Theo has never believed in the whole 'love at first sight' garbage.

How could someone fall in love with someone he or she has never met? What is the basis of feeling such intense emotions?

Past Life?

Possible but there has been next to no proof that reincarnation was even possible. The best resource available were either religious texts, divination or necromantic text.

All of these were either vague as hell or outright speculation to justify their unnerving practices.

Preferences?

The most likely answer.

Theo has a strike range so wide that it covers everything aside from the really messed up kinks.

In fact, he found Xiao Ning quite attractive and would love to bone her.

Did he loved her?

Most certainly not.

Attraction did not mean love.

While Theo dismissed the very existence of love at first sight, Miss Samantha has taught him how to abuse people afflicted by this mythical sickness.

And that was through a simple yet also equally obscure state of mind called the 'Suspension Bridge Effect' AKA the state where the person would mistaken the feeling of fear to love.

The method was simple, Theo grabbed Xiao Ning and jumped off the skyscraper tall Imperial Castle.

Xiao Ning was probably screaming as they plummeted to the ground, but Theo could not hear it with the wind at his ears.

Without the girl knowing, Theo was actually using his spydrones to slow their descent and move away from the castle at the same time.

He shot his grappling gun at the spydrones and swung to the next one.

He did this again and again and again until they reached a small and fairly quiet park approximately 1 kilometer away.

Once they were on the ground, Theo set her down and immediately went into coms.

"Maria. How are we doing on the alert level?" asked Theo.

"*huff* *huff* .... Papa.... *huff* *huff*" replied the obviously pained Maria.

"Oy! What's wrong?! Are you alright?!"

"No problem... *huff*... Just out of time.... *huff*"

"What do you mean 'out of time'?!"

"I'm originally not from this time ... *huff* ... remember? Big Sis is trying to bring ... *huff*... me back... *huff* ... I'm resisting her... *huff* ... so that I can give some last second advice... *huff* ... before I head back... *huff*"

"So soon? Damn it... I thought we had a bit more time.... I really wanted to spend a little more time with you..."

"Hehehe... *huff*... Don't worry... Next year, we'll be together again... *huff*..."

"Oh right. Nichola is going to give birth by then huh."

"Yep... *huff*... I'll be with you for... *huff* .... many years to come."

"If that's the case, then I shouldn't keep you any more than I should. Give me your advice so that you can take a good long rest."

"Right. Listen up coz I... *huff* ... wont be able to repeat this again... *huff* ... First: Xiao Ning is the cause... *huff*... and the solution to the nuclear war. Take good care of her."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"No time to explain! *huff**huff*... Second: There will come a time that your defeat is inevitable.... *huff*... Do not hesitate to use your power to its absolute limit... *huff* ... You will not die... *huff* ... I promise."

"Okaaay... That's worrying but I understand. But we have no time right?"

"Yes. No time.... *huff*.... Lastly.... *huff*.... I love you Stupid Papa."

Naturally, Maria's words hit Theo right in the feels.

Theo may not believe in love at first sight, but in the short time they were together, he somehow grew to love Maria like how a father would love his child.

It was a weird feeling.

Naturally, he did not want her to go.

There's so much he wanted to ask her like 'was he a good father' or 'what's it like living under him', but there was simply no time left.

As such, he decided to keep his final statement short.

"Can I ask something before you go?"

"Make it short... *huff*."

"In your future, are you happy?"

"*huff*... Yes. Very much so...*huff*"

"I see. I'm glad to hear that. Love you my stupid daughter. Till we meet again."

"Yeah. Till we meet again stupid papa."

After that, the line went dead and he could hear nothing but static.

Manly tears were shed but he did his best to keep it together. He was in the middle of a mission after all.

"Umm... Are you alright?" Xiao Ning asked meekly.

It seemed that she was watching Theo's little farewell talk.

"Hahaha. Sorry about that. I had to say goodbye to someone, and I'm kind of bad at this type of thing." replied Theo as he wiped his manly tears off.

"D-dont worry about it! I'm sure you'll meet again in the future!"

Xiao Ning's shut in nature was on full display. She probably had no idea how to comfort a crying man and just went with the cookie cutter response.

Cute, socially awkward and smoking hot body. The quintessential combination for an otaku waifu.

"Hahaha. You're right. Anyways we should get moving." said Theo before looking towards the heavens.

The Garden of Eden was already over the capital's bay and was quickly moving out to sea. It was being chased by a bunch of helicopters and a couple of planes.

"Looks like Vivi's group is doing fine. I guess they don't need my help anymore. That's good."

"Umm... What is that thing anyway?"

"I'll tell you later. For now, we need to get out of here while there's no pressure on us."

Theo grabbed the girl's hand and led her out of the park.

Naturally, he did this on purpose.

If Xiao Ning is an otaku, she'd be blushing from something so minor as holding the hand of a guy.

FYI: She was reacting so clichely that it was cringe inducing.

For the next few minutes, the 2 made their way down the streets and stole a random car. This time around, it was a simple van. Theo specifically chose this to blend into the crowd.

They took the car and drove through the city unimpeded.

However, this did not last.

His spydrones spotted a pure white horse running through the air. Ridding it was an equally pure white fully armed samurai and it looked like he was making a beeline to their position.

"Can you drive?!" asked Theo as commanded one of his armory spy drones to fly overhead.

"Y-yes. But I-I'm not that goo-" replied Xiao Ning as Theo stopped the car and went to the roof.

"We're being followed! Drive as fast as you can! Our destination is the airport! Remember, keep driving even if I get thrown off the car, got it?"

"G-got it!"

Xiao Ning took the wheel and immediately floored it. True enough, her overly cautious driving style was a clear sign of inexperience.

Nevertheless, they had to make do with what they had.

On Theo's command, the spy drone dropped 3 things: A cybernetic 6 armed backpack, a helmet and a Denel NTW-20 sniper rifle.

He smashed the front windshield and used it as a seat to stable himself. The NTW-20 was set up on the roof and was pointed towards the back of the car.

He activated the SEER analytic engine on his right eye, took aim, made adjustments based on the future predictions and fired at the flying horseman 2 kilometers away.

Much to his surprise, his shot was on the mark despite both his platform and the flying horseman were moving.

Sadly, the flying horseman was able to cut the bullet before it could touch him.

Theo kept on firing but it did not even slow the samurai down.

It only took 20 seconds for the flying horseman to cover 2 kilometers and catch up with them.

It landed on the road and proceeded towards the driver side.

Once again, Theo shot the samurai only to be deflected.

However, this was all part of the plan.

The samurai was so used to getting shot on the head that he failed to anticipate Theo's next play.

Inside the car, Theo left arm had his super shotgun trained at the samurai.

Once the rider was close enough, Theo fired both his sniper rifle and shotgun at the same time.

While the sniper bullet was deflected, the shotgun round punched through the van's windowless sidedoor and blew the horse's brains off.

Though surprised, the Samurai was able jump off his fallen steed and onto the van's roof.

"You bastard! Not only did you destroy the Fumetsu no Oni, kidnap my wife, and now killed Entei! I am Akatsuki Daisoujo! Remember my name as I send you to hell!" roared the samurai as he went on the attack.

Both Theo and Xiao Ning were surprised to hear that the emperor himself came all this way to end the problem with his own hands.

+1 respect.

Sadly, he was also in the 'kill first, ask questions never' mood.

The Emperor's sword, a flaming Nodachi, tore through the roof of the car in order to cut Theo in half.

Theo was able to react by blocking the blade with his left arm.

Unfortunately, the force was so great that it threw him out of the van.

Before Theo could hit the pavement, he fired his grappling arm and dragged the emperor with him.

Both slammed violently onto the pavement with Theo immediately using the grappling guns on his cybernetic backpack to pull himself out of an incoming car's way.

On the other hand, the emperor was ran over twice before being punted 10 meters by the legendary truck-kun.

Both fortunately and unfortunately for Theo, the Emperor did not get isekaied.

While he did not want the Emperor to die, taking the monarch down without killing him was a nigh impossible task.

As such, Theo decided to take the coward's route and run for his life.

He used his grappling gun to board a passing truck.

Since all of his guns was left on the van, he had his armory spydrone drop a gun he rarely ever used due to its general weight and unwieldiness.

It was the IWI Negev light machine gun. Since it was normally a stationary weapon with belt fed ammunition, 2 of his grappling guns were replaced with a plastic ammo box that carried 3000 7.62x51mm NATO rounds.

If it wasn't for the power armor's physical enhancement, there would be no way he could carry all of these.

He was hopping that he was able to leave the emperor behind. Naturally, this was not meant to be.

"ENRAIHA!"

Theo jumped off the truck onto nearby car as a pillar of flame cleaved the trailer in half.

The emperor jumped from vehicle to vehicle in order to chase Theo down.

Seeing how his enemy was so much stronger than he is, Theo used the grappling guns to move to keep himself moving.

At the same time, he would spray a generous amount of lead towards the monarch. He made sure that none of his shots would accidentally hit the civilians.

Of course, the emperor did not know this and was infuriated by his perceived recklessness.

The emperor sped up his pursuit, to which Theo responded in kind and ran away as fast as possible.

From here, it was a weird cat and mouse game where Theo tried desperately to keep his lead.

Thanks to the SEER's future prediction combined with his natural marksmanship, he was able to hit the emperor 95% of the time.

Sadly, the monarch's armor did a phenomenal job of protecting its wielder.

The swarm of 7.62x51mm simply bounced off the man like they were nothing.

It may seem pointless at first, but there were a couple of reasons why Theo kept firing.

1. To piss off the emperor.

This was to make sure that Theo was the target. If the emperor remembers that Xiao Ning was pretty much defenseless and prioritized on securing her, stopping him without killing any of them was impossible.

2. To tire out the emperor.

Goading the emperor to attack caused him to put all of his power into each strike.

Based on ex-emepror Takihiro Daisoujo, emperor Akatsuki Daisoujo was a 39 year old man that has not seen combat for almost 10 years.

Even with training, the man was not physically or mentally prepared for combat.

His blood may have given him immense power, but his instincts were dull and his techniques were sloppily executed. Most importantly, the guy's stamina was greatly affected by his protruding flabby stomach.

Such was inevitable in a peaceful country.

It was a risky strategy, but it was the only way for Theo to bring Emperor Akatsuki without resorting to lethal force.

However, hubris became Theo's undoing.

He has underestimated the emperor way too much.

Mind you, Theo knew very well that the emperor could one shot him. Sadly, he failed to realized that his enemy had cards hidden in his sleeve.

Lulling Theo into a false sense of confidence, the emperor suddenly disappeared, crushing the engine block of the car he was standing on in the process.

Theo instinctively defended his right side the IWI Negev. Not a millisecond later, the emperor's nodachi sliced through the light machine gun like butter.

Before the emperor could chop his head off, a massive shock wave blasted both of them and nearly every car in the road into one direction. The two combatants slammed into a wall on the nearby building.

Every glass on all buildings were shattered.

Every burglar alarm in the entire city went off at the same time.

This was the effect of Theo' BFG 1.0 shooting down the Garden of Eden.

Once the floating island was sufficiently far enough from Zifang's mainland and once Vivi's group has evacuated a good enough distance, La Ren Sithra was to call in the strike.

The Drows in Theo's hideout would open a portal just above the island and the BFG would immediately fire.

Since the island was destroyed in the air, the risk of a tsunami via shockwave was minimal.

Even if it does crash into the sea and cause a tsunami, Zifang has water mages specifically trained to counter it.

So far, so good.

The only problem now was Theo's life or death duel with the Emperor.

Fortunately, his armor was tough enough to take the impact of being thrown into a wall.

Theo fell to the ground but immediately rolled to the side, avoiding the emperors downward strike.

He then used his left arm to block the emperor's baseball-like swing. This sent him through a brick wall, 2 rooms and outside the other end of the building.

Theo's Ankh belt flooded his body with omnigel to repair the massive amounts of bones and ruptured organs he sustained.

Once Theo was able to regain his footing, he activated his cannon arm, loaded a tungsten round, activated an archon battery and fired the moment he saw the emperor passed through the building to pursue him.

The shot rivaled that of a Rheinmetall Rh-120 cannon that was used in the Abrhams Tank. It was so powerful that it blew 2 floors of the building into smithereens.

Sadly, destructive power meant nothing when it cant hit the target.

Before Theo could say 'OH SHIT!', the emperor suddenly appeared in front of him and cleaved both of his legs off.

Fueled by adrenaline, survival instincts and sheer desperation, Theo ignored the pain and tried to reload his hand cannon once more.

Unfortunately, the emperor had non of it.

The nodachi glowed red with magic runes and vaporized Theo's left arm in a massive explosion.

In panic and desperation, Theo used the hidden flame thrower on his last remaining limb but it was quickly silenced when the emperor stabbed his arm into the ground.

The emperor followed up by planting a magic enhanced fist into Theo's head. The force was so great that it shattered the helmet that could normally take a direct blow from an RPG.

After ripping Theo's helmet off, the emperor took of his own helm.

"Theodore Lorne.... so it really was you. To think a nearly powerless individual like you would force me to use 'Void Strike'. Then again, you did take down the Fumetsu no Oni so I guess it's just par for the course. If I wasn't so dead set in killing you, I would have done everything in my power to recruit you. Hold your head up high young warrior! You have fought well!"

Pinned, disoriented and missing most of his limbs.

Theo could only watch as the emperor's fist squashed his head like a tomato.... or so he thought.

Before the fist could connect, a feeling of intense pressure followed by a spike in temperature enveloped the area.

It wasn't as intense as the Garden of Eden's presence, but it was intense nevertheless.

The emperor quickly drew his nodachi from Theo's arm and blocked a blow so powerful, it sent him flying into a nearby building.

Standing over him was his savior. If he could describe the person in one word, it would be 'Angel'.

Clad in jet black form fitting armor that covered the entire body.

Decently long and a bit frizzy silver hair.

A menacing battle axe.

A pair of ethereal angel wings sprouting from the shoulder blades.

She was both an incomprehensible monster and Theo's first wife.

"Damn Juno.... You're a sight for sore eyes." said Theo in a very weak voice. "How did you even get here?"

"I flew through the portal the Drow opened when the BFG 1.0 was fired." replied Juno with her signature smile on her face.

However, Theo knew her well enough to tell that the smile was that of someone about to murder another person in the most brutal way possible.

If she did that to Zifang's emperor, that would be an international incident of the highest severity.

"Juno. I know you're angry, but do not kill, mangle or permanently cripple Akatsuki Diasoujo. He has to get out of this without any permanent physical or mental damage. Do you understand?"

"Your command is my wish. Can't say I'm happy that the culprit wont suffer, but it cant be helped."

As Juno said this, the emperor suddenly appeared behind her to chop her head off.

However, the nodachi never reached her neck.

Without looking, she was able to catch the blade with her bare hands.

"Void Strike huh. Not bad, but you're sloppy on the execution." said Juno before disappearing and reappearing behind the emperor.

She swung her battle axe at the emperor's armor and caused a decent chunk of it to fly off.

Before the emperor could regain his footing, Juno disappeared and reappeared behind him and suplexed him with enough force to plant him into the ground.

Juno pulled him out and proceeded to repeatedly slamming him into the ground like a rag doll.

It was cruel, degrading and showed to the emperor the overwhelming gap of power.

Once she was done playing around with her food, Juno grabbed the emperor by the neck.

"Since Theo told me not to kill you, I shall follow his words. But remember this weakling. I have many ways of breaking you without damaging your body. If you try to purse Theo, you'll find out exactly what I mean. Consider this your first and last warning weakling. You wont be so lucky next time."

With the threats and promises made, Juno picked up the now unconscious Theo and left the scene.