22:00 AT, Day Nineteen | Arce Lunae / Flag Room

  “Alright folks, is everyone ready for the big event?” Ray asks the assembled crowd. All of our important people are here of course.

  I am standing in front of a receptacle for the Quartet’s flag, holding their flag. Their flag is quite heavy, but manageable.

  Ray stands at my side, a brilliant smile on her face. She turns to me and motions for me to continue, having finished her crowdwork routine.

  “Well then, ima shove this thing inside, before my arms die of exhaustion.”

  I place the flag into its holder and nothing happens.

  We stand around awkwardly for several minutes, then the system makes an announcement, seemingly to the entire arena.

  “The Quartet Confederation Faction has been eliminated. All existing holdings will be turned neutral and all members of their faction will be subsequently removed from the arena.

  In accordance with Phase 2 of the arena, the second zone has now been unlocked. Zone three will be unlocked once one zone 2 legend has been slain.

  Zone two contains new resources, harder challenges and greater rewards.

  A New Rule Has Been Introduced: Forts belonging to a faction in zone one may not be captured or attacked if that faction has holdings in zone two.

  New production facilities are now available to purchase in the market to accommodate new resource availability.

  May the stars be ever in your favor, contestants.”

  That's quite an interesting message. We already knew that the next ring of biomes would be opened. But the fact that we have to defeat the forts in deeper zones before we can make our way inwards is interesting indeed.

  Ray bumps my arm and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Seemingly wanting something before we get to the next part. I'll have to figure that out in a moment, for I have a very important question to ask.

  “Well then, who wants waffles?” I ask, looking only at Ray, but addressing the entire crowd.

  One and a half hours later

  “Ko, these are delicious! Did you improve your recipe or something?” Ray asks, mouth full of waffles.

  I reach over and brush a strand of her hair out of her face, after all, it's important to fully behold her overwhelming cuteness. “I don't think so. Perhaps it tastes better since we have been amidst battlefields so much lately?”

  “Perhaps so. Or maybe you are just improving without noticing. That definitely sounds like my darling.” She says, taking a sip of some juice that we found. I watch as she drinks the juice. For a brief moment, I consider taking the drink and replacing it with my lips. But I resist the temptation and decide to save such things for later.

  I take a look around the hall. Many groups have shown up and are enjoying my waffles. It brings great pride to see so many people enjoying my recipe. Perhaps I should've gone to culinary school. I'm sure they must have ones that specialize solely in pancakes and waffles.

  Oh well, it's a bit too late for that now. After all, I've got a super duper ultra cute girlfriend. Plus the whole thing about becoming the leader of our entire species and a galaxy. Oh, and I've got some things to figure out. Like what the heck Luna has been doing this entire time.

  “Ko, whatcha thinking about?”

  “Just how absolutely cute you are.” I say, causing her to choke on her food.

  She manages to prevent death by delicious waffle, thankfully. I give her a few pats on the head out of sympathy. Also, just because I wanted an excuse to give her headpats.

  “Ko, you're a real jerk.” Ray says. To which I answer by giving her a kiss on the cheek.

  “Am I at least a cool jerk?”

  “Hmm, perhaps if you were to feed me, I could consider such a distinction.”

  “As milady wishes.” I say, then I take a bit of waffle on my fork and place it gently in her mouth. She lingers for a while, just watching me. At last, she closes her mouth and takes the waffle. A look of enjoyment on her face.

  “Okay, maybe you're a somewhat cool jerk.”

  “I'll take that then. How would I go about upgrading my rating though?”

  “Hmm, I could think of several things.” she says with a smirk.

  It is at this point that Emil and Linda come to sit down at the table across from us.

  “Hey Emil, what's been up? Any impending dooms for us to handle?” Ray asks.

  “All seems clear Milady. Which in and of itself is concerning. It's almost too quiet. Our scouting parties are proceeding into the mesa with no difficulties. They have come upon one fort to the west of the biome already. We estimate that the zone will have three forts inside. We expect that they will find the legend sometime tomorrow and we can begin raid preparations.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Well, no news can also be good news. Perhaps Luna has adopted a mentality of peace and will just let us walk in the front door like the Quartet did.” I say.

  “I find that highly unlikely. Given the data that I have been reading, I predict they are preparing. Though we haven't been able to figure out what exactly they are preparing for.” Linda says right after scarfing down an entire waffle.

  “Oh Ko, stop making everyone think about boring things. Let's talk about cool stuff, like that Nero guy.”

  “Yeah about him, what's his deal? Emil, you and Yuin seemed quite pale when he mentioned Diablo.” I say to Emil.

  “Oh that. So you know how he told us how he managed peace in his world?” We nod, “Well, let's just say that he went on a journey around the universe, assisting many places in achieving peace. Though he did not pacify any more populations personally, he definitely sent a few into ruin.

  Of course, he did truly help many achieve an unprecedented level of peace. But in the end, he has been heralded as more of a harbinger of destruction rather than a saviour. Plus, there are rumors that he even wanders into other realities and does similar things. Hence his title ‘Walker of The Void.’” Emil says.

  “Hmm, so he is just a misunderstood guy that just wishes for everyone to be happy?” Ray asks, a smirk on her face.

  “I suppose that is one way to put it, milady."

  “Great, it sounds like ima get along with him super nicely then!” Ray exclaims.

  I reach over and give her a few pats on the head, for which she gives me a kiss on the cheek in return.

  0:00 AT, Day Twenty | Arce Lunae / Hot Spring

  I comb my hands through Ray’s hair. The warm water from the hot spring fills the air with a thick cloud of steam.

  “Ko, this is the life, isn't it?” Ray asks, sounding quite pleased with the current sitaution.

  “Indeed it is, darling Ray. Just the two of us sitting in a hot spring.”

  “Dont forget the alien space station all around us! Plus the war game that we just completed the first part of.”

  “Yep, plus we've got Luna still lurking out there. She has been fairly silent, I wonder what she is planning.”

  “Probably nothing good. I wonder how she likes the taste of fire?” Ray says.

  “She seems more like a blizzard type of person. I don't think she would like fire too much.”

  “Well then, I guess we will simply have to show her the true wonders of fire. I can't wait to set her castle ablaze, it's going to be so cool!”

  “Yep, though I doubt they will let us pull off the shield detonation trick again. Something tells me that wasn't intended by the game masters.”

  “Pfft, then we shall just have to come up with yet another idea that they couldn't possibly expect coming! We are the Moonlight Duo after all, and you know the rule.”

  “Yep, ‘A victory without style is as good as a loss.’”

  I finish combing my hand through her hair and she leans back into me.

  We just sit there, for who knows how long. Sometimes, the small moments are what really matters after all.

  “Hey Ko. Do you think we will be good rulers?” She says out of nowhere.

  “Absolutely not.”

  “How come?”

  “Well that's because we are gonna be great rulers of course. The best Duo the universe, no, all realities have ever seen.”

  “That makes sense. It wouldn't make sense for us to settle for good, we are great after all.” Ray says.

  “Of course, you are the cutest in the universe. I won’t rest until everyone in this universe, and all others know that.”

  “Please don't start a cult around me, darling. I don't wanna be that type of celebrity.”

  I wrap my arms around her and bring my mouth right up next to her ear. “No promises, you're simply far too cute. I might accidentally create you a cult without thinking, caught up in your overwhelming cuteness.” I whisper.

  I can almost feel her face heat up as it turns bright red. Which is saying something, considering how red we are from sitting in this hot spring.

  “Ko, you're such a jerk.”

  “Don’t you mean a somewhat cool jerk?” I ask, holding her even tighter.

  “If you keep up your antics, I'm going to demote you back to just jerk again. Perhaps even super jerk.”

  “Oh no, I wouldn't want that to happen. I couldn't bear it if my super duper cute girlfriend thought of me as a super jerk. It’d be so sad, considering how beautiful her long, silky hair is. Not to mention her beautiful blue eyes that seem to stare right into my soul. Also she is like, really funny.”

  I bet if this were made into a movie, people would applaud at how hilarious the director's sense of comedy was. After all, she is just plain hilarious, beautiful, cute, and very kind.

  “Stahp that, you jerk. Your gonna make me say something crazy like ‘I love you and please give me more headrubs.’”

  “Isnt that something you say every day anyways?” I ask, confused.

  “Well I don't wanna say it randomly. I’d much rather say it with meaning.” She says. Then she untangles herself from my arms and turns around to face me.

  She grabs my face in her hands and we engage in quite a long kiss. Then, she leans into my ear and whispers, “You are a jerk. But, I love you. Now, give me headrubs right this instant or I'm throwing you out an airlock.”

  With no other choice but to comply, I then spend quite a while giving her headrubs while she rests in my arms. Did I mention that this hot spring is very hot and steamy? I'm not sure if it's just me, but it's like, really steamy right about now.

  I am sure that many things are to come in the near-future.

  But for now, I shall simply hold my super duper ultra cute girlfriend in my arms and give her headrubs. Perhaps I can steal a kiss or even acquire headrubs of my own every now and then too.

  After all, these moments are the most important.

  Who knows when I'll charge into battle with a fusion bomb strapped to my back? Definitely not me. Though perhaps Initae’s big brain can predict it somehow.

  I'm sure that whatever is to come, Ray and I will conquer it together. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo. As long as the two of us are together, we can accomplish anything. Even if anything happens to be fighting a giant rock golem in the mesa, we will do it.

  After all, it's necessary if we wish to bring peace to this universe. Let alone every universe.

  So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 111

  Next: Chapter 112 | Upwards

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