SOS CH 25: THREATS DON'T WORK (Patreon)

In the ship that had slowly become more and more silent as time passed, Phaeia was frantically inputting numbers against a door as she waited for it to open.

Tears streamed from her eyes and fear could be seen filling them with the sound of a fight coming from her intercom ceased, those of something being chewed were definitely heard.

‘Is it a cosmic beast?’

Even so, her mind continued to work as she tried to deduce what was happening and what was the cause.

Cosmic beasts were creatures of civilization who roamed space all around with no particular root nor known origin. Few deduced that they came from the Dark Sea and might have been originally in other universes but the theory of a parallel universe existing was so ridiculous Phaea had no wishes and no time to entertain it.

Some of them were so rare that only one existed in each generation, while others were so prolific that they were deemed as system solar threats to even galaxy level.

The best example was the Parasites, a galaxy-level threat and beyond that had already proven how dangerous they were by swallowing half of the Triangulum galaxy and even erasing a few solar systems in the Andromeda and Milky Way. [1]

But no matter how she thought Noah did not seem like a cosmic beast.

[Password correct]

[Identity Verified.]

[Welcome Professor Phaeia. May you have a fruitful session]

“Damn!”

Why were these things going so slowly? She cursed while ignoring the fact that she was the one who installed all those protocols.

Thankfully for her, even though the opening was slow, Noah seemed still busy eating her comrades.

This though sent a shiver down her spine as she might very well be the next one getting eaten if things did not change but what else could she do now was bargain.

Who knew? With a little bit of luck, he might not even care about her and continue his road after leaving the spaceship.

This was what she thought as the door closed behind her once she stepped inside and started walking toward all the healing pods.

There, in the middle, the only one currently occupied entered her eye.

This one was her greatest hope.

.

.

.

Sadly for Phaeia, lady luck did not seem to be with her on this day.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

“Hello~! Anyone here!? This is for an inspection madam, please open the door.”

Phaeia paled slightly as she heard the knock. This should not even be possible. The materials used to create this door and the wideness should not allow something as simple as a ‘knock’ to even be heard. She could only shudder when she tried to calculate the level of strength necessary to succeed in such a feat.

Fighting to keep control of her nerves, Phaeia brought a trembling hand toward a button and activated one of the screens connected to a camera outside. She usually simply used this to know who was disturbing her when she was working.

Never thought she would be using it like this.

There was not even a speck of blood on his body and his smile was as bright as that of a friend coming to say hello.

What surprised her though was that Noah looked obviously different.

If before he looked like a young kid, now he looked more akin to a teen. Furthermore, the level of Dark matter that could be detected in his body seemed to have increased, slightly, nearly doubling. Nausea came to her as she put two and two together and understood what was the reason for his growth.

When the screen lit up, she could see Noah tilting his head curiously before immediately looking to his right in the direction of the Camera and waving his hand, with a happy smile.

“Hi! Would you mind kindly opening the door? I have someone I need to recuperate here. Oh, of course, you are free to refuse. Not like it would change anything.”

He taped the door quietly and Phaeia could see the dent in the door caused by a fist. Her mind moved as she remembered the wounds and the damage to Morgian’s armor.

“You…You were the one who put Morgiana unconscious.”

“Oh? I was caught? Teehee. Sorry, it was just a prank.”

‘Is this bastard schizophrenic or bipolar?’

How could someone act like this despite the horror they committed a few moments ago?

At the same time, Phaeia lowered her head, as a humorless laugh started leaking from her mouth.

Morgiana had been intentionally wounded by Noah. This means that this whole situation. From the very moment he met them, not even before that, he had been plotting against them, masterfully using his deceptive appearance and waiting to strike at the right moment, knowing fully well that they would try to kill him.

All this while, they had been akin to helpless puppets dancing to the tunes of this young man. Without knowing anything, acting as if they were the ones in control.

How insidious.

How audacious.

Coming in the heart of the enemy, waiting patiently until the right moment then striking mercilessly when they lowered their guard by bitting their ankles first.

“You…You are truly a snake. A venomous snake.”

Noah seemed surprised at her words before a genuine smile formed on his face as he answered,

“You would not understand but…This is the best compliment you could have ever given me. Thank you and just for that, I will make sure you die painlessly.”

Boom~!

Something akin to an explosion happened when Noah struck the door again. But this time, with far more power.

“Your name is Phaeia, right? I always remember those who compliment me.”

Boom~!

A second shock wave and this time the door trembled, clearly already reaching its limits.

She could see that the arms of Noah were not spared, they were bloodied, his fingers were broken and it seemed this was the same for his arms. But even so, not even a speck of hesitation appeared in his eyes as he continued to strike the door and regenerate.

Phaeia knew…Her time was counted. This was why.

“Stop!”

“Hum?”

“If you enter, I will kill Morgiana.”

“Oh?”

“The healing pod used also has a connection to an extremely powerful poison and a corrosive. We prepared this for traitors that needed to be executed. I only need to push one button and Morgiana will become history.”

“Huh…? This is pretty interesting.”

Boom~!

Noah smiled as he punched the door once again, causing a crack to finally appear. Phaeia meanwhile was feeling like she was about to go crazy!

“Don’t you care about what happens to her!!?”

“Oh. I do. I will definitely be quite sad if Morgiana dies, you know? After all, this would be my fault.”

“Then…”

“But. Do you even dare to kill her?”

Boom~!

His laugh sounded again,

“Kill her and I will have nothing else holding me back, right?”

His smile slowly changed into a bored expressionless one,

“Don't bluff when you can’t afford to lose.”

He brought his bloodied fist one last time and…

BOOM!!!

Finally sent the door flying.

Stepping quietly in the medical room, Noah rolled slowly his shoulder.

“Who the hell do you think I am?”

An eerie red light formed in his right eye as he approached the helpless Phaeia.

The first part of the chase was about to end.

[1]: The Triangulum galaxy, named for its location in the constellation Triangulum, is the 2nd-nearest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way, after the Andromeda galaxy (M31). If you do manage to glimpse it, you're looking across a distance of 2.7 million light-years. There are other smaller galaxies closer to us but those are like baby galaxies while Triangulum, Milky Way, and Andromeda are the big Three. One thing to note is, while multiple galaxies exist in my stories, other galaxies will not be explored for a very long while.

Don't forget to leave a review on Royal Road please