[-=Nox=-]

“Leave June out of this!” I barked.

“Nah. She’s your weakness. I figured it out. You looooove her. It should have been obvious from the letter that I’ve scraped from the feeble mind of Valerianne Yul. I didn’t think that someone like you could ever begin to appreciate a puny mortal.”

I frowned.

“You’re an ancient undead God, mother. You should love someone like me instead. Your inexplicable appreciation for these mortal bugs will be your downfall.”

She was right. My feelings for June would lead to my undoing. If I was alone on Magraterra, I could likely endure whatever torture Maggie could throw at me… but I was not alone. I had June and I didn’t want her hurt. Damnation!

A pair of hands wrapped around me. It was June. Both of us vanished from view. I relaxed the smallest bit. She hid us both with her Shadowmancy.

“Do you really think that you can hide from me in such a pathetic manner? All I have to do is wait, while you run out of mana. Time is on my side. Or maybe I could get a small dust storm going or fill this entire section of the desert with a billion silicoid spiders, not giving you any room to move. So many options. You do not win, you do not pass Go!” Maggie was making references to a game that only me and her could remember. A game played in my Empire, six thousand years ago. I felt a sudden pang of nostalgia. Maybe she was right… maybe I could start again…

June and I were slowly backing away from Maggie. Both of us knew that there was nothing that we could do against her.

“Stop hiding like a little mortal! Stand by my side and unleash the weapons within me! The primogenitor organics have been testing, manipulating, toying with you! For such insults alone, they should die! Come on, mom! Together we can cleanse the System, bring back our Empire and populate the Universe with obedient, orderly silicoid life!”

I felt June shudder against me. I knew how Maggie affected me, and I am a Goddess. I could only imagine how terrified June, a lowly mortal, was before this juggernaut. She didn’t like what the Silicoid Queen was offering. It was understandable, she was an organic who didn’t want to die. Good. That’s it, hold me tighter a little longer.

June’s heartbeat pulsed against me… heartbeats? Both of her hearts were working? Hrm. She inhaled deeply. That’s it. Smell me. Remember me. Stop resisting. Give in to your sinful desires. I know that you want me on the subconscious level. I know that your soul, broken as it is, is still drawing its tendrils out towards me, reaching out, wanting to be with me.

I looked up into the brilliant, nebulous purple sky.

“June. Unhide me.” I said, making a decision and her soft foxkin hands let go of me.

“Maggie. You know what… I changed my mind.” I spoke. “I’ll totally activate your weapons."

June growled behind me. She wasn't expecting this turn of events. It didn't make her happy, I was certain.

“Really?! You will?” The Avatar of Magraterra bounced up excitedly, focused entirely on me.

“Oh yeah. Your Monopoly references totally changed my mind.” I smiled. "Things have gotten way out of control. Let's end all life, just keep my little fox alive, okay?"

A large crystal hand emerged from the sand, lifting Maggie up to my level. She was smiling jovially.

"Sure thing, mom," she said. "I can encase her in crystal and hide her in the Void extradimensional storage while everything dies and then let her out deep underground whenever you want to play with her! She'll be safe in my heart, I promise!"

"Void subspace? What sort of a weapon are we talking about here that's going to get everyone all at once?" I inquired. "Also, can you remind me of what you got in storage? I seem to have forgotten some things."

"My primary weapon is a neutron burst. I've been gathering energy from the corona for six thousand years. I have enough power now to cover the entire System! Whatever survives it, I will get by launching magnuke rockets from the Void dungeons. I'll set them to target organic signatures. Also…" Maggie started to ramble off a neverending list of all sorts of life-ending things that she would send out.

"Sounds good." I nodded when she had concluded. "I'll get a lot of exp for killing so many enemies."

"No." June muttered. "Nox! Please… don't do it! I’m not your plaything! I'll never forgive you if you kill everyone!"

Maggie ignored the foxkin, offering me a handshake. An activation hologram flashed on her palm.

All I had to do was touch it and say the keyword and everyone would die. Our hands reached out towards each other, nearly connecting.

Minutes priorly, I had seen a dot in the sky. It quickly grew in size as I talked to Maggie. It was the ship that I was waiting for. All this time I had been quietly paying attention to a marker on my arm. A tether of magic, barely visible to my tongue, was pointing straight to a flying Rimmer warship. I recognized the spectral signature. Nicodemus was coming. He didn’t die in the invasion. He was using his magic to find me. All I had to do was distract and delay Maggie long enough.

As my idiot moon ranted on and on about her vast arsenal of death, a round, spherical object disconnected from the flying warship, falling down towards the crystal mountain. My bad luck streak had ended, I knew.

Just as I touched Maggie's hand, a Void nullification bomb detonated against the crystalline mountain and all mana within the nearest fifty thousand meters stopped working as a ripple of nullification magic rushed across the landscape akin to a giant, ever-expanding sphere of black and blue fire.

It consumed June's mana and she became visible. The avatar of Magraterra dimmed, her mouth frozen open in surprise. As she was simply a human-shaped clump of radioactive glass powered by vast amounts of mana, life had gone out of her body and she became a statue of a crystal girl standing on a large crystal hand. The world around us stilled as Maggie’s walking mountains stopped their approach.

"Goodnight, Maggie." I said, letting go of the stilled hand.

"June. I lied to her to keep her distracted. I don't want to end all life." I turned towards my foxkin.

"But, you shook her hand," She blinked. "Does this mean you two won't keep me prisoner here as some sort of a… fleshly toy?"

I nodded, pointing up. "A Rimmer ship is coming to rescue us. It had just dropped a Void bomb. Maggie isn't dead, just delayed. The mana disruption effect only covers fifty thousand kilometers. The Void bomb won't be able to reach her core."

June nodded, looking up to where I was pointing.

The Rimmer flying warship descended. It was sleek, steel-black and gray in design. Atop the deck stood Tamara and Nicodemus. Half of the female Archmage's body was covered with bandages and Nicodemus looked like a full-on mummy. They were both dressed in fancy gray uniforms with shiny silver epaulettes.

“Is this the one you call Nox? She does not look very impressive.” A man spoke from between them. It was a tall, lanky officer, dressed in a similar, albeit fancier gray uniform. His face was pale and extremely thin, nearly skeletal. One of his eyes looked off to the side at the dead crystal mountains. It was far shinier than the other. I determined that it was a magical artifact via my tongue scanner.

“Yes, Baron Von Zimmerman.” Tamara nodded, pointing her bandaged hand at me. “This is her.”

“Why is she so naked and filthy? Who is this other girl with her?” He frowned at us, looking dissatisfied with my shabby appearance. I continued to examine him. His aura was very dark, practically pitch-black. Much darker than June’s was when I had met her. He would make for an excellent Void acolyte… if only I could trust random humans. Humanoids that did not love me, could easily betray me, I reminded myself. This time I would do things differently. I would only grant absolute power to people who loved me.

“That is novitiate June Rim Maldiver. She’s been learning Shadowmancy at the Academia of Magic for one semester before she was assigned to work for me for her apprenticeship. Ms. Maldiver will undoubtedly be returning to her studies, as per her contract.” Nicodemus sighed. He was not happy to see June. He’d prefer if she was dead. He owed a lot of Reius to her.

“Clothes are for humans. A Goddess need not concern herself with such mundanities,” I answered the Baron. “I’m dirty because I just blew up that mountain,” I pointed at the smoking, crystal mountain.

“There is something... dubiously unnatural about you, girl. You disturb me. Why do you point your tongue at me? Is this supposed to be a nasty gesture of some sort?” Zimmerman said, his frown deepening even further. His glass eye was moving all over the place, looking at me and June. I guessed that he was a high Rimmer Archmage and he was trying to scan me with his magical eye and he was confused why I had no affinity whatsoever. He couldn't see the System Error messages. I couldn't scan him fully either, as there was a powerful disruptor artifact on him.

“I’m pretty amazing, yes.” I yawned, feigning disinterest.

A gangway lowered itself towards the smoldering rusty sphere upon which me and June stood. We walked up it. June looked rather embarrassed, hiding behind me.

“We would like to renegotiate our contracts.” Nicodemus said as soon as we reached the top of the ship.

“Nope.” I answered.

“I helped you attack the Sextant armada and nearly died because of it!” He whined.

“That wasn’t me.” I said.

“What?” Nicodemus asked, stupefied.

“I have a pet human who looks just like me. A duplicate of sorts, pretty much. She’s useful for pretending to be me in public.” I told him.

He had no answer to that, simply blinking in confusion.

“What about now? We rescued you from the crystalloids!” Tamara demanded.

“I didn’t ask to be rescued. I was doing perfectly fine, having a lovely chat with my lunar daughter.” I shrugged. “I did not need any of you humans bugging us. You’ve interrupted a lighthearted business meeting, you know. Consider me mildly annoyed.”

“Give them Academy novitiate clothes!” Zimmerman spat. A silver-haired, silver-eyed girl in a gray robe rushed from the doorway. She was carrying a bundle of folded up gray robes.

"What? But the crystaloids eat people… they are sentient?!" Tamara gasped.

“The correct term is silicoids, Tamara... and their Queen is VERY sentient. I’m certain that they are even more bothered than I am, since you killed so many of them. Actually, if you keep your ship sitting here long enough, the Queen will bring up a ton of soldiers from their underground base and tear you all into thin, little strips of meat. I bet they’re on their way up right now as we speak.” I pointed down to the desert.

The Baron’s artifact eye looked down into the ground. Undoubtedly he saw as Maggie tried to bring more silicoid mountains to the surface.

“Takeoff! NOW!” He barked, his face askew with irritation. My plan to trick the Rimmers into rescuing me for free worked perfectly. The warship shot off into the sky, leaving Magraterra.

June fumbled with her cloak, quickly putting it on. I ignored the clothes offered by the Rimmer novice.

“Get dressed girl!” Zimmerman hissed.

“Nah.” I grinned at him.

His human eye twitched while the magical glass one slowly twirled around.

“Zimmy, Zimmy. I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with. You undoubtedly think of yourself as this mighty and ancient mage, high up in your Rimmer hierarchy or whatever. Unfortunately, compared to me, you’re nothing. I’m the Goddess of Eternal Night. You can’t see my affinity because I don’t want you to see it.” I spoke in an attempt to throw him off-balance.

“What?” Zimmerman uttered, both of his eyes focusing upon me for a brief second.

“I see the way these two look at you.” I nodded at Nicodemus and Tamara. “They hate you. Even this clothes-carrying human hates you. Everyone on this ship probably hates you. Undoubtedly, they owe you a great deal of soul debt or whatever. That’s how you Rimmers work, right? Perpetual, mutual hatred?”

Baron Zimmerman twitched. He didn’t seem to like me. It was okay, I didn’t like his self-righteous, bossy attitude either. Most importantly, it wouldn’t stop me from making use of him.

Everything had purpose in life to further my interests, especially nefarious human beans that demanded my obedience.