Interstellar Age

Tia looked incredibly guilty when Erich interrogated her about what she was hiding from him, and in the end, she could not openly lie to her master's face. Conceal certain truths from him? Sure, so long as he didn't ask her directly about it. But when Erich asked her so blatantly, she could never outright lie. And thus she started bawling as she told him what she had come to suspect.

"Master, it's not that Tia is hiding anything from you. It's just that Tia has yet to confirm whether or not her suspicions are true, and thus did not want to worry you. But if you really want to know why Tia is so anxious, it's because she suspects that we may be facing an invasion from a Second Naraku infested Galaxy, and potentially as a coordinated assault with Andromeda.

It is because of this that Tia has been working overtime to prepare for such a probability, but she does not know if she alone can defeat such a powerful enemy. And because of this, Tia wants Master to do everything. He can go fetch her the records of ancient Elven Technology that have long since been lost.

It is something that only Master can do, or else Tia wouldn't push him so hard! Tia is sorry for making Master worry!"

The fact that Tia was crying, and had reverted back to factory settings, aka referring to herself in the third person. Showed to Erich that perhaps she was really afraid of this probability.

And if she was afraid of it, then clearly she had run calculations after calculations until she figured it was almost an absolute certainty, or at the very least was well within the probability to be worthy of something to prepare for.

Even if Tia didn't have outright proof of this claim, the fact that she was this worried showed that it was something that Erich needed to take seriously. And thus, he responded to her by assuring her that he would do everything in his power to help get her the technology she needed to assure a victory in such an event.

"Alright Tia, I understand. If you're this worried about this potential future, then I am sure it is something you genuinely believe is likely enough to happen that we should all be very worried about it. If it is so serious, then I promise I won't take any rest until I can successfully project my mind and body back into the Primeval Era.

Besides, there are a few things in that time period that I still want answers for. And because of that, I should double my efforts immediately to accomplish this."

Tia only stopped sniffling after her Master had agreed to stop lounging about ,and get back to work on developing his rather unique abilities, albeit she continued to manipulate him with her vulnerable act.

'Really Master? You would do that for Tia?"

Erich confirmed this to be true, while also adding a further stipulation for the reasons behind his newfound objectives.

"Not only for you, Tia, but for the Empire!"

After saying this, Erich went back to his meditation chamber and sat down. Preparing to project his consciousness and body as far back as he possibly could.

---

Weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. Before Erich even realized it, he had spent an entire century's worth of time jumping between the various eras in human and galactic history. But every time he returned to the present, it was at the exact second he left.

And every time he was back in his own time, he would hear Tia's voice reconnect with his NeuroLink, asking about a progress report.

"Welcome back to the Present Master. How far did you get this time?"

Erich sighed heavily. He had spent 100 years jumping through different points in time, learning new things not only about humanity and the Earth, but the galaxy as a whole. He had seen the rise of the Ghimderi Trade Union, and how it had essentially managed to turn the entire galaxy into their wage slaves.

He had seen the destruction which the Naraku Scout Fleets left in their wake. And he had even seen the end of the Great Schism, and with it the permanent Fracture of the Elven Empire. Yet he had never gone back far enough to see Lunaria and Daelia's return from the Maw, or its disappearance from the Galaxy.

In that same vein, he had also not gone back far enough to see the Elven Empire in its full glory, at least not since that time he met with the Last Elven Emperor. With all of this information, he was quick to make his report to Tia. Hoping that his next jump would be the final one he needed.

"My last jump was to 750,000 years in the past. In other words, the end of the Great Schism and the partition of the Elven Empire into its two successor states. The looks on Lunaria and Daelia's faces as they stood across from one another and settled their peace after 250,000 years of galactic warfare. It was chilling…

The sheer destruction those two women left in the wake of their war, it's no wonder the history of the Elven Empire is fragmented at best. Not even Alfheim and Svartalfheim were spared in the wake of their hatred. Nobody old enough to remember the primeval era was left alive to challenge the narrative. Aside from those two, that is.

It was the single most destructive era in Galactic History that I have been able to see so far, and it explains the 50,000 year dark age that followed…"

Despite the haunting tone in Erich's voice, as he personally witnessed a level of death and despair that was simply incalculable, Tia's voice was full of excitement as she immediately gave voice to her thoughts regarding Erich's accomplishments.

"Impressive master, by my estimations it was supposed to take you 1,000 years' worth of time travel to get to this point. But you have done it in a tenth of the time! Adjusting for your current rate of progress, I believe you have ten more jumps to go before you are able to accomplish your goal.

And remember, Master, your current body is biologically immortal, so if you need to spend 10,000 years in the Primeval Era for the sake of getting the technology that we need. Then you are free to do so. After all, from my perspective, it will simply feel like a single second has gone by before you return.

Also, don't worry about a potential physical death, I'm sure I have said it a million times, but every time you return from the past, I make a copy of your current memories, so that in the event I need to resurrect you, it will not be a big deal…."

Erich nodded his head in agreement with this, after all the rebirth technology that the Elves had given the Germanic Star-Empire as one of the wonders of the Primeval Era that still existed in the modern world.

Sure, if he died in the past, he would not be able to transfer his consciousness back to the present. But with everything Tia had on file from him, she would simply resurrect him an hour after he did not re-appear. Assuming some tragic fate had happened to him while he was in the past.

Thus, after going through the process of recording everything he had seen for this very process, Erich closed his eyes once more, and said his usual farewell as he attempted once more to jump back into the distant past.

"Alright, Tia, I will see you in a second. As always, if I don't come back within an hour, then begin the resurrection protocol!"

Tia nodded her head, and confirmed she would do just that, before Erich disappeared from her sensors once more, and in doing so vanished from his current place in time and space itself.