Ray, the Quartet and I are currently assembled in the antechamber.
Apparently, Luna decided not to grace those present with her presence. Which I think can be much appreciated, no one likes the presence of a thorny bush.
Steeling our nerves for entering into the gala hall to give quite a grand performance. Ray is still in her platinum flight suit and I have changed into a purple admirals uniform, of course with our signature emblem. The tailor really likes that design element, so they are grateful that we give them repeat business. But we have turned our capes up to full power, which does take a decent bit of raw inae. Luckily, I've gotten quite good at trickling out a little bit to fuel them.
April is wearing a sparkling gold dress, which complements the rest of the quartet quite nicely. Who are wearing emerald green tuxedos. Very formal looking. They all also have their own emblem on their backs. It is a four pointed amber colored star. Surrounded by a circle with each quadrant having a different color; red, blue, brown, and green (their eye colors). Still, I think Ray looks far better than all of them combined, and I am in no way biased.
Ray and April are casually chatting about various fashion things that I am not equipped to understand. I am skillfully adding in a word here and there to the guy’s conversation about some of the places. Perfectly making it seem like I am critical to the conversation while saying as little as possible.
This is an important technique, it has been refined over many years. After all, my job is simply to let Ray convince others of whatever I have decided needs to be done. After all, she is the light and I am the moon.
All of us finish up talking just moments before the AI announces that it is time for our entry. Naturally, we allow the quartet to go first. Entering second is just far more stylish.
We exit out into the gala hall. A room about 200mx150m with a pretty high ceiling. It is decorated with various images of Earth’s flora and fauna. As would be expected from the species that is fairly plantlike.
I counted around nine hundred attendees. It seems the Pota are in the majority. Surprisingly there are several dozen Itokin as well. They haven't really come to previous galas all that much. I notice an empty space, in the middle stands Initae and Emil. Everyone seems to be giving them distance, which I get. If I felt their presence for the first time, I too would probably shy away a bit.
Initae gives us a little wave as we enter the room. Emil appears to be looking off into the distance, perhaps he is remembering some similar event from his days as a prince, or staring at a person that has caught his eye.
There are no stairs this time. Which is a big disappointment. Oh well, I guess we will have to change our entrance a little bit.
I use a new technique that I have been experimenting with. Initae was truly surprised that I figured out the technique without having to be instructed. I permeate the air of the entire gala hall with a tiny amount of my raw inae.
While it is only a tiny amount, the large scale really puts a drain on my mind. But it is a very important technique. For, it allows me to manipulate things all around the room, as well as sense the location of objects.
For those of Initae’s caliber, she is always maintaining such a field. She can even selectively extend the field out to great size and distances. Which is how she tracked the hostiles back in the Lokan system. And how she knows about the various activities that I may have been getting up to aboard our ships. I can't believe she would just casually invade our privacy.
I suppose to a godlike being like herself that has seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations, privacy isn't really something that crosses her mind.
I can tell who among the crowd are wielders of inae, as my inae naturally shies away from them. Apparently, I haven't had enough practice to sense this small amount of raw inae that others would project. But Initae says she has no doubt I'll figure it out in no time.
Now, I initiate the first phase of our grand plan. Prior to our arrival in this room, Initae has provided us with some assistance. She has scattered bits of pure inae throughout the room. Which I am not quite capable of doing yet very quickly. But, now that I can sense all the little bits of pure inae, I start to channel more raw inae towards them.
The whole room lights up with brilliant shining stars. Almost as if a bit of the starry sky from outside has been brought into this very room. Immediately, many of those gathered gain expressions of shock and awe.
I give it a few moments, and then I grab Ray’s hand. We drop into a slight bow, and then we launch into the air. Rather than flying, I guide us into a parabolic trajectory and add in a few flips and spins. We land right in the center of the dance floor. Thus concludes phase one of our plan.
We stand in the middle of the empty dance floor, our capes turned up to full glow as we stand amidst the sea of glowing stars in the air. I'd guess to outside observers we look like a pair of small moons in the night sky, reflecting our brilliant moonlight all around the room.
We get a few cheers and whistles when we stick the landing.
I start to worry that they have gotten used to our antics, I mean, the entire room should be erupting into applause. I shall have to bring this concern up with Ray later and seek options to ensure we don't repeat our act too much in the future.
Once the cheers stop, we give a slight bow and move over towards Initae and Emil. By the way, Initae looks absolutely stunning in her beautiful dress made out of stars. Though I now know the secret is pure inae. Also, adorned on her back is our signature emblem. Though it appears to be somehow glowing purple, maybe she has some secret technique for dying the pure inae she hasn't shared yet. She seems to have added a few floating stars around her though, perhaps she didnt wanna be outshone by us.
Emil is in a stylish blue suit, which pairs well with his light blue eyes and luscious golden hair. Also, on his back is our emblem, which looks great and firmly cements him as part of our faction.
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After a few minutes of chatting, the center of the dance floor lights up, and from the ground emerges none other than The Gamekeeper. They are, as always, very stylish. I hope their speech isn't too long this time, I would like to proceed with phase two of our plan.
“Greetings ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between and without! It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Scavenger Race Gala. Now, do be sure to remain civil, we are here to celebrate the end of the first trial in Humanity’s Game.
Also contestants, do be sure not to show off too much. We wouldn't want you to accidentally create a cult following, now would we?”
I feel like that last sentence was specifically directed at Ray and I. Well, we won't overdo it, by our metric we are actually still well within reason.
The gala quickly picks up and many people start to chat and head off to dance. I notice as Ray and I head out onto the dance floor that Emil is getting quite a bit of attention. Several dozen people approached him asking to dance. Guess he is a pretty popular guy. I wonder if I should be concerned about Ray running after him as well.
For some reason the thought really bothers me.
We reach the dance floor and start off quite simply. Just moving around the dance floor normally. We gradually pick up the pace into something that would be difficult for normal dancers.
However, we are just getting started.
I start to move us with inae, allowing us to go several times faster than before. We perform complicated maneuvers that we have been heavily practicing. Quickly weaving through the entire dance floor as we give other groups adequate space.
Ray and I both have brilliant smiles upon our faces, that aren't fake. This is so much fun, cant believe that we are who knows how far from Earth in such a crazy scenario. Heck, a couple months ago I was content to just waste my life away on netgames and streamers. But now I'm some space wizard with my own faction and huge starships.
I look over and see the quartet dancing as well. Once again they are doing their interesting thing where they bounce April between the three of them. It's definitely unique, I'll give them that. Also, it seems that there are a few black lines now covering Brian. Perhaps a refinement of his dance assistance mechanism, guy must be a genius or something.
The music, which is a mix of 40’s electronic pop and jazz, starts to increase in speed. Taking this as our cue, I begin phase two of our grand plan.
I gather the shining stars from all around the room and concentrate them into a ring hovering above us. I then levitate us off the ground, still moving around as though we are dancing.
We slowly ascend until we are sitting in the middle of the ring. I start to incorporate a bunch of aerial moves into our dance set. Which was a pain to practice cause Ray just wouldn't stop laughing and take it seriously.
Once we are in the ring, I stop it from glowing entirely. Seemingly vanishing right into thin air, I move the pure inae around into a special formation.
What is this formation you ask? Well, it's a series of particles designed to reflect light in a special way.
When I turn the brightness back on, the scene is magnificent. Even without Initae teaching me how to manipulate the produced light directly, I have managed something great. Surrounding us is a sphere of stars, all shining their light directly upon us, the Moonlight Duo.
Our capes and clothing beautifully reflect the light back, making it look as though we are just one giant moon dancing through the sky of the gala hall.
Many of the dancers stop and stare up at us in awe as we just casually defy the laws of gravity and dance through the air. Shining our radiant light upon all that are gathered in the hall. After all, no one can possibly escape our light, we will simply find them and teach them the gloriousness that accompanies Ray and I.
We continue our dance through the sky for several minutes. Working in time with the music to ensure that every single eye ends up focused upon us.
At the end of the current song, I stop us in the dead center of the room. I slowly start to rotate the pure inae around us. Making it look like the stars themselves are orbiting us, the moon.
I then prepare for our grand finale of this stage of our plan. I slowly lower us down onto the ground. As we descend, I shoot off pieces of pure inae to hover in front of every single person in the room.
As people move to grab them, I then dim the light down to nothing and disassociate the pure inae, and then retract my field of raw inae.
The room is dead silent. Everyone is staring at us with either shock, awe or jealousy.
Even the Quartet stopped to watch, as well as Emil and his gaggle of dance partners.
The entire time Initae has just sat in the corner of the room and observed us with her glare that hints at a mind far deeper than what her appearance would suggest.
As Ray and I look around and observe the impact of our performance, we give grand bows. Moments after we rise, many in the room erupt into rounds of applause and laughter.
Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we quickly leave the room to go prepare the last stage of our grand plan. That's right folks, it's not over quite yet.
We head outside and I fly us over onto a nearby mountain plateau. I then assume optimal form for maximum focus and brain function – laying down in Ray’s lap. I started to concentrate heavily, I didn't actually get to fully practice this step. It will take a massive amount of energy out of me, I wouldn't be surprised if I instantly pass out.
I produce a massive amount of pure inae particles and suspend them in a field of raw inae as large as I can make. About two hundred fifty meters radius. I arrange the particles into a specific pattern.
I pulse all of the raw inae I can manage through the pattern. The sky lights up like a billion stars have just descended into the atmosphere. If everything is going according to plan, all the sensors of ships in orbit will detect the pulse of energy and display the pattern to all of those watching. Which will thus be broadcast to the entire universe.
Why, what is the pattern you may ask?
Well, of course. It's a gigantic moon. With rays of light radiating off of it, casting light upon a massive swathe of this planet.
It is only something that we, the Moonlight Duo, would dare to attempt. To cast our light across the surface of an entire planet. In my opinion, we achieved great success.
Atleast, I think so. Considering I pass out from the strain.
Come what may, so long as Ray and I are together, we can endure anything and reign victorious. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 46
A/N: Hiya dear reader. Author here, should I keep up these rambles? I'm going to do it anyway since I think it's better than just dropping a call to action. The Duo really made quite an impact with this stunt, I wonder how the universe will react. Hopefully they don't accidentally form a cult, that would be annoying.
As always, if you are enjoying, be sure to follow/favourite/share with a friend. It is always appreciated! May the glorious moonlight shine upon ye until next time, dear reader.
- Cathrix
Announcement: There will only be one chapter on Friday at 12:00 UTC. Also starting next week I will be moving to 5 chapters/week (Daily Monday-Friday). The end of Volume one (chapter 50) will be out on Sunday and I only had so much of a backlog prepared. On another note, Sunday is also the 1 month anniversary of the fiction.