The Fall, he had been wanting to step out of the ship but he had been in route between worlds for nearly a whole month. The edge of the lip from before had left him to believe the travel time wouldn't be so arduous, however. When he continued on, he noticed a significant issue.
The distance wasn't just great. 'This is fuc▓ing insanity' Zao did his best to deal with the intense isolation, Misozi was a good help but her company was hit or miss, much like her answers to questions or tasks.
There was much to be desired.
"AH, there's no where to walk, I want to stretch my legs!!" Wu Hai mumbled to himself. It was the fourth day in a row where he had said as much, usually when he was talking to himself, Misozi was off in other parts of the ship and ignoring him. This time, she was standing overhead, hovering as he worked.
"Is there no where else I can go to be free of this damned ship!" He was frustrated but his exclamation was sincere.
"Why not go into one of the Pocket Dimensions? The Ship can remain cloaked and steady for a time." Misozi said this 'matter of fact-like' and then flipped over like a trained dolphin in the air, seemingly amused.
'Kim Li.. you... ' He wanted to curse at Xuan Kim Li for not making the Ships spirit more capable at explaining its functions but the presence of pocket dimensional entry points on the ship was a perfect addition to its usefulness. Wu Hai calmed himself before asking, "Where are the dimensional access points located?"
He was hoping for a quick answer, his frustration had reached a peak.
Misozi understood, Zao had been snappy and a bit depressed. Without much hesitation, she gave the directions.
Wu Hai went to his bedroom, it was the largest room on the ship besides the Cockpit. Beside the window, a panel with a security formation on it required his energy signature to open it. Pressing his hand across its surface, another space sprang out of the wall rather quickly, a hundred pocket realm dimension cards were lined up in a square.
Each of the Cards were named, some of them the Emperor had even been to. He picked up one he hadn't seen in a while. Sending his energy into the access key, he disappeared.
The Card fell to the Floor.
"So, what brings you here?" Honey felt his arrival in that instant.
"It does work!" Wu Hai was ecstatic. He spread his wings and flew up, he could have gone out of the ship but if he had any problems and fell, he wouldn't have been able to recover the ship very easily.
Sitting atop the battleship from the Vampire War, a blue pickup was playing some music over its speakers, the sound echoed throughout the dimension. It was playing country music and it helped create a certain mood that Zao was very thankful for.
"How have Titan and the Kinky Farmer been?" He asked.
"Kinky Farmer.. you're funny. He's doing alright. He's been back and forth to the Fausun Kingdom lately, they've been evacuating some tribes from a disaster. Errit said that there was a Volcano that was going out of control." Honey kept spreading elemental essences and scattering new seeds.
The Garden Dimension had become a trove of plants, both from Earth and Shiyan. Honey had agreed to take over the realm for the most part, it suited her well and she had command over the Treants which made organizing much more efficient when they began working in tandem. "Did you need something else?" She was busy but the Emperor had arrived without warning.
"I'd like to pass some new plants you're way. I picked these up in Ultinia, they should be unique in this Garden." Wu Hai pulled out the electric blue grasses and passed them forward.
"Pretty. Oh?" Hana paused. "Strong..." Her face distorted into a very strong grin and she stuffed one of the grasses directly into her mouth. "MMMhmmmm"
She ate it.
Wu Hai's face paled but there were several of the blue grasses left. "Don't eat them all, please grow them and see what use they have."
"How would I know what use they have if I didn't consume it?" Honey's comment sounded logical to the Emperor. He gave up his misunderstanding and stretched out across the bed of the pickup.
"This is nice." The music had changed, the volume was cranked up by Honey. She danced for the Emperor and sat in his lap.
"So, what does the Emperor want to do now?" Her fascination with his aura had left her feeling the desire to stick closer to him but each time she touched him softly, she stole a bit of his energy.
'She's a cunning one...' Wu Hai got up and grabbed her ass, bringing her to straddle his lap. "Hah, I'd take you as a woman but I'm sure I would lose myself to your body."
Honey wanted to gush, she had been alone for almost a year. "You mean it.."
'What did I just agree to?' Wu Hai thought it over for a minute then gave up on thinking about it. "Yes, that.. until you meet with the Empresses, you cannot." He ran his hands along her body, it was smooth and supple, brimming with energy.
Honey's eyes looked like they had glossed over and she arched her back slightly in pleasure when he lifted her ass slightly with his hands to get up. 'Aww' She whined inside but that too passed quickly. "Boo. Well, next time you won't get away so easily." She pouted audibly and put her balled fists under her chin, resting her head on the Emperor's lap.
"Hee.. Next time then." She smiled and showed her teeth.
The Emperor had no idea what the teeth were for, as a plant spirit, she absorbed energy from things like the sun and radiation from auras. Consuming things besides water had no logical reasoning to him, but Honey's existence wasn't logic, she was mysterious and unique among all the plant life he had seen to date. To say he didn't have the urge to push her down and partake would have been a lie, the Emperor was simply unwilling to defy the unions he was already a part of. In respect, he set his mind elsewhere and changed the mood.
"Oh, right. I still have a lot of things to do but If you see Titan, tell him I've laid one of the teleportation array steeles in Ultinia, but its on the upper levels and its dangerous there." He made sure to mention the danger, straightened up his clothing and looked at Honey.
She was wearing almost nothing and leaning back in the pick up with her legs stretched out like a trucker girl. It was extremely alluring, she licked her lips and eyed the Emperor.
He gulped, 'She's serious.. that'll be interesting to look forward to.'
Honey ran her finger down her chest slowly and seductively. "Are you sure I can't give the Emperor a reason to stay a bit longer.."
Wu Hai felt like he was being seduced, her body was giving off extreme charm and the dress that was clinging to her body seemed to vanish into nothing, then her leg stretched out toward the Emperor's thigh. "I really should get back but a promise is a promise. I'll bring the Empresses back with me next time too."
Honey had plenty of experience with women, except for Titan, no other male came close to even touching her body. Titan had restrained himself and refused to defile her properly, it left Honey feeling her sexdrive much more intensely.
She sighed. "Okay." Honey didn't wait any longer, the dress came back to cover her body and she stood up.
Wu Hai blinked hard and recovered from his stupor. "Ah, so Youthful and Sexy..." He marveled at her a bit, teasing her for later. "I'll be back, you'll be much safer here for the time being."
"I'm more than twenty years old.." Honey defended herself and then went back to the Garden. "I'll be here when you get back but don't be gone too long." She winked and sank her energies into the soil.
Wu Hai had a lot of things on his mind but Honey's sweetness wasn't one of them before he had arrived, he silently worked his way around the Garden Dimension and picked a few choice herbs that had gone through considerable growth since the last time he had seen them. As he was picking another Herb, he asked, "Honey.. How much time has passed since you last saw me?"
"You've been gone for almost two years now. Why?" Honey was quick to answer but it left the Emperor feeling woozy.
'Two years...' He didn't say another word and leapt through the doorway. When he reappeared on the ship, there were red lights flashing.
"OH! Thank goodness you're back. We're about to run out of energy!" Misozi yelled it out.
Wu Hai ran to the back of the ship and began sinking his own energy into the tank. When the light stopped flashing, he took out some Elemental Essence from his ring and poured it into the formation to top it off.
"How long was I gone?" He didn't think he had been gone for too long but when he heard the answer, he was a bit pissed.
"Sir, according to my clock and Calendar you've been gone for a week."
"I've been gone for twenty minutes!! TWENTY!" Wu Hai was angry, the time difference had cost him several months of time during the traveling between dimensions. He had to be careful about how often he went in or out of pocket spaces in the future, the feeling of unease wouldn't go away any time soon.
Terrified that he would spend eternity searching, Wu Hai tried his communication stone again.
There was still no response despite the repeated attempts.
Grabbing the controls, he floored the accelerator plate and pointed the ship straight down. There was no room for argument in his heart, Kuzunoha and Vira, along with Mike were some of the most important people in his life.
Traveling the void was a boring task and each day felt like dozens. The flow of time was different in the Ultinian Heavens, that was for sure. He could see the landscape below him changing slowly, like it was growing at an increased rate of time than previously. He saw roads stretching out and towns being built, conquered, torn down and rebuilt again. For a week solid, his fall seemed to have stalled.
Wu Hai did his exercises in the ship and slept as little as possible. Every moment he was awake, he was traveling or increasing his speed to its maximum again. The space between worlds did nothing to slow his pace, the more energy he threw into his acceleration, the faster he went. That is, until he decided to pump the breaks. Occasionally in his voyage, the Emperor was forced to dodge creatures that saw Misozi as a meal. Their speeds did nothing to change his heading but the loss of speed so that he could turn always added more time to the trip.
Three months in the Ultinian realm had passed in what felt like one long march, it weighed on the Emperor's heart. The distance between the two worlds he had seen already was so vast, he was surprised when any speed registered on his position differently on the HUD.
Misozi put their path on the projection and zoomed out, a tiny red dot on the image showed their position. "According to my calculations, there is only another week before you reach the surface but these figures have been changing since time keeps registering differently outside of the ship."
"Time is what now?" The Emperor thought he had heard wrong.
"Time is flowing at several different speeds outside of the ship, my hull is experiencing different moments at longer times and slightly distorting as we pass through the turbulence." Misozi pointed out some details and kept bringing warning messages across other portions of the Cockpit. "Please adjust heading."
"Please adjust heading, Please adjust heading" She repeated herself three times and stared at the Emperor with intent. "PULL UP"
"Oh. You should have told me which way to go." Wu Hai pulled the stick back, it was the right direction to go. The rattling of Misozi's hull stopped, they had reached a point where there was less strain on the outside of the ship and it leveled off.