09:00 IST, Fifth Day, Seventh Month, 3079 PV | Planet City Stelarum / Site of The Liiinas Starcrosser

  High Saintess Lina Skla is a truly… imposing woman.

  Which is in sharp contrast to her smaller stature and Elvan nature. Her voice radiates with a calm authoritative tone that simply says, I am powerful, obey me. I imagine she must be a very powerful skier.

  “Oh my goddess! It seems like I've been abducted by aliens. Oh goddess, please come to my rescue, I am your most devout disciple!” The translation is a bit iffy, so I'll try to give my best interpretations of what the Elvan are saying.

  “Why sure thing, goddess at your service. How may I be of assistance to you on this fine day, High Saintess Lina Skla.” Says Initae, from her perch upon a nearby cryopod. She is just sitting there, looking somehow like a child doing something naughty, but also like a total badass god that just does whatever the klack she wants.

  Lina turns to look over at Initae, only for her eyes to bulge out of their sockets as she finally glimpses Initae.

  Like, I get that Initae is super cool and stuff. But is it really that easy to recognize her even in a different body and billions of years later? Emil did the same thing, as did several Itokin in the past. Maybe it's some sort of skill she has picked up, which must be useful considering she probably changes outward forms every so often.

  By the way, I still don't know how she does that. I should ask her to teach me, shapeshifting could be an interesting technique to have.

  “Wait.. goddess?! How can it be you?! Wait, what is going on. This cannot possibly be possible.”

  Ray steps forward, she is looking mighty cute today as always. Her charm is turned up beyond the maximum, which I didn't even know was possible. I have to restrain myself, or I might be inadvertently absorbed by her overwhelming charm. Which would be fine, if we weren't at a critical junction in the universe’s history.

  “Hello there, High Saintess Lina Skla. My name’s Rayleigh Inan. Pleasure to meet ya. You happen to have been found on this fine planet, buried for who knows how long. It's only by a sheer divine miracle that we discovered your ship and managed to rescue you.

  We mean you no harm, we merely wish to learn more about your people, and assist what remains.”

  Lina seems to snap into some pre-reheared composure.

  “Oh, my apologies then. It's not every day you wake up in a completely random place when you're supposed to be in the middle of space. We predicted that alien contact was possible.. But I guess I wasn't really expecting it to happen.” she sounds sincerely sorry. Which is strange, from her data entries, I thought of her as far more pretentious. “Do any of you happen to know what has been going on with my homeworld?”

  The entire gathered crowd goes dead silent. In fact, it's as if reality itself stills, not even a blade of grass dares move.

  After a few seconds of stillness, Initae moves to break the unfortunate news.

  “Hmm, there isn't any easy way to put this. Your entire civilization is dead. As far as I am aware, you and your crew are the last remaining of the species known as the Elvan.”

  At these words, Lina faints. Like, literally she just loses consciousness and plops to the ground. Medical staff rush to her aid, it seems she will be fine.

  13:00 IST, Seventh Day, Seventh Month, 3079 PV | Planet City Stelarum / Royal Balcony

  “Darling, things sure have changed quite fast, haven't they? One moment I was a law student, and now I'm finally your girlfriend!”

  “Hmm, I concur, it's like time flies. Wait, what do you mean finally?”

  “Ko, you're a big jerk.”

  Somehow, those words hit a point in me. As we stand upon the balcony outside of our room, I resolve to remedy that assumption.

  I grab Ray, practically throwing her over my shoulders and walk back inside.

  Several hours later.

  “Hmm, Ko, you're still a jerk, but perhaps not nearly as big of one as before.” Ray says, having just redone her hair and makeup for our big meeting that is happening in a few minutes. She is looking just as cute as ever, of course. Though she has this glow about her, it's very intoxicating.

  “Well, I'm glad to have at least partially corrected that assumption. I shall hope to correct it many more times in the future.”

  “Umhph, I do hope to give you many more chances to redeem yourself as well. Now, we should probably go ahead with that meeting, we've got a nice speech to prepare for, after all. Though, perhaps we could do a bit more correcting, I'm sure Initae would be super happy!”

  “I like your line of thinking, darling.”

  We then proceed with a brief bit of correcting and head to the meeting.

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  We entered the meeting room, about three minutes late. As expected, Initae is so happy that she gives us both a light bonk on the head. Totally worth it for a bit of correction time.

  On another note, over the past couple days since Lina’s awakening, several important things have happened that I should write about.

  So far, about one thousand of the Elvan have been defrosted, in order to prevent any problems of having a species that cannot interact, we decided to only defrost the most important personnel. Like decision makers, chief engineers, linguistics experts, etcetera.

  After Lina’s brief shock at the whole being woken up to a massive crown of aliens and her goddess. Only to find out her entire civilization is gone and she is among the last of her species alive. She recovered quite quickly, all things considered.

  We then got to work planning, and talking. We also made some pretty major improvements to the translators, they weren't very good, considering all the information they were using was from Initae’s memories of a time six billion years ago. Her memory is godlike, but it's by no means perfect, especially after such a long time.

  “Alright kiddos, and fellow ancient beings. Lets kick this impromptu intergalactic conference into order. Firstly, let's begin with a brief introduction from the representative of the Elvan people, High Saintess Lina Skla.” Initae says, to the gathered crowd. We are in a room that hasn't been used before, a larger conference hall type thing. Which is important, since we've got nearly a hundred people packed inside. Both Human and a few Elvan. In addition, there are many representatives from all around the universe tuning in via holo-call.

  It feels kinda surreal. Like, this is a moment that will go down in a history book.

  Though, I guess the whole humanity’s game thing was already going down in the history books. Wait, does this mean I'm an important historical figure2? Man, I didn't sign up for this. Cant I just play some net shooters and waste my life away as a worthless NEET.

  Somehow, Ray (who is ultra cute) senses my negative thoughts and takes my hand in her own. She gives it a brief squeeze and doesn't let go.

  Hmm, I guess it's all worth it. After all, I ended up with a super cute girlfriend.

  Anyways, Lina walks up to the front of the room. She looks very fancy, wearing a light green robe, like one you'd see priests wear. It really highlights her golden eyes and silver hair. Her long ears are just barely poking out of her hair. I wonder what kind of fashion trends you'd get that incorporate such long ears.

  “Greetings, it is a great honor for one such as I to be speaking here amongst such important peoples.

  I'm sure you all have heard the story by now. My ship, along with my crew set off to explore the universe, only to end up drifting after a system malfunction and crash landing on this… wonderful.. A planet full of humans.

  I know I cannot offer much, but I ask that you all find some room in your busy schedules to lend a hand to the remnants of a long dead race. Oh, did I mention? We have some pretty decent booze.”

  At the mention of booze, many gathered give out small cheers. Including Ray. Did I mention she is looking super cute? It seems to be magnified by our situation, she just fits so naturally amongst all these powerful people.

  “Alright, now that we've gotten a brief introduction to the matter, let's get down to business.

  Next up, we've got three important things.

  Firstly, the Elvan needed a place to set up a civilization and all. Alright, do we have any offers?”

  Ray quickly takes charge, ever the wonderful girlfriend saving me from having to do public speaking. “Well, I think we have a great idea. It just so happens that there is a smaller planet in this system that should be mostly habitable for life. It is also lush and full of plantlife. We originally thought about settling there, but the ecology seemed a bit too wild.

  But, for the Elvan people, a wilder ecosystem seems perfect. Isn't yall’s whole thing integration with nature and stuff. Also, it would probably be best for one of the younger species to assist them, lest they be completely overtaken by a foreign culture too quickly.

  The location would also allow for us, and the rest of humanity to give them a helping hand. After all, it's not going to be easy to start a whole modern civilization with only forty thousand citizens.”

  The room goes silent at Ray’s proposition. I mean, it does seem kinda perfect. Almost as if it was set up to happen this way. I'd be surprised if anyone else can make an offer of similar credit.

  Lina:”Well, it seems like no one else has any other offers, and that offer seems quite good. I think that my people will be ecstatic to work with the Moonlight Alliance to establish a foothold in this new universe.”

  Initae:”Well, that sounds like the first bit is settled. So, now on to the second matter of this conference.

  Naturally, we are here to discuss Inae. The force that is the secret behind the mysterious Itokin tech.”

  At this, the entire assembly erupts into a storm of questions. People from all the different species are represented here. There are even many members of the order, in their full cloak look.

  And, initae just revealed part of perhaps the best kept secret in the entire universe.

  I knew she was gonna reveal something at this conference. But I didn't expect her to just drop it like that. Without even much building. Though, I guess it did have its intended effect.

  After the noise dies down a bit, Initae performs a miracle of public relations. She rapidly answers hundreds of questions in just a couple hours. All sorts of things.

  She basically ends up explaining the basics of Inae. Up until the point where you'd learn about the sanctum basically. She also mentioned the Order, officially announcing its presence to the universe.

  Now, just to be clear, many people, especially those higher in their respective governments, had many suspicions. Both about Inae, and the Order, and Iotkin in general. So honestly, half of it is just confirming what is speculation and what is actual fact. Of course, Initae cleverly uses this to keep the most secret stuff very well hidden.

  “Alright, now that we've got most of that mess out of the way. Let's proceed with the last point of today’s conference.

  So, you all know how wielders and stuff exist now, right? And how Itokin has a high amount of wielders compared to its population, right?

  Well, the thing is. Humanity far outstrips even the Itokin in that regard. According to our estimates, around 60% of humanity should have at least some ability to manipulate inae, albeit most will be weak.

  Naturally, at this, the crowd erupts into questions once again. Mostly the humans though.

  I'm sure this is going to be some fun damage control. After all, this is being broadcast all across the universe live.

  I'm sure that no matter what comes of this, Ray and I shall overcome it together. After all, we are the Moonlight Duo, and luce lunae per aspera ad astra, right? So whether it's a bit of public relations, giant space dragons, or a mysterious organization hiding in the shadows, I say, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 73

  Next: Chapter 74 | Lava Cake