Chapter 892: In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...
"My name is Velnorah Xyphora Thaloria II, The Second Empress Thaloria. My planet, Eldoria, was dominated by my dynasty."
A futuristic planet that harmoniously combined a high-level society with sustainable technology in which nature was not destroyed was displayed on the hologram.
The image changed and showed a woman who looked like Velnorah.
"My mother, Thaloria, is part of a Race called the Xyrra."
Giant men and women over 3 meters tall were seen in the hologram.
"Our Race has a natural affinity for technology, and we are highly talented at it."
Victor and Amaterasu saw a man creating a futuristic weapon with just a wave of his hand.
"Among these exceptional individuals of my Race, my mother, Thaloria Xyphora, who in later years came to be known as The First Empress of the Planet Eldoria, was exceptionally talented."
"She was a Goddess in a technological world, and she could do literally anything with the technology at hand... But my mother had a flaw."
"Originally, our Xyrra Race had been gifted with superior bodies and a natural affinity for technology, but my mother was naturally born with a weaker body than other members of our Species."
"It was as if the Universe was balancing her talent. In exchange for her being incomparable with technomancy, her body would be extremely weak, even by Xyrra standards."
The image changed and showed a woman similar to Velnorah. Yet, unlike Velnorah, she seemed much smaller by the standards of the Xyrra Race. Standing only two and a half meters tall, her body appeared quite frail.
"Fortunately, thanks to that same talent, she was able to overcome her weakness by creating a suit that elevated her strength to an even higher level than other members of our Race."
Victor saw that the outfit Velnorah's mother was wearing was a suit very similar to the one Velnorah was wearing now.
"Its construction technique was passed down from generation to generation in my family. This suit not only increases physical strength but also keeps the wearer's body in perfect condition at all times."
Victor saw that as time passed, Velnorah's mother's body began to grow and become on par with members of her own Race.
"Thanks to her excellence and this suit, together with the other members of our Race, my mother dominated the other Races on the planet, thus making our Xyrra Race appear like Gods to the other Species."
The hologram changed and showed the Thaloria Empire growing at a ridiculous rate. With an entire Race of Beings that could control technology on an instinctual level, the progression of society as a whole was only a matter of time.
"The progression of the Empire went well, and in less than 2000 years, the entire planet was already under our control, and we were already exploring space."
"As time passed, extraordinary individuals began to appear from different Races, and even from other planets, and consequently, they became my mother's subordinates."
"Among these individuals was a man from an alien Race known as The Yuurakyo, or as they are more commonly called in my Sector, The Assassins of The Galactic Emperor, Kolo, an enemy who would go against my mother in the future."
The hologram changed and showed a tall man with completely blue eyes and a skin color more towards dark blue.
"The Yuurakyo are a warrior Race, bred for combat, and are excellent at what they do. Their natural bodies are born superior to other Races, and their battle perception and talent are naturally above others as well. They are very adaptable too, taking just weeks to adapt to a new and hostile environment."
"A member of this Race infiltrated these new individuals... And my mother knew that, after all, in her territory, no one could evade her notice."
"Instead of cowering in the face of this new threat, she set a trap and tried to capture this intruder... But the cost was too great."
"The Yuurakyo are not called a warrior Race for nothing. Even with our best generals and with the support of our technology, we were still unable to capture him without loss."
Victor watched as the hologram depicted a man fighting with all his strength and destroying several force fields with his bare hands. He was jumping around on the battlefield and fighting like a bloodthirsty beast.
"Although she managed to capture him, my mother had lost... Even with all her perfectly calculated plans, she lost several generals, and even her armor was broken in the process."
"The Yuurakyo were without a doubt exceptional... And My mother wanted that for herself; she wanted that Power."
"She thought that without this Power, she would not be able to overcome her future enemy... Therefore, she took this enemy and treated him like a laboratory rat."
"Firstly, she tried to make clones, but... It didn't work, as the genetic code of this Race was too unstable."
"Giving up on this, she tried to impregnate women through artificial insemination... Again, she failed. The baby killed the mother before the gestation period began; the nutritional demand and the strength of the baby was so great that women of other Races could not bear the burden."
Amaterasu made a face of disgust when she saw the blood and guts bathe the scenes shown in the hologram. This sight wasn't new to her, but that didn't mean she felt comfortable seeing it.
"All the tests failed, as she tried everything, but the Race was simply too uncontrollable."
"Only a Yuurakyo woman could conceive a child of that Race... That's when she thought of an alternative."
"Turning another Race into a Yuurakyo."
Victor raised an eyebrow. "She wanted to do the work of a Progenitor, huh? "
"Yes." The hologram changed, and a new laboratory appeared. In this laboratory, the captured man floated in a tube with green liquid, and next to him were tubes with blue liquid.
"Through several tests and research with the Progenitors of my planet, she understood that for a Being to change Race, it was not the body that needed to change but the Soul itself. If the Soul did not change, the body would not respond to this change."
"But again, she failed. A Progenitor's power could not be stolen that easily."
"In the end, she gave up and returned to her activities. At that time, a war was already underway, and my mother's Empire was losing... Until an opportunity arose."
"A female member of the Yuurakyo Race invaded the facility the man was in, attempting to rescue him... But my mother was already expecting something similar, and unlike the first time, she did not underestimate her enemy. Using the data from her experiments, she was able to effectively develop a strategy to subdue this woman."
The hologram changed, and Victor and Amaterasu saw the female member of the Yuurakyo Race pinned to the ground with several powerful restraints.
"With a male and female couple of that Race, she didn't have to go through the whole complicated process. She would just have to get the woman pregnant."
"Through artificial insemination... The process was completed, but... The baby died."
"The reason for this? The nature of the Yuurakyo Race is completely warlike."
"Their entire evolutionary process was based on the act of fighting and war. For a woman to become pregnant by another man, that man needed to defeat that woman, and she herself needed to submit to him. If such a thing did not occur, it didn't matter how many children they tried to have. None would survive for long."
"...This is crazy..." Amaterasu commented in disbelief.
Velnorah nodded in agreement.
"In the end, my mother failed again until a stupid idea popped into her head."
"What if I inject them both with a powerful aphrodisiac?"
Victor and Amaterasu remained silent before these statements. Clearly, the woman had completely lost hope in this matter.
"Since she had nothing left to lose, and frankly, she already wanted to kill them both... She implemented this absurd idea."
"The result?"
"Let me guess, did it work?" Amaterasu spoke.
"Yes."
"What a surprise." Amaterasu rolled her eyes.
"But not at the same time." The image changed and showed a Yuurakyo child fighting. He was strong; that was a fact, but even when he grew up, he didn't become as strong as his parents.
"He is weak," Victor spoke.
"Yes, despite being a Yuurakyo, he didn't grow up among the Yuurakyo, so his development was restricted."
"But...unlike his parents, his genetic code was possible to clone."
"...Why?" Victor asked.
"We didn't know this at the time, but the Yuurakyo have something called a coming of age ceremony where an Elder of The Yuurakyo Race injects the participant with a serum that increases their physical capabilities. The thing responsible for the mess in their DNA was this serum... This serum must always be used by new generations at their coming of age ceremony because the genetic changes are not passed from generation to generation through a natural process."
"Ironically, because of this boy, my mother managed to discover and create a weakness for the Yuurakyo, a deadly virus that attacked the brain, killing them instantly, a virus that only worked on members of that Race."
"Using this biological weapon, she ended the greatest force of the Galactic Empire, completely exterminating an entire Race... And thanks to that feat, no one stood against her anymore. Because in a technological fight, my mother would always win."
The hologram changed, and Velnorah's mother appeared in space between several planets, wearing armor very similar to Velnorah's.
With a wave of her hand, ripples that looked like sound waves spread out in space, and the entire enemy fleet was reduced to small spheres about 2 centimeters thick.
"With this, she managed to subjugate the entire galaxy and become an Overlord, the most powerful Being in that Sector."
"Her reign lasted, and she had a daughter, me. I grew up and inherited all of my mother's research materials and my mother's position as Overlord of my galaxy and Empress by defeating her."
The image changed and showed Velnorah fighting her mother.
"But… A Convergence occurred, and my Sector grew from a mid-level Sector to a high-level Sector."
"This brought forth the Galactic Emperors. Beings with hundreds of planets at their command, existences that, just like my mother, could control technology, freaks of nature who could erase an entire planet with just one breath."
The hologram changed images with every word Velnorah said, but Amaterasu and Victor were able to see everything without any problems. The scale of the battles they were witnessing was so ridiculous that it couldn't even be called a 'battle' anymore.
"My mother and I were capable of fighting them, but... The same could not be said for our subordinates. By annihilating the Yuurakyo, my mother ended up dooming us. They were our best chance of facing these Beings."
"Before I knew it, I was fleeing across the border of the galaxy and ended up waking up here... In a mid-level Sector with such absurd Beings and the constant presence of the Primordials... An irregular Sector due to the existence of a Being whose existence alone can be considered a breach of Balance."
Velnorah closed the hologram and looked at Victor. Originally, she didn't intend to reveal so much of her past; she hadn't even mentioned a word of this to Odin. With Odin, she just presented the perks she would make available to him should he ally with her.
But with Victor, she decided to go deeper and reveal more of herself because his cooperation was crucial to reclaiming her own planet.
"I see... Your story is quite interesting Velnorah, but I realize that you left out several things, and lied about being an Overlord of a higher Sector."
"It is more accurate to state that I was an Overlord until my Sector increased from mid-level to upper-level. Therefore, my claim that I was an Overlord of a higher Sector is not a lie. After all, I lost that status when my Sector evolved."
"Fallacies, huh," Amaterasu noted in amusement.
Velnorah purposely worded the information she provided in such a way as to avoid being caught 'lying' by sentient Beings, a task only she could do because she was 'unknown' and had good control over her own Soul.
"Hmm… As a former Overlord, how do you compare to the Beings in this Sector?"
"I can defeat everyone here, except for you, the Primordials, and one scary woman from the Hindu Pantheon."
"Are you not confident in facing me?" Victor asked curiously.
"Your Powers are simply too varied to predict a fight. The range of possibilities is so wide that even my A.I. cannot predict the outcome. And thanks to your Evolution to Godhood, your range of abilities has become even greater."
"What about this scary woman?"
"She is a Being that is one step away from becoming a Conceptual Being at the level of a Primordial. Her Power of Destruction is so strong and robust that only someone with the opposite Power to hers could oppose her. Of course, Beings with the Divinity of The End, Beginnings, Positivity, and Negativity could also oppose her."
"But these Beings are so scarce that it would be easier to find a specific grain of sand in an entire galaxy than these Beings."
"But we have 3 Beings of The End here?" Victor commented casually.
"That's why I said this Sector is irregular. From the data I have gathered, Beasts of The End only exist in the domain of Death, and they rarely leave."
Victor nodded and asked, "Since you don't have any of those Concepts mentioned, you don't have confidence in defeating her."
"Exactly."
"You are a Goddess?"
"Yes."
"A Goddess of what?"
"My biggest Concepts encompass Technology and Strategic Warfare. My minor Concepts encompass Research, Wisdom, and Soul."
"Soul?" Victor raised a curious eyebrow.
"Correct." She nodded but didn't add anything else.
Seeing that she wasn't going to say anything else, Victor didn't press. He wasn't that interested, to be honest, his thoughts were more on those Beings in the higher Sectors that he'd just seen.
"What do you want from me, Velnorah?"
"An alliance. In exchange for you helping me get my planet back, I will give everything I have to you." She stood up and floated towards the sky, and with a wave of her hand, hundreds of holograms painted the area.
"...Oh?" Victor checked the holograms and saw spaceships, futuristic building designs, research on living Beings, and a lot of other things that he couldn't identify yet.
"All the research done by my Empire will be yours, as will I myself... If you wish."
Victor naturally looked at Velnorah's eyes. He didn't express any feelings, he just continued stroking Amaterasu's hair, who was looking at the projections in the sky with wide eyes.
"Why?"
"Why what...?"
"As someone who came from a more technologically developed Sector, you could very well negotiate these projects, or even create your own Faction. Countless possibilities are possible, but even with that possibility available, you chose this method... I assume that you made this same proposal to Odin, right?"
"...Yes."
"So I ask, why? Why did you choose this path?"
"Time…" For the first time, Velnorah showed some emotion on her face. She bit her lip in frustration. "I have no time." Her face changed to cold and indifferent, but this small display of emotion was enough for Victor to understand everything.
Victor closed his eyes and nodded, then leaned back on the chair, picked up Amaterasu like a cat, and placed her on his chest.
"E-E-EH?" Amaterasu awoke from her stupor, and her face turned slightly red due to her position.
"Very well, I accept your alliance, but I don't want you."
"...Eh?" Now, it was Velnorah's turn to be incredulous. "What did you say?"
Victor raised his eyebrow at Velnorah. His look said, are you deaf woman? But as he is magnanimous, he decided to speak again, this time in a more elaborate way.
"I accept the alliance, I will help recover your planet, and in return, I will accept the research data."
"...And about me...?"
"I do not want you."
"...Why?" Her voice came out a little more dissatisfied.
"I mean, you don't need to sell yourself to me, right? You can save yourself for someone you care about. After all, through this alliance, I'll have already received so much from you." Victor smiled gently. He looked like a saint who had descended on earth just now.
"...Right...But I'm not selling out or anything. This is all part of the deal, and if you accept, you must take me." She spoke logically.
"Mm, you might be right, but I don't want to. I'm not so evil as to accept a desperate woman."
A vein bulged on Velnorah's head. 'This man is not following the script! And he's two-faced too! He just accepted Amaterasu, who sold herself to him! He even started acting like she had been his Wife for years! So why doesn't he accept me!?'
Victor smiled slightly when he saw Velnorah's cold expression broken. The reason why Victor didn't accept Velnorah immediately? He wanted to tease her. He liked to see someone as serious and cold as Velnorah losing her composure because of him; it was a very intoxicating feeling.
"How long will you stay floating around, my ally~? Sit, I want to hear more about the enemies that are on your planet."
"... Okay." Velnorah floated toward the chair and sat down. She looked at Amaterasu, who had seemingly forgotten her existence, with a slight look of resentment, but that look soon disappeared when she heard.
"How much time do you have left?" He asked gently.
"100 years is how long my mother can survive." She responded by giving Victor a little more information.
Victor nodded. "Does Time here pass the same as in your Sector?"
"It doesn't. I said 100 years based on the Time of this Sector."
"As I am now, can I defeat the Leader of your enemy?"
"... I can't say. I didn't fight him specifically, just with his subordinates. His subordinates all had strength levels equal to that of Thor's, but their abilities were different."
"Mm~, okay. Tell me everything about your Sector, and don't hide anything."
"Yes…" She made another hologram with her hand and sneakily looked at Victor.
"...Are you sure you won't accept me?"
"Yes," Victor replied.
Velnorah's face narrowed slightly in irritation, and she looked back at the hologram. Unconsciously, she began to pout in annoyance, an expression not even she realized she was making.
She didn't know why this man didn't want to accept her. She was an Empress, she was competent, and she was beautiful. The height problem was not a problem since he could change his height whenever he wanted.
As someone who was already of marriageable age, she couldn't see anyone more suitable than Victor. Velnorah's thoughts wandered to the way Victor humiliated his opponents in the last war, and her breathing became a little heated as she remembered that.
"Velnorah?"
"Y-Yes?"
"Show me more about your enemies."
"... Okay."
