When we warp back into reality, I find that the room Flann teleported us into is immaculate and devoid of any signs of struggle. It's a command center more than a bridge, as instead of a window to the outside, it has a massive screen filled with smaller windows that show footage of the city below at various angles.

Much like in the mission control center in sci-fi settings, each desk has its own computer terminal, displaying data that looks like gibberish to me. The chairs are in various positions, but each one is empty.

"What happened here?" I look around for clues as to where the crew disappeared to.

"Mataku." Korenga states in a grim tone after sniffing the air. "Was here."

I smack my forehead and sit down on one of the chairs. He most likely came through here after I killed his artificial Crawling Chaos scout. Or he did it after he lost half his mass to me on the moon. In either case, I let this happen because I thought that maybe the ship had already left before I killed Alverost. Or that the gods of Adanak might have found a way to deal with it.

It was my neglect that allowed Mataku to possibly regain some of his lost mass. If I'm lucky, he did it before we met on the moon. But at least he didn't take the ship with him, even though he most likely knows how to use it.

"You're up." I stand back up and shrug off the feeling of regret before addressing Exla. Maybe I could somehow figure out how the controls work, but I'd rather not do so when I'm above a city with a million inhabitants. If I accidentally hit the reverse and made it drop, it would be a catastrophe rather than a joke.

The cloud girl nudges Kerry awake, who looks up with sleepy eyes behind their helmet. A moment later, they realize where they are and jump up in apparent shock.

"It's alright. This isn't the Rhodos station." Exla quickly puts a hand on their shoulder and calms them down. "This is one of Alverost's fortresses. I believe he called this a Mu-class Seed Ship. He always mentioned wanting to leave this planet once he created the perfect form without a need for the Imagination Engine."

She's talking about Oinos in particular. To me, he was already close enough to perfection. Regeneration, godlike physical capabilities, indestructible bones, able to survive the vacuum of space - he had it all. The only step above that would be a Crawling Chaos beyond a certain threshold of mass. I think Mataku most likely achieved that before I took away roughly half of it.

"So, he wanted to bring his values to other planets, huh?" I mutter to myself more than as a question directed at Exla, but she seems to overhear it.

"I would have stopped him. We don't deserve other planets if we can't make this one work first." The cloud girl's expression grows dark at these words. I don't entirely agree with that sentiment, but won't argue about it right now.

We just averted an extinction event and are about to prevent another one. Exla herself said that she couldn't have done anything about the moonfall on her own, and most likely, none of the other Old Humans could have either. If not for the existence of Tokomaha and me, this world would have been destroyed, and humans and demons alike with it. If Alverost had left this planet and seeded another one before then, human and demon culture could have at least lived on wherever he went.

I think I might want to try doing that once all of this is over, and peace returns to the world.

"So, how does it look?" Looking at Exla not moving at all, I ask her with an eyebrow raised. In fact, since I called her, she has done nothing but to sit down on one of the seats in the command center.

"I've interfaced with the ship. No lifeforms outside of us remain here. Everything else in perfect working order, as expected of Alverost." The cloud girl's eyes reflect the screen in front of her, but she isn't looking at it. Her gaze seems distant as if seeing far beyond the scope of this room. She must be using her cloud-like properties to connect to the circuits directly.

"Can you steer it? And how fast does it go?" I inquire while crossing my arms thoughtfully. The sister ship that appeared over Arkaim flew away relatively quickly, but it wasn't at a speed I would consider fast enough to replace the Chaos jet. It's just more imposing to ride in this.

"We can reach the sun within the Earth day. But that only applies to space travel. Inside the atmosphere, it's much slower." Exla explains while nodding and closing her eyes. She seems to have discovered a newfound respect for Alverost. "He really did it. What sci-fi predicted a long time ago, he built all on his own. Of course, with some help from the Imagination Engine."

"What do you mean?" There isn't much time for lengthy explanations, so I'll have to stop her if she starts throwing formulas at me.

"Well, I read that he has an inertia damper and impulse thruster on this thing. All that's missing is a warp drive for faster than light travel." Instead of formulas, she throws out words I don't understand. I was never that big on science or hard sci-fi, so those mean nothing to me.

"In simple words, please." I tap my arm impatiently.

"Alverost found a way to reduce or completely negate the inertia of this huge ship. That is, we can accelerate and decelerate quickly without feeling any of it inside here." After a pause to gather her thoughts, Exla tries again while looking up at me. But even this is hard to wrap my head around, so I'll just nod. "And he's using a thruster that allows us to travel at a considerable fraction of the speed of light."

"So, this ship can go fast, huh?" That's all I take away from this. The first part doesn't click with me much.

"Yes, this ship is speedy." There's evident sarcasm in her voice, but the cloud girl knows that I'm only a reincarnated high school girl who knows nothing of science. "But I hope you realize just how incredible this is."

"I don't really." I shrug. Areteniha can travel from the sun to the surface of the Earth at the speed of light, so going there at only a fraction of that seems not much of a feat.

"I know what you're thinking. But she's a cheat." With a frown, Exla sees right through me. I don't understand how one can cheat the Imagination Engine any more than it already is a cheat, but she gives me the answer right away. "She has a real-time copy of herself in Earth's orbit at all times. A human's mass can't travel at the speed of light, but information can. Whenever she comes down here, she really is only making a clone descend from a space station with her memories."

"So when she appeared over Arkaim yesterday..." I scratch my head when I remember that a lens was all it took to disperse her.

"That wasn't even a clone, but a projection from orbit. But that's what allowed me to find the space station the clone comes from." Pumping her fist in triumph, Exla grins. "She will have to deploy a new one if she wants to know what's happening down here."

"That's news to me." She never told me the result of her search.

"Not worth mentioning. It was a small station with a cloning capsule and some laser systems. A shuttle bay for drones that created the illusion of a voice from the sky." Shrugging, the cloud girl suggests that it really wasn't something worth troubling me over. I've had too much on my plate to also worry about smoke and mirrors.

"Wait, does that mean..." I glance at Kerry, whom Korenga is entertaining by letting them dangle from her muscular arm. The Areteniha that appeared after eight and a half minutes once Kerry put on the Golden Shawl was only the clone who waited that long to give the illusion that she came from the sun? It wasn't even their real mother at the time.

That's cold, coming from a woman living near the surface of the sun. And to think I considered her one of the few Old Humans who aren't evil; I was as thoroughly fooled as her own child. But at this point, I don't think she's ever going to stop seeking revenge for her son. All that's left to do is get this over with - in one way or another.

"Well, let's head to where Asoko is." I look into the room and gesture at Flann to come over. Then I turn to Exla once again. "Can you steer this to Arkaim? But park it somewhere away from the city."

"It's going to take a few hours. As I said, it doesn't fly as quickly inside the atmosphere as it does in space." She nods in assent but feels it necessary to explain the limitations.

"Can't you just space-hop?" The fact that I even know this is a miracle in itself. I've seen something similar in a game before, where an ICBM was fired into space, where it could travel faster than inside the atmosphere. It cut down the time it took for a nuclear missile launched from Russia to reach the US by more than half.

The cloud girl stares at me wide-eyed as if I just came up with something outrageous. Then she closes her eyes and sighs once before turning to her console.

"That's why you're senpai." With a wry smile, Exla states with a hint of admiration in her voice. Does that mean it works, and she simply didn't think of that?

"[What about you?]" I ask Kerry, who drops down from Korenga's arm and looks at me in surprise. "[Are you coming with us or staying with aunt Exla?]"

I feel a death glare bore into my back, but act as if I don't notice it. It's harmless banter between us at this point, or so I'd like to think. And truthfully, Exla is not only millennia older than I am but is definitely the more mature one when she wants to be.

"[I want to come with you.]" But to my surprise, Kerry walks over to me and looks up into my eyes almost pleadingly. It seems that being inside Alverost's ship is uncomfortable for them, and when Exla is busy steering, she won't be able to entertain her as Korenga did.

"[I understand.]" Petting their helmet, I give the onyx-skinned child a warm smile. "See you in Arkaim then, Exla."

With these words, I glance at Flann and signal her to teleport us wherever my other half is located. And according to her, this time, it should be the real Asoko as Mataku destroyed all the artificial Crawling Chaos drones. I'll believe it when I see it.