Chapter 427: Dilemma

"..."

They just saw almost a million… infants and children trapped inside tubes-- and Van said that it would be the first thing they destroy? Even if they were their enemies, that was something they would never have imagined that they would be doing.

"...But all those children, King Evans," Pauline Serre was the first to approach her, "They have done nothing. If anything, I think we could save them and bring them to our side."

"And what could babies do?" McGregory stepped forward, "I agree with the angel, we could even take the children hostage if we need to."

"That plan would not be wise," Diana joined in, "Based on the memory we've seen, their attachment to the children is minimal; their relationship akin to that of a tool. Even if we take the establishment hostage, there is no guarantee that they would not destroy us along with the place."

"..."

"We don't know when the Ark will arrive…" Diana continued, "...And I think King Evans is right-- the only way we even have the chance to make them back off is to destroy the two ships. Based on the things we've seen right now, then these systellions see us as nothing but monkeys that could be eradicated with the flick of a button-- but if we show them what we are capable of, then we could at least… 

...buy more time."

"..." Van squinted his eyes as he looked at Diana. With the words she had uttered just now, the last image of her being Andrea was gone. But her looking like Andrea; judging from the track record of his parents, Van was sure this wasn't just a coincidence.

"I'll leave you guys to think of a plan for now," Van then let out a small sigh. If Athena was here, then they would at least have someone to rely on to gather their thoughts, "I'm… going to try and get inside one of the ships. Judging from this guy's memories, the thing truly is too big for them to check on every anomaly."

"You're going alone?" Diana asked.

"If there's anyone amongst you who is confident in going up in space and traveling faster than the speed of light…

...then you are welcome to come with me."

"Why don't we just kill this little brat and take her suit-slash-ship?" Mcgregory opened up as he walked in front of Rechiel, "We could--"

"You can't!" Rechiel quickly took a half step back as she saw the cold look on Mcgregory's eyes, "S… Sprites can only be used by their owners!"

"...So these things are called Sprites?" Mcgregory breathed out as he once again looked at their hostage from head to toe. But after a few more seconds, he turned his attention to Apollo, "And what do we do with this guy?"

"...Keep him locked up until my people arrive."

"W… what!?" Apollo could only widen his eyes as he looked at Van, "I think I would have a better use coming with you, King Evans."

"Yeah, no." And as soon as Van said that, Pauline once again encased Apollo in a cage of pentagrams, "You made it clear that you still value the World Eaters– Athena is the only one that knows what to do with you."

"But–"

"If he causes trouble, the three of you are to kill him even if you have to destroy this place."

"Leave that to me, King Evans," Pauline stepped forward as she saluted, "The cage confining Apollo right now is triggered at the maximum energy it could go– even if it doesn't kill him, it would be enough to incapacitate him long enough for either Diana or the idiot to finish him off."

"Good," Van nodded as he slowly approached Diniel's soul. And without delaying it any longer, he placed a finger on its forehead. The other people inside the dome could not help but squint their eyes as a bright light instantly drowned their eyes.

"..." Van, on the other hand, could only let out a small but deep breath; Diniel's soul was not even enough to brush even sand of change inside Van's body.

"King Evans, I still think I would be more useful if you let me come with you inside one of the Vessels!" Apollo repeated, "Athena is on your side, I'm not foolish enough to doubt her now!"

"...You call those sphere ships Vessels? And no, Athena will be the one to decide your fate. Pauline, I leave you to handle anything that happens here," Van said as the wings on his back stretched out; he glanced at Diana for a moment, before finally disappearing where he stood.

"..."

"..."

Silence completely took over the entire dome as soon as he was gone. Some of them couldn't believe what they just witnessed even though it already happened right in front of their eyes. Were they… 

…actually in the presence of an actual god?

***

"..."

"..."

After several minutes, Van once again finds himself in front of one of the sun-sized ships– or Vessels as Apollo called them. He had initially thought they were some sort of scout ship or a battleship to defend the Portal, but if there were civilians inside, then that wasn't the case.

Then if so… why would they even send them first? The thought process of these systellions is looking more and more different than any of the other races that Van has encountered.

"..." He had also thought that the ships would be more alert now that he had killed some of their people; not to mention dragged Apollo away– but it would seem that whoever was in charge of these two ships did not even care about all of that… or maybe was not even aware of it.

And so, after thinking about it for another minute, Van once again summoned Aegis; the space around him instantly distorting as a loud whirring noise echoed through the vast darkness. And soon, a blinding light emerged as the shield started to light up. And just like what he did earlier, he threw the shield at the same speed, rotating his body in the process.

This time, however, as soon as he let go of the shield, he also flew behind it, leaving only a kilometer in gap. And so, as soon as Aegis shattered a part of the Vessel's outer shield, Van quickly flew inside.

And as soon as he did so, he was bombarded with almost an endless flickering of lights.

"..." He then looked behind him, only to see the fracture slowly being rebuilt– no. Perhaps being healed was the right term for it as the process looked very much organic. They've been getting information after information about the Systellions, but they weren't close to unlocking their mysteries.

He needed to get someone important– that was the very reason why Van finally decided to enter the ship in the first place. They were getting nothing from the kids. What he needed right now was to find Rechiel's father, Cleric Adimus.

How was he going to find him? With what he does best– speed and chaos.

"Let's do this," Van then said as he focused on the almost millions of lights that surrounded him. He had already seen it in Diniel's memories, but the inside of the ship truly did look like outer space as well– but one could actually breathe in it.

To supply this kind of vehicle with oxygen… even though Van was not even close to being like the scientists back in Vivati's galaxy, he knew how impossible it would have been.

"..." Van waited for a few more minutes to see if someone noticed him coming inside– but as always, there weren't any activities. They probably just thought he was some kind of rogue comet or something.

"That one first," Van then whispered as he flew towards the brightest light within his sight; and what awaited him was something that he could only describe… as a planet– maybe even as large as Vivati's.

So each of these lights… are planets of their own? Just how crazy are the systellions? And just what kind of firepower do they truly need to fight them off when a full-on war happens?

Did they even have a chance to win against them? What if in the end… he was the only one that survives?

Van then shook his head of all the negative thoughts that were starting to surround it; deciding to just face the situation head-on and landing somewhere that looked remote– a vast forest.

"..." Van quickly touched the ground to check if it was real… and it is.

He moved and he moved, careful not to get on anyone's radar if he wasn't already. And finally, he reached a part that seemed like a small city– and unlike what Van was envisioning, their infrastructures were similar to Pauline Serre's world rather than Vivati's.

There were flying cars, yes– but it would seem they were only using it to travel to the different… sectors of the Vessel.

"..." Van then carefully hid himself within an alleyway, scanning for anyone that seemed to be searching for him, but nothing. The only people he could see were just casually walking around, talking to each other; laughing, some arguing.

And besides a few who were filled with some sort of glowing tattoos on their body, everyone… seemed normal.

Almost as if they weren't about to destroy the lives of trillions of people.

Van could only grit his teeth as he saw the systellions laughing and just going on about their daily lives. Should he really just…

…kill everyone here?