The mood in the flagship of Arkhan was one of both anger and concern. The dragoness had spoken to Arkhan using telepathy, but in so doing had let her conversation with Arkhan be plainly heard by every Mobile Suit Golem in the world. Thus, when the dragon flew into the hangar Arkhan wasn’t the only one to meet her. Arkhan’s elites were there, alongside their creator and were fully prepared to try and slap the arrogant monster silly for the sin of talking down to their creator.

All they needed was for the dragoness to step out of line and they would be able to justify their fight against Asharia. Fortunately for both parties, Asharia was unwilling to start a conflict as she knew full well that in her current state she would be easily taken out by the same tactic that had demolished Sunhallow. The weapons used were familiar to her, as was the power that they possessed, but how she knew of such weapons before seeing the MSGs use them was a secret she was only going to share with Arkhan himself. Arkhan and his elites escorted Asharia to a conference room inside his flagship and there the two of them began to talk.

…

“What you are telling me is beyond absurd. Magic and all this other stuff on this world I understand but for what you say to be true that would also mean this world as much scientific as it is magical.”

“And yet,” Asharia quipped, “what I say is indeed true. I have no reason to sully my honor by lying to you.”

“But for the ‘Angels’ of the Theocracy to be that… Things are getting more and more bizarre.”

Arkhan sighed. Things were getting out of hand. He had, from Asharia, learned the truth about the Theocracy and its masters, the ‘Angels’. It was hard to believe that the Angels were simply a very technologically advanced space-faring race of Fanatical Purifiers. It was even harder to believe that they used such a roundabout way of increasing the size of their territory.

Rather than simply terraforming a world and settling it, they instead terraformed a world, seeded it with intelligent life and then orchestrated a war of genocide between the seeded humans and other races. When the Human that they supported won, they would be ‘rewarded’ by the Angelus Union with a ‘trip’ to ‘heaven’. This ‘trip’ was just another word for a systematic purge of all of humanity, and the fact that the other spacefaring nations did nothing to stop this was just appalling. Once the Theocracy was dealt with and the planet united, the Alliance would have to rapidly step up their efforts and prepare for the Angelus Union to invade.

“We would be stronger together. You are, despite your age, the best chance this planet has of surviving the oncoming storm and emerging as a force that even the other extraterrestrials cannot hope to match. You could bring justice and vengeance for all those who were wiped away by them.”

“That doesn’t explain why you want to marry me.” Arkhan stated, his left hand covering his eyes and part of forehead.

Asharia smiled and leaned back in her chair, her wings and tail having vanished to allow her to sit down.

“Simply put, you and I are the most powerful beings on this planet and we have a duty to protect it. I like you, and you obviously find me attractive, so why say no?”

“Because I hardly know you. Sure, you and I are insanely overpowered compared to everyone else and yes, I do find you attractive, but I know next to nothing about you and you only know what your ‘temporal vision’ has shown you about me. I am not interested in a loveless marriage that exists solely to make powerful children and continue a legacy.”

Arkhan got up from his chair and continued on.

“I cannot promise that I will fall in love with you, but if you really want to give it a go then we could try dating. From what you have told me this would be your first time doing something like this and I would be your first ever potential mate. I would rather this be something we both truly desire rather than something so heartless.”

Asharia closed her eyes and sighed. The world really had changed. Before she was imprisoned every marriage ever done was something for political and/ or economic purposes. Spouses were given away to seal deals and treaties or were matched to potentially produce powerful offspring. Times were different, and love was something that took precedence over other things, even for this King who stood before her. She was liking this boy more and more with every sentence he spoke.

“I suppose we can play by your rules. But I assure you it would be much simpler to just accept my proposal and be done with it.”

Arkhan shook his head, “That is not the kind of person I am, nor is it the example I wish to set for my people and allies. Call it foolish or selfish if you wish, but I have no intention to marry someone I don’t love. And if you intend to use magic to charm me, don’t bother. You will find me immune to such things.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Asharia said with a smile, “I have no intention of tarnishing myself by using such base tricks. But despite your apprehension and my insistence on just getting it over with I will do this ‘dating’ thing with you. It cannot be that hard to get you to love me.”

Asharia stood up from her chair and the two beings reached across the table and shook hands.

“This is going to be the beginning of beautiful relationship. I can feel it.” Asharia quipped.

“I certainly hope you are right. I would hate for this to go south.”

Asharia was confused about the ‘going south’ part, as such an expression had never existed in her time, but she scanned Arkhan’s mind and found out what it meant. She too desired for this relationship to not ‘go south’ as if it did it would likely mean her death. This ‘dating’ thing seemed fun, so she would have something to give her some entertainment, something she had been dying to experience after realizing she had slept for several thousand years.

Before the two of them could start dating, a brilliant flash occurred in the distance and Asharia looked towards the east with a look of utter terror.

“What was that?!” was a cry that came from both Asharia and Arkhan and the flash gave way to show a mushroom cloud of immense proportions billowing up beyond the atmosphere in the direction of the capitol of the Theocracy. Arkhan contacted the two leaders of the two MSG factions and demanded to know what that was. To his shock and horror, he learned of what had transpired.

“Sir, we have dropped a Sky Fortress on top of the Theocracy’s capitol. It exploded on impact with the seat of the Papacy and based on our observations everything within a 200-mile radius has been gouged out by the blast! With the head cut off the serpent the body will wither, the war is nearly over! Only a suicidal fool would want to fight against us now. We expect there to be some small amounts of scattered resistance, but with this act they have no way of denying our decisive victory over them! ‘Operation: Neo British’ is a success! SIEG ARKHAN! SIEG ARCADIA!”