Starship Commander Trapped In A Fantasy World 204 A Certain Princess' Despair

"So this is the imperial capital…"

Looking around inside a truly ma.s.sive city, Dax felt like he was home. Skysc.r.a.pers reaching into the sky with pedestrian streets between them as far as the eye could see, all sorts of different kinds of people going around their day created a buzz which reminded Dax of the megacities of the Galactic Empire. 

(Adapt strike plan omega, adjust 02 07 19. Change up evaluation of hard targets to type 3, continue to avoid tactical type options.)

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED.)

But still, as Dax felt a semblance of familiarity and homesickness he was keenly aware that he was in hostile territory and thus constantly readjusted an emergency exit/strike plan in case his cover was blown. The reasoning for his state of alert was not only the numerous imperial knights patrolling the street but also the fact that the imperial capital was also home of an archangel sanctuary, as evident by countless armour wearing angels who flew around the city, apparently having put on alert by something. 

(Now, where would a secret shadowy organisation dealing in creating homunculus and destabilizing governments for their own gain hide?...)

Having continued to search for the clue the archangel Eos left him with the qiton found himself out of place and slightly lost, partly because of all the living beings emitting their own mana signatures made it extremely hard for him to even know if he was getting a correct reading.

"Hey, you! Stop right there!"

(f.u.c.k…)

Hearing that someone behind him was definitely addressing him, Dax's mind started racing while he kept his outward appearance calm and collected, choosing to ignore the callout as he moved towards a more secluded area.

"I said stop right there demonkin! You're the one I meet before right!? I demand another duel!"

(Oh, for f.u.c.k's sake…)

But when the knightling spoke once more Dax felt a bit of the tension drain from his body. Turning around Dax found a group of knightlings looking at him, the centermost one being the one he had met earlier in his travels.

"You really are the one I met earlier! Duel me again, I feel like I can beat you now!"

"Nah, I'm busy. Go home."

"There's no way anything you're doing will be more important than duelling!"

(This puppy really doesn't take no for an answer…)

Feeling a familiar headache return the qiton contemplated different solutions, but simply found himself unable to figure out anything that would not result in him straight up ripping the knightling apart.

"Haaa… Okay then, but I have some conditions."

"I knew you would come around! Follow me, the area is this way!"

Turning around and leaving while some of the other needlessly proud knightings made sure that Dax followed, the qiton wondered if straight up killing them where they stood would have been the easier option. Following the after the knightings, Dax noticed he was going further and further into the centre of the capital, as the skysc.r.a.pers only seemed to increase in height while he noticed more and more angels flying around in the air above.

(TARGET MANA SIGNATURE DETECTED. UNABLE TO TRACE SIGNAL.)

As Dax and the knightlings reached some sort of academy ICI started picking up trace amounts of the signature Dax was looking for, but it was still unable to locate a direction due to the high amount of mana interference. 

"Well then! Sate your therms!"

Drawing her sword the knighting walked out in the middle of an open field she planted it into the ground with a dignified expression, trying (and failing) to imitate a certain iron willed general. Creating quite a scene the knighting unknowingly sealed away Dax's chance to back out and so he could only proceed.

"First of all, I am a mercenary. If you plan to make me fight I expect payment."

"Of course! How's this?"

Casually tossing a pouch filled with gold coins at Dax's feet, the knightling proved conclusively to Dax that she had no manners, typical of a n.o.ble when dealing with someone of lower rank than themselves. 

"That's fine, then secondly I want you to never bother me again if I win this fight if I lose I can promise to train you or something like that."

(But I have no incentive or hold any commitment in the slightest to honour that promise, so expect me to just straight up kill you if you somehow manage to win this.)

While leaving the rest of his conditions unsaid as the knighting accepted his therms in a haughty manner the two of them made their way to open field as countless students gathered around to watch.

"Prepare yourself!"

"Yeah, yeah. On your first move."

Without any of the inexperienced knightings having noticed, Dax's aura had changed in a subtle way while he was collecting mana at the same time. 

"Have at yo!-"

But before the knightling had even taken a full step, Dax had closed the range effortlessly as he placed an open palm strike in the centre of the knightlings chest and knocked her away. 

"Eh?"

While the spectating knightlings remained dazed Dax casually tapped his foot on the ground, enacting a magic formation he had been creating while talking with the brat. Seemingly out of nowhere a tornado of dust formed around Dax and shoot into the sky, making the naive knightlings look into the sky.

"Sleep!"

Moving the dust with such accuracy that he controlled each single grain Dax (aided by ICI) used the sunlight to create a series of bright flashes which induced a REM like state in the knightings, in effect hypnotizing them.

"And just like that, I have an open area without any active mana interference. ICI commence active scan, use a bi wave mana pulse to hide my location."

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, COMMENCING ACTIVE MANA SIGNATURE PULSE… COMPLETE, SEARCH SUCCESSFUL, MANA SIGNATURE LOCATED.)

(That worked out surprisingly well.)

Leaving the academy behind (after he had collected the coin offered by the brat knightling of course) Dax followed ICI's directions until the sea of skysc.r.a.pers suddenly opened up, revealing a truly ma.s.sive castle.

(Of course a secret shadowy organization which destabilizes governments for their own gain has direct ties that reach deeply into the Empire itself, but really?... Guess I'll have to infiltrate that place to find out where they took my possession.)

---

(I wonder how much time has pa.s.sed?... I wonder why I even care about that…)

Xi had felt something break inside her when she saw Chad die and since then everything had been a blur. How long time had pa.s.sed since then? She didn't know or seem to care for that matter, she just moved like she was told, move here, come over here, stay there, eat this and so on. Like slipping in and out of a dream the dragonkin princess held no sense of time or pain, even when the cloaked figures cut into her skin and removed her scales she didn't utter a single word. The cycle of torture/experimentation seemed to go on for days at a time, but still, it didn't hurt near as much as when she was left alone in her small cell.

"Uuuu…"

Being left alone in a cell she could only barely sit down in without any way of telling the time for what felt like days on end without any food or water her emotional suffering seemed to return with a semblance of her consciousness, the despair of loss and her continually sustained injuries only seemed to make her suffering worse. 

"Get out, it's time for a test."

But even as her mind seemed to be continually eroded, the dragonkin princess' body got stronger and stronger, after some amount of time had pa.s.sed she started being subjected to various tests. Following the cloaked figure Xi was lead to a large open room where she was locked in and after some time a door on the opposing side opened.

(So more torture… No, if I'm lucky this might even be an execution...)

As a large wolf like creature emerged from the door Xi noticed faint traces of blood on the floor she stood barefooted on and without offering any resistance she let the monster charge at her and bite into her arm.

(Why doesn't it hurt?)

But to the dragonkin's surprise, the monster didn't seem to hurt her, even as it bit down on her arm and frailed her around before tossing her at a nearby wall like a ragdoll Xi felt no sense of pain. Slightly surprised by that fact even as her mind had mostly eroded away, Xi looked to her arm to find it was suddenly being covered by white scales with a faint rainbow coloured tint to them. As the monster attacked her once more, even multiple times after that, Xi felt no pain, no matter of the large wolf used its powerful bite or claws no harm would befall her.

(Seems like I can't die… Why is it I'm never able to do what I really want?)

Using all its strength the monster brought down its teeth to try and crush its prey's head, but nothing seemed to happen other than the monsters own teeth starting to hurt, even so, it kept on trying. After about half an hour the monster gradually tired itself out, leading it to leave its prey and went over to another part of the room.

(Chad, I want to see you again…)

Realizing monster somehow couldn't kill her Xi continued feeling miserable but at some point doing that, the young dragonkin princess had lost control of her own body. Against her will, it stood up on its own and started walking towards the monster which started growling at her before finally attacking and once more biting into her without any effect, but this time something was different.

(Eh? What am I doing?)

Before Xi knew what was happening she had reached out to the monster and grasped its ear, then without willing it herself Xi ripped the monster's ear off. Being tossed away by the monster as it let out an ear splitting yelp Xi landed on her feet, before she once more started walking towards it against her own will.

-

"It's perfect!"

Looking at his best creation yet, the old, white haired mage couldn't help but speak out as he formed a smile with glee. The part had been troublesome to get his hand on, that part was true, but when he looked at how his newest creation tore apart the direwolf with its bare hands it had all been worth it.

"Now just to complete the reconditioning, then I'll finally have a weapon that can deal with that f.u.c.king monster!"

Finally having found a solution to dealing with that outsider which had been a thorn in his and the Empires side ever since it interfered with his plans to obtain merekin specimens, the mage finally saw a solution in sight.