"Thaddeus Church…" Aaliyah blurted out.
Thaddeus' head shot up, his eyes locked on her.
"What do you want?"
"I want you to co with !"
"What?"
This confusing woman only continued to confuse him further with every second. What was she even talking about?
Aaliyah gritted her teeth and endured his judgntal gaze. "Co with ! Let's leave the battlefield! I want to show you around our beautiful Grand Heavens Boundary!"
Thaddeus' eyes widened. He expected her to say sothing stupid, but he didn't expect it to be so utterly incomprehensible.
"You want , a Nox, to join you, a Plant Race, to explore the universe that my kind is trying to destroy?"
He reiterated it in case she didn't realize what her words ant, but he was t with disappointnt.
"I know what I said, and I an it."
"You are ntally insane."
"Is there another type of insanity?"
"You're a truly annoying woman."
"Fufu! That just ans I've defeated you with my charms!"
Thaddeus sighed as he glanced away from Aaliyah's bubbly person.
'What is she doing? Where did this even co from? Is she trying to lure into a trap? Where is the setup?'
Thaddeus' thoughts raced. He tried to rationalize Aaliyah's proposal to no avail whatsoever.
"Explain in detail. I cannot understand your perverted thought process."
"I'm not a pervert!"
"Only a masochist would think to invite the enemy into their hobase for tourism."
"I'm not a masochist either!"
Aaliyah's face turned red in embarrassnt. She was barely able to understand her own thoughts, and now she was being told to voice them?
'Calm down and concentrate.' She told herself.
It took almost an entire minute for Aaliyah to calm down and organize her thoughts. The entire ti, Thaddeus quietly waited without moving a single step.
"You look lonely."
They were the first words out of Aaliyah's mouth.
Thaddeus glared at her fiercely, and while she did jump, she refused to back down.
"I watched you from when you first entered the control room until now, and I can't help but think you're different from the rest of your kind. You have emotions they don't possess, and rationality that goes against their belligerence. Also, I can see it, you know? You're trying so hard, but your curiosity is written all over your face."
"If you want to say yes, then just say yes! There's no need to be a tsundere."
"Tsundere?"
"Ah, That's a human thing. Don't worry about it."
"The fact that you won't tell what it ans makes dislike it automatically."
"That's probably the right response from you, Mr. Stoic."
"Hm?"
"Nothing! I didn't say anything."
"Tch."
Thaddeus turned away.
'What is this heat in my face.'
He was turning red unknowingly, and he didn't enjoy the feeling at all.
Still…
'Escape…'
Not just escape from the warzone, but escape from his father, escape from responsibilities, escape from the Nox as a whole…
It was too damn appealing.
'Grand Heavens Boundary, why are the experts so obsessed with this universe? What importance do World Cores hold? Is the universe truly as beautiful as the rumors? Without all this desolation spread through it, is this place truly a heavenly training land as the people describe it?'
His curiosity overflowed with the growth of his interest.
He lifted his head to look at the beautiful green-skinned woman holding her hand out to him.
She was different from the won he usually saw. Won of the Nox were usually extrely seductive and dominant, but Aaliyah was the complete opposite of that.
She was cute, bubbly, and even a little innocent.
Her entire existence confused Thaddeus, who'd never experienced such a positive personality before.
His eyes went to her hand and back to her face.
His heart beat violently as if it wanted to burst out of his chest.
It was a suffocating feeling.
But for so reason, from this single interaction, this strange woman had hooked him.
He was curious about her and the world that produced soone like her.
He wanted to see it.
And he wanted to escape the suffocating constraints of his identity.
'I am trying to find reasons to deny her, but my decision was made long ago, wasn't it? How troubleso.'
Thaddeus reached out slowly.
His hand latched onto the one outstretched to him.
Understanding these strange beings that opposed the Nox was sothing he'd wanted to do for a very long ti.
He stood up with Aaliyah's support.
"You don't hate ?"
"Of course I do. You massacred so many people without reason. Why wouldn't I hate you?"
"Then…?"
"Can I not feel sympathetic for soone I hate?"
"I really can't understand you."
"As it should be!"
Aaliyah suddenly frowned.
"But…getting you out of here without being noticed will be hard…"
The duo's attention returned to their overall situation. They'd been so enveloped in each other that they didn't even realize the sound of explosions growing louder.
"The charm can't hold out for much longer."
The shield was already cracking. It wouldn't be long before they were exposed to the terror of the outside world.
But Aaliyah wasn't worried. Rather, she was excited.
'If I can get him out, I'll be the first person to ever turn a Nox into an ally!'
The task ahead fit her far better than a traumatic warzone. She needed peace, especially after all the trauma Thaddeus himself had given her.
Honestly, she still had the urge to kill him. She still wanted him to suffer as much as possible.
But she held it in and let it be suppressed by the other most prominent urge in her body.
It was the urge to help.
If her outstretching her hand could change the trajectory of soone's life for the better…
She'd do it, regardless of that person's identity.
After all, wasn't that just who she was?
Aaliyah smiled to herself,
'Sherya is really going to hate for this one.'
***
While the starship's destruction was relatively quick due to Aaliyah's patience and Sherya's planning, its aftereffects were huge, both literally and taphorically.
In the literal sense, the explosive cloud created by the destroyed starship didn't settle down even after many minutes, and the explosion only seed to get stronger with every passing second. It fed on the complex structures and mana storages of the forr star destroyer to beco an uncontrollable behemoth.
But the taphorical effects of the starship's death were even more terrifying than the all-consuming explosion.
The star destroyer was the Nox's only usable Demigod-level force in the universe.
It was their greatest advantage, and their greatest siege weapon.
With it gone, not only would the current battle for Throh proceed faster as one of its primary objectives was accomplished, the Nox's future attempts to take over other Sectors would be far more bearable.
The Nox invasion had effectively been slowed down considerably.
Word spread rapidly through various channels, reaching the ears of, the forces keeping Plaguelord in check, the Calypto battlefield, and even those ruling authorities of the universe.
The destruction of the star destroyer sent one ssage blaring across the universe.
From now on…
It was ti for a counterattack.
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