Chapter 503: Encounter With Themarian Youths

"And then there's 5."

Riley raised both his arms in surrender—the newcomers, however, did not approach him at all even for a single millimeter. Riley even closed his eyes, but none still moved. After all, no matter how much Riley feigns surrender, it was useless because of the smile on his face.

"Themarians do truly look like humans."

And with no one moving or trying to approach him, Riley calmly opened his eyes, which immediately scanned the three themarians surrounding him. And as is it with Diana and Aerith, they were indistinguishable from humans—even more so for Riley now, because he had been seeing humanoids and species of all sorts of different aesthetics.

"State your purpose here, intruder."

The themarian that was right in front of him was the first to speak, and with the way he looked, Riley could even say he looked like of oriental descent; with his black hair and eyes, and somewhat petite stature. And like Fionn, he looked young.

No, it wasn't just him.

The blonde themarian female on Riley's left was also comparable to a human teenager, so is the boy on his right, who looked eerily similar to the blonde girl.

"..." Riley then strayed his eyes toward the one who rescued Fionn, and even with her dark skin melding with the expanse of space, her youth was also quite obvious.

"State your purpose here, intruder," the oriental-looking themarian repeated his words. And compared to Fionn, he seemed to be completely on guard even with Riley already surrounded.

"I am here to attend my biological mother's burial," Riley answered with his hands still raised in surrender, "And also to have a little fun with the locals."

"..." The oriental-looking themarian squinted his already small eyes as he heard Riley's words. He then turned to look at the two blonde themarians, seemingly talking to each other before nodding all at the same time.

"My name is Minjun," the oriental-looking themarian then said as he opened both his palms, "I am a guard of the Imdall Zone. Are you aware that you are trespassing on themarian territory?"

"No, sir Minjun," Riley once again answered without any hesitation.

"W… why are you interrogating him!? He attacked me!" Fionn seemed to have fully recovered as he rushed to join the three in surrounding Riley; the dark-skinned themarian also joined them, but like the two others, she just remained silent.

"We are way past a civil discussion, Minjun!" Fionn said as he also trailed his eyes to his other comrades, "Let's just end him!"

"Based on the accounts I received from others, you were the first to draw blood by firing on them with deadly intent," Minjun sighed and shook his head.

"Because his ship entered our perimeter!"

"This is why we have a bad reputation with the rest of the universe," Minjun once again sighed, "We just end those who trespass against us instead of talking to them. As the future generation of themarians, we need to do better than our predecessors…"

"Oh boy, here he goes again," one of the others, the blonde themarian girl, finally spoke up; pinching the bridge of her nose as she sighed, "See what you did, Fionn?"

"W—"

"...We are not just cold-blooded warriors. We are peacemakers," Minjun then closed his hand into a fist and raised it in the air, "Those before us may have shed blood to make this peace, but it does not mean that blood is still needed to maintain it."

"But it is literally our assignment to eradicate anyone and anything that enters our zone!" Fionn waved his hand, "We're literally a race of warriors! We learn to fight even before we learn to build ships!"

"And this is why we are always last in our assessment. All this violence, and for nothing."

"No, we're always last because you keep letting people go!"

"Enough. As this iteration's cadet leader, I decide which path we will take."

"You… Asha, help me here!" And with Minjun refusing to listen to anyone, Fionn turned his attention toward the dark-skinned girl who rescued him… who only shrugged and shook her head in response,

"All of you are on his side!? We…"

And while these themarians were freely discussing themselves, Riley was just nonchalantly and passively listening to them in curiosity. Based on their conversation, they truly were youths; cadets—students.

As expected of themarians, even the assignments they gave their youth were already at stellar-level feats.

"So all of you truly are children."

And finally, Riley decided to disrupt the conversation as he dropped his hands, 

"No wonder all of you lack strength. It is not even comparable to a fraction of a single percent of what Aerith could do."

And with his words entering the young themarians' ears, they all stopped talking to themselves and focused solely on Riley.

"...Aerith?" This time, it was the blonde themarian boy that spoke, "You know princess Aerith? Could it be you are with the entourage that just arrived with the princess earlier?"

"Wait, Princess Aerith is back? Where did you hear this, Con?" The blonde themarian girl's eyes literally started to glitter as he looked at Con. And judging by how similar they truly look, Riley could really only assume that they were siblings.

"We received a report from the instructor the last time we saw him."

"Wait… is that why he has been gone for a while? He left us here while the legendary rebel princess returned!?"

"Enough!" And before the two could continue talking, Minjun raised his hand again as he looked at Riley, "Are you then? With Princess Aerith?"

"He told me he's Princess Aerith's lover!"

"What!?"

And once again, the youthful themarians all looked at each other in shock. Even Asha, who was the quiet one amongst them, could not help but let out a loud gasp. As for Riley, he just once again watched the group talk to themselves.

Even after almost killing one of them, they are now just casually talking to themselves. Truly, the themarians are built different—and with them able to freely talk in the expanse of space…

…this will be the first time that Riley would be hearing screams in the otherwise completely silent void.

"Let's continue where we left off, sir Fionn."

"!!!"

And once again, the youthful themarians held on their faces expressions of shock as Riley was now floating right in front of Fionn. It wasn't because of how fast Riley got there, no. One might even say he took his time.

It was the fact that they couldn't respond and move the entire time that completely stunned them.

Asha tried to struggle and free herself from the invisible chains that suddenly wrapped around her body—but trying as she might, even trembling was impossible.

"You're… telekinetic?" Minjun whispered, as for some reason, the only thing they could really move was their mouths.

"No," Riley smiled as he once again covered Fionn's face with his palm,

"I'm ecstatic."

"F… Fionn!"

And from fettered and struggling gasps, Asha's breaths turned into screams as she saw Fionn's head suddenly disappear.

And no, it didn't disappear in the sense that Fionn was decapitated again or that his head was obliterated into tiny little pieces and turned to a mist of blood, no.

It just disappeared.

The rest of his body that was left jolted and flinched… before just completely floating still.

"You… you killed him," Asha stuttered as she turned her moistening eyes toward Riley, who just shook his head in response.

"No," he then said as he opened his palm—and in it, was something the size of a pebble, "He should still recover from this, correct? Themarians are immortal, after all. And sir Fionn will only grow stronger after—"

"No!"

"...No?" Riley blinked a couple of times as he looked at the pebble in his hand, "But Aerith could survive this."

The confusion on Riley's face was quite obvious for everyone to see as he looked at each of them as if asking them if Fionn truly wouldn't recover from having his entire head compressed into the size of a small pebble.

"Does it have something to do with your age?" Riley let go of Fionn's compressed head, before placing his hand on his chin while staring at the floating pebble in front of him, 

"This isn't good, Aerith is going to be mad. I was really only trying to scare all of you so I can hear you scream…

…I apologize, everyone."

"Grah!"

"..." Riley then quickly tilted his head to the side as he saw a… set of bones aiming for his head. And before it could completely pass by him, the bones started to regenerate, revealing themselves to be an arm—Asha's arm. 

Asha, who was able to force her way out of Riley's hold.

"Oh?" A smile returned on Riley's face as he heard Asha's guttural scream. Riley had always thought that themarians are beyond rage since Aerith and Diana have never shown such emotions—but it would seem he was wrong.

If so, then does that mean there was a chance that he could see and hear Aerith's scream of rage in the future?

"Well, since Aerith will already reprimand me for killing one of you…

…I might as well add one or two or three or four."

"A… Asha!" Minjun, as well as the blonde themarian siblings, were also slowly able to get out of Riley's hold. But alas, before they could lift a finger, Riley already had his palm on Asha's face.

"H…huh…" As for Asha, she could really only take in a breath as her eyes started to turn wide and tremble uncontrollably. How could she do anything else, when all that is circling in her mind right now was that she was about to suffer the same fate as Fionn?

"D… don't."

"There is no need to worry, Miss Asha…

…you might live."