"Uh, special kind of human?" Jackson asked uncertainly.
"That's right, in this world, there are humans with superpower-like abilities. The government knows about them and certain top echelon do. I have a feeling that my father does as well, but he didn't see the need to tell me." Maria answered slowly.
Jackson seemed to want to know more by his tone but was smart enough to know that he wasn't qualified, so he asked: "Then, madam, what are you going to do with him?"
Maria was silent for a while. "Hm, I'll see what he's like. Maybe I can train him to be my own personal superhuman and build my force."
The was the sound of sitting and the sound of a door opening a closing. After that, silence.
Eva and Shuangtian glanced at Draco who had a shocked expression on his face with satisfaction. Eva folded her arms and spoke seriously.
"Your entire relationship with Maria was built on her use of you. Any affection she showed you was to achieve this goal, which was to weaponize you - and by God - we both know she did."
"Ha, she even tricked you into killing Connor, your general! And you only survived that fight because Ouroboros absolutely would not allow Connor to defend himself as he sensed the aura of the Progenitor on you!" Shuangtian added cruelly, not mincing her words.
Draco nodded thoughtfully and then glanced at the two beauties staring him down.
"Anything else?" He asked with a smile.
Eva and Shuangtian frowned deeply. Draco laughed at their expressions. "What is it? Did you expect me to see the errors of my ways after this little show? You're just showing me my own memories from when I was unconscious as if I had no idea of their existence."
"If you know of her true intentions, and this was only the beginning of her plans for you, why do you still protect her??" Eva asked with confusion.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Because, Eva, Shuangtian, and listen to this good: Intentions do not matter as much as actions." Draco answered simply.
"Yeah, she intended to use me as a weapon. After she discovered my special ability to upgrade her quality of life like Connor, she also intended to use me sexually. Since I became powerful enough to rival your guild in Boundless, she and Nathan supported Hellscape because they wanted to use my influence to penetrate Boundless."
Draco shrugged. "And so what? Is the woman whose husband initially approached her for a one-night stand yet fell in love with her personality afterward supposed to divorce or hate him for that fact?"
"The difference between me and you is that I am aware of Maria's darker intentions and even some of the unnecessary actions she took to facilitate them. Nevertheless, I'm still grateful for it all, and I especially know that her feelings towards the end were genuine."
"It's funny that you don't even see the irony of this entire situation. Here you stand before me, guilty of the exact thing you are accusing me of, seeing only one side of the picture and making judgment using that. You have seen Maria's flaws and magnified them due to your love and concern for me, but I don't need you to do so."
Draco's eyes sharpened. "Eva, you lived almost one week longer than me in the previous timeline. Tell us, what did Maria do following the news of my death?"
Eva's expression became ugly at that. After all, Maria had used her entire influence to search for Draco's killer, earning her a tinge of respect from Eva. Of course, that was before she had browsed through Draco's memories.
Maria had eventually fainted in illness after her anger dissipated a bit, the despair and sadness causing her to become bedridden. In truth, if Eva had waited about a month, with Nathan's resources, the killer would have been dug out eventually, but when did a yandere ever care about logic when it pertained the love of her life?
"How nice, you can ignore intentions for actions. Then let us evaluate your current actions, shall we? Let me be frank, what you're doing now is causing a rift to appear in your own nuclear family. Do you think your son or daughter would be proud of you if they saw you fighting with their mothers over some woman who doesn't even know you?" Shuangtian asked directly.
Draco's face fell as his expression darkened. "There is no need to bring our children into this and stop emotionally blackmailing me! This is a matter of logic!"
"Haha, here I thought you changed your prankster personality for your serious one. Wasn't it you who just told us that your reason for protecting Maria are based on emotion? How come now that emotions are inconvenient, you're saying that this is logical? I'm fighting you using the same means and you want to run?" Shuangtian pursued relentlessly.
Draco was speechless. He could see from Eva's words and demeanor that she was beaten and almost about to take a step back, but Shuangtian was indefatigable and seemed like she would not rest until this matter was solved.
"What's it to you anyway? Your understanding of Maria only comes from my memory, but I know her in the flesh. You're judging her based on limited factors." Draco argued.
"Rubbish! I have everything I need because I do not care about Maria nor her relation with Connor. Even if she had crossed every member of Umbra I would have no reason to intervene on their behalf."
"The one important to me is you! All I care about is every word or action she said to you, the intentions she had behind it and the consequences of them!"
"To that end, you memory is the perfect highlight. I don't even need her memories assuming she had them because they only provide supplementary evidence."
Shuangtian snorted coldly. "And what is it to me? I tell you what it is."
"When I spent all my life tied to that bed, I only had stories from grandpa Pangu to keep me going and paint a beautiful future for me. You were described as charming and suave while Eva was described as elegant and transcendent, assuming you perfectly inherited the traits of our progenitors."
"However, I deeply relaxed the problem with the personalities and characters of the two of you from the moment I found that it was your subordinates, not you, who came to save me. That action told me a lot about you before I even met either one of you."
"And when you did and restored my bloodline, I began to observe you silently. The problems compounded when you put me in that false realm to re-live some fake childhood as if I asked for it."
"The worst was when I received your memories and understood both your histories, I was shook. I realized that the problems you two have have compounded over two timelines and because there had never been a person who could regulate or control you two, it had gotten worse."
"I promised myself that I would do everything I can to become the one among us three to maintain sensibility, to act as the balance between us. Eva recognizes the problem but her inferiority complex towards you from the previous timeline forces her to never truly step up to you. Just take a look at the current her! Despite knowing that what you're doing is wrong, she has nearly been silenced by you because of it!"
Shuangtian sneered. "Let me tell you, I have no such weaknesses. My Soulmate ordained by the universe and the father of my child is not allowed to be so pathetic!"
Draco's expression became extremely ugly after being berated by Shuangtian, while Eva by her side was speechless. Sister, I am your ally, how did I get caught in friendly fire and sent to respawn?
"Are you done?" Draco asked with extreme unhappiness.
"Nowhere near done. Hand over the bitch and let Connor deal with her. If you care so much about her then go show him your experiences with her! As long as you plead her case, he might lighten her punishment on account of you, yet she still needs to pay the price!" Shuangtian declared majestically.
Draco shook his head. "I don't care, I won't allow it. Whether you are right or wrong, I simply cannot stand the idea of Maria being tortured."
Draco thought his stubbornness would force Shuangtian into an impasse, but his face changed when she appeared before him and sent him flying with a punch to the sternum. Draco crashed through Jupiter and split the planet apart while Shuangtian chased after him.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmEva hesitated and then turned back Time to restore Mars and anything else what was destroyed, while pausing Time on the planet, even for the core members. She wasn't sure how things would be resolved nor was she able to tell how much longer their dispute would last, so she could do this.
Of course, unbeknownst to Eva was that her Time Stop ability did not affect a certain small realm underneath a certain lab…
Draco coughed blood as he defended against Shuangtian brutal attacks that held malicious intent. "Shuangtian, what are you doing?!"
Shuangtian sneered towards his roar and bellowed: "Since you refuse to listen to reason, I shall beat reason into your head!"
She loaded him with another power packed punch which was mixed with elemental energy as well. Draco smashed through Pluto and was cast out of the solar system.
Draco felt anger bubble in his chest from being suppressed. Shuangtian had the confidence to declare herself the supervisor of Draco and Eva because she had grasped their weakness. They were both more inclined to a 'mage-like' build while she was a 'tank and melee DPS' in one, making her the perfect counter for them.
Draco was completely suppressed by her and even when he struck back, her irrational defense that covered both physical and magical damage could brush off the damage and even what little got through would be immediately regenerated.
Eva appeared nearby, watching the battle as she hesitated once more. Then she thought of the harsh words Shuangtian had used to critize her and her expression became firm as she joined the battle and assisted Shuangtian in beating down Draco.
Draco was shocked by the dual attack and struggled to maintain his safety. He became more and more enraged as they went all out against him and then suddenly exploded with calamitous power, pushing the two back.
"If I don't show that I'm a tiger, you will think I am a sick cat!" He bellowed as he completely unsealed his Eternal Control and caused the entire galaxy to shake.
Eva and Shuangtian's expressions changed greatly as they didn't expect Draco to go so far. In order to withstand his power, they also fully unsealed themselves, causing the entire area around them to crack like weak glass.
Their battle resumed and the aftereffects caused entire planets nearby to break and explode into debris. While stars quaked and exploded into a supernova sending heat and light throughout the universe.
The consequences of their actions were deep and they could not even predict what would happen by the end, but they were too caught up in the heat of battle to care about such things. Releasing Eternal Power at 100 points in their universe was madness at best and sheer suicidal chaos at worst.
The only silver lining of it all was that they never stuck to one place. Rather they continued to flash all across the galaxy which led them further and further away from Earth until they were in a place they had no idea of. They ended up completely lost in the universe, but this unfamiliarity and estrangement caused them to become even more ferocious as they lost the last of their scruples.
Meanwhile, the interesting thing was that, a few light years away, a handsome Tomegamon elder was watching the three of them fight casually with his arms folded behind his back. He had been on his way to Earth to find the source of the anomaly he felt when he sensed them fighting.
He had been observing them and how they fought, and he was thoroughly disappointed. He had high expectations for them, yet here he was watching them fight as if they were children with big sticks in a world of ants and insects, their power was at the ceiling but their usage of it was akin to watching a cow trying to sing.
However, when they unsealed their power, his casual expression changed end became serious. He glanced at their battle by the side but mostly stabilized the rest of the area and fixed the aftereffects of their careless battle on the universe.
He didn't stop them though. Who was he to interfere in their lovers' spat? Lord knows how many times he and Innukmun had fought in the past, so he understood dearly that some fights could not be solved verbally, especially when both man and woman were powerhouses with strong egos and self-confidence.