First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess

By the time he left the room, the hallway already smelled like cleaning agents and burned electronics.

Downstairs looked like a place that had survived something and hadn’t decided yet whether to be proud of it or ashamed.

Workers moved through the space with tired efficiency, sweeping glass into piles, dragging broken chairs out, stacking tables that had been flipped or snapped. One wall had a long crack running through it where someone had hit it hard enough to leave a story behind. The front windows were patched with temporary panels, light bleeding in through uneven seams.

There was blood on the floor in more than one place, dark and half-cleaned, smeared thin where someone had tried to scrub it too fast. Guns lay in a bin near the counter, stripped and tagged, bullet casings scattered everywhere like confetti nobody wanted to acknowledge. The air still smelled faintly of ozone and smoke under the cleaner.

Xavier took it in as he walked.

”When we came here,” he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else, ”this place was already falling apart.”

Rin glanced up from the table. ”And now?”

”Now it’s got personality,” Xavier finished. ”Ugly one, but still.”

Klatos watched the workers with a thoughtful expression. ”Places like this remember things,” he said. ”People will talk. But you helped and saved the bystanders”

”That’s fine,” Xavier replied. ”I don’t care much about that.”

Xavier glanced at Arlen, who was already eating with her same haughty and confident look she always had. It was almost as if the woman who came to his room last night was someone else.

He sat down and reached for the plate in front of him. This time, it was unmistakably human food. Eggs cooked the right way. Bread that looked like bread. Something fried that smelled comforting instead of suspicious. He took a bite and let himself enjoy it properly.

They finished eating without dragging it out.

Rin wiped his mouth and leaned back. ”So what’s next?”

Xavier stood and stretched slightly. ”We’re leaving this place. Today. We’ll be on the move most of the day. A few stops along the way.”

Arlen glanced up at him. ”What kind of stops? Fuel, meals, rest.”

Xavier looked at her and smirked. ”You’ll see.”

Klatos let out a tired breath. ”Everything you asked for is ready,” he said. ”I didn’t sleep much finishing it.”

Xavier nodded once. ”Good. That’ll make the ride comfortable.”

They didn’t linger. Everyone went to pack what little they had, and within minutes they were back at the reception. The front desk looked worse in daylight, cracked panels and temporary seals everywhere. Klatos was already there, talking numbers, pulling figures up on a battered display, recalculating as more items were added.

Xavier leaned against the counter, relaxed.

Klatos hesitated before speaking. ”They’re charging for damages.”

Xavier waved it off. ”How much?”

Klatos swallowed and gave him the number.

He did the conversion in his head without thinking. One USC for every three hundred back home. A fraction of his daily limit. Taxes, conversion fees, whatever cut the local systems wanted to take didn’t apply to him. He didn’t need an account. He didn’t need a terminal. His body was the account.

Klatos stood at the counter with the display pulled up, numbers stacked and shifting as he tapped through line items. Xavier stayed leaned against the side, arms loose, watching the receptionist sweat through the process.

”The room rate,” Klatos said, reading it out. ”One thousand USC per room for the night.”

”We took four,” Rin added.

”So four thousand,” Klatos continued.

Xavier nodded. ”Make it ten.”

Klatos paused and looked at him. ”For rooms alone?”

”Yeah,” Xavier said. ”Ten.”

Klatos adjusted the number and kept going. ”Meals. Three thousand USC for service. Two thousand for ingredients.”

Xavier waved a hand. ”Five for the ingredients. Ten for the chef. The food was good.”

The receptionist’s eyes flicked up, then down again. He muttered something under his breath in his own language and tapped at his terminal faster.

Klatos went on. ”Clothes, shoes, phone, and other items I bought last night. Six thousand USC.”

Xavier thought for a second. ”I’ll need more of those. A few extra sets. Make it ten.”

Klatos adjusted the figure again, then hesitated. ”There’s also... damages.”

Xavier straightened slightly. ”How much?”

”One hundred thousand USC,” Klatos said carefully.

Xavier turned his head and looked at the receptionist.

The man stiffened immediately, hands lifting slightly from the counter as he spoke fast and nervous in his language, words tumbling over each other.

Klatos didn’t wait for Xavier to ask. ”He says he’s just the receptionist. He doesn’t decide the numbers.”

Xavier looked back at Klatos. ”Tell them two hundred.”

Klatos blinked. ”Two hundred thousand?”

”Yes,” Xavier said. ”And tell them to renovate the whole place. Windows, walls, furniture. Everything.”

Klatos glanced around the lobby, at the cracks, the patched panels, the temporary seals. ”Two hundred won’t go far.”

Xavier shrugged. ”I know.”

Klatos relayed it. The receptionist swallowed hard and nodded repeatedly, fingers shaking as he changed the bill.

Xavier spoke again. ”While you’re at it,” he said to Klatos, ”fill the van. Full tank. Get fruits, snacks for the road. And pick up whatever accessories make Jupiter more comfortable. Filters, climate gear, whatever you think I’ll need.”

Klatos did a quick calculation and added it in.

The final transfer settled at three hundred thousand USC.

Xavier authorized it without hesitation.

The display flashed confirmation. The receptionist let out a breath he’d been holding since last night.

Xavier pushed off the counter and glanced toward the door. ”Alright,” he said. ”Let’s move.”

Klatos left with Arlen toward the van, already talking through supplies and fuel like last night hadn’t happened at all. Rin and Xavier stayed outside the motel, standing near the curb while the district slowly woke up around them.

Daylight made everything uglier.

The vehicles from last night were still there, twisted and half-crushed, metal bent in ways that hadn’t been fixed yet because no one wanted to touch them. The one Xavier had smashed the leader onto sat exactly where it had landed, hood caved in, glass gone, paint scorched. What wasn’t there anymore was the body.

Someone had cleaned that up fast.

Xavier scanned the street, the balconies, the corners where people pretended to be busy. ”Glad we came at night,” he said. ”This place looks even worse in daylight.”

Rin snorted. ”Yeah. Darkness was doing it a favor.”

Xavier nodded. Under the sun, the grime stood out more. Cracked walls, patched power lines, stains that never fully came off. You could tell this district didn’t get repaired so much as survived.

The van rolled back in a few minutes later, suspension dipping slightly as it came to a stop. Klatos called them out from the window, checking something on his pad, Arlen behind him, already settling back into the driver’s seat.

Rin climbed in immediately. Xavier took one last look at the motel, the wreckage, the street that would be telling stories about last night for weeks, then got in and shut the door.

The van pulled away, leaving the district behind as the city thinned out into longer roads and wider stretches of Jupiter’s layered landscape.

Their journey had started.