Everything was still in its frozen state. Jiang Fei’s fingers were the only thing moving, still tracing their way around Aurelia’s face. Feeling the rugged texture of a man’s palm cup her lower chin, the stone cold woman blushed as red as a tomato.

Towering above her, Jiang Fei brought himself closer to the helpless woman. Frozen in place, she could do nothing but lift her head higher to meet his attraction-filled gaze.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Meeting her significant other was supposed to be a romantic moment for a girl. Yet, this entire situation was the complete opposite.

Jiang Fei’s towering figure was set ablaze with the black smog. Like fire, the black smoke spread throughout the bridge, filling the entire chamber with its opaque presence. Oddly enough, the smoke gathered in concentrated amounts around all the crew members, yet Aurelia alone was spared.

“Someday, I will come back for you. Remember me,” said Jiang Fei, vanishing in a flash.

Those words made Aurelia’s heart jump into overdrive. The smile he had on his face was so mesmerizing that she couldn’t help drowning in a dazed state, like a deer in headlights.

As soon as Jiang Fei vanished, everything in the bridge returned to the way it was before. Besides the loud thumping of her heartbeat ringing in her ears and the reddish flush on her cheeks, everyone else returned to normal, as if everyone but Aurelia had been frozen in time.

“Commander, the main cannons are powered up and are now targeting the incoming drone. We are ready to fire on your command,” said the First Officer.

His mind and body had just come out from the state of suspended animation, and he simply picked up where he left off.

“No!” Aurelia cried instinctively.

“Commander? What is the matter?”

If everything the First Officer knew about her was right, Commander Aurelia had never one lost her composure and acted like that.

When he asked about her wellbeing, Aurelia realized how she was misbehaving and replied in her usual stone cold manner, “Nothing. Cease pursuit operation. Prepare return procedure immediately.”

“Commander? Are you ordering a retreat?” asked the First Officer in dismay.

They had been tracking the Trade Federation space army from lightyears away. They had tracked down and destroyed several Trade Federation unmanned drones. Even though they had lost several good ships in return, it was acceptable damage that no fleet commander would bat an eye at.

So, what could persuade the great Commander Aurelia to retreat from the pursuit mission? It was unlike her to give up on a mission after just a few losses.

“Do I need to explain my reasons to the First Officer?” said Aurelia, 100% back to her authentic ice queen tone and demeanor.

“No, Commander. I will prepare all ships for a return procedure immediately.”

“Never question me again, lest you find yourself serving someone below your rank.”

…

As all the ships began to turn around, Aurelia retreated to her personal quarters and sat on a chair.

“Who is he?”

The image of his smile and the sensation of his hands gliding across her skin were burnt into her memory. As much as she wanted to forget about their meeting, the image of his sensual smile kept resurfacing in her mind.

She had never retreated before. However, as a commander, even though she was temporarily smitten by Jiang Fei’s charm, she had her own reasons for not continuing the pursuit.

A few days later, she came forward with the reason behind her decision to retreat. She explained that the unknown being caught on their optical camera was dangerous. He held powers that could destroy the entire fleet, and that was a risk she was not willing to take.

Although the logical side of her dictated that it was improbable for a single man to destroy the entire fleet, her gut feeling told her that Jiang Fei may not be a member of the League of the Hidden Ones.

Something inside her told her not to wrong that man, or doom and complete chaos would ensue. She wrestled internally with this dilemma, and finally chose to trust her instincts instead of logic.

…

Poof.

Jiang Fei disappeared from inside Aurelia’s ship and reappeared on his own ship in the next second. Instantly teleporting such a great distance could be achieved in his normal form, but he would be temporarily weakened due to the great loss of energy.

He did not use that ability too often, as it would eventually cause permanent damage. That, and the fact that it cost too much energy, plus the aftereffects were too great to bear.

However, after teleporting back to his ship in his current state, Jiang Fei remained the same and was not weakened in the slightest. The only difference was that he was no longer shrouded in darkness.

“Commander Jiang Fei, I have detected that the enemy forces are retreating away from us!” said the radar operator.

As soon as the darkness around Jiang Fei faded away, everyone in the bridge returned to their normal selves. They were no longer in a state of constantly worshipping him.

Isabella howled as she leapt into Jiang Fei’s embrace, “Ah Fei! Are you alright?!”

She tugged him around like a doll, pushing and pulling to check whether the anomaly that was the darkness remained.

In a daze, Jiang Fei asked, “Huh? What happened? Why is everyone here?”

The last thing he remembered was standing in the bridge, with none of the girls around, and feeling angry at the traitors for deploying the spacetime warp disruptors.

“Captain, you were just taken over by the black matter again. This time, you caused more catastrophic damage than before,” said 0541.

He played footage of how the Umbral Jiang Fei had rushed to kill his former allies, before teleporting directly onto the enemy’s commanding ship.

0541 was smarter this time. Instead of reporting it out loud for everyone to hear, he only spoke to and played the footage for Jiang Fei alone. Aside from the gruesome killings, the footage of Jiang Fei playing with a female would definitely send Isabella to a rampage.

“I did this…?”

Jiang Fei had always known that the black malice was dangerous, but he had never expected this extent of damage. Such a power was so destructive that at one point, he could even rival Theon.

When the footage reached the point when Jiang Fei was toying with Aurelia, he mentally thanked 0541, “Thanks, brother. I appreciate this.”

If the girls saw this, Isabella would be the first to give him the beating of a lifetime.

Jiang Fei frowned as he mulled over his thoughts. “Just what is this black stuff?! What does it want?

It was clear that whenever the black malice took over Jiang Fei’s body, it overwrote his consciousness with its own. This was evidence that it had a mind of its own and was living inside Jiang Fei.

Even though it had helped him get through difficult moments, the fact that it could overwrite his own consciousness worried Jiang Fei a lot.

Of all the things he feared, the feeling of helplessness when someone else controlled your body was truly unpleasant. He sincerely hoped that there would never come a day when that ‘thing’ took over his body and claimed his first cherry-popping moment.

Jiang Fei frowned again. “I need to fix myself soon… but how am I going to do that when even Master Theon doesn’t know what this thing is?”

“Commander? We have been stationary for a while now. Should we continue the evacuation procedure?” said the second-in-command.

The warp cores of all the ships were halfway through their rebooting process.

“No, no need for that anymore. We will remain here,” said Jiang Fei confidently.

Based on the footage 0541 showed him, the enemy fleet was retreating and this was confirmed by the telemetry report. It would take them some time before they returned again.

With no threats around, Turandot was now safe for the girls to resume their training regime. He had already wasted enough time on the ship, and must return the girls back into the machine.

Time was of the essence, and Jiang Fei must make the most of every moment before the people of the Gamma Dimension made their next move.