The villainess shall be mine

[Master, you were awake?]

"Yeah."

To be honest, I was aware of my surrounding the whole time, but I just couldn't move my body. 'Even now, I feel like I can only open my eyes… This is not good, I can't say for certain that I would be able to protect the girls if things took a bad turn.'

I decided to save Liu and bring Zax with me, and I knew that I didn't always make the best decision, so at least I should take the responsibility for them and try to keep them safe until we get out of this mess.

'After all, if I didn't do that, then… Don't end up living a meaningless life, huh.' The more I thought about these words, the more it seemed like my life was meaningless. 'Shit, I almost end up thinking about unnecessary things again. Well, I will need to about that, but not for now…'

After hearing my reply, Liu's body twitched a little and she awkwardly let go of Zax's hand and then looked at me. 'Why did you let go of her hand though, Liu?' I thought, but I didn't say anything. For some reason, I got the impression that Liu wanted me to have a certain image of her, but to be honest, she wasn't good at pretending, or maybe it was just my imagination. Nevertheless, I knew that she was concerned about Zax after hearing about what Zax did.

"I guess Cristal has already told you about what happened, so let's talk about what we are going to do from here," I said, looking at Liu straight in the eyes, however, I could see that her eyes were wandering around as if she avoided looking at me directly.

'Ah! I forgot I was naked…' I was so focused on the situation that needed to be dealt with that I forgot my disintegrated clothes.

Swoosh!

However, after I thought about these things, the black cape covered every visible part of my body, leaving only my head. 'Did it just react to my thoughts?'

"Yes, let's do that, but first, I want you to tell me the rest of the events," Liu said, and this time, she looked at me with a serious and determined face. It was quite different from her usual cold and poker face, and it suggested that she had made up her mind.

I was not sure about telling Liu what had happened to Verte, because I knew that she would blame herself, and considering the situation, it would be bad if it negatively affected her.

Apart from that, there was also the fact that Liu had successfully managed to absorb a tree fragment, and I didn't know how it affected her, but it was certain that she became more powerful than before and she must have felt it, bringing me to think about the possibility that she might act recklessly if I told her about what happened. 'Strong emotions and great power are not always a good matchup for every situation after all… Well, I feel like I am using myself as an example here…'

At least, that was what I thought when she first regained her consciousness, but even now, there were still things that I needed to take into consideration.

At this point, I didn't want to make another mistake that would lead to more problems later. I believed that Liu was intelligent enough to understand what needed to be prioritized in this situation, but still, it didn't mean that I should tell her everything without thinking about the consequences. 'Damn, my head is killing me but I can't stop thinking…'

"Are you talking about Verte?" I asked, trying to gauge Liu's reaction.

Liu's shoulder twitched a little after hearing Verte's name, as if she didn't expect that I would ask her about it like that. "Yes, I need to know…"

I didn't know why Liu was with Verte, but it seemed like she wasn't completely aware of her real nature, so I could deduce that she met with Verte without having to kill anyone. However, this made me wonder how such a situation occurred, was it a coincidence, or did it happen because someone instructed her to find the person who was Verte's former host? And why did this person entrust Verte to Liu? Depending on the answer to these questions, I needed to choose wisely how I should tell Liu about what happened to Verte and me.

However, at that moment, I didn't have enough information, so I chose prudence and only said what was necessary. "She is gone, I couldn't do anything anything, sorry."

"… Tell me… Tell me how did it happen?" Liu said, and for the first time, I saw a change in her expression. She had a sad face, even if she tried hard to conceal it behind her usual poker face.

From the look of it, Liu cared about Verte, and maybe she intended to take care of her, thinking of her as a baby and not a fragment of the Tree of life. Still, what would have she done if the person who instructed her to find Verte wanted to take Verte from her? I couldn't say…

I was just theorizing, because from what I knew about Liu, she was the heir of her family, and so she was still following the order of the current head, which was her father, so that means that if meeting Verte was not a coincidence, then it must be because Liu's father knew something about the existence of the tree fragments. 'And unless I can judge that he and his clan are not my enemies, I need to be careful… Tch, it might be even too late… Liu was ignorant, and so were her companions, so they won't hesitate to report everything back to the head of their clan… I hope they didn't say anything that might lead to more problems.'

"I wasn't sure of what happened, but she turned into particles of light and then disappeared. I was on the verge of dying but after she was gone, I felt like I recovered a bit of my strength. Do you know something? What exactly is she?" Instead of explaining anything, I turned the question back to her.

"I… I don't know…" Liu said with a complex expression on her face. She looked like she was a bit lost.

From the look of it, Liu was certainly not aware of Verte's true nature. I believed that she knew that Verte was not a normal baby, but in the end, she didn't know her true value.

"Without her help, I wouldn't be able to get us out of that situation, so she is our lifesaver. Such a gentle soul…" I said, and I didn't continue talking any further, because I also began to feel a little bit emotional. I wanted to cheer Liu up, considering what awaited us, but I wasn't very good at it.

I didn't want Liu's mood to worsen so I quickly said something. It would be bad if she couldn't control her emotions now and her power go out of control. "Anyway, the first thing that we need to do now is to find a spaceship, if there is one around while waiting for Timothy and the others to come… Just in case things go wrong, it would be always good to be prepared." I explained.

Liu didn't say anything and looked like she was in her thoughts.

"Liu, stay here and protect Zax. I will leave Cristal with you while I go look around and find out if I could gather more information. This cape can conceal my presence, and it's not good for us to move around together." I said. Of course, I didn't know if the cape had such an ability, but I wanted to give a proper reason for my decision.

"Alright…" Liu nodded at my words.

Even though I couldn't move my body well, the black cape helped me to float, so I didn't need to move that much. 'This is such a great help…'

"Okay, Cristal, contact me if I don't come back in thirty minutes, because it would mean that I found something or something had happened," I instructed Cristal.

[I understand.]

"Okay, please don't move without telling me, Liu."

After saying these words, I didn't turn around and exited the little house.

Of course, it would be dangerous to wander around with Cristal, and for some reason, after her upgrade, she could divide herself into two, which was something I found useful at times like this. 'Was it because there were two sword handles? Maybe, but the nanoparticles which were mixed with my fingers were superior to the Stellarium that was used to create Cristal's original body. I didn't even know what kind of material they were…'

[Master, I think that we won't find any spaceship here.]

"Yeah, I believe so too, but we still need to take a closer look at the situation…" I said.

[This whole area looks like it was submerged under seawater, but for some reason, the seawater had vanished. Mostly, because of that.]

I looked at the thing in front of me while listening to Cristal's theory. It seemed like this monster created a huge tsunami all over the planet when it first landed, but then it soaked up the ocean. 'Is it trying to devour the whole planet now? What kind of beast is this?'

Well, maybe I was wrong and it didn't affect the whole planet, but the fact that I could not locate my parents' suit made me come up with this conclusion. 'Without mentioning the size of this thing…'