Chapter 270 - The Aftermath

"Ya done, kid?" The voice came from above. The geezer was up there and he was shooting lasers from his fingers like crazy. 

Since it was night, the lightshow was quite something. 

The black immobile ones around us were now dead. 

"That voice-" The headmaster paused. "Bronstel!"

"Thought you'd kick the bucket already, Roger." He landed next to us. "Guess, shouldn't have been that optimistic." 

The headmaster snorted with a taunt. "Heh, as if. And that's my line. I thought you were gone for good. What a shame!"

Both of them taunted and kept on talking. 

They weren't hostile with each other though- probably. 

Sigh.

I just looked up at the sky. "There are way too many injured here, what are we going to do about that?"

Even now students were running around with medkits and treating each other.

But it was already night and that meant- help would be awfully delayed. 

"Well, with the aliens gone and the barrier diffused, more and more help is coming," The headmaster said. "Though I suppose since we're a bit away from the mainland, it'll take a few hours."

But we didn't have a few hours. "What if-"

The headmaster looked up with a sigh. "Most of the kids are underground through the palm network. The ones you're seeing above are the brave ones and mostly just second and third years Of course they'll be casualties, but all we can now do is pray it won't be too high." He sighed again. 

My body ached a bit too much for some reason. "I'll go check on-" I couldn't really get up though.

Mom was heavily injured. And I had a feeling she was going to prioritize everyone else rather than herself- so I had to hurry.

But my body didn't move. 

"They're fine, relax," The old man dismissed me. "They were injured but nothing was major enough to warrant too much concern. Besides, someone is already tending them."

"But still-"

The old man sat next to me, on the opposite side from the headmaster, dragged my head back on the grass. "Just stay down for now. Your muscles are too tense. There's a chance you might end up tearing some tendons." He came close. "Besides, wouldn't yar mom beg the docs to treat ya first instead if she saw you like this?" He whispered. 

He did have a point but still-

"You can't tear tendons that easily, moron," The headmaster yelled. 

"Want me to tear yours?"

"Be my guest!"

"Shut up, you two!" I yelled in frustration.

Sirgh!

***

I rested for exactly five minutes till I slightly calmed down. 

"That was a commander, right? What about the rest?"

"The rest were just soldiers. Or just mindless robots to be more specific. They were the inhabitants of other conquered worlds and now they are forced to obey their every command and conquer more planets." The headmaster paused. "The commanders and everyone above them are the actual aliens. Think about it, they'd conquered more than a dozen worlds, why do they still keep doing it? Why not just terraform nearby planets and be done with it?"

There was nothing to think about. The answer wasn't that simple. If they just wanted more land for their species to thrive, then it was totally a better idea to just terraform other planets- unless there was something else we were missing. "Why?"

"Soldiers…Yeah, and Kin are those soldiers. Once you get infected, you either die or become a Kin. But that way you gain plenty of strong superpowers. There are no in-between like you. You were the exception, others are not.

"They conquer new worlds, enslave the inhabitants, and then move on to the next one."

Oh wow, so it was simple: way too simple. 

"But what for? What's the purpose?"

I saw a lot of students getting up, others helping each other. They were in some sort of trance, like they were hypnotized or something. With all the black ones pretty much dead, the students were getting up on their feet and helping others who could not. 

"It's fairly simple-" The old man spoke. "What could be more fun for an immortal species not bound by time to than just conquer other worlds and have fun doing it for millions of years? You start by conquering easy planets, stealing their soldiers, upgrading your own, and then move on to something a bit more challenging and then just keep going. The stronger the opponent, the more fun it is."

"What!?"

But that was insane!

Conquering other worlds for fun?

The headmaster chuckled. "Yeah, it was surprising for me too. But that's the reality we're in. Of course, there are more reasons like resources but still-"

This wasn't just surprising, no, this was stupidly stupid!

"They're immortals, sonny. They have such a high life expectancy that for our intents and purposes, they're immortal. Almost all of them are in a simulation of sorts on their planet. They're remotely controlling these soldiers through technology even we don't understand. So fun like this, are just too fun to pass off." The geezer chuckled. "They're basically done with reality."

"Then how the hell are we going to beat them?"

"Well, I did say in the past that they kneel down before the strong, remember?" The headmaster grinned. "So, turns out, they'd do the same if you beat them with those artificial soldiers too, or so our theory goes. And if somehow we can figure out a way to infiltrate their planet-"

"You and your damn theory." I sighed. "So, if they're in just some simulation, how come they can't simulate a reality for themselves and just stay on their planet?"

"Beats me? This is more fun I guess? As for staying on their planet, they don't. they've made a stellar engine and they can move it around. That's the actual structure. As for the bodies that came to attack us, those are separate from the main structure."

"Can you explain it to me, so I can understand?"

The headmaster kind of smiled in an awkward way. "Think of this, you go and put on your memory instiller. You're inside the instiller and you can do everything there. You can go to different worlds of different games or just use the original function and instill memories. Now your body is back in your room. But your mind can wander."

"We get that much, move on."

"Now, the concept is kind of the same. The aliens as we call them, are just back on their megastructure and they are just virtual bodies now. The whole structure is their body. And the ones that came to attack us are their minds wandering. Now I know that doesn't make sense but once you take into account that most of these attackers are actual living things from other planets and are just forced to obey their commands-"

I sighed loudly. "Stop talking please."

Because everything was going over my head. 

And weirdly, I had a terrible headache. I kept worrying about mom and the others. I couldn't really focus on much else. 

The geezer chuckled. "Let the kid rest a lil, we can always just explain things later."

"That reminds me, what are you doing with him and where the hell did you even come from?" The headmaster asked. 

Our breaths were letting off steam. It was getting awfully chilly. 

"I found him in the ninth dimension." I tried to sit down. 

"Ninth?" The headmaster paused. "Oh, you mean the null! I see, I see, makes sense."

Everything kind of slotted just like the geezer had said. And the fact that these two knew each other and weren't trying to kill each other right now, was proof that the geezer was speaking the truth. As for accepting him as a grandpa, I reserved judgment on that topic for later.

For now, I got up. My hands were still burned but my healing was going to heal it in a day or two anyway. For now, something else mattered a lot more. 

"I'll go check on them." 

Both of them grinned as if they knew I wouldn't stay here. 

I picked up a medkit on my way.

***

It took a huge chunk of my recovered stamina to get home. Yeah, I was dry alright. 

Once I got there, Elsa, Raea, Selene, and Aria were on their, feet looking around. They were mostly bandaged and all. 

Mom and the bunny girl were tending to father's wounds who was currently sitting on a pillow of sorts. 

Mom herself was injured and she had nine broken bones in total. Seven of them were fractures while two were fully broken. And yet there wasn't even remotely any fatigue on her face. She was powering through everything. 

She had three or four minor cuts here and there. 

"What are you doing here?" 

I stood next to Selene who was finishing up Elsa's bandage. 

Last time I remembered, Selene wasn't supposed to be here.

"We're short on the medical staff. The island only has one hospital and it's not enough, so anyone with even a bit of medical expertise is helping out. And you can guess why I volunteered."

"Thanks." I gave her my kit and headed towards mom. 

I didn't get a reply.

Everyone was already patched up and once mom was done patching father up, I gently lifted her up headed straight for the only hospital on the island. 

"Wha-"

I didn't even let her talk. I just flew. 

She'd done enough.

It was time for her to get some rest.