"Destroy it! Destroy this sacrilegious abomination!"
"Don't let a single one of them land on New Theran! We will have a hard time finding and fighting them if they go underground!"
With the emergence of New Theran to the citizens of Hel, a majority of the population has started asking questions—with no response from the kingdom. There is news, however, that is scattered throughout the entire realm.
New Theran is for those who seek salvation from the confines of tradition.
No one truly knows where this information came from, but they believed it. After all, it was already right above their eyes. And so, those that wanted to experience a new world started to flock to the mysterious new planet, a majority of them belonging to the newer generations.
But alas, as there are those that wanted progress, there are also those that abhorred the idea of a new world. They thought it was wrong that there was a copy of their sacred planet that would be roaming around outside themarian territory—outside with the rest of the animals. And so, they too, flocked to the new planet to stop those that want to leave, as well as destroy New Theran entirely.
As for the Order of the Grand Militia, they were ordered to stand down as they still did not know the full situation. And right now, only citizens of Hel were fighting against each other.
The castle was also quiet for some reason, their soldiers, still not deployed.
As for the Kingdom of Varoif, they were already aware of what was happening as Aerith have already made contact with them—their king, already letting the families and the people choose if they wish to embark on New Theran.
And so, right now, the people that were fighting in the expanse of s.p.a.ce were completely civilians. And of course, the group who scattered the news about the New Theran were also present in the battle—Osk and the sisterhood.
They were asked to ignite the flames of rebellion, and that is exactly what they did.
The older generation tried their best. And they did manage to damage the planet in one way or another. But each time a considerable gash could be seen on the surface of New Theran, it heals.
None of them know why. But still, if they just continued on, they were sure that they could destroy New Theran since it was still much smaller than Theran—they were wrong, of course.
They were completely unaware that an existence capable of controlling the very life of the planet itself was residing inside New Theran. An existence that came from an unmapped part of the Universe—Tsula, the Terraformer.
Right now, New Theran is probably the most indestructible thing in the Known Universe.
This was the very reason why Tsula was here—and perhaps why she and Diana even met a hundred years ago. Just how deep Diana's plan goes, no one could truly fathom.
"Do not let them destroy our new home!"
"For freedom!"
The new generation. The people outside Theran would probably be shocked to hear that the majority of themarians that belong to this category already lived more than a thousand years, some even 5000.
But no matter how old they truly were, their roars and screams emitted a youthful vigor that shook the expanse of s.p.a.ce itself.
"Destroy the planet! Do not let Theran be tainted by the outside world!" Sadly for this youthful vigor, however, the older generation outnumbers them 10 to 1.
"We will live and die on Theran!"
Call it an eon of loyalty, indoctrination, tradition, fear, or plain-out refusal to change, the older generation's resolution completely drowns and overwhelms the new generation's roars.
"We will not let you abandon Theran!" One of the women of the older generation screamed; her eyes, glowing red as several raging orbs of compressed energy shot out from her hands with each swing of her arms,
"No one will—eugh!"
And all of a sudden, she felt a slight resistance preventing her arms from moving. She was so focused on the battle that she did not even realize… that there were already three people that all looked identical to each other sticking to her—locking her limbs and holding her mouth open.
"Good, hold her still."
And before she could process anything, another white-haired pale man with the same face as the people holding her approached her from the front; the smile on his face, almost reaching from ear to ear.
And like her, the pale man had a ball of energy floating above his palm.
"Time to eat, female themarian." And with those words as her only warning, the man suddenly pushed the ball of energy on his hand toward her opened mouth.
"You!" But before anything else could enter her mouth, however, the woman quickly bit down and slammed her teeth closed—the fingers that were keeping them open, chopped and torn off without any resistance.
The orbs of energy in the woman's hands then flattened; turning into blades as she violently spun in place, slicing the four white men that suddenly restrained her as if they were paper.
"..." The four identical-looking men, however, still had smiles on their faces even as they very slowly floated away from her. And then, before the light in their eyes fully faded, the four of them pointed their palms at the woman.
"Micro Pavoom." And with those words simultaneously escaping their dying breaths, 4 white voids, just the size of a basketball, completely erased several parts of the female themarian.
But alas, as the four clones of Riley started to crumble, the woman has already almost completely regenerated the parts she had lost.
"What… was that?" The woman could really only hold her jaw as she fully recovered. And before she could even think of what just happened to her, she saw something that caused her eyes to just widen in shock,
"What… is that?"
A swarm. The view in front of the woman could truly only be described as a swarm of white. And sadly for her, she was already right in front of the path of the swarm.
"!!!" The woman's eyes turned red before the white veil completely swallowed her—she, however, would never be seen again.
"Reinforcements?" Osk, who was making sure that no one from the old generation tries to sneak in onto New Theran, could not help but retreat as soon as she saw one of her enemies get devoured. She squinted her eyes, until finally recognizing what the swarm from the distance truly was—or in this case, who.
"Sisters!" Osk clapped her hands, causing the darkness in front of her to slightly crack, "Retreat back to New Theran!"
And as soon as her words reverberated through the ears of her comrades, all of them started flying away—kicking away their opponents as they rushed to Osk's side.
"What's going on!?"
"It's him, Riley Ross," Osk subtly licked her lips as she looked at the almost hundreds of Rileys flying on the horizon, "The father of my child is here."
"...You're pregnant? When did that happen?"
"That doesn't matter," Osk squinted her eyes as she noticed that one of her comrades was still tussling with someone, "Oi, retreat! We need to formulate a plan now that— !!!"
And before Osk could finish her words, she saw 2 of Riley's clones float beside her comrade; their palms pointed at the side of her head.
"What's… going on?" Her comrade could really only blink in confusion as two Rileys floated beside her. Soon, however, blood began dripping from her nose.
"Wait…" The woman whispered, "...I thought you were on our side?"
"Hm?" The two Rileys only smiled at her words before her eyes popped out from their sockets; her limbs, completely going limp as more and more of her blood spurt forth from the holes in her head.
And with that, the two clones just shrugged their shoulders and moved on to the other themarians that were still fighting—anyone that moved, they surrounded and killed. Of course, most of them survive and regenerate, but the clones did not seem to care as they just moved from person to person.
"It's… It's Princess Aerith's lover!"
And finally, some of the people from the older generation recognized Riley. Most of them, now retreating as they rejoined the others on Theran.
"I knew it. This… this is the Rebel Princess' doing! Where is King Arthus!? I thought he was going to execute her already!" An old, skinny themarian raised his voice as he joined the others from the older generation,
"This would have prevented all of this from happening if he just killed that little brat!"
And all of the sudden, the white swarm that moved around the battlefield stopped. Their eyes, turning red one by one like wildfire as they all turned their heads toward the themarian that just opened his mouth.
"..." The skinny themarian's eyes also lit up in response; his group, doing the same as they did not let themselves be intimidated by Riley and his clones. Contrary to their expectations, however, the clones did not rush toward them, but instead s.p.a.ced themselves apart; forming a line that separated Theran and New Theran.
"What… are they doing now?"
And soon, amongst all the clones that were lined up, Riley finally floated forward; his arms stretched to the side as he seemed to look down at the older generation, as well the planet behind them.
"Citizens of Theran!" Riley then opened his mouth; his voice, echoing through the ears of every man and woman of Theran, "Rejoice…
…all of you are now at the mercy of Princess Aerith of Hel!"