Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (13 page)

After Titainein and others
dropped Gloria on planet Arigie, they headed back to Eva-1. What happened in
the past seven hours stunned all of them. From time to time, they gazed at
captain’s chair as if Jason was still sitting on it. Idi still couldn’t believe
Jason was gone forever. Orizy and Sayilin regretted they didn’t stop Jason from
the very beginning. Titainein couldn’t understand how love could make one
person fight against the world. Lucis and Erikon knew Jason better than others
and they knew Jason was ready to sacrifice everything the moment he stepped out
of the dorm.

“Ding,
ding, ding, ding.” The warning alarm echoed in the bridge.

Idi
checked the radar and said, “Proximity alert. Seven vessels are heading at us.”

“Glycans?”
Lucis asked.

“Yes.”
Idi replied.

“They
are hailing us.” Titainein said.

“What we
do? What we do? Should we reply?” Idi said in panic.

“No, if
we reply, they will find out.” Sayilin said quickly.

“Get
weapon ready.” Lucis shouted.

“I am on
it. We only have defensive weapons.” Orizy said as he tapped on the screen. The
defensive weapons were online and ready.

“They
stopped hailing us.” Titainein said.

“They
are slowing down.” Idi said happily.

“What?
Bring it up to the center screen.” Lucis said.

On the
screen, seven vessels were slowing down and regrouped in battle formation.

“They
are going to fire.” Titainein said hastily.

“All
head full! All head full!” Lucis shouted.

Sayilin
pushed throttle all the way forward.

Five
destroyers and two cruisers formed a triangle and fired five missiles at the
cruiser.

“Incoming
missiles. Incoming missiles! Thirty seconds to impact!” Idi yelled.

“Ready
countermeasure!” Lucis said nervously.

“I am working
on it. I am working on it.” Orizy said while tapping on the screen.

“Erikon,
I need 100% engine output.” Sayilin said.

“Sure.”
Erikon replied.

The
cruiser was picking up speed but those missiles were much faster.

“Twenty
seconds to impact!” Idi shouted.

“Countermeasure?”
Sayilin asked.

“Almost
there, almost there.”

“Come
on, man!” Lucis shouted

“Countermeasure
ready.”

“Release
countermeasure!” Lucis shouted.

“No,
wait, wait!” Titainein shouted. It was too late.

Five
countermeasures left the tail of the cruiser and formed five huge nets right
behind the cruiser.

“Fifteen
seconds to impact!”

The
missiles detoured around the nets.

“The
missiles bypassed countermeasures and homing!” Idi said.

“Wait
until they get closer. Get five countermeasures ready.” Titainein said.

Everyone
stared at the center screen, breathing heavily.

“Five
second to the impact.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Now!”
Titainein shouted.

Five
countermeasures shot out of the tail and blocked the missiles.

“We got
them. We got them.” Idi said excitedly, raising her arms in the air.

The
seven vessels changed their formation to a single line.

“What
are they doing?” Orizy asked.

“Oh,
my.” Sayilin sighed.

The
seven vessels fired their main canons.

“Boom!
Boom! Boom!” The explosions shook the cruiser up and down, throwing Lusic,
Orizy and Idi out of their chairs.

“Get us
out of here.” Lucis shouted.

Sayilin
pushed the controller all the way to the right. The cruiser made a sharp right
turn and drifted out of the dark matter passageway.

“Where
are we?” Orizy asked as he climbed back to his chair.

“We are
in Milky Way Galaxy. Close to the center.” Lucis said nervously.

The
whirl, the center of Galaxy, was right in front of them.

“They
are behind us. They are behind us!” Idi shouted.

“This is
engine. Propeller system damaged! We can’t use dark matter passageway anymore.”
Erikon called in.

“Power
supply lines failed.” Titainein said.

“Boom!”
The cruiser was hit again.

“Head to
the center. Sayilin.” Titainein said calmly.

“We will
be sucked into black hole!” Sayilin shouted.

“We
won’t, Lucis, locate the wormhole closest to the center.” Titainein said
calmly.

“Defense
system failed!” Orizy shouted.

“Let’s
do this” Lucis said as he brought up the wormhole map.

The
cruiser headed directly to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, its hull riddled
with dents and cracks. Following behind the cruiser, the seven vessels kept
firing their main cannons.

“Black
hole proximity alert! 40 seconds!”

“Keep
going!”

“Incoming
missiles. Incoming missiles.” Idi shouted.

“Dark
liquid is leaking. We have one minute!” Erikon called in.

“Time of
impact?” Titainein asked.

“33
seconds.”

“Time to
black hole?”

“30.”

“Found
the wormhole. Erikon, focus all energy, prepare the jump.” Lucis said hastily.

Now
everyone could feel the grab from the black hole.

“15
second to black hole. 18 seconds to missile impact.”

“It’s
too close. We can’t make it. We can’t make it!” Orizy cried desperately.

“Shut
up!” Titainein shouted.

“They
stopped. Glycan vessels stopped.” Idi said.

“10 seconds.”

“Lucis,
set the jump course for Eva-1.” Titainein said quickly.

“Done.”

“Sayilin,
wait my word for hard starboard.”

“Ready.”

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Now!”
Titainnein shouted.

The
cruiser made a sharp turn and most of missiles went directly into the black
hole. But there were still two following right behind the cruiser.

“Initiate
jump procedure.” Titainein said quickly.

“Done.”

“Impact,
impact!” Idi shouted.

“Bang!
Bang!” Two missiles hit the cruiser after it entered the worm hole. The impact
threw everyone on the floor and killed the power. The cruiser drifted off its
course.

General Klizan and Ceithu were
sitting in an observation room. In front of them, there was an arena the size
of a football field. Several minutes later, Liliyana joined them. She was 200
years old, large build, square face with a male’s look.

Two
robots carried Jason into the arena and released him in the center of the
field. Tired and hungry, Jason looked around. Now he didn’t feel itchy anymore.
Instead, he felt something was seeping into his bones. He felt changes in his
body, his skin hardening, his muscles tightening, his joints strengthening. 

In the
observation room, Liliyana gazed at Jason up and down and said, “He doesn’t
look that strong.”

“That is
what I think as well.” Klizan said.

“What
shall we start with? Any idea?” Ceithu said easily.

“What do
you have here?” Liliyana asked.

“Oh, I
have Viyeao, Otheu and Atihr.”

“Otheu,
I will say. What about you, General Klizan?” Liliyana asked.

“Doesn’t
matter.”

“Release
Otheu.” Ceithu said to his badge.

A door
opened and four robots pushed a laser cage into the field.  Resembling the
shape of a tiger but four times bigger, the creature licked its black teeth and
lips, its claws shining like steel. As soon as the laser disappeared, the Otheu
sprinted out, grabbed a robot and tore it into pieces. It grasped another robot
with its tail, threw it in the air and slashed it in half.

Jason
lowered himself on the ground, hoping to be ignored. But after the Otheu
finished the last robot, it ran towards him. Jason jumped aside to dodge its
charge. As he became more and more excited, he felt something coming out of his
bones and fueling his strength. He didn’t feel tired any more.

The
Otheu howled at Jasno and shrugged its shoulders, blade like bones popping out
of its back. Jason took off his grey uniform and wrapped it on his right arm.
Suddenly, it thrust at Jason at full blast. Knowing he only had one shot, Jason
darted to the Otheu, aiming his right fist at its mouth. They both jumped into
the air and rammed into each other, head on head.  Jason’s whole right arm
stuck into Otheu’s mouth. Jason’s uniform was made by steel string reinforced
fiber, so it could stand the bite. But the pressure on his right forearm was
building up. Before the Otheu could grab him with its claws, Jason poked one of
its eyes with his fingers. Driven by the pain, the Otheu heaved Jason in the
air and shook him like crazy. Before he reaching for the other eye, Otheu lost
the bite. Jason hit the wall and slumped on the ground. He swiftly picked
himself up, ran towards the Otheu and jumped on its back, holding tight on one
of the blade bones.

“Ah,
Aaah!” Jason screamed as he was pulling the bone.

The
Otheu bounced on the ground, howling desperately, its claws sliding over its
back, its tail sweeping in the air,

“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Jason yelled and pulled the blade bone out. Black blood busted out like volcano
eruption. The Otheu plumped on the ground. Standing on the Otheu, he pulled out
another blade bone. With one blade on each hand, he dashed to the observation
room.

“That
was something.” Liliyana said in surprise.

“What is
he thinking? Kill us?” Ceithu laughed as he saw Jason coming closer and closer.

Jason
leaped into the air and thrusted one blade at the window. The blade couldn’t
even make a scratch and Jason fell hard on the ground.

“Let us
keep him busy.” Klizan smiled at Ceithu.

“Release
Viyeao.”

The
growl came from the ceiling like rolling thunders. Then a dragon stuck its red
head in and crawled into the arena from the ceiling, its scales shining like
red rubies, its yellow eyes gazing at Jason.

“This is
great.” Jason sighed. He knew those thick scales could easily stop his blade
bone unless he stabbed the joints. Circling high above Jason like a fighter
jet, the dragon was not in a hurry to attack him. The strong wind generated by
the two huge wings pushed Jason back and forth. He stuck the blade bones into
ground and held on to them.

Suddenly,
the dragon dived at Jason, its wings half-folded, its claws reaching forwards.
Jason couldn’t use the previous trick against the dragon. He ran to the wall
and squeezed himself to the baseboard. The dragon was too large to grab Jason
while gliding. It tried several times and hit the wall every time. Soon it
landed on the ground and crawled to Jason slowly. While on the ground, the
dragon was much slower. The dragon swung its claws at Jason, while at the same
time attacking him with its mouth and tongue. Jason dodged left and right,
waiting patiently. When the tongue shot out again, he suddenly stabbed it with
the blade bone. The bone penetrated the flesh and stuck into ground. While the
dragon was growling in pain, Jason quickly climbed on its neck with another
blade bone in his hand. Temporarily restrained by the blade on its tongue, the
dragon couldn’t shake Jason off. It slowly pulled the blade bone off the ground
with its claw and then shot into the air, rotating its body, shaking its neck,
shrugging its shoulders. Jason held on to its neck, feeling like riding on a
roller coaster. The dragon consistently went up and down and he couldn’t even
move a centimeter. He knew he wouldn’t have long and there was no way he could
kill the dragon like this. Holding himself on the scale, he decided to do
something crazy. When the dragon dived again, Jason suddenly stabbed the blade
bone into the crack between two scales. The dragon turned its neck to alleviate
the pain, heading straight to the observation room.

“Boom!”
The dragon crashed on the wall and its head crammed into the observation room.

Jason
wiped away the blood on his face and struggled to stand on his feet.

The huge
window in the room was still intact, but the wall holding the window fell apart.
Ceithu was hiding behind a chair and peeking at the dead dragon. He was lucky
enough to escape the crash. Liliyana froze on her seat, shocked and scared.
Klizan stepped to the broken wall, his black uniform transforming into an armor
suit. Right at this moment, Jason climbed into the room through the broken
wall. They were facing each other, two meters apart.

“Well,
are you ready?” Jason said coldly with a brittle smile as he flashed the blade
bone in his hand.

“Whenever
you ready.” Klizan said confidently as a dagger popped out of his right fist.
He dashed to Jason, thrusting the dagger at his face. Jason leaned backward,
swung his body aside and fired his right fist at Klizan’s face. Klizan grabbed
Jason’s fist with his left hand and then thrusted the dagger to Jason’s chest.
Jason blocked the dagger with the blade bone. Klizan kicked him on the belly
and knocked him back. Jason swiftly stood up, his fist hurting like hell. He
glanced over at it. It was turning black and the black area was quickly
spreading. The armor was poisonous.

Jason
darted at Klizan, aiming the blade bone at his right chest. As Klizan leaned
aside to dodge the bone, Jason swung his fist at Klizan’s face. Klizan blocked
it, grabbed the arm, heaved Jason in the air and plunged him to the ground.
Before Klizan could stamp on him, Jason rolled aside and stood up. Klizan
shoved the dagger at Jason’s chest. Jason caught Klizan’s fist and stopped the
dagger one centimeter away from his chest. But he couldn’t match Klizan’s
strength and his right hand was turning black just like his left hand. He
suddenly removed both of his hands. Klizan plunged the dagger into Jason’s
chest. Just at this moment, Jason grasped Klizan’s neck, squeezing it as hard
as he could. The dagger punched through Jason’s chest but missed his heart,
sticking into the wall behind him. Klizan struggled to breathe, his left hand
trying to pull Jason’s hands away, his right hand restrained by the dagger.
Liliyana rushed to Klizan and kicked Jason’s head. Jason passed out. Then she pulled
away Jason’s hands. Klizan retracted the dagger and held on to the wall. He
stared at Ceithu and Liliyana and shouted, “What the fuck took you two this
long?”

“I...I...I
thought you could handle it.” Ceithu said, his voice shaking.

“You
think?” Klizan snarled.

“I was
lost.” Liliyana said sheepishly, casting her eyes down.

“I can
tell that.” Klizan let out a long sigh.

They
both gazed at Jason. He sat there, his head on his chest, his hands dangling
aside, blood spewing out of his chest.

“What
about him? It seems he is really the first one who killed a monster on
Etitaeg.” Liliyana said.

Klizan
knew Jason was not the first one, but he didn’t want to tell Liliyana the
truth. He remembered clearly that Relinee, a superace, was the first one.

“Yea, it
seems.” Klizan said uneasily.

“He is
no longer useful. We can just dump him somewhere.” Liliyana said easily.

“Transport
him to Agirue and perform full genetic analysis.” Klizan said firmly.

“Yes,
General Klizan. May I ask why?”

“Just
curious.” Klizan said as he walked away slowly.