The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

Chapter 252: Terrorist.

[The Khalla-Nova Collective is quite basic in comparison to Master's] Alpha alerted Sol and Dina telepathically while they were in the midst of an empty field walking away from the farm.

[According to my alter-ego, the vast majority of its lesser species were wiped out thousands of years ago; all across the collective simultaneously there was a culling, it took only a hundred years.]

"A culling?" Dina stared at Sol's back while he walked ahead of her. "Is something like that even possible for such a massive collective, didn't you say it was at least five times the size of ours?" Dina asked. "I know numbers are subjective, but I couldn't fathom the size of ours, and this one is supposedly 500% larger, that's impossible in such a short time, isn't it?"

[Indeed, it should be, the "how" is still very unclear, but the fact is, Dina, it happened, all across the entire collective there are dead systems with planets packed with corpses, someone somewhere made the decision that humans should be the only species and they did everything in their power to make it a reality across an entire multiverse.] Alpha answered in their heads again.

"[It is quite bothersome, this place is not as simple as it seems]

"Alpha, did you find out the number?" Sol asked something completely unrelated to their current conversation.

[Yes,] she answered.

[A full investigation by Jenifer Law has revealed that there are currently 17.2k known sentient universes in the Khalla-Nova Collective, and of that sum, there is an outpost in every cluster of five, so there are approximately 3.5k outposts across the entire collective with the average number of soldiers being anywhere between thirty million to a billion per outpost.] She replied promptly.

"God... That's a lot, I wonder how many of them are guilty..." Dina commented as she walked and a moment later bumped into Sol's back after his stride halted.

"Turn it off."

"Sorry?" She stared at the horns protruding from the sides of his head and laying flat as they pointed into the air behind him.

"Turn it the fuck off; your conscience, do I need to remind you why this has to happen?" Sol looked around at her. "Do I?"

"Of course not, they're a threat to all of us, more specifically to Ikaris and Talia, we're doing this so they don't have to live with the threat of the emporium over their heads at every turn," Dina lowered her gaze, it hadn't been her intention to speak that out loud. "It's just... your appearance troubles me a little." She spoke when they started walking again.

Minutes of silence elapsed between the two of them before Sol's curiosity got the best of him and he stopped and turned to her, closing the connection he and the others shared and blocking Alpha's perception as well.

"Explain yourself," He stared down at her it wasn't meant to be intimidating but Dina hesitated when she thought that he was mad at her.

"Master, I-I- didn't mean to-"

"Come on, Dina, calm down and answer the question, do I look like I'm gonna hurt you?" He furrowed his brows and Dina lowered her gaze alerting him that this was exactly what she was thinking.

"Right now, you're using demonic mana, I know it's because the Emporium has never encountered demons and can't find them on their scanners, but whenever you were like this in the past you've been..." She averted her gaze when her eyes focused on his crimson pupils for a moment.

"In the past, Master, you've never made the best decisions when you were like this, your judgement becomes clouded and you're quick to wrath." She explained and Sol nodded and rested his hand on her shoulders.

"Look at me," He instructed her and watched her eyes travel across his shirt, up his chin and nose and then lock onto his eyes once more. "Do I seem like I'm not in control?" Sol asked her, and she shook her head. "Are you afraid of me, Dina?" He asked again and once more she shook her head. "Then why did you flinch when you thought I was angry with you?"

"I..." She lowered her gaze once more and started playing with the hemming of her blouse. "Because I'm afraid of you being mad at me more than anything else, Sol," She dropped the "master" title and grabbed his hands falling to her knees before him and resting her forehead on his leg. "So much has happened recently, I'm afraid that the choices you make will tear us all apart...

Even if I know in my heart of hearts that it won't happen, it's my greatest fear..."

"Then I have no choice." Sol pulled his hand free of her clutches and held on to his horns gritting his teeth and then breaking them off at the roots with a grunt.

"Master!" Dina leapt to her feet and cast [heal] on him immediately when she saw the crimson blood running down the sides of his head. "Don't harm yourself because of what I said-"

"The last thing I'd do is manipulate your emotions through harming myself, I'm not a bastard, Dina," Sol lowered her hands and focused on his mana causing the crimson in his eyes to turn into a brilliant green.

"We've all been traumatised by demons, I should've thought about your fears before I mimicked their appearance and mana like that," he smiled at her and then waved his hand over his brown hair turning it black, he now looked like an entirely different entity and inside of him was a mana signature that not even she could sense, she just knew that he felt safe. "Is this better?"

"Master, can I... kiss you?" Dina stared at Sol and he burst out laughing.

"What, is it too much?" Sol asked, suspended in disbelief at her sudden formal request, but before he could react to her again she leapt onto him and began kissing him furiously while he caught and supported her weight.

"You beautiful argh!" She held on to him tightly and continued kissing him as her eyes watered. "Why are you so good at this?" She asked and Sol locked his hands beneath her legs and raised his brow.

"What?" He asked between getting attacked by kisses until she had calmed down enough to stop herself.

"Sol," Dina called him by his name again, holding his hand as he led her across the plains and he stopped choosing where they were as a good launch.

"Yes, Dina?" He turned to her and stared at the skies above.

"You know that I love you, right?" She asked him and he smiled and held her head to his chest in a soft and comforting hug.

"Of course, I love you too, Dina, I know I don't say it enough, at least not to you individually, but I do love you with my everything," he closed his eyes as he felt her mana radiating around them.

"Let's get out of here," Sol locked his hands while she held on tightly and like thrusters were lodged beneath the souls of his feet Sol shot off into the clouds in a matter of seconds holding one hand upwards and blocking them from the intense heat that stemmed from ripping through the atmosphere at the speed of a comet and then continued gaining more speed leaving a flaming crater in the shape of an eye that destroyed an entire mountain range from his leap.

"It turns out that we aren't that far away from the first outpost, the emporium usually takes an entire planet for their military operation each time, so this should be an easy fix, we can worry about the aftermath once we've moved on," Sol looked down at Dina who still had her eyes closed as they moved at speeds she had never experienced before, her hair glowed and her mana protected her beneath his own barrier.

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"Yes?" She asked, peering an eye open and staring at him.

"There's nothing to fear, I'm right here with you." Sol released her from his hug and hugged her from behind resting her heels on his toes and kissing her ear.

"You're already built for the cosmos, you've been using cosmic mana since you were a regular mage on Arkadia, there's nothing to harm you out here," He tightened his hands around her waist and smiled looking forward and waking Alpha again, using her augmented vision to create guidelines towards the outpost.

"It's been over a month since we got here, so the general has likely made countermeasures to stop or kill me," Sol's expression turned dark as the thrust from his feet thinned and then exploded causing them both to zip across an entire galaxy in the span of a few seconds. "This isn't the Father that they tried killing..."

"What's coming for them is destruction the likes of which they've never seen or heard of before, this is the enemy they feared I'd become, don't consider them innocent, everyone on that planet, every single one of them has signed their souls to the Emporium, they've killed mine and Ikaris's kind, they attacked our family; they're all irredeemable!

"... understood."

Dina's eyes inverted and the glow in her hair shone brightly as she steeled her resolve.

"They wanted an enemy, they're getting a terrorist, I'll drive fear so deep into their bones that merely mentioning my name is enough to cause hysteria."

[Ten minutes until arrival]

[Malice has been overclocked]