Chapter 146: Raid? No, This Will be an Execution It wasn’t an immediate trip back to Metous; I did take the detour I planned to exercise a little more. Results were what was expected, but there was nothing wrong with a little verification. (“ If that is what you are going to call it ”) Are you using whatever spying capabilities you have to take a peek at what is about to happen? Espr always had its sources, which allowed it to spy on whatever; looking back on it, they were likely getting information from other Spiritual Beings. Because I'm talking to Espr a lot more now about my newfound abilities and about creating servants and witches. Espr let it slip that they had no real forces outside of their planet because, simply put, they weren’t interested in it. So, they had to be getting their sources from other Spiritual Beings who did have a whole bunch of plants, which fed their information. I wonder if some Spiritual Beings could just upload the internet’s worth of knowledge into themselves… That doesn’t seem too far-fetched, and it's also terrifying for other reasons. Epsr didn’t answer my thoughts, and I am honestly glad it didn’t. Eventually, we made it back to Metous. I already had a group call with my family to tell them I had returned but that I had prior business before returning home. Their confidence in me seemed to have increased greatly compared to before my trip to the lovely desert. It wasn’t much, but it felt nice to know I wasn’t worrying them with my every action. They also basically guessed my destination. Not exactly a hard thing to do considering I don’t go to many places. Not to mention, they all had an inkling that I was going to get involved in the next big mess. It is good they aren’t worried. (“ At this point, you have worried them so much their batteries would be exhausted ”) Sadly… that may be true. (“ It is not all bad ”) After a quick journey, I was at my good old favourite place, Nina’s garden and secret warehouse. “Hello Nina,” I waved as she was waiting for me at the entrance. She returned the wave, “Thank you for sending a message about your arrival.” “Sure, I figured it would be easier that way.” Nina’s eye winked in a little bit of understandable pain. I didn't help out or properly communicate with her last time because it was easier for me to do so for the bases I discovered. “Let’s go inside for privacy.” “Sure.” Feeling like a repeat of what happened a little while ago, I was escorted into Nina’s facility for a nice private discussion. After a quick round of pleasantries that were all too unimportant, we got into the juicy bits. Nina said, “I am currently in talks about the full proper raid.” Nina answered, “The system of Neilox.” I immediately replied, “Yep, never heard of it.” “Understandably, it is in the middle of nowhere and is far enough away from everything that there are no direct routes to the system.” She further explained the location. Neilox was a small solar system that held no habitable planets. No direct access travel lanes had been set up towards the general location, so any journey would take at least twenty days from the nearest Transport Gate with the highest speed transport vehicles that could carry the number of people desired for such a raid. This was a great way to say that an attack fleet being amassed would be known well ahead of time if they didn’t already have any information leaked to them. I mean, I did trust Nina’s organisation to have their lips sealed, but I understood this was a large group effort. The system itself was made of three solid planets and one gas giant, with a large red giant as the system’s only sun. There weren't any details on what Dominous Hood had done on the individual planets; all of them were known to be hot places with no life to speak of. The only thing known was that they had a major mining operation on at least one of the planets, with possibly smaller ones on the others. That was likely where most of the captured labourers were, but that wasn't a good enough excuse to glass the other planets. Not that I would do that, for once, that was apparently someone else's suggestion, but I was happy to spend the extra effort to keep as many hostages alive as possible. It would be nice to reunite a few families. (“ Look at how you have grown, gone from blowing up a world with life on it, to not destroying worlds with enemies and allies on it ”) Calling me a hypocrite? (“ No. You didn’t have the power then, and now you do, plus you know I don’t care for humanity’s scales of morality anyway ”) So you're just saying that to fuck with me again? I asked, “So that is the location; what is the plan about actually getting there?” “That is what is still being decided.” I groaned, “Drat, it does appear the answer is just going to be ‘send in the fleet while we give them time to prepare,’ if they aren’t already preparing or moving as we speak.” Nina regretfully nodded. “Yes, the first step has already been met with an awful block.” No chance I can teleport in? (“ Hypothetically, if you succeeded in creating another anchor and then managed to get their anchor into their base, it is possible. However, that will drain you a decent amount and strain your connection with this side since it would require multiple teleports, unless you wanted to sit in your domain, having no idea what was happening on the outside ”) I sighed as well. “No chance we can grab some people and go as a smaller, stealthier task force?” Nina replied, “That has been brought up and contains its own issues. The saddest issue is that there are too many people wanting to be in this fight for them to agree to just sit back. The more concerning issue with that plan is that we have no idea if our stealth capabilities are better than their detection abilities, and we aren’t just attacking an outpost with a few strong individuals there; we are attacking their stronghold. Their armed forces would not be something a few people can conquer.” I decided not to say anything about my capabilities. “So, is this execution delayed?” “Execution? Please, Ceella, don’t refer to it as that…” I shrugged. “Sure, I won’t, but it is what it is.” “I know you are angry…” Nina said, “But you need to keep a clear mind and not let those emotions overwhelm you.” “Oh, I am. I have never felt better, honestly.” I said truthfully, even if I had a feeling she did not believe me. She definitely doesn’t believe me. (“ Despite your so-called calmness, you are still one angry girl ”) Rage that burns like stars, or something. (“ So extreme and forever? ”) I knew that because of recent events, I was feeling on top of the world and was overall in a much better state physically and mentally, but deep within me, my wrath still pulsed. I needed my revenge; I needed every blood vermin that bore that damned name cooked, stabbed, dead. So what if I was not even human anymore, and somehow ‘above’ them as being Spiritual Being. No matter what they did, my anger wouldn’t increase because before they did anything, after I returned to Metous for the first time, my anger was already at maximum. I didn’t need any more reason to want their total destruction. (“ I do appreciate their efforts, as it gave me a shot at you ”) Heh, what a lovely universe. It was a curious thought: where would I have ended up if they hadn’t fucked up my life’s plan? (“ Perhaps, without that inciting incident, you wouldn’t have become who you are now? ”) I do like where I have ended up, but also, I would’ve liked to have followed my course in life where they did not ruin it. I could’ve seen my dad before he died, maybe even helped him. I could’ve watched my family grow more and helped them not crumble the first time around. I would’ve had my friends from work, and maybe… something would’ve come of Rosa’s feelings, or maybe not; it would’ve been an interesting scenario. Maybe I wouldn't become a Spiritual Being in that life, but maybe I would still somehow stumble upon the path. I still would’ve had a major fear of death; maybe it wouldn’t have worsened, and I made an extreme effort to grow stronger, or, heh, maybe I would’ve bloody accepted it. (“ Perhaps maybe indeed, that in that life, you would have agreed to work under me ”) Hah. I cannot deny that possibility. Nina said, “There is some… good news for you at least; the commencement of the mission is to be in two weeks' time.” “Even though people have no idea about the start?” “Yes…” Nina let out another long sigh. “The planning has been an absolute mess—too many people with different ideas—and there is also the issue of time and information leaking, and as you kindly said earlier, we are basically giving them time to prepare.” She looked at the image of the map again. “In an ideal scenario, we could get to their base fast, but it appears the reason it was so far away was in case the secret was ever discovered. I said, “I know you are saying that, but it is also pretty ideal that they even have a central base to begin with.” “Agreed… But that is also a massive worry. Why would an organisation like Dominous Hood, which is for all intents and purposes a group that specialises in espionage and keeping their structure hidden and disconnected, have a physical main headquarters?” “Well, if we couldn’t find out from the torture and information gathering that has already been done, then it looks like we are going to find out their big secrets on the day.”