Marcus didn't have much time to snooze around with Quinella as he had to meet up with Bronya. He couldn't break promises now, right?
'Besides, I do want to bring a gift worthy of our engagement.'
The Inventor pondered as he realised that he was running out of time.
'Is that even a thing?'
He frowned as he slowly slipped out of the bed, but first, he kissed his lovely assistant on the forehead before walking over and picking up his Triangle Device. Nanites emerged from the device and dressed him.
'Now then, show me the top best moons in the galaxy.'
Marcus commanded his HUD, which accessed the provided map of the Honkai: Star Rail universe.
A list of moons popped up.
His eyes lit up when he saw a blue moon; it looked like crystallised water. If the sun's light gets reflected off this, it would look amazing at night!
Then it's settled.
With that thought, a green aura surrounded him as he disappeared from the room.
~~~
There is a difference in the level of power one achieves when they transition to the next level of existence when they gaze at time from outside of the flow of time.
For example, when Erina gazed at the green clouds, the physical manifestation of time, she didn't become all-seeing or something like that. No, her new time-seeing power only affects what she can see with her human eyes.
As before, she was a simple human; well, she was a perfect human after the gene bath, but not a supernatural human.
That means she can't reverse the flow of time for the entire planet or even the solar system, the way Marcus can. Before his ascension, he was already one of the strongest existences on Earth.
His power only grew, and then he grasped Time itself at the Multiversal level; his adaptation powers magnified the growth until he could gaze at time regardless of distance.
That means. After seeing the moon and where it is with the help of his HUD, he crossed countless Solar Systems and stepped on a barren world with the blue moon in the distance.
'It has been a while since I did any sort of exercise.' He looked around for a bit, enjoying using his legs for more than just 'simple' walking.
Eventually, his eyes ended up on the moon in the distance.
'Gorgeous, Bronya will love it.'
He smiled, ready to take the whole celestial object with him…
But at that moment, he felt someone touch his back.
"Hmm?"
The Inventor slowly turned around and looked at who it was.
His eyes widened slightly as he saw a girl in a witch hat pointing her staff at Marcus.
The girl had ash-brown hair with purple tips, wore a black corset with bare shoulders, and radiated a massive amount of confidence.
At the moment, her confidence is on edge.
"My, the moment I leave my fleet, I get interrupted." He complained for a second as he looked at her. Now that he could see her in the flesh, he realised that Herta, the girl before him, was indeed gorgeous.
"You are dangerous and need to be dealt with." She proclaimed, already having some idea who he was; she moved on him the moment he left the safety of his fleet.
"Not even going to introduce yourself, sweetheart?" He asked with a disarming smile.
"We will have many years to talk once I seal you away." She replied with finality in her voice. She is certain of her victory! As expected from Madam Herta!
As she said that, Marcus could feel concepts around him manifest and take shape in space, which should have locked him in place.
But it wasn't all that, as she moved her staff around and mirror-like items manifested around him before he could feel even more space-locking being placed on him.
'She IS good! I am very impressed.'
"You are powerful… for your reality." As he said that, he simply walked out of the sealing techniques she used with her conceptual powers.
Herta's eyes trembled as she jumped back, and a huge mirror appeared underneath him. A pillar of purple energy soared as he felt a crushing force descend, and a beam of energy slammed down from above.
From the looks of it, a huge amount of damage is being thrown around.
Once it ended, the debris was everywhere. Marcus used a burst of psionic energy to blast it away so that he could watch Herta uninterrupted.
"You know. I am starting to feel just a bit annoyed." He commented as he saw her eyes shaking and her staff stumbling a bit.
'N-Nothing worked! That last one had enough power to wipe out an entire continent!'
"I am giving you a chance. You can turn around and leave, and I shall spare you… for a considerable amount of time until the entire cosmos of this reality is under my control."
"...and if I don't?" She asked with raised eyebrows.
"Then you will lose, and I will make you mine. You will suffer the same fate as the Goddesses of my world."
Herta frowned as she got into a fighting stance. She is treating this very seriously.
"I will pass on that offer."
With a wave of her staff, purple beams like lasers rushed at him. They all slammed into him, creating a huge crater on impact, but it was like shooting at a wall.
Nothing happened.
The witch was ready for the next move, but he was nowhere to be seen!
'Where did he—'
Her eyes grew wide as saucers when she felt her hair being touched.
Herta's gaze slowly went to the side as she saw him smelling her long hair.
Terror washed over her as she swung her staff sideways into him, but in that moment, pain washed over her hands as she felt like she hit an unbreakable wall; her staff blew away as she lost her hold from all the pain.
Before she could make distance between them, something nailed her in one spot.
A purple aura surrounded her; she could feel it was some form of energy she had never seen before.
It was pure energy and not a concept that came from an Aeon.
"I gave you a choice, and now you will suffer the consequences of that choice." As he said that, purple chains manifested around her, coiling around her body.
Herta's eyes widened as the terror she was feeling only continued to grow.
"...W-What are you going to do to me?" She asked him. Her voice couldn't hide her fear. This was the first time in her life she had ever felt such dread.
"Isn't it obvious? I have beaten you. You are no match against me. If our roles were reversed, you would have taken me to your base, and then you would have tried to run experiments on me."
He explained to her as her staff ended up in his hands.
Marcus smiled as he saw those chains highlighting her curves.
"I will do the same." He flicked her staff from one hand to another.
'R-Run experiments… on me?' She tried to struggle, but nothing moved; she couldn't even lift a finger.
From the looks of it, he was allowing her to talk.
"...W-Wait… umm…can we talk this out?" Herta tried to reason with him as she began to realise that she would most likely end up as a toy.
Her considerable intelligence is coming up with results… and they are not good for her health.
"Talk… what could we possibly talk about? You attacked me first."
Herta bit her lower lip as she realised that she would need to lower herself to get anything.
'Or'
"Come now. You are magnanimous enough—" She was about to give a whole speech to him on how great he is, but she was out of words when she saw space open itself in the distance like a huge scar above a blue moon, and a hand just flucked the whole thing out!
When she understood what she'd seen, Marcus held the moon in the palm of his hand.
"What… are you?" She asked, now definitely…very concerned!
"Oh, you finally want to speak like a civilised girl."
"No, I don't. I am too terrified to do that!" She tried to shake her head, but it didn't work.
"Huh… is that so. So the great Madam Herta is terrified of me? I am just an engineer who likes to tinker in his father's garage. How could I possibly have such strength?" Marcus shook his head, messing with the girl the same way she likes to do.
But that only made her even more petrified. She was sure she had never met him before, nor had they ever interacted! She is directly linked with her Aeon, which means that her all-knowing Aeon doesn't know why he knows her!
Which is madness in its own right!
"Hahaha, that look! It was priceless. I will have fun playing with you." As he said that, he threw the literal moon up and down like it was a pebble or a rock.
"...W-Wait! Let's talk! I am sure we can come to an agreement," she said, her eyes darting from side to side.
Never in her life had she been humiliated like this
"What is there to talk about, Herta? C'mon, give me something equivalent to YOU?" he asked, but to the girl, it felt like being hit with a hammer!
As someone as narcissistic as she is, what could possibly be of greater value than her!?
"...When… you put it like that…" Herta grimaced.
"Out of words? Have nothing to consider?" He asked, making her ponder even more.
"I-I could offer you some of the rarest artefacts in the cosmos! M-My journals! It could ease your conquest!" She began throwing whatever came to mind.
"You don't even know what I want or need." He shook his head in disappointment. With a hand motion, the pair of them was gone.
Before Herta knew it, she was in something akin to a living room. The culture was unfamiliar to her, but she understood what it was.
She had no choice but to float next to him as soon as they were in the bedroom.
"N-N-No, hold on a second!? W-What do you think you are doing!?" She began to blush like a tomato. Her cheeks were red as her eyes began to spin.
"Why are you confused about any of this? Aren't you one of the greatest minds in this Cosmos? So I would obviously want to see how talented our child would be."
As he said that, he made her drop into the bed, and the way the chains were around her body shifted. Her legs were now locked for 'easy' access as Herta realised that she was in a very embarrassing position!
"Hiii!" She squeaked, tried to move, but nothing worked.
"I-I-I surrender! I would be your slave if you want, but not this! Not like this!" The ash-brown-haired girl didn't want to be bred like some cattle!
Marcus laughed for a second before walking over and sitting in one of the two available couches in the bedroom.
A small glass coffee table sat between the two couches. He propped his legs on it and looked at the girl lying in the middle of the bed.
"You know. I find your triple standards very… how should I put this? Not annoying, but hilarious.
At first, you were radiating arrogance, thinking that you could take someone who had conquered the afterlife, imprisoned the God of the Underworld and took his wife for himself.
Or tamed Devils and turned them into slaves. To turn me into your pet project to study.
Hmm, I don't know why I am even trying to listen to what you want to say." He sighed, dissapointed as the next moment he accessed his HUD and sent a command to his Flagship and escort to fly back to Bronya's world.
Now that the Stellaron is gone, the terraforming towers are ready for testing. He can start fixing that world and then return to Cretaceous Earth and wait for the Space Vampires to arrive.
"I-I am sorry, I didn't know… I…I…I was arrogant. I mean… I am me. How could I not be arrogant?" By this point, she is saying all sorts of things and trying to get out of this situation.
Whatever comes out of her mouth, she will try to use it!
"Hmm, and now you meet someone who is even worse than you~." As he said that, he got up, walked over to the bed and sat down.
Her eyes grew big as she began to tear up.
But instead of doing anything, he turned around and leaned closer to her head.
"You could become mine, little witch. I had a witch before, but she got drunk on power and got demoted. Last time I checked on her, she was taking care of my animals, which I have collected over the past 320 million years."
Herta's expression went through several baffled expressions! What she just heard… It's wild! Hundreds of Millions of years!? What does that look like!?
"Time travel, not my actual age, I assure you. I mastered the time that I can observe not just your cosmos but every single other cosmos where something called… TIME flow.
You're trying to fight me… now that was the stupidest thing in your whole life as a 'genius'." He tapped her cheek as he said that.
"..."
'How should I know that Nous won't know what you are!?'
"By relying on something else. My beautiful witch."
He spoke directly into her mind, making her even more… terrified! Not even her thoughts are safe from him!
"...Your Aeon is more or less a conceptual Quantum Machine; I have those in my every single Star Destroyer. So I know how they work.
Any calculation needs to have a basis to make those calculations. I have been struggling with the utilisation of the Codex of Evolution in my Quantum Computers.
So I know how to make your Aeon come out blank." He smirked, looking down at her. But since he was on her side, she didn't see the full extent of his grin.
"..."
"...I get it. You are better at this than I am. Are you happy now?" Herta surrendered… again.
"I am not talking about that. I have asked you a question. I said you could be mine. Follow me in my conquests. Learn all the mysteries of the Multiverse, not just your very small Cosmos."
"..."
"...Do I even have a choice?" She replied after a good minute of pondering.
Instead, his finger tapped her forehead, and she felt like she got yanked out of her body.
She ended up standing somewhere… like a huge hall. Her eyes scanned the surroundings.
'A memory?'
"Yes. I project my memory into your consciousness."
"You are mad to do that. I am an Emanator. Nous is connected to me directly."
"Inconsequential; no Aeon can see through the walls of my Assimilator. Not with your cosmos understanding of space." He shrugged at her.
"..."
After the hall, he pulled her into his workshop.
With a hand motion, all his inventions appeared on the pedestals.
The witch perked up, walked over and began to inspect one after another.
Each time she did, she furrowed her eyebrows.
'None of them follow the principles I know. Yet, there is a source of energy that flows…'
'Some sort of… circle? Does this energy follow a different set of laws? Calculations?'
After inspecting them, she got a general idea.
"...Impressive." Herta looked at him after she set the rifle down.
"How about this?" He made a new table appear with triangle devices.
She walked over like a curious cat and began to inspect it.
At first she was confused, but then…
Her expression went through many different expressions.
"...A-A miniature solar system!? It emulates laws? It even has a miniature Nous!? What…is this!?" The Witch exclaimed, as if she'd just found something amazing and couldn't wait to tear it apart!
"Triangle device. Most of my companions have. It's the standard edition for my people." He explained to her as it disappeared from her hands.
Herta looked devastated for a second, then looked at him.
"These devices can temporarily evolve someone to the next stage."
He showed her Sirin, who, in the next moment, morphed into an angel-like being with wings and a Halo. The power she radiated made the Witch take a step back.
"... a Biological being can temporarily become that!?" Her eyes shifted from Sirin's memory to him.
"Are you surprised? Don't tell me you can't still make life at will?" He teased her.
"..."
"I was here for only… three days, and I already made over 3 million people." He counted the days before giving a rough number.
Herta sighed before raising her hands.
"Fine… Fine… enough with rubbing salt into my wounds. I give up. I will become whatever you want."
With that said, her surroundings changed; she was once more in that embarrassing and… lewd position, showing him her panties and all that stuff. Thankfully, she is wearing black tights, but they are a bit translucent… not that he should be able to see through…
Or could…
'Sigh…'
"...Can you… please… let me go?" She asked as nicely as she could.
"Promise to be a good girl and listen to your Master?" He asked with a bright smile.
"...Ugh… you can't be serious! W-Why do I need to call you Master!?" A deep grimace appeared on her face.
"And do tell me what I am then to you?" He asked her, making her continue to grimace; she wanted to be somewhere else but not here! Anywhere!
"...Y-You are… my….my… Boss! Leader!" She got a bright idea.
"In that case. You can stay like that… for a couple of days. I will he terraforming my future wife's world. The same world that had the Stellaron problem, but now it's gone.
There is a lot to do." He slowly stood up and began to walk towards the doors.
"Ugh!!!!" She groaned loudly, like something inside of her was fighting.
"...Fine! Damn it! Damn you! My… M-M-Master, now come and remove them!" She tried to struggle even more.
Marcus shook his head, unable to believe she could be like that!
"You still have enough spine to talk back like that." He turned around and looked at her. He swiftly walked over to her and looked down on her from his standing position.
"I love this… resistance. It makes my sadism surge. That is why I love humanity, because humans are stupid and genius at the same time.
The smarter one, the stupider it can be. Just like you are right now." He said to her.
Herta gnashed her teeth, not liking that.
"You would never experience any of this in your life unless it's me. You meet someone who is…simply better at what you do." He chuckled.
"...I-I know… how many times did I surrender to you already!"
"Nope, you didn't surrender. Do you think I am naive? I read your mind the whole time. I know how you think from A to Z.
You still desire to learn all my methods before dealing with me."
"..."
"...You assume that I will take this lying down like that?" She replied in a dead-serious tone.
"Hahahahahaha." He began laughing loudly. A suffocating, crushing force descended on her.
She felt every atom in her body slowly crumbling to dust.
"...A girl who can't grasp fundamental forces is telling me that you can defeat me? I conquered the afterlife, subjugated devils, and made gods bow before me! I invented true time travel! I tamed time, life, and life evolution! Created infinite energy; I created life from weapons!
Tell me how long you think it took me to achieve all of this?" He asked in a bit of mocking tone.
"..."
"Close to eight years. What did YOU do in the same amount of time?"
"..."
After calming down, he lowered his pressure.
This time her eyes looked different, a bit hollow.
"...I am sorry… Master, please forgive me." She spoke properly this time as Marcus narrowed his eyes.
But then he turned around and dismissed the chains.
Making her finally free, she swiftly coiled and hugged her knees.
"Quite disappointing that it ended up like this. But then again. You won't take this down lightly." He shook his head before disappearing from this specific suite.
The moment he was gone, the witch began to tremble.
"...T-This is madness… how could someone like that exist? Nuos… tell me… what is this?" The girl mumbled under her breath.
The power she sensed made her snap… it was something she had never felt before. She knew when Aeons were watching her, and she stared back.
But this? She could not even move her eyes when he was pissed and stared her down.
That's what made her finally realise the difference between this guy and her.
"...And I didn't even learn his name… pathetic," Herta mumbled to herself as she closed her eyes and decided to sleep a bit.
~~~
'That pressure… it was the same when Marcus was pissed at Sirin?' Kiana looked around. Trembling just from remembering it.
"What is going on!? Did they have a crash out?" The Valkyrie asked the Goddess as she moved her head away from… books!!! Yes! She is learning magic theory…
"No… he is not in the room anymore. Quinella is…sleeping there alone." Athena was a bit confused as she sensed time being manipulated.
He left the room and went somewhere; he then returned.
'Strange…'
For a second, she wondered what to do. Well, she has a student now, so… she can check on him later.
"He is not? How did he just disappear like that?" Kiana asked, recalling that no one had left from that corridor!
"Does he really need to walk out to leave the room, Kiana?" Athena asked with an amused look.
"...Ugh… magic mumbo jumbo… to think that I would prefer Herrscher's abilities to easier ones." The girl scratched her head as she was feeling frustrated. Magic is starting to feel like a drag!
"Relax, calm yourself. Instead of taking it in, you are riling yourself up over a difficult task. That's not how you do it. The task won't lash out at you. This is not a fight." The Goddess calmed her as she returned to her teacher mode.
"...I try…"
After several more tries and a shift in her thinking, the girl started to use her smarts.
Kiana is a genius; she inherited genius from her family. After all, she is a distant descendant of Dr MEI. The genes are there. The issue was that, when faced with something complex, she would easily get frustrated.
It's like a switch that gets turned off the moment she doesn't like something. This is what the Goddess found out in the first lesson, and this is what she is going to fix.
"First, the core of the circle, the symbol, then you draw this—" The Goddess continued, teaching her to make a circle of her own to cast spells with.
The class lasted several hours.
In fact, they would spend the whole trip back to Jerilo-IV learning.
~~~
Marcus ended up on the bridge where he could enjoy the view of the warship sliding through the byfrost in the green clouds.
In here, he was alone; the crew or the captain wouldn't annoy him. He was a bit dissapointed in himself that, in the end, he had to lose his cool in front of Herta.
She was quite similar to him, so it is understandable that she would be hard to tame.
But not to this degree!
With a sigh, he leaned into his right leg as he kept it up. This was as humiliating as losing!
Even with all his fancy stuff, he can't conquer someone like Herta, who, by his Technocracy standards, is decent at best.
She might be a genius in her timeline, but by this point, his achievements are far superior, and he has no 'guardian deity' to tap knowledge from.
"Hi☆"
Marcus' gaze shifted to the side, where he saw Elysia leaning slightly forward as she looked at him.
"Elysia, what is it?" He replied to her greeting.
The pinkette smiled at him before speaking. "Since you are alone, I thought I would keep you company." She had this great chance! The maid realised that she had maid perks. One of them is to know where her Master is at all times!
And when the warship is this big or the space station is ultra big, it's the best kind of bonus.
Kallen and Firefly are literally blind to this! They have no idea where their Master is, while she does! This could help her win the race against MEI.
"Is that so? I am a bit down. I faced a proud witch; I thought that I could easily dominate her with my greater achievements.
But it turns out that humanity is extremely dumb at times. It does kind of make sense since the dawn of time; we used to touch fire, not even knowing what it was, recklessly." Marcus commented, recalling the Stone Age. Where cavemen first discovered fire.
"...oh? You had time to leave? I am surprised." Elysia was a bit surprised. Was he away? When? She was certain that she tracked him quite a bit!
"You shouldn't be." He sighed again, leaning into the throne.
"I can be in all places at once if I want to." The Inventor smiled back while saying that.
"Though I rarely abuse my powers. I prefer to make things over that.
Think of me like a designer, you know, of fashion shows, right? I will use the definition you should be aware of.
Like the designers, who spend most of the year making things and then, when the time is right, they reveal their selection.
I am like that."
"...Oh… that does make sense. So let me guess. Until now you were designing things, and now the show is on, am I right?" Elysia replied, understanding him a bit better.
"You could say that. I developed enough to start the next stage." He looked back at the warship stretching before him.
"...Hmm… is that what you really want? Causing so much destruction and misery?" She asked, pushing him a bit for answers.
"There has to be Order, and I am the best to do that." He replied to her.
"...So Control?" Elysia countered him.
"Indeed. I hate Chaos, perpetual chaos, instead of letting things calm down. Like, for example, my world before I rose to power was ruled by politics, pathetic popularity contests.
I took over and made everyone bow to me. Instead of perpetual corruption across all layers of government, there was now only one government.
Me and my Technocracy. Under this government, people can focus on satisfying their curiosity. If you want to make music, you can, and for that, you will be rewarded.
Same with anything else you could possibly want to do."
"...Hmm? Wait… you mean to say… that normal jobs don't exist anymore?" The girl was confused.
"You have no idea how Technocracy works, do you?" Marcus chuckled as he realised that Elysia and the rest of them thought that there was only oppression with Technocracy.
"...Umm… I had no time to check it out." The pinkette tapped her chin with her finger, an embarrassed expression on her face.
"Well, come over." He motioned for her to sit on his lap.
This request made her eyes gleam- yes! There it is; her cuteness is winning him over!
Without hesitation, the maid ended up in his lap. But that wasn't the end, as he moved her to face him!
When Elysia saw that, her eyes widened.
'T-This is a bit too close!'
"What? Is my maid protesting?" He teased after seeing her reaction.
"N-No… It's fine. I was a bit surprised." She replied with a small blush; she was a bit shy in this situation.
"Always the self-sacrificing one." He tapped her nose, quite happy that she self-sacrificed for him instead of a big interdimensional tree.
She puffed her cheeks as she realised that he even knew what she was planning to do.
"It's not fun that you know so much about me." The girl complained.
"It's my job to know about lovely maids and make sure they are content."
"...Hmph! You knew about me before I was even your maid!"
"Indeed. Now, back to your previous question. Let me explain how technocracy will bring about the golden age."
He leaned forward and placed his forehead on hers. His actions confused her just for a moment, but then she saw his memories.
~~~
Bronya, with Cocolia, looked with wide eyes at what was beyond the city walls…
There was no snow! And it was not cold anymore! Instead, it was just chilly, but the temperature slowly started to climb!
"...N-Never in my life imagined seeing such a day when there is no Eternal Freeze," Cocolia said emotionally to her daughter.
"Yes… It's something else."
'It only took a few days for Marcus to fix this… incredible.'
Her eyes went to the sky, where warships floated. The Core piece of the Assimilator is casting a shadow.
For the first time, this shadow wasn't oppressive; it represented hope!
"What now, Bronya?" Cocolia asked the ash-silver-haired girl.
"Huh? You asking me?" The girl replied, as she was not sure!
"You are his fiancée, are you not? You should have an idea."
"Umm… I mean… he left this to me, but I am not sure." Her index finger scratched her chin. She was unsure.
"You must gather your resolve. Otherwise, he will think that you are wavering." Cocolia commented with crossed arms.
"I-I know. I am just a bit overwhelmed by how easily this was solved. We just talked, and it happened!" Bronya exclaimed.
It's not easy, okay!?
~~~
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