Chapter 208: A Battleship in the Sky.
"You're just gonna leave him like that?" One student asked looking at Mark who wheezed as the phantom pain ran trips across his face.
"You sent the other one to the hospital, didn't you?" Sol glanced at the girl and then walked to one of the professors who stood with a security guard that was too scared to approach anyone after seeing what Dina did to Mark.
"I'm sorry for disturbing your teaching atmosphere, honestly, we had no right doing what we just did." He gestured to the auditorium and then spun his hand and placed his card in her grasp.
"The president will deal with anything related to this college in my absence, but while I'm still around please feel free to ask anything of my assistant and she will have it done promptly, I hope this doesn't affect Dina's ability to finish her semester and complete her test; she only acted on my behalf." Sol gestured to her.
"N-no... She is fine." The woman answered with a trickle of sweat rolling down her cheek.
"Well, okay then."
He gestured to the door and they all parted like little ants.
"Sorry." Dina held her gaze straight while she passed everyone while Arla smiled at them shamelessly, telling the faculty and security to have a nice rest of day.
"Ikaris, is it urgent, and why are you using a phone when you can just speak directly to me?" Sol contacted her as soon as they set foot outside ready to teleport away if she answered "yes" but she chuckled in his ear.
"Not urgent at all, love, our child gets uncomfortable whenever you are not near, sometimes painfully so, and what is the point of having a phone if I never get to use it?" She answered and Sol raised his brow and stopped walking.
"Painfully?"
"Yes, she kicks and squirms every time you are not around, she has also acquired a taste for your mana it seems since she has barely had any of mine in the week since the incident." Ikaris answered with a chuckle and Sol smiled at that revelation.
"Okay, we'll be there in a bit."
"Everything okay?" Dina looked up at his smiling face along with Arla.
"My daughter misses me it seems." Sol answered and both of them glanced at each other and then at him again.
***
[The human girl, Eve and her friend are at the door shall I let them in?] Alpha sat with Gia playing with her while everyone was seated around the dinner table but aside from Sara, nobody even budged or looked at her as they focused fully on the food before them.
"Please do, I will prepare another serving for them both." Sara answered, setting her fork aside and heading into the kitchen with the serving cart she used to usher in everyone else's while the system walked away.
"Hello there!" Alpha opened the door herself looking up at them with a welcoming smile while Gia held on to her hand and did the same, both wearing a maid's outfit like Sara's. "Welcome, you arrived during dinner, so our Master has invited you to join them."
"Ah, sorry for intruding." Eve took off her jacket and entered hanging it on the closest rack and smiling at Alpha. "I haven't seen you yet, are you new?"
"Not nearly, I am Alpha, master Vestic's other personal maid, I was simply away on business." Alpha chuckled, taking her and Marks bags and handing them to Gia who chuckled and carried them over to an empty table, placing them down properly and running back.
"Hi Gia! Why are you wearing a maid's cosplay?" Eve stooped before the little girl and greeted her with a hug raising her off the ground when she held out her hands.
"Mommy looked pretty in her uniform, I want to look like mommy!" She cheerfully answered while Eve grinned and followed Alpha upon her gesture towards the dining hall.
"This place is huge..." Mark mused, walking behind everyone and rubbing his hand sheepishly, clearly feeling out of place.
"Welcome, Eve, Mark." Sara greeted them both with a fancy gesture, and then smiled at Mark specifically causing the man to blush and avert his eyes.
"Everyone, thanks for having us." Eve placed Gia to stand on her own and gave them a bow, prompting her friend to do the same.
"Good evening, Eve and Eve's friend, I hope you didn't eat too much before coming over, Sara made her special today." Ikaris smiled at them causing Mark to audibly gasp, almost choking when he set eyes on her, but almost as soon as he did he cleared his throat and looked away when Sol raised his eyes.
"Mmm." Mark raised his eyes again, and stared at Sol while Eve took her seat. "Mister Vestic." He stood at attention and lowered his head almost down to the hip. "I... today, I was really disrespectful, seriously, I'm sorry for all those things I said." He apologised and then remained there listening for a response.
"You really pissed me off today, Mark." Sol replied after another mouthful. "But it's not me you should be apologising to; your words were intended for another, weren't they?" He looked at the man bowing and saw mark swallow and slowly look over to Dina.
"D-Dina..."
"The food's delicious, stop wasting time and sit down." Dina answered before he even got the chance to utter another word of apology.
"Dang," Usami huffed. "You didn't even give him the opportunity." She looked at her fellow hero and Dina clicked her tongue.
"If you'd heard what he said, Usami, if you were there."
"I would have probably slapped him senseless too." Usami chuckled causing Mark to hide his face and groan when everyone chuckled at his expense.
"Well," Arla quipped in. "Knowing your temperament lady Usami you would have likely attacked him with your spear." She objected, and Usami looked over at Mark shocked that he wasn't dead.
"Was it that bad?" The spear hero asked Dina and the latter nodded and huffed again before melting with another spoonful of food.
"Let's not discuss this at the table." Sol looked across at them and Dina nodded while Usami grinned with a salute and Arla stuck another spoonful in her mouth quickly.
"A change of topic then, Mark," Ikaris called his attention to herself once more.
"Yes ma'am."
"Ah, I am only a year older than you are." Ikaris pouted causing Sol to scoff and almost choke on his food at her calling herself young knowing fully well she's nearly as old as creation itself.
"You!" Ikaris stared at him from the opposite end and flicked a single bean out of her plate intending for it to hit Sol in his forehead, but he caught it with his fork and stuck it in his mouth and continued laughing.
"What the-" Eve gawked shocked alongside Mark while everyone else took a moment and applauded comically.
"Haha, thank you-" Sol stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the ceiling, placing his fork next to his plate. "Ikaris, come." He held out his hand to his side physically summoning her with his powers while his eyes and hair turned gold.
Along with his sudden change in character Dina and Arla stood, eyes glowing pink and Crimson respectively while all their sigils lit up as a reaction to him and Ikaris.
"Sol, the baby is uneasy!" Ikaris drew closer holding her belly when he stood and looked at everyone around the table.
"Alpha, take Ikaris ...and get those two home safely." Sol ground his teeth in agitation sparing them a single glance
His clothes burned away revealing a set of black armour beneath it and the circular sigils appeared before his chest and on his back again. "Something just breached from the outside; something big and it's coming fast."
Eve and Mark didn't even get a chance to react when seeing Arla and Ikaris's ears grow taller... hers and Dina's clothes changing into armour along with Usami's and Sara's, they only recalled seeing a flash od white before they appeared in their homes sitting in their beds.
"What the hell just happened-" Eve stood staring at the fork clutched firmly in her grasp but a moment later a loud trumpeting sound came from outside and her along with her parents ran out of their apartment into the streets and stared skyward.
"Something... big..." Eve's mouth slowly widened along with her eyes as the fork fell from her grasp when they beheld a massive ship slowly descending, the clouds began parting and the skies blacked out revealing more of it across the horizon, and then she followed a streak of gold in her peripheral ascending towards the country-sized construct and crashing into it.
The next moment both the light that had ascended and the giant construct disappeared in a burst of light that left particles of light and ember falling through the skies..
"When they said global security... they were talking about protecting us from outside of the planet?"