Liiza and Khan couldn't interact much at the party. Azni still managed to drag her among her group, but she had to leave to spend some intimate moment alone with Doku at some point.
The only Niqols who weren't completely drunk had hidden in the forest to enjoy intimate moments with their partners, so Khan and Liiza could have a peaceful conversation after they remained alone. Khan mostly teased her after Azni's revelation, while Liiza complained and threatened him to increase hours of sleep that he had to pay. However, they soon realized that they had to separate.
All the barriers had crumbled after the two had voiced their feelings. They had been about to forsake their secrecy as their conversation continued, and only separating could solve the issue. They would have loved to spend more time together, especially since the emotional rush from before was still affecting their minds. They didn't feel too bad about parting either since they had already shared beautiful moments.
Khan felt full of energy after he returned inside the underground habitation and wore intact clothes. The clock on his phone had yet to hit six am, but flying back to the camp could take up to six hours, so he departed immediately.
Snow knew the fastest path back to the human camp, even if the envoys had taken many detours back then. Khan could force the eagle to fly in a straight line and save time, but he decided to let it have some fun. His packed schedule had forced the Aduns to forsake its enjoyment, so he didn't mind letting it have fun now.
Khan used the strong winds that blew on his face due to the dives, spins, and sudden accelerations to sweep his sadness away. It was strange to define how the party had helped him, but his condition had improved nonetheless. Tears would try to appear in his eyes whenever he thought about the mutated Niqols, but that urge wasn't unbearable anymore. His actions had been ugly, but he didn't blame himself.
The mission, his poor mental state, his time with Liiza, and the party had forced him to skip an entire day of training, but his flying ability had improved a lot after riding Snow basically every day. His control over mana had also grown after his diligent efforts during the lessons. Khan could meditate or remain immersed inside his mental training even when his Aduns was upside down.
The city grew closer while Khan remained immersed in his training. Everything felt smooth. It seemed that the human and the Niqols' training methods complemented each other to create the ultimate foundation meant to control and deploy mana.
On one side, Khan had the techniques and moves perfected over the centuries by human experts. On the other, he had methods that forced him to improve his basic understanding and control over mana.
Those two paths would lead to similar levels, but they affected fields so different that fusing them didn't create any problem. In theory, it was possible to manipulate mana to gain the effects of a punch while throwing the actual attack and obtain something stronger. The two actions didn't affect each other, which was the very reason why they sounded so easy to use at the same time.
Khan couldn't wait for his manipulation ability to reach decent levels, but his excitement focused on something that appeared far closer. He felt almost about to succeed in the eleventh mental exercise, which would lead him directly to the last lesson of his elemental training. The Wave spell didn't seem far anymore.
Khan's proficiency level with the Lightning-demon style had reached the competent level, he would soon gain access to his first spell, and he already had a second martial art ready to add to his fighting style. His meditations were also going smoothly. His growth appeared far more than promising.
Snow's screech eventually awakened Khan from his training. The familiar uneven plain with the simple-looking camp unfolded in his view, and a strange feeling spread through his mind. That place was the reminder of his belonging to the human species. It forced him to recall part of the problems that could affect his relationship.
Khan wanted to stay with Liiza, but his nightmares would inevitably bring him deeper into the universe. His life seemed a battle between his love and his desperation now, and he couldn't see a viable solution, not in his current position at least.
Delusional ideas on how to run away with Liiza appeared in his mind, but his intense feelings didn't make him stupid. Khan never stopped remaining aware of how unreal those plans were. He wasn't even seventeen. He could decide very little about his life.
His greatest hope was to remain on Nitis long enough to achieve an important position among both species before departing to look for the Nak and the solar system depicted by his nightmares. Ideally, Liiza would be his wife by then, so she would get the chance to come with him.
'I'm already thinking about marriage,' Khan laughed in his mind as he jumped off Snow's back and started walking toward the camp's entrance. 'Love really makes you crazy.'
Khan stopped making unreasonable plans and crossed the entrance of the human camp. Everything felt too cramped and cold compared to [The Pure Trees]'s peaceful environment. He could almost hear the difference between the different approaches to mana in the faint sounds that came out of the structures featuring no isolation.
A familiar figure stepped out of a building to greet Khan, and he didn't hesitate to perform the iconic military salute of the Global Army. Paul inspected him from head to toe. The aura that covered Khan was different from his memories, but he blamed the alien robe for that strange feeling.
"Where are the others?" Paul asked.
"They were busy helping the Niqols after the crisis," Khan lied to cover for his drunk companions. "Besides, I'm the fastest in the air."
"Wait here for a bit," Paul nodded while scratching the side of his head, "Or visit the canteen, whatever. I need to contact Lieutenant Kintea and the Captain to prepare the briefing."
Khan nodded and went directly toward the canteen. The food was better in the camp. The kitchens there made plates aimed to the human tastes, especially when it came to their temperature. What the Niqols saw as warm was cold for the humans, so it felt nice to have a satisfying meal.
A notification eventually reached Khan's phone. That ringing sound was another thing that he had almost forgotten after being in the academy for more than three weeks, and he smiled at that thought since it made him remember Martha. His conflicting feelings about her didn't exist anymore after confirming his love for Liiza. Khan felt affection and concern for Martha, but she couldn't be anything more than a friend now that his current girlfriend had become such an important part of his life.
The briefing room didn't change during those weeks. Khan could reach it in no time, but something felt off when he saw that it contained only Paul, Lieutenant Kintea, and Captain Erbair.
A personal briefing wouldn't require those three important figures. One of them was enough to update Khan. Moreover, the Captain's presence would often involve all the other recruits, but Khan was the only one except for the trio.
Khan performed a military salute, and his two superiors did the same curious inspection that Paul had completed just a few minutes ago. Khan had changed during those weeks, but they couldn't understand how. They could see a faint maturity in his stance and movements, but everything else remained hidden from their powerful eyes.
"Is something the matter, ma'am?" Khan asked after the inspection stretched for longer than half a minute.
"It's nothing," Captain Erbair announced while pointing at one of the seats.
Khan didn't hesitate to take his place, and a series of images appeared on the wall behind the three soldiers as Paul activated a few menus. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Kintea and Captain Erbair stared at Khan before the former decided to voice one of his doubts. "How much can you say about the academy?"
Khan recalled about his restrictions at that point, and he opened his mouth to say something. However, an azure symbol suddenly lit up on the left side of his neck and started to spread an ominous aura.
Khan revealed a weak smile while pointing at the symbol. The two soldiers could only sigh at that sight, but they didn't appear too disappointed. They didn't hope to discover much through him anyway.
"I believe you didn't come here on your own," Captain Erbair said as her bionic eye focused on the azure symbol to analyze the changes in its glow.
"The Niqols wanted me to question you about yesterday," Khan revealed while keeping the azure symbol in check.
It seemed that the explicit authorization that the professors had given to Doku allowed Khan to speak about that part even if it came from the academy. It felt surprising to see how flexible that restriction worked, but the Captain's stern gaze didn't give him time to let his thoughts wander.
"Is it true that you didn't help them on p-," Khan began to ask, but pain suddenly spread from the azure symbol.
Mentioning the hidden meaning that Doku's words carried seemed too much. The actual question wasn't a problem. The issue was that Khan had tried to talk about the Global Army's lack of cooperation after having gained those ideas from the Niqols.
Luckily for Khan, Captain Erbair didn't have time to waste. She didn't make him go over the combinations of words that would allow him to ask the same question without hinting at anything negative. She nodded at Lieutenant Kintea, and the briefing began.
"The Niqols won't reveal much," Professor Kintea announced as the Captain moved to the side of the room and cleared Khan's sight of the images on the wall. "However, we have kept track of the event for some days already. Communicating between Nitis and the telescope outside this solar system takes a while, but we have received a few reports. The mana became unstable on almost half of the planet. Their losses must have been consistent."
"I'm sorry," Khan interrupted the Lieutenant as a frown appeared on his face. "Did you say some days? Were you aware that the daylight would have arrived?"
"Technically, it wasn't proper daylight," Lieutenant Kintea replied while nearing the images on the wall. "It was a solar wind that created peculiar and temporary patches of bright sky throughout Nitis. The telescope saw it coming four days ago, but we only learnt about it and completed the necessary math two days ago."
The images on the wall depicted scenes that Khan couldn't wholly understand. They showed Nitis' solar system together with equations and numbers connected to a wave of energy that shot out of the distant star.
Lieutenant Kintea didn't go too deep into details with his explanation because he was aware of Khan's ignorance in astronomy. Still, he highlighted every piece of information that he found important.
"The arrival of the daylight is still set at a bit more than two months from now," Lieutenant Kintea continued. "It should probably last for two months before bringing darkness that will last for a bit more than two millennia.
"We even expect the radiation to be more influential during that period. We believe that the solar wind didn't generate too many monsters since it arrived close to the first crisis. The Tainted animals easy to affect had already transformed the first time, but the proper daylight will be merciless. Only the Aduns and a few unique species will remain untouched."
Khan memorized those words, but his mind could only focus on one detail. He had started to believe that his bad luck was to blame for his mission in the village, but there was something else now. The Global Army was aware of the incoming crisis and had chosen to remain silent.
"Why didn't you warn us?" Khan asked in a cold voice.
"We couldn't let go of this chance," Lieutenant Kintea announced while revealing a cruel smile. "It's a pity that you can't say anything. We have sort of confirmed that the solar wind has affected some Niqols, but Ambassador Yeza isn't saying anything about that. Having an actual report would give us better data."
Lieutenant Kintea sounded completely detached to the core of the issue. He didn't seem to care that the lack of warnings had caused countless casualties among the younger generations of the Niqols. He talked without knowing the pain that those aliens and the eight recruits had suffered.
"Warning you all was too risky," Lieutenant Kintea continued. "We needed the Niqols to lose as much as possible to create better terms for our cooperation. We even sent many of us to different locations through the teleport beforehand to limit the amount of help that we could give."
The explanations piled on in Khan's mind, but he could only review the last detail over and over. Cribs, small beds, and gruesome scenes appeared in his vision. The Global Army had basically been the cause behind that pain and his actions.
****
Author's notes: I just wanted to warn you all about something that I've learnt recently. It turns out that coins purchased through Paypal give a higher share to the authors (it avoids cuts apparently, consistent cuts). In short, use Paypal to purchase coins if you want the authors to earn more.