Emperor Zao was refreshed when he came out of the cabin, his venting had been fully satiated and he stood there with a smile on his face. Kuzunoha and Vira lay in bed, their eyes traced his backside by the door.
"What's on your mind?" Kuzunoha asked, she had noticed that his expression when they had found them, it was a desperation.
"Time flows differently here. Gefést was absolutely right, there is something very wrong with this place." Wu Hai pulled his pants up.
"I don't understand.." Vira shook her head, the gravity was already quite a lot to have thrust on them, being stuck in the Ultinian heavens for six months didn't help them either. "How differently?" She cocked her head and buried it in Kuzunoha's chest.
"From Misozi's calculations, based on the turbulence and when I popped into the pocket dimension, more than a year passes in one month. We've been gone somewhere between 6-9 years already."
"Nine years!?" Kuzunoha got up, the sheet fell to the floor. She walked naked across the floor and looked in the mirror on the wall. "9 years?! Are you kidding me?"
"I'm afraid not. That's why I was hurried originally. I wanted us to get us out of here, we could always make plans to come back after." Wu Hai put his hands up in the air. "Our kids are strong, I'm not worried about them so much as I am worried that we've come entirely unprepared to watch everyone I know fade into history. If we don't take efforts to return, we could easily be forgotten."
His face twisted while he thought it over. "The a difference in how time flows in this place is terrible, If we stay here for a year.. just one year, more than a decade will have passed on Shiyan."
"I see. That means even Earth has experienced years without us. What should we do?" Vira located her panties and put them on. As she clung to Kuzunoha's body, she fondled her slightly and kissed at her neck. "I am okay either way, what do you two think we should be doing?"
"I'd like to see my son before he's completely grown up." Wu Hai turned his attention to Vira's wandering hands, she had stripped the belt from his waist again. "Again?"
"Six months is a long time to wait, apparently, its been longer than that." Licking her lips, Vira disappeared under his vision.
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Vector complained in the morning about the noise level, he managed to fall asleep but he had been woken up by their morning romp. He was sitting at the Cockpit talking to Misozi, after he had gotten some time by himself there was little reason to fear the Ship's Spirit. "Misozi, show me a list of all of your functions."
Misozi didn't know that she needed to activate the isolation fields, she giggled and flowed around like Casper, never touching anything without explicitly asking.
A list appeared across the hud, it scrolled quickly and defined each of the functions. It wasn't very comprehensive but complicated wasn't always the way to be elite. The ship had many functions like stealth, elongation. It could be manipulated, slightly distorted to change the interior configuration or the amount of rooms. There were more than a hundred pocket dimensions stored aboard for escape purposes and safety features were built in all over.
Vector looked a console by the far wall, there was a weapons cache. It acted like a vending machine, materializing disposable weapons. He took a sword from the bin and looked it over, this isn't a bad sword. He had been a blacksmith for most of his new life, the quality wasn't terrible. He threw it back in the bin and it was taken away, put back into the machine.
"Neat." Vector laughed a little and went back to checking the functions.
When he found the Isolation formation array, he quickly put it over the Captain's bedroom.
Sighing in relief, Vector leaned back in the chair. "Finally. Those three have been going at it like beasts since we arrived." His breath had cooled the cockpit but the ice was dissipated quickly, only the air remained cold.
"What's this?" Vector was searching the functions, there was one he wasn't entirely familiar with, "Misozi, what is this suppose to be?" He pointed to the hud and fingered the function control.
"That was designed by Mr. Munju, he had been working on gravity plating for Operation Earth, but the function never performed as intended while in zero gravity. I suspect it was installed in the hopes that it would become useful." Misozi was just a ship, she responded but her intuition left even Vector feeling slightly burned.
"Can we turn it off for a second?" He flipped through some of the settings and found the off switch.
When his finger hit the controls, he felt a significant increase in weight. "Oh!"
It was like the outside, he lifted his arm and felt the restriction. "YEA!" It was great that the ship could house them and keep them safe during traveling but the loss of the tempering effect inside was a big loss for the group. Vector had increased his strength more than a few fold since his arrival in Ultinia.
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"Over there." Wu Hai was coming out of the room. Kuzunoha was looking for her undergarments, he had seen them on the light fixture. When he saw Vector's shaking head, he laughed. "Aww.. come on, its not like I haven't had to hear you pounding away from time to time."
"Its not like that, besides, I already found the mute button for your room." He pointed at the hud, "See." Clicking it off, the sound of Kuzunoha and Vira giggling to each other could be heard.
Kuzunoha was slightly moaning, Vector hit the mute button again.
"Well, that works. Misozi, earmark this list and remember where it is. If I ask for functions and you don't tell me again.. I'll take you apart to rebuild." Misozi's lack of interest in sharing details had been a thorn in the Emperor's side since their arrival and the entire trip down to the lower levels of Ultinia.
"Yes, Master." She replied somewhat servile.
"You can stop calling me master too, we've been over that." He would have spanked her, but he couldn't actually interact with her body. Misozi was incorporeal, her figure existed merely for looks but she could still point physically and speak. Truly, her existence was a strange one.
Wu Hai looked at the list of functions with Mike, he stood there for a few minutes and then he saw the Gravity Plating notation. "Bitch.." Wu Hai knew he had been missing out on training because of the voids between the worlds but he had never thought there was a way to turn off the ship's anti-gravity effect.
It was giving him a headache, Misozi's disinterest. Xuan Kim Li had gotten his revenge and though Misozi wasn't substandard or even defective, she was enough to get on his nerves and get a rise from him on occasion. Back on Shiyan, he would have been able to hear the Emperor's complaints but with Wu Hai being in the Ultinian Heavens, his voice didn't make the gap.
"Vector, I just finished updating the Empresses on the situation. Time flows differently here, one month is over a year in time on Shiyan. We've got some decisions to make." Zao tapped his finger against the the wall console, scrolling further down. He was going his best to memorize what functions existed.
"It has been almost nine months already.. are you telling me nine years have passed on Shiyan?" Vector's breath grew colder, he was losing control over his breathing and angry.
Kuzunoha came out of the room and fixed her hair. "Are we going back or are we staying here? I want to see our kids before I'm a Grandmother."
"This place won't stop existing if we visit but if we stay here for too long, no one we know outside will remain." Wu Hai knew what everyone was thinking, he said his bit and went to sit down.
Kuzunoha sat beside him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I don't think there's any problems on Shiyan but If time is passing so fast outside, we'll have to make an effort to go back regularly."
"You said you went to the Pocket Dimension? Which one?" Vira came out and was still wearing nothing but her panties.
Vector turned away. "Hey, you're way too beautiful to walk around half naked when I'm around.. please give me some consideration."
Vira laughed and kissed his cheek. "You're strong, I know you'll have your own women that we have to watch naked one day too."
Vector's face reddened, she was right. His appetites were known the whole of Greensong. He gulped, realizing that he had been wrong.
"At least you found a way to eliminate the anti-gravity field, I was sure that the Emperor wanted to deactivate it." Kuzunoha walked to Misozi's image and looked her up and down. "You're Misozi right? How are you doing?"
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The Girls got along famously with Misozi, after a couple of minutes they were chatting. Vector explained the fight with the Mucklin, the Goddribs and usefulness of Spirit Stones.
"I know about the stones, I've absorbed a few." Wu Hai's expression was priceless and guilt free.
"A few?" Vira didn't believe it. "We've had to absorb them daily to curb our hunger fits, none of us have actually eaten since we've been here. Everything we hunt turns to spirit stones."
"Everything?"
"Everything except this Tooth." Vector flipped over his hand, the tooth from the beast that had tried to eat him had appeared in his hand.
"So not everything! Think about it. If you still have that, that means that only dead materials turn to stone. I'm sure if you ripped portions away before the creatures died, you can keep them. We should give it a try during the next hunt." Wu Hai stood up and pulled out some fruits.
"Eat these. I found a tree two levels up, it had about thirty of these fruits." He passed one to each of them.
Holding food in their hands, each of them began to salivate. The dry taste of the rocks had left them thirst just thinking about it.
The Taste of fresh fruit hitting their tongues was like a gunshot at night, the screams echoed in the ship.
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They spent the rest of the afternoon until the shield above the world began to revolve and hide the light from its surface arguing about when to return.
Vira's argument won over all other objections. "Why don't we just go back, have fun for the night, then come right back. Wu Hai can always teleport us back to this exact location and the steeles work too, there really isn't a reason why we can't do it all."
"Do it all?" Vector didn't hate the idea, "I'm in."
Vira crossed her legs and leaned back with her arms spread out wide. "The Empire must have grown since we've left."
Kuzunoha stood on the couch, "I wanted to see how Japan was going after Operation Earth, If its okay with everyone I'd like to have some time to check on them."
"That's not enough time really, I'm sure something's bound to keep us longer than a single day." Wu Hai knew better than to expect the expected. The Wheel of Fate was a double edged manifestation of the universe. Balance existed and one could not always have the good times. "Why not make it a week. I can ferry you to Japan and drop a Steele, I hadn't expected so much time to have passed." Zao grabbed at the Empress to rub on her butt, he wanted to change the mood even if it was a bit perverse.
"Speaking of time, the light is out, its dark again." Vector pointed out the obvious.
"Where do you want to go?" Wu Hai asked everyone.
"Tero" Vira said confidently, she knew where her priorities were.
"Japan." Kuzunoha nodded.
"Mr. Munju" Misozi cut in, it made the others laugh.
"And you?" Wu Hai turned to the Dragon King.
"You can drop me at Greensong, I ..." Vector stopped for a second, somewhat unwilling to share. "I need to settle something."
"What about you? Where are you going?" Kuzunoha ran her hand along Wu Hai's chest.