NOVEL NEXT Chapter 537 Awkward silence
Alex glanced down at the now human sized Brontes cradled on his back, with his form entirely curled up into a ball, aka a fetal position. Save for the faint rise and fall of its chest, it was completely down and out.
But despite his reduced size, Alex could still feel the intense pressure and power radiating off of Brontes in waves, even in his unconscious state.
The sheer magnitude of what had just occurred made his head spin now that the chaos had died down and his adrenaline surge had lessened.
But he knew he could linger in awe for that long. The battlefield was quiet now, which was obvious considering they were fighting in the void of space, where most sounds couldn't reach or even be possible, save for the few exceptions where certain people's abilities allowed them to, Like Brontes for example.
He looked off into the distance and noticed the Federation's ships were in tact, thankfully, but outside of them he noticed a few human figures floating still, not even moving a little bit from their spot.
Right now they all just floated in a silent void surrounded by a few asteroid here and there, since the planet, or rather Brontes' shell, was no longer there to provide light and gravity for them to latch onto.
If they didn't take any appropriate action, they would soon start drifting into the endless void.
Alex turned toward the distant command ship where Althea, Isla and Olgierd waited. Even from his distance, he could spot the stunned expressions on their faces.
As seasoned S tier combatants, this was a rare sight to see. They had witnessed countless battles in their lives, some that might seem incomprehensible to the normal human. Yet nothing in their experience had prepared theme for the sight of Brontes tearting through the entire Lux fleet, and even the wormhole where they came from creating a dimensional shockwave which nearly even wiped them out — all in one breath.
The silence as Alex approached them was heavy. Althea was the first to break it, as she still had somewhat of a reputation to uphold as his future mother in law. Though her expression still betrayed her wishes, a mixture of awe and something bordering on awkwardness.
"That… wasn't just powerful…" She spoke, failing the hide the tremble in her voice. "That was — what even was that, Alex??"
Alex adjusted Brontes' unconscious form on his back and sighed.
The other three opposite him looked at him in shock when they noticed the unconscious beast slightly smaller than himself sleeping peacefully on his back. They hadn't noticed it earlier because of their shock, but that thing was still attached to him!
When Brontes shrunk down to the size of a human, Alex naturally knew what had happened since he was the one who was mentally and spiritually connected with Brontes, but from a distance it simply looked like Brontes' gargantuan body had simply disappeared into thin air due to how quick the entire process was.
"It's… complicated. I'll explain everything, but first, let's make sure the rest of the fleet is secure and gather any intel we can from the Lux wreckage. For all we know they could have been here for months before we'd even arrived!" Alex spoke his mind, not even knowing how to answer anyone's questions.
Althea he had somewhat of a familiarity with since he had a brief meeting with her, which felt more like an interrogation, before the fleet had departed for Andromeda.
Olgierd he naturally knew as well since they had some exchanges before, and he was even the one who gave him King, his ship, so Alex was grateful for that.
But he didn't recognise Isla, so he didn't really want to speak about anything too sensitive in front of someone he didn't know, and two other people he could barely even call acquaintances.
Aside from Mira, who still lay unconscious on his ship, everyone there was largely unfamiliar to Alex, while they all knew of Alex and his feats beforehand.
It felt quite awkward for Alex, and he just wanted to get back to the fleet to start the investigations and reports onto what had occurred today, and just get some rest on his own quarters. He didn't really feel like interacting with too many people — his social battery had largely run out thanks to how exhausted he was. But he made sure to make a mental note to not reveal anything too important and sensitive about Brontes when the time eventually came to explain what had happened in this place.
Isla nodded at Alex, though her usual confidence seemed shaken at best. "Agreed. But Alex, that thing," she pointed at Brontes, "is it safe? It's not a weapon is it? I mean we all just saw what it did to the Lux fleet. Not even Principal Farnes could manage that. Is it really wise to bring it back to the main fleet?"
Alex looked at the sleeping Divine beast and back to Isla.
She did have a point, as the safety of hundreds of billions of Awakened were concerned. If something were to happen or an accident occurred, then it wasn't just a simple matter of a few losses.
With Brontes' level of power he could probably wipe out half of the Fleet himself before they were able to take him down, or he ran out of juice and fell into another slumber like his current one!
But he knew he couldn't convince them of allowing him to bring Brontes back without throwing a few bits of juicy information their way.
"While your concerns are certainly valid ma'am, I can tell you that I have formed a taming pact with this little guy. I can't speak for the future, but right now he won't cause any harm unless I order him to. And besides, he's already all out of energy after having to block against the shockwave to save you all — shouldn't that be enough to prove he should be allowed back with us?" Alex informed the three of them.
They all fell into deep thought upon hearing his words.
He was right, although they knew nothing about the beast, what they did know for certain is that if it weren't for Brontes then they would all have been wiped from existence, without a question.