Out of Space

With eyes glazed over, Leung was in a world of his own, his mind wandering aimlessly. He was seated on a raised platform, exquisitely decorated that rose a couple of stories tall and on a similarly overly ornate throne. Spread out beneath his feet, were hundreds and hundreds of kneeling people.

From his vantage point, the entire top deck of a massive airship was filled with people all similarly dressed in red. The tower throne which he was seated upon, overlooked packed open deck of the airship and on his sides, were filled with a large choir of singing children and what appeared to be the upper echelons of the Protectorate.

At first, he had been very afraid and nervous about being found out to be a fraud, but quickly he gained confidence when everyone he met, automatically went down on their knees to worship and some even kissed the floor he walked. He realised that whatever the Snake did, some divine portion of Ramuh must have been left behind in his body when they both disappeared mysteriously.

He had once asked the scar faced girl, Nerissa, what he looked like to her, and she answered in reverence, "My Lord is like glowing like the Sun, his presence fills me with warmth."

Seeing the fanatical look in her eyes, he gave up and instead asked the older woman, who seemed to have become even colder to him, her eyes averted away as she answered him. Her vague answer surprised him, for she said, "Your holiness... is filled with light and is like a shining torch in the darkness."

Leung wondered if he was glowing as he looked at his own body. The mirror before him only reflect his ordinary appearance, with only several marked changes. First, he grew taller, almost a head taller than anyone and his muscles would have made those ancient greek sculptors crazy with their perfection. His once shaggy hair turned thick and smooth and even his unshaved facial hair made him look cooler and stylish.

The most prominent change was his ears, no longer short and rounded, but now long and slim. This change made him most upset as he felt his identity as a human was disappearing in this alien fantasy world. His physical ability increased tremendously as evidenced by the number of spent women in his quarters in the past few nights. He did not seem to require sleep as he lay there surrounded by sleeping naked bodies, his mind boding over the recent events.

He indulged himself greatly, making use of his new identity to the fullest. But the novelty and freshness of his identity soon dulled as he had been required to attend mass. At first, he managed to keep his attention, but after the third or fourth priest or bishop had finished his sermon, he had lost all interest.

The whole mass was filled with constant bowing and yelling of "For Justice" or "Justice Prevails" and so on. Not to mention the choir hymns were making him sleepy on the oh so comfortable throne, had him nodding off in boredom. To keep up his appearances, he copied the lofty manner of those struck up officers back in Fleet HQ which seemed to further cement his status.

As the chorus of another, "For Justice!" answered the blabbering priest below, his mind thought of the two Gods he had come into contact with. One was the Snake or the Egyptian God, Apopis, whose identity was revealed after they pledged their souls to it. Connected by their condemned souls, memories and images were transmitted into their minds, allowing them to understand find out about its identity.

The second God, was Ramuh, the Creator and Judge. He was one of the main Gods in this world and while he heard a bit of this God in the New World, he has no true knowledge of this God. Even coming to the Old World, what he knew came from Protectorate and seeing how cult like they were, he could only take their word with a pinch of salt.

He wondered if Ramuh was somewhat similar to Earth's God, but having experienced what the Protectorate had been doing and preaching, he found both their teachings to be poles apart. Ramuh appeared to be a very strict, rule lawyer kind of God. Laws, orders, and rules must be followed to the tee or suffer punishment.

The scar faced girl, Nerssia had given him a brief of the Protectorate, boasting about their achievements and accomplishments. Outwardly, Leung kept an interested face, but inside, he shook his head at their so called achievements, thinking how barbaric they were still and they don't even have proper toilets either!

The loud chants of Ramuh woke Leung from his daze and he slowly opened his eyes, one hand under his chin, while the other placed over the armrest of the throne. He looked as if he just graced the mass of people his attention and the crowd went into a frenzy as they praised him to the heavens. "HAIL LORD RAMUH! LORD RAMUH!"

"Your Holiness," Nerssia appeared at his side. Lately, she seemed to have taken upon herself to be his personnel attendant. Even her position as Chief Inquisitor had been given up and handed over to another subordinate. "The Clergy is awaiting your holy presence in your Temple."

"Right," Leung stood up and sighed inwardly. He looked at the kneeling Nerssia who had her eyes cast downwards on the floor and said, "For the Protectorate."

"For Ramuh!" Nerssia answered him with a smile as she followed one step behind him. Leung walked barefooted along the red carpet laid out before him and entered into the temple like super structure of the airship. There were no shoes his size and ever since getting Ramuh's divinity, he felt no discomfort being barefooted.

Towering rows of marble white pillars spread out from both sides, holding up the long triangular shape roof of the super structure. There were no walls within the temple, allowing Leung to see the clouds and blue skies as he strolled to a circular forum like chamber. The circular chamber was also without walls, only towering pillars holding up a round dome roof.

Chairs placed in a quarter circle faced a massive throne set to the end of the forum. Without ceremony and acting cool, Leung walked past the bowing Clergy and sat down on the throne. Nerssia without missing a beat gestured to a waiting slave who brought over a bottle of the finest wine and poured half of it into a huge crystal goblet which Leung took a sip.

"We see Lord Ramuh!" The members of the Clergy bowed deeply as they formed up before Leung. "Lord Ramuh be our Judge!"

Leung frowned as he did not know what this group of old priests wanted. Seeing his frown, Nerssia glared at the members of the Clergy and snapped, "You have displeased Lord Ramuh!"

Hearing Nerssia's words, the members of the Clergy dropped to their knees and kowtowed. "Justice Lord Ramuh! Justice!"

Leung resisted the urge to scratch his head in confusion. He took a quick peek at Nerssia who seemed genuinely angry and wondered what the hell was happening. Turning back to the priests, he saw them all bowing and scraping on the floor and felt a bit uncomfortable seeing the elderly doing that.

One of the white haired priest wearing a red vestment trimmed with gold thread crawled forward and said, "Your Holiness! We bear the sin of failing to bring Judgement upon all the lawless and disorderly world!"

Leung was even more confused as stared at the old man. Bring Judgement to the world? What did he mean by that? He cast another glance at Nerssia for help and Nerssia stepped forward once more and said, "The Clergy has failed you, my Lord! The land outside of the Protectorate is still with lawlessness and disorder!"

"We will seek to complete Judgement day as soon as possible!" The old priest declared. "Already all our forces have sent out to bring order to this world! It is just a matter of time, my Lord!"

"Forces?" Leung's confusion grew. "Show me?"

The priest quickly gestured to an underling, and soon, several underlings carried forward a huge dragon skin roll. They carefully placed the dragon skin roll on the floor before Leung's throne and unrolled it, revealing a map of the world. Leung seeing all the wiggly scribbles felt a headache coming as he couldn't understand how to read the map.

Seeing their God leaning forward in interest, the members of the Clergy felt relief and they quickly explained their current strategy. It was at this time, did Leung realised that they were talking about subverting an entire continent and pushing their faith onto others. And he, as the host of Ramuh, will become the blade take over the world!

-----

The Old World, UNS FOB, Fort Anchorage

"Princess!" A small figure shot out from the waiting party and buried herself into the arms of Sherene. With her ears down and tears dripping down her face, Kaga cried and kept apologizing non stop to the Princess. "I'm sorri -eee!"

Sherene hugged the crying cat girl back and patted her head. She looked around at the welcoming party and asked Kaga, "Where's Takao?"

Kaga buried her head deeper into the bosom of Sherene and cried even harder. "I- We don't know..."

Hearing her words, Sherene felt a deep sense of sadness in her heart. She hugged the crying girl once more and gave Blake who was carrying their son a guilty look. Seeing her sorrowful expression, Blake felt a stab of pain in his chest and entertained dark thoughts of violence upon the ones that caused Sherene pain.

As if sensing his father's dark temper, young Coa reached out with his tiny hands and tugged at Blake's peak cap. Seeing his playful son, the dark thoughts within Blake's mind vanished and he walked over and gave his wife an assuring hug and promised her, "I will do my best to find her."

"Thank you," Sherene whispered as she leaned against Blake with Kaga still in her arms. "It... really means a lot... She did so much to try to save me..."

Blake nodded before he dragged the still sobbing Kaga away from Sherene arms and growled, "Stop wiping your mucus on her!"

"Sorrie!" Kaga sniffed as she rubbed her face, only to be chased away by Blake to wash her face. Dr. Sharon laughed as she watched the frightened cat girl run away from Blake's scolding and she linked her arms around Sherene.

"Come, let's get you a change of clothes," Dr. Sharon gestured to the mess on the Princess's dress. "While Daddy here looks after the kid!"

Blake shook his head as Dr. Sharon led Sherene away into the base built into the cliff. He turned to an aide and asked, "Is the wing ship prepped?"

"Yes, Sir!" The aide replied stiffly. "It is ready to departure back to the New World at any time!"

"Good," Blake nodded as he followed after the two women. "Get the orderlies to start moving my bags on board."

The aide gave a salute and went off to carry out his orders. Meanwhile, Blake called Trism over and gave further orders. "Start preparing the base to go into cold storage."

"And one more thing," Blake said after a short hesitation. "Keep a small Intel team here."

"Sir?" Trism's eyebrows rose in question.

"I thought about it," Blake sighed. "While I liked to have nothing more to do with the Old World... But I think we still need to be prepared for anything."

"Keep a small Intel team here," Blake said again. "Their duties are to collect intel, both minor and major and also to keep a small part of the base here running, support and train the locals pledged to the UN. Since with the new Vector wing ships, we can do weekly or bi weekly supply runs."

"Does this mean, we get to keep some Army or Marines?" Trism grinned. "Intel isn't known to be good at training soldiers, you know?"

Blake laughed as he gave his agreement, "Set the team up. I even throw in some techs to keep them company!"

"Yes, Sir!"