the situation called for urgency so the crew members had to push him for help. But even so, Morne did not respond.

"How come, why can't I sense it?"

Morne continued to release soul energy. He focused on invoking the power that he had used for thousands of times. But even then, it still didn't work. He couldn't invoke it. His power, Three Souls, was perfectly sealed to an unbelievable extent.