Angel could feel her power surging.
Now, she could create even more firefly lights, each capable of firing beams up to ten times before their energy ran out.
Her body felt much stronger.
With this newfound strength, Angel was confident she could lift massive boulders with ease.
Without wasting time, Angel began exploring the alien city, now mostly in ruins.
While searching, she stumbled upon an old building that looked like an orphanage.
Cautiously, Angel entered.
Inside, she found a scene that made her freeze in place.
Dozens of young bat-like Martian aliens — small, frail, and terrified — huddled together in the corners.
Angel stood still, a deep question stirring inside her:
"Should I kill them?"
Unsure of what to do, Angel activated her communicator and sent a video feed back to Earth.
She needed a solid justification if she was to commit a massacre.
However, to her surprise, the professors on Earth gave her a different order:
"Capture them. Bring them back to Earth for research."
Angel sighed in relief.
Using her fireflies to melt metal, she quickly constructed a simple iron cage, sturdy enough to hold 27 alien children.
One by one, she gently placed them inside without resistance.
---
Her mission wasn't over yet.
Angel moved deeper into the ruins and entered what appeared to be an alien hospital.
There, she discovered stacks of research data:
Studies on Mars' ecosystem.
Anatomical data on the puffer spine monsters — the same creatures she fought in the simulator.
Information on alien defense technologies.
After gathering everything important, Angel returned to the teleportation point, bringing along the captured alien children and valuable research materials.
Upon arriving back on Earth, she reverted to her human form — Rai.
---
Meanwhile, back on Mars...
The surviving bat-like aliens rushed to their capital city to report the attack.
In front of their king — a massive, muscular bat-like figure with enormous wings — they knelt and pleaded:
"Your Majesty... we were attacked! A human khodam has invaded Mars! Our city was destroyed!"
The alien king, perched upside-down on the ceiling, clenched his fists, his expression cold.
"Is this true...?" he muttered.
His sharp gaze fell upon one particular warrior — a bat-like knight, massive and clad in heavy armor, with bulging muscles.
Two huge swords were strapped across his back.
The armored warrior bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty, allow me to go. I will wait at that village... I'm certain the khodam will return to claim more loot."
The king slowly nodded.
"Good. Destroy them."
After returning to Earth, Rai immediately headed to the simulation room to test his skills.
He didn't know when he would unlock his second skill.
The awakening of a second skill varied for every khodam user.
Some could obtain a new skill with only 2% synchronization, while others needed to reach 20% or more.
Luckily for Rai, he had unlocked his first skill when his synchronization with Angel reached 5%.
His synchronization percentage continued to rise, but he still had no idea when the next skill would awaken.
That was why he spent long hours inside the simulation room — fighting different types of Martian aliens — hoping that intense training would trigger a new ability.
---
After several hours of grueling practice, a man approached Angel's form inside the simulation center.
He carried an urgent message:
"We've finished analyzing some critical data. You need to see this."
Without reverting back to Rai's appearance, Angel decided to follow him.
She had a feeling that Mars held many more secrets — and perhaps unlocking a new skill required pushing herself even further.
She was right.
The data revealed something startling — the power structure of Mars.
According to the analysis:
The bat-like aliens Angel had just fought were only ranked fourth in Mars' hierarchy.
What Angel had thought was a city...
was actually just a small, remote village!
Angel felt a cold sweat run down her spine.
---
Further information showed that the third most powerful species on Mars were the Havod Spiders:
Grotesque creatures resembling giant spiders, but with half-human faces where a normal spider's head would be.
Their upper body was partly humanoid, while their legs remained that of a massive spider.
The Havod Spiders were known for their intelligence — one of the few species capable of building cities and crafting weapons.
The second strongest alien is Abyssal Behemoth is a colossal monster that resembles a fusion between an insect and a beast.
It stands on four thick, bear-like legs, while its body is covered in hard, segmented plates similar to a giant cockroach.
Growing from its back are two massive mantis claws capable of slicing through stone and metal.
Its head resembles that of a half-insect, with a large jaw and two glowing red eyes.
Its body is pitch black, sometimes shifting to dark brown to camouflage with the Martian soil.
And the strongest species on Mars...
were the Burrowing Worms — the true rulers hidden deep beneath the Martian surface.
These worms were monstrous, with bodies as thick as a double-decker bus and over 200 meters long.
They possessed thousands of arms — or more accurately, tentacles — to help them crawl through the underground tunnels.
More terrifyingly, they were highly intelligent and had built an entire underground kingdom beneath the red planet.
Angel swallowed hard as she read the explanation.
It meant that Mars was far more difficult and complex than she had originally thought.
A city filled with dozens of tall buildings was considered nothing more than a village to them.
"You are currently in the territory of the Martian Bat people," Nadien said.
"The soldiers who fled will likely report back to their capital... so things will get harder from now on."
"So what should I do?" Angel asked.
"Follow me," said Nadien.
Angel followed Nadien into a room filled with robots.
Her eyes widened in shock when she saw hundreds of highly advanced machines standing there.
"What... am I supposed to take all of them with me?"
"Teleportation between planets that's synchronized with a khodam does have its limitations," Nadien explained.
"A khodam can bring non-living objects, living creatures, weapons, even aliens through teleportation... but it cannot bring another human who has already awakened their khodam."
"Ah... so I'm supposed to bring these robots?"
"Exactly," Nadien nodded.
"If teleportation could bring awakened humans too, we would've already launched a full invasion on Mars.
But because of this limitation, we can only support you from afar."