Chapter 635 The Source

Chapter 635 The Source

“Hello, Marco,” whatever was inhabiting Ayaka said in its distant, echoing voice.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi simply stared back, irritation written across his face. “And who, or what, are you?” he said in an overly calm tone.

“I am....” the being wearing Ayaka tilted her head as if listening to a distant sound. “He wakes.” She floated, still cross-legged in the air, to Joon-ho’s side.

Joon-ho’s eyes fluttered, then snapped open and he sat up with a gasp. He looked around for a moment in wide-eyed panic, then, upon realizing where he was, visibly calmed himself. “So I’m not dead yet, am I?”

“No, child. You’re still very much alive,” Ayaka’s passenger said, stroking Joon-ho’s hair. “And I am... glad, that you are.”

Joon-ho looked at Ayaka for the first time since waking up—really looked—and out of all expectations, merely said, “I’m dreaming, aren’t I. Very funny, Proxima. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

{Had what in me, Warrant Officer Lee?} the AI interjected.

“Wait... this isn’t a dream?”

“No, child, you’re very much awake,” the glowing Ayaka said.

Fleet Admiral Bianchi glared at the glowing figure. “We need to talk,” he interjected. “But first, release my Commander this instant!”

“I am she, she is me. We are Laifu. I cannot release her because there is nothing to release. We are one, just as this dear child is one with gravity.”

“You’re what now?” the admiral snarled. “What did you do with Commander Takahashi!?” He grabbed the glowing figure by her—its—uniform jacket and pulled hard, but Laifu didn’t move.

“Calm yourself, Marco. Ayaka is fine, there was just something I needed to do and I used her hands to do it. But you’re right,” she said, her voice collapsing in on itself and discarding the echoes until only Ayaka’s familiar sound remained. “We do need to have a discussion.”

“My ready room, then,” the admiral growled, then stalked off on his way to the flag bridge. If it wasn’t one headache, it was another! Oh, how he wished they would come one at a time, but such was the burden of command. Cheêck out latest novels at novelhall.compossible. To hurt is a function and function does not exist here, only form.§

“It was a saying, Laifu,” Ayaka sighed. “Would limiting yourself allow you to better communicate with a limited being like me?”

§Yes, and no. You are not limited. We cannot be limited. I am you, you are me. We are we. But yes, perhaps understanding could better be achieved were limitations implemented.§

The mist began thinning, then an instant, a second, an hour, or perhaps an eternity later, dwindled into the form of a humanoid female. She looked like a cross between Hatsune Miku and Deedlit, with long, blue hair in high pigtails that swayed with the movement of her head all the way down to her knees and long ears that tapered to a sharp point sweeping back from the sides of her head. Her face was heart shaped, with high, chiseled cheekbones tapering down to a narrow chin below a small mouth with thin lips. Her nose was pert and turned up at the tip and her phoenix eyes were turned up at the ends. Her eyebrows were thin and perfectly contoured to the shape of her brow.

She was relatively short, at around 151 centimeters tall, and slender, with a boyish, athletic figure, though she was still relatively generously endowed with D-cup breasts; they looked larger than they were, given her overall petite form.

Laifu opened her eyes. “Is that better, Ayaka?” she said with a smile.

“Much. Can you explain things now that you’re... singular?”

“Yes. This is the source, the wellspring of eternity. It’s where our power springs from, the power that your species is only now learning to tap into.”

“You mean mana?”

Laifu nodded. “That is what you call it, yes. Mana. This is where it begins and ends.”

“Am I dead?” Ayaka asked.

“No, child, you’re not dead,” Laifu said, then giggled. “I am the personification of life, of course you’re not dead.”

“So why am I here?”

“I needed Joon-ho to live, and you cared for him.”

“It’s that simple?” Ayaka sneered. Nothing was free, and she was convinced that someone would have to pay Laifu’s price somehow.