[I found what we were looking for.]"Ooo~ Is that so? Good job Iris, start packing up and sent the formula to ICI. I"ll be back in a bit."
Having received good news from Iris, Dax formed a thin smile as he exited the CAS-7A which had landed in the middle of a barren gra.s.s field.
"How good to see you again lady Eos, if I can call you that."
"... Well, seeing as you already did, there"s nothing to do about it."
With a single flick of her hand, Eos created an elaborate throne made out of pure mana crystal which she sat down on in a graceful manner while some dirt made a tiny stump in front of Dax.
"Take a seat."
"No thanks, I"m good standing. So what is all this about?"
Crossing his hands as the CAS-7A quietly lifted off the ground behind him, Dax waited for Eos to get to the point. In response to Dax"s att.i.tude, Eos was quite annoyed as she formulated a gravity spell formation under the demonkin and increased the gravity serval folds in order to make him kneel.
"Why don"t you kneel first?"
"Nah, can we stop this d.i.c.k measuring power contest already? I have other stuff to do."
(ICI fire mission, single type HVT elimination. Use the 540 mills.)
(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, TARGET ACQUIRED. WAITING FOR AUTHENTICATION.)
Having a brief staring contest, both Eos and Dax mentally prepared for a long and b.l.o.o.d.y fight to the death while both of them were smiling at each other.
"Okay then, the 22nd sanctuary want to know your future intentions."
Backing off slightly, Eos took a relaxed pose in her throne as she stopped supplying multiple offensive spells with mana. In response, Dax also calmed down slightly as he called for the hidden drones all around them to back off.
"I want what"s mine. If the Empire freely gives up the FTL drive of my craft which landed inside the Empire"s borders and the return of any and all technology belonging to me I"ll size all offensive operations."
"... Is that really all?"
"Yeah, it is. But I believe I"ve already sent countless envoys to the Emperor saying as much, of course, they have all but been ignored as he enjoys the protection of multiple sanctuaries and believes himself outside of my reach."
"Well, isn"t it exactly what he is?"
Showing a smug smile, Eos believed she had Dax where she wanted him, little did she know it couldn"t be further from the truth.
"Not really no, I just haven"t gotten tired enough of this game yet. The only reason why I haven"t just started openly nuking everything is because of the goodness of my heart, that can change at any moment. You people look at us and see we lack mana, naively thinking we"re weak because of that, but in all honesty, I"m just waiting for the point anyone does something which allows me to bring the full extent of my equipment to bare… The real question is how the 22nd sanctuary will align when that finally happens."
"... I am in no position to make a comment on that."
(Oh, but you did just answer my question~)
The way Eos answered the question told Dax everything he needed to know, allowing Dax to go ahead with several different plans to weaken the Empire without a direct confrontation. If things worked out as he believed they could, there was a chance he could split the Empire apart.
"But that"s all something we can discuss another day. I"m out here in the fringes of the Empire to recruit personal that the Empire has forsaken, interfere and I will retract my earlier promise to leave the 22nd sanctuary alone. Your choice."
"Ha, what could you-"
While Eos took a relaxed expression, Dax pressed his attack as he realized he had the archangel exactly where he wanted her.
"Most of your combat forces are already here, that means the sanctuary is mostly unguarded. I wonder how many tactical cla.s.s weapons of ma.s.s destruction I would have to expend to reduce the entire area to a heap of molten gla.s.s? I"m guessing it"s less than what I currently have ready to fire."
"There"s no-"
"But are you absolutely sure you want to take that bet? Especially when I do exactly what I said I wanted to do and your surviving subordinates learned that you went to war just because of some dragonkin n.o.body in the Empire cares about? I"m pretty sure they"ll eat you alive."
(Realize when you are beaten and give it up, that way you can still save face and we"ll have a chance at being friends when the Empire falls apart.)
For the first time doing their conversation, Dax let a smile show on his face as he waited for Eos to respond and back off.
"Fine… We"ll be watching you."
"Of course you will~ I expect nothing less."
As Eos dissolved her throne and got up on her feet and was turning to leave, it appeared she suddenly had remembered something.
"But there are still other sanctuaries heading towards your subordinates."
"Yeah there is, will it be an issue if we kill them all?"
"Yeah it will, they"re precious allies of the 22nd after all."
Leaving with those words, Eos" tone of voice told Dax that he could go right ahead and ma.s.sacre them all, it seemed that the allied sanctuaries of the Empire were not as united as it seemed from the outside.
"Well, that works out perfectly. ICI get me out of here."
Looking into the sky the way Eos had left while the CAS-7A landed behind him, Dax formed a large bloodthirsty smile.
"This is command addressing all units: Engage and destroy all remaining hostiles, no mercy."
---
"Evacuation is a go! Mare, Solaris get the VIP"s to the secondary landing site and out of the area. Lilly, Alice secure the site, I"ll deal with the flies that are swarming towards this place. Iris, get all the equipment you can out within the next 10 minutes and torch the rest."
Having received the go ahead to engage and destroy all hostiles in the area at the same time as the time for the evacuation started, Lux and her subordinates went into action.
"Okay, time to move people! We"ll protect you but we need to move now!"
Floating into the air above the first group of Ta"ai citizens, Solaris did her best to seem reliable as she spread out her glowing wings and spoke in a dignified tone of voice. Meanwhile, Mare took a more silent approach as she jumped up on the outer wall and took aim, shooting dead any nearby crystal infected monsters as the gate opened. As the evacuation started picking up speed, so did the attempts at stopping it.
"Bring up the flank! Don"t let them get aw- Arg!"
Unluckily for the angels belonging to several different sanctuaries of the Empire, Lux was their opponent. Against opponents who couldn"t deal with attacks coming from over the horizon without relying on slow and predictable magic attacks, it turned out to be more of a slaughter than a fight, although Lux had to deplete a significant part of the stockpiled monitions to achieve such a result. In the end, the evacuation of the surviving Ta"ai people went on without any major problems (except for some of them how panicked when they saw the ma.s.sive s.p.a.ce planes landed) and within the day they were all relocated to the village where some of the survivors of the incident magic academy still remained.
-
"Ghahahaha! Thanks for doing all this for us, I really appreciate it!"
As Zhao took another large swig of his gla.s.s, the two and a half meter tall dragonkin started laughing so loud that the walls slightly shook while hitting his own knee with a closed fist and demonstrated his truly inhuman power at the same time.
"Oh don"t thank me, thank your daughter! She"s the one who made me unable to decline her request. Now, less talking and more drinking!"
"Yes! You really are a genius, Dax!"
"Of course I am!~"
"... How long has it been since Zhao woke up?"
Having finished her inspection, Lux walked in on something that made her briefly at a loss for words the same way Xi felt, both of them having extremely tired expressions.
"3 hours."
"... And how long has it been since they started drinking like this?"
"Just under 3 hours."
Apparently Xi and her mother Girshu had returned to check up on Zhao who had recently recovered from his injury, only to find the dragonkin drinking together with Dax and already on their 3rd bottle of high proof alcohol.
"Still! You really did quite a number on that lad of ours! Even if I haven"t seen him training yet I can immediately tell that he"s no longer afraid of death."
"Yeah that kid sure was a rough gemstone when I first saw him, the talent was already there, I just polished him a little bit. Now he has really just taken the first step, over the next hundred years he"ll s.h.i.+ne brightly."
"A hundred years!? Ghahaha! give me 50 years and I"ll have him s.h.i.+ning better than you ever could!"
"Yeah right, sure! With that fluffy kind of martial arts, I"ll be surprised if he can even kill a kitten. The only real way forward is qiton martial arts!"
"What was that!?"
"You heard me reptile, I said the basis for your pride is s.h.i.+t~"
But all of a sudden the mary mood came to an immediate end, at least for one of the partic.i.p.ants as Dax was still having a grand old time.
(Oh f.u.c.k…)
Realizing what was about to happen, Lux quickly scanned the room for any valuables which were about to be broken, sadly she was too slow.
"What did you just say!"
Standing up faster than he should have in his condition, Zhao struck Dax with a straight right in the face, making him fall to the floor.
"Oh, you"re on!"
Shaking his head, Dax got back on his feet as he charged at Zhao, immediately running him through the outer wall with a smile on his face.
"Dad!"
Worried about her recently recovered farther, Xi ran out the hole Dax had created to find both of the grown men in the dirt laughing.
"Eh?"
"Ghahaha! That was one h.e.l.l of a tackle!"
"Hahahaha! Yeah, it was! that hook of yours wasn"t half bad either! It seems like I still have a lot of things to learn."
Suddenly acting like old time friends after beating the s.h.i.+t out of each other, Xi was extremely confused. Meanwhile, Lux took a deep breath as she suddenly got an even more tied look in her eyes.
"They"re just playing around… Dad, I need to talk with you!"
Trying to get through to Dax Lux walked over to him as he was rolling around on the ground with his new best drinking buddy.
"Yeah I know, I"ve seen the report. I know we"re f.u.c.ked no matter what we"re doing."
"Then!-"
"In that case let me have this, we can talk after."
"... Okay. You have 24 hours."