Chapter 552: Terms and Conditions

"You do exactly what I tell you to do."

"How dare you!" Xalvoria hissed, her fangs flashing. "I am the sovereign of the First Pillar! I take commands from no man!"

"And that is exactly the problem," Xavier taunted, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "You have obviously never been with a man in your entire long life. You don't have the first clue how to actually please one."

Xalvoria's eyes widened in sheer outrage. She glared at him with enough hatred to melt titanium, her chest heaving with furious breaths.

However, that was the truth.

"I have been with beautiful women, and I know exactly how to satisfy them," Xavier continued, his tone dripping with cold authority. "So I am taking the lead. You will follow my commands. Furthermore, a biological data transfer of this magnitude isn't going to finish after doing it just once. It will require dozens of sessions to properly stabilize your decaying cells. For that, you are staying right here on my ship for a full month."

"A month?" Xalvoria shot back, her royal pride violently clashing with her biological desperation. She gritted her teeth, hating the negotiation but knowing she had no choice. "Out of the question. I cannot leave my empire unattended for that long, and my journey across the void has already been exhausting. I will grant you one week on this rusted vessel. At most."

"One week?" Xavier countered, his voice dripping with dry amusement. "You think you can fix millions of years of genetic decay in seven days? We are doing two weeks. And my terms do not stop there."

Xalvoria's jaw tightened. "Do not push your luck, boy."

"First," Xavier listed, holding up a finger, "your giant metal dragon leaves this sector right now. Your heavily armored guard goes with it. You stay on my dreadnought alone. No royal entourage, no bodyguards."

The obsidian knight took a threatening step forward, but Xalvoria raised a hand to stop her, her crimson eyes burning holes into Xavier's face.

"Second," Xavier continued, holding up another finger. "While you are aboard my ship, you drop the 'filthy mortal' routine. You are in my territory now. You acknowledge my authority, and you follow my lead without complaining. If you want the cure, you earn it."

The demands struck directly at the core of her ancient pride. To dismiss her vanguard and submit to a male's authority was the ultimate humiliation for the matriarch of the Sun's Moon. She looked at the glowing stone on the altar, feeling the agonizing, hidden rot within her own cells.

The biological ticking clock left her cornered.

"Fine," Xalvoria spat, the word tasting like poison. "Two weeks. Alone. But if you fail to stabilize my core, I will personally carve your heart out."

Before Xavier could respond, a sharp pulse of pale light erupted from the fragment.

"A verbal agreement is nothing but dust in the solar wind," Astrea's voice commanded. "You are dealing with the legacy of Zephyros and the matriarchy of the First Pillar. You will bind yourselves to this pact before my core. Neither of you will back down from this exchange. Step forward."

Xavier and Xalvoria reluctantly moved closer to the steel table.

"Place your hands over the stone," the Goddess instructed. "Repeat my words. I bind my blood to yours. I pledge my physical vessel to heal our fractured lines. We are bound by duty, by flesh, and by the stars."

Xalvoria gritted her teeth, hovering her pale hand over the rock. Xavier placed his hand right beside hers. Together, their voices layered over one another in the cramped quarters, reciting the ancient vow exactly as Astrea demanded.

A sudden, intense ring of golden light flared from the stone, wrapping around both of their wrists for a fleeting second before sinking deep into their skin.

The pact was sealed.

What neither the arrogant Emperor's reincarnation nor the desperate galactic Empress realized was the true weight of the words they had just spoken. By pledging their bloodlines and their bodies in the direct presence of the divine goddess, they had not just signed a transactional contract.

They had just performed a fully consensual, binding divine marriage under the ancient rites.

Xalvoria pulled her hand back immediately, eager to get the humiliating ordeal over with. She shot a demanding glare at Xavier.

"The oath is sworn," Xalvoria declared, her tone sharp and impatient. "Send your little crew out of this room. We start the data transfer right now."

Xavier crossed his arms and took a step back from the altar. "Not happening."

The Empress froze, her fury spiking all over again. "We just swore a binding oath!"

"And I will honor it," Xavier replied calmly. "But we are not starting right now. I have a crew to organize, and I need to get this ship moving. We have a designated jump to make into the Tartarus Sector, and I need to make sure we don't get blown to pieces the second we break orbit."

He walked past her, heading toward the heavy metal door where Reva, Lyra, and the knight were still standing.

"Once the hyper-drives are locked on course and my ship is settled," Xavier said, glancing back at his newly bound royal bride. "Then I will come back here, and we can consummate this little transaction."

Xavier walked right past the towering obsidian knight. Reva and Lyra shot a final, highly suspicious glare at the Empress before following him out into the corridor. The heavy metal door hissed shut behind them, sealing Xalvoria and her knight inside the captain's quarters.

The knight sheathed her massive broadsword with a sharp metallic clank. She looked at her ruler, the harsh angles of her helmet hiding her face, but her voice betrayed deep, genuine concern.

"Your Majesty... are you truly going to go through with this?" the knight asked quietly. "To let a male of his lineage defile your royal flesh..."

Xalvoria stood still, her gaze fixed on the glowing pale stone resting on the steel table. The golden light painted her face, highlighting the deep, ancient exhaustion she usually kept hidden behind her regal mask.

"I have no other choice," Xalvoria whispered, the bitter truth slipping through her teeth. "The Divine Mother has spoken. Defying a direct mandate is treason against our very existence. And beyond her quest... he holds the cure."

She placed a hand over her chest, feeling the hidden rot within her own veins. "I can feel my cells degrading even now. If I do not stabilize my core with the blood of Zephyros, the Sun's Moon will lose its matriarch, and our entire lineage will turn to ash."

The Empress tightened her grip on her crimson mantle, forcing her spine straight as she rationalized the impending ordeal.

"It is a transaction. A mere biological necessity," Xalvoria stated, her voice hardening with cold resolve. "I will endure the humiliation of his presence for fourteen days. I will extract his data, repair my genetics, and the moment the two weeks are over, I will leave this rusted ship and wipe the memory of his touch from my mind forever. It will be as if it never happened."

The obsidian knight bowed her head in silent understanding, accepting the harsh reality of their situation.

Xalvoria took a slow, deliberate step toward the altar. She dropped to her knees, her royal garments pooling on the cold metal deck. She closed her eyes, bowed her head, and began to pray silently to the glowing fragment of her shattered Goddess, asking for the strength to survive the next two weeks.