Esperra Continent, Vandalar
"So you are telling me that we found some people building super-giant vessels with unknown motives right under the world's nose?" Ashen leaned back on the sofa and looked at Alice, who was sitting beside him with her legs propped on his lap.
Not long after Lucia left, Alice decided to fill him in on urgent news from the organization.
"That is what it looked like," Alice said without taking her eyes off the book she was holding in one hand.
Under Ashen's bewildered expression, she used her thumb to turn the page and continued reading whatever novel she was immersed in after dropping that bomb on his head.
"Hey… this is too suspicious. Remember those guys I spoke to you about last time?"
Alice finally raised her head from the book. "You mean the organization Braun was from?"
"Yes." Ashen nodded heavily. "The one that found a group of scientists able to use technology to pierce through the shroud, and then went crazy from what they saw."
"I remember, of course." How could she not? That had been quite the shock to her back then, when he revealed it.
"Maybe those crazies are using these scientists to build those vessels to travel past the shroud."
"...That would be bad, right?" Alice was not slow to understand that the shroud was protecting them from something terrible rather than being a prison, especially after Ashen recounted Braun's experience to her and told her to keep an eye on his organization.
So now that the thought of actively traveling beyond the shroud was on the table, instead of feeling adventurous, she only felt distressed by their recklessness, born out of ignorance.
"Probably super bad." Ashen nodded. "And the biggest reason is this: if we create a passage to leave, won't whatever is out there be able to come in through that same passage?"
Ashen kept it vague enough, since he did not want to drop the whole dramatic truth that a horde of Outer Gods was waiting for them out there.
'Let them stay carefree for a little while longer… it is not like the information would change anything beyond stressing them out.'
"If that is the case, should we move to stop them?" Alice's novel was fully closed now as she looked at him seriously.
"Hmm… let's observe a bit more. I doubt they will reach their goal any time soon, and, above all, we are not even sure of their motives. This is only our conjecture, after all."
"For all we know… they might just want to travel to Seravelle like you first guessed." Ashen shrugged.
"Okay… I will do as you say and observe for now, and only make a move when I am sure that what they are doing will endanger us." Alice nodded obediently.
"I'll leave it to you, babe."
"Hmm."
With that last topic out of the way, Alice relaxed back on the sofa beside him and reopened her novel to resume reading.
Ashen, on the other hand, decided to consult the expert in such matters, just in case.
'Yo, you awake?'
.
.
{What is it?}
'What's your take on this? Did you encounter these guys the first time around?'
{Sure did…}
'Oh? And are they doing what we theorized?'
{More or less… they are indeed building spaceships to eventually venture past this planet. Though it is not for discovery.}
'Then for what?' Ashen narrowed his eyes. 'And where did they even get the resources to build such things? Did technology somehow jump to space travel when I wasn't looking?'
{We do not have the necessary technology to travel across space yet, true. But we have enough theoretical knowledge to make it happen if we had the resources and conditions for it.}
'Wait…' Ashen's eyes snapped open. 'Don't tell me…'
{Indeed. If Seravelle provided those resources, creating a starship is not far-fetched anymore.}
'Haah… I can't believe it.'
{Why not? When you saw the Wrath Domain's Atlas Defense Group in Esperra, did it not occur to you that the other Domains would have the same reach, if not more?}
'Yes… but I did not think of this angle…' Ashen massaged the space between his eyes in frustration. Alice glanced at him but did not disturb him.
She knew that when he was this deep in his own head, it was better to let him sort out his thoughts first.
{Well, their Esperrian equivalent organizations are mostly hands-off, aside from the board's directions, so it is expected that you would not figure it out straight away. Do not beat yourself up over it.}
'It's not about that… It's just that I have a really hard time imagining the Seravellian higher-ups building starships to wage war on aliens across space.' Ashen let a humorless smile touch his lips.
{Hah. And you are right about that. Those vessels… they are built with one objective in mind: fleeing.}
'...Why am I not surprised…'
{Every wise beast leaves itself another way out. We humans, are indeed wise, thinking that if they came down here, the space above would become safe—at least enough for us to flee, using their greed for our planet to buy time.}
'...So we just fled in the end? Did we abandon our planet?'
{Most of us did.}
'Did you?' Ashen asked involuntarily, even though he knew that it was logically impossible. It was just his emotions getting the better of him for a moment, hearing the cowardice of his race.
{Will you?} His older counterpart asked back instead of answering.
'Never.'
{There you go.} Ashen could almost feel him mockingly smirking from his tone alone, but that feeling receded immediately with his next words.
{But that decision left us alone.}
{I had to face the final battle with only a few courageous, loyal ones left. And even they… they died too in the end, leaving me alone.}
'...'
{You know what the most rage-inducing thing is in all of this?} The voice was emotionless at this point.
'...What is it?'
{Those fleeing cowards… they would never survive. Because in this vast universe… we, including our invaders, are nothing but a speck of dust.}
'I understand…' Ashen's thoughts dripped with bitterness. 'How could men who ran away from this face anything grander and come out on top?'
{Yes… In the end, in their attempt to save their lives, they had forfeited their last glimmer of hope.}
'How foolish.'
{How miserable.}