Chapter 635: Luther the Magnanimous
"I’m curious."
The figure across from Alex spoke first. He belonged to a race Alex didn’t recognise at a glance. He stood tall, over four metres without any armour. His body was covered in a layered crystal-like chitin that refracted the light of distant stars and galaxies. Six arms were folded over each other while the King class S tier Alien eyed Alex with interest.
"How is it that someone a whole tier below me can give me such a violent sense of danger?"
Alex didn’t answer, not right away. He observed the overly calm alien on the other side before deciding how to reply.
"How about this: we go answer for answer."
The alien opposite stood relaxed in the vacuum of space, taking all the time he needed to give a response.
It was as if the chaos, the war and constant death all around him in the Bugonia System weren’t there at all in his eyes. He looked far too serene in the face of the battlefield.
"Okay, I’ll give you that respect. Why don’t we introduce ourselves first. My people call me Luther the Magnanimous." The Alien responded.
Strangely, Alex got weird vibes from Luther. His arrival to this system made him the strongest being for thousands of light years. He could wipe the entire place out in one fell swoop if he wanted to.
Yet he didn’t. He stood to the side like a mere bystander, just observing the happenings of those weaker than him.
So why was someone like that in the Bugonia system – likely the current most contested place in all of Andromeda?
Well, Alex already collected one clue from the name Luther presented himself with.
’Luther the Magnanimous? That’s a rare word you hear to describe an S tier in a universe where strength is entirely decided by how many of your enemies you can slaughter.’
It made Alex curious how someone like that could even grow to such a rank. Every S tier he’d ever come across had already hardened their mindsets long before they reached their peak – long dulling their empathy to a point where it disappeared completely from some of their minds.
Seeing this, Alex relaxed a little.
"I’m just known as Alex in my small corner of the universe."
Luther inclined his head slightly.
"Just Alex? It’s rare to see someone of your class and rank be so simple with their introductions."
"It gets the point across."
A faint glimmer passed through the alien’s many-limbed frame. Alex couldn’t tell whether it was amusement, approval or simply some involuntary reaction that everyone in Luther’s unknown race did.
"Fair enough." Luther nodded. "Names are often taken too heavily in these times, much more than they need to be."
Alex studied him in silence.
Even now, with entire fleets burning around them and enough stray force in the surrounding vacuum to pulverise lesser Awakened to dust, Luther showed not the slightest hint of hostility.
He stood with an ease that should normally be impossible for someone under Alex’s scrutiny.
That alone was unnerving.
Most powerful beings wanted to dominate whatever room they were in, or battlefield, the moment they arrived in it. Their egos demanded it. And they had every right to do that.
Luther didn’t seem interested in any of that.
Making this realisation, Alex decided to change his first question. Before, he was just going to ask him about Mira like he did with Kargan. But Luther caught his genuine interest.
"My question first, then I’ll answer yours."
Alex broke the silence first.
Luther nodded once.
"Why are you here?"
Luther’s six arms unfolded gently, not out of aggression, but as if he were seriously considering Alex’s question and had to change his stance to help think about it.
"For the same reason as most others, at first."
Alex already knew that reason; Kargan had shared it with him already. Donald’s trap had clearly lured in quite a few interested parties, and Luther must have also been one of them.
"At first?"
"Yes. At the beginning I chose to come here out of nothing but curiosity after receiving an intriguing message from an unknown source. I suspect I wasn’t supposed to be on the original recipient list, but I just happened to be passing by that region of space when it was transmitted."
Luther turned to look all around him. Alex did too. They weren’t glancing at the endless emptiness in their general vicinity nor the ongoing battlefield near them. Their gazes encompassed the entire Bugonia system and everything that was happening inside it.
"But when I arrived, I found it in a state like this. One full of war and chaos you rarely ever get to see and experience, even for someone as old and powerful as I. The most obvious next step was to stick around and see what happens, of course."
Alex wanted to frown but couldn’t bring it upon himself. Every word Luther spoke out, although Alex had no way of discerning whether they were fact or fiction, his gut told him they were the truth.
’Is he really just a passerby who showed up out of nothing but interest?’
"Doesn’t it bother you?"
Luther didn’t need Alex to explain what he meant by that.
"I’ve lived long enough and seen so much that those feelings of hatred, disgust and fear have long been washed away. Let me show you something."
Luther turned to look towards the battle in progress just a few tens of thousands of kilometres away from them.
"When you look at this, what do you see?" Luther asked.
Alex took some time to think, then answered.
"I see two sides fighting a war for reasons they don’t even know about. Meaningless, endless death that raged on, for what? To satisfy the plan of whoever gathered everyone in this star system? It makes me sick just looking at it."
Luther took a second for Alex to vent himself.
"And everything you said is right."
Luther’s eyes glinted, this time with a light in his eyes that Alex hadn’t noticed until now.
"But I choose to see things differently. I see people fighting for hope: hope for their future, for their children’s future. The future of their whole race. You may ask why I didn’t choose to interfere and put a stop to this hopeless war, as you call it, but would that be fair? Why should I be the one to choose their fate? If I were to choose one side over the other, where is the fairness in that? Does the other side not also deserve a chance of their own?"
Alex had no words to refute. There was nothing really to say. Luther said all that needed to be said, and any words that Alex uttered would just be empty.
Luther put on a brave face, turning to Alex with a smile.
"Those weaker than us have the right to fight their own wars. For that, I choose to abstain from interfering in a war that has nothing to do with me."
With his smile growing even wider, Luther continued:
"Though I suspect this war has everything to do with you, Alex."
