Eighty-four: Hepaestion

Phetue city 

Litvain

Osa Solar system

Pavesa Galaxy

Colony planetary Region

Karkinos 9th Y-1909

Hacking into the Governor's tower's network was almost effortless for Effie. Even the security enhancements, layered to prevent intrusion, posed little challenge. With the precision granted by the cybernetic implants embedded in her system—an augmentation she had received after losing her right arm—she maneuvered through firewalls, bypassing encrypted defenses with seamless efficiency.

Lines of data streamed across her interface, countless files, system logs, and classified information at her disposal. But she wasn't here for all of it—she needed one thing. The critical piece that would secure Meri's plan. Her fingers moved in calculated motions, scrolling through vast directories, decrypting restricted access files, and filtering through the irrelevant clutter. Minutes passed. And then—she found it. A grin spread across her face.

Got it.

Her eyes flickered as she isolated the data, transferring it to an external drive. The hard part was over. All that remained was her exit. But then—a tremor.

The floor beneath her shuddered, vibrations rippling through the infrastructure of the tower. Effie's breath hitched, not just from the physical quake but from something deeper, more primal. The Odyllic itself had been disturbed. This wasn't just structural damage—this was a clash of forces.

She closed her eyes for a split second, her cybernetics instinctively amplifying her sensory awareness. The pressure in the air had changed—thick, heavy, suffocating. Two immense presences had engaged in battle. Two high-level beings. Effie's fingers twitched, the adrenaline kicking in.

Meri.

And whoever had dared to stand against her.

Hephaestion.

-

Amidst the ruins of the devastated rooftop of the Governor's Tower, two figures clashed, their weapons colliding with thunderous force. Each strike sent out a ringing shockwave, splintering stone and metal, further reducing the once-grand structure to ruined debris.

They moved like twin storms, weaving through the wreckage, their battle unfolding at speeds that shattered the sound barrier. The sheer force of their conflict distorted the air, the aftershocks of their blows rippling across the battlefield, making the very foundations of the tower tremble.

Meri shifted seamlessly between stances, switching between Judgment Stance—an aggressive form that maximized her power—and Scale Stance, a fluid, defensive posture that absorbed and redirected force. Each stance was a counterbalance to the other, allowing her to strike with overwhelming power or flow effortlessly around attacks as needed.

Yet, even with her mastery over equilibrium, Hephaestion was relentless.

The Android's movements were sharp, deliberate—almost too precise. Their attacks came at angles difficult to predict, even with her Internal Sight, enhanced by the Eye of Judgment. No matter how Meri increased the magnitude of her strikes, amplifying her strength to break through their defenses, or how she transferred the force of her blows to maximize impact, Hephaestion countered every maneuver with cold, machine-like efficiency.

But Meri adjusted. Shifting into Scale Stance, she matched the Android's speed, her body moving in harmony with the flow of battle, weaving between their strikes with effortless precision. Her footwork became a rhythm, her combat art an extension of instinct.

But still Hephaestion was also learning. With every dodge, every evasion, the Android's responses became faster, sharper, more refined. Their next attacks came with unnerving precision, adapting to her movements with frightening speed. It was as if Hephaestion was studying her, mapping her patterns in real time.

But adaptation worked both ways. Meri's saving grace lay in the nature of Equilibrium Style—it was not rigid, not static. It was ever-shifting. Just as Hephaestion adapted to her movements, she adapted to them. Their battle became an intricate exchange, a continuous evolution of form and technique, neither gaining nor losing ground. The destruction around them became their stage, their battlefield a constantly changing arena of shifting balance.

In this war of precision and power, victory would not be dictated by brute force but by who could outmaneuver the other in the endless dance of equilibrium. Neither fighter relied on magic, mana arts, or ability factors—only the sheer, honed skill of their martial prowess. Each movement was calculated, each strike a testament to their mastery of combat.

Meri had expected Hephaestion to fight with machine-like efficiency, but what she hadn't expected was the level of martial brilliance they displayed. As she weaved around the dazzling brilliance of their hard-light blade, she executed a precise horizontal sweep, the weight of her Judgment Axe shifting mid-swing to bypass their defense. The axe did not follow a fixed trajectory—it adjusted, recalibrated, ensuring that dodging would only pull her opponent into the strike.

Yet Hephaestion was already a step ahead. Rather than attempting to dodge, the Android summoned a second light blade in an instant, adjusting its stance. With a swift, surgical parry, they redirected the force of the axe upward, dispersing the weight transfer before it could reach them. For a moment, the world was silent.

Then, as if following an unspoken agreement, both fighters leapt back, placing distance between themselves. Meri exhaled slowly, rolling her shoulders.

"I have to say, your martial prowess is impressive." She tilted her head slightly, studying the Android. "I've fought my fair share of Automatons. Normally, they don't rely on skill. They lean too much on their tech, their enhancements."

Hephaestion's cyan-lit eyes flickered as they stood motionless, scanning her.

"I have existed for a millennium," they replied. "In that time, I have learned that true combat is not about limitation. It is about using every tool in one's repository to survive."

Meri smirked, tilting her axe slightly. "Is that so?"

Then Hephaestion's gaze flickered downward.

"I'm more impressed that you've been fighting while holding onto him."

Meri followed their gaze—Torhen's frozen form remained in her grasp, her left arm still locked around his immobile body, while her right hand wielded her divine axe. She sighed. She had been carrying him this entire time, ensuring he remained in her grasp. It wasn't necessary—his current state of stasis meant nothing could affect him physically. But Meri wasn't willing to take even the smallest chance that Hephaestion could find a way to break through the seal she had placed on him.

With a thought, she transferred Torhen into her dimensional band, the storage tech absorbing his frozen form in an instant. The air around her shifted. Her stance adjusted. Both hands now gripped her Judgment Axe, her body language changing entirely. No more distractions. No more restraints. For the first time, she took Hephaestion seriously.

Hephaestion noted the shift. So, she finally stored him away. She could have done that from the start, but she didn't. She was holding back on purpose.

She had deliberately fought with only half her focus, ensuring Torhen's safety rather than giving her all in battle. She had yet to use her ability factor or her mana arts. She had been testing Hephaestion.

Big mistake. Hephaestion remained still, observing, analyzing. Then, they spoke.

"I was wondering when you would get rid of him." Their tone was neutral, but there was something calculated beneath the words. Then their lips curled slightly.

"After all, he is not my real target."

A low humming sound reverberated through the air as new appendages unfolded from Hephaestion's back—sleek, mechanical arms formed, each one bearing an additional energy blade. The atmosphere shifted completely. Where once they had fought with restraint, there was now an undeniable sense of finality hanging over them. For the first time, Hephaestion's presence matched Meri's. And the real battle began.

As both fighters prepared to clash once more, their auras coiling like storm fronts on the verge of collision, something unexpected disrupted them.

At first, it was just a single branch—thin, almost delicate—slipping through the cracks of the shattered rooftop. Then, more followed, creeping like curious fingers, twisting and stretching into the open air. Roots pushed through the fractures in the stone, splintering what remained of the tower's integrity. And then—an entire tree burst through the ruins, its massive form tearing through the debris in a cascade of dust and shattered masonry.

Dangling casually from one of its sturdy branches, Effie hung suspended, her body pulsing with wood elemental energy, an ethereal glow shimmering across her skin. Her emerald gaze flickered between Hephaestion and Meri, sharp with confusion. She could guess well enough what had happened here, but the why still eluded her. With an effortless motion, she dropped from the tree, landing beside Meri in a soft crouch.

"Did you get it?" Meri's voice was calm, but there was a tension beneath it—an awareness that the battle was not yet over.

"Yeah," Effie replied, dusting herself off. "But… what the hell is going on here? I thought we were allies."

Meri exhaled slowly, glancing at Hephaestion, her golden-white aura still flickering around her.

"So did I."

Across from them, Hephaestion shifted, their multiple hard-light blades still active, their stance still primed to engage. The battle had not been decided. But just as they were about to move, a flicker in their vision. A notification. Something—or someone—spoke to them, a whisper that resonated in the depths of their digital consciousness. A new directive. An order from their creator. Hephaestion hesitated. The information did not make sense, but it was not their place to question. The cyan glow of their energy blades dimmed slightly.

"It seems we'll have to postpone this fight for another time."

Meri and Effie both snapped their gazes toward him, caught off guard.

"What?" Meri frowned. "You're leaving?"

Hephaestion regarded her with a cold yet intrigued gaze.

"You're an interesting woman, Meridien Karajan," they mused, tilting their head slightly. "The first Pleiadian I haven't wanted to kill so badly."

And with that, they launched themselves into the sky, their form streaking upward in a trail of cyan light, piercing through the atmosphere. Within moments, they had disappeared beyond sight, ascending into the void of space. Meri and Effie stood in silence for a long moment, watching the sky, the faint disturbance of their departure lingering in the air.

"It's gone," Effie murmured, her voice lined with disbelief. "Just like that."Meri exhaled, allowing her divine axe to dissolve, the tension in her muscles unraveling as she rolled her shoulders.

"Yeah. Thank goodness. I don't think I want to run into that jackass again," Meri muttered, stretching her arms upward. A yawn escaped her lips as she and Effie descended from the ruined rooftop, landing effortlessly on the ground below.

Effie's eyes scanned the massive earthen barrier that surrounded them—a defensive structure Meri had altered to prevent collateral damage from reaching the civilians. Though battered, the Governor Tower still stood, a testament to Meri's careful control over the battlefield.

"That must have cost a lot," Effie remarked, tracing her fingers along the compacted earth. "Fighting two Sage Realm combatants and still maintaining this barrier? That's insane."

Meri shrugged, running a hand through her hair as she undid the technique. With a single pulse of Odic force, the earthen walls collapsed inward, returning the terrain to normal. Energy dissipated into the atmosphere, and for the first time since the battle began, the air felt calm again.

"Hmm, but it was worth it," Meri said, dusting off her hands.

No sooner had she spoken than Governor Dafoe emerged from the tower, his steps hurried, his breathing ragged with barely-contained fury. His clothes were drenched in sweat, the strain of what had just transpired still clinging to him like a second skin.

"You… you…!" His voice trembled between rage and disbelief.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he shouted, his face flushed with indignation.

Meri merely arched an eyebrow as he struggled for breath.

"I shall… I shall report you to Congress!" The Pleiadian's voice cracked with desperation, his chest heaving. "I will make the Karajan family pay for their—"

A sudden burst of pressure exploded outward from Meri's form—not an attack, but a concentrated wave of her Odic force. The effect was immediate. Governor Dafoe collapsed onto his knees, then onto his backside, trembling as a dark stain spread across his robes. His body shook violently, paralyzed beneath the weight of Meri's killing intent. Effie stepped forward, her expression blank, and produced a small data drive, holding it out to Meri. Without a word, Meri took it, her golden gaze gleaming as she walked toward the trembling governor, waving the device before his face.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked, her tone casual yet layered with undeniable authority.

Dafoe's mouth opened, but only a strangled sound escaped. His face was pale, beads of sweat rolling down his temple as he fought through the sheer terror gripping his chest.

Meri smirked.

"Inside this drive are the shares that the Dafoe family owns in Dafoe Corporation." She twirled the device in her fingers. "I believe, Governor, that you own around forty-nine percent, while the remaining shares are divided between your dear cousins."

The words pierced through his fear, dragging him back into clarity.

"What?!" Dafoe's voice cracked, his breathing erratic. "How—how did you…?!"

His gaze snapped toward Effie, his face contorting in sudden realization.

That bitch…

She had used his biokey to access his network. She had infiltrated his secure system, bypassed his defenses, and looted his dimensional safe. Not only had she stolen his assets—she had taken his digital holdings as well. Everything.

"Now," Meri continued, her voice dripping with satisfaction, "those shares belong to me."

She smiled, her expression predatory.

"I own Dafoe Corporation. And as such… I own the rights to this planet."

Effie reached into her dimensional band, producing a metallic seal, its surface glowing with intricate inscriptions of planetary ownership. She handed it to Meri, who held it up, letting the dim light reflect off its surface. Governor Dafoe's eyes widened in horror.

"You… You can't do this!" he sputtered. "That's thievery! I shall report you!"

Meri let out a mocking laugh.

"Report me to who?" she asked, tilting her head. "Publicly, this planet belongs to the Church, not the Dafoe family."

The blood drained from the governor's face. Meri leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper, though every word was razor-sharp.

"If word got out that the Church helped you steal this planet for yourself… do you have any idea how bad that would be?"

Dafoe shook his head, whispering a broken "No…"

"Oh, yes." Meri's eyes gleamed. "The Pontiff would never allow such a scandal to surface. Which means…"

She gestured toward him with her free hand, palm open, as if inviting him to piece together the inevitable conclusion.

"They'll have to denounce you."

A choked whimper escaped Dafoe's lips. Meri straightened, holding the planetary contract in her hands, its ancient sigils shifting beneath her touch. The words etched upon the parchment glowed, flickering as they recognized the new owner of Dafoe Corporation. As the final glyph sealed itself, the name of Governor Dafoe vanished. In its place, a new name materialized—

Meridien Karajan.

Effie crossed her arms, tilting her head as she examined the contract.

"It seems whoever owned the company also held the rights to the planet," she mused. "That way, the Church couldn't take it away whenever they felt like it."

Meri smirked. "I'm surprised they didn't just try to take the company for themselves."

Effie shrugged. "There was no point. Their alliance was already lucrative. The Dafoe family had leverage over them—it was better to keep the cooperation stable than to start a power struggle."

Meri sighed, rolling her shoulders as she dismissed the contract into her dimensional storage.

"Well, now that that's over with, let's go share the news."

Without sparing another glance at the broken former governor, Meri and Effie turned away, leaving him behind in the ruins of his fallen empire.