Interstellar Age

Lunaria had effectively been kept at a distance by Erich over the coming months. He had wanted to break her spirits by refusing to see her other than for matters of diplomacy. But the woman was resolute, and stubborn in ways which Erich was only now beginning to understand.

If he was not going to speak to her about personal affairs, then she could play the same game. She did not even bother trying to fix the supposed misunderstanding between them. After all, from her perspective, the man genuinely thought that she had betrayed him. An act that was not to be taken lightly.

But even with this, the ancient Elven Empress utterly refused to back down and admit fault. Leading Erich to begin to understand why the grudge existed between herself and her younger sister for a length of time that was quite frankly absurd to even think about.

Thus, while Erich was waging an emotional war of attrition against Lunaria, he decided to visit the woman’s rival, her younger sister Daelia. Once more Erich stepped foot upon the corrupted world of Alfheim, from which no light could pierce its dusky veil.

And when he did so, he saw that Daelia was in her natural state, which could only reveal itself in the darkness of Svartalfheim, or the maw itself. Her skin was as black as ink, her hair was a glistening silver, or was it a platinum? While her eyes were as red as blood.

It was a menacing sight to be sure, as most of the galaxy simply did not understand that this was what the Dark Elves looked like in their home world. Few outsiders were ever granted with a visa to Svartalfheim after all, and it was for this very reason.

Yet Erich was not the slightest bit afraid, despite the fact that Daelia looked like she had climbed out of the abyss itself. The woman was, in turn, quite excited to see her man visit her. Running up to him and leaping into his arms, which, due to the staggering height difference between them, was just about the only way she could kiss the man.

And after exchanging their saliva with a whirl of their tongue, Erich whispered something in the woman’s ears before setting her down.

“We have a serious problem which we need to discuss…”

Once she heard the severity in his tone, Daelia nodded her head, and silently dismissed her bodyguards, while leading Erich into her personal chambers for which no sound could possibly be leaked to the outside world.

Once shut out from the rest of society, Daelia sat down on her bed, taking off her shoes and stockings while telling Erich to get on with the reason for his visit.

“So tell me, what has you so worked up that you must come all this way to tell me it in person?”

Erich had been on the fence regarding Daelia’s self proclaimed loyalty towards him, and her role as the prophecised Bloody Bride. But over the course of the past six months, she had done everything she possibly could to prove this to the man.

And it was because of this that he finally trusted the information he had regarding the movements of the Naraku who had infested the Triangulum Galaxy.

“There is no easy way to put this…. So I’m just going to come right out and say it. The Triangulum galaxy is also infested with Naraku, and it would appear that they are preparing to invade the Milky Way in full force at the exact same time that their cousins in Andromea plan to.

It will be joint-effort between two devouring swarms. I have made adjusted my plans according to this new information, which has been confirmed. And am even making contingency plans for escaping the destruction of the Milky Way should we fail.

I won’t lie to you. Even with the new preparations I have made, our chance of emerging victorious after suffering a significant loss of life across the entire galaxy will be roughly 30%.

That thirty percent is the estimate guaranteeing the survival of the core strength of the Germanic Star Empire, the Dvrakian Consortium, the Great Oni Empire, as well as the Svartalfheim Federation, and the Alfheim Dominion.

But you should expect to lose at least 80 percent of your population and territory. As for the Asuran Cabal, and the Ennead Theocracy, their losses are presumed to be greater, if not facing outright extinction altogether.

To put it simply, the best-case scenario is that what remains in the galaxy is the handful of civilizations that I consider to be among friends and allies. And even then, only the core of these empires will remain intact. Everything else will be devoured…..”

Erich wasn’t being entirely truthful when he said this. By Tia’s estimates, the 30% odds of victory included the Germanic Star-Empire’s borders, population, and infrastructure remaining relatively intact. While the rest of the galaxy burned in the background, with even his allies only keeping their core territories.

But he didn’t want to let Daelia know this, as it was clearly prioritizing his own people at the expense of hers. And that might make their alliance on shaky ground. But Daelia also did not ask any questions that might reveal this hidden truth.

Instead, she sat there with a stern expression on her face. She was not horrified, nor was she bewildered that this was happening. After over a million years of life in the universe, she had seen more atrocities than can possibly be counted.

So much so that even under the threat of total annihilation, she was capable of maintaining a calm and collected composure. She was not silent because of terror over the potential prospect of extinction, but rather thinking about the ramifications this new information had on their previous plans.

After several moments of silence, she sighed heavily, before revealing she already suspected what Erich was hiding from her to some extent.

“Assuming your prioritize the survival of your own people, and the preservation of your military strength as we had already previous planned. It is safe to assume that the Germanic Star-Empire will come out of this galactic level crisis in a much better shape than anyone else? In which our plans may proceed even more smoothly than we previously thought?

And even if we do lose, which we have a 70% chance of doing so, you are taking countermeasures to escape the galaxy with the core base of your people. Am I safe to presume that my people will be granted some guarantee that we will be coming with you?”

Erich smirked. Of course, he planned to bring his lovers, and a core subset of their people with him. And thus, he responded positively to this question.

“Naturally, the allies of the Germanic Star-Empire will be granted some living space within the arks I have planned as a contingency.”

To this, Daelia simply smiled, as if the future was already set in stone. Dragging Erich on top of her on the bed and kissing him once more before ending the discussion then and there.

“Then there is no point worrying about whatever may come our way…”