《Apex Predator》


 [Part 1] [Chapter 1] The Decision

    PART 1


    ??????????


    Bath lay suspended in the high-pressure water, his narrow form gliding down further into the lightless depths surrounding the glacier.


    The ice should be larger, he thought to himself. He envisioned a glacier spanning the horizon, its sheets stalwart against the thrumming ocean.


    He ran his nose against the glacier¡¯s smooth form as he pondered why the glacier was smaller than he remembered. The last time the glaciers appreciably changed size was thousands of years ago when they reshaped the continents. And here they were again, shifting and signaling incipient climate change.


    Bath remembered the past mass extinctions. The most terrifying had been when the oceans themselves seemed to boil up with everything stuck inside of them, saturated with toxic ash. The sky had been cloaked in darkness that smelled of sulfur for time too long to count. For countless years he had feared that the world was truly ending.


    Bath sighed. The world was always a lonely place for millions of years after mass extinctions. At the very least nature always rebounded, producing new and beautiful creatures for Bath to devour and enjoy.


    He really shouldn¡¯t fight the next mass extinction. Bath had already devoured most lifeforms on current Earth and had everything to gain from a fresh slate. But all the same, he wasn¡¯t ready for the next period of desolation. Only a few thousand years had passed since the last extinction, although it had been relatively minor; why had the next appeared so quickly afterward?


    He tilted his head up towards the faint light above. He swam to the top, jetting out water in a stream behind him while thrumming his tail.


    He saw the humans strung out on the ice with their tools. They had a little gray house that seemed on the brink of being carried away by the arctic wind. The humans were huge, sporting sleek coverings that obscured their true forms like a thick layer of blubber. Fur encircled each face like a lion¡¯s mane, the strands blowing forcefully with the wind.


    They were doing something or other to the ice, Bath wasn¡¯t sure what. He couldn¡¯t ask them.


    But the humans gave Bath an idea. He had wondered what was causing the next mass extinction; perhaps the humans knew. Bath recognized that the humans had special arts, had papers and devices that could store and transmit information. Though he had never fully learned a human tongue, he knew some words and phrases from his time in Europe during the era of blood and castles.


    Bath thought over his plan while he watched the humans work.


    ??????????


    Bath next went to a place in the South called Canada, assuming the form of a bird. It was the kind of bird that inhabits cities, brazen enough to share its territory with predators like humans. Bath stayed there for a while, studying the humans, learning what he realized was called English. When winter came, he followed the other birds and went South, to a country called America.


    Winter passed and gave way to summer. Bath was a squirrel during this time. He continued to explore the human cities along the coast of the Pacific Ocean throughout the warm season. He listened and learned, and as he learned he became more concerned.


    The humans seemed aware of the next mass extinction. They even talked about it with each other. They called the melting of the glaciers Global Warming and seemed to think themselves as fault for the catastrophe.


    Bath had known humans to be superstitious creatures before and didn¡¯t believe the humans knew what they were talking about. No other species in Bath¡¯s memory had ever caused a mass extinction. They were always the doings of natural events: the fickle Earth changing her temperature, the Great Black sending down fiery rock. He knew the humans were powerful, but doubted them capable of apocalypse-level destruction.


    Bath decided that he needed to do his own research aside from listening to humans talk idly about the next end of days. He still couldn¡¯t believe their lack of urgency regarding the unmaking of the world. Though they were an apex predator second only to himself, they were fragile: did they really think that they would escape the extinction?


    Bath knew the largest were always the first to fall. And unlike Bath, these humans were stuck to their physical forms. They couldn¡¯t adapt.


    Bath became a ladybug and entered a library in the middle of the city Washington D.C., a library he had heard was without peer. He specifically chose the form of a ladybug because humans seemed to like the red beetle¡¯s color and very rarely swatted at him. As he looked over the shoulders of people reading books, he realized that his reading speed was pitifully slow. He had thought sounding out street signs and advertisements practice enough, but he could only parse a few sentences before the people he spied on would turn the pages of their books.


    Bath knew¡ªa knowledge gained from ancient experience¡ªthat practice was important with this kind of skill. So he continued to read over people¡¯s shoulders for weeks until he was able to read just as fast or faster than the humans he was watching.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    He realized quickly that many of them had no interest in the apocalypse. He had thought more of them would be researching its causes and trying to divert them, but he had apparently overestimated the intelligence of the humans. Or, at the very least, he had overestimated their survival instincts.


    He decided that he would have better luck trying to operate a computer than just waiting for humans to read a book with the answers he was seeking. He had seen advertisements for an internet cafe, a place with computers for rent, somewhere in the city. He found the address and flew there as a bird. He then shifted into a fly and entered the establishment, quickly locating an unmanned computer.


    The place wasn¡¯t very busy, which suited Bath just fine. He stared up at the screen, his compound eyes shifting into miniature avian eyes as he did so. The image instantly became much clearer.


    He debated whether or not he was being watched. Humans had little cameras that they liked to put everywhere.


    Most certainly, Bath thought to himself. So he would need to be discreet.


    He began operating the mouse by pushing it with the strong body of a beetle, invoking his Center to increase the beetle¡¯s density. After opening up the browser, the application humans used to access the enormous and ever-changing book called the Internet, Bath lightened his mass, hopped over to the keyboard, and flitted between keys that he wanted to press. Each time he stepped on one, he increased his density until his weight triggered a keypress. After a minute or so of typing, he had the action down to a science.


    The first thing he looked up was Global Warming. One of the first results in the Internet¡¯s Index was a page called Wikipedia, which he selected with a click of the mouse. He had heard the humans discussing Wikipedia on the street and took this as indication of the page¡¯s authority.


    As he scrolled down the page, Bath began to feel a seed of sickening certainty in his Center. This page¡¯s author seemed much more informed than the average human. Had many humans read this before?


    The page¡ªwhich was the longest book page Bath had ever read¡ªdescribed how humans had accelerated the process of global warming by polluting the atmosphere. As Bath read, he realized that the page corroborated many of his own experiences. Over the past hundred years, he had seen many species driven from their natural habitats. He had seen many animals struggling to stay afloat, in particular the kinds of animals most specialized for certain ecological niches. These were always the first to go whenever an extinction was on the horizon.


    The article even described how the ice caps were melting and would cause the sea levels to rise and the weather to become erratic. The disruption of the ocean currents would cause its own measure of problems.


    Bath was overwhelmingly impressed by the author¡¯s acute knowledge of Global Warming. After finishing the page, Bath looked at the computer screen in awe.


    He digested the information he had learned, assuming that the page was factually accurate.


    Humans seemed to be the cause of the next mass extinction¡¯s acceleration. He wouldn¡¯t have believed it to be true, but from what he had seen of human civilizations, with their towering cities and electronics, he was inclined to accept that humans were, indeed, responsible. There was no superstition or mentioning of the gods in their assertions of culpability.


    The author had even outlined possible solutions, though they seemed ineffectual. At best, they seemed geared towards preventing further degradation of natural climatic conditions. There didn¡¯t seem to be a plan to reverse the changes that had already occurred. The author mentioned environmental engineering as a means toward this end, but then stated that this method of climatic rectification had been proven ineffective.


    To Bath¡¯s eye, the humans had given up. He snarled internally.


    If the humans couldn¡¯t reverse Global Warming, the current climate would persist and continue to change over time. The glaciers, already melting, would continue to melt. The oceans would rise, the coral reefs would die, animals would starve, forests would burn down in dry fires. All of these things he had already seen happen in the past few years; he had also seen them happen before, many many years ago. How long had it taken for the coral to return back then? Millions of years?


    He began to feel a sense of panic in his Center. Could humans really be at once so powerful and careless? To wield the power to shape nature and use that power to prematurely usher in the next extinction?


    Bath felt his Center tighten and his mass naturally pooled inward, causing him to nearly float off the keyboard. Had he been in a mammalian body, he would be hyperventilating with disbelief and dejection. He didn¡¯t want to believe what he had read.


    Bath spent the next few hours scouring the internet for more information on Global Warming. All that he read, besides one article of pure drivel that claimed the next mass extinction wasn¡¯t being accelerated (obviously false), solidified the information that the Wikipedia page had provided him. Global Warming was real, man-made, and seemingly unstoppable.


    Bath knew now that there were many humans who feared the mass extinction¡¯s acceleration, a fact which gave him hope in the instincts of humanity. Among humans populating islands and coastal regions, many called for drastic actions to prevent the continuing emission of greenhouse gases. Most countries had already signed agreements towards this end. Bath knew from what he had read that essentially everything that the humans were doing was futile, but infinitely better than inaction.


    One thing he had discovered through all that he had read was that humans didn¡¯t actually fear extinction. Their primary fears were that Global Warming would kill off many species of animal and plant, restructure the coastlines, and elevate the Earth¡¯s temperature in places where the climate was already too hot. He had never once seen anything published as a page that suggested humans feared for their own survival.


    They seemed confident that they could move inland and away from the equator with their livestock and plants. Bath couldn¡¯t believe their arrogance.


    Perhaps, in the beginning, this was true. In a thousand years from now? A million? Bath scoffed. Weren¡¯t they thinking that far ahead? Just a few generations in the future and they might face conditions exponentially worse than those in the next hundred years.


    Bath knew he needed even more information and decided that it was time he finally assume a form capable of interacting with the humans. He researched for a while on the computer what one needed to survive in human society. After realizing how difficult it would be to create an adult human from scratch (without any form of identification), Bath looked into other alternatives.


    In the end, he decided that the easiest course of action would be to assume the identity of an abandoned human infant. That way, by experiencing the human life cycle and integrating himself into a family unit, he would be able to better understand how to navigate human society.

 [Chapter 2] Adoption

    Bath thought back to the last time he assumed the form of a human. He couldn¡¯t remember how long ago that had been, but it was a time when humans were still beholden to angry gods. Their years revolved around ceremonies and sacrifice. Bath, in curiosity, had assumed the form of a human to explore their ways.


    He didn¡¯t hold a grudge for what had happened soon after his appearance. The humans were primitive and superstitious, after all. They had shrieked at him in fear and rage.


    After studying the humans for the past year or two, he realized that he had made a few mistakes back in the day, namely integrating parts of other animals into his appearance for the sake of efficiency. Humans didn¡¯t take well to differences, such as reflective retinas or claws. No other animals had ever cared about his little inconsistencies, so long as his scent, general appearance and behavior matched their own.


    Had he not been in the form of a beetle, Bath would have laughed. Had he really been so clueless of the humans and their peculiarities? He grinned, which as a beetle meant rubbing his wings together. This time, he was going to do the human act correctly.


    He looked up human adoption and found that most babies were abandoned at police stations. From there they would be sent to various adoption agencies.


    Bath left the internet cafe and found a few items needed to complete his appearance as an abandoned baby. He procured a blanket from a small shop on the street, carrying it away in the beak of a seagull. Then he found a piece of paper blowing about in the wind and found a pen that had been dropped on a sidewalk. He wrote his name in phonetic English¡ªBath¡ª on the sheet of paper. He rolled the sheet of paper and cloth into a bundle which he carried in his squirrel paws as dark descended on the city.


    He found a police station and quickly morphed into the form of a human infant. He swaddled himself in a blanket and tucked the note into the cloth. He then waited outside the police station¡¯s door.


    Bath didn¡¯t anticipate the wait being as long as it was. He waited a full two hours before the police officers changed shifts and opened the door.


    ¡°Ron!¡± one of them shouted. Bath had his eyes closed in his best imitation of an infant. ¡°There¡¯s a little guy in front of the door! How did you miss him?¡±


    The other man, probably Ron, replied as though shocked: ¡°What!? There¡¯s a baby?¡± Bath heard the man¡¯s quick approach. ¡°He didn¡¯t cry at all. Is he sick?¡±


    Oh, Bath thought, internally cringing. Babies cried, didn¡¯t they? He began to sniffle a bit. As one of the men reached to pick him up, he began to cry. He hoped that would be realistic enough.


    ¡°Shh,¡± the man who was not Ron hushed as he cradled Bath¡¯s infantile form. "Don¡¯t worry little guy."


    ¡°Bill, does he have a name?¡± Ron asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t¡ª¡± Bath nudged the little paper out of his swaddling with a meaty fist. Bath heard Ron bend down to pick up the little sheet of paper.


    ¡°It says Bath,¡± he said warily. ¡°Is that his name, y¡¯think?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s something to call him,¡± Bill replied. ¡°Bath, huh? Weird name.¡±


    ¡°Weird kid,¡± Bill guffawed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that he didn¡¯t cry to get our attention.¡±


    Bath was brought inside and after a time was given a bottle with a warm, milky substance. He grimaced while he forced the liquid down, but nobody around him seemed to make anything of his expression.


    He heard the humans make phone calls revolving around himself and adoption and whatnot. In the end, a car came and picked him up. A woman brought him into the car and sat with him in the back seat while her partner, another woman, drove off. They brought him to a building where other little human infants lay in tiny beds. Many of them were crying.


    Bath realized very quickly that babies were usually either sleeping, eating, or defecating. He had never impersonated an infant before¡ªhuman or otherwise¡ªthough he had been around them in the past. Having never raised an infant, he just assumed that they did more than those three main functions, but apparently not.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Hmm. Bath felt an inkling of frustration, though quashed it as he remembered his purpose. Integrate with the humans. Understand their knowledge and capabilities. Prevent the premature onset of the next extinction.


    He sighed.


    ??????????


    Bath had always been terrible at judging the passage of time. Being stuck in a windowless room without any kind of schedule predictably worsened his temporal awareness. He spent much of his time thinking about what a human couple would be like and wondering about how to prevent Global Warming.


    One day, he heard a couple of humans come his way, accompanied by one of the woman caretakers at the adoption facility.


    ¡°Is this him?¡± a male voice inquired.


    Bath made a pair of tiny, insect-like eyes appear on his hand where nobody would see. He watched the humans as they approached. A man and a woman, both of them with pale skin and brown hair, were being led over by the caretaker Bath recognized as Andrea. The couple appeared to be young, but Bath was admittedly terrible at guessing human ages. Their ages could have been anything from twenty-five to forty.


    ¡°He¡¯s sleeping?¡± the woman asked. Was he supposed to be asleep now?


    ¡°Probably not,¡± Andrea replied tentatively. ¡°He¡¯s just quiet.¡±


    ¡°Is he healthy?¡± the woman asked, worry creeping into her voice.


    Bath realized this was his cue to cry.


    ¡°Shh,¡± the man said. ¡°That¡¯s more like it,¡± he grinned. Bath didn¡¯t understand why humans wanted babies to cry; he personally found the sound insufferable and had more than once disabled his hearing while in the adoption complex.


    ¡°Awe, he¡¯s so cute,¡± the woman cooed, coming close. Bath quickly removed the eyes from his hand as she reached for his tiny fingers.


    ¡°Mr. and Mrs. McLane, he¡¯s perfectly healthy, so far as we can tell. He¡¯s very young, after all, so it¡¯s difficult to do mental diagnostics on him. But his brain shows no indications of abnormal stunting or retardation.¡±


    Bath heard both parents step closer to him yet again.


    ¡°Can we hold him?¡± the man asked.


    ¡°Sure; just remember how we instructed you to hold him,¡± Andrea replied.


    The couple took turns holding him. They talked a bit more with Andrea and each other before leaving the adoption agency.


    ??????????


    The day finally arrived when the couple took him away from the adoption place and brought him to their home. Like before, Bath planted a pair of eyes on his hand, which he moved around as they drove. He realized that the pair had a house in what humans called suburbs, and that the house was quite nice.


    Their garage door lifted up and the man parked their car next to another already in the garage. When the car stopped, the two quickly disembarked, liberated Bath from his car seat harness and carried him into the house, closing the garage door behind them with a little device that clicked.


    They fawned over Bath for a good while before settling in and making themselves a meal. While it was sizzling on the stove, the McLanes came over to Bath¡ªwhom they had put in a little basket-chair obviously constructed for the purpose of holding infants¡ªand watched him with worried eyes.


    ¡°He¡¯s so quiet,¡± Mr. McLane said.


    Bath began to cry.


    Mrs. McLane put a finger to her chin. ¡°He¡¯s too loud,¡± she stated.


    Bath¡¯s cry became a whimper. He wasn¡¯t sure how babies were supposed to act around their parents, but assumed obedience was likely a route that ensured survival.


    ¡°That¡¯s the strangest thing I''ve ever seen,¡± Mrs. McLane said. ¡°It¡¯s as though he can understand us.¡± Bath saw her coming in closer.


    ¡°Maybe he¡¯s older than the agency thinks,¡± Mr. Mclane suggested. ¡°And he can understand basic human speech.¡±


    Mrs. McLane scoffed. ¡°Honey, does he look older than two months to you?¡±


    Mr. McLane paused. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then that¡¯s that.¡±


    Bath now realized his error. Human infants clearly didn¡¯t obey their parents until much later. He would need to be more cautious in the future, so that they would assume his past behavior a fluke.


    The couple tried to test him for the next few minutes, but Bath had disabled his hearing so he wouldn¡¯t slip and obey their words. After a while, he saw the couple shrug and go to eat their dinner, which they had only just taken off the stove. Bath saw the two smile as each other warmly as they ate, periodically laughing. Bath found his infant mouth turn up in a matching smile. Interesting.


    Later, Bath re-enabled his hearing and decided to eavesdrop.


    ¡°...Sure you want to keep his name?¡± Mr. McLane said.


    Mrs. McLane raised an eyebrow. ¡°If that¡¯s the name his mother gave him, I wouldn¡¯t feel right changing it.¡±


    ¡°But...Bath...¡±


    ¡°She must have had a reason,¡± Mrs. McLane stated, expression uncompromising.


    Mr. McLane eventually gave in, much to Bath¡¯s relief.

 [Chapter 3] Babbling

    The next few months passed without much incident. Bath was convinced at this point that he had being a baby down to a science. After a few months, however, apparently he was doing something wrong, because Mrs. McLane, whom he learned was named Samantha, brought him to the doctor.


    ¡°Ms. Brown, hello,¡± Samantha said warmly as she entered the doctor¡¯s office. Bath had realized a month or two back that he was allowed to have his eyes open, a welcome development. He looked at the office curiously as Samantha pushed him in via stroller. There were many other humans with children in the room, ranging from all ages. Ms. Brown, the receptionist, recorded Samantha¡¯s information. After a few minutes, during which Samantha sat on a chair and Bath stared at the children playing with blocks in the corner, a person in a strange uniform came into the room and called out Samantha¡¯s full name.


    The woman led Bath and Samantha to a small room. There, the woman, whom Bath realized was a nurse, began to ask Samantha questions about him. Bath found this question and answer period to be very informative.


    ¡°What are some behavioral abnormalities you''ve been experiencing?¡± the nurse prompted after Samantha explained the reason for the visit.


    Samantha sighed. ¡°It¡¯s hard to put into words. He¡¯s acting more mature than he should be.¡±


    The nurse frowned. ¡°Explain.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s too aware,¡± Samantha stated. ¡°Just look at him now, he¡¯s following our conversation. He¡¯s looking at our lips.¡± As she said so, Bath lowered his eyes to the stroller.


    ¡°And there you go,¡± Samantha laughed quickly. ¡°As soon as I said that he was looking at us, he looked away. I''ve been careful to look at him out of the corner of my eye. Whenever I point out that he¡¯s doing something strange, he always fixes his behavior.¡±


    Bath was starting to get a bit nervous. Was he that obvious? Here he had thought he was good at being an infant, but Samantha clearly saw through his guise.


    The nurse didn¡¯t say anything for a moment. Then: ¡°Mrs. McLane, are you sure you''re well?¡±


    Samantha flinched. ¡°What? Of course!¡± she huffed. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t believe me,¡± she intoned miserably.


    ¡°Well¡ª¡±


    ¡°You can ask my husband. He also agrees with me. He''d be here if he wasn¡¯t away on a business trip. We''re just worried about our son.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how I can help you,¡± the nurse said. ¡°I''ll call in the doctor, though.¡±


    Samantha nodded appreciatively. Bath was careful to only look at their conversation out of the corner of his eye.


    The nurse left and after a while, the doctor entered.


    ¡°Dr. Green,¡± Samantha smiled appreciatively.


    ¡°Hello Mrs. McLane,¡± she replied earnestly. ¡°I''ve heard from Nurse Lin that you''re a bit worried about your son.¡±


    Samantha nodded. ¡°He¡¯s adopted, and we don''t know anything about his parents or the circumstances of his birth. We''re especially worried that there¡¯s something wrong with his development.¡±


    Now Bath realized that he really should have researched child development before becoming a baby. He never imagined he would be scrutinized so closely. Obviously he was causing his surrogates to feel a great deal of worry.


    ¡°Nurse Lin described how your son seems to be able to understand and respond to human speech that isn¡¯t clearly directed at him,¡± Doctor Green stated. ¡°She also described how your son has missed a few developmental milestones. Correct me if I miss one,¡± Doctor Green said.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Samantha nodded. Bath cringed internally. He''d clearly failed at being a baby.


    ¡°He hasn¡¯t been trying to move around," the doctor noted, "nor has he been babbling. This is the most worrisome signal, in my book.¡±


    Samantha looked absolutely terrified. Bath had never dealt with humans extensively before and hadn¡¯t realized how different they treat their young compared to other animals. He had never seen an animal appear worried just because its young acted a certain way. Other animals only appeared concerned if their young appeared unfit to take care of themselves.


    As Bath listened to the conversation, he began to wonder what babbling was.


    ¡°Most babies will make nonsensical sounds around the first 1-2 months of age,¡± the Doctor explained. ¡°He¡¯s 6 months now, correct?¡±


    ¡°Yes, or so the agency that we adopted him from estimates.¡±


    ¡°Well, he appears to be the right size and weight for his age,¡± the doctor replied as she went over to fetch Bath. Bath looked at her as she grabbed him from the stroller.


    Bath was happy to know he had gotten that right. Though that was mostly because he saw other small children that Samantha introduced him to and tried to look the same as them. He thought hard on what he had seen the other children do. Had they ever done anything that seemed stupid, something he''d consciously not done?


    In the wilderness, screaming and random noises were clearly detrimental to survival. Bath, in trying to be a good child, had avoided making such useless noises. Perhaps this was a glaring mistake. But how could human babies have such a dangerous natural tendency? Wouldn¡¯t they be killed?


    The doctor looked Bath in the eyes as she held him up.


    ¡°Well, he¡¯s making eye contact with me, and seems to be studying my face,¡± she explained. ¡°If I didn¡¯t know better based on what you said about his babbling, I''d say he¡¯s deaf, but obviously that¡¯s not the case if he changes his behavior based on what he overhears.¡± She Looked Bath straight in the eyes, her face severe. Bath felt a bit of irrational fear. Then she smiled, causing Bath to frown in confusion.


    This human wasn¡¯t making any sense.


    ¡°Hmm, most babies try to imitate a smile by smiling back,¡± she muttered. ¡°But he frowned!¡±


    Bath quickly smiled, trying to ease the woman¡¯s apparent exasperation.


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I was talking about!¡± Samantha gasped. ¡°He heard you talking about how he was supposed to smile. Then he smiled!¡±


    ¡°You''re right,¡± Doctor Green agreed. ¡°Bath,¡± she said stoically, ¡°you''re one strange little dude.¡± Bath had no idea how a baby was supposed to respond, so he tried to emulate the doctor¡¯s severe expression. The doctor suddenly smiled and Bath followed suit.


    Doctor Green¡¯s head darted to Samantha. ¡®Mrs. McLane, I''m not sure what¡¯s wrong with your son, but he isn¡¯t mentally slow, that¡¯s for sure. That doesn¡¯t mean he doesn¡¯t have a mental problem, mind you. He might be autistic, for instance. But he¡¯s abnormally receptive to speech. At his age, that¡¯s very, very strange.¡±


    Samantha nodded her understanding. ¡°So what should I do?¡±


    ¡°The best thing you can do for him is to teach him some basic sounds. For some reason, vocalizing isn¡¯t coming naturally to him. Also, try to get him to start crawling around. I''m not too concerned yet by his lack of moving around, since he still shouldn¡¯t technically be crawling yet, but if he isn¡¯t crawling in the next few months you should bring him back here for a checkup.¡±


    With that, Samantha drove Bath home.


    ??????????


    ¡°Bath,¡± Samantha called out while getting baby food out for lunch. ¡°Can you say, ¡®mama¡¯?¡±


    Bath hoped he was supposed to be able to say ¡°mama¡± and that this wasn¡¯t a trick.


    ¡°Mama,¡± he cooed.


    Samantha froze. ¡°Thank God,¡± she sighed. ¡°So you do speak.¡± She smiled softly at him from across the room.


    ¡°Mama!¡± Bath said again.


    ¡°Hehe, his first word is mama,¡± she grinned devilishly.


    ¡°Can you say, ¡®dada¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Dada!¡±


    ¡°Can you say ¡®mommy give me food¡¯?¡± she said, this time with a bit of hilarity in her voice. Was that supposed to be difficult? Babbling?


    He grinned and proudly repeated the phrase.


    Samantha suddenly dropped the food container into the sink and turned around in a rush of air.


    ¡°What!?¡± she yelled. Now she looked afraid.


    Ah, Bath thought. So that was the trick. He¡¯d fallen for Samantha¡¯s trap.


    ¡°Mama!¡± he called out again, trying to feign some semblance of innocence.


    She narrowed her eyes. ¡°You can¡¯t fool me with that anymore,¡± she said pointedly. She leaned against the sink, her arms crossed in front of her. Then she asked, ¡°Who on Earth are you?¡±


    Bath thought responding unwise.

 [Chapter 4] Lisa

    Samantha had called Brian¡ªMr. McLane¡ªimmediately after Bath¡¯s slip-up. He told her to hold on until he got back home.


    Samantha had begun to blurt out random explanations for his behavior, as though by stating them out loud she would receive some kind of sign that one of them was right.


    Bath absolutely refused to humor her and played as dumb as possible. In other words, he turned off his hearing and fell asleep.


    ??????????


    He woke up to the McLane¡¯s shaking him.


    Bath reactivated his hearing to find them shouting in panic.


    ¡°He isn¡¯t waking up¡ªoh, Bath!¡± Brian called out in relief. ¡°You''re awake.¡±


    Bath looked at both of his parents and wondered at their worry. He''d awoken fast enough, as soon as they nudged him from rest. Were all humans this prone to overreacting?


    ¡°Dada,¡± he said tentatively. Brian immediately broke out into a huge grin.


    ¡°Hi, little guy,¡± he said tenderly.


    ¡°I told you,¡± Samantha murmured. ¡°He started speaking as soon as I left the doctor. It¡¯s as though he realized he was supposed to speak by listening to Doctor Green and I talking.¡±


    ¡°I''d say that was impossible if I didn¡¯t know better,¡± Brian sighed. ¡°And then he said a sentence?¡±


    ¡°Yeah; he said, ¡®mommy, mommy give me food¡¯ as though it were the easiest thing to say in the world,¡± Samantha grimaced. ¡°I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s just really good at repeating things, or if it¡¯s something else.¡±


    ¡°I''m inclined to believe he¡¯s just good at listening. You told him to say mama and dada and he said the words. You then told him to say something else and he repeated that as well. Until we can prove he actually understood what ¡®mommy give me food¡¯ actually means, I think we have to assume he was just parroting uncannily well.¡±


    Ah, Bath rather liked Brian¡¯s reasoning.


    ¡°Should we test it?¡± Samantha asked, unsure.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. Bath, can you say, ¡®hello¡¯?¡±


    This seemed safe enough. ¡°Hello,¡± Bath said.


    ¡°Can you say, ¡®how are you¡¯?¡± Samantha asked. Bath mulled this one over for a second. Perhaps if he repeated the phrase but messed up the pronunciation, they would believe that he was just parroting well. Bath was starting to realize that, having never tried to trick any creature before in his life, he was absolutely terrible at it.


    ¡°How you,¡± he said, then giggled.


    ¡°Well,¡± Brian began slowly, ¡°I think it¡¯s safe to say he¡¯s just repeating what you were saying.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I agree,¡± Samantha conceded.


    Finally! Bath began to feel like he hadn¡¯t completely failed at impersonating a human infant. To further solidify his burgeoning confidence, he began an attempt to crawl towards his parents. From what he understood from the doctor, children of 6 months weren¡¯t supposed to be crawling, but were supposed to be trying to crawl. Apparently, to humans, trying to do things was just as important as doing them. Trying to talk. Trying to crawl. The entire concept reminded him vaguely of little fledglings trying to fly. He supposed a bird would consider it a disaster if its progeny didn¡¯t try to fly before flight feathers came in.


    To humans, gurgling out random syllables and trying to crawl about were just as important.


    There¡¯s still a lot I have left to learn...


    ??????????This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    When Bath was two, his parents decided to enroll him in what they called ¡°Three-Year-Old Preschool.¡±


    This was, perhaps, the most useful thing they could have done.


    Every day, Bath observed other children his age and how they interacted with one another and the adults supervising them. Bath realized that his conceptions of what a two-year-old should do weren¡¯t quite in line with what they actually could do. He had already displayed a bit of reading aptitude at home, while not a single 2-year-old in preschool could read a word. He also hadn¡¯t tried running, assuming that small humans were too ungainly to try, though every two-year-old he encountered was zooming all over the room.


    He also observed most attentively the process of ¡°making friends.¡±


    ¡°Bath, let play,¡± a small human named Lisa exclaimed. Today was a typically warm May day. By now, nearly all of the children had turned three, Bath among them. His birthday was in September, so he had been one of the first children to celebrate his 3rd birthday.


    He intoned, ¡°Mm!¡± in response. Lisa was one of Bath¡¯s closest human friends. She liked to play ball with him outside. This kind of human play reminded him of his time with a pack of wolves many years back. Simple, yet enjoyable; characterized by living in the moment.


    Lisa also liked to play tag and often beat him. She was quite fast and adept at zigzagging around the jungle gym outside of the preschool building.


    Bath thought smugly to himself that he could beat her if he really wanted to. He could always shed this form for another, after all, one faster than any human.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± he cried out, ¡°catch!¡± He threw the soft, green, head-sized ball at Lisa. Lisa caught the ball and threw it back. Each time the ball was thrown, Bath and Lisa ran in random patterns to increase the challenge of both throwing and catching.


    After a few minutes, the two sat down on the grass and look off into the distance.


    ??????????


    ¡°Lisa!¡± Bath exclaimed, a grin on his face. ¡°Look what I got!¡±


    ¡°Woah!¡± Lisa cried out. ¡°"Is that a scooter?¡±


    Bath nodded excitedly. ¡°You can ride it, and it makes you go way faster than walking!¡±


    ¡°Oo, let me try!¡± Bath handed the scooter to her and Lisa took off, a total natural. Bath felt a bit jealous; he''d been quite unwieldy at first on the strange apparatus.


    ¡°This is so cool!¡± Lisa crooned as she zoomed down the driveway and the sidewalk. ¡°Your parents are the best!¡±


    ¡°I wish school was over,¡¯ Bath sighed. Kindergarten was fun enough, but he''d prefer to be home playing.


    ¡°I know! It¡¯s only just started though, silly,¡± Lisa giggled. The August wind tousled her hair. Bath felt an urge decisively not appropriate for his current age group, one he quickly quashed. Though he had the body of a child, and was able to get into the childish mindset often enough...part of Bath longed to do what he had always, always done, since the beginning of time that he could remember.


    Standing there, watching Lisa zoom around, he could envision her as she would be. He could envision her in all her womanhood, accurately so, with her perfections and birthmarks. He knew what she would look like down to her bone structure, to her genitalia and every hair on her body. He knew her form so well that, had he the desire, he could become her. And, as he was only limited in form by his whim to enter human society as one of them, the idea that he was only a child barely crossed his mind. He wanted Adult Lisa with all the passion of a male, of the form he would take when he, too, was mature.


    But Bath stomped these flames of passion out. He didn¡¯t really want Lisa in that way, he was beginning to realize. Since assuming the form of a human, Bath had begun to recognize that they were infinitely more dissimilar from other animals than he had ever expected. Back thousands of years ago, he could have sworn they differed very little. They attacked each other, lived in small packs, and seemed to live only to reproduce. This was what Bath understood: this was natural.


    The human society in which he now found himself was as different as he could imagine. Not only did people not attack each other¡ªhe had never seen a human be seriously violent to another outside of the few cities he had visited¡ªbut they didn¡¯t even seem all that intent on anything necessary for survival. The humans had created a place almost outside of nature where they could suspend the natural rules. They didn¡¯t have to hunt or gather, or even farm. Their food could be procured at huge markets and stores for the exchange of currency. Being an apex predator, no creatures threatened them with violence, so they didn¡¯t have to worry about defenses or staying alert.


    ¡®I could kill literally all of them without trying,¡¯ Bath internalized while watching Lisa giggle with delight. He saw their blood dripping down the street, the cars ripped apart, the streets sundered by his immense weight. All these flimsy houses, these complex machines shredded.


    The image...he didn¡¯t know how he thought about it. Bath normally never thought about these kinds of things. Other animals lived a simple existence, and any carnage he could cause would be limited. They didn¡¯t normally have fixed structures, nor did they rely on tools. If he wanted them dead, he could kill them, one by one, but that was just about all he could do. These humans, in being strong, had become incalculably weak. They fixated on their buildings and civilization, all so breakable.


    He remembered how people claimed they could evacuate the coastlines. But Bath knew now how most cities surrounded bodies of water. He had read this on his mother¡¯s computer. Washington D.C. was on the coast, after all. He already knew that the waterline was high enough to inhibit the digging of graves humans took for granted further into the mainland.


    Bath was more than conscious of how even small changes in water level could wreak massive destruction.


    ¡°Bath,¡± Lisa called out. ¡°Your turn!¡±


    Bath smiled and took the scooter from her.

 [Chapter 5] Flight

    Bath and Lisa were both in the third grade. They weren¡¯t in the same class, but always saw each other at recess and hung out after school. Bath had more friends now, as did Lisa, and they played together. Lisa was much better at making friends than Bath, to his chagrin. No matter his efforts, social etiquette didn¡¯t come as natural to him as he would have liked. Language and reading, those were easy. Knowledge collecting and logic made sense as well. He thought school laughably easy.


    But interacting with his fellows was something he had yet to master.


    He blamed this failure largely on the fact that social etiquette was remarkably fluid. A human child¡¯s age had an enormous influence on their expected behavior. Even from month to month, Bath found the children around him changing the rules of the social game.


    ¡®In any other species, the rules are the same,¡¯ Bath snarled internally. Physical strength and overwhelming confidence: these were the keys to success. Yet here, amongst these children, he felt lost.


    In many ways, he had to grudgingly admit, he was stuck in his ways. He tried to change, certainly, just as he assumed old humans tried to change their ways as well. But these children, they changed so quickly! Bath thought in decades; they thought in months.


    Bath sighed. He couldn¡¯t really blame the children for his bad mood. Their lifespans were so short: if they were like him and stuck in their ways already...that would be the equivalent of him having reached maturity in his millionth year. Just thinking of how he was back then compared to now made his mind race in fear.


    Just the thought of reversion, of being forced back to how he was before, terrified him.


    He shook his head. No, perhaps not his millionth year, maybe his hundred-millionth year. At least then he-


    ¡°Bath?¡±


    He look up at the teacher.


    ¡°Sorry, Ms. Avery, I was spacing out,¡± he replied honestly, showing the blush of embarrassment as norm dictated appropriate.


    Ms. Avery looked worried. ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    Bath was still in an irritated mood, and wanted to snap at her, but concealed his impatience. ¡°Yeah, I was just thinking about a book I was reading. Can you please repeat the question?¡±


    She nodded and smiled.


    Bath felt a feeling of intense relief when class finished. The inside of the classroom felt stuffy, the low ceilings emulating a cage. Were he in the form of a cave dweller, or insect, perhaps he''d feel more comfortable. He had already been stuck in this human form for 9 years, however, and felt acutely the claustrophobia that one form imposed on him. The classroom¡¯s cramped form seemed only to reinforce the feeling that he was trapped.


    He knew he wasn¡¯t really trapped, that he could take any form of his choosing at any time and go anywhere he wanted. This fact was daily on his mind.


    In fact...


    ¡®Why don¡¯t I change form?¡¯ Bath wondered to himself. His parents had stopped watching his every move years ago. He often had time alone. It should be easy enough for him to assume the form of a bird and feel the freedom of open air on his wings.


    Bath felt every bit the fool for failing to think of this before. Why had he ever decided that he had to stay as a human? Sure, he needed to keep up appearances of being a human, but he could take breaks.


    He was now sure that breaks in form would be necessary to ensure his sanity.


    Bath recognized his lack of ingenuity as a personal failure. When you lived as long as he did, when time passed as fast as it did, he very rarely pondered problems and their possible solutions. He just lived, every day followed by the next. Because he started out in a position where he was unable to change form, he had continued with an ¡°unable to change form¡± mindset for nearly a decade.


    The thought nearly soured his mood again.


    After breaking for lunch, Bath quickly found Lisa and met up with her. Their friend groups converged around Lisa. She was akin to a ball of light, drawing others into her magnificence. Or so Bath thought. He certainly felt her draw.


    While they ate their lunches, Lisa described what everybody would be doing during recess.


    ¡°Today, we are going to play football!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°I brought my foam football from home. The rules are as follows...¡±


    Bath smiled fondly while Lisa explained. He felt the instinctual urge to reward her for her charisma, for showing strength. He pushed this urge aside.


    Not my place, he thought to himself.


    Soon everybody was out playing in the field. Bath was much better at controlling his child body than he was years ago. He was well-aware of the strength an average human child should have, and ensured that he had just about the same amount.


    Perhaps a smidgen more.


    Bath and the other children lined up across from each other in two lines. As was typical, both he and Lisa were the two quarterbacks. No children at their age could really be good at throwing the ball¡ªbeing limited by a child¡¯s muscles while using Lisa¡¯s standard football¡ªbut he and Lisa were sufficient enough. Really, they were the leaders because they were the most competitive.


    Bath had never met anybody who hated to lose more than Lisa. Then again, his exposure to humans was laughably limited, but all the same.


    Both teams had already discussed strategy amongst themselves before the game began. All of the children had memorized a few major plays that they had all brainstormed together. This turned their frequent football matches into a game of strategy rather than just of luck or force.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Lisa¡¯s team started first.


    ¡°Hike!¡± she hollered at the top of her lungs while catching the ball. She stepped back, then pivoted her body left and threw the ball at one of her receivers. The girl caught the ball against her chest with a grunt and then started running towards the woodchips, the end zone on Bath¡¯s side of the field.


    ¡°Defense!¡± he called out calmly. He already had a solid strategy laid out for this kind of maneuver. This was one of Lisa¡¯s signature moves; whenever she had Kathy on her team, she took full advantage of the girl¡¯s excellent ability as a long-range wide-receiver. Kathy hardly ever dropped the ball.


    Her only weakness was that she was relatively slow.


    Roger quickly overtook her and tapped her shoulder. She stopped as soon as she was tapped and set the ball on the ground.


    One thing Bath could appreciate in children was their sense of honor.


    ¡°Nice play, Kathy, Roger,¡± he said, automatically affirming the behaviors of his two friends like he would the young of other animals.


    ¡°Thanks!¡± both replied with smiles.


    They continued to play through the recess period. In the end, Lisa won; Bath congratulated her with a severe handshake. Both of them kept straight faces for a full five seconds, then burst into raucous laughter.


    After recess, Bath only had thoughts of the sky under his wings.


    ??????????


    ¡°Honey, how was school?¡± Samantha asked.


    ¡°Fine,¡± Bath replied. ¡°We played football at recess again.¡±


    ¡°Did you learn anything interesting in class?¡±


    Bath thought for a moment. ¡°We learned some geography.¡±


    ¡°Oh, really? Of which region?¡±


    ¡°We learned about the Sahara desert.¡± Bath personally preferred the Sahara desert as it was in the past; he still remembered what the desert was like when it overflowed with lush vegetation. Not that Bath disliked deserts in general. Like all things, deserts in their desolation provided a balancing force. When he desired relative peace and tranquility, Earth¡¯s deserts provided.


    ¡°That¡¯s neat! What do you think of the wildlife?¡±


    ¡°Hmm...the sand cat is really adorable.¡±


    ¡°Is it now?¡±


    ¡°Yup,¡± Bath said, sitting down at the kitchen island for a snack.


    ¡°Do you want to check on Avery later?¡± Samantha asked. Avery was one-and-a-half years old, the McLanes'' second adopted child.


    Bath beamed. ¡°Sure!¡±


    After a snack, he went upstairs to Avery¡¯s crib where she had been taking a nap. She must have just woke up: she was playing with a toy in the corner of the crib and teething on a rattle.


    ¡°Avery,¡± Bath said clearly. She turned around and giggled.


    ¡°Brother!¡± Avery cried out. She stood up and lifted up her hands. Bath smiled and picked her up from the crib.


    ¡°How are you, Avery?¡±


    ¡°I good,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Did you take a nap?¡±


    ¡°Yah!¡± she giggled before hugging Bath¡¯s legs.


    ¡°You want to see something really neat?¡± he asked, feeling a bit daring.


    ¡°Yah!¡± she repeated, eyes wide with wonder. Bath looked around, then shut the blinds. Avery wouldn¡¯t remember anything until she was three or four, right?


    ¡°Okay,¡± he began, ¡°I''m going to lift you up using the air! You''re going to fly! Sound cool?¡±


    ¡°Fly! Fly! Aihpwane!¡±


    Bath put one hand behind his back, turning it a shadow-like black gray, and then projected it outward towards Avery. To her credit, she didn¡¯t scream, and only gave an exclamatory peep. Soon his former-hand spread out to encompass her body and gently lifted her into the air.


    ¡°You can steer by pointing your right finger,¡± Bath said. ¡°Where¡¯s your right finger? Can you wiggle it?¡±


    Avery answered the challenge by waggling her right finger as hard as she could, which wasn¡¯t very hard, but all the same...


    ¡°Okay, now point where you want to fly.¡±


    Avery immediately pointed right at the window.


    ¡°You''re taking after your brother,¡± Bath chuckled. ¡°No, Avery, not outside this room.¡±


    The girl began to point around the room and Bath dutifully elevated his shadowy, dispersed hand as required. After five minutes or so he saw the child growing tired and let her down. His hand quickly reformed behind his back.


    ¡°How was that?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Wow!¡± she drawled, putting her hands up as though trying to touch the stars. ¡°I fly!¡±


    ¡°Yes, you were flying,¡± Bath grinned.


    ¡°Can we go downstairs?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but you need to walk.¡± She was terribly slow at traversing stairs; Bath knew she needed the practice.


    ¡°Okay,¡± she sighed.


    Soon enough, Avery was with Samantha downstairs and Bath was back in his room. He gave a quick glance out the window to make sure nobody was outside. He then cracked the window open.


    Bath drew himself into his Center, feeling his mass condense and fold like a many-layered flower. He took on the form of a tiny gnat, flew to the window, crawled through the screen, and promptly flew over to one of the hedges in the front yard. There, he shifted into the form of a sparrow. At this point only a few seconds had passed. He quickly flitted into the air, flying up until he reached a height where onlookers below would see only a vague bird-shaped outline. Finally, he shifted form to a brown bird of prey¡ªhe didn¡¯t know its human name¡ªand soared through the sky.


    Today was a relatively fine day for flying. The thermals were abundant and allowed him to keep a consistently high height without exerting too much energy. He rejoiced in the superior vision of the bird and its power as it whipped through the sky like a razor.


    How had he gone nine years without this? The folly of those who get stuck in their ways...


    He realized that was one thing the humans had on him: the ability to change and think of new alternatives to current situations. For the first time since discovering the shrinking icebergs, he felt a tad of optimism: perhaps humans would be able to reverse the acceleration of the next extinction.


    When Bath returned home, he decided that he had a good enough idea of human limits. He didn¡¯t need to restrict himself unnecessarily just to fit in, so long as he could fake expectations well enough. He kept his enhanced vision and greatly enhanced his hearing and sense of smell. Each sense he could fine-tune when necessary, after all. Oh, how he missed the sense of power. The feeling of predatory rightness, of having a clear position and sense of purpose in nature.


    When Bath came down the stairs it was dinner time. Apparently, Samantha had been trying to find him a while back and was quite alarmed that he had gone missing.


    ¡°Bath, where were you!?¡± she glared, fury clear on her features. ¡°I thought you went missing!¡±


    ¡°Sorry mom, I was playing outside!¡±


    Her eyes narrowed in what Bath recognized as suspicion. He heard her heart rate increase even more than it already had.


    ¡°How did you come back inside?¡±


    Bath shrugged. ¡°I was really quiet, I guess.¡±


    Samantha put a hand to her forehead and sighed. Bath heard her heart rate begin to relax.


    ¡°Sorry for making you worry, Mom,¡± he said, his words dripping with concern. He did feel bad for making her worry, but not as bad as she likely thought he should. Remorse was a particularly potent human emotion, one he had never felt strongly in any other form. Even after assuming the form of a human for years, he still didn¡¯t fully understand it.


    ¡°Okay, honey, just don¡¯t scare me like that again.¡±


    Bath nodded, then dragged Avery over to the couch to read a picture book to her while Samantha finished preparing dinner.

 [Chapter 6] Loneliness

    Brian McLane was an huge basketball fan and enrolled Bath in basketball when he entered 6th grade. By now Avery was five-and-a-half and was Bath¡¯s greatest cheerleader, always watching while he practiced in the front yard. She was a bit young for the game¡ªher height and strength were sorely lacking¡ªbut Bath enjoyed playing with her all the same.


    Bath thought his father amusing. Brian seemed to think him a basketball prodigy, which was true, in a way. Bath didn¡¯t see the point in being second-best (except when Lisa was involved. He had made a firm rule for himself to keep the game challenging: no in-game shifting, and no enhancing his body beyond human limits. Bath always played well, but that was because he spent hours refining his technique every week. In particular, he found basketball interesting because he had never before needed to lob objects at a target: the skill was wholly novel.


    Bath knew Brian had a dreamy notion that Bath would play in the NBA, a conception that Bath tried to upset at every turn. The NBA wouldn¡¯t solve Global Warming.


    Over the past four years, Bath had grown steadily more concerned with the current state of the Earth¡¯s climate. Since he didn¡¯t need to sleep (though he could, and often did), Bath had snuck out frequently over the past years to investigate the melting of the ice caps in person. He never liked what he saw.


    He had started marking the glaciers with thick claw marks, keeping track of how many claw marks disappeared over time as the ice broke off into the ocean. Each time he checked the marks, he return home incredulous: how could so much ice just disappear?


    By the time Bath entered high school, his concern for the environment had already reached a near desperate peak. That was when he started to confide in his greatest friend.


    Bath had never confided in anyone¡ªor anything¡ªfor the entirety of his existence. He had never felt the need.


    Humanity is leaving me soft, he scoffed. But really, his desire to speak to someone nagged at him daily. It worried him: barely a decade and a half as a human, and he felt a need to speak to another about his problems.


    It doesn¡¯t just worry me...it terrifies me, Bath thought, shuddering. He had never thought of himself as opposed to change. After all, change was the essence of nature. But now, staring change in the face, Bath felt a sense of dread that sank into his bones. Perhaps the problem isn¡¯t change itself, but the time frame over which the change occurs, he mused.


    One day, when the two were hanging out at the local park shooting hoops, Bath asked her to come over to a shady tree.


    "Lisa, I want to talk to you about something." As he said those words, a sense of vulnerability came over him. It was one of the most uncomfortable, alien feelings he¡¯d ever felt. He wanted to end this feeling, to destroy everything and leave the park a splintered crater¡ª


    "Bath, I''m listening," she said softly, looking at him with soft, knowing eyes. Knowing? What did this tiny human child know?


    "You can tell me anything."


    And then, for some unknown reason¡ªperhaps for every reason¡ªBath began to cry. Of course, he dematerialized the tears as they welled up and manually calmed his heart rate, but these were all measures that failed to address the disquiet in his Center.


    In that moment, he wanted to kill Lisa. But he couldn¡¯t. And so he just looked at her, his face a blank mask.


    Lisa smiled and pulled him into a hug, then sat him down against the tree. She guided his head to her shoulder and rubbed his forearm with her hand. She remained silent, waiting for him to start.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "How do you know me so well?" he said softly. It was as though she had read his mind. Each one of her actions seemed staged.


    "Bath, we''ve always been together as long as I can remember," she replied, then swallowed. "I don¡¯t know anyone better than I know you.¡±


    Bath looked at her, moving his head from her shoulder. She reached out her hand and wiped his cheek, seeing past his fixed, stony expression.


    ¡°I¡¯m not crying,¡± he murmured.


    Lisa smiled. ¡°I know.¡±


    Bath sighed and turned away.


    "Lisa, I have something I want to tell you."


    "You can tell me anything."


    Bath cracked a smile. "Are you sure?" he trailed off, looking now to the horizon and the clouds. "You probably won¡¯t even believe me," he muttered, "but if I can¡¯t tell you, then..."


    "God, what is it? Are you a serial killer or something?" she wondered out loud, rolling her eyes.


    He locked eyes with her. "Lisa, you¡¯re the only real friend I''ve ever had.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s my line,¡± she said, voice insistent.


    Bath snorted. ¡°No, like, ever.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re the same age,¡± Lisa pointed out.


    ¡°No, we¡¯re not,¡± Bath replied. ¡°I¡¯m over five-hundred million years old.¡±


    Lisa showed no emotion as she took the information in. Bath took this as signal to continue.


    "That¡¯s it," he said. ¡°Don¡¯t you have anything to say?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean you¡¯re five-hundred million years old?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not human,¡± Bath added. ¡°That¡¯s what I mean.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re...an alien?¡± Lisa asked.


    Bath started. Actually...I probably am an alien lifeform. I certainly didn¡¯t naturally come into being on Earth.


    ¡°I guess,¡± Bath replied. ¡°That¡¯s a good way of thinking about it.¡±


    Lisa nodded. ¡°So why do you look like a human if you¡¯re really an alien?¡±


    Bath looked left and right. ¡°Watch.¡± He turned his hand into a snake, complete with flicking tongue and slitted eyes.


    Lisa jumped back and gasped. ¡°Holy crap,¡± she breathed. After Bath reverted his arm back to normal, her eyes snapped up to his once more. ¡°You were totally serious.¡±


    Bath nodded. ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Lisa said, nodding her head. ¡°Okay.¡±


    ¡°Why did I assume the form of a human?¡± he said, posing the rhetorical question in anticipation of her curiosity. ¡°To understand humans, and to understand that which threatens this world¡¯s natural order.¡±


    He sighed. ¡°And now, I''m talking to you because I feel lonely for the first time in my existence.¡± He laughed self-deprecatingly.


    He waited a full minute for her to reply.


    ¡°Lisa?¡±


    He reached out for her hand. She grabbed his palm quickly in her own and squeezed.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± she said brusquely, as though squeezing the air from her lungs. Bath had already lowered the power of his hearing; he didn¡¯t want to hear her reaction via heartbeat.


    ¡°For what?¡± he asked, taken aback.


    ¡°For trusting me,¡¯ she said, smiling, her eyes closed as she tilted her head. She pulled him into another hug and kissed his shoulder. ¡°What else do you have to say?¡±


    ¡°You should be terrified,¡± he said, grinning sardonically.


    She looked at him but didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± he whispered. "You honestly should be terrified. But don¡¯t fear me.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? Be terrified, but not afraid?¡±


    ¡°Think of God. The Christian God that we humans here worship.¡± Both his and Lisa¡¯s families believed in Christianity. ¡°God tells man to be terrified before his might.¡±


    ¡°But then He tells them, ¡®Do not be afraid.¡¯ This is what I mean. You should be terrified at the things I can do, but never afraid ¡®cause I¡¯m not going to hurt you.¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t God, Bath. But regardless of what you are, I¡¯m still your greatest friend.¡±


    Bath flinched, feeling something quiver in his heart. He felt his heart thump, felt the tips of his fingers go slightly numb. His stomach tightened.


    Is this was it means to feel undeserving?

 [Chapter 7] Forest

    ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Bath asked. He and Lisa were sitting at a local bubble tea place, sipping on a pair of milk teas. He thumped his legs against the red booth while he waited for her response.


    ¡°I still don¡¯t get it.¡±


    ¡°Get what?¡±


    She quirked a grin. ¡°Why are you bothering? To do this. It seems so...silly.¡±


    Bath was confused and waited for her to elaborate. He was silly?


    ¡°Why did you pretend to be a little kid?"


    His eyes glinted. ¡°Well, I told you that I wanted to understand humans.¡±


    ¡°If I remember correctly, you also talked about ¡®threatening the natural order¡¯ or something.¡± She frowned.


    Bath nodded. ¡°Humans have been ruining the environment of Earth,¡± he explained.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that bad,¡± Lisa retorted. ¡°Mrs. Graham says the Earth¡¯s temperature is only going to increase by a few degrees within the next few decades.¡±


    His gaze became dark. ¡°I don¡¯t think you understand. Even a few degrees is enough to ruin everything.¡±


    Lisa leaned back in the booth. ¡°Okay, fine, so assuming you¡¯re right. I still don¡¯t get why you became a human. How is that going to help anything?¡± She paused. ¡°Why are you really here?¡±


    Bath shrugged his shoulders while he took a sip of the milk tea.


    ¡°Here¡¯s as good as anywhere else.¡± He rubbed the bridge of his nose. ¡°Lisa, I told you about myself because I was lonely and didn¡¯t want to hide the truth from you. But I wish we could just¡ªact as we always have."


    She smirked. "That¡¯s a tall order, mister."


    Bath devilishly grinned back. ¡°Yeah, yeah. But for now, I don¡¯t want to discuss my past, and desire only to live in the present. Please?¡±


    ¡°Fine. So how did your basketball game go?¡±


    ¡°It went well, as usual,¡± he chortled.


    ¡°Wait...do you cheat? With, like, everything?¡± Her face was red.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s hard to do anything ¡®human¡¯ without cheating, but in general I keep myself within the limits of human strength and endurance. There¡¯s a reason why I practice basketball every week instead of just relying on ¡®superior¡¯ natural ability.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense, I guess...¡± she trailed off. ¡°What exactly are your powers, anyways? You didn¡¯t really say, but I guess shapeshifting is one of them."


    Powers? I¡¯m not a superhero.


    ¡°Lisa...¡±


    ¡°Right, sorry. You''ll tell me when you''re ready, I guess.¡±


    He put his hand and her arm and smiled. ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, no prob.¡±


    ??????????


    A week passed.


    Lisa hadn¡¯t asked Bath about anything regarding what he had told her. She kept up a perfect front of nonchalance, joking with him, collaborating with him on homework, and hanging out with both him and their other friends.


    He knew, however, that she must be insatiably curious.


    ¡°Hey,¡± he said. They were walking home from school together, Lisa just ahead of him on the sidewalk.


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°You wanted to see my ability again, right?¡±


    She turned around, her eyes wide. She looked as though strangled. ¡°You have to ask!?¡±


    Bath laughed. ¡°I know, I know. Er, you know that movie you really like?¡±


    She gave him a blank look. ¡°Bath, you know I love movies. Which one?¡±


    ¡°The one with the girl and the wolf and stuff. Mono-something.¡±


    Her eyes lit up. ¡°Princess Mononoke! What about it?¡±


    ¡°Well...¡± Bath wondered if this was a good idea after all. ¡°Let¡¯s walk to the forest preserve first.¡± Their suburb had a small forested area that bordered the nearest highway. It was a little far, but Lisa had never been one to shy away from a small inconvenience.


    She gave him a searching look. ¡°Okay, lead on.¡±


    ??????????


    Soon they arrived at the forest preserve. Bath led her onto the main path and directed her towards an area thick with trees. The forest was dark with foliage and wisps of fog, granting it a somewhat ominous appearance.


    Bath didn¡¯t notice that Lisa seemed a bit nervous.


    ¡°Bath, this place is kind of creepy,¡± she chuckled nervously.


    ¡°Creepy? It¡¯s just a forest. Trees, birds, bugs, the works. Nothing here can hurt you. This close to the highway you''d be hard-pressed to find anything bigger than a squirrel.¡±


    ¡°Fine. Remind me, what does this have to do with Princess Mononoke and your ability?¡±


    ¡°Just wait a second,¡± Bath said. He led her into a tiny clearing in the trees where the two of them could stand without brushing up against branches.


    He stopped and looked at her, then down at his clothing. ¡°Er, I don¡¯t really want to make you pick up my clothes...could you just wait here a moment?¡±


    ¡°Okay, whatever you need,¡± Lisa said patiently.


    ¡°Thanks.¡± He walked a bit further into the forest. Then, in the interest of time, shrank down to the form of an insect, flew a foot away, then shifted back and placed the clothes in his backpack. With his bird¡¯s eyes, he could see Lisa fidgeting in the clearing and heard her heart beat a bit faster than usual. She was nervous.


    Bath then shifted into the form of an enormous white wolf. He kept extra muscles in the muzzle, lips, and tongue to allow him to vocalize human sounds. He also kept his human voice box so that he¡¯d sound the same.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Lisa," he called out, his voice a bit whistley where the wind blew through his teeth. He also had a bit of a lisp due to the tongue. He fixed the latter problem by shortening and thickening the muscle.


    ¡°Bath? You coming?¡±


    At that moment, he trotted into the clearing with his backpack straps snug between his jaws. He gave her his best wolf¡¯s grin.


    Lisa looked at him speechless, her mouth in disbelieving rictus. ¡°You¡ªwow.¡±


    ¡°You asked about how this relates to Princess Mononoke. What does Mononoke do with the wolf?¡±


    ¡°She rides it.¡±


    Bath raised an eyebrow, though he didn¡¯t think that Lisa noticed. ¡°Want to hop on?¡±


    ¡°Seriously?¡± She ran over to him and ran her hands across his fur. ¡°Is wolf fur really this soft?¡± she asked, peering up at him.


    ¡°No,¡± Bath replied honestly. ¡°This is more like rabbit fur. I thought you might prefer that for riding.¡±


    ¡°Are wolves even meant for riding?¡± she inquired while she started to hop onto his back.


    ¡°Well, no, but I''ve made necessary adjustments.¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± Soon enough she was nestled onto his back, her legs falling gently on either side of his ribs.


    ¡°Are you comfortable?¡± he asked, unable to discern anything conclusive from her elevated heartbeat and nervous scent.


    ¡°Uh, yes,¡± she replied quickly. ¡°What if someone sees us¡± she hissed softly, eyes searching the forest for prying eyes.


    ¡°They won¡¯t. Trust my ability to keep us hidden. Now, princess, shall we go for a walk?¡±


    She tugged on one of his ears. ¡°This is so weird. You''ve never done anything like this before, huh?¡±


    ¡°No. I''ve always kept my distance from humans.¡± Not that he was going to explain why. He didn¡¯t think Lisa would look charitably upon his motivation, namely that humans were worth more trouble than their taste. Now that he knew humans had weapons of mass destruction, he was doubly certain that ignoring them had been the best call. He had no doubts that a big-enough bomb would¡ª


    Well, he didn¡¯t actually know what a large bomb would do. He wouldn¡¯t die¡ªif a giant flaming space-rock didn¡¯t kill him, he didn¡¯t know what would¡ªbut what if he were vaporized?


    ¡°You''re going a bit fast,¡± Lisa¡¯s voice cried out nervously. Was he?


    ¡°Sorry, just tug on my ears if it happens again,¡± he instructed as he adjusted his loping gait to a brusque walk. He felt his muscles shift familiarly over bone. The stability of four limbs combined with their preternatural strength satisfied his desire for speed and precise handling. Even in the rugged forest, he could twist his body by pivoting his legs and feet along with his body to avoid grasping foliage.


    He felt a tug at his ear and stopped.


    ¡°Sorry, my hair¡¯s stuck¡ª¡± Lisa grunted; Bath felt her pivot on his back, felt her center of gravity shift as she yanked a strand of hair from a broken branch. ¡°There. Man, this isn¡¯t quite what I expected,¡± she admitted.


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°This place has way too many trees. I feel like I''m constantly dodging twigs instead of enjoying the singularly novel experience of wolf-riding.¡±


    Bath cocked his head. ¡°We can go somewhere else, but everything nearby is too conspicuous. When we can drive maybe we can go somewhere without a lot of people and lots of open spaces. When that happens, you''ll have more than a challenge staying on. Just wait for me to run,¡± he cautioned, his wolf¡¯s face turned up in a toothy grin.


    ¡°Sounds terrifying,¡± Lisa spat dryly.


    ¡°I know you''ll love it,¡± Bath keened.


    "Obviously," Lisa huffed dismissively.


    They trotted around the forest for a while longer before looping back around to the clearing just before the main path. Bath crouched down to allow Lisa space to dismount, then grabbed the backpack he had left behind and loped into the brush. He came back a moment later.


    ¡°Ready to head out?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go.¡±


    ??????????


    ¡°What do you do when you aren¡¯t around people?¡± Lisa asked. The two were studying in Lisa¡¯s living room. Bath was curled up on a couch, a pencil tapping rhythmically against a textbook and sheet of paper. Lisa was at a nearby table tackling a worksheet.


    Bath glanced up. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You heard me.¡±


    ¡°What do I do when I''m not around people?¡± Bath thought over the question. ¡°Sleep?¡±


    ¡°Grah!¡± Lisa exclaimed. ¡°No, no, no. I mean, what do you do,¡± she said pointedly, emphasizing the ¡®do,¡¯ ¡°when you don¡¯t have to keep up appearances?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, usually I''m too lazy to care,¡± Bath replied honestly. ¡°You know Newton¡¯s Laws,¡± he joked, referring to Lisa¡¯s current homework: Freshman year physics, a tragedy in the eyes of their fellow high school students.


    She raised an eyebrow. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°An object in motion, stays in motion,¡± Bath vocalized sagely. ¡°I usually just stay like this. I might make minor changes, but for the most part...¡± he shrugged. ¡°Sometimes I become a bird,¡± he said suddenly. ¡°I think you can guess for yourself why.¡±


    ¡°I bet it''d be amazing to fly,¡± Lisa sighed wistfully.


    ¡°Yes; it really is. Jealous?¡± he teased.


    She threw an eraser at his head. As usual, her aim was perfect.


    ¡°Ow!¡± he whined in mock pain. ¡°Didn¡¯t your parents teach you manners?¡±


    ¡°Could you take me flying?¡±


    ¡°What? Flying?¡±


    ¡°Could you?¡± She looked at him eagerly.


    Bath thought about it and reclined against the couch.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not...¡± He squirmed in his seat. Taking Lisa on treks through the forest was one thing; flying with her in the air was another thing entirely. ¡°I just don¡¯t know where we''d find a place free from observing eyes.¡±


    ¡°My family owns a beach front property on the ocean. We could go there; it isn¡¯t very crowded since April is relatively chilly.¡±


    ¡°Lisa,¡± Bath started incredulously, ¡°¡®isn¡¯t very crowded¡¯ isn¡¯t quite good enough.¡±


    ¡°I''ve never seen a person there during April,¡± Lisa retorted.


    ¡°How many times have you even been there in April?¡± he said, smirking.


    "...Twice," Lisa admitted. ¡°But still, I think there¡¯s a good chance we can find a stretch of land free from onlookers.¡±


    ¡°Lisa...¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you just give it a chance? My family was planning to meet down there anyway in a week or two. Since you''re my best friend, they wouldn¡¯t think twice if I asked you to tag along.¡±


    ¡°Lisa, must I of all entities be the one to remind you of social norms? You''d effectively be asking a guy to sleep over.¡±


    Lisa waved a hand dismissively. ¡°They know you. Stop coming up with excuses. Don¡¯t you want to go to the beach? Worst comes to worst, instead of flying, I can pull on my wetsuit and hitch a ride on you in the water.¡±


    Bath¡¯s mouth quirked up into a smile. ¡°You''ve put some thought into this.¡± He said this as a statement of fact, then looked out the bay windows behind him. ¡°Hah. If you''re really dead-set on this, then sure.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s face broke out into her signature closed-eyes grin. ¡°You''re the best! And don¡¯t act so reluctant. I bet you love showing off.¡±


    ¡°Why would I bother showing off to you?¡±


    This time the eraser hit his eye.


    ¡°Dumbass,¡± Lisa grumbled mischievously. ¡°I know you. Mister can¡¯t-lose-at-anything.¡± Lisa broke out into laughter a moment later. ¡°You''re doing the thing!¡± she guffawed.


    ¡°What?¡± Bath hissed.


    ¡°When you''re uncomfortable. You lean your head back, angling your chin up a bit. And then you look at some random corner of the room.¡±


    Bath groaned. ¡°Why do you always point that out?¡±


    ¡°Because..." Lisa ¡°ocked her head to the side. ¡°It¡¯s just so you.¡± She put a finger to her chin while she pondered her response. ¡°People don¡¯t usually do that. It¡¯s one of your alien tells,¡± she snarked.


    ¡°Psh, whatever you say.¡±


    ¡°Awe, don¡¯t be angry,¡± Lisa teased. ¡°It¡¯s cute.¡±


    ¡°I''m not cute,¡± Bath grumbled indignantly. ¡°I should tell you about some of the things I''ve done just because I could. Cute my ass...Would you call a ferocious tiger cute?¡±


    ¡°Yep,¡± she said without missing a beat. ¡°They¡¯re so fuzzy!¡±


    Bath rolled his eyes. ¡°Have you ever seen a tiger dismember its prey?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask questions you already know the answer to! We both know where this train of thought is going. Cute has nothing to do with actions and everything to do with external appearances. You could show me a picture of an adorable little five-year-old girl, tell me she¡¯s an ax-murderer, and I''d still have to objectively assert that she¡¯s cute.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re impossible.¡±


    ¡°Haha, you''re just a stick in the mud.¡±


    ¡°Keep calling me cute and I''ll only shift into the ugliest creatures I can think of,¡± Bath threatened.


    ¡°No!¡± Lisa gasped in mock horror. ¡°Not ugly creatures! You know, humans actually find ugly animals incredibly endearing...¡±


    Bath disabled his hearing and dug his head into the textbook.

 [Chapter 8] Plans

    Bath angled his wings against the wind to gain altitude, reveling in the pressure pushing up against his body. He pulled on his Center, increasing his density while shooting mass particles out behind him for propulsion. They naturally disintegrated and returned to his Center when he went far enough away, a few miles or so.


    He didn¡¯t have a clear destination in mind. No: Now, he was simply surveying the ground beneath him. This domain, all that was his, all that was the humans¡¯.


    He had been indecisive about the best course to take for the past few years.


    Global Warming had only continued to escalate. Spring was unusually warm, and tropical storms across the world were more severe than they had been in hundreds of years. As Bath flew over the West Coast, he saw scorched ravines and an active forest fire.


    Already, the weather was careening out of control. As Bath flew over the Earth, he couldn¡¯t help but feel out of place as he observed how humanity had indelibly altered each area underwing. This was an age of man, no longer an age of beasts.


    A paradigm shift in every sense of the word.


    He was frustrated. Part of him wanted to destroy humans before they could destroy themselves, if only to punish the species¡¯ arrogance. Another part of him wanted to seize control of the planet and protect humanity, force humans to take the actions necessary for Earth¡¯s imminent salvation.


    Bath knew now about the different forms of human government. The one that most appealed to him, as it was the way he had always related himself to the world around him, was monarchy. Not the kind of monarchy beholden to a council or a set of lords making policy, but the kind of monarchy that ruled with dictatorial iron.


    Bath didn¡¯t presume to know all the answers. He knew for a fact that his problem-solving ability was sub-par to that of humanity¡¯s brightest, if only because of his inability to think of time on a short-term scale.


    What he was certain of was his ability to force humanity to unite. Uniting against a common enemy was a common trope in apocalypse films, after all. Whether that enemy be nature, another group of humans, or aliens, it didn¡¯t seem to matter.


    Perhaps some time in the future, Bath sighed as he streaked across the clouds, particles blasting behind him in a vaguely purple burst against the sky¡¯s sapphire. Perhaps I may need to become the enemy that humanity now lacks.


    He still wasn¡¯t convinced that "Common Enemy" was the only¡ªor best¡ªstrategy to force human cooperation. In his time with humans, with his family, with his schoolmates...with Lisa...he had begun to realize that he would prefer not killing humans if given the choice.


    Lisa. He didn¡¯t know what to do with regards to Lisa. He was thankful that she had listened to him, and still decided to stand by him. But she really didn¡¯t know much about him.


    She knew everything about the human him¡ªthe Bath that lived in a suburb of the United States¡¯ capital, who played basketball, who enjoyed school and was popular enough to get by. She knew him well enough to trust him to fly her into the sky.


    What she knew wasn¡¯t false, per se, but a facade. It was better than her thinking he was a normal human, but it wasn¡¯t fully satisfying his increasing desire to be known.


    Bath angled himself so that he followed the coastline down South, looping down around a foggy bay that could only be San Francisco.


    He tried to understand what held him back from telling Lisa more about his past. He didn¡¯t feel shame for anything that he had done; the emotion was still foreign to him. Apex predators didn¡¯t feel shame; any regret was transient and soon forgotten. They did as their whims drove them.


    Bath hesitated as he shot forward. Humans, too, did as their whims drove them. Yet they still felt shame and remorse. Why, if humans could feel these emotions, did they destroy endlessly? Was it ignorance? Did they not know that which they did?The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Perhaps it is insanity, Bath calculated darkly.


    ??????????


    Bath remembered how things had been years past. Sometime less than one-thousand years ago, he had staked out a territory covering most of Europe, though primarily situated in the Swiss Alps. The area was relatively remote, though resplendent in its beauty. The alps reminded him of a different set of volcanic mountains from millions of years past.


    He hadn¡¯t been very conspicuous during that period of time. Some days, he would stand on the tips of the peaks, his form stretching for a hundred feet or more, his wings arching across the clouds in a rainbow of reflective iridescence. That form was one of his favorites: mammalian with avian additions, such as feathers and hollow bones.


    Some days he would be bored, or hungry, and he would venture out to collect the tithe of his territory¡¯s inhabitants. Often, they paid with their lives rather than their livestock. Not that he really wanted their livestock, but prey sitting out in the open like sitting ducks was just begging to be eaten.


    Oh, the pitiful humans. They built stone structures, readied catapults, weaved fantastic tales to inspire heroics, all for naught. Back then, Bath hadn¡¯t even realized that they were actually trying to fight him. The concept was so foreign¡ªthat a species could be so instinctually barren so as not to realize the futility of resistance against limitless might¡ªthat it hadn¡¯t occurred to him.


    He thought that they were sending off their most magnificent humans, clad in metal like shiny tinsel, for his sake. They were like toy soldiers marching in organized lines, trotting on their fierce destriers. A worthy tribute.


    That they feigned resistance only sweetened their offering. He would first descend from the sky with a shriek that literally cracked the Earth with its magnitude. They would clutch their heads; sometimes blood would pool from their ears, he would smell it. He would hear their hearts pick up, racing faster and faster.


    Intoxicating.


    He would reach the ground with an earth-shaking smash, sending up a column of dust that only rose high enough to obscure his legs. His neck would arch into the sky like a crescent moon, shining brighter than all their metal armor combined.


    He would fix his eyes upon them, would watch them as they realized their time had come to a close. He would smell their cowardice as they realized their role as prey, their shit and piss as they quivered in place.


    There would always be a brave a thirty-percent or so who ran straight toward his mouth, charging with halberds extended. He would lower himself down to the ground, his chest nearly brushing against the grass beneath, and would stare them directly in the face, his maw opening as they approached, baring each one of his preternaturally sharp fangs.


    Sometimes they would throw fire at him. He would exhale, blowing a funnel of wind in their direction. The flames would envelopthe humans instead, expanding out into a blaze as Bath fanned them with his pearlescent wings.


    Bath enjoyed their games; the ingenuity on the humans¡¯ side was fresh. With other species, the game never changed. The prey never learned, or at least never fast enough.


    These humans, they tried to give him a fight. Perhaps that was the greatest tribute of all.


    ??????????


    Bath returned home and sat on his bed. He ran a hand through his hair as he sighed. He noted that he seemed to be sighing a lot lately, likely in correlation with his indecisive mood.


    He needed to choose a course of action. Flying around and playing boy with Lisa was never going to complete his objective.


    Bath voiced his primary ask: ¡°What is the biggest man-made obstacle to environmental protection?¡±


    Probably oil lobbyists, Bath concluded.


    ¡°How did you stop oil lobbyists?¡±


    Besides killing them all off, Bath stipulated grudgingly. He tilted his head.


    ¡°How do you stop a politician?¡± he intoned slowly, broadening the question. Probably with more politicians. He didn¡¯t know much about politics other than what he read in the news or online.


    Think. How do you destroy chains of intent? At their source. Where is the source of political intent? Those who seek to gain. Who seeks to gain? Oil shareholders.


    Bath growled in frustration, the sound inhumanly low and menacing, like the rumbling of thunder. This line of reasoning wasn¡¯t helping at all; he had no ability to influence the stock market.


    There is another angle. Bath cocked his head in contemplation. What if I just attacked the natural resource itself? An oil deposit.


    Bath didn¡¯t like this idea by virtue of its ineffectiveness. He needed to change the mindsets of people who got rich off of oil, not give them reason to increase their security.


    What if common people became afraid of using oil? Of using gas? Bath mused. That was one way to cut off demand.


    ¡°Hmm. This might be difficult to accomplish, but let¡¯s see what I can do.¡±

 [Chapter 9] Pipes

    Bath knew his long-range manipulation range to be about three and a half miles: this was the distance that he could project parts of his body out before they would naturally disintegrate and return to his Center.


    A fairly workable distance, Bath noted. He had recently begun working on improving his long-range manipulation, and realized that there was a lot of progress to be made. The only requirement for control be that he have some kind of ambiguous physical connection to the objects he was projecting, but this was trivial considering his ability to control his own partially dematerialized mass.


    Practicing long-range manipulation didn¡¯t make the ability stronger; rather, it increased his ability to make delicate maneuvers and move his particles quickly. This was important considering that he needed to move them fast enough to fly into into the exhaust pipes of cars on the interstate.


    He wanted to rapid-fire release and manipulate hundreds of particles in the span of seconds, a goal currently at the limits of his ability. As he planned his day of action on paper, Bath worked on sending out and reclaiming as many particles as possible in an attempt to make the action second-nature.


    He found that control the particles was taking up an obnoxiously large amount of his concentration. Bath considered himself an impatient creature, though that was mostly because of his warped sense of time. Relative to any human, Bath had patience in droves. But already three weeks had passed and the gains from constantly manipulating his essence at range were only minimal.


    Bath sighed. Was he going about this the wrong way? He wanted to wage psychological warfare rather than a physical war. He wanted people with specifically gas cars to fear driving. He didn¡¯t want to force humans off the roads: He wanted them to purchase electric cars.


    He had schemed that the best way to destroy the engine of a gas car was bleach. If Bath could somehow manage to fill cars up with bleach, the idea was that they would stall and become nonfunctional. He came up with the idea to use a rapidly-moving particle from his own body that would have space at its center for a pool of bleach. The particle would fly into the car through the exhaust pipe and then disintegrate naturally to ash in the heat of the engine, leaving behind the bleach to wreak havoc.


    Bath didn¡¯t feel confident in his ability to execute the plan at all. He''d assumed that he would be able to easily control hundreds of particles at high speeds and send them into cars moving at over sixty mph on the highway. Bath almost never encountered challenges that exceeded his abilities¡ªafter all, he could destroy a highway full of cars in a heartbeat¡ªbut this plan of subterfuge was growing more unlikely by the day.


    Bath knew he needed to think of another way to shut down gasoline cars while sparing other kinds of vehicles. Perhaps...something to do with the exhaust itself? It stood to reason that gasoline cars and electric cars had different kinds of exhaust fumes. In fact, he could try to target CO2 itself, the infamous greenhouse gas.


    Except when he looked up CO2 online, not only did he find CO2 was near impossible to combust, he discovered that it was even used as a fire extinguisher.


    ¡°Seriously?¡± he muttered to himself. This whole brainstorming-tactician thing was a real bust.


    Bath knew he must be missing something that would provide a key to the muddled puzzle that was car sabotage. As he continued his long-range manipulation exercise, a thought occurred to him.


    Can I feel the difference between cars based on their undersides? He promptly looked up pictures of gas-based and electric-based car undersides online. Nope.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Wait.¡± Bath thought about his original plan, then this new plan, and connected them together. ¡°How...¡± Did. I. Miss this!?


    Bath groaned out loud. No need to complicate things, simple plans are better, whatever. He knew all of this. And yet he had failed utterly in utilizing that foresight in the brainstorming process.


    What did gas cars have that electric cars didn¡¯t?


    ¡°A fricking exhaust pipe,¡± Bath snarled. It was trivial to differentiate between cars with and without exhaust pipes. ¡°Why was I set on stopping gas cars from the inside? Why didn¡¯t I even think to just identify them and, for lack of a better wording...destroy them utterly?¡±


    Bath wondered how he was so terrible at thinking of plans. Was it that he didn¡¯t make plans often enough? But that wasn¡¯t an excuse: He''d devoured enough humans by now that he should have the mental capabilities of at least one genius-level human, if statistics were anything to go by. Unless the humans of the Middle Ages were simply stupider than the ones today, though Bath didn¡¯t think that speculation held weight.


    He still didn¡¯t quite understand the mechanics of intelligence with respect to his shapeshifting. His ability to think with human-like awareness had developed slowly over time with mammals like the ancestors of dolphins, humans, elephants, and pigs. Those developments had largely been over the past few millions of years.


    In some ways, Bath longed for a time when things had been simpler. Back when the smartest predators thought of little else than their territory and offspring. He didn¡¯t miss the days predating the move to land, for the oceans back then had been utterly unforgiving and bleak. Even a creature such as himself who reveled in destruction was happy to escape such a time. Roaming the oceans in a constant state of violence for millions of years...and all because his primitive mind had known no other alternative...it was pitiable.


    Bath rubbed his hands against his eyes and cheeks, then stretched out his arms and shoulders. He stopped his long-range manipulation exercise and looked out his window at the car in the family driveway.


    ¡°How can I wreck you without causing damage to your riders?¡± he pondered. Of course, he recognized that any plan he enacted on the roads would almost certainly result in human deaths, but it was a necessary sacrifice.


    He thought of a few different ideas, and then decided once again that simpler was better. His solution was a bit nicer than he originally intended¡ªthe damage done could be repaired by a mechanic at an auto shop¡ªbut more than sufficient to make gas-car-drivers think twice about driving out in the morning.


    ??????????


    ¡°Did you hear what happened about on I-295?¡± Kathy gushed while the group of friends sat down in the common area before the start of classes.


    ¡°No,¡± everyone replied questioningly. Kathy¡¯s eyes lit up.


    ¡°Well, according to my dad, who just called me a few minutes ago, nearly all the cars on I-295 were caught in this crazy traffic jam to end all traffic jams.¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡± Lisa gasped.


    ¡°Nobody knows! That¡¯s just it. Apparently, the mufflers of nearly every car on the interstate were ripped off over the course of a few minutes! And by ripped off¡ª¡± she paused for effect¡ª ¡°I mean that the mufflers were torn off cars with a serious amount of force. Going as fast as cars on the interstate are, a muffler falling off is extremely dangerous.¡±


    ¡°You said nearly all the cars had their mufflers ripped off. Was there anything special about the excepted cars?¡± Bath asked. His entire plan hinged on humans figuring out that electric cars had been spared.


    Kathy shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s too early to tell. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll all hear about it if they figure anything out. This kind of terrorist attack is unprecedented!¡±


    ¡°What are you smiling about?¡± Lisa asked.


    Bath gave her an easygoing expression. ¡°I¡¯m just...¡± he searched for words to mollify her. ¡°Enjoying this little mystery. Conspiracy stuff like this never seems to come to D.C.,¡± he defended.


    I''m going to have to wait a bit longer to see how the media is interpreting this, Bath reasoned silently while listening to everyone discuss ways to defend themselves against car-wrecking terrorists. He found it at once laughable, and a bit sad, that they thought they¡¯d be able to deal with any such scenario.


    ¡°Do you think the terrorist is American?¡± Ben, another one of the friends, asked, worry etched into his athletic face. ¡°Already four people have died from traffic accidents this morning. The guy who did this¡ªhowever they did it¡ªis one hell of a monster.¡±


    They were all quiet for a moment.


    ¡°Well,¡± began Lisa, ever one to boost morale, ¡°I don¡¯t know enough yet. But, whoever this is, he¡¯s obviously going to be caught. You don¡¯t sabotage that many vehicles without leaving a trace like hair or fingerprints. We''ll see soon enough.¡±

 [Chapter 10] Concert

    Throughout the day, more and more conversations revolved around the rather catastrophic incident on I-295. Thousands of cars rested on the highway even now, forming a temporary roadblock to all who wanted to use the interstate. Nine people had died because they lost control of their vehicles, while over a thousand sustained injuries from collisions.


    When a car¡¯s muffler falls off, it drags behind the car. The car makes an absurd amount of noise and any driver would know immediately to get their car home or to a mechanic. Even so, the car is perfectly functional.


    When Bath ripped off each car¡¯s exhaust pipe, he didn¡¯t just take off the muffler as news sources has first reported. Bath had savaged the underside of each car by twisting the exhaust pipe and ripping outward, tearing the metal bordering the car¡¯s engine. The twist-rip technique was incredibly effective: Bath had used the motion to tear animals to pieces for millions of years now. It had been a favorite technique of his since its appearance in the great migration to land, when reptilian predators dominated the continent.


    He listened attentively to the first few conversations about the incident, curious about people¡¯s opinions on his maneuver. But, he soon found that they were all grossly uninformed. Even though it was now mid afternoon, nobody had reported the fact that electric cars were left unscathed. Bath knew I-295 had electric cars¡ªhe had seen them himself!¡ªand was a bit annoyed that none of the electric car owners had spoken to news services about their cars been unscathed.


    Now, instead of listening to people speak ominously about future attacks to come over lunch, Bath¡¯s thoughts wandered to last weekend, when Lisa had brought him down to her family¡¯s lakehouse.


    Bath had seen lake houses before, though he had never visited or stayed at one. Lake houses had a vast range of aesthetic: some were little more than log cabins, while others were flamboyant mansions. Lisa¡¯s was definitely closer to the flamboyant mansion side of the scale, though the lakehouse wasn¡¯t excessively decadent. It was brick with white siding, and sat atop a small hill. There was a dock about half a mile away that lead off into the Pacific; two small boats bobbed on the water off to the side, tethered in place. Two jet skis were parked off the right side of the dock, though the water was far too chilly this time of year for jet skiing.


    ¡°Welcome to the lake house!¡± Lisa had exclaimed as they exited her parents'' black Mercedes. The car ride itself had been rather long, though Lisa¡¯s parents filled the space with idle banter. Lisa had slept most of the way there, and since Bath didn¡¯t really need to sleep, he had spent much of the car ride looking out the window. Part of the car ride snaked through the Smoky Mountains, a range that Bath had never spent much time exploring. Seeing the vast fog pool off the trees was eerily beautiful.


    Lisa rushed ahead of her parents to enter the house, Bath following in tow. They carried their bags to the second floor and then split up, Lisa directing Bath to his own guest room. After he unpacked, Bath sat on the bed and sent out tiny tendrils of essence from his Center as an exercise in long-range control to map out the house. In a minute, largely due to the house having a good ventilation system, Bath had a general idea of where most rooms were in the house.


    He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he recalled the strange room he had detected underneath the basement floor of the lake house. To his knowledge, a floor even further underneath a typical basement should be in violation of building codes. The size of the room, on top of everything else, was incredibly peculiar: a large rectangle that expanded backward to below the road.


    He hadn¡¯t been able to determine what the room was because it was just so weird. He sent out his tendrils to cover every surface of the room, only to find smooth surfaces devoid of decoration. No tables, no furniture, nothing.


    Bath wasn¡¯t naive enough to believe someone would illegally construct an enormous room underneath their lakehouse and leave it empty.


    But, he didn¡¯t know how to bring up the room without revealing how he knew about it. He considered asking Lisa, but he figured she couldn¡¯t know anything about it. She wasn¡¯t the one who built the lakehouse, nor did she spend any appreciable time in it. Her parents might know, but who Bath really wanted to interrogate were Lisa¡¯s aunt and uncle.


    The couple had built the lakehouse around twenty years ago, snagging the lakefront lot for, Bath was told, a bargain price. The couple was currently living in the lakehouse, having already returned from their Florida condo in anticipation of Spring. Bath met them when he went down to the kitchen to meet Lisa after unpacking.


    ¡°Ah, this must be Bath!¡± they exclaimed as he entered a parlor room connected to the kitchen in an open floor plan. Bath could see now that Lisa still hadn¡¯t finished unpacking and freshening up. Bath grumbled internally: how long did it take for her to get ready? He''d even spent several minutes scoping out the house and he''d still beaten her to the kitchen!


    ¡°Hello,¡± Bath said calmly. He hated meeting new people when he didn¡¯t know anything about them.


    ¡°Lisa has told us so much about you!¡± the woman exclaimed, coming over to him with a cheerful smile on her face. Her heartbeat, though, seemed a bit rushed, as though she were nervous.


    ¡°Oh really? Like what?¡± Bath was genuinely curious. He didn¡¯t often meet people who only knew Lisa; most people she knew, he knew. Such was the reality of growing up with a friend.


    ¡°Well,¡± the woman began; the man stayed silent, a smile working its way across his features. ¡°She alleges you''re as good at basketball as she is.¡±


    Bath nodded. Perhaps some male humans would be insulted by such a statement, but Bath knew Lisa was an absolute monster at basketball. She had the instinct for it, the aggression. He was good at basketball because he was good at everything. Lisa was good at basketball because she was gifted.


    ¡°She would say that. If I play against her, I win seven of ten games. If I wasn¡¯t taller than her, she''d be winning every game, no doubt.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°That¡¯s our Lisa,¡± the woman chuckled. ¡°I''m Lauretta, by the way. I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t introduce myself. This here is Bern, my husband.¡± Bern gave a wave.Lauretta focused her attention on Bath, then said, ¡°Lisa said that you''re also one of the top students in school.¡±


    Bath didn¡¯t really know what kind of etiquette this was, but their behavior felt odd, out of place. His instincts fired off warning signs. Not warning of danger, necessarily, but of scheming and plans. A very human-nature-informed warning sign.


    Something clicked into place. He did recognize this kind of behavior after all.


    ¡°Do you think I''m Lisa¡¯s boyfriend?¡± he asked them wryly. He was almost certain that they knew he was just a friend, yet their questions were too appraising to pose to a mere friend of their niece.


    Lauretta laughed. ¡°Oh, honey, we know you''re just friends. We just want to know more about you.¡± Bath¡¯s suspicions were in no sense quelled, but he decided to take the words at face value for the sake of politeness. He was a guest, after all.


    ¡°Then in response to what you said before: I¡¯m a good student, though Lisa would be our class¡¯s Valedictorian if we were all to graduate today.¡±


    ¡°Lisa is the paragon of our family,¡± the man, Bern, noted, finally breaking his silence. ¡°We don¡¯t have any children of our own, so we like to think of Lisa as the daughter we never had.¡± Bath sensed that the couple had tried and failed to have children, so he didn¡¯t press them for details. He was at least that socially competent.


    ¡°She is undoubtedly the most interesting person I have ever met,¡± Bath added. "She isn¡¯t afraid of anything.¡± He suddenly realized he was looking at a painting on the wall instead of the couple, something he knew to be rude in polite company. Eye contact was important amongst humans. He looked up at them and realized that they were giving him puzzled expressions.


    So he elaborated: ¡°You both should caution her more,¡± Bath warned playfully. ¡°Her parents let her do whatever she wants. Thankfully for them, Lisa¡¯s too smart to try cliff diving or something reckless like that, but really, she¡¯s willing to do anything.¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡± Lauretta pressed, her face surprised and engaged. Bath felt like a seal facing off against a great white shark as he sensed the woman¡¯s ravenous interest in her pseudo-daughter¡¯s life. Lisa must not tell them much; she was a fairly tight-lipped person when it came to adults, so Bath wasn¡¯t exactly surprised.


    ¡°Hmm,¡± he intoned while he drudged up some innocuous memory that would please the woman¡¯s curiosity. ¡°Well, for instance, less than year back, Lisa and I went to a huge concert. Even I can¡¯t believe what happened, and I was there.¡±


    Their eyes widened; they were hooked. Bath suppressed a smirk. Humans and their social games.


    ¡°Lisa and I were separated at the beginning of the concert because the crowd was so large. People were pushing to get to the front; Lisa and I realized that we were going to be pushed apart, so we both agreed to meet again once we arrived at the front of the crowd. This implied that we would both be able to push to the front."


    ¡°There were at least 3,000 people on the floor of that concert, all contending for spots near the front. By strength alone, I managed to push my way. But Lisa wasn¡¯t that strong; though she was small, I didn¡¯t think she would be able to push her way through the throng of people.¡±


    ¡°However: not only did Lisa get to the front, she beat me to the front.¡± Bath knew the couple wouldn¡¯t understand the significance of this statement. Bath had actually augmented his strength, speed, flexibility, etc. to reach the front as quickly as possible. Lisa had none of those advantages, and yet managed to reach the front first. He''d asked her how, but she''d never told him; she claimed it was a secret.


    ¡°And at the front, she orchestrated the formation of a mosh pit. Then, when the headliner called out into the audience to ask for a volunteer to sing one of the band¡¯s hits, who else but Lisa,¡± he emphasized her name, spreading his arms wide in incredulity, ¡°was chosen to come up on stage? She went straight up to the lead singer, shook hands, went to the mic, sang the song like the concert was her very own, and roused the stadium into a frenzy. She only gave her first name when the band asked her to introduce herself, so nobody knew who she was, but I swear, if she''d told people her full name, she''d have thousands of followers right now.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s incredible!¡± Lauretta gaped.


    Bath quirked an eyebrow. ¡°That¡¯s not the end of the story.¡± He grinned devilishly. Ah, Lisa might hate him for this, but it was too funny to stop now after seeing how the couple doted on Lisa like she was their own. Bath remembered when he told this story to Lisa¡¯s parents and was eager for a repeat reaction. The worst Lisa could do was swat him.


    ¡°When Lisa finished the song," Bath continued, his face alight with mischief. ¡°She went over to the lead singer, told him ¡®Thank you,¡¯ and then kissed him on the lips.I couldn¡¯t believe it was unscripted, but apparently the lead singer hadn¡¯t been expecting anything, ¡®cause when Lisa finished he said quite audibly into the microphone, ¡®Holy shit.¡¯¡±


    The couple stared at Bath, their jaws practically unhinged. He cackled. ¡°The way that she swaggered off the stage...she was a conquering champion returned home. She held up her arms,¡± Bath explained, lifting his own to recreate the gesture, ¡°and the crowd knew exactly what she wanted to do. She jumped into the audience and crowd surfed for a solid two minutes, which is a crowdsurfing eternity.¡±


    ¡°Then, the crowd let her down, and when she came back up tothe front, the crowd parted before her like she was Moses and they were the Red Sea. When Lisa found me at the front, she just grinned at me and leaned against the metal bars separating us audience members from the stage. You both should know that she¡¯s absolutely wildly crazy,¡± Bath laughed. ¡°In the best way, of course. But doing that kind of thing, it¡¯s hit or miss. Hence my advice for you two to tell her to be more cautious.¡±


    Bath nearly died at their shocked expressions. The Lisa they knew was astar student athlete. That side of Lisa wasn¡¯t a lie, obviously, but just a small piece of the enormous puzzle that was her.


    ¡°Oh, and that¡¯s justonestory,¡± Bath grinned, feeling exceptionally Machiavellian...and that was when Lisa entered the room, saw the shocked expressions on her relatives¡¯ faces, and predictably swatted him on the shoulder with enough power to leave him reeling.


    ¡°Hi, Aunt Lauretta, Uncle Bern,¡± she called out jubilantly, her eyes closed as per usual while she smiled. Her smile lessened and her eyes opened, full of playfully vengeful energy. Crap; Bath had hoped not to be caught in the act. She would definitely reciprocate his candid storytelling with her own form of payback.


    ¡°What was Bath telling you?¡± she inquired, her voice saccharine. Bath put on a mock innocent expression, his mouth quirking up into a nearly invisible smile.


    She knows me so well.

 [Chapter 11] Challenge

    Soon lunch was over, and Bath¡¯s reminiscing on the weekend came to an abrupt end. He returned to class, waited for school to end with unusual impatience, and then returned home. He immediately plopped down on the living room couch and grabbed the TV remote.


    ¡°Bath,¡± Avery exclaimed. ¡°I''m watching TV! You can¡¯t just change the channel.¡±


    ¡°I''m older,¡± Bath stated adamantly. He then continued with a softer tone: ¡°Besides, it''ll just be for a minute. I want to watch the news and see if anything is on about the incident that happened on I-295 this morning. If they aren¡¯t discussing it, I''ll change the channel back, promise.¡±


    Avery sighed dramatically. ¡°Okay, fine. Just this once,¡± she quipped. Bath smiled. She was a pretty cute kid, even if she was a bit whiny at times. Though he couldn¡¯t really blame Avery for that: kids her age were supposed to be a bit whiny. He of all people knew that. Their parents had brought him to a psychologist when he was eight because of his apparently irregular behavior (not the first time, not the last time). He learned quickly that whining was an essential component of the American child that, when missing, suggested the child was critically defective.


    Bath had snorted out loud when he''d realized this fact, startling the therapist. Humans.


    ¡°Looks like you''re out of luck, Avery,¡± Bath grinned. A cast of reporters were currently discussing theories regarding the ¡°Latest Terrorist Attack.¡±


    Bath sighed internally. He had expected that people would label the attack as an act of terrorism, but he had hoped they would recognize it as environmental terrorism. From what he gleaned from the ensuing deliberations between the reporters and some random specialist they had on the line, not a soul had recognized that electric cars had been spared from the attack.


    Bath considered sending in an anonymous tip. Then decided against it; he had another idea. It was nice and simple. Well, simple enough to think of nearly on the spot. Perfect.


    ??????????


    Bath headed out again at the beginning of rush hour. He went a bit further than the local I-295, not wanting to tip people off to his actual location. He ended up flying all the way to Chicago where he decided to attack another interstate, I-95.


    He started out by doing the same thing he did before: ripping the gasoline cars'' exhaust pipes aside with overwhelming force. But now, in the instant after he put the chaos into motion, he scooped up all the unharmed cars¡ªwhich was only possible because there were so few of them; his long-range manipulation capabilities were still relatively underdeveloped¡ªand set them ahead of the traffic disaster unfolding below.


    He would die of annoyance if the humans still didn¡¯t get the hint even after he airlifted every electric car on this section of I-95 to get them out of harm¡¯s way.


    Bath watched the scene below him unfold with a sense of curious fascination, like a child watching an ant colony respond to a threat. He beat his feathered wings steadily into the wind to keep his altitude and position relatively constant.


    After about ten minutes of watching the aftermath, Bath realized that he really needed to get back home before Samantha and Brian wondered where he was. The East Coast was an hour ahead of Chicago-time and the trip took an hour one way when Bath went at top speed using mass-propulsion. He had left at 5 pm EST, had arrived in Chicago at 6 pm EST (5 pm local time), and would likely get back home at around 7:30 pm EST. That was cutting it fairly close; he planned to say that he was busy doing work and lost track of time. Losing track of time until 7:30, though, was a bit of a stretch.


    Bath wasn¡¯t familiar with the sensation of exhaustion, but all the long-range manipulation and high-speed travel was using up more of his energy than usual. When he returned home, he actually stumbled into his bed as he shifted back to human form.


    "Damn," he gasped. He lay on the bed for a minute, forcing his vital patterns into normalcy. He put his clothes back on, went to the bathroom to brush his hair, and then headed downstairs. Samantha was in the kitchen cleaning up. She glared daggers at him.


    Bath gave her a boyish smile that he''d first concocted when he was in middle school. Her appearance remained stoic, her eyes angry. Bath found the technique less and less effective as time went on.


    ¡°Bath,¡± she spat, gritting her teeth. ¡°Where were you? We called for you to come down to dinner and searched the whole house!¡± Whoops.


    ¡°I was doing work in my room with headphones on,¡± he said sheepishly. ¡°I completely lost track of time.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t hear us even when we were banging on your door?¡±


    ¡°Uh, no?¡±


    Her eyes narrowed. "Bath, eat this and then come with me." She passed him a plate of food she had saved for him, taking it warm out of the microwave. Bath ate in silence while Samantha continued to clean.


    He finished up and moved to wash the plate and utensils, but Samantha stopped him. ¡°Come with me,¡± she commanded, and he followed. She led him outside. The sky was dusky, almost completely dark with the sun just barely lighting up the sky from underneath the horizon. The temperature would best be described as brisk.


    ¡°Mom?¡± he inquired as she led him to the park down the block. She moved gracefully, with purpose. The park was empty: Bath didn¡¯t even sense much animal life around the park. The lifelessness was a bit jarring. Bath still detected a few animals, like a family of bats, several mice, and a cat in the bushes, but these were comparatively fewer animals than he usually sensed at the park.


    He felt a peculiar sense of foreboding.


    ??????????


    Samantha sat down on the park bench and crossed her arms. Bath had learned years ago that night-vision was a no-no amongst humans because reflective retinas were so distinctive, so he could only just see her outline in the dying light. She didn¡¯t appear tense, though her heart rate betrayed at least a small sense of nervousness.


    ¡°Mom, why have you brought me here? We could have just talked in the house, where it¡¯s warm and we can actually see each other. I''m sorry I didn¡¯t come down to dinner¡ª¡±Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t what this is about,¡± she snapped. ¡°You lied to me.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Bath recoiled.


    ¡°You weren¡¯t doing work in your room,¡± she asserted. ¡°I know because you left your door unlocked and I looked inside. You weren¡¯t there.¡±


    Ah, crap. He couldn¡¯t remember the last time he''d forgotten to lock his door; at least a year. Had he seriously left it unlocked? He could have sworn...would have sworn...


    ¡°Mom¡ª¡±


    ¡°Just tell me you aren¡¯t doing anything dangerous,¡± she sighed. ¡°I''m not naive, Bath. You''re growing up, going off on your own, whatever. But just tell me you''re not doing anything to make me worry.¡±


    Bath looked at her, his brow furrowed.


    ¡°Mom, there is no possible way for me to do anything that would put me in danger,¡± Bath said truthfully. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me. I''m responsible enough.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not very encouraging, you know. I''m not sure that I can trust you!¡± she hissed. ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me,¡± she implored, her voice dripping with hurt.


    He met her eyes in the dark. ¡°I''m sorry, mom. I''ll be more considerate. I really wasn¡¯t thinking about how my actions would cause you pain. I didn¡¯t think you''d find out I was sneaking out. I thought not telling you was...a white lie, of sorts. I''m really not doing anything dangerous¡­¡±


    ...To myself, at least.


    Mollified, Samantha stood and pulled Bath close for a hug. ¡°I love you, honey,¡± she said tenderly.


    They walked back to the house together. Bath held her close, noting with immediate interest the faint human heartbeat that he picked up in a grouping of trees just off to the side of the park.


    He came back a few minutes later and was left curiously, furiously stumped: there was no human scent here. There was no indication a person had been in the trees at all.


    ??????????


    Bath felt a kernel of anger ignite in his soul. Somebody was acting suspiciously in this incredibly tiny territory of his, this little street, and he¡¯d failed to ascertain their identity. His feline face (for Bath was now a black house cat) curled up in disgust, his tail twitching back and forth. What was this? How could somebody just...delete, for lack of a better word, their scent?


    They couldn¡¯t. Bath was fervently sure of this. But how did that explain the human heartbeat he had heard in the trees? Somebody had been here, and that person had managed to leave not a single scent behind.


    Whoever this person was, Bath was certain that they were a threat to his current state of stability.


    ??????????


    Without any actual information to go on, Bath was forced to resign himself to being more cautious going forward. He fell back into million-year-old habits that he had let go of since entering cushy human society, lining all entrances to his abode with tiny feelers that acted like tripwires. This included doors, windows, even the chimney. He cut no corners protecting this place from any potential threats, placing tiny, primitive ears throughout the forest of the park and all throughout the yard surrounding his house. The ears when unactivated served as diodes. They were normally in an off state, listening to white noise, though they would switch on when they picked up what his subconscious recognized as human activity like speech or breathing. That¡¯s when they would alert him so that he could listen in.


    Since school was only a mile away, he could easily sustain this basic long-range manipulation indefinitely. Already, he felt better about the situation in his domain. He''d made too many mistakes tonight, mostly because he''d let down his guard after years of complete safety. At least now he was addressing some of them.


    He tried to think of a reason why he had let himself be lulled into this sense of false security, this indefensible weakness. How had such a short amount of time as a human affected him so?


    His words came out in a puff of breath: ¡°Lisa.¡±


    ??????????


    Bath didn¡¯t know how to feel about this realization. Had Lisa...made him weak? Made him want to live as a human, think as a human, be a human?


    More importantly, what would he do about it?


    Bath wanted nothing more than to run into the night, peel off into the shadow of the crescent moon, merge into the silky depths of the ocean. He wanted time to think away from human influence. But he had just set down all of his traps and couldn¡¯t afford to leave his territory while a potentially hostile force was operating within it. Maybe he was being paranoid, but better that then too relaxed.


    Bath continued walking around in the form of a black house cat. As he walked, he thought.


    Why was there somebody here? That was the most pressing question of all. These past few years have been completely quiet. It¡¯s too suspicious that as soon as I start my environmental defense initiative, a mysterious stranger appears that manages to evade my detection.


    But how would someone ever connect him to...whatever they thought was causing the interstate traffic incidents?


    There was absolutely no way Bath had been traced. For one, he traveled much too fast. Very few human aircraft could rival his speed; those that could, he would have sensed by virtue of their sound alone. Planes were incredibly loud; Bath doubted even the most advanced stealth fighter could escape his detection.


    So he wasn¡¯t traced.


    That left only one other alternative that he could think of. A human knows what I am, and they suspect my involvement in the recent incidents. They are investigating.


    Bath froze mid-stride. If they heard the conversation I had with Samantha... Bath hissed into the darkness. Why had Samantha even wanted to come outside anyway? It was cold and dark out; there was no reason to leave for the park. It all seemed incredibly suspect. His mother hadn¡¯t been coerced into speaking with him¡ªshe wasn¡¯t nervous enough¡ªbut all the same, she had acted too strange to ignore.


    Bath realized that he was missing many necessary details. Forming a conclusive theory as to what the actual hell was going on was, at the moment, impossible. The mystery piqued his interest in a way few things did. Lisa was one of those few things: She was somebody who was human, but did the seemingly impossible that no one dared do. He was drawn like a moth to a flame in the face of such intrigue.


    Since time unremembered, Bath had always found pure, unrelenting strength to be the only factor necessary for success. Cunning became more important to creatures over time, but for him, even cunning or intelligence seemed like luxuries: not really necessary but welcome.


    But now, he was faced with a new kind of challenge that tested his mental limits.


    A challenge worthy of a paradigm shift. An age ruled by intelligence. Perhaps an age leaving him behind?


    I don¡¯t really believe that, Bath asserted as he walked along the top of a picket fence. But all the same...collaboration on a mass scale is something that even I cannot fully combat. At least, Bath thought, not now.


    He smiled despite himself, his muzzle jerking upwards at the edges, revealing a mouthful of sharp, white teeth. He let go of his worries, let go of the human. He thought of his opponent and laughed. Who actually dared to attack him? It was exciting. The predator roared with delight.


    Come, challengers, he thought, his mental voice radiating out with all the strength of his conviction. For I will destroy you as I did the Old Continent. I will rend you so that your flesh weeps and your mind cracks like stone. To you I will be a terror transcending death itself.


    And when I devour you, I will revel in your shattering and feast upon your agony.

 [Chapter 12] Lisa II

    The next day, Lisa seemed oddly distant. She looked concerned, though Bath couldn¡¯t fathom why. He certainly hadn¡¯t done anything; was it something to do with her parents?


    Bath was quite unsettled by the fact that Lisa was showing this kind of emotion at all. She was the most composed human he had ever seen, always wearing a front to protect her emotions. Bath had always respected that mental control. And here Lisa was, on a random school day, all out of sorts.


    Bath wanted to get away from this confusing atmosphere. After detecting the stealthy human presence in the park, Bath didn¡¯t know where to start looking for answers. And now on top of that, Lisa was acting strange.


    Maybe he should look into protecting Lisa¡¯s house, too.


    ??????????


    That evening, Bath went to Lisa¡¯s house as a sparrow. He set up a basic scheme of tripwires, outfitting miniature eyes at each wire that he could use to inspect whoever triggered the them. He also affixed tiny ears to the outside of her house. All of these elements were connected to him by a tiny thread of matter as they joined his already rather excessive collection of monitoring units.


    Just after setting all this up¡ªbefore he had the chance to return home¡ªone of his tiny ears picked up Lisa¡¯s yelling. She seemed to be furious about something. He heard her distinctly shriek the word, ¡°Bath.¡± What had he done?


    He swept in close to the house to listen in with his true ears. He saw through the window that Lisa was sitting on her bed in her pajamas with an almost resigned expression on her face, like she had chosen the best of two terrible decisions.


    ¡°Bath,¡± she called out softly, ¡°get your ass in here.¡± He realized that she had left her window slightly cracked; a sliver of mesh was exposed to the open air.


    How does she know...


    Had this occurred a week ago, he would have swooped into her room without a second thought, his infinite curiosity burying caution.


    Now?


    He heard her sigh. ¡°Bath, I know you''re apprehensive. Please just come inside. I''m worried.¡±


    Bath listened intently for her heartbeat. He found it pulsing steadily, betraying no obvious dishonesty. But Bath knew that the best liars could trick themselves into believing their lies for truth. He knew from first-hand experience that Lisa had that talent; she¡¯d actually developed it making up excuses for where she disappeared to after school. She certainly couldn¡¯t tell them that she was riding a wolf in the woods.


    Is there anything that Lisa can¡¯t do? He wondered. Sure, Lisa was his best friend, and he truly believed that¡ªhe was the one she chose to spend all her spare time with for years. But all the same, he couldn¡¯t deny that Lisa¡¯s excellence was perhaps something more than he had once thought.


    After all, how had she known he was outside the house? That meant secrets...deception. But who was he to blame her for her secrets, when he himself kept so many?


    But even so...I trust her, Bath exhaled slowly, resigned.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    He shifted to the size of a gnat, pulling his mass into his Center. He crawled through the mesh, then appeared before Lisa as her white wolf. He certainly wouldn¡¯t appear before her as himself, naked.


    ¡°How did you know I was here?¡±


    Lisa began to cry softly, her mask cracking.


    Bath padded over to her where she was sitting. He sensed her hurt, a torrent of uncertainty and frustration. He jumped up onto the bed, then licked her cheek, eliciting a choked laugh. She fell into him, hugging his velveteen fur, letting tears fall into his pelt.


    ¡°Why do you even care about me?¡± she asked. ¡°You''re not human. Why do you even want a friend? Bath, I''m just going to die in a few years and then it won¡¯t even matter. I won¡¯t matter. I can¡¯t understand why you even care about saving the environment when, for you, it¡¯ll just be prolonging the inevitable.¡±


    ¡°Why does it matter?¡± Bath repeated, tilting his head. ¡°If nothing I do matters, why do anything at all?¡± He crossed his forelegs and leaned down his head against the duvet. ¡°Why do you live, Lisa?¡±


    He felt her fists clench against his fur.


    ¡°For a long time, I thought I was special,¡± Lisa admitted. Bath wasn¡¯t surprised that she thought that she was special; he was more surprised by her use of past tense. She no longer thinks so?


    ¡°And then,¡± she breathed in deeply, ¡°I realized what you were.¡±


    ...Because of me? Bath wondered, not following her line of reasoning.


    ¡°I thought that we were both special, Bath, that¡¯s why I knew from the moment I met you I wanted to be your friend. I thought,¡± she laughed humorlessly, ¡°I thought we were destined to meet each other. I thought we were supposed to be together.¡± She hugged him tighter. ¡°Not in a romantic way. We were two when we met. I can¡¯t even properly remember meeting you, we were so young. But I remember thinking, when I first saw you, that I needed to be with you at all costs.¡±


    ¡°This sounds so pathetic,¡± she confessed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe that I thought we were supposed to be friends. Like it was destiny,¡± she spat, as though destiny was the dirtiest word in her vocabulary.


    ¡°I¡¯ve enjoyed being your friend. Isn¡¯t that, in itself, good enough?¡±


    ¡°No! Bath, you have it all wrong,¡± Lisa¡¯s voice cracked as her tears began to flow again. ¡°I''m the worst person to teach you what it¡¯s like to be human! My entire life is a giant cheat!¡± She was sobbing now; Bath felt useless before this child, this despairing human. His friend.


    He waited in silence; the only sound in the room was the beating of two hearts, one slow and steady, the other swift and pounding.


    Then a deep sigh, an intake of breath, a storm released in slow exhale. Tension radiated off Lisa like static.


    ¡°Bath,¡± she muttered, her voice shallow, ¡°you are the best friend I could ever hope for.¡± She inhaled deeply once more, her chest expanding against Bath¡¯s side. He nuzzled her shoulder encouragingly. ¡°I mean this in more ways than one.¡±


    ¡°First: Like me, you love adventure. No matter what I want to do, you''re on board. I need that in a friend, a willingness to disregard limitations.¡±


    ¡°Second: You''re kind. I don¡¯t think you realize, Bath¡ªyou''re pretty naive like that¡ªbut most people aren¡¯t very kind. They grow out of it. Maybe you aren¡¯t kind to everyone, but that isn¡¯t what it means to be kind. If you can be genuinely kind to one person, that¡¯s enough. Too many people can¡¯t even achieve that.¡±


    ¡°Third: You aren¡¯t human. You probably think that not being human is a terrible reason to be a good fit as a friend. That having that be my third reason is weird, or a recent development, or species-ist, or something. But I already told you: I knew you were special from the minute¡ªthe second, the instant¡ªthat we met. It makes sense, now, in retrospect. You''re an alien, or at the very least, completely divergent from humans. You think differently.¡±


    Bath felt this third point slowly closing in on a conclusion, a revelation.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± he said, filling the silence. ¡°Would you like to tell me, or do you want me to guess?¡±


    She squeezed him. ¡°You think you know enough to guess? Cocky,¡± she grinned, wiping away some of her tears.


    ¡°But it¡¯s okay, I¡¯ll tell you. Let me start again. The reason why you¡¯re the best friend I could¡¯ve ever asked for,¡± she said, pausing. ¡°Is because I can¡¯t influence your emotions.¡±

 [Chapter 13] Pact

    Bath frowned, though Lisa couldn¡¯t see his face. ¡°Is that how you knew I was outside your house?¡± he asked pointedly.


    ¡°When we first met, I saw your emotions as a nebulous shell of darkness. An absence of light, of emotion¡ªat least emotion that I could detect. That¡¯s how your shell has always been.¡±


    ¡°What do most people¡¯s emotions look like?¡±


    ¡°If people were like magnets, with a North and South pole, their emotions would look like electric field lines. They change color and intensity to reflect emotional states. When two people come together, their field lines overlap and swell. When a giant crowd gathers, their field lines all amalgamate into a giant sphere of emotion. When I join my own emotional field with that sphere, I can influence the emotions of the crowd, though I can do this with individual people as well.¡±


    ¡°Have you met others like yourself? Would you know if you did?¡±


    Lisa shuddered. ¡°That¡¯s why I''m finally telling you about all this. I was going to tell you anyways, ever since you told me about yourself, but...later. I guess I¡¯ve been pushing it off.¡±


    Bath¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡®Don¡¯t tell me,¡± he said, ¡°you''ve detected someone¡ªsomeone who came into this neighborhood¡ªwho¡¯s special?¡±


    ¡°I thought I would be excited to meet someone else who can see and manipulate people¡¯s shells. And then look what happens: after I see one for the first time, I can¡¯t even think straight.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Bath pressed.


    ¡°This person had a shell around them that I had only seen a few times in my whole life. It looked like...dried blood, with an almost crusty texture. Just one look was enough to tell me this person was without doubt up to no good. But more than that, I saw them consciously manipulating their own shell. The only person I''ve ever seen do that is myself."


    Bath considered her words. First, he wanted to know: How did Lisa have this ability? If he devoured Lisa, would he, too, have the ability, or was there something more at work here? The fact that he, of all entities, had met Lisa right after becoming a human was an almost astronomical coincidence.


    This is ridiculous, Bath marveled, letting all the strange events and revelations of the night sink in. Absurd.


    But Bath was a predator, and Lisa had suddenly become an important tool in his arsenal. While his abilities were almost comically unsuited for subtlety, Lisa¡¯s revolved around influencing people without them ever knowing. In that sense, she was his foil.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± he rumbled, ¡°as my friend, and as a someone who¡¯s special, would you like to help me push back the next mass extinction?¡±


    Lisa cocked her head back, eyes closed as she grinned. ¡°Bath, I''ll do whatever you ask.¡±


    Bath smiled darkly. ¡°I lived through an entire epoch where practically the only creature on land was a porcine rodent. The biodiversity in the era previous had been magnificent, and after a mass extinction, this little pig-like prey creature was almost all that was left,¡± Bath spat. ¡°Whether the humans of this age understand what a mass extinction means is of no consequence. They already know about history...ancient, geological history. They know about the mass extinctions of the past!¡± Bath growled; to Lisa¡¯s credit, she didn¡¯t so much as flinch and continued to stroke Bath¡¯s fur in rhythmic, circular motions. ¡°They simply choose to ignore this information, just as they choose to ignore blatant data that proves that humans are responsible for the premature warming of this planet.¡± He paused.


    ¡°Bath,¡± Lisa interjected, ¡°another mass extinction is inevitable. Why do you care if humans speed it up? I mean, I care, because I am a human and a mass extinction will mean lots of people will die...but you really have no stake in the survival of humanity.¡± She looked up at him with wide eyes. She had never seen him so furious, his pupilsthin slits. Even his shell, black as it was, seemed to swell around him like a massive black hole.


    ¡°If a mass extinction were to happen prematurely,¡± he began, ¡°I fear that precious little life will be left.¡± His voice quivered with intensity. ¡°Humans underestimate the fragility of ecosystems and living things. Given more time to adapt to changing conditions, many of Earth¡¯s creatures would evolve and prosper in a new age. Many would die, but the next epoch wouldn¡¯t be devoid of biodiversity. A premature, man-made mass extinction belays catastrophe on the level of an asteroid crash or mass volcanic eruption. The main reason why those kinds of natural disasters are so terrible is that they happen over a short span of time.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Lisa fixed her eyes on him. ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. Why do youcare?" she asked, emphasizing each syllable. ¡°In a few million years, this period of time will be but a little inconsequential blip.¡±


    Bath shook his head.


    ¡°The effects of this time will ripple millions of years down the road. Before humanity, I was the only one with the power to influence the Earth as a whole. A fair responsibility for me to hold, considering that I would be forced to live with the repercussions of my actions. But now, humans possess this destructive potential.


    ¡°Bath, why do you¡ª¡±


    ¡°Lisa,¡± he interrupted, silencing her. His tone had a sense of terrible gravity, a finality that left no room for further questions.


    ¡°I will stop humanity from initiating its own destruction.¡±


    ¡°What do you have planned?¡±


    He told her what he had been doing so far with the highway attacks, and how he planned to make humanity fear the use of gasoline cars and, eventually, all fossil fuels.


    ¡°No offense, Bath,¡± she cringed, ¡°but this all sounds like aterribleidea. You''re just as smart as I am; why couldn¡¯t you think of anything better?¡±


    Bath moved his head back in an expression of coyness that Lisa recognized even through the wolf¡¯s guise.


    ¡°I¡ªwell, humans are inherently selfish. I sought to direct their self-preservation towards a productive end: not using fossil fuels."


    ¡°What you said kind of makes sense.¡±


    ¡°Kind of?¡±


    She swatted him.


    ¡°But¡ªit seems silly! I haven¡¯tactuallyseen you get serious, but from what I can gather, you could probably single-handedly wipe a human city like New York off the map. Why don¡¯t you just threaten the countries of the world? Tell them that if they don¡¯t forsake fossil fuels for green energy, you''ll destroy them?¡±


    Bath twitched. ¡°I considered that, but in the end, I felt like the best method was to make people think that they were deciding to save the environment themselves. Even if they initially began to heavily invest in green technology because of terrorist attacks, they would still blame those attacks on fellow humans. I don¡¯t want to create a situation where, if humans exist hundreds of thousands of years, maybe even millions of years down the road, they would seek to destroy me.¡±


    ¡°But...theycan¡¯t, right?¡±


    Bath¡¯s tail brushed against her. ¡°I''m not sure. I¡¯ve never exactly been hit by an antimatter bomb.¡±


    Lisa rolled her eyes.


    ¡°I don¡¯t fully understand how I can manipulate my mass and shape. But until humanitywereto develop the capacity to defeat me¡ªa day which might or might not come¡ªI don¡¯t think they would leave me alone.¡±


    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s kind of lame,¡± Lisa burst out. ¡°You talk about being the supreme ruler of the Earth for half a billion years, and then you tell me you''re afraid to rule the Earthnow? When an actual challenge has presented itself?¡±


    ¡°I grew tired of ruling the Earth a long time ago,¡± Bath sighed. ¡°After you have everything, you realize howlittleeverything matters.¡± His voice dripped bitterness.


    ¡°Then fine. Do it for me, Bath. I want to rule the world. Let¡¯s make it happen.¡±


    ¡°Lisa,¡¯ Bath cautioned, caught off guard by her request. ¡°You don¡¯t know what you¡¯re asking for. You''d be allied with me against all of humanity, perceived as possibly the greatest traitor to humankind. And that¡¯s if we go through with your reckless suggestion instead of my original plan.¡±


    ¡°Bath, I''m not afraid of a war. Especially if the situation is as you say and we''d be fighting for the future of Earth millions of years from now.¡± She took a deep breath. ¡°I have no illusions of my capabilities. I''m going to die within the next 80 or so year. But,¡± she said pointedly, ¡°if I can do something worthwhile with my time, something that will echo and resonate for a million years, I think...that will be...¡± she struggled for words.


    ¡°You''re talking about war, though you haven¡¯t killed a single creature in your life save insects, which barely count.¡± Bath licked her cheek. ¡°Are you really prepared for the consequences of killing millions of people? People like Hitler and Stalin killed millions.What we do may be worse than both.¡±


    Bath saw her blanch


    ¡°Really?¡±


    Bath inclined his head. ¡°Yes. It isn¡¯t certain, but not beyond the realm of possibility.¡±


    Lisa smashed shut her eyes and gritted her teeth. She hugged bath as tight as she could, which was actually quite tight.


    ¡°If I end up ruling the world, I''ll make sure history remembers us as humanity¡¯s greatest saviors. None of this betrayer nonsense. That¡¯s the talk of someone resigned to failure.¡±


    So I¡¯m just a pessimist, now? Bath sighed and shut his eyes, curling his body around her.


    They lay there until they fell asleep.

 [Chapter 14] Chromatic Wind

    I dig my claws into the mountain. Snow swirls dust-like from beneath the summit, painting the sky in rainbow refraction. I feel outward, reaching for the extent of my range, swallowing the rock and snow and greenery in my essence. I unfold my Center so that it flows viscous into the air, a blooming rose. I feel the vibrations of the mountain, taste the dirt and stone as though I were licking the mountain clean.


    I open my eyes fully. Though my lids remain stationary, unblinking, the insides of my eyes reform to see in new colors like ultraviolet and electromagnetic flow. At the same time, heat-sensing pores in my maw direct an overlaying infrared heat map to my mind.


    Peerless avian vision lends itself to appreciating the crags and gorges of this relatively untouched landscape. I twist the sensations of sound and sight together to add another dimension of beauty to my sight. Altogether, the mountainscape before me is unparalleled in strangeness, in its euphoric color and movement.


    The sky bends and distorts with the electromagnetic currents of the Earth¡¯s poles, strengthened by proximity to the upper atmosphere. My enhanced hearing picks up the soft whispers of the wind, painting the clouds in cyan and gold. Ultraviolet light dances amongst the electromagnetic ribbons like streamers. Infrared coats the thermal lifts of wind in shades of pale red, a gradient fading with elevation, backlighting the peaks in pale red fluorescence.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    And the centerpiece of this paradisiacal vision: the setting sun, shooting out across the clouds in deep magenta. Its orange-red flame grazes the peaks, setting them alight. Descending, the sun scorches those same peaks black. Burrowing into the mountain, the sun leaves the world behind it dark, a deep purple, glinting and shifting in swirls of color now bright on a pitch canvas.


    I take comfort in how little things change. The rim of the world, this section of the Alps, are still very much my domain, inhospitable. Nature protects her beauty.


    Should humans encroach against my stretch of mountain, I will remove them. A few of their skeletons lay under the snow.


    I stretch my wings, feel the air nestle around them, buffet them behind me. I snake my tail into the snow, feeling its icy wetness as my tail extends to caress the grain of the rock.


    I wait for night to fall and night to pass. So many million evenings and still, I think that I''ll glimpse it. That which drifts in space, beyond this Earth, perhaps whatever led to my genesis...I wait for it to rear its head, to pay me notice. To bat an astral lash, open a nebulous eye, in subtle, profound revelation.


    I sigh orange into the wind. Not tonight.

 [Part 2] [Chapter 15] Leaving Home

    PART 2


    ??????????


    ¡°Sometimes you seem so mature,¡± Samantha mused while looking through the tax forms, ¡°but only sometimes. You have absolutely no patience for finances.¡± Bath grumbled something indeterminate under his breath.


    ¡°I just don¡¯t care about money,¡± he said, rolling his eyes.


    ¡°You should,¡± Brian admonished, holding out a W2 form to his wife. ¡®You can¡¯t depend on us forever.¡± Bath didn¡¯t know whether or not to laugh. In a strange way, his human self did completely depend on the McLanes for food and shelter.


    ¡°Sure, sure. Don¡¯t worry, I''m smart; I''ll land a nice job and then hire an accountant to deal with everything else.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s so pathetic,¡± Samantha lilted. ¡°I hope we¡¯ve taught you to be more self-sufficient than that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I''m not self-sufficient, it¡¯s that I would rather die than fill out tax forms.¡±


    Brian held up his hands in supplication. ¡°Fine; at least Lisa has a mind for these kinds of things,¡± he scoffed. Bath sighed. Brian and Samantha seemed certain the two of them would get together. ¡°She''ll be going with you to Alens, anyways, so even if you flub out she''ll be able to support us.¡±


    Bath gaped. ¡°Wow; you have so much faith in your only son.¡±


    Samantha and Brian smiled warmly. ¡°We know you''ll do great.¡± The couple squeezed in to give Bath a joint hug. ¡°We love you!¡± they crooned obnoxiously.


    ¡°Stop!¡± Bath laughed, pushing them away in mock resistance.


    He gazed contemplatively out the window. His and Lisa¡¯s plans were starting to come to a head, and he wasn¡¯t sure he was truly confident in their success.


    It had been over three years since he and Lisa had detected the strange mind-manipulator in their neighborhood. Since then, they hadn¡¯t been able to find anyone else with mind-manipulation abilities. She had assured him multiple times that if there was a mind-manipulator, she would be able to pick them out.


    For a solid year, Bath had brought Lisa all over the United States in search of mind-manipulators, only to come up blank. While there were other benefits that came out of the search¡ªsuch as Lisa mastering the art of riding inside of Bath¡ªthey hadn¡¯t gotten any leads.


    Since they couldn¡¯t address the unknown threat, they had worked on the first stage of their World Domination Plan (as Lisa nicknamed it, the ¡°Big WD¡±): Authority. The point of this plan was to build up both Bath and Lisa¡¯s authority in the world so that when they eventually took over, everybody would already know who they were.


    Bath knew that this was a justification for Lisa wanting to go to college, but he didn¡¯t mind. Lisa, as a human, was entitled to the typical young-adult experience. He didn¡¯t think the environment would devolve completely if their plans waited until after graduation.


    Besides: he was beginning to think that college might be fun, after all. He was going to Alens for Ecology and/or Paleontology, perhaps the two subjects that he genuinely wanted to contribute to. Lisa was going for Political Science, with the intent to study systems of government.


    Bath had thought that when he and Lisa agreed to take over the world, the result would be a dictatorship with Lisa at the helm and him as her enforcer. But Lisa had other, perhaps more idealistic, plans centered on democracy. Bath was willing to humor her plans until they failed, at which point he''d appoint her as de-facto emperor and be done with the whole ¡°representative government¡± charade.


    After all: If you want to take over the world, you have to do it completely. In his experience, ruling the world went hand-in-hand with every living creature cowering in fear and running away from you as fast as they could.


    Of course, Lisa didn¡¯t have that kind of time to instill fear in her subjects, but humans were smart, and Lisa could make people afraid just by influencing their minds.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    ??????????


    ¡°Bath!¡± Lisa called out, barreling into him with reckless abandon. ¡°You''re here!¡±


    Bath laughed and turned back towards the car to get some luggage from the trunk. ¡°Nice to see you.¡±


    The McLanes exited the car. Samantha and Brian went to the hatch while Avery walked over to Lisa.


    ¡°Hey, Avery!¡± Lisa grinned. ¡°How¡¯s school?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good, I guess,¡± she pouted. "Definitely not as fun as college.¡±


    Bath scoffed. ¡°You don¡¯t even know what college is like.¡±


    ¡°I''ve seen it on TV! There are parties every day!¡± Avery cried.


    ¡°That¡¯s TV,¡± Lisa pointed out. ¡°But you''re right: College is supposed to be more fun than middle school. You''ll get there one day.¡±


    ¡°In, like, a million years!¡±


    Bath gathered Avery into a hug. ¡°Kid, you have no idea how long a million years is. You''ll be here in the blink of an eye.¡±


    ¡°Okay, whatever. Let¡¯s see your dorm!¡±


    ¡°Where are you living?¡± asked Lisa. ¡°I''m in Ellis C-21.¡±


    Bath frowned. ¡°Where are the rooming assignments?¡±


    Lisa¡¯s mouth was a line. ¡°Online.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± he stated flatly.


    ¡°Typical,¡± Lisa grumbled. She pulled out her phone, went on the housing portal, and typed in Bath¡¯s information. ¡°You''re so helpless.¡± A minute later, she announced: ¡°Bath is in Ellis G-44.¡±


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± Avery wondered. ¡°Are you guys in the same building?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but we''re kind of far away. Look at the map,¡± she said, holding up a sheet of paper she pulled from her purse. ¡°He¡¯s over here,¡± she pointed to the bottom-left corner of the map, ¡°and I''m over here,¡± she indicated a spot to the top-right. ¡°Oh well. At least it¡¯s the same building! There was only a one in eight chance of that.¡±


    ¡°Have you and your parents already visited your suite yet?¡± Bath asked.


    ¡°Yeah, we''re on our second furniture trip now. After we finish up, we can make our way over to your suite.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± Bath said. "See you soon." His gave her a look: Lisa recognized the expression and held her head still. Bath fastened a small mouth and ear onto the back of Lisa¡¯s ear, under her hair. He saw Lisa shudder slightly, still unable to fully hide her repulsion. They¡¯d developed this method of emergency communication three years back. Bath knew Lisa thought it unnecessary, but Bath wasn¡¯t going to risk Lisa¡¯s well-being on the caprice of humanity. Regardless of whether another mind-manipulator appeared out of the blue, Bath wanted to make sure he was available if normal people ever stormed Lisa before she could mount a riposte.


    He didn¡¯t doubt Lisa could fend for herself, but all the same...


    ??????????


    ¡°It¡¯s just us now,¡± Lisa said solemnly as she swung on a hammock. The courtyard was relatively empty in the dark summer night. She faced away from him, towards a gate in the center of the courtyard¡¯s northern face.


    ¡°Do you miss your parents already?¡± he teased gently.


    Lisa remained still on the hammock. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s irrational, I know. It¡¯s hardly been a few hours since they left.¡±


    ¡°Have you already looked at the classes being offered on the selection website?¡± Bath asked, changing the subject.


    ¡°No; have you?¡±


    ¡°...A bit.¡± He sighed. ¡°Lisa, I don¡¯t really know what I''m doing here.¡±


    ¡°Bath, come on. I want you here because you''re my best friend. Moreover, I think you can get a lot out of college. You''ve been a human for eighteen years now, but you haven¡¯t really lived as a human with other people.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°You lived with a family. That¡¯s completely different from living in college in a dorm with other people who are all your age. I think you''ll be able to learn a lot about what being a human is about.¡±


    Bath grunted and rolled his eyes. ¡°Why do I want to know even more about the depraved stain that is humanity?¡±


    Lisa turned around, shot him a glare, and punched his shoulder lightly. ¡°Stop being so melodramatic. People are flawed, but at their core, they¡¯re usually good.¡±


    Bath shook his head in disagreement.


    ¡°Take it from the girl who can read minds,¡± she said firmly.


    ¡°You can¡¯t really read minds,¡± Bath countered. ¡°Just emotions.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s already good enough,¡± she asserted.


    ¡°Why do you think humans are good?¡± Bath asked with a sigh.


    ¡°Because I¡¯ve seen the shells of children,¡± Lisa said, ¡°and their minds are good, plain and simple.¡±


    ¡°Come on,¡± Bath growled, exasperated. ¡°Children are often terrible.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re always good before society corrupts them. Don¡¯t you see that the root of the problem isn¡¯t humans but society that they¡¯ve created?¡±


    ¡°...You''re being naive.¡±


    ¡°Just...think of college as a chance to experience humanity to the fullest before taking over the world with me. You might never get another chance.¡±


    Bath couldn¡¯t deny her logic. ¡°I suppose...¡±


    Lisa scootched over and hugged him. ¡°Thanks for deciding to make the most of Alens!¡± she smiled. ¡°It''ll be so much more fun with you here!¡±

 [Chapter 16] Conducting Research

    Ecology was the subject that held great appeal for Bath. Not because he wanted to learn about already-published findings, but because he wanted to fix the field¡¯s many shortcomings.


    So, the day before classes started, he walked into the Department of Ecology and asked about research opportunities.


    ¡°Um,¡± a receptionist glanced at her computer. ¡°Do you know the name of the professor you want to see?¡±


    Know the name of the professor?


    ¡°I just want to see any professor doing research.¡±


    ¡°Well, I think you need to decide on a professor first and then¡ª¡± Bath sighed and started walking towards a row of office doors behind the receptionist, who made absolutely no move to stop him.


    Bath knocked on the first door he came to¡ªlocked, vacant. He went down the row to his left, finally reaching an occupied office a few doors down. ¡°Dr. Posner¡± was the name printed on the door¡¯s plaque.


    ¡°Come in,¡± called out an elderly man¡¯s voice. Bath entered and quickly snaked into a chair.


    ¡°Hello, I''m Bath. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Posner.¡±


    ¡°So what brings you to my office?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to ask you about your research. Can you explain it to me?¡±


    The man sat up straight and pressed down his wrinkling shirt. ¡°Certainly,¡± he smiled.


    ¡°I''m researching the effects of climate change on populations of animals near the poles, particularly migratory pattern changes in reindeer and wolves.¡±


    Bath considered this for a moment. ¡°Are you interested in studying how animals during the last ice age also had their migratory patterns changed, to draw parallels and predict further shifts in patterns?¡±


    The man gave him a blank look. ¡°And how would you study the migratory patterns of animals back then?¡±


    Bath gave the man a grin. ¡°Are you interested?¡±


    ??????????


    Bath went to several other professors in Ecology, all of whom didn¡¯t show much interest in any of his myriad suggestions to study the past as a means of predicting future ecological behavior. Bath assumed this was because they didn¡¯t believe the behavior of species more than ten-thousand years in the past was easily studied, and didn¡¯t want to broach the subject with a mere undergraduate student.


    So, annoyed, he moved on to the Department of Paleontology. Since his goal wasn¡¯t more than transmitting his knowledge of the ancient natural world to human records, he didn¡¯t think that finding a professor would be difficult.


    The third paleontology professor he went to was a woman by the name of Dr. Scranton. Even before he knocked on the door, the woman called for him to come in.


    ¡°I''ve heard you pounding on the door to every other professor in this department,¡± she remarked with a wry grin. ¡°What are you here for?¡±


    ¡°I''m looking to do research,¡± Bath said flatly, ¡°Except nobody in this department actually wants to do interesting research.¡±


    The woman¡¯s eyebrows arched up. ¡°Oh really? You don¡¯t think that the reasons behind the Permian Extinction are worth researching?¡±


    Bath¡¯s eyes gleamed, then narrowed. ¡°Is that your research?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡¯


    He nodded. ¡°We should work together, then,¡± Bath said, unintentionally forceful. He knew Lisa would have swatted him for his lack of human composure, but after so much annoyance over the past few hours, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to care about appearances.


    ¡°And why would I work with you?¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°You''d be working under me if you came to work with me.¡±


    Bath waved his hand dismissively. ¡°Working with you, under you, it¡¯s all the same. I simply want to expose the truth of what happened all those years ago.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t we all?¡± she mused. She played with a pen on her desk, her mouth quirked into a smile. ¡°Alright, fine. I''ll take you under my wing. I need a drudge.¡±


    Bath¡¯s smile was genuine, lighting up his entire face. ¡°Great!¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    But he really hadn¡¯t thought his plan through. Sure, he wanted to tell the woman all he knew and write up a paper about the real reasons for the Permian Extinction and then send it off to be published, but...he didn¡¯t actually have any evidence. He could say all he wanted, and nobody would believe him.


    ??????????


    ¡°Wait, let me try to understand this. Actually understand this.¡± Lisa was pacing in the courtyard by the bench where Bath was reclining. ¡°You''re trying to do research on the Permian Extinction...why?¡±


    ¡°Because I remember it?¡±


    "I thought you said your memory was terrible back in the day?¡±


    Bath flinched. ¡°It was,¡± he acknowledged, ¡°but the extinction took place over millions of years. I couldn¡¯t just forget that long a period of time. Besides, I played a rather...personal role it."


    ¡°What happened?¡±


    Bath sighed. ¡°There were a series of massive volcanic eruptions. These eruptions...they destroyed everything. Blackened the sky, ruined the water.¡±


    ¡°Wait,¡± Lisa paused, thinking. ¡°I''ve definitely heard about this. We learned this in senior year biology. This isn¡¯t a new theory, Bath. It was the Siberian something or other.¡±


    ¡°The Siberian Traps,¡± Bath corrected.


    ¡°So you do know that the research exists! What do you want to add to it?¡±


    ¡°I want to clarify that the entity responsible for the Permian extinction was no other than myself. Maybe it¡¯ll serve as a warning...¡±


    Lisa¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°So what, you made the Siberian Traps erupt?¡± She looked at him in silence for a moment. ¡°How?¡±


    Bath shrugged. ¡°Because the Traps were there, and I was there.¡± Bath looked toward the sun. ¡°I was massive enough to make the Earth move before me. When I walked, the ground shook. When I stomped across the surface of ancient Siberia...the Traps erupted.¡±


    ¡°In the end, I suppose it was for the best,¡± he said quietly. ¡°That was the first time I changed the evolutionary path of Earth. If I hadn¡¯t ushered in that apocalypse, humans almost certainly wouldn¡¯t have arisen, and you wouldn¡¯t have been born.¡±


    Lisa was suddenly quiet. ¡°What was it like? Living through the Permian Extinction?¡±


    Bath gave her a sad look. ¡°Terrible. I thought that perhaps this whole planet was going to die and leave me trapped on a barren corpse-world.¡±


    Lisa gave him a look. ¡°That sounds pretty poetic, considering that your intelligence back then was so limited.¡±


    ¡°I obviously didn¡¯t understand speech, or words, back then. I did, on the other hand, have the crushing sense of despair that I discussed. Creatures even back then could feel despair...very few of them, but some, the most highly evolved predators of the time, like some of the ocean fish with skeletons. The despair of being locked in the jaws of a greater predator¡ªthat was what I felt.¡±


    Lisa sat down on the grass of the courtyard. ¡°So what would you even publish? Giant evil monster caused Siberian Trap eruptions, brought about Permian Extinction? And moreover, where are you going to find the evidence to make that claim?¡±


    Bath looked at Lisa, then smiled, showing teeth. ¡°Lisa, what if you took a photograph of what I looked like back then? Then I could say that I photoshopped it to match a giant skeleton I found in Siberia.¡±


    ¡°That literally sounds like the stupidest plan I''ve ever heard of.¡± Lisa laughed. ¡°You''ve never even officially been to Russia! How would you ever make that kind of claim? Any kind of fact-checking on you would fall through!¡± Lisa still wasn¡¯t through chewing him out. ¡°Besides! Making a photoshop image based on a skeleton is one thing, but from what I understand, the creature you have in mind probably has an exoskeleton, since as I recall terrestrial organisms back then were all insects. And that exoskeleton would need to be photographed itself, in the rock, aged and petrified, not just ¡®photoshopped¡¯ into reality.¡±


    Bath frowned. ¡°Do you have any better ideas?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lisa snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t even try to do this kind of research in the first place! There¡¯s no point to it.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a point in exposing the truth,¡± he growled. ¡°My goal, here, is to show that an individual organism can have the power to usher in an age of calamity. In the end, I want to use this to prove how nature isn¡¯t as robust as humans believe, that humans can truly ruin nature for millions of years with their carelessness.¡±


    Lisa frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is going to work. Sorry.¡±


    ??????????


    Two days later, he came over to Lisa and presented her a photo.


    ¡°How the actual flying fuck...¡± she gaped, ¡°did you do this?¡±


    ¡°I crystallized myself in obsidian, then resized myself. And voila, the imprint of a monster on rock.¡±


    Lisa looked horrified. ¡°You let magma pour over you?¡±


    ¡°Insects don¡¯t really feel pain,¡± he said dismissively. ¡°I just stayed very, very still. And kept my Center of being out of the actual magma itself, so I could easily reform myself outside of the obsidian.¡±


    ¡°But...that¡¯s not how that works! Like, you can¡¯t just dip yourself in magma, let yourself cool, and expect your body to be intact!¡±


    Bath grinned devilishly. ¡°Don¡¯t question my capabilities.¡±


    ¡°But anyways,¡± she sniffed, ¡°you only have one photo, not the obsidian itself. Even if you brought the obsidian with you, which I know is impossible since you said this form of yours was enormous...even if you could justify how you rose an enormous hunk of black rock out from the seafloor, you wouldn¡¯t be able to justify how new the obsidian is. They willisotope date the rock, you know."


    ¡°I''m sure they will, and I''m sure they¡¯ll consider it a mystery. They¡¯ll probably assume isotope dating is failing because the rock was so close to the lower crust for such a long period of time without somehow being recycled into the mantle.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so sure!¡± Lisa grumbled. ¡°But fine, whatever. You seem absolutely dead-set on this ridiculousness.¡± Then she smiled. ¡°You at least have to let me in on the fun.¡±


    ¡°You already rejected the offer to be my photographer,¡± Bath said in mock bluster. ¡°And now you want in on my plans?¡±


    Lisa smiled innocently. ¡°Please?¡±


    Bath gave her a lopsided grin. ¡°I can¡¯t say no. I''m going to put you to work, mind you.¡±

 [Chapter 17] Sweet (Suite?) Democracy

    School had now been officially in session for three days. In that time, he and Lisa had worked out their classes and had begun navigating the college social scene. Lisa was, of course, a natural at socializing, and made sure Bath was always with her whenever she did anything.


    ¡°I need to make sure you have a real college experience,¡± she told him daily, like it was a personal mantra.


    Bath didn¡¯t really understand why Lisa thought there was a singular college experience, since from his own observations students spent their time in vastly different ways, but his voicing of this opinion was always met with Lisa¡¯s adamant repetition of the mantra.


    Bath remembered very clearly move-in day five days ago. That was when he had met his new suitemates, Jake, Dean, and Matt. Lisa still hadn¡¯t met them: he had tried to keep these three boys away from her.


    Bath felt a bit slighted by the residential college board for matching him with the three based on their personality and living surveys. Jake, Dean, and Matt were all athletes that seemed to embrace the ¡°partying¡± lifestyle. He certainly didn¡¯t want Lisa to find out about it or she''d never let him live down the fact that he''d been placed with a pack of fuckbois in the Ellis party suite. Of course, he knew she would find out eventually once the trio started hosting parties, but all the same...


    Bath recalled the first day that they met.


    ¡°Hey, I''m Matt,¡± the sandy-haired boy with green eyes had introduced himself.


    ¡°Dean,¡± had said the other, his skin dark like chocolate.


    ¡°Jake,¡± the last one said. His skin sallow and his hair was as black as his eyes. He had smirked.


    ¡°Bath,¡± he had said, smiling plainly as he appraised his new cohabitors. He enhanced his senses to get a better idea of who he was dealing with.


    He knew what he had gotten himself into almost immediately, as soon as he elevated his sense of smell. He smelled sex and lust. Not something that Bath judged in itself, but knew from stories that Lisa told him that such individuals were often trouble.


    He rather agreed with Lisa¡¯s judgment, knowing first-hand the effects lust wrought on docile creatures. Sex in the animal world was almost always rape, even amongst the most innocuous-looking species.


    Before he had become human, Bath recognized he probably wouldn¡¯t have cared that humans raped each other, would have considered it normal. Regardless, he became instantly wary of this trio of boys he would be sharing a suite with. He was rooming with the one called Jake, the one who had smirked at him. Bath very much welcomed the challenge, intent on claiming dominance over the suite in short order.


    Things hadn¡¯t quite worked out that way.


    The boys had quickly set to work decorating the suite¡¯s common space, a small room that just barely fit a couch, two chairs, a table, and a TV. Bath watched, mystified, as the boys continued to bring up furniture and objects from the cars down below, where their parents conversed. Bath wondered offhandedly what his parents¡¯ impression was of the boys¡¯ parents.


    ??????????


    Matt later brought up a large wooden chest, sweat falling down his face in rivulets. Bath had walked over to help, curious as to why he smelled an inordinate amount of alcohol coming from the chest¡¯s interior.


    ¡°Here,¡± Bath had said as he reached for the underside of the chest. ¡°Where are we bringing it?¡±


    ¡°My room,¡± the boy had grunted.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°Why do you have a chest full of alcohol?¡± Bath had inquired, arching an eyebrow. ¡°Planning some fun parties?¡±


    Matt had laughed. ¡°Wow, you''re quick to pick up on things.¡¯


    ¡°What else would you be bringing up a heavy chest for?¡± Bath had grinned. In actuality, he really did not want to be having ridiculously crazy parties in this suite. ¡°But isn¡¯t our suite too small? If we hosted a party, all the furniture would be trashed.¡±


    ¡°Ah, don¡¯t worry about it! It¡¯s not your furniture, anyways, so no risk to you.¡±


    Bath had been rather dismayed by Matt¡¯s cavalier attitude. ¡°I don¡¯t want parties in this suite,¡± he then asserted.


    Matt had given him a look. Confusion? ¡°Well, we can all vote on it,¡± he said finally.


    Bath had felt like he had fallen into a trap.


    ??????????


    As soon as the furniture had all been transported up into the suite and the parents had all left, the boys broke into reveling and took shots from Matt¡¯s chest of hard liquor. Bath disliked alcohol because he had to dull his sense of taste and smell to enjoy it.


    But, for the sake of getting along with the suite, he dulled the two senses and imbibed a shot. As soon as the boys had finished and were a bit drunk, he finally broached the subject of suite rules.


    Lisa had told him establishing suite rules would be of paramount importance. He hadn¡¯t put much thought into it, assuming the people he would be paired up with would be logical, scholarly students, but he now realized why Lisa thought them such a necessity.


    ¡°Guys,¡± Bath had begun, ¡°Why don¡¯t we establish some basic suite rules.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Jake said soberly, though he was anything but. ¡°Like what?¡±


    Bath grabbed a sheet of paper from their newly-installed printer and a marker from his near-barren desk. He wrote SUITE RULES in all caps at the top.


    ¡°I think we should start with how we''re planning to keep the suite clean.¡± The boys looked at him like he was crazy, but Bath plowed on. ¡°This suite has four guys living in it.¡± He had almost said boys, but didn¡¯t care to debase himself to that level. ¡°Accordingly, it will certainly accumulate waste. We need to keep a set of rules stipulating how we will all work to clean the suite.¡±


    The looks of incredulity continued, but Bath didn¡¯t really care, so long as by the end of this he had their names signed at the end of the rules.


    ¡°For part one of the suite rules, CLEANLINESS,¡± he wrote the word on the rules sheet as a bullet point, ¡°I propose we have a rotation system, by which each of us takes turns doing tasks such as vacuuming.¡±


    Blank stares. Then, Jake: ¡°But what if we don¡¯t know how to vacuum?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I always had my maid do it,¡± Matt said, almost with a kind of pride in his not-knowing how to do a basic chore.


    Bath glanced at Dean, who shrugged. ¡°I know how to vacuum, but if it¡¯s just you and me, well, that seems unfair.¡±


    Bath contained his budding anger and pinched the bridge of his nose. Who were these worms?


    ¡°Fine, then, change of plans. You aren¡¯t allowed to host a party unless you first draft a plan before, to be presented to the suite and signed by all members, detailing how you will clean the suite up after the party elapses. I don¡¯t care how you get the suite clean.¡±


    Matt looked outraged. ¡°Why do I need to hire someone to clean the suite just if I want to have a party?¡±


    ¡°Matt, I could always just teach you and Jake how to vacuum, and then you won¡¯t have to hire anyone,¡± Bath pointed out.


    ¡°What the hell, man,¡± Jake spat.


    When had everything gone so wrong?


    ¡°We don¡¯t need to do the pre-party clean-up plan,¡± Bath conceded, ¡°but I want everyone to contribute to cleaning this suite.¡±


    ¡°What if we just, y¡¯know, like it messy?¡± said Matt.


    ¡°There¡¯s a difference between ¡®messy¡¯ and attracting pests,¡± Bath grated. ¡°Do you want our suite to crawl with mice? Cockroaches?¡± It honestly didn¡¯t matter much to him, but if he ever wanted Lisa to come over, he didn¡¯t want the suite to be a total pig sty.


    ¡°We''re on the fourth floor,¡± Jake pointed out. ¡°No way a mouse is coming up here. And cockroaches are just big bugs, big deal.¡±


    Bath groaned internally. Just big bugs?


    ??????????


    In the end, the suite rules read as follows:


    SUITE RULES:


    <ol>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">Don¡¯t leave food out to rot.</li>


    <li style="font-weight: 400">No parties during finals week.</li>


    </ol>


    That was it. Bath was reminded why he bitterly hated democracy.

 [Chapter 18] Malleable Mind

    Bath was fairly apathetic towards the three boys he would be sharing the rest of the suite with. They were, to him, akin to insects: not worth anger or attention. But all the same, they were pests, and he wanted to fix the situation in his suite before they drove the place to ruin.


    So, the same day that he told Lisa his plan for her involvement in his ¡°research,¡± he asked her what he found to be an innocuous, general question.


    ¡°Lisa, how do humans normally go about establishing dominance?¡±


    She gave him a stunned look, then keeled over in peals of laughter. ¡°You can¡¯t ever say that in public again,¡± she snorted. ¡°That¡¯s...Bath, come on, even you should know.¡±


    Bath frowned. ¡°You''re thinking about my question in the wrong light.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me: you aren¡¯t getting along with your suitemates, are you?¡±


    Bath¡¯s jaw tensed, then dropped in exasperation. ¡°I didn¡¯t even mention them! How did you know?¡±


    ¡°I know now,¡± Lisa grinned mischievously. ¡°Why? What are they doing?¡±


    Bath had to consciously control the blood vessels in his face to keep from blushing. Why was he blushing? Embarrassment? From not being able to control a pack of hormonal human children?


    Perhaps a little. But mostly just from frustration.


    ¡°Just forget it,¡± he grumbled.


    ¡°No no, tell me,¡± Lisa insisted. ¡°This is what I''m here for, after all. You handle the physical stuff, I handle the emotional stuff.¡±


    ¡°After a hundred years I won¡¯t need you to handle the emotional stuff,¡± Bath said with a hint of arrogance. ¡°By then, I''ll have obtained mastery over the human psyche.¡±


    ¡°Why are you proud of being such a slow learner?¡± Lisa said, punching his arm. ¡°Besides, you better be able to handle the emotional stuff by then. I¡¯ll be dead, dumbass.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I''ll tell you my problem. But, instead of helping directly, I want you to tell me what to do.¡±


    ¡°Fine by me,¡± she said, and began to listen to him explain the current situation.


    ??????????


    Bath wasn¡¯t convinced Lisa¡¯s plan would work. Either way, the plan could wait for later that day. In the meantime, he started doing some of his school work.


    He and Lisa were working outside by the hammock.


    ¡°Lisa, this is absolutely terrible,¡± he cried, staring at his computer. ¡°Why are we taking this class?¡±


    Lisa sighed and gave him a pointed look. ¡°That¡¯s exactly why we''re taking this class. You''ve become human expressly to stop humans from destroying the planet. What a better class to take together than a class exploring how people have systematically been destroying the environment?¡±


    Bath stared down at the syllabus for ENVT 118, an introductory class on Environmental Policy in the United States. Lisa had told him about it and insisted that they take it together.


    ¡°But reading this makes me want to go out and kill the people involved in this report,¡± Bath rumbled. ¡°Promoting environmental policies that knowingly destroy the environment becaue of a profit motive...¡±


    ¡°Bath, I still don¡¯t understand why you''re so outraged by political maneuverings. Aren¡¯t those people just using their power to get what they want?¡±


    ¡°It just...feels wrong. Dishonest.¡±


    They continued their classwork until four pm. That was when Bath announced that they needed to meet with Professor Scranton.


    ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see her face when she sees your photograph,¡± Lisa chortled as they walked to the Paleontology building.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°I''m sure it¡¯ll be, at the very least, mildly entertaining,¡± he grinned.


    ¡°I feel like we''re kicking a hornet¡¯s nest just to see what will happen,¡± she remarked. ¡°Like, this photo is so impossible, your fricking obsidian sample is so impossible, that I have no idea what¡¯s going to happen.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it isn¡¯t that impossible,¡± Bath rebutted. ¡°It seems feasible enough to me that a creature with an incredibly tough, perhaps minerally-lined exoskeleton could be flash incinerated in magma and then cooled fast enough to leave an imprint with the minerals arrayed like so. And then that piece of cooled obsidian could, against all odds, not be drawn into the mantle...¡±


    Lisa shook her head as she smiled. ¡°Whatever you say.¡±


    Bath knocked on the door; this time the professor didn¡¯t detect his approach.


    ¡°Bath? Come in.¡±


    He and Lisa entered.


    ¡°Hello, Professor, this is my friend Lisa, who was working with me on a project in Siberia this past summer.¡±


    Lisa shot him a look.


    Bath continued smoothly. ¡°We managed to find a remarkable fossil in Siberia when we went investigating the Kara Sea.¡± The Kara Sea was the body of water along the region¡¯s northern border.


    Professor Scranton appeared perplexed. ¡°What do you mean, you and, um, Lisa, were investigating the Kara Sea? By yourselves?¡±


    ¡°We decided to take a private trip to Siberia. We''re both incredibly interested in ecology and wanted to investigate the unique properties of Siberia''s igneous region. What we found...Well, we wanted to find a professor to help us investigate and publish our findings. After meeting with you the other day and hearing about your research, I think you''re exactly who we''ve been looking for.¡±


    ¡°What did you find?¡± The professor closed her laptop and leaned forward in her seat. ¡°It¡¯s been five years since I last went to Siberia. I never found any fossil worth note.¡±


    Lisa glanced at Bath. ¡°We found an enormous fossil in a slab of obsidian,¡± she said hesitantly. ¡°It¡¯s the biggest fossil we''ve both ever seen.¡±


    This had the professor¡¯s attention. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make any sense. A fossil in obsidian?¡± She paused. ¡°The only things that can leave a mark in obsidian are minerals."


    Bath smiled despite himself.


    ¡°While that¡¯s true, all the same, we found a fossil in obsidian that dwarfs anything humankind has seen before.¡±


    She stared at them, her face screwed up into a disbelieving pucker. ¡°I can¡¯t believe this until I see it myself.¡±


    ¡°You''re free to go and find it,¡± Bath smiled. ¡°I''ll tell you the coordinates.¡±


    ??????????


    ¡°Y''know, Bath,¡± Lisa said as they left the paleontology building, ¡°why don¡¯t you just kill all of them?¡±


    Bath cocked an eyebrow. ¡°Who am I killing now?¡±


    ¡°You were talking earlier about how you wanted to kill the people who were destroying the environment for selfish reasons. Why don¡¯t you just, y¡¯know, go out and kill them?¡±


    Bath responded with a question. ¡°When there¡¯s an ant hill, does it really make sense just to kill the ants on the surface?¡±


    ¡°These people aren¡¯t just ants on the surface. They¡¯re despicable, selfish bastards in positions of power. There aren¡¯t an infinite amount of them.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll naturally go away once we seize absolute power.¡±


    ¡°But why not act now? Sometimes you really confuse me. You became a human because the environment was being messed up. You didn¡¯t want to let Global Warming accelerate climate change. And yet, every year the problem becomes worse!¡±


    ¡°You''re the one who wanted to go to college instead of transition directly into taking over the world,¡± Bath reminded her.


    Lisa snapped. ¡°You don¡¯t need me to do anything. You could have killed off all the oil moguls by now, destroyed oil fields, ruined lobbyists...¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not good enough,¡± he asserted.


    ¡°It¡¯s better than nothing!¡± Lisa fumed. ¡°If you''re going to spend the next four years here with me, going through college, then why don¡¯t you at least spend your free time doing something more productive than arrogantly taking credit for a mass extinction!?¡±


    Bath¡¯s expression became dark, sinister. Lisa flinched but continued walking at his side.


    ¡°You think I did this...out of arrogance?¡±


    ¡°What else would it be? It doesn¡¯t matter what caused the Permian Extinction! ¡®Teaching the humans about how one being can usher in an apocalypse¡¯ is complete bull.¡±


    Bath frowned. ¡°Arrogance?¡± Now he spoke the word as a question.


    ¡°Bath,¡± Lisa sighed. ¡°On the ridiculously long scale of time that you''ve been alive, you haven¡¯t ever had the kind of brain you do now, one capable of processing higher level emotions like arrogance.¡±


    ¡°What are you implying?¡± he rumbled, a deep fury only barely concealed beneath his voice. At once, the air felt heavier, saturated with an intangible substance.


    ¡°All I''m saying,¡± Lisa said meekly, wondering if she was pushing Bath too far at once, ¡°is that you''ve been in a kind of...mind-crucible over the past eighteen years. Before now, you never had to deal with human emotions. Now, you''re starting to feel them for yourself, and act on them, even if-¡±


    ¡°Lisa.¡± Bath¡¯s voice had a sense of finality to it. They didn¡¯t speak for the rest of the walk to Ellis.

 [Chapter 19] Suite (Sweet?) Revenge

    Bath was deeply disturbed by what Lisa has told him. He wasn¡¯t angry at her for telling him¡ªnotreally¡ªbut couldn¡¯t prevent his anger from manifesting itself before her words.


    Was he really that malleable? In eighteen short years, a span of time so insignificant as to be a speck, he could change so much? To begin to feel and express human emotions, and to do so subconsciously?


    Was he reallyarrogant? Seeking recognition for the largest catastrophe in Earth¡¯s history? Looking for a reaction...Awe at the might of one of Earth¡¯s most dangerous ancient predators?


    This kind of reasoning implied that he cared what humans thought. Was he so shallow? When had he ever cared about the thoughts of anything else?


    Bath felt suddenly a great chain weighing upon his body, binding him to Lisa, to the human race. A terrible chain that he wished to break, but wasn¡¯t sure that he could. Could he go back to not caring, to not wanting companionship? To being complete in himself, in ruling over all without recognition?


    Of course I can, Bath shouted to himself. I am Bath. As though being Bath was a statement in itself, a cry of victory.


    But tendrils of dread coiled about his heart, a reflection of his true doubts. Bath knew he needed to do something with himself or he¡¯d go crazy wallowing in his own thoughts.


    His thoughts all seemed bent towards proving Lisa¡¯s theory that his mind had already begun to reflect that of a human¡¯s. Not just his mind¡¯s capabilities, such as long-term memory, buteverywaythat it thought.


    Bath shifted form to a sparrow, then flew to the clouds, shifting to a hawk. He spent the next few hours enjoying the feeling of wind on his wings, trying to blot out his incipient fears.


    Fear, he thought bleakley. Not a human emotion, but a foreign one.


    ??????????


    After a few hours had passed, Bath returned to Ellis somewhat more refreshed than when he set out. The time was now past dinner, and his suitemates were all in the suite.


    Perfect.


    Bath was still in a relatively poor mood, so he welcomed the opportunity to do something...productive. He began a rather complex series of long-range manipulations, forming the figures of thumb-sized insects underneath the furniture and beds. Soon, he had a veritable army of pest look-alikes. He made a few fist-sized insects for good measure.


    He smiled coldly. The boys dared think to impose democracy on the suite, as though the four of them were equals?


    All at once, a torrent of insects burst forth. Though Bath wasn¡¯t physically present in the suite, he could hear and see everything that happened through his little ears and eyes.


    Accordingly, he saw the entire insect assault happen with perfect omniscience, enabling him to control his little insect extensions in the most fear-inducing way possible.


    At firstthe boys tried to escape, rushing for the door, but Bath had already locked it with long-range manipulation. The door was immovable; even if they tried to break it down, which all three of them tried to do just one minute into the attack, it refused to budge. Then they had tried for the windows, which Bath hadn¡¯t originally tried to bar, but he kept those locked by jamming their locks and reinforcing their glass.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    He sent his puppet insects into the food the boys had strewn about and into their drawers. He used them to toss about their papers and schoolwork, nibble on their textbooks, and even sent the insects rushing into the boys'' clothes and hair. He considered sending the insect extensions up the boys'' orifices, but dismissed the idea as being just asteptoo far.


    ??????????


    Bath¡¯s smile remained perfectly fixed, the kind of small, self-assured smile one would imagine the devil wears as he watches the world burn.


    He walked into the suite after only five minutes.


    Bath smiled. ¡°You all seem rather out of sorts,¡± he observed callously. They were shaking, appearing as though they had fought off against a legion of monsters from the depths of hell. Bath noted with disgust that two of them, Matt and Jake, had soiled their pants. Even though their bodies must have been itching wildly¡ªhe had laced his insects with mild poison¡ªthe boys remained fairly motionless.


    Were insects really that frightening to humans? He''d only let the attack run for five minutes, anyways. Snorting to himself, Bath continued his mental assault.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t I warn all of you what would happen if the suite became messy?¡± Bath said icily, a cruel smile appearing over his features.


    I may be inexperienced with human emotions, Bath thought to himself, but I¡¯m no novice in the art of instilling fear. Bath had agreed with Lisa¡¯s assessment that the best plan of action was to frighten his suitemates. He hadn¡¯t quite followed through with her more...conservativeplan of action, though. He considered what he was doing now as practice for when he and Lisa eventually intimidated world leaders into submission under Lisa¡¯s world democracy plan.


    He continued waiting for the boys to respond. The three didn¡¯t seem to register what he had said before, their faces still reeling in shock, so Bath began speaking again.


    ¡°You all wanted a democracy, and voted in favor of living in the style of pigs,¡± Bath said, his voice saccharine, his eyes frighteningly cold.


    ¡°I hope this unfortunate mishap will make you all realize the errors of your ways,¡± Bath added. ¡°I''m going to take it upon myself now to remake the rules as I see fit. For the good of us all. Do you understand?¡±


    The three boys, having only met Bath days ago, and were utterly shocked by their supposed suite mate¡¯s words and manner of address. They were the ones usually in power, at the top of the social hierarchy. And yet, here they were, cowering, and not from the insects. No, they cowered because of him. They instinctively faltered before his predatory gait, the way he loomed over them. They wanted to avert their eyes from his own, but couldn¡¯t, as though he was holding them captive with his eyes alone.


    ¡°Do whatever you want,¡± Dean croaked, his voice parched and sandpapery. ¡°Whatever.¡±


    Bath sighed. ¡°I''m not trying to give you all PTSD,¡± he stated. ¡°Let¡¯s just all promise to keep this place clean, quiet, and comfortable.¡±


    If his manner before had terrified the boys into paralysis, this switch to normalcy nearly caused them to faint. Jake at once ran for the door, fumbling with the knob, then rushed to the bathroom. All was silent: his retching could be heard for the next minute, unbroken by conversation. Bath stared calmly on at the other two as he took a seat on the couch and opened up a textbook. Matt and Dean remained fixed in place like statues.


    ¡°You can move,¡± Bath remarked absently as he turned a page. As though a spell was broken, the two boys keeled over. Matt hastily ran to join Jake in the bathroom.


    Dean looked up at Bath. He remained silent for a good period of time, then spoke.


    ¡°Who are you, really?¡±


    Bath grinned. ¡°Bath.¡±


    Dean looked away and shook his head in disbelief, mumbling ¡°Fuck;whatare you?¡±


    The grin only widened. Bath looked up, meeting the eyes of the boy who was brave enough to ask questions after all that had happened and strong enough to keep his dignity in the face of the insect army and Bath¡¯s rather demonic entrance.


    ¡°I think I could grow to ratherlikeyou, Dean.¡± How unexpected.


    Bath looked down again and continued reading. Dean slowly rose to his feet, turned away, went into his room, and locked the door behind him.

 [Chapter 20] A Photogenic Bath

    Three days later, Professor Scranton emailed Bath with the subject line, ¡°[IMPORTANT] UPDATE,¡± which was as vague as it was attention-grabbing.


    > Bath,


    > I just flew out to the location you marked off to me. Imagine my


    > incredible surprise when the obsidian behemoth you captured


    > on camera was clearly visible in a slab of rock at the bottom


    > of a huge ocean chasm! I don¡¯t think I''ve ever been more


    > thankful that I''m a certified scuba diver, else I might not have


    > been able to find it. Even so, it was way too out of the way for


    > someone your age to find on vacation, so I have no idea


    > how you were able discover it. I¡¯m also skeptical that the fossil is


    > as relevant to the Permian Extinction, but regardless, I want you to meet


    > me in my office today as soon as you get out of all your classes.


    > Thanks,


    > -Scranton"


    Bath chuckled softly at the rather scatterbrained email. This human had actually taken a flight the day he told her about the fossil? He found it rather unbelievable that a professor like herself would believe the words of an undergraduate student she just met and fly across the world.


    It was 2:10 now; he had actually just finished all his classes. He promptly headed over to the Paleontology Department building and walked into Professor Scranton¡¯s office.


    The woman started as soon as she saw him, for he had entered very quietly without knocking. ¡°Bath!¡± she exclaimed. Then her eyes narrowed. ¡°Who are you, and who have you been working with?¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± Bath said innocently. ¡°What?¡±


    She shook her head as though dispelling her mind of his innocent charm.


    ¡°There¡¯s no way a normal undergraduate would go on a random scuba diving mission off the Siberian coast in a sea most people have never even heard of! And to find a huge, never-before-discovered fossil...and on top of everything else, to find the damned fossil preserved in obsidian...It¡¯s impossible! Everything about it!¡±


    When she put it that way, it did seem a bit unbelievable. Bath just shrugged. ¡°Well, I was scuba diving in the Kara Sea and found it. What am I supposed to say?¡±


    ¡°Why were you scuba diving in the Kara Sea?¡±


    Bath¡¯s neutral smile at once turned icy. ¡°Why do I have to explain myself or my discovery?¡± he asked.


    The professor flinched. "We''re working together! I want to know more about how you made this discovery before we do more research. Besides, now I¡¯m concerned that someone else is trying to set me up for failure."


    ¡°What?¡±


    She gave him a look. ¡°Sabotage. For all I know, you could be working for someone eager to lead me on a wild goose chase that might ruin my career.¡±


    Bath sighed. ¡°Professor, there¡¯s nothing more to say.¡±


    She stared at him, expression pensive, though her eyes glinted with frustration. Bath could tell she didn¡¯t like to leave mysteries unsolved. Likely, he reasoned, this was a driving factor behind why she became a paleontologist.


    ¡°So, the first question I have,¡± Bath began, breaking the silence. "Is: how are we going to study a fossil in Siberia?¡± He knew the fossil was too large to relocate.


    The professor suddenly laughed. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. I used an imaging device to scan the obsidian. We have a complete image of the 3D structure of the rock, including its interior.¡±


    Bath was actually quite surprised.


    ¡°Really? How convenient. I can get started then on reconstructing the appearance of the specimen, while you can get started...¡± Bath figured there must be many things paleontologists did when they discovered a fossil. ¡°...With writing the paper?¡±


    She frowned at him. ¡°Reconstructing an image of the specimen requires a lot of experience. You need to be able to use a computer program to analyze the data that I took of the obsidian¡¯s 3D structure and the use the anatomy of similar species to recreate the organism¡¯s body.


    ¡°The organism will be difficult to reconstruct because the minerals in the obsidian, the only markers revealing the organism¡¯s disintegrated body, are not evenly distributed; some areas almost completely lack any mineral imprint. Moreover, based on the mineral imprint alone, I¡¯m hard-pressed to come up with any extant species that¡¯s similar enough to use for recreation.


    ¡°But go ahead, do your best. If you can¡¯t do it, I''ll just take over.¡±


    Bath smiled. ¡°I''ll get back to you as soon as I finish.¡±


    ??????????


    ¡°Lisa, I need to make a model of my old self,¡± Bath whined mockingly. ¡°Help.¡±


    Lisa rolled her eyes. She was actually very curious to see Bath¡¯s supposedly enormous, ancient, Permian-Extinction-causing form, though she wouldn¡¯t let her excitement show so easily. ¡°Now?¡± she sighed.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°I''ll bring us somewhere remote. Just bring your phone. I''m going to need you to take photos of my from every angle.¡±


    Bath and Lisa went to a fairly secluded area on campus, on the edge of a local forest. When Bath was sure nobody was around for at least a mile, he formed himself into a large bird-like creature. This form had a pouch-like opening that Lisa crawled into. Then, the bird took off, dashing into the sky at an incredibly fast pace. Bath knew the quick acceleration gave Lisa vertigo, but didn¡¯t want anybody to see them take off.


    As soon as he was in the clouds, he slowly stopped accelerating until he was moving at a constant velocity. As long as he kept his speed constant, he could move incredibly quickly through the sky without causing Lisa discomfort.


    He slowly decelerated as they reached a secluded stretch of desert. The ground was a burnt-orange color, as though the sun had seeped into the soil. Lisa stumbled out of the pouch inelegantly as Bath landed.


    ¡°Ugh," she groaned. ¡°When I was a kid, I always dreamed of flying. But this just sucks! I don¡¯t think I¡¯m ever going to get used to this.¡±


    Bath chuckled at Lisa¡¯s imbalance after leaving his pouch. He was already back in human form, the form he knew Lisa found most familiar. Over the past three years he¡¯d devised a way to create clothes just as surely as growing fur or scales, making the human transition a viable option. It had been an important skill when the two of them went on mind-manipulator hunts.


    ¡°Lisa, I''m going to become the big creature now,¡± he remarked casually.


    ¡°Ok,¡± she replied, readying her phone.


    Bath¡¯s new form genuinely was fear-inducing. Its black carapace was extremely imposing, and its huge, teeth-filled head only served to enhance the dangerous aesthetic. The body was covered in looked like something between a spider and a beetle, and had eight legs that were segmented like a spider¡¯s while terminating in powerful, clawed feet. The legs were long enough that the body itself was suspended a long way off the ground, at least ten times Lisa¡¯s height. Every time Bath changed position, the ground beneath him cracked. He was every bit as heavy as he looked, which was remarkable considering that he was easily one-hundred feet long from head to posterior and heavily plated in beetle armor.


    ¡°Holy shit,¡± she said softly. ¡°This is so fucking creepy. You know I hate spiders, and this thing is a million times worse. Like...if the world took a brown recluse and covered it in armor like a tank, and increased its size, they¡¯d have the current you.¡±


    ¡°Lisa,¡± Bath said. Bath had grown a mouth along his underbelly so that he could talk with Lisa and give her instructions. ¡°I''m sorry this form is so jarring, but you need to take pictures of me.¡±


    ¡°Fine, fine¡± she grumbled. She walked around him in a circle while taking pictures. After she completed her route, she stopped. ¡°Ok, done.¡±


    ¡°I need you to take a picture of me from below and above,¡± he explained. ¡°I can help you get above, and for below you just need to walk under me.¡±


    Lisa hadn¡¯t realized that by ¡®every angle,¡¯ Bath literally meant every angle.


    ¡°Fine!¡± she replied adamantly. She wouldn¡¯t let the appearance of Bath¡¯s form freak her out. It was just Bath!


    Lisa walked under his stomach and took pictures from the bottom of his head to his posterior. Then, when she finished, Bath sent essence tendrils swirling around her that lifted her into the sky. Bath had done this to her before, so she knew not to flinch. She held stock-still as he positioned her above, taking photos with as few movements as possible. Bath wouldn¡¯t drop her if she moved around or flailed, but her lizard-brain told her otherwise.


    She exhaled a sigh of relief when Bath set her down again.


    ¡°Okay, we''re done,¡± Bath smiled, having once more returned to human form.


    He took Lisa around the immediate area, giving her a tour of the desert land while they were there. He told her about the local wildlife, knowing an overwhelming amount about the ecosystem and the organisms within it. For the organisms which he couldn¡¯t name, he made images in the air by sculpting essence. Bath had gotten much better at long-range manipulation since entering the human realm, having never had use for the skill until then.


    They two of them returned to campus and Lisa sent off all the images to Bath once she connected her phone to the internet. He quickly traced each of the images with lines, sketching out the contours of his form. He wasn¡¯t sure how to make a 3D model from the 2D stills, but figured Professor Scranton would know what to do if he gave her 2D sketches from each angle. After he finished converting the images to sketches, he began to sketch the giant creature¡¯s internal structure. Doing so was trivially easy: While organisms generally couldn¡¯t feel their internal organs, Bath simply understood the structure of his internals as innately as he knew how to walk.


    If he had really wanted to, he could have recreated sketches of his ancient form based on his own knowledge of the contours of his outer carapace. However, simply taking pictures and sketching them over was much easier.


    Bath finished all of the sketches and emailed Professor Scranton that he was done and wanted to have a meeting with her about making 3D models.


    She responded almost immediately with the single-line email: "come now!"


    So, Bath headed over to her office, this time making three rather loud knocks to mark his arrival.


    ¡°Come in!¡± the professor called out. ¡°You said you had sketches for me?¡±


    Bath nodded. ¡°I''ve completed the sketches.¡± He had also printed them out for her to look at, later placing them in a manila folder which he now produced and placed on her desk.


    She picked up the folder and opened it. Her eyes grew wide.


    ¡°This is your sketch?¡± she asked. Then she flipped the sketch over and saw another underneath. And another.


    She looked through all of the sketches, stunned by their detail and thoroughness. ¡°How did you get all of this just from that obsidian?¡± she asked, stunned. This was utterly beyond her expectations.


    ¡°What I didn¡¯t see in the obsidian, I guessed at,¡± he explained. ¡°I have studied rather thoroughly the anatomy of insects and filled in the blanks as best I could using what I know.¡±


    Professor Scranton didn¡¯t reply, lost in the sketches and their levels of detail. Each one of the sketches provided one angle of insight into the appearance of the specimen. Together, they offered a complete, redundant view of the behemoth. She couldn¡¯t find any inconsistencies.


    ¡°Professor, how does one go about turning these sketches into a 3D representation?¡± he asked, curious.


    She looked up. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    Bath resisted the urge to rolled his eyes. ¡°Professor, I thought we were past this.¡±


    ¡°No, seriously. This is ridiculous. This sketch, it¡¯s as though you actually have seen this monster. I can¡¯t believe you just...drew these sketches based off of the data I gave you.¡±


    Bath knew he had been acting rather carelessly, not really trying to hide the fact that he was doing the impossible. Honestly, he was tired of pandering to human expectations as he had been doing while living back in the McLane house. If he could produce a perfectly accurate sketch, why wouldn¡¯t he?


    ¡°Professor, I¡¯m simply good at guessing and good at art. Anyways, if we plan on publishing this in a paper, I''d like you to help me turn these sketches into a 3D model.¡±


    Scranton eyed him with suspicion and confusion.


    ¡°...I''ll just make a 3D model. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    Bath nodded. ¡°I''ll write up the theory, then, about how this beast caused the Permian Extinction.¡±


    Professor Scranton actually spat out a sip of coffee, though quickly moved her head to the side to avoid spraying her computer and the sketches.


    ¡°What!?¡± she crowed. ¡°That¡¯s an absurdly farfetched claim. There¡¯s no way you can prove that.¡±


    ¡°Just wait for my report.¡± He walked out of the room with a confident gait that left the professor stunned.

 [Chapter 21] Mind Queen

    Early the next morning, when Scranton lumbered into her office and opened her email, she was so tired that she actually thought she was dreaming when the first thing in her inbox was an email from Bath with the subject line, "Report."


    She opened it up and began to read the attached Word document. As she read, she became increasingly perplexed.


    ¡°Bathiosaurus exorexus was alive during the beginning of the Permian period. It combined the internals of a synapsid, the ancestor of mammals, with the external features of an armored arachnid. The size of exorexus is unfathomable considering that exorexus was a terrestrial: the only species rivaling the size of exorexus have all been aquatic. This suggests that exorexus is a completely unprecedented organism with no discovered direct ancestors or descendants.


    ¡°Exorexus was undoubtedly the top predator on Pangea. His size is such that just walking would have cause the ground to shake under his weight. More importantly, because he had internals similar to those of a synapsid, he also would have had the metabolism of a synapsid rather than of an arachnid. Accordingly, to support his enormous size, exorexus would have needed to constantly feed. Unlike nearly every other large animal in existence, exorexus was carnivorous. To support himself, exorexus must have been in constant movement across the continent as he devoured prey.


    ¡°Exorexus was not a sustainable animal: any evolutionary ancestors of exorexus would have died out quickly from starvation. This again reintroduces the question of how exorexus came into being.


    ¡°Exorexus'' crusade across Pangea in pursuit of food eventually led him to the land above the Siberian Traps. At this time, the Siberian Traps were already primed to erupt. When exorexus walked across the Traps in pursuit of prey, moving with in powerful strides, he caused the Earth to crack beneath him. The estimated mass of exorexus leaves no doubt that he would have been able to create great tremors in the earth above the Traps, enough so that as he passed over them, he caused them to prematurely erupt. As they erupted, he was immediately caught in magma. Exorexus'' body, for reasons unknown, contained many heavy minerals which were preserved in the magma when the rest of his body was not. If not for this fact, exorexus'' existence would never have been discovered.


    ¡°Because exorexus was found around the Siberian Traps, had the Traps not already erupted, exorexus would have certainly set off their eruption just by his close proximity. That he was flash-incinerated in magma and turned to obsidian only serves to support the hypothesis that he set off the eruption that simultaneously ended his existence.¡±


    Professor Scranton agreed with Bath that there was absolutely no explanation for how exorexus came into being. Exorexus clearly wasn¡¯t a completely new life form: she had seen from Bath¡¯s sketches of the specimen¡¯s internals that its anatomy did closely resemble that of synapsids, indicating a shared evolutionary history.


    However, the organism had eight enormous, jointed legs and a massive carapace. From the outside, the organism looked like a huge, armored tarantula. Except for its head.


    Exorexus had two beady black eyes deeply set in a round, fiendish looking skull. It also had an enormous, fanged mouth, like some kind of prehistoric angler fish. Exorexus had truly been a terror.


    Professor Scranton stopped herself. These were all the insights of her new undergraduate researcher. All of this was just based on his sketches and his knowledge of the ancient world. She couldn¡¯t take all of this at face value. Besides, she saw multiple holes in his reasoning. This entire theory practically relied on the fact that Exorexus existed at the beginning of the Permian Extinction. They hadn¡¯t used any isotropic dating on the obsidian and had no evidence besides Exorexus'' unorthodox anatomy that it was from then.


    She went over to her computer and pulled up the 3D scan of the fossil she had taken while in Siberia. She studied the fossil thoroughly, comparing it with the sketches Bath had produced.


    The minerals definitely coincided with the sketch. However, the minerals were very disorganized around the face and the internals. While everything matched up, she didn¡¯t see how Bath had been able to produce a sketch of exorexus¡¯ internal organs based off of the minerals in the obsidian alone. She couldn¡¯t, then, fully accept the fact that exorexus'' anatomy matched that of a synapsid. Perhaps exorexus was from a later or earlier time period.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°But really, Bathiosaurus exorexus?" she murmured, chuckling to herself. Naming the monster after himself? Bath-iosaurus?


    ??????????


    After Bath sent off the report, he put the issue of correcting the history of the Permian Extinction on the backburner. Something interesting had come up yesterday: Lisa had finally identified someone else who could manipulate minds.


    Lisa had told Bath an endless number of times that she would be able to sense people who could manipulate minds because of their distinctive mental shells. These shells would move about in irregular ways and dip into the shells of others.


    A few months after Bath and Lisa had been searching for mind-manipulators, Lisa informed Bath that there was a good chance that if a mind-manipulator was careful, they could stop their shell from moving around, though this would require conscious control. If they knew Lisa was coming and sensed her first, however, this meant that they could mask their shell if they wanted to escape her detection. Moreover, if they were more experienced than her, she pointed out that they would likely have a larger range of detection and sense her before she discovered them.


    This was one of the main reasons why Bath and Lisa had called off the mind-manipulator hunt before heading off to Alens. Before, they had assumed that if they searched hard enough, they would certainly find a mind-manipulator. In reality, if this wasn¡¯t the case, then they were just wasting their time while potentially exposing Lisa.


    But yesterday, Lisa had finally detected someone before they detected her. She hid her shell immediately, gleeful that she had finally become powerful enough to get the jump on someone else.


    ¡°Who¡¯s the best?¡± she asked Bath, a huge smile on her face.


    He scoffed. ¡°Me, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Bath¡ª¡±


    ¡°But, you''re a close second,¡± he added warmly, humor in his eyes. ¡°This is great, Lisa. Why don¡¯t we figure out who this person is?¡±


    Lisa pointed out the mind-manipulator from afar. Bath approached the person as a small gnat.


    It was a human woman. She was tall, with dark hair and olive skin. Bath found that her name was Angelina Baker and that she was a junior at Alens.


    Nothing seemed out of the ordinary about Angelina as Bath followed her around. However, before Bath left Angelina to return to his room, he deposited tiny ears all over her room to listen in on her activities. He needed to know if she had contact with other mind manipulators.


    ??????????


    A few days later, late at night, Bath was stirred awake by the ears he had stationed in Angelina¡¯s dorm. They always relayed to him any sounds coming from her room, though usually it was insignificant noise. However, now, at three in the morning, Bath listened very carefully to Angelina¡¯s words as she spoke into her phone. Calls made at such a strange hour were rarely without purpose.


    ¡°Ritus per astra,¡± she murmured into the phone. Rites by the stars. Bath frowned. This sounded like some kind of weird passphrase.


    He quickly used long-range manipulation to place a pair of extremely sensitive ears near the phone to hear the other side of the conversation.


    ¡°Hello, Angie,¡± a muffled male voice replied. ¡°How¡¯s school?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good.¡±


    ¡°Have you found the Regis yet?¡± The king?


    ¡°Yeah. I found her.¡±


    ¡°She still doesn¡¯t know that you''re a kursi, correct?¡±


    ¡°Of course! Dad, come on, you know I''m one of the best Dominators in all of Ritus.¡± Her voice was full of expression and intensity, though very quiet. Bath¡¯s stationed ears could only hear the conversation clearly because of their augmented hearing.


    The man on the phone chuckled. ¡°Alright. Honey, there¡¯s going to be a meeting with the Council in twenty days. A new gate¡¯s opened up. We''re going to test the waters.¡±


    Angelina seemed startled by her reply. ¡°What!? Dad, it¡¯s only been two years since our last fishing expedition,¡± she hissed. ¡°Is it really a good idea to fish again so soon?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re just testing the waters, dear. We still don¡¯t know what we¡¯re dealing with. Before then, I want you to make contact with the Regis and invite her to come with you. This is a good opportunity to recruit her and show her Ritus¡¯ power.¡±


    ¡°Ok; I''ll make contact soon.¡±


    The phone call ended. Angie stood up and walked around her room. ¡°Why now?¡± she asked out loud, her voice barely audible. She sighed, then tucked herself into bed to resume sleep.


    Bath mulled over what he had heard. ¡°Ritus?¡± he whispered to himself. What was this organization?


    ??????????


    Bath told Lisa what he had head heard the next day. She seemed fairly annoyed that she had been discovered as a mind-manipulator, but aside from that was relatively unsurprised.


    ¡°Well, if there are other mind-manipulators, it makes sense that they¡¯ve created their own organization,¡± she said. ¡°At least we now know that there are enough manipulators to actually form an organization.¡±


    ¡°Do you know why they were calling you a Regis?¡± Bath asked.


    Lisa shrugged, her face contorting into an ¡°I have no idea¡± expression.


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s what they call mind-manipulators. Kings and queens or something stupid and elitist like that.¡±


    Bath shook his head. ¡°They seemed to be calling you something else. Almost like...a classification of manipulator.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t be able to figure out everything now, without talking to these people first.¡±


    Bath nodded his assent. ¡°Well, this Angelina figure was instructed to reach out to you. However...why don¡¯t we reach out to her first?¡±


    Lisa cocked her head. ¡°We could,¡± she said slowly, ¡°but why?¡±


    Bath displayed a predatory grin, showing teeth. ¡°I think that if you want to have the best chance of gaining more information, you need to make yourself desirable to this organization. That way, if you ask questions, they will be more inclined to answer rather than be tight-lipped.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s oddly political of you.¡±


    Bath smiled. ¡°It¡¯s of paramount importance that you make a good impression. We need to find out more about mind-manipulation: how it works, and how it¡¯s possible.¡±


    Lisa nodded. ¡°Okay, so when do we approach Angelina?¡±


    ¡°How about now?¡±

 [Chapter 22] Psychological Eval

    ¡°Bath, you''re here because your roommates claimed that you filled your common room with bugs to intimidate them. Is this true?¡±


    Bath sat before Ellis'' Dean, Dr. Greenberg. She fixed him with an intense gaze. Bath¡¯s eyes were playful.


    They had the nerve to report me? he thought to himself. They have more backbone than I thought.


    ¡°I have no idea what they¡¯re talking about.¡±


    ¡°They also said that you threatened them if they kept the common room messy or threw parties,¡± she added. ¡°Is this true?¡±


    Bath deadpanned. What did she expect him to say? Yes? Actually, Bath was quite curious to see what would happen if he was honest.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t say anything in your defense, I¡¯m going to have to take further measures. I can¡¯t just dismiss the claims of three people, especially when one of them has officially been diagnosed with PTSD by one of our school psychologists.¡±


    Suddenly, the Dean had a glint in her eye.


    ¡°Would you agree to see a school psychologist?¡±


    Bath¡¯s face actually displayed a modicum of shock. Psychologist?


    ¡°Dr. Greenberg, I don¡¯t need therapy,¡± he stated firmly, a slight bit of annoyance seeping into his voice.


    ¡°It would greatly ease my worry if you went for a psychological evaluation,¡± she pressed.


    Bath groaned internally. A psychological evaluation? This was absolutely the last thing that he needed.


    ¡°Fine,¡± he acquiesced. It wouldn¡¯t really affect him, anyways, besides wasting his time. And if it would get the Dean off his back...


    ¡°I''ll go.¡±


    ??????????


    Earlier that day:


    Bath and Lisa located Angelina, eventually tracking her down in a local coffee shop. Lisa didn¡¯t bother to hide her shell since Angelina already knew that she was a mind-manipulator. Bath could tell that Angelina was wary when they walked in, instantly taking note of Lisa and hiding her own shell, as expected.


    They walked right over to Angelina¡¯s table where she was working on her laptop.


    ¡°Hello, mind if we sit?¡± Lisa asked cheerfully. Before waiting for a response, both she and Bath sat down in chairs across from Angelina.


    Lisa reached out to touch Angelina with her mind. She could tell that Angelina tried to resist reacting to the probe, but as the mind tendrils grew closer to Angelina¡¯s shell, the woman eventually flinched and batted them away with her own mind defense.


    Lisa tried, and failed, to conceal a jubilant laugh. We¡¯ve finally found one, she thought to herself. There was no doubt now.


    Angelina looked furious. She stared at both of them as though by doing so she could set them on fire.


    ¡°How did you find me?¡± she hissed. Bath thought that the question should really be, ¡°How did you know that I''m also a mind manipulator?¡±


    ¡°Oh, come on,¡± Lisa said. ¡°I know all about your plan to approach me. To save us both some time, I thought I''d beat you to the chase.¡±


    ¡°What plan?¡± Angelina replied hotly. Lisa noted that she was a decent actress. ¡°I have no idea who either of you are.¡±


    ¡°I''m Lisa, and this is Bath. I''m here because I want you to take us to Ritus. I''m interested in possibly becoming a member.¡±


    Angelina looked confused. ¡°You...want to join Ritus?¡±


    Lisa nodded. ¡°Maybe. But I need to visit the organization myself and develop a first-hand perspective. I''ve heard a bit about Ritus in the past and...fishing...and I''m not sure what I think. Yet.¡±


    ¡°I suppose I can take you to Ritus,¡± she said slowly.


    ¡°Great! When can we go?¡± Lisa asked enthusiastically.


    ¡°There¡¯s a meeting in twenty days,¡± Angelina admitted cautiously. ¡°I can take you then.¡±


    ¡°Great, we''ll see you then,¡± Bath stated cheerfully.


    ¡°Not you, her,¡± Angelina clarified. ¡°She¡¯s the Regis. You''re just...¡± She frowned, suspicion clouding her features. ¡°What are you?¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°I''m Lisa¡¯s guardian. So, accordingly, I shall be accompanying her to Ritus.¡±


    Angelina apparently didn¡¯t know what to say, for she stayed quiet for a moment.


    ¡°I suppose...that will work...¡±


    ¡°Twenty days,¡± Bath repeated resolutely as he and Lisa stood up and left.


    Lisa noticed that Angelina looked positively shocked by what had just transpired.


    Good. Like Bath said, she needed to make an impact.


    ??????????


    Over the next few days, nothing unusual happened. Angelina kept her distance, while Professor Scranton didn¡¯t have any new updates other than that she was ¡°Conducting More Research.¡±


    His roommates still couldn¡¯t stand to give him eye contact. He hadn¡¯t confronted them about their reporting him to the Dean, believing it best to let them think that nothing had come of their accusations.


    Soon, the date of Bath¡¯s ¡°psychological evaluation¡± arrived.


    The psychologist was waiting for him in a small building a few minutes away from the center of campus. Bath entered the designated room and found a woman waiting for him on a cozy couch. The room had two couches opposite each other. Bath sat on the other couch and waited for her to begin speaking.


    There was only silence. Bath knew that the evaluation would at most go for an hour, since that was the length of his appointment. If this psychologist didn¡¯t care to start her evaluation and wanted to play the ¡°quiet game¡± as a sort of test-of-wills, he wasn¡¯t going to stop her.


    Bath looked at her patiently, unperturbed in the least. He took in her features and poise while he waited for her to speak. She was fairly young, likely mid-thirties. She also seemed very calm, matching his own demeanor.


    After what was likely five minutes of silence, the psychologist said, ¡°You''re the first I''ve ever had to go the first five minutes without speaking.¡± She wrote something down on a sheet of paper on her lap. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you break the silence?¡±


    ¡°Why would I?¡±


    ¡°Many reasons. Most people find silence to be uncomfortable. Most people break the silence the minute they step into the room by introducing themselves.¡±


    Bath just stared at her, his face serene.


    ¡°Tell me about yourself,¡± she prompted.


    ¡°My name is Bath,¡± he began. That was the most basic thing he thought of. ¡°I enjoy art, history, and nature. I¡¯m adopted. I have a younger sister named Avery. My parents are happily married and have always made sure to provide Avery and I with everything they can.¡±


    The psychologist remained impassive.


    ¡°I have a best friend named Lisa who I''ve known since preschool. She¡¯s actually here at Alens with me.¡± He didn¡¯t know what else he was supposed to say. He felt like he''d already exhausted everything. Bath generally thought in terms of big, general ideas and feelings rather than specifics. He didn¡¯t think much of his life¡¯s narrative as a human since it was such a short period of time. He therefore had very little to tell the psychologist.


    ¡°What makes you tick?¡± the psychologist eventually asked. Bath gave her a look. What made him tick?


    ¡°That¡¯s a rather difficult question to answer,¡± Bath replied with a smile. ¡°Though in general, I want to stop people from destroying the environment. Also, I want to explore what it means to be human.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s tons of research about sociology and the human experience and whatnot. I want to live each day learning more about people.¡±


    The psychologist nodded.


    ¡°So, then, what is your analysis of what it means to be human?¡±


    Bath laughed. ¡°My analysis? Humans are just like other mammals in almost every way. The only only real difference between humans and apes is civilization. So, I suppose my analysis is that to be human is to be a really smart ape willing to work with other apes to make a big city,¡± he said jokingly.


    ¡°That¡¯s rather pessimistic,¡± she replied. ¡°Do you believe humanity is inherently good or bad?¡±


    Bath didn¡¯t skip a beat, having debated this issue with Lisa more than a few times.


    ¡°Good and bad are meaningless,¡± he asserted. "I would rather say, humans are generally cruel. But Nature, too, is cruel, so I can¡¯t fault humans for following her example.¡±


    ¡°You talk about humanity in a very objective sense. Hmm. Do you believe in any religion?¡±


    ¡°I was raised Catholic,¡± he said simply, not bothering to provide more information.


    ¡°But do you believe?¡±


    Bath cocked an eyebrow. ¡°Who¡¯s to say?¡±


    ¡°You mentioned how you can¡¯t fault humanity for following ¡®Nature¡¯s example.¡¯ What do you think about nature?¡±


    Bath blinked. What did he think about nature? These questions, they were so open-ended. ¡°Nature is...a pattern," the said slowly. "Slowly unfurling itself. It starts as a speck, barely visible, then fans out, blooming like a rose from a bud.¡± He thought of his Center similarly.


    The psychologist seemed a bit surprised by his response.


    ¡°Do you believe that nature is beautiful?¡± she asked.


    Bath laughed. ¡°Beauty is Nature¡¯s daughter.¡±


    ??????????


    The psychologist¡¯s face darkened. Over their time together, Bath¡¯s manner of speaking had changed. At times it was casual, while at other times haughty. It struck her as inconsistent and peculiar, but then again, this was Alens, a school that housed quite a few geniuses.


    After half an hour of Q&A had passed, the psychologist announced that she would now administer a standardized psychological evaluation. It was a questionnaire on a tablet. She handed him the tablet and waited patiently for him to go through all of the questions.


    A few minutes passed. Then, Bath sighed, turned around the tablet, and handed it back.


    She looked at the evaluation, absorbing its results. Bath appeared to be within the bounds of normality. He was a calculating person who was predisposed to being a good leader, and was moderately prideful. But none of the results suggested that Bath had any abnormal personality traits or some psychological scarring that would cause him to be a threat to others.


    She explained the results a bit to Bath, discussed a few more questions with him, and then, exactly as the hour turned, he soundlessly got up from the couch and left, giving her a small wave as the door shut behind him.


    Now that she thought about it, because he had skipped introductions, he didn¡¯t even know her name. Was he really that eager to get this meeting over and done with? So uninterested to meet with a psychologist?


    She thought, perhaps, that Bath had something he was hiding. People could fake psychological evaluation results. After all, Bath¡¯s actual behavior didn¡¯t completely match up with the standardized evaluation.


    She frowned to herself, considering what to do next.

 [Chapter 23] Entering Ritus

    Twenty days eventually came and went. Over that time, Bath had many of his first ¡°college experiences.¡± For instance, on one evening, Lisa decided to bring Bath to a frat party.


    ¡°Why does it smell like pot?¡± he yelled over the music.


    Lisa gave him a look. ¡°Bath, it¡¯s a frat party; of course people are smoking pot.¡±


    Bath scowled and said, ¡°I thought people at frat parties just danced. Aren¡¯t you supposed tonotdrink at frat parties?¡± Bath was fairly certain that, ¡°don¡¯t drink the punch¡± was rule number one of how to survive college. And yet, here was Lisa, a cup of sweet punch in hand.


    ¡°If you only have a few sips, it¡¯s totally safe,¡± she assuaged. Bath sighed and rolled his eyes, not genuinely concerned. Lisa could take care of herself. If someone roofied her, which was the worst case scenario that he could think of, she had him as a backup.


    ¡°Why do people even come here?¡± he asked several minutes later, genuinely confused by the appeal of the party.


    ¡°Bath, you''re so boring. You need to be drunk to have fun in a place like this,¡± Lisa murmured as she swayed to the beat of a pop hit. The place was so loud that Bath relied on lip-reading to understand what she was saying.


    Suddenly, Lisa took him by surprise and fell into his chest, rubbing her hands against his back. Bath¡¯s gaze turned sharp, though Lisa couldn¡¯t see because she rested her chin on his shoulder.


    ¡°Hey, Lisa,¡± he hissed. ¡°What¡ª¡±


    ¡°Mmm,¡± Lisa sighed contentedly. Bath noted that Lisa had already finished the cup of mystery punch and was drunk. How drunk, he didn¡¯t know, since he had never seen Lisa drunk before. They didn¡¯t drink back home since they didn¡¯t partake in the high school party scene. Even when alone, since Bath didn¡¯t drink, Lisa never felt the need to. But now, at this party where everyone was at least a little tipsy, Lisa had finally let herself go a little.


    So much for a couple sips.


    Bath wasn¡¯t sure how to address the situation. He had trusted Lisa to drink responsibly, and yet here she was, hanging onto his back and swaying with the music.


    ¡°It¡¯s so unfair,¡± she murmured. ¡°Your body is a fucking statue.¡± She pressed herself against his chest and hips. Bath¡¯s face grew increasingly severe.


    ¡°Lisa, we should leave,¡± he stated, anger tingeing his voice. ¡°You''re intoxicated.¡±


    She didn¡¯t respond and continued to dance against his still body. Bath was extremely confused by how she could have fun ramming into him like a cat on a scratching post.


    After a few seconds of deliberation, he peeled Lisa¡¯s arms off his back and turned her forcefully around, so that her back was to his chest. Then, he secured her arms and led her out of the party. She resisted weakly, knowing even in her drunken state the futility of resisting his strength.


    He sat her down on a bench outside and sighed.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± he began, ¡°you need to sober up. I''m taking you back to your suite.¡± What the hell was in that frat¡¯s punch that made Lisa so loopy? He¡¯d thought the alcohol would take more time to get into her system.


    Bath used a tendril of essence to gather a bit of the alcoholic punch from inside the party and brought it outside. He sniffed it, then licked the artificially bright-blue punch. He spat it out and glared.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t just alcohol,¡± he realized, instantly infuriated. He looked down at Lisa. He didn¡¯t know what the frat boys had put into the punch, but it wasn¡¯t good. It wasn¡¯t date-rape drug or anything seriously noxious, but it was enough to put her out of sorts.


    He first walked Lisa back to her suite and stayed with her, watching TV in her suite. While he kept Lisa occupied, Bath decided to have a bit of fun while practicing long-range manipulation.


    The floor of the frat house was sticky. This had been the first thing to annoy Bath upon entering, so he decided to exacerbate the problem by laying his essence across the floor and hooking onto people¡¯s shoes as they danced. Soon, people were falling all over each other as they lost their balance.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    In the confusion, he started to jab at the bodies of the frat boys, using needle-sharp bits of essence to poke through their shirts and pants. They started to jump and squeal at random. Soon, the entire frat house was filled with twitching, jumping guys who kept falling down as their shoes became stuck on the floor.


    This minor assault took up very little of his attention and Lisa had no idea whatsoever that Bath was doing anything other than watching TV.


    ¡°Man, college guys are so rapey,¡± she sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t believe they spiked the punch with stuff that wasn¡¯t alcohol.¡±


    Bath snorted. ¡°Lisa, you knew not to drink the punch. Are you honestly surprised?¡±


    Lisa frowned. ¡°I think disappointed is a better word. I didn¡¯t think that the frat would actually do something so stereotypical.¡±


    Bath¡¯s face revealed no emotion; instead, he reflected his rising anger by elevating his jab frequency. Hearing Lisa speak increased his revulsion toward these insects who used their power to over-intoxicate girls for their own selfish motives.


    Bath¡¯s insistent jabbing and shoe-catching finally became too much for the frat to handle, forcing the party to end early. He wondered how the frat was rationalizing what had happened.


    ¡°Why are you smiling?¡± Lisa asked suspiciously. By now, she was fairly sober and aware of her surroundings.


    ¡°Hmm, me?¡±


    She gave him an appraising look. ¡°Bath...are you attacking the frat?¡±


    Bath kept his face stony. ¡°Why would you ask?¡±


    Lisa suddenly burst out into a fit of cackling.


    ¡°You''re the best,¡± she grinned, punching his shoulder lightly with her fist.


    Bath waited until Lisa returned her gaze to the TV and smiled.


    ??????????


    On the twentieth day, Bath and Lisa went together to search for Angelina. Over the past twenty days, Bath had continued to monitor the mind-manipulator, though he hadn¡¯t been able to overhear anything useful. She had only made one phone call to Ritus the day that Bath and Lisa revealed themselves, and that had only been to say that the two of them would accompany her.


    Meanwhile, Bath and Lisa had both spent a good deal of time trying to research Ritus, to no avail. There was simply nothing available about the organization online.


    After the first week, they had both resigned themselves to figuring everything out when they actually got to Ritus¡¯ headquarters. And while they were wary of heading there without any information, Bath felt confident in his ability to protect Lisa from physical harm and escape if necessary.


    A week back, Lisa and Angelina had agreed to meet up at the local Starbucks at 3:00 pm before heading off to Ritus. Bath and Lisa arrived at 2:55, while Angelina panted into the Starbucks at 3:07.


    ¡°Sorry I''m late,¡± she huffed. ¡°Are you both ready to go?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lisa nodded. ¡°Where are we going, exactly?¡±


    ¡°Come outside.¡± Angelina led the two of them to a car that had only just pulled up outside of the Starbucks. It was black, with tinted windows and a sturdy-looking exterior. A middle-aged, well-dressed man with a small mustache exited the driver¡¯s seat and silently opened up the passenger side doors.


    The three entered the car and sat down within the spacious interior. It was filled with two rows of seats facing one another, as though the car had been designed to facilitate meetings en route.


    ¡°Where are we going?¡± Lisa asked, repeating her original question. Angelina remained quiet, a small smirk tugging up at the corners of her mouth. Bath¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. He was using his essence to track the car¡¯s movement, laying down a string of matter that scraped against the ground and left a pheromone trail. This was the only way he could devise on the spot to track the movements of the car over a long distance, as any essence from his Center would evaporate once it fell outside of his manipulation range.


    Nobody spoke as the car drove on. Bath felt a twinge of annoyance as the car¡¯s distance severed his control over the network of essence he had placed around Alens, but reminded himself that protecting Lisa¡¯s safety was far more important than such a minor inconvenience.


    Where is Ritus? Bath wondered to himself. The car was currently crossing a state line, supporting the theory that Ritus wasn¡¯t a local organization, but a national-level one. How else could it have enough members? Mind manipulators were extremely rare.


    Finally, the car slowed down and pulled into a side street somewhere in Virginia. It was around 6:00 by the time the car parked outside of an enormous, gilded mansion.


    Bath noticed with a start that he recognized the mansion. He looked to Lisa, then looked back at the mansion. It...


    ¡°Lisa, it looks like a larger version of your family¡¯s lake house,¡± Bath whispered. Lisa gulped. Bath noticed that Lisa¡¯s eyes contained a newfound uncertainty. Bath, too, was fairly taken aback by the resemblance between the lake house and the mansion before them. On closer inspection, the houses weren¡¯t identical...but the coincidence was too much for Bath to dismiss.


    What was the likelihood that Lisa''s family lake house looked just like the Ritus headquarters?


    Bath began to listen for the movements of people within the mansion. He was too far out to hear anything definitive from outside the car, but as they approached the entrance, he picked up on the heartbeats of more than twenty people inside.


    At the front door stood two armed guards in kevlar. They had weathered, deadly looks to them, though Bath didn¡¯t see this as areason to pay them any mind. As the three of them reached the door, the two guards soundlessly pulled back to permit them smooth entrance to the mansion.


    ¡°After you,¡± Angelina smiled.

 [Chapter 24] The Fishing Gates

    The inside of the mansion was stark white, emanating a sense of polished splendor. The entire back side of the main atrium was made of glass and looked out onto a small lake that hadn¡¯t been visible from the driveway. Each piece of furniture looked like an expensive antique, and even the ceiling was decorated with exquisite crown molding.


    Bath quickly expelled his essence into every corner of the room. After locating a vent, he began to circulate his essence through other areas of the mansion.


    He smiled darkly to himself: his long-range manipulation was improving. Once such a useless skill, long-range manipulation was now one of his most useful tools for engaging in subterfuge.


    After a few seconds of circulating his essence through the mansion¡¯s vents, Bath realized that the house was even more enormous than its exterior implied. The upper level of the house had countless rooms, most of them living quarters. But the basement...that was a veritable labyrinth. Bath nearly sighed out loud in appreciation. How did this group of people actually construct such a basement without being stopped for housing violations? Even he would be hard pressed to gouge out such an enormous warren.


    The basement¡¯s overlapping pathways stretched for several kilometers. While Bath¡¯s essence continued to progress through the basement, it eventually reached the end of his range at some point under the lake. So: the basement actually went below the bedrock?


    While he gained a sense of the mansion¡¯s general layout, Bath began installing little eye and ears throughout. After doing so, he immediately gained a better sense of how many people were stationed in the building.


    He was shocked by the number. While there were a few humans in the building, nothing caught his attention more than the twenty-two non-human lifeforms he detected in the subterranean complex.


    Bath¡¯s eyes constricted and he had to consciously control his heart rate. Angelina was oriented away from him as she lead them out of the living room foyer, so she didn¡¯t see. But Lisa¡¯s face turned utterly ashen.


    ??????????


    She had never seen that kind of look on Bath before. He looked...as though he were starving, and a feast was laid out before him. She became incredibly nervous: Not because they were in the headquarters of a suspicious organization, but because she had no idea what could put Bath into such a state.


    She bumped against him and gave him a look. Bath¡¯s expression returned to normal, though by virtue of knowing him her entire life, Lisa still detected a remnant of bestial desire in his eyes.


    ¡°Bath,¡± she whispered under her breath, knowing that only his enhanced ears would pick the sound up. He continued to look ahead after Angelina, giving no sign that he had heard her. Lisa breathed in deeply. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you''ve discovered...but be careful.¡±


    Now Bath looked her way. He just smiled, but it was the smile of winter as it lulled people to sleep under snowy covers. The smile of the wolf among sheep. A little mouth appeared behind her ear.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± the mouth hissed softly. Lisa felt as though a snake on her shoulder, whispering into her ear. She shuddered. ¡°They have alien lifeforms in this house.¡± Lisa jumped as though the imagined snake had bit her. Her eyes grew wide, though she quickly controlled her composure. All this time, she had kept careful control over her shell; only now had her control lapsed.


    She wasn¡¯t too concerned with the lapse: feeling uncertainty in the headquarters of a mysterious organization was natural. Or at least, she thought, uncertainty should be natural. Unless¡ªshe turned to look to her left¡ªyou were a primordial lifeform like Bath who feared nothing and no one.


    ¡°Angelina,¡± Bath spoke up, his voice calm. ¡°Will we be heading to the basement to meet up with the others?¡±


    Angelina turned back and gaped. ¡°How do you...?¡±


    Bath laughed coldly. ¡°Come now, do you really think Lisa and I would enter your headquarters blind? I, myself, am quite interested in your...fishing collection.¡±


    Lisa really didn¡¯t know much about the mansion, but after hearing Bath¡¯s assertion that the house held alien life...She understood why he associated the lifeforms with the organization¡¯s mysterious ¡°fishing.¡± While fishing for alien lifeforms seemed incredulous, so did manipulating people¡¯s emotional shells.


    Angelina¡¯s lips tightened until her mouth was nothing more than a slash. Lisa herself felt intimidated by Bath¡¯s dauntless demeanor. Though she knew that he was making everything up on the spot, it seemed as though he was totally in control of the situation. She decided not to speak for now and give Bath space to make a powerful first impression.


    ??????????


    ¡°You''re the bodyguard?¡± Angelina asked, her voice strained. Bath could tell that she wanted to ask more, but was restricted by her role as escort. He knew, based off of a few conversations amongst people in the basement, that Angelina¡¯s role was to welcome them in, dazzle them a bit by showing them the wealth of the house, and then, finally, lead them into the mansion¡¯s cavernous underbelly.


    Bath decided that he wasn¡¯t going to let their plan come to completion. In this kind of situation, where the stakes were high, Bath felt an overpowering need to be in control. More than anything else, he wanted to dominate this organization. They had something he wanted, something he was desperate for.


    New life.


    Life on Earth had long since grown stagnant...even after a few more millions or billions of years, Bath didn¡¯t have faith that it would change significantly. At least not enough to interest him. He had felt that Earth was on its way out when he peered up at the icebergs and saw them melting like popsicles in the sun, a time scarcely twenty years ago. His intuition had been that Earth had reached its pinnacle and that the future was a downhill slope.


    Feeling this, he had followed his instincts to prevent Earth from realizing this decline, eventually deciding to assimilate into human society.


    But now...perhaps there was another way to get what he wanted. To devour more, to sate the endless hunger of his Center, a hunger that he had learned to ignore long ago, a hunger that now burned. The few alien species in the basement were driving him literally crazy.


    He manually controlled his salivary glands and heart rate as he contemplated what hunger he would feel were he to step foot on an entirely new planet. Though Bath¡¯s head was embroiled in a storm of thoughts, he continued presenting his facade.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m the bodyguard,¡± he replied.


    ¡°It¡¯d be better if you didn¡¯t speak about things you shouldn¡¯t know, even if you have a defense against us,¡± Angelina said, voice saccharine.


    Defense against them? In a moment of clarity, Bath realized Angelina must be referring to his peculiar black-hole shell.


    ¡°Angelina, why don¡¯t we go to your dining room?¡± he suggested, disregarding her poorly-disguised warning. Bath knew the dinner wasn¡¯t supposed to be for at least another half hour, but this was precisely the point: he wanted to put Ritus¡¯ members off balance.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°While we¡¯ll eventually have food downstairs, why don¡¯t we first¡ª"


    ¡°Angelina, Lisa and I are absolutely famished. Is there really no way we can have something to eat now?¡± Bath now let a bit of his current ravenousness seep into his facial expression. Just the tiniest bit of this hunger made Angelina flinch, fear sweeping over her face.


    ??????????


    Lisa saw a hint of fear tinge Angelina¡¯s shell and smirked. Based on Lisa¡¯s own strength, all the mind manipulators in the house would have been able to sense the flicker in her shell. She couldn¡¯t feel all the mind manipulators, especially the ones more powerful than herself, but she already sensed perhaps one-hundred of them on the premises. Lisa hoped that they would view this fear as a treacherous weakness. After all, who let their shell display fear while giving a diplomatic tour of the headquarters?


    ¡°I suppose we could go to the kitchen...¡± Angelina said uncertainly, obviously aware that there would be repercussions for her poor control.


    ¡°Forget it,¡± Bath said somberly. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s go to see your fishing collection downstairs," he said, leaving no room for disagreement.


    Sighing dejectedly, Angelina assented and led Bath and Lisa down a set of winding stairs. The staircase was made of high-quality wood and gleamed glossy in the overhead light. The staircase went down for a minute and a half before the group reached an archway covered by a silk drape. The three of them passed through the drape and into a square room with several doors. The room itself was quite stark, lacking any furniture. Bath knew that this room¡¯s purpose was limited to connecting the downstairs labyrinth together.


    Angelina led them towards a door Bath knew didn¡¯t lead to the alien species.


    ¡°Angelina, where are you taking us?¡± he asked icily.


    ¡°To the trophy collection.¡±


    Bath laughed softly. ¡°I asked to see your fishing collection, from fishing,¡± he clarified with a callous grin. ¡°Is this animal collection the very same one?¡±


    Angelina swallowed, her face sallow. ¡°I don¡¯t¡ªI think we should meet with the organization heads before I bring you anywhere else,¡± she muttered. In a complete breach of plan, she led them to the dining room area. Now, the twenty-three Ritus heads that were present sat conversing around pitchers of water and two bowls of fruit.


    Bath¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Ah, thank you for the food, Angelina!¡± he said, the ¡°sincerity¡± in his voice foreboding. Angelina shook her head brusquely as she speed-walked to her seated elders and faced Bath and Lisa.


    ¡°Finally,¡± Bath heard her whisper under her breath. ¡°Time to ditch the black-hearted monster.¡±


    The twenty-three elders surprisingly regarded their guests¡¯ arrival with minimal shock, especially considering that they hadn¡¯t expected the duo for another half hour.


    The elders encouraged Bath and Lisa to each take a seat and, soon enough, all parties were seated in the room¡¯s luxurious dining chairs.


    Bath decided to munch on fruit while the humans busied themselves with introductions. The people in the room were, for the most part, giving him absolutely zero attention while they focused on Lisa. Angelina, however, kept her gaze firmly locked on him. She felt as though if she looked away, she''d be killed, which didn¡¯t make any sense...yet this was what her instincts told her: Keep your eyes on this man at all costs.


    She knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that this man was far more dangerous than they had anticipated...Bodyguard? What a joke. The cold, killing intent she felt radiating off of this guy reminded her of a master assassin they¡¯d once hired. Except...this bodyguard, he felt a little...unhinged. Which only terrified her more!


    And yet, she had no way to inform the people in the room about the snake they¡¯d let into their midst.


    All this flashed through Angelina¡¯s mind while the apparent leader, Al Jessup, began explaining Ritus to Lisa. The man was young, likely late-twenties by his appearance. In fact, nobody present appeared to be older than thirty-five. Jessup looked like he could be Angelina¡¯s older brother with his straight nose and angular features.


    Why, then, did they all refer to themselves as elders? Bath wondered.


    ¡°Based off of what we know about you, we assume you already possess a rudimentary understanding of kursi,¡± he began.


    Now Bath trusted Lisa to handle the smooth-talking.


    ¡°I do know a bit, though my understanding has lots of holes. Can you give me an overview from the beginning?¡±


    Jessup smiled, showing teeth. ¡°Of course! The first kursi originated in Ildr.¡± Lisa¡¯s eyes flickered to Bath¡¯s.


    Ildr?


    ¡°Right,¡± Lisa nodded.


    ¡°This is because Ildr was the epicenter of the second great Outward Expansion. While most kursi symbiotes remain dormant, the one that lives within you is a queen. It is what gives you the ability to influence the mental states of other sapients.¡±


    Bath wondered why (or if) Ritus expected Lisa to know anything about Ildr or the Outward Expansion.


    ¡°I''m still confused about how kursi are able to manipulate other lifeforms,¡± Lisa interjected.


    "Ah! So, every living organism within...Jan, what¡¯s the current projected radius now?"


    A woman looked up. "Something like 2.3 nonillion light years," she replied stoically.


    ¡°Ahem. So, within 2.3 nonillion light years of Ildr, all organisms have been seeded with the kursi symbiote. However, on average, only a few will ever actually be queens. And because queens can only awaken in host sapient species with mental synergy ratings, or MSRs, above a six...active kursi hosts life you, or me, are quite rare.¡±


    ¡°Mental synergy rating of six?¡± Lisa asked, keeping her voice neutral. Bath thought she was being an excellent actress.


    ¡°Humans rate very high on the scale. We''re actually an eight,¡± Jessup grinned. ¡°We only know about worlds who have organisms with an MSR at six or higher since they¡¯re the only ones with active kursi. You can¡¯t open a gate unless you have an active kursi, after all.¡±


    Bath couldn¡¯t believe that Jesup and the Ritus elders were so casually telling them all of this life-changing information. Hearing that there were countless worlds stretching out from some place called Ildr was...


    Well, it was going to change quite a few things.


    ¡°How does gate travel work, exactly?¡± Bath asked, inserting himself into the conversation. ¡°I understand that you use gates to ¡®fish¡¯ for exotic alien species.¡± All this time, Bath had been carefully analyzing and cataloging the lifeforms in the basement. He came to the conclusion that they had been ¡°fished¡± from two separate worlds.


    ¡°Gate travel is under wraps, sorry to say,¡± Jessup sighed. ¡°Only official members of Ritus get access to that kind of information. Fungsoeng has been trying to steal our gate for a while now, and has even tried to replicate it without success. We must ensure loyalty and confidentiality before exposing such secrets. You understand, don¡¯t you, Lisa?¡±


    The man replied to Bath¡¯s question through Lisa, as though Bath wasn¡¯t worth even a speck of attention. By this point, however, Bath was too busy to care: he began to use his essence to experiment with something that he and Lisa could use to speed up the Big WD. After all, now that Bath knew that there was an easy way leave Earth, he was no longer satisfied with Lisa¡¯s slow, conservative plan for taking over the planet.


    ¡°Can we see the aliens?¡± Lisa asked. ¡°I won¡¯t trust that you have a working gate until I see physical evidence.¡±


    Jessup shrugged. ¡°I suppose we can bring you both to the Menagerie. Everyone else, feel free to wait behind. Angelina, accompany me and Lisa.¡±


    Angelina¡¯s eyes never left Bath as she got up and followed the ensemble out of the dining room. While Bath knew the girl suspected his behavior and mannerisms, he didn¡¯t care.


    There were entire worlds just beyond his fingertips! He felt his Center vibrate with longing.


    The group arrived at a steel, vault-like door at the end of a long hallway. Jessup used a finger and eye scanner to verify his identity, then opened the door and let them into the Menagerie.


    Bath saw Lisa¡¯s jaw nearly drop to the ground. There were hundreds of animals enclosures spanning the absolutely massive room. Each one was completely sealed off from the outside, assumedly to ensure the organisms were able to live in conditions mirroring that of their home worlds. Only around a quarter of them were currently stocked, but Bath could easily envision the entire room filled to the brim with alien life.


    ¡°How did you discern their natural habitats?¡± Bath asked sharply. Sensing the organisms through his essence and actually being in front of them were two different things entirely. Bath could feel his control begin to slip. ¡°Could you actually see the world on the other side of the gate?¡±


    ¡°Yes; how else could we capture them?¡± Jessup snorted.


    ¡°Have you ever gone into the gate?¡± Lisa asked, extremely curious. She had no idea what gates were, but clearly they allowed travel between remote regions. This kind of discovery...she wanted desperately to know the science behind it.


    ¡°Go into the gate?¡± Jessup frowned. ¡°You should know that it¡¯s a death sentence.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Why?¡± Lisa pushed.

 [Chapter 25] Forceful Revelation

    Bath and Lisa both felt the atmosphere in the room chill.


    Lisa gave Bath a glance, then continued: ¡°Though I¡¯ve never been able to see a gate in person, I can¡¯t fathom why taking from it and entering it are so different.¡±


    Jessup¡¯s eyes gleamed as they flickered from Lisa to Bath, then back. ¡°Of course this is the first time you¡¯ve seen a gate,¡± he chuckled, though his voice was without humor. ¡°Your bodyguard is your inheritance, correct?¡±


    Bath chose this moment to laugh. He wanted to suck these Ritus people dry for any information they had before making off with all their exotic lifeforms. To do so, he felt that keeping up a pretense of knowing what was going on was imperative.


    ¡°Jessup...¡± he began, his face devilish. ¡°Do you really take me for a bodyguard?¡± He flashed his teeth, his gaze full of confidence.


    Jessup snorted. ¡°I don¡¯t care what your title is.¡±


    ¡°Irregardless of how you view me, I can¡¯t help but wonder why Ritus is so weak as to be unable to pass through a gate?¡±


    Jessup sighed, his face once more becoming calm. The tension in the atmosphere largely dissipated, though undercurrents of aggression still billowed throughout.


    ¡°This gate in particular isn¡¯t stable. This is especially true whenever it synchronizes with a two-way gate, the kind that allows us to use our instruments to collect new species. Even more troubling is the fact that these two-way gates usually lead to worlds inhospitable to the human body. That¡¯s why we usually send¡ªwell, I¡¯ll stop there for now.


    ¡°Unfortunately, this gate spends the majority of its time in relatively stable connection with another one-way gate. During these times, it can only bring people in one direction: away from Ildr.¡±


    ¡°Since this is the only gate on Earth, Ritus has a complete monopoly on all gate travel...and I can tell you that very few entities ever pass through here.¡±


    Bath nodded his head solemnly. ¡°I''ve only been with Lisa for the past two decades, so I''m still trying to understand this planet¡¯s kursi politics.¡±


    Jessup gave a wry smile. ¡°Ah, well...Here on Earth, both us and Fungsoeng are fairly secretive. The shadows have always been places of relative safety and attract little attention.¡±


    Lisa nodded. ¡°Bath and I were searching for a way to make contact with other kursi for around two years now.¡±


    Bath consciously stopped himself from cringing. He''d been trying to imply that they were no strangers to the kursi scene...alas.


    Jessup seemed to realize the discrepancy between what Lisa was saying and what Bath had implied. Suddenly, he began to chuckle uproariously out loud.


    ¡°How old are you, Lisa?¡± The man said the words like they were a joke.


    ¡°18,¡± she replied without missing a beat. Bath had a feeling that a much higher number was the expected value, but didn¡¯t offer his advice. They weren¡¯t truly in any danger. Moreover, Bath wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Lisa suspected that revealing her true age would make Jessup respect her. She might be correct in that regard: from what he could gather, kursi powers grew with age, and Lisa¡¯s were potent enough to warrant Ritus¡¯ official recruitment.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Jessup¡¯s expression changed very little, but Bath could feel a bit of excitement erupt from the man¡¯s face.


    ¡°Jessup," he said sharply, his voice at least carrying with it a sense of authority. ¡°While Lisa may be young, her talent is clearly enormous. Otherwise, you never would have assumed she was older.¡±


    Bath had a feeling that ¡°older¡± meant significantly older, by decades. He¡¯d been studying the bodies of the elders for a few minutes, now, and noticed that they all appeared to be stalled around the biological age of twenty-five. Perhaps a queen kursi prevented the aging of its host.


    ¡°Fair,"¡± Jessup acknowledged, now looking at Bath differently than he had before, his eyes appraising. ¡°How did you become her servant?¡±


    ¡°How do you think I became her servant?¡±


    Jessup scoffed. ¡°Someone gifted you to her. That¡¯s the only way.¡± Though Jessup was clearly trying to indicate that this was undoubtedly true...Bath suspected that Jessup was misleading them. He realized that this encounter was going rather poorly.


    Bath¡¯s eyes flashed red. "I am with Lisa because we are friends."


    Jessup¡¯s eyes narrowed in confusion, though he hid it well behind a stony countenance.


    ¡°Where are you from?¡± Jessup finally asked.


    Bath smiled grimly. His intuition told him that they weren¡¯t going to get any further using diplomacy, so he spoke the truth.


    ¡°Earth.¡±


    Jessup at once appeared stunned, this time his face completely open. Even his indomitable shell flickered with a nervous ribbon.


    ¡°Then why is your¡ª¡± he suddenly began to pale, his hands shaking. "You aren¡¯t from a planet closer to Ildr?¡±


    ¡°Jessup, you fool,¡± a voice rang out scathingly. ¡°He¡¯s a World Devourer!¡±


    A person scrambled into the room stood to the right of Jessup. No, not a person¡ªIt was very human-like, but its hair was clearly not made of keratin and its eyes were an eerie, inhuman yellow with black corneas. It also appeared slightly more slender and willowy than the average human.


    Before Jessup had a chance to react, Bath¡¯s form expanded to fill the room. He assumed his favorite form. To the people below¡ªJessup, Angelina, Lisa, and the creature¡ªhe looked like everything they would expect of a majestic, feathered dragon. Bath let out a booming laugh.


    ¡°World Devourer?¡± he grinned, his mouth cracking to reveal lines of beady, needle-sharp teeth. ¡°Fitting. Jessup: You are going to answer all of our questions, and then we will leave, and you will be alive. If you do not answer our questions, or try to retaliate...I will destroy this place.¡±


    Jessup trembled. ¡°You aren¡¯t a World Devourer,¡± he stated adamantly. ¡°Otherwise the Earth wouldn¡¯t be able to support life. It''d be a dead husk.¡±


    ¡°Frankly, I don¡¯t care,¡± Bath said, ¡°but I know that I have enough power to wipe this place off the map in the time it takes to exhale one breath.¡± Bath had actually underestimated the pressure that his dragon form would place on Jessup and Angelina. Angelina was leaning against a wall, nearly unable to stand out of instinctual terror. Jessup resisted the urge to run away, but it clearly required conscious effort.


    ¡°Why are you here? We''re just a small organization...¡± the human-like alien began slowly. ¡°If you are a World Devourer, a Catastrophe, a Doom, a Black Hole...the titles given to your kind are as unending as they are accurate...we will gladly comply with any of your demands.


    ¡°Esteemed Devourer, I, personally, would be endlessly pleased to inform you about the workings of this gate and the mysteries of the kursi. My only request is that you take me with you when you leave.¡±


    Bath snorted. Making demands? Bath nearly devoured the alien right then. However, having access to a entity that had come from a different gate seemed incredibly fortuitous. He had a feeling that this creature was more knowledgeable than Jessup, who hadn¡¯t been able to identify what Bath was.


    ¡°I will take you with me, though only because I desire to do so.¡± The creature¡¯s posture immediately began to relax, while Jessup¡¯s became even more tense.


    While all of this was happening, thick tendrils of Bath¡¯s essence curled likes a mass of writhing worms and snakes over all the aliens in the holding areas. Bath devoured all of them from inside their cages, savoring their unique flavors.


    Finally, Bath sent out a mass of tendrils to encircle the trembling Jessup. He lifted the man up into the air so that Jessup¡¯s small form was in front of Bath¡¯s snout.


    ¡°Jessup,¡± he asked softly, ¡°How does one become a kursi?¡±

 [Chapter 26] Towards Conquest

    Jessup could barely breathe under Bath¡¯s constricting tendrils.


    ¡°You either are, or you aren¡¯t,¡± he gasped.


    ¡°How rare are kursi? Out of a population of, say, one billion, how many kursi will there be?¡±


    ¡°Humans have a high MSR, so maybe one-hundred out of every billion. On other planets, the number will be marginally more or less...¡±


    Bath¡¯s eyes flickered. He knew that there were around one-thousand people in the mansion at present. Were they all kursi?


    ¡°How does Ritus have so many members?¡± he asked calmly, though his eyes caused Jessup¡¯s stomach to quaver.


    ¡°Mind subjugation,¡± he choked. ¡°Domination.¡±


    Bath smiled. ¡°Can all kursi do this? Nevermind, of course they can,¡± he murmured as he read Jessup¡¯s expressions. ¡°Teach Lisa how to use subjugation.¡± A plan was hatching in Bath¡¯s mind that excited him like no other plan had before.


    ¡°Teach...? I can¡¯t just teach her that!¡± he cried out, panic washing over his face.


    ¡°Will it be something she learns on her own over time, as she grows older?¡± Bath asked.


    Jessup actually paused a bit before answering.


    ¡°She seems to be a strong host. I''d say¡ª¡± he groaned as his ribs cracked.


    Bath¡¯s entire face radiated a cold, detached amusement, like that of a cat playing with its food. ¡°Fine, then. Jessup, how does one actually return to Ildr from this far out a planet?¡±


    "We¡¯re a fringeworld,¡± Jessup spat. ¡°Theoretically, there¡¯s a way, but I don¡¯t know it.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for your cooperation,¡± Bath said at last, his face sinister. Then, with a loud, shattering blast, Bath¡¯s essence, which had already pervaded the entire establishment, slashed out and enveloped each Ritus member, all one-thousand and sixteen of them. Shrieking rang out from all over the mansion. After a minute, the shrieking became very faint, as though a great distance separated Bath from the wailing kursi and their subjugated mind slaves. Jessup and Angelina had also been forced out in a flash of dark, tendriling essence.


    Bath led the way from the Menagerie to the gate room, picking it out as the only location without any ventilation at all. He moved to rip down the door, but the alien stepped forward and unlocked it with its retinas and fingerprint.


    Bath was quite fascinated by the creature. As he evacuated the mansion, it was the only intelligent, nonhuman entity he had been able to detect. He felt an urge to devour the creature, to expand his Center, but this urge was very small. The hunger caused by one creature was hardly a match for twenty-two.


    After the door opened, the trio walked into the gate room.


    ¡°What is your name?¡± Bath asked pointedly.


    ¡°Lepochim.¡±


    "What does it mean?" Bath replied. He sensed that the name had a greater meaning based off of the way the creature spoke the name out loud.


    The creature¡¯s eyes constricted in surprise. ¡°It technically means Branching Stairway.¡±


    ¡°Now that we have the gate, what are you planning?¡± Lisa inquired. She eyed the creature, Lepochim, carefully.


    Bath¡¯s chest rumbled like thunder; Lisa had the impression that he was...purring?


    ¡°Ah, Lisa, this gate...¡± his eyes stared intently at the unassuming, circular structure at the front of the room. ¡°I''ve been searching for something like this since the beginning. A way off this planet.¡±This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Lisa¡¯s mouth popped open. ¡°But...what about the environment?¡±


    Bath finally tilted his enormous maw down to stare at Lisa in the eyes. ¡°I cared about the environment because I thought..." Bath inhaled deeply; his yellow eyes closed. ¡°I thought that this planet was mine, forever, and only mine. I wasn¡¯t going to allow humans to ruin my own planet...but if I can leave, I''m no longer bound by this desire.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s face contorted into a frown. ¡°But...¡±


    ¡°Lisa, you want to grow strong. You wish to rule...¡± Bath said this as statement. ¡°You love democracy, but I know your ambition. Come with me,¡± he said slowly, ¡°and we will accomplish so much more than if we each stood alone.¡±


    Bath¡¯s voice was filled with enough fervor to leave her reeling. He...he really planned to go into the gate? Even if he couldn¡¯t return? And he wanted her to come with him?


    Lisa thought of school, of her education, of her parents and all the expectations thrust upon her...


    ¡°Who the fuck turns down conquering the galaxy?¡± Lisa shouted triumphantly. She didn¡¯t feel nearly as confident as she sounded. However, she knew that if she didn¡¯t go with Bath...she would regret that decision for the rest of her life. How could she not accompany him? Besides, there had to be a way back, right?


    ¡°Lepochim,¡± Bath said. ¡°Will you accompany us on our first galaxy-conquering campaign?¡±


    Lepochim looked startled at the request.


    ¡°You...¡± A complex expression flashed through Lepochim¡¯s eye. ¡°Devourer," he said reverently. He was now on one knee. ¡°I shall accompany you willingly wherever the stars guide us.¡±


    Bath smiled, showing teeth. He didn¡¯t believe Lepochim¡¯s sincerity for a second.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± Bath sighed. ¡°I have a feeling you won¡¯t be strong enough to make this journey as you are now.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what? Wait, Bath, what do you mean?¡± She didn¡¯t disagree, considering what Jessup had told them. She eyed Lepochim off to the side.


    "What about him?" she asked.


    Lepochim laughed. ¡°I can take care of myself,¡± he replied cryptically.


    Lisa frowned. ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with his shell.¡±


    The alien crossed his arms. ¡°It¡¯s the mark of one who¡¯s kursi has been forcefully sealed,¡± he stated.


    Bath didn¡¯t push the subject, choosing to ignore Lepochim completely. If the alien said he¡¯d be fine, Bath wouldn¡¯t fight with him. After all, Lepochim had somehow made it all the way to Earth. He clearly had some kind of power, whether it be fleshly resilience or technological enhancements.


    ¡°Lisa, I feel confident that I can modify your genetic code as we go. This way, I can keep you alive as we venture into volatile regions.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s eyes grew round.


    ¡°Uh...ok?¡± she said slowly. ¡°To be honest..I want to see what improvements you can make to my body. I know that your human form has increased sensory perception, strength, and defenses. All of those sound like great modifications. But, with regards to staying alive on a planet submerged in ice, or a planet with an atmosphere without oxygen...I don¡¯t see what you can accomplish.¡±


    ¡°Just trust me," he said.


    And Lisa did.


    Bath emitted a poison from an essence tendril to knock her out, then looked to Lepochim. Bath was now in his less-imposing human form.


    ¡°Lepochim is long,¡± he said suddenly. ¡°Can I call you Lepo?¡±


    Lepochim seemed taken aback. Then he laughed¡ªor gagged, Bath couldn¡¯t be sure of which. ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°What are you?¡±


    ¡°One of the kursi of the Zder Galaxy,¡± he said neutrally.


    ¡°Tell me about Zder,¡± Bath said, his eyes gleaming.


    ¡°Zder is also called the Enlightened Galaxy,¡± Lepochim explained. ¡°It¡¯s just beyond the core worlds. This situates it very close to Ildr.¡±


    Bath nodded.


    ¡°Zder has many intelligent species, many of which are suitable as kursi hosts. While in the beginning, billions of years past, conflict existed between the many planets of Zder over resources and gates...in the end, the wars stopped. Zder has observed relative peace for the past twelve billion years.


    ¡°I am from one of Zder¡¯s many small planets, Tu-71. It isn¡¯t very remarkable, though it easily casts Earth into shadow,¡± Lepochim sniffed.


    ¡°You mean, a small, insignificant planet of Zder, is more magnificent than Earth?¡± Bath felt his heart rate begin to flutter. How many creatures would just Tu-71 have? All of Zder? His Center suddenly ached with need.


    ¡°Earth is a planetary backwater, a fringeworld. That¡¯s the only reason why you haven¡¯t been discovered yet," Lepochim said.


    Bath didn¡¯t appear to hear him. ¡°You know, I don¡¯t think I told you my name,¡± he said. His gaze became steely and full of indomitable confidence.


    ¡°My name...is Bath!¡±

 [Chapter 27] Endlessly Reaching Entity

    While Bath was staring into the depths of the gate, Lisa was in a coma-like stasis, Lepochim was focusing his attentions on Bath, and the many Ritus mind-manipulators¡ªkursi¡ªwere frantically fleeing their former headquarters, a far off entity sighed gently into the cosmos.


    The stars were a vast and impenetrable barrier for the entity, and yet...it could feel the tuggings of itself far off into the distance. It sensed itself, and yet this self wasn¡¯t fully its own. Little pieces of it were spinning about, moving haphazardly through the vast beyond, distances too far to travel, unless you had trillions of years...unless you had unlimited time to watch as fragments of self rode the expansion of the universe like a giant, cresting wave.


    This entity thought of time in terms of cycles, and thought of different places as epicenters of unique cyclical activity. The entity had grown bored after its billionth year watching its nuclear world cycle over and over again. Cycles were, after all, quite predictable. So, the entity spread itself out, expanding its reach far past its small, local sphere of influence. Curiosity was the impetus for this expansion, but inertia was all that drove the entity¡¯s small selves into motion after their initial launch. Every day, for million of billions of years...the entity sent flakes of itself rocketing off into the distance at every minute angle.


    In the beginning, for the first few thousand or million years¡ªthe entity lacked an accurate comprehension of time¡ªthe entity found little of interest in the void beyond. Some of its particles dove into stars and black holes, to be incinerated or devoured. Other particles crashed onto asteroids and planets. Most places had cycles that lasted billions of years: to the entity, these places held no interest. They were dead, without self-assembling autonomous constructs.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    The entity did, however, find a few worlds that resembled its own. These had cycles that twisted in and out like a giant spiral of time, a vast, uncoiled circle. The circles differed in diameter, with some cycles stretching millions of years, other billions...there were even a few volatile worlds that seemed to rapidly change every few thousand years, though these also bored the entity because the volatility kept the autonomous constructs fairly...undeveloped.


    Over time, the entity¡¯s particles found constructs that had the capacity to function as an extension of the entity¡¯s self. In general, it used these particle connections as a way to perceive the new worlds and their cycles in new and exciting ways.


    After a trillion years, the entity was discovering new worlds every day, many of them with developed life. It felt like all its time was devoted to the exploration of differentiated development across the stars. The entity¡¯s heart swelled with the beauty of this world, at the forces that controlled the birth of the many worlds it now touched.


    The entity looked over all of creation¡ªat least all that it had yet discovered¡ªand was content to watch and wander.

 [Part 3] [Chapter 28] Passing Through the Gate

    PART 3


    Bath''s eyes peered into the gate as he contemplated what he knew about the universe at large from Lepo and Ritus. He frowned at the thought of risk involved with dashing off to a completely new planet. Though Bath knew he would certainly venture out into this vast beyond...after speaking for a time with Lepo, he had allowed his thoughts to calm down.


    Bath thought about what he knew about himself, and what he had heard from others. He also thought about whether or not he could trust Lepochim.


    Bath knew that perhaps the most dangerous thing for him was his gluttonous nature. Just walking into the mansion, with a few hundred alien beasts, had nearly driven him insane with ravenous need. From what Lepo and Jessup had remarked about Devourers, Bath recognized that they were considered mindless eating machines.


    Bath wondered what would happen if he stepped onto a completely new planet. Would he, too, be driven insane by his own hunger? And Earth: the hunger he felt on Earth was almost nonexistent. Had it been that way in the beginning, when he initially came to Earth? Or had he first destroyed Earth, didn''t recall doing so, and after millions of years Earth slowly grew up around him?


    Bath''s head swam as he thought about his past. He put his age at half a billion years old, the time of his first real memories...but, perhaps, he was far older than that. After all, how would he know how long he drifted from wherever his species originated from to arrive on Earth?


    Bath wondered what would happen...if he sent a piece of himself to the other side, while keeping his Center on Earth. Would his Center''s power of control effectively work across the gate? Could his essence be recalled through the gate, or would it remain trapped on the other side of the gate until it naturally dispersed?


    Bath thought intently about all of these questions, then tsked dismissively. Bath was uncharacteristically impatient as he considered the situation at hand with the gate and his own self. Lepo watched on with a stoic, emotionally-devoid expression as Bath sent a small, swirling tendril of essence toward the gate. It hovered just outside the gate, then, as thought Bath were jabbing out with a sword...the tendril pierced the gate and landed on the other side, on a foreign, alien world.


    Bath''s eyes shined as he planted eyes on his essence extension. He looked around at the world on the other side of the gate. He saw...a vast, blue field of circular leaves, like a giant field of clovers, carpeting a stretch of lightly-hilled earth expanding out as far as his enhanced, bird-like eyes could see. The sky was a yellow-green color that was oddly beautiful, reminding Bath of leaves changing color in the fall on contemporary Earth.


    He could currently see a few absolutely alien creatures grazing on the clover and nibbling on sparse shrub and tall, bright-blue trees whose boughs extended out like arms embracing the sky. The creatures before him were all either blue or tawny yellow, with a very small minority appearing emerald.


    Bath felt a desire stir in him from looking alone...the next sense he opened was his sense of hearing. The world around him suddenly felt twice as real, as though before it had been a strange, voiceless indie film. He heard whistling clacks, like some kind of strange, windy rocks brushing together, and a few sounds that reminded him of snorting elephant seals.


    So far, Bath felt confident that he could send part of himself to this world. As he continued to communicate the with aliens of the gate stop, he next activated his sense of smell.


    Bath''s eyes suddenly went wide as his Center''s mind interpreted the signals coming from his sensory receptors on the other side of the gate. Bath''s eyes were soon bloodshot, though Bath was too distracted to do anything about their troubling appearance. He started to breathe, slowly, in and out, while at once he felt as though something was dragging his body through the room and into the gate. He focused on calming his mind even as it screamed out with need that increased with every second Bath''s nose picked up on a new scent.


    After a few seconds of time, Bath was already at the end of his endurance. He tried to withdraw the sliver of essence from the gate world, but found that travel backwards through the gate was, as originally pointed out, impossible. It felt like a thin, flat barrier lay between his essence on each side of the gate. He could continue to send more essence over, of course, but the second he pulled back, the barrier snapped into place.


    Feeling increasingly ravenous, Bath eliminated the smell receptors. Bath stared coldly at the gate, then breathed slowly out.


    He had sensed nearly one-thousand different species in the world beyond the gate. That had been his limit in a few seconds...clearly, just perceiving life by sight or smell wasn''t enough to trigger his hunger. Curious to test his own nature further, Bath snaked a few essence tendrils over the ground until they finally lay in front of an entity that looked like a large dog covered in metal screws. The second his tendrils made contact, his hunger increased, though only by a very small amount.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    So: apparently, touch and smell were two main senses that could arouse his gluttony. If he merely used sight and sound to observe the worlds beyond the gate, Bath was confident that he would be able to function without too much danger of losing control.


    Bath silently explored the world within three-thousand meters of the gate while he waited for Lisa to awaken. The changes he had wrought in Lisa weren''t going to be fully completed for a few weeks, but as long as Lisa stayed within his long-range manipulation range, she would be protected by microorganisms formed by his essence to filter the air and form a protective layer over Lisa''s skin. Bath had already determined that the world outside of the gate was filled with a fairly high atmospheric pressure as well as high gravity, 1.5 times that of Earth. Walking around would be difficult for any normal person. Moreover, the temperature of this place ranged between 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Most significantly, for entities of Earth, the air wasn''t breathable, and natural water was saturated with mineral impurities that would belie any human attempts to hydrate.


    Despite all of this, Bath was confident in his ability to head out with Lisa. Bath had never actually encountered a real challenge before, nor had he experienced true adventure, so he wasn''t able to internalize a true sense of caution, even as he reasoned through how he would prevent himself from going berserk and how he would keep Lisa alive.


    And then there was Lepochim.


    "Lepo," Bath stated clearly, "will you be able to function in this kind of place?" He explained the conditions on the planet beyond the gate.


    Lepo gave him a cool look. "I told you: I''ll be fine wherever we go."


    Bath scowled. "Explain." He didn¡¯t like how mysterious Lepo was acting because he didn¡¯t know how this whole escapade was going to end if there were three people coming alone


    Lepo had an unsightly look on his face that Bath could only see because he had eyes stationed all over the room. Lepochim had already turned away to walk to a far corner of the chamber. Then, he said, "I don''t know how to explain. You''ll see soon enough." Bath had the sense that whatever Lepochim wasn''t telling him was...something most considered fairly obvious, trivial.


    Bath wondered if kursi had certain other abilities granted to them that allowed them to adapt rapidly to alien worlds. If not, then being a technologically advanced society would likely need to preclude that planet engaging in gate travel.


    Perhaps, Bath thought to himself, Lepochim has some kind of life-saving technology already on him. Bath figured that Tu-71, and the galaxy Zder, sounded much more technologically advanced than Earth. Some form of inconspicuous, self-powered life-sustaining technology seemed to be the most plausible explanation for Lepochim''s confidence.


    Bath woke Lisa up with a small infusion of stimulants, his essence curling around her and cradling her in the air. Her eyes blinked open and she gasped, as though she had been holding her breath for several minutes. She panted, breathing air into her lungs rapidly as she was deposited lightly onto her feet by Bath.


    Lisa immediately felt different. She felt...stronger, as though with each step she took, she went a little further than usual for much less effort. Additionally, she found that, strange as it felt, she could breathe without actually inhaling. Filtered oxygen was delivered straight to her lungs by Bath''s essence.


    There were more changes, such as improvements to her sensory perception, and the weird little membrane just barely visible over her skin...But Lisa just shrugged. "Bath, if something goes weird, you can put me back the way you found me, right?"


    Bath grinned. "Theoretically. Though by the time we''re back from adventuring, I''m confident that you''ll be endlessly grateful for my wonderful body-manipulating generosity."


    Lisa started to walk over, her hand raised high, a devilish look in her eyes. Bath chuckled and dodged to the side to avoid a slap.


    Lisa laughed along, although afterwards herface became downcast.


    "Lisa?"


    Lisa looked up at him, a nervous expression on her face. "How long do you think this adventure will take?" she asked quietly. In the moment, Lisa had wholeheartedly agreed to go adventuring with Bath, and she fully intended to keep that promise. But if they were gone for even a month, or a year...years...Lisa shuddered. She wasn''t sure she wanted to wait for her life to be all nice and worked-out before going adventuring--because who knew when that would happen?--but at the same time, she felt a bit unnerved by Bath''s intention to, seemingly, leave right now.


    Bath looked at her and rubbed his neck. "Oh, no more than eight days."


    Lisa blanched, then quickly beamed at him. "Wait, seriously?" She pulled out her phone and began to text her parents some story about Bath and another friend were going with her on a road trip to experience America. From what Bath could hear from the phone conversation, he personally thought that Lisa''s mother is way too strict.


    Lepo suddenly snorted. "Eight days?" Lepochim knew that Bath could practically kill him with a thought; however, Lepochim was condescending by nature and found this side of himself difficult to suppress.


    Bath narrowed his eyes and declared, "Eight days!"


    "Eight days to pass through this gate, then any random number of gates until you reach a gate hub...all while dealing with the fact that we have no intelligence whatsoever about the other planets besides this one here?" Lepo gestured to the gate as he impassioned Bath to recognize his arrogant folly and provide the plan.


    However...


    "Lepochim, if I can''t get us back here in eight days, then I''ll be your servant."


    Lepo''s expression turned from worried to dismayed. To him, Bath''s offer represented how thoroughly Bath was self-deluded. He really didn''t want to travel the galaxy with Bath if he was going to have such dangerously ambitious expectations. However, he was bound to Bath and had an obligation to follow him into the dark, swirling blue-black of the gate.


    Lisa was on Bath''s right side, Lepochim on Bath''s left. They walked forward and swiftly passed through the gate.

 [Chapter 29] Traversing Magnet Planet

    In an instant, they appeared on the other side of the gate. Lisa started to choke and keeled over, though after a moment recovered her faculties and staggered upright. Lepochim also appeared to suffer a bit, though after about 15 seconds was already inspecting the nearby area. Bath, unsurprisingly, was completely fine upon exiting the gate. Bath and Lisa both glanced at Lepochim, increasingly curious as to how he was able to adapt to this world.


    Before, Bath had been limited in his perception of the world by using long-range manipulation. After stepping through the gate, he now had a much better understanding of the world. Before, when he''d only sent essence out onto the planet, he hadn''t realized the rather strong gravitational field covering the planet''s surface. Despite the increased gravity on the planet, Bath felt a bit unstable as he walked, as though the ground were nudging up against him.


    This explained the amounts of metal found in the surrounding area''s wildlife: organisms on this planet had clearly adapted to a highly magnetic environment. Now that Bath had arrived, he sent his essence reaching out, heedless of his own lurking hunger. As he went, he quickly devoured one specimen from each species he encountered. By the time the region of a few thousand meters was encapsulated by essence from his Center, his hunger had dropped significantly. He began to understand the new species as he absorbed them. It would take him time to understand them all completely, and likely he would need to transform into their forms before he comprehended them fully. The same went for all the creatures he had devoured back at the Ritus mansion.


    Even without complete comprehension, Bath now had a general grasp of evolutionary development on the planet. It seemed to revolve around the enormous deposits of magnetic rock, with the very first lifeforms already incorporating metal into their forms to maneuver in the magnetic fields.


    The screw dog, for instance, moved rapidly by vacillating its metallic surface to propel itself in a magnetic field. Smaller organisms, or those that were light-weight, tended to rely on their own magnetism to float above the ground and then used fin-like paddles to move themselves around through the air.


    Bath hadn''t seen any flying organisms, though had already devoured many kinds of long, worm-like beings that existed underground. They also used magnetism to move around by moving magnets within their bodies in a pulsing motion.


    Altogether, the species he had seen so far were quite odd, though very interesting. On other worlds, they probably wouldn''t be very competitive. On Earth, for instance, he knew that the predatory screw dogs would be slow and cumbersome. All the animals that relied on magnetic levitation for motion would be completely immobile on any other world.


    Bath snorted. All of his analysis had taken place under thirty seconds, so Bath didn''t miss a beat before leading his travel companions forward.


    "This planet''s species all rely on the planet''s natural magnetism," he explained. "Since we''re here to find the gate, and neither of you have any capacity to maneuver quickly under this planet''s magnetic field, I''m going to insist that I carry you inside of myself."


    Lepochim immediately blanched and grimaced, while Lisa nodded with understanding.


    "Okay," she assented. "Like normal?"


    "Yes. Lepo, follow Lisa''s lead."


    Bath quickly changed form from his human appearance to his dragon form with some...local modifications. Bath was eager to try out magnetic gliding.


    He opened his chest cavity wide, exposing a hollow interior. Lisa and Lepochim entered.


    Bath closed the cavity off, then compressed the inside to form himself around the two passengers.


    "Woah, woah, woah," Lepochim cried out in alarm. "This is not acceptable."


    Bath snorted. "If I lose our eight-day bet, then you can order me never to do this again. As it stands, you''re my servant, even if you''re a rather...petulant one." Bath really was getting rather put-out by Lepochim, though needed his experience. If only he could absorb the memories of the creatures he devoured...


    "Yes, Bath," Lepochim replied bitterly.


    Without any further comment, Bath began to pad across the ground, feeling the natural fluctuations of the magnetic field under his feet. He extended out his now metal-plated wings and swished his massive, tadpole-esque tail. Extremely conscious of his annoyingly-fragile passengers, he accelerated slowly until reaching a velocity of a few hundred miles per hour. Bath knew he needed to go relatively slow over this planet to find the gate.


    As he traveled over the world, whenever Bath encountered a new species, he would instantly devour one of its population. He also began to devour members of multiple populations of the same species to gain a better pool of genetic diversity. He didn''t find the creatures of this planet particularly useful due to their evolutionary dependence on the planet''s magnetism, but as these were the first line of creatures not from Earth that Bath was able to extensively investigate, he was still incredibly curious about their anatomy and evolutionary development.


    He realized early on that this planet didn''t actually have any species exceeding the intelligence of Earth''s avian species. While Bath was fairly surprised that the world didn''t have any evidence of trespass--the world did have gates, after all--he figured that the world was a fairly easy place to travel through and that travelers were few and far between. After all, if Earth was considered a backwater, this place was even less significant.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    After a few hours of travel, which took Bath around the fairly small planet, Bath finally found the exit gate.


    It was situated in a glade very similar to the one around the entrance gate. The planet actually lacked a great deal of genetic diversity due to its small size and relatively constant climate (the planet didn''t rotate on a tilted axis). Therefore, when they reached the gate, Bath was quite eager to move on to the next world. He didn''t even notify his two passengers that they had reached the end of their first planetary expedition before passing through the gate.


    This was the decidedly correct choice considering the welcome Bath received on the gate''s other side.


    In hindsight, Bath noted that he was rash to simply waltz into the next gate without sending out a bit of essence first to test the waters. He had admittedly let his guard down after the docile Magnet Planet...after all, how dangerous could gate-holding planets be?


    As soon as he stepped out of the gate, he was almost instantly assaulted by a barrage of web-like nets. He found himself in a rather large, metal-and-glass-walled chamber surrounded by a group of rather surprised, armored bipedal entities. These surprised, net-gun-toting entities started to scream out in some bizarre, incomprehensible language.


    "Well," Bath thought bashfully to himself. "This was clumsy." He had kind of assumed that if someone like Lepo could travel from world to world, then clearly some kind of translation technology had been developed and disseminated throughout the universe.


    Maybe this place was just too out-of-the-way to have such technology. Or perhaps they just weren''t implementing it, or it was something that Bath himself needed to acquire so that a two-way translation feed could be established.


    Either way, Bath found himself surrounded by seemingly hostile forces inside of a heavily-fortified building on a completely foreign world without any way to communicate with said hostiles.


    He felt himself feeling an almost completely foreign human emotion...embarrassment.


    Bath quickly adapted his form to the smallest size possible that could still hold Lisa and Lepochim. He also changed his form to that of a bipedal humanoid, so he essentially looked like a giant human titan. He held his arms at his side and sat down, hoping that his deference would stop the entities from attacking him. To them, he had to admit that his metallic-dragon form might have been...a tad intimidating. Of course, Bath wasn''t actually worried about breaking out of this compound, but he was infinitely more interested in these intelligent bipeds than anything on Magnet Planet. So, he figured working with them, at least initially, would hopefully allow him to gain insights into their group behavior.


    As soon as he sat down, the group of armored bipeds seemed even more surprised, if that was possible. Bath couldn''t see what they looked like, since they wore opaque suits that completely covered them, but whereas before they seemed surprised but ready for his appearance, now they seemed alarmed and distressed and spoke in nervous chatters to one another.


    They did stop spewing their nets, but by this point he was already covered by no less than 15 of them. He raised one giant eyebrow and waited for them to do someone.


    From inside of him, Bath heard Lepo scream, "You moron!!! You can''t just charge into a gate looking like a giant predatory monster!"


    "Oh?" Lisa said in turn, her voice quirking up at the end into what Bath knew translated into a devious smile.


    "So, you can understand them," Bath said through a small mouth he placed next to Lepochim''s ears. How else would Lepo know what was going on outside, after all? Bath''s suspicions about mutual translation technology were suddenly made clear. So, Lepo had a kind of translation technology that both he and Lisa lacked.


    Bath resolved to think of a fun punishment for Lepochim in response to this information omission.


    "Lepo, how do I obtain this translation technology?"


    Lepo didn''t reply immediately, so Bath poked him with several sharp, needle-like spikes.


    "Ahk!" Lepochim spat in agony. "Was that really necessary?" Bath didn''t grace him with a reply. "Fucking damn it!"


    "Insolent," Bath stated calmly into Lepochim''s ear as he stabbed Lepochim with double the number of needles. Next time he decided to use inflammatory poison.


    Bath knew that time was of the essence, since the entities outside were evidently deliberating with their superiors about what to do about his arrival, so he had just about lost all patience for Lepochim''s annoying pride.


    "Speak now," he murmured into Lepochim''s ear while pressing the needles in deeper.


    "You''d normally get it from your home world, but Earth''s too much of a backwater," Lepo said, clearly stalling. Bath made the needles secrete a capsaicin.


    "FUCK!" Lepochim roared, seething. "Just let me talk to them and I''ll tell them that you need a translator."


    Bath twisted the needles. "How on Earth could I ever trust you?"


    Sighing inwardly at his misfortune to be stuck with such a scheming, obnoxious passenger, Bath decided to face the problem outside in his own way.


    He pointed at his ears, shook his head, and said in English, "I do not have a translator." He hoped at the very least that their translators would pick up his language, though part of him feared that, being the supposed backwater it was, Earth''s languages wouldn''t be in the translation database that other planets used.


    Then again, Bath knew Lepochim used a translator, and it clearly worked on Earth. Perhaps this incredibly simple plan to ask the entities of this planet for a translator would work after all.


    To his amazement, the entities all jumped and paused in surprise. One of them seemed to do something to his helmet, then waited a moment. Finally:


    "You''re from Earth?" the entity said in flawless English, his voice that of a generic American male, and exactly like Lepochim''s.


    So, the translators could be used like this as well...no wonder Lepochim''s English seemed so good. Bath wondered idly what Lepochim''s actual voice sounded like.


    "Yes; I would be very appreciative if you could outfit me with a translator."


    Laughing came out from the man''s helmet, indignant laughter. "Slaves don''t need translators."


    Hearing that, Bath''s titanic form smiled earnestly. He was incredibly eager devour these intelligent lifeforms and discover what they really looked like.


    "After I kill 50 of you, I''ll give you another chance," Bath said, his voice viciously saccharine. None of the entities present had any time to react before Bath''s form increased in size into the form of a vicious wolf-reptile hybrid.


    "Hah," Lisa smirked. She didn''t exactly know what was going on, but she knew Bath was going to do something badass.


    Bath considered asking Lisa whether or not she wanted to see what was going to transpire, and then thought better of the impulse. He had great faith in Lisa''s ability to deal with the strange and unpredictable, but he had a feeling that she''d just throw up if she had an open view to everything he had planned.


    After all, he considered the next few minutes to be...an experiment in alien anatomy.

 [Chapter 30] Eventful First Contact I

    Bath didn''t give the entities in the compound time to think over his words. Within a second, Bath had already lashed out with a set of enormous claws to rake out at the ten or so individuals in the immediate vicinity. Bath had already sent some of his essence away through vents to the other main parts of the facility, such as the other side of the one-way mirror that made up the entire central side of the room. There, he detected the presence of at least twenty others, all still in suits.


    Why were they all in suits?


    Bath didn''t think that the compound had a toxic atmosphere by any means, nor did it have any extreme atmospheric or climatic conditions. Was it an inherent weakness in the entities themselves?


    Bath quickly devoured all the people he had already eviscerated with his claws. Of course, he had the ability to instantly kill everyone within reach of his essence, but he figured that appearing too dangerous was counterproductive to peacefully engaging with this intelligent species and obtaining both a translator and information about gates going off-world.


    So, he simply killed everyone he could get his claws on. He also made sure not to change his form from the wolf-reptile to make it seem like a limitation, as though he could only shapeshift into a few different forms and could only change form every so often. Though he imposed these limitations on himself, he decided to let himself...go a bit. He embraced the lupine and reptilian instincts to gore and mutilate as he swept through the ranks of the aliens.


    Bath didn''t have time to waste annihilating alien species. He genuinely intended to return to Earth within an eight-day period of time. So far, he''d used up a few hours of the first day, and that was essentially all spent on a completely peaceful planet. Bath knew that once he charted out a path that led back to Earth, he could always return to these worlds later on. For now, plotting that path was his only priority.


    Based on Lepochim''s initial reaction, he knew that he couldn''t let these people suspect him being a Devourer. They''d likely do everything within their power to see him dead, which aside from being futile would also be counterproductive to finding the next gate and so on.


    But being savage didn''t at all imply that he was a Devourer. Bath didn''t wait for the devoured entities to be fully incorporated into his Center before moving to knock down the one-way mirror. While it was fairly tough, he found that it caved easily enough to his thick paws.


    At this point, the alien entities were screaming at him in English to stop. Bath didn''t pay it any mind: 50 was 50.


    His essence continued to spread out through the vents and cracks in doors. By now he had already identified the positions of 100 entities throughout the compound.


    As he ripped into the entities behind the one-way mirror, Bath gained some insight into the biology of the entities themselves. While he had already discovered by experimentation that the entities had critical bodily components in their abdomens and tender spots all over, he couldn''t have imagined that the entities looked like...


    Well, what they looked like. They were like giant, viscous slugs that were able to change shape to fit their artificially-built exoskeletons. When he slashed them open and they essentially exploded out like popped water balloons, Bath had assumed the entities were just set to explode and spew acid if they were killed. It made sense from a security standpoint.


    Instead, the slug-men were simply poisonous to the point of corroding the floor once liberated from their exoskeletons. Bath wondered how they were able to move the exoskeletons if they were only made of, well, corrosive slime.


    As he mindlessly slashed through a wall to get to a few more slug-men, he gained further insight into the creatures'' biology. They apparently had muscles embedded all throughout the slime, giving them a great deal of mobility and strength. They could theoretically (Bath hadn''t actually tried out the form himself, of course) form themselves into a perfect human shape and hold that shape indefinitely, but they were incredibly fragile and didn''t have a powerful immune system. The suits were a way to protect them from physical and microbial threats.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Bath wondered how this species had even survived long enough to become intelligent. He was ripping into them like a sickle through wheat.


    Bath stopped as he gored a final slug-man with his claws, then ripped the head off with his bloodied snout. 50.


    All of this happened over the course of 15 seconds.


    Bath exited his current location to return to the area where he first appeared, by the gate. Then he sat down calmly and returned to his titan form.


    "Can I see?" Lisa asked quietly.


    Bath created a set of viewing holes for Lisa in his chest, small enough that nobody would notice unless they were next to him, which they wouldn''t be. Not after the slaughter he''d wrought, that was certain.


    "I would like to request a translator," Bath said in English, his voice completely devoid of emotion.


    Silence. Then, finally, through a speaker in the ceiling: "We would like to make a deal."


    Bath felt like ripping the floor in half. Why did these people think they were in a position to make deals?


    "I''ll propose the terms, then," Bath thundered. "You give me a translator and a map of all known gates and their destinations on this planet, and any other planetary maps you possess, and any knowledge you possess about other worlds, and then I will leave without destroying this facility."


    Bath said all of this with complete confidence. He was quite certain that if these slug-men were the apex predator of this planet...he had nothing to fear from this world.


    There were a few seconds of silence before Bath heard a response. "We''ll agree to that. We have one request we would like to make, if you are gracious enough to entertain it."


    Bath was a bit surprised by the deferential tone, though was rather pleased to hear the aliens adopt a polite manner of address. "Speak."


    "Where are you from? We do not believe you are from Earth, nor any of the nearby worlds; had we known you were coming, we would have provided you with a welcome fitting your status."


    Oh? So not everybody who came through the gate was taken as a slave. Moreover, apparently people could travel through the gates ahead of notices that they would be coming. Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, these slug-men assumed he was from a powerful background because he, himself, was powerful.


    Bath muted Lepochim with flesh and speared him with capsaicin needles.


    "I am truly from Earth." Bath gave no further explanation while he waited for his translator and information to be delivered.


    "Yes, Traveler," the slug-men replied graciously. Traveler: a title? Bath felt like the title was definitely one of respect, though he didn''t understand why individuals who traveled through gates--Travelers, if basic logic was anything to go by--necessarily demanded respect. After all, he''d been initially assumed slave fodder.


    This was getting more complicated by the second. Bath twisted and enlarged the needles in Lepochim''s skin. He was fairly certain that he couldn''t trust more than 20% of what Lepo had told him.


    "How long until my desired materials are delivered?" It was at this point that Bath''s essence finally reached the room with the slug-men he was conversing with. He instilled beady little eyes into the room to spy on their actions. He saw a lot of them communicating via instant message and trying to contact someone, if a holographic monitor screen on one of the room''s sides was anything to go by.


    He didn''t see anyone in the room trying to do anything else other than make contact with the outside.


    "Just a note: if you call in reinforcements, I will know, and I will still destroy you. I''ll give you one last chance: meet my demands, and I will leave this planet. Fight against me, and I will wipe this place off the map." He was really quite frustrated at this point. What did he have to do to get them to fulfill his meager request?


    He was also annoyed that the deference they had shown him was some kind of act.


    Bath watched their reactions as he spoke to them. All the slug-men in the room froze, as though struck by indecision. They started to speak and gesticulate wildly, though of course Bath''s actual self couldn''t hear any of it. Not that it would have mattered without a translator.


    But Bath suspected he had a way to understand what was happening.


    He formed his full human head in front of Lepochim and began to speak. "Lepochim, you have been an incredible disappointment. I thought that knowing I was a World Devourer would have had you kowtowing to me like the insignificant wayward alien that you are, but I was sorely mistaken.


    "However, being a benevolent master, I''m going to grant you a momentary chance at redemption. If you help me to translate the discussion going on between the slug-men, I''ll stop torturing you.


    "Thoughts?"


    "Slug-men?" was the very first thing to come out of Lepochim''s mouth. Bath was not amused, something he made clear with a stony expression.


    "Fine. I''ll help you, but only because this is all just a stupid farce. They couldn''t kill you even if they wanted to."

 [Chapter 31] Eventful First Contact II

    Since Lepochim agreed to cooperate (even if only under threat of torture), Bath began to relay as closely as possible the sounds from the control room to him.


    "It''s not translating correctly since you aren''t copying what they''re saying perfectly," Lepochim complained.


    Bath looked on serenely, completely unamused.


    "...But they''re generally talking about whether or not to just give you what you want. They seem to be agreeing that that''s the best thing to do, and then that they''ll track you down afterward with greater forces and try to destroy you, probably with bombs or something."


    Bath continued to relay the conversation, which by now had been going on for over five minutes. Lepochim continued to vaguely summarize what was happening.


    "Okay, they''ve agreed to give you what you want, but the map they''re going to give you isn''t going to be correct."


    The visage in front of Lepochim darkened. "But I want a working map."


    "Well, I''m just telling you what they''re saying," Lepochim replied with a defiant air.


    .


    Bath''s titan form then boomed out loud, "If any information given to me is false, and I have a few planetary maps with me to compare against--"complete bullshit--"then I''m going to respond with full force to the breach of agreement."


    "They''re freaking out again," Lepo sighed. "Now they''re saying just screw it, give the nasty invader what he wants."


    "Really?"


    "Yes, really," Lepochim sniffed. "I can even take a look for you to verify the maps and whatnot."


    Bath was genuinely confused. Did Lepochim think he was...stupid? Maybe, years ago, he would''ve just naively trusted what Lepochim said. Now?


    Fuck no. The little worm was worse than humans, and Bath had an incredibly low opinion of human honesty that seemed to deteriorate all the time.


    "Lepochim, you''ve secured yourself a spot squarely on the torture train," Bath said sweetly. "Maybe one day, after I break you, I''ll let you free. Now that you''ve shit on my good will? Just know you''re only alive because you''re a source of information I can squeeze dry."


    He could tell that Lepochim tried to hide his reaction. However, Bath was literally all around Lepochim; his very flesh was Lepochim''s prison. Bath could feel his heartbeat, his entire body, his everything. The alien was absolutely terrified.


    Good.


    "We have the materials and are sending one of our own to deliver them to you. A question: do you have the equipment necessary to use the maps and encyclopedic data chips?"


    "No."


    "We''ll bring those as well, our compliments to you."


    "Very well. I''ll await their delivery."


    Bath tracked the movements of one very shaky delivery-slug as it made its way from the command center to two different storage rooms and then finally to the holding room around the gate.


    "Traveler, here are the items as specified in the agreement. Are they to your satisfaction?"


    Bath''s visage appeared once more before Lepochim, who quickly nodded his head. "The chip readers are real, as well as the translating chip. It''ll install itself on you."


    Bath paused.


    "Actually, can I request a second translation chip?" Bath actually felt a bit bad now that he was changing the agreement, but he realized that Lisa needed her own translator. "As compensation, I will provide more information about Earth."


    The slug-man nodded his head quickly. "Don''t trouble yourself; translators like these are barely an expense worth mentioning!" To Bath''s eye, the slug-man looked like he simply wanted to leave Bath''s presence as quickly as possible.


    "No no, I insist on repaying your good will. While you fetch another translator, I''ll speak."


    The slug-man clearly heard something blast in from his helmet that caused him to shriek. Then, he sped off in the direction of one of the storage rooms.


    "Well, then. I am from Earth. Earth has a dominant, intelligent species called humans. They are bipedal and rather intelligent. They have only developed within the past few thousand years, though have rapidly colonized their planet. I believe they rank as an eight, with regards to kursi affinity." Nowhere in this did Bath actually say he was human, but that was an omission rather than a lie.


    "An eight!?" the voice sounded shocked. As he explained, Bath picked up the little translation chip on the ground and affixed it to his neck. Soon, he absorbed the little chip so that it rest right outside of his Center. He didn''t want it to be destroyed as he shifted forms, after all. The chip appeared to need a connection to his brain, so Bath created a host of nerve fiber extensions on the fly to connect with the chip. He was fairly certain that any brain connection would work, considering the fact that a species such as the slug-men and himself didn''t really have many natural analogous structures. If this translation chip were to function cross-species and cross-planet, it would have to be extraordinary.


    And extraordinary it was. After making contact with a few nerve fibers, Bath felt the chip begin to heat up. Soon, it had made a strong attachment to the nerve fibers. Bath wondered idly what would happen if he shrank to any size smaller than the chip itself, and figured he would just have to keep the chip suspended outside of his body.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Immediately, his mind began to swim.The sensation made him particularly uneasy. Had they given him a weaponized chip designed to fry his brain (like that would work) rather than an actual translator?


    Even as these thoughts rushed through his mind, Bath continued to explain the situation on Earth to the slug-men. "Earth has only one gate. It''s a one-way gate, so Travelers can come to Earth through the gate, and can leave Earth through the gate, but one the gate is exited, nobody can return to Earth from the gate." What a mouthful.


    "This gate is effectively under my domain. If all that you have given me is good and functional, aside from the fact that I''ll leave you in peace, if you come to Earth, I will treat you as guests." Bath really, really hoped by now that if they had given him anything intentionally defective, they would now make an excuse to take it back and swap it out.


    No such actions occurred.


    "Thank you for your generosity, Waymaster."


    "Waymaster? Wait, that''s actually kinda cool sounding," Lisa piped up. Bath knew that Lisa had been carefully watching the exchange with the slug-men from within his chest, and was eager to hear her thoughts after they exited the current precarious situation.


    "It doesn''t sound half-bad," Bath agreed. He suspected people in charge of gates normally had some kind of insignia that allowed them a kind of status as they traveled, but clearly backwater Earth wasn''t in the know about that kind of thing. Waymaster, hmm?


    Bath really, really wanted to stick some more needles into Lepochim for his innumerable information omissions, but knew the despicable worm was still shivering all over from the capsaicin in his skin. The alien really did heal fast, but that only worked to his detriment now that the spicy substance was stuck in his flesh. He felt that further direct needling was a bit overboard.


    At this time, the courier slug-man returned with the second translator, which Bath picked up as quickly as possible. Then, he leapt free of the facility, actually carving himself a hole out of one of its thick walls after returning to his wolf-lizard form. He didn''t trust the slug-men to give him a safe exit.


    Bath covered a hundred miles or so in a few minutes. Then, confident he lost whatever slug-men had tried to track him, Bath found a cave of light-gray rock nestled into the side of one of this planet''s infinitely-many mountains (Bath realized, to size quadruped dismay, the planet was practically one giant spike-ball). There, he let Lisa and Lepochim free. Lepochim fell to the ground, unable to properly stand for all his spice-induced agony. Lisa huffed and took in a deep breath as she adjusted herself to the planet''s atmosphere.


    "Lepochim, I''ll remove the heat if you agree to help use the chip reader and insert Lisa''s translator."


    Lepochim''s eyes constricted, as though he wanted to glare but caught himself before he actually did the action. "I''ll do it!"


    Bath smiled. He sent his essence into Lepochim and quickly removed the capsaicin. He made sure the invasive move was felt by making his essence enter Lepochim in thicker strands than necessary. Just thin enough not to hurt, but thick enough to be perceived.


    "You..." Lepochim panted as he began to regain control over his extremities. "Ugh! Give me the translator."


    "Thanks Lepo," Lisa beamed, clearly bemused. Bath was happy Lisa didn''t know the extent to which he had actually hurt Lepochim. He paused a moment, actually confused as to why he was happy she didn''t know. Human morality?


    He pushed the thought out of his mind and began to stew over the many organisms he had devoured on his way over to the cave. This planet, like Magnet Planet, also had a very interesting and diverse evolutionary history. Surprise, surprise.


    "Lisa, unlike with the last planet, I kept the holes in my chest open so you could see the planet''s surface. What do you think we should call this place?" They weren''t actually holes, since Bath covered them with thick, transparent membranes, but whatever.


    "Uhhh, that''s kind of a big decision." Despite her words, Lisa barely waited a second before providing a suggestion. "How about Lime World?"


    Bath snorted, then chuckled. "Why not." The planet had lots of lime-green, slimy acid pools all over, a rather unique feature given that the rest of the planet was mostly gray rock and giant, bright-green mosses. Actually, Lime could also apply to the mosses. Now that Bath thought about it, lime effectively described the only color on the entire planet.


    "It''s actually called--" Lepochim began to say, as though he somehow knew the name of this random planet who knows how far away from his home world, before Bath silenced him with a glare.


    "Enough from you," he said, his voice leaving no room for discussion.


    Bath was actually rather curious about the lack of color on this planet. The organisms were all either clear, some shade of gray, or some variety of green. Many of them seemed to have some kind of photosynthetic properties, even those that Bath identified as predatory. Likely, the photosynthesis was insufficient to support the whole organism, leading to herbivores and carnivores.


    Considering how inefficient Earth photosynthesis was, Bath thought this made perfect sense. He was rather eager to see how photosynthesis worked in these plant-animals since he didn''t have experience combining plant and animals characteristics together.


    After a few minutes of Lisa moaning about her head flying away while having the translator implanted, Lepochim turned to Bath and stated: "The translator''s done."


    "Good." Bath then promptly tossed him the data chips and reader, a small, circular device that Bath had no idea how to operate.


    Lepochim audibly sighed before getting to work.


    "Lepochim, may I test my translator on you?"


    Lepochim paused, then turned around to face Bath. "Fine," he said, as though the word was painful. "Hello, Bath."


    Bath cocked his head. Lepochim''s voice...it sounded completely different. Every part of it sounded...Bath didn''t even know how to describe it. His voice definitely didn''t sound human, nor did Bath feel like Lepochim was speaking a human language, and all the same his brain interpreted the message as English.


    The experience was quite uncanny.


    "That is soooo weird," Lisa frowned. "You sound like a chain-smoking Legolas. Do we sound the same to you?"


    Lepochim snorted. "Legolas?"


    Lisa tsked. "An elf from Lord of the Rings. Orlando Bloom..."


    "I have no idea what you''re talking about," Lepochim snapped. "But obviously you sound the same to me."


    "Watch your mouth," Bath hissed. The way Lepochim said ''obviously'' felt as though he were saying a terrible insult. Perhaps in his language, such a statement was an insult.


    Bath took Lisa outside to inspect the surroundings while Lepochim continued to work on the chips. Bath kept a disembodied head floating next to Lepochim''s shoulder while he worked as a reminder to stay on track.


    "I''m done," Lepochim eventually announced after half an hour or so. "To use the chip reader, all you need to do is press the central indent here, with anything organic, i.e. any fleshy surface."


    He demonstrated by placing a finger on the indent. "Then, you tell it to turn on. On," he said clearly. "In general, the AI behind the computer is good at knowing when you''re talking to it as opposed to other people. It''s also able to understand you whether you mumble or speak clearly like I just did. In general, clear speech is good protocol to follow since not all systems you''ll use are high quality. For a planet like this, so far from Ildr, this chip reader is quite advanced."


    "Good to know," Bath noted. "Lisa, I''m putting you in charge of the chip reader."


    "Cool," she cheered. She had been feeling a bit useless since the planet-hopping began and was happy to have something to do.


    Bath told them that he was going to explore the immediately surrounding area while Lisa used the chip reader. He made a bony cage around Lepochim before he left, just in case.


    "Time to test some things out..."

 [Chapter 32] Exiting Lime World

    Bath was actually disappointed with the finds he''d made on the two new planets. He''d expected that the new alien lifeforms would be...well, more different than they actually were. Sure, they had distinct evolutionary characteristics that developed around native environmental phenomena, i.e. powerful magnetism and corrosive acid pools, but aside from that...Bath was shocked by the number of similarities between these alien animals and those of Earth.


    Key differences that Bath noticed was the placement of organs, and the actual kinds of organs found within the lifeforms. But the similarities were altogether too glaring--the fact that these two alien planets'' organism all even had organs, for one, and that both planets had organisms with endo and exoskeletons. All of the endoskeletal animals had heart-like pumps in their thoracic regions. Each planet had its own variety of evolved muscle, with some distinct operational differences from the muscle cells of Earth. However, despite structural differences, the actual operation of the disparate muscle cells was very similar.


    Bath was perhaps most annoyed at the distinct similarities between all organisms with regards to sensory organs. Bath had thought that while Earth had many different varieties of sensory organs, all tailored to environmental conditions that favored some senses over others, such as touch or sight...well, he''d assumed that alien worlds would have incredible, novel forms of sensory organs that he''d never be able to imagine. Unfortunately, while the sensory organs present on each planet obviously evolved on their own over the course of millions of years, they had converged to be very similar to the sensory organs found on Earth.


    Bath had holed himself up in a large, self-dug cave while he rapidly shifted from form to form to gain an improved understanding of each new creature he''d devoured. As he continued to change form, he began to realize an interesting fact: the variety of entities on Earth that he''d devoured over the course of 500 million years absolutely overshadowed the number of entities on these two planets, particularly Lime World. Magnet Planet had a decent number of interesting life forms, notably its many subterranean magnet-propelled worm species. Lime World, on the other hand, was fairly stark and free of most organisms. Bath supposed this was due to the planet''s relative lack of water. Life would be hard to sustain in the corrosive green pools that covered the planet''s surface, not to mention the rocky steppes that would inhibit the growth and development of vegetation.


    Bath was curious as to why Lime World had a population of intelligent aliens on its surface. Having already devoured some of the entities that originally accosted him upon entering Lime World, Bath had already realized that the evolutionary history of creatures on Lime World had no similarity whatsoever with the gatekeepers.


    Bath still hadn''t gone out to explore the world--having only gone in a fairly straight line away from the entrance gate--though was convinced he would find no record of intelligent life organically developing on the planet. He had already concluded that the gatekeeper species came from some foreign world, perhaps one that had lots of water. The fact that they all had to wear heavy-duty suits just to move around was a dead give-away that they didn''t belong naturally on Lime World.


    Bath was fairly certain that Lepochim knew what the gatekeepers were and where they came from, not that he''d say anything. Bath was getting exceedingly annoyed with Lepochim: if Bath had another of Lepochim''s species on hand that he could devour, Bath was certain that he would be able to use the subsequent knowledge he would gain to better control Lepochim.


    As Bath continued to shift forms, he thought through why he even needed Lepochim. Perhaps he could just...devour him. The thought certainly sounded enticing.


    But, Bath suspected there was a lot more to Lepochim than met the eye. His presence on Earth with Ritus was, in itself, a huge mystery, especially since Lepochim hadn''t been a slave. The fact that he could pass for a human, was able to survive on completely different planets, and didn''t seem to fear Bath like he rationally should...Well, Bath was reluctant to attack Lepochim without figuring out the entity''s mystery.


    Bath was also fairly convinced that Lepochim had a reason for becoming his companion. After all, when Lepochim had first agreed to become his companion a day or so ago, he''d been incredibly gracious and reverent in his manner of address. He''d seemed shocked by Bath''s power and seemed almost, well, hopeful when Bath offered him the opportunity to venture through the universe.


    Bath tried to think through what had changed. He didn''t think Lepochim''s behavior was because of the stupid little bet he''d made that he''d become Lepochim''s servant if he didn''t return to Earth within eight days. Lepochim had to know that Bath would rather devour Lepochim than be the alien''s servant. The bet itself had no risks attached to it since the power differential between Bath and Lepochim was so impossibly large.


    Aside from that, they''d only gone to Magnet Planet. Then, they went through the gate and reached Lime World...Bath was absolutely stumped. He couldn''t fathom Lepochim''s personality change.


    Back in the cave, Lisa was getting more convinced by the minutes that Lepochim was just...well, stupid.


    "Back home, our libraries are full of data chips. We haven''t needed the paper books found on Earth for thousands, if not millions of years," Lepochim boasted.


    "What kinds of books are there?" Lisa asked.


    "Book on every kind of organism within Zder galaxy. Books on the arts, on history, warfare..."


    Lisa hadn''t been awake for Lepochim''s quick backstory introduction, but had heard a bit from Bath about Lepochim''s past and Zder. Apparently, the galaxy had been at peace for billions of years. To her, the number seemed almost impossibly large. But, after billions of years of peace...they had books on war? "What kinds of warfare do you have on record?"


    "Generally, terrestrial, aerial, subterranean, and aquatic warfare. Though spatial warfare does occur, the gates make on-planet assaults expedient."


    "I thought you said that Zder was a peaceful galaxy," Lisa pointed out.


    Lepochim scoffed. "It''s peaceful internally. That doesn''t mean it refrains from interactions with other galaxies and galactic powers."


    Lisa nodded. That did make sense.


    "In fact, I''m actually a special forces operative from Sigenolf-74. How else would I survive on all these different worlds, after all?"


    Lisa wondered why Lepochim seemed so...different than normal. Not that she had all that much to go by, but the way Lepochim was acting seemed odd.


    "So you aren''t from Tu-71?" Bath had told her that Lepochim was from the small planet.


    Lepochim laughed, a painful, cringe-worthy cackle. Since Lepochim was a sealed kursi (whatever that meant, Lisa wasn''t fully sure), Lisa couldn''t sense his shell. However, just from her experience with humans, she was convinced that something was seriously wrong with Lepochim''s behavior.


    "I''m from Tu-71. Sigenolf-74 doesn''t exist, it''s a secret."


    "Bath," Lisa said softly under her breath. Bath hadn''t removed the tiny ears and mouth he''d planted under Lisa''s ears. "I think Lepochim''s going insane."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Bath continued to shift form while he pondered Lisa''s words.


    "Why?" Though Bath had stationed some of his essence to stand guard over the volatile Lepochim, he hadn''t been actively listening to Lisa and Lepochim''s conversation.


    "He''s clearly unable to reason correctly. He''s also just told me that he''s part of a special forces unit in Zder. He said something about Sigenolf-74."


    "Have you started to use the data chip yet?" Bath asked.


    "Um, a bit. I''m waiting for the translator to translate everything into English," Lisa explained.


    "Oh? Your personal translator can do that?"


    "No; the chip reader has its own built in translator. I''m letting it do all the work. Why?"


    "Can you try to look up Zder? Maybe you can find some things out about Lepochim''s past."


    "Sure."


    Lepochim was currently busy scratching pictures into the cave''s rocky floor. Lisa shook her head at the scene: something was definitely wrong.


    She held up the chip reader. Though the translation process was far from finished, she figured that she could selectively translate certain topics on demand. She spoke aloud, "Show information on Zder galaxy."


    A second of silence. Then: "Showing records for Bright Galaxy, also known as Zder." Immediately, the space in front of Lisa was filled with a hulking menu. It appeared to be an index on different accessible topics.


    "Bath, there''s way too much information here to look at. I''m going to look up Tu-71." Instead of trying to navigate through the menu items by touch, Lisa instructed the chip reader to, "Find records on planet Tu-71."


    Instantly: "Tu-71, a small planet near the center of Bright Galaxy." An image of the planet appeared, a bluish-white orb surrounded by black. "Age: 26 billion years. Primary economy: information technology, information brokerage."


    There was another menu underneath the planet''s image that Lisa started to manipulate. She tapped the holographic projection''s menu items until she reached a menu item called Flora and Fauna. Lisa figured that this was some attempt to translate the menu item into her native English. After all, life on other planets wouldn''t necessarily fall under plant and animals categories as was the case on Earth.


    Lisa scrolled through a few thousand random animals that, while cool, could be observed at a later time. What she was looking for was...


    Lisa grinned and glanced up at Lepochim as she pointed her index finger at an entry called, "Deepthink." Lisa thought the name a bit odd, and wondered what the untranslated name was. Nevermind; she figured that she''d find out how to see the actual name later, once she was more familiar with the chip reader.


    An image of a creature with white hair, pale pink skin, and an ominously human appearance came up on the screen. The Deepthink was naked, though a few areas where Lisa figured sexual organs were present were smoothed out.


    Why did it...look so human? Or, considering the age of Tu-71, why did humanity look so similar to the deepthink?


    There were definite differences between deepthink and humans. The largest similarity was in facial structure, which really did appear almost identical, with eye, nose, and mouth placement closely aligned between the two species. Deepthink and humans both had hair, though humans appeared to have much more hair than the deepthink. Deepthink had thinner shoulders than humans, with longer arms and legs as well as longer torsos. The average height of the deepthink was around six foot. The species didn''t appear to have a clear gender distinction between male and female, which Lisa found was interesting. She hadn''t found the information in the record that explained how reproduction worked, and since the gonads of the deepthink were grayed out, she couldn''t extrapolate from biological anatomy. The information was likely too specific to be included in the general species overview page she was currently observing.


    The species was listed as kursi compatible. A rating of 7587/10000 was given next to the kursi designation, which Lisa interpreted as the index of kursi compatibility for the deepthink species.


    There was nothing on the species page that indicated why deepthink would be able to survive on other worlds, nor was there anything that explained in detail the anatomy of the species or its social norms. The species was simply tagged intelligent and had checkmarks next to "Civilization" and "Space traveling" indicators at the upper-right corner of the information page. There were not checkmarks next to indicators for "Violent" and "Endangered."


    "Bath," Lisa said suddenly. "I''m extremely confused about Lepochim''s species after reading its entry in the encyclopedia. Lepochim is apparently something called a deepthink that''s native to Tu-71."


    "So he was being truthful with that," Bath mused. "Why are you confused?"


    Lisa sighed. "The species itself very closely resembles humans, which is really weird," Lisa explained. "There are other things, but that''s the one that most confused me. How is that even possible? Convergent evolution is definitely a thing, but...well, you know what Lepochim looks like."


    Bath frowned and stopped shifting, having decided that he needed to pay full attention to Lisa''s words. "I assumed that his species had some kind of rudimentary ability to change appearance. Otherwise, I wouldn''t believe that his species and humanity could look so similar..."


    "Lisa," Bath snapped, an idea flashing through his mind. "Can you query a search for me? I think you should be able to ask the chip reader to compile a list with pictures of all kursi compatible species. I wonder..."


    Lisa nodded to herself, then made the search request. After a few seconds, the holographic screen in front of her showed a scrolling list of different organisms. She exhaled sharply as she realized fully half of all the species had a vaguely human appearance.


    "Bath, this is so bizarre. How is this possible?" she exclaimed softly.


    Bath immediately formed eyes out of essence and stared along with Lisa at the screen. "This is impossible by means of normal evolution," he concluded after a moment of silence. Lisa was flicking at the screen with one finger as she scrolled through more and more species.


    "So what does this mean? Is something influencing evolution across the universe?"


    "I''m not sure what it means," Bath admitted. "I''m sure the encyclopedia has some kind of explanation somewhere. We''re surely not the first people to wonder how this is possible," Bath murmured.


    He thought to Lepochim. He agreed with Lisa: something was definitely influencing the deepthink.


    "Lisa, we can continue this later. I think something on this world is affecting Lepochim''s mind."


    "Fine," Lisa acknowledged. Bath quickly scooped both Lisa and Lepochim up into his body with essence, then began to traverse the world in search of a gate.


    "I''m looking up the gate location on this planet now..." Lisa murmured. "The chip reader doesn''t have internet access, or whatever the galactic, technologically-advanced internet equivalent is," Lisa noted. "However, I''ve narrowed down the planet by stating which gates we used to arrive and the physical features of the planet.


    "The gate should be at the South pole of the planet," Lisa said slowly as she read an information article.


    "Didn''t the slug-men give us a map with gate information?" Bath inquired. "If so, can you try to bring that up?"


    "Oh, true," Lisa exclaimed. "Uh, bring up gate location map," Lisa commanded. She didn''t know what the maps were called or how to access them. Nothing came up.


    Lepochim suddenly called out, "No no no, it''s called a Traveler Map!" His voice was sing-songy and gave him the air of someone in an insane asylum.


    Lisa shivered. "What the hell is wrong with him?"


    "Just say what he told you to say," Bath rumbled as he started toward the South pole.


    "Bring up Traveler Map," Lisa said, her voice unsure. Instantly, a map with lots of pinpoints and a series of planets appeared.


    "What''s the planet called again?" Bath asked. He rather liked the name Lime World, but recognized the utility of using the planet''s official name.


    "39981!" Lepochim intoned strangely, each number declared at a different pitch and volume.


    "Uh, yeah, that," Lisa laughed nervously. "What the hell?" she said quietly. Shaking her head, she called out, "Find planet 39981 on map." Instantly, a little red circle appeared around a tiny gray planet to the right side of the map.


    "Zoom to planet 39981." Now the screen was fully taken up by the planet''s gray and green surface. "Find all gates on planet," Lisa instructed. Three different lights lit up on the planet''s surface. "Show current location?" Lisa said on a whim. To her delight, a flashing blinker appeared on the map. The blinker, headed South, was fairly close to one of the gates. Lisa assumed that this was the gate that they had used to arrive on Lime World.


    "Show gates leading off of 39981," Lisa said, narrowing the criteria. Now, only one light remained at the planet''s southern pole. So: there was another gate that led to this planet. Lisa tucked away the information for now, focusing wholly on exiting Lime World.


    "Okay, Bath, the gate really does seem to be at the South pole. You should probably be able to find it soon after reaching the bottom of the planet."


    Bath sped toward the bottom of the planet. To his delight, the frigid South pole was devoid of intelligent life. There were a few cold-weather organisms, which he promptly devoured, but nothing of note.


    Within an hour, Bath located the gate. With a sigh of relief, he stepped off Lime World and through the gate''s black surface, only to be surrounded by magma.

 [Chapter 33] Lepochim Was Exiled?

    ''Seriously?'' Bath thought to himself as the magma pressed on him from all sides. He plated his exterior in metal, actually borrowing from some of the anatomy of creatures on Magnet Planet. From the outside, he looked like a metal centipede. He lined the metal exterior with fat and naturally insulating biological matter. However, he knew that he needed to exit this magma quickly. Even with these measures, he didn''t expect Lisa and Lepochim to last very long in the extreme heat. Even his form was breaking down at what would soon be an unsustainable rate.


    In the manner of a Magnet Planet native, Bath quickly located the core of the planet and started moving in the opposite direction toward the planet''s surface. After about twelve seconds of rapid sprinting, Bath finally breached the magma and entered open air.


    He quickly shifted form, repurposing his long centipede body into short, powerful wings. Now he looked like a dragonfly from Earth.


    The world around him was still incredibly hot from the magma below. The rock around him was black and brown. He recognized almost immediately that he was now above the caldera of an active volcano.


    "Well, we''re here," Bath muttered. Traveling was clearly some dangerous business. He thought back to the slug-men on Lime World and their complete lack of warning with regards to the dangerous conditions on this side of Lime World''s exit gate.


    Screw what he''d said before about entertaining them as guests. If they came to Earth, well. They would certainly have a ''warm'' welcome.


    Bath pumped his wings and sped off in a random direction away from the volcano. He stopped when he found a rock overlooking a valley of bones that seemed relatively cool and peaceful. Since a few minutes had passed, Bath had already made sure Lisa''s body could handle this planet''s conditions, and released her from his body.


    "Wow, it''s dark," she noted. The sky was covered in gray clouds that blocked out any sunlight.


    "Lepochim," Bath said slowly. "I''m going to let you out."


    No reply. Bath expelled Lepochim, then waited for the deepthink to speak. For a moment, the alien lay motionless on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.


    Then: "Fuck 39981." Lepochim stumbled to his feet. "Damn." He shook out his limbs, then gave Bath a hard look. "I feel like I should be really upset after you tortured me, especially since I wasn''t in my right mind, but I''ll let it pass."


    "Wait, what?" Lisa interjected. "Okay, so you actually were crazy on Lime World."


    "You only seemed crazy toward the end," Bath noted, his voice laced with unconcealed suspicion. "Are you suggesting that you were crazy the entire time?"


    "Yes," Lepochim sighed. "You know how my body adjusts to each planet we arrive on?"


    "Yeah," Lisa said. "We''ve noticed."


    "Even when you''re internally inside my body?" Bath glared. Lepochim had been inside Bath''s body when he''d seemingly rebelled against him.


    "Not usually, but..."


    "Please, explain your behavior in its entirety, then," Bath invited, his voice mocking.


    Lepochim closed his eyes as he took a breath. "I''m sure you noticed that the atmosphere on that world had a few heavy elements in it," Lepochim began. "Even inside your body, because of my GPS tracker, my body began to overcompensate for what it was told the atmospheric conditions should be. I''m not exactly sure of the specifics, but in the end, my brain was messed up. I became delusional."


    "Wait wait wait," Lisa said. "Explain this GPS tracking stuff. You have a GPS tracker that changes your body?"


    Lepochim sighed. "It''s more complicated than that."


    "Sure," Lisa rolled her eyes. Lepochim''s explanation alone was almost indecipherable. Bodily over-compensation for atmospheric conditions based on information from a GPS tracker? Which lead to insanity? It all seemed outlandish.


    "Why didn''t you say anything once you realized what was happening? Clearly, you didn''t instantly go crazy once we came over to Lime World. I''m not convinced by your explanation," Bath fumed.


    "I''m not sure what happened either, to be honest," Lepochim frowned. "Like I said, until I left your body, even with the GPS implant, my body should''ve assumed I was housed in an insulating vehicle of some sort. I shouldn''t have undergone physiological changes. I didn''t know that this would happen since on Magnet Planet--planet 39789--I was exposed to the planet from the beginning."If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "You know what, fine," Bath interrupted, his voice cutting through the dark, windless clearing like a knife''s edge. "I''ll take you at your word that you were insane on Lime World. All the same, I don''t trust you, for everything that you''ve withheld from us.


    "Though I invited you to become my companion, unless you inform Lisa and I about your actual capabilities, I''m going to devour you," Bath said solemnly.


    "An ultimatum?" Lepochim''s face paled.


    "Bath, on our way here, I was looking into more deepthink species details. Something I found might be of interest to you," she offered with a smile. "You can tell if they''re lying based on their blood pressure. Er, well, it isn''t blood, I guess, but that''s the given translation."


    "Oh?" Bath smiled back, giving Lepochim an impression of incalculable evil. "Wonderful." Without any hesitation, Bath''s essence swarmed into Lepochim through his mouth and nose. The deepthink gave Bath a horrified look. Bath was now able to sense the pulsing of Lepochim''s blood-like equivalent as it circulated through his body. He felt the tension in the walls of the vessels that coiled through Lepochim''s body.


    "Let''s begin, Lepo," he said darkly. Lepochim gave Bath a furious expression, to which Bath replied, "Are you insane now? Or do you really dare glare at a world devourer?"


    "You aren''t a world devourer," Lepochim muttered. "There''s no way. It''s impossible for you to be one with the way you''ve been acting. Thinking, scheming, manipulating, self-control...impossible."


    "Actually, I''m more convinced by the day that I am," Bath admitted. "Even if I wasn''t a world devourer, as you claim, does that really matter? I''m in a position of power over you. I expect respect." Bath''s eyes narrowed.


    Lepochim''s face became stony. "I''ll concede that point. I apologize for letting my temper get the better of me."


    "I understand, considering the fact that you reacted to my gross invasion of privacy," Bath allowed. He certainly wouldn''t want someone else''s essence flowing through his body. "Moving on: please explain, in detail, what Sigenolf-74 is and what being a special forces operative of Zder means."


    "Sigenolf-74 isn''t an officially registered planet. It''s a planet accessible by a single gate on the very fringes of Zder. It was disovered approximately 500,000 years previous by a high-ranking military conquest official. Since then, it''s been a training ground for special forces."


    Lepochim sighed. "The penalty for telling all of you this is death, by the way. Anyways: the operatives on Zder are all given a series of implants that alter our bodily compositions on the fly. It''s actually quite similar to how you, Bath, manipulate Lisa''s body after we enter each planet. The key difference is that the implants have a vast database of each planet''s environmental conditions, with particular focus on conditions at the entrance to each gate.


    "Of course, there are some planets and gates that render the implants useless, such as the gate we just entered. I would''ve been incinerated before my body could adapt to the magma. However, for the most part, the implants work very well."


    "We''re hearing the English word that means Global Positioning System in our translation for your implant. Is there a better description you can give us?" Lisa asked.


    "Hmm. That isn''t truly accurate," Lepochim admitted. "It isn''t like your GPS system on Earth. I can honestly say that I don''t have adequate knowledge of the technology. I only know that my implants can accurately find my position and adjust my body according to local environmental conditions."


    "You said that if you''re in a vehicle, the implants don''t adjust your body''s conditions. Why is that?" Bath asked.


    "It''s useful for when we go through a series of gates via high-speed shuttle. Moreover, like I told you, adjusting the body to an expected outside condition when inside of a climate-controlled vehicle is a recipe for disaster. I''m not sure how the implants detect when I''m inside of a vehicle, though clearly they failed at doing so when I was in your body. Perhaps they''re deactivated by the shuttles we travel in themselves..."


    Bath had a general idea of what was going on. Lepochim was a soldier who specialized in invading other worlds through gates. He would certainly have experience working in a team and would be familiar with high-grade technology.


    "Why were you on Earth?" Lisa wondered.


    "Technically, I was sent to gather information on the planet," Lepochim grimaced. "In addition, I was supposed to obtain the allegiance of a majority of the planet''s kursi. It was an extremely unfortunate assignment," Lepochim smiled bitterly. "Being sent to a backwater world like Earth is a terrible punishment."


    "Why?" Lisa frowned.


    "The way to Earth from Zder is fairly clear-cut. It only took me two years of travel to arrive. The way back?"


    He spread his arms wide. "Just look at this place. There are countless uncivilized, technologically bankrupt planets from here to Zder. Traversing all of them by myself is impossible."


    "So you were effectively exiled," Bath snorted. "I think I understand now. That''s enough for today," he muttered. In a flash, all of the essence in Lepochim''s body streamed out, though this time they did so inconspicuously.


    "The essence is gone," Bath said offhandedly. "While I plan to return to Earth within 8 days because Lisa and I have school, I think we can afford to take a much-needed sleeping break." Bath noticed that Lisa could barely keep her eyes open. Though he didn''t see clear signs of exhaustion on Lepochim, he figured that the deepthink must also be exhausted.


    "School?" Lepochim intoned as though shocked.


    "Thanks, Bath," Lisa yawned. Bath made himself into her favorite white-wolf form. Within the next minute, Lisa was already sleeping on his fluffy form.


    Lepochim only stared at Bath in silence. "Are you serious about the 8 day thing?"


    "Dead serious," Bath replied with a clipped tone.


    "I know you don''t like me because of everything that''s happened, but believe me when I say I withheld information because I wanted to protect you and Lisa. What I told you is top-secret--"


    "It''s fine," Bath cut him off. "Just sleep."


    Lepochim nodded, then lay down on a nearby rock.


    Bath looked up at the roiling sky, letting his thoughts wander in the inky dark. Much had happened over the past hours...


    He smiled to himself. Lepochim was more interesting than he''d originally thought.

 [Chapter 34] Inanimate On Arrival

    Bath counted the passage of 6 hours, then decided to wake Lisa and Lepochim up. The sky remained an unrelenting dark gray overhead. While Lisa slept, Bath improved her eyes so that she could see better in the dark. Bath figured Lepochim had his own methods to adjust.


    While the two had been asleep, Bath had expanded his essence out to its full reaches and found...his reach had actually expanded. Before, his limit had been just about 3.5 miles, while now it seemed to be 3.6 miles. The difference didn''t seem significant, but to Bath, the change was impossible to ignore.


    He had smiled to himself as he thought of reasons why his long-range-manipulation range had extended. There was only one cause he could think of: devouring vast numbers of new species.


    While Bath extended his essence out, he discovered that this planet didn''t have very many lifeforms. There were a few multicellular organisms, however they were all primitive. They all reproduced by binary fission and had a simple RNA-esque gene system.


    Lisa mumbled incoherently as Bath nudged her sleeping form with his head. Lepochim nearly jumped to his feet when Bath ran his tail over the deepthink''s back. He gave Bath a pained look before shaking his head and walking over.


    "Did you find any interesting aliens while we were asleep?" Lisa asked, clearing her throat.


    "No; for the most part, this planet seems deserted."


    Lepochim gave Bath an odd look. "Then what''s this boneyard doing here?"


    Bath''s eyes suddenly widened. That...was a really good point. "I guess we''ll see as we look for the gate," Bath finally said, his eyes searching. "Lepochim, your implants tell you the name of whatever planet you''re on, right?"


    "Yeah," he admitted.


    "Great. What''s the name of this planet?"


    "39910."


    Bath looked to Lisa. "Can you look up the planet''s gates?"


    "Already on it," she said under her breath. After a few seconds: "Okay. There''s a gate here," she pointed at a holographic sphere of the planet with three glowing marks. She noted that there were three gates off-world: two that led to different planets, and the one that they entered through. That was the first two-way gate the party encountered.


    "Can you see where the other two gates lead?" Bath asked.


    Lepochim knew where Bath was going with his line of questioning and shook his head. "We won''t be able to tell unless we enter the gates. Without someone stabilizing the gates on a weekly basis, their terminal destinations are subject to change in a set rotational pattern. Since this planet is at the fringes of civilized space, there won''t be any information on its gate schedule."


    This coincided with what Ritus'' leader, Jessup, had said about "fishing": they needed to wait for time to pass before fishing again. Clearly the Ritus kursi had been unable to determine a gate schedule themselves, which implied the "rotational pattern" Lepochim referred to only repeated itself after a long period of time.


    Bath sighed. "Well, we can try both of them. I can scout out the entrances to both gates."


    Bath soon internalized Lisa and Lepochim. This time, he made a concerted effort to surround Lepochim in a pocket of the planet''s air.


    Bath flew off across the relatively flat world. The ground wasn''t all at the same altitude, but was rather composed of countless plateaus. Bath found the world exceedingly easy to traverse: he could simply fly straight over the ground without the need to evade obstacles like mountains. The only natural fixtures he avoided were the volcanoes, but those stuck out clearly against the dark landscape and were easy to avoid.


    As he moved, he continued to see large animals bones strewn over lifeless ground. However, Bath still hadn''t been able to find any organisms bigger than a human head.


    The planet had one giant ocean across its entire western side. Bath hadn''t explored the ocean, and suspected it might contain more varied life than he saw on land.


    Bath knew that this trip wasn''t for the purposes of observing--and devouring--alien life, no matter how strong his curiosity or hunger. Reminding himself of the importance of finding a gate leading back to Earth, Bath quashed his desire to explore and went straight toward one of the gates on Lisa''s map.


    "It should be here," Lisa piped up as they approached an area of volcanic activity.


    "Are the gates here all submerged in lava?" Bath muttered bitterly as he landed next to a pool of magma. He quickly sent out his essence and found a gate 100 feet down, definitely within his ability to reach.


    "Interesting," Bath said out loud. In stark contrast to the lava-surrounded side of the gate, the opposite side was surrounded by salty water.


    "What''s the planet like?" Lepochim asked.


    "Nobody''s here to receive me on the other end," Bath said.


    "I think we should look into the other gate then," Lepochim said grudgingly. "The less populated a gate is, the less chance it''ll lead anywhere we want to go."


    "Like this world," Bath snorted. "Sure. That makes sense."Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    "Doesn''t anybody want to leave Lime World?" Lisa voiced. "Because then they''d need go through Gray Land."


    "Gray Land?" Lepochim balked. "And to answer your question: the sapients on ''Lime World'' likely have a schedule on hand that lets them enter the sole exit gate when it leads to gates they''ve already mapped out. It''s completely possible they haven''t mapped out this place because the gate leading onto the world is submerged in magma."


    "Sapient? So that''s what you call intelligent life on other planets," Lisa mumbled out loud. "Sounds better than alien."


    "It''s the politically recognized term, yes. Generally, it only applies to species that can serve as kursi hosts." Lepochim turned to look at Bath. "Clearly there are some...exceptions to this rule."


    "Thanks for the information," Bath rumbled as he flew off towards the other gate. After about an hour of flying, they arrived at another volcano, this one larger than the last. A huge, lava-filled caldera filled the horizon line, as large as some seas on Earth.


    "Let me see what''s on the other side of this gate," Bath trailed off.


    Bath stretched his essence down 1000 feet before finally entering the gate.


    Almost instantly, his essence was struck by a series of what almost felt like...lasers?


    "I think there are hostiles on the other side," Bath said tentatively. "At the very least, something is intentionally ripping into me." He quickly formed a set of eyes that looked out into the foreign world. So they were lasers! "It seems like the gate is located in a room that''s unmanned. However, I think there''s a motion sensor or something since a fleet of lasers is firing on me."


    Lisa''s face screwed up into a scowl. "Like, how bad are these lasers?"


    "They''d probably burn you and Lepo, but they wouldn''t destroy you by any means. They''re probably there to incapacitate you while...sapients come running."


    "It''s better than an empty world, unfortunately," Lepochim sighed. "I think this is our best bet. Sapients that leave their gate under automated control must have fairly advanced technology, even for backwater standards. Just make sure you take precautions."


    "You''ll both be fine," Bath said dismissively, knowing that "taking precautions" was passive-agressive Lepo-speak for "don''t get your companions fried." As he dove down towards the lava, he fortified his skin and covered himself in a series of smoothly-interlocking heat-resistant metal plates bordered on the inside by insulators for his two passengers'' benefit. The design was a notable step up from his centipede-like design on arrival and quickly dove to--and through--the gate.


    Coming from the high heat of the magma, the lasers were completely ineffectual when they aimed at Bath''s plated form. The gateroom was fairly small, and exuded an air of sterility with its gentle curves and white surfaces. It also had a little voice-box at the upper-right corner of the room.


    That was when Bath had an idea.


    "Lisa, you''re going to be my pilot."


    "Wait, what!?"


    Bath''s movements suddenly became somewhat stiff and robotic. He lowered his head to the ground. Then, his mouth opened, revealing a metal-lined passageway that led to the cavity where he was keeping Lisa.


    "Just say something about how you were lost in space while out traveling the far reaches of the universe," Bath offered with a tinge of devilishness.


    The only thing Lisa wanted at this moment was Bath''s human form in front of her so she could slap it.


    "You''re so fucking impossible," she hissed. Her anger was clearly palpable, but it was only a mask for incipient fear. So far, Bath had pretty much taken care of everything. Lisa wasn''t sure if she was up to the task of communing with intelligent alien lifeforms. What if they were hostile?


    She swallowed, then headed forward. Bath quickly outfitted her in a slick-looking white suit, no doubt made from some kind of tough organic fibers. ''Maybe even insect silk,'' Lisa thought as she walked outside. By now the lasers had stopped.


    "You''ll be fine, Lisa," Lepochim''s voice said softly as she neared Bath''s now door-like maw, "just state why you''re here and where you want to go. General intergalactic practice is to help, rather than hinder, Travelers. Also: Earth''s planet code is 39123."


    Lisa put on her best, confident front. "Hello," Lisa''s voice rang out. Since there were no other living beings in the room besides herself and her companions, she felt embarrassingly conspicuous addressing the speaker box in the corner, especially since she was so used to conversing with people while monitoring their shells. "I''m a Traveler kursi from planet 39123. I have unfortunately made a few erroneous gate exchanges and am simply trying to return to planet 39123. I would appreciate any and all assistance to use a gate on this planet to continue on my journey back."


    Silence for a moment, then: "Welcome, Traveler. This is planet 39843. Somebody will come down to escort you to into the complex. Tell any of your companions to exit your vehicle. We''ll bring it to the hull while you meet with one of our resident Waykeeper Assistants."


    "That won''t be necessary; my ship collapses into a...cube," Lisa explained. "Lepochim, come out, and bring the ship with you." Lisa turned back towards the speaker box. "Lepochim is my assistant."


    "Noted. Is he also from Earth?"


    "Uh..." Lisa looked toward Bath and saw Lepochim currently exiting through Bath''s maw. He gave her a quick shake of the head. "No, he''s a slave that was delivered to Earth some time ago. Now he serves me."


    "The slave is your assistant?"


    "Well, he was a slave, originally," Lisa explained awkwardly.


    Lepochim briskly walked over to where Lisa was standing and gave her an exasperated look. His arms shook with the weight of the cube that was, of course, Bath. He, too, was outfitted in a white suit.


    "You have a strong assistant," the voice from the box noted. "Where is he from?"


    Now Lepochim stepped in. "This humble one is from a colony of the Core Worlds." Lepochim knew that the sapient on the line wouldn''t know enough about Core World colonies to ask any probing questions. "Additionally, this cube is an advanced piece of technology my Traveler has picked up on her travels, and is deceptively light."


    Lepochim was actually very annoyed with how heavy the cube was. He knew Bath could make the cube as heavy as he wanted, and yet the cube was just heavy enough that Lepochim could carry it, but only with great strain. It wasn''t nearly as heavy as the sapient believed, only weighing around 100 Earth pounds.


    Lisa felt the escort''s well-shielded shell before the speaker announced the sapient''s approach.


    "Your escort has arrived," the voice suddenly declared. "I hope to see you shortly."


    A door at the front of the gateroom slid to the right, revealing a sapient with six limbs and a smooth form. Bath could see that its skin consisted of extremely small, sandpapery scales. It wore a brightly-colored robe that draped over its form, giving the sapient''s body the appearance of a long-haired yorkshire terrier or shitzu.


    "Come inside," the creature said; its twin mouths, located at the center of its ovular face, made slow, up and down movements that didn''t sync with the translated speech. Bath and Lisa both found it a bit disconcerting; even though Lepochim''s mouth movements didn''t map perfectly onto the translation provided to them by their translators, the movements were similar enough that they weren''t distracting. This sapient, however, spoke using a speech system quite different from that of Earth, or even Tu-71.


    Bath was incredibly eager to encounter a species that didn''t resemble slugs or humans. Even though he only saw the sapient, he felt an intense desire to consume her.


    Lisa led the way inside the complex, Lepochim trailing behind her with Bath cradled in his arms. ''This is going to be interesting,'' Lisa chuckled under her breath, already knowing her words to be an enormous understatement.

 [Chapter 35] The Waymasters Sudden Invitation

    "Welcome to Illudis," the sapient seemed to purr while gesturing to an enormous, towering mountain beyond the opened door. The traveling trio realized almost immediately that while the gate had been secreted away in a sturdy building, the place where they were being taken was the surface of the foreign planet.


    Bath used his essence to create little insect-like creatures that walked over the purple ground. The ground was covered in reedy, purple strips that bobbed to the right and left independent of any breeze. Bath''s insects went to work devouring small organisms as Lepochim carried him with the group.


    The giant mountain off just a few miles in the distance was beautiful: white rock narrowing into a snowy peak, its surface covered in numerous opulent terraces. Crimson and gold banners and streamers tastefully intertwined and decorated the seamless terrace balconies. The terraces were stacked over the mountain, making it appear as though the mountain were a tree and the human settlements climbing fungi. Elegant, regal fungi, at that.


    All around the mountain sped flying egg-shaped vehicles. As the group approached, they noticed that the pods traveled along paths marked out in the sky by neon strings. The pods traveled along the strings, as though the strings were train tracks.


    The sky was blue, like Earth''s, and Bath knew that most humans would be able to breathe this planet''s atmosphere without difficulty.


    Bath had many, many things he wanted to know about this planet. Being the first planet truly compatible with unmodified Earth life forms, Bath was starting to see his plan falling into place. All he wanted was to take Lisa aside and use her encyclopedia to find out information about this world, but knew patience was warranted at this current moment.


    Besides, he needed to return to Earth first before setting anything into motion. He wasn''t in any rush. On the contrary, time throughout the galaxy seemed to move a lot slower than he thought. On Earth, 100 years was a long time. Abroad, where galaxies near the core existed in peace for millions or billions of years...thinking about how slowly these societies changed sickened his mind. The very idea that a world order could exist without being overthrown for over a million years...Bath found the idea contrary to his every instinctive value.


    The area around the mountain was mostly open plain. Far off into the distance, near the horizon line, the Travelers could barely see the outlines of mountains and a lake. The plain itself was quiet and devoid of life forms that would pique Bath''s interest.


    After about thirty minutes of walking, the escort stopped them at the base of a tall wall encircling the bottom of the mountain. An imposing white gate with crimson and gold accents stood before them. The escort approached the gate, then said: "This one brings wayfaring Travelers, gatemaster."


    "They are expected. You may all enter," the deep voice commanded. The gates swung open slowly, revealing the pure-white mountain''s surface ahead and a huge bazaar. Bath, Lisa and Lepochim all stepped through the gate after the escort.


    On the other side of the gate, an enormous throng of people were buying and selling goods in small, makeshift stalls. The number of people couldn''t have been less than ten-thousand. Even though the path to the staircase leading up the mountain lay on the other side of the huge crowd, the escort had the ability to part the sapients ahead with just a passive-aggressive glance.


    Lisa also noticed the escort applying a bit of force on each person''s shell, coercing them to get out of the way. She''d noticed when the escort arrived that it was kursi, which was slightlyannoying since Lisa then couldn''t breach the sapient''s mental defense. If all the people on this planet were like the slugs on Lime World and used anti-kursiequipment, Lisa wouldn''t feel as annoyed. But here, she could feel the shells of all the sapients around her; the only thing keeping Lisa from this escort''s thoughts was the escort''s own power. Lisa could only grumble about her poor luck.


    Soon, the escort and the Travelers all stepped onto disk-shaped platform.


    "To the Waymaster," the escort stated clearly into the open air. The platform suddenly began to hum. Within a few seconds, it was accelerating upwards. When the disk reached a fairly high altitude, it halted in front of a terrace with fairly austere decor when compared to other terraces around it.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "This is the Waymaster''s headquarters," the escort explained as she walked towards the headquarters. Like all other buildings they had seen, the headquarters was a block of rock that seemed carved out of the mountain itself. The escort brought them indoors and through a series of passageways before leading them to a heavy door that appeared to be made out of a strange, grainy material.


    "Waymaster, this one asks permission to enter with guests."


    "Enter," a sinuous baritone called out from beyond the door.


    Without a word in reply, the escort opened the door and gestured for the three Travelers to enter first. The sapient, clearly a male from his translated voice, looked to be a similar species, if not the same, as the escort. His skin was a pale blue, his mouths covered with an elegant red scarf draped around the lower half of his face. He had a slightly darker blue mane of hair around his head that extended out in thin lines of blue over his neck and disappeared under his robe. The sapient appeared to stand on his back pair of legs, though like the escort, his entire body was covered in a dress-like shroud that stretched from his neck to the ground.


    "Welcome, travelers," the Waymaster said warmly as Lisa and Lepochim entered his office. The office was a beautifully decorated room with numerous articles of exotic furniture and a wonderful view of the far-distant lake from a bay window. "It is a pleasure to see ones such as yourselves. This planet is fairly remote and rarely receives off-world guests," he explained.


    "Begging your pardon, Waymaster, but, may I sit down?" Lepochim asked awkwardly while cradling Bath in his arms. Lisa nearly snickered, but kept her composure.


    In this room, both the Waymaster and escort had shields up around their shells, a fact which Lisa was annoyedly growing accustomed to. It seemed like everyone they met on this adventure was a kursi, which didn''t make a whole lot of sense considering what Lepochim said about the percentage of kursi throughout the universe being so small.


    Perhaps the number of kursishe encountered was skewed by the fact that she was spending all her time passing though planetary gates. After all, on Earth, hundreds of kursi had been at the Ritus gate headquarters; contrastingly, essentially nowhere else on Earth had a single kursi.


    Lisa, Bath, and Lepochim hadn''t even considered the fact that Bath...in his square likeness...still had a shell, even if it was ominous and black. This would give him away as a living organism to any kursi.


    A fact which the Waymaster wryly addressed. "You can tell your third companion to come out; I sense his shell."


    Bath sinuously transformed into his human form with a uniform matching that of Lisa and Lepochim.


    "Hello, Waymaster," Bath said calmly, ignoring Lepochim''s rather peeved expression.


    "Hello, Waymaster," the sapient replied in kind. Bath''s mouth curved up into a genuine smile, his eyes shining with surprised light.


    "Oh? You''ve heard of me, then?"


    "We received notice that a new Waymaster was making his way around his neighboring planets," the Waymaster stated. "I happen to be the Waymaster for 15 or so planets in this rim of the universe; one of my rather...dour holdings is planet 39981."


    Bath searched his head; the planet name seemed familiar.


    "Lime World," Lepochim hissed dejectedly from behind. Bath''s eyes gleamed with recognition. "Ah, 39981. I have you to thank, then, for granting me and my Traveler translators and an encyclopedia."


    The Waymaster waved his head dismissively. "Don''t mention it; both the translators and the encyclopedia are worth very little. Anyways, aside from calling you here to meet the newest Waymaster in this area of the universe, I have a proposition to make. I have a policy of visiting the planets of Waymasters and would love to journey to your planet. I believe you told my subordinates on 39981 that it was called Earth."


    Bath nodded. "Yes, we are all from Earth. Do I understand correctly that you have a map of gates required to reach Earth?"


    The Waymaster''s eyes crinkled. "Of course. What is a Waymaster without his maps?" The Waymaster pulled out a small chip from his pocket--clearly he''d come prepared--and held the chip in between two folds of cloth where finger-like apendages were covered in his robe. "This is a copy of my own gate map," the Waymaster said. "The gate map you currently possess is deprecated and nearly useless. This map should allow you to go anywhere you wish within the surrounding 39 planets."


    Bath looked at the sapient with a complex expression on his face.


    "So, how about it? Go on a trip with me back to your Earth?"


    Bath had an overwhelming sense that this Waymaster was pursuing a nefarious agenda, but couldn''t find fault in any of his actions so far. Bath glanced and Lisa and Lepochim and gave each a look, asking for approval. Both gave him a small shrug.


    Bath''s lips curled up into a cold smile. If the Waymaster understood human facial expressions, would have been alarmed by Bath''s predatory demeanor. Perhaps he would have rescinded his own proposition to accompany Bath to Earth, abandoning his confidently-orchestrated plans.


    But alas, he didn''t suspect anything odd.


    Then Bath finally spoke, his voice saccharine and sincere: "I''d love for you to accompany us."


    Lepochim and Lisa both involuntarily shuddered.

 [Chapter 36] The Residence of Waymaster Juserin

    Bath and company were all exceptionally curious to find out how the as-of-yet unnamed Waymaster planned to arrive on Earth. Most curious of all was Lepochim.


    He spoke up for the first time: "By what methods are you planning to travel?" Lepochim was well aware how long gate-traveling took normal sapients, being a Traveler himself who''d traversed through many gates in the past. He was actually rather annoyed that Bath had such an absurdly easy gate-traveling experience; the Waymaster wouldn''t be able to simply fly at high-speed across every planet between here and Earth without running into obstacles.


    Most worlds near the Core tended to use rather sophisticated aerial ships to travel at high speed through gates. They would have authorization frequency chips--gatepasses--on the ships that would allow them to pass through certain gates without drawing undue attention. As a result, many worlds with stabilized gates had highways that flowed seamlessly from one gate to the next for hundreds of linked planets, all under the purvue of Waymaster conglomerates.


    Of course, buying a gatepass was somewhat pricey, though affordable for many Core dwellers, meaning that the people who distributed the passes--Waymasters--were wealthy individuals of great influence. Being a Waymaster almost guaranteed one enter the elite upper sphere of intergalactic influence. Many people in high places benefited from currying favor with Waymasters, and the benefit was mutual. The position of Waymaster had served many in the past as a springboard upon which to enter coveted intergalactic politics.


    There was only one requirement to be a Waymaster: having ownership of at least one gate. The direction in which the gate allowed travel didn''t matter--though of course two-way gates were most valuable--and the number of people who knew about and used the gate also had no bearing. Thus, because Bath had forcefully seized the Ritus headquarters, he was officially in possession of a gate and thus a Waymaster, even if his gate was almost worthless.


    "Which way am I planning to travel?" the Waymaster said thoughtfully, though his stare fell rather disdainfully across Lepochim. "I have a voyager prepared for the journey."


    Lepochim''s eyes widened. Voyagers were a kind of ship that shifted between aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial forms. They also had extremely durable exteriors that would likely--though Lepochim didn''t know for sure--stand up to the magma pools of the previous planet.


    Voyagers were exemplary ships for traveling and exorbitantly expensive. Just the cost of shipping one from the Core to this distant planet made Lepochim shudder.


    "How long do you expect the journey to take by voyager?" Bath asked, his tone rather relaxed.


    "We''re going to be passing through four more planets, so perhaps...a week?"


    Bath frowned. "We need to be back within six days."


    "Six...days? Why?"


    "I made a bet," Bath grinned sardonically. "Regardless, taking more than one day for each planet seems rather luxurious. I propose we plan to arrive on Earth five days from now, using today to rest and explore this fine planet and then setting off tomorrow." Bath wanted to leave them a margin of error of a day.


    Lepochim looked confusedly at Bath. A bet? Really? Hadn''t Bath already called the bet off? Not that Lepochim believed Bath would have honored it if he lost. Why did Bath actually want to get back within eight days? Lepochim didn''t believe for a second that it was because of "school."


    Lisa, too, was rather curious by Bath''s insistence on returning to Earth within eight days.


    The Waymaster looked rather taken aback by Bath''s proposition. "That is...fine."


    "Excellent." Bath''s flashed a teeth-filled grin. "Well then, we''ll take our leave. Have you accommodations prepared for us?"


    The Waymaster chuckled, suddenly feeling more comfortable as he assumed his position as host. "Of course. What do you take Illudis for, some kind of uncivilized backwater?" Lepochim nearly choked as the Waymaster continued on. "Come, I''ll give you a tour of the property."


    Despite the fact that Lisa had caught on to Bath''s opaque scheming, she was fairly impressed by the Waymaster''s power and thankful for his hospitality. Traveling with Bath for the past two days--staying tucked away in his thoracic cavity for hours on end--was fairly boring and monotonous. Even after he made her a viewing window to see the outside world, after the first hour or so of observing the environs of a new planet, Lisa grew bored.


    The possibility of traveling by vehicle--she assumed a voyager was a ship of some kind--sounded absolutely wonderful. She was also curious to see what kinds of information she could milk out of the Waymaster. Though Lisa had spent the past day combing through the encyclopedia, she was completely overwhelmed by all the information it contained and wasn''t sure what she should be searching for. Talking to a sapient was much preferable to reading dense encyclopedia entries that all seemed to assume she had a basic knowledge of things like intergalactic politics and gate systems and sapient hierarchies...


    The Waymaster led them through his lavishly furnished abode, one that served as both his office, diplomatic staging-ground, and residence. He delved into the history of many possessions as he passed them by, describing many events and planets in the process that Lisa, Bath, and even Lepochim had never heard of. He showed them a luxuriant bath house as well as an entertainment room with several games (all of them foreign and left unexplained by the Waymaster) and a viewing screen for watching films.


    ''We''re going to need to build our own impressive headquarters,'' Lisa thought enviously to herself as she compared the Waymaster''s opulent residence to the comparatively pathetic Ritus headquarters. Not only was this place full of carefully decorated rooms and inhabited by many personal servants and followers of the Waymaster, it also contained a series of restaurants and even two schools. There was even a lush garden of bizarre, moving plants kept alive within the house by UV lamps and a zoo of fairly exotic lifeforms from other planets.Stolen novel; please report.


    Even Bath was fascinated by these lifeforms and their rather distinctive characteristics compared to most creatures he''d encountered so far. One of them was a floating disk that kept itself aloft by rapidly swishing innumerable thin tentacles around its flat form. Another was a rock-like creature that seemed to crackle with fire that smoked out from its mouth and nose.


    They made his mouth water and his heart race.


    As the Waymaster finished up his tour by depositing in front of a cluster of three rooms, Lisa finally asked: "Esteemed Waymaster," she decided politeness would go a long way towards stroking the man''s clearly enormous ego, "what is your name? Calling you by your title of Waymaster seems so uncordial."


    The Waymaster stopped and gave her a calculating glance, then turned his face up to look at Bath. "My name?" He seemed reluctant to divulge the information. "Very well. My name is Juserin. In return, what is your name, Waymaster?"


    "Bath." Bath said his name slowly and confidently, his face calm as usual, making him almost appear bored. "Waymaster Juserin, thank you for your exceptional hospitality. At this point, we will take our leave to refresh ourselves for the journey ahead."


    "Waymaster Bath, think nothing of it. Help yourselves to anything in my house; if lost, don''t hesitate to seek out a servant for directions. They''re everywhere."


    "Very well. Thank you." And with that, Bath strode into the central room of the three. Lisa and Lepochim gave each other a glance and then followed suit a second later, entering the left and right rooms respectively.


    ---


    The three separately enjoyed the amenities in their lavish rooms. The bathrooms in each were absolutely enormous and outfitted with several fixtures that Bath and Lisa were unfamiliar with, such as what appeared to be a full-body dryer and a rectangular pit filled with foam cubes. The bathrooms had many similarities to those of Earth, namely a separate bathtub and shower as well as toilets, sinks, and mirrors. However, the bath tubs were cylindrical in shape and deep, so standing in them appeared to be the norm. The toilets, too, appeared to require one stand over a shoot that led to some kind of residence-wide waste-disposal system.


    Lisa was particularly unhappy with the slight variances between these and Earthly amenities. She was most disturbed by the toilet, which didn''t work like she expected at first glance. She shuddered just thinking about going to the bathroom again. It was worse than just going outside behind foliage as she''d been doing previously. Clearly, the anatomy of the sapients on this world was different in many, many ways.


    Even the sinks were distinct, the counter having two levels upon which two separate sinks rested. Lisa figured that this design was intended for use with two sets of hands, which made sense considering Waymaster Juserin and his fellow sapients all had six limbs total.


    Overall, however, Lisa enjoyed the alien luxury of the bathroom and spent the next two hours soaking in the bath and reclining in the strange foam pit. ''When we make our super headquarters,'' Lisa thought to herself, ''we need to get one of these.'' The foam pit at once dried her and allowed her a space to lie suspended in complete comfort.


    Meanwhile, Lepochim took a quick shower and used the full-body dryer. He was out of the bathroom within 10 minutes. Upon leaving, he found that clothes had been deposited on the large, circular bed in his chambers. Upon inspection, Lepochim found the robe to be a modified version of the robes normally worn by sapients on this world. The robes were of fine quality, white with crimson accents. He was happy to have actual clothes instead of the weird, organic suit Bath had slapped onto his body.


    "Lepochim, come to my room," Bath called out from his own bedchambers. Lepochim heard him through the wall and sighed, but left the room to go over to Bath.


    Bath was in the room sitting on his large bed. His eyes were bright as he asked, "Lepochim. Tell me what you know about this world."


    At the same time, Bath appeared in Lisa''s room. "Lisa?"


    "I''m in the bathroom," she called back. Bath nodded, leaving her alone for the time being. He could inform her later about what he learned from Lepochim.


    Back in Bath''s room, Lepochim began to explain what he knew about this "tiny, backwater pinprick."


    "The Waymaster of this world is likely only wealthy because one of his planets has a gate that serves as a critical node in a greater power''s trade road. What I mean by that is some wealthier Waymaster stationed much closer to the core has a trading enterprise. Some of his business is far out from the core, and rather than conquer all of the nodes necessary to complete his trading routes, he''s simply bought gatepasses for all of his trading vessels. As a result, this Waymaster has a small but steady stream of cash as the gatepasses get renewed every hundred years or so."


    Bath blanched. "Every hundred years...? So, this man his lived for a while." Bath''s eyes narrowed. Someone who was in a position of power for periods of multiple hundreds of years (as Lepochim seemed to imply the Waymaster was) undoubtedly had a high sense of caution and refined planning abilities.


    Lepochim gave Bath a knowing smile. "I mentioned before that kursi don''t age, remember?" Bath nodded; he hadn''t thought much of it. With regards to Lisa, he had a general idea of how to keep her from aging using his own power, and therefore hadn''t been very impressed by that particular kursi boon. Though, Bath had to admit, for most, the fact that kursi stopped the aging process was incredibly beneficial.


    "Tell me about what it means for a Waymaster to have control over multiple planets and how so-called gatepasses function," Bath asked.


    "The closer you are to Ildr, the harder it is to keep control over a gate because of the immense economic and political stakes," Lepochim explained, going on to detail the gatepass system of accruing profits as well as the political power given to those in possession of gates. "If this planet wasn''t so far removed from Ildr, he''d be quite a figure to reckon with. Fifteen planets is a sizable holding."


    Lepochim gave Bath a tight grin. "Alas, despite this Waymaster''s declaration otherwise, this tiny, backwater pinprick of a planet is too far removed from civilized space to hold much value. This man''s gates are all worth less in total than a one-way gate closer to the Core."


    "So, in essence, this Waymaster is a large power in this region, but in the vast scheme of things is an absolute nobody. You''re even less than him, you know," Lepochim pointed out, his tone oddly serious. "You should be careful not to screw things up for yourself. You have a lot of potential, World Devourer or not, to get out of this fringe region and make your way towards the center of the universe." Which was, of course, what Lepochim wanted; he naturally wanted out of this trivially insignificant stretch of space. Personal motivations aside, what he said was true: Bath knew this because, despite what he told Lepochim, he still had a spindle of essence circulating Lepochim''s body to detect the verity of his words.


    He clearly believed that what Bath should be doing is traveling inward, towards Ildr.


    Bath thought those plans rather...unambitious.

 [Chapter 37] Time Before the Departure

    "Thank you for the advice," Bath said emotionlessly. "I think I have a general understanding of who we''re dealing with here," he spoke, referring to Juserin. "Tell me: what would it take to unseal you?"


    "Unseal me? I''m not sure, to be honest," Lepochim sighed. "It''d probably require someone stronger than the kursi that sealed me to break the seal by force. The level differential would have to be fairly large to destroy the seal, less to weaken it and allow me to use a fraction of my power as a kursi."


    "Interesting." Bath wondered when Lisa would be powerful enough to help in that pursuit. "How does a kursi increase their power?"


    Lepochim cocked his head. "Usually by being alive. Time."


    "Any ways to speed it up?" Bath''s expression was anticipatory. He knew someone in the vast universe must have figured out a way.


    "Not that I''m aware of. Probably just using her abilities a lot, which goes with the whole ''time'' aspect. Kursi use their abilities on the sapients around them constantly, so it''s hard to actually increase the amount that kursi use their abilities."


    "Hmmm." Bath figured that something could be arranged to help increase Lisa''s abilities at a faster pace. He''d need to do some experimenting at a later date with some human test subjects, human kursi, and Lisa herself.


    "Why is it that you can''t just devour kursi?" Lepochim suddenly asked, his eyebrows pulling inward. "Shouldn''t you be able to detect them and manipulate them yourself? Maybe even make me a new kursi symbiote to replace the one that''s sealed?"


    Bath chuckled darkly. "You think I haven''t wondered the same thing?" He pushed off the bed and began to pace slowly about the room. "There''s nothing genetically different about Lisa that should give her psychic abilities. This I knew from the beginning," he explained.


    "Therefore, I always suspected that something beyond my capabilities to detect was influencing Lisa. The fact that I didn''t definitively know Lisa had psychic abilities until she told me is stark evidence of this fact.


    "Trust me when I say that I''ve been nursing this question for a long time and have yet to come up with a solution. What are kursi, and why can''t I detect them like I can all other forms of life? I feel these questions will continue to evade me for some time," Bath sighed. Then he smiled and looked at Lepochim. "But that''s what makes this all fun."


    "Fun?"


    Bath snorted. "What else?" He stretched out a long-fingered hand. "How far can I go...before I''m forcibly stopped? Before all the questions are answered?" His eyes had a sense of longing in them as he looked off into space, staring at a place, future, or reality only he could see. He didn''t explain his words, letting them sit in the air like oil on water. Lepochim didn''t know what to make of them.


    "You can leave, Lepochim."


    Lepochim was quiet for a moment, then spoke: "Don''t you want to know more about this planet or the Waymaster?"


    Bath turned away from him and began walking towards the bathroom. "No; no need. If this man is truly as insignificant as you say, I should have nothing to fear from him."


    Lepochim wasn''t sure if this was arrogance or confidence. Both were easy to conflate and depended upon whether or not Bath actually was powerful enough to deal with the Waymaster''s worst schemes without difficulty. Lepochim admittedly didn''t have a good understanding of the extent of Bath''s abilities.


    Then, Suddenly: "One thing. What is the name of this planet''s sapient species?"


    "Verdora."


    Bath then entered the Bathroom and the door slid shut behind him with a click. As he did so, Lepochim was left with a distinct impression that Bath was unmoveable, rocklike. Godlike. As unwilling as he was to admit it to himself, there was really only one word to describe Bath, and it wasn''t arrogant.


    He wanted to find flaws in Bath''s power because they gave him a greater sense of security in himself. However, the more time he spent with Bath, the more powerless he felt himself. It was the opposite of what normally happened, where he slowly ferreted out weaknesses and secrets and whatnot to use against someone, to gain sway over them.


    At this point, Lepochim had no confidence at all that he could use anything to leverage against Bath. As a result, Lepochim was still adjusting himself to the reality that he was completely beholden to this mysterious entity from the fringes of the universe.


    Where had he come from...and was he really a World Devourer? Should Lepochim''s aim be to escape, or to work with this powerful--but inscrutable--entity?The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Lepochim sighed as he walked back to his room, his mind a maelstrom of questions and uncertainty.


    ---


    Like Lisa, Bath took his time exploring the amenities in the bathroom, his curiosity for alien technology taking over. Soon, after Lisa finished getting ready, Bath, Lisa, and Lepochim--now all dressed in modified local attire--walked through Juserin''s enormous abode. They explored the kitchens, the gardens, and even paid a visit to the school building, though it was already closed. They returned to the entertainment room and tried out some of the local games, though they were all rather difficult to understand without a native to explain their rules.


    Dinner wasn''t served; apparently, verdora only ate one meal at midday. Lisa reminded Bath ever-so-gently that she literally hadn''t had anything to eat for two days.


    "Bath, not everyone can go days without food, you moron!" she said as she whapped him on the shoulder. "I thought we were actually going to get decent food at this place. Alas, I was sorely mistaken."


    Bath''s face quirked. "Stop being so melodramatic. Besides, I offered you some of the local wildlife on Lime World, but you said it was too disgusting to eat," Bath rebutted. "Considering human sensitivities--"


    "Sensitivities my ass," Lisa cut in angrily.


    "Considering human peculiarities--" Lisa slapped Bath but didn''t otherwise interrupt--"the organic specimens on Lime World really were inedible. Taste and appearance both rather poor.


    "In my defense, how was I supposed to know that Lava Land or whatever you named it only had tiny, primitive, inedible lifeforms? And then, next thing you knew, we were here."


    "Yeah yeah," Lisa huffed. "What''s to stop us from leaving this place and exploring in the name of finding a restaurant?" Lisa asked.


    "Nothing," Bath replied with a flat grin. "Lepochim, would it be socially acceptable for us to just leave and come back?"


    "Actually, yes," Lepochim said slowly, his face pensive. "Lisa, you''re kursi. That means you''re technically a huge liability if you''re allowed to go out. Moreover, Bath''s a Waymaster who shows up as a mysterious emotional black hole on any kursi''s shell radar."


    Lisa gave Bath a look. "Shell radar?"


    "Translator," Bath said sadly, exhaling audibly in mock despair. "You''d think it would come up with a better translation."


    "What?" Lepochim asked with a bit of temper.


    "Is there any way to change what the translator interprets certain words as?" Lisa asked. "That last term you had translates pretty clunkily into English."


    "I''m sure you can," Lepochim shrugged. "Maybe just tell it to redefine the word as something else."


    "Translator," Lisa began immediately, "redefine ''shell radar'' as ''influence.''"


    "That''s so vague," Lepochim lamented. "Influence is such a terrible translation for shell radar," he remarked hotly.


    "It makes sense with context," Lisa argued. "Bath shows up as a black hole on any kursi''s shell radar. Bath shows up as a black hole on any kursi''s influence. How could you mistake the meaning behind the second sentence? The meaning''s the same!"


    "Redefine ''shell radar'' as ''influence,''" Bath repeated with a completely neutral expression. He had to agree with Lepochim that ''influence'' was a fairly simple word that in fact didn''t even grammatically map onto ''shell radar,'' but Lisa was right: it made sense with context.


    Lepochim let out a small groan. "Moving on, both of your are complete wildcards. The Waymaster would probably get an aneurysm if you both venture outside."


    With that, Bath and Lisa resigned themselves to exploring the planet when they came back in the future. Bath alleviated Lisa''s hunger through his own methods, though Lisa still claimed she wanted to eat a good meal as soon as physically possible.


    As the three Travelers rested in one of the residence''s many parlor rooms, Lisa continued to do more research on the world at large through her encyclopedia. She felt like no matter what she read, she was completely unequipped to understand the information.


    Lepochim eventually came over to help her after watching her struggle for a solid half hour. He began to fill in the gaps in her basic understanding of the structures of power and influence underlying the bulk of the universe.


    Bath appeared to be staring out of the window at the mountain city below. In reality, his essence effectively saturated the whole area within his long-range manipulation range. He was observing the movements and behaviors of this sapient species that seemed to dominate Illudis.


    The society seemed to be caste-based, with clear hierarchies of interaction on the mountain indicated by how far someone lived up the mountain itself.


    Bath thought it peculiar that the Waymaster didn''t live at the peak of the mountain. This suggested that there were powers greater than Juserin on this world, likely people who first put Juserin into power.


    Bath was curious to see who they were, but their residences were all under the strictest security. To his utmost surprise, the only five residences above Juserin''s all had extremely heavy doors and no windows. He''d assumed the sapients at the top of this city''s--and likely planet''s--social hierarchy would have opulent mansions with beautiful windows and bustling foot traffic. Contrary to expectation, Bath hadn''t seen a single person come or go into the residences in the time that he''d been on the planet and was growing wary of unseen forces: why would such esteemed individuals feel the need to resort to such paranoid behavior?


    Perhaps when he came back to this world, he would find out.


    Bath also continued to study the sapient species itself, the verdora. Unbeknownst to the Waymaster, Bath had already devoured at least fifteen different verdora, all of them the kinds that wouldn''t be missed if they died. When he''d gone into the bathroom earlier, he''d practiced shifting into the new form.


    He began to understand a bit better how this species differed from humans. He also understood why they wore body-covering robes.


    He sighed in contentment as he continued to look out the window at the masses of verdora below. Such small lives, dotting this stunning white mountain on a world he''d never known existed until this very day.


    He was truly beginning to understand on a fundamental level just how small Earth truly was. He''d logically known that Earth was small in comparison to the vast universe, but the scale of its insignificance hadn''t been driven home until he''d arrived on Illudis. This was a planet comparable to Earth with its own technologies and culture and civilization.


    So Bath looked out, in contented awe of Illudis and in quiet anticipation of all the world''s he''d one day see. Lisa and Lepochim eventually turned in to sleep, but Bath continued to look out the window, watching as dusk turned to night turned to daybreak.


    Soon, the time to depart had come.

 [Chapter 38] Lisas Visualization Technique

    Servants collected them early the next morning and brought them to a wing of the residence they hadn''t yet been able to enter: the hangar.


    The hangar wasn''t massive, but it was sizable and had several distinct vehicles within it. There were four or five pod-shaped aircraft--the kind commonly used to commute on the mountain--and other miscellaneous vehicles, such as what appeared to be a sailboat and a four-propeller helicopter.


    In the back of the hangar, elevated on a platform as though on a pedestal, sat the voyager. Bath, Lisa, and Lepochim all discerned this at first glance due to Juserin''s reclining on its polished, onyx hull.


    "Hello, fellow Travelers," he greeted warmly. "Accompany me inside." He placed a hand on the door and it slid smoothly upward into the craft. He walked into the opening and soon the others followed him inside.


    The voyager was a fairly large craft, about the size of a school bus squished to be slightly shorter and wider. There were already two servants on board primed to assist the party of four throughout the duration of their trip.


    The craft was mostly taken up by empty space, which seemed to imply its intended purpose was transporting cargo between worlds separated by dangerous gates. In a rather opaque attempt to fill the empty space, Juserin had his servants set up a food bar and entertainment area with a circle of large, plush cushions.


    "This is a beautiful craft," Bath stated diplomatically as he took a seat in one of the swiveling chairs near the front of the cabin. "How do you operate it?"


    "Oh, I don''t," Juserin''s eyes crinkled, the verdora equivalent of a smile. "The ship has an automatic navigation system. Of course, I can take manual control if I wish, but if we''re on such a tight schedule it''s best to just let the navigation system go the most efficient route."


    Bath nodded in understanding. "Lisa, come here," Bath said with a motion of his hand. "Juserin," he began, looking pointedly at the man, "This is my partner, Lisa. She''s a powerful kursi doing research on the ways kursi from other worlds utilize their abilities."


    He grinned coldly. "She''d like to ask you some questions."


    "Oh? An intellectual," Juserin mused. "What kinds of questions?"


    Lisa gave Bath a murderous glare out of the corner of her eyes before addressing Juserin.


    "How do you visualize the shells around individuals that fall within your range of influence?" Lisa asked tentatively, placing her hand on her chin in what she hoped was a scholarly air. Then again, how was she supposed to know what behavior a verdora would interpret as scholarly?


    "Big bubbles. Is that different from other species?"


    Lisa nodded sagely. "Species tend to view shells in different ways. For instance, I view shells as glowing auroras floating around people."


    "Fascinating. What got you interested in this kind of research?"


    Bath decided to butt in: "She''s hoping to make advancements towards accelerating the speed at which kursi gain power."


    Juserin gave Bath, then Lisa, incredulous stares. "Accelerate the speed...well, marvelous if you can pull it off," he chuckled. "Don''t you think someone would have figured that out by now if it were possible?"


    Bath''s eyes glittered. "Who''s to say nobody has figured it out and just kept the knowledge to themselves? The universe is a vast place, after all; imagine the power someone would have if they can accumulate a hoard of powerful kursi."


    Juserin''s face grew thoughtful, or at least Lisa and Bath assumed it looked thoughtful. The lower half of his face was still covered in cloth. "That doesn''t sound impossible," he admitted. "Have you made any progress?"If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    Bath shook his head, then looked expectantly at Lisa, whose eyes widened before her lips tightened into an angry line.


    She turned to Juserin in smiled sweetly. "We''ve spent most of our time so far investigating kursi on Earth, which is only one planet of many with one sapient species. We''ve learned a lot from human sapients, and believe that by combining this knowledge with a study of other sapients on different worlds, we can better understand, um, what the kursi symbiote is and how it affects the mind."


    "Interesting. So, is it correct to assume that you have all decided to leave Earth in the name of this knowledge-gathering exercise?"


    "No, we''ve come for other things as well," Bath said cheerfully. "Like you said, this research seems feasible, but there''s a large chance nothing will come of it. We have our own motivations for traveling."


    "Do you have any more questions for me?" Juserin asked.


    Lisa twitched. "Of course! For the next one, how do you visualize what happens when you alter another individual''s shell?"


    "Oh, hmm. Their shell changes color, and little disturbances, like swirls of water, stream over their shell. These quickly settle."


    "This is fairly common," Lisa explained with a nod of her head. "Every kursi I''ve questioned sees shells in colors that correspond to emotional state. When the person''s emotional state is altered, their shell accordingly changes color."


    Lisa didn''t even try to address the disturbance part. She sometimes saw people''s shells grow brighter or dimmer after she manipulated their minds; she just assumed it was a visual effect generated by her brain to make what she was seeing coincide with her own expectations of what should happen.


    "How do the shells of entities change when there are many entities in one location?" Lisa inquired next, now becoming genuinely curious in the differences between her own abilities and this alien kursi''s.


    "Should they change?" Juserin appeared perplexed. "No matter the volume, shells appear as bubbles."


    "Do they ever interact with each other? If there are two people close together, specifically if there are bonds of love or family between them, will their bubbles change?" Lisa was incredibly surprised by Juserin''s previous response. People''s shells were constantly affecting each other, most noticeably when in huge groups and they combined into a giant group-think shell.


    Juserin''s stare grew serious. "What are you talking about? Are there other species of kursi who see what you describe?"


    Lisa decided to antagonize the Waymaster, just a bit, for blowing her off the day before and addressing Bath when she spoke and asked questions. Lisa knew she wasn''t Bath''s equal, at least in terms of raw power, but felt like Juserin had an obligation to treat her respectfully.


    "Seeing these things is the norm for Earth kursi and other kursi I''ve so far encountered," Lisa said sadly. She had no idea if that was true. "How are you able to influence the shells of entire crowds, then, as you currently visualize the world?"


    As Lisa was speaking, Lepochim, who had previously been fiddling with the equivalent of an Earth television set, looked over and gave Lisa a fairly perplexed and sharp expression.


    Juserin was starting to look a little distressed and chuckled nervously. "I simply touch all of their shells at once. Not like it''s difficult after hundreds of years building up my ability," he replied defensively. "What''s the point of all these questions, anyway?"


    Lisa''s eyes suddenly narrowed as she thought of a plan. Definitely not one as hair-brained as a Bath plan; rather, one that actually might probe the secrets of what Bath claimed she was trying to research.


    "Juserin, I want you to try a visualization technique," Lisa said slowly, calculating the Waymaster''s reaction.


    "What do you mean by that?"


    Lisa looked over to the two servants. "Can you call them over?" Lisa asked expectantly.


    "Of course. Aorun, Pilfam, come here," he said without a moment''s hesitation.


    A complicated expression then came over Bath''s face. He was rather impressed that this Waymaster knew the names of his servants. Considering Juserin''s hospitality and overall friendliness so far, Bath was starting to feel a bit...bad regarding what he had planned.


    "Okay. So when I look at these two, and they are standing far apart like they are now--" the two servants were three feet away from one another-- "I see both of their shells as completely separate. If I want to touch their shells, I have to touch both of them at the same time."


    Juserin nodded. "The same for myself."


    Lisa nodded back. "The key difference is what happens when they come closer together. Servants, please go close together until you are only a foot apart." They looked at Juserin, who nodded, and then they quickly obeyed the instruction.


    "When I see them now, their shells are currently overlapping. As they overlap, little bits of shell from one are slowly flowing into the other, and vice versa."


    Juserin''s eyes grew dark. "I don''t see that kind of interaction at all."


    Lisa smiled. "I think that''s because of your visualization of their shells," Lisa explained. "When I see shells, since they''re effectively auroras of light, they naturally overlap and mix. With yours, since they''re bubbles, they can''t mix or else they''ll pop. That''s the expectation placed by your mind on their shells."


    "I believe that it''s restricting you."

 [Chapter 39] The Trio Returns to Earth

    Juserin now looked at Lisa with new eyes. He''d never imagined she was such a skilled, insightful sapient. This Waymaster, Bath, kept exceptional company.


    "If that''s true, then how do I change my visualization?" Juserin was eager to learn. He''d ever even thought he could be taught anything about being a kursi; he''d assumed it was all instinctive.


    "How do their shells look like when they come close to each other?" Lisa asked.


    "They simply grow closer to their bodies. If they''re intimately close, their shells will cover their bodies like a second skin."


    "Then, what I think you need to do is believe, as strongly as you can, that their shells aren''t going to decrease in size. Instead, as they come closer, their shells are going to touch one another. When this happens, the little whorls of water you mentioned before are going to flow from one shell to the other.


    "That''s what you''re going to envision."


    Juserin''s head swam. "Okay, I''m going to give it a shot." He looked intently at his servants and ordered them to move farther away and then closer together over the course of a few minutes.


    In the end, he inclined his head with a sigh.


    "I don''t think I''ve made any progress," he admitted dejectedly.


    Now Lisa was feeling a bit bad for him. "Don''t worry; this kind of visualization technique is something that needs to be practiced often for a long period of time. You need to reteach your mind how to think, after all," she explained with a consoling tone. "After a few months or years, I''d expect you to see improvements if you meditate on the scene I described to you earlier."


    Juserin nodded. "An interesting proposition. Well, we''ll see if anything changes. But, now that I think about it, why is it important to visualize shells influencing one another?"


    Lisa laughed. "Because, when they''re connected like that, you only need to influence one shell rather than two."


    Juserin''s face appeared neutral, then quickly turned a darker blue color as he began to understand the implications of what Lisa said. "One becomes two...how far can this stack?"


    "Indefinitely," Lisa said cooly. "Just think about that."


    "And you claim that kursi on Earth have this kind of shell visualization?"


    Now Lisa was a bit uncertain. Certainly she had this way of visualizing shells, but didn''t know if the same went for other humans.


    "You can see for yourself when we come to Earth," Lisa replied flippantly, as though the question didn''t merit a proper response.


    Juserin nodded slowly. "Very well."


    Lepochim was silent over by the cushions. However, he had been listening very attentively to the end of Lisa''s exchange with the Waymaster. ''Visualization techniques...'' he thought to himself. Like Juserin, he''d never imagined what Lisa was saying to be possible. Each entity was their own, separate individual; they didn''t influence one another by virtue of proximity.


    What Lisa was saying was something Lepochim had never heard of before.


    Bath himself was pleasantly surprised with the way Lisa had clearly psyched out the Waymaster. He didn''t quite understand the implications of what Lisa had been saying, but did understand that Lisa had a superior visualization technique to the Waymaster. He wasn''t sure how important visualization techniques were, but apparently what Lisa could do with hers was enough to shock both the Waymaster and Lepochim, whom Bath saw watching Lisa attentively.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Bath was already very proud of Lisa, and this only served as further justification for placing his faith in her.


    ''My little conqueror,'' he mused to himself, thinking of Lisa and her renown ten years, fifty years, one hundred years from now. Little blips in time. He didn''t even try to guess where they would all be in one thousand years, but figured it would situations beyond their current capacity to imagine.


    "Lepochim, what are you doing with the television?" Bath queried from his swivel chair.


    "Trying to configure it to the outside world so we can see where we''re going." Because of its incredible durability and capacity to change form, the voyager didn''t have any windows to the outside.


    "Oh, that?" Juserin said as he looked over at Lepochim. "Just hit that green button on the remote."


    Lepochim gave him an exasperated expression. "There are four different remotes; which one?"


    Lisa thought it hilarious that both Earth and worlds beyond had issues with consumer electronics.


    "The only one with a green button," the Waymaster replied snidely.


    Scowling, Lepochim found the remote and pressed the green button. Then, on the screen, the passengers saw the outside world. They were currently rocketing over a planet with vast, sandy deserts and a few green seas. They were actually starting to slow down as they dove towards the planet''s surface.


    "Good timing," Juserin noted. "We''re approaching the second gate."


    "Already?" Bath asked, curious. The ship had passed through the first gate on Illudis only twenty minutes after departure. If the ship was almost already at the next gate, they''d make insanely fast time as they proceeded forward. Why had Juserin said the trek would take a week to get to Earth?


    "Don''t be fooled: this planet was a breeze. The upcoming planet has a gate that''s located on an asteroid off the surface of the planet. We''ll actually have to enter space and try to locate it manually. I reserved two days for finding it."


    Bath''s mouth popped open. Space? The gate was in outer space? His eyes darted to Lisa and Lepochim. Bath had no faith in his ability to enter outer space. More than anything, he was terrified of going out into the void and being trapped there, unable to move and spinning out helplessly into the void.


    He never would have expected that the gate was on anything other than the planet itself. Of course, their gate map would have informed them of this fact as soon as they landed on the planet, but they would''ve been unable to actually reach the gate upon arrival.


    Bath realized for the first time that things weren''t potentially as easy as he expected.


    "Waymaster Juserin," Bath began suddenly, "is it common for gates to be located off the surface of a planet?"


    Juserin shook his head. "It''s almost unheard of. I actually suspect that a foreign power carved the gate out of the surface of the planet and tossed it out into space. Why anyone would do such a thing is beyond me. Thankfully, the voyager can handle short outer space travel."


    Bath felt a feeling of relief, though couldn''t shake fear budding up inside his Center. ''I need to find a way to deal with the space issue,'' he said determinedly to himself. ''This is a new personal goal.'' A few ideas flashed through his head, but he resigned himself to thinking deeply on the matter later.


    Finding the asteroid took a day and a half. They proceeded on to other worlds, taking around 2/3 a day for each. Many of the planets they visited were quite treacherous and required the voyager to travel through harsh storms, slowing progress considerably. As the voyager traveled to Earth, Bath watched intently the television screen to gain a better understanding of the worlds for when he returned to them. Bath, Lisa, and Lepochim learned a few verdora games from Juserin. They spent a good deal of time asking questions about verdora society and Illudis while Juserin asked many questions about life on Earth.


    The time passed fairly quickly, and on the fifth day''s evening, Juserin informed them that they would reach Earth within the next four hours.


    "Prepare yourselves," he said warmly, having grown fairly close to his guests over the duration of the voyage. Lisa, he found, was incredibly easy to talk to. Lepochim was a bit of a tart, but fine all the same with interesting observations to contribute to the conversation.


    In all honesty, Juserin still didn''t know what he thought about Bath, which only made him more curious to reach Earth and see the kind of influence he''d carved out for himself on his home planet.


    The four hours came and went. Then: "Passing through the gate," sounded throughout the voyager. Everyone looked at each other in anticipation.


    Juserin grinned. "We''ve arrived."


    "Home," Lisa sighed amiably.


    "Earth," Lepochim murmured under his breath, feeling a sense of disdain towards the planet.


    Bath''s closed his eyes, then opened them after a moment. They now shone steely with resolve. He focused his gaze on the television screen currently displaying the form of a pitch-black gate. Just five seconds more until the voyager''s tip crossed the threshold...one second...


    Bath sighed, a complex expression on his face as the screen displayed the inside of the Ritus headquarters.


    "I''ve returned."


    ---


    END PART3

 [Chapter 40] Considering the Return of Lisa and Bath

    Bern was reading a book on the porch; I was cooking dinner.


    And then I felt the swell of the gate as it opened up.


    "So," I said softly, "they''re back." You don''t just get to be Waymaster by taking over the gate''s location. No, I was still Waymaster until I forfeited my position.


    Which I was probably going to do.


    I sighed as I looked out from the kitchen onto the lake. I''d tried to keep the Earth isolated for as long as I could. After all, Earth would be eaten alive were it to be exposed to the galactic jungle. Humans, intelligent but relatively infantile sapients, would be conquered and sold as slaves throughout the universe. Then, Earth would be stripped of natural resources and cast off. Perhaps if Earth were located closer to the Core, invaders might want to preserve Earth and use the planet for trade or as a population dump.


    Unfortunately, Earth''s location was as abysmal as they come.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    It has always seemed like a fairly hopeless situation to me. Because of that, I''ve kept the gate under tight wraps and I''ve tried to ensure no word of alien life has reached Earth''s populace. All this has been contingent on humanity''s ability to survive and stake out a claim in the vast universe.


    I''m still not convinced that alone, even with recent advances, us humans can survive. Then again, what would it take for that to happen? Humanity will have to close an enormous technological gap,hundreds of thousands of years in the making on the fringes of the rim alone.


    There is only one reason why I have any inkling to pass on my role as Waymaster onto another: the only naturalized alien on Earth, Bath. We''ve investigated him, tried to find out his motivations for causing huge car crashes on a few highways and other miscellaneous things. In the end, we decided it was, oddly enough, ecoterrorism.


    "Lisa," I clucked softly out loud. "You''ve made quite the companion."


    In all my years, I''ve started to realize that fate and destiny aren''t as abstract as modern people would have us think.


    What else could have brought my niece and Bath together? A kursi to rival any I''ve ever met and a powerful, ancient being with a stake in Earth''s preservation? Together, perhaps...


    "They''ll come here eventually," Bern said from the porch below. "You can make your decision then."


    I sighed, then went back to chopping vegetables. He was right: no use in worrying until they came.

 [Part 4] [Chapter 41] Subjugating Ritus and Touring Earth

    PART 4


    ---


    The Ritus headquarters had already been repopulated by its numerous members. Needless to say, none of them expected to see Bath anytime soon--perhaps ever--after he stepped into the gate and left.


    They scarcely had a moment to react as a huge black torpedo-like vessel entered the gate room and nearly ripped one of the walls in half. Inside the cabin, Juserin frowned as the spectacle was shown on the viewing screen.


    "Why are they so unprepared?" he asked incredulously, giving Bath a sidelong glance.


    Lisa snickered. "It''s because they don''t belong here anymore."


    Juserin''s face (at least the part visible above his mouth sash) continued to display extreme levels of confusion. "Surely Waymaster Bath has his own personnel to man this gate," Juserin stated firmly. "They should be receiving all of us right now...rather than this spectacle."


    Bath looked at Juserin and gave him a small smile. "Waymaster Juserin," Bath said calmly, "I haven''t yet had time to secure my holding and attain proper gate personnel. Allow me a few minutes to deal with the ruckus outside this ship. Actually," Bath inclined his head, "give me 2minutes exactly."


    Juserin nodded, then gestured for his servants to open the voyager''s door. Bath stepped out onto the ground outside and stretched his limbs. Not because he needed to, nor because it felt good, but because he understood the psychological play that exists between predators and prey.


    Stretching gave the impression that he was in no rush and under no stress.


    Next, he gave them a wide grin, then boomed throughout the entire mansion through the use of rapidly deployed mouths: "I have returned, Ritus. I have a message for you. It is not an ultimatum; it is not a request. It is a statement of fact."


    He sensed the people of Ritus listening attentively with expressions of great horror. After all, he''s an ordinary person''s nightmare. Just a few days ago he''d single-handedly knocked and kicked out all people in the headquarters without batting an eye.


    That was power you didn''t want to provoke. The members of Ritus were all too aware what was going to happen now that Bath had returned.


    "From this day forth, all of you work for me. If you resist, I will imprison you until I can enslave you. I will be fair to all those who serve me.


    "I will not tell you my intentions from the beginning, nor will I explain any commands that I give you. You are to follow the will of myself and any I call my companions without hesitation."


    The members of Ritus'' expressions slowly turned from horror to shock to, finally, relief as Bath finished speaking. They were all just glad he wasn''t going to inflict a punishment somewhere between torture and death on them.


    Of course they despised Bath for making them all into his own personal servants. What did that even mean, anyways? Altogether, being wholly unprepared for Bath''s appearance and his words caused a great clamor to fall over the Ritus headquarters.


    The first voice to ring out was a girl''s. "I submit to Bath," she said softly, though Bath grinned internally as he amplified the girl''s voice across the whole complex.


    It was Angelina. At her side was her father, Jessup. Bath saw through a pair of eyes hovering in the corner of the room, a reading room of some sort, that Jessup''s face was red-purple with fury.


    In the end, after exhaling enough air to fill a balloon, Jessup was the next in line to submit to Bath. After all, he''d been in the gate room when Bath had played with him and the others like toys and Lepochim had called him an all-powerful World Devourer. He had no illusions of what Bath could do if he so chose.


    Since their leader chose to submit, a torrent of submissions rushed from the members towards Bath. In the end, not even a single one chose another option.


    Bath smiled contentedly, rather frightening the three Ritus members in the room.


    ''Let''s see...'' Bath thought to himself, a hand on his jaw. "Ritus, tonight is to be a grand feast to celebrate the arrival of Waymaster Juserin to planet Earth." There was no room for discussion in his words.


    "We will be back at 7 pm." With that, Bath returned to the door of the voyager. The door slid open and soon Juserin, Lisa, Lepochim, and two servants exited the ship.


    The three humans of Ritus accordingly grimaced in fear and suspicion at the aliens, but Bath paid them no mind. Despite not understanding human expression properly, Juserin was able to discern the humans'' fear and scorn.


    "Isn''t this world civilized?" he asked quietly as they walked together towards a door that would eventually lead towards the headquarters'' exit. Bath had already ensured that the surrounding area was clear of all people and electronics that would detect the visiting verdora.


    "Newly," Lepochim grumbled. Lisa gave him a fwap on the shoulder, invoking a particularly surprised expression.


    Bath just chuckled inwardly at the display. Perhaps he wouldn''t be the only one subject to Lisa''s punishing slaps.


    "In all seriousness, Juserin, this world is newly civilized. Tell me, back on Illudis, how old are most of your structures?"


    "As in our buildings and machines and whatnot?"


    Bath tilted his head in a nod.


    "Perhaps...one thousand years old. We build them to last, and the fashions don''t change all that much over time. White on more white, with gold and crimson being the standard."Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "Nearly all the structures on this world have been created in the past century," Bath remarked. "Almost all advanced technology on this planet has been created within the past fifty years."


    Juserin''s eyes crinkled in surprise; he was really growing rather put out by how many surprises these newcomers were bringing to his stable life. "Fifty years...what kinds of technologies are on this world?" He wasn''t very familiar with Earth at all and had only done cursory research the day before they all left. Of course he had asked many questions about Earth on the way, but these mostly pertained to Earth''s natural resources and environmental conditions.


    He''d assumed that Earth would be like most other civilized worlds. But actually, Earth was practically a newborn chick hatched from the egg.


    Juserin started to question his decision to come to this world. Juserin was well aware of the fact that many sapients closer to the Core considered Illudis and his other planetary holdings to be planetary backwaters. Seeing Earth, he felt like he finally understood the origin of the word: This was a true backwater.


    "Actually, on this world, people don''t know about the existence of life on other planets," Bath added, curious as to what response this would incite in Juserin. He knew that Juserin planned to engage some kind of imperialistic behavior once he came on Earth; whether that be scouting the planet out to conquer it later or signing some kind of trade agreements between Earth and his other planetary holdings to make a trade consortium, Bath wasn''t sure. He did have faith that Juserin''s actions were economic in nature, which was why Bath didn''t bear him any ill will.


    "You''re joking."


    "He''s really not," Lisa and Lepochim said in sync.


    "Juserin, I''m telling you all of this first and foremost because I can''t have you walking around anywhere on Earth. If you were to just randomly appear, you''d surely cause an enormous uproar." Which would be counterproductive to achieving his plans.


    "Secondly, you see the situation on Earth; I''m fairly certain you don''t feel like undertaking a huge modernization and re-education operation to get the residents of this backwater world into the present."


    "This is, of course, what you would need to do to conduct trade with any people on Earth, not to mention if you were to go as far as to wrest my position as Earth''s Waymaster away from me by force."


    Juserin''s eyes narrowed as he considered Bath''s words. He wasn''t surprised Bath had guessed his intentions; he assumed Bath had suspected all along and was just helpless to change the reality of the situation. Of course, Juserin was fairly merciful and had planned on granting Bath some level of autonomy over Earth.


    That was before he''d actually arrived on Earth and realized that there was a host of questions he really should''ve asked with regards to the sapients on Earth.


    "So where am I allowed to go?"


    "Oh, you can go wherever you want, just as long as I accompany you." Juserin shot Bath a perplexed glance; Lisa thought the expression of confusion would soon be permanently affixed to the verdora''s face.


    "Didn''t you just say..."


    "Oh, I said you can''t just go walking around randomly. Waymaster Juserin, I have the inborn capability to make you appear in any way I want," Bath said with a coy smile. "It''ll require you to let me cover you in an organic substance I call essence. This essence will conform to your body and then, like a mask, create the outer appearance of a human overlaid upon your own figure."


    "It''s perfectly safe and guaranteed to work as long as you stay within my range of vision." Of course, the vision thing wasn''t true, but he didn''t want Juserin running off and getting into trouble. Besides, his long-range manipulation did have distance limits and Bath couldn''t afford Juserin unknowingly going beyond his range.


    Juserin stared at Bath in contemplation. "This is your ability? Not a technology?" Juserin had never heard of such an ability before. What kind of sapient was Bath, after all? The Waymaster was a mystery.


    "It''s a unique ability, incredibly rare to manifest," Bath said with a casual wave of his hand. "Anyways, do I have your consent?" Juserin supposed it would be fine...and Bath did say it was perfectly safe...Besides, he''d clearly seen Bath use the ability on himself to disguise himself as a cube when he''d first arrived.


    Of course, Juserin didn''t know that when Bath arrived, he''d actually be in the shape of a giant metallic beast carrying Lisa and Lepochim in his chest cavity. Were this the case, he might have been more wary of Bath and his capabilities.


    "I agree to let you use your ability on me," Juserin said nobly, as though his decision was on behalf of the good of all the verdora people.


    Bath was starting to think of Juserin like an old, benevolent grandfather. When in his element, Juserin was confident and regal. When stuck on a place like Earth, the verdora seemed confused and as out of his element as an elderly man before a new computer. Moroeover, he seemed almost as honest as Bath knew he must have been before spending a significant amount of time as a human. He didn''t suspect that Lisa was completely BSing her research background, nor did he question why Bath, clearly not a human, was Waymaster of Earth and able to change his appearance.


    Bath recognized the value of such an honest, unquestioning soul. As he continued to think about how to achieve his goals, Juserin was starting to fill a key role in his plans.


    "Allow me a few seconds," Bath called out as he sent a cocoon of essence in Juserin''s direction. He also sent out a stream of essence to Lepochim to smooth out any small differences in his appearance that might make him stick out.


    Bath was already intimately familiar with the structure of the verdora body and quickly got to work covering Juserin in a human skin complete with contemporary street clothes. This required, in part, Bath to bind a set of Juserin''s limbs to his sides and to create a permanent strand of essence to support Juserin''s frame. Verdora frequently walked on two pairs of limbs, so this supplementary strand was necessary to enable Juserin to properly imitate human motion.


    If Juserin had any questions about how Bath knew so much about his own body''s contours (especially when most of his body was concealed under a formal robe), he didn''t express any. This was fine with Bath--one less explanation to fabricate.


    "So, now that I can be seen in public, where are we to visit first?"


    Bath had talked this over with Lepochim earlier. Apparently, proper Waymaster etiquette was to give a tour of one''s world when another Waymaster arrived. Of course, this hadn''t exactly been the treatment Bath had been given, but that could be written off by the fact that Bath was in a rush to return to Earth. Had Bath planned to stay longer, he would have received a much more extensive tour of Illudis.


    According to Lepochim, this initial introduction to Earth was supposed to illuminate Earth''s splendor and might.


    Bath had asked Lisa to make them an itinerary. Looking at it now, Bath could vouch that Lisa''s list of places to visit was a great sampler of Earth''s sapient culture.


    "First, we need to enter my ship," Bath said with a flourish of his right hand. Upon it was suddenly a solid, rotating cube that was slowly expanding out. "Let''s head outside."


    All followed Bath to the exterior of the headquarters. They ended up standing in the middle of a grassy field close to the driveway.


    "Let me expand the ship. One moment."


    Lisa had to admit that if she hadn''t known better, she''d definitely think the "ship" a piece of extremely advanced technology.


    ''Wouldn''t have been able to do this twenty years ago,'' Bath thought as he formed his body into the shape of a large metal-plated bird. He hadn''t even known what vehicles were before he''d learned more about human society and the industrial revolution.


    In mere seconds, the bird was fully expanded. The part of Bath that was the bird let its head down and opened its beak to receive Juserin, two servants, Lisa, Lepochim, and the part of Bath that looked human.


    After all had entered, Bath quickly altered the ship''s exterior from metal--which was heavy and unnecessary--to normal skin and feathers. Then, he took off, flapping enormous wings to boost them into the sky above the clouds so that people below wouldn''t be able to see them.


    Of course, he was going fast enough that he''d scarce be more than a blur, but it never hurt to be cautious.


    As human Bath looked down at the list Lisa had written up, bird Bath steered in the direction of the first destination: Rome, Italy.

 [Chapter 42] Exploring Earth and Interstellar Philosophy

    Lepochim felt his face as the bird-plane rocketed through the air towards Italy. The new skin that seamlessly covered his rather bony cheek and forehead ridges unnerved him. Even as he placed his hand over the skin, he could feel his face just the same way he had before, as though the added skin were no different from his own.


    He had a complex expression on his face as he looked over at human Bath currently explaining a bit of Italy''s history to the foreign Waymaster. Of course, the history had been compiled by Lisa, whom Lepochim was starting to realize was a lot more competent than he''d originally assumed.


    She''d discovered the Earth gate and on the same day received bodily modifications and gone through the gate to three separate planets. All in one day. Moreover, she''d been constantly using the chip reader she received on Lime World--technically from Juserin--to broaden her knowledge about the universe at large. At the same time she''d put together a tour itinerary for Bath along with detailed historical/cultural break-downs of each destination.


    He had to admit to himself that the opinion he''d had of human school girls was rather...inadequate.


    Even now, Lisa was quietly conducting more research on her chip reader. About what, Lepochim had no idea. The information contained in the encyclopedia was vast beyond imagination; Lisa could delve into innumerable rabbit-holes on various different subjects.


    Unbeknownst to Lepochim, Lisa was actually looking up the role of religion in the universe. She''d discussed with Bath the almost absurd evolutionary phenomenon that led to around 50% of all sapient species possessing bipedal, humanoid forms. It wasn''t logical, in the sense that independent evolutionary chains shouldn''t all converge to a similar final form. In one or two cases across the vast universe, sure.


    But, if the encyclopedia on the chip reader was to be trusted (and Lisa was fairly certain that it was), 50% of known sapient species all looking relatively the same...was simply too improbable. And now that Bath had gotten his hands--tendrils?--on several verdora, who had some vaguely humanlike characteristics, he was already starting to make some conjectures.


    Of course, if Bath had Lepochim to study, this research might be going faster; however, Lisa recognized that Lepochim was already incorporated into one of Bath''s plans and was, at the moment, off-limits.


    With regards to religion, Lisa hadn''t been having a very fruitful search. The encyclopedia generally held that only underdeveloped worlds tended to believe in religions, on the basis that most religions were planet-specific and planet-centric. Once a world was opened to the vast beyond via gate, its inhabitants quickly realized that their religion was too localized and short-sighted.


    In the end, according to the encyclopedia entry, every planet in the Core and most even at the fringes of civilized space had all forsaken religion. It had been this way for countless millions of years.


    ''But how do they explain these inconsistencies?'' Lisa thought to herself, her hand over her mouth. ''It''s impossible to say that the development of sapient species is organic. How else could a species like Lepochim''s, from the Core, look so similar to humans?''


    Besides, Lisa wasn''t so convinced that all these worlds had forsaken religion. Maybe their old religions, with their planet centricity, but that didn''t explain why sapients couldn''t adapt and create new religions. Through all she''d read so far, Lisa was fairly certain that aside from physical similarities, sapients generally had the same kinds of thought-structures, emotions, and desires. Aside from the fact that this furthered her point that something was influencing the development of sapients, this also led Lisa to believe that, like humans, most sapients wanted something to believe in.


    If that was the case, Lisa felt like they all must believe in something. Perhaps it wasn''t classified under religion...


    Lisa looked over at Lepochim, then turned back to the encyclopedia. ''Perhaps I can ask him later.'' Lisa fixed her gaze to the interior of bird-plane Bath, wishing he''d installed some kind of shower. Heaven knows she would''ve just loved for Juserin to provide a shower on his voyager, but alas such an amenity was omitted for the fairly ''short'' voyage to Earth.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ''At least aliens probably don''t know proper standards for human hygiene,'' Lisa chortled to herself. ''Here we are, on Earth''s first intergalactic diplomatic mission, and I''m dressed in a silk robe I''ve been wearing for the past several days and my hair''s an oily nightmare.''


    She touched a little node Bath had just recently placed under her right ear, then began to speak: "Hey Bath, mind changing my clothes and somehow de-greasing my hair?"


    Bath continued to explain away Italy to Juserin, not showing any indication of having heard Lisa''s request. However, within a few seconds, Lisa felt her skin involuntarily raise as Bath''s essence flowed over her from the ground up. Soon, the dirty silk robe was replaced with typical warm-weather attire: a short-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of Bermuda shorts. Moreover, everywhere that Bath''s essence swept over was quickly rendered clean and fresh.


    By the end of the fifteen second clean-up period, Lisa felt like a new person.


    ''That''s literally so OP,'' she muttered to herself as she returned to the dictionary.


    Bath eventually let them down in a small, unpopulated field close to the city. And by close, a forty-five-second car ride. But Bath, ever a gracious host, shrank down to the size of a large car.


    Lisa had to admit, Bath put on a pretty convincing show. She didn''t know he had the capabilities to look like a car, of all things. Of course, the car looked very bizarre and almost looked like an armored beetle, and in reality Bath used many stubby bug legs to move the car...but because of a black drape surrounding the bottom of the already conspicuous car, the wheels of the vehicle--and the millipede-like bug legs--were impossible to see.


    While it was altogether extremely weird, car Bath was able to navigate all the way into Rome without incident.


    Best yet, they didn''t have to pay for parking.


    ---


    Bath flew, drove into, and then gave Juserin fairly brief tours of each of the destinations Lisa placed on the itinerary.


    While they were about halfway down the list, Tokyo, Japan, Bath looked down at the time on his watch. "It''s 6:40..." He glanced around at the surroundings, then told the rest of the travelers to walk with him into the next alleyway. He quickly became a car, then drove them out of the city. He found concealing shelter in a forest off the side of the road, then became his bird form and shot up into the clouds at an astonishing speed.


    As they ascended, Lisa could be heard chanting slowly, "It''s a bird, it''s a plane, it''s Bath..." as she struggled tostay conscious.


    Technically, were everyone aboard Bath humans, they would have all died. Lisa was only able to handle such a fast acceleration because Bath had already modified her body and had the ability to apply constant, situational modifications whenever the need was felt.


    Verdora and whatever Lepochim was were tougher than humans in this regard and had no problems with the fast rate of acceleration. This thankfully made Bath''s job of being "covert" much easier.


    They arrived at Ritus around 8:30 pm, much later than they''d originally said. Nevertheless, Bath expected obedience as he led the party into the Ritus headquarters.


    "Has the dinner been prepared?" he boomed into the enormous, cavern-like estate.


    Jessup came running up from a flight of stairs leading to the underground. "Bath," he panted, "you''ve arrived. We were expecting you at 7 so now the food''s a bit cold. Allow us a few minutes to prepare."


    Bath let a rather distasteful expression come over his face, then sighed. "Do as you must." Bath didn''t want to seem too relaxed, nor did he want to seem too difficult to serve. "We''ll be resting in the living room." With that, Bath led the others into the nice, glass-windowed area of the main living room that was facing the lake.


    That was when Lisa broached her question to both Lepochim and Juserin.


    "Do sapients believe in a higher power?"


    Juserin raised a rather nonexistent eyebrow. "High power?"


    "For instance, look at Bath and I; then look at Lepochim. We''re both different species, yet we look almost identical."


    Juserin cocked his head. "So?"


    Lepochim just sighed. "So, she''s implying that something must have planned the convergence of sapient evolution onto a fairly humanoid form," Lepochim explained disinterestedly. "Unfortunately for you, Lisa, endless research had already been poured into that very question."


    "And?" Now Bath was the one to ask a question.


    "And, they haven''t found any evidence suggesting outside involvement. The only thing common to all sapient life is kursi-compatibility. However, even non-sapients all have kursi within them, they just aren''t able to bind with them in a true relationship. That''s why everything has a shell, full kursi or not. Remember that every human has a kursi symbiote within them that''s effectively dormant."


    "Well, what if the kursi symbiote is what''s influencing evolution?"


    Lepochim gave a disdainful smile. "If that were the case, don''t you think that''d be public knowledge by now?"


    Lisa frowned. She didn''t know what kind of scientific community existed within the universe at large, but part of her was fairly suspicious towards what it had to say towards kursi and evolution. After all, the universe''s scientific bodies hadn''t produced much in the way of technology over the past million years.


    Lisa had checked.


    Suddenly, a voice could be heard from the archway leading to the hall: "Dinner is served."

 [Chapter 43] Baths Environmental Sustainability Plan

    Dinner was completely mediocre, not that Bath was expecting anything better from the Ritus headquarters. Juserin, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.


    Bath and crew decided to get settled down at the Ritus estate after dinner. Thankfully, the headquarters kept a few rooms reserved for guests, so Lisa, Bath, and Juserin were all afforded suites, while Juserin''s servants returned to the voyager.


    Bath waited patiently for everyone to return to their rooms to relax.


    Lepochim was in the living room of the mansion and awaiting Bath''s approach. He stood as Bath drew near.


    "Lepochim," Bath said slowly, as though tasting the name in his mouth. "You are to watch this residence and prevent any from leaving.


    "I may not fully understand your capabilities, but I believe...I have a general idea." Bath had already sent essence to probe Lepochim''s entire body, the next best thing aside from devouring him. "Don''t give me reason to distrust you a second time."


    Bath changed the lighting in the room with his essence to make himself seem to fade into the shadows. The moonlight was left only illuminating his gleaming eyes and flashing teeth.


    Lepochim nodded, stoic expression on his face. "I''ll be here."


    Bath suddenly vanished in a cloud of smoke that almost instantly blew away in an illusory breeze. Lepochim knew it was showmanship, but still felt unnerved.


    Bath loved the night; it provided the perfect cover for movement. It was under the shroud of darkness that Bath set off for a nearby destination. Bath had set a possibly crazy plan in motion before he''d left, and was rather happy to find that he''d been able to return within his eight allotted days. Things could''ve been messy otherwise, especially if his creation had expanded unchecked.


    Deep underground, about two miles to the East of Ritus, was a giant sphere, something between an egg and a seed. It''d started out as a seed, in fact; only with Bath''s assistance had it become anything more.


    He dug into the Earth with his essence and could feel the seed underground as it pulsed. It was actually a bit behind schedule. Bath had planted it here on a whim before setting out, as a kind of motivator for himself to return in an expedient manner. He knew too well how the allure of exploration could affect his judgment.


    He would return at a later date to the worlds he''d visited. Now, his priority was Earth.


    And this was step one.


    Bath shaped his tendril of essence around the seed, coating it in nourishing materials. He could feel the seed''s internal structure through a few needle-thin spikes of essence and was currently making minute adjustments to the seed''s structure. Many of the adjustments came from ideas he''d developed off-world, such as improved photosynthesis.


    As he accelerated the seed''s growth, eventually it began to sprout its first stem, then its first leaf and a series of roots. Bath created a spherical barrier around the roots, effectively placing the seed in a subterranean bowl.


    ''Can''t have you setting your roots down here,'' Bath thought to himself as he worked.


    Suddenly, after about three hours of continuous growth, Bath beamed.


    ''Hello, little one,'' Bath transmitted to the plant through direct thoughts. The plant''s mental system--primitive by any vertebrate''s standard, incredibly advanced for a plant--was able to engage in thought by transmitting vague ideas, senses, and most important of all, intent. By using a wave of essence to send electrical impulses along a sensitive frond explicitly created for this purpose, Bath could allow communication in both directions between the plant and himself.


    ''Big, dark. Hunger.'' Three ideas came towards Bath through the same channel he''d opened up by first transmitting his thoughts. The plant was quick to learn how to control the electrical impulses; it was instinctual.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Bath urged the plant to continue growing towards the surface. The experience reminded him of encouraging his sister, Avery, when she took her first steps, when she began to ride a bike. He sent encouragements the plant''s way in the hopes that some would have an effect.


    The plant finally breached the surface after another two hours of assisted growth.


    ''Dark.''


    ''Only for now; wait,'' Bath transmitted back. He hadn''t planned on Juserin coming back with them; unfortunately, this meant that Bath was limited in what he could do while the verdora was on Earth.


    He told the plant to remain stationary for a day. Since it effectively looked like a giant plot of grass when its upper level was above ground, Bath instructed the plant to spread out and make use of as much light as it could.


    ''I will return,'' he transmitted before heading back off to Ritus.


    ---


    After Bath finished introducing Juserin to many of Earth''s wonders, he asked Juserin what else he could do to be of assistance during the Waymaster''s stay.


    Juserin gave a sigh, then looked at Bath. "Unfortunately, this world is a lot less-developed than I expected. Most Waymaster''s would take this as invitation to invade and conquer. However, I happen to be the peaceful type."


    Bath nodded along.


    "I propose that we form a trade coalition to be activated when Earth finally opens itself and its gate up to the universe at large."


    Bath gave Juserin a broad smile. "Juserin, your kindness knows no bounds. I''ll be sure to come in person as soon as the day comes."


    Juserin''s eyes crinkled in response. "I''ll be looking forward to that day."


    Within the hour, Juserin was aboard his voyager and through the mouth of the Ritus gate.


    Bath sat back on a couch in the Ritus living room, all the while communicating a message to the nearby plant.


    It suddenly rocketed forth, exhibiting a speed that defied logic as its roots tore through the ground. The people in the Ritus mansion heard the plant before they saw it.


    "Bath? What''s..." Lisa began slowly as she looked out at the exterior of the estate. Unfortunately for her, the living room window looked out upon the lake, not the direction the plant was approaching from.


    "Just be patient," Bath smile knowingly. Lisa had said she wanted headquarters befitting a Waymaster. While that hadn''t been Bath''s original intention in creating the plant, he recognized now that the plant could also serve that purpose.


    Within a minute, the plant was upon them. Instead of crashing into the house like a train, it simply began to grow around it like a patch of voracious ivy. Soon, long, meaty, grass-like tendrils were snaking their ways around the headquarters and burying into the ground as per Bath''s detailed instructions. Being a natural multitasker, Bath found manipulating the plant to do several things as once fairly easy.


    Lisa, Lepochim, and the rest of Ritus could only look on in amazement as the mansion was completely transformed from a fairly modern, up-scale estate into a structure straight from a fairy tale.


    The plant was reinforcing the headquarters with its steel-level strength. The mansion''s grassy coating was much more resilient than brick or wood. Moreover, it converted the CO2 in the air to oxygen at a rapid rate. While Bath had provided an actual house as the base, the plant didn''t actually need a starting structure to function. Bath had already fed images to the plant of what an ideal human house would look like. A basement, first floor, and second floor, with variations based on climate and population density.


    For instance, if the plant was placed amongst many clones of itself, the clones would all coexist while taking up less space. It was all fairly simple.


    Now, to make another plant, Bath just had to take a piece of grass from the plant, imbue a tiny bit of his essence into it to wake it up, and...


    ''Hello,'' the little frond said to Bath.


    "Uh..." Lisa was left baffled in the center of the living room. "Bath? Is this part of some crazy plan? ''Cause I thought we were done with those."


    Bath gave Lisa a disparaging look. "This isn''t a crazy plan. In fact, it''s way better than that last plan I came up with to scare people into using electric cars."


    "That''s such a low bar," Lisa moaned in mock agony. "Fine. Why don''t you just explain your plan."


    Bath shook his head. "I think it''ll be easier if you just watch what''s going to happen."


    Lisa glared. "No, I think you need to check with me before doing something insane."


    Bath rolled his eyes. "Lisa."


    "Bath!"


    "Fine. You see this? It''s a new form of sustainable housing. It''s a Green House."


    Lisa''s jaw dropped. Sustainable house?


    "Wait...so you haven''t given up on the environment thing?" Lisa asked, dumbfounded. "When did you..."


    "Earth is like a set of dull claws. We need to sharpen her into a proper weapon," Bath assuaged fervently. "I''ve come to realize that the evolutionary cycle on Earth isn''t going to return to how it used to be, thanks to the development of you human sapients.


    "With that being the case, I need to prepare Earth for unavoidable contact with the outside."


    Lisa hesitated before posing another question. "But...why?"


    Bath shook his head once. "Earth is our nucleus, our foundation."


    "So you''re going to make it strong. I understand, I guess," Lisa said, not fully convinced. But she trusted that Bath''s intentions were good. After all, he could leave Earth and go to some other world if he really wanted to. Nobody would be able to stop him.


    "Where do I factor into this?" Lepochim asked warily.


    Bath looked the sapient up and down. "You already know the people in Ritus, right?"


    Lepochim snorted as he looked off to the side. "Some of them. I was a servant, remember."


    "How would you like to be their master?"

 [Chapter 44] Lisa Hatches a Simple Plan

    Lepochim gave Bath a rather unsatisfied look. "You mean, whip these kursi into shape?" Lepochim knew when he was being used.


    Bath gave Lepochim a bashful expression. "Lepo, think; who else would be better for the job? It must be done, and you''re the only one I have on hand with knowledge on kursi military tactics."


    "Why do you even need these Ritus people? Can''t you just send them off to some random corner of the world and be done with them?"


    Bath gave Lepochim a dark look. "Don''t play the fool. Even I can guess that kursi are a symbol of a world''s strength. After all, kursi affinity levels are measured in percentage of a population able to become a true host for the kursi symbiote. I have a feeling we''ll be needing every single one of the kursi here...and the others, those part of that other organization Jessup mentioned."


    "Fungsoeng," Lepochim muttered.


    "Yes, that''s the one."


    "I''ll do it," Lepochim said flatly after a few seconds. "You''re really serious about this, aren''t you?"


    Bath''s gaze was fierce as his eyes met Lepochim''s. "Do you have to ask?" Lepochim shrank back. Bath continued on, rumbling, "What leads you to believe expressing such subordination is acceptable?"


    Lepochim was silent; Bath shook his head and faced Lisa. "How do you propose I distribute these house seeds?"


    Lepochim unexpectedly began to spew out some nonsense about making a bank account in some tiny island nation to avoid taxes and make a company to legitimize the seed-selling enterprise.


    "I didn''t ask you," Bath snapped, mildly surprised at Lepochim''s apparent knowledge of Earthly enterprising. "Lisa."


    "I think we should distribute them at various locations worldwide, free of charge. We could partner with the UN or some other international organization."


    Lepochim''s face began to turn pale. Bath completely disregarded him and replied: "Fine. We have no use for money, anyways."


    He turned around and looked at the window. "We''ll go back to school tomorrow. You have until then to draft up a plan. I don''t care what means you use to legitimate the creation of these seeds."


    Lisa gasped. "That''s not even half a day!"


    Bath snorted. "You''ll be fine."


    ---


    While Lisa was figuring out her plan, Bath decided to pay Fungsoeng a visit. According to Lepochim, they were based in East Asia, with a central headquarters in Hong Kong. Bath had unceremoniously abducted Lepochim into his chest cavity and flown off, forcing the sapient to direct him to the right place.


    Before they came close to Hong Kong, Bath shifted into a large dolphin and approached the towering city from the ocean. They both entered Hong Kong with the appearances of normal humans. Hong Kong had been one of the destinations on Lisa''s itinerary for Juserin, so Bath was already somewhat familiar with Hong Kong''s general structure.


    He and Lepochim ghosted through the streets, making good speed by relying on their phone GPS''s despite making a few wrong turns. It only took them around one hour of running before they made it to where Lepochim claimed the Fungsoeng headquarters was stationed.


    "So they have kursi, and no gate," Bath confimed out loud.


    "Yup."


    Bath gave Lepochim an amused glance. "So they''re less powerful than Ritus?"


    "Obviously. Regardless, they''re defenseless against us." Bath had his weird black-hole shell and Lepochim''s kursi was sealed, destroying his ability to have any kind of mental connection with other kursi.


    "Let''s make this quick."


    ---


    Later at night:


    Despite her grumbling, Lisa did manage to get the job done. Bath smiled contentedly when, before she went to bed, Lisa called Bath open to review her plan.


    "You suck," she grumbled, her eyes drooping with exhaustion. It was already 2 am.


    "I''m eager to see what you''ve come up with," Bath smiled. He shifted into his wolf form and encircled Lisa.


    She sighed as she pulled open a hologram from the chip reader. "I''ve been experimenting with the chip reader," she explained, "and I''ve realized it can do a lot more than just ''read chips.'' I''ve been fiddling with its AI, trying to get it to help me pull data from different sources in the encyclopedia. I''ve also managed to sync the chip to local wifi, believe it or not, which was completely beyond my expectations."


    Bath listened patiently, his head nestling into Lisa''s lap.


    "So anyways, I was doing a lot of research, pulling data from the giant encyclopedic database as well as Wikipedia. This is the plan that I''ve come up with."


    She took in a deep breath, then continued. "I feel like this plan is almost as crazy as your past plans," Lisa admitted, "but it''s really simple and straightforward when you look at it from the top."


    "I was looking into religion the other day because I was curious about whether religion has been used by galactic imperial powers in the past to unify disparate groups of sapients.


    "To my surprise, I haven''t been able to find any records of such a thing occurring. This, to me, implies that such attempts have been censored. Which in itself is both interesting and troubling.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Which brings me back to my plan. Actually, I was planning to suggest something similar to what I''m about to tell you, even before I heard about the seed house things. They actually play perfectly into my general plan," Lisa acknowledged. "Anyways: what we''re going to do is start a new religion, our own religion."


    Bath cocked his wolf head. Lisa gave Bath a bump on the muzzle with her fist. "Wait for me to explain!"


    "I didn''t say anything," Bath grumbled.


    Lisa sighed, then continued. "We made a pledge to conquer the universe together, right? A pact to stay together? To do so, I''ve determined a few key components we''ll need to accomplish in order to succeed."


    Lisa''s holographic display, which previously had shown a black rectangle, suddenly became animated with the flashing images of various unfamiliar planets and sapients.


    "Most of the worlds away from the Core have many problems, just like Earth," Lisa explained. "Lack of resources is a big one, like energy. Solar power is fairly standard, but lots of planets don''t have very good infrastructures due to poor administering. The trend I''ve been able to observe is that Waymasters and other big-shot travelers enter these worlds and milk them dry. Juserin is a fairly benevolent Waymaster, however even he was unable to set up proper infrastructure on the majority of his worlds. As a result, a few hundred years back, a sapient population on one of his planets was enslaved and sent off to a distant Core planet."


    "Really?" Bath exclaimed. "What do Core worlds have to gain from enslaving sapients?"


    Lisa shook her head. "It''s all incredibly convoluted. But suffice to say, lots of fringe worlds have been stagnating for the past few thousands, even millions of years. The thing is, if you just come to them as another conqueror, it''ll be a continuation of the same conditions they''ve endured for the past who knows how long.


    "If we''re going to be serious about our conquest, we''re going to have to change things up."


    Bath was able to follow her line of reasoning fairly easily, especially since on the holographic screen, "HOPE" was displayed in giant, pink letters.


    "You want to give them hope," Bath said rather lamely. It seemed so...cliched. Wishy-washy. Insubstantial. All things Bath didn''t like.


    Lisa tsked. "Think a bit bigger. While you only have a range of a few miles where you can actively use your essence, you can genetically engineer anything at will within that range. Those modifications become permanent. It''s quite possibly the most OP ability I''ve ever heard of, even after reading through sapient profiles on the chip reader."


    "So?"


    "So, you use your ability to grant all subjects under our dominion improvements."


    With that, a huge list of "improvements" appeared on the screen.


    "Just think about it."


    Bath was unprepared for the exhaustive ranking system Lisa had prepared for their...empire. At the very top of the ranking page was: "The Church of the Dragon." Next to it was an image Lisa had taken on her cell phone of Bath in his favored dragon form.


    Below that was a list of rankings, at least twenty of them, all with different responsibilities and different afforded "improvements," listed as "abilities." Among these were longevity, strength, immunity...the list went on.


    The system was set up so that high-ranking government officials all had the best kinds of abilities all around, with different branches of the nonsecular government having various "necessary" abilities. For instance, judges were to be granted the ability to test the truthfulness of sapients on trial. Peacekeepers were to have increased strength and defense.


    "Most government systems in the universe are formed around a carrot-stick model," Lisa explained. "And of those, most use capital as the carrot. I propose we use abilities as the carrot. They don''t cost you anything to give and are permanent. Moreover, they actually build sapients up physically and mentally and have a practical use."


    "So, in this theocracy, what are the majority of people supposed to do?" They couldn''t all be government officials. Bath knew they were probably listed somewhere in the ranking system but figured asking Lisa to explain was more efficient.


    "Ordinary people are either going to live with the intention of peace, or live with the intention of war. We''re going to need a massive army if we''re serious about conquest," Lisa asserted. "The base of peaceful society will be teachers, people who will spread knowledge.


    "Above them will be caretakers, people who serve others, whether through service-based industries or through production-oriented industries like agriculture. Above them will be the artists, who produce all sorts of works and popular entertainment. Above them will be the administrators."


    "This doesn''t sound like all that much of a theocracy," Bath mused.


    "We don''t need to invent any myths or legends about you. Those will invent themselves as we go on. Unlike other religions with gods that have been, on the whole, silent, the entire infrastructure of this world is going to rely upon you as its base. Moreover, because one of the goals for any sapients in this society will be to obtain the ''longevity'' ability, they''ll quickly buy into our mission: ''conquest.''"


    "The people who devote themselves to war will enter into a system I haven''t really fleshed out yet, but suffice to say it''ll be similar to a typical army with rankings and stuff.


    "So? What do you think?"


    Lisa had a nervous expression on her face. To be honest, Bath wasn''t sure how this would all pan out. Him, the center of a...religion, of all things? It didn''t appeal to the side of him that valued straightforwardness and honesty.


    But he supposed he could give it a shot. What did he have to lose, after all? If it didn''t work on Earth, they could think of a new strategy. After all, Bath had the ability to change his identity at any time.


    Bath gave Lisa''s arm a sloppy lick. "Sure. So how exactly are we going to combine this Church of the Dragon of yours and the house seeds?"


    Lisa gave him a tired smile. "I''ll leave that to you to figure out. After all, unlike most of us, you don''t have to sleep."


    Bath snorted, then gave Lisa a gentle nuzzle with his nose before leaving her to sleep in peace. He headed to the living room where the original seed had taken hold.


    ''Let''s see...''


    Bath sent a mouth out to contact Lepochim.


    "Bring the Fungsoeng kursi," he ordered, his smile from being with Lisa transitioning into a serious frown.


    "Yes, Bath," Lepochim sighed. Soon, 78 kursi were in the living room, filling it to the seems. They all had shocked expressions as they took in the green, grasslike foliage melded into the modern decor.


    Then their expressions turned to fear as they saw Bath.


    He turned around, his eyes glinting red and his face twisted up into a calculating expression.


    "Hello, Fungsoeng," Bath spoke. He''d already tested whether the translator could be used to translate between different human languages; it could. That''d serve Lisa''s plan well. "I''m going to tell you the same thing I told Ritus." With a few modifications.


    "From this day forth, all of you work for me, Bath. If you resist, I will imprison you until I can enslave you. I will be fair to all those who serve me.


    "I will not tell you my intentions from the beginning, nor will I explain any commands that I give you. You are to follow the will of myself and any I call my companions without hesitation."


    "Lepochim is to be your direct superior. He will instruct you on how to better use your abilities to achieve a series of objectives that will be given to your over time."


    "You have within the next 30 seconds to submit." Bath gave them all an icy smile.


    Completely within his expectations, the members of Fungsoeng all submitted. After he finished talking, they immediately began to ask questions. Bath silenced them all by making his eyes literally glow crimson, as though they were on fire. If they hadn''t realized by the near instantaneous speed of his no-nonsense abduction of their entire headquarters, they realized it now: Bath was untouchable.


    Bath had knocked them out before actually taking them from their headquarters, so they didn''t know about even a fraction of Bath''s abilities. To them, they''d merely been assaulted by tendrils of black threads and then woken up on the other side of the world with an entity called Lepochim who was completely immune to their mind attacks.


    And this Bath, he was even more terrifying: not only was his kursi immune to their attacks, it looked like a hungry black hole. What kind of monster was he?

 [Chapter 45] Dragonleafs Sudden and Strange Appearance

    After getting the Fungsoeng people under oath and under the command of Lepochim, Bath used his long-range manipulation to peel off numerous fronds from the original house seed that had already completely encompassed the Ritus estate.


    He recognized the need to give the genetically-engineered plant species a name.


    ''Intelliplant?'' he thought to himself, frowning. That didn''t seem right at all. ''Why did Lisa saddle me with the specifics of this plan?'' Bath lamented. He acknowledged his inability to deal with the nitty-gritty details of plans.


    Lisa was more than a little aware of this fact, which was exactly why she''d given Bath this burden.


    ''Solarplant?''


    Bath shivered. ''That''s just terrible.''


    He thought of several other names before finally settling on ''dragonleaf.'' It perhaps wasn''t the best name, but Bath thought it would tie in rather well with the ''Church of the Dragon'' narrative Lisa was working on.


    Satisfied, Bath contacted the many dragonleaf sprouts and sent various designs to them. Dragonleaf sprouts would have all the limited memories of their parent plant, so what Bath focused on doing now was further specializing each sprout for a certain environment. Having lived all over the world since the origins of life on Earth, Bath was extremely confident in his ability to provide the right plant for every climate.


    ''Arid brushland, low-rise mountain, tropical island, wet jungle...''


    After he was fairly confident that he had one dragonleaf sprout for each environ, Bath went over to the computer at the corner of the living room. He opened up a word processor and began to type of a set of instructions for the organizations that would be receiving the plants.


    He realized almost immediately that while he had a plant for each region of Earth, he didn''t actually know how many distributors he would be delivering the plants to. In other words, there could be many distributors for the Sahara desert or the Amazon rainforest.


    Looking at the screen, Bath realized he''d need to do some research on who he could deliver the sprouts to.


    Bath stared at the computer for a full five minutes, as though willing it to assist him by sheer will. ''Where do I even start?'' Bath sighed. He still wasn''t sure if he wanted to keep the delivery of the sprouts low-key or make a huge impression from the start.


    ''Well, it is the church of the dragon,'' Bath said to himself pensively. ''You know what, Lisa told me to make the plan. She knew what she was getting herself into.''


    Besides, Bath had a feeling operating through an organization like the UN would be a big headache. They''d probably screen his little sprouts, put them under microscope and whatnot.


    ''No, I''m going to have to do this myself,'' Bath decided. ''But that means I''m going to need some neophytes to explain what''s going on.''


    Bath''s face lit up. ''Why do I need anyone other than myself, especially since I have the translator?'' Bath felt his plan slowly falling into place.


    ---


    Somewhat early in the morning.


    "So, Bath," Lisa said while helping herself to a plate of eggs made by a chef Ritus had on payroll. "What''s the plan?"


    "It''ll be a surprise," he replied with a bemused expression. "Aren''t you just dying to find out what I have planned?"


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "I''m mildly curious."


    Bath gave Lepochim a few instructions about what kinds of things he would be expecting from the kursi and their mind slaves in a month. Lepochim accepted the instructions without complaint, seeming to rather enjoy the autonomy he''d have while Bath was away at Alens "studying."


    Bath took Lisa into his avian chest cavity along with all the dragonleaf sprouts and then soared off to Alens. He and Lisa hesitantly returned to their dorms, Lisa in particular not looking forward to questions about where she''d been for the past eight days.


    "He''s fucking back!" Bath heard one of his suitemates call from above. Bath''s lip twitched as he walked up the stairwell to his suite and finally waltzed through the front door into the common room.


    "How have you all been?" Bath asked, as though nothing was amiss. Without a sound, two of the boys fled into their rooms. Unsurprisingly, Dean, the boy who''d been the last to leave when Bath had pulled his insect stunt, was the one who remained.


    "Well," Bath snorted. He turned his gaze to Dean, his eyes softening. "Dean. You play a sport."Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    "...Yeah."


    "Great. How about I make you a deal. I''ll give you, um, permanent steroids. You tell me how they are, and you get to keep them and everything."


    "If they''re permanent, why is getting to keep them a reward? Besides, I can''t do steroids if I''m playing sports," Dean said hesitantly, treating Bath as though he were a sleeping bear.


    "Oh, forget about the sports then," Bath said dismissively.


    "But I''m here on a basketball scholarship."


    Bath''s eyes narrowed. "I guess that is a problem. Hmm, I guess I''ll just find somebody else."


    Dean''s eyes suddenly grew wide. "Wait! What kind of steroids?"


    Dean already felt a ton of pressure from back home to go pro. He was supposed to be his family''s golden ticket to a better life. Just going to Alens wasn''t good enough; no, he needed to do even better, in their eyes.


    However, Dean knew he probably wasn''t good enough to go that far.


    Bath gave Dean an innocent expression. "Only the kind that''ll make you into a monster. Curious? Moreover, they won''t actually show up on any steroid screenings. The only way anyone would know is if your performance rapidly improves. Which it will, but you can just go easy on everyone."


    Dean felt a bead of sweat fall down his neck. ''How do I know what he''s saying is true?'' Suddenly, Dean felt like slapping himself. This is a guy who somehow controlled a whole room full of bugs. A guy who''d randomly disappeared for the past eight days right after school started. Dean still didn''t know how he controlled the bugs, but he was fairly certain that there was way more to Bath than what he saw now.


    Maybe, this steroid thing he was talking about...


    "You promise nothing is going to show up on any drug tests?"


    "Promise."


    "Got anything to back that up? I really can''t lose this scholarship."


    Bath gave him a cold grin. "I''d stake my life on it."


    ---


    Bath went to all the classes he had on Monday afternoons, then went back to the small natural cavern where he''d stashed the dragonleaf.


    ''Time to get the ball rolling.''


    Before he left, he sent a disembodied mouth Lisa''s way and told her to keep an eye on the news. This caused her to aim a slap towards the mouth, almost making contact before the mouth''s spontaneous dissipation.


    Bath chuckled as he flew off.


    "How do I want to do this?" he asked himself. He''d already decided that today wasn''t the day to reveal the dragon of the Church of the Dragon, so that was already excluded from his plans.


    He decided to start in South America, to target major population centers and accelerate the spread of the dragonleaf.


    He abruptly changed his mind just as he prepared to enter Rio.


    "What if people use this stuff on historical buildings or murals?" Bath said aloud to himself. "It''ll reflect terribly on the Church of the Dragon."


    Bath paused in contemplation. "I guess I can start from the rural areas to limit those kinds of disasters. Once people get a better understanding of what dragonleaf does, they should be able to decide for themselves if they want to use it."


    After modifying his plan, Bath took a sprout customized for the local climate and found a medium-sized town of little repute.


    "I guess this is as good a place as any."


    ---


    Lisa''s jaw dropped as she watched the news updates on her phone via Twitter. She was currently in a club meeting for a creative writing organization and didn''t want to leave, but at the same time...


    The news updates sounded outrageous!


    Apparently, over the past few hours, giant green houses had been popping up all over the world, most prominently in fairly impoverished and rural areas outside of cities. Since then, news reporters had been visiting the recipients of the strange grassy houses and asking all kinds of questions.


    The general response they all were left with was (according to twitter):


    100 random people spotted all over world, give out sprouts. Does anybody know them? #greensprouts


    Strange volunteers claim green sprouts will create house #magicbeans #fairytale


    Update: house sprouts can be duplicated by taking sprout from existing green house. #fairytale #greensprouts


    Breaking: requirement for green house discovered: must touch green plant sprout and envision a dragon. Any dragon. ??? #dragonhouse


    Plant apparently called dragonleaf. More updates coming. #dragonhouse #dragonleaf


    According to the twitter reports, the hundred "volunteers" only stayed in a given location for a maximum of one minute before disappearing. Moreover, at each location appeared a different group of one-hundred volunteers.


    In short, they appeared out of thin air, gave out the sprouts, and left, as though they were mere mirages on the wind. People probably would''ve written the whole thing off as a hoax if the "volunteers" didn''t leave behind the mysterious dragonleaf sprouts. Already people from all over the world were traveling en masse to the locations of the original dragonleaf distribution points to observe the phenomenon and, often, to obtain a sprout of their own.


    Lisa suddenly saw a post on Twitter that worried her.


    Update: dragonleaf planted in public park, destroys baseball diamond


    Lisa''s face quirked. ''I guess you can''t control everything, huh.''


    Lisa wasn''t too concerned, however. Governments would likely begin to issue strict controls for where dragonleaf could be grown. Since it apparently couldn''t grow without a person intentionally envisioning the form of a dragon while holding onto a dragonleaf sprout, the spread of dragonleaf wouldn''t be too much of a headache. After all, the government could just find and prosecute people who decided to grow dragonleaf on public property.


    "Have you guys seen the news?" a girl at the table spoke up, interrupting a conversation Lisa hadn''t been paying attention to.


    Lisa''s head snapped up. "Yeah."


    "What?" someone else asked, wondering what was going on.


    "I don''t even know, it''s so bizarre," the girl said.


    "It seems like there''s a magical plant that makes houses when you touch it and think about a dragon," Lisa said with a straight face. "And it''s just randomly appeared all over the world."


    "..."


    The room was silent. This sounded like something one of them could have written. No, actually, it was too weird for that. All the people in the room looked down at their phones and began checking news sites.


    "Wait, actually..."


    "No fricking way this is real..."


    "Fake news? But it''s being reported everywhere..."


    Lisa couldn''t blame them. ''You''re really something, Bath,'' Lisa thought to herself while shaking her head. Since the meeting was effectively over now that they were all voraciously checking the news, Lisa excused herself and left the building. As soon as she was alone, she began to laugh.


    ''The big WD, huh?'' It was being put into motion faster than she''d anticipated and in a way that she could never have anticipated. She shook her head as she walked back to her suite.


    "You''re really something else."

 [Chapter 46] Lisa Goes On Television

    Earth appeared to be in a state of uproar for the next few hours as people all over were trying to understand exactly what was going on. They knew that a group of one hundred individuals would randomly appear bringing dragonleaf and then leave; they didn''t know much else.


    For instance, scientists worldwide were all desperately trying to analyze the newly-appeared dragonleaf; however, whenever a dragonleaf frond was being studied, it would immediately trigger a tiny, dormant organelle-like bacteria in its cells that would cause the plant to self-destruct.


    That was one of Bath''s rather simple contingencies.


    If Bath was serious about this church business--and about conquering Earth as his first stepping stone--he needed to keep up this air of mystique and awe concentrated around the Church of the Dragon. If any old human could just rip off and clone his dragonleaf, what would be the point? He needed people to think of dragonleaf as something inscrutable, mystical.


    After finishing with all the dragonleaf deliveries, Bath returned to campus. It was now late at night, though Bath knew immediately after arriving that Lisa was awake. He quickly appeared in her room behind the chair where she was working.


    "Lisa."


    He immediately heard a sigh. "You idiot."


    "I thought the dragonleaf was a pretty good plan," Bath said defensively.


    "You should''ve taken me along as one of your disciples!" Lisa pouted, now turning around. She stood up and walked over to where Bath appeared. "You could''ve changed my appearance and everything. Just the thought of watching people''s faces go slack with awe...moreover, I could''ve influenced them with my mind manipulation."


    Bath smiled at her. "You would''ve slowed me down. And, anyways, why would I need your mind manipulation?"


    Lisa scowled. "When don''t you need mind manipulation?"


    Bath laughed raucously, then led Lisa over to her bed so they could both sit down. "True, true. Next time. You won''t have to wait long to get involved, anyway; you''re going to be the high priestess of the Church of the Dragon, after all."


    "Who said?" Lisa gave him a pointed look.


    Bath shot her a confounded expression. "You don''t want to be the high priestess?"


    Lisa just groaned. "Did you even look at my hierarchy tree?"


    Bath blinked. "Yeah."


    Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Did you look at it again after I initially showed it to you?"


    Bath gave her a sheepish look. "Perhaps...for a few seconds."


    "If you had read it, you''d already know why I''m not the high priestess." Sighing and shaking her head in exaggerated disappointment, Lisa activated the chip reader and pulled out the hierarchy of Church of the Dragon positions. "Do you see a high priestess position here?"


    Bath scanned the top of the hierarchy, then frowned. He didn''t. In fact, despite the fact that the Church of the Dragon was, if its name was anything to go by, a church, its positions were all fairly secular in name. Or, at the very least, they didn''t match up with traditional religious positions, such as a bishop. Now that Bath looked at the list...there wasn''t a single position actually called "priest."


    Bath looked back at Lisa. "Then what is your position?"


    Lisa grinned mischievously. "What''s at the top of the page?"


    Bath didn''t even have to look back at the hierarchy. "There are three positions--"This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "The top of the page," Lisa repeated again.


    "...The Church of the Dragon?" Bath said slowly, unsure if this was what Lisa meant.


    "Exactly."


    "That''s an inanimate object; actually, maybe it''s just an idea," Bath pointed out, as though these statements of fact would modify what Lisa had just said.


    "I''m the Church," Lisa said haughtily. "You''re the dragon. I''m the spirit, you''re the body. I change minds, you change bodies. Simple. We''re like Yin and Yang."


    "I suppose," Bath said after a moment of contemplation. "Anyways, what''s our next step? I''m tired of planning."


    "I know, it''s my turn to handle things. After all, I am--"


    "Yes, I''m aware, the mind--"


    Lisa slapped him on the shoulder. "The mind doesn''t like to be interrupted. I''m tired, so I''m going to make this explanation quick..."


    ---


    Lisa''s plan was so simple that Bath was actually rather annoyed. "How does she keep it so simple?" he grumbled to himself as he returned to his suite and reestablished the network of essence and monitoring nodes around campus.


    Lisa didn''t even need Bath to actively make an appearance for this part of the plan. No, this part of the plan was on her. In disguise, of course.


    Lisa had found the face of a gorgeous model online, then made Bath promise to use her as the template for Lisa''s temporary transformation. Lisa has been more than satisfied with the result.


    When Lisa had asked for a ride to the area in which Bath had found the most success with his dragonleaf, Bath claimed that he had no idea. He didn''t stick around to watch people use the dragonleaf, after all. Rather annoyed, Lisa asked for a ride to New York in the morning instead.


    Then she shooed Bath away, saying that since he did the first plan by himself, she would likewise do the second plan alone. After all, as far as the Church of the Dragon was concerned, the Church and Dragon were equals.


    Bath didn''t know exactly what had happened after he dropped Lisa off, staying true to his word to stay away, but when he turned on the evening news, he sighed in appreciation. The headline was, "Superhuman Takes Responsibility for Dragonleaf, Invites Disciples." The reporter explained that a strange woman suddenly appeared in Central park. She displayed superhuman abilities, such as jumping to the top of a large rock fissure. Then, she called out to all people nearby, somehow drawing all their attention to her booming voice, as though they couldn''t ignore her even if they tried. She had brandished a frond of dragonleaf, taking responsibility for its global appearance. She then stated that she was the leader of a body called the Church of the Dragon.


    A clip of Lisa''s modified self appeared on the news feed:


    "All those wishing to become strong, all those wishing to indefinitely postpone death, all those wishing to change destiny...Come to the Church of the Dragon. Wealth, fame--nothing matters before pure might. All who come will be accepted and all will be made anew."


    The video feed cut out, to be replaced by an image of the rock face that Lisa had supposedly jumped onto. Inscribed on the rock was now a message, clearly gouged into the wall in a crude matter. Bath could tell that Lisa had used her finger.


    "Church of the Dragon


    The perfect void devours every name.


    From nonbeing all is derived;


    From unity all is parted.


    Your heart is not a mirror to reflect what others will.


    Finding purpose is the Way of the Dragon.


    churchofthedragon.org"


    Bath frowned at the weird message. "The perfect void...?" Bath supposed that Lisa probably was referring to himself. After all, he devours creatures, and is driven to devour those with ''different names.'' He can seemingly spontaneously generate matter, so that explained all deriving from nonbeing. Also, he can endlessly partition his unified whole.


    The next part was a bit different, though no less of a declaration than the first part. To the average person, Bath presumed that the second part probably made more sense.


    Bath didn''t dwell long on the poetic message. In actuality, his main reaction to the image of the message as, "We have a website?"


    Bath grabbed his computer and typed the website''s name into his browser. Soon, a modern-looking website popped up, complete with a multitude of pages such as "Beliefs," "Mission," and "Join." The front page had the message Bath saw just a moment ago front and center, with an explanatory blurb underneath.


    "The Dragon of the Church is like a black hole that devours everything in its path. Before the Dragon''s ultimate might, everything can be destroyed; similarly, anything can be made. By embracing the limitless path of the Dragon, you can create an affinity between yourself and the Dragon and become capable of receiving its power. All are welcome to join."


    Bath clicked on the "Join" menu item. A new page loaded: a form. All a person needed to do was provide a first and last name and an email address.


    Bath frowned. What good would a name and email address do? What was Lisa planning?


    Bath''s train of thought was interrupted as another headline popped up on the evening news.


    "Alens Scientist Discovers Fossil of Largest Ever Terrestrial Lifeform." Bath''s mouth popped open and he narrowed his eyes. Sure enough, a few seconds later, was a picture of Professor Scranton next to what Bath realized was the obsidian deposit in which his Permian-Extinction-causing form was "preserved." How she''d gotten it out of the water and on to dry land, Bath didn''t have any idea.


    "Is that really the best headline they can think of?" Bath muttered crankily. "Largest ever terrestrial landform..." Bath snorted. When Lisa gave him the go-ahead, he would set the record straight.

 [Chapter 47] Bestowing a Basic Health Boon

    Lisa called Bath a while later.


    "Can you come pick me up?" she asked, nervous sounding. "Like, quickly."


    "What''s the matter?"


    "A group of people are chasing me, that''s what!" Lisa fumed. "I finally got away from them. For now."


    "How on Earth are you unable to outrun normal people?" Bath asked, his voice full of scathing amusement. He knew better than anyone else Lisa''s new capabilities.


    "It''s New York! They walk at the speed of light," Lisa complained. "Moreover, when people see a giant crowd chasing someone...and then they realize that someone is the superpowered wonderwoman from the news taking credit for the appearance of dragonleaf..."


    "Let me guess, they join in the chase?"


    "Evidently. I have no idea what they''re expecting to get out of me; I would mind manipulate them away except for the fact that I''d be manipulating so many people."


    Bath frowned to himself. "You have a limit to the number of people in a group that you can influence?" Bath asked.


    Lisa sounded insulted. "Of course not! Who do you think I am? No, I just have morals! I can''t touch the shells of the group of people chasing me without influencing a few city blocks'' worth of normal people."


    Bath coughed. "Lisa, do you know how ridiculous that sounds, especially coming from you?" Bath could think of innumerable instances in which Lisa had frivolously abused her mind manipulation, such as that one time at the concert. She was hesitating to extricate herself from this problem because of some random New Yorkers?


    "That was then. Now, I have to be responsible."


    "Lisa, you said you''re hiding? Does the Church hide from anyone, anything?"


    Lisa was silent.


    "You need to go out there and mind manipulate them into submission; that''s just as much an ability you can flaunt as the strength I gave you. You''re a kursi who''s on the path to universal domination; you can''t let your image of supremacy be tarnished so easily."


    "You''re so..." Lisa struggled for words, then sighed. She closed her eyes as she sat in the alleyway. She didn''t like the idea of mind manipulating the people who were chasing her...didn''t want their Church to have a policy based around "Might Makes Right." Just because she could manipulate everyone chasing her, she had a gut feeling that she shouldn''t manipulate them if it meant drawing in others who were minding their own business. Bath was right: she had used her manipulation for frivolous things in the past. Back then, she didn''t know about other kursi. She didn''t know anything, actually.


    Lisa felt light headed as she considered the fact that "back then" was less than a month ago. And yet, it felt as though everything had changed.


    That was when Lisa suddenly thought of an idea.


    "Bath. I''ll deal with the people, but you still need to pick me up."


    "I''ll be there in a few minutes."


    ---


    "New Yorkers who have followed me in pursuit of the Way of the Dragon, I now reward your persistence!" Lisa''s voice boomed downward to a crowd of a few thousand. She was currently standing on a streetlight. "All here will be granted a single basic boon by the Church of the Dragon." As Lisa spoke, she touched the node that had reappeared about ten seconds ago on her ear. Bath was close, and would be able to hear the message if she opened up their line of communication.


    "The boon granted...will be health. Any health problems will be eliminated."


    "Audacious," Bath whispered to Lisa through a spontaneously generated mouth behind her ear. "This is going to rile them up."


    Lisa smiled faintly. She had gotten these people concentrated in an area with few random bystanders. Now, she could influence their shells without worry. She currently was touching the collective shell of the group to make its contained people docile, receptive, and trusting. As a result, instead of questioning what she had just said or leaving without hope, the massive crowd stayed in place.


    "Now," Lisa said calmly. "Stay calm. Envision the dragon." Though Lisa had no way of verifying whether or not people were envisioning a dragon or not, she had rendered the crowd extremely suggestive. She''d be very surprised if even a single one of them wasn''t envisioning a dragon.


    "Now," Lisa said softly, barely moving her lips. She heard a short, barking laugh sound in her ear just before Bath began.


    Beneath the crowd of people wafted a wispy, whitish-blue substance. It moved as though following the path of a great wind, though the air was still and the many bodies blocked what little wind there was from the bulk of the crowd. After a few moments, the substance seemed to grow more opaque and began to tendril around each individual person. Finally, after most people were surrounded by a swirling strand of Bath''s essence, the strand dissipated, becoming fully gaseous. Then, it flew into the mouths and noses of the people present.


    The crowd collectively gasped as the mist entered each body at precisely the same moment. Coughing ensued; were Lisa not manipulating the shells of the people present, they would likely be in various states of panic. They could feel that their bodies were...changing.


    Sure, Lisa has told them that they''d be cured of their health problems, but they hadn''t actually believed her. Even if she supposedly had superhuman powers, that was just too good to be true. And she''d called "being cured of all health problems" a basic boon; no matter what a boon was, how could a basic one be so incredible?


    In reality, Lisa was correct to call this a basic boon. After all, according to Lisa''s hierarchy, no single societal position had a monopoly of "health." Under Bath, all people could technically be freed from their health problems and handicaps. The blind would be able to see, the sick would be healed, etc. Lisa knew that if Bath had his mind set to the task of curing all conditions of people on Earth, he could theoretically just spend about a week going everywhere and curing everyone within his range of influence.


    But, of course, this was only in theory: she knew that Bath wasn''t the type to spend his time doing monotonous things like granting people abilities and boons...and yet Bath-granted abilities and boons were the center of the new society Lisa had roughly sketched out.She actually didn''t know how Bath was planning on implementingthis vision based on her understanding of his capabilities.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    It was something he''d have to figure out.


    In the chaos resulting out of the health boon bestowal, Bath whisked Lisa away and quickly internalized her into his body. Then, he flew off for Alens.


    ---


    Lepochim was watching the development of events around Earth with pointed interest. Bath and Lisa were certainly making a large impression. He had expected them to start things a bit more low key: slowly building up influence before finally making a grand entrance.


    Regardless of how things had actually occurred, there was no turning back now.


    Lepochim regarded the kursi and mind slaves that had been put under his control.


    "Orange and red teams, the fight will commence in fifteen seconds. Prepare yourselves." Lepochim watched the two teams of ten from the Ritus mansion''s balcony. He had a serious expression on his face as he regarded the two sides. Each of the teams was stationed on opposite shores of the lake. Lepochim was actually very far away from both teams; only his excellent vision and newly-installed speaker system allowed him to engage the teams from the headquarters itself.


    In the beginning, the kursi would flinch and show expressions of abject fear when Lepochim had addressed them. Now, their faces remained serious and calm, reflections of his own, even as he told them the match was about to commence. They were growing stronger; with that growth came the realization that Lepochim''s training methods, while brutal, worked.


    The two teams quickly sprung into action once the timer counted down and Lepochim signaled that the match was on. A few kursi from each team moved forward around the edge of the lake, rushing to the raft Lepochim had installed one hundred feet out from the lower curve of the lake. Equidistant between both teams'' starting points, a large determiner in who was able to use the raft''s resources was each team member''srange of shell manipulation.


    The stronger the kursi--mentally and physically--the greater chance they had of seizing the assets on the raft and gaining an advantage in the coming fight. The ideal situation was to have such a large range that one could use shell manipulation as far away as the raft. If this was the case, physical strength wouldn''t matter. As this was not the case, being able to run quickly to the raft was a large factor in determining who controlled it.


    One of the orange team came within range of the people on the raft first, quickly utilizing mind control to force the people to row towards the orange team''s shore.


    This didn''t necessarily mean that the orange team would win. In this match, however, the orange team was ultimately victorious.


    "Good," Lepochim murmured to himself. Things were coming along. The human kursi were far below universal standards, but proved to be fast learners. They really were kursi of the 8th affinity level.


    ---


    Bath relied on Lisa to give him news updates as they both worked on their school work. It had really started to pile up while they were gone; missing a week of school wasn''t a laughing manner.


    He could check the news himself, but found Lisa''s commentary to be hilarious.


    "They called me magical wonderwoman again," Lisa frowned. "I''m the Church, damn it," she grumbled. "Magical wonderwoman is even a hash tag on twitter now. #magicalww. Who the hell started calling me that?"


    "Are you going to get any actual work done?" Bath smirked.


    "Hey, how am I supposed to think straight when the world is calling me such a horrible name? Wonder Woman is already taken! I''m not Wonder Woman!" Lisa pouted indignantly. "You know what, wait a second..."


    Bath left Lisa to her own devices as he continued to work. After about half an hour, Lisa sighed contentedly. "There."


    "What?"


    "I updated the website. Now, it has a page called ''Leadership.''"


    "Shouldn''t you be calling it ''Deities''?"


    Lisa frowned. "The entire point of the Church of the Dragon is to not worship deities. It''s to find self-actualization by following the models of the Church and the Dragon. We''re leaders rather than gods."


    Bath gave her a confused expression. "Then why aren''t we just a secular organization? Why are we a church?"


    "Because, people need something to believe in that''s greater than themselves. Religion seems perfect."


    "Don''t people already have their own religions?" Bath pointed out. "Why would they start believing in the Church of the Dragon?"


    Lisa gave Bath a rather annoyed look. "Well, first off, people don''t need to renounce their old religions to join the Church of the Dragon. It''s like...The Ba''hai faith," Lisa explained. "I haven''t finished working out the whole theology yet."


    "So what, you''re going to make up something like all religions are branches of the Church of the Dragon?" Bath asked incredulously. It sounded pretty farfetched.


    "No. I''m going to say that the Church of the Dragon is one representation of an infinite greater truth that has been revealed through other religions. In the universe, things come in pairs. The sexes, light and dark, being and not being. Things also come in trinities, generally things spiritual in nature."


    "I''ve been doing a lot of research. There''s actually an ancient Chinese religion that talks about both dualities and trinities in different contexts. Again, I''m still doing some research on this, but I think that this religion might be a good starting point for us to work with."


    "Why?" Bath was completely perplexed. Why would an ancient Chinese religion help them?


    "The religion revolves around the idea that all things are transformations of other things. It talks extensively about nonbeing and emptiness and about how there are many infinite paths in the universe that lead to greater truths and enlightenment.


    "If we can talk about how all religions are slices of enlightenment, are valid and complete paths that people may follow, then it''ll be easier for us."


    "...And where does the Church of the Dragon come into this? You''re going to say that we''re simply one of the paths that people can follow, then?"


    Lisa nodded. "Essentially. But based on the framework I laid out, where innumerable paths lead forward...why wouldn''t people choose the Church of the Dragon?"


    Bath shrugged. "I suppose I see your reasoning. What is the old religion this is all based on again?"


    Lisa cocked her head. "Technically, it isn''t a religion; it''s more of a philosophy. But that''s just because it''s a framework. It lays down principles and talks about how everything is connected without telling people what to do about it. That''s why I can''t call it a religion: it teaches, but doesn''t demand."


    "Its name?"


    "Oh. Daoism."


    "Interesting." Bath resolved to do a bit more research later...after he finished all this blasted work he still had to do.


    Suddenly, he received a notification from his phone. It was an email calling for him to meet with his Dean. Apparently, the Dean had looked at his schedule and assigned him a time to meet...today!? In an hour?


    Bath hissed. "What kind of notice is that?" he was fairly certain that more notice was absolutely required. That was when he realized that this was actually the second message in the conversation stack...the original message with the meeting time had been sent four days ago.


    Feeling a bit foolish, Bath coughed once, then looked outside the window of Lisa''s suite. He had so much work to do...


    ---


    One of the two currently manifested Bath''s was in the Dean''s office, the other with Lisa.


    "Hello, Bath," Ellis'' Dean, Dr. Greenberg, said warmly. "It''s nice to see you."


    "Hello, Dr. Greenberg." Bath was fairly annoyed that he had been called in to meet with the Dean. After all, he''d already met with her once before and then gone to see a school psychologist. What did the Dean want?


    "You must be wondering why you''re here," Ellis said as she crossed her hands. "You''ve been called back for a follow-up psychological review by Dr. Yin."


    "Who?" Bath asked, frowning. He was certain that he''d passed the psychological evaluation. He hadn''t said anything remotely worrying; moreover, he answered the questions on the test innocuously enough.


    "The psychologist you met with last time, Betty Yin."


    "Oh." Bath hadn''t known her name. "Why; did I fail the evaluation?"


    The Dean now looked a tad uncomfortable. "Technically, no, but Dr. Yin seems to think that you fabricated your test results."


    Bath gave the Dean an incredulous look. "Fabricated my test results? Why?"


    The Dean seemed to grow increasingly uncomfortable as she beheld the seemingly distressed young college freshman before her. "She refused to say because of confidentiality. Either way, since you agreed to see a psychologist and get an evaluation, since the evaluation you took has been effectively voided..."


    Bath sighed. Better to just get this farce over with. "Fine. When?"

 [Chapter 48] Dr. Yins Ethics Test

    Bath stood at the threshold to Dr. Yin''s room. He''d considered bringing Lisa along to influence the psychologist into leaving him alone, but decided it wasn''t worth bothering her over. He knew that she was busy pulling together some plan involving the mailing list even as she tried to finish the work from both last and this week.


    Bath didn''t need to sleep, so he could stay up to get it done. Though Bath had told Lisa that he could eliminate her need to sleep, Lisa told him belligerently that sleep was her favorite thing in the world. Bath didn''t agree, but respected Lisa''s choice.


    ''She''ll learn eventually...''


    Bath felt long before he saw that Dr. Yin was sitting in the chair by her desk, typing away at her computer while waiting for him to arrive.


    "Dr. Yin," Bath called out flatly. He walked inside and lay down on the couch, crossing his legs across the couch''s left arm and resting his head against the other in a relaxed, carefree pose. "I see you''ve called me back for some more testing." Bath let a bit of his saltiness shine through this last remark.


    Dr. Yin''s mouth turned up into a half smile. "You spoke right away this time," Dr. Yin noted, walking over from her desk to the couch with paper and pencil in hand. "And even addressed me by name."


    "Is that so remarkable?" They key difference was that last time, Bath didn''t have anything to say. This time, he was mildly pissed off.


    "I''m sure you''re wondering why you''re here again."


    Bath gave her a look. "I''m wondering why I was here to begin with." He''d actually completely forgotten. ''It had something to do with the suite, didn''t it? I made bugs or something...'' Bath''s mouth compressed into a line as he tried to remember the specifics.


    "You''re here because your Dean was concerned for the health of your roommates," Dr. Yin said firmly. "She could have elevated your suitemates'' assault charges to a higher authority; instead, she chose for you to see me."


    Bath''s face became savage. "I didn''t assault them," he stated coldly. "Their room was incredibly messy and then a lot of bugs appeared. How could they blame that on me?" It was all coming back now...the large and invasive essence bugs. Even if his suitemates did believe him to be behind the bugs, Bath thought that insinuating him for "assault" was a little harsh considering that the bugs did no permanent physical damage.


    "I''ve actually received the assault report from your suitemates," Dr. Yin said. "Whatever you did with the bugs utterly terrified them. It sounded like something out of a horror movie, even assuming that part of the report was exaggerated."


    Bath rolled his eyes. "Believe me, they were exaggerating."


    Dr. Yin cleared her throat, then changed her line of questioning. "How have you been?"


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "I''ve been well."


    "Tell me more about yourself. You mentioned that you have a sister, Avery. Tell me about her."


    Bath sighed, a soft smile working its way onto his face. "She''s a few years younger than me. She''s eleven right now, in 7th grade."


    "She''s eleven? Did she skip a grade?"


    Bath''s calm smile turned into a wide grin. "Yep. That kid''s a machine: she learns at an extremely quick pace."


    "Has that made you jealous?" Dr. Yin knew that Bath hadn''t skipped a grade and presumed that he might consider Avery academically superior to himself.


    Bath chuckled. "Jealous? Of Avery? No; I have high hopes for her. She''s going to need all of that brain power." Bath''s expression turned pensive.


    "Tell me about your relationship."


    Bath''s smile became whimsical. "Avery is a very...pure person."


    ---


    At the same time...


    "Move!" Avery hissed under her breath as she ran down the field, keeping the ball close to her feet. She approached the goal, took stock of the positions of the goalie and defenders, then recklessly kicked the ball to her left. She sprinted after it.


    Then, as planned, she dove forward, slamming her outstretched foot into the ball''s side. It rocketed forward into the goal unhindered.


    "Yet again, I win!" Avery chuckled gleefully to herself as she picked herself up from off the ground. Only a small bruise on her elbow; nothing to worry about. Her teammates all wore self-assured expressions, completely unsurprised. Avery was known to play dirty...literally. This was the third point Avery had scored this game; the two teams'' current scores read 1 and 5, respectively. She''d almost single-handedly raised the team up through the district soccer rankings.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    As she trotted back over to the center line, the only thought on her mind was that she had to win. Why? her parents asked her that all the time. Avery told herself it was because she wanted to increase her prospects of getting into college--getting into Alens like Bath--by being recruited to play at the college level. This wasn''t really necessary, considering the fact that Avery''s grades were as fantastic as her brother''s.


    More fundamentally, Avery liked a challenge, lived to exert herself to the fullest both mentally and physically. Mentally survey the field, plan tactics, then physically carry out the resulting plan; this was how she operated.


    ---


    "What is she like?"


    "Avery''s really sweet. She looks up to me," Bath said wistfully. He knew it wouldn''t be healthy for Avery to look up to him, especially once she realized what he really was. After, how could a normal human compare to him? She didn''t know yet, of course--but with the "Big WD" plan coming to fruition, Bath knew it would only be a matter of time. As it was, he was preparing the way for Avery to ascend within the nascent Church of the Dragon.


    "Do you miss her?" Dr. Yin asked, her face void of emotion as she finished scribbling something down on her clipboard.


    Bath snorted. "Of course." And he meant it. Bath had thought long and hard about this fact. Why did he care for Avery? She was just one human of many; chances were, had he been adopted by another family, he would feel similarly about any child he spent enough time with. Bath had always liked children; most species stopped being children within a year, so Bath never felt anything lasting towards them. But with humans, for the first time, he felt...a bond with the two children he spent the most time with, Lisa and Avery.


    "You answer everything in just a few words," Dr. Yin noted out loud. "It''s hard for me to get anything out of you. Don''t you have more to say about your sister?"


    "She has a laugh like a rainbow."


    Dr. Yin''s face screwed up as she tried to make sense of the strange simile. "Anything else?"


    "No." Bath didn''t naturally think in terms of words, speech. He didn''t feel the need to expend the effort to translate his feelings into a form accessible by this psychologist. Bath felt outside the office with his essence and detected the orientation of the office''s clock hands. They were nearly at the half-way point.


    "Isn''t about time for me to take the survey again?" Bath said cooly. Taking a test was much preferable to answerig Dr. Yin''s probing questions.


    "You won''t be taking the same survey," Dr. Yin said. "We''re going to do a different exercise." By this point, Dr. Yin was fairly certain she wouldn''t be able to justify giving Bath a poor score on his psychological evaluation. He didn''t exhibit signs of sociopathy or schizophrenia and didn''t have a criminal record. However, Dr. Yin was still determined to better understand Bath. He didn''t mind silence and didn''t like to talk; however, this wasn''t because he was shy. Dr. Yin wanted to find out why Bath was so cold and reserved.


    "Oh? A new kind of test?" Bath shifted on the couch.


    Dr. Yin looked down at her clip board and rifled to the bottom of her stack of papers. Then, she proceeded to read: "A trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by putting something very heavy in front of it. As it happens, there is a very fat man next to you ¨C your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?"


    Bath narrowed his eyes. He had read about the Trolley Problem in school, though recognized that this was a slightly different variation.


    "Who decided the only way to stop the trolley was to push the fat man over the edge?" Bath chuckled darkly. "What if I''m just as overweight; should I then be morally obligated to sacrifice myself?" Bath thought the entire question incredibly stupid. If there was a runaway trolley, he wouldn''t really care. And if he did, he could just stop it without much thought.


    A pointless question for powerless people.


    "I haven''t heard that response before," Dr. Yin replied honestly, a look of contemplation on her face. She proceeded to spend the rest of their time asking Bath his opinion on various other ethical thought experiments.


    At the end of their session, after Bath left, Dr. Yin sat back and lay down on her couch with a perplexed expression. Out of all the questions she had asked Bath, he''d only answered one in accordance with a preordained response. She''d originally thought that he was trying to show off his intellect by providing alternative answers to the questions; in fact, she''d assumed that he''d studied them before. But as they continued, she came to realize that Bath genuinely thought about the questions she asked in a way that suggested he''d never heard of them before. He then dismissed any answers that he found dissatisfactory, instead posing counter-questions likely designed to waste time. However, in those counter questions, Dr. Yin began to find a pattern. A pattern broken by a question she inserted at the end, one of her own devising.


    "There is a scenario in which you have a single choice. There is a platform. On one side of the platform is one-hundred people; on the other side is Avery. Without your interference, the platform will be submerged in lava. You can only rush to one side of the platform; this means that you can only save one of the groups, the one-hundred or your sister."


    This was where Dr. Yin planned to make things a bit tricky.


    "Your choice is the following: prevent the platform from descending, or leave the platform alone."


    She had intentionally formed the possible responses--save all or save none--so that they wouldn''t fit into the dichotomy proposed in the original scenario. She expected him to give some kind of witty response and critique the inconsistency between the question and the responses.


    Bath had only exhaled angrily, replying, "Of course I''ll stop the platform from descending." Little did he realize that, for the first time, he''d selected his response from the available answers.


    Dr. Yin closed her eyes as she contemplated their session. In response to her question, Bath had decided to stop the platform, the much more difficult action considering the fact that the problem itself said that the only way to save the people was to choose one side of the platform over the other.


    She''d hoped to better pinpoint the fact that Bath didn''t seem to value human life and instead treated death like a joke, replying to the moral dilemmas in a mocking manner. Instead, he''d chosen to save the hundred people. Why?


    Dr. Yin looked up at the ceiling, feeling as though she was missing part of the puzzle to the mystery that was Bath.


    "Well, no matter." She knew he wouldn''t be coming back.

 [Chapter 49] The Dragons Second Global Miracle

    A week later, Lisa informed Bath that the Church of the Dragon was prepped for its true launch.


    "It''s going to be huge," she exclaimed while spreading her arms wide. "People are starting to treat this seriously after what happened in New York."


    Bath glanced over. "You mean the boon bestowal?"


    Lisa gave him a look. "Obviously. People are now saying that the Church is legit. After all, we made magical grass houses that filter air and water while providing solar-powered generators. Then, we made a public display of a miracle. Technically, two miracles, if you consider my enhanced strength and speed to be miraculous."


    Bath nodded along. "So what''s the next step? You''ve been keeping this under wraps for a few days now."


    "That''s because I wasn''t sure exactly what I wanted to do," Lisa confessed. "But now, I think I have a fairly good idea."


    In the end, they called up Lepochim to see if he would be able to get the kursi into gear. After all, they''d only been under his supervision for a few days.


    "They were ready yesterday," Lepochim barked out, then promptly hung up.


    "Good, I guess," Lisa snorted. "This is going to be insane, you know that, right?"


    Bath gave her a mischievous grin. "Humans have a saying: there are some things so crazy, they must be true."


    "I suppose," Lisa chortled. "Well, here goes nothing..."


    And so they set off to prepare.


    ---


    20XX-XX-XX 13:37 GMT-04:00 The Church <[email protected]</a>>:


    > *Official Miracle of the Dragon*


    >


    > Tomorrow, at 8:00 pm EST, The Church of the Dragon will be performing its second global miracle in the most populous 100 cities of Earth.


    > Note: several other locations will be serviced as well (see list below of all areas).


    >


    > Based off of your registration data, we have matched you with the following location: XXXXX.


    >


    > Why show up?


    > So far, the Church of the Dragon has performed two miracles: one of them the global Dragonleaf Drop, the second a localized miracle in New York to restore health to thousands of citizens.


    > Needless to say, the Church of the Dragon''s second global miracle will be an event worth attending. Inform friends and neighbors that good fortune and spectacle await all who come.


    >


    > Sincerely,


    > The Church


    > List of serviced locations:


    > ...


    ----------


    If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.


    ---


    8:50 am, Tokyo, Japan. (7:50 pm EST)


    "Ready?" Lisa spoke into the phone, her hands jittery.


    "Everyone is in place," Lepochim stated calmly. They had placed one kursi in each city and a few in other locations that lacked populous cities but had large populations overall.


    "They all have dragonleaf?"


    "Yes, they''re all ready. I told you." His irritation was palpable even over the phone.


    Lisa exhaled to relieve some of her tension. "Okay. Thanks."


    Lisa hung up, then looked out over the edge of the building. She and Bath were currently on top of some large skyscraper and had a beautiful view of the Tokyo skyline. Lisa had only been to Tokyo briefly when they gave Juserin a tour of Earth; she was still a stranger to the city.


    "How''s your reach?" Lisa asked, looking to the left. Bath was currently peering out over the city, his face serene.


    "I have a good grasp over the area around me," Bath replied. "Everything is fine on my end." He''d already spent most of the day before traveling over the world to transmit a message to the now extremely numerous dragonleaf constructs. In hindsight, he recognized the need to find some way to communicate with them on the fly.


    He''d been shocked at how many had popped up. Part of him had suspected that humans would treat something as strange as a grass house with suspicion. Instead, after a few pioneers utilized the dragonleaf and discovered its many merits, millions had constructed their very own dragonleaf houses.


    Bath didn''t know this, but the housing market was actually undergoing a period of crisis in the wake of dragonleaf''s introduction.


    "It''s time," Lisa announced. Her watch read 7:59 pm, still tuned to eastern time.


    "Great." Bath flashed her a reassuring grin, his entire being the incarnation of confidence. Lisa immediately felt better. She let the stress leave her body.


    It was time.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    She reached out her mind to the millions of people below, touched their massive, collective shell. She knew that the other kursi weren''t able to visualize in the exact same way, but all of them had a fairly similar method of combining people''s shells together to form a massive shell-construct.


    Lisa had been right before when she''d told Juserin that humans had the ability to manipulate shells en masse. It was clearly an ability that came naturally to human kursi with their 8th level affinity. Lisa wasn''t sure how her own visualization of collective shells compared to other human kursi''s; it was something to research at a later date.


    Originally, she''d been hesitant to touch the minds of millions, especially after her natural hesitance to manipulate the minds of bystanding New Yorkers.


    However, she''d given the idea some thought after listening to Bath. She could cling to her morals, to not use her power on people indiscriminately...


    Or, she could use it to its maximum potential to accomplish her goal.


    ''In the end, the benefits of using my power will help everyone,'' Lisa told herself as she started to manipulate the group shell into an excited, anticipatory fervor. This actually was for the greater good...And this didn''t need to set a precedent of ''might making right.'' She was the Church, with kursi functioning in place of herself all over the world. The Church didn''t necessarily need to be beholden to the tenets of the Church of the Dragon.


    Lisa continued to wrestle with this mental turmoil as she made the crowd suggestive and placid. Bath would be making his entrance soon...that would be her cue.


    Suddenly, in the sky appeared a giant, visible wind in constantly changing colors. It shifted through the sky like a ribbon at the hands of a rhythmic gymnast, spinning and twirling and eventually splitting into countless strands that raced toward every Tokyo denizen as far as the eye could see. Of course, the wind was really just essence, though here the two were indistinguishable.


    A disembodied voice suddenly boomed out, coming at once from everywhere and nowhere. As it spoke, the ribbons of colorful wind twined around the people in the crowd, binding them.


    "I am the Dragon." As the first phrase rang out, people were knocked down to their knees by its resulting shockwave. Once down, the bindings served as weights, keeping them on the ground. Lisa imbued the group shell with feelings of reverence and supplication.


    As Bath spoke, his message was transmitted by phone to each city. There, Lepochim''s kursi put their slightly different plans into action. They each touched a frond of dragonleaf, imparting Bath''s audio message to the frond as Bath spoke.


    All around the world besides Tokyo, a huge number of dragonleaf fronds now reached out and made contact with the people of each city much as Bath touched the people of Tokyo with his essence. The dragonleaf would serve as his conduit while we was away.


    The dragonleaf fronds now imparted a video message to each person within their collective range of contact. They were able to form the pre-created image of Bath''s display above Tokyo, the very one that he had transmitted to each dragonleaf plant the day before. Because the scene was transmitted mentally to each person by the plant, they were all able to viscerally sense the power of Bath''s booming roar and the twining wind ribbons.


    This wouldn''t be possible without the kursi smoothing the mental connections along, of course: the dragonleaf fronds had essentially no ability to communicate with human minds unassisted.


    To the many people watching what was happening on television screens, it seemed as though the cities of the world were all collectively holding their breaths.


    Now the came the second phrase. "The Dragon is one path of many."


    Now Bath used the dragonleaf in Tokyo to assist him in transmitting a mental image, just as he had instructed the dragonleaf do all over the world. An image of stars on blackness, of a giant gate, filled their vision. Countless ribbons stretched out from the gate into the black of the night.


    Of these ribbons, one was red and had a cross on it. Another was white and had a crescent moon and a star. Yet another was yellow and represented the Star of David. Bath had done a bit of research on human religions before creating this image, ensuring that as many as possible were represented by the vision''s ribbons. He included many indistinct, blurry ribbons off in the distance. Off to the side, same as the many other ribbons, was a ribbon the color of sunset and magma, which the vision now panned to.


    All of this was transmitted within the span of three seconds.


    "It is a path of self-determination."


    Now, around all the people present, the rainbow ribbons formed shackles. Elsewhere, the dragonleaf splintered off and formed shackle-like green tendrils around wrists.


    The vision abruptly stopped, to be interrupted by an explosion that filled each person''s eyesight. Two glowing eyes the color of the orange ribbon appeared on a backdrop of night.


    Lisa and the other Kursi instilled within all a sense of anger, of stubborn resistance.


    "Break your chains."


    As though unable to refuse, all people in the cities struck out their arms and struggled. The point wasn''t how hard someone struggled; after all, the elderly, the young, and the disabled might not be able to physically break the wind or dragonleaf bonds. The point was the intent, which the dragonleaf sensed.


    Bath simply sensed for movement, allowing the wind bonds to break as a person exerted the first sign of struggle.


    Within a few moments, all people had broken their chains, the powerful suggestion of the kursi and the incredibly vivid visions transmitted to them by the dragonleaf seemingly impossible to overpower.


    As they freed themselves, the kursi hastened to imbue the group shells with senses of triumph and overwhelming satisfaction.


    "The Dragon is the path of all, and may be walked concurrently with any other."


    Now, a fierce wind came from above. In the sky suddenly appeared the form of an absolutely enormous dragon. Its wings covered the entire Tokyo crowd, stretching to the very limits of Bath''s range of influence. Its form embodied the many shifting colors of the wind ribbons and caused all beneath its form to look on in awe. In other cities, the dragonleaf showed a pre-created image of Bath''s form descending that overlayed upon their current surroundings so as to appear real.


    "Its church will be waiting."


    With that, the sky erupted into a fountain of beautiful flame that burned in colors of violet, blue, and gold. The flames ignited upon the trails of essence; Bath used the essence ribbons create streams of oxygen and minerals that could burn brightly in distinctive colors.


    Bath soon disappeared into the flames. All the dragonleaf that had grown only for the display released their self-devouring bacteria and crumbled into the air.


    Within a few seconds, there was no record that Bath had ever been in Tokyo, nor that the Church had been working in any city at all.


    The area within Bath''s influence was frozen. All over Earth, people looked at the sky, at their TV sets, at their phones and computers--whatever they had used to view the spectacle--in stunned shock.


    Lisa slumped over and sat on the roof of the building that she''d been using to spectate. As silence lay over the nearby area, an exhausted grin appeared on her face.


    "That was epic."

 [Chapter 50] The World Reacts to the Dragons Vision

    <blockquote>


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    <table class="md">


    <tbody>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>Topic:</td>


    <td>Church of the Dragon</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    [¨C]</a>turing67</a> 23.2k points  <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 10:25:44 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T10:25:44+00:00">3 hours ago</time>(8504 children)</a>


    <form class="usertext warn-on-unload" action="#"><input name="thing_id" type="hidden" value="t1_dgexs9a">


    Let''s get straight what we know about everything that happened yesterday:


    The Church of the Dragon sent out an email that they would display a "second public miracle" today at 8 pm EST.


    Before this, the only things the Church claimed responsibility for are as follows:


    <ul>


    <li>The alleged "Dragonleaf Drop"</li>


    <li>NYC mass healing</li>


    </ul>


    -----------


    What is everything the Church of the Dragon has said so far?


    The inscription they left in the park:


    <blockquote>


    The perfect void devours every name.


    From nonbeing all is derived;


    From unity all is parted.


    Your heart is not a mirror to reflect what others will.


    Finding purpose is the Way of the Dragon.


    </blockquote>


    -----------


    The Appearance of alleged "Dragon Prophet" in New York:


    <blockquote>


    "All those wishing to become strong, all those wishing to indefinitely postpone death, all those wishing to change destiny...Come to the Church of the Dragon. Wealth, fame--nothing matters before pure might. All who come will be accepted and all will be made anew.


    </blockquote>


    and later the same day:


    <blockquote>"The boon granted...will be health. Any health problems will be eliminated."</blockquote>


    <blockquote>"New Yorkers who have followed me in pursuit of the Way of the Dragon, I now reward your persistance! All here will be granted a single basic boon by the Church of the Dragon."</blockquote>


    -----------


    Finally, the appearance today:


    <blockquote>"I am the Dragon. The Dragon is one path of many. It is a path of self-determination. Break your chains. The Dragon is the path of all, and may be walked concurrently with any other. We will be waiting."</blockquote>


    -----------


    On the website, churchofthedragon.org, is the following description:


    <blockquote>The Dragon of the Church is like black hole that devours everything in its path. Before the Dragon''s ultimate might, everything can be destroyed; similarly, anything can be made. By embracing the limitless path of the Dragon, you can create an affinity between yourself and the Dragon and become capable of receiving its power. All are welcome to join.</blockquote>


    Before, the "Dragon" referenced above was fairly ambiguous. After today, apparently the dragon in question is the enormous, ethereal rainbow dragon that appeared above Tokyo.


    Anyways: on the website is a "Join" tab that lets someone enter their name and email. This was how the Church of the Dragon sent out their memo that today would be the day of the "Second Global Miracle."


    I''m done laying out all that I''m aware has occurred. Honestly, I don''t even know what to say.


    Discuss.


    [¨C]</a>DemRaptor</a> 4031 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 11:16:16 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T11:16:16+00:00">3 hours ago</time>(1924 children)</a>


    <input name="thing_id" type="hidden" value="t1_dgez01u">


    The intentions of cotd are pretty confusing. So the cotd is essentially saying that you can be a member of any religion while still following its own tenants? This doesn''t add up considering that most religions believe any other to be blasphemous.


    Besides, we don''t even know anything about cotd except that it is either an incredibly, mind-blowingly well-funded terrorist organization (with unheard of technology at its disposal) or that its actually what it says it is, a serious new religion.


    Does anybody know what cotd has planned for members?


    [¨C]</a>C0c0nuts</a> 3001 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:06:18 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:06:18+00:00">6 hours ago</time><time class="edited-timestamp" title="last edited 5 hours ago" datetime="2017-04-18T13:04:52+00:00">*</time>(876 children)</a>


    <input name="thing_id" type="hidden" value="t1_dgf0f2x">


    The church seems impossible. If I wasnt in Paris when this was all going on, I wouldnt have been there for the 2e miracle. It was luck that I was at the Paris revelation location.


    Honestly??? I cant explain what happened to me tehre. It felt like someone was reaching into my mind and giving me images of a giant dragon and the universe and stuff. It was extremely cool. If this church continues to do stuff like this, awesome.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    EDIT: my video recording</a> during the Paris miracle.


    [¨C]</a>johnquincy2012</a> 2809 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">2 hours ago</time>(1673 children)</a>


    <input name="thing_id" type="hidden" value="t1_dgf0qpl">


    This church of the dragon bullshit is really pissing me off. They appeared out of nowhere and distributed this motherf*ing dragonleaf shit. That nobody''s been able to research, by the way, and which apparently the church used TODAY to access the minds of everyone in miracle locations worldwide...


    And also: I''m deaf. It isn''t a fking "health problem," its a disability. While I don''t have certain privileges that otehr people do, like listening to music, deaf culture is real. There are lots of things in my life that are the way they are because i''m deaf. I''ve lived my whole life deaf and its so insulting that this church sees deafness as somethng completely without value. Just check out the Deaf subreddit, or the blind subreddit, or really any disability subreddit...they''re all talking about what happened in New York.


    [¨C]starmiesql</a>270points15<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(130 children)</a>


    Are you kidding me:


    <blockquote>I''m deaf. It isn''t a fking "health problem," its a disability. While I don''t have certain privileges that otehr people do, like listening to music, deaf culture is real. There are lots of things in my life that are the way they are because i''m deaf. I''ve lived my whole life deaf and its so insulting that this church sees deafness as somethng completely without value.</blockquote>


    The Church saved the lives of people in that crowd. Think of all the people w/ cancer. And also I readthis article</a> saying that the people in the crowd who had latent genetic conditions like ALS and alzheimers were preemptively cured. Stop whining when an actual miracle happens. Theres too much shit in this world to ignore or vilify the good stuff.


    [¨C]</a>Daldog</a> 1245 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1 hour ago</time>(1893 children)</a>


    <input name="thing_id" type="hidden" value="t1_dgf0qpl">


    I used one of the drgaonleaf and it completely destroyed my house! 400k down the drain since dragonleaf if abundant enough to be worthless.


    [¨C]Pega_Son</a>832points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1 hour ago</time>(183 children)</a>


    THIS KILLS ME


    <blockquote>I used one of the drgaonleaf and it completely destroyed my house! 400k down the drain since dragonleaf if abundant enough to be worthless.</blockquote>


    I''m f*king homeless you inconsiderate prick. And it didn''t destroy your house, it just modified it. YOUR HOUSE IS STILL THERE. In a few years after everyone has used the dragonleaf your house''s market value will be fine. I''ve seen dragonleaf house hybrids (when dragonleaf uses a normal house as a skeleton) and they''re MUCH NICER than the pure dragonleaf huts.


    Check your privilege. Seriously.


    [¨C]xXWatching_YouXx</a>1020 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1 hour ago</time>(1133 children)</a>


    What''s wrong with you people? Let''s get straight what the COTD has done so far:


    <ul>


    <li>Given free housing, electricity/power, and clean water to literally THE WHOLE WORLD</li>


    <li>Demonstrated the ability to actually heal people by healing THOUSANDS OF NEW YORKERS back to FULL HEALTH</li>


    <li>It''s given us all insight into this idea of different paths.</li>


    <li>It gave everyone an essential chemical high via vision (literally felt like I was tripping acid)</li>


    </ul>


    Honestly, everything that the COTD has been saying sounds pretty legit to me. Nothing human would be able to make the show we all saw today. At least not now; the technology isn''t there. We don''t have the kinds of capabilities to give people dragonleaf and cure their illnesses and give them hope (cuz come on, that''s what all the self-determination stuff was about).


    I''m just curious to see what they do next. Also, I hope they start recruiting people cuz I''d like to be a priest or whatever (maybe we can get super abilities like The Prophet?)


    [¨C]Ranvier123</a>2405points20<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(304 children)</a>


    All of you seem to be conveniently forgetting the fact that this church can mind control huge swaths of land at will. Why the hell would an actual god be limited to only mind controlling parts of the world instead of the whole thing? Therefore this means that a group of terrorists have found a way to mind control people. And we thought ISIL was bad.


    Sovereign governments aren''t going to just let this go. This was a literal attack on pretty much every major sovereign power. This is going to mean war. How has nobody posted this yet??????


    [¨C]pinkwhitj</a>505points15<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(28 children)</a>


    All I want is to get superpowers like the prophet. She looked drop-dead gorgeous and could leap at least 10 feet into the air like what the actual hell


    [¨C]MuchLax3</a>105points15<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(20 children)</a>


    <blockquote>Sovereign governments aren''t going to just let this go. This was a literal attack on pretty much every major sovereign power. This is going to mean war.</blockquote>


    Wait but actually this.


    I live in the US and there''s no way the gov is going to let some superpowered religious organization incapacitate entire city blocks. It''s dangerous. And also the Christian church has way to much sway to just let this go. No matter what, this is a new paganesque magic religion and the Christian church is gonna be vehemently opposed to it.


    [¨C]Jamie0803xx</a>405points13<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(9 children)</a>


    <blockquote>


    <blockquote>Sovereign governments aren''t going to just let this go. This was a literal attack on pretty much every major sovereign power. This is going to mean war.</blockquote>


    Wait but actually this.


    I live in the US and there''s no way the gov is going to let some superpowered religious organization incapacitate entire city blocks. It''s dangerous. And also the Christian church has way to much sway to just let this go. No matter what, this is a new paganesque magic religion and the Christian church is gonna be vehemently opposed to it.


    </blockquote>


    This entire thing above is right, but also the US is never going to stand for what happened becuase giving people visions for a few minutes lowers the GDP (lol but actually).


    I don''t know what to think about everything that happened. Part of me hopes the church is real.


    Part of me is scared its real.


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 [Chapter 51] Rome Wasnt Built in a Day....

    Bath, Lisa and the rest of the Church of the Dragon cohort (aka Lepochim and his trainees) decided that they needed to capitalize on the current momentum and get their enrollment program up and running.


    Lisa gave them a detailed overview of the enrollment program via chip reader presentation.


    "So essentially this is based around the idea that the Ritus headquarters is going to be the main temple..." Lepochim said slowly, his face calculating and critical. "And you''re going to seize all the nearby territory?"


    A large part of Lisa''s plan was creating a commune for neophytes to live in while they form the foundation of the Church. Unfortunately, the fact that the Ritus headquarters were stationed in Virginia didn''t help matters in any way.


    "Is there a better suggestion from anyone?" Lisa quipped, scowling.


    "The ocean?" Bath offered.


    "The US owns the nearby ocean," Lisa spat. "You technically could go far out and make an island...but that''s useless. Nobody would be able to get to our facility. That''s why I chose to just make the Ritus headquarters into our home base."


    "But Virginia..." Bath frowned. The US was possibly the worst place to set up a huge commune, violating property rights and likely a host of other laws in the process. "They''ll never leave us alone."


    "Oh, won''t they?" Lisa said smugly. "I actually think the US is the best place to do this, actually. If we can set up shop in the US, that sends a message everywhere else that we''re untouchable."


    Lepochim tilted his head. "I concede that point. Honestly, this entire Church business is fairly messy...But of course, we don''t need it to be clean."


    "Exactly. No matter what we do, we''ll end up in control of Earth. So why not at least have a little fun along the way, make a fun legend for ourselves as we go? And then the legend can grow as we go to other worlds until people actually do believe in COTD."


    "COTD?"


    Lisa gave Bath a look. "COTD. Church of the Dragon."


    Lepochim sighed. "It''s what they''re calling us online," he explained.


    Both Lisa and Bath gave him incredulous glances, to which Lepochim stoically replied, "Just because I look down on this planet''s technology doesn''t mean I won''t use it."


    "Sure," Lisa snorted. "Anyways, to recap what we''re doing: Virginia. Announcement via email. Setting up training facilities. Getting kursi and mind slaves in line. Making giant dragonleaf commune buildings. Constructing COTD dragon statue. Anything I''m missing?"


    ---


    Bath felt a little bad about pulling Lisa out of Alens for another day since she was already so far behind, but she wrote him off.


    "I''m there to learn, not get good grades. Missing out on learning for a day or two isn''t going to matter in the least."


    With that, Bath transported Lisa and Bath to the now dragonleaf-wreathed Ritus mansion. The kursi and their mind slaves were waiting for their arrival and reverently nodded their heads as the three entered the main living room.


    The dragonleaf, having now matured for a few days, seamlessly melded with the modern layout of the room and its high-end furniture. Lisa, personally, felt that the dragonleaf offered an improvement to the room''s aesthetic: more in tune with nature, while still embodying modern-chic. It felt balanced.


    Moreover, though Lisa had only heard general information from Lepochim, the house''s substantial roof was able to generate a massive amount of electricity using the improved photosynthesis Bath had picked up off-planet. Since the mansion was next to a lake, the dragonleaf had an excellent reservoir of water for its roots and had the capability to filter enough water to serve around 1,000 people.


    Once they set up the rest of the commune, electricity and water would be problems of the past.


    They all quickly got to work, Lepochim leading the kursi in exercises to detect and obscure the senses of people who came too close to the mansion via air, such as hostile US forces. He also delegated a few of them to work with the dragonleaf full time, building up their expertise in controlling human thought by using the dragonleaf as an intermediary. They tested this on their mind slaves, of course.


    The rest of the mind slaves Lepochim readied to receive incoming neophytes, giving them information written up by Lisa on how to greet people, what to say, and how to assign newcomers to houses.


    Lisa mostly worked on traveling to the nearby residences within a 3-mile radius, the area that Bath deemed optimal for them to occupy. His long-range manipulation could reach 3.6 miles, so a 3-mile radius gave him a good bit of leeway with which to move around if he wanted to keep the whole commune within range of his essence. She essentially went to each house, told them the "Good News" (that the Church of the Dragon was seizing the area), and offered them the opportunity bring their house into the fold of the commune. If their initial response wasn''t favorable, she simply used her mind manipulation to convince them to accept the offer.


    Lisa quashed any feelings of remorse, reminding herself that these people were getting the good end of the deal. After all, dragonleaf houses based on existing properties were much nicer than those springing from nothing. Moreover, since the takeover of Earth was inevitable, these people would have a key advantage going forward for joining the Church so early.


    Lisa had even been pleasantly surprised when around 40% of the people she approached seemed genuinely happy that the Church was setting up next door, even if that meant their property was being seized. One person simply asked her if he''d be able to get super powers, to which she''d replied in the affirmative. After that, he told her that the Church couldn''t take over fast enough. Another house said that the Church could do whatever it wanted as long as it did another health boon bestowal, to which Lisa laughed and said, "Of course."The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Within a day, everything was coming together.


    Downstairs in the Ritus mansion labyrinthian basement, Bath was experimenting. He''d transported a host of different animals to a large area of the basement that had clearly served as a training room.


    He was manipulating these animals, several at a time, each with a different intention. They needed food. They needed vehicles. They also needed protection. Moreover, Bath recognized the human need for companionship that could be serviced by animals.


    Bath spent the entire day modifying his stock of animals. Whenever he finished, he placed the fully modified animals in the holding pens that Ritus had set up for the animals they fished out of the gate.


    As the day came to a close, Lisa sent out an email and updated the website. She felt a sensation of butterflies as she thought about what was going to happen. To her, to the movement; to their dream of world--and universal--domination.


    In the end, she''d had to ask Bath to knock her out with gas before she could fall asleep.


    ---


    Lisa had pretty much left the people in the surrounding area alone with the intention of bringing them into the Order of the Dragon when it was founded. Which meant today.


    Here at the Ritus headquarters, Bath had specially constructed the dragonleaf so that it formed into giant high-rise spires all over the three-mile radius of the property. He told Lisa that the commune should be able to hold 50-100k people, depending on how many people lived in each dwelling (i.e. if people came alone or with families).


    To provide for all these people, Bath spent the entire night stealing cattle. He found that some companies kept thousands of cattle on these disgusting compounds called feedlots, which made his job incredibly easy: nobody noticed a few missing cows from the several dozen feedlots he visited.


    He modified each of the cattle according to the pattern he''d perfected yesterday on a cow and a bull, respectively. Now, he placed the modified cattle in a thorn-lined pen outdoors.


    He also erected an enormous garden out of plants he similarly stole and modified from various corporate farms.


    After the food problem was taken care of, Bath was reminded rather scathingly by Lepochim to make bathing and toilet facilities. And kitchens.


    Bath felt like every time he molded the dragonleaf into another construct, Lepochim had another building on his mental commune checklist.


    "This is ridiculous," Bath grumbled under his breath as he worked out the mechanics of forming a hot spring by creating a fissure in the Earth''s crust. "A bathhouse with natural hot water..."


    When Lisa woke up about five hours after falling asleep, she was rather taken aback by the swath of changes that Bath had made to the infantile commune.


    After taking a shower and getting ready, she took a few minutes to walk outside and inspect the new facilities. Bath didn''t have any experience in architecture or design, instead relying on his lifetime with nature as a template for his constructions. The commune almost looked like a forest of trees filled up completely by bird nests and animals dens. However, this was only part of the picture: the structures also had column-like structures and large, flat, wooden covers that featured classical floral and geometric patterns. Additionally, wherever Lisa walked, she could see depictions of animals on the sides of the buildings, some extant, many not. Mixed in with these were depictions of Bath''s dragon form.


    Lisa felt a sense of awe as she viewed these many scenes. They were literally grown into the brown-green, woody sides of the dragonleaf buildings. Moreover, each scene was completely unique and formed with careful attention to detail. Lisa could tell that these were all scenes that Bath had recreated from memory.


    On one of the buildings, Lisa even recognized an image of that monster-insect-thing that that Bath had made her photograph for his "research" on the Permian Extinction. Bathiosaurus Exo-something.


    She eventually stumbled onto the holding pen for the modified cattle.


    "What the actual..."


    Shaking her head, she continued on. She didn''t encounter the garden, but did find her way to the bathhouse, which she could only admire from afar. She didn''t have time to relax; not today, not soon.


    Definitely not today. She checked her phone: 7:15 AM. The email and website both clearly stated that starting at 8:00 AM, today, the commune would start accepting neophytes.


    Already, Bath was dealing with the massive amounts of neophyte-to-be''s that had gathered outside the commune. As part of his renovations, Bath had constructed a large dragonleaf wall around the commune. At 8:00 AM sharp, he planned to lower the wall and let people in. Before that, well, they''d just have to be patient.


    Bath had lost track of how many small drones he''d crushed into oblivion over the past half day since Lisa sent out the email inviting people to come. People were certainly eager to cover the newest exploit of the Church of the Dragon, as aside from the drones, countless news sources had sent people to cover the opening of the commune.


    Bath used his enhanced hearing to listen to the many conversations taking place outside. The one he heard most frequently from the reporters was discussion over what this commune was called.


    Realizing that they actually didn''t have a name for the commune other than the Commune of the Dragon, and that they didn''t even have a new name for the main Ritus headquarters other than, descriptively, the main temple, Bath formed a human self in front of Lisa.


    She jumped, startled. "Bath!"


    "Lisa," he began without skipping a beat. "What are we calling this place?"


    Lisa gave him a blank look. "The Commune of the Dragon?"


    Bath shook his head. "We need something. And don''t trust me to think of something; I already named dragonleaf. It''s your turn."


    Lisa refrained from pointing out that she''d come up with the name of the Church and names for its entire hierarchy of positions. "Fine. How about..." Lisa looked around for inspiration. "The Anima."


    "Soul?" Bath recognized the Latin word.


    "It sounds like animal, and means soul," Lisa stated. "This is a religious place, so the soul element is there, and, if those weird cattle are anything to go by, the commune is going to have lots of rather...interesting animals in the future. It''s perfect."


    "What about the main temple?"


    "The Temple of Basa. Obviously."


    "Basa?"


    "Bath and Lisa together. Or, Lith. Or, hmm, Basalith. That sounds kinda cool."


    "Just choose something," Bath said. He knewthe current time to a few minutes of accuracy by analyzingthe position of the sun. From this, he saw that 8:00 AM was fast approaching. He honestly didn''t care what Lisa named anything.


    "Wait wait wait. Okay. We''re going to call the commune Basalith. Like a city name. Then, we''re going to call the temple The Anima."


    "Fine." Bath disappeared without a further word.


    As he waited for 8:00 AM to arrive, Bath continued to embellish and decorate the commune--Basalith. He made sure to inscribe the name of the commune on the ground just beyond the area where most people had gathered. This way, as soon as he let down the wall, they would see it.


    He also inscribed The Anima on the former Ritus headquarters. While he was at it, he numbered the various residences and wrote the names of buildings above their entrances according to their function.


    Bath kept Lepochim informed of all of this as he continued to rush about the inside of The Anima, organizing the kursi and mind slaves while preparing for the imminent approach of thousands. Lepochim had actually smiled when Bath told him that the dwellings were numbered from one to twenty-thousand, as this meant that Lepochim could just give people a number and send them off instead of consulting the quickly-drafted blueprints of the commune''s layout.


    As the hour grew ever nearer, the crowd beyond the looming dragonleaf wall swelled. Bath actually wasn''t sure how Lepochim and Lisa were planning to process this many people. Had they underestimated how many would come?


    Bath looked up intently towards the cloud-filled sky as the final seconds drew to a close.


    10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1...and the wall came down.

 [Chapter 52] The US Invokes Baths Ire

    2.5 days previous to the opening of Basalith:


    Dean sat on Bath''s bed in their suite, not really sure what was going on. He fidgeted restlessly, wanting to get whatever this enhancement stuff was over with as quickly as possible. Every second until then was agonizing as he worried about whether or not Bath was being honest. What if the enhancements Bath was talking about didn''t work, and worse, what if they showed up on drug tests?


    Bath interrupted Dean''s line of thought as he slipped soundlessly into the room.


    "Ready?" Bath asked, his face at once eager and calculating. Dean had the impression that Bath viewed him as a test subject, like a mouse in an animal lab.


    "For what, exactly?"


    Bath flashed a grin. "You shouldn''t feel anything," he said nonchalantly, walking forward. "But things will be...changing. In a few days, you''ll understand more completely what I''m talking about, and you''ll understand just how fortunate you are..." In a few days, Dean wouldn''t be caring about football or basketball or whatever sport got him into college.


    He cleared his throat, then narrowed his eyes slightly, appraisingly. "Just stay still." He didn''t want Dean to get any ideas and leave the room where others might see him.


    Of course, Bath could always just knock Dean out, but this was a two-pronged test: what his synthesized microorganisms could do to the human body, and what the conscious human mind could take.


    Dean gave him a hard look, then swallowed. "Just get started."


    "Very well; let''s begin."


    ---


    Bath now strolled through his synthesized microorganism pits strewn throughout a large room in The Anima''s underground labyrinth. He''d taken liberties to enlarge the room, using dragonleaf to ensure that the newly hollowed-out ground could support the structure above.


    He was still going over the sight of thousands of humans crushing each other to enter Basalith. He''d been alive for a long time, of course, but even so...he''d never seen an animal species gather in such numbers and essentially stampede against itself. He''d seen it in insects, but that was on another scale, and well-coordinated.


    He''d had to save no less than three-hundred people from being trampled to death--or at least sustaining serious injuries. He did this fairly inconspicuously by shielding the person being trampled and propping them up with his essence. If he had to justify why, he''d say that every person was potential manpower worth building up. After all, Bath sensed all that was happening below: being trampled wasn''t a matter of strength or weakness but of circumstance and luck.


    Bath recalled how shocked expressions appeared over all the newcomers'' faces as they beheld the verdant city beyond the now-collapsed wall. After all, if raising an enormous dragonleaf city in a bit more than a day wasn''t a miracle, Bath didn''t know what was.


    Bath controlled a force of fifteen-hundred "disciples," all working to direct and order the people coming in. His only job was to get people in through The Anima''s doors; from there, Lisa and Lepochim would ensure that they were given shelter and some basic information about what to expect in the next few hours while they were busy getting everyone sorted out.


    He was still controlling all these human puppets now, though their task was simple enough that he could easily divide his focus to continue improving Basalith. After seeing the volume of people coming in, he''d decided that his first priority would be to enlarge the Boon Pits, as he''d taken to calling them.


    At the same time, Lisa was greeting all who entered the Anima from a grand pedestal, using a speaker system that Lepochim had installed only yesterday. "Welcome to The Anima, the Grand Temple of Basalith. Your faith in the Church and the Dragon will lead you to unimaginable heights. Over at the desks to the left is the registrar, where you will obtain your housing information. Further down is the Q & A desk where you can ask questions about what life in Basalith will be like.


    "A few things relevant for all to know are the following: if you join Basalith, pledging to follow the way of the Dragon, you will be granted access to a basic boon as a default. From there, you will learn about the hierarchy of the Church of the Dragon and any sub-paths therein that you can take. All will have a place in the Church of the Dragon, whether they be teachers, scholars, engineers, farmers, artists...the list is endless.


    "If you worry about leaving your home, your job, and coming to live in Basalith, know that the Church of the Dragon cannot convince you to stay. Moreover, the Church of the Dragon will be expanding and may be coming to your area of residence. However, do note that any who join the Church of the Dragon today and become citizens of Basalith will obtain status and benefits exceeding most people''s imaginations..." After all, Lisa had some inkling of what Bath was up to with his giant pits full of bacteria or viruses or something. She knew that Bath could set up similar pits anywhere on Earth; however, while The Anima might have tens or hundreds of pits after a bit of time, most other places might only have a handful.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Therefore, in order to receive enhancements that exceeded basic boons such as health, people would be expected to travel to The Anima. Perhaps, in the future, they would create more Grand Temples on other continents.


    But that was in the future. Now...Basalith was truly a goldmine to all seeking self-determination and personal power.


    Lisa repeated her speech, along with other information about living in Basalith, over and over all throughout the day. Dressed in a long, beautiful sunset-accented white dress and prismatic cloth shoulder pads and gorget, Lisa quickly became the face of the Church of the Dragon.


    Which was fitting, considering that she was the Church. As ever, she was pleased with Bath for modifying her face and designing the dress on the spot. Lisa was aware that when people saw her as the head of the Church of the Dragon, they would try to find flaws in her speech and her looks. Through her beautiful clothing and her flawless appearance, Lisa truly did embody the air of an inhumanly perfect being.


    Quite frankly, Lisa loved the attention and sense of worship she felt from all who entered the room. She felt the group shell, encompassed it with her touch like a child a small sparrow. The shell felt warm and clean, excited, filled with hope, filled with awe. She could sense that this crowd wanted to be a part of something monumental, something that had never happened before.


    She felt as though...she could grow drunk off of these feelings, off of the energy radiating off from the massive group shell. After several hours, she didn''t feel tired; rather, she felt energized.


    She was starting to actually feel like the person she was pretending to be, and that felt fantastic.


    The day came and went; soon, night fell, though there were still thousands of people outside who had not been admitted.


    "Everyone who has received a house has been given information about the location of the public baths and the eating area," Lepochim noted as he, Lisa, and Bath all gathered quickly on a balcony near the top of the floral grand Temple. "All of the kursi have been working hard to ensure that people feel at ease while they get settled down. They haven''t seen any fights, which is a miracle, considering humanity''s propensity to infighting." His voice, as ever, hinted at disdain.


    "We still have a few thousand people who haven''t been admitted, though...what are we going to do with them?" Lisa asked uncertainly. "Bath?"


    "There are still 6,540 people who are waiting," he said slowly, his voice serious, menacing. Lisa shuddered despite herself. "I am exceptionally put out by the US government."


    Lisa and Lepochim both gave each other a glance at the strange change in topic.


    Seeing their expressions, Bath closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again with a sigh. "They''ve been attacking us non-stop ever since two hours ago. I''ve already destroyed innumerable drones, none of them armed with guns or explosives, but I''ve considered all of them hostile. Moreover, there are certainly people who have entered Basalith who have come with impure motives, such as government spies."


    Bath gave Lepochim a pointed look. "While everyone is grouped up, I understand the difficulty of accessing individual shells...however, I''d like you to delegate a few kursi to search the new arrivals and try to uncover suspicious behavior."


    Now he turned to Lisa. "I''d like you to go outside," he said crisply. "I can''t leave this place, not now; I worry about what would happen without my protection. However, there are forces fairly close by that I can see with enhanced vision. Armed forces."


    Bath''s face turned grimly savage, almost as though he was sneering. The uncharacteristic expression caught Lisa off guard.


    "You need to take care of them."


    Lisa''s face turned ashen. She plastered on a smile to hide her fear. "Take care of them...? Bath, I don''t...you''re talking about US military forces, right?"


    "Whoever is outside of this place," Bath said coolly. "I don''t know who they are, but probably."


    "I don''t think the answer is to attack them," Lisa replied forcefully. "Lots of people have been calling us a terrorist organization online. If we take violent action against the US, then we''ll be justifying those claims."


    Bath gave her a frown. "Lisa, they have tanks. And guns. And..." he looked off into the distance. "RPGs? Regardless, they mean to attack us with full force. And you suggest that we let them encroach on what is ours?" His words rumbled in his chest, erupting out with unquestionable dominance.


    Still, Lisa steeled herself against his frightening demeanor. "I''m not going to attack the US government when technically, the territory you seem so keen on protecting is on US land. Like, it seems fairly reasonable to me that they''d send a military force to address what they view as the unauthorized creation of a theocratic city." Lisa took in a deep breath. ''That was a mouthful,'' she thought to herself while waiting for Bath to reply.


    Instead, it was Lepochim who broke the silence. "Lisa is objectively correct," Lepochim noted carefully. "Attacking with force won''t do any good. However, why not retaliate through other means?"


    Bath''s expression was completely blank, which Lisa interpreted to mean he was struggling to keep his anger in check. She''d never imagined that he''d be so territorial.


    "Like what?" he hissed.


    Lepochim gave him an almost sad look. "Just think, for a second, without letting your instincts get the better of you." He gave Bath a pointed glance.


    "Instincts..." Bath said slowly, closing his eyes and breathing out.


    "Yeah, those," Lepochim snorted, causing Bath to glare at him. "When was the last time you took control over any stretch of territory?"


    Bath''s gaze was unwavering as he stared at Lepochim''s passive face. "Millions of years ago, at least."


    "And did anything ever challenge your territorial claims?"


    "They all died, and others learned," Bath admitted. "Fine; I''m not stupid. Perhaps my aggression and annoyance is an overreaction. However...they really are planning to storm this place, soon. How do you both propose to deal with this problem if not through retaliatory force?"


    "I told you to think. Of course you have Lisa with her physical enhancements and whatnot to serve as proxy for your rather violent desires," Lepochim noted bitterly.


    Lisa gave Bath a probing look.


    "Lepochim, back off," she glared. "Bath. I get why you''re pissed off; I also feel protective towards this place. But seriously, if we''re planning to take over the world, the universe, we can''t rely on just lashing out in retaliation. We need to have a plan for when this happens in the future."


    Bath turned around and regarded the area beyond the balcony, the lake, the leafy skyline, resting his arms upon the dragonleaf-veined stone. "Like?"


    Lisa cracked a grin; she already felt the inklings of an idea. "Just leave it to me."

 [Chapter 53] First Introductions: Deans Arrival

    "Take Dean with you."


    Lisa blanched. "Who?" She had been planning to go out alone. By herself, if all she had to rely on were physical abilities, she didn''t feel equipped to take on a small army. But since she was a kursi, she felt fairly confident in her ability to get in and out unscathed. Now Bath wanted her to bring someone?


    "Oh, and Nimesh."


    "Wait wait wait," Lisa said quickly. "Who are these people?"


    Bath raised an eyebrow, suddenly dropping his serious demeanor. "You need to get used to calling intelligent entities sapients."


    "But they''re...wait. Wait wait wait--"


    "How many times must you say ''wait'' in a single conversation?" Lepochim grumbled audibly, to Lisa''s chagrin.


    "Bath. Who, or what, are Dean and Nimesh?"


    "You''ll love Nimesh," Bath said, refusing to reveal any details.


    "Bath!" Lisa growled, running over to the balcony where he was reclining. "I can''t make a good plan if I don''t know what''s going on."


    Bath then gave a fairly melodramatic sigh. "Very well," he drawled, turning around, a playful glint in his eyes.


    "This isn''t the time to mess around!" Lisa spat. "You were just about to go after the US army yourself and rip them to pieces for encroaching on our territory! Now you''re just...what the actual."


    "I''m just excited to see what you three will do," Bath replied cheerfully. "Now, to answer your question. Dean is my suitemate from Alens. And Nimesh...I''ll just show you her in a second."


    "Your suitemate? Didn''t you mentally traumatize all of your suitemates so badly that our college Dean decided you needed to be psychologically evaluated?"


    Bath gave her an innocent look. "Nevertheless, he''s the most enhanced human aside from you so far."


    Lisa''s eyes grew wide as she quickly came to a logical conclusion. "You...you seriously used your suitemate as a boon test subject? Can''t they trace that back to you if anybody finds out he''s received a ton of boons?"


    "Well, since he''s in school on a sports scholarship, he has incentive to keep any boons hidden," Bath noted swiftly. "Regardless, we''re getting off topic here."


    Lepochim gave both of them rather dubious glances. "This was a serious meeting until about two minutes ago. Can we just conclude so I can get back to the actual logistics of figuring out how to deal with the thousands of people waiting to be admitted?"


    "You''re dismissed," Bath said, his tone clipped. He turned back to Lisa. "Come with me to Nimesh."


    ---


    In a minute or so, Bath had led Lisa to the underground of The Anima. Their destination was an enormous room filled with countless cages and high-walled pens. She couldn''t see much of anything. However, clearly visible in a spacious cage with its door open, was a beautiful white wolf. Lisa''s breath caught as she saw it.


    "It''s...you," she breathed. The wolf looked absolutely identical to Bath''s white wolf form. It was huge, big enough to ride. Lisa''s couldn''t tell, but Bath had even altered the wolf''s bone structure to properly fit and support a humanoid rider.


    "Not quite," Bath chuckled. "But she''ll be with you while I''m here. This is Nimesh."


    Lisa tentatively walked over. The giant wolf seemed rather aloof as Lisa drew near.


    Lisa looked back at Bath. "How do I...can I touch her?"


    "Do whatever you want. She won''t hurt you," Bath promised. Nimesh wasn''t intelligent enough to naturally interact with humans, but Bath considered Nimesh to be a sapient. Nimesh had a sense of self and understood basic thoughts and ideas. She could think and plan ahead, develop goals.


    Of course, Nimesh was very young, and hadn''t had time to do much of any of those things. However, Bath knew that the potential was there; after all, he''d instilled the potential himself. He was quite eager to see how Nimesh ended up developing.


    Critical to that development was going out into the world and having experiences.


    "How old is she?" Lisa asked while she scratched the wolf''s ears.


    "A few days old," Bath replied. "I sped things along, made some changes as I went."


    Lisa wasn''t surprised, but felt even more impressed by the wolf''s massive size and calm demeanor. She would have thought a wolf with the mind of a pup would be bouncing off the walls with curiosity at the world around her.


    "I''ll leave you to get familiar with each other. I told Dean a few minutes ago by phone to get over here. He''ll probably take, oh, two or so hours. Lepochim has the upstairs covered; take Nimesh to the training facility a floor down.


    "Training facility?" Lisa felt like every word that came out of her mouth at this point was a question. Bath had certainly been busy while she was getting today''s logistics together.


    "It''s marked with arrows and signs," Bath assuaged, taking that moment to create said arrows and signs. "There; you should be able to find it."


    "Thanks," she chortled. As she turned towards the arrow leading toward a door, Nimesh got up from her seat and padded over to Lisa. With that, they set out for the training room.


    ---


    Dean arrived at Basalith completely out of breath. He''d ran all the way from Alens to this demented, middle-of-nowhere spot in Virginia, only to actually find the huge dragonleaf city on the horizon. Part of him had been expecting it to be a fabrication, a mirage. Since when did giant, leafy-green cities pop up on the map? Even Google Maps didn''t have the Church of the Dragon''s location listed!Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Then again, since when did your suitemate nearly give you PTSD, then give you superpowers using weird microorganisms? And then tell you that if you don''t help out with a few tasks from time to time, he''d take your powers away and leave you alone? What the hell kind of person did that?


    "Bath," Dean grumbled as he launched himself over a section of the wall that Bath had kept standing for the sake of privacy and defensibility. Bath didn''t even try to hide that he knew Dean had arrived and appeared suddenly behind him.


    "Dean," he smiled saccharinely.


    "You called?" Dean panted, fairly put-out. Bath had told him nothing about why he was coming here, just that something needed to be taken care of.


    Suddenly Dean found himself pinned against the ground With Bath over him, his face eerily predatory. "Know your place," he hissed softly, his face far too close for comfort as Bath bent down over Dean''s flattened form. "I''m still waiting for you to earn what I''ve given you. I told you before and I''ll tell you again: in a few days, you''ll have a better understanding of how blessed you actually are.


    Bath now turned back towards the lake. "You are to assist The Church and Nimesh. The three of you will deal with armed US military forces."


    Dean gave him a blank look. "Wait--"


    Bath held up a hand. "Don''t...say another word." He sighed, then continued on: "Just go with them. The Church will tell you everything you need to do."


    And with that, Bath walked off and instantly disappeared upon losing his line of sight with Dean.


    ---


    Dean had been utterly confused by Bath''s words. ''The Church is a person? And Bath knows them?'' Dean didn''t have doubt that Bath was somehow connected to the now famous Church of the Dragon. Bath had even, somehow, remotely given him a set of boons. Clearly, Bath was a high-ranking member of the organization. Not that Dean understood how that was possible since they''d just appeared a few days ago and Bath was just a first-year college student.


    Dean looked around, feeling helplessly lost. "I''m supposed to find the Church and Nimesh?"


    Suddenly, glowing arrows appeared on the ground in front of Dean. He was currently at the far border of the city where residents hadn''t yet moved in, so the area was deserted. As he walked forward following the arrows, he began to encounter more and more people. By the time the arrows led him to the Anima, the throng of people was huge, even though it was around midnight. He couldn''t see very far because of all the buildings and people, and the arrows adjusted to be just under his feet so that they could still point him in the right direction. Not unsurprisingly, they pointed for him to go through The Anima doors.


    Bath watched on from afar with a fair bit of annoyance. ''Can he walk any slower?''


    Of course, Dean was hyper-sensitive to the boons that Bath had given him. Or rather, he was hypersensitive to anyone finding out he had them. Bath had actually given Dean many powerful physical enhancement boons, the kind that most Church of the Dragon recruits would never be able to access. As a result, Dean had a great deal of trouble getting used to his strength. In fact, Bath hadn''t given Lisa as much physical power for this very reason: adjusting is difficult when your strength is such that merely tapping a door causes it to slam closed.


    She didn''t need extreme levels of physical strength when she had her kursi abilities. Dean on the other hand? Bath didn''t feel very invested in him, nor more than a basic level of attachment. While he wanted Dean to make all the boons work, which in itself was a test for whether or not he deserved to have them, Bath didn''t really care if Dean succeeded in keeping low key.


    The arrows eventually led a robotic-walking Dean down a flight of stairs and into an extremely confusing basement area. After walking for a minute or two, Dean arrived at a large door, which he opened as gingerly as possible.


    "Hello?" a voice called out from within. "Dean?"


    "Yes," he replied back, fully opening the door as he spoke. He saw within a large training room a woman and a huge white husky. The room was filled with all kinds of workout equipment, with everything from bench presses to ellipticals. Off to the side, filling nearly a third of the entire space, was a square court slightly depressed about two feet into the ground. This is where the woman and the dog were.


    "Who are you?" he hollered, struggling to be heard across the vast room.


    "I''m The Church," she replied with a grin. "And this is Nimesh. We three are going to be partners, apparently."


    Nimesh took this moment to walk forward, gracefully leaping out of the square court and then trotting over to Dean, who was standing uncertainly in the doorway. Nimesh seemed to raise a furred eyebrow when Dean took a step back at her approach.


    "She''s not going to hurt you," Lisa yelled from across the room. "Just get in here and we can talk things out a bit."


    Dean inclined his head, then rushed forward, no longer concealing his strength.


    Lisa looked on with a bit of shock as Dean reached the court in as little as four seconds. Dean was definitely stronger than herself. She wondered exactly which boons Bath had bestowed upon him...


    As Dean came closer, Lisa realized that she recognized him from some lecture she was taking. Of course, the recognition wasn''t mutual: Dean wouldn''t recognize her currently modified face.


    "We should get you a proper mask," Lisa remarked as Dean approached. "Dragon, I know you can hear us; change his face." Lisa wasn''t sure what Dean knew about Bath, but she was fairly certain he didn''t yet know that Bath actually was the deity of the Church of the Dragon.


    A rumbling voice now called out: "Your request has been granted."


    Dean suddenly felt the skin around his face begin to change. However, after experiencing all the boons first-hand from Bath and watching as they changed his body...Dean didn''t even flinch.


    Lisa was highly impressed by Dean''s stillness; when she''d had Bath change her face, she''d been squirming everywhere. The experience was incredibly uncomfortable.


    "So," Lisa started, seeing that Dean and Nimesh were both regarding her. "I''m the Church. What does that mean? It means that I have the power to influence people''s hearts and minds. Additionally, I have a great deal of strength and durability, making me difficult to physically harm."


    Lisa then looked pointedly at Nimesh. Lisa had realized almost immediately that Nimesh could technically talk to her since she had a translator. Bath had been right when he hinted that Nimesh was a sapient. Lisa prepared herself to translate for Dean.


    Listening to Nimesh was odd because the translator largely interpreted Nimesh''s body language and converted this into speech. So, instead of seeing someone like Lepochim actually talk, Lisa saw a fairly stationary wolf and disjointedly heard English.


    "I am not the most intelligent, but am fast and strong. And vicious." Nimesh licked her lips. "I enjoy a fight, a challenge."


    Lisa didn''t know how reverse translating worked from her own English into something Nimesh could understand, but it worked somehow. "Hold on, you''re only a few days old. When have you seen any fights?"


    Dean just looked on confusedly, wondering how the Church could randomly talk to this giant white dog called Nimesh.


    Nimesh''s eyes gleamed. " In truth I haven''t, but understand the concept. I want to fight; I feel the desire."


    Lisa sighed and shook her head. "Fine. Technically, neither of us has been in any fights, either. I guess this will just be a learning experience."


    "Uh..."


    Lisa turned to Dean. "Oh, sorry. Nimesh said that she wants to fight, but since she''s only a few days old, I asked her how she knew, to which she essentially said instinct. Anyways, I think its time we think of a plan using all of us and our strengths. So, Dean, introduce yourself."


    He gave Lisa a penetrating look before starting. "I''m Dean. I, uh, I''m a student at Alens. Just about three days ago Bath gave me boons from COTD. And...then he told me to come here. I have strength and durability, for the most part. I can, um, also sense heat signatures. And I can make hard spikes appear on the backs of my hands and feet." He gave a quick demonstration, coating the back of his right hand in a bed of sharp, angler-fish-teeth-like spikes.


    Lisa knew she wouldn''t want to be hit by that.


    "I also play basketball, so I''m pretty good at teamwork stuff," he admitted, looking at Lisa and Nimesh. Lisa instantly quashed a desire to challenge Dean to a one-on-one match.


    Lisa now turned to Nimesh and summarized what Dean had said. Turning back, she now said, "You need a better name than Dean. At least when you''re wearing the flesh mask."


    Dean nodded. "Any suggestions?"


    "Well, Nimesh is the Wolf. I''m the Church."Single word, single syllable.


    "I can be the Knight, I guess," Dean replied.


    "Sure, that works," Lisa responded, not too picky about what Dean wanted to call himself. She now cleared her throat, indicating that they were getting down to business. "So here''s the situation..."

 [Chapter 54] The Morning of Captain Edgewoods Abduction

    The US government didn''t really know what to make of the spontaneously generated dragonleaf city. They didn''t have much intelligence on it, other than its name. According to a few spies doing recon, people had been peacefully processed and sorted into free housing, no questions asked.


    It seemed completely too good to be true.


    Many people in command were starting to wonder if COTD was a legitimate new religion. Originally, they thought it a terrorist group with unheard-of resources. But seriously, what made giant green cities? And randomly tapped into the minds of thousands, millions, worldwide? They couldn''t name any organization with those kinds of capabilities.


    With these thoughts in mind, the generals of the US military were trying to come up with a valid plan. The green city had clearly sprung up and essentially seized a circle of a 3-mile radius in Virginia; clearly the US government couldn''t let that go unchecked. How could the US pride itself as Earth''s leading nation when it couldn''t even defend itself from insurgents making a new city-state within its borders?


    ''We''re absolutely fucked,'' Captain Edgewood thought to himself when he woke up to new commands from above. Why did anyone think that attacking that huge green city was a good idea?


    He shook his head in disbelief.


    He rolled out of bed, then turned away, grumbling, in search of the bathroom. It wasn''t far away, thankfully; he was always groggy early in the morning and needed time to ease into the day. A shower was key to that process.


    As he stepped out of his personal quarters, he felt the ground shake, once, like someone had set off some kind of land mine or artillery far away. He snapped up, his body poised to react to an incoming attack.


    About a minute later, Edgewood was actually prepared for when the hallway in front of him was crushed and warped by a giant white wolf. More to say, he was prepared to fall backward on his ass as he quickly dodged the oncoming destruction.


    The wolf stood up in a flash, its face seemingly alight with joy, as though it was about to fetch a toy or something. Did wolves even fetch?


    Edgewood thought about his own dog, a little Jack Russell Terrier named Sparky.


    He sighed to himself. He knew this line of thought was a subconscious coping mechanism; he''d been nearly crushed to death in the collateral of a giant, heaven-defying wolf smashing into the building.


    But Edgewood needed to get his ass into gear and try to figure out what was going on, not reminisce. He got up, then ran over to the hallway and carefully navigated the torn-up ground. What he saw when he reached the gaping hole in the wall was enough to leave him speechless, jaw clenched.


    The damned wolf actually was playing fetch. What the actual...?


    He cursed and reached his back pocket for his phone. He wasn''t in fatigues and didn''t have his radio on hand; after all, it was the crack of dawn. He''d just been waking up.


    He started to call his CO, only to hear the man''s voicemail recording.


    Snorting in frustration, Edgewood walked outside, realizing that pajamas or fatigues weren''t going to make a difference against a giant wolf: he''d be crushed or ripped to pieces all the same.


    After all, he could see now that this wasn''t just an oversized genetic mutant wolf. That he could feasibly believe. No: this was a motherfucking monster wolf. It was quite possibly the fastest thing he''d ever seen; it took a few loping strides, seemingly casual and relaxed, only to cross hundreds of feet and leave his field of vision. This put a new meaning to the phrase, ''making something difficult look easy.'' It was making something fucking impossible look easy.


    Edgewood gingerly stepped outside, running along the building''s largely undamaged exterior wall as he searched for the current location of the hostile wolf. He didn''t see anybody else as he ran; likely, anybody off patrol was still inside, unaware of the danger without. If the damned wolf hadn''t ripped through the hallway in front of him, he''d probably be in the shower.


    That meant that everyone who was on patrol was likely trying to galvanize others to action and relay to their superiors what in the actual fuck was going on. It was now just over a minute since the ground initially shook, and Edgewood expected that armed forces would start pooling out of the building any minute.


    Edgewood continued onward, rounding the corner of the building. That was when he saw a tank spin through the air, having been hoisted up by two human figures. He once again saw the wolf, gleefully bounding after it, and catching it by snagging the vehicle''s side, its teeth piercing the wheel links.


    Edgewood didn''t even want to think about how hard the tank hit the ground. He grimaced as he realized just how much money was draining out of the army''s coffers; these tanks had been preemptively driven in over the past day for the planned siege assault on Basalith. Now, they were being systematically smashed.


    "I knew we were absolutely fucked," he murmured sadly. The two figures continued to hoist the Virgina base''s recently augmented stock of tanks into the air. This continued for about a full minute before countermeasures were deployed.


    "We''re still fucked," Edgewood noted, feeling fairly sage-like with his predictions. A few smoke bombs from the tanks began to go off, apparently with the objective to confuse the hostiles. Then, trying to take advantage of the momentary "distraction," a group of people in full tactical dress ran out of the building off to Edgewood''s right and fired their assault rifles at the human figures and the wolf.


    Edgewood looked on, completely unimpressed, as what was clear to be a feminine figure from afar held up her arm and watched as bullets bombarded her skin and then fell away, practically bouncing off. Actually, as Edgewood crept closer, he saw that wasn''t quite what was happening. They actually did enter her skin...only to be expelled out half a second later, as though some kind of internal elastic force was at work.


    The female figure then laughed, a full, booming, raucous laugh, as she lowered her raised arm. The figure next to her motioned for her to help him lift another tank, to which she obliged, and unsurprisingly another tank went flying.


    That was when the RPGs arrived.


    ...And that was also when the wolf decided large projectiles were more fun to chase after than flying tanks. Before Edgewood could so much as blink, the wolf had run over to and, apparently, swallowed the RPGs before they could ignite into their second phase and really pick up speed.


    How fast did that make the wolf? Over 100 meters per second, for sure. Faster than that, though by how much, Edgewood wasn''t sure. He figured that the wolf couldn''t sustain such a speed for long, but could easily sprint that fast over a short distance.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    At the same time the wolf closed its mouth, an audible, though heavily muffled, explosive sound rang out from its throat. The wolf just coughed in response.


    Before Edgewood even realized what was happening, he was only a few hundred feet away from the hostiles, his feet moving along without his conscious input. He was approaching from a different direction from the rest of the forces, and so was completely alone (as well as conspicuous in his pajamas).


    Lisa sensed that there was a person slowly approaching who only felt curiosity and awe towards them rather than the all-present anger felt by the now-firing soldiers. Lisa didn''t blame the soldiers; after all, it was really early in the morning, sometime around 4 am. She''d be pissed as hell if someone stormed into her house and started flinging around her family''s cars, if that was any kind of equivalent for what she was doing now.


    Of course, they weren''t just flinging around the tanks. The RPGs actually came at the perfect time, just as the 20th tank fell to the ground. Lisa had created the plan with a good deal intelligence at hand, having received it from a servant that Lepochim sent out. Lisa couldn''t believe that the army had thought that 25 tanks would be enough to attack Basalith. She knew that each tank was supposed to be worth over 4,000 soldiers, and that 25 tanks therefore summed to more than 100,000 soldiers...


    But Basalith was fortified. Assuming that they all discounted the possibility that the Dragon was real and standing guard over the city, they had to assume that they had some kind of plan to keep it safe. Otherwise, why would they have built the city?


    Lisa was wondering when the aircraft were going to arrive when the oddly peaceful, slowly approaching soldier spoke.


    "Are you the heads of the Church of the Dragon?" the soldier asked.


    Lisa smiled. "I''m the Church."


    Dean gave her an awkward glance. "I''m the Knight. And the wolf is just Wolf."


    The soldier''s expression didn''t change at all as he slowly nodded. "Okay. And what are you all doing with the tanks?"


    "Leaving a statement," Lisa replied, still smiling serenely despite the fact that RPGs were exploding not too far off all over the playful wolf, turning its fur gray. She thought it a wonder that she and the soldier could even hear each other over the noise; thankfully, the soldiers with the machine guns had stopped firing, else the sound might have been too much to speak over.


    "I see a jet, incoming," the Knight remarked with a touch of nervousness.


    Dean wouldn''t have believed any of this was possible a few days ago. Lifting up a tank? Hell no. Throwing a tank a hundred feet into the air, even if assisted?


    There were different levels of impossible, and this was at its limits. Therefore, when he saw a fighter jet approaching, he couldn''t get over a natural sense of fear. Only a few days ago, a jet would have spelled his certain doom.


    Now?


    "Wolf," Lisa''s voice called out. The wolf immediately turned around and sprinted back to Lisa and Dean, then bared its back, as discussed in the plan. Lisa and Dean quickly hopped on, then held onto the wolf''s makeshift leather harness while Nimesh leapt to the top of the army base.


    Then, Nimesh leapt up onto the roof of the base. Dean quickly dismounted, then lifted the wolf into the air, spun in a circle to gain speed, and then threw the hulking sapient in direction of the plane. Lisa had touched the shells of the pilot as soon as he fell within her range, influencing him to fly lower. Dean launched them as soon as she gave the signal with her hand...


    The end result was that Nimesh smashed into the low-flying plane''s underside. Lisa quickly dismounted and stood on top of the plane as it began to careen downwards, moving her hands almost as though she were a surfer on a surfboard. As her hands moved, so too did the plane, thanks to her mind manipulation. It was far easier to manipulate someone into doing something that they wouldn''t naturally oppose; the pilot didn''t oppose moving a bit to the left, then making a sharp right, since he was going to crash regardless. Before they hit the ground, Lisa let the pilot eject.


    The plane smashed into the ground in a giant blaze of flames that quickly conflagrated into a tower of fire.


    Edgewood didn''t understand how the plane alone could...He shook his head in realization. The self-proclaimed Church ran the plane into one of the crashed tanks.


    Edgewood couldn''t see exactly what was happening, and with a grunt of frustration retreated back into the building, gunning for the roof for a better vantage point.


    It didn''t take Edgewood more than thirty seconds to get to the roof, his adrenaline pumping in response to the dangerous environment around him. He reached the roof just in time to see the Church walking calmly, majestically, through the inferno, her crystalline shoulderpads and gorget scintillating orange and red.


    Edgewood noted that the flame was a perfect accompaniment to the sunset-colored accents on the Church''s flowing gown. Edgewood took this time to marvel at the Church''s ability to ride a wolf and leap aboard--and ride--a plane in a dress. He couldn''t see her features clearly from so far away, but had a feeling that the woman was drop-dead gorgeous. He didn''t know why, but...even from afar, he felt attracted to her, as though he couldn''t fathom lifting even a finger against her.


    The Wolf walked over from somewhere down below and stopped once it reached where the Church was standing. Then, from somewhere else on the roof, the Knight jumped and fell downward like a fiery comet, landing with his fist on the ground at the feet of the Church. He then arose, standing at her side. She held up a finger, pointing everywhere and nowhere, her index finger parallel with her piercing gaze.


    Edgewood was effectively snapped out of his stupor by the ensuing silence. For the past few minutes, he''d heard nonstop weapon fire. Now, all was still, excepting the crackling flame below.


    Once again in control of his faculties after breaking free of what he could only call the Church''s charisma, Edgewood recognized that the tanks had all been arrayed in a circle. One, separately placed at the center of the arrangement, now lay entangled with the ruins of the aircraft. It appeared to be...some kind of formation?


    His eyes snapped to attention on the Church as she raised both of her hands high. As she did so, the Wolf howled and the Knight walked around to the Church''s back, a gesture of symbolism more than anything else


    As the Church raised her arms to the sky, her form resplendently wrapped in the light of the rising sun and blistering flame, dragonleaf began to sprout up, rapidly filling the area within the tank-circle. Contrary to what Edgewood first thought, the dragonleaf growth wasn''t random, but almost surgical, as though the plant were tracing over an already-present pattern. Forced to describe it, Edgewood would say that it reminded him of a Celtic knot pattern, though more sharp and geometric. Perhaps it was a fractal?


    Then, the Church shouted out, her voice carrying out preternaturally far, as though she had the projection powers of two opera singers. "The Church of the Dragon presents to all here this gift." Now the Wolf and Knight both moved to either side of the Church, flanking her.


    "We title this artwork, ''Preemptive Peace.''"


    Edgewood understood the title immediately. Only someone who had complete confidence in their ability to storm this base would even consider this kind of crazy plan: making art out of destroyed tanks and a crashed fighter jet.


    "We were always absolutely fucked," Edgewood sighed appreciatively to himself. He knew that he''d be able to tell his eventual kids about this some day.


    Then, suddenly, the Church''s eyes snapped up to meet his own. Edgewood nearly stumbled back, surprised by the suddenness and intensity of the gaze.


    "We''ll be taking this man with us," she said, pointing one of her fingers out. Without any warning, the Wolf bounded to the roof and grabbed Edgewood in its jaws. Edgewood tried his best to stay limp and avoid damage, though this was utterly impossible. By the time the Wolf landed back on the ground next to the Church, the Knight shook his head and gave the Wolf a rather stern look.


    "Sorry," the Knight said softly, so only Edgewood and the other two could hear. Edgewood''s right side was covered in bruising bite marks from where the pressure of the Wolf''s jaws had held him. Edgewood knew he had several cracked ribs from the difficulty he now had breathing.


    Edgewood didn''t know what to think. He''d literally been given a split second to process the words of the Church and the resulting actions of the Wolf. He understood he was in a state of shock, but didn''t know how to snap himself out of it.


    "Can''t you fix him, or something?" the Knight said, nervousness creeping into his voice.


    The Church frowned and gave him a look. "That''s why I fetched him; he''s resistant, somehow. Come on, its time we go back."


    With that, the Church called the Wolf over. All was silent for a moment, the Knight visibly confused by the Church''s hesitation to mount the Wolf. Then the Church raised her voice, saying, "Nimesh: I swear, if the RPG soot doesn''t wash out of this dress with some water, Bath''s going to be pissed." Then, she hopped on. The Knight grabbed Edgewood and carefully followed, aware of the tenderness of the man''s injuries.


    And so Edgewood went, carried princess-like atop the back of a giant monster wolf to what was likely a large, green, brand-new city. Definitely not the early morning he''d been expecting.

 [Chapter 55] Lepochim Prepares the Central Marketplace

    Edgewood didn''t know what he expected when he envisioned Basalith. Perhaps he envisioned some kind of Lord-of-the-Rings-esque city nested inside of an enormous tree. In reality, he thought that Basalith looked like a modern city with all of its skyscrapers and beautiful wood architecture.


    The entire process of being let into the city as one of its residents was simple and quick. Before Edgewood even knew what was happening, the Church and company had brought him into the main processing hall, apparently called The Anima, and essentially forced him to become a resident.


    He protested at first, but his heart wasn''t really in it. Sure, he''d been kidnapped and brought against his will to this bizarre post-metal city, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t curious about the city itself. Or the powers granted to its new additions...


    He was especially eager to find out what made the Church and Knight so strong. More than strength, they also had balance and finesse to leap atop planes and accurately throw tanks. He had no idea how any of that was possible, and figured going with the flow and entering Basalith was a good way to get in on the enhancements.


    Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, the Church looked at him like he was an enigma. Edgewood wanted to find out why that was. She''d mentioned something about him having resistance...but to what? Her charisma?


    Edgewood was currently fiddling with his new living quarters: a single bedroom apartment on the 23rd floor of one of the many new dragonleaf highrises. Left on the wall when he first entered was the following note:


    "Customizable floor plans, moldings, and color schemes coming soon. Furniture, clothing, and necessities will be available starting tomorrow at the Central Market. Signs will be placed outside to indicate the Market''s location."


    Edgewood figured that "tomorrow" was actually today considering that it was the crack of dawn.


    He was rather pleased with the apartment, having come in with no expectations. It had three windows, or rather, holes that he could cover with large, drape-like leaves. The floors were seamless hardwood, he assumed freshly grown, and the walls had a sturdy, leafy texture. He found that objects placed on the walls could be pressed into place and would stick. He noted a series of naturally luminescent leaves that covered the ceiling and augmented the natural light now starting to shine through. Even so, Edgewood reckoned that true lights would be a welcome addition. Appliances, too, were missing, and he figured that he might be able to find some, at the very least a microwave, at the Central Market.


    Edgewood inspected the bedroom, finding it to have a dresser and bed, both built into the floor. The bed appeared to be lined with dragonleaf. Edgewood shuddered and decided that buying actual bed linens was a priority.


    He wondered if he would be able to buy a computer here; after all, his belongings were still back at the base. All he had were the pajamas he came in.


    Sighing, he decided that all he could do now was explore.


    ---


    "So you saw everything?" Lisa asked, a wide smile filling her face.


    Bath grinned back. "The base isn''t very far, and my eyesight is good for miles." He''d actually needed to create an enormous eye, a foot or so in diameter, to obtain the sufficient resolution to see what happened.


    "So what did you think?"


    "You know I love art," he smirked. "The plan was wonderful. Thanks, Lisa. It was much better than me going in and rampaging."


    Dean stood awkwardly off to the side while Bath talked to the Church. He still didn''t know where Bath factored into COTD, but clearly he was a big shot if the Church herself was asking for his opinion.


    "Bath, what''s your position in COTD?" Dean asked softly.


    Bath''s head swiveled around. His face looked stoic, then suddenly became animated with a beguiling grin. "Would you believe me if I said that I''m the dragon?"


    ---


    Lepochim was frantically trying to get this Central Marketplace idea in order. He had most of the kursi on resident processing in The Anima since peacekeepers weren''t in high demand during sleeping hours. They still had around two thousand more to admit; moreover, Lepochim bet that more people would continue to show up as time went on. He''d have to talk with Bath about enforcing a permanent perimeter around Basalith that they could open one per day to let people in. If they didn''t, Lepochim had no idea how they''d ever start using The Anima as the grand temple.


    "You need to envision the chair in wood," Lepochim growled at one of the twenty kursi he put on furniture duty. Bath had instructed him to use kursi to communicate with the dragonleaf and produce furniture, but Lepochim was certain that Bath hadn''t actually tested whether or not making dragonleaf furniture was feasible. Most kursi kept producing the right shapes, but created extremely flimsy, leafy furniture rather than anything suited for human use.


    A few other kursi Lepochim had on the just-formed Silk Beds. Bath had taken a room in the Anima and repurposed it to house all kinds of modified insects from spiders to silk worms. The kursi there just had to touch the shells of the insects present and encourage them to produce silk. Having been modified by Bath, the insects all produced silk at breakneck speeds. The silkworms had been modified to simply spin empty cocoons to avoid the process of boiling worms for their silky cocoons.


    What he was perhaps most in awe of were the giant networks of ants that processed the silk into usable forms. Bath had made three separate areas for ants. One of which was labeled as "cloth," another which was labeled as "clothing," and the last which was labeled as "Recycle." The kursi were currently using the first two. All they needed to do was have a few mind slaves feed the newly-generated silken spool into the cloth area. There, the ants worked in tandem to weave the spool into giant squares of cloth, which could be cut with scissors. Silk spool or finished cloth could both be fed to the clothing box where it would be woven into basic clothing, such as unisex t-shirts and sweatpants. The clothes were produced in random sizes from baby to XXL, though production was skewed so that the majority of produced clothing were in sizes adult small through adult large. Lepochim sorely hoped that Basalith would have a contingent of clothesmakers to take over. The clothes weren''t unsightly, but they were all gray and evoked the image of a prison.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Finally, after several hours of Lepochim''s nonstop glowering, the thousands of pieces of furniture were done. As the kursi went along, production had continued to speed up, in particular as the furniture-makers better understood how to work with dragonleaf.


    "It''s all done?" Bath asked, his disembodied voice sounding off to Lepochim''s left. Lepochim turned around, trying to see Bath''s form.


    "Yes, it''s done," Lepochim said impatiently. "What now?"


    "Hold on." Bath then stood before Lepochim. He created an illusion of the air having a black, void-like circle that he had stepped through to arrive, almost like it was a portal. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Bath rose his left arm and the portal closed behind him in a wink. Lepochim had to appreciate Bath''s growing capacity for showmanship.


    "What are you planning?"


    "Just hold on," Bath repeated as he stretched out his arms behind his back. Then, he drew his arms forward and all the furniture and cloth moved and shifted in place. Bath simply walked toward the area designated as the Central Market and all the furniture and cloth followed behind him, bobbing gently on his streams of essence. He organized and deposited all the items, then turned and faced Lepochim and all the kursi who had followed behind him.


    What he said next was simple, but caused each kursi''s heart to jump. "Your hard work will be rewarded." As he spoke, none present dared question his power. His voice rumbled like thunder, his face was serene and still as untouched water. He radiated power as he regarded them; in turn, they all felt a natural sense of compulsion from their subconscious to bow their heads in exultation.


    But, being incredibly prideful, the kursi were merely silent and statue-like in the face of Bath''s words. They didn''t say anything when Bath waved his hand, causing another black portal to appear that he promptly stepped through to exit the area.


    Lepochim breathed easier after Bath left. He checked the time, finding that they still had about half an hour until 7 am and new residents started to rush in. He wondered idly what else Bath had planned for this day. He''d mentioned something about modified cattle and assigning people to different professions and positions, but hadn''t given any of them, even Lisa, details.


    ---


    Edgewood noticed immediately when a few arrows popped up on the grassy, stone-paved ground with the words, "Market Place" at their centers. Since then, about five minutes back, he''d been following them through Basalith and slowly finding other early risers who had woken up. There were a few hundred walking that Edgewood could see.


    Suddenly, as they were walking, another arrow appeared pointing behind them with the words, "Dining Hall." A few people in their contingent broke off and headed in that direction instead, though most continued forward.


    Finally, the group arrived at a large, open space filled with all kinds of furniture. He noted that all the furniture appeared to be made out of fresh dragonleaf wood, recognizing its distinct, dark-ashy hue from afar. As he pushed his way through the gathering crowd, he saw that there was also a corner filled with stacks of uniform, neatly folded clothes organized by size. Additionally, next to that were linens and towels.


    "Thank God," Edgewood thought to himself as he eyed what were clearly silken bed sheets. But as he looked over all the furniture, he wondered how anybody was supposed to carry it away.


    As of yet, nobody had been allowed beyond a squat gate leading into the marketplace, so he had no idea if the plan was for people to collaborate and help each other or if this was going to be a mad, black-Friday-esque first-come-first-serve struggle.


    ''Well, at least I''m one of the first here,'' he thought pragmatically to himself. ''I''ll make sure I get one of those bed sheets.''


    Minutes passed, and there was still no sign that the now swelling crowd would be let into the marketplace. Many people were grumbling that they should''ve gone to get breakfast first. Edgewood overheard people saying that breakfast was good, with eggs, bacon, and some kind of leafy, bread-like substance that tasted a bit worse than bagels.


    Edgewood frowned. He hoped that the Dining Hall would have better vegetarian options than a weird, leafy, sub-par bagel.


    ---


    Lepochim looked on at the growing crowd with increasing levels of distress.


    ''What are you waiting for!?'' he thought angrily to himself. Bath had whispered in his ear with a disembodied mouth that he would be taking care of things regarding the marketplace in a "little while." He instructed Lepochim to stay in place and keep guard while he sent off the rest of the kursi to speed up resident processing and serve as peacekeepers. As a result, Lepochim alone had to watch the crowd before him continue to increase in size, now to several thousand.


    ''You better have some kind of plan in mind for dealing with all these people,'' the grumbled to himself.


    ---


    Bath looked up at the sun, realizing that he''d lost track of time while working on modifying tomatoes and spinach for the soon-to-be-revealed collective garden.


    "Coming..." he murmured, disappearing and reappearing without any theatrics in the air above the Central Marketplace. He frowned as he looked down, realizing that letting the people loose to enter the Marketplace would result in a complete shitshow.


    He wished he had Lisa with him to help think of a plan to organize the people, but she was currently back at The Anima welcoming new arrivals.


    ''Well, I suppose we can get this started now,'' he thought, pushing up a plan he''d been saving for tomorrow. He looked down at the people before him, his tiny little subjects. He realized he rather liked being in control of so many people; it was a much different experience from staking out and defending a territory, or leading a pack.


    He didn''t bother to change his face as he began to address them. If any of the residents below started to take recordings or pictures, he felt fully confident in his ability to stop them. Since nobody would be leaving this city until Bath deemed them adequately prepared, he expected that even if he were to go to Alens or visit his parents, nobody would recognize him as the Dragon.


    He quickly materialized the clothes that he had designed for himself. They matched Lisa''s and looked similar to European military officer uniforms. His uniform was black to her white, with sunset accents and tasseled shoulder pads encrusted with scintillating clear crystals. He was barefoot and wore no jewelry. On his shoulder was a sunset-colored cape that fell to his calves.


    It was time to make an appearance.


    ---


    "You came all the way from St. Louis on a day''s notice?" a woman named Nicolette asked, clearly impressed.


    "Well, it''s not every day a dragon starts a new religion and tells people that they''ll get super powers if they come to his fortress." Now Greg was the one who spoke. Edgewood was trying to commit all their names to memory as they waited for the Central Marketplace to open.


    "Well, when you put it that way..." Nicolette trailed off, meeting Edgewood''s eyes. "You said you''re from Georgia?"


    "Yep." He didn''t mention that he''d come to Basalith through perhaps the most unorthodox method possible.


    "Sandal Edgewood, right?" a girl asked, some doll in her teens. Edgewood chided himself for forgetting her name.


    "Just Edgewood is fine," he chuckled. "I think my parents were high when they gave me my first name."


    "Hippies?" Greg asked.


    "They don''t talk about the past," Edgewood grinned. "They''re ramrod-strict now. Go to church every Sunday, wake up at dawn, go to work, read, then sleep. Like clockwork."


    Everyone in the little circle chuckled. Then, with a gasp, everyone heard a loud clap, like thunder, above.


    "Is someone--"


    "Attack--"


    Edgewood heard all sorts of people start to make remarks, but he realized that the clap didn''t sound like any weapon that he''d ever heard. All this happened in the second it took for him and others to raise their eyes to the sky and behold the figure before them.

 [Chapter 56] Constitution Boons; Presenting the Hierarchy

    Edgewood couldn''t help but feel a sense of shock as he beheld the figure currently levitating above the crowd. He looked regal in his military-style clothing, especially with his cape streaming out behind him and blowing lightly in the wind.


    His brown, medium length, straight hair shifted slightly in the breeze. He had light skin and medium-thick, well-shaped brows that curved imperiously over eyes visibly yellow even from a hundred or so feet below. He had lips that weren''t particularly thick or thin, though similarly well-defined as his brows.


    Before, he was staring off into the distance toward the lake and the sun. Then, he gazed down at the crowd, his icy, impassive stare penetrating the minds of all present. Like the kursi, they all felt the desire to at once cower and prostrate themselves, as though their lives were in his hands, as though he could kill each of them with a glance.


    Satisfaction washed over Bath as he felt people shudder through the essence coating all within his 3.6-mile radius of influence. He felt their quivering reverence, saw the awe in their eyes, smelled their fear, heard their silence.


    ''This...is how it is to rule.'' He thought this to himself as he considered the scene before him.


    Had this been before Bath became a human, he likely would have been stoic with these people the whole time, impassive. But now he appreciated the power of a good show.


    He''d give them more than what they expected.


    Suddenly, the wind around Bath whipped up, his essence funneling it backward. The result was that his cape streamed out dramatically behind him.


    After a moment quietly regarding the people below him, ensuring that all their eyes were on him, the corner of Bath''s emotionless mouth lifted up. Then, he drifted downward towards the silent crowd.


    At this point, considering all that COTD had done over the past few days, nobody knew what to expect. Even Lepochim himself had no idea what Bath had in store.


    "My name...is Bath. And I am your Dragon." With that, a giant, translucent dragon appeared behind Bath''s form, almost like a ghost. It currently had a wingspan stretching two football fields and hovered stationary behindhis human guise.


    Then, Bath''s slight smile turned into a wide, almost manic grin. He lifted his right arm, his hand at a 30-degree angle upwards from the horizontal. The wind rushed around him from below, causing his hair and cape to buffet upwards. The dragon rose upwards and slightly forward, positioned so that it was above Bath''s human figure. As it went into position, it became somewhat more corporeal and its wings began to flap.


    Then, Bath reached his hand up to the maw of the dragon. When they touched, Bath and the dragon both instantly disappeared.


    A disembodied voice rang out to the shocked crowd.


    "I am your god."


    Another clap rang out, this one louder than the one a few moments ago when Bath first appeared.


    Then, an enormous dragon appeared, every bit as large as the one that had shown up in Tokyo andhad beenbroadcast worldwide.


    The dragon flapped its wings, its rainbow, scintillating form gleaming resplendently in the sun. Its maw opened to speak, forming human words, though Bath used a disembodied mouth to actual do the talking a bit closer to the crowd.


    "Many of you have wondered why I have come. I have arrived on Earth to lead you all beyond these stars, beyond this galaxy. Toward something greater than this existence you know."


    Suddenly, in a blink, the human Bath was back, now only a few feet away from the cloud, hovering just above the marketplace gate.


    "But of course, you humans are too weak. The paths on this world mostly focus on contemplating the infinity beyond death. These are valid and good paths, and work well in conjunction with the path I myself embody."


    All below were completely entranced by his booming words and confident bearing. As he spoke to them, all felt as though they couldn''t afford to turn away.


    Bath wondered if they were starting to believe in him yet, or if the people below still harbored doubts. He hoped they believed; these were the people who had decided to come to Basalith first, after all. If he couldn''t convince these people of his divinity, well...


    "The true way is of many paths...and I am the path of the Dragon: the path of self-determination. Mine is a path of physical might and power. Follow me, and you will find peace in advancement and knowledge of your place in the future we will forge together."


    Bath stuck out his arms, then resumed a stony facade. "We will begin with a test. Those who first emerge will be fit to carry their furniture back to their living quarters."


    Without giving anyone below time to process his words, Bath pulled his arms in and up, causing everyone to be lifted up upon a huge platform. A few people screamed. Most, now, looked on with expressions of awe, fear, and determination.


    They had just been promised power and the chance to explore the universe by a powerful, self-proclaimed god who''d done countless impossible, miraculous things over the past few days. They couldn''t not take him seriously.


    Of course, many were trying to figure out the motivations of Bath and why he only appeared now on Earth...but didn''t have time to contemplate this at the moment.


    "In short, this is a test of your pain tolerance." He said this with a bored expression, then, without any further warning, sent his essence out to each person to begin a massive constitution-fortifying bestowal. This was to be one bonus of many for those who chose to join Basalith at the beginning.


    People began to shriek and shake in place. Bath began to feel a sense of nervousness. He''d tested out several bestowals at once on Dean and he''d seemed relatively fine. Even as he thought of Dean, most people below were moaning out in pain over the single constitution boon.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    ''Well, they''ll be thankful for the pain after it''s done...'' Bath thought sheepishly to himself. He resolved to immediately work on a pain-tolerance boon.


    The first people to finish were those who had been most calm during the bestowal process. Bath did this intentionally: he kept the bestowal''s speed at a minimum, and thus the smallest possible pain, for those with weaker pain tolerance and sped up the process for those suffering in silence. The first to naturally finish were the children, their experienced pain much lower due to their smaller and more adaptable bodies. When those younger than 10 finished early, he knocked them out with innocuous fumes until a parent accompanying them finished their bestowal process.


    As each person finished, Bath wrapped them in essence and sent them down to the ground. Then they could enter the marketplace and choose whatever furniture or cloth goods they wanted.


    The quickest finished in five minutes, the slowest in three hours. As more people woke and found the Central Marketplace, Bath had Lepochim''s kursi give a dragonleaf vision of what had happened earlier to the new arrivals. Then, Bath transported them up to the platform above and gave them the constitution bestowal.


    While this entire spectacle was going on, Bath had simultaneously returned to working on the communal garden and forming the existing crops and livestock into edible food. Which, he quickly acknowledged, was difficult for so many people.


    After he put together a haphazard soup for lunch, Bath feverishly put the finishing touches on the sorting procedure that Lisa had outlined. He really, really wanted to get some actual farmers and chefs to take over. Preparing food on an industrial scale was an annoying time sink.


    At 3:35 pm, Bath appeared in the sky as a dragon above the entire complex. He chose this time because, by now, almost everyone had finished receiving the basic constitution boon. They would all be feeling the enhanced durability and strength as a result.


    His massive form quickly gathered the attentions of all. Sinceall below had already received the constitution boon and were now fully convinced of Bath''s abilities as the Dragon, many bowed their heads in respect when he appeared.


    ''They learn quickly,'' Bath noted, eyes flashing with mild approval.


    ---


    Edgewood expected more people to complain after the whole platform pain-tolerance bestowal. After all, people had been forced to feel pain; most were unprepared for such a thing, especially young children.


    He was fairly impressed that people could appreciate their good fortune. As a soldier, he''d been sent to a few places where people didn''t seem to appreciate the U.S.''s presence in the least, even when soldiers were just trying to help. He, for one, wasn''t going to complain.


    But feel grateful? Edgewood still suspected that there was a lot more going on here than he understood. If this Bath, the Dragon, actually was a god, then great. But Edgewood had never been into religion.


    "I have a feeling...that all of this is going to come with strings attached."


    ---


    Dean was back at Alens, extremely exhausted after a night of running to Virginia, an early morning of attacking a U.S. military base, and then a full morning spent running back. Thankfully the North East had lots of mountains and rural area that he could pass through without attracting much notice. Especially considering the fact that his clothes were partially scorched and covered in gray ash.


    He wondered if he could get Bath--the fucking Dragon--to make him his own wolf-like Nimesh. Then he could get around without needing to run himself. Even with the many boons Bath had given him, Dean found that running for hours on end was an unpleasant task.


    And now, he had class. He was in a lecture now, trying not to fall asleep, his phone open under the desk.


    His eyes suddenly grew wide. He just received a "Breaking News" update from a news app. Apparently, a giant dragon had been spotted above Basalith from afar. There didn''t seem to be any other information in the article than a distant image of Bath above the city.


    He wondered to himself what, exactly, he''d gotten himself into. Was Bath really a god? What kind of god goes to college!?


    ---


    Edgewood looked up for the second time as Bath''s enormous form once again filled the sky, casting shade on all below. He was thankful he''d finished moving his new furniture earlier and could now focus fully on what was going on in front of him.


    "My followers, the time has come to sort you into the Hierarchy." Suddenly, a piece of paper appeared in front of each person, suspended in the sky. On it were listed countless positions, all of them rather...boring sounding. Apprentice chef, apprentice artist, apprentice land-shaper, apprentice etc. filled the first row, the base of the hierarchical pyramid. More positions existed above the apprentice level positions, with the highest positions on the sheet prefixed by ''expert.''


    "These are the preliminary positions each of you may assume. We will have a sorting process to gauge which position you fit best. Note that once you reach expert level in any of these positions, you may switch to another position.


    "Note also that each position has certain boons listed next to it. These are all boons I will present to you upon moving up in the hierarchy. All boons will be cumulative, meaning that if you reach Expert level in one position and then switch to become Apprentice level in another, you will keep all your accumulated boons."


    "Therefore, it is in your best interest to serve as many positions as possible...to learn as much as you can. All have the potential to reach Expert position in each category. Remember: the way of the Dragon is that of self-determination. The only obstacle in advancement will be yourself."


    This wasn''t something that Bath particularly cared about--the "everyone can succeed" aspect of the hierarchy--but Lisa felt strongly that they needed a system where all could participate and do well regardless of starting point: inherent power.Sure, he felt skepticism that it would actually work out as she wanted. However, given thatLisa was the one who thought of the Church of the Dragon in the first place, he didn''t have any serious qualms about advancing her ideology.


    Edgewood wanted the damned Dragon to get on with it. He was practically ravenous to receive more boons. Each position at the Expert level had five boons...how many boons could he get if he was quick and mastered a few positions?


    "Also note that this is only the beginning sequence. There are far more positions that will be available at a later date as further extensions of the Expert levels.


    "So, without further delay..." The dragon spread its wings wide, then brought them together in a huge rush of wind that caused all below to brace themselves against its power. As it did so, a giant dragonleaf platform appeared above the entire city, suspended below where Edgewood assumed the dragon was still flying.


    Everyone was suddenly lifted into the sky. To Edgewood, it felt as though he were being held up by a strong magnetic force. ''It''s fucking bizarre,'' he thought to himself as he was levitated for the third time in one day. He felt a sense of danger as he hovered upwards and saw nothing but open sky beneath him. He wondered how people with severe acrophobia were dealing.


    Soon, he was on the platform with thousands of others. They looked upwards in search of the now disappeared dragon. What were they supposed to do? Had they missed some kind of instruction?


    "It''s her!" Edgewood hissed softly to himself. The Church suddenly arose out of the ground on a pillar of ashy-gray dragonleaf wood.


    The Church was stepped off the platform and, like the Dragon, started to levitate above the ground. Seeing her in action before, Edgewood was unsurprised to see her confidence as she looked out over the thousands below her. Though he was surprised to see her flying. Was that something that the Dragon allowed herto do?


    "Hello, my followers. I am the Church, the compliment to your Dragon. We together are your patron deity. I am here, now, to conduct the sorting trial." Having said that, her passive face broke out into a relaxed grin. "I expect all of you to enjoy yourselves. Remember: no matter the results of this initial placement, your own advancement is only limited by your desire."

 [Chapter 57] The First Trial Elapses; Apprentice!?

    Edgewood looked on in contemplation as the Church explained the rules of the trial.


    "First things first," she said amiably. "You''re all going to sort yourselves into a line for each listed apprentice position. Children can go with their parents.


    "Again, all of you are expected to change positions countless times going forward, so don''t think too hard on this process. After that, I''ll divide all of you up and prepare the trials." As soon as Lisa stopped talking, 12 different parallel lines appeared on the ground, the sides of each labeled in big, bold letters with one of the 14 apprentice positions.


    People immediately sprang into action, talking feverishly amongst those nearby and rushing over to the lines as though just getting there was part of the test.


    Lisa watched everyone with a good deal of interest. This was part one of the Hierarchy of COTD: building up the hierarchy''s base, the teachers. These very first COTD members would be the foundation of the entire future structure.


    Lisa had faith that all of them could become good teachers. As long as Bath could even the genetic playing field, she didn''t see why anybody couldn''t succeed at everything. Some people were naturally better at some things than others; some people came in with extensive previous experience. In the end, that just meant that those people could specialize as teachers...after they learned everything else.


    Another aspect of this program was to build mutual respect. If everyone followed every path to expert, Lisa fervently hoped that when people specialized and followed the paths beyond that they would look on others with respect. She especially hoped to see this when the big split occurred between those who would live with the intention of peace of and those with the intention of war.


    Lisa waited about an hour until everyone was in line, then touched her ear to signal to Bath that she was ready for stage two.


    Edgewood instinctively jumped back when walls shot out of the ground to form a 1000 x 1000 meter square around his line.


    The possible choices had been as follows:


    Child educator, adolescent educator, adult educator, specialized educator, chef, caretaker, land-shaper, artist, director, administrator, scholar, tactician, close combat fighter, ranged fighter.


    Edgewood noted that if COTD planned on making a self-sustaining community, it was missing quite a few professions on the list.


    The lines were all quite distant from each other, around 2000 meters away; Edgewood had wondered why, and now he had his answer. They were to be separated for the trial. He figured that everyone present had appreciated the constitution boon when walking the perhaps many-mile-long distances to their chosen lines.


    He looked up when he heard the Dragon''s easily recognizable, though disembodied, voice sound out within the newly-formed enclosure.


    "Welcome to the Close Combat Trial. To start off, each of you will spar with one of my avatars." Instantly, replicas of Bath''s human form appeared off at the edges of the enclosure, one for each of the five thousand or so people present.


    Bath didn''t claim to be any kind of expert in martial arts or human close combat. He didn''t need to be. His reflexes alone were such that he could fight any person alone on pure instinct and come up on top, especially given that his instincts had been honed over the course of over half a billion years.


    Edgewood walked over to the side of the enclosure, standing across from one of the many generated avatars. It appeared completely relaxed and didn''t assume any kind of fighting stance, causing Edgewood to frown.


    Seeing that the avatar wasn''t going to initiate combat, Edgewood started forward, moving gracefully across the ground. The conspicuously bare-footed Bath just looked onward with expectation.


    As Edgewood approached, his nerves began to increase as he saw hundreds of people had already been completely destroyed by their paired avatars. By destroy, he meant that they''d been taken down in less than 5 seconds each. He didn''t want to meet with a similarly unfortunate fate.


    ''Is the Dragon really controlling all of these avatars at once?'' Edgewood wondered to himself. ''I suppose it makes sense if he''s a god. But, I wonder...''


    Edgewood suddenly got an idea.


    ---


    Bath was rather annoyed when he realized one of the people he was testing was playing dirty.


    ''Don''t people know not to cheat on tests?'' he asked himself ruefully. He was currently splitting his consciousness evenly conducting tests in each of the fourteen enclosures. The 42,000 or so people were difficult for him to manage on a person-by-person basis. Thankfully, some of the trials were just written exams prepared by Lisa with her chip reader AI''s help, and thus only required Bath to serve as proctor and vigilant anti-cheating monitor.


    The two combat trials were devouring the brunt of Bath''s attention. Even though he realized one of the people in the close combat trials was intentionally screwing with the test, he couldn''t take proper action while his mind was divided elsewhere.


    The problematic human in question was punching the ground.


    It seemed stupid, however, by punching the ground, the almost autonomous strand of Bath''s consciousness in the avatar went forward as though in response to a direct attack. As a result, instead of the human going straight into the avatar''s waiting clutches, the human could get off a kick or punch before retreating back out of range.


    Bath thought the tactic stupid and underhanded, but didn''t really care enough to pay the offending human much mind. When he conducted the trial again, he''d be sure to issue a reminder that this test was designed to gauge combat abilities rather than ingenuity.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ---


    Edgewood felt great as he continued to bash the avatar whenever it stepped forward to attack. He was the only one so far who had managed to get a single hit on the avatar, let alone multiple blows. If that didn''t signal doing well in the trial, he didn''t know what would.


    After about 5 more minutes of "sparring," the Close Combat Trial elapsed, its closure clearly marked by the immediate disappearance of each avatar.


    "Your placements will be given to each of you now."


    Bath had given each of his avatars an algorithm of sorts for how to fight and how to rank their opponents. Now, after dismissing them, all of their rankings poured into his head. He struggled for a minute to organize it all, then chuckled when he saw the ranking of the human who had cheated.


    Edgewood and the others all looked around impatiently. Then, out of nowhere, rankings appeared in the air around each person in the same way the paper with hierarchy information appeared.


    "The fuck!?" Edgewood blustered as he saw the ranking in front of him. Apprentice. So in the end, he was sorted into the lowest level? How? He was sure that he''d done well, perhaps even the best on the entire exam. He wondered idly if perhaps nobody did better than Apprentice.


    Bath processed the data from the other 13 trials and gave results back to the eagerly waiting COTD members. The majority of people were sorted into Apprentice, with around 20% sorted into Beginner, 10% sorted into Advanced, a handful being sorted into Elite, and none being sorted into Expert. ''As is to be expected,'' Bath thought. He wasn''t going to deny that he had rather...skewed standards.


    He was going to make these people infinitely more powerful than their current selves. What would be the point of the hierarchy if people with only constitution boons (excepting the few from New York having health boons) started at the highest tier?


    ---


    Edgewood was pissed as all hell when he realized that some people were placed in higher tiers of Close Combat than himself. He reminded himself that whatever the results of the trial, he''d be able to advance quickly. He had absolute faith in his actual close combat skills even if the trial didn''t accurately measure them.


    After everyone received their placements, the giant walls separating each of the trials sank into the ground. Hovering in the air were Lisa and Bath together, looking every bit a king and queen in their matching and complementary clothing. The Dragon was in black, an emotionless expression on his face, his eyes piercing, while the Church was in white, smiling softly, her eyes full of excitement.


    The Church spoke: "Now that you have all received your placements, we will transport you to your respective training rooms." Lisa had planned this out carefully: 14 different professions, each with 5 tiers, meant that there would be 70 kursi needed to oversee each training room. There, they would employ the dragonleaf to transmit information to each of the constituents. During that time, Lisa and a few of Bath''s avatars would continue to test the small, steady stream of new arrivals and sort them. Lepochim would continue overseeing the Central Marketplace while issuing commands to the kursi and answering their questions.


    Lisa sighed in exhaustion, then traveled back with the other people to The Anima. She went to the main room to welcome the new arrivals; everyone else was then directed with arrows to the labyrinthian basement of The Anima where, Lisa presumed, 70 training rooms were available for use. Lisa didn''t even want to think about how big a cavern Bath had carved out under the earth to extend the basement.


    ---


    After being transported from the large, floating platform to The Anima by the Dragon via levitation, Edgewood and the others followed a line of extremely obvious, pulsing yellow and red arrows that led into The Anima and then downstairs into an absolutely massive basement. Edgewood and the other apprentice-level close combat people walked for more than twenty minutes down a subterranean hallway before finally arriving at a door marked with a pulsing bullseye. As Edgewood was at the front of the group, he pushed open the door with a snort. However, all annoyance with COTD over his placement and the inordinate amount of required walking dissipated away as he beheld the massive training room in front of him.


    "No fucking way," he murmured, walking briskly forward to lead the rest inside. In the room was the Dragon and a youthful woman with black hair, medium-colored skin, and charcoal eyes. She regarded them all with a soft smile as they entered. Edgewood recognized that she was wearing the plain, gray employee uniform worn by all the staff in the new city.


    "Welcome, close combat apprentices," the Dragon said, his human form smiling gently. "The point of the COTD isn''t to teach you information. It''s to train you how to use your enhanced skills. Remember: the way of the Dragon is that of self-determination: later, you''ll all be teaching yourselves.


    "Now, hold still while I grant you all a pain-tolerance boon." The Dragon only tilted his head, as though thinking about something abstract. As he did so, all in the room let out small gasps. Edgewood realized that this boon, unlike constitution, didn''t hurt, per se, but felt cold. It reminded him of the sensation that follows drinking an iced drink too fast.


    After a minute, everyone let out sighs of relief as the bestowal ended. Edgewood breathed in deeply as he regarded Bath''s peaceful form off to the side. He didn''t pay the woman much notice.


    "Now, we''re going to start the bestowal of your first boon: basic combat processing."


    The Dragon''s essence once again washed over everyone as the bestowal began. This time, somewhat familiar with the process, nobody made any noise. Moreover, the bestowal itself was much easier to get through with the new pain tolerance boon. While Edgewood felt a strange, piercing ache in his back and head, he didn''t find the pain too distracting.


    This boon took a bit longer, about five minutes to finish. Compared to constitution, however, the boon was much faster to take effect. As it finished, Edgewood started to feel the change in his movements. He opened his fingers, then closed them, realizing that the motion seemed crisper, faster. He wanted to test out the effects of the boon immediately, but waited for the Dragon to give the next instruction. He sensed that impatience would not be received well, a feeling he often got around his military superiors.


    "To advance in the beginning sequence, master each bestowed boon. However quickly you master basic combat processing will determine how quickly you advance to the Beginner tier. Stasia here will monitor your progress and answer any questions while I provide avatars for you to spar against. I presume that you''ll find the activity easier than you expect." The Dragon paused, then looked out into the crowd in Edgewood''s direction. Actually, Edgewood was fairly certain that the Dragon was looking directly at him.


    "Remember that you''re here to practice sparring, not cleverness. You''ll learn that in tactics."


    With that, the real Dragon vanished in a swirl of air just as hundreds of avatars appeared off to the side of the long, training-room wall.


    Edgewood clenched his fist, then started forward, again the first to move. He was determined to advance as quickly as possible. If he was going to be stuck here in this city for the forseeable future, he wasn''t going to waste the ridiculously insane opportunity to increase his own power. He never would have suspected that COTD would just randomly give super powers to anyone who showed up at their door; he was certain that if more people knew, the city would have been burgeoning with millions by now. Edgewood resolved to tell all his friends to come to Basalith as soon as he had a spare moment to use his phone.


    He had been skeptical about this Church of the Dragon business in the beginning but now, after seeing the abilities of the Dragon and the Church...he couldn''t help but grin in anticipation of things to come.

 [Chapter 58] Deans Mistake; Phone Call

    Lisa received a worried call from her parents after a few hours of welcoming new arrivals. Not only was it awkward to leave The Anima''s main chamber, where she was working, but she really didn''t want to have a conversation with her parents right now. In fact, she wished she could just put her parents on pause until she was ready to deal with her human life. Preferably after she and Bath fully enacted the big WD.


    "Honey, are you okay?"


    She frowned, unsure of what they were talking about. Moreover, she needed to return to her post welcoming the newcomers ASAP. "What''s wrong?"


    "Oh good. We were just worried about what''s been going on at Alens."


    Lisa chewed her lip, trying to think of anything at Alens that might get her parents worried. "Honestly, I have no idea what you''re talking about."


    Her mother''s voice now sounded somewhat frantic. "How could you not know?"


    Lisa cocked her head. "I''ve been in class and doing work alone. Has something happened?" She wished her mom would stop beating things around the bush.


    "You''ll see soon enough."


    "Mom!"


    "Fine! Someone allegedly blew up a bomb."


    Lisa''s face grew animated. "On campus!? A Bomb?" What the actual hell?


    "According to reports. I''m surprised you didn''t hear the blast. According to first responders, the wall of some building was completely destroyed by a powerful force, presumably a bomb."


    "Damn. Well, I''m fine," Lisa replied, rubbing her jaw. Why would anyone bomb Alens?


    ---


    Dean looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, his face dripping water. He grabbed a paper towel and wiped the wet off, taking a layer of fine dust off with it.


    "Fuck."


    Dean hadn''t actually meant to punch the wall with his full strength.


    He thought of himself as a victim of circumstance. A bunch of guys cornered him against the building, insulting him, backing him into the wall; had the harassment stopped at verbal torment, he would''ve just dealt and gone on with his life.


    He was more than used to verbal abuse. ''Try growing up black in Chicago.''


    "What the fuck do you think you''re doing, looking at Jackson''s girl?"


    "I think you have the wrong guy," Dean replied, his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. He didn''t want these people to think he was being aggressive.


    "No, you''re Dean, the half-assed dipshit on the basketball team." The guys accosting Dean were all members of the lacrosse team. He had no idea who Jackson was or what this group wanted with him. Was it because of the frat party a few days back? He''d danced with a few girls, but just for fun, with the music. There''d even been space for Jesus between them; no grinding. He hadn''t been feeling up for it.


    "Seriously, I don''t think I''m the guy you want," Dean repeated, feeling boundless frustration. He started to walk sideways along the wall, hoping to simply disengage from the potential conflict.


    But in the end, things had gotten physical as one of the guys tried to punch him. Acting on enhanced reflexes, Dean had slipped and circled around the assailant. In an instant, he was poised to punch the back of the guy''s head.


    He realized at the last possible second what he was doing, then intentionally missed, slamming his fist into the wall instead, leading to the current debacle at hand. Thankfully, blow-out debris from smashing the wall had knocked all the assailants unconscious, so responders thought that the explosion was due to a bomb.


    Dean didn''t know what he''d do if the lacrosse guys woke up...and remembered. He shuddered involuntarily, both at his precarious future and what he almost did: he almost killed that kid. Sure, the guy had been an obnoxious prick, but that didn''t mean he deserved to die.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    At the same time, Dean marveled at his swiftness, his instincts. He was most familiar with the strength and endurance Bath had given him since that was what he used to run long distances and throw heavy objects. Before this incident, he hadn''t been in any situations requiring him to react to anything. He''d never learned how to fight; back in Chicago, the one time he''d been assaulted on the street ended up with him in the hospital with a broken wrist. But now, without even thinking about it, he''d expertly dodged and prepared to counter an incoming attack with efficient, deadly force. He figured that this, too, was some kind of boon from Bath.


    ''"Just like steroids" my ass,'' Dean thought, his face outwardly impassive as his mind went in circles. He really, really, really couldn''t lose this basketball scholarship. But now, he was starting to wonder if it was even safe for him to play. What if a defender got up in his face? Would he instinctively whip around him at an inhuman speed and attack?


    In a sense, Dean felt like Bath had stolen away a level of his own autonomy. He felt out of control of his own body, unable to adequately ensure that he wouldn''t accidentally hurt someone. What if he wanted to get with someone? Engage in romance? Kiss, have sex?


    Dean''s thoughts continued to devolve into a frenzied, dark spiral of uncertainty and self-loathing. He felt...lost. Who could he talk to about any of this?


    He sighed, looked down at his phone, and called the only number he could.


    ---


    "Dean," Bath said as he answered the phone. "Yes?"


    "Look, I kind of...messed up," he said tentatively. "I can''t control all the boon you gave me," Dean admitted. "I, um, accidentally punched a building and destroyed its entire eastern wall. On campus. In front of witnesses who were all knocked out but may remember what happened."


    He hoped that Bath would think of some way to conduct damage control. Already, just by explaining what happened out loud, Dean was feeling better.


    "What are you worried about?" Bath asked, sounding genuinely confused over the line. "You''re the Knight. Believe me, you alone are strong enough to face off against a small army and win. Even if there are witnessed, you can easily coerce them into silence." Bath thought that Dean''s choice of title was extremely fitting considering his abilities.


    Dean shook his head. "That isn''t my point. I''m worried about my inability to control all of these boons, that I might accidentally blow up someone''s head instead of a building."


    Bath just sighed to himself. The hierarchy existed to avoid just this kind of scenario. People needed to learn how to use their boons before, well, using them.


    "You just need time to get used to your enhancements," Bath said. "If you''re really worried, you should just come back to Basalith and work on training each of your boons." Now that Bath thought about it, perhaps he went overboard with all the boons he gave to Dean. Dean was the guinea pig, and Bath thought that as a reward he would just let Dean keep all his enhancements...but maybe, he should''ve taken some away, or dulled them to be like Lisa''s.


    Then again, if Dean could simply learn to control all his boons, there wouldn''t be a problem. Bath was already quite impressed at Dean''s ability to navigate life normally. Moreover, after giving the constitution boon to COTD members, he was also impressed by Dean''s pain tolerance and speed of accepting enhancements. Dean was shaping up into an asset surpassing his initial expectations.


    "Come back to Basalith? And drop out of school?"


    A small smile crept up on Bath''s face. "Dean. Why are you in school?"


    "Because--" Dean faltered. "You''re saying that I can get everything I''d normally get in school, and more, if I just work full-time for Basalith?"


    Bath didn''t particularly like that Dean considered being Basalith''s Knight "work," but let it go. "What do you want, Dean?"


    "I want my family to be financially secure."


    "Think higher," Bath snarled back.


    Dean froze, startled by the sudden aggression. He collected his thought in the time it took for 5 drops of water to stream from his hair down to his chin and then drip into the sink.


    "Like what? Do I want to be rich? Do I want to be, what, famous? Some kind of...legend like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg?"


    "Think higher." Bath''s voice lacked its former momentary ferocity and now sounded icy, detached. Dean wasn''t sure which tone unnerved him more; both positively dripped with judgment, as though Bath were looking down on him with disdain. For what? "Not thinking high enough?"


    "What the fuck do you mean ''think higher?''" Dean was frustrated by this entire conversation. He''d called Bath because he was the only one he could talk to about this whole mess, not because he particularly trusted Bath to make him feel better. Dean didn''t know what he expected...perhaps sympathy? A few sentences telling him not to worry?


    Bath sighed into the phone. "When you have an answer to the question, tell me. Until then, I think it would be in your best interest to leave school and bring your family with you." In fact, it would be infinitely more in their best interests to join COTD now rather than later.


    Dean felt somewhat reassured by this response--his family would be cared for--but it didn''t lessen his anger toward Bath himself. The self-proclaimed "god" had promised Dean that he''d be able to keep his former life playing basketball. He didn''t want a lot out of life, just enough success to be able to provide for his family, get them into a better neighborhood; find a girl he liked, get married, have kids. He thought of himself as pragmatic, which was the only reason why he''d even considered Bath''s offer for steroid-like "enhancements" in the first place: his innate athletic talent wasn''t enough to go far in basketball.


    And now, he was here, facing down himself in the mirror, his future in tumult. Then again, the future of the world was in tumult if COTD continued to do "miracles" at its current pace.


    "What do you want, Bath?" Dean asked, turning the question around.


    He heard a dark chuckle. "What do gods want, other than to expand their influence? I want to rule the universe, Dean." Before hanging up, Bath spoke a final time, his voice once again assuming its icy quality, whisper-like despite its intensity.


    "Think higher."

 [Chapter 59] Baths City Planning Struggle

    Talking to Dean reminded Bath that he should probably call his parents one of these days. ''Not now,'' he thought ruefully to himself. He had plans for them, though he wanted to get COTD a bit more established before he brought his family into the fold.


    He did send his Samantha, his mother, a text acknowledging the explosion on campus and saying that he was fine.


    "It''ll suffice for now," he reckoned.


    Technically, it was still only day two of Basalith''s existence. Bath recognized the need to build up the fledgling city into a powerhouse capable of outward expansion. To do this, he was spending a lot of time with a few exotic, predatory plants. Bath knew that he needed to develop a sustainable city that would function without his presence. This was of pinnacle importance as he conquered worlds and made his way toward the Core, Ildr.


    The reason why this task was proving so difficult was that Bath needed to construct a lifeform without any kind of consciousness. With dragonleaf, all he needed to do was create a somewhat-sentient plant and then program the thing to believe that its optimal shape, normally that of a hedge, was actually that of a large house. This wasn''t as far-fetched as it sounded; making the plant have a level of sentience had been the most difficult part and that which had taken up most of his time. After that had been accomplished, the rest was history.


    He originally planned on using a similar kind of quasi-sentience framework to make the city capable of expansion both horizontally and vertically while also ensuring the city''s defense. However, he was starting to realize how flawed such a plan was. Now, when the only kursi present were under his control, having conscious plant species like dragonleaf as the backbone of infrastructure was fine. But what about when Bath expanded out to other worlds with their own kursi? What if powerful entities from the Core came and attacked already-established cities?


    Bath knew that anything susceptible to kursi manipulation couldn''t be used. This, then, ruled out using dragonleaf as the framework for his city''s defense. If he wanted to continue using dragonleaf cities going forward, he would need to ensure that the cities be protected from all hostile kursi by some kind of outer layer, lest he risk said invading kursi destroying his cities from the inside-out.


    This meant that Bath needed to create a biological organism that acted solely on instinct and in response to physical stimuli. He was working now on incorporating venus fly trap reflexes with giant, extremely sticky, spined tendrils that would comb the air. Finding a way to make the spines distinguish between local wildlife and hostile entities like drones or attackers was proving a nuisance.


    Then, also, was the issue of providing walls. Bath was well aware that almost all worlds had developed flying vehicles thousands, if not millions or billions, of years ago. In that sense, walls wouldn''t be helpful in keeping sapients out. He needed to design some kind of spherical bubble that could cover an entire city and keep it physically separate from the outside, while not totally isolating the city from natural phenomena like rain or starlight. He was working now on a huge, spider-web-like net of plant fibers that could potentially cover a city in a barely-visible layer of extremely sensitive cords. He was studying pitcher plants now, with the intent of having the fibers chemically process anything that might fly into the net. He planned for the net to be able to cocoon anything caught within its clutches. Then, it was to excrete certain digestive juices that would specifically corrode anything metallic or plastic. Finally, the cocoon was supposed to let anything struggling within its grasp break free and enter the atmosphere of the city below.


    He planned to have a layer of combing fronds above and below this net. Bath planned for the net itself to serve as touch sensors for the fronds below. The spined, sticky fronds would reflexively pass over newly-escaped lifeforms and deign whether they could enter the city. In other words, it would work in a similar way to the fronds above the net and serve as a tertiary filter.


    This whole setup was giving Bath a headache. How the hell was he supposed to have a non-sentient plant do all this? However, he had a few ideas, and continued to work while simultaneously viewing the progress of the new recruits through tapping into the eyes of his avatars.


    One location that lightened Bath''s contemplative mood was the Apprentice close combat training room. The cheater from the Close Combat Trial was placed into Apprentice level, a clear mistake given his current-displayed ability in close combat. The cheater''s annoyance gave Bath a great deal of hilarity, especially because Bath continued to adjust the difficulty of the avatars to stay one step ahead.


    However, Bath wasn''t focusing his attentions on any of the rooms related to combat. Combat was something that would become relevant later, after Bath encroached on more-developed worlds like Illudis. Right now, he was most astutely watching the people pursuing professions child educator, chef, and land-shaper. These were the people who Bath believed were currently most important. Especially chef.


    One of the unfortunate aspects of having eyes and ears everywhere was that Bath heard endless complaints about anything that was wrong. Of course, lots of people said nice things about Basalith, such as that it was "so big," or, "so awesome," but these kinds of general exclamations didn''t mean much. In contrast, the criticisms were always specific. He heard things like the vivid, "this soup tastes like my mother''s ass," to the frequent, "These bathrooms don''t even have actual toilet paper!" (Bath had stocked them with a sustainable, leafy-plant-fiber toilet paper of his own creation). These complaints left him even more put out than usual over humanity''s unsurpassed ability to whine in the face of tremendous fortune.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Bath hoped that by putting all the tasks that people were complaining about in the hands of humans, he would be able to more enjoy his role as ruler and Dragon.


    The way that these kinds of profession paths worked was fairly specific. Bath had created powerful boons for each one that he felt would enable them to quickly progress and start making useful additions to Basalith. For instance, for the land-shaper profession, he gave each person the boon of dragonleaf manipulation. This enabled them to communicate with dragonleaf despite the fact that none of them were kursi. Technically, what it did was give each person their own dragonleaf frondintegrated directly into their bodies. They could then use this frond as an intermediary to communicate with other dragonleaf plants. In this way, like kursi, they would be able to control dragonleaf to do certain actions.


    The Apprentice group was currently spending their time solely on this boon. The Beginner Tier was working on both that and a boon for improved spacial cognizance. Considering the other boons Bath had for the profession, he was eager to see what an Expert-level land-shaper human would be able to do.


    The chef profession was also fairly interesting in its own right. After all, Bath wasn''t teaching these people how to prepare food: he was enabling them to do so. The best case scenario, in his mind, was to provide boons enabling a person to create delicious, safe food from completely foreign ingredients.


    The Advanced Tier humans, of which there were an unprecedented (and, to Bath''s mind, glorious) one-hundred and three, where currently working on boons for smell, taste, poison resistance, and hand-eye-coordination. Smell was the most basic level of all, and Bath hoped that skilled individuals would realize its potential when deciding whether to mix certain ingredients.


    Finally, for the humans pursuing the child educator profession, Bath had carefully picked the following boons: body language reading, empathy, body awareness, vocal quality, and visualization.


    The first two were self-explanatory in their utility. Body awareness was to help adults understand how to present themselves in ways that draw children into learning. Bath was acutely aware how much a teacher''s presentation affected how well their pupils paid attention. Vocal quality had a similar use, intending to aid teachers in keeping student attention by having an awareness of how to control their voices'' inflection. Finally, visualization was the most powerful and the most important boon for the child educator: the ability to represent ideas and abstract concepts as pictures and visual representations.


    Bath could only hope that humans would be able to grasp all the many uses of these boons. The entire point of this profession exercise was to give all COTD members a foundation and in turn give the kind of enhanced body Bath himself considered the bare-minimum for use.


    ---


    As the day came to a close, Lepochim was becoming more and more annoyed by his status as "Central Marketplace Guard." He was an elite, special forces operative from a world adjacent to the Core. Even if he was a sealed kursi, he was still physically powerful. And yet, despite all this, he was helping people pick out furniture!


    He''d been touching Bath''s little communication node beneath his ear for the past several hours, only to be met with silence. Lepochim wasn''t an idiot; he knew that Bath was simply ignoring him. This opinion was reinforced by the fact that Bath had only stopped answering Lepochim after the tenth time the sapient had contacted him to complain about the ridiculously picky and temperamental humans.


    Lepochim hadn''t even gotten the opportunity to ask Bath to remove the false coloring on his eyes to make them look human. Lepochim felt like yellow-on-black eyes would give him a new level of authority over these obnoxious worms who treated HIM like a servant.


    He did take pleasure in the fact that each furniture-seeker would first endure the constitution boon bestowal, a process that Lepochim had quickly realized could only be classified as mildly agonizing.


    Lepochim once again touched the communication node as he watched a new couple of humans looking for furniture get hoisted into the air and thrown onto the boon bestowal platform above.


    As he grinned weakly to himself at their misfortune, Bath actually gave him a response. Or, rather, an order.


    "Lepochim. You need to assign the Advanced chefs to kitchen duty tonight, as in right now. You also need to issue notices to the land-shapers that the Apprentices are to begin working with the community garden and livestock tomorrow. Those above Apprentice level are to go house to house and help people customize their homes." Practice makes perfect, after all.


    Lepochim listened closely as Bath continued to issue him detailed instructions, eager for any task besides watching the Central Marketplace. He was expected to delegate to the kursi watching over each training room and ensure that everybody knew their place come tomorrow: day three.


    ---


    Lisa was unsurprised to find that the number of people trying to enter Basalith was increasing over time. The line of people was wrapping around the restored outer wall of the city, with many people establishing tents and miniature campsites in preparation of perhaps multiple days of waiting. Though Lisa was far away from the crowd, she felt a general sense of pressure from the sheer number of people beyond the city that indicated to her that their numbers exceeded 100,000.


    She''d mentioned to Bath earlier that they were going to need to expand the city out, to which he''d promptly agreed. When asked how, he simply told her to wait a day.


    Lisa had full faith in his abilities to physically expand the city. However, she was more concerned with the reaction of the U.S. government to both the impending expansion and also the "attack" on the Virginia base. So far, the government had been silent, and this worried Lisa more than it comforted her.

 [Chapter 60] The Two Factions: Dawn and Dusk

    Day three defied Bath''s expectations in a fairly big way.


    In trying to understand why, Bath came to one conclusion: He had underestimated the density of superhero fanatics that had dropped everything to come to Basalith in the hopes of obtaining super powers. Bath personally didn''t see much artistic merit in the superhero franchise with its simple plots and character archetypes. Therefore, he never really considered how, or perhaps more importantly, why, the franchise enjoyed popularity, nor did he consider the ravenousness of its fan base.


    Bath thought back to the origins of day three''s insanity.


    On day two, as soon as all the humans had been released from their training exercises sometime around 6 pm, chaos had broken loose. Utter and complete chaos.


    Not that chaos was particularly bad; Bath thought that chaos, when directed in an appropriate direction, had excellent uses. This chaos, however, Bath had needed to step in personally to stop. Not even the kursi had been able to de-escalate the problem, much to his chagrin.


    All of the professions had gathered in the dining hall together to await for the Advanced chefs to prepare food. While waiting, people shared information about their acquired boons and what they could do. As people learned about all the different boons, fights began to break out.


    Or, they would have broken out if kursi hadn''t intervened to manipulate the shell of the group. Bath hadn''t given this a second thought, dismissing the almost-conflict as the side-effect of hunger and a long day in an unfamiliar place.


    Fast-forward to day three. Bath was minding his own business working on his defensive city plant when Lepochim pressed the node below his ear ten times in rapid succession.


    Because Bath found that he was close to finishing the plant, he had withdrawn all his consciousness from the outside and focused his attentions solely on the defense plant''s design. As a result, he hadn''t been aware of the storm brewing beyond The Anima''s basement.


    "Bath! Get the hell out here!" Lepochim had hissed. "There are two huge groups of people who are about to get into an enormous fight!"


    And so, Bath stopped working on the plant and appeared next to Lepochim. The sour sapient was clearly expending a great deal of effort to contain a glare, the result being that Lepochim''s eyes twitched as they fell upon Bath''s own.


    "Why aren''t the kursi doing anything?" Bath asked, his demeanor calm. "I don''t know what you expect me to do."


    "They''re trying!" Lepochim growled. "Usually to diffuse conflicts kursi will change the desires of a group. In general, because groups have diverse people with disparate motivations, controlling the mass group shell is easy. Unfortunately, these zealots," Lepochim spat the word out like it was poison, "are completely unified in their desires, at least those leading to this conflict." Lepochim sighed in frustration and crossed his arms. "The result is that it''s much more difficult to influence the emotions of the entire group shell. Even five kursi aren''t enough."


    "What are they fighting for?" Bath asked, his interest piqued. He had never heard of this theory before. Perhaps Lisa''s idea to create a church was a better one than he''d originally thought. If dogma and zealotry could make his forces more resistant to outside kursi influence, amazing.


    "They''ve all decided that they want to have a ''superpower battle.'' It''s positively absurd. However, they''ve all been rushing at each other for the past hour with dragonleaf weapons shaped by the more-skilled of the land-shapers. It''s that damned constitution boon you gave them," Lepochim said acerbically. "They''re tireless; all of them are much tougher, like they don''t even feel pain."


    "I think that''s just the pain tolerance boon," Bath corrected mechanically. He was focused in the huge brawl taking place just outside of the Central Marketplace in the large cavity left behind from where he originally lifted up the constitution-bestowal platform.


    "You gave them all pain tolerance boons!?" Lepochim spluttered as he slapped a hand to his face. He took in a deep breath as though steadying himself. "Okay. Can you just stop this fight before they all kill each other?"


    Bath gave him an amused look. "Why would I stop this?" Then, without skipping a beat, Bath launched forward and appeared above the crowd. "My very eager humans," he began, his voice full of playful humor. "How about we relocate this fighting somewhere else?"


    Even though his voice was lighthearted, it was powerful enough to send shockwaves into all the people below. Since everyone was stunned, the fighting stopped.


    "I don''t care why you''re fighting," Bath smirked, "but, as the Dragon, I approve. Let''s say we go to the Arena."


    Bath had made the Arena on the first day, thoughhadn''t planned to reveal it for another week. He figured that it wouldn''t hurt to unveil it now and give the chaos before him a suitable outlet.


    He levitated all of them into the air, taking care to separate them a few feet apart to avoid any aerial conflict, then deposited them into the center of the Arena. He wanted them to see the Arena as he explained what he had in store.


    "This is the Arena," he explained aloud in a grand, regal voice lacking any of its previous hilarity. "Here you will be able to test yourselves against one another in whatever ways you wish." Bath made a swiping motion with his hand, causing a giant slab of white to appear, upon which were written some rules.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    "Challenges can be made at any time by anyone, to anyone. However, someone can choose to refuse all challenges by default, or they can filter what kinds of challenges they will receive. People may challenge each other on subjects pertaining to each of the professions. For instance, educators can compete in acting challenges since acting involves many of their boons. Contrastingly, ranged fighters can issue shooting matches in which they compete to see who can hit targets most accurately at set distances.


    "These are only two examples of infinite challenges that you can think up yourselves. You need only design a challenge and bring it before one of the Arena supervisors before you may issue it to an opponent.


    "Guidelines are written on this plaque outlining a few things you can and cannot do."


    Having said his introductory statement, Bath watched as the people below beganto unfreeze. He appreciated that they waited a full 48 seconds after he finished talking before deciding that they could once again move.


    Only fifteen or so seconds was needed before the group split into two halves, each led by an incredibly vocal individual. Bath noted that both were of the adult educator profession.


    The one leading the left group held out her staff-shaped dragonleaf weapon and pointed it threateningly at the other group. "You''re on," she shouted, clearly responding to some challenge issued previously before Bath appeared. "Let me outline my plan for everyone here. If we all agree, then we can bring it to the supervisor.


    "I propose that we hold a real-life LARP. Real weapons. Real armor. Real injuries. Real motherfucking powers!"


    Bath narrowed his eyes. Did any of these people even have real powers? He personally considered all of his boons to be rather crude at and below the Expert level. For instance, nobody here could fly, nor did anybody here possess enhanced strength or speed. Why the hell did these people want to challenge each other to a battle?


    Bath could only watch on in mild astonishment as the group brought the plan to a kursi that he dragged in from peacekeeping duty and proceeded to fight. The fight itself was actually quite bloody, with lots of people moving long after they should''ve been out of commission due to constitution and pain resistance. Bath thought that they were trying to squeeze the most that they could out of the two enhancements as proof to themselves that they had preternatural powers.


    However, nothing could have prepared Bath for what happened after the battle ended and the man leading one group surrendered to the woman leading the other.


    "Oh most glorious benefactor, oh most beneficent drake, oh most transcendent immortal, oh most beloved Dragon, may we make a request?" she asked.


    Bath hadn''t expected anyone to call up to him while he watched the goings-on below. He shrugged to himself; why not? The woman had even spent all that effort to butter him up.


    "Speak."


    The woman bowed her head in supplication before continuing. "Resplendent Bath, might we request the ability to form two factions, that of Dawn and that of Dusk, to represent the two times of day at which the sun creates the color of your banner?"


    Bath would have raised an eyebrow in incredulity were he not pretending to be so serious. "For what reason?" He wondered offhandedly how the woman came up with the "Resplendency" form of address.


    "Two factions, Resplendency, will enable us to compete against one another."


    Bath thought it over for a minute. Competition did sound like a good thing...


    "Fine. Your wish has been heard and granted." He felt like he should''ve given the request more thought, but didn''t see the harm two factions could make. Moreover, if they proved problematic, he could always disband them.


    All the people on the Arena field with the ability to move (which was, thankfully, most present) got down on a single knee and bowed. Then, the woman spoke again.


    "Might we request the creation of two crests for the factions and matching tabards to wear over our garments?"


    Bath frowned. "A tabard?"


    The woman''s eyes grew wide, fearful. "Resplendency, a tabard is a garment that may be worn over one''s clothes. It''s express purpose it to show allegiance to a cause."


    In the time the woman explained the word, Bath used a computer back at The Anima to google the word. Since the first thing to come up with was a tabard from a video game, Bath felt that he had a pretty good idea why these people before him were asking for them.


    "Sure," Bath replied to the woman''s request. Instantly, two images appeared in the air. Each appeared to be a half circle, with one the circle''s upper half and the other the lower half. Two tabards then appeared out of thin air, one white, the other black. Upon the white tabard was the upper half of the circle, and upon the black the lower half, both sunset-orange.


    "These two tabards represent the duality between light and dark, incarnate in both the Church and myself. Which side claims black?"


    The woman faced the man leading the other group. After a moment of staring, the man hesitantly raised his arm. "Resplendency, we claim the black."


    Bath nodded, then generated black and white tabards upon the people of each side. He personally healed the injured before putting tabards on them since Basalith didn''t currently have any doctors. That would be a post-Expert-tier caretaker path.


    "Just tell any you recruit to your banner to say the words Dawn or Dusk, respectively, with an appropriate level of fervor. I will ensure that they, too receive a tabard."


    ---


    By dinner time of day three, literally every single human in Basalith aside from Lisa and the kursi were wearing black or white tabards.


    Every. Single. One.


    A few hours after the factions had been established, Bath generated new tabards practically every second as he answered calls of faction allegiance.


    Before the day was over, each faction had its own interior hierarchy and its own mythos derived from that available on COTD''s website.


    "This is a complete disaster!" Lisa had lamented as soon as she left The Anima and saw what was going on. "Why do we have two factions? Bath, these organizations are going to create hierarchies not based on anything substantial but on connections, just like in the current outside world."


    "They really wanted factions," Bath replied hotly, feeling a bit defensive. "Anyways, I think we can use this to our advantage to create two orders of priests."


    Lisa''s mouth curved into a grimace as she processed his words. "We don''t need people worshiping us. We aren''t, you know, really gods."


    Bath''s eyes narrowed. "I think you''re underestimating how much they need to worship us. People like to believe in things greater than themselves. They see us as the dual representations of their god, the deity of the Church of the Dragon. They want to worship us.


    "I say, let them."


    Lisa looked at Bath for a long moment, her face devoid of expression. "I don''t like this," the murmured at last. "It feels...so false."


    "Perhaps necessary," Bath said before explaining what he learned from Lepochim about zealotry''s use in resisting shell manipulation.


    And so, with Lisa''s grudging acceptance, the actual church of COTD was formed.

 [Chapter 61] City Defense Plant Complete!

    After the third day, Bath reminded Lisa that she needed to return to school eventually. She promptly raised an eyebrow in surprise.


    "Wait, I''m actually going to finish the whole college thing?" she asked.


    "Why rush?"


    She looked at him as though trying to peer into his line of reasoning. "Haven''t we been rushing this entire time? Forming the Church of the Dragon feels like it''s been a giant sprint to the finish."


    Bath graced her with an amused smile. "You think that this is rushing?"


    "Then what is it?"


    "Lisa, this is efficiency: using my power to at least a good portion of its actual capacity. Why, how long should we have taken to create COTD?"


    Her mouth flattened into a line, twitching with amusement. "Most people would say that establishing a world-changing religion should take place over the course of years rather than days."


    Bath rolled his eyes in a show of playfulness. "But why spend years, playing by these human rules and expectations? Lisa: our sights are on the stars, on universes beyond our reckonings. Earth is the staging ground for our conquest; we can''t afford to be less than efficient."


    Lisa rolled her eyes at the melodrama, then sighed, unsure of how to phrase her thoughts. "Bath, I''m exhausted. I feel like while you can keep up this kind of breakneck pace, I''m...well. Even with enhancements you''ve given me, I''m unable to find time to organize my thoughts."


    Now Bath gave her a confused look. "I know. Which is why I proposed you go back to Alens."


    Lisa sighed exasperatedly. "But every moment I''m away from here is a moment I''ll be regretting. How could I ever concentrate on any of my classes when I have all of this going on? What the hell is college in the face of conquering the universe? The big WD? Come on. You can''t tell me that going to college even makes sense at this point."


    Bath''s expression now turned rather poignant, whistful. Perhaps, even, sad. "I think you underestimate the value of being yourself, a human, spending time with others."


    "What do you--"


    "Lisa. Think about how long all of this is going to take. Even going at maximum efficiency, how long will it take to conquer all the nearby worlds?"


    Brow furrowed, Lisa regarded him in silence.


    Sighing, Bath continued on. "And think on how long it''ll take until we reach the Core Worlds." There was no doubt in Bath''s voice, no ''if''; just ''when.'' "I''m thinking of college as an important investment."


    Lisa shook her head. "No. I''m fine with how things have been going. What do we even learn in college, anyways, that I can''t find in abundance on my chip reader or on the internet?"


    "What are your parents going to think?"


    Lisa snorted softly, her body bent up into itself where she leaned into the wall. "They''re going to think this is all pretty fucking amazing," Lisa chuckled darkly. "You know all the famous people that didn''t finish college. People like Abraham Lincoln, or really anybody before the 20th century. I''d wager high school now is equivalent to higher education of the past."


    "You know who else didn''t attend college?" A humorous smile lit up his face. "Simon Cowell--" Lisa slapped him, though he continued on with a more sober expression. " Stalin. Mussolini. Hitler. All the most famous authoritarians of the past century."


    Lisa closed her eyes. "Bath..."


    "You know what they all had in common? Shiny weapons and self-taught ideology. People who worshiped them. I want to avoid a similar outcome in you."


    Lisa''s eyes darted up to meet Bath''s, her expression hurt. "You seriously think--"


    In an instant, Bath was in front of Lisa, his hand cradling her chin. "I''m relying on you to be the brains of this operation. In all the world beyond, I will rely on you to connect with and understand sapients. I can act the role well enough, at the end of the day, but you''re going to be the face that sapients will relate with. The approachable yin to my distant yang."


    Lisa wasn''t at all sold my Bath''s argument. "Don''t push all that responsibility onto me. You''re more than able to understand humans; why do you think I''ll be better than yourself at understanding aliens!?"


    "A presentiment. Maybe a premonition."


    Lisa slapped away his arm. "The hell."


    "Just think."


    "Stop saying that, please," Lisa said with a pained smile. "I am thinking."


    "What''s the likelihood that you and I would have ever met? The chance that we would have found out about the gates, kursi, all this crap? You even mentioned it a few days ago when you were asking about religion, that coincidence is everywhere around us. Perhaps the biggest coincidence of all is the fact that a full half of sapient species all closely resemble one another.


    "There is something at work here, pushing us in certain directions behind the scenes. I have a feeling that as we continue onward, toward the Core, we''ll gain further glimpses into the intentions of this moving force."


    "I agree with you about the coincidence stuff, but what does this have to do with college?"


    Bath was silent for a moment as he readjusted his strategy. "I want you to understand human networks. I need you to use Alens as a testing ground for your own mind manipulation. I want to see if, by spending time in the same place and constantly touching the shells of those around you, you''ll be able to better understand the minds of sapients."This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Why can''t I do that here?"


    "Everybody here is under a permanent kind of sedation," Bath reminded her. "You can''t use them as test subjects with all the kursi controlling them, even if said control is minor."


    "Fine. How about this: I go to college half the time, and spend the other half here. Every morning to afternoon at Alens, the rest of the time at Basalith. Good?" This plan was contingent on Bath being able to get away from Basalith; Lisa was expecting that he''d refuse.


    Instead, he just shrugged, his eyes gleaming. "Fine. You and I can attend together, then. We aren''t really needed here, after all."


    Now Lisa''s eyes were bugging out of her head as she thought of the implications of his acceptance of her plan. "You didn''t finish...?"


    "The city defense plant? I actually finished it thirty seconds ago during our conversation. What wonderful timing!


    "In a few days, I want to test leaving the city for extended periods of time. I''ll always be ready to come back in the event that the plant fails in its defensive duty, though I''m hoping that it''ll succeed. This is a preliminary test to model what will happen when we''ll go off world."


    Lisa''s eyes turned thoughtful. "Why didn''t you just mention this earlier?"


    Bath flashed her a tooth-filled grin. "The plant still wasn''t done."


    ---


    Lisa and Bath spent the next hour outlining how they would be engaging with Basalith over the coming month, including how long they would spend within the city''s confines. The idea, according to Bath, was to wean the city off of them so that it could stand on its own. Bath seemed to think such a process would take a year, while Lisa was more pessimistic.


    "People move really slow, Bath," Lisa reminded him.


    "I suppose..." Bath admitted grudgingly, though still optimistic that fervor over his granted boons would lead people to hurry Basalith''s self-sufficiency along. He believed that once the first city could stand on its own, COTD could expand out at a rapid pace without him needing to personally intervene. Ideally, Bath hoped that he could use these initial COTD cities as seeds which would expand out to conquer entire planets, saving him an immense amount of time doing to conquering personally.


    A few hours after Lisa and Bath''s conversation, Dean returned to campus with his family whom he''d gathered the day before.


    "We''re all here," he stated, walking forward towards the city entrance, knowing that Bath would hear him. The line to get in, at this point, was winding in loops for several miles. He had every expectation that Bath would grant them all special treatment and let them in ahead of everyone else.


    "Dean," a clipped, disembodied voice sounded out. "Wonderful."


    Bath now appeared next to Dean, in front of his family. Bath''s predatory air caused them all to take a step back. "Your son has assumed a powerful role in the COTD as one of my direct subordinates. You should all be proud." The family took another step back, not knowing exactly who this bizarre, teleporting person was. After all, no pictures of Bath were available online.


    The family members began to shriek as Bath hoisted them into the air via essence tendrils, levitating them over the huge crowd and ushering them into the city. Below, thousands of people looked on in extreme confusion as the panicking family of six zoomed through the air and into the city. To everyone below, it was just one more mystery adding to the allure of the newly-formed city.


    (Later, videos of it went up on Wikipedia, and some people began to worry that COTD was abducting people. Thankfully, personal accounts from all within the city soon put these myths to rest.)


    After getting his family settled in, Dean left. He really didn''t want to talk to them right now about everything that was happening. They still didn''t know that he was the Knight or that he had any abilities, nor did they know that they''d just been received by COTD''s Dragon himself.


    Dean acted like his old, quiet, kind self as he helped to get his family up to speed on life in Basalith. He was more than a little disappointed to find that nobody in his family thought that anything was wrong, noticed something off about his demeanor. He intentionally let a few questionable things slip from time to time in the hopes that his mom or dad would say something, his big sister would take him aside and ask him if anything was on his mind.


    And yet, nobody said a thing. They all just marveled over the admittedly insane interior of the city with its stunning green skyscrapers and thousands of tabard-toting residents. This aspect was new even to Dean.


    ''How the hell did this city get a whole tabard system in the day that I was away?'' he grumbled to himself. ''It''s literally insane. Then again...'' what wasn''t insane when his roommate, Bath, was involved?


    Unwilling to associate himself with Bath after their last, rather unnerving, phone conversation, Dean decided to find the Church.


    "Bath," he called out. "Where is the Church?"


    "Oh, Lisa''s in the Anima welcoming people as usual." Bath''s voice sounded oddly tinny from behind Dean''s ears.


    Lisa? So that was her name. "Oh. Does she get any breaks?"


    "She can have one now," Bath transmitted back.


    "Wait what? No no don''t--"


    "She''s coming now. Follow the arrows."


    ---


    Lisa had been extremely surprised when Bath appeared next to her, 90% transparent, to tell her to take a break for a moment and talk to Dean.


    "Why? I something wrong?"


    Bath looked up towards the ceiling of the Anima. A small sigh escaped his lips. "I think he needs a friend."


    Lisa''s eyes widened. "Oh."


    "I convinced him to stay here, to get a handle on his abilities. He brought his family today. He''s decided to stop college in favor of taking a full-time part in COTD''s activities."


    A sad expression fell over Lisa''s face. "wait, really?" Lisa had been absolutely adamant about not going to school until Bath had told her his plan to make the city independent of their control. That was a sacrifice that she was willing to make for herself. But the thought of Dean, a random guy pulled into COTD, having his entire life upended made her feel guilty.


    As if sensing her thoughts, Bath stepped closer, draped his right arm over her shoulders, and pulled her into a side hug. "If you feel bad about changing his life''s trajectory, what the hell do you think we''re doing if we conquer all of Earth?" Not to mention other worlds.


    "I know," Lisa sighed. "It''s for the best, anyways. He''s going to be a big shot in the new world order."


    "Now talk to him." Bath disappeared, leaving a trail of pulsing, green colored arrows for Lisa to follow. A kursi came up to her to take her place.


    Lisa followed the arrows outside to a park bench by the Anima''s exterior. Lisa sat on the bench, confident that Bath was concealing her presence from any onlookers.


    After a minute, Dean came walking around a building''s corner, then proceeded on to the park bench where Lisa was sitting. He looked rather uncertain going forward, then jumped, startled, as he came within a foot of Lisa''s sitting form.


    "You''re already here!" he uttered. "Jesus." He put a hand to his head. "I''m sorry Bath dragged you away to talk to me."


    "It''s fine. I needed a break," Lisa replied with a smile. "What''s been on your mind?"


    "Tabards! Where the hell did all these tabards come from?" Lisa began to laugh, causing Dean to chuckle with her. "No, seriously! I was gone for a single day. How...?"


    Lisa smirked. "Bath. I told him the new faction system might not be the best idea..." Lisa rolled her eyes, then gave Dean a kind look. "You can join my faction, if you want. Bath''s the Dusk faction, in black, while I''m the Dawn faction."


    "What''s the point of factions, anyway?"


    Lisa gave a small shrug. "Honestly, I''m not 100% sure." She didn''t know if she wanted to tell Dean about Bath''s idea for an actual church system arising out of the factions. "We''ll probably have competitions between the different factions and use the factions to push people harder. It''s more fun, after all, to work towards goals while racing against someone else."


    Dean nodded slowly. That did make sense. "Okay. How do I get a tabard?"


    "Just say ''Dawn'' like it''s a proper noun."


    Dean snorted. "That''s so..."


    Lisa gave him a serious, pointed look, stopping the sentence in its tracks. Then she grinned, breaking the tension, mirth in her eyes. "Just say it!"


    "...Dawn."


    ---


    END OF PART 4

 [Chapter 62] Waiting for the World Congress of the Intermediary Strand

    Emperor Katsun of Vora Star watched the gladiator fight below with mild disinterest.


    "Ailpy, when are we going to go on the next gateseeing cruise?"


    Ailpy bent her small frame and prostrated herself where she sat. "We''re due to set out sometime in the next few years." The timeframe depended upon how long Congress took to assemble.


    Katsun yawned, then glared at the fight below. "This entire sport is disgusting. Can''t they find anything better to do than send lesser sapients into the fighting pits?" Vora Star''s many colonized planets didn''t have gladiators. Violence was, for the most part, a vestige of the past. Akila Galaxy was an anomaly as far as most worlds went, especially for a world so close to the Core.


    The current location of Emperor Katsun was that of Akila Galaxy''s capital, Akilia. The galaxy had an immense influence in the strand of gates ranging from midway beyond the Core Worlds to the edge of the boundary marking the Backwater. Unofficially, these gates were collectively referred to as the Intermediary Strand.


    Emperor Katsun personally disliked Akilia and its gaudy, flamboyant architecture built from the bones of deceased slaves. While many worlds closer to the Backwater cutoff engaged in similar excessive practices, none had the resources to do so at the level of the more centrally-located Akila Galaxy. With a massive armada and a naturally battle-adept race of sapients, Akila''s current way of existence relied on plundering worlds in the Intermediary Strand for slaves.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "Why can''t we just form an army of our own?" Katsun muttered bitterly. ''Then, at the very least, we wouldn''t have to enter diplomatic negotiations on Akilia. Nor would we be required to send tributes every hundred years.''


    Katsun was more than aware why they didn''t have an army. In the vast universe, creating a competitive army was absurdly expensive. Even sums worth quadrillions of unit resources wouldn''t be enough to create armies able to rival those of the long-established Core Worlds. If embroiled in a rare conflict, Vora Galaxy would simply contract Core World mercenaries for a much smaller sum.


    Since Akila Galaxy merely requested 100,000 citizens from Vora Galaxy each 100-year cycle, Vora Galaxy found that complying with the human tax was significantly more expedient than going to war...even if that meant that Akilia was, in part, built upon the bones of Vora''s own people.


    It was hard to tell, however, since the majority of sapient skeletons looked fairly alike.


    Katsun just hoped that this Congress would convene soon so he could get off this ugly planet and its repugnant capital city. There were so many worlds he had yet to explore, so many places to seek answers.

 [Part 5] [Chapter 63] The Wolves of Dawn and Dusk; Departing Basalith

    PART 5


    ---


    It took back the rest of the fourth and all of the fifth day to properly install, or, in his words, "infest," Basalith with the city defense plant.


    "Are you really going to keep calling it that?" Lepochim sniffed. Lisa, Bath, and Lepochim were currently having a late-night meeting in the basement of The Anima.


    Bath rolled his eyes. "Any suggestions?" He glanced at Lisa.


    "How about...spineroot." The name was fairly descriptive considering the fact that the newly-installed plant closely resembled spiked, gnarled roots, discounting its nearly-invisible tendrils.


    "Lepochim?" Bath asked expectantly.


    "Anything is better than the original mouthful."


    Bath clapped his hands together. "Great. Lepochim, do you have any questions before Lisa and I depart?" They planned to arrive back at Alens before morning.


    "None. You''re leaving me with an awful mess, you know," he stated.


    "Mess?" Bath smiled, causing Lepochim to involuntarily shudder despite himself. "You should recognize by now the power of controlled chaos. The faction system is a way to control the chaos of worship."


    "Bath, you''ve created a monstrosity of a city. The Arena alone--"


    "Just call me if you have trouble. Remember, this is an experiment to see how the city can fare on its own without ''divine'' intervention. If the experiment is a catastrophic failure, I''ll come back."


    Lepochim''s sour expression remained, though he sighed in resignation. "Fine. Go on, both of you."


    Bath had faith in Lepochim''s ability to get the job done. Despite the sapient''s endless complaints, he was excellent at delegating responsibility and responding to problems.


    Pleased at Lepochim''s relatively few comments, he grabbed Lisa and headed back to Alens.


    ---


    Earlier on, the 4th day:


    "Fuck yeah," Edgewood hissed jubilantly. He''d finally managed to consistently land hits on the avatars. Accordingly, the brown-robed woman that had been overseeing the close combat training room for the past two days told him that he was ready to receive his next boon. This, of course, was the sign that he''d advanced to Beginner.


    Instead of typical arrows leading his way to where he needed to go, a small, squirrel-like creature ran over to his location from who knows where and chirped eagerly. Edgewood wasn''t an idiot; clearly, he was supposed to follow the little creature. He couldn''t get over the feeling that he was in a Disney movie as he did so, keeping pace with its bushy tail as it strode forward towards a different room in The Anima''s basement.


    The squirrel eventually led him to a small room with a single pool inside of it. The water inside was, what, purple? ''Can''t be safe to drink,'' Edgewood remarked to himself.


    The squirrel scurried over to the water, then stuck out its tail and dipped it lightly into the water. Then, it made an encouraging chittering sound.


    Eager to get the next boon, Edgewood wasted no time in walking over to the pool. Following the squirrel''s ''instructions,'' Edgewood submerged himself, clothes and all, into the water. He didn''t feel anything at first. Then, he began to feel a tingling sensation under his skin. He felt a sudden soreness in his muscles, then in his bones, the two sensations pulsing in and out. Edgewood resolved to remain stock-still in the water while the incredibly strange sensation of receiving the boon completed.


    After half an hour, the procedure was complete. Edgewood hurried from the pool. In doing so, he nearly fell on his face. A single step practically sent him flying a few feet across the room.


    Edgewood forgot what this boon was called. He resolved to ask one of the close combat Experts in Dusk faction.


    After leaving the room, the squirrel helped to escort Edgewood back to the new Beginner training room. "That''s convenient," Edgewood mumbled to himself, realizing that he could just ask one of the Beginners for information on the boon.


    When he entered the room, everyone present paused what they were doing.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Woah! Someone''s finally made it to Beginner," somebody called out in surprise. Edgewood knew he was the first to do so.


    "Welcome to Beginner," another called out.


    "Hey," Edgewood cried out with a grin. "It''s nice to join you all. Can someone remind me what close combat''s second boon is?"


    Of the few hundreds of people present, many had already returned to training against the Dragon''s avatars. A few, however, went over to greet Edgewood.


    "Can''t you tell?" one of the Beginners laughed. "It''s a strength boon. That''s what you''re going to be focusing on here. Now that you can probably hit the avatars due to combat processing, you need to focus on hammering the fuck out of ''em."


    Edgewood very much liked the idea of "hammering the fuck" out of an avatar of the alleged-God that placed him in Apprentice.


    About an hour into practicing with the avatars, a feat only possible due to the increased endurance afforded by the constitution and pain-killing boons, a city-wide announcement went out.


    The Dragon''s voice pervaded all areas below and above ground within the city''s borders. "Loyal constituents, the time has come to finalize the city''s creation. This stage is two-fold. Part one has been underway throughout the day, as some of you have no doubt realized. While all of you have had the fortune of working personally with aspects of myself over the past four days, I can assure you that such a circumstance is temporary. Do any doubt that the Dragon has better things to do than lead people around the city with arrows and fix plumbing?" Bath intended for this line to be comedic. Unfortunately, nobody in the city was laughing aside from Lisa, though Bath sensed that Dean made a strange choking noise response.


    Shrugging to himself, Bath coughed, then continued on. "Today, my servants have been released into the city. They will serve this city in every necessary capacity. Treat them kindly, or they will end you. The second part will commence as soon as I finish speaking. Do not be alarmed: large, squirming roots will rise up from the ground and cover the entire city, blocking out all light for about an hour while Basalith''s final defensive system fully integrates itself into the environment. If you have any questions, feel free to consult your respective faction leadership or any of the peacekeepers or staff. Thank you for your faith and eagerness to follow the path of self-determination. I expect great things." Not that Bath had told the faction leadership anything; Bath figured that the two faction heads would be able to come up with some absurd explanation better than anything he could come up with alone.


    With that, Bath''s voice cut out, leaving everyone stunned in its absence. The voice''s power was unquestionable, with its shockwaves leaving a few people reeling. Edgewood thought that the room felt emptier after the voice''s dissipation, as though the voice had filled the entire space with a physical presence.


    Suddenly, Edgewood felt the ground around him shake.


    "Let''s go up to the surface," one of the Beginners suggested, his face manic with frenzied faith. "I don''t want to miss a miracle happening in our own city!"


    Soon, the entire room was streaming out and stampeding to one of many stairways leading to The Anima''s first-floor atrium. People draped in white and black pushed at each other to reach the outside.


    When Edgewood managed to leave The Anima''s crowded interior, he couldn''t believe his eyes. It looked as if the entire sky were covered by a massive, gnarled tree. Or, more accurately, a massive piece of driftwood. Because the glowing moss coating the sides of the apartment buildings only illuminated the area within a few feet of the ground, the only reason anybody could see anything was due tothe sparse streetlights that had been installed a day previous.


    "Holy shit," he whispered to himself. Everyone present seemed to be transfixed by the massive wood structure above, so much so that they nearly missed the contingent of giant monster wolves that appeared from a huge building Edgewood previously assumed was residential. Each wolf was either white or black, with slight hue variations. Edgewood recognized the white wolf at the front almost immediately despite the low light. The Wolf.


    A few days ago, everyone in the crowd probably would have screamed and panicked at such a shocking sight as a giant pack of two thousand wolves strolling out of a large apartment building. Now?


    "Praise the Dragon!"


    "Praise the Church!"


    The group of wolves, hearing the two cries, quickly separated into White and Black groups, respectively. Awoman yelled out from the crowd: "Fellow servants of the Church, my name is Maya. I am the leader of Dawn! All of ye following the way of the Church, come and join our number!"


    Similarly, a man called out from the opposite side of the crowd: "Fellow servants of the Dragon, my name is Herod, and I am the leader of Dusk! If you venture in the glorious shadow of the Dragon, come over!"


    The wolves all howled en masse, then separated out by color and joined the now self-partitioning crowd.


    Suddenly, one of the land-shapers on the Dawn side called out, "They''re trying to communicate with us through the Dragonleaf! Anyone who''s a land-shaper, try to touch them..."


    Soon, everyone present was cursing the fact they didn''t choose land-shaper as their profession, Edgewood included. ''What the actual fuck?'' he thought to himself as land-shapers scrambled to touch nearby wolves.


    The land-shaper woman who first made the discovery shouted out again, barely audible over the uproar. "Thos wolf says...her name is Nimesh. She says she''s the leader of the Dawn wolves. She says...that they''re going to work with us. They''re going to help keep peace and watch out for the other residents of Basalith...the, ehm, nonhuman quasi-sapients." The speaker''s confusion over this last part showed clearly in her questioning tone.


    Recalling the squirrel from earlier, along with the Dragon''s latest message, Edgewood had already put two and two together.


    "This is going to literally be a Disney movie," he clucked softly to himself, shaking his head in disbelief.


    Even as he said this, a contingent of enormous, bear-like monsters stepped out of another residential apartment.


    As he recalled what the Knight and Church could do to a military base with the assistance of the Wolf, let alone the assistance of one of these massive bears, Edgewood assumed a more sober composure. As he began to voice his next thought, Edgewood almost spoke in the first person plural, ''we,'' before realizing that aligning himself with COTD was a much more salient choice than sticking with the United States government.


    Accordingly, he remarked, "The U.S. is totally fucked."

 [Chapter 64] Professor Scrantons Reappearance; Video Call

    Kayt couldn''t believe that she could actually communicate with this wolf, Nimesh. She''d had a pet cat when she was younger, though never had too much of an attachment to it. The cat always seemed to ignore her in favor of her parents.


    That hadn''t bothered her; she had plenty of human friends on which to rely. This wolf was completely different from that cat. It couldn''t actually speak, but the way it--she--transmitted ideas suggested that she was extremely intelligent.


    Kayt found that she, too, could send thoughts back to Nimesh after a few minutes of practice. She had a feeling that, given enough time, she would be able to do so naturally as long as she maintained physical contact with the wolf.


    Nimesh seemed to be pleased with her, and seemed to suggest that the two should form a formal pairing. Kayt didn''t really know what that would entail, but decided that pairing up with Nimesh would likely be the coolest thing to ever happen to her, so she responded in the affirmative.


    Similarly, wolves were prancing all about the humans, trying not to trample anybody. In the end, only a few decided to stick with land-shaper humans. Many held off with the intention of partnering up with a future land-shaper. Since there were already quite a few expert-level humans after 3 days, the wolves'' strategy ensured that most would end up with fairly exceptional individuals. After all, which Expert tier profession wouldn''t choose land-shaper as their next if doing so enabled one to communicate with Basalith''s newly-unveiled servants?


    Even as Kayt focused on learning more about Nimesh, more and more kinds of animal mutants erupted out of the nearby residential buildings. Kayt learned from Nimesh that, after being raised in an area underneath The Anima, all the quasi-sentients had been given access to their own apartment buildings and specially-designed rooms. Nimesh seemed proud of the fact that the Creator, the Dragon, had designed the apartments himself.


    Kayt didn''t have the heart to explain that technically everything in Basalith had been designed by the Dragon. She was, however, surprised when Nimesh explained what being the leader of the Dawn Wolves meant.


    ---


    In the hour required for spineroot to finish integrating into Basalith, exactly 16 different animal species had come down from the various apartment complexes. People estimated that there were, on average, around 2000 of each. However, the squirrel quasi-sentients were much more numerous; while many of the squirrels hadn''t actually come out, several land-shapers confirmed that the squirrels placed their numbers at around one million.


    This, of course, left everyone wondering where the hell the squirrels had any room to live. The other animals, too; the apartment buildings didn''t look like they could fit more than one thousand humans each. Soon, as land-shapers continued to ask questions to the emerging animals, a few things became clear.


    The apartment buildings extended deep underground and connected directly to the basement level of The Anima. The animal species all had a unified leadership, with the dominant individual of each species ruling its own species and also communicating with the other dominant individuals.


    After the hour elapsed, the giant woody ceiling cracked in half, as though somebody unclasped their hands and then pulled them apart. After a few minutes, the wood was completely gone aside from a large woody wall encircling Basalith where once there was only a dragonleaf hedge. The only people with the ability to see the thin, spiny, nearly-transparent tendrils of the spineroot were the people with the long range combat profession. The profession''s very first boon was distance vision, a boon that now caused them all to look on in confusion towards the sky.


    "Does anybody see this?" one of the long range combat Advanced called out near Kayt. "It''s like little fuzzy worms are scraping at the sky. There''s almost a net..."


    Due to the many confusing changes, crowds of people were converging on the faction leaders, both of whom had no idea what the heck was going on.


    "The Church and Dragon must be trusting us to receive divine inspiration," Maya said, her voice sagely.


    Herod nodded. "We need to interpret Their will."


    They locked themselves into a random room underneath The Anima while they worked on a cohesive narrative to pull everything together.


    ---


    Returning to the present, early in the morning, day 5


    "We''re back," Lisa sighed, her expression complex. "Ugh, we''ve only been gone for 5 days. How is that even possible? It feels like it''s been way longer."


    Bath chuckled. "You said that last time we were away."


    Lisa ignored him, tugging at his arm to start walking back to her room. "Come with me. We''re going to get started on all the work we''ve missed." Thankfully, the assignments were posted online rather than in class, so she could receive all the missing assignments and get started.


    "Fine." As they walked, Bath once again recreated his long-range manipulation defensive system around Alens, though with a few modifications. After running Basalith, Bath felt like he had a much greater control than before over his essence. Such improvement made him elated, considering the fact that he''d been trying to improve his long-range manipulation for years without particularly substantial improvements.


    Lisa was shocked to see posters everywhere about a new club, the Alens Order of the Church of the Dragon. She hadn''t considered what it would be like to return to Alens after everything that happened, in the sense that she''d had an admittedly unreasonable expectation that after founding Basalith, Alens would be exactly how she left it a few days back.


    A part of her felt a great deal of pride in her accomplishment with Bath. Another part of her felt like an imposter walking through Alens as though she were just a regular student.


    Lisa wondered if this was how Bath felt like all the time in his permanent masquerade as a wolf in sheep''s clothing. ''No wonder he wanted to tell someone,'' Lisa thought to herself as they reached her dorm. She couldn''t imagine what her life, what his life, would be like now if he hadn''t told her about his true identity.


    Lisa unlocked the door to her room, then stepped lightly inside, not wanting to disturb her undoubtedly sleeping roommates. Her first objective was to find her favorite sweater and sweats and get comfortable. Bath had made them both casual street clothes, though Lisa was tired of wearing Bath''s smooth plant-fabric. She wanted actual cloth fabric, ideally with the scent of clean laundry, not that she''d done any loads recently.


    She changed, then returned to find Bath pouring over a newspaper.


    "Where''d you find that?"


    He looked up. "Lying around; it''s just yesterday''s school paper." In it, he found an article about the terrorist attack on a building. Apparently, the people Dean knocked unconscious didn''t associate Dean himself with the blast. That certainly made things easier.


    Also was an informative article on a singular Professor Scranton''s ground-breaking discovery of a titanic, ancient, insectoid lifeform.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ---


    "Professor," Bath said, an icy grin on his face. While he hadn''t been at Alens, Bath had been keeping email contact with Scranton over the past few days. "How''s fame treating you?"


    He surprised her with his appearance in her room. She hadn''t even heard him open the door. "Bath," Professor Scranton gasped. "Where the f--where have you been!?"


    "I told you, I''ve been busy with a lot."


    Scranton inhaled deeply, as though trying to control a towering rage. "What could be more important than Bathiosaurus Exorexus!?" she fumed. "I even kept the name you gave it!" She pushed her rolling chair out from the desk and hustled to her feet. "You need to explain how you found that fossil. Seriously, I''m dying. Explain to me how a high school kid managed to casually find a field-changing fossilized specimen in a deep trench off the coast of northern Russia!?"


    Bath rubbed his jaw. She did have a point; it was a little incredulous. But then again, Alens was an extremely selective school; was it that unexpected that a student would have such a bizarre summer adventure?


    No matter. Lisa had plans for Scranton, the kind that Bath was more than happy to make possible.


    "Professor. I''ve received a message from one of my friends that''s entered Basalith."


    The professor''s eyes went even wider than Bath thought anatomically possible, which was no small feat. "You have a friend that actually made it into Basalith? News sources say there''s a line that''s twelve miles long to get in."


    Bath actually hadn''t realized the line was that long since it doubled back on itself so many times. How many thousands of people was that? He hoped that the automatic city expansion would go according to design.


    "My friend entered on the first day," Bath explained. "Anyways, I received a message stating that the Church of the Dragon''s aspects, the Church and the Dragon, respectively, aren''t entities that appeared out of nowhere."


    Scranton''s expression wasfrenzied all throughout the conversation such that Bath couldn''t tell what she was getting excited about. "Apparently, the Dragon came to Earth several times over the past few hundred millions of years. It was looking for sentient life. Finally, when it returned to Earth this time, it found the life it was searching for."


    "Humans," Scranton breathed, her face now fully displaying her shock. Bath was a little taken aback by how easily Scranton was taking his words as truth.


    "Yeah...so, anyways, that''s why the Dragon is here now. Now for the part where we come into the picture. You know the fossil we found?" Bath put a bit of emphasis on the ''we.'' "Apparently, whenever the Dragon returned to Earth, it created a host of bizarre lifeforms with its abilities. One of these was Bathiosaurus Exorexus, the only one of its kind. A mutant.


    "And I know where we can find the rest of the fossils. Apparently, a record of all the places the Dragon visited is located in one of the Church of the Dragon''s archives."


    ''We really should have the new factions start an archive,'' Bath thought absentmindedly.


    ''They have archives?'' Scranton wondered to herself as she took in everything Bath was telling her. This sounded infinitely too good to be true, but so had Bathiosaurus Exorexus. Scranton was more than willing to once again put her faith in this mysterious Bath McLane kid; even if they didn''t find anything, Scranton wouldn''t hold it against the new shining star of the paleontology department.


    "Do you have coordinates for the locations?" Scranton didn''t expect him to, though it couldn''t hurt to check.


    Bath gave her a wolfish grin in response, causing Scranton to subconsciously step back. "Of course."


    ---


    Bath decided that it was time to give his parents a call and tell them about life. He felt a lot better about calling them now that he was back where he was supposed to be, Alens. He wondered why that was; no matter if he was at Alens or Basalith, he wasn''t going to tell his family the truth, not now. Why, then, did his present location matter?


    Since the weather outside was nice by human standards, Bath sat down at one of Alens'' many park benches. He took out his computer, then gave his mom a video call. Since it was around 6 pm, he expected the whole family to be home.


    After a few rings, the call went through. "Mom," Bath said cheerfully.


    "Bath!" she enthused, her face alight with joy. She turned away from the camera, the exclaimed, "Everyone get over here! It''s Bath!"


    Bath chuckled as he heard the immediate and heavy pounding of steps as a certain someone sprinted to reach the computer first.


    "Bath! Why don''t you ever call!?" Avery unsuccessfully pouted, her pinched expression quickly collapsing into a grin. "We want to all~ about college. Have you met any girls--"


    "Of course."


    "What!?" Avery gaped.


    "...In my classes."


    Avery sighed and rolled her eyes, then she looked at Samantha, who dramatically sighed back before smirking and returning to the camera. Brian chose that moment to enter the camera, a gentle smile on his face.


    "Hey! How''s my boy," he beamed.


    "Dad," Bath''s smile broadened. "I''m fine. What do you guys want to know about college?"


    "Tell me about frats!" Avery asked without giving either parent the chance to speak.


    Bath snorted, recalling the frat party he''d sabotaged on Lisa''s behalf. "Lisa and I went to a frat party."


    "Oo, together?" Avery said, as though she were uncovering a juicy secret. ''Little sisters,'' Bath thought, snickering to himself.


    "No, as friends," Bath clarified. His parents just gave knowing smiles. Bath narrowed his eyes in response. "Seriously."


    "Alright, we know, you two have made your relationship perfectly clear over the past few years," Samantha replied, an eyebrow raised.


    "You''re all incorrigible," Bath laughed. "How have you all been?"


    Brian and Samantha looked at one another, then Avery. "Fine," Brian replied. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Trying to make sense of all this Church of the Dragon insanity."


    "It''s pretty crazy, right?" Bath said.


    "It''s pretty incredible if what people are saying is true," Samantha stated. "We''ve been wondering if maybe we should look into joining the new city, Basalith."


    Avery nodded. "It sounds like people who go there get free food, housing, and super powers!"


    Samantha gave her daughter a dubious look, then returned her eyes to the camera. "I think that the whole illness curing aspect is most important."


    Bath cocked his head. He''d made sure to eliminate any disease from his parents, genetic or otherwise. "Why, are you worried about getting sick?"


    Samantha just shrugged.


    "You can never be too prepared," Brian stated wisely, nodding his head slightly. "But that isn''t a for-sure plan or anything. Just an idea. I''m sure you''ve heard all about the line to get in."


    Bath chuckled. "Over ten miles worth of people."


    "How has school been going?" Samantha asked, changing the subject.


    "Oh, it''s been good. I found a professor to do some research with." Bath decided it wouldn''t hurt to let his parents find out about Scranton and the published paper he''d gotten on. Bath still marveled at how Scranton was able to get the paper together so fast and off to the press. The woman certainly knew how to move. "We''ve actually already published a paper."


    His parent''s jaws went slack, while Avery just looked up confusedly at her parents'' shocked expressions.


    "What?" she asked, annoyed over being left out.


    "How?" Brian asked. "You''ve been in school for just a few weeks!"


    "I was lucky," Bath grinned. "I found Professor Scranton right before school started and got in on a project she was working on. Usually, with paleontology, it can take a long time to get any findings. However, we really struck gold after just the first week. Accordingly, we were able to get something written up and sent off."


    Bath''s parents could only marvel at their son''s good fortune. "That sounds unbelievable," Samantha stated, her tone completely shocked.


    Bath just coughed. "Well, it happened."


    "Wait. Are you talking about the Scranton that''s been all over the news for discovering the biggest fossil in history?"


    Bath looked sheepishly off to the side. "What do you think?"


    "What!? Holy shi-Wow. That''s amazing. Wow." Brian couldn''t believe what Bath was telling them.


    "Honey, how on Earth did you find such a hot-shot professor to take you on?" Samantha asked.


    "Oh, you know, I have my ways," Bath grinned bashfully, wagging his eyebrows.


    "See! He''s definitely been meeting up with girls," Avery exclaimed. "He''s acting just like--"


    Samantha placed a hand on Avery''s head. "Honey. I think we''ve been taking up enough of Bath''s time." Samantha gave Bath a knowing look, then smirked. "He''s a busy man."


    "Don''t let all the crazy stuff on the news distract you, son," Brian instructed with a smile as Bath started waving goodbye.


    "Alright, alright," Bath promised. "I''ll call you guys soon, okay?"


    "You better!" Avery squealed. "I miss you bro."


    "I know. Love you guys." Bath ended the call.


    Then he looked at the area around him. He drew all his essence into himself. He didn''t want to feel everything around him. He didn''t want it.


    He focused on the feel of the park bench under his skin, on the feeling of grass on his flip-flopped feet. He closed his eyes, focused on the song of the wind and cicadas. Then he opened them and fixed his attention on the setting sun and the pink clouds over the horizon.


    Finally, he took his face into his hands.


    ''Why do I feel...'' he searched for words, came up empty; wondered why he even wanted words in the first place. Before assuming the form of a human, he''d never wanted them before.


    ''How would I have described this before?'' Bath wondered, unsure why the only image coming to mind was that last blue sky before the asteroid that spelled the end of the Cretaceous. The blue of deep ocean, of open skies and clean air. The innocent blue preceding the dark.

 [Chapter 65] Magnet Planet Inspires an Epic Boon

    Lisa didn''t realize how much she valued being a normal student until her return to Alens. While Lisa had accompanied Bath on fruitless kursi-seeking escapades all throughout high school, she''d never fully given herself over to cause in the same way that she had a few days ago with Basalith''s genesis. Before, she hadn''t had any responsibilities other than to herself and to her family.


    Now?


    "I can''t believe they''re organizing COTD''s lore on a wiki," Lisa shook her head pitifully as she followed the latest news story that popped up on her phone. Apparently, the Dawn and Dusk factions had taken the initiative to organize all the strange and new information arising out of Basalith on a wiki that anybody could add to. Accessing the wiki page, Lisa''s head swam as she saw the endless stream of new content being added by the minute.


    She breathed, then exercised all her self-control to close her laptop''s screen and look at the work in front of her.


    It had already been a day since she and Bath had returned to Alens. In keeping with her pre-gate-traveling sleep schedule, Lisa had fallen asleep at 2 am. Unfortunately, due to her enhancements, she awoke three hours later at 5 am. Instead of getting up, she just lay in bed and let her thoughts wander. She embraced introspection and tried to understand what she wanted to do until she and Bath resumed their act as COTD''s deities.


    One thing Lisa wondered about was whether she was an objectively bad person to lead people along to believe that she was a god. She went in circles, telling herself about all the objectives that the Church of the Dragon would achieve, reminding herself that if she wanted to realize her and Bath''s plan, this was the best way to do so. She also thought about her own inadequacy, especially when compared to Bath. Lisa was personally confident in her abilities as a kursi, especially after comparing herself with the other kursi now under Lepochim''s control and Juserin from planet Illudis. However, she was more than aware that kursi, while rare, weren''t all-powerful entities within the vast universe. Since every world worth mentioning had kursi, Lisa by herself wasn''t anything special.


    By contrast, Bath was some kind of...nearly invincible, indestructible entity. At times, she felt like a pale shadow compared to him, even when they looked equally powerful to COTD members when standing side-by-side. While Lisa knew she was more than a kursi now with her numerous boons, she still wouldn''t be a match for even a small world by herself.


    Lisa laughed a bit at that realization. ''Here I am, feeling insignificant because I can''t single-handedly conquer a foreign planet.'' She knew it was absolutely unreasonable to compare herself to Bath. Still, all the same...when the two of them were supposed to represent balanced and equal forces, Lisa could only feel a bitterness in her heart towards her own inability.


    Though Lisa did feel a bit of comfort in that fact that she''d only, according to Bath, received the "first round" of enhancements. While Bath despised superhero movies and the like because they weren''t "artistic enough," Lisa loved them. She hoped that Bath could give her boons that would grant her the kinds of powers she saw in the X-Men or DC Universe franchises. Could Bath, for instance, make her into the equivalent of an indestructible Superwoman?


    In the end, Lisa also knew a lot of her current weaknesses were due to her inexperience and age. She needed much more time to solidify her skills as a kursi, for one. For instance, despite her raw mental strength, she still hadn''t practiced making mind slaves. Juserin and Jessup both had also mentioned that a kursi''s strength improved over time. With kursi naturally possessing eternal youth, Lisa wondered how strong she would be by the time they drew near to the Core Worlds.


    Having thought about all the above, Lisa then returned to thinking about what she wanted now. She thought about how fast the world was changing--or rather, how fast she was changing it.


    ''Perhaps this college thing really was a good idea,'' Lisa thought solemnly. ''This way, I can experience Earth as a human before the Earth of now no longer exists.'' Besides, Lisa thought, if the campaign across the universe took as long as she assumed it would...perhaps this would be the last time in the foreseeable future that Lisa would even be on Earth.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    That was when she got out of bed and resolved to make a list of things to do.


    ---


    "This is our Pre Big WD list," Lisa beamed, slamming a sheet of paper down in front of Bath. He looked up at her, his expression mildly amused. He looked it over, then chuckled to himself.


    "So it''s essentially a bucket list," Bath teased. "You expecting to die?"


    Lisa slapped his arm and sat down next to him on the picnic bench where he was currently working. "Hush. If we don''t do these things now, we''ll probably never get the chance to do them again."


    Bath gave her a knowing look. "True. When do you want to do these things?" Lisa had made up quite a list.


    She just shrugged. "Whenever we have a spare moment. By the way, I was wondering: when are you going to give me my next round of boons?"


    Bath gave her a serious once over, as though appraising every inch of her body. A dumb expression came over his face as he stopped 2/3 of the way through, eyes transfixed on her chest. Then his eyes snapped up to her face and an innocent expression came over his features.


    "You''re such an idiot," she laughed, then leapt forward and barreled into him. "Seriously. If I didn''t know better I''d think you a total perv."


    He grinned back, his eyes alight with mirth. "How do you know I''m not?"


    "Seriously!" Lisa knew he was just being annoying. She''d gotten over the fact long ago that Bath almost certainly knew her body better than she herself. How else could he give her enhancements or make her perfectly-formfitting clothes that appeared directly on her body?


    "Fine," he roared back, then gathered his bag and supplies, laughing raucously. "Let''s go for a walk. The weather is too nice not to enjoy." Of course, Bath could adapt to any sort of weather, but even he found that mid-seventy degree weather was exceptionally favorable.


    "Well?"


    Bath now gave her a genuinely serious look. "How have your current boons been?"


    "Fine."


    "Do you feel like you''ve fully adjusted to them?"


    Lisa nodded. "Yeah. I think it helped that you gave me weaker boons than Dean to start off with," Lisa acknowledged.


    Bath gave her a half smile. "Probably. So, with regards to boons: I have a few ideas lined up, but I think it''s best if you receive one boon at a time and slowly acclimate yourself."


    "That makes sense."


    "Though, do note that the higher-level boons I''ll be bringing up have many different components to them that could stand alone as lesser boons."


    "Noted," Lisa replied sternly.


    "I think that the first boon you should receive comes from Magnet Planet. Or, more accurately, its inspired by Magnet Planet''s lifeforms."


    Lisa''s eyes lit up. Was he suggesting...?


    "The organisms on Magnet Planet all have the ability to control natural, extremely powerful superconductors within their bodies. On many of them, the superconductor works in tandem with variations such as magnetic exterior additions."


    "Like the iron screw-like fur on the magnet wolves," Lisa interjected.


    "Precisely. However, these kinds of additions simply serve to increase the competitiveness of said species, such as increasing maneuverability or speed. The instinctual control of the internal superconductor is what''s really necessary for these species to levitate on the planet, or at the very least significantly counteract the force of gravity."


    "But I thought tha Magnet Planet''s species relied on the planet''s naturally high magnetism?"


    Bath nodded. "That''s true. Which is why I said that the boon I''ve prepared for you is inspired by the species of Magnet Planet, rather than just a copy and paste insertion of genetic information." In actuality, there was no such thing as a "copy and paste insertion," but since Bath could adapt existing genetic material to other species without much effort, he considered cross-species gene splicing as such.


    "It''s fairly complicated, probably one of the more difficult boons I''ve created," Bath admitted. "The hardest part was making the modifications to keep your boon working on planets with different magnetic fields if I''m absent for some reason and can''t modify the boon in person. A secondary issue was finding a way to adapt your body to function in the presence of an extremely potent, fluctuating magnetic field."


    "Bath, you''ve said enough; I want in. I''ll be able to fly with this, right?"


    "Yes. But be careful; the boon is going to feel much different from those you''ve already received. I''m essentially going to be giving you the equivalent of a new limb, a new muscle. We should probably--"


    "It''s fine! I''ll make it work," Lisa exclaimed. ''Maybe Superwoman isn''t as far off as I thought,'' she thought gleefully to herself. ''Maybe, if I actually master this boon, I won''t have to rely on Bath to travel everywhere.''


    "I knew you''d say that. Why don''t we get started tomorrow, after classes." Tomorrow being Friday, Lisa thought that Bath''s suggestion made logical sense. She recognized that she''d likely need all of Friday evening and the weekend before she''d have enough control over the boon to go out in public without flying off.


    "Sounds great."

 [Chapter 66] Bestowal; Lisa Sings a Song of Pain

    Kayt and Nimesh were currently in the training room for land-shaper Elite. Kayt had originally been sorted into Beginner, a fact that she wasn''t particularly elated about.


    ''At least it wasn''t Apprentice,'' she consoled herself.


    "Nimesh," Kayt called out, "5-4 4-2." Right back, left up. Kayt thought using directional names too crude, especially if she deigned to enter the Arena. She doubted people would be able to make sense of her simple numeric code.


    The possible combinations consisted of a left/right direction and a complementary action, such as left hop, 4-3, or right dodge, 5-5. She and Nimesh had been slow at using the combinations at first, but now Nimesh moved expertly to Kayt''s instructions.


    "0." 0 meant, quite simply, come. Nimesh trotted over, her elegant white form almost instantly crossing the length of the training room. Kayt still couldn''t eliminate her instinctive surprise as the wolf''s speed defied any animal she''d seen before.


    She was confident, however, that such surprise would fade with time. Especially once she obtained boons from the combat processing profession, such as combat processing, strength, and speed.


    ''Thank the Dawn I chose land-shaper as my first profession.'' Kayt knew that given the huge numbers of people who now wanted to make land-shaper their next profession, likely some of them would be forced to choose something else. There was only so much space in each training room, after all.


    ''Though combat processing is a pretty useful first profession,'' Kayt acknowledged. Probably second in utility to land-shaper.


    ---


    Maya didn''t understand all the fuss about the land-shaper and close combat professions. People were missing the connection between the only two people in Expert tier for child educator profession, herself and Herod.When she and Herod were the only two to appear in the Elite level child educator training room, they quickly realized the capabilities of their boons. Accordingly, they planned how they would work to take over Basalith.


    ''It sounds so nefarious when put in those kinds of terms,'' Maya mused. ''We''re serving an important role as the prime educators of the general populace.''


    Maya had been working with Herod to come up with a good name to describe themselves. Maya herself was advocating for Vizier, while Herod hadn''t come up with anything worth mentioning but still insisted on waiting a bit to "think it over."


    While Maya acknowledged the fact that Herod was a great educator--how else could he have made Elite out of the starting gates?--she also recognized the fact that he was fairly dull and unfortunately subservient. ''Easy to manipulate, though'' she noted with a slight bit of distaste.


    Maya loved children. The same couldn''t be said for the people they grew up to be.


    As soon as Maya and Herod had both advanced to Expert, where they were now, they''d realized even further the extent of how overpowered their profession was. Clearly, the intent of the Church and Dragon was to grant everyone the boons of each profession. Therefore, Maya was more than aware of how important it was for her and Herod to move quickly and seize the initiative before everyone was on a level playing field.


    She felt like they were doing a pretty good job so far. People rallied to both her and Herod, respectively, because they could take in all the crazy and distil it down, could construct cogent narratives and make Basalith accessible to even green newcomers. This was the kind of practice that Maya formally engaged in with children and now used on Basalith''s many "sheeple."


    There were a few people, however, who Maya knew were somewhat suspicious over how Maya and Hector ascended to their current places of power in such a short period of time. Maya smirked to herself. ''Let them be suspicious.'' The initiative in Maya''s possession was a weapon that she intended to maximally exploit.


    ---


    "Why are we out here?" Lisa asked, her enhanced balance allowing her to drop directly out of Bath''s elevated chest cavity without the need for assistance. She stood up from a crouch and surveyed the surroundings.


    "It''s empty," Bath stated plainly as he reverted back to human form. He stood in front of her, his figure silhouetted in the light of the setting sun. "You''d be surprised by how many places are." His voice was soft, barely audible over the wind. He strode forward; Lisa followed without being asked.


    Lisa often had difficulty reconciling the playful Bath of human society and the Bath before her now. As she followed behind him to wherever he was intending for them to go by foot, she wondered how much of each Bath was actually real. She wasn''t convincedthat playful Bath and ancient Bath were irreconcilable facades of the same entity. Moreover, she refused to believe that Bath''s human personality was an act, even if Bath claimed that he wore a mask tonavigate human society.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    "What do you see?" he said, stopping in place over a tall dune spotted with desert grass. Lisa walked forward over the sand to join him.


    She narrowed her eyes. "I see lots of sand." Then she turned to look at him. "Should I see something else?"


    A small smirk escaped Bath''s mouth. "You will."


    As Bath gave her a small, cool smile, Lisa felt something changing her body from within. The sensation was incredibly uncomfortable, as though lots of tiny worms were squirming throughout her entire circulatory system.


    "I put you asleep for the first round of enhancements," Bath recalled. "But I think you can handle this round without my assistance." He''d already given her the pain reducing boon while she slept a few days back. "I have faith in your tenacity." Besides, he felt it important she have a sense for the bestowal process everyone else in Basalith endured.


    Lisa gave him a knowing grin. "Don''t worry, I got this. It isn''t that bad."


    "It''s just beginning."


    Lisa gave him a grimace, then steeled herself for indefinite bodily torment. "If someone like Dean can do it, so can I," she growled as the pain level ratcheted up a notch.


    "Someone like Dean? Is that a category of person now?"


    "Grah, shut up," Lisa rasped. "You know what I mean."


    After a few minutes, the pain began to wear off and the squiggly feeling under Lisa''s skin began to subside. Lisa let out a relieved sigh.


    Bath gave her a pained look, wondering if he should''ve just knocked her out. Wondering if the standard procedure should be to just knock everyone out. ''Unsustainable,'' he reminded himself. He didn''t trust anybody but himself to knock people out while they received boons.


    "It''s fine," Lisa said. "I got this. I can''t keep getting special treatment, can''t keep taking the easy way."


    "It''s going to get worse," Bath sighed. "Hold on."


    Lisa''s eyes grew wide; she nervously bit her cheek to bring moisture into her parched mouth. Then, a massive migraine ripped through her concentration.


    "Shit!" she hissed, holding her head. She was grateful for the soft sand underfoot since her natural inclination was to drop to her knees. "What the fuck!?" Now this was pain. "Can''t you give me that pain reducing boon?"


    "Already did it," Bath replied.


    Lisa suddenly felt a large wave of sympathy towards the initial constitution boon recipients. ''Wait...Dean got all his enhancements awake, without reduced pain?''


    "How the hell did Dean not die?" Lisa gasped, cringing through her agony. "Like, before was terrible. Now is excruciating. Which boons did you give him?"


    Seeing Lisa in such a state, Bath really was starting to wonder how Dean managed to endure so much pain. He''d taken an endless stream of powerful boons without displaying any significant signs of strain, at least not at level he''d expect seeing every other human he''d given boons. Based off of all that Bath had observed, Dean actually should''ve passed out from the pain after the first few minutes.


    ''Was it willpower, or something else?''


    "Fuck fuck fuck fuck," Lisa chattered while rocking back and forth. "This is so oh oh oh painful. Pain pain pain." Now she was singing as she tried to keep her throbbing mind occupied. "How how how much lo-o-onger?"


    "Not too much more," Bath admitted. "But you''re going to feel something under your bones in a minute."


    "Under my...?" Lisa didn''t even want to think about what it would feel like to have something under her bones. After a period of time, she knew. "FUCK!"


    "This is the most important part, though," Bath consoled her. "It''s also the final part. I have to generate the superconductive mesh network and connect it to your nerves, then coordinate the whole system with your brain..." as he spoke, Lisa felt as though her bones were being impaled with spikes on the inside. Then, she felt as though her brain and spine were being lit on fire.


    "YOU HAVEN''T GIVEN THIS BOON YET TO ANYONE," Lisa bellowed. "SO IF YOU GIVE IT TO ANYONE ELSE," she took a breath in between statements, "FUCKING KNOCK THEM OUT!"


    Bath flinched. ''Maybe this one is a bit too painful. It''ll probably be fine to knock people out, considering the fact that I''ll be bestowing this one manually for the forseeable future.''


    "Only 15 seconds left," Bath winced. "Might as well hold on."


    "THIS HAS TO BE AT LEAST FIVE TIMES WORSE THAN CHILD BIRTH!" she exclaimed furiously. Now she was hopping around all over the sand as though her feet were aflame.


    Bath cocked his head. "Actually..."


    "SWEET JESUS IT''S OVER!" Lisa suddenly shouted as she collapsed onto the ground, laying on her back. Bath let her breathe for a few moments before kneeling down next to her to talk.


    "That was terrible," she moaned. "Seriously. Knock me out next time if it''s this painful. Or, make a better pain reducing boon."


    Bath rolled his eyes, then cupped a handful of sand in his hand, let the sand fall. "What do you see?"


    Lisa gave Bath an exasperated snort. "Nothing!"


    Bath just raised an eyebrow, then relaxed his expression into a satisfied grin. "Good." How he conjured up a heap of iron shavings. "Watch." He threw the shavings up into the air, using his essence to paint them across the sky. Soon, Lisa began to see what Bath was talking about.


    "What...?"


    "This place has a very bizarre magnetic field," Bath explained. "To be honest, I''m not exactly sure why. I came across it a long time ago, and only remembered it now as I thought over locations for honing your new boon."


    Lisa wondered just how long ago Bath was talking about. "Okay. So you''re saying that all these iron shavings are tracing out the field lines in this desert area?"


    "Right. Now, wherever you go from now on, you need to keep in mind that there are invisible magnetic field lines everywhere. You need to build up a sensitivity to magnetic fields so that adjusting your own superconductive field within them becomes second-nature."


    Lisa gave him a dubious look. "Sounds pretty difficult."


    "So is taking over the world," he shot back.


    "True. I''m not backing out, in any case. Difficult just means a better payoff in the end."


    "Now that you can see the field lines in this area, I want you to walk all throughout this dune. After you feel like you can sense where the field is without any help, we''ll move onto the next step."


    Lisa nodded. "Got it."

 [Chapter 67] Magnetic Sense; Basalith Faction Life

    "What''s going to happen to magnetic devices when they get near me?" Lisa asked while walking along the edge of the dune.


    "Ideally nothing," Bath answered. "That''s contingent on how well you can control your new boon. Don''t try to use it with your cell phone in your pocket."


    "Fair enough. You know, this isn''t as hard as you said it would be." After only half an hour of walking around, Lisa felt like she was starting to get a good sense of the area''s magnetic field. When she walked past, she felt the magnetic field inside of herself, as though something within her was contracting and expanding ever so slightly to the presence or absence of magnetism. In the beginning, she didn''t notice it at all; now she was acutely aware of it.


    "Can you feel the Earth''s magnetic field yet? As in, the field created by the poles?"


    Lisa gave him an uncertain look. "Maybe? I can feel the field in this area easily enough." Though that was likely just the strange magnetic field that pervaded the area.


    "It''s fine. You''ll get a better sense for it once you reach a higher altitude and leave behind this area''s magnetic noise."


    "Wait, I can start flying now?" Despite the fact that Lisa could now sense the magnetic field in the area without too much trouble, she didn''t feel any other differences in her body. "How?"


    Suddenly, Lisa felt herself rising upward. "Bath!" she yelped. In the blink of an eye, she was suspended twenty feet above the ground.


    "Do you feel that?"


    "No!"


    "You should be feeling something as I change your altitude. I''m manually controlling your boon right now. Think of this like...oh, someone teaching a kid how to write by holding their hand and writing letters."


    "That is not how kids learn how to write," Lisa shouted back from above. "However, I get what you''re trying to say. I feel like something is changing, but it''s hard to isolate. I just feel a lot of tugging force all over the inside of my body."


    "Now?"


    "Now I feel it a lot more in my chest," Lisa admitted.


    "Good. Can you try to control the sensation? Move it around?"


    Lisa scrunched her face up in concentration. "Like this?" She began to rotate slowly to her left as she concentrated some of the force into her left arm. Unfortunately, this also meant that she began to tilt vertically.


    "Wait, help," she called out, uncomfortable at the thought of her face being the closest part of her to the ground.


    "I''m keeping you aloft," Bath reassured her. "Just continue practicing. Maybe try concentrating the sensation into your feet."


    As Lisa did so, she began to sink slowly downward and rotate right-side up. She exhaled a sigh of relief. "How have I been doing?"


    Bath gave her a wry smile. "If I wasn''t interfering, you would''ve smashed into the earth a few seconds ago."


    Lisa''s face grew ashen. "Wait, seriously?"


    Bath nodded. "I''ve given you a powerful boon, Lisa. You can use it to fly, or at least to simulate flight through extending the duration of a jump. You can also use it to keep yourself rooted in one place. I''m personally interested in seeing how much magnetic force you can pack into a punch." Ideally, when Lisa mastered the boon, she would be able to manipulate magnetic force within her body to accelerate one of her limbs. In that sense, she''d be able to explode outward with a lightning-fast punch. This put a huge strain on the body, though it was one that Bath had already accounted for.


    "So if I was to keep concentrating this downward force in my feet, and you were to just let me fall..."


    Bath gave her a mischievous grin.


    "Bath...Ahg!" Lisa only took a split second to fall the whole twenty feet. When she made contact with the ground, ripples of sand exploded outward. Since her feet were effectively glued in place, Lisa fell forward onto her hands in an incredibly awkward downward dog pose.


    "That was cool," she stated breathlessly. "Now how do I get back up?"


    "First, try to move the sensation out of your feet so that it''s evenly distributed throughout your body."


    Lisa realized that she was continuously sinking through the sand at a somewhat alarming rate and wasted no time in spreading the force around. It took her about a minute until it was evenly distributed.


    "Now what?"


    "The easiest way to ascend is for you to jump, then move the sensation into your upper body." Bath was pleased that his boon was working well.


    "What is the sensation, anyways? Does it have a name?"


    "Just think of it as your magnetic sense." It wasn''t like the sensation itself was the cause of Lisa''s movement; it was simply a control mechanism that Bath incorporated into the boon to control the superconductors.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "Okay. So, I jump up, then concentrate my magnetic sense in my upper body...got it." Lisa sprang about ten feet into the air with a strength-enhanced jump, all the while trying to move the magnetic sense into her upper body. She failed, gravity pulling her back to the ground.


    "Well, I tried," she stated dejectedly.


    Bath cracked a smile. "We have today and the weekend. Patience."


    "Patience my ass," she grunted, then immediately tried the maneuver again.


    ''She picked this up quite quickly,'' Bath mused. ''I wonder how far she''ll get in three days, let alone a century.''


    ---


    Dean was starting to get freaked out by the cultishness of the two factions. Now, daily, the two faction heads organized ritual worship workshops where they explained the miracles of the Church and the Dragon and then led people in prayer.


    Dean felt conspicuous in his white tabard, not really sure exactly what he''d been forced into when he''d first accepted Lisa''s invitation to Dawn faction. Not that it mattered, considering that he''d be forced into a faction either way. He didn''t know a single person who wasn''t wearing a tabard.


    He sighed as he focused on cultivating his artist boon. Still an Apprentice after two days, he was starting to wonder if maybe he should have started with something else.


    ''Just so long as it isn''t combat related,'' he thought knowingly to himself. ''I already have enough trouble with that as it is.'' In the end, Dean had asked one of the brown-robed peacekeepers about having his own private room for training his "special" combat skills. Only a minute later, a squirrel guide had come into the room and beckoned for Dean to follow. Accordingly, he''d been directed to a large, private training room fairly out of the way of everything else. Dean wondered how many rooms the maze-like basement encompassed.


    He''d been practicing there over the past two days when not working on cultivating the Apprentice tier artist boon: fractured visualization. In the beginning, Dean had no idea what that meant. Soon, however, he realized that with the boon, it became far easier to merge separate concepts together into new ideas. An example of this was visualizing a generic flower and ocean. Now, as he stared at his canvas, Dean was able to create a completely unique mesh of flower and ocean into a beautiful, if not somewhat abstract, image.


    Dean had always loved painting, despite lacking the requisite artistic talent to do it as more than a hobby. Now, glancing at the heap of drying canvasses off to his left, he was really beginning to appreciate the power of Bath''s boons even in disciplines separate from combat.


    Not everyone in the Apprentice room was working on painting. Quite a few were engaged in what looked to be incredibly exhaustive dances. Others were practicing in a separate, smaller training room just down the hall with lots of soundproof practice rooms.


    Dean was somewhat frustrated because, despite the many canvasses he''d painted, he still hadn''t advanced to Beginner.


    ''Am I simply that challenged at making art?''


    Much to his relief, after two more hours and two more completed canvasses, respectively, Dean was approached by the room''s peacekeeper about advancement.


    ''About time,'' he thought scathingly. ''I wonder what the second boon will be like.''


    ---


    Edgewood had no doubts in his mind that the two new factions were perhaps the best thing to come to Basalith since boons and land-shaper interior decorating. He particularly liked how snazzy the Dusk tabard looked on his armored form.


    After 6 days at Basalith, Edgewood was proud of his rapid advancement to theExpert tier of close combat. Now, instead of sparring with various quasi-sapient animal species, Edgewood and the others of Expert tier fought amongst themselves. They were all equipped in faction-provided dragonleaf armor and practiced using various dragonleaf weapons against one another.


    Edgewood loved how Basalith functioned like a post-scarcity utopia. Anything that anyone requested of the guilds they would get. Probably.


    ''As long as the request isn''t...unconventional,'' Edgewood acknowledged, recalling a story from two days ago about somebody asking a land-shaper to make a dragonleaf vibrator. Apparently, the faction leader appeared in person to rant about the waste of time and resources.Nevertheless, the day afterward, a land-shaper had personally set up shop on the side to service such requests.


    Aside from a few similar incidents regarding strange requests, the factions were excellent at creating and distributing resources. For example, Edgewood had already acquired five abstract paintings created by people in the artist profession and distributed by Dusk faction.


    The factions were also sponsors of the Daily Black and White, the largest newspaper reporting on what was happening in Basalith. This publication, along with a few other fledgling magazines, were huge "employers" of the educator, administrator, scholar, and tactician professions. Not that inhabitants of Basalith actually worked in the traditional sense. Rather, as soon as people found that utilizing their new mental boons to write articles sped up advancement to the next tier, everyone was itching to join in.


    Edgewood personally found the Daily Black and White hilarious. Since it was sponsored by both the Dawn and Dusk factions, the opinion section that made up the majority of its daily bulk was, in part, a giant battleground of wit and rhetoric. Next to each opinion writer''s name was their faction affiliation, and opinion topics always had two people opining from the "white" side and from the "black" side, respectively. Because everyone universally acknowledged that neither faction had a perfect idea or explanation for everything that was going on in Basalith, the white and black opinions had a lot of fun coming up with conflicting and absurd theological and scientific explanations for everything.


    This was one of the main reasons why, when Edgewood advanced a few hours into the 6th day and was given the option to choose a new profession, he chose specialized educator. Another motivating factor was that a large part of what he''d done in the military was teaching people new tactics and drills, as well as instructing people in close combat.


    ''It feels like I was back on the base ages ago,'' Edgewood sighed wistfully to himself. It felt like far more than just 6 days had passed since his abduction. Since then, he''d stopped responding to his CO, being more than aware of just how tenuous the U.S.''s power was now that COTD had appeared. ''Even now, Basalith can probably give the entire army a run for its money.'' Edgewood couldn''t wait to see where Basalith would go after the city unlocked the next stage professions and people ascended beyond Expert.


    Now that Edgewood had technically chosen his side in the inevitable clash between church and state, he was determined to ensure that he was on the winning team. While Edgewood didn''t doubt that Basalith would be able to stand againstthe United States, standing against all of NATO was another thing altogether. Therefore, he figured becoming a specialized instructor would be a great way for him to speed people through the advancement process, particularly the close combat profession.


    ''It''d be fucking lit if I could make my own school, like a dojo,'' he thought to himself. Then he wondered, ''Can the quasi-sapients learn martial arts?'' His mind relished the image of the lithe raptor-like quasi-sapients ripping into human forces with well-placed talon strikes, or the innocent-looking lemur quasi-sapients jabbing their fingers into pressure points...


    Edgewood shook his head, clearing his desires from his mind. First things first, he needed to follow the cute little squirrel ahead of him to the specialized educator Apprentice training room and get started.

 [Chapter 68] Wandering Thoughts; Lepochims Weekly Update

    Bath looked on patiently as Lisa practiced utilizing her new boon. He enjoyed moments like this, basking in the light of the sun, spreading his toes into the sand, smelling the various scents drifting on the wind. He''d always marveled at how quickly the sun seemed to drift over the land; now was no different. He traced its crescent path through the East, its hazy glow through a small patch of thin clouds, then its high ascent in the sweltering desert azure. He loved to mark the spot at which the sun reached its apex, the quarter-point of its cycle around the Earth.


    Back when he was younger, he chased the sun as a game. He''d follow it as it moved so as to avoid either night or day entirely for indefinite periods of time. Now, even though the humans developed accurate descriptions of the Sun rooted in science, Bath didn''t look on its glowing form any less fondly than before. ''A first friend,'' Bath thought nostalgically. He hadn''t understood the concept of loneliness until the evolution of birds hundreds of millions of years after his memory began. And even then, he chose not to embrace such a sentiment, content to fill his role as apex predator in Earth''s planetary ecosystem.


    ''And now look at me,'' he thought to himself. ''Cultivating such a flimsy thing as friendship.'' Even as he said this to himself, a smile came over his face as Lisa nearly smashed her butt into a sand dune, only pulling away at the last minute with a pitiful shriek. ''The dawn to my dusk; it''s fitting.''


    "Isn''t it boring to stare off into space all day?" Lisa asked from afar while she practiced staying in place a few feet above the ground.


    Bath looked her way. "What?"


    "You''ve been looking at the sky for the past several hours," Lisa pointed out. "If you were looking at me, I know you would''ve been laughing nonstop."


    Bath chuckled. "Perhaps." He looked up to the sky again, as though the answer to her question lie in wait. "The sky is a true miracle," he said at last. "A little blue dome keeping us all from the vacuum beyond."


    Lisa gave him a surprised expression. "Feeling contemplative?"


    "I like deserts," Bath admitted. "I''ve spent lots of time in them. You''ve never seen how deserts form, nor have you seen how they end. It''s beautiful." The process was akin to an animal dying, being worn down to its bones, and then growing flesh again. It defied reason that the same stretch of land could be verdant one year and a sickly the next, then dry and dead; and then, after thousands or millions of years, green again. Deserts were death and resurrection.


    "Deserts are just dead wastelands," Lisa retorted. "And yes, I''m aware deserts have lots of animals. I like nature documentaries. But compared to, I don''t know, a rainforest, deserts are so..." Lisa searched for words, the resulting waving of her arms causing her to spin in place like a top.


    "I understand," Bath interrupted with a calm smile. "Though I still enjoy them."


    He walked over to her, then put a hand on her arm, enjoying the sensation of feeling with flesh rather than essence. He halted her spinning movement, giving her an amused chuckle before backing away. "Hurry up; we only have tomorrow, then we''ll be returning to Alens."


    "How does Alens help you further your goals?" Lisa suddenly asked.


    Bath just gave her a look. "Why must everything I do coincide directly with my stated goals?" he asked. "I want to learn." In actuality, the simplest answer was his natural curiosity. ''I could be creating more boons, or personally destroying world governments or leaders...but what, in the end, is the point?''


    First and foremost, Bath wished to experience the world, to live in it to the absolute fullest. He wanted to save Earth from the accelerated climactic effects of Global Warming because Earth was still, at this time, in a beautiful, vibrant age. He realized now just how correct he''d been in his thinking; the kinds of scientific progressions humans could make left even him with a feeling of awe. To see future progress cut short by environmental calamity seemed a terrible waste.


    Similarly, his goal to reach the Core Worlds was largely fueled by his simple desire to experience as much as possible of the world at large, to leave no wines untasted...or, perhaps in his case, no species undevoured. If he truly did live for millions, billions, trillions more years...how could he ever be satisfied, knowing now that his experience was limited to a little speck at the fringes of the universe?


    He didn''t know when, but sometime along the long road to forming Basalith, Bath realized sharing his experiences with another was more enjoyable than reminiscing alone. Accordingly, he was eager to elevate Lisa to a level at which she could walk unaided at his side as they traveled the universe, experiencing everything fully together.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    "Lisa," he called out. "Try focusing more of the magnetic sense into your hips and chest. It should help you stabilize yourself as you move."


    He returned his gaze to the sky, plunging his feet into the dune so that his calves were half-obscured in the sand. There was something inherently better about embodiment. Sure, Bath could dissipate himself so that he was just a tiny speck-like existence swimming in his own essence, feeling the world through essence tendrils alone...but the thought made him uncomfortable.


    ''Through essence alone, the world is a surface.'' Thoughts didn''t need to explain how different reality with all of its nuanced sights and sounds was from a 3-D impression.


    Bath continued to give Lisa pointers as night shrouded the desert in darkness once again. She''d need to sleep at some point, but not for a few more hours. He''d considered bestowing upon her an enhancement to fully eliminate the need for sleep, but had decided against doing so.


    When the time for sleep came, the Lisa sat down on the Dune and beckoned Bath over to be her pillow. Bath walked over, shifting into the form of a white wolf and curling around her.


    Neither spoke, content with silence and each other''s company. When Lisa''s eyes shut and remained closed, her breath cycling in a steady rhythm, Bath watched the rise and fall of her chest and felt the compression and expansion of her ribs on his stomach.


    He waited, unmoving, until Lisa''s breath broke its pattern and her eyes squinted open.


    "Ugh, how long was I asleep?" she asked.


    "3.5 hours," Bath replied. "Ready to continue?"


    "Let me go to the bathroom," she admonished. "Can you give that fake toilet paper and toothpaste stuff?"


    Bath snorted, then fulfilled the request. "Here."


    "Thanks!" Bath smiled fondly as Lisa marched off to a far off dune for "privacy." She always underestimated just how far 3.6 miles was, which was good for her since the toilet paper and toothpaste Bath had generated were both made from his essence. If she left his 3.6 mile radius of influence, they would both disappear.


    However, he let her believe that she was going beyond his range...let her believe that he wasn''t the one who actually had to re-internalize the soiled essence products. ''What makes her so sheepish about going to the bathroom when I penetrate every inch of her body with my essence?'' Bath shook his head; modern humans had some pretty useless social norms. He remembered when he''d told Lisa that the public bathhouse was, well, open. As in, people all bathed together, naked, in a large bathing pool. "That''s so weird!" she had spluttered. "I wouldn''t want just anyone to see, you know, everything!"


    Lisa quickly returned from her bathroom expedition. "I''m ready," she began, "for breakfast!"


    "Already prepared," Bath grinned. "Desert cuisine, bon appetite."


    "This is going to be better than yesterday''s breakfast, right?"


    Bath shrugged. "No promises."


    Lisa shook her head as she approached. "You''re hopeless."


    After eating what was apparently another unsatisfactory meal, Lisa began to practice using her magnetic sense once again.


    ---


    Lepochim began this week''s final kursi update. He planned to do three updates on each Sunday so that he could address 1/3 of the kursi at a time. This way, he could ensure that the kursi would have sufficient numbers to populate all the training rooms and patrol high-traffic areas.


    "Hello, group three," he stated crisply. "It''s time for the first weekly update of the year." His eyes scanned the brown-robed forms before him, his yellow irises standing out sharply on his black corneas. "First, I will allow you all time to discuss problems that you have encountered."


    Lepochim waited expectantly. After a moment of hesitation, a kursi raised his hand.


    "Yes."


    "I''ve been finding it difficult to control the citizens when they fight against one another in large groups."


    Lepchim nodded his head in a knowing fashion.


    "Anything else?"


    The room was quiet.


    "Good. I''ll be addressing that question in my update, so pay attention. As you all no doubt have realized, Basalith is rapidly increasing in population. Have any of you noticed that the city''s walls have been expanding outward?" Seeing only blank faces, Lepochim continued. "Well, they have been, thanks to Bath''s latest...creation." Lepochim had to admit that he held a great deal of respect for Bath''s abilities after the synthesis of spineroot. Lepochim had never seen its like even across all the worlds he''d traversed both on campaign and on his way to exile.


    "The city will expand as needed in response to population influx. The city will also be protected from aerial and ground attacks of all types. Essentially, the city is, to human technology, impregnable.


    "That''s the first update. Update number two: the two factions have, as I''m sure you''ve noticed, proliferated wildly throughout the city. Your defensive boons should be enough to protect you from any kind of conflict, even with people receiving all kinds of miscellaneous boons. Don''t shy away from breaking up fights. Additionally, you''re all going to be receiving a peacekeeping bat in a day.


    "Why?" he asked rhetorically as half the kursi gave him confused, alarmed expressions. "Bats don''t look cute or adorable." ''Like those damned squirrels. What was Bath thinking?'' "Moreover, they''re giant quasi-sapient bats adapted for riding. They look..." Lepochim waved his hand as he sought an appropriate description. "Dragon-like. Anyways, you''ll be receiving them soon. I''ll provide training on Monday evening.


    "As a final update, the Arena is in full-swing ahead of schedule. Many of you have probably already noticed this. The Arena is to be one of your most useful tools. Whenever there exists chaos that you cannot calm down alone or in small groups, issue an Arena summons to any parties embroiled in conflict. In this way, you are to streamline chaos to one area."


    "In response to the earlier question about having difficulty controlling groups of people: when groups have unified goals, it''s inherently difficult for a kursi to diminish said goal in any noticeable capacity. This is the reason why we have the bats and the Arena. Further questions?"


    Seeing none, Lepochim dismissed the group.

 [Chapter 69] Meeting Olm the Devilbat; Terrorist Threat

    ''Why do these humans glorify close combat?'' Lepochim muttered to himself while traversing the basement of The Anima. ''Most of them aren''t ever going to do any real fighting.'' Lepochim had been privy to information on the hierarchy and Lisa''s plan to have society break up into peaceful and war divisions. Under her framework, the vast majority of people wouldn''t participate directly in warfare.


    ''Especially with these absurdly overpowered biological mutations,'' Lepochim sighed to himself. ''And I thought the Sigenolf-74 special technologies division was fairly close to the pinnacle of biomanipulation outside of the Core.'' The squirrel in front of him suddenly came to a stop outside of a door.


    "The bats?" he asked out loud. The squirrel chattered its teeth in response, then fluffed its tail. Emotionless, Lepochim opened the door and entered the room. Since the bats were quasi-sapients, they technically had a huge complex to live in that stretched from far beneath the Earth''s surface to the height of a typical Basalith residential building. Like most quasi-sapients, the bats'' numbers totaled around 2000; considering their size, and diet, they needed all the space they could get.


    "Bats," Lepochim bellowed as he announced his presence. "Send your leader to chat." Not that Lepochim could control dragonleaf to have a conversation due to his debilitating seal, but he did have a translation chip. Though, based off of his conversation with the leader of the squirrels, Lepochim was really starting to doubt the chip''s advertised body-language reading abilities.


    He heard the creenings of bats from all around, echoing off the cave-like interior of the room from who knows where. The room was small, empty, clearly a foyer to the real living quarters beyond. After a minute, a large bat dropped into the room from the ceiling, walking across the floor on its two back legs.


    Lepochim had seen native Earth bats, though hadn''t paid them much notice. Despite his lack of experience, he could tell that these "bats" were really something else. Bath had taken more...liberties with some species than others. Perhaps the least changed, aesthetically, were the wolves; the most changed were undoubtedly the wasps.


    While Lepochim recalled thinking that normal bats looked awkward and unbalanced, the bat before him looked anything but. It walked forward confidently--swiftly--on its two short legs, its wings stretched out behind it on the sides. Lepochim had the distinct impression that if the bat needed to move quickly, it would make much better time on all fours.


    He had no doubts the bat would be more than adequate at transporting the kursi by air. He carefully regarded the bat before him, the one that he would almost certainly take as his own mount. He was giving a training session on riding the bats today, in a few hours; first, he needed to figure out how to ride himself.


    ''How hard can it be?'' he scoffed silently to himself. ''After all the training I''ve gone through with various different vehicles and weapons system...'' Lepochim didn''t think Bath would make bat-flying so difficult that the lowest common denominator of the kursi wouldn''t be able to succeed. Being, of course, of the highest common denominator, Lepochim had an absolute confidence in himself.


    The bat stopped in front of him, standing at just around 6 feet. Lepochim was able to discern many more details about the bat than he''d noticed initially, particularly its large ears and upturned, devilish nose. The large, spiked, dragon-like wings and tail were also fairly obvious, along with bat''s numerous curving horns.


    "What do you call yourselves?" Lepochim asked. He nervously hoped the translator would work.


    The giant quasi-sapient exhaled in a surprisingly human gesture. Then spoke: "Devilbats."


    Lepochim''s eyebrows rose as he heard the deep, raspy voice. Clearly a male, if its vocal register was anything comparable to that of most sapients. Lepochim hadn''t been aware that Bath had made some of his quasi-sapients...more "sapient" than others. The squirrels, for instance, seemed particularly...dull. The mystery behind how they knew where to appear and where to go frustrated Lepochim to no end. This species was sapient enough to actually be capable of speech.


    "So you speak."


    "We do. Our Creator, the Dragon, gave us translators, so that we may converse with others."


    Lepochim''s eyes narrowed. ''Did he find a way to create biological facsimiles of the translator chip?'' Lepochim dismissed the idea. ''Impossible. He must''ve found a way to translate their own bat language directly into English.'' That was the only way that could explain why even now Lepochim''s translator was working.


    "How fortunate. I''m sure your species'' future companions--my kursi--will enjoy having conversation partners."


    "Perhaps." The devilbat''s enormous frame seemed to loom over Lepochim, even though Lepochim was slightly taller. Despite their high average height, deepthinks were naturally slight of figure, something starkly obvious now as Lepochim faced the hulking figure before him.


    "What do you call yourself?"


    "Olm. And yourself?"


    "Lepochim."If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The two stared at each other for around a minute, clearly sizing each other up. In the end, Lepochim spoke first. "I''m here as the representative of the kursi. Seeing that you''re the representative of the devilbats, it''s only naturally that we become partners and pave the way for mutual collaboration."


    "Working together is the end goal of the Dragon. Seeing that he''s placed a modicum of faith in you, I consent. Let us form a bond."


    Lepochim shook his head. "No need to form a dragonleaf bond. My ability to manipulate dragonleaf has been sealed." He''d even tried utilizing land-shaper boons, to no avail. The seal on his mind manipulation clearly blocked out far more than Lepochim had originally thought. However, Lepochim felt he was an expert by now at turning nuisances into advantages. "In all honesty, forgoing the bond seems a much more equitable way of starting our relationship."


    Olm cocked his head. "Interesting. This proposal to have a bond based on trust rather than mental connection. I''ll accept it eagerly." Despite his words, Olm didn''t sound particularly eager, an unfortunate consequence of his foreboding appearance and inability to properly inflect his voice. Then, the devilbat continued: "We should go to the aviary below. We have some flying obstacle courses set up for practice."


    Lepochim nodded, then fell in stride behind Olm, wondering just what the difference was, in this case, between "quasi-sapient" and the real thing.


    ---


    The flight back to Alens had been quite the experience. Bath had insisted that Lisa first try out her new boon by "hitching a ride.". It had been no doubt one of the coolest experiences in her life, even when compared to visiting other planets, confronting aliens, and making her own theocracy. Hitching a ride essentially consisted of Bath (somehow) generating a magnetic field, which then she could latch onto from the outside. In that way, despite Bath''s incredibly rapid speed as he returned to Alens, Lisa could stay stationary relative to his form. Due to all of her defensive boons, she was able to survive the high-speed trip and quickly heal off any sustained damages as soon as she landed.


    She''d never imagined that flying over the Earth could be so...painful. On the one hand, she was concentrating the entire time to make sure she stayed aloft next to Bath. On the other, she was constantly squinting her eyes and spitting things out of her mouth as various bugs and atmospheric particles crashed into her.


    Despite that, the view afforded to her, seeing the world at Bath''s side with her own eyes, rather than just through a window...she couldn''t wait to do it again. She hoped that eventually, she wouldn''t even need to hitch a ride on Bath to fly next to him.


    Lisa particularly marveled over how she and Bath moved faster than the sunrise. As they shot through time zones, eventually arriving at Alens at dawn, they had been constantly enveloped in the light of the sun rising from the East as they traveled West. As the flew, the day seemed to temporally regress as they drew farther and farther away.


    Because the desert area where they were practicing had about a 6 hour time difference from the East Coast of the United States, to arrive at dawn on Monday actually meant that they needed to leave before noon.


    When they arrived back at Alens, Lisa had been a little overwhelmed by the huge amounts of electromagnetic noise on the ground. As she walked, she felt as though she was passing through endless, hair-thin streams of magnetism; so small that they were inconsequential, but by now her magnetic sense was such that she could still detect them.


    Upon arriving, as Bath had instructed her to do, Lisa concentrated about half of her magnetic sense into her feet and legs, with the other half mainly concentrated in her torso. This way, even if she didn''t properly control her magnetic sense, she wouldn''t start flying away. If Alens were built out of sand, she''d likely start sinking down; however, being a prestigious university, Alens was primarily built out of hardwood and marble. It would take much more force than Lisa could apply accidentally to break the floor.


    Another reason why Bath told her to keep her personal magnetic field concentrated into her lower body and torso was so that it wouldn''t leak out into her surroundings, expanding beyond her body and inducing a current in nearby objects. Lisa''s magnetic field had the ability to fluctuate rapidly, which really would spell disaster for many nearby electronics. Even her nonfluctuating magnetic field would ruin computer hard drives or other magnetic storage devices.


    "Thank the Dawn you''re a liberal arts major," Bath snort-laughed as they walked to their residential building, Ellis.


    Lisa ran up against his side and slapped him on the arm. "Thank the DUSK you''re..." Lisa trailed off, a frown coming over her face.


    "You can''t even think of anything to be thankful for," Bath cracked up. "How ungrateful..."


    Lisa glared. "Thank the Dusk you''re such a gluttonous, omnipotent-within-a-3.6-mile-radius, black hole."


    Bath tilted his head, then shrugged. "Can''t argue with that."


    Lisa rolled her eyes and wrapped Bath''s arm in her own. "It''s so strange how nobody is awake. The sun''s up, after all."


    Bath gave her a dubious look. "Before I gave you the boon to reduce your need to sleep, you never woke up willingly before noon."


    "But you''d think there''d be someone, athletes or adults or something."


    Bath cocked his head, then looked around. "Hmm..."


    "What?"


    "This is awkward."


    "What?"


    He gave her a sheepish look. "I stopped spreading out my essence while we were in the desert, so I didn''t realize it when we arrived. You''re right; nobody''s outside. We must have missed something important, an announcement."


    "Well, my phone died two days ago," Lisa replied. "Let''s just get back to the dorm--"


    "Wait, someone nearby has their TV on." So not everyone was asleep; they just weren''t outdoors. Bath quickly sent his essence into the dorm in question, forming essence eyes and ears in an instant. As he listened, he relayed to Lisa what he learned.


    "Apparently, the U.S. government has called for a state of emergency," he said slowly. "To deal with the Virginia Terrorist Threat."


    "Wow, seriously?" Lisa asked, not in the least perturbed. "They''re actually going to try to do something?"


    "Because of the state of emergency, the government released an announcement two days ago that all citizens within 200 miles of the state of Virginia should stay inside starting Monday until further notice. Everybody should suspend their jobs and plans and stay inside, with the exception of necessary professions like police, firefighters, doctors, etc."


    "What? Why?" Lisa''s expression now grew rather excited. "They''re actually going to move against Basalith?"


    Bath shook his head. "The news broadcast isn''t saying anything more. I''m also curious as to what they''re planning." He didn''t know why the 200 miles was necessary. Did they plan on luring Basalith''s fighters to the surrounding areas, instead of waging siege warfare against the city itself?


    "Do you think we should head back?"


    Bath gave her an amused grin. "They''ll be fine."

 [Chapter 70] The United States Attacks; a Foregone Conclusion

    Dean was a bit shocked that literally nobody seemed concerned about the U.S. government''s intentions to surround and attack Basalith. It was business as usual: people training in the private training rooms, people training by applying their abilities to actual tasks, etc. The entire city had been in a non-stop frenzy since its inception, particularly once everyone realized that not only was COTD not a hoax, it truly fulfilled its leading promise: everyone could advance in the city''s hierarchy system.


    Dean heard that there was a healing pool set up somewhere where the physically and mentally disabled could go to receive "normalization," whatever that was. Dean didn''t really ascribe to the idea that "normal" was a quantifiable status. What did it even mean for the pool to "cure" someone of down syndrome? Dean didn''t have any idea how such a thing could transpire.


    There was, of course, another pool set aside for the sick. Actually, there were three of these pools to deal with predictably heavy traffic.


    Because of these pools, everybody was able to advance quickly through the ranks of whatever profession they chose regardless of any serious biological setbacks upon first arriving. Dean had long since realized, after advancing through the artist profession, that the point of boons wasn''t to do something outlandish like transplant knowledge. Rather, it made everything infinitely more intuitive. Easy.


    Dawn faction''s leader, Maya, had sent out a message to the faction''s members as soon as the U.S.''s announcement went out. "Everyone with combat-applicable boons, get ready; Monday marks the commencement of our Goddess'' white crusade!" Since this proclamation was said with the same fervor as every other announcement, no matter how mundane, many people didn''t digest her words even as they cheered in response. Even Dean had just mindlessly cheered along before he stopped himself and thought hard about what a "white crusade" would look like.


    Just thinking about the U.S. government was enough to make him sigh. He knew that this conflict had a foregone conclusion; even if, by some disaster, Basalith lost in a confrontation, Dean suspected that all of Earth''s military forces wouldn''t be worthy enough to challenge Bath.To think he was my roommate...Christ.


    ---


    The attack came in the middle of Lepochim''s first devilbat training lesson.


    "I hear someone above ground," Olm grumbled as he pumped his wings. Lepochim was shocked by how much strength he needed just to stay on the devilbat''s back. He barely even heard the devilbat''s words while concentrating on staying aloft.


    "What? The U.S. government''s attack?" Lepochim''s attitude on the whole thing was that if the U.S. could actually do any damage to Basalith, good on them. They just better be ready for retaliation.


    Olm pumped his wings. "Let''s go up and see."


    Lepochim had the wind knocked out of him as Olm pivoted sharply upward and out of the flight room. ''Is he completely unaware how difficult he''s making this for me?'' Lepochim wondered irritably to himself. Soon, they arrived in the main spire of the devilbat residential tower. Down its center was a large shaft that devilbats could use to quickly fly up and down the building. Olm entered the shaft without a second thought, enjoying the sensation of the air on his wings as he rocketed upward. At the top of the building was an exit hole leading to the open air. Olm spiraled out of the hole to slow down his motion, nearly throwing Lepochim off.


    "Do all of you fly like that?" Lepochim heaved, his ribs undoubtedly bruised.


    "No." Lepochim had no idea if the devilbat was serious or messing around, his tone impossible to detect. "But flying in this fashion, we arrive in style."


    Lepochim narrowed his eyes, then shook his head, recalling why they had rushed out in the first place. "Do you see anything amiss?"


    "Just that pillar of flame on Basalith''s eastern side."


    "What!?" Lepochim couldn''t see anything from where they were now. "Go closer."


    "Patience," Olm crooned. "I see that there are U.S. forces surrounding the city on the eastern front with huge, flammable artillery."


    Lepochim sniffed. He''d heard about bats using echolocation before; apparently Olm''s was good enough to see even a few miles out. "Flammable artillery isn''t going to help them in the slightest." If Bath hadn''t made spineroot capable of resisting fire, what the hell good was it?


    "Oof, there went another chopper," the devilbat said in his typical monotone.


    "Can you please fly closer?" Lepochim snapped. ''I''ll have to ask Bath about echolocation later...''


    Olm snorted, then zoomed forward, his abrupt acceleration nearly unseating Lepochim for the umpteenth time. Soon, they reached the eastern wall of the city.


    "You''re right; what a waste of metal," Lepochim chuckled lightly, wincing at his ribs. They''d never heal if Olm continued to whip him around like a rag doll.


    Spineroot was doing its job, alright. While Lepochim daily cursed Bath''s name for a plethora of reasons, his ability to design plant lifeforms wasn''t one of them. Lepochim watched in smug earnest as the spineroot''s gnarled, root-like tendrils whipped out and snared yet another helicopter, swiftly whipping the thing onto the ground next to a flaming heap of other broken vehicles.Stolen story; please report.


    To Lepochim''s surprise, he saw that spineroot actually did burn. Just not fast enough to matter.


    "This is pitiful," Olm observed. "To think that humans rose to the top of Earth''s food chain."


    Lepochim had a complicated expression on his face. ''Not just humans; practically any sapient force in my recollection would have endless difficulty dealing with spineroot.'' That Bath had created spineroot in a matter of days was a sobering thought.


    "Why do you think they want everyone to stay inside their homes within a 200-mile radius?" Lepochim asked, curious to see what Olm''s analysis of the situation was. He was still trying to discern for himself just how "sapient" the devilbat was.


    "Their plan was probably to smoke out Basalith. Since they know from experience how fast enhanced humans and animals can be, they probably left a 200-mile radius open in which to engage in battle."


    "They couldn''t have based that entire plan on smoking us out," Lepochim objected.


    Olm suddenly dodged left, his wings slightlysinged by the sudden flare of heat. Lepochim''s heart raced at the close call. "Plasma beams. So the U.S. does have a weapon worth our attention."


    ---


    Kayt had mounted Nimesh as soon as they detected the first signs of conflict. Everyone in Basalith quickly vacated their living quarters, all eager to witness the ensuing fight from the eastern wall. Over the weekend, practically everyone had obtained a set of dragonleaf armor. In addition, since the people of Basalith were more than aware that their city would eventually face the assault of the collective world, most had picked one of the combat-oriented professions as their second or third profession. These included land-shaper, close combat fighter, ranged fighter, tactician, and, oddly enough, administrator.


    She conversed with Nimesh over their connection as they neared the front lines. While Kayt wasn''t a pushover herself, having already finished the land-shaper and close combat professions while currently on tactician''s Beginner tier, she was more than aware that her largest asset was her wolf companion.


    Nimesh expressed her jubilant excitement through their bond at being able to rip off people''s heads and gore their chests and stomachs. In the beginning, Kayt had thought these vivid imaginings at once cute and disturbing; now she was all but desensitized to them.


    ''Yes, yes, just hold on,'' she transmitted reassuringly, absentmindedly scratching Nimesh''s ear. They were now at the eastern wall with everyone else, waiting for the real conflict to ensue. Kayt thought that if they had popcorn, the scene would be perfect. The crowd was oo-ing and ah-ing at all the right times as Basalith''s defensive plant thing continued to smack U.S. attackers into oblivion.


    To everyone''s collective surprise--expressed by thousands of sharp, startled screams--a potent beam of concentrated plasma ripped right through the wall and into the city. Kayt watched on in awe as the city defense plant--she wished she knew what it was called--expanded out in an instant to protect the nearby buildings and people in the crowd. Kayt had worried for a second when the beam nearly clipped what was clearly a bat quasi-sapient, but the creature had luckily dodged out of the way.


    Nobody was hurt; even the buildings appeared unscathed. Kayt wondered exactly why they had--suddenly, Nimesh transmitted a feeling of dire urgency. Though the city defense plant had almost instantly closed up the hole caused by the plasma beam, something had gotten through.


    "They''re gassing us out!" someone cried out in alarm.


    A voice called out from above, cutting off the anxious person like a sharp knife. A man...riding the bat? After focusing for a moment, Kayt saw that the man was no other than the yellow-eyed personal follower of the Dragon. She wondered what he would direct them to do.


    "Humans, pay attention. The insects beyond this wall threw a potent gas into the city when they momentarily breached thespineroot''s defense." The man sighed dramatically, as though deeply and personally affronted by the attack. "This is part of their absurd plan to lure us out of the city." Now he focused intently on the crowd below. As his sweeping eyes passed over her area, Kayt couldn''t help but feel like he was looking into her soul. He certainly didn''t feel like any of the other personal followers of the Dragon, like the brown-robed peacekeepers.


    The man''s face hardened; his voice rang out strong, powerful, incensed. "I think it''s time to show these fools exactly what it means to antagonize the Dragon."


    The crowd burst into a roar.


    "All of those with mounts, you''re to follow me out on the battlement. I suspect that there will be all kinds of surprises waiting for us beyond...land mines, to say the least. They probably have the entire 200 miles booby trapped and are preparing to pick us off, guerilla style.


    "After I clear the way, land-shapers should move and erect dragonleaf fortifications, with close combat fighters accompanying them. The administrators should come in next. Use your boonsand gavels to investigate any ground that looks like it could be sheltering the enemy worms.


    "Next, ranged fighters should hurry over to the fortified locations and provide ranged assistance; snipe whoever you can. Finally, caretakers should come out to the fortifications and attend to any wounded.


    My only recommendation to all of you is to keep your heads intact. We can heal you, but for now..." Lepochim knew that Bath had a plan to keep records of brain and genetic data as a sort of back-up for caretakers to use, but this was contingent on caretakers having already reached ranks far beyond Expert. "Just don''t get your head blown off."


    Now the yellow-eyed man smiled, his grin cold enough to freeze blood. "This is your first test, Basalith. If you succeed, the future holds endless promise. Make your Dragon proud."


    Lepochim didn''t even bother using the tacticians. They would be useful when Basalith autonomously expanded out to conquer the Earth''s surface on many different battlefronts; for now, Lepochim was confident his plan would suffice.


    The plan was largely contingent on whether Olm was overexaggerating the devilbats'' ability to detect and remotely destroy any landmines or hidden incendiary objects with their echolocation and raw concussive vocal power. Olm didn''t doubt himself at all, even though he''d never before engaged enemy forces. Lepochim constantly forgot the fact that the quasi-sapients were all only a few days old.


    Suddenly, he felt a surge of nervousness. ''I''m flying on an untested, newborn baby devilbat, soon to be joined by a fleet of other baby devilbats...all with some kind of remote concussive ability of unknown but likely high potency.''


    At this point, Lepochim found that he didn''t actually care how smoothly the plan went, so long as Basalith utterly annihilated the enemy. Fortunately, that was a foregone conclusion.

 [Chapter 71] Leading the Vanguard to Battle; Directing Chaos

    Before Lepochim could head out, he first needed to contact the various quasi-sapient leaders. Olm was able to contact the other devilbats from afar using some kind of ultrasonic emergency frequency--Lepochim wasn''t too keen on the specifics--and as a result, many of them could now be seen swarming to Basalith''s skies.


    Lepochim glared at one of the more powerful kursi in the crowd--he didn''t know the man''s name--and tilted his head sharply to the side, implying that the man should use dragonleaf to contact all the quasi-sapient heads. Thankfully, the fairly powerful kursi took the hint, or so it seemed, and he saluted up to Lepochim''s imperious form.


    Lepochim had told the kursi at the beginning of their Sunday brief to watch for a signal to rally the quasi-sapients. ''I can''t believe I neglected to tell them what the signal was,'' Lepochim thought to himself, rather embarrassed. He disdained the use of crude gestures like jerking his head to substitute for a planned signal. ''This wouldn''t have happened back on Sigenolf-74...'' Lepochim worried that he was letting himself grow rusty. Thankfully, the activities of COTD would call his experience into play and put his languishing abilities to the test.


    Lepochim drafted out a plan of attack for the quasi-sapients on Sunday, contingent on whether or not Basalith''s residents would, in fact, leave the city to wreak havoc. He asked them all to send detailed descriptions of their capabilities via dragonleaf transmission. He hadn''t actually seen any of the quasi-sapients in action, though he assumed they wouldn''t outright lie about their own capabilities. Of course using many quasi-sapients added in another factor of variability into attack plan, but Lepochim figured it was best to give as many entities of Basalith as possible combat experience before serious foes made their appearance.


    Seeing that the quasi-sapients had been contacted, and realizing that the expected number of 500 devilbats were all present, Lepochim led the initial advance out of the city. Spineroot willingly let them pass, its many tendrils draping harmlessly over the entire force. Were they enemies, the very same tendrils would have savagely flayed them.


    Lepochim led the devilbat force through the air, taking note of a few hovering helicopters and tanks in the immediate vicinity.


    "There are jets circling above," Olm said. "A few miles up."


    Lepochim nodded, though shook his head internally as he lamented his inability to detect enemy forces from so far out. ''I really must petition Bath about echolocation boons.'' He coughed lightly, then replied, "As expected. Can the devilbats get started clearing the way for our ground forces?"


    "Yes."


    Thatsimple "yes" ushered in an absurd level of topographic destruction.


    Basalith was located in a particularly flat area of Virginia. This made it so that the advancing devilbats emitted a supersonic screech that actually pushed the flat terrain downward, its grassy surface breaking out into numerous fissures to dissipate the force. As screeches rained down in succession, even these cracks soon smoothed out, leaving a fairly even--and low--path for the other Basalith forces to follow.


    Lepochim tried to think of how much force the devilbats needed to produce with their voices to create such an effect. Clearly, their voices were working in sync to pulverize the ground, and a single devilbat wouldn''t have nearly the same level of destructive effect, but all the same, the devilbats'' might was unquestionable.


    ''If this is what a World Devourer can produce in a few days...'' Lepochim still wasn''t convinced Bath was a World Devourer. But if Bath really was a World Devourer, and all World Devourers had his abilities, Lepochim was exceedingly grateful that destruction was only the aftereffect of Devourers'' insatiable hunger; they didn''t need, or want, to destroy things for destruction''s sake.


    Lepochim was starting to wonder if there would be anything left for the ground forces following along at a slower pace. The newly-flattened ground served as a perfect road for them to follow; even the many areas where landmines and bombs had gone off had been rapidly concussed into a semblance of uniform flatness. As the devilbats swept over the land, the shrieks of hidden soldiers resounded in their wake.


    He hadn''t given any specific orders to the ground troops below. It took nearly all his willpower not to do so; unfortunately, Bath had given him strict instructions for Basalith''s first battle a week back. Lepochim recalled the conversation now.


    ---


    "Lepochim, war will come to Basalith sometime soon," Bath stated coolly, leaning on the balcony of The Anima''s upper meeting room.


    "Clearly," Lepochim sniffed, eyes narrowing. "Why bring this up now?"


    "Do you understand what it means to direct chaos?" His voice pierced through the high-altitude breeze.


    "...To engender order," Lepochim finally answered, wondering if the question was a trick.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Bath leaned further into the balcony and sighed. "I''d prefer to do away with such a veneer."


    "How is order a veneer?"


    "What am I, Lepochim? Am I order," Bath now turned around, his form visible to Lepochim''s night-vision-optimized eyes. "Or chaos?" Bath suddenly broke apart into nothingness; Lepochim didn''t see a scrap of his previous self. Then, just as quickly as he disappeared, Bath reformed himself. "I am never more than my most fundamental essence, the chaos swirling at my Center. If I were ordered, I would be like you, or any other sapient in this universe. I am chaos, directed.


    "That is how I want you to lead the Church of the Dragon. Let its members embody chaos, let them rip forward like rabid dogs. But, direct them."


    Lepochim just stared. He was always somewhat surprised when this side of Bath came out. He really did exude a primordial air when he spoke about chaos and order...


    But all the same, Lepochim thought that Bath''s request was idiotic. "You want to just let the completely unordered masses run out into the enemy''s waiting forces?"


    Bath turned his head around to give Lepochim a stone-cold smile. Now, as Bath spoke, Lepochim heard his voice echo out from several different locations surrounding his head. "Have faith in the Way of the Dragon." As the phrase finished, Lepochim flinched as the snapping of jaws filled the space right next to his head.


    Bath chuckled. "It''s amusing how you continue to doubt me." Then, he turned back to the balcony and waved a hand in dismissal. Lepochim left without response.


    ---


    Because of Bath, Lepochim felt like his hands were tied. He wanted to scream orders to the forces below, to organize them off into different directions and ensure that each group had a suitable mix of professions and quasi-sapients, but he resisted the urge. To keep himself busy, he decided to talk with Olm.


    "You''re all only a few days old, right?" Lepochim wanted to confirm.


    "Yes, but our mental and physical growth were rapidly accelerated." Olm resumed projecting his voice with an efficiency that Lepochim approved of. ''Utterly ridiculous,'' he sighed to himself as Olm glided forward. Now that Olm was leading the pack of devilbats, he kept a slightly slower, almost perfectly horizontal flight pattern. Lepochim now found staying on Olm trivial.


    ''If he was toying with me earlier for any other reason than to prepare me for possible combat maneuvers...'' Lepochim menaced, though the threat was empty. Obnoxious flying style aside, Lepochim was fond of the bat''s deep, monotone voice that forestalled most attempts at humor...exactly the kind of voice he appreciated.


    ---


    Kayt rode Nimesh at the head of the ground forces, the white wolf having taken control of the Dawn wolf pack. Close behind them were the manned horses and the unmanned raptors. Further back were the bears; just above them all were the hawks. Kayt knew that falcons were somewhere overhead, though they were too high for her to see with the prevalent smoke and heavy cloud coverage. She''d heard that there was also a species underground, apparently one of the quasi-sapient species that hadn''t yet made a public appearance.


    In terms of appearance, the horses actually didn''t look too different from standard Earth horses. They all had impressively long legs that, combined with their undoubtedly redesigned musculature, enabled them to gallop forward with enough speed to keep pace with the wolves.


    The raptors looked like some kind of weird two-legged lizard with thick, plate-like scales that ended in sharp points. Their forearms were tucked close to their chests as they ran, but Kayt knew that their hands had thin, dagger-like talons that offset the thick, wickedly curved ones on their feet. The hawks were about the size of the average person and wielded their gargantuan, gleaming, metallic talons with confident grace.


    Kayt didn''t have any idea what anyone, or thing, was supposed to be doing. As far as she was concerned, the only guidance anyone present had received was to leave Basalith and give the enemy hell. Following along the bat quasi-sapients'' flattened trail was a clear option, but the bats were flying over increasingly craggy and mountainous terrain; as a result, the trail ahead was growing increasingly unpleasant to traverse.


    ''When do you think we should split off?'' Kayt asked Nimesh.


    ''We can leave now; many others separated on the way, and this seems as good a place as any.''


    ''Even though you''re leading the Dawn wolves?''


    Nimesh transmitted an image of a toothy grin. ''Where we go, they''ll follow. I smell humans to the West.''


    ---


    Dean had decided to go separate from the main expeditionary group. One of his biggest motivations was that he didn''t want anybody from Basalith to be around in case they got caught in friendly fire.


    Originally, his primary reason was that he didn''t want people in Basalith to know he had received a set of clearly superior boons; he enjoyed his anonymity in Basalith and didn''t want this to change if possible. In a moment of annoyance over the futility of sorting out the trajectory of his life, Dean commissioned a re-moldable dragonleaf mask from Dawn faction. ''One problem solved, and countless other to go,'' he''d thought cynically when a squirrel came to deliver it.


    Dean had only seen his family three times in the past few days. They kept asking questions about his own advancement through the profession system. Like just about everyone else, they''d quickly fallen prey to the notion of self-determination.


    Dean knew he''d probably be the same way if he hadn''t been subject to a behind-the-scenes glance into the makings of Basalith and COTD. Whatever Bath was, he wasn''t a god in any sense that Dean recognized. Bath had acknowledged as he welcomed the newcomers of Basalith--in an audio recording that had quickly gone explosively viral--that COTD was wholly unable to assist people with affairs of the spirit. The "religion" felt like the total opposite of Earth''s many current major religions that stressed renouncing the material world--the body--for the sake of spiritual advancement.


    Dean clucked deprecatingly to himself as he walked forward, taking his time to scope for hidden explosives. ''Even as you recognize that this entire church business is incredibly suspect, here you are, rushing out to defend the city from government forces...''


    Dean actually wasn''t aware of an even deeper, truer underlying motivation: the desire to inflict violence.


    ---


    "We are the chosen of the Dragon," Amalo''s voice carried throughout the steadily growing network of tunnels. Each of his loosely-ordered subordinates had branched out, as expected; their species functioned as solo-operatives. "If their heart rates increase before they''ve been silenced, you''ve failed."


    They all had superior hearing, capable of picking up on his elevated voice for miles out. Plucking the thrummings of a human heartbeat out of the soundscape above would be child''s play, even with explosions, gunfire, and screams of despair. Amalo knew that the only thing they lacked was experience, and hoped that this battle would offer perfect...live practice.

 [Chapter 72] War as Game; Virigard the (Adorable) Reaper

    Edgewood crossed his arms and cursed. "Who the hell keeps getting to the enemy first!?" This was the fourth group of clustered troops that he''d encountered. He''d inspected the first three groups for their collective cause of death, but now walked off in a huff, convinced that the enemy had fallen prey to...whatever had passed through the area.


    It certainly wasn''t the falcons; Edgewood had seen a tank completely smashed by one after it plummeted from the sky like a torpedo. It also wasn''t the raptors, since they attacked in packs, eviscerating and skinning their pray. He knew because he''d worked on teaching them a bit over the past two days. They couldn''t speak, and weren''t very good communicators at all, but they seemed to understand him well enough.


    He started contact with the raptors by telling one of the land-shapers in Dusk faction to relay a message to one of the raptors about a potential learning opportunity. In the beginning, he worked with two raptors; the number quickly swelled to fifty. He wouldn''t be surprised if he ended up teaching the whole lot of them in a few days.


    When he was teaching the raptors, he really began to feel the abilities of his specialized education boon surface. As he worked with the raptors, he intuitively found ways to adapt his martial arts techniques to their bodies. When he first saw them, his initial optimism about teaching them martial arts faded; he wasn''t sure how the bipedal armored lizards would implement his techniques. However, after only a few minutes, ideas rushed into his head in rapid succession. Without even thinking about it, he completely revamped his system of martial arts...for both the raptors, and himself.


    He''d seen a group of soldiers that the raptors had absolutely shredded a few miles back. He''d been curious as to how they dispatched real, flesh and blood foes, and so had inspected the corpses. He''d subconsciously shuddered when he realized that the raptors, aside from completely disfiguring their human targets, also collected their incisors. For what reason, Edgewood didn''t know; perhaps as trophies?


    Edgewood was currently leading a group consisting of a long-range fighter and her horse, as well as an administrator. The administrator was out in the front, his heavy, spiked gavel held out in front of him like some kind of holy scepter.


    "Sorry, guys," he sighed. "They were all definitely alive a minute ago."


    Edgewood frowned. That''s what he''d been saying for the past few minutes, and yet each time they were a bit too slow.


    "No traps nearby?" the woman asked. A dragonleaf tether connected her to the horse so that they kept constant communication. "Ashmoon is getting impatient."


    Edgewood rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I think everyone''s impatient at this point." Before today, Edgewood had never felt like combat was a game; war was a deadly affair for all parties involved. When people won wars, they still took significant losses.


    Edgewood wasn''t sure that they''d lost a single person, or quasi-sapient, over the entire attack. The logical part of him figured that at least a few people from Basalith must have died...But the bats above proved an incredibly effective vanguard, while administrators detected any hidden traps left over and people lying in ambush. Long range fighters used their excellent vision to snipe the enemy from afar by using these...strange, black recurve bows and crossbows.


    Like the majority of groups roaming the vast battleground, Edgewood''s group had naturally formed on its own. They had all been walking in the same direction, barely a few feet away from the path paved by the bats. They''d all made eye contact, then walked over to one another and verified that they were all assuming complimentary professions. Then, they''d moved out as a unit.


    Edgewood knew from experience how much training was usually required to work smoothly with a group of even two other people. He felt perhaps more unease over how simple it was to stalk enemy forces with the administrator and long range fighter than anything he''d experienced in COTD thus far. Clearly, the boons he''d received weren''t as clear cut as they seemed at first glance, affecting him mentally in ways that he hadn''t previously noticed.


    All the same, he couldn''t doubt their effectiveness. Screw military training; screw tight formations and drills. With this kind of power differential and the natural ease with which everyone could collaborate...Edgewood now had no doubts whatsoever that COTD would prevail. Not just against the U.S.; against the world. He wondered exactly what the end goal of COTD was...


    "Found some; they''re alive, I promise," the administrator called out. The group approached stealthily until about two thousand feet out. Then, the woman shot out a string of dragonleaf arrows with the speed of a semi-automatic rifle. The rest of the group ran forward, closing the distance in a second. Edgewood used his dragonleaf-claw-covered fingers to jab at the soldiers before him: it was a new kind of technique he''d imbued into his martial arts when teaching the raptors.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    The horse violently stampeded anybody in its path to death with its heavy, ironclad hooves. The administrator stomped downward into the earth, sending out ripples of force that brought anyone in front of him to their knees while smashing their lowered heads to pulp.


    "Finally," Edgewood exhaled as they began to walk off in search of another squad. "Seems like this direction''s the way to go."


    ---


    Dean could only look on in mildly horrified fascination when he first saw a blur of yellowish-white fur streak up from a newly-formed hole in the earth. The thing jumped silently behind a soldier, cupping its little hand around the man''s throat before he knew what was happening. Then, it drew its claws horizontally, leaving only a red ribbon of blood behind. This entire process, from emerging to disappearing back down into its hole, happened in the span of half a second.


    Dean had been watching the same lightning-fast quasi-sapient for the past thirty minutes, following it as it traveled from squad to squad. He first hadn''t a clue as to what he was witnessing, though after watching the quasi-sapient repeatedly carry out assassinations, he was starting to get a better idea about what the little demon was.


    It was about the size of a small dog, long-legged, with fairly long ears. At first, he''d thought it was a rabbit, but after more closely observing its physical features, discarded the idea. He actually wasn''t sure what it was. Maybe it was some kind of hybrid species, like the devilbats, or a heavily mutated species, like the wasps.


    Either way, it was leaping up and garroting the shit out of everyone. He couldn''t believe that the ground-dwelling residents of Basalith were so bloodthirsty. It kind of freaked him out that these were living beneath where his parents lived.


    ''They''re like little grim reapers,'' he snorted to himself. If grim reapers were cute enough that his sister would want one for a pet.


    This time, as the little reaper killed the last of the humans, Dean called out from afar: "Wait!"


    The reaper descended back into the hole, seemingly ignorant of his cry. Dean rushed over, then stood over the tunnel, bellowing, "What''s your name?"


    "Virigard," was the short, relatively high-pitched response. Unexpectedly, the reaper popped back up to the surface and stared intently at Dean with its globular eyes, twitching in place. "Who are you?"


    Dean fingered his mask. "I''m the Knight." He wished he sounded a bit more confident as he said it. Truth be told, he still didn''t think of himself as anything more than an NBA-wannabe,much less Basalith''s seldom-seen Knight, and had only ever stated his position out loud a handful of times. While he more than recognized the absurdity of thinking of himself in terms of his basketball aspirations, he hadn''t had enough time to sit down and reconsider his identity. Basketball had been his life before...everything.


    "Oh, I see."


    "Really?" How had Virigard heard about his stint at the Virginia military base if now through social media?


    "...No. Why did you stop me? There are still humans out there to train with."


    Dean paused, feeling a bit awkward. "Uh, curiosity. You''re very efficient, you know," Dean praised, trying to rescue the impromptu conversation.


    The reaper stood up a little straighter, its ears curling backward. "Well, I am the third best in the ranking."


    Dean gave Virigard a confused expression. "Ranking?"


    Now Virigard gave an exasperated sigh, the air passing through its long lower jaw teeth. "Amalo--that''s our patriarch--created a ranking system. It''s to encourage excellence and competition." The reaper spoke this last part as though it were an oft-heard slogan, a bit of whine in its voice. "Well, it was interesting talking."


    Dean smiled. "Yeah."


    Virigard quickly dove back into the hole, no doubt bounding off to some other encampment to restart "training."


    ''Just what the hell is Bath thinking up that workshop of his, or whatever?'' Dean wondered to himself, a complex expression on his face. The scrawny rabbit-mutant quasi-sapient was, in itself, a weapon with considerable destructive capabilities. Dean thought of himself, then to Basalith''s people as a whole. Despite the Basalith''s relatively small population, it was effectively an incubator for terrifyingly-puissant fighters.


    ''Just what is Bath preparing for?''


    ---


    Bath and Lisa were inside Lisa''s dorm watching a live broadcast covering the conflict in Virginia. In general, the vast majority of the U.S.''s forces had been concentrated in the 100-mile area around Basalith. This meant that while Bath could sense a fairly sizable contingent of soldiers in the nearby area--he figured they were reserve forces--he doubted that the conflict would reach as far as Alens.


    "Wow, they''re just killing it," Lisa remarked. "I can''t believe this was the best the U.S. had to offer."


    Bath snorted. "Don''t underplay my own efforts." He formed a small spineroot facsimile on his palm. "This kind of army would likely win out against any other force on the planet. They even brought out plasma beams," he lamented. "Plasma beams! I didn''t even consider plasma beams when I built spineroot. Also, I need to develop a better subterranean defense system...We''re lucky effective tunneling technology hasn''t been developed on this planet."


    Lisa gave him a look. "...Okay. Anyways, when do you plan on making your big appearance?"


    Bath looked at the news broadcast''s displayed clock. "Oh, soon. As soon as the reserve soldiers around here start to retreat. That''s when they''ll have really admitted defeat."


    Lisa nodded. "Do you know what you''re doing yet?"


    Bath smiled. "I have a general idea."

 [Chapter 73] Bath Appears Once More; Kursi?

    Bath was fairly eager to make another public appearance. Thus far, he''d gotten more enjoyment from human terror and awe than he''d ever felt for seizing and squatting on a particular territory...which had been the only thing to do for the past half-billion years.


    ''I never regarded them as more than their fellow descendants, never saw them as more than polished extensions of their ancient ancestors.'' Bath acknowledged this to himself. ''However, clearly humans have become something fundamentally different than any of Earth''s other species...for them to look like so many other sapients, for them to be kursi...''


    One of the reasons why Bath had decided to spend so much time building up Earth before moving on to worlds beyond was his own sense of curiosity. He wanted to further explore the intelligence of humanity and its divergence from other life. Because Bath was limited in essence-shaping ability by the sum of all he had ever devoured, he was, in a sense, also searching for the origin of his own fairly recently developed sapience. Before he''d eaten his first human, he''d been limited to the desires of all the lifeforms he''d ever consumed. He simply hadn''t known anything else.


    Even after he ate humans--many of them over the course of thousands of years--he didn''t explore the new potential of human intelligence. They were weak; he was strong. By this point in his life, he hadn''t seen any point in truly exploring the mental factor that set humanity apart. In the tangle of information that represented the human brain, he hadn''t even noticed that the human mind possessed anything worth his notice.


    He had only truly realized the power of intellect when he entered the Ritus gate and ventured off world. He acknowledged that exploring the stars without any sapient-like sense of reasoning would have been impossible. As he thought of his past self, he almost felt a tinge of shame.


    Almost. ''At the end of the day, even with all their intelligence, I could have wiped them all out...Intelligence only takes you so far.''


    Since Bath had learned from Lisa and her chip reader that no one entity had ever conquered the universe, Bath felt like this was the perfect example of the limits of intellect alone. If there was one thing in which Bath had complete confidence, it was his dominating power.


    He was hovering in the air now, a small fly on the breeze, waiting for the right moment to metamorphose into an imperious dragon. He saw the battle stretching out before him, savored the way his many orchestrations came to fruition. The humans had all broken off into natural groups, each assuming a single key and complementary role, even if some could reasonably use many different combat professions at once. He was especially pleased by how well the humans coordinated with his quasi-sapients. The quasi-sapients had naturally integrated into human packs. He was perhaps more surprised at the duo off to his left: Dean and one of his jerboa quasi-sapients. They were speedy, jumped several times over their body length, dug burrows, and had hearing evolved to listen for the quiet flight of owls. Once he increased their diminutive size a notch...they became the perfect assassins.


    Bath had circled around the battlefield while impersonating the form of one of his quasi-sapient hawks, darting around to gauge the area with the greatest density of Basalith residents. The space where he hovered, now, was that very space. He rubbed his forelegs together, waiting for the right moment...waiting...for the enemy to finally succumb to total despair. Bath was genuinely curious as to how the U.S. troops had managed to persevere so long in this area without fully losing morale.


    Despite their impressive resolve, the enemy finally broke. Bath waited a moment, then suddenly exploded into form, his entire body forming seemingly out of thin air. He presented this process so that everyone below could see his bones emerge from nothingness, only to quickly assume a coating of muscle and finally accept a mantle of scales and feathers. After his body fully formed, he roared, an earth-shattering, deep rumble that left all present shaking in the wake of serial vibrations. It was almost as though all the still-breathing U.S. forces around him were prostrate in reverence, having been absolutely pummeled to the ground by the vibrations. The people of Basalith faired much better; some were even still standing, though all had at least taken a step or two backward.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Bath grinned, not that the humans would perceive the slight upturning of his toothy maw as such.


    "People of Basalith," Bath began, his voice sinuous and confident, "You have entered the trial of blood and emerged. You have reforged yourselves in pursuit of the Way of the Dragon, and have displayed your loyalty towards myself and the Church of the Dragon in its entirety. For your efforts, I bestow upon you all a boon of life, extending all of your life spans by five years."


    Undisciplined cheering erupted from all over the battlefield. Because of Bath''s gargantuan size and booming voice, most people within the surrounding few miles could see and hear him. From the time he started speaking to now, many more members of COTD had sprinted over.


    Suddenly, the cries of jubilation turned to screams. COTD members suddenly began to attack one another. The only ones who seemed somewhat immune to the violence were those who had formed bonds with quasi-sapients. While they still lashed out and attacked others, both human and quasi-sapient did so in tandem, as a single collaborative unit, seemingly incapable of turning on one another.


    Bath roared, this time the sound violent and dripping with destructive intent. The enemy soldiers directly around him all gasped like floundering fish as their bodies felt a wave of force powerful enough to crack the ground beneath them. They''d all been smashed, their bones shattered, their organs ruptured, blood dripping out feebly from their orifices. He flattened even his own church''s members, forcing them to their knees under his gale wind''s pressure in an effort to immobilize them.


    ''What''s doing this to them?''


    Bath extended out his essence tendrils, trying to find the source of the pandemonium. His eyes flickered when his essence caressed the form of a woman sprinting away. She was much too slow, obviously not from Basalith. She was behind him, having escaped his concussive voice by luck of being oriented in the exact opposite direction he had roared.


    As she ran, people parted before her. He''d seen the behavior countless times as Lisa waded through oppressively large crowds. ''So, there were kursi we missed,'' Bath thought matter-of-factly to himself. He quickly plucked the woman up. At the same time, he discovered a young man also parting a crowd of people to ease his escape. Bath tsked to himself; these people sorely lacked stealth.


    ''Not that they''d ever be required to utilize stealthy skills when dealing with normal humans,'' Bath admitted with a sigh. Based off of how many people Bath was still manually pinning to the ground with root shackles, the number of remaining kursi must be high.


    ''I''ll have to have a word with Lepochim about the reliability of his subordinates'' organizational information.''


    In the span of five seconds, Bath had found and captured all the attacking kursi. Snorting at the seven kursi now held up before him, seemingly in thin air, Bath stuck out a taloned finger and drew it towards their suspended figures. Then he spoke.


    "Hello, little saboteurs. The Church of the Dragon rewards guts." Then, he whipped his claw in the smallest motion he could possibly create, tearing his claw through their aligned chest cavities. they all gasped, then went limp; Bath planned to resuscitate them later, off camera.


    "To the governments of Earth: let this day serve as a first glimpse into the power of the Dragon." Bath whipped his wings open. "If you stand with us, you will be exalted. If you stand against us, you will be razed. I tire of war games;" a false statement, though Bath thought it sounded poignant. "You have until the end of the week." He spoke calmly, though at the end his voice resounded through the crowd, echoing disorientingly from a variety of directions.


    Bath breathed in deeply, slitted lines in his neck revealing a molten, yellow glow. Then, he breathed out, a crackling flame exploding outward around him like a volcanic eruption. It first zig-zagged in the air like ephemeral lightning, then danced over essence he''d arranged in intricate, swirling curves, tracing the pattern he''d painted with oxygen-producing microbes. Black smoke complimented the bright flame, constricting and smoking over Bath''s prisma-color form like a sentient, hungry mist.


    Bath closed his jaws. The fire died within the space of an adrenaline-boosted heartbeat. The smoke, on the other hand, expanded, cloaking his entire form in a smoggy, charcoal black. Then, as soon as he was completely obscured, the smoke caught on fire from the bottom up, the Dragon finally disappearing in a towering curtain of flames.


    Bath watched the area below, one again in the body of a fly. As he saw Lepochim, who had reached the area''s vicinity a few seconds previous, he settled down into the role of observer. As he did so, he let his mind wander.


    ''I wonder which belligerent nation will be the next to meet Basalith''s wrath...''

 [Chapter 74] Bath Rethinks His Battle Strategy

    As Bath hovered over the battlefield, he quickly dragged the legally-dead kursi into the jerboa caverns just beneath the surface. He began, then, to revive them, though kept them comatose.


    "Lepochim," Bath vocalized next to the alien''s ear, "how did everything work out, by your estimations?"


    Lepochim flinched, slightly startled, then sighed deeply, resigned, eyes rolling skyward. "Everything went well. What did you do to them?"


    "The people of Basalith? I gave them boons for combat. What else did you expect?"


    Lepochim now stared ahead, taking in the carnage below. Clustered in groups of three to seven or eight, with the largest strung out around dragonleaf ramparts and battlements, Lepochim tried to understand how any kind of biological enhancement could make humans naturally clump together and function as such smoothly-operating groups.


    "How?" Lepochim felt heat gather in his chest, a swirl of anger and frustration. He didn''t understand how Bath could do all these things--make a nearly impregnable shelter, form a fighting force exempt from traditional training--and so easily.


    Bath now appeared in his human form before Lepochim. Olm, who had been listening to the conversation, bowed his head. "Dragon," he monotoned, though Lepochim thought his voice sounded deeper than usual, as though the devilbat were trying to sound reverent.


    "Olm," Bath smiled. "How was your first battle?" They were high enough up in the air that Bath''s form was difficult to make out; combined with the fact that Bath used essence to distort rays of light around his body, nobody human knew that he was still present.


    The devilbat''s ears rotated forward, then twitched excitedly. "Far too easy. We will meet fiercer opponents in the future, right?"


    Bath placed his hand on Olm''s rugged snout, exuding a gentle demeanor. "I have no doubts," Bath said, then looked at Lepochim. "When we reach Lepochim''s world, I''m certain we''ll be in for a fun challenge."


    "You haven''t answered my question," Lepochim butted in again. "Seriously, how? I refuse to believe you can just...pull biological miracles out of thin air."


    Lepochim frowned as Bath''s expression transformed to resemble one of pity. "Miracles...? Nothing I do is a miracle, Lepochim, unless you count my very existence as such. I''m not going to hide anything. What I do, is direct chaos."


    Lepochim glared, while Olm had to restrain himself from biting Lepochim''s arm for showing the Dragon such disrespect. "What does that even mean, directing chaos, within the scope of boons!?"


    Bath chuckled darkly. "How do you direct a flowing river? You carve channels for it to follow. This kind of image comes close to describing how I intuitively visualize my boons...channels upon channels, logic and conditions, like a network of canals or trains...Something like that."


    Lepochim''s face lost its furor, his eyes now showing confusion. "That sounds similar to how data chips work."


    Bath turned away, looking out towards the battlefield, his cape rippling out behind him. "Think of it however you want. I''ll leave it to you to coordinate the return to Basalith. I''ll be taking my leave."


    Bath turned back, flashing Lepochim and Olm a smile full of teeth. Then, he disappeared, as though he had only been a mirage.


    ---


    Dean was really surprised that Virigard had eventually decided to work with him.


    "Where are you going now?" he asked; the fighting had clearly ended with the appearance of Bath. The two of them paced lazily along, Dean kicking at the ruined ground while Virigard leapt in zig-zags around corpses.


    "Back through the caverns to our residence. Wanna come?" Virigard--a she, as Dean came to realize over their shared time together--bounded up and down excitedly.


    Dean''s eyebrows shot up. "Your...residence? Like, under Basalith?" The very same residence with all the other reaper rabbit-mutant assassins? He had to admit, he was a bit curious to see what a subterranean assassin hideout would look like.


    Virigard''s long tail thrashed behind her as she sprung into the air, spinning in an aerial pirouette. "Yes! You''d be our very first visitor."


    ''Hmmm...first visitor?'' Virigard didn''t seem like the most...responsible type. What if she wasn''t allowed to bring in visitors? Was he even allowed down there?


    Then again, would it matter? He didn''t think Virigard would stand a chance against him in combat; his skin was simply too tough for her to slice through, even if she moved like lightning.


    The deciding factor was simple: Dean appreciated Virigard''s effervescent personality and carefree attitude. As Virigard led Dean through the caverns back to Basalith--slowing down every so often to let him catch up--Dean began to digest just exactly what had transpired in the hours previous.Stolen novel; please report.


    Dean had always shied away from violence before meeting Bath, and yet, as soon as somebody lashed out at him, he instinctively lashed back. As soon as Lepochim announced they were going to battle, he felt a powerful bloodlust. Now that he was out of the zone...his stomach felt like a nest of knots, reminding him of the time he''d gotten into his first car accident. The, "Oh, shit," moment, the feeling of no return and regret. He felt a strong desire to turn back the clock, to press undo, to wake up from a dream and realize that none of what had happened was real.


    However, knowing the truth of the matter--he''d killed people for the first time in his life, savagely, because he''d wanted to--Dean could think of no other alternative than to box his guilt and self-revulsion away into a little box at the back of his mind. When they arrived at the base, the line between cavern and dwelling was loosely demarcated by a cloth shroud. He and Virigard rushed through, the dark cloth fluttering behind them.


    The room they entered was spacious, with five couches and seven beanbag chairs as well as a reaper-sized bar and pool table. The place radiated an odd mix of dive bar and college dorm. As they entered, the twenty or so reapers in the room all turned towards Dean with their large, dark, spherical eyes. Dean had no idea how to react, so he just stood awkwardly while waiting for their response.


    Virigard hopped up and down in place. "Everybody, this is Dean. He''s fast and strong and totally rips the hell out of targets. He says he''s called the Knight." She beamed up at him, exposing long, white teeth.


    "..." Silence.


    Dean coughed. "I''m good at mixing drinks." The basketball team often had parties with other sports teams; at these mixers, Dean had often been saddled with the somewhat-deprecating role of mixologist. It was somewhat deprecating because, of course, these mixers usually only had vodka, rum, and various sodas as reagents--no true mixology was involved, not that Dean or anybody on the team knew any. Considering, however, that all these quasi-sapients were little rabbit monsters, Dean figured whatever experience he had mixing drinks had to be superior to their own.


    "Mixing drinks?" one of the reapers said from a beanbag chair. "Selly, what does that mean?"


    "Yeah, whazzit mean?" numerous reapers all called out.


    A reaper standing behind the squat counter twitched its ears. "I believe that mixing drinks involves combining different alcohols to create a new alcohol."


    Virigard now looked expectantly to Dean.


    Dean shot the reapers a questioning glance. ''This wasn''t how I expected things would go when I entered the assassin base,'' he thought to himself. "Usually, mixing drinks means combining one type of alcohol with a few non-alcoholic ingredients. Like, oh, a rum coke." Rum coke was a true college staple.


    "..." Silence once again.


    "Have any of you ever had a mixed drink?" Dean asked. The reapers all rapidly shook their heads in the negative, so fast that Dean almost missed the twitchy movement. "Okay. Wait, where did you guys get the rum on the counter?"


    "It was just here when we first came into being!" Selly stated proudly. "Provided for us from the Creator!" All the reapers twitch-nodded and hopped in place like hyperactive children.


    ''Bath gave his assassin rabbits...alcohol?'' That seemed like a recipe for disaster. Dean could envision the reapers getting drunk and then rushing around in a manner even more reckless than the zig-zags Virigard preferred.


    Suddenly, Bath appeared at the center of the room with seven unconscious, bloodied figures. Without hesitation, the reapers all bowed their heads in reverence. "Dragon!" the collectively cheered.


    "How was training?" Bath asked, completely ignoring Dean''s incredulous and deeply confused expression.


    "Wonderful!" a random reaper called out. Soon the rest called out in a similar chorus of cheer.


    "Splendid. Do you have any requests of me before I get down to business?"


    "Coke! We''d like some coke" Selly shouted.


    Bath cocked his head. "Who told you about coke?"


    "The Knight, behind you."


    Bath smirked. "Fine." Dean wondered how Bath was obtaining outside goods; what did Basalith trade in return for alcohol, or coke? Or anything else that couldn''t be made by dragonleaf?


    "Now, for the real reason I''m here: these seven are prisoners of war with mind manipulation abilities. I''ve received intelligence that if you torture them enough, they won''t be able to properly use their powers. I want your interrogators to flay them until they speak about what organization they''re from. I''ll heal the prisoners from afar whenever they''re close to death, though don''t intentionally bring them to that point."


    Once again bearing witness to Bath''s cruel savagery, Dean could only question the motives of his former roommate...could only bottle his rapidly increasing anger over Bath changing not only his physical body but also his mind. He didn''t feel different now, at least, but Bath had violated him by influencing his desires.


    "Bath," Dean called out, his voice tinged with fury.


    Bath turned around and raised his eyebrows. "Yet another subordinate who''s displeased with me."


    "You said you''d give me steroids," he stated quietly, with sharp intensity. "And you told me not to get caught up on losing control over myself, being unable to control my power. You told me...I just needed practice, "think higher." And then, today, I was unable to control my own mind. That''s not a me problem, but a you problem."


    Bath held Dean''s piercing stare. "How else would you have been able to wipe out half the northern front? You would have been held up by your fragile morality."


    Dean''s jaw dropped. ''But what if I didn''t want to wipe out the fucking northern front? What if I didn''t want to kill anyone?'' In the end, he could only ask, "Is winning worth it? This violence, death? Wouldn''t it just be better to take everyone alive and integrate them into COTD? We''re powerful enough to dominate without using lethal force."


    "Would Earth''s governments still fear us?" Bath sounded genuinely curious.


    Dean gave a small half-shrug. "Wouldn''t they be more scared, since your army will have increased in size? Moreover, they''d also realize capturing is harder than killing and might respect you more."


    Bath now turned towards the rest of the room''s eyes. "Lovely jerboa, what do you all think?" Jerboa? The hell was a jerboa?


    "I think killing them is okay and easier," one of them piped up, soon to be joined by assenting nods and hums.


    "Hmmm...So, keeping them alive would be more of a challenge, correct?" Bath reasoned out loud. "Dean, brilliant idea. Our collective objective for the next battle will be to have no enemy or friendly deaths, focusing instead on incapacitating all enemies for imminent indoctrination into COTD."


    Dean looked on in shock. He hadn''t actually thought that Bath would listen.


    "Oh, a challenge!" Virigard beamed. "I love challenges!"


    A jerboa who had been sitting in the back, reclining on its own bean bag chair, made eye contact with Bath, then spoke: "I approve this decision...and leave the seven to us."


    Bath smiled broadly. "Wonderful, Amalo. Continue to lead them well."


    Then, without warning, Bath disappeared in a flash of chaotic light.

 [Chapter 75] Return to Basalith After the Trial of Blood

    Lisa sat on the couch, continuing to watch the news broadcast in Bath''s absence. She looked on with a smug expression when Bath appeared on the screen, blurry; whoever was filming was clearly very far away from Bath''s location.


    When Lisa saw people near Bath begin fighting one another, she jerked forward in her seat. ''What''s going on?'' Then, when Bath lifted up seven people only a few seconds later, skewering them through their upper bodies, Lisa shivered. The infighting stopped; Lisa realized that those seven must have been kursi. "So there were some we didn''t get to," Lisa murmured to herself. ''Makes sense. They probably came to the U.S. after they realized most of the world''s kursi had been kidnapped by COTD, hoping to use its might to defeat COTD.''


    Lisa smiled grimly to herself as Bath roared, pulverizing all the non-Basalith fighters into the Earth. She felt a sick little twinge in her stomach, an uncomfortable heat at the carnage. ''I''ve still never killed anyone.'' She looked at the broadcast, really looked. So many bodies...


    Lisa swallowed. ''Dean must''ve been there.'' She didn''t know how she felt about that. Someone her age, who hadn''t known about any of this before a few days ago. Just a random guy who played basketball. She was more involved in this struggle than he was--it was her Church, after all. And yet, she still hadn''t drawn blood.


    ''I''m going to kill sapients in the future,'' she thought solemnly to herself. ''It''s inevitable. Right?''


    The broadcast''s live footage cut off; an anchor took over to explain what had just happened and its global implications. Lisa turned it off, then walked over to the window, looking out. None of the conflict had come to Alens, and Lisa knew it was now safe for everyone to go out. Even the soldiers in the area had left, taking their tank with them. Lisa had heard, rather than seen, them leave a few minutes ago.


    It was still fairly early for most college students, just around 11 am. Since classes had been canceled, Lisa wasn''t surprised that her suitemates were all still sleeping.


    Lisa held out her hand in front of her, feeling the slight nudging of magnetic sense in her muscle and bone. When she was still, magnetic sense almost completely faded away, unless she was actively using it to suspend herself in the air or something similar.


    She walked over to the door to go out, determined to be productive with this day off and get a bit more caught up in her schoolwork. She had so many readings to do, it almost made her sick.


    ''Just gotta make sure I control my magnetic sense,'' she noted, nodding to herself. ''Though "control" doesn''t mean not use...''


    ---


    Kayt was one of the first to return to Basalith. She was splattered with blood and gore; Nimesh was worse, her entire face dyed red. Unfortunately, there was still a line to enter the bathhouse.


    ''You can use ours,'' Nimesh offered, referring to the bathing pool the wolves had in their basement.


    Kayt shook her head. ''It''s fine,'' she transmitted back. ''Just go; I''ll see you tomorrow.''


    Kayt dismounted, and Nimesh moved to nuzzle her. "Nimesh!" Kayt hissed as half-dried blood from the wolf''s maw wiped onto her already-soiled clothes. With a toothy grin, Nimesh bounded off for the wolf building where the Dawn and Dusk wolves resided.


    The line to enter the bathhouse was silent. Actually, all of Basalith seemed silent besides a few sentences here or there. It seemed as though the entire city was in a daze. Kayt certainly felt as though she was in a dreamlike state. She''d done things she''d never even fathomed...she''d given herself over to Nimesh, worked in tandem with the wolf and a few others to build up a fortress and completely exterminate all enemy life within a five-mile radius. Then they''d branched out on their own for a bit, picking off any enemies close to their territorial border.


    It had all felt so natural at the time. Riding off with Nimesh, feeling Nimesh''s desires intermix with her own, reveling in the violence and the joy of dominating might...She hadn''t felt even a semblance of doubt, encountered a single moral hiccup.


    She understood why the city was so silent. The people who hadn''t left for the fight were still in their apartments or in training, and the squirrels that were normally dashing all over were nowhere to be found. The only people by the bathhouse area were those who had come back.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    She''d been a little too far from the dragon to hear, but she''d heard from others on the way back what he''d told them. ''We have emerged from the trial of blood...indeed.'' She didn''t feel angry over what had happened. If anything, she felt empty. Part of her was thinking, ''This wasn''t what I signed up for.'' Her other half disagreed: ''Wasn''t it?''


    ---


    Killing people wasn''t a totally novel action as far as Edgewood was concerned. However, the number of people he killed was enough to give anyone, including himself, significant pause.


    "I guess boons turn us into more than just physical monsters," he chuckled bitterly to himself, clenching his fist. Most of the people of Basalith had been civilians just a few days ago, and here they had destroyed a heavily armed force of U.S. soldiers. It hadn''t been clean; it had been messy beyond any human battle he''d ever seen. No battle was pretty: people got blown up, their faces ripped apart by bullets, their bodies left in pieces. But this one...


    Edgewood wondered how long it would take for some of the bloodiest areas to be clear of red. How much rain it''d take to remove vestiges of vicious, up-close combat. Animal combat.


    He was still walking back. When the fighting stopped, he broke off from his group and walked back alone. There were people all around him in the same boat, trudging back through the war-zone. The carnage seemed to grow worse the closer they were to Basalith, the city resting at the nucleus of the battle.


    Halfway back, the raptors had found him. Edgwood hadn''t done anything, hadn''t said anything, but they''d found him sure enough and decided to flank him. He wondered if they surrounded him now because they realized how helpful his techniques were in battle. Honestly, he was too drained to even care that three-hundred or so raptors were flanking him like the Queen''s guard.


    People around him, also confused and moderately bewildered by the raptors'' deference to one man, kept their distance, giving all the raptors and Edgewood a good hundred feet of clearance.


    He started to address the raptors as they got closer to Basalith. While they couldn''t understand him fully, and he wouldn''t be able to understand him, he knew how to inflect his voice to make it easier for them to comprehend.


    "After washing off, come to specialized educator training room 02-C," he grunted, though his voice carried through the densely-packed raptor ranks. They didn''t respond, though he knew they''d heard. He was thankful for their silence: if war was anything, it was loud.


    ---


    Dean managed to break away from Virigard and the other jerboas after fifteen minutes of insisting that he needed to wash up. Virigard, looking down at her absolutely scarlet hands, had giggled.


    "If you were careful like us, you''d be fine with just a sink."


    Dean snorted. "I''m not an assassin like you guys," he argued. "I''m made to take a few hits while dishing them out." She''d just given him a buck-toothed smile. "Anyways, I need to leave, seriously, I promise I''ll come back once you get some coke."


    Virigard pouted, the group of jerboas who were also clustered around Dean joining in. "Okay," she sighed. "I''ll show him the way out, everybody. Say bye to Dean!"


    "Cya!" "Bye!" "Come back soon!"


    Virigard bounced off toward what Dean presumed was an exit, leading him through a meandering maze of tunnels until, after five minutes of high-speed movement, they arrived on the surface.


    "A sewer?" Dean mumbled to himself as they emerged from a manhole.


    Virigard completely ignored the comment. "Thanks for coming, Dean. It was fun to work with you!"


    "Same to you, Virigard. I can''t wait to see what you think of rum coke." ''Thank god I didn''t just say that to a girl,'' Dean thought to himself. ''Well, a human one.''


    "Me too!" With that, she dropped back down into the caverns below.


    ---


    Herod hadn''t been directly involved in most of the fighting himself, taking on the role of caretaker near one of the land-shaper shelters. He hadn''t had all that much to do, given that very few of their number ever got injured. A few received weapon-fire from soldiers who got in some lucky shots, but for the most part, the enemy combatants were unable to deal any damage.


    ''So guerrilla warfare doesn''t work very well against forces who can detect hidden opponents, snipe them from thousands of feet away, and close that distance nearly as fast as a crouching soldier can ready his gun. Good to know.''


    Herod felt a growing sense of pride in Dusk faction''s accomplishment. ''We came, we saw, we conquered.'' Ever since he started on the director profession, he''d worked on delegating much of Dusk faction''s activities to others. The result had left Dusk faction a bit less centralized than Dawn faction, but in a good way. He liked the direction that Dusk faction was going.


    Where Dawn faction relied on Maya''s guidance like she was the mouthpiece of the Dragon herself--which Herod knew was false--Dusk faction was a lot more down to Earth. They worked kind of like a monarchy, with Herod as the monarch, the figurehead, and the rest of the faction led by people who''d been elevated up by other members of Dusk faction in public elections.


    Not that Dusk faction didn''t preach Church doctrine; it did. But while Dawn faction gave services that focused on mysticism and "feeling" the Way of the Dragon, Dusk faction focused more on the logic behind the Way and how best to live a life in pursuit of self-determination. In a sense, Herod was trying to shape Dusk faction into the kind of religious organization he wanted to be a part of.


    He hoped Maya was doing the same. He really hoped she wasn''t just concentrating power for its own sake...

 [Chapter 76] The World Reacts to the First True Battle

    <blockquote>


    <h1>Welcome!</h1>


    /r/cotd</a>is for major news from around the worldpertaining to Church of the Dragon''s activities.


    </blockquote>


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    <table class="md">


    <tbody>


    <tr style="text-align: center">


    <td>Topic:</td>


    <td>Virginia Battle -- Trial of Blood</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    [¨C]</a>Vigoro</a> 21.2k points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 10:25:44 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T10:25:44+00:00">2 hours ago</time>(10212 children)</a>


    <form class="usertext warn-on-unload" action="https://royalroadl.com/fiction/chapter/edit/130748#">


    Let''s consider a few possible realities.


    1. The Church of the Dragon takes over the entire world by force (and nobody can stop it) (most likely?). 2. The Church of the Dragon takes over its little chunk of the Eastern seaboard and doesn''t expand out (unlikely). 3. Nations of the world all agree to join the Church of the Dragon (unlikely). 4. NATO/comparable organization nukes Basalith and somehow the organization crumbles (extremely unlikely).


    In my mind, the only feasible outcome is that COTD takes over the world by force. Note, in reference, the Dragon''s speech at Constitution Bestowal (as usual, no video footage):


    <blockquote>"My name...is Bath. And I am your Dragon. I am your God. Many of you have wondered why I have come. I have arrived on Earth to lead you all beyond these stars, beyond this galaxy. Toward something greater than this existence you know. "But of course, you humans are too weak. The paths on this world mostly focus on contemplating the infinity beyond death. These are valid and good paths, and work well in conjunction with the path I myself embody. "The true way is of many paths...and I am the path of the Dragon: the path of self-determination. Mine is a path of physical might and power. Follow me, and you will find peace in advancement and knowledge of your place in the future we will forge together."</blockquote>


    Nobody has a clue where the Dragon came from, still. Some people claim he''s Satan, though that seems infantile. The Dragon is evidently not some...construct of Earth. His motive for everything is, in his own words, to lead us beyond the Earth. Not by way of an afterlife, but by literally leading us beyond the stars in our night sky.


    Faster than light travel, perhaps? Did the Dragon randomly come to Earth to bring new and advanced technologies to our fairly new civilization?


    Black and White both have already suggested numerous theories as to the Dragon''s origin and purpose. I''m more interested in seeing predictions of what Earth is going to look like in the next year or so, whether that be one of the proposed realities above or one I''m neglecting to include.


    With that, discuss.


    [¨C]</a>JaxXun1</a> 5110 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 11:16:16 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T11:16:16+00:00">2 hours ago</time>(709 children)</a>


    Honestly, COTD seems like it''s going to take over the world no matter what we do, whether we fight or join them. I think the easiest way forward is to probably just join Basalith, but lots of people probably have the same idea and I bet the line to get in is a week long. I can''t even afford a plane ticket to get to Virginia, let alone pay for my parents and siblings to join me.


    COTD will probably be expanding out soon to other areas, starting new seed-cities. When that happens, we''ll be able to join. That''s probably when most of the world''s population will join.


    [¨C]</a>klingon_fred</a> 3134 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:06:18 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:06:18+00:00">2 hours ago</time><time class="edited-timestamp" title="last edited 5 hours ago" datetime="2017-04-18T13:04:52+00:00">*</time>(2376 children)</a>


    I wish COTD wasn''t so cryptic. The entire place seems shrouded in secrets. We haven''t seen any visual footage of the Dragon''s human form, nor have we received more than a leaflet''s worth of doctrine from the Church and Dragon themselves. The rest seems to be speculation from the two factions, Dusk and Dawn.


    The entire thing SOUDNED like a total cult. Then, earlier today, the people of Basalith--who we can assume were all normal people just a few days ago!--ran out of the city and engaged the U.S.''s substantial 50,000 men force. Then, they completely annihilated the U.S. forces.


    The Dragon called it a trial of blood! COTD literally is a cult. The question is whether or not we can resist. Tbh I don''t think we can. Kind of feels like the end of days/apocalypse so screw you Vigoro for dimissing the idea that the Dragon actually is Satan.


    [¨C]</a>1825angel</a> 5009 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1.5 hours ago</time>(3480 children)</a>


    Why are people ignoring the fact the dragon has solved all of humanity''s problems?


    Energy. Clean air. Clean water. Shelter. In Basalith, food, access to water, equal opportunity, illness and disease, theoretically aging based on the reward boon this morning.


    The dragon is the earth''s salvation no?


    [¨C]keplerror</a>270points50<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(370 children)</a>


    I agree that scenario 1 is the most likely outcome. I also agree that it''s probably best to just go with the flow and accept what''s happening. The sooner teh better right?


    besides that, I never thought humans would ever leave the Earth''s sruface en masse. seems like this is going to change. Idc if it''s ebcause of a theocracy or Satan himself...I just want to se more than what''s directly around us. Alien life anybody?


    Also, going off that--who thinks that the Dragon is an alien? A really powerful one? Live-gene editing tech >>> crispr cas9?


    [¨C]</a>Delebs</a> 1945 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1 hour ago</time>(2129 children)</a>


    What''s goign to happen to everyone cauht in the crossfire? I am not confident that I cna avoid forced military conscription. Am I just suppoed to go against the Baslith people? I really do not wnat to die. Can we join the church of the dragon and have a way to avoid getting killed if we''re forced to fight?


    Ii know they have signup online but I do not know how they would know I signed up. I signed up in the beginning but like @JaxXun1 I could not afford a plane ticket to join Basalith.


    Should we go into hiding and try to wait this all out? Is anybody willing to host people in different countries until the Dragon comes?


    I wonder if people could make our own churches of teh dragon. Would the dragon come and protect us?Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    [¨C]jellatrixus</a>209points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1 hour ago</time>(1285 children)</a>


    It''s on you all if you plan to worship a false god. The Dragon even said that he is a god, which is clearly false considering the fact that he even said he can''t give anyone an afterlife. It''s ridiculous that people are bowing down to worship this Dragon just because he''s given them their desires. This literally sounds like giving in to temptation.


    My 2 cents.


    [¨C]flamefairy_x3</a>568 points <time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">1 hour ago</time>(1376 children)</a>


    Do we have any theories as to how the Dragon is doing anything from a scientific standpoint? If we don''t, how can we prove he isn''t a real god?


    [¨C]DirigibleDear</a>1115points20<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(104 children)</a>


    <blockquote>Do we have any theories as to how the Dragon is doing anything from a scientific standpoint? If we don''t, how can we prove he isn''t a real god?</blockquote>


    This is a pointless endeavor. If he really is an alien w/ FTL capabilities, how can we presume to understdn the limits of his technologies? I''m sure you are all fmailiar with the phrase, significantly advanced science = magic.


    For instance, a human travels back in time w/ all modern knowledge, some modern technologies. He/she starts curing people with penicilin and giving people vaccines etc. Tells them all about clean food, plumming, infrastructure. If he/she uses lighting designs and explosives to make a big show, might not people assume he/she = god?


    Same concept applies here. Pretty dangerous imo to just believe what the Dragon is saying verbatim because he can fix humanity''s woes.


    [¨C]jabellegreen</a>65points15<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(28 children)</a>


    Nobody seems to think fighting is an option.


    I agree. COTD seems absurdly OP. Regardless of whether or not the Dragon is an alien w/ highly advanced technology or a god, he''s dead-set on conquering Earth. Doesn''t seem like there''s much of a choice for us in the matter: either we die, or assimilate.


    Is this the end of humanity as we know it? Maybe, if we''re all genetically mutated enough away from our base human template. Basalith people have remarked online that the Dragon influenced their minds to seek violence. What if we''re nothing but killing machines after a few years?


    I''m not that pessimistic, I don''t think the Dragon is going to just make us into bloodthirsty monsters. He wouldn''t have any need to...right? He has his animals species, now, and I''m sure, if the stuff about going across the universe is true, he could find other worlds with life. He wouldn''t need to choose humans, but that''s what he''s done. For some reason. He wants us humans intact.


    [¨C]astroluft</a>372points15<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(26 children)</a>


    <blockquote>Honestly, COTD seems like it''s going to take over the world no matter what we do, whether we fight or join them.</blockquote>


    Should we be petitioning our representatives to agree to join COTD? I''m from Germany; I don''t see the Chancellor complying without a fight. This worries me. We will not be able to give a fight if the Dragon brings one to us. It''s hubris. Not to mention nondemocratic states, I cannot foresee dictators complying with the Dragon''s request.


    [¨C]Jamie0803xx</a>405points13<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(9 children)</a>


    <blockquote>


    <blockquote>Honestly, COTD seems like it''s going to take over the world no matter what we do, whether we fight or join them.</blockquote>


    Should we be petitioning our representatives to agree to join COTD? I''m from Germany; I don''t see the Chancellor complying without a fight. This worries me. We will not be able to give a fight if the Dragon brings one to us. It''s hubris. Not to mention nondemocratic states, I cannot foresee dictators complying with the Dragon''s request.


    </blockquote>


    everyone here seems so resigned to an uncertain fate. what if we just create our own enclaves, small groups of people, free from the dragon''s influence? doubt he''ll go after groups of a few hundred when the world is in his grasp. seems like a viable opton if all else fails. though it''d suck thta his arrival ends up scaring humanity into hidy holes. i''m sure that cotd is either going to be the best thing or the worst thing to happen to humanity, obviously not sure which. wish i knew which.


    [¨C]conlaw_baby_1989</a>282points8<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(21 children)</a>


    The Dragon fucking killed my brother. He was fighting in the battle earlier today for the U.S. Am I just supposed to forgive and forget, move on?


    [¨C]questions2you</a>282points4<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(12 children)</a>


    <blockquote>The Dragon fucking killed my brother. He was fighting in the battle earlier today for the U.S. Am I just supposed to forgive and forget, move on?</blockquote>


    Your absolutely moronic country was to blame for staging an attack on COTD''s headquarters when they knew:


    a. COTD has superpowered humans, likely more than a few thousand of them that would be sent to fight


    b. COTD has lots of superpowered, highly intelligent animals


    c. COTD has the motherfking Church and Dragon


    As soon as they realized Basalith had a nearly invincible, retaliatory plant guardian, they should''ve pulled out. They invited their own destruction.


    Hopefully other countries wise up and get with the program. This was obviously a demonstration. It''s too bad your bro had to die for it.


    [¨C]Sykral</a>27points3<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(29 children)</a>


    <blockquote>The Dragon fucking killed my brother. He was fighting in the battle earlier today for the U.S. Am I just supposed to forgive and forget, move on?</blockquote>


    ur bro knew he might get killed when he joined up. I don''t see how him getting killed in the trial of blood makes it the Dragon''s fault. If anything it''s the government''s fault for going against and army that has a FREAKING DRAGON. I mean come on. If ur name isn''t Dovakin you are not winning a fight with a dragon. Not to mention a dragon that can make people high. If the USA was really trying to win that fight they would have hit it with ICBMs. Or MOABs. But they didn''t.


    Maybe the USA is in on it. Maybe this is a secret government program to create supersoldiers out of normal people. They didn''t want people to get wise about it so they ordered an attack to test the soldiers and make it seem like the They are resisting.


    [¨C]Alkanyseus</a>9points2<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(15 children)</a>


    Man, I don''t see what you all are afraid of.


    ...I mean if the dragon came to the country I live in I''d probably only need to carry a sign saying "I WORSHIP THE ALLMIGHTY DRAGON" to keep out of harm''s way until the queue to join has thinned and I can join without waiting a few days.


    Ah, well that''s my opinion, but anybody else thinking the same/sth. similar?


    [¨C]Tacroy</a>6points3<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">minutes ago</time>(3 children)</a>


    If the Dragon isn''t Satan, we should be seriously considering the possibility that he''s some sort of Second Coming. The mythology of the Abrahamic religions is all about some mysterious dude showing up, throwing miracles around, and starting a new branch of the religion; that''s what Moses did, that''s what Jesus did, that''s what Mohammed did.


    And I mean the guy seems to be rapturing the shit out of people in Basalith. There was that one YouTube video of what looked like the entire city''s population getting lifted up into the sky.


    [¨C]Siribyl_682</a>1points30 seconds<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">ago</time>(6 children)</a>


    do you think that maybe the "dragon" has something to do with the myths/fables about dragons, like beowulf or stuff? maybe this dragon has been around a lot longer than we think: there''s an old chinese legend about an emperor learning writing from a dragon? and then there''s modern stories of "reptillian" aliens or shit? Maybe this dragon has been around since the beginning of mankind and finally got bored or something? food for thought.


    btw, about the topic, who''s to say that the dragon can''t just force-mutate the rest of the world? why invade when you can assimilate and all that stuff. regardless, we''re all either screwed or going to transcend or something. just my opinion on the topic.


    [¨C]sbag</a>1points20 seconds<time class="live-timestamp" title="Tue Apr 18 12:16:28 2017 UTC" datetime="2017-04-18T12:16:28+00:00">ago</time>(0 children)</a>


    Hey, just created this account to raise a valid point. Did a poll on Behindthename.com census.com mostcommonnames.com and yellowpages.com then browsed ancestry sites and a bunch of other sites. My personal Lord, The Dragon, said that his name is Bath. There is only one record of people named Bath showing up in the last thirty years in America. Won''t say where it belongs to, but I''m thinking about going to that area and talking to the parents of this Bath and seeing if he is The Dragon. Maybe see about getting a spot in COTD for showing such admirable self-determination to seek out My Lord in this way. ...Or maybe I''ll just be eaten....become part of the void that is the Dragon. Could be the first to go to the Dragon''s afterlife as part of My God, The Dragon.


    Thoughts?


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 [Chapter 77] The Bucket List; Appointing Ambassadors; Tournament

    Lisa jumped awake when Bath appeared in the dorm room on the couch.


    "Ahgh," she grumbled blearily. She hadn''t fallen asleep due to fatigue, but rather due to boredom. Reading textbooks all day long to catch up on her studies was mind-numbing.


    "Hello," Bath smiled, scootching in next to her. "Productive?"


    Lisa grunted. "No. What took you so long to get back? They pulled out hours ago," she remarked, referring to Basalith''s forces.


    "Who pulled out?" He wagged his eyes devilishly.


    Lisa pushed against his arm and sat up. "You''re such a--"


    He quickly morphed into a wolf, wrapping her in a bundle of fur. "I''m a what?"


    Lisa burst into a fit of giggles, partly due to Bath''s absurdity, partially due to the fact he was nuzzling her stomach to tickle her. "Bastard!" she squealed. "Damn it. You''re impossible."


    Wolf-Bath gave Lisa a lazy grin, teeth white beneath a pale, lolling tongue. She rubbed his head, then curled into his body with her textbook. Bath peered over at the book along with her.


    "Seriously, what were you up to?"


    "I was sending the seven kursi attackers from the battle into interrogation."


    Lisa gave him a baffled look. "We have interrogators?"


    "Not humans. They''re one of the quasi-sapient varieties."


    Lisa nodded. "And you''re having them...interrogate humans? They''re only a few days old, right? I wouldn''t want Nimesh interrogating anyone."


    Bath smirked, the expression strange on his wolven face. "Nimesh is a wolf. These are jerboas, a quasi-sapient species I''ve taken...certain liberties with."


    Lisa sighed. "I can''t keep up with what you''re doing."


    Bath nuzzled her arm. "You have your responsibilities; I have mine."


    Lisa smiled back. "Thanks. Anyways, when are we going to do our bucket list? Sounds like the world''s ending any day now; we gotta get started."


    Bath chuckled. "I should be encouraging you to learn," he admitted, humor gleaming in his eyes. "But I''m in the mood for some post-battle adventuring..."


    ---


    "Victoria Falls," Lisa said softly, eyes alight with wonderment. She and Bath lay suspended in the air along a "secluded" part of the falls. Or so Bath said, though Lisa suspected he had a hand in relocating anyone within the immediate area.


    The water fell in a rush of white, splattering onto the rocks thousands of feet below. A loud, rumbling roar like mellowed thunder filled the space. The water above and below shone clear and blue.


    "Watch me," Bath instructed. Lisa first felt him shift the magnetic field around them where they hovered, as though little ribbons of magnetism were spiraling outward and around them. Then she saw Bath''s hair begin to rise, as though buffeted from below by wind. Lisa felt her hair rise a second later, the magnetic field nextrippling her clothes in alternating patterns.


    She felt for the field, then synergized her own magnetic sense in time with the field''s rhythmic pulsations. Bath smiled, then drew them closer to the falls. As they neared the tumbling cascade, the water started to dance around them, swirling over the magnetic, ribbon-like patterns.


    Bath gave Lisa a grin, then began to alter the trajectory of the magnetic force ribbons to dart closer to their skin, rather than covering the two of them in a sphere-like shell.


    Catching on, Lisa moved her arms and tried to draw the water in a circular shape between the two of them, then in a spiral around her body. Lisa began to realize how much more sensitive dipoles, like water, were to changes in her magnetic sense. As she and Bath altered their own magnetic fields, even by slight amounts, the drops would spiral out of control.


    As they continued this practice, floating along the falls as they did so, Lisa felt like she was beginning to understand her magnetic sense in a new light. It wasn''t just moving whatever "magnetic sense"was that she needed to focus on. Now, as she worked with Bath, intertwining her magnetic field with his, constantly sensing his own changes and responding with adjustments of her own, Lisa was feeling much more prepared to visit places--such as foreign worlds--with distinct magnetic fields.


    ---


    They visited other places: bustling bazaars and marketplaces, renowned capitals, historical landmarks. They did all of this over the course of a few days, departing after their daily classes ended. Lisa and Bath both agreed that it was best to let the world stew a few days, let world leaders figure out their decisions on whether or not to join COTD.


    "Let''s wait a week," Lisa originally proposed.


    "Sure," Bath replied casually, guiding Lisa from Victoria Falls to Lake Malawi.


    Lisa was trying her best to ignore all the chaos stemming from COTD''s proclamation. Most tourist areas seemed relatively unaffected, with people determined to get the most out of their vacations before the world irrevocably changed. Lisa greatly sympathized with them.


    Bath didn''t seem to care one way or another how people around them were acting. Lisa felt somewhat put out when they visited a huge bazaar in Istanbul and Bath didn''t care that half the stalls were missing and people were hiding in their houses.


    "You don''t value any of these cities, aside from their architecture," Lisa complained as they moved on to a different section of the seemingly-depopulated area.


    "People come and go; architecture is a work of art, creativity. These cities could be empty and I wouldn''t care."


    "People add something as well," Lisa argued, shaking her head. "The people in a city dictate your entire experience. Take New York, for example. People-watching in New York City is an experience of its own."


    "True," Bath said as he sidestepped through a small cluster of people. "Just one I don''t particularly care for."


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "Think you''ve seen it all?" She had no doubt that Bath had seen an incredible number of things, but was fairly certain he lacked first-hand knowledge about different cities'' distinct personalities.


    Bath sighed, his head inclining skyward. "Do you search out the beauty of a rainbow?"


    "I appreciate them when they''re in front of me," she replied, frowning. "Though I don''t chase them, if that''s what you mean."


    "Right. I appreciate different kinds of people, different group dynamics, when they''re in front of me, but I won''t go looking for them, nor will I miss their absence."


    Lisa''s mouth popped open. ''So we''re all like rainbows to him? We''re that transient?'' But she supposed that made sense, considering how long humans lived, how malleable culture was to change.


    Bath looked back, wondering why she had slowed. He gave her a knowing smile and grasped her arm in his hand. "Lisa."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    She snorted, dispelling her brief melancholy. "What?"


    "Don''t be so caught up on what''s changing, and what might never be the same again. Take it from someone who knows."


    Lisa''s mouth edged into a lopsided grin. "Yeah yeah, Mr. Mass Extinction."


    ---


    Lepochim was surprised by the zeal with which humans were learning professions. Many only took three days to gain control over each profession''s fiveboons; by this point, a few people were already learning their fifth or sixth professions. Even the slowest people had finished their first profession and had moved on to their second.


    "Today''s the day," he thought to himself, smirking. He called two kursi down from the sky where they''d been circling on devilbats.


    "You two," he said, "apprehend Maya, leader of Dawn faction. Don''t say anything, don''t give reasons why. Just take her, and bring her to me in the Spire." The Spire was the area in the Anima where Lepochim, Lisa, and Bath had their meetings.


    The two flew off. Olm, already knowing the plan, didn''t ask questions, flying off to the Spire without needing further instruction. Within a few minutes, the two kursi returned. Maya sat dejectedly behind one of them, face ashen and arms pressed tightly around the kursi in front of her.


    She tentatively slid off the devilbat onto the balcony, then bowed her head before Lepochim.


    "Personal servant of the dragon, you have brought me before you. This one is willing to serve."


    Lepochim rubbed his chin. "Perfect. Maya, leader of Dawn faction, you have wholeheartedly embraced the true meaning of self-determination. You have amassed power, both physical and intangible." Maya''s eyes seemed to grow wide as saucers. ''Worm,'' Lepochim thought with disgust.


    "Nevertheless, true leaders don''t see power as an end. This is the trap that you''ve fallen into. Therefore, we''re reassigning you. You speak Spanish, correct?"


    Maya nodded hesitantly. Reassigning her?


    Lepochim clasped his hands, his face serious. "Good. We''re sending you to Central America. We''re going to give you a city-seed and a spineroot seed, to create your city and defend it. You''re allowed to bring twenty people with you, their abilities spread out through the professions."


    Maya gave him a confounded expression. "...Why?"


    Lepochim''s steely facade gave his grin a sinister edge. "The entire region of Central America has collectively surrendered."


    ---


    Now that Maya was out of the picture and reprehended for accumulating power as an end, rather than a means to a greater objective, Lepochim moved on to the next task: choosing the other ambassadors.


    The people chosen by himself would be the first sent out. He''d already decided to send out the leader of Dusk faction, Herod, as well as the Knight, Dean...these being the only people whose names Lepochim took notice of. The rest would be decided by a little tournament.


    "Time to put the arena to good use," he murmured softly to himself, a small, dark grin on his face.


    --


    The tournament was to begin the next day. Lepochim orchestrated a huge bracket for all qualifying individuals, namely those who were learning at least their fifth profession. He would instruct qualified individuals to enter the tournament in groups of five.


    It was, in part, a trial of combat, that much was made abundantly clear. Anybody who became an ambassador of the Dragon needed to be able to fight. There were other aspects to the competition, though these were less clear.


    Lepochim was planning to send out the vast majority of all groups of five as ambassador squads; this tournament was more useful in determining who would be sent out first. Ideally, the best groups would be the vanguard in the effort to spread COTD''s dogma. Moreover, the last-placing groups would be given more time to strengthen themselves before being sent out.


    He infused some of his own training expertise from Sigenolf-74''s ranking tests into the final tournament model, ensuring that the tournament would be more than just a series of simple 5 vs. 5 brawls. He spent...oh, around three hours finalizing the details. Having already confirmed the details with his peacekeeper kursi, all they were waiting on was for the teams to form.


    ---


    "So we''re allowed to have up to twenty quasi-sapient companions join a single person," Kayt read aloud, the details clearly carved into her bedside table where she''d read them upon awaking. "Thankfully, I just have Nimesh." One less thing to worry about.


    It had already been three days since the battle. Kayt was feeling somewhat better than she had originally. Like most people, she realized that the memories of the battle that disturbed her were feeling...further away, as though the memories were of events three months, rather than three days, past.


    ''This is my life now.'' She was telling herself this daily as a new kind of mantra. The Dragon had descended from the sky, the impossible had become possible...If only the dead could come back to life. Kayt hated the feeling of blood on her hands, even if she only killed people in battle, people who had signed away their lives to the U.S. government.


    ''Maybe, if it were a battle, I wouldn''t feel guilty,'' she thought bitterly to herself. ''But that...was a slaughter.''


    Shaking her head, Kayt finished reading the message on the table. "I need to find four others. Hmm..." Kayt thought over what profession she wanted to join a group as. She''d actually only just made the cutoff for the tournament, having started her fifth profession Wednesday night. Right now, she had finished the land-shaper, close combat fighter, tactician, and administrator professions. She was an Apprentice caretaker as well, though she hadn''t started training.


    While she''d been a land-shaper during the battle a few days ago, she was feeling a strong inclination to enter the tournament as an administrator. "That means I just need to find a fighter--ranged or close combat--a land-shaper, or a caretaker." Tactician, while being a combat profession, wouldn''t help nearly as much in the tournament. Besides, she was an Expert tactician and could work out tactics before a fight commenced.


    ---


    Edgewood groaned at the sight of his mutilated bedside table. "Am I really supposed to find a land-shaper to erase this message for me?" he grumbled to himself. ''How else am I going to get rid of it?'' He read the tournament stipulations fastidiously, eyes narrowed in concentration.


    "What!? Only twenty quasi-sapients!?" Edgewood snarled. "The hell!" He had been working on raptor formations for twenty-five, fifty, one-hundred, three-hundred, five-hundred, and one-thousand raptors each. He could call on all the raptors to fight for him if he wanted; they all defaulted to him at this point. He had a wonderful working relationship with their matriarch, Krra(or so Edgewood thought she was called).


    ''I really should get the land-shaper profession,'' he sighed to himself, ''if only to ease quasi-sapient communications.'' Right now, his completed professions were as follows: close combat fighter, specialized educator, childhood educator, adolescent educator, and adult educator. He found that each educator profession paved the way for the next. While specialized educator took a few days to bring up to Expert, his most recently mastered adult educator profession had just taken a day.


    Now, he was training as a Beginner scholar, hoping to increase his ability to absorb and synthesize new information to pass on to his pupils, namely his raptors, though potentially, anyone and anything.


    Edgewood exhaled deeply when he finished reading the guidelines, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So I''m limited to just twenty raptors?" He rolled his shoulders, then thrust himself out of bed and walked over to his closet. "I guess I''d be too OP with a thousand raptors behind me. Twenty should be fine.


    "...But, I need to find four others. Definitely a land-shaper, probably an administrator, maybe a long-range fighter or a caretaker. I''ll be close combat, of course."


    ---


    "Dean," Lepochim said coolly as the human test subject approached, eyeing the human with mostly disguised disgust.


    "Servant of the Dragon," Dean replied back, annoyed at the yellow-eyed grinch''s judging gaze. "Why have you called me here?"


    "You''re being sent away," Lepochim stated crisply, steepling his fingers.


    "...What?" Dean hadn''t been expecting this. "Where?"


    "Don''t you speak...oh, African or something?"


    A horrified expression came over Dean''s face. "No!? I''m American!" Was this an extremely bad joke?


    Dean couldn''t believe his eyes when genuine confusion swept over Lepochim''s face. "Really?" Lepochim hadn''t taken the time to learn Earth geography, nor had he lowered himself to learning about Earth''s culture. Since Ritus had been based in Virginia, his knowledge of Earth was largely limited to the U.S. This served him fine, most of the time.


    ''Was he doing this intentionally?'' Dean wondered, rather, hoped. "Yes, really. I do know Spanish," he said, having taken it in high school.


    "No no...we already have someone in Central America...Hmm...Can you still go to Africa?"


    Dean gave him a look. "I mean, sure...most people there speak English, anyway."


    Lepochim coughed. "True, true. That''s right. Great. We''ll send you off to Somalia."


    Dean quickly shook his head and began to protest. "But they speak--"


    Lepochim gave him a chilling smile. "That''s where you''re going to establish your city-seed and spineroot defense. No buts. Ideally, you''ll expand out to encompass nearby states. Somalia, being the first nation to accept the Dragon''s offer, will get special treatment as the African region''s new base of operations."


    Dean couldn''t believe what he was hearing. COTD was sending him into Somalia? He''d never been to Africa in his life, nor had he ever taken serious responsibility for anything. They were going to have him go into a foreign country--one that most called a failed state--and create a new city-state?


    "This sounds like the worst idea I''ve ever heard," Dean blurted out.


    "It''ll be fine," Lepochim chided him. "As a reward for assuming the role of an ambassador, you get to name the city."


    Dean felt sick, like someone was telling him that he was going to have to take a test for a class he hadn''t taken. This servant of the Dragon was clearly set in his decision, leaving Dean helpless to his fate.


    "I''m only eighteen," he protested weakly.


    This seemed to give Lepochim pause. He looked at the young man before him in a new light. Sighing, Lepochim spoke once more, though now his voice had a resigned quality to it. "Be that as it may, you''re going to Somalia. However, you''re allowed to take twenty people with you and as many quasi-sapients as will follow your lead."


    Dean swallowed. That did make him feel a bit better. "Okay."


    Lepochim gave him a thin-lipped smile. "Dismissed."

 [Chapter 78] Round One; Edgier Than You

    At Lepochim''s urging, Bath and Lisa returned to Basalith to watch the tournament. The tournament''s qualifying participants had taken up most of the day assembling their teams. Now, at 3:00 pm, the tournament was about to commence.


    The bracket was fairly large; over two-thousand people had reached their fifth profession, with nearly all of them having at least one combat-applicable profession at Expert. Diving two-thousand by five resulted in 400 teams; in actuality, they had 402 teams in the master bracket.


    This meant that there were 9 rounds, each round cutting down the remaining teams by half. Lisa resigned herself to watching the rounds that Lepochim recommended to her--or, rather, those recommended by Lepochim''s peacekeepers. Lisa wasn''t surprised at all that Lepochim scarcely knew any of Basalith''s humans, let alone their capabilities. The peacekeepers, on the other hand, had a fairly large betting pool set up on which teams would do well in the tournament. Based on this pool, Lisa had a pretty good idea which matches were going to be the most exciting.


    "What do the kursi even have to bet?" Lisa murmured to Bath.


    Bath shrugged. "No idea."


    Bath, unlike Lisa, could be in all places at once, and splitting his attentions to viewing around two-hundred-or-so matches at the beginning was well within his capabilities. He had avatars on standby at each of the match locations while he waited with Lisa in a private viewing box overseeing the entire Arena.


    Lepochim had assured Lisa that a squirrel relay team would be lead her to each of the most important matches. Sure enough, when the time became 3:13, a squirrel scampered into the viewing box and over to Lisa. She placed a hand on the squirrel''s head in greeting, sending him warm and gentle feelings.


    ''Match start left C-56,'' the squirrel transmitted abruptly, its mental thoughts jarringly scrambled. Lisa rose out of her seat, then followed the squirrel out with a dubious expression on her face. ''How does the squirrel intend to lead the way if I''m flying?''


    ''Get in my arms,'' she transmitted, still somewhat unfamiliar with sending squirrel quasi-sapients mental communications. The little squirrel squeaked, then climbed over Lisa''s brown peacekeeper robe to settle on her left shoulder.


    When Lisa exited the box, Bath left with her, giving her an encouraging smile. She took a few steps, began to cycle her magnetic sense through her upper body, and then leapt up several feet into the air. She continued moving the magnetic sense in an infinity-shaped-loop to kept herself aloft, flying forward in the air without losing altitude.


    Bath''s voice called out next to her, asking, "Which area did the squirrel say?"


    "C-56."


    "It''s to your left, the platform with the red dot." As Bath''s disembodied voice dissipated, a red dot appeared on one of the hovering platforms. Lisa glided on the air to the platform, manipulating her magnetic sense to increase her altitude. Within a few seconds, she touched down on the target platform.


    ---


    Bath thought Lepochim''s insistence on the Church and Dragon "enjoying" COTD''s first grand tournament comical; Lepochim thoughtfully inviting them to something pleasant seemed absolutely ludicrous. Bath would''ve been concerned if Lepochim didn''t have an alternative motive. When Lisa and Bath arrived, Lepochim wasted no time imploring Bath to "lend a hand" and expand the Arena to twenty-six times its normal size (since he was, after all, "already here").


    Bath almost refused, if only to witness Lepochim''s potentially caustic reaction.


    To expand the Arena, Bath formed twenty-five platforms over the city; by splitting the Arena-sized platforms (and the Arena itself) in half, they could have fifty-two concurrent matches. For the first round, this meant that they would need four separate mini-rounds to get through all two-hundred and one matches.


    After Bath realized that the tournament plan assumed, from the beginning, that he would be overseeing the entire thing, Bath wasted no time in getting the combatants to their correct platforms. While he would have greatly preferred Lepochim create a tournament system that would operate without his assistance, Bath was sympathetic to the difficulties inherent in running a tournament for so many people with so little notice.


    In the end, how he went about getting the tournament in gear was simple: he sent each of his avatars into the crowd, grabbed a matching pair of competitors, and levitated them up to their proper platform. By 3:15, everyone participating in round one was situated on their designated platform.


    Lisa and Bath had decided beforehand that they would commence the tournament once the humans were in a sufficiently excited mindset. Soon after everyone was on their platforms, Lisa winked into the air, indicating that the competitors were mentally ready.


    Seeing the signal, each of Bath''s avatars rose into the air, then flew towards the center of the Arena. Bath had specifically oriented the platforms so that all competitors would be able to see him from their respective locations. When they reached the center of the Arena, the avatars overlayed and merged into one. The merged Bath gazed out with a serene expression, cape rippling lightly in a nonexistent breeze.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "Competitors in the Basalith''s Grand Tournament," Bath called out, his voice resounding with powerful echoes, "I will be watching. Do your best."


    With a startling shock of sunset orange and a loud thunderclap, Bath disappeared. On each platform, the avatars reappeared in the exact places they had been previously.


    Now, the fifty-two expressionless avatars all spoke as one: "Begin."


    ---


    Each match took exactly ten minutes to complete. Edgewood had already seen two of them; his team was up next. They were already on the field, waiting for the Dragon''s avatar to utter the characteristic, "begin."


    He was happy that his team counted an Expert tactician among its number. She''d quickly formulated algorithms of operation for each of the group''s members to follow based on certain circumstances. It was all fairly simple, which only pleased Edgewood more: a simple plan was a good plan.


    He was poised to run as soon as the avatar commenced the fight, his muscles bunched like springs.


    "Begin."


    His job was to run forward to the enemy''s flag. If he was lucky, they wouldn''t have a land-shaper and the flag would be comparatively unprotected.


    ''Of course they do,'' he thought bitterly to himself as a massive dragonleaf structure ballooned up at the opponent''s edge of the field. As he ran, a wave of raptors followed behind him, fanning out to hopefully prevent any of the opposing competitors from reaching their own flag. While Edgewood ran, his team''s administrator assisted the raptors by stunning any of the opponents trying to reach their half of the field. From the back, their own land-shaper continued to embellish a thick flag-protecting tower. Their ranged fighter stood in the back, poised to shoot any who came within 1000 feet of the flag. Finally, their caretaker sat on a dragonleaf chair by the tower, prepared to offer assistance if needed.


    Edgewood began a zig-zag maneuver as the opponent''s ranged fighter sent out a flurry of arrows, relying on his enhanced reflexes to evade. A few arrows managed to hit him, nearly sending him staggering to the ground with their force. The opponent''s administrator took advantage of the moment to come forward and strike him down with his hulking mace.


    ''Probably would''ve gotten away with it, too,'' Edgewood thought grimly to himself after a contingent of three raptors ambushed the administrator from behind. They''d arrived just in time: Edgewood felt the heavy smack of the mace against the Earth--inches from his head--after the raptors set the man off-balance. He ignored the man''s screams as the raptors ripped into his chest and gutted his stomach, focusing on pulling the arrows from his back.


    Edgewood then rushed forward towards the land-shaper''s flag tower. As he came closer, numerous roots shot up from the ground to snag his ankles and pull him down. This, of course, made it far easier for the ranged fighter to aim his arrows. He used all his willpower and concentration to listen for the rapid-fire twang of the bow, look for the flash of green beneath his feet. He couldn''t believe the speed at which the roots continued to sprout up, grasping for his feet like a never-ending series of frantic hands.


    Edgewood cursed as one of the dragonleaf roots tripped him, giving the ranged fighter the opportunity to send three arrows into his back. However, by this point, the administrator, an enormous dawn wolf, the ranged fighter, and the raptors had all managed to incapacitate the other team''s advancing force. Edgewood hadn''t even noticed, though now that he focused, he realized the shrieks originating from the back half of the field had largely subsided.


    The huge wolf wasted no time in attacking the opponent''s defensive side of the field, almost instantly appearing next to the ranged fighter. At the same time, the administrator went in the opposite direction, screaming out a series of numbers like a mad-woman while slamming her bloody mace into the protective flag tower. Edgewood quickly recovered after the wolf took the ranged fighter out of commission. As per the administrator''s instructions, he ran back to the caretaker for healing.


    While healing, Edgewood looked on with a smug expression as the administrator, wolf, and raptors worked in concert to wipe out the other side and collect the flag. The raptors used their talons to deadly effect; based on the shreds of flesh decorating the raptor''s heads like fleshy crowns, Edgewood realized that the Dragon himself must have been intervening to keep the opponents alive. That was good to know.


    After the force slashed through the tower, one of Edgewood''s raptors, Kiko, rushed in and snatched the flag with his blood-drenched arms. He trotted back with the flag nestled proudly against his chest, handing it off respectfully to Edgewood with a low bow. Edgewood, in turn, gave the flag to the land-shaper. Now that their team had both flags, all they needed to do was wait.


    The other team''s caretaker healed his own wounds, then ran over to each teammate. Soon, their team was back in action. However, all they could do was rush into the pack of raptors spread out over the field''s center line; over the rest of the match, they never managed to incapacitate more than a few raptors before being fully incapacitated themselves. Then, the raptors would back off, allowing them to heal. The cycle would repeat over and over again until the match''s conclusion.


    Edgewood was unsurprised with the raptors'' performance. With them alone, he was certain they could give the competition a run for their money. In actuality, he was more surprised by the other team''s tenacity in continuously charging the raptor line. Edgewood certainly wouldn''t be willing to brave repeat raptor evisceration.


    After the match ended, the scores for each team appeared in the air in large, block letters:


    "Team 1: Edgier Than You - 1470 points. Team 2: Base Five - 120 points. Winner: Edgier Than You."


    Unsurprisingly, they''d taken the win. 1000 points for capturing the flag and keeping it, 470 points for each of the 47 times they incapacitated an enemy combatant. While Edgewood himself wasn''t entirely sure what defined "incapacitation," he trusted the avatar to judge fairly. Then again, thinking back to his own placement into Apprentice close combat...


    "Good job, everyone," their ranged fighter, a slender, dark-haired woman, said. She went to the center of the battlefield to collect a few arrows.


    The caretaker, a well-built, middle-aged, balding man nodded once, then asked, "Is it supposed to be that easy?"


    The administrator shook her head, dirty-blond hair moving over her shoulders. "No; we''re honestly just too OP." Most teams had one or two quasi-sapients, max. Their team, on the other hand, had twenty-one.


    Edgewood nodded. "Yup." He inclined his head towards the administrator-tactician. "You think we''ll make it to the final few rounds?"


    She gave him an amused look. "I''d be disappointed if we didn''t."


    "Can we expect all the rounds to be the same?" the land-shaper asked, her pubescent form leaning over the back of a dragonleaf chair.


    The administrator cocked her head to the side, then looked questioningly at her wolf companion. "...Probably?"

 [Chapter 79] Lisas Parting Advice; Ambassador of...Where?

    When Lisa found out that Dean was going to be sent out to Somalia as an ambassador, she''d sought him out to see him off.


    "Dean," Lisa smiled, waiting for him on a park bench. He felt a keen sense of deja vu as he once again came face-to-face with COTD''s Church. And this was, most certainly, the Church, wearing the Church''s perfect face, dressed in the Church''s resplendent white robes. ''You wouldn''t recognize the real her, Lisa, on the street,'' he thought to himself; after all, he''d never seen her original, flawed, human face.


    "Lisa," he said back, his voice catching at the end. There was a brief silence, broken by the bench creaking softly as Dean sat next to Lisa. "Nice to see you again."


    She chuckled. "Yeah. Us Alensians need to stick together."


    "Mmm."


    "A little kursi told me you''re going to Somalia as an ambassador."


    Dean gave her a look. "A kurs--what?"


    Lisa cringed. "Sorry. One of the peacekeepers. That''s just another name for them."


    Dean nodded his understanding. He looked up at her, then sighed. "So anyway: the Dragon''s head servant--whatever his name is--called me up to the Spire, then told me I was being sent away to Africa as an ambassador because he thought I could speak African."


    Lisa moved a hand to her mouth, eyes alight with mirth. "Oh my god," she snort-laughed. "Seriously?" The irony was clear to her: Whoever exiled Lepochim to Earth, ordering him to act as an ambassador and gain control over the planet''s kursi, had a wicked sense of humor. Lepochim was undoubtedly the worst choice for the job.


    It then dawned on her: Lepochim was never meant to succeed. ''They truly did send him into exile. What exactly did he do?'' The details on Lepochim''s current predicament were still fuzzy. Before, she''d assumed that Lepochim had been sent here to take control of Earth with the assurance that, one day, he would be permitted to return to Zder...


    "Yeah, seriously," Dean laughed back, interrupting Lisa''s train of thought. "Good to know I''m not the only sane one amidst all this madness."


    Lisa''s expression sobered. "Yeah, good to know. How do you plan on establishing yourself in Africa? Somalia, right?"


    Dean lifted his shoulders. "Yep, Somalia, and I have absolutely no idea. This entire plan is crazy: I have no experience whatsoever governing anyone or anything, let alone a theocratic city-state. Besides," he lowered his voice, even though Bath was both visually obscuring and soundproofing the area around them. "I don''t believe in the theocratic elements of COTD. No offense."


    Lisa shrugged back, smiling softly. "None taken; it''d be disturbing if you believed wholeheartedly in COTD, knowing the truth. About me, at least." She was a fellow first-year student with him at Alens. As far as Dean knew, all her power came from Bath. If he thought that she was a god, well...she''d be the one questioning his sanity.


    "What are you guys planning?" Dean suddenly asked. "What is all this...for?"


    Lisa rubbed her arm. "It''s pretty complicated. The Dragon--Bath--has actually already said."


    "What?" Dean motioned incredulously. "Going beyond the stars? Can he go faster than light, now?"


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. "Hey, a little respect is in order. He can hear everything you''re saying."


    Dean shook his head dismissively. "Seriously, why the hell are you guys doing this?" Dean left his real thoughts unspoken: ''Why did you fuck up my life?''


    He wasn''t even sure he believed that Bath and COTD had ruined his life; perhaps his life''s new trajectory would lead him on to bigger and better things than before. That''s what he told himself. However, he couldn''t help but think that Bath had irrevocably changed him--his body and mind--without his true consent. This, more than anything else, was the source of Dean''s near chronic distress.


    "Why are we doing this?" Lisa echoed him. "To explore the universe. Trust me, we do have a way off this planet--out of this solar system. Think of it like...a wormhole." Lisa didn''t understand how the gates worked on a technical level. This was surprising, considering the vast reservoir of knowledge contained on her chip reader''s encyclopedia. She''d expected there to be some basic scientific or physics-oriented explanation somewhere about the mechanics of the gates, yet...nothing.


    Dean''s eyes grew wide, his pupils contracting. "A wormhole? Where? Can Bath, like...make them?"


    Lisa shook her head. "It''s complicated. Anyway, that''s why it''s so important we fully unify Earth before venturing out into the virtual unknown beyond this planet. It''s also why we have the strengthen Earth''speople to survive in most locales."


    Dean sat back, arms crossed over his chest. Lisa noted that his eyes were focused intently on his necklace: a small, silver cross. "So it''s expansionism. A new colonialism?"


    "Maybe. However, most places we''ll be going really will be devoid of sentient life." Unlike hundreds of years ago when colonists designated land under indigenous control "empty."


    "I think...I understand. A bit." Dean''s voice seemed shaky, uncertain. Lisa supposed it was a lot to take in.


    She reached out her arm, as though to touch his shoulder in reassurance, then pulled back at the last moment. "Well..." she cleared her throat. "Let me offer you some advice. For running your own dragonleaf city, that is.


    "One: delegate everything. A perfect leader shouldn''t be doing any of the grunt-work.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Two: keep everything simple. Get people into the city, get people into houses, get people food and water, and then get them sorted and trained. You can rely on your peacekeepers to help with the, erm, revised profession sorting process. Focus your other personnel on getting people situated. You''ll also be given, I believe, a sizable contingent of squirrel quasi-sapients to ease everything along.


    She beamed at him. "That''s it for the beginning! You''ll obviously encounter complications after even a few hours, but just keep Basalith in mind as a goal for the city''s progression." She paused, as though trying to remember something. Suddenly, she looked up, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "Also, make sure you represent Dawn faction well!"


    ---


    A few hours later, Dean looked out over the empty swath of land prepared by the Somalian government for the city-seed. He sighed into his hands, then stood up, pulled the diminutive city-seed from his pocket, and walked over to the "X" marking the city-to-be''s center.


    ''So I just plant it...?'' Dean brought five kursi along with him to get things started. They''d told him that the city-seed should grow on its own in a few minutes, so long as he touched the seed first and visualized the Dragon. After the city fully came into being, he was supposed to plant the spineroot seed; this one would grow on its own, no Dragon-visualization required.


    Dean hadn''t known anybody in Basalith, not well, besides his family. Therefore, he took a random group of people with him to Somalia. ''As usual, I''ve been thrust into an unfamiliar situation in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people.'' Just thinking of all the similar situations in store for him left Dean overwhelmed. Based on what Lisa told him, establishing dragonleaf cities on random, alien planets was a likely eventuality.


    Dean sighed once more, hoping that the city-seed would grow quickly and that he could retreat into its Grand Temple to have a bit of privacy. So far, several Somalian government officials had come to talk with him about processing citizens, resource distribution, and Somalian current affairs. He''d quickly dismissed all of them, telling them that "all their problems would naturally be solved" by COTD''s regional influence.


    ''Total B.S.,'' he thought to himself. ''I have absolutely no idea how to run a city, let alone work on solving a defunct state''s problems.'' Moreover, he was still digesting the purpose of COTD as a whole.


    All the same, Dean knew he at least had to get the city started. He really hoped that Lisa''s advice would help out.


    ---


    A few hours later, Dean had to appreciate Bath''s handiwork. "This is dope."


    He hadn''t witnessed the establishment of Basalith, though he''d been told the city grew to full size over the course of a single day. Sure, he''d known intellectually that the city-seed would make a Basalith copy wherever he planted it, but seeing the massive city pop up in such a short period of time, growing rapidly before his eyes, was a mind-blowing experience.


    ''How does it grow so fast?'' Dean wondered to himself. No matter Bath''s powers of biological manipulation, he was pretty sure that the city-seed was limited by the laws of physics. How could so much energy be contained within one little seed?


    As the city-seed finished growing, Dean snapped out of his awed stupor and got to work delegating tasks between the five kursi and fifteen random Basalith people. He wasted no time in locating the Spire of the Grand Temple, using its inner office as his base of operations. He had requested a large whiteboard from the Somalians and had hung it up on one of the Spire''s walls. On it, he wrote down a few basic tasks.


    1. 3 peacekeepers in Grand Temple, have them welcome in all local people. Very basic welcome.


    2. 5 people as guards, keeping the peace outside. Somalia is dangerous.


    3. 2 land-shapers to coordinate squirrels. Give general commands to get people where they need to be.


    4. 2 peacekeepers by Grand Marketplace to begin profession sorting (?)


    5. 2 people w/ chef profession in kitchen. Get help from jerboas.


    6. 5 land-shapers to make furniture and basic goods.


    7. 3 educators of any kind to tell new people rules


    8. 3 administrators to go inspect current gov. officials. Check for corruption. If corrupt, detain (?)


    ''That''s more than just a few basic tasks...'' he grumbled to himself, unsatisfied. However, he couldn''t think of a simpler, let alone better, way of doing things. After he made the task list, he went outside to plant the spineroot seed. Then, while he waited for that to grow, he popped back into the Spire.


    Dena gathered all his underlings into his new office to present the whiteboard. As Dean explained everything, he was increasingly grateful for his artist and director professions. As he explained, he began to draw images on the board for each role, helping explain the true essence of what everyone was supposed to accomplish. Welcoming people in? Giving them the ground rules? Aside from words, his images conveyed something more meaty, substantive, something easier to remember. In addition, Dean found that his vocalization director boon made it far easier to quickly and concisely word everything that needed to be said.


    "This is all great," one of his peacekeepers said. "However, you''re missing something. It''s pretty important."


    Dean paled. He was missing something?


    The peacekeeper cracked a grin. "A name."


    "What?"


    Everyone present gave one another a knowing glance. "You need to name the city."


    Dean waved his hand. He didn''t want to be an ambassador, didn''t want to responsibility of a city-state resting over his head. "I don''t care. Name it anything."


    Amalo, present as the representative of the jerboas, twitched his tail, an opportunistic glint in his eyes. "How about Jerboaland?"


    Everyone else in the room, aside from Dean, narrowed their eyes in incredulity.


    "Jerboaland?" someone repeated out loud, as though jerboa were a made-up word. In fact, most people still hadn''t heard of the jerboa quasi-sapients; in this room, most people assumed that Amalo was some previously-unveiled mouse-rabbit quasi-sapient.


    Dean closed his eyes and exhaled. ''Amalo did bring 80% of the jerboa quasi-sapients along...and Virigard will be happy.'' Besides, the jerboas seemed a powerful ally amidst the rapidly-evolving politics of COTD.


    Dean looked around the room, then raised an eyebrow as he met Amalo''s gaze. "Fine. Jerboaland." As everyone aside from Amalo stared at him with shocked expressions, Dean snapped his fingers. As he did so, a whip-like crack sounded out.


    He steeled himself, then used his director''s volume-control boon to increase his voice''s resonance. "Don''t keep the people outside waiting. I''ll be watching from here."


    Having been dismissed, a somewhat confused, though well-delegated force of COTD personnel exited the Spire. Dean sighed in relief, then nearly fell over in shock as a white form appeared at the edge of his vision.


    "Jerboaland!" Virigard squealed, rocketing up from under the floor.


    ''Did she...was she...eavesdropping the whole time?''


    Dean watched helplessly as a veritable horde of jerboas leaptone after the other through the newly-formed hole in his dragonleaf floor. Soon, around twenty were in his office.


    "Um..."


    "We''re here to help!" Virigard announced.


    Dean looked around. "With what?"


    "Leading people safely here," Virigard said smugly.


    "Well, I already have five humans--"


    Virigard held out a paw, the rest of the jerboas replicating the gesture after a half-second delay. "Amalo told us that Somalia is really dangerous. We like danger. We''re going to dig tunnels leading out, as far we can tunnel--"


    "How far is that?" one of the jerboas interrupted.


    Virigard looked his way, her glance clearly enough to draw silence. "As I was saying, we can tunnel."


    Dean nodded his head slowly. "So you''re going to make and police a network of tunnels leading back to Jerboaland."


    Virigard cocked her head, ears twitching. "Uh...sure."


    Dean narrowed his eyes. "Wait, what were you going to say?"


    "Nothing."


    Then, without so much as a goodbye, the jerboas darted out through the hole in the floor and left.

 [Chapter 80] The Grand Tournaments Semifinals: Zombie Warfare

    Bath and Lisa were at the Arena, looking down on the audience from afar. Both looked regal in their contrasting black and white garbs, Bath''s cape rippling in the wind, Lisa''s dress flowing gently around her legs. They were making their grand appearance for the semifinals of the tournament. For this round, the four remaining teams would face off in two back-to-back matches in the Arena.


    "Impressed so far?" Bath asked, face serene.


    Lisa peered at him out of the corner of her eye, keeping up her poised and polished facade. "Yep. I need to go through all these training regimens," she admitted. The progress of the people of Basalith after only one or two weeks was incredible.


    Bath didn''t change his expression, barely moving his lips. "Boons are designed to, ideally, preclude any training," he explained. "Since my boons are still less than the ideal, I think a few days of practice would do you good." Most of Bath''s non-combat-oriented boons required very little practice before they reached their full potential. However, most of the combat boons--or really any boons dealing with the physical body--necessitated a bit of first-hand experience.


    "They''re ready," Lisa noted, looking down at the remaining four teams.


    A blaze of fire suddenly overtook the stadium, bathing all in a crackling, fizzing light. Just as soon as it came, it dissipated, leaving all unscathed. Since the semi-finals were in one location, the vast majority of Basalith residents--including quasi-sapients--had elected to watch. For this reason, a thirty-minute delay had been scheduled between the quarter and semi-finals.


    The crowd was absolutely enormous, a fact only exemplified by just how much fire had been needed to fill the Arena. Bath was pleased that nobody had panicked; his oxygen-producing microbes started real fires, even if they lasted for a split second. Those presentwould feel the heat; two weeks previous, everyone might have instinctively recoiled, only to panic and push others onto the flames.


    Now, they were getting used to how COTD rolled: huge theatrics, seemingly no risks, countless rewards. They were beginning to trust that so long as they had faith, everything would work out. Spontaneously generated flames wouldn''t faze them.


    Lisa smiled warmly, then began her commencement speech. "Welcome to the first Grand Tournament of the Church of the Dragon, held on Earth''s capital, Basalith. Countless teams have fought one another, displaying their strength for the Dragon and I to witness. These last four teams clearly exemplify the Way of the Dragon. Their power has forged them a path here, to the apex of this city."


    Lisa raised her arms, and the crowd burst into screams and cries of jubilation. She could feel the massive group''s shell, feel the crowd''s worship. They might not be on their knees, praying, but they worshiped with their minds, radiating a puissant energy. As of late, she''d been feeling this power ambiently throughout the city, but it only became truly powerful when she made a direct appearance before a crowd.


    She''d thought people''s hope and adoration intoxicating while greeting people at The Anima''s doors, while sorting people into professions...but this was on another level entirely. Their energy was feeding into her.


    She found that she couldn''t speak, so overwhelmed by the crowd that she was even starting to lose control of her magnetic sense. Thankfully, this was what explicitly tipped Bath off to something going wrong. He quickly steadied her in the air, then took over speaking.


    "Will the following teams please enter the stadium: Excelsior and Bear Skull Legion."


    The crowd grew even louder as the two teams, formerly standing on the Arena''s off-stage holding area, walked onto the stadium. As usual, no rules were given; the first two teams would simply need to adapt to whatever challenge Bath decided to throw at them while accumulating points.


    ''Lepochim truly had no sense of imagination,'' Bath thought regretfully to himself. ''After the first round, I had to completely scrap his original challenges.''


    Bath gave a cool smile, then proclaimed: "Begin!"


    ---


    Kayt looked on on gruesome fascination as what looked to be every shape and size of partially rotting corpses assailed all combatants. Bear Skull Legion was embracing a defensive tactic, their members--including their twenty bears--all frantically arrayed in a circle in an attempt to leave no clear openings to the horde. Excelsior, on the other hand, was using an entirely different strategy: their members split up and raced towards Bear Legion, no doubt to rack up points by incapacitating the team''s members.


    However, they were quickly bogged down by the endless stream of putrid zombies. A single arm thrust sent most zombies flying away, their soft, mushy flesh and decaying bones blasting apart. Unfortunately, with over fifteen zombies ferociously rushing at each team member at any one time, simply attacking them wasn''t an efficient tactic.


    Kayt chewed her lip as she tried to think of suitable tactics for this round. They were fortunate to go second. She hated the past rounds. In each one, they''d been forced into the challenges without any idea what was going to happen. Many of them were fairly straightforward, but some...she couldn''t believe that one of them required teams to attack one another with extremely lifelike human babies. They weren''t babies, since when broken apart they exploded into a spray of acid water, but beating another team into submission with babies was a pretty savage form of psychological torment.


    "This looks fun," their land-shaper, Anne, snorted. She beat a thick dragonleaf club on the ground. "Never thought all those zombie-killer video games would come in handy."


    Kayt looked at their caretaker, David. "You also have a land-shaper profession."


    His mouth quirked. "I do. You telling me to use it?"


    Kayt frowned. "I just don''t want you to be zombie-fodder."


    He raised an eyebrow. "Nobody here has the caretaker profession besides me, right?"


    "Why?" the surly close combat fighter, Edgewood, cut in.


    "I think...it actually might be the key to this challenge."


    "The caretaker profession?" Edgewood asked incredulously.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    David gave them all a stern look. "Don''t underestimate it just because it doesn''t involve smashing enemies to bits."


    "But seriously," said Susan as she leaned on her bow, "why is the caretaker profession key to a zombie fight?"


    David sighed, feeling quite old amongst all these twenty-somethings and the teenager. "How do caretakers heal people? Flesh manipulation. That''s where I think post-Expert tier caretaker is going to lead."


    Kayt tilted her head, intrigued. "If that''s the case, what does that mean for this challenge?"


    Suddenly, Anne laughed. "It means he''s going to combine the zombies into a giant zombie monster."


    David chuckled nervously. "Um, no."


    "No, really. You need to combine them so that they''re just a giant ball of rotting flesh. Then they''ll be immobile, and any new zombies will just add on to the bloated mass. Cake." After outlining her vision, Anne turned around and once again focused on the current match.


    Kayt''s eyes darted towards David. "Could you do that?"


    Silence. Then, "I can try."


    "That''s good enough for me," Susan stated calmly before joining Anne in watching the match.


    Edgewood gave Kayt and David a narrow-eyed, probing look. "You think the kid''s plan is going to work?"


    "Well," David began "I have another plan, but it just involves me not being zombie fodder. Fightin'' them off on my own."


    Edgewood sighed, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay. What''s the worst that can happen?"


    ---


    During the first match, while everyone''s eyes had been focused on the fighting teams below, Lisa was able to recollect herself.


    "You''re okay?" Bath reaffirmed after Lisa assured him that she was able to function normally.


    "Yeah, I''m good. I just wasn''t quite ready for...that. The crowd''s shell."


    Bath nodded subtly.


    Then Lisa coughed. "Also...zombies?"


    Bath gave her a coy expression. "I''m trying to be inventive."


    Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Let''s see, you had a swamp challenge where both teams were quickly sinking into a bog where they would suffocate...you had a flying trial where--"


    Bath''s mouth thinned. "Inventive," he emphasized.


    "Isn''t this trial a bit too difficult, though?" Lisa asked. "How are you divvying up the points?"


    Bath sighed. ".0001 points per zombie. I was hoping the combatants would be able to power through and attack one another, but no such luck."


    When the ten minute time elapsed, Lisa announced the results of the match. "The winner is: Bear Skull Legion."


    Both teams were an utter mess: putrefying gore dripped from everyone. Lisa grimaced, hoping that they could take another break before the final match so that the final two teams could wash up.


    "Next, we have Edgier Than You and The Argonauts." As before, both teams entered the stadium to the crazed cheering of spectators. Lisa felt the same worship energy run over her, though this time she was prepared for its influence, letting the energy run through her rather than into her. It reminded her a bit of how she sensed and manipulated her own magnetic field.


    After both teams were on their respective sides of the Arena, Lisa nodded once, then announced: "Begin!"


    ---


    As soon as the Church started the match, Anne created a large platform upon which to stand. She quickly encircled the platform with a bulwark of towering dragonleaf spikes which she radiated out and spun. It wasn''t quite as fast as a chainsaw, but it still managed to hit and fling zombies away.


    "David! Use my dead zombies, damn it," Anne crowed. David was off to her right, currently trying to dodge the horde of zombies lashing at his face. Anne had to admit that they were absolutely terrifying, far more vicious than any video game she''d played. They jerked awkwardly on gangly limbs, always rushing forward, snapping their disfigured and slavering jaws like desperate wolves.


    Anne knew that they weren''t actual zombies. These creatures...they were alive, but decaying. ''I sure hope they aren''t real,'' Anne thought to herself as she kept her dragonleaf spikes in rotation. ''Cuz living like that would be a living hell.''


    "David! Remember, just grab them and put them together! That''s the beginning," Kayt called out from afar, she and Nimesh pummeling and smashing at the advancing zombies.


    Susan and Edgewood collaborated to clear a path to the other team. Half the raptors formed a circle around Susan, leaving her protected to rain hell on the enemy. The other raptors accompanied Edgewood. Despite the two of them working together, Edgewood could only progress a few steps at a time.


    "Grah!" David cried out furiously. Anne''s head whipped around, her face lighting up with glee as she watched David hoist a three-zombie monstrosity into the air. Since the abomination fell to the ground only a few feet away from her platform, Anne used her dragonleaf spikes to direct oncoming zombies in its general direction.


    David dove after the three zombies. Then, instead of rebuffing the zombies trying to rip off his face, he began to slam them into the rippling mass of flesh below.


    Kayt rushed over and began to use her mace to stun the zombies, bringing them to the ground. Once they were there, David finished the job, smashing them into the rapidly-growing, tumor-like super zombie. Everyone ignored the super zombie''s many discordant screams as its newly added components all struggled--and failed--to move away.


    "This is actually working," Edgewood muttered out loud. As he spoke, the super zombie was the size of a car. "But how are we supposed to use it to attack the enemy team?" Even though the zombies on their side of the field were being taken care of, the path to the opposing team was still rife with vicious, snarling undead.


    "Edgewood, Susan!" Kayt called out. "Clear a path, and keep it clear. We''re going to roll this thing over."


    ''So, that''s how,'' Edgewood thought to himself, chuckling raggedly between breaths. He redoubled his efforts, working with Susan to eliminate as many zombies as possible.


    David was currently at the head of the super zombie, his hands firmly planted in the towering mass of gore as it continued to writhe and squeal. Kayt and Anne gave each other a knowing glance. The two both had land-shaper and close combat boons, and planned to use both in tandem.


    "Ready?" Kayt asked.


    "Go!" Anne yelled. Anne and Kayt jointly hefted an enormous, counterweighted hammer and aimed it point-blank into the super zombie. As they released the counterweight, which consisted of an astronomical amount of zombie and plant matter, the super zombie rocketed forward. A significant portion of the super zombie caved inwards in a gush of purple blood, trailing a grotesque trail of purple gore and guts. Kayt shuddered at the sight.


    David, meanwhile, felt like he was being eaten alive. Right before Kayt and Anne released the hammer, he''d hollowed out a cavity for himself in the super zombie. Now, as the super zombie rolled and bounced across the ground, David couldn''t help but feel like he was being pounded further and further into the zombie''s center.


    When the super zombie came rolling, Edgewood didn''t have to be told twice to move out of the way. ''How did they even get that thing to move...?'' he wondered to himself, gaping at the sheer size of the abomination. It had to be, at this point, at least as large as a trailer, and it could only grow bigger. Since David was inside, each zombie the flesh ball rolled over became part of the whole.


    The other team had less than five seconds to react to the super zombie as it burst out of the general horde.


    "Fuck," one of them called out flatly. They certainly wanted to do something--get out of the way, for instance--but had their hands full dealing with the zombie horde.


    Edgewood winced as the ball bulldozed over the entire team, its mass ballooning ever more. Then, after the opposing team''s screams died out, the rolling super zombie burst apart like a pinata. Dark purple spewed everywhere, like a 360-degree geyser. At the center of it all was a completely purple, shaking David.


    "Awesome!" Anne called out. "That was so epic. My next profession is definitely gonna be caretaker!"


    David just stood there. If his face hadn''t been covered in purple mush, he would''ve appeared incredibly pale.


    "David?" Kayt called out, rushing over. Edgewood, who was closer, reached him first.


    "David, you''re okay," he said slowly, trying to reassure the man. "You''re in the trial. You did it. You defeated the other team with the, um, giant zombie ball. You''re gonna be okay."


    "Yeah yeah, I know," David said, snapping out of his stupor.


    "Shit," Edgewood called out. Even though David had essentially wiped all the zombies off the map, more zombies were respawning rapidly. A contingent of twenty was dashing their way, hooting and shrieking.


    But then, as though fortune were smiling down upon them all, the Church spoke: "The ten minutes have elapsed!"


    David shook his head and splattered more goop onto the ground. "Bathhouse. Now."

 [Chapter 81] Interrogating the Prisoners; Grand Tournament Finale

    Aside from watching the semifinals with Lisa, Bath was currently underground in the jerboa caverns. While the majority of the jerboas had unexpectedly left with Dean to form a new dragonleaf city, a few hundred were left. The one currently in charge of the remainder was a jerboa named Kessalo.


    "They''ve given us quite a bit of information, Creator," Kessalo said reverently, prostrating himself at Bath''s bare feet.


    "Do tell," Bath said calmly. "I''m curious."


    The jerboa spoke as he led Bath towards the interrogation cells. "In the information booklet you gave us, you said that humans have 100 kursi per billion. That means Earth should have between seven-hundred and fifty and eight hundred kursi. However, Ritus and Fungsoeng together only have around six hundred and thirty-one kursi. We''re still at least one-hundred short."


    Bath nodded as he drifted beside Kessalo. He knew all of this. "So, who are these kursi?"


    "The United States has seven kursi under its control. Three of those are among the seven."


    "And the others?" They now arrived at the interrogation room''s door, though a better description for it would be a heavy drape.


    "Borrowed from other countries," Kessalo explained while darting through the doorway. Inside, two-way glass and soundproofing enabled them to peer in on the kursi without their noticing.


    Bath followed after Kessalo without replying. He already knew what the interrogation room looked like, already knew the state of the kursi held within. The smell, though...he hadn''t bothered to smell the room remotely. It was the kind of smell he''d imagine a prey would make if it were kept alive for days. The scent was unfamiliar: Bath didn''t play with his food.


    "Which countries?" he said after a few moments of quiet.


    "Besides the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and Brazil. The UK provided two, while China and Brazil provided one each."


    "Do we have information on how many kursi each of those countries possess?"


    Kessalo rubbed his little paws together nervously. "The UK kursi both said that there is one more back home. The others, though, we can''t confirm...since there''s only one from each country. They could be lying."


    Bath snorted. "Let''s find out. Which are the Chinese and Brazilian kursi?"


    Kessalo pointed them out. "Those two."


    "Watch," Bath stated confidently. Then he generated spikes throughout the two kursi, directing them to shoot out through various sensitive points. At the same time, he formed two avatars of himself in each kursi''s holding cells.


    "Hello," he said softly, eyes alight with a hungry gleam.


    "Fuck!" the Brazilian kursi swore weakly. Fear flashed in his eyes. The Chinese kursi was silent, though his face contorted into an agonized grimace.


    "In case you haven''t noticed, I''m the Dragon. You''ve actually forced me to come personally..." he ran his tongue over pointed teeth. "I don''t take pleasure in your pain. Answer my questions, and I''ll leave you unharmed and healed. Of course, I''ll have to insist you join COTD at the end of all this. But we''ll talk about that later."


    "Fuck you," the Brazilian swore once again.


    Bath shook his head pitifully. Why did humans bother with impudence when they were so impotent? He deepened the spikes in the Brazilian kursi, twisting them in place. He addressed both of them, saying, "In case you doubt the extent of my capabilities, trust that I know when you''re lying. Now: how many kursi exist in Brazil (China)?"


    The Chinese kursi spat. Bath twisted the spikes in him, just as he did to the Brazilian kursi. Neither responded to his question, so Bath sighed and gave each a complex look.


    "I''m not going to kill you, no matter what you do; your bodies are too valuable. I can sell you, however, as slaves. I hear that there are countless buyers on other planets. If you want to stay among humans, you need to answer my questions.


    "I''ll ask again: how many kursi?"


    Bath didn''t know, but both kursi were far more freaked out now than they had been the past few days. They hid this well, leading Bath to assume the scent of fear on their bodies had built up over time. The reason for their heightened fear was, in part, due to the fact that Bath was the head of a purported terrorist organization. However, the most terrifying thing of all, for both kursi, was the black hole of Bath''s shell. They hadn''t realized the color of his shell during the first battle because they''d been focusing on controlling the sapients on the ground.


    When Bath appeared before them now, they had no doubt in their minds that they had come face to face with a soulless demon.


    The Brazilian kursi began to shake on the table where he was strapped down. "Twenty. There are twenty more. Please don''t hurt my family. Don''t damn us all." His voice was weak, hopeless. Bath narrowed his eyes. He hadn''t ever threatened to hurt his family members. And what was with the damnation plea? He''d already stated publicly that he had nothing to do with any afterlife nonsense.


    The Chinese kursi chose instead to bite down on a false tooth. Bath clucked his tongue as he prevented the suicide capsule''s contents from poisoning the man. Seeing that his last resort failed, the kursi cried out, "I submit! China has 69 more kursi."


    Bath retracted the spikes in both men, pleased that he''d broken them in such short order.


    "Why are there so many under the control of the government?" Bath thought it peculiar, considering the fact that the United States had so few. No doubt many kursi were pulled into Ritus or Fungsoeng before being found by the government. But how did the two organizations gain such power?


    "China''s population has rapidly grown over the past hundred years. Kursi born before 1900 largely moved to Taiwan and Hong Kong when the last dynasty fell."This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "The start of Fungsoeng," Bath noted out loud.


    The Chinese kursi appeared slightly surprised. "Yes, precisely. After 1900, any kursi were picked up by the government."


    Meanwhile, in the other cell, the Brazilian kursi responded to the same question of government kursi control.


    "Several anti-imperial kursi who were alive back before the colonial period absolutely refused to join Ritus," he explained. "Instead of forming a new organization, they elected to join forces with the government to make a better Brazil."


    Bath nodded. "Reasonable." While Bath didn''t care much for humanity hundreds of years past, he hadn''t been totally unaware of the New World genocide and understood how kursi living through the disaster would harbor enmity towards the West.


    Then he asked both of them, "Why do you fight against the Church of the Dragon?"


    Both of them seemed at a loss.


    Bath sighed, then spoke. "Hasn''t COTD eliminated all of humanity''s woes? Why fight humanity''s salvation? I have the power to end scarcity, to endlessly extend human lifespans, to destroy all ailments. Truly, I don''t understand why so many fight COTD. The only explanations I can understand are that people are either extremely religious, or selfishly power-hungry." He looked at them expectantly.


    The kursi didn''t know how to respond. Sure, what Bath was saying was true, but...his shell was a writhing black mass. Didn''t that signify depravity?


    Seeing that neither kursi was going to answer him, Bath shook his head. "No matter. I''ll send you and the others who came with you to my subordinate Lepochim. He''s the superior of COTD''s kursi. Listen well to his commands."


    Bath''s two avatars then disappeared, leaving no trace behind. Kessalo, who had watched the entire exchange, looked up at Bath like he had something to say.


    Bath''s face broke out into a grin. "Yes?"


    The little jerboa bobbed up and down on his long legs. "That was awesome! They listened to you so quickly. They were so scared, heh. They never looked at me like that."


    Bath''s grin widened. "I''m terrifying because they know me as the Dragon. You''re terrifying because you''re a little white rodent. Did you know that humans find dolls creepy?"


    Kessalo shook his head, ears swerving back and forth. "Nope. Dolls? What are those?"


    Bath created a little wooden doll and suspended it in air. "This."


    Kessalo''s tail twitched. "Humans fear dolls?"


    Bath snorted. "Humans fear things that do the opposite of what they expect. If they see a doll move on its own, they find that immeasurably creepy. If the doll goes as far as to torture and kill humans, even more so."


    "Umm..." Kessalo trailed off, not really understanding where Bath was going with this line of reasoning.


    "Humans expect rodents, particularly ones with big ears and eyes, to be innocent. The last thing they''d expect is for jerboas to assassinate and torture humans. Understand?" He gave Kessalo an expectant look.


    "Oh, so humans think we''re terrifying because we''re not what they expect."


    Bath nodded. "Take advantage of that. Play on that aspect of the human psyche to invoke more fear in them."


    "Yes! Thank you for your wisdom, Creator."


    Bath nodded. "Of course. Anyways, I expect you''ll see to it that the prisoners be transferred to Lepochim. I''ll be watching for any problems."


    "Okay!"


    With that, Bath disappeared in a puff of glittering dust.


    ---


    Lisa was eager for the final match. They''d broke for an hour to allow spectators to eat dinner and enable the competitors to clean up. Especially that poor man who''d been drenched head to toe in purple rot juice...Lisa shuddered thinking about how disgusting that would be.


    "Now, the final match is about to commence. Everyone, please take your seats."


    The roar of the stadium subsided as all found their places and waited expectedly for the competitors to walk onto the field.


    "Now, for the final match you''ve all been waiting for...Bear Skull Legion versus Edgier Than You!" The two teams walked on at the announcement. Then, Lisa cried out, "Begin!"


    She had wondered what Bath had planned for this match, though refrained from asking him. She wanted it to be a surprise. But as the first few seconds of the match ticked by, she glanced over in Bath''s direction, confusion apparent in her eyes.


    The teams below stood stock still, everyone below prepared to react to whatever challenge came their way. However, ten seconds passed. Nothing.


    Bear Skull Legion was the first to spring into action, breaking the fragile calm. Edgier Than You reacted as expected, the land-shaper sending out a barrage of spikes from below while the other teammates attacked head-on. Even the caretaker entered the fray, no doubt planning to test out flesh-shaping on the enemy.


    The fighting went on for a solid five minutes, with many on both sides being rendered incapacitated only to be revived again and sent back into the fray. Neither side seemed significantly more powerful than the other, meaning that the winner would likely be decided by less than a hundred points. Even as the teams fought, they moved with a certain caution, prepared to deal with whatever might come their way.


    Lisa kept one eye on Bath and the other on the fight. She focused both eyes on the brawl below whenshe saw Bath''s stoic mouth turn up into a smile. ''He''s going to do something...''


    Down on the field, out of nowhere, appeared countless human, bear quasi-sapient, raptor quasi-sapient, and even two wolf quasi-sapients. However, they were all small, maybe a tenth of their normal size. And they all looked like children''s toys: the humans represented as dolls, the quasi-sapients as patchwork plush animals.


    Bath''s voice rumbled out: "For each opponent you incapacitate, you generate one of these." He didn''t explain anything else, content to leave them with that little tidbit of information.


    Lisa''s eyebrows drew together. The toys below all had sinister expressions, with many of the dolls holding butcher knives or giant epee-like syringes. The stuffed animals also set her on edge, their stitching coarse, their button eyes seeming to suck in light. All of the toys had wide, gap-toothed smiles.


    They were small, and not as fast as the zombies from before, but they were everywhere, strewn on the ground like refuse. Lisa looked on as the two teams began to fight off the many toys, only to find that they couldn''t be killed or blown apart. The best anybody could do was dismember them so that they couldn''t move, but even then their disconnected arms wouldflail and catch nearby people with their weapons. Decapitated animals heads would snap at anybody who came close.


    Edgier Than You''s land-shaper formed a large dragonleaf platform and beckoned the rest of her team onto it as an escape from the treacherous ground below. The other team''s land-shaper followed suit and created his own platform. While the two teams continued attacking, a new tactic was to throw opponents off the dragonleaf platforms to the dolls.


    However, after a minute or so passed, the dolls managed to form a tower, climbing one on top of the other to reach the platforms. The land-shapers reacted by making platforms further up that everyone could jump to. Once again, the two teams appeared to evade the ever-increasing horde of dolls.


    At the eight minute mark, the dolls suddenly stopped moving. Then, all of them started to grow until they were life-size. All of them collectively snapped their heads up, eyes glued to the foes fighting at least one-hundred feet above. The army of toys jumped on the dragonleaf platforms, following the path the competitors originally took to their current platform. Within thirty seconds, at least fifty dolls were leaping towards the main fighting platform.


    Then, they started to throw the team members off the edge of the platform to the waiting toys below.


    Lisa, along with the rest of the audience, watched in abject horror as the dolls systematically destroyed each of the competitors, cutting limbs from bodies and goring their torsos. The syringes were particularly terrible, with injection spots swelling up into enormous necrotic blisters that ruptured into geysers of puss. And the raptor stuffed animals were fairly awful, pulling teeth from screaming competitors'' mouths...


    Lisa sighed in relief when the ten minutes elapsed. She shot Bath a questioning look. ''Wasn''t that a bit much?'' she thought to herself. ''There are kids in the audience.'' His face shone as calm as ever, looking down over the Arena. With a wave of his hand, the dolls disappeared and the competitors were restored to perfect health.


    "Skull Bear Tribe: 1290 points. Edgier Than You: 1210 points. The winner is Skull Bear Tribe. Congratulations to all competitors for a fine evening." He smiled, showing teeth. "All are dismissed."

 [Chapter 82] Lepochims Bad Day; Wasp Queen

    "We were so close," Anne sighed, dragging her large dragonleaf club on the ground behind her. "But those dolls, though...Creepy as all hell. They, like..."


    She didn''t have to finish. David appeared absolutely incensed, snarling, "If we didn''t have pain killing boons, I''m pretty sure that trial would''ve driven us insane."


    "The Dragon really is powerful," Susan sighed, trying to redirect the conversation. "Anybody who doubts his powers is a complete imbecile. Name one nation that could stand up to his assault." Susan shook her head. "It''s hopeless for anyone to fight COTD."


    "Don''t change the subject," David snapped. "That challenge was absurd. It was torture. That entire tournament was one form of cruel and unusual punishment after the other."


    ''The Creator wants us to be stronger,'' Nimesh transmitted to Kayt while they walked along with the rest of the group.


    "Nimesh says it''s for our own good," Kayt relayed. "If we really are going to go to other worlds, who knows what kinds of horrors we''re going to be up against?"


    David growled, a pained, helpless sound. "Damn it! This wasn''t why I left investment banking. I just wanted was to be a doctor, to do something useful. Not drag teenagers," he pointed at Anne, "into a baby-popping, zombie-smashing, doll-dismembering shitstorm."


    "But none of it was real," Anne interjected acerbically. "Besides, I''m not some fragile Mary Sue. I''m not gonna go crying to mommy just ''cuz a few raptor stuffed animals pulled my teeth. See?" She grinned wide. "They''re all back in place. It was a challenge, not an actual battle."


    Realizing that arguing was a losing battle, David clenched his jaw. "Fine. But who''s to say this doesn''t escalate further?"


    Edgewood reached out and grabbed his arm. "Hey. That''s why we need to stick together, to talk to one another as humans. The Dragon doesn''t fully get it."


    David gave him a dark look. "I know."


    Edgewood shook his head. "Just think: Susan is right when she says Earth is as good as conquered. The Dragon isn''t going to be stopped, so we might as well get people into COTD as soon as possible."


    David exhaled slowly, as though dispelling his rage through his breath. "Fine. I get it, I told you. Let''s just go."


    ---


    Lepochim was unprepared for the little jerboa quasi-sapient''s appearance in the Spire''s office. He gave it a baleful glare, then asked, "Did you really make a hole in the floor?"


    It nodded so fast that Lepochim almost missed the gesture. "Yep. The Creator told me, Kessalo, to bring the kursi prisoners to you." Kessalo then peered into the hole and hollered, "Come up!"


    Over the next fifteen seconds, seven kursi tentatively crawled into Lepochim''s office. Lepochim''s expression seemed to darken with each kursi''s appearance, as though they were insects dirtying his floors.


    "Alright, thank you, Kesso. Now, please...leave."


    Kessalo''s sunny self seemed oblivious to Lepochim''s undisguised rancor. "Cya!" he chittered cheerfully. Kessalo then disappeared in a flash, leaving Lepochim alone with the seven kursi.


    "Just to let you all know, I''m having a bad day," Lepochim said threateningly. "Don''t push me. I''m immune to shell manipulation, so don''t even try. I''m assigning each of you to one of my kursi peacekeeping subdivisions, of which there are three. Don''t make trouble and listen to what they tell you. Since you''ve been sent to me," Lepochim drew his eyes over the seven, as though gauging their worth, "that means the Dragon no longer considers you prisoners. You''ll have access to all the same privileges as the other kursi, namely access to the boon pools."


    The seven appeared somewhat confused that they could all understand what Lepochim was saying, as though he was speaking several different languages at once. None of them spoke back.


    "No questions? Good. I''ll have the devilbats take you. Olm," he shouted. "Take them to the kursi residences. Tell whoever you meet to deal with these seven according to established protocol." Lepochim was thankful, at this moment, that he''d given the kursi an extensive instruction reference manual that explained what to do in various situations. The entire thing was, of course, almost entirely plagiarized from Sigenolf-74''s protocol book.


    "What did we talk about earlier?" the large devilbat said in monotone from around the office''s corner, next to the balcony.


    Lepochim''s expression grew unsightly, further frightening the seven psychologically drained kursi in the room. "Please," Lepochim grated.


    "We''ll be back in a few minutes," Olm said in response. He entered the office, pressing his wings tight against his body to fit through the doorway. "Come with me."


    The kursi, already having experienced enough for one day, meekly nodded. Olm led them out to the balcony, where Lepochim presumed they were flown away. Once again left in peace, Lepochim swiveled in his chair, hands steepled, head inclined downward in thought.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Today really was a terrible day: the United States had, against all odds, actually surrendered around ten minutes ago. They''d given the Spire office''s landline a call, so Lepochim was the one to hear the surrender directly. Before then, the day had already been eventful with the tournament.


    At first glance, the U.S. surrendering didn''t seem all that more complicated, logistically, than another country''s surrender. However, when Lepochim dealt with ambassador business in foreign countries he just needed to delegate people to leave and run the new dragonleaf cities. But if the U.S. was surrendering, that meant that he was going to have exponentially more work on his plate. If the U.S. surrendered, Basalith really was going to become the continent''s new capital.


    Lepochim was still reeling from the mass processing he''d overseen just before the first battle last Monday, when he''d toiled to ensure all the people queued outside were temporarily relocated into The Anima''s basement labyrinth. Most of them had returned outside after the battle ended, but Lepochim had still managed to increase their processing rate by 300% over the course of the battle. Increasing their processing rate by that much left him and his kursi incredibly drained.


    Just how many people were going come to Basalith''s doors now that the COTD had effectively conquered the United States?


    ''We can redirect the people south of Texas'' northern border to the Mexican city-seed...and Canada is likely going to submit soon, so we can redirect people in the North to Canada...and we can grow another U.S. city seed out west...Nevada, maybe?''


    Lepochim''s head swam as he tried to work out all the details. He never imagined that the U.S. would give up so easily. ''Certainly, it''s the correct choice, but humans are rarely so rational.'' And if the United States capitulated, Lepochim didn''t doubt that other western nations would submit in short order, creating more and more work for him to deal with.


    Quite frankly, Lepochim was surprised that Bath hadn''t come to speak with him yet and discuss a plan of action. Hadn''t he been listening in on the phone call?


    ---


    "Lepochim," Bath said, entering the Spire without any special effects, choosing to walk in from the balcony. "I had to redo every challenge you had planned."


    Lepochim gave him a confused expression. "Bath, we should discuss--"


    "I expected a bit more from you and your special military training. Is that the best Sigenolf-74 has to offer?"


    Lepochim''s eyes grew wide. ''He really wasn''t listening in.''


    "Bath!" he cried out. "The United States surrendered."


    Bath''s jaw dropped ever so slightly. "What? And you didn''t tell me?"


    Lepochim''s eyes narrowed. "It happened just a few minutes ago. Besides, I assumed you knew. You''re typically listening to the Spire''s office line."


    Bath tsked. "My concentration was occupied by the final round of the tournament. I didn''t predict that anyone would call during the ten-minute duration of the trial," he chuckled darkly. ''What were the odds?'' Bath paused, letting the news sink in. "So, they really did surrender. Huh."


    "It does feel somewhat surreal, humans acting intelligently," Lepochim replied, a smug expression on his face.


    "Well, I''ll leave you to figure out the logistics," Bath deadpanned.


    Lepochim''s face dropped. "Bath!" he exclaimed, utterly exasperated. "I need a little assistance. This is too much for me to handle."


    Bath gave him an innocent look. "Don''t you have the wasps?"


    "Wasps?"


    ---


    Lepochim couldn''t believe his eyes. The interior of a particularly large apartment building was covered in large hexagons, all of which contained humanoid wasp quasi-sapients. They looked exactly like one would expect anthropomorphic wasps to appear, with distinctly human features and expressions.


    All of them were typing away at computers, barely even noticing Lepochim''s presence. He almost felt out of place. ''Ridiculous, since I''m in charge of this city,'' he thought bitterly to himself.


    "Queen of the wasps, approach," he commanded, hoping the queen would hear him. Thankfully, after about thirty seconds, a quasi-sapient wasp walked in from a distant honeycomb chamber. She had lustrous hair, as though polished with wax, and her compound eyes were dark and almond-shaped. Her antennae swooped elegantly over her ears and breasts, curling gently around her thighs. She didn''t wear clothing, her exoskeletal carapace designed to appear like a suit of light armor.


    "At your call, servant of the Creator."


    Lepochim frowned. "The Dragon told me that you were supposed to assist in the operation of COTD. Did none of your kind think to contact me about your responsibilities?"


    The queen gave him a serene smile. "Before, you seemed to have everything under control. I deemed it most expedient to work separately, in social channels."


    "Social channels?"


    "Utilizing the internet to direct public opinion in favor of COTD and the Dragon. We have also, recently, begun to implement other plans."


    Lepochim raised an eyebrow, moderately impressed. By his estimations, any underlings that took the initiative were good underlings. "Such as?"


    "Hacking into foreign governments'' information systems," she said casually.


    Lepochim nodded. "All well and good." He didn''t know what either of those tasks entailed, but assumed they were somewhat important. Perhaps they had even played a role in the U.S.''s capitulation. "However, I now require your assistance."


    The queen gave him a knowing look, her hair sashaying to the side as she strutted forward. "Don''t you? Each country that falls, like dominos in a line, will need to be organized and integrated into the greater whole."


    "Precisely. What services can you offer to speed this process along?" Bath did mention the wasps by name; surely they must have some sort of relevant special organizational ability.


    "I''ve been readying the Hive for deployment," she stated, now close enough to Lepochim that her antennae brushed over his arm. "We can work on registering people in COTD''s already substantial system. Moreover, with a large contingent of land-shapers, we can simply grow Basalith and other cities outward to encompass residences that already exist."


    Lepochim nodded slowly, somewhat entranced by the wasp queen''s trim frame. He''d never seen a humanoid insect before and wondered what the flesh under her carapace felt like...


    As the wasp queen''s head moved directly in front of his own, her compound eyes alien and captivating, Lepochim snapped back to attention. He coughed lightly. "Good, perfect. I''ll check back with you in two days for a progress report. You''re to start on your aforementioned plan immediately."


    Lepochim promptly about-faced, then fast-walked out of the Hive.


    ''Quasi-sapients?'' he thought to himself. ''Quasi-sapients don''t plan, shape public opinion, or hack into governments.'' Turning slightly purple, Lepochim also thought, ''And they most certainly don''t try to seduce other sapients!''

 [Chapter 83] Scrantons Email; Lisas New Role

    "So the U.S. really capitulated," Lisa said softly. She and Bath were in Lisa''s private quarters above the Spire''s office. "Well...shit."


    Bath sat next to her on the floor. "Yeah. That was faster than expected."


    Lisa looked up into his eyes. "We should tell our parents, right?"


    Bath''s mouth thinned slightly. "Probably."


    Lisa scooted closer, then leaned her head on Bath''s shoulder. "What were you doing today with the tournament?" She knew Bath must have a reason for the challenges, though she wasn''t exactly sure what. "Were you preparing the competitors for gruesome battle? Psychological warfare?"


    Bath sighed. "I was trying to remind them that there will always be things more powerful than themselves. Endless numbers can overwhelm you and lead to defeat. Inorganic enemies, such as robots or the like, will also overwhelm and destroy."


    Lisa blinked. "You''re already preparing them for other worlds?" And not even those nearby...none of the planets that they had visited seemed to have powerful fighting forces. Lisa expected that they would breeze through.


    "Yeah," he replied simply. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Lisa thought of conflicts to come, of improving herself and further progressing as a leader. Bath thought of home, of the McLanes, of Avery. He hadn''t hidden his face in Basalith, rather he just prevented any photography or video recordings of his appearance. As soon as his family became integrated into Basalith--which they would be, and soon--they would recognize his human form at once.


    ''I might as well finish with the legitimacy ploy,'' Bath thought to himself, redirecting his attentions.


    ---


    Scranton didn''t even care at this point who the hell Bath was. He''d given her the finding of a lifetime in Bathiosaurus Exorexus. And then, as though the kid pulled amazing paleontological digs out of thin air, he directed her to three areas on different continents of the world: one in Mongolia, one in Peru, and the last in Egypt.


    She was in Egypt now, surveying the final dig site of the three. Over the past week, she''d been using a myriad of technological devices to better understand the structures of the three skeletons Bath had pointed her to. All of them were utterly baffling. Like Bathiosaurus Exorexus, they all appeared to be some kind of mutant off of known Earth species. Based on a few bone samples that Scranton was able to test, the fossils were all from around the same period of time Bathiosaurus Exorexus would have been alive--just on the cusp of the Permian Extinction.


    Bath hadn''t even needed to fabricate the fossils like he did Bathiosaurus Exorexus. He''d actually gone through a phase, a few thousand years before the Permian Extinction, where he entertained himself by changing the compositions of Earth''s species. The phase had only lasted around one hundred years or so, and almost all fossil evidence of his creations had long since been lost. A large reason was that he''d tried to devour most of the creations in the hopes of sating his hunger.


    Of course, he realized in short order that no amount of organisms created by himself would satisfy. However, there were three fossils he left behind in the locations he gave to Scranton. He hoped that she''d connect the dots on her own, create some type of snappy narrative that would tie in with the Dragon. He was also prepared to intervene and give her some guidance.


    He''d been waiting for her to email him, and finally, two days ago, she sent him a message.


    > Bath,


    > You''re the craziest SOB I''ve ever worked with. Yeah,


    > I''ve figured it out. I didn''t require my paleontology


    > degree to do that. I still have no idea why you even


    > came to me to do an internship, me, an untenured professor,


    > but frankly, I don''t care.


    >


    > If you were the personal envoy of the Dragon, you could''ve


    > just said so. At least you could''ve mentioned that after


    > the Dragon once again appeared on Earth...And I mean


    > ''once again'' because I''ve figured it out. I think.


    >


    > The Dragon clearly came to Earth millions of years ago,


    > likely in search of other intelligent life. Finding none,


    > he left and went somewhere else. Who knows where. Then,


    > he happened to return now. Lo and behold, humans existed.


    > That''s why everything''s been happening.


    >


    > I assume that''s why he sent you to me: he wanted to lead


    > me on an unofficial quest to discover his backstory and


    > provide the information for all as proof of the Dragon''s


    > message. All that going off world stuff that has everyone


    > so skeptical.


    >


    > Reply to this is you need to correct anything that I''ve


    > already said; else, I''m going to go ahead and quickly publish


    > my findings. I can tell that time is of the essence with


    > the speed the Dragon has been moving. I''m planning to make


    > my way to Basalith soon, and I figure that I''ll see you there.


    >


    > Thanks for choosing me,


    > -Eliza Scranton


    Bath smiled when he read the email. He was happy that Scranton managed to come up with a fairly rational explanation for everything, taking the fossils as evidence that he''d been on Earth millions of years back. She was certainly stretching things a bit, and Bath was fairly surprised that she connected everything back to COTD so easily.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ''Maybe she connected everything because of my name,'' he thought. He hadn''t made his name a secret, after all, announcing it to Basalith. As a result, practically everyone worldwide knew the Dragon''s name was Bath, even though most referred to him respectfully as the Dragon.


    Bath was hopeful that Scranton would publish her findings soon: hopefully, they would increase the rate at which other nations joined COTD. While the U.S. capitulating clearly sped up the process by a significant amount, several countries still spouted adamant anti-COTD propaganda. Bath didn''t particularly want another violent conflict, even if he wanted to test out Dean''s suggestion to only incapacitate--not kill--enemy fighters.


    Once he realized that this was the case, he began to wonder why. Why didn''t he want another conflict? Now, as Lisa rested her head on his shoulder, he asked for her view.


    "Lisa, why avoid a conflict you will assuredly win? Hypothetically."


    "If you know you''ll win, then the conflict itself is pointless," she replied, as though the answer were obvious.


    Bath frowned. "I''m not sure I understand."


    "For instance," Lisa began, "why not destroy the Earth? You could, you know."


    Bath paused. "So what you''re saying is that conflict exists to find out who will win."


    Lisa smiled. "Why else would we have wars? Even underdogs win against seemingly insurmountable odds. That''s why we have conflict. If a war has a completely foregone conclusion, people might fight for other reasons. Pride, glory, greed."


    "So, unhypothetically, when should we fight?"


    "Well, whenever the people we want to conquer fail to submit. In reality, whether or not a conflict will occur is up to the people we''re subjugating. To them, if they truly grasp that the situation is unwinnable, the logical course of action will be, of course, to capitulate."


    "Unfortunately, sapient species aren''t typically rational," Bath chuckled. "Then we should engage the human states that defy us. When?"


    Lisa removed her head from his shoulder and gazed up at him intensely. "One more day. Then, we strike. Give them one more day to change their minds."


    Bath nodded. "I wonder...aside from the wasps and the fossil thing I''ve told you about, what''s another way we can convince nations to abandon absurd notions of fighting back?"


    Lisa smirked. "You can send someone as an ambassador."


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "You mean, different than the ambassadors we''re sending to form new city-seeds."


    Lisa''s eyes glinted, her mouth curving up into a devious grin. "I mean, myself."


    ---


    "You have the rest of today to train your with your newboons," Bath stated. He and Lisa were alone in a large training room Bath had created explicitly for his own usage. This was, incidentally, the room where Lisa, Nimesh, and Dean had first met.


    If Lisa was serious about traveling to hostile nations--away from Bath''s protection--as COTD''s ambassador, Bath was going to ensure that she could both impress others and keep herself safe. Magnetic sense was useful, and Lisa really was becoming quite adept at using it to move around, but she still hadn''t received the full strength and endurance boons Bath bestowed to close combat fighters. Moreover, she still hadn''t even received land-shaper boons, relying explicitly on her power as a kursi to manipulate dragonleaf. While this was effective, land-shaper boons would drastically simplify the process and make it far easier. Bath hadn''t actually given any of the other kursi land-shaper boons, and so was curious to see what land-shaper and kursi abilities would look like side by side.


    He also had a host of other boons he wanted her to try out, such as the administrator drop stun--which he anticipated she could use in tandem with magnetic sense to sidestep the need for a rod-shaped focus--and the ranged fighter accuracy boons. He hoped that she''d be able to use both boons in tandem to direct her magnetic sense out and disable enemies remotely.


    Lisa was eager to begin. "I''m finally going to be as strong as Dean, right?"


    Bath snorted. "Right. First, I''m going to give you the strength and endurance boons together. The endurance boon shouldn''t require any work to adapt to since it''s passive. However, it''ll make it possible for you to better use the strength boon to its fullest capacity. After the bestowal, you''ll practice by sparring with me."


    Lisa cracked a grin, then cocked her index finger in the universal ''bring it on'' gesture. "I''m ready. What''s a little pain, right?"


    These boons were significantly less painful than the magnetic sense boon, partly because they only further improved upon preliminary boons Lisa received before. Additionally, since the boost in strength wasn''t so drastic, Lisa quickly got the hang of the full strength boon.


    "I feel so graceless sparring with you," Lisa grumbled. "I can''t even land a hit."


    Bath laughed raucously. "That''s what everyone said in the beginning. Reaching the Advanced tier close combat boon, however, should help significantly. I''ll give it to you now, in tandem with the artist profession''s visualization boon and the specialized educator''s adaptivity boon."


    "What do those do?"


    "Well, the third combat boon, instinctive strikes, will make it far easier for you to hone in on where you should be attacking, and how to attack. The visualization and adaptivity boons will make it easier for you to envision possible techniques on the fly and adapt them to use your body''s capabilities to their fullest potential."


    Lisa gaped. "You''ve been keeping all this from me!?"


    Bath held up his hands in surrender and gave her a coy smile. "It''s been hardly two weeks since this all began. You''ve been busy."


    Lisa sighed. "Fine. Better late than never."


    Lisa spent the next hour adjusting to the three new boons. By the end of it, she was consistently landing deadly blows of Bath''s form. Of course, Bath would fully reform himself after each attack, but the damage Lisa inflicted still served as a testament to her already immensely improved combat capabilities.


    "You really did make this easy," Lisa said, voice tinged with awe. "I barely have to even think about how to strike you, or how to adapt my fighting strategy to best inflict damage. It''s insane."


    Bath gave her a knowing grin. "That''s the idea."


    Lisa bounced eagerly on the balls of her feet. "So, what''s next?"

 [Chapter 84] Explosive Breakthrough; Kindling Deans Fire

    Bath''s eyes flashed, a sly smile hinting at painful training to come. "Want to try the dolls?"


    Lisa''s face grew ashen. "Wait," she took a step back. "No no no no..." She glanced left and right as the disturbing dolls from the tournament just an hour or so earlier reappeared. "Bath, damn it," she gritted. The dolls just stared, unmoving, except for one little girl doll who was sharpening a butcher''s knife.


    "You need to use everything I''ve given you so far together," Bath instructed. "Including magnetic sense."


    Lisa grunted exasperatedly as she fended off five dolls now diving in her direction. "How?"


    "Combine magnetic sense with the administrator boons," Bath suggested.


    Lisa turned toward him, narrowly dodging an oversized syringe needle. "What administrator boons?"


    Bath rose an eyebrow. "Oh." The dolls stopped moving, like puppets on severed strings. "Sorry. I got ahead of myself."


    Lisa let out a sigh of relief. "I swear," she menaced, "if these things, like, dismember me, or pull out my teeth--"


    "Shh," Bath said, smiling bashfully.


    Lisa walked over and slapped his arm, face turning serious. "Let''s just get it over with. The administrator boons."


    A few minutes and several muted screams later, Lisa stomped back over to the middle of the training room''s slightly lowered fighting pit. Bath crossed his arms, then asked, "Ready?"


    "No teeth!" she emphasized.


    Bath looked skyward. "Oh, I suppose..."


    ...And then the dolls rushed into action once more, clambering over one another to reach Lisa''s crouching form. ''Magnetic sense and the administrator boons...'' she thought to herself. She hadn''t allotted any time to practice the administrator boons, figuring that combat with the dolls, even if more difficult than basic training, would more than suffice. Since Bath hadn''t protested, Lisa figured she was right.


    She could sense them, the administrator boons, as she lashed out with her hands to attack and defend. ''What is that?'' she wondered to herself. It felt like a variant of her magnetic sense, only more concentrated. She almost wished she had some kind of object through which to channel...whatever the feeling was. ''Administrators usually use dragonleaf weapons as focuses, right?''


    Unfortunately, she didn''t have any dragonleaf sprouts at her disposal. She did have her own hands, but had a strong premonition that using them would lead to injury. The administrator power was expansive in nature, as though releasing it through her palms would distend them and cause them to crack from the inside out.


    ''Bath has to know all this,'' she reasoned, ''so what does he think I can do with the administrator boons and magnetic sense?'' Lisa still didn''t have a good sense what the administrator boons even were. Bath had, rather unhelpfully, given her the apprentice through expert boons in one complete package.


    Lisa began to dart back and forth faster and faster, her hands moving in a whirlwind as she fended off the encroaching dolls. Their sinister guises were starting to grate on her nerves, while several close calls with various sharp instruments were putting her on edge. The intensity of the attacks continued to increase, and Lisa was beginning to feel like she was falling behind, unable to keep pace with the dolls'' strikes.


    Bath looked on carefully, eyes alert, eyebrows drawn in, face cocked ever so slightly to the left. In the few moments Lisa could spare a moment to look in his direction, she felt as though he were watching her in anticipation...like he was waiting for something.


    "Don''t lose the momentum," Bath called out, sensing Lisa''s deteriorating will to struggle. "Have faith in your instincts. Trust them just as you would trust me. Think of them as a stand-in for me when I''m not beside you."


    Lisa''s expression momentarily grew soft, her eyes sparkling in the light of the training room. She looked over: not a glance, but a full-on stare. Bath met her eyes, his gaze''s intensity matching her own.


    The dolls took advantage of her lowered guard and collectively advanced forward, their knives, teeth, and syringes all aimed towards either her chest or throat. However, Lisa''s body remained sculpture-still. The weapons were only an inch away, a centimeter...


    As though oblivious to everything besides Bath''s gaze, Lisa inhaled deeply. Then, she closed her eyes.


    ---


    "What was that?" Kessalo wondered, a faintly audible ''pfft'' reaching his swiveling ears. "You three," he barked, looking at the three closest jerboa quasi-sapients. "You heard that, right?"


    The three jerboas'' heads bobbed up and down like the spindle of a sewing machine. "Yep!"


    "Good, good. Let''s investigate to make sure nothing dangerous is threatening Basalith''s underground." Aside from assassinations and interrogations, Bath also charged the jerboa quasi-sapients with watching out for subterranean threats. The training rooms were all sound-proofed and distant, ensuring that any noise the jerboas detected from their living quarters was abnormal in origin.


    The three burrowed through the ground, wary of the now continuously sounding ''pfft'' noises. They were growing louder, louder...


    The jerboas looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel. Kessalo''s nose twitched, his ears folded back against his head. "Isn''t a training room directly above us?"


    The other jerboas'' whiskers twitched gently, feeling for the shockwaves above. "It sounds like a loud clap," one of them whispered, then looked over expectantly at Kessalo. "Can we take a look? Can we?"


    Kessalo''s eyes remained transfixed on the ceiling, as though he could actually see in the absolute darkness of the newly-burrowed tunnel. "We can''t just leave a suspicious noise unchecked," he said after a moment of silence. "Even if it''s from a training room. Up!"


    "Up!" the rest squeaked. Burrowing into the training room took a few seconds, the four delayed by a layer of rock under the floor--a remnant of Ritus'' original foundation.


    ---


    Bath had sensed the jerboas'' approach a few minutes previous. His lips quirked upward as the little contingent stuck their noses up out of their entrance hole, whispering to one another about how best to be covert. Bath let them be.


    He understood why they''d come.


    Bath''s hair whipped around his face and his cape fluttered out behind him with each one of Lisa''s strikes. When her hands lashed out, incorporeal whips struck up to seven feet further away, exploding out with such force that the reinforced floor was cracking. The dolls, while constantly being reformed by Bath, were shattering with every few received blows. Considering the speed with which Lisa was jabbing her arms, the dolls would be dust in a minute without his interference.


    ''As expected,'' Bath thought to himself, eyes alight with satisfaction. When the administrator boonsmet with the resistance of her magnetic sense, the result was...explosive.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Lisa barely felt conscious of her body''s movements. Her eyes were open, but she wasn''t really using them to see. She--and the dolls--were moving too fast. No, she relied on reflex and sense of touch. She felt hypersensitive to the positions of everything around her, as though her magnetic sense had expanded out beyond herself into a reaching net. As she moved, she could release some of the administrator boons'' power into a strand of the net, like plucking an arrow. In her case, instead of plucking, she simply jabbed her hands into the strands of incorporeal netting.


    As she knew where everything was within her web of magnetic sense strands, she could also strike anything within that net. Whenever she jabbed, anything on the path of the strand was fair game. She could control when the whip-like explosion of power would occur along the strand''s length, enabling her to hit targets shielded by weapons or other dolls. As she struck, she waited for the resistance of her magnetic sense to trap the flow of the administrator boons. The resulting vibrations felt like mini motors churning up water in her wrists.


    As she fought, she knew intuitively that the power wasn''t completely safe. Let the power build up too long, and her wrists might explode. Moreover, she couldn''t dispose of the power safely: once her wrists began to vibrate, she needed to send the energy somewhere. Of course, she could always send the energy into thin air, but even that would create substantial shockwaves and a loud, whip-like crack.


    Suddenly, the dolls were gone, and Lisa''s final strike did just that: explode into empty air. She heaved, her eyes red, knuckles white. Her hands pressed onto her knees and she collapsed on the ground. She looked downward, though her eyes were unfocused.


    "Lisa."


    Lisa''s eyes snapped up. Her face softened, and her breathing subsided into light pants. "Haha," she rasped, throat dry from lack of water. "Wow."


    Bath smiled back. "Wow."


    Something white out of the corner of Lisa''s eye caught her attention. Turning, she saw four jerboa quasi-sapients, each aligned behind the other, pinning down their ears with diminutive paws. She glanced back curiously at Bath, who just gave her a light-hearted shrug.


    He then turned towards the four jerboas. "What do you think?" he asked. "Think anybody could stand up to that in a fight?"


    Kessalo, only now realizing that the other figure in the room with this random girl was the Dragon, quickly shook his head, extremely wary of his own lack of decorum. "Nope! I''d be pulp in a second, Creator."


    "Right, Creator!" came three cries from behind.


    Kessalo trained his round, shiny eyes on Lisa''s sweat-sleeked form, then looked back at Bath. "Apologies for the interruption, Creator."


    "No matter," Bath said back.


    Kessalo shifted in place, like a squirming child. Bath raised an eyebrow, causing Kessalo to gulp before asking, "Who is that?"


    Bath held out a hand in Lisa''s direction. Before the jerboas'' eyes, the sweats-and-t-shirt-toting, simply pretty girl transformed into the perfection that was the Church. No blemishes remained; even her sweaty sheen disappeared.


    Kessalo''s ears twitched madly along with his swishing tail. The jerboas behind him lowered their heads. Kessalo''s voice sounded out meekly: "As expected from our Lady."


    ---


    Dean couldn''t believe how competent Amalo actually was. As soon as the city''s name, Jerboaland, became official, Amalo immediately instructed his underlings to create a network of caverns stretching from Jerboaland--a few miles out from Somalia''s capital, Mogadishu--throughout the entire country.


    Dean had been skeptical at first. How could an army of jerboa quasi-sapients, no matter their numbers, burrow across the whole damned country? However, within two days, people were coming in from literally every region and town in Somalia. Even some people from Ethiopia and Kenya had managed to make their way into the jerboas'' expansive network. In the caverns themselves, people made their way to Basalith by snake.


    Dean hadn''t even known they had snake quasi-sapients before his twenty subordinates gave him reports of people commending the snakes for "polite and efficient" service.


    Dean waited at his desk now for Amalo to arrive. Today was their first meeting since he last spoke to the jerboa two days hence. For some reason, Dean found he wasn''t surprised at all that the jerboa was a little late.


    Dean looked up from his laptop as Amalo entered the threshold of the room. "Hello, Knight."


    "Amalo. The jerboas have been busy, to say the least," Dean said, his face betraying no emotion.


    "Of course. You did agree to name the city after our kind...this is the least we can do."


    "Tell me, in your own words, how things have been going." Dean felt he delivered the whole "serious" routine expertly. He''d said the exact same dialogue to every one of his subordinates. He figured that this way, he wouldn''t stumble over his words or forget what to say.


    Amalo cleared his little throat. "The humans were, in the beginning, very alarmed when we popped out of the ground. A few locations even had machine-gun toting hooligans who tried to kill us." Amalo blinked. "Long story short, we managed to convince people to enter the tunnels."


    "And the gun-toting hooligans?" Dean asked.


    Amalo gave a toothy smile. "Don''t worry about them."


    ''Dear lord,'' Dean sighed internally. "How did you convince people to enter the tunnels?"


    "Well," Amalo began, ears flopping to the left side of his head. "Humans find us...adorable, I suppose you''d say."


    Dean nodded. "And?"


    "We told them we had food and shelter. Many of them didn''t even know about COTD, especially in remote areas. I think that our cheerful personalities convinced these ignorant individuals that we wereangels in white."


    Dean''s eye twitched. He pictured Virigard, the little reaper, drawing lines of sanguine red across soldiers'' throats.


    "Many of our tunnels are long," Amalo continued, face downcast, as though long tunnels were a tragic existence. "Making travel difficult for so many of the less fortunate humans we rescued."


    "So you brought in the, um, snakes. The snake quasi-sapients."


    Amalo gave Dean a sly grin. "You know? Wonderful. Yes, that''s when we used the snake quasi-sapients."


    Dean narrowed his eyes and thrummed his fingers on the table. "Where on Earth did they come from? I''ve never seen any snake quasi-sapients."


    Amalo''s tail swished. "They''ve always been in Basalith," he said slowly. "Most of them have just been sleeping. You see, snakes are very lazy creatures. Not at all like jerboas, always awake and moving. In any case, we jerboas woke them up from their slumber and asked them to transport the humans."


    Dean hid an incredulous snort by coughing. This sounded like the kind of word-play he expected from a middle-school bully. ''Asked them.''


    "How exactly did you convince the previously unmotivated snake quasi-sapients to help out?" Dean suspected that snakes wouldn''t take kindly to being human mounts, and yet he''d received reports that they''d been absolutely stellar steeds.


    "We gave them positve motivation!" Amalo chirped. "We told them that they could be our trash disposal. I know, the job sounds undesirable, but to low-bred snakes, such employment is the cream of the crop. They fight each other for the opportunity!"


    ''Trash disposal? Do I look stupid, or does Amalo just enjoy toying with me?'' Dean decided that it was the latter, if only because the alternative was too self-esteem-crushing.


    "Can you send the leader of the snakes to meet with me?" Dean asked, immediately regretting his words. ''Leaders don''t ask, they tell.'' He cringed slightly at his own submissiveness. ''This is why you need to memorize everything, until this becomes second nature.''


    "Consider it done," Amalo said graciously.


    "For a final question, how many people have we been able to welcome into Jerboaland so far?"


    "Considering how many people we send into the tunnels, the number can''t be more than two million...but we''re working as fast as we can." Amalo nodded his head once.


    Dean''s pupils contracted, his fists tightening under his desk. ''And that''s just based on the people Amalo''s jerboas are sending by tunnel, not those arriving on their own from Mogadishu and nearby areas.


    "That''s all, you''re dismissed," Dean said. Amalo bowed his head, then dashed out the door. Alone once more, Dean let out an enormous exhale.


    "I thought Basalith didn''t have more than one hundred thousand people," he murmured. "Over two million?" He walked out of his office toward the Spire''s outer pavilion. He reached the balcony and watched as the glow of the setting sun illuminated the city below. Dean looked out, hands choking the balcony''s railing.


    "This is so fucking crazy," he whispered, speaking to the wind. He raised a hand to his face, as though trying to ensure that he was still there. That he was still awake, that this wasn''t all just some neverending dream. "Who would ever put me in charge of a massive city-state?" he chuckled out loud, his voice absolutely devoid of humor.


    The city had already expanded out far into the horizon, far wider than the more heavily-fortified Basalith. "The land-shapers should get a raise," Dean mumbled, smirking at his own joke. Not that there was any money or reward to give them. No, the real reward was the practice, the chance to utilize their land-shaping skills...the opportunity to continue along the path of self-determination.


    "The hell am I doing?" Dean said softly. He looked down at his hands, then looked back out. "I haven''t even left the Spire since I got here." He had food brought to him, and used the private chambers above the office room to sleep and bathe.


    As he looked out at the setting sun, he thought of Basalith, of the Way of the Dragon''s sunset-colored path, one ribbon amongst many, back when the Dragon first appeared in Tokyo. Then he remembered Bath''s words: "think higher."


    Dean looked up, as though searching for some abstract truth in the clouds. He relaxed his grip on the balcony and fingered his necklace. After a moment of contemplation, his eyes narrowed. Then, as though driven by a sudden impulse, Dean vaulted over the balcony and fell to the ground below.

 [Chapter 85] Pet Project One; Inspired Vision

    Lisa continued to practice for the remainder of the evening, then turned in to check in on her pet projects, the first being the wasp quasi-sapients. She felt somewhat irritated that Bath had been moving so quickly on his own projects when hers were going along at a much slower pace. ''It isn''t healthy to compare myself to him,'' Lisa thought to herself in self-admonishment.


    "Nevis," she called out as she entered the sweet-scented, hexagon-thatched Hive. The queen swiftly approached, hair and antennae swishing along with her hips.


    "Lady Church," Nevis smiled, her eyes creasing at the edges, gracing Lisa with a bow of the head. "Ready to see the progress we''ve made on project Big WD?"


    Lisa grinned. "Let''s go."


    The Hive was characteristically silent as Lisa walked next to the queen to a large, hexagonal room filled with whiteboards. The room was furnished only by a large conference table, lacking chairs. Lisa sat on the edge of the table while Nevis strode forward to the whiteboard, an expo marker in hand.


    ''This feels surreal,'' Lisa thought as Nevis began to draw out a complicated diagram, her formerly-concealed second pair of arms coming out to assist in the drawing. Lisa waited patiently for the wasp to finish, knowing from experience that the queen disliked interruptions.


    "This is Basalith, and this is Earth," Nevis stated clearly, pointing with her index and middle fingers. "And these are the nearby planets, which I''ve labeled with their given and official names." The wasp pointed at a slightly green planet located a deceptively distant from Earth. "For instance, Lime World, planet 39981."


    Lisa nodded along. "Based on the galactic encyclopedia and my own personal experience, how should we, COTD, proceed in traversing each world and establishing a set route between planets?" Lisa was, in particular, worried about a planet like Gray Land.


    "The first planet in our path, planet 39789," seeing Lisa fidget at the unfamiliar name, Nevis clarified, saying, "Magnet Planet, as you call it, is fairly easy to traverse. We can send out the snakes, horses, and wolves as our main ground force. The devilbats should also suffice to transport individuals ahead."


    "Sounds simple, as expected. LimeWorld, I assume, will be similarly easy to traverse once we subjugate the small sapient force just outside the gate."


    "All planets require specific boons to adapt to different atmospheric conditions," Nevis added. "How would you like to go about distributing these boons?"


    "I gave this a bit of thought," Lisa said. "I think we should erect isolation chambers just before and just after gates. That way, people can wait in line and begin adapting to the new environment." Lisa knew that, for now, Bath still hadn''t come up with a foolproof way to automatically change someone''s entire physiology to work in significantly different atmospheric conditions. Even she would rely on him to catalyze certain transitions in her body''s chemistry to properly adapt. "Bath can simply saturate the air of these chambers with airborne microbes like those he keeps in the boon pools."


    "Of course," Nevis nodded, head moving with the same sinuous grace of an ocean wave. "Then we should discuss the issue of Illudis and Juserin. Have you come to a conclusion on how we will approach?"


    Lisa sighed. While she didn''t feel any compunction for Earth''s leaders, she knew Juserin, had stayed at his mansion, and had even discussed kursi mind-manipulation and exchanged bits of culture. Everything would be so simple if Juserin joined them and COTD willingly, but Lisa doubted that this would happen. Juserin had seen them as fellow traveling gatekeepers; why would he debase himself and submit?


    "...I really want him to join us," Lisa just barely said under her breath. She reestablished eye contact with Nevis'' hourglass form. "We''re going to tell him the truth," she said finally. "If we''re serious about conquering the universe, bringing him over to our side will be incalculably useful."


    Nevis smiled, revealing sharp, curving, almost mandible-like teeth. "Understandable. The gains in political savvy would be worthwhile. Moreover, with luck, Juserin can retain some control over all the worlds within his grasp, saving us the need to work from nothing."


    "Exactly. Conquering foreign worlds won''t be as easy as conquering Earth, where we know the Earth''s culture, political climate, and technological capabilities. We''ll have to wait for a better encyclopedia," Lisa said wistfully. While the encyclopedia had far too much data to read alone, it only offered cursory glances and summaries of most worlds. What they really needed, for planning purposes, was an in-depth, CIA classified-level report on each planet.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    "Having decided how to proceed with Juserin, we have a few other matters to consider." Nevis now pointed two of her hands at the whiteboard, pointing with her fingers to nine separate planets. "The first planet after Illudis is 39811. The planet is, according to your report, extremely small and easy to cross. Next, we have planet 39786, a truly glaring obstacle."


    Lisa kicked her feet. "Yup. It''s on an asteroid, of all things."


    "We''re still working on a solution to that problem," Nevis stated firmly. "Worst comes to worst, we simply wait for the gate on that planet to change and hope for an easier planet to travel through..."


    Lisa chewed her lip. "No; Bath said he''s figured something out. I think we''ll be okay."


    "How does it work?"


    Lisa gave her a blank stare. "How am I supposed to know?"


    "You are his companion, his balance. Shouldn''t you know?"


    Lisa snorted. "If I knew everything Bath was doing, I''d explode," she admitted. "He can multitask and effectively be in several places at once."


    Nevis gave her a wide-eyed, thin-lipped expression. Lisa wasn''t surprised the wasp queen neglected that Lisa couldn''t multitask like Bath, the queen being quite the multitasker herself.


    "However, I can get along just fine aiming at a few key targets at once and getting assistance with the rest," she beamed appreciatively. "Now, let''s continue going over the planets Bath and I visited by voyager..."


    ---


    The dust swirled up around Dean as he impacted the floor. He straightened his knees, standing back up to his full height. ''I''m supposed to lead this city, and yet I haven''t even walked through its streets.'' That was a small, first goal. One he planned to use to make an impression.


    He looked up, at the sun, and felt a warmth in his chest. A flash of insight came to him, and he set out at a casual walk. His first instinct was to sprint, to race through the city and quickly retreat back to the Spire.


    That was exactly why he chose to do the opposite: a slow patrol through the streets. To any Somalian observers, this walk appeared brisk; Dean would, in fact, make good time through the city''s streets. Since Jerboaland''s roads and buildings were laid out in geometric patterns in the same continuous, fractal model as Basalith, Dean found it easy to merge his inspired vision into the topography of Jerboaland.


    As he walked, he cleared the street with loud, thudding steps. People naturally parted before his thunderous approach. However, when Dean came by, all they would see was a young man dressed in a formal, military-inspired white suit with blue accents, his eyes probing, hands periodically dipping down into the dirt below to sculpt out deep gashes. The motion was graceful and coordinated effortlessly with each stride.


    This, perhaps more than anything else, was what led to the silence following Dean''s path through the city. People scurried out of the way, halted, and stared, enraptured by the display of power before them, their belief in COTD kindled as they saw the young, official-looking man prowling like a lion.


    When Dean finished, his eyes lightened, brows no longer furrowed. ''At least I''ve left my mark on this city,'' he thought to himself. ''And at least it''s something worth appreciating.'' Dean decided that he didn''t want to be known as the simple Knight, a tool of COTD, some brutish powerhouse to beat adversaries into submission.


    He wasn''t naive; he knew that eventually, he would need to act out the part of the Knight. COTD was going to other planets, and Dean doubted most of them would be open to foreign conquerors waltzing in and seizing power. He''d fight; even if COTD was somewhat crazy, even if he still held serious reservations about Bath''s treatment of humans and, specifically, himself.


    But Dean wasn''t content to remain a background figure, to be called upon when useful...to be sent away like an obedient subject to a foreign city. Since COTD was a thing, and he was already at its top, he was determined to abuse the situation to his advantage, to do what he loved.


    Dean first smirked to himself, then his lips parted and he laughed out loud before finally dashed back towards the Spire.


    ---


    "Residents of Jerboaland," Dean announced, utilizing a director boon to magnify his voice. He was leaning out over the Spire, luminescent lichens casting him in a faint glow. "In this city, we will begin our own legacy. As many of you have heard, Basalith has quickly become a breeding ground for warriors. But that''s not what we need. Here, we will sow peace."


    He looked out steadily over the city''s dimly glowing form, unable to make out anything more defined than silhouettes. "Here, in Jerboaland, we''re going to find purpose not through duels, or trials of combat, but through matches. Sports. Socc--er, Football, tennis, basketball, anything and everything. We''ll adapt and create our own sports as we go, and I have no doubt they''ll spread far and wide, wherever COTD goes."


    Dean knew most of the people below wouldn''t understand his words, since many only spoke Arabic or Somali. However, he knew the few who did understand would translate, and those present would upload his announcement online, where it would be translated for anyone to read.


    "The Church of the Dragon has come here to help. Think of Jerboaland as a new beginning; I know we''ll be able to carve out a future together."


    Dean cracked a grin as the lines he''d carved through the city--later traced over in a flammable material by the jerboas--sparked to life. Soon, inside the gashes roiled orange flames, shining like a brazier in the darkness. Standing on the Spire''s balcony, Dean couldn''t quite make out the full image he''d inscribed; the people below were undoubtedly puzzling over the inscribed flames.


    But from above, where one quasi-sapient falcon circled in search of airborne enemies, the image was clear: a giant, flaming circle, splitting off into swirling rays, like eddies of light encircling a vast whirlpool of light at the circle''s center.

 [Chapter 86] Awaiting the Families; Deployment to Hostile Russia

    "We were planning to wait until Basalith expanded out into the DC area," Brian explained, shifting his head to appear within the camera. "Avery, honey, move over."


    "Dad," Avery whined, rolling her eyes, though she adjusted her position and tilted the camera to catch Mr. McLane''s rather tall frame.


    "You should all come to Basalith," Bath said, shaking his head slightly. "Don''t wait for the expansion outward."


    Samantha and Brian looked at one another, then back at the computer. "Is there a rush?" Samantha asked. "Besides, we want to be able to keep our home. Based on how the new dragonleaf city-seeds have functioned in other countries, we should be able to stay put without much trouble."


    Bath''s lower eyelids drew up slightly and his eyebrows rose. "You all should come to Basalith first. I need to talk with you."


    His serious, though faintly pained voice gave everyone pause. "Are you...at Basalith?" Samantha asked, eyes narrowed. She didn''t think her son was one to leave college and join COTD on a whim. Besides, he''d been at school the last time they''d talked.


    Avery saw from Bath''s posture--he was angling himself away from the camera, and wasn''t making eye contact--that something was amiss. He never seemed uncomfortable, a perpetual pillar of stability and strength in her life...why did he seem uncertain now?


    "If you come tomorrow, you''ll understand. Just come. Trust me; I don''t want to explain without being there in person."


    "We''ll be there," Avery asserted, looking seriously into the camera.


    "Avery--" Brian began, admonishing his fiery daughter.


    "No, seriously, I think we need to go," Avery rebuked. "I''ll go alone if I have to," she pledged.


    "Also, bring Lisa''s family with you. She''s been too busy to reach out to them herself, but I know she''ll want to see them in person."


    ''So Lisa and Bath are both at Basalith,'' Samantha thought to herself, mulling over the significance of the information. In the end, she supposed there was too much craziness surrounding Basalith and COTD; she''d find out exactly what was going on when she arrived at Basalith.


    Samantha gave Brian a pointed look. He nodded in return, then said, "We''ll be there. Can''t wait to see you and hear about what you''ve been doing."


    Bath smiled back. "See you all when you arrive."


    Then he terminated the call. He wondered what they would do when they realized who--what--he was. He didn''t doubt that they would still love him.


    ''Why do I even care about their opinions, about their relationship to me?'' Bath thought pensively to himself, sitting against the wall of the Spire''s living quarters.


    Bath was under no illusions that he, alone, would likely be able to conquer most of the universe, in particular worlds lacking strong sapient presences. But Bath was starting to realize that there was a beauty in sharing experiences with others, just as there was satisfaction to be gained by helping them and receiving their adoration.


    Perhaps more than anything else, building up Basalith and all the tasks encompassed therein had truly taxed Bath in a way he''d never experienced before. He''d really needed to work to create his boons, to put flesh on the bones of Lisa''s hierarchy, to create dragonleaf, city-seeds, and spineroot. Such exertion, in an odd way, almost made him...forget about the every-aching hunger at his Center.


    ''It''s almost time to begin the second stage of the hierarchy,'' he noted. A few people were already starting their seventh professions. This meant that they were officially half-way through the basic enhancement process. Bath figured he still had a little over a week before the first person made it to Expert in all fourteen.


    ''Adequate time to finish the next wave of enhancements,'' he thought, wary of the large task before him. Each Expert path needed to branch off into a certain direction. While each person would need to initially choose an Expert path upon which to venture, they wouldn''t be stuck with that path forever. However, the commitment would likely be around a year.


    Lisa had outlined all of the possible paths in the Hierarchy of the Church of the Dragon, however, Bath found that creating suitable boons to match each pathway wasn''t straight forward.


    After a few minutes of fruitless contemplation, Bath sat up a bit straighter, eyes widening. ''Why tell them what their boons will be?'' he mused. ''Why not create a substantial bank of boons, with different tiers, and let them choose? They''ll still need to pick a path to follow in the hierarchy, but this way, they''ll have more freedom...'' and, of course, Bath recognized the upside that this involved far less work.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Bath drew his hands together and stretched. ''What boon should I start working on first?'' He wasted no time in devising new tiers of boons, eager to fill his mind with anything other than thoughts of his family.


    ---


    Bath and Lisa stood in the Spire''s bedroom, both dressed in their formal Dragon and Church attire. Bath closed the gap between them, then looked, smiling, into Lisa''s bright eyes.


    "You worried?"


    "Irrationally," Lisa exhaled. "I shouldn''t be. But I am. A bit." She fidgeted in place, then grinned. "You?"


    Bath chuckled lightly, then looked to the side, out the window framing open sky. "I feel...as I did when I told you about me."


    They shared a moment of contemplative silence.


    "I remember," she murmured. "Most people would probably wonder why I believed you so easily. But it was just...so obvious."


    "Oh?"


    "You''d have to experience it firsthand to understand," Lisa sighed. "I think, too, that I just wanted to believe."


    Bath nodded sagely. "Who doesn''t want a half-billion-year-old super-powered alien best friend?"


    Lisa suppressed a grin as she lightly smacked Bath''s shoulder. "You''re so annoying," she quipped. "We should probably do something productive, instead of just waiting for them to arrive," Lisa admitted.


    "Productive...hmmm," Bath said slowly, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. "Nope. I got nothing." In actuality, he was off generating the new round of boons in a separate location in Basalith.


    "Really? Nothing?" Lisa tilted her head forward, incredulous. "I bet you''re working on ten things at once as we speak."


    "Four," Bath admitted with a sly grin. "How goes our planet-conquering strategy?"


    Lisa snorted. "For the nearby planets, easy as pie. We''ve decided to try to recruit Juserin as an ally."


    "He''d be useful," Bath acknowledged, thinking of the Waymaster''s experience holding down several gates. "How are the other projects?"


    "They''re going fine," Lisa shrugged. "The hawks are absolutely terrifying, not to mention the sparrows."


    Bath grinned. The sparrow quasi-sapients were, in actuality, a mesh of a plethora of different small bird species from several different eras. They did, coincidentally, happen to resemble modern sparrows. This didn''t mean that the birds were harmless.


    "How do they work together?"


    "Eh, they''re getting there," Lisa said, shaking her right hand in the gesture for "so-so." "I''m sure they''ll get the hang of working together with a little more time."


    Bath''s gaze suddenly sharpened. He turned towards Lisa, then muttered, "They''re all here. Even your aunt and uncle," he noticed, slightly surprised.


    Lisa blew out a breath of air, closing her eyes. When she opened them, she nodded brusquely to Bath. "Let''s give them a proper greeting."


    ---


    "Assigned to where?" Edgewood balked. "Russia? But they haven''t surrendered yet."


    Susan gave him a tired look. "Does that even matter anymore?"


    "Chemical weapons aren''t funny," Edgewood snapped. "And I don''t think Russia will hesitate to use them against us."


    "This seems like a total, arbitrary shitshow," David muttered under his breath. "Sure, we won second place, but practically every other team in the tournament also got a city-seed assignment. I''m going to be so fucking pissed if I got covered in rot juice for nothing."


    "I''m sure we''ll have some way to counteract any kind of chemical weapon," Kayt butted in. "Stop whining." She coughed, then added a second too late, "That''s what Nimesh wanted to say."


    Edgewood gave her an "are you kidding me?" look. "How? And even if we''re somehow protected by the constitution boon, what about any civilians who come to our city-seed? If they get gassed, they''ll be completely screwed."


    Kayt shrugged. "Do you really believe that the Dragon hasn''t already thought of something?"


    Edgewood groaned. "I have no idea. How are we supposed to find out if he has a solution, anyways?"


    Then, suddenly, on a patch of ground between the members of Edgier Than You, a box made of dragonleaf appeared.


    Anne rose an eyebrow. "That just appeared out of nowhere, right?" Nobody else had been paying attention to the ground. Anne, bored with the conversation, had been wasting time finding patterns in the grass. "''Cuz I''m thinking that maybe the Dragon was listening, and this is the solution."


    The conversation ceased. "A box," Susan murmured, inspecting its surface with her expert vision. "Somebody, open it."


    Edgewood wasted no time in coming forward. Anne met him in front of the box; Edgewood held the box down, while Anne pulled.


    "Whoever made this made the lid tight," Anne grunted, face turning red. "Like, the hell?" Anne was pretty sure such a strong box was physically impossible. Was the Dragon still intervening?


    "Dragon, please let us have the box," Anne vocalized. "Pretty please, with sugar on top."


    Anne fell over as the lid flew off, her body''s balance thrown off by the lid''s rapid displacement. "Da-yum," she whistled. "Edgy, what''s inside?"


    Edgewood gave her a disapproving look, then returned his eyes to the contents within. "Looks like a hedge of dragonleaf," he admitted. "It''s probably different."


    "Let me see~" Anne cried out eagerly, stretching a hand towards the compact hedge nestled within the box. "Oh, huh. Definitely not dragonleaf," Anne observed. "Kayt, get over here."


    Kayt walked over, then pressed her own hand against the shrub. "It''s like a stupider version of dragonleaf," she remarked, eyes narrowed. "But...why?" The little shrub didn''t seem to comprehend the majority of things Kayt was telling it.


    "Try touching it, then thinking of a gas mask," Edgewood suggested.


    David rolled his eyes. "Really?"


    Nonplussed by David''s pessimism, Kayt envisioned a gas mask. The shrub began to shake, then grow. Soon, the shrub had branches covering the air. "I think that worked."


    David looked on in utter shock. "But...why?"


    Kayt shrugged. "No clue. But I guess that means any objections over going to Russia are tabled, right?"


    Edgewood threw up his hands in defeat. "If the Dragon himself intervenes..."

 [Chapter 87] The McLanes Approach Basalith; Averys Heart

    "This line is huge," Samantha murmured as they approached Basalith, close enough to view the people camped outside the city''s limits.


    The car bumped constantly over the uneven terrain where the road had been destroyed. While the way to Basalith was--despite the destruction--completely navigable, many people chose to wait for COTD to come to them, rather than go to Basalith directly. Why rush out to the undoubtedly burgeoning city when it was going to expand out in the next few days? Even so, traffic was terrible--while most people chose to wait in the comfort of their homes, just enough people chose to venture out to COTD''s Mecca that Samantha needed to vigilantly watch for passerby.


    She was struck by an unsettling feeling as she drove, the kind that comes when walking through cemeteries late at night, or traversing a dark alleyway. These huge streams of pilgrims--venturing by foot, bike, car, whatever--cast Basalith in the light of a safe refuge. That, of course, gave Samantha the sense that everyone was escaping from...something.


    "This looks like a war zone," Brian observed as they crawled along. The damage to the surrounding terrain was visibly worse the closer they got to Basalith''s towering green walls. It seemed to Samantha oddly ironic that people were leaving their idyllic towns for a literal battlezone.


    Samantha gave him an incredulous look off to the side. "Hmm, I wonder why?"


    "I know about the battle," Brian snorted, rolling his eyes. Who didn''t? "But the shredded road wasn''t what I was talking about. I was referring to the fact that this area has the semblance of a refugee state."


    Samantha''s hands tightened on the wheel. "Why?" She had been telling herself that her unease was unfounded. But if Brian also felt like something was amiss...


    "This kind of exodus isn''t unprecedented; people go on holy pilgrimages all the time," Brian noted as he watched a passing group of bikers. "Even so..." he trailed off. "In America in particular, people don''t normally evacuate their homes. This scenario feels like it should be happening somewhere else."


    Samantha nodded her head once in mutual understanding. It felt to her like they were in a foreign country, or a movie set. Just a few days ago, even last month, nobody knew of COTD. Life was simple, and humanity had a good grasp on its limitations and its future prospects. People are born, they live, and they die.


    "COTD really has turned everything on its head," she muttered. "Here we were," she said, glancing in the overhead mirror at Avery, sleeping in the back, "worrying about Bath, and Avery...saving up for college."


    "If COTD hadn''t brought the panacea to everything, along with free housing, food, education..." Brian shook his head. "It''s like someone woke up one day with the powers of a God and decided to make heaven on Earth." He rubbed the brow of his nose. "None of this makes sense. And how the hell are Bath and Lisa involved?"


    Samantha shared Brian''s frustration over their son''s involvement in COTD. As far as they were concerned, he''d been at Alens for the past two months. Why, then, was he at Basalith, telling them to rush over? For what? To idle their car in a line wrapping for miles around Basalith''s border?


    Everything so far implied that Bath had some sort of way to get them into the city, which in turn implied that he held some form of...leadership in COTD. Samantha''s mind swam as she drove, generating theories or explanations for Bath''s connection to COTD.


    She didn''t know how she felt about him being a part of COTD. Everything about the mysterious organization left her, as a parent, extremely worried--would Bath be sent off to fight against someone and die? Furthermore, now that talks of a supposed "portal" leading to alternate worlds had been brought up, Samantha worried that Bath might be sent into one of these portals, only to disappear forever.


    Of course Samantha recognized the amazing things COTD had to offer, especially the big-ticket benefits that Brian pointed out. But in all honesty...the most important thing to her were her children. If the COTD gave her a perfect life, but the cost was, eventually, the lives of one or both of her children...


    In a sense, Samantha felt helpless in the face of COTD''s sweeping domination of Earth. ''Everything has happened much too fast for me to get a sense of everything. For instance, the Dragon of the COTD said he could extend people''s lives, but only did so as a reward for military service. Obviously, if the COTD increases the lifespans of our family, we should be endlessly grateful...'' but Samantha believed, as a rule of thumb, that old adage, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    COTD sounded like the biggest "too good to be true" ever. If they all could theoretically live forever, but died in just a few years from waging war, what was the point? The entire premise of the COTD, that a god came down from wherever to Earth, within the entirety of the vast universe, claiming that he was going to lead humanity across the stars...it simply didn''t make sense. Why? Why come down to Earth, why consort with humanity, why lead them across the stars? Why do any of these things?


    Samantha had been mulling over these questions for the past week or so, with little to show for her efforts. And now, as they approached the looming city ahead, her uncertainty and fear were coming to a boil.


    "That''s an odd sign," Brian suddenly remarked. Samantha, only half paying attention to anything other than the ground directly in front of her wheels, looked over to her right.


    "Where? What?"


    "It says, 3.6 miles away from Basalith...why 3.6?"


    "It does seem completely arbitrary," Samantha admitted.


    Samantha jerked up in her seat, hair standing on end, eyes wide. On her windshield, out of nowhere, appeared the following words: "Samantha McLane. Prepare for your car to be skylifted into the city. Seconds to lift: 59...58..." Every second, the digits on the counter changed. The message looked like the kind children leave in windows by smudging their fingers, only darker, like someone had painted in clear oil on the surface of the window.


    "Brian," she croaked. "Brian!"


    Snapping to attention, Brian looked her way. "What?"


    "Do you see this?" she hissed. "On my windshield?"


    "What...the hell," he finished, dumbfounded. "Airlift...?"


    "What?" Avery grumbled from the back, eyes heavy-lidded, hair mussed up. "Why are you both yelling?"


    "We aren''t yelling!" Samantha roared. She exhaled loudly, then continued, "Avery, something impossible is happening."


    Avery simply nodded. "I know. This is COTD territory." While Avery had been following COTD news coverage like everyone else, she''d been voraciously reading up on COTD ever since Bath called yesterday night imploring them to come. She''d consequently stayed up all night gathering information, leading to her sleeping through the whole morning. "The Dragon can do whatever he wants. Though what impossible thing are you talking about?"


    "There''s writing on our windshield," Samantha exclaimed. ''22, 21...''


    "Wait what?" Avery cried out, a thousand times more awake than she had been a few seconds ago. "What does it say!?" ''Is the Dragon...sending us a message?'' Avery smiled inwardly to herself, heart thumping in her chest, butterflies whipping up a hurricane in her stomach. ''Is it...Bath?''


    In all the material that Avery read on COTD, one thing clearly stood out in her mind: the Dragon''s name was, in his own words, ''Bath.'' If the Dragon had said something mundane like Tom, that would be one thing. But Bath...as far as she knew, her Bath was the only Bath. Moreover, being involved in COTD in secret, telling them to go to Basalith without any advanced notice...


    However, perhaps most persuasive of all to Avery''s young heart was her earliest memory. It was the kind of memory she always considered more of a vivid dream. It was hazy, and only lasted for a few seconds. If she had to describe it, the memory felt like a short Snapchat message with a bad filter.


    But in that memory-not-memory, Bath lifted her up in the air and let her fly around her room. In all her life, after that, Avery had tried to dream of the same thing--of flying--but never could. She always lamented the fact that her dreams wouldn''t cooperate with her desires, that the only time she''d ever get to really experience flying was in that snapshot memory.


    Avery desperately wanted the memory to be real. She wanted her older brother to be the Dragon. She couldn''t imagine her friends'' faces if they saw her, sister of the Dragon, flying in the sky...standing at Bath''s side.


    Because at the root of everything, that''s what Avery really cared about: why else would she try so hard in school, in sports?


    "The message says that we''re going to be airlifted in thirteen, no twe--eleven seconds!" Samantha cried out.


    "He''s coming for us," Avery mumbled in response, eyes wide with exuberant, almost disbelieving surprise. Then, louder: "It''s really him."


    "What? Who?" Brian asked, narrowing his eyes.


    Avery lifted her face. "Who else?"


    They spent the last five seconds of the car ride in silence, Avery''s implied answer too impossible to speak out loud. Then, as the family members simply looked at one another with stunned expressions, the car jerked off the ground. Everyone in the car pitched forward, their seatbelts holding them in place.


    "Dear God," Samantha said shakily. "This is actually happening."


    Brian''s eyes were absolutely glued to the window as he watched the ground rapidly shrink. "Yeah, I guess it is," he replied, voice detached. "Avery," he began, "do you honestly think...?"


    "It''s him," Avery said, eyes shining with confidence. "After all, there''s only one Bath."


    Not even a second later, a familiar voice rang out. "Why am I surprised that you''re the only one to figure it out?"


    "Bath!" Avery squealed. Samantha and Brian both felt a chill come over them. Samantha''s knuckles were bone white on the useless wheel, while Brian''s entire body quickly became pale as a sheet.


    Then, suddenly, a tremor ran through the vehicle, as though it had been struck. Then, out of nowhere, the roof of the car began to peel upward, as though being pulled by something--or, more likely, someone. In the time it took everyone to breathe once, the roof of the car was gone. In its place was Bath, hovering in the air above them, with a crooked smile touching his gleaming eyes.


    "I really missed you guys."

 [Chapter 88] The McLanes React; Explanation; Game Plan

    As Bath hovered above the car, Avery unfastened her seatbelt and stood up. "Bath!" she cried out once more. "I missed you, too."


    "Now you guys will all be here, with me," Bath said in reassurance. "Come; we should return to the Spire before we cause too much of a spectacle."


    Before Samantha or Brian could get in any shocked words, the car was already accelerating towards the city at a far faster speed than they''d previously been driving. Within a minute, the car was already passing over the city''s walls.


    Samantha clutched Brian reflexively as stringy tentacles rapidly ripped the car apart like thin paper. They moved hungrily over the car, shredding and internalizing any non-human things. Within the time it took for the car to pass over the wall--at the speed they were going, not more than a second--the tentacles had completely disintegrated the car.


    Instead of plummeting to the ground, Bath suspended each of the McLanes in the air. He looked at Samantha and Brina''s cowering forms, then snorted humorously. "I''m never going to let you fall," he assured them. "Stand up."


    Samantha and Brian opened their clamped eyes. They felt as though they would fall over at any second, unable to find any grip on the ground--or rather, air. ''How are we supposed to stand?'' Samantha wondered.


    On the opposite end of the spectrum, Avery quickly found her legs and stood, no hesitation in her eyes. "I''ve been waiting for this," she said.


    "Oh?"


    "I want to fly," she smiled. "This is a dream come true."


    Bath''s eyes softened. "Perfect. Come, everyone, let''s get inside where we can talk." Without waiting for Samantha and Brian to wobble to their legs, Bath dragged the rest of his family over to the Anima''s upper balcony.


    "This is the Spire," he motioned in introduction. "This is where we run the city and everything else." He looked back at them. "We should probably start at the beginning."


    "Probably," Brian said shakily, leaning against the Spire''s hallway.


    "Follow me," Bath said as he strode down the hallway. "This is the office, and that''s Lepochim. He''s an alien called a deepthink." Bath gaveLepochim an icy stare. "He''ll be leaving for the next few minutes."


    Lepochim affixed Bath with an incredulous stare. "Leave? My office?"


    Before Lepochim could utter another word of complaint, Bath shoved him out of the office like refuse on a dustpan. Now, the only people present were the McLanes.


    "To avoid any confusion whatsoever, I will clarify a few things," Bath began, taking a seat in one of the plush blue chairs of the office room. He motioned with his hand for everyone to sit, rather than stand stiffly like transplanted statues. "The couch is nice," he said as further encouragement. Samantha and Brian robotically took their seats on the couch, while Avery nonchalantly plopped down


    "First: I am the Dragon. Second: I am not human. Third: I am Bath McLane." Bath gazed at all of them intently, trying to gauge their reactions. "I''m going to tell you the truth about everything. You''ll be the first aside from Lisa to understand.


    "My memory starts around 500 million years ago. I don''t know where I came from, nor how I came to be. Since that time, I''ve largely lived a peaceful, carefree life, free of aspirations. However, when humanity began to display its might by changing the planet''s climate, I took notice of the disturbance. As a result, I wanted to understand humanity.


    "That''s when I met you," Bath smiled, eyes bright and affectionate. "You adopted me, an ancient alien masquerading as an infant." Bath broke out into a laugh. "I was a terrible baby, in the beginning."


    Suddenly, Samantha''s expressionless exterior melted. She laughed along with Bath in reminiscence. "I didn''t know what was wrong with you. You were too smart for your age," she smiled sadly.


    "In all my long life," Bath began, making eye contact with the three McLanes before him, "I never conceived of a notion of family. As you can guess, I was always alone." He sighed, then averted his eyes to a corner of the room. "Ignorance is bliss, when you don''t know what you''re missing. Needless to say, I''ve enjoyed being part of this family."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Bath hadn''t planned what he was going to say. He was speaking his mind, trying to vocalize his appreciation for the McLanes. Before them, he had never understood the concept of love. Many avian and mammalian animal species displayed affection and love for one another, but Bath had always thought them weak, misguided. He saw love as a pitiful chemical reaction that facilitated mating and community behavior, only necessary for those two ends...and thus wholly useless to himself.


    Bath couldn''t put it into words, but he felt as though love was an evolutionary adaptation gone astray. Just as human intelligence was such a leap as to enable them to create excesses of food and devote their time to the creation of flourishing civilizations, human love...human love was irrational.


    "You seem tired," Avery observed. Bath had been lost in his thoughts for the past few seconds, staring off into space.


    He snapped his eyes to Avery''s, then replied, "I don''t get tired." He chuckled. "Who has time to sleep?"


    Avery beamed devilishly, Bath having given her an opening for one of her favorite lines. "Ain''t nobody got time for that." She jerked her head to the side, displaying as much sass as a middle school eighth-grader could conjure.


    Bath smirked. "Lisa doesn''t really need to sleep anymore."


    Avery''s eyes grew wide. "What!? No fair!"


    "So, everything..." Brian said softly. "Basketball? School?" Brian exhaled slowly. "Why?" He couldn''t articulate his thoughts. ''Was everything a lie? Why lead us on?'' He feltoddly empty.


    "Because I was bored," Bath said after a moment of quiet contemplation, face serious. "Trying out humanity has been, perhaps, the most entertaining thing I''ve ever done." Bath truly meant this. "Everything I did with you, I did with genuine earnestness. I really was a child, trying to adapt to human society, trying to learn about the first sapient species I came into contact with."


    Bath sighed, realizing that he needed to begin discussing why he began COTD. "I''m certain you''re all wondering why I formed COTD."


    Samantha nodded her head slowly; Brian didn''t move at all. Avery, on the other hand, moved her head up and down voraciously.


    "Long story short, I found out that all over the universe, there exist gates that connect incredibly distant locations together. One such gate is on Earth, here, in Basalith...under our feet. Lisa and I passed through the gate and passed through several alien planets on our way back to Earth."


    Bath then looked at them all sheepishly. "Well, then...we both decided that we wanted to conquer the universe. You know, explore the entire place, and make it our own along the way."


    Samantha gave him a look. "Why?"


    Bath''s brow furrowed. "Boredom? It''s the greatest challenge I can think of." Bath knew that there wasn''t really a good explanation for why he and Lisa wanted to conquer the universe. In a sense, Bath simply wanted to know if hecould. He figured it was the same for Lisa.


    Samantha gave him a long, probing look, then nodded. "I think I understand. So, how should we treat you now?"


    Bath cocked his head. "Treat me?"


    Avery giggled, then rocketed out of her seat and tackled Bath out of the chair to the floor. She turned back towards her parents, pouting. "Don''t you get it?" she glowered. "Treat him like Bath. He just said that he loves us ''cause we''re family...because we love each other. The worst thing you could do," Avery explained haughtily, "is to treat him as anything less." Finished speaking, Avery turned back towards Bath and cuddled up against his chest.


    Samantha''s stony facade broke. "Oh, honey," she murmured, then walked over to where Avery was pinning Bath to the floor. She leaned over, then ran and outstretched hand through Bath''s hair. Brian followed a moment later, silent, but no longer brooding.


    "With myself and COTD, we''ll never need to fear being separated, nor any of our number dying," Bath said softly. "Who would dare to cross the Dragon, after all?"


    ---


    Dean hadn''t realized how difficult determining divisions would be for sports, now that boons were added into the mix. In the beginning of the effort to center Jerboaland around sports, Dean didn''t have even a basic understanding of all the different boons attainable through the hierarchy. Even referencing volunteer-written guides to the different boons online, Dean was quickly overwhelmed by the vast number of boons.


    Every boon, because they changed the way people thought, moved, and sensed, had a nuanced impact on their ability to compete. While Dean knew that, in the long run, this wouldn''t matter, given that everyone would one day attain all boons...he was also aware of complications inherent in people specializing down different profession paths. Was a chef of a hypothetical fifth tier more potent than a land-shaper of the third tier? Or would they match up the same, irrespective of chosen profession?


    What Dean really needed to know was whether the professions would be balanced. His gut feeling told him that Bath wouldn''t settle for anything less than a supposed "perfect" system where all paths were viable, but he had no idea how Bath would achieve such a thing. For instance, how could any other profession compete with a long range manipulator in archery?


    Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose, then crossed his arms, staring at the cluttered whiteboard in front of him. "We could always just rank people on an individual basis," he mused. "Have people serve as judges, then determine people''s ballpark power. Then, let them form teams and compete."


    The idea didn''t sound terribly bad to Dean. Of course, ranking people was going to take a ton of work and personnel, but Dean wasn''t too worried on this front. He had no doubts that people would be eager--in particular administrators--to judge the abilities of others. It was great practice for any administrators hoping to gain a better sense of how to use their abilities. For everyone else, the ability to see one''s own ranking in comparison to everyone else...


    Dean felt like the people of the COTD would quickly grow to like such a modification.


    Dean hummed under his breath as he began to write. "Test 1..."

 [Chapter 89] Lisas Family Approaches; Russias City-Seed

    Lisa sat against the wall of the bedroom above the office.


    "The floors are so thin," she muttered to herself, grin not reaching her eyes. "Or maybe it''s me. Probably." She had hearing enhancements on top of everything else. ''Surprise, surprise.''


    Lisa sighed. Bath''s family was taking this as well as could be expected. Quite frankly, Lisa had no idea how they were supposed to react. Their son just up and conquered the Earth...and revealed that he''s the half-billion-year-old inhuman deity of a new religion.


    ''Not that those half-billion years really count for much,'' Lisa mused to herself. Young Bath didn''t have to act--much. He really was just an innocent, socially-awkward little twat. Lisa chuckled to herself. ''No--for Bath, family wasn''t an act.''


    Lisa admired that about him: how does an ancient alien predator join a human family? And not just join, as in exist within the household for pragmatic reasons, but join as a true son and eventual older brother? Bath would probably argue that his curiosity about humanity and human social structures was the primary reason. Lisa disagreed.


    ''He confided in me for one reason,'' she remembered. ''Because he was lonely.''


    Lisa banged her head lightly against the wall. "I wish my family would just get here already," she grumbled irritably to herself. Just thinking about them coming set her gut aflame and left her face white, as though all the color in her cheeks pooled to her stomach to form a sanguine blaze


    "Don''t worry," Bath said, appearing next to her. The conversation was still going on below, reminding Lisa that she was just talking to one Bath of many. Offhandedly, she wondered if Bath could somehow make a cloning boon...


    "Hey," he chuckled, waving a hand in front of her face. Lisa''s eyes locked onto his. Then, she exhaled and closed her eyes.


    Opening them, she stood up and walked over to the window in the bedroom. Bath simply watched her as she walked, leaving her space. As she stood at the window, looking out towards the land beyond gates of Basalith, she appeared unnaturally still.


    "Did anybody below say anything about when they''d be coming?" While Lisa had been able to hear the conversation between the McLanes, she hadn''t been actively focusing on it. She could''ve easily missed something.


    "No, but I can ask," Bath offered, hands behind his back as he leaned against the wall, bare footplanted on its beige, woody plane.


    "No, it''s fine," Lisa murmured. "When they come, they''ll come. They might be waiting for my aunt and uncle."


    "I can send a few hawk quasi-sapients to look for them."


    Lisa snorted. "It''s fine. Also, can we seriously call them something other than ''quasi-sapient?'' It''s the biggest mouthful on the entire planet."


    Bath narrowed his eyes. "The name''s descriptive, easy to remember. What would you call them?"


    Lisa turned away from the window and graced Bath with a dazzling smile. "Nothing too complicated. Maybe, oh, animasapientalisabatha--"


    "C''mon," Bath replied, lips crushing into a thin line. "Seriously."


    "Just call them quasies," Lisa laughed. "And then make each species, in turn, its own name. For instance, the devilbats. Cool. But all the other animals species are just mundane things like ''wolves'' or ''raptors.''"


    Bath shrugged. "I didn''t name any of them. The devilbats chose that name for themselves."


    Lisa shrugged back. "Then tell your little quasies that they need to be more creative."


    "Creative?" Bath''s eyes shined with mirth. "I''ll do my best."


    "You''re really happy to see them again," Lisa observed.


    Bath looked at her straight in the eyes, expression serious. "Yes. More than I thought."


    Lisa didn''t bother asking for a reason why. "I''m glad. That they, y''know, seem to be accepting all this..."


    "Brian seems to be having a bit of a harder time," Bath noted.


    "Well sure," Lisa retorted. "The COTD showed up, like, two weeks ago, turned everything on its head, was labeled a terrorist organization, etc. etc. You just told the poor man that you''re its leader. Give him a few weeks, and I''m sure he''ll come around. Heck, just give him boons and some training."


    Bath smiled at Lisa''s blustering display. "Yep."


    Lisa raised an eyebrow. "All you have to say is ''yep?''"


    Bath chuckled deviously. "I''ll come back here when your parents are within my range." And then, without further conversation, he was gone.


    After a few minutes, Bath took his family out of the Spire and around Basalith. Since then, Lisa had been intermittently in her room, looking out the window, and leaning against the balcony, peering out directly over Basalith. The only sound coming from the Spire was the hasty, angry-sounding clack of keyboard keys sounding from the office. Lisa hoped that the peacefulness of the Spire would calm her down, but even hours later, she was still tightly wound with anticipation.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "It''s showtime," a low, sexy, un-Bathlike voice whispered in her ear, causing Lisa to jump.


    "Ugh," she grunted. She felt a tap on her shoulder and whipped around, nearly banging her side on the metallic balcony railing. "You."


    Bath grinned devilishly. "Me." He joined her at the balcony, arms spread wide and creased at the elbows, hands joining together to form a pillow for his neck. "You know why I''m here."


    Lisa took a shaky breath. "Yep."


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "All you have to say is ''yep?''"


    "Jerk," she muttered, then slapped his side. "I''m really fucking nervous, y''know?"


    "I know." Now, his voice was serious. "They''ll love you, Lisa. Just tell them the truth."


    "But the truth is so ridiculous," she spluttered.


    "That''s what makes it true," Bath added reassuringly. "Just tell them...tell them about the Big WD. Tell them about us. About the planets, about being the first human to ever leave Earth and come back. If they aren''t impressed, well." Bath readjusted his position, draping his arms over the balcony why leaning against its railing with his chest.


    "Thanks."


    "Ready for me to go get them?" Bath asked.


    Lisa shuddered despite herself. "Yeah. Just...can you bring them to the office in the Spire? I''ll wait for them there. Also, please put my face back to how it was before."


    Lisa hadn''t bothered changing back to her old face the entire past week, ever since she gave up pretenses of being an Alens student. She wondered to herself if this was going to be one of the last times she''d ever look like...well, Lisa.


    Suddenly, a thudding sound and an angry, cat-like scream came from the office. A belligerent, "Bath!" sounded out, rapidly fading in volume, as though its source were growing rapidly farther away.


    "All yours," Bath stated with a straight face, all aside from one cocked eyebrow.


    Lisa couldn''t help but burst into loud guffaws, tears of mirth in her eyes. "I really needed that."


    "Good," Bath stated firmly. "Wait for them there." Then he was gone.


    ''Bye,'' Lisa thought wistfully to herself. ''He never says goodbye...but then again, he almost never truly leaves.''


    ---


    "I love traveling by falcon," Edgewood bellowed raucously as Edgier Than You touched down just outside of St. Petersburg. "Fuck jetlag. That took, what, an hour?"


    Susan immediately sat down, queasy from the rapid descent. "That made me sick, which I thought was impossible after getting all my boons." The falcons picked up passengers, then ripped up into the atmosphere. They went so fast and so high that all of Edgier Than You would have easily died without their boons. When the falcons reentered the cloudline, they were already rocketing down like torpedos.


    "I side with Sandal," Anne grinned. "That...fucking...rocked. That was so~ much better than Six Flags."


    "Call me Edgewood, prick," Edgewood growled, though the gesture lacked his usual bite. Having chastised Anne for using his first name over the past day, he knew that he was fighting a losing battle. She simply lived to be annoying, or so it seemed.


    "Let''s just get started already," Kayt grumbled. She missed Nimesh and hoped that their carrier snakes would arrive soon. Part of her was also eager just to see the snakes, whom she heard had various adaptations that became visible in different environs.


    "Where should we put the city-seed?"Susan wondered, eyes surveying the territory around them. "David?"


    "We can just drop it here; it shouldn''t matter," David said after a moment of thought. "Objections?"


    "Great," Kayt said. She walked forward, then carved out a portion of grass to reveal soil. In a swift motion, she dropped the seed and replaced the grass. "And so, we wait."


    The rest of their personnel would be arriving with the quasi--sapients by snake. Taking the falcons had been an optional--and discouraged--means of transportation, supposedly in the "alpha" stage of testing.


    They all spent the next hour idling about while the city-seedtook root, quickly forming the skeleton of a city that looked every bit a clone of Basalith.


    "What''re we gonna call this place?" Anne asked, swinging her club heavily against nearby trees like she was practicing a baseball swing. "''Cuz I think we should just call it Edgelord Island."


    David turned his head slowly, then fixed a baleful gaze on Anne''s energetic form. "This is why I entered investment banking." While he had several reasons for not being a doctor, a primary motivation was that he didn''t want to deal with bedside manner.


    "That''s the worst name I''ve every heard," Edgewood snorted dismissively. "The U.S. had some pretty crappy project and mission names, but they were neverthat bad."


    Anne sniffed. "Just imagine it. We''re all the Edgelords. We can rip up all the land around the city, like a giant mote, and then we''ll have our own island. It''ll be completely defensible."


    Sensing an impending feud, Kayt stepped in. "Why don''t we just call it Deska City?"


    "Deska?" Susan wondered, peering over her shoulder.


    "It''s a name made up of each of our preferred names," Kayt replied. After a moment, she added, "Also, coincidentally, the letters correlate with age."


    "I still think we should have the word ''edge'' in the city somewhere, for Edgier Than You," Anne said. "I was kidding with Edgelord Island, obviously, so not that."


    ''Obviously,'' Edgewood thought bitterly to himself. "What''s ''edge'' in Russian?"


    Anne was the first to whip out her phone. "Kray."


    "Why not Kray City?" Edgewood proposed.


    "Eh, not too bad, not as ratchet-sounding as Deska." Anne replied. ''Serves Wolf-girl right for putting my letter last...''


    David shot her a questioning look, then shook his head. ''I thought I just couldn''t deal with children. Guess that extends to teens...''


    "Deska isn''t ratchet," Kayt defended. "Do you even know how to use that word?"


    "Any objections to Kray City?" Susan interjected, tiring quickly of the drama. She affixed each of them with a pointed look.


    "Shouldn''t we have the whole city''s name in Russian? What''s ''city'' in Russian?" Kayt asked.


    This time, David was the first to respond. "Gorod."


    "Why not Kraygorod?" Kayt asked.


    Edgewood just gave her a look. "Kraygorod...? None of us can even pronounce that. I still like Kray City."


    "Sandy''s got a point," Anne butted in. "Kraygorod sounds like--"


    "All in favor of Kray City!" Susan repeated, glaring eyes leaving no room for further arguing.


    Edgewood and Anne quickly raised their hands. ''Funny, considering they''re like water and oil,'' Susan mused to herself. David raised his hand. Susan gave Kayt a suggestive nod.


    "Fine, Kray City," Kayt relented. ''Just switch the R for a T, and you have an anagram of my name,'' she thought to herself. ''Seems like I still won out in the end.''


    "Welcome to Kray City, everyone," Susan sighed, glad to return to peace and quiet. She trained her eyes on St. Petersburg. "Ah, damn."


    "What?" everyone wondered.


    "People," Susan spat. "I''m not dealing with them."


    "I''ll go," Kayt volunteered. Nobody objected, so Kayt dashed off into the direction Susan pointed. As she went, she had only one thought on her mind: ''I hope they speak English.''

 [Chapter 90] Aunt Lauretta and Uncle Bern: Revealed

    Lisa sat by herself in the office, fidgeting, playing with a strand of loose hair. Her scintillating robe glimmered in the light streaming in from the open hallway leading to the balcony, reflecting dim rainbows onto the floor and walls. Her face--her own--was, at the very least, free of pimples and dryness. Bath had at least afforded her that much.


    She heard them approach. The sound of footsteps, light at first, then padding on the dragonleaf floors, the many exhausting stairs leading up to the Spire. Without enhancements, Lisa admitted that the skyscraper-high Spire was essentially inaccessible.


    It took the family a few minutes to make their way up. Among their numbers, Lisa could hear the steps of six people. She guessed at their identities: ''Parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle?'' She didn''t have experience listening to footsteps, so she couldn''t discern anything more from the resounding clangs of shoes as they steadily approached the office.


    By the time they arrived in the doorway, Lisa felt paralyzed in place. She held her arms crossed tightly against her chest, while her foot tapped erratically against the floor, as though all the jittery motion in her body was concentrated in once place.


    She couldn''t meet their gazes as they came into the room, filled up the couch. Her initial guess was confirmed as she identified those present by their torsos and lower bodies. Her mother''s white gym shoes, her father''s steel-toed boots. Grandma''s floral skirt, grandpa''s high-waisted khakis. Her aunt''s elegant dress, her uncle''s casual gray shorts. Lisa would match those clothes anywhere.


    "Lisa," her aunt was, unexpectedly, the first to begin. "You''ve certainly made a name for yourself." Aunt Lauretta''s expression seemed oddly cool, as though she were grading Lisa on a graduated scale.


    Her father certainly looked uncomfortable in the office. Lisa noticed that his clothes stuck to his body, patches of dark sweat clearly visible. "Honey, why don''t you tell us what''s going on."


    ''Did Bath tell them anything?'' Lisa wondered. They seemed prepared, as though they knew what Lisa was involved in, knew her position...then again, she was in the robes of the Church.


    She decided to just ask them outright: "What did Bath tell you on the way here?"


    Her mother was the first to speak now, as though she couldn''t wait to get the words out of her mouth. "He said that he''s the Dragon." Her mother then rose an eyebrow, nervousness clearly etched into her lightly-sagging face.


    Lisa sighed. She''d gone over what she was going to say so many times, but in the end, she still felt lost. How to begin? With when Bath first told her about his identity? With Angelina and Ritus?


    "Bath really is the Dragon," Lisa murmured. Then, she coughed, clearing her throat. She lifted her eyes, staring each of them intently in the face. Of those present, her aunt and uncle had the most peculiar looks, almost...opposite. Her aunt''s expression remained serious, while her uncle''s seemed almost apologetic, or perhaps even...regretful? Sad? Lisa couldn''t place it. The rest of her family just looked confused.


    "We became friends as kids. Then, one day, Bath told me the truth. About what he was."


    "A god," her father whispered, so softly that Lisa knew she wasn''t supposed to hear. She wouldn''t have heard, not without her boons.


    "Not a god, but an alien," Lisa explained. "He doesn''t remember where he comes from, but his first memories are of Earth...half a billion years ago." Lisa gave them a moment to digest the information. "Anyways, he and I decided that we were gonna conquer the Earth together." Lisa gave a sad little laugh, more of a cough.


    "It was almost a joke, except...well, I meant it," Lisa admitted. "The Earth is pretty messed up. I was curious...to see if we could."


    Her aunt gave her an icy smile. "Aren''t you forgetting something, before you move on?"


    Lisa paused, as though the smile froze her face. "...Yeah. I, um, I''m a kursi. Wait, let me explain this better. Uh..."


    Aunt Lauretta gave her a slightly annoyed expression, throwing off Lisa further. Was this actually her Aunt Lauretta? She was normally so warm, inviting, so...Aunt-like.


    "Shhh, calm down," her mother smiled. "It''s okay."


    For some reason, hearing that, Lisa almost felt like crying. ''I should ask Bath for a boon to seal my tear ducts,'' she thought angrily to herself. ''Why am I so fucking petrified?'' Steeling herself to just spit everything out, Lisa continued.


    "I can control people''s emotions, and I''ll probably be able to make people my mind slaves eventually." He said this flatly, without emotion. ''Better that way,'' she thought to herself. "I''ve been controlling people around me this way my whole life, everyone here, if only a little bit," she admitted. ''Better to be truthful.'' "It''s as easy for me as breathing, so usually...it wasn''t really intentional, especially before I realized what it was."


    Lisa was staring at the corner in the back of the room, determined to finish speaking without letting her family influence her. She blinked rapidly before continuing on. "In high school, Bath and I discovered the presence of another person like me. That''s when we realized that I wasn''t the only one. We spent the rest of high school scanning big cities and the like to try to find more, but didn''t find anybody else."


    "Then, we went to Alens. I found someone there who was also a kursi--someone like me. We found out that she was a part of an organization, so we went to its headquarters. In Virginia...below this very room. Bath and I found out that the organization consisted of around 1000 members, many of those also kursi.


    "We also found out that there, in the headquarters...was a portal, leading to another planet. Bath pretty much kicked everyone in Ritus out of their headquarters, grabbed me, and grabbed another alien at the headquarters, and went into the gate.


    "We came back seven days later. We passed through several different planets and met with different alien species. One of the aliens we met was named Juserin. We found out that he was in charge of a lot of planets in the...er, area."


    "When we returned, Bath and I decided we wanted to expand our goal out to conquer the universe. So, of course, step one was conquering Earth. And...that''s where we are now." Lisa exhaled deeply, then closed her eyes and sat back in the couch. "I''m not going to lie and say it hasn''t been stressful, but...it''s been an experience like no other." She smiled, eyes still closed, heart clear.


    ''Let them judge me,'' she thought to herself. ''I laid everything important on the table.'' She knew she hadn''t said what happened in the most concise, logical way...but she said everything she wanted to. She didn''t give a good reason for what she did, what she was doing. She could tell them about her dreams of making the world--the whole world, not just trifling Earth--a better place. Of exploring the unexplored, of bringing humanity out of an age of relative darkness. She could list out a million reasons why she wanted the conquer the universe, ranging from noble to completely selfish in origin.


    But Lisa was starting to see that, in the end, it was easier to just say nothing. People would see her actions, and in the end, that would be what mattered.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "The world changed very quickly," her grandfather said. "I thought the technological revolution was already fast enough." Then he chuckled lightly. "But here we are, being pulled along again by the youngest generation onto something better."


    Her grandmother smiled. "Lisa, we''re so proud of you,"


    ''Proud?'' Lisa hadn''t been expecting that. She''d been expecting judgment. Only villains took over the world.


    "Don''t look so surprised, hon," her grandfather snorted, his mustache blowing very slightly upward with the puff of wind. "Thanks to you, we''re going to be able to live far longer than we ever thought. Sweetheart, did you think we''d be angry at you for solving the world''s problems?"


    "Seems like the Devourer''s been a good influence on you," Lauretta finally added, a nascent grin cracking her formerly icy facade. "You''ve stopped justifying everything you do."


    Lisa''s eyes grew wide as saucers. She hadn''t told her aunt--or anyone-- about Bath''s identity as a World Devourer. Lisa wasn''t the only one confused. Uncle Bern was the only one with a resigned expression.


    "Everyone--" he began, only to be silenced by Lauretta''s piercing gaze. Suddenly, Lisa felt the strongest kursi shell manipulation she''d ever felt in her life. Everyone else in the room--aside from Bern--suddenly leaned forward, clutching their heads in their hands. Lisa snarled, reflexively fighting against the attack. She wasn''t able to think clearly while she was under such strenuous assault.


    ''Bath--'' she thought futilely to herself. How would he know what was happening? He was probably giving her privacy...or something.


    "Urgh," she grumbled, pushing out with everything she had. ''It hurts so bad, like I''m in labor'' she thought to herself.


    Then, something clicked in her mind. "But I''ve felt worse."


    The mind manipulation suddenly seized, Lisa''s shell free of her aunt''s influence. She breathed heavily, then ran over to her aunt and pinned her against the wall in the blink of an eye, knocking her out with the force. She kept Lauretta pinned by manipulating the dragonleaf into shackles around her limp form.


    Like that, everyone else was freed from their mental shackles.


    "Uncle Bern," Lisa snarled, rushing forward. She grabbed him and sent him, too, up against the wall, though she kept him conscious. "What. Was. That?"


    He chuckled raspily, almost as though he was choking. While he appeared fine, his throat would be bruised by Lisa''s vice grip. "You''re stronger than we thought. You have the talent."


    "What?"


    "Most kursi have mind domination as their primary ability, though this is one of many. On Earth, we''ve discovered a few more. Yours, dear, is one we call Regis."


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. "How old are you both?"


    Everyone else in the room had absolutely no idea what was going on and were looking on in abject horror. Lisa ignored them completely, determined to neutralize whatever threat the imposter aunt-uncle pair posed.


    "We were young when Rome fell," he rasped. "Lost count. Most people didn''t count back then, and we lived a long time."


    "Rome?" Lisa''s grandmother gasped. Bern was her son. Lisa''s father, too, appeared lost by this revelation.


    "Bern," he choked out. "What...?"


    He looked at them sadly, then returned his focus to Lisa. "My ability we call Nihilum."


    Lisa wasn''t especially versed in Latin, but had a clear understanding of what Regis and Nihilum implied. Regisseemed to suggest some kind of ability related to ruling, while Nihilum...an ability related to the void? Lisa glanced quickly at her family members. "Memory manipulation," she breathed.


    "Sharp."


    "Why are you in my family?" Lisa wondered out loud, feeling utterly lost. Obviously, it was because of her...but there were many other Kursi on Earth. "And how do you know about Bath?"


    "We''ve been watching you. You think we didn''t look into your best friend?"


    Lisa gaped at him.


    "Imagine our surprise, when the universe itself paired the two of you together."


    "Imagine my surprise," a familiar voice sounded out, dark and humorous, "When in the blink of any eye, a family reunion devolved into an assault." The snapping of jaws could be heard throughout the room as the final word sounded out, as though it had been spoken by a many-toothed beast.


    Lisa felt a solid form behind her, the familiar curve of sinuous muscle covered by a military-style overcoat. She heard the exhale of his breath, felt the beating of his heart. As his arm reached over hers to grab her uncle, Lisa felt all the tension throughout her body release. She leaned back, releasing her own grip.


    "I fucked everything up," she mouthed, knowing Bath would sense her mouth''s movements.


    She looked up, pivoting her head around, and their eyes met. They looked at each other, faces still and expressionless. Then, Bath smirked. "You beat the shit out of Lauretta," he murmured, so only the two of them and Bern could hear. "And she''s thousands of years old. You kicked ass."


    Lisa didn''t let her unspoken words loose: ''But you could''ve jumped in at any time.'' She knew that Bath hadn''t interfered because he wantedher to deal with the problem. She appreciated,needed that kind of faith. She needed to defend herself, prove to herself that she wasn''t dependent on Bath, that she could pull her own weight.


    ''But as long as he''s here, I''m never really going to know what that''s like.''


    She backed away from Bath, then turned back to her parents and family. She couldn''t meet their eyes. "That was probably jarring," she laughed nervously. "I''m sure you''re all more shocked than I am." After all, Bern had been their son, their brother...a far more important role than "uncle."


    "This is how I look now," she said swiftly, words rushing out over one another. "Bath."


    Her face changed to that of the Church before their eyes.


    "Bath will help you get settled in Basalith. I--I have to visit several countries as an ambassador. I''ll see you soon."


    Her family looked on in helpless shock. Lisa turned around, then dashed out the room, escaping the claustrophobic hallway for the open air. She leapt off the balcony, then used her magnetic sense to assist her in her fall to the ground. She adjusted her trajectory so that she landed just outside the hive.


    "You look stressed," Nevis stated. She''d been informed by the Dragon that Lisa was coming, and was, therefore, waiting at the Hive''s entrance. The Dragon hadn''t given any explanation for Lisa''s sudden appearance.


    "I''m going on the trip, now," Lisa declared. "I need to get the final details before I get out, as well as a revised list of countries."


    Nevis simply smiled, very much aware of Lisa''s agitated foot-tapping and jumping eyes. "Did something happen, between you and--"


    "Nevis," Lisa hissed. "Details. And no, nothing...ah, I can''t even think." She shook her head. "There was an attack, and my family..."


    The wasp queen immediately adjusted her composure. ''An attack? The Dragon hadn''t mentioned it, so everything must be under control...''


    "Understood," she replied, inclining her head respectfully. She led Lisa to their usual conference room. "I''ve typed up all the notes on the wall, and I''ll send them to you now. Additionally, you can take a picture of the plan if you find the whiteboard version easier to parse."


    "Good. The typed notes should be fine," Lisa monotoned. She ran her eyes over the whiteboard, digesting the details marked in bright red. These would be the changes to the plan since she last saw it. She turned around, then addressed Nevis, saying, "I''ve seen enough. Thanks."


    Nevis nodded, then led Lisa out of the office and into the hall connected to the entrance. She broke the silence just as Lisa was about to leave. "Good luck out there. Smash a few people like bugs for us, ''kay?"


    Nevis truly knew that something was wrong when Lisa just stood there after the joke. "Sure," Lisa remarked at last, voice as frigid as absolute zero. Without a backward glance, she pushed open the double doors and left.


    ''Nobody died...right?'' Nevis wondered nervously. ''The Creator would''ve said something...'' Her antennae drooped as the double doors slammed shut. She sighed, then shook her head slowly as she walked back to her own, isolated hexagon workspace.


    She sat down at the computer, carapaced body flexing only slightly into the cushion of the chair.


    >>>Search: |____


    With only a moment''s hesitation, Nevis typed in "White" on a hunch. Lisa''s family was visiting. This was the only thing that Nevis could foresee leaving her in such a state.


    After refining the search further, Lisa''s family popped up on the screen, already entered into Basalith''s database in anticipation of their imminent arrival. ''Mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, and uncle,'' Nevis thought to herself. ''All besides the aunt are listed as blood relatives.''


    Nevis swept her antennae from side to side against her workspace counter. With a few clicks and taps, she ordered two of her divisions to investigate any strange occurrences over the past hour near the Spire. Nevis absolutely detested the fact that she lacked information about what was going on. Shenever lacked for information, and yet...here she was, stumped.


    Then she smiled, despite herself. "What if it was her uncle? He''s pret-ty cute..." Nevis knew a nice ass when she saw one. His full-body Facebook profile picture left much to Nevis''s imagination, though that tight ass...that was impossible to fake. "He looks old," she admitted to herself, staring at the man''s middle-aged face, "but really...if his hair wasn''t gray, and if he wasn''t wearing glasses..."


    Nevis had a sudden thought, a hunch. But her hunches were almost always worth following. She quickly looked at Lauretta--the aunt''s--profile picture. She, too, at first glance appeared to be around the same age, 50s...


    Nevis zoomed in. "Remove that makeup, cut out that ridiculous witch hair..."


    Then she smiled contentedly. "Something''s definitely amiss," she spoke softly. "What kind of woman makes herself look intentionally older?"

 [Chapter 91] Lisas Tour of South America; Tollan

    Ever since the...whatever the hell had happened back in the Spire, Lisa had felt...weird. Like, really, really weird.


    At first she thought it was her mind imploding after she discovered that her aunt and uncle were deceptive, potentially hostile, kursi. But here she was, half a continent away, and the feeling was still there. Of course, Lisa knew that distance didn''t actually mean that her mind was distanced from the events of three hours ago...but it had beenthree hours! Why did she still feel agitated out of her mind?


    ''Need to vent this nervous energy,'' she noted absently, entirely focused on tracing the Earth''s magnetic field lines down to Argentina. She''d arrive in the south, then work her way back up to Texas. This was an extremely relaxed ambassador tour, considering that fact that all of the Americas had collectively surrendered to Basalith.


    Still, she needed to officially welcome them into the flock, or whatever. She really couldn''t make herself enthusiastic. At the very least she had her kursi abilities, which would make this whole processexponentially easier.


    After around two hours of high-speed vaulting through the air like a hammer-wielding Thor, Lisa slammed down onto the ground just outside of Buenos Aires. Actually, slam down wasn''t perhaps the most accurate description. Lisa left an enormouscrater in the ground, thankfully somewhere off the coast between Argentina and Uruguay. Had she been just a smidgen closer to the shore, she probably would''ve destroyed some expensive real estate.


    ''Who am I kidding,'' she thought to herself. Real estate in a post-dragonleaf era? Beachfront property in a post-Earth era? Lisa shook her head, letting water drip from her hair onto the ground.


    ''Huh,'' she thought to herself, taking note of how the water seemed to stream right off her body, clothes...even her hair was dry after about a minute of low-altitude flight. ''Though that might just be the wind,'' she figured.


    She knew that the ambassador thing didn''t need to last long. She just needed to show up, look awesome, wow everyone, make them happy, and move on to the next place. She was pretty sure that Argentina''s city-seed would be up-and-running in no time, even if it wasn''t established yet.


    "Lepochim''s been slacking," she smiled to herself, the expression oddly pained. Certainly, sending teams of five and coordinating their human and quasi assistance was difficult, but it was the alien''s only job! Besides running Basalith, of course, though Lisa barely even counted that. She knew by now that Nevis was the one keeping things together. Thinking of Lepochim and Nevis drew her thoughts back to Basalith, her parents...but no, that wasn''t quite it. The strange unease she felt wasn''t because of them, or her so-called relatives. ''So the distance is letting me see things a bit clearer.''


    Lisa frowned. "Why do I feel like there''s something...angry below Basalith?"


    ---


    "She''s coming!"


    Everyone screamed, the kinds of screams expected of actresses in horror movies. The only reason the crowd could even sustain such high-pitched, grating notes was that the vast majority benefited from some kind of voice-enhancing boon. Why high-pitched screaming was so widespread, Maya had to admit to a bit of blame.


    Maybe...a lot of blame.


    At the center of the city, instead of a towering spire, sat a ridiculously huge ziggurat. At its precipice was a sun-shaped altar draped in a silky white cloth. All around the ziggurat''s sides sprawled a writhing mass of confoundingly large snakes. Well, Maya knew that they were snake quasi-sapients, but they looked more like feathered Quetzalcoatls. It was as though the things had been hand-picked for Dawn Faction''s unofficial capital.


    Maya had to give it to the Dragon''s snobbish, black-and-yellow-eyed administrator...he really meant it when he gave her first pick over the quasi-sapients. Technically, she''d been given second pick after Dean, but the reluctant teen had left such a small dent in the quasi-sapient numbers that Maya hadn''t even considered the fact that someone else aside from herself would pick from the quasi-sapient pool first.


    Maya currently stood on the altar, her pristinely white robes shifting slightly in the faint wind, as though the sky was gently breathing on her. "Our Lady Dawn approaches!" she boomed, her voice mind-bogglingly loud to be heard over the wailing crowd. As she lifted her arms, the screams increased in volume like a kind of savage war cry.


    Maya smiled slightly to herself. The snakes all took their cue, giving her mildly baleful tongue flicks before uncoiling themselves and rising up to their full heights. The feathered snakes technically had diminutive, vestigial-looking wings, but were clearly grounded. Maya almost wondered if the Dragon had made a mistake with the bunch.


    The snakes fanned their wings and tailfeathers while they slithered into an impressive formation over the ziggurat, their bodies forming waves against its green-gray dragon-leaf wood. Their bright, yellow-red feathers made clear their intended shapes: rays of sunlight streaming out from the top of the ziggurat. Maya placed a hand over the altar, then closed her eyes.


    She remained like this until she finally heard the Church smash down somewhere in the trees nearby. ''It''s very considerate,'' Maya thought to herself. If the Church hadn''t first thudded noisily to the ground before each location she visited, none of her receivers would''ve been ready in time. Word quickly spread on the internet about the Church''s campaign through South America; after Argentina, practically anybody in power worth their salt knew to get ready for the Church when she "made contact" with the ground.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Everyone in the stadium was just as aware as Maya about the implications behind the noise. Maya sighed contentedly, like a proud mother. Nowthis was worship. Not that the people in Basalith appreciated it. Technically, many of the people in Mexico hadn''t been too receptive, either...


    But Maya''s peacekeepers proved surprisingly adept at changing their minds. She still wasn''t sure what boons the brown-robes had, but they certainly knew how to rev up a crowd. If she''d been able to exploit their abilities back in Basalith...


    Maya coughed lightly to herself. ''The Church is taking a little while,'' she realized, mildly confused but relatively impassive. She''d come eventually, so what was the rush?


    In actuality, Lisa had already recovered from her less-than-glorious crash landing and was just hovering in the sky.


    "What the everliving fuck," she stated. "Is this real?" Sprawled out before Lisa was a vastly different dragonleaf city than she was used to. For one, someone had clearly chopped down the city''s Spire and built the biggest damned pyramid Lisa had ever seen. ''They must''ve reshaped at least half of the apartment buildings as part of that structure,'' she realized. On the pyramid itself were numerous giant, feathered snakes, all of which were at least one-thousand feet long. While Lisahad known that the snake quasies came in all different shapes and sizes, she hadn''t expected...feathers.


    "If they have wings, are they even snakes?" Lisa felt genuinely stumped. Sighing, she figured it was time to approach the city and do the usual.


    As she approached, she sound of frantic wailing and pounding became increasingly hard to ignore. Lisa screwed up her face against the sun as she tried to understand what was going on. "Is everyone...dancing? And...singing?" Singing was an enormously generous description for the cacophony, but the crowd was, in fact, dancing.


    Lisa spotted a white-robed woman standing at the top of the pyramid by a white-draped golden altar. She raised her arms like the hands of a clock, moving them around her body in practiced patterns. As she did so, the crowd danced in time with her movements.


    And when she clapped, they stomped. Hard.


    Lisa was actually quite worried for the infrastructure of the city, not to mention any subterranean quasies. Thoughshe was pretty sure Dean had taken Basalith''s main subterranean species, the cute jerboa quasies...so she cast such worries from her already addled mind.


    As Lisa had been flying, she''d needed to stay above the clouds to avoid any eyes on her zigzagging form. While flying slowly, she had everything under control. However, with that ridiculous gnawing at the back of her mind, Lisa found using magnetic sense to fly quickly wasn''t exactly...safe, or predictable. As she took the time to fly to each stop on her list of cities, she had been trying to figure out why.


    She knew it all started with the appearance of her family. She''d already reasoned that, no, she wasn''t "distraught" or "hysterical" from her aunt and uncle''s revelation. After a few hours, she wasn''t even worried about what her parents thought about the whole exchange. Lisa reasoned that even if she''d reacted with fairly violent force, her aunt had attacked them all first.


    That''s when Lisa felt a little spark catch fire in her head.


    But, first things first...


    Lisa swooped over the crowd, then descended lightly over the altar. She touched their massive group shell and practically inhaled their worship. She felt like she was getting the hang of keeping her wits about in the face of so much zealous energy, all focused on her being.


    ''Regis,'' she thought grimly. She didn''t know what Regis actually meant in terms of abilities, but assumed it had something to do with her ability to absorb the worship around her. As far as she knew, while the other kursi could tap into group shells, none...felt the crowd''s fervor like she did.


    Of course, Lisa reasoned that she only felt their energy because, as their Church, the people targeted her as their object of worship...but part of her doubted it was so simple.


    "Followers of the Way of the Dragon, Disciples of Dawn," Lisa bellowed, her voice projecting out just as powerfully as Maya''s, shaking the dragonleaves that fringed most buildings'' roofs. "The time for unity has come."


    The crowd was absolutely ballistic. Lisa actually tried to calm them down, only to find the effort useless. ''Zealots,'' she cursed inwardly. Well, as Bath had been telling her lately...if you can''t order chaos, direct it.


    "Within the next month, we will open the gate leading to a new world," Lisa shouted exuberantly. "At that time, only the best, the most determined will be provided the opportunity to go." Lisa and Bath certainly had no qualms about letting anyone through the gate. The true limiting factor was the gate''s pitiful diameter of just a few feet. Even if only a few million people voluntarily opted to leave Earth for the "uncharted" territory beyond, passing all of them through the gate would be a nightmare.


    Anticipating this problem, Nevis and Lepochim had independently suggested to Lisa that COTD shouldtake advantage of this fact to push its constituents harder. For anybody who had no interest in leaving Earth, it certainly wouldn''t make them workless hard, and for people who planned to vie for a fast-pass to the new world...


    Lisa used her magnetic manipulation to stir her robes and hair, making it appear as though an invisible wind were streaming dramatically around her. ''Maybe I should ask for a cape like Bath''s,'' she thought not for the first time today.


    "Your servants shall endeavor to please you, Lady of the Light, Bastion of Those Below, Hero of the Helpless.."


    Lisa smiled peacefully, though her outward appearance completely failed to convey her mounting impatience with the never-ending hurricane of titles. As if reacting to her thoughts, the non-existent wind around Lisa seemed to rip ever more ferociously at her robes. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Lisa waited until what could only be the fifteenth multi-word title spilled out.


    Then, the white-robed woman below her kneeled reverently and shouted, "Praise to our Sun!" Everyone in the stadium suddenly stopped their screaming. All was utterly and eerily quiet.


    "A blessing on this city," Lisa called out, mildly eager to get the hell away from this bizarre city. ''What was its name?'' It was on her sheet of paper, the one with all the country capitals and city-seeds...not that she could pull it out right now.


    "A blessing on Tollan!"


    She suppressed a sigh of relief. Her trusty memory hadn''t failed her, after all, even with the distraction of...


    Lisa rose up into the air like an eminent goddess, disappearing into the clouds as though she were ascending into heaven. She shook her head. "That was so weird," she muttered. Her gaze suddenly turned sharp. She remembered what she had been thinking about before she approached Tollan.


    "Everything started with Aunt Lauretta," Lisa said, voicing her thoughts out loud. "Did I...what was that I felt when I overpowered her?" At that time, Lisa had felt as though something clicked in her mind, though she assumed this was figurative. More of a...change of attitude, than anything else, a change of gears. A willingness on her part to fight back, even in the face of debilitating pain...to protect her realfamily.


    But now she wondered if perhaps the click she felt had been something more. ''It really did feel like a click,'' Lisa thought. ''But minds don''t just...click...''

 [Chapter 92] Meeting With the Russian Ambassadors; Waymaster

    Anne wasn''t sure what she was expecting when Kayt sprinted out into the distance to meet with some "officials." Russia was a country that took an openly hostile stance towards COTD...the reason why Edgier Than You fussed over chemical weapons protection before they left.


    Anne glanced over her shoulder, halting the mindless thwacking of her club against a tree. The sudden cawing of birds filled the sky.


    "Well shit," she murmured. "That was fast."


    ---


    ''Shit!'' Kayt thought to herself as she raced back to the protection of Edgier Than You. The entire fricking Russian army was behind her!


    She stole a look back to confirm her initial impression. ''Well, maybe not the entire army...'' Actually, now that there was a bit of distance between her and the many Russian tanks and RPG-armed soldiers, she felt much less intimidated. In all honesty, she had to admit that she''d been seriously spooked by the grenades that the hidden Russian troops had thrown at her. When they burst, sending out waves of explosive flames, she and Nimesh had only just been able to jump through the blaze onto unscorched ground.


    After about 1000 meters lay between herself and the two forces, Kayt patted Nimesh''s neck and hopped down from the wolf''s back. Kayt wondered why she was even running...she''d faced off against numerable terrifying challenges in the tournament. Surely, a contingent of normal troops couldn''t compare to undying doll monsters, could they? Thinking rationally, Kayt knew that the army''s only shot had been to take her out when she wasn''t expecting it. If she hadn''t been able to escape the flames, they probably would have killed her.


    Unfortunately, they''d already blown their chance. And Kayt was angry. More specifically, Kayt was reeling from the near death experience while Nimesh was transmitting savage and bloodthirsty images directly into her fragile mind.


    ---


    Anne cackled--not maniacally, butnormally (or so she told herself)--from her position in the boughs of the tall tree she''d been hitting with her club just a minute back. While Anne wasn''t a long range manipulator like Susan, her natural vision was still rather good. As a result, at elevation, she could get a sense of what was going on.


    ''You''d have to be blind,'' Anne thought to herself, ''to not see what''s happening.'' From afar, the ranks of soldiers were falling like literal dominos before the furious whirlwind of Kayt and Nimesh. It was like someone had let a great white shark loose in a pool of sardines.


    As the U.S. government personally found out earlier, tanks were completely useless against swift COTD members. Even automated weapon fire proved useless: Kayt quickly burrowed her way into the middle of the soldiers, meaning that any gunfire would be predominantly received as friendly fire.


    "That''s what they get for messing with us," Anne muttered contentedly to herself. "Hey guys," she shouted. "Think we should assist?"


    "No," David replied. "We need to watch the city seed and wait for the rest of Kray City''s admins to arrive."


    "Administrators?" Anne asked.


    "I mean the actual word, not the profession," David snapped, annoyed at the common word''s confusing status as both a literal profession and a COTD profession.


    Anne rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. ''David seemed so reserved in the beginning,'' she thought grudgingly to herself. ''But he''s actually such a hardass stick in the mud.''


    "I''d go with you," Edgewood volunteered. Then he looked at Susan, who was busying herself off in the distance with her target practice. "Hey! Suzy!" he bellowed. "Can you take a look at what''s going on over there? I wanna know how much longer the fight''s going on."


    Susan ignored him. After a moment, David growled and whipped his head around at Edgewood. "Did you never learn how to play with others?"


    "What?"


    "Actually, screw that. Did you never learn about sexual harassment?"


    Edgewood gaped. "Sexual fucking harassment? Why?" Was David secretly a feminazi? Edgewood wasn''t even sure what to think anymore.


    David narrowed his eyes. "A guy on my team kept calling one of the pretty new hires Princess, and that earned his sorry ass a ticket to nowhere."


    "Suzy isn''t Princess," Edgewood snarled. ''The actual fuck?'' "I''d just as soon call her Suzy as I would you...uh...Davie." Since when was giving people innocuous nicknames anything other than normal harassment? And since when was even calling someone Princess sexual harassment!?


    "But you don''t call me Davie, do you? In fact, the only people on this team whom you''ve addressed by nickname are women."


    Edgewood couldn''t even believe what he was hearing. "That''s cuz you''re the only other guy, dumbfuck. And anyways, congratulations, your name is now officially Davie."


    Just as David looked like he was going to reply, both he and Edgewood jerked their heads left, picking up on the beginnings of a snicker.


    "Ahahaha!" Susan giggled, eyes closed. "Davie." Then her expression turned incalculably malevolent as she affixed Edgewood with smoldering amber eyes. "Don''t ever call my Suzy again. And, in response to your question, the fight''s over." She looked over at Anne, the wild-child straddling a twenty-foot tree''s upper boughs. "Exciting, Clubsy?"


    "That''s hypocritical, you giving people nicknames when I''m not allowed to give you one," Edgewood grumbled under his breath.


    Susan gave him an icy grin. "Edgewood...Hedgewood. Bush?" She shrugged. "We''ll see. Besides: Anne, you like Clubsy, don''t you?"Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Anne gave Susan a contemplative look. "Can you call me Cubby?"


    "Why?" Now David was the one to ask, his voice incredulous. ''Cubby? Like a place to deposit shoes?''


    "Cuz I love the Cubs!" Anne stated this as though it were a war cry, eyes alight with almost zealous fury.


    ''Is that why she carries around a club? It''s really a bat?'' everyone thought to themselves in one way or another.


    "...I''m still gonna call you prick," Edgewood said, breaking the silence.


    "You don''t deserve to be able to give people nicknames," Susan lamented. Without further discussion, she walked off even further away than she currently was, her dark hair swaying behind her. The trees within a few hundred feet of her previous position had already been reduced to pincushions, revealing her actual motives for finding a new position.


    "She''s coming now, Hedgehog," Anne snorted. Then, as Kayt rapidly drew closer atop Nimesh''s back, Anne grimaced. "Damn, that''s a lot to clean off." She looked left, towards the coast. She wondered vaguely if Kayt and Nimesh would dye the waters red.


    ---


    Instead of looping back up into Canada and the western United States, Lisa decided to make a pitstop at Basalith.


    As she entered the city, a few things became abundantly clear. As Lisa stood before the Ritus gate closed off in the Anima''s labyrinth, she felt something--almost a kind of consciousness. The gate looked as though it had an aurora-like blue and green shell swirling around it, though Lisa found that she was utterly unable to influence it.


    Lisa sighed. "Aunt Lauretta and Uncle Bern." She thought that she was piecing together the enigma of her faux relatives.


    Lisa knew that she and Bath had never actually found out how to become Waymasters of a gate. They just assumed that by being in control of a gate''s physical location, they''d naturally be its Waymaster.


    Now, Lisa was almost sure this wasn''t the case. "Lauretta and Bern are two old, experienced kursi. That means that they''re very powerful." Lisa wasn''t sure if receiving devotion from COTD members or constantly using her kursi powers was to blame for her rapid growth as a mind manipulator, but she didn''t doubt that she''d been able to defeat Lauretta fair and square.


    The feat was actually something that left Lisa with a great deal of satisfaction, considering the fact that age was a prime determining factor of a kursi''s power.


    "But Lauretta knew I would win," Lisa realized, "and knew that if I won..." Lisa trailed off as she peered at the gate. "She must''ve been the previous Waymaster. But why doesn''t anybody in Ritus know them?" Lisa was sure that she would''ve found some kind of document pertaining to the identity of the gate''s Waymaster, but in reality, no such document was to be found.


    "And why did she attack me, instead of just explaining things outright? Can Waymastery only be seized through conflict?" Lisa suddenly felt a cold feeling run down her spine. "Juserin..."


    Lisa clenched her fist. "I''m still just grasping at straws," she noted. "The best thing to do would just be to ask." But part of her--a large part--didn''t want to see Lauretta. She was still a bit creeped out by the fact that Lauretta and Bern had stalked her literally her entire life, as well as her friends. They''d gone so far as to ingrain themselves into her family! Moreover, Lisa was utterly repulsed by Bern''s Nihilum ability. The idea that he''d been messing with the heads of everyone she held close pissed her off more than she could describe.


    "But I really need to meet with them." Especially Lauretta.


    ---


    "So that''s how it is," Bath murmured, his face only inches from Lauretta''s own. His hand was on her jaw, gripping her face in a way that suggested he was either her abuser or her lover.


    He smiled, his elongated, thick tongue coiling like a serpent within his half-open mouth. "Why didn''t you just tell her?"


    Lauretta''s expression remained neutral. "She needed to believe I was attacking her," the kursi explained. "Or else it wouldn''t have worked."


    "What if I just killed you, instead?"


    "Since I believe Lisa as my rightful heir, she''d become the Waymaster nonetheless. But I didn''t want to die," she rasped, a small grin coming over her features. "I just want off this planet."


    "A feat you''d never have been able to achieve alone," Bath noted darkly. His yellow eyes pierced deep into Lauretta''s; despite the woman''s cool facade, Bath could feel her jittering nervously under his grip. "A looking glass to far-off worlds, just out of reach." Without Bath''s assistance, Lisa never would have been able to survive on the worlds beyond the gate. On Magnet Planet alone, she would''ve asphyxiated within a minute of arriving.


    Bath naturally understood how Lauretta felt. Due to his own innocent and simple outlook on life and Earth, he''d previously never even considered venturing off the Earth''s verdant surface. Now, he couldn''t help but feel regret over the many things he could''ve already done in the past millions of years if he''d known about the gate sooner.


    "Why Lisa?" Bath asked, temporarily elongated fingernails digging into Lauretta''s jawline.


    "The universe is a mysterious place, Bath," Lauretta sighed.


    "Not what I asked," Bath interjected.


    "You know," Lauretta began, "for a sapient of your age, I''d expect you to more patient."


    Bath didn''t say anything; Lauretta took this as a cue to continue. "Physics on Earth suggests that the universe is only a few billion years old, however..." she closed her eyes, then reopened them. "It''s far older. I don''t understand how; I''m not sure if these gates lead to alternate universes and the universe as we know it is a multiverse. I truly don''t know."


    "How do you know its age?" Bath asked.


    "Weused a samarium radioactive isotope to date rocks from a planet beyond the gate."


    ''So, all of these things are fairly recent developments: the prediction of the age of the universe based on modern physics, the utilization ofradiometric dating technology.'' He wondered why Lauretta was bringing this up.


    "Upon realizing that the universe was extremely old, Bern and I knew that if we ever wanted to get out and explore, we needed to foster off-world exploration here on Earth in the hopes that spaceships or vehicles might be developed that would allow us to leave Earth." Lauretta paused. "At the same time, we went out looking for an heir, in the event that I die."


    This all seemed fairly logical; however, Bath wasn''t sure why Lauretta started this whole response with, "The universe is a mysterious place."


    "You see things, over the course of a human life, little coincidences and impossibilities." Lauretta sighed. "Live for thousands of years, and you begin to see patterns. You also realize that there''s something...driving these patterns."


    Bath listened intently. He hadn''t noticed anything in his millions of years besides the natural ebb and flow cycles of nature. He had a sense that this wasn''t what Lauretta meant. Though, in his eighteen years as a human, Bath had to admit that fairly incredible coincidences happened all around it, such as befriending Lisa, discovering kursi, going through the gate...


    "The more coincidences happen around you, the more you know that...the Prime Mover is keeping an eye on you."


    Bath kept a serious face, though at this point he was disappointed. A Prime Mover? This far out in the backwater of space? Why would any kind of all-powerful being keep its eye fixed on Earth?


    It wouldn''t. If Bath were in charge of the universe, he''d send underlings to take care of the dirty work. Moreover, the very thought that a deity was "keeping an eye on him" struck Bath as exceedingly comical. Keeping an eye on what?


    Bath was convinced that there was no such thing. The Encyclopedia never mentioned any kind of universal deity, which was the crux of Lisa''s COTD plan in the first place. After all, if religion existed in the universe, they''d have a much harder time proselytizing COTD.


    "Coincidence is just the ordering of chaos," Bath smiled, dagger-like teeth glinting in the low light of the interrogation room. "I admit that a series of probabilistically impossible events suggests that something...divine is at work. However," Bath whispered, eyes locking on to Lauretta''s pinpoint pupils, "it''s unwise to limit your mind to such a narrow conclusion."


    Lauretta suddenly found herself alone, and, for the first time in a long while, she felt foolish.

 [Chapter 93] Path Ceremony; Probing Lisas Philosophy

    A week and a half after Lisa finished making her ambassadorial appearances worldwide, a human broke through and mastered all fourteen professions. Lisa wasn''t sure how she should feel: was it surprising that Dean was the first one? While he had a head start with the many enhancements Bath had already given him, Dean didn''t seem very enthusiastic about COTD or his role in it. Lisa was aware of Dean''s inner conflict and uncertainty about his future.


    When he''d been assigned to the second city-seed, Lisa hadn''t known what to expect from her former schoolmate. While he was certainly physically strong, he didn''t have an air of authority or confidence. Even though Lisa gave him her best advice, she truthfully hadn''t had very high expectations for Dean''s leadership. When she''d heard that he named the city Jerboaland, well...her expectations fell even further. Who the hell named a city Jerboaland?


    When she''d visited Jerboaland on her tour of Earth 10 days back, she hadn''t noted anything significant. The city looked like a typical Basalith city-seed, despite the rather bizarre inscribed pattern weaving through the city''s streets.


    And now, as she returned to the city''s now expansive territory, she realized that Dean had been seriously busy. The deep inscription-like gouges throughout the city had been repurposed into rail track, providing an easy and efficient way to transport dragonleaf goods. Giant, stadium-like amphitheatres had sprung up all over the city and its nearby territory. In the air, numerous Jerboalanders appeared to be playing some odd, field-hockey-like game atop the backs of devilbats.


    "Are those...schools?" Lisa wondered, visoring her hand to block out the harsh sun. They hadn''t even bothered with actual children''sschools at Basalith. Instead, they simply funneled children into the child educator training rooms and relied on Basalith''s own citizens to found their own educational institutions.


    Now that Lisa focused her attention on the types of buildings present, she realized that Jerboaland had all kinds of grocery stores, clothing stores, and the like. Many of these had simply come as Jerboaland swallowed up the surrounding territory. However, while the territory around Basalith was still distinctly separate from the city-proper, Jeroboaland wasn''t so clearly demarcated. The urban, dragonleaf sprawl continued as far as Lisa could see.


    "Did those people just pop out of a hole?" Lisa wondered to herself, narrowing her eyes in concentration. Actually, she now spotted several holes in the ground all throughout the city. While many people were obscuring them by running about, she could now clearly see that people were using the holes--tunnels--as subterranean pathways. Lisa wondered idly how far they extended.


    She quietly made her way to the Spire, seeking out Dean''s office building.


    "Is there...air conditioning?" Lisa murmured, rubbing an arm. While extreme temperatures wouldn''t kill Lisa, she still preferred a toasty 75 degrees for normal operation. The cool 67 degrees Fahrenheit of the office actually caused her skin to break out into goosebumps. The Spire in Basalith had no such amenity, as Lepochim seemed impervious to weather conditions and Lisa didn''t mind Virginia''s mild fall climate.


    "Lisa," Dean smiled welcomingly. "It''s nice to see you in person."


    "I can''t believe what you''ve done with this place," Lisa smiled back. "Jerboaland, huh? Why''d you choose that name?"


    Dean shrugged. "Why not?"


    Lisa raised an eyebrow, but decided to let the topic drop. "I''m glad that everything here has been working out. Now, since you''re the first person to finish all fourteen professions, it''s time for you to choose a specialization."


    Dean nodded. "I know."


    "And?" Lisa looked at him expectantly.


    "Artist," he said.


    Lisa hadn''t been expecting that one. "Really?" She shook her head. "Fine. We''re going to put on a big ceremony back in Basalith, so you''re going to need to come with me. It''ll be super quick, then we''ll get you back here on a falcon."


    "Fine." Lisa had already informed him about this over instant message, so he knew what to expect.


    They arrived at Basalith without fanfare. Dean found traversing the city''s streets somewhat disorienting, and somewhat enlightening. Contrasting the relatively unchanged Basalith with his own Jerboaland, Dean realized just how far Jerboaland had come.


    Dean had been mildly surprised that Lisa still hadn''t gotten the artist boon. If she had, he knew she wouldn''t have been so skeptical when he''d voiced his decision.


    While entering Basalith was low-key, things didn''t stay that way. At exactly 5 pm, the Path Ceremony kicked off with a non-hypothetical bang. Bath had prepared a rather intensive mental sequence to relay to all COTD followers via dragonleaf, much like the one he "broadcast" to major cities worldwide from Tokyo. All of the hierarchy''s many paths were represented as roots extending out from a tall, stable tree. The roots started as fourteen, then diverged into numerous other roots that soon became uncountable.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    The scene was, unsurprisingly, engrossing in its vividness. Dean also thought it was cool that Dragon Bath was flapping its wings over his head the entire time.


    At the finale of the ceremony, Bath breathed a stream of hot fire all over Dean''s frame. Dean was surprised to find that the fire was real. His natural instinct was to flail and scream; however, Dean quickly noticed that his boons steeled his mind from the pain, protected his skin, and gave him the presence of mind to think clearly.


    He knelt down on one knee, then tilted his head upwards, as though looking off over the horizon. The flaming Dean remained in that pose until the flames died out in time with the setting sun. He then stood up and exited the staging area, heading swiftly back to his former residence to take a much-deserved break.


    ---


    Dean hadn''t expected the fire to burn a full thirty minutes. Clearly, Bath had influenced the flame in some degree to perpetuate its burn until the sun fell from the sky. The Dragon sure loved his symbolism.


    While enduring a fire didn''t take any active effort on Dean''s part, blocking out the pain became more difficult over time. Dean wondered if this was because his nerves were overstimulated or because his constitution and natural healing abilities were unable to keep pace with the destructive flame. Even now, minutes after he''d left the stage, his skin was flaking into white and black bits, almost like a bad sunburn. Dean was certain that, were it not for the wind coming off Bath''s wings, there would be a substantial pile of blackened skin crusting on the stage.


    Just as Dean was getting ready to take a falcon back to Jerboaland, Lisa came over and stopped him. She''d evidently been waiting for him by the falcon house.


    "Dean," she began, startling the hell out of Dean.


    ''Since when is Lisa stealthy!?'' he thought, mind racing. Lisa, in truth, hadn''t been stealthy at all; Dean was just too drained by travel, the time difference, and the Path Ceremony. He only jumped to this conclusion because, ever since he increased his combat boons to their maximum levels, in particular those of the administrator profession, almost nothing could catch him unawares.


    "Yes?" he replied as he whipped around to face her direction.


    Lisa was, herself, a bit surprised by Dean''s reaction. "Uh, don''t forget," she said. "The Path seed." She held out a pine-needle blue seed. It fit nicely in the crook of her palm, about the size of a jawbreaker.


    "Do I just...um...stick it in the ground? Next to the Spire, beneath the Anima, or...?"


    Lisa smiled in an attempt to dissolve some of Dean''s awkwardness. "If I were you, I''d create a new section of your city exclusively for Path training."


    Dean nodded. "Makes sense. Is that what you''re going to do with Basalith?"


    Lisa looked to the side. "Well..." She paused. "Honestly, we''ve been moving pretty slowly here with expanding the city out. Something about ''proper city planning.'' I''m not in charge of the city''s expansion, so I can''t say anything definitive. But again, if I were you, that''s where I''d put it."


    "Thanks," Dean said. "This is two times now." Two times that she''d given him advice.


    "Two...Oh, yeah. Don''t mention it."


    "Seriously," he murmured. "When I have a question, there''s nobody I can ask. Gotta rely on myself." He sighed. "Aren''t you exhausted trying to figure everything out?"


    Lisa scratched her head. "I don''t," she replied. "Figure everything out alone. I have Bath to bounce questions off of. And Lepochim, our assistant alien, if you remember."


    Dean nodded. How could he forget that Lisa had an alien helping to run Basalith? "That''s not what I mean. I have subordinates I can bounce ideas off as well." Virigard was the first that came to mind, followed by Amalo and Kisserin. Dean noted quietly to himself that they were all quasi-sapients.


    "Then what do you mean?"


    "Inventing this whole, um, system. Thinking of how to run it, how to get everyone situated and invested in COTD...I mean, come on, you were a college student like me a bit more than a month ago."


    Lisa cocked her head. "Well," she began, "sure, it''s exhausting, but I can''t fall behind." And she truly meant this: what were her achievements compared to Bath''s? If she took things at a slower pace, she''d be unable to face herself as Bath''s companion.


    "Fall behind?" Dean narrowed his eyes. Like Lisa, he''d been an overachiever in high school: star athlete, star student. He''d been socially inept, but he was good at playing along with a crowd by keeping silent. People typically assumed that he was just introverted. He was painfully aware of the fear of falling behind, of being surpassed by his peers. Of not deserving the many good things that came his way, scholarships, getting onto Alens'' varsity basketball team, getting into Alens at all...


    "You''re worried you don''t deserve to be at the head of COTD, right?" he asked, his words acerbic.


    Lisa didn''t answer him.


    "Stop worrying. Anybody that''s done what you''ve done--"


    "Everything I''ve done is because of him," Lisa snapped. "I was just lucky that I became Bath''s friend."


    "Lucky?" Dean contemplated this for a moment. "I was reading up on the COTD. Found out about its connection to Daoism."


    "Yeah?"


    "Yeah. And then I started reading other ancient philosophical texts. For the scholar boon. I read something interesting along the way." Dean raised an eyebrow, then looked at her expectantly.


    "What?"


    "It''s simple: everything is how it was meant to be." Dean watched for Lisa''s reaction. "Get it?"


    "You saying that everything happens for a reason?" she asked, trying to understand.


    "No. I''m saying that you were lucky to be born smart, athletic, kind, lucky to be born where you were, in this time. Lisa...your entire life is just the cumulation of lots of luck. But that''s just the way the world works. People pull the short stick every day, just as some people strike it rich." Dean thought of his own family, and their only moderately unfortunate lot. He also thought of people he knew that had pulled, perhaps, the worst lots of all.


    "So you''re saying to just count my blessings and stop worrying about everything?" Lisa said, incredulity lighting up her features. "Don''t you understand? That''s exactly what I''m trying to destroy."


    "Inequality?"


    "Luck!" Lisa huffed exasperatedly. "The entire point of this is to give everyone the resources they need to get to the top. Eliminate wealth, circumstance, the ridiculous inequity of genetics...The kind of world I''m trying to make wouldn''t have someone like me, or even you."


    Dean breathed in deeply. "You sure that''s the kind of world you wanna make? That''s sounds more like making life into a factory than making it better."


    Lisa closed her eyes and sighed. She sounded more tired than every as she replied, "I don''t know. Yes, Dean, I''m tired. I really am. But I''m not going to stop, not until we''re done."


    Dean didn''t get the chance to ask Lisa to explain. She walked over, pressed the still untaken seed into his palm, and departed.

 [Chapter 94] Preparing to Depart; Recollections; Parting Memento

    Twenty more days passed.


    "Tomorrow, we''ll depart." Dean said this as a statement, fully confident in the sapients sitting before him. Virigard, Amalo, Kisserin, Barkhad, Aberash, Grey, Fartuun...part of him felt as though he''d known them for years. They looked back at him with faith he''d never felt before COTD''s world takeover.


    "We know! Can''t wait~" Virigard chirped, bouncing up and down on her feet. Amalo smirked knowingly and leaned into his tail, crossing his arms. Kisserin curled her black body next to Barkhad, forming a snake''s smile by curling her forked tongue. The cream of her underbelly went nicely with the dark, mahogany-stained dragonleaf planks. She practically took up the whole left corner by herself, enabling Barkhad to sit upon her coils as though atop a serpentine throne. The other sapients sat on the custom-ordered couch taking up the entire right wall of the room.


    The people who were present had all completed their basic training early on. They were already progressing nicely down paths of their choosing, or, rather, paths of their own creation. While in the beginning Dean had lamented the completely open-ended path system, feeling like a little guidance would''ve gone a long way, he now appreciated the limitlessness of forging one''s own path.


    He supposed that, in the end, such a system design jived much better with COTD''s philosophy of "self-determination."


    "We''ll follow you," Fartuun murmured, her voice carrying whisper-like throughout the room. "Anywhere."


    Dean felt himself growing warm; while he knew they would go with him, hearing his sapients voice aloud their loyalty made him feel...successful. Valued. Useful.


    "I''m through with this shithole," Grey hissed, as though furious at some unseen force. The scar across his eye glinted white against his tan skin, while his frayed robe''s ripped sleeves showed off his toned arms and developed musculature. He futilely pushed a lock of hair out of his eyes and behind his ear, only to have it fall out a moment later and slice across the bridge of his nose. "I''ll go anywhere that isn''t Earth."


    Dean nodded. That''s how Grey was: angry, bitter. Interestingly enough, Grey was a kursi, one of the brown-robes. Dean had never gotten to know the peacekeepers before requesting one of them to accompany him to Syria and Jordan. He ended up taking Grey with him. Grey had his own problems and quirks, too many for Dean to jump to conclusions about the guy''s past. For one, the man spoke flawless Arabic, Somali, and English, not to mention a number of regional dialects throughout the Levant. The man didn''t appear older than in his late twenties, but the way he carried himself made Dean think of a grizzled lion: experienced and jagged around the edges.


    Dean thought back to his first encounter with Grey: back in Syria, making their way towards Jordan.


    ---


    Kisserin slithered over the war-torn ground, her scales shifting deftly over the upturned cement and lumpy, rotting debris. Barkhad still hadn''t met the giant snake, else he''d be riding on her through the ruin. Dean watched with mild curiosity as Virigard''s jerboa underlings ran fleet-footed through the streets, jumping over rocks and scampering over half-destroyed walls in a macabre game of tag.


    The group was only passing through on their way to their final destination, Jordan''s Zaatari refugee camp. However, the area wasn''t fully deserted. As they walked, Grey prowled through the streets, finding humans and tossing them to the ridge of Kisserin''s back. He grumbled constantly about having to soothe their minds, though didn''t stop his search for more people hidden in the detritus.


    Grey was silent, in the sense that he didn''t say anything to anyone. He simply muttered to himself under his breath. Sometimes he would laugh; sometimes he would snarl. The man''s face was normally expressionless.


    Whenever he looked in Dean''s direction, Dean felt apprehended. The man seemed to be peering into his soul and judging him. Grey''s intense eyes seemed to suggest that whatever he found was lacking.


    But, all the same, Grey continued to find and deposit the Levant''s Forgotten onto Kisserin''s back. When they reached Zaatari, Dean could only look on, stricken, as Grey directed all those present to walk with him to the newly-dug Jerboa caverns. Kisserin helped to transport the physically handicapped to the tunnels'' mouth, while the millions of refugees steadily packed up their belongings and made their way to the waiting snakes below.


    Dean had to admit that he was impressed. He had a decent idea, by this point, of Lisa''s powers, as well as the self-reported capabilities of his own peacekeepers. But the image of Grey walking into the camp and the world freezing around him, as though the entire world had stopped...Dean couldn''t help but feel intimidated.


    He knew that if he wanted, Grey could do the same thing to him.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ---


    Despite Dean''s misgivings over Grey--and the other kursi--having such insidious power, he began to use the kursi at a greater frequency. Surprisingly, after the trip, Grey seemed almost needy for attention. He frequently climbed to the top of the spire just to ask Dean for an assignment, claiming that "peacekeeping" wasn''t necessary. Over the past twenty days, Dean trusted Grey with more and more solo jobs, enabling Jerboaland to expand even further outward as Grey led jerboa-snake teams across Africa and the Middle East.


    Dean wasn''t oblivious to why Grey requested these missions. He caught on fairly quickly after ISIL''s recently-seized territories mysteriously regained their liberty...only to join Jerboaland almost immediately after. While Dean couldn''t track everything that was going on, even despite his director boons, he knew that Grey going out almost certainly meant ill-intentioned organizations--in particular those that oppressed women--meeting atrocious ends.


    Some of the things that Grey did...Dean wished he could un-see. The kursi doled out a decisively cruel form of retributive justice. In some ways, Grey''s actions almost made Dean sympathize with people who forced genital manipulation on others, doused people in battery acid, or kept child soldiers...


    But Dean didn''t stop sending him out. And for that, it seems, he had won a modicum of the man''s loyalty.


    Barkhad, Kisserin, Aberash, and Fartuun all voiced their agreement to accompany Dean off-world.


    "Well, I had to make sure you were all on board," Dean smiled. "We''ll leave tomorrow at 2 pm. Yeah, I know, it''s late, but we''re gaining hours across the time change. Sleep well and prepare; we don''t know when we''re coming back."


    ---


    Bath knew that, in many ways, Earth was a much better place for sapient life than it had been. Even so, with only a few hours to go until COTD began its migration off Earth, Bath decided that he was going to leave a parting memento.


    "We''ve achieved the Big WD," he smirked, punching Lisa in the elbow. She looked at him, almost bewildered. "Surprised?" he asked, his voice falling. She looked back at the ocean, where Bath was...doing something. Oddly enough, she and human Bath were standing atop Dragon Bath. The sun bobbed over the water, its deep red-orange reflected in the sunset-colored accents on their uniforms.


    "It''s just...a bit jarring to hear you say it. It''s only been a bit over a month..." Lisa originally figured it would be years--perhaps an entire lifetime''s worth, or more--before they completed the Big WD. And yet, here they stood, looking out over the world that was truly and completely theirs.


    Lisa knew now more than ever that this was the case. At Bath''s urging, she''d gone back to speak with Lauretta and Bern. After hearing each of their accounts, she ultimately let them free and sent them to Lepochim.


    After all, the more kursi, the better...and though Lisa still didn''t understand exactly why they had stalked her, and infiltrated her family--they wouldn''t say--she still thought of them as her aunt and uncle. Setting them free and placing them into the kursi ranks eased a burden she hadn''t even noticed on her mind.


    Even now, far from Basalith, Lisa felt the presence of the gate, a feeling not unlike magnetic fields pulling on her magnetic sense. "It''s really ours..." she sighed. "And here we are, leaving it almost immediately."


    "Inertia," Bath said in response to her implied question. "We need to keep going, until we''re stopped. What''s the point in staying here?"


    Lisa simply raised an eyebrow. Then, she stepped off his back and floated down to the water. "What are you making?"


    "A tribute," Bath replied.


    Lisa watched as Bath continued to shape his creation, appreciating the feeling of water lapping against her feet and misting against her face. She ran her hands through the wind, wiggling her fingers.


    "Is this visible from space?" Lisa asked as he finished up. A massive wooden dragon in matchless detail jutted out of the sea, easily larger than Bath, stretching for miles longer than his 3.6-mile range of influence. At the dragon''s head was a similarly gargantuan, robed woman. Lisa recognized herself--her new self--staring out into the clouds with brown, pupil-less eyes.


    "It''s so majestic," she crooned, admiring its artifice. While many land-shaper artists had excellent sculpting capabilities, Lisa knew they would never be able to complete a monument on this scale. ''Well, never say never,'' she mused, resolving to create a similarly extravagant piece upon returning to Earth.


    "I rather like it," Bath murmured, human eyes gleaming with the dying light of the sun.


    "Well, obviously," Lisa scoffed, punching his dragon''s body. "It''s us."


    He directed his eyes on Lisa''s face. As he studied her features, Lisa felt the full power of his ancient gaze. Standing atop his dragon-self, he cut an imperious figure, the black of his vestments contrasting sharply with the red of his cape and the glow of the illuminated water below.


    As Bath looked at Lisa, he remembered when they first met, when he saw her as just another animal, flesh and bone, her entire chemistry re-creatable at his leisure. Just as back then, he envisioned how she would look stripped apart, overlayed the finery of her lacey muscles over her pale skin. He thought he knew her body then; now, after restructuring her body personally, he knew her body better than any other''s.


    ''How great a mystery,'' Bath thought to himself, suspended in the moment. He wasn''t thinking of the ever-elusive kursi symbiote. As he stared into Lisa''s eyes, he envisioned her mind, recreated the mind-bogglingly complex neuron network of her mind.


    But that''s all he could do. He couldn''t make the next step, couldn''t fire her neurons to predict her actions, couldn''t look into her memory to read her mind. While Bath could recreate the mind, he couldn''t understand it. He could make a Lisa clone here, now, and the divergences between it and the original would mount too-fast to count.


    Bath had tried this kind of "cloning" on human test subjects in preparation for the revival, rebirth, and memory-storage boons. The discovery only made Bath more curious about the sapient mind...and more curious about himself, and his lack of a physical brain.


    Perceiving that Lisa was growing somewhat perplexed by his intent gaze, Bath blinked. He fixed his eyes back on the sculpture. Then, he walked forward and pulled Lisa into a side embrace. Despite the gesture, his face remained uncharacteristically expressionless.


    Then, hespoke. "Us."


    ---


    END OF PART 5

 [Chapter 95] COTD Interlude: Beach, Reef, Racing, Slave

    Interlude Sequence


    ---


    Mikaela squatted next to the tidal pool, inspecting its shallow depths. Off on the shore, Mikey walked with his hands out.


    "Mikaela!" he shouted. "I found something!"


    Mikaela''s eyes lit up. She ran over, arriving at her brother''s side in an instant. "What''s your guess?"


    "I think it''s a toaster!"


    "...A toaster? Really?" Mikey was two whole years younger, so Mikaela couldn''t fault him for making such a dumb prediction. "Well, I think it must be an anchor!" This was, after all, a beach.


    Flashing a mischievous grin, Mikey began to dig up the sand. After a minute or so of digging, he cackled in delight and held up a muddy, rusted square. Mikaela squinted through the dust.


    "What is it?" she wondered. Her pigtails, caught in a sudden breeze, flew over her shoulders and slapped into the metal box. Her hair--wet from dangling in tidal pools--wiped off some of the dust. Eyes narrowing, Mikaela snatched the box from Mikey''s little hands and started dusting it off.


    "Hey! Finders keepers," he cried out.


    "I''m just looking at it, stupid," she retorted petulantly. "Hey, I know what it is."


    "What!?"


    "A lunchbox!"


    "Oh." He sounded dejected. Mikaela snickered to herself; the administrative boon sure was useful.


    "This is an old superhero lunchbox," she beamed. "I bet it''s worth a ton!"


    Not that either of them really understood the value of money, in particular now that COTD had taken over. However, using Mikey''s fledgling administrator boon to dig up buried objects on the beach was an exciting way to pass the time.


    Mikaela almost wished that she''d chosen to be an administrator, but the profession had sounded so...boring. Mikey had only picked it because he was familiar with the phrase, "administrator of justice." Accordingly, he assumed it involved whooping bad-guy butt.


    Mikaela, on the other hand, had actually done a bit of research before picking out her first profession at the Anima. She vehemently rejected it, wondering why anyone would wield a mace or gavel when they could use a sword. Not that she''d chosen close combat; in the end, she had picked out the caretaker profession. To be honest, she found it fairly lackluster. Well, at least for now, until she finished the profession up. She figured the elite and expert boons would be way cooler than her Apprentice boon. Unfortunately, after five days of fooling around with her single boon, becoming an expert caretaker felt a million years away.


    ---


    "I can''t believe this," Rin boomed through the water. "Look at the reef."


    Asuna grinned, her cheeks puffing out as she drew in water and blew out a stream of bubbles. "Land-shapers, fighting!" she exclaimed. A long, dragonleaf straw jutted more than one-hundred meters out of the water next to each woman, providing them with a source of air. Not that they needed much.


    "It''s beautiful, absolutely beautiful." While a pair of black goggles obscured Rin''s facial expression, Asuna knew her eyes must be alight with wonder.


    "There are so many fish," Asuna remarked. "Think there are sharks anywhere?" she snapped her knuckles, not that the sound carried through the water like their augmented voices.


    "Not sure," Rin replied, swimming down into the reef. "These boons are amazing," she tutted as she sank lower. "My ears aren''t even popping."


    "There''s a drop off over here," Asuna reported. "Wanna see what we find?"


    "It''s dangerous--" Rin stopped herself mid sentence, then turned around. Asuna placed her hands on her hips expectantly.


    "Dangerous?"


    Rin let out a bubbly laugh. "Right. Let''s go."


    ---


    Aamuun massaged his quasi horse''s head.


    ''Shh, Dahlia,'' he transmitted. ''You''re going to rock. Today marks the beginning of a horse racing legend.''


    Dalia whinnied impatiently, then snorted, tossing her braided mane. ''You''re not the one who''s running.''


    Aamuun let his eyes rove over the other competitors, all of which were seated atop quasi horses. They all rode bareback, their improved strength, endurance, and balance eliminating the need for saddles, while their dragonleaf connections eliminated the need for reigns.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Jerboaland''s racing stadium was overflowing with humans and quasies. Some came because watching the high-speed sport was entertaining, while others came to gamble.


    They gambled the only thing there was: path points. Aamuun had actually made a killing in path points after a few lucky bets, and hoped to make more in winnings from this race. While most people still hadn''t finished all fourteen beginner paths, the path points worked excellently on credit. Since essentially everyone was guaranteed not to die of illness, anybody under the age of 80 found that betting as-of-yet unearned path points was fair.


    In all honesty, Aamuun was still surprised that exchanging path points was allowed. While he was certainly no expert with regards to the Path system, he was under the impression that path points accumulated based on progress down a certain profession''s Path, much in the same way people progressed from Apprentice to Expert. In that sense, betting path points almost seemed contrary to the whole philosophy of "self-determination."


    Not that Aamuun was complaining, considering the head start he''d have if he decided to cash in his points.


    Delilah''s muscles shifted under Aamuun''s legs, the bones of her spine rubbing up against his chest. The two of them tensed as a man came out onto the track with a starting pistol.


    No words exchanged between them, only general sensations of giddy anticipation and drive to win. As soon as the shot of the pistol sounded out, Delilah was thundering down the imposing fifteen-thousand-meter track, her hooves digging into and kicking up mounds of dirt to propel her and Aamuun forward. Her head bobbed in and out with each wide stride, her pace such that an inexperienced rider would have been knocked senseless by the jerking motion. Instead, Aamuun knew to lean into Delilah''s thrusts, knew how to shift his body to maximize her speed.


    ''We''re close to first,'' he transmitted. Only two riders were ahead, both just to the inside of their current position as they turned right on the inside of the loop. ''One lap down, three more to go.''


    ''I''m taking it easy,'' she transmitted back, her mental voice ragged as her heaving breath. After two more laps, foam flecked from her mouth.


    ''Still one ahead,'' Aamuun noted worriedly.


    Delilah whinnied, gritting her teeth. While the other horse just a few handspans ahead was fast, she had faith in her own ability. She picked up speed, expending the last of her strength on the final lap of the course.


    After the race finished, Aamuun patted Delilah''s gold-brown neck lovingly and rubbed her black-pink nose. "We won five path points," he noted out loud.


    Delilah kept her eyes on the ground as she walked off to their living quarters, expression downcast.


    "Silver isn''t bad," he said. She just snorted in return and attempted to shake out her braids. Aamuun just sighed and undid the elastics holding the braids in place. After a minute of riding, Aamuun rubbed Delilah''s flank, then hopped off.


    "Treat yourself," he called out as Delilah trotted away. She snorted, this time shaking out her tail.


    "So rude," he grumbled to himself as he opened to door to the dragonleaf apartment complex. "I guess she just needs some time to walk it off."


    --- TW: Human trafficking, explicit sexual content/language


    Esther knew that COTD meant well. Not that she cared much for intentions, anyway.


    Some slug of a man groaned into her chest, sucking like an overgrown baby. His hands kneaded into her back and drew her closer to his stomach, directing her torso closer closer to his own.


    "What do you want, baby?" she asked, voice intentionally sickly-sweet. She fluttered her eyes for good measure, not that the man''s gaze was on them. The better she pleased, the better she''d be treated. More food, a longer shower.


    "I want to fuck you like you deserve it," he growled.


    "What do you want to call me?" she asked. Sounded like the guy really just wanted to screw someone else.


    "Jill. Fucking cunt," he panted. Esther preferred to think that the man was describing Jill rather than herself.


    "Mmm. Like a struggle, or like ''em passive?" Esther found that giving the two choices was better than leaving things open ended. She was still reeling from the time just a few days back when an Expert caretaker requested her services...only to use her vagina as his test subject.


    At least he put everything back in place. Though that was probably only because he''d need to foot the medical bill to fix her up.


    The man''s eyes dilated. "Passive." Then, he pushed her down onto the bed. He began to take off his pants, inadvertently ripping them apart with his enhanced strength. Esther found it rather hilarious, especially since more than half of her first-time tormentors made the same rushed mistake.


    The man didn''t seem self-concious at all as he came forward, his manhood dangling recklessly between his legs. Esther resisted the mild urge to kick out with her leg, knowing that such an attack would land her in the Grinder for at least a few days. She practically shuddered at the thought.


    Esther assumed her passive persona, whimpering as the man approached and slammed her face-first into the bed. He flipped her over, clearly intending to do things doggy-style.


    "No," she whispered, voice wobbling, "please." In her experience, "client" satisfaction went up if they felt dominant. This kind of acting was an excellent method of empowering her tormentors while further dissociating her naturally headstrong self from her current...persona.


    The man barked out a laugh, then slid himself into her, his cock feeling like a knife through her un-stimulated vagina. Esther moaned, first in true agony, then, within a minute, she began to moan as though in ecstasy. Not that the pain decreased by all that much, especially since the man kept thrusting violently into her.


    "You know you like it, bitch," the man cooed.


    ''Can''t you just come already?'' Esther wondered dejectedly to herself. The sooner the man left, the faster she''d be free to return to her room...and the sooner she''d be able to return to being herself. The real her, the free her, not...whatever this was.


    "You''re so hard," she whimpered. "I don''t know if I can hold on."


    This, of course, only made him bang her harder. After a few minutes, the man finally came and, spent, left the room. Esther curled up on herself in the bed, sighing. In the beginning, she used to cry; now, she simply felt empty.


    COTD had been all over the news, such that even she knew about it despite her enforced isolation. Not that she''d been given the opportunity to leave and get her own set of boons. No; if anything, her jailers were worse, hiring caretakers to bestow upon her, specifically, a single constitution boon. They''d called it, "protecting their merchandise."


    But Esther was still more optimistic than she''d ever been before. Part of her hoped, more than anything, that COTD officials would find the human trafficking ring festering beneath their noses. Then, she''d be able to escape her drugged-up sex slavery and finally do something with her life. At this point, she''d settle for anything else.

 [Chapter 96] The Enemy of the Way of the Dragon; Birds; New Start

    Interlude Sequence (II)


    ---


    "Thanks for doing this," Lisa said. She stared at Bath intently, as though trying to convey the appreciation she felt. "I know you still don''t believe in my idealism, but..."


    Bath cocked his head. "What does this have to do with your misguided idealism?"


    Lisa''s mouth opened with a pop. "...Everything?"


    Bath just chuckled. "Nothing. What''s the natural enemy of self-determination?" He gazed at Lisa knowingly.


    "Well, according to my phone..." Technology was still incredibly useful even after COTD''s takeover. If anything, it had made various leaps and bounds as millions used their new mentally-oriented boons to create innovative technological baubles. "The definition online is, ''the state of being free from the control or power of another.'' Antonyms: dependence, inability, stupidity...Wait, those are pretty lackluster antonyms."


    Bath had to agree; the word he was looking for was absent from the list. "So? What''s the natural enemy of self-determination?"


    Lisa held her jaw in a hand, bent over in thought. She walked over to the railing on the Spire''s balcony, then looked out over Basalith. ''What is the enemy of self-determination?'' she wondered. ''Self-determination is being able to forge your own path. It''s being able to make choices, within reason, without others stopping you.'' She kicked her foot against the ground. ''Self-determination is freedom.''


    The word fell out of her mouth, as though it held tangible weight. "Oppression."


    ---


    Nevis thought it almost ironic that she was controlling so many birds. Birds ate wasps, didn''t they? Not that she cared all that much. With the way the Creator made them, Nevis would be absolutely shocked if someone compared her quasi-sapient species to insects.


    ''Well, there are the antennae, and the carapace...'' Nevis thought to herself, ''but everything else is different. Do insects have bombshell figures? I think not.''


    "Nevis!" ol'' Yellow Eyes barked from the front door of the Hive, his voice carrying through her speaker system. Nevis switched her monitor to the camera feed, then zoomed in.


    "Mmm, you can almost see them..." she murmured, referring to Lepochim''s abdominal muscles. "If only he wore muscle shirts instead of that brown monstrosity."


    Nevis sighed. She could take a break for a second, right? She flicked back to the Bird Brain operations terminal, then groaned.


    "Come up," she called out, knowing that her room''s mic would pick up her elevated voice. "You should know the way by now."


    Lepochim''s expression remained as hard as ever. Nevis rolled her eyes. ''Hardass.'' Her mouth cracked into a lopsided grin. "Literally," she breathed softly.


    "The birds are attacking people," Lepochim complained, walking into the room with his ''I mean business'' face on.


    ''Puh-lease,'' Nevis thought. "That''s what they''re supposed to do," Nevis replied. "Courtesy of bilateral orders coming from both the Church and Dragon." She gave him a knowing look, crossing her arms and swiveling in her office chair. Her right leg, crossed over her left, pulsed up and down.


    "The peacekeepers are having severe difficulties keeping up with the complaints," he grumbled. "These humans are too fragile, especially the ones further out from Basalith. One of these birds can kill people without sufficient constitution."


    Nevis fluttered her eyes. "Kill? Oh, honey," she began. "What''d you think would happen when the Church and Dragon gave the Hive the directive to begin the war on oppression?"


    "But killing people--" ''is oppressing people who might be powerful assets.'' Or so Lepochim wanted to say before he was cut off.


    Her grin was full of white plates designed to look like teeth. "War, Lepochim. I was under the impression you knew a thing or two about that sort of thing. Besides, anybody who gets killed had it coming." When she looked at him now, it was with seriousness matching his own.


    "How do you know?" he balked, eyes narrowing diminutively.


    "If the spearrows hate you enough to use lethal force," she said slowly, "then you get what''s coming."


    Lepochim mulled over her words. "I''m still not convinced the spearrows are reliable. They''ve been attacking an uncalled-for amount of people."


    "Just because you have a stick up your ass doesn''t mean everyone else does," Nevis retorted, completely aware of just how little fun Lepochim let himself have. "You don''t see the things I see, Lepochim. Surveillance and information gathering is the foundation of a powerful organization. I don''t know what god-awful tendencies deepthinks like yourself incline towards, but trust me when I say that many humans live lives steeped in depravity."


    Lepochim''s eyebrows rose slightly. He''d never seen a more vicious side to Nevis. He snorted, then said, "Fine. Just make sure you tell the birds to leave anyone truly powerful alive, then send them to Basalith to be reconditioned." Lepochim had never heard of kursi abilities before meeting Bern and Lauretta. Bern''s ability in particular--memory manipulation--had great utility, despite its ridiculously stringent requirements. As long as the powerful humans were spared, to be subject to Bern''s expert touch, Lepochim could care less.


    "Fine." As Nevis began to get up from her chair, Lepochim took a step backward. Then, his face a stony mask, he backpedaled into the door, slamming his nose against the doorframe as he pivoted around. Despite this mishap, he smoothly exited the room and fast-walked out of the Hive.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Nevis cackled to herself, spinning wildly in her office chair. "Just standing up puts the fear of the devil into him," she cried gleefully. She moved her finger over the keyboard to press a macro-ed sequence: ctrl + fn + u. As she did so, one of her favorite songs blasted throughout her personal office.


    She got out of her seat and began to dance, gyrating her hips to the beat. She sang along, though changed the words slightly:


    "Under my thumb


    The guy who once had me down


    Under my thumb


    The guy who once pushed me around


    It''s down to me


    The difference in the clothes he wears


    Down to me, the change has come,


    He''s under my thumb~"


    Nevis hoped the line about deciding "the clothes he wears" would come to pass sooner rather than later. Muscle shirts...No shirts?


    Then she turned back to the computer, letting the music fade into the backdrop. She returned to the Bird Brain operations terminal, where she checked on the deployed birds'' positions and coordinated their future movements. Part of her wished she''d had the foresight to equip all the birds with personal cameras.


    Though, having received several intelligence reports from her underlings on the activities of the spearrows, another part of her was glad she hadn''t.


    ---


    "Bar the motherfucking doors!" Big Tim grunt-screamed, his disproportionately high-pitched voice grating on Esther''s ears even through the Grinder''s soundproofed walls. "BAR THE DOORS!"


    Tim and Jorge were the only ones guarding the Grinder. Esther thought that having two people guard one woman was overkill, but then again, women were valuable enough to warrant the overprotection.


    Esther tried to stay as still as possible. Struggle against the chains, and they''d pull the grinding wheel under her feet. Then, she''d be forced to walk on its slippery surface. Fall, and she''d have to dangle from the chains, only making the wheel accelerate further. She''d then have to dangle from her wrists until the wheel naturally came to a stop and she could get her footing. And heaven forbid she slip again...


    "Birds?" she murmured lifelessly. In the new COTD world, she was willing to believe anything. Who knew, maybe birds were attacking the sex trafficking ring. Hah.


    ''Dream on,'' she thought self-deprecatingly. ''If only Alfred Hitchcock were in charge. I could go for some real-life The Birds action.''


    Soon after the tweeting reached her ears, Esther heard agonized wails.


    "AHHH! FUCK! FUCK!" She couldn''t even tell who was Big Tim or Jorge; their tenor and baritone voices both jumped into womanly-octaves as they voiced their pained terror, squealing like tortured pigs.


    She couldn''t bring herself to feel excited. A bit of sadistic pleasure, perhaps, but Esther had long since crushed her own expectations. She couldn''t bear to face disappointment.


    And yet, the kernel of hope within her began to grow. "Help," she called out meekly, her throat and mouth dry. She bit her cheek to wet her tongue, then spoke again. "Help!"


    Suddenly, a dent appeared in the grinder''s wall, startling Esther half to death. This, unfortunately, caused her to fall off the wheel.


    "HELP!" she screamed, grimacing at the pain in her wrists. The Grinder had been built fairly recently by one of the human trafficking syndicate''s new land-shapers, refitting an old isolation room to include physical torment. It had been designed to cause pain even to people with a constitution boon.


    Now, a hail of dents, as though someone was machine-gunning down the Grinder''s rightmost wall, appeared. Then, the wall gave way under the pressure of new blows on the weakened metal.


    A swarm of birds burst into the room. A few zoomed over to her wrists, then opened their toothy beaks and sawed her shackles off. The rest took to pulverizing the torture chamber with their arrow-like, reinforced beaks, turning the Grinder into swiss cheese.


    Esther tentatively stepped forward, squeezing past the rip down the center of the Grinder''s right wall. She nearly choked as she took in the sight of Big Tim and Jorge, feeling as though her lungs and heart were seizing up. She rapidly blinked her eyes, taking a step back. However, from behind, the flat of a beak nudged her forward, nearly causing her weak body to trip and tumble.


    But she swallowed her nerves and walked forward. This was her chance.


    Esther walked through the hallways, tears streaming steadily down her face. She couldn''t pin down her emotion. ''Distraught, maybe,'' she thought to herself, her mind feeling oddly disconnected from her body. A contingent of small, brown birds circled around her like protective guardians. One in front of her was clearly leading the way, peeping insistently as though telling Esther to get a move on.


    From afar, they were almost indistinguishable from sparrows, though up close it became painfully obvious that they were something else entirely. For one, they had beady, ultra-sharp teeth. On top of that, their beaks were thick and ridged, coming to a needle-thin point at the end. When they had engaged Big Tim, Jorge, and the others that Esther was passing by...they had clearly taken to using their beak tips as their primary weapons.


    As she walked, she checked the other rooms in search of other women. All of them were empty, though thankfully Esther didn''t see signs of foul play outside the norm. She had been on the far side of the compound in the Grinder, leading to birds finding her after everyone else. She could only assume that other birds had already led everyone else out.


    A painful hour of walking later, Esther arrived at the closest branch of COTD. She signed up for residence after standing in line with similarly-ragged looking groups of people. She found out by listening to others'' conversations that almost everyone had been escorted by the same kind of tiny, ferocious birds.


    If anything, Esther was just glad that everyone else looked--and smelled--as bad as she did. Before she even went to the Anima for any boons, Esther first went to the bath house. The steam from the ground was so thick as to provide cover to everyone present, much to Esther''s appreciation. She let the warm water flow over her, as though it could wash away her past.


    She left the bath house, donning one of the COTD-provided bath robes at the exit. As she walked through the bustling city, she felt as though she were in a dream. A beautiful, haunting dream, the kind that was far worse than nightmares. Nightmares were useful: they reminded her that her life wasn''t the worst it could be. Everything certainly felt like a dream. It had only been a few hours since the birds came and rescued her from hell, viciously tearing apart her captors. Then, she''d been led by birds--as though she were Snow White or something--to the nearest dragonleaf city. Finally, she''d been admitted, no questions asked, and given a place to live all her own.


    Esther couldn''t remember the last time she had a dream so wonderful. As she approached her new apartment building, she laughed meekly to herself. "This isn''t real," she murmured.


    "That''s what they all say," some guy muttered as he walked past, causing Esther to tense up. She exhaled deeply, then reached for the apartment door''s handle. After climbing a few flights of stairs, she finally found her new residence.


    She thought that it was the most perfect little place she''d ever seen. And it was hers. She knew in her heart that everything was real. There was some part of her that wanted to deny it, a sad, shriveled, broken part of her that rejected any good come her way as a lie or trap. She turned her head down, hair drooping over her shoulders, knuckles creased white at her sides.


    "Mom," she murmured, tears once again beading in the corners of her eyes. "We finally made it out of that damned trailer park. I told you we''d make it out." Esther''s hands shook as she drew them to her neckline, fingering at a necklace that was no longer there. Even so, her memory made a good enough substitute: she knew how the heart-shaped locket felt on her fingers, knew how it glinted gold in the light...


    Esther hiccuped, then cut off her emotions, falling back on habit to avoid mental pain. She walked over to the bedroom, then ran her trembling hands over the bed''s comforter. She wiggled herself onto its center, then spread her freshly-washed arms over its surface, as though she was preparing to make snow angels.


    Instead, Esther fell asleep. For the first time in too long, her unconscious face shone full of peace.

 [Part 6] [Chapter 97] Innovation; Gray Land; Waiting On Juserin

    PART 6


    ---


    Dean couldn''t say that he was surprised he''d been put in charge of Gray Land''s settlement. Based on all he''d heard so far, "Lava World of Death" would''ve been a better name for the place.


    Bath and Lisa had assigned him with the task of "figuring out" how to mass-transport people onto the planet. Considering the fact that he didn''t know how to transport even one person through the magma-filled gate, Dean felt like he had his work cut out for him.


    Thankfully, Dean was becoming quite adept at directing sapients. Over the past two weeks, sapients from Earth had ventured off onto Magnet Planet and Lime World.


    He turned to his computer screen, selecting Virigard from his contacts. Then, he looked ahead, face screaming "concentration."


    > Virigard,


    > Get the latest prototype from the Mechanical Engineering Consortium.


    > Permission to use the snake quasies is in order.


    Dean quickly sent the message off, taking advantage of the thought-to-text technology that he was currently testing out. While it wasn''t of his own design--that''d be crazy impressive--massive amounts of people were fooling around with making new electronic devices to increase their own aptitude and elevate their path points.


    In all honesty, Dean couldn''t believe how much cool stuff had just recently hit the markets. Much of it would''ve been considered revolutionary more than two months back, and yet these inventions were commonplace, completely saturating the market. While the deluge of new innovations stymied attempts at regulating the market, some of the more...dangerous technologies--those pertaining to the mind or body, for instance--still needed to go through phases of human testing.


    The thought-to-text invention had been brought to Dean''s attention by Fartuun. She''d been overseeing the invention vetting process. The job was utterly enormous, and one that didn''t require her to do any actual investigation into inventions herself. Like Dean, she simply delegated tasks. However, about two weeks back, one of her underlings submitted the invention for human testing.


    Fartuun, in turn, had immediately relayed it to Dean.


    The full technology had been thought-to-thought communication. One aspect of this product, the feature that Dean was testing, was thought-to-text communication. While clearly less revolutionary than full-on thought-to-thought communication, the thought-to-text feature was more than enough for Dean''s uses. Simply using his brain to send messages sped up his administrative process at least tenfold. Moreover, while the thought-to-thought feature was still under serious testing, Dean was able to prototype its thought-to-text aspect without risk.


    He continued to do busywork while he waited for the gate-crossing invention to arrive. ''This better work,'' he thought nervously to himself. He had so far collaborated with other recently-established COTD leaders to start colonizing the first two planets. However, this time, he was on his own: the other leaders had all been put on full-time duty organizing Magnet Planet and Lime World.


    ''Of course, they left the hardest planet to one person,'' he thought bitterly. As soon as his eyes returned to the computer screen, he groaned, then pressed the delete key on his keyboard. One of the main qualms he had about the thought-to-text technology was that he couldn''t let his thoughts stray while he was writing directives, or else he''d accidentally send off a message with "too much" detail.


    "Dean!" Virigard''s voice sounded from the Spire''s office door. "It''s here. Come outside and take a look."


    "Coming." Dean put his computer to sleep, then got up grudgingly from his cushioned seat. ''Please work,'' he mouthed, eyes turning skyward as thought offering up a prayer.


    ---


    Lisa and Bath had been relatively patient, giving Juserin a full month to respond to their memo. And yet, even though today was the 32nd day, they still hadn''t received a response.


    "What do you think he''s doing?" Lisa wondered out loud. "I would have assumed that he''d fled to get reinforcements, except doing so would take far too much time." She shook her head. "This region is far too isolated."


    Bath nodded absently, focusing on city-seed development. Gray Land''s soil lacked many key nutrients, while the perpetual cloud coverage further impeded the ability of his hardy dragonleaf to grow. Even the Sahara Desert dragonleaf variant was unable to survive.


    As a result, he was carefully analyzing the planet''s native--and unfortunately sparse--greenery. Part of Bath--the one frustrated from the trial and error of modifying his dragonleaf--almost wanted to call Gray Land a lost cause. After all, once the humans arrived, they could just turn the planet into an inorganic city of metal and glass, just as they''d been doing for the past century on Earth. However, the vast majority of Bath welcomed the challenge of creating enormous a city made from photosynthetic plants on a world lacking usable soil and reliable sunlight.


    "He probably hasn''t made a decision," Bath replied, his mouth barely moving. "What would you do in his situation?"


    "I''d surrender, obviously. Submitting to the dominance of another through formal surrender gives all gates to the dominant party, though no killing or mind-domination is required." This ran, of course, contrary to her aunt''s information.


    "And don''t forget that acting against the victor after a formal surrender is a universally recognized crime." Bath raised an eyebrow as he said this, his mouth turning up into a wry grin. "You know, your aunt really was hopelessly uninformed." Lauretta hadn''t ever needed to do the whole "dominance" dance with Lisa. "She could''ve simply given a formal surrender. Though, in her defense, the formal surrender ritual is arbitrarily complex."Stolen story; please report.


    Lisa snorted. "Arbitrarily complex? You need to have both parties at the surrender-er''s primary gate. Then, you need to touch the sequence of lines on the gate just as instructed in the Universal Law Codes. And, if you touch the wrong lines in the wrong order, heaven forbid..."


    Bath and Lisa were both cognizant of the fact that, without the so-called Universal Law Codes, taking over the universe would be a near impossibility. They hadn''t even thought to look for any kind of universal laws, not before Lepochim told them.


    "Just have Juserin surrender," had been his simple solution to Lisa and Nevis'' diplomatic quandary. This, of course, led to the revelation that a set of unrestrictive, yet firmly-enforced laws existed throughout the universe. These laws were, conveniently, in the chip reader''s encyclopedia.


    "You''re telling us...now?" had been Lisa''s incredulous response. Lepochim, annoying as ever, just chose to shrug dismissively.


    Regardless of how the universal laws came to their attention, Lisa had been spending the vast majority of her time familiarizing herself with them. She was shocked by just how many there were, especially since, by all records, the universal laws were referred to as an "underlying foundation" intended to provide key tenets without delving into serious detail.


    "How in the world is the formal surrender law enforceable?" Lisa muttered. "Like, if Juserin were to backstab me, who would defend--or avenge--me?" Seeing Bath''s confused expression, she sighed then clarified: "That was rhetorical." She knew Bath would prevent any kind of treachery on Juserin''s part. However, most people didn''t have a primordial entity watching their backs. If she didn''t have Bath at her side, would some representative from Ildr, the Core, come and uphold justice?


    Lisa highly doubted it. Why, then, did the Universal Law Codes exist? Lisa wondered if, perhaps, the Core really did send out enforcers. She probably just hadn''t seen any because this backwater strip of gates was at the fringes of the civilized world...much like America''s Wild West of old.


    Lisa stopped pacing, then said, "I''m thinking that Juserin isn''t going to care about some edict of the Universal Law Codes. Not unless he plans on going closer to the Core, but from what we know about him, I highly doubt that''s the case."


    "So he''s planning some kind of trap," Bath replied. "Big surprise."


    Lisa gave him an annoyed look. "Do we go through the gate," Lisa began, pointing in the direction of the distant lava flows, "and go to Illudis, or do we keep waiting?"


    Bath chose this moment to look up. "What do you want to do?"


    "It''s been fun training here in solitude for the past weeks," Lisa stated, "but I think it''s time to get a move on. We gave him the month. Now, we need to show him some of our might, y''know, give him a little...persuasion."


    Bath cracked a grin. "Works for me."


    "Don''t help out unless I''m going to die," Lisa said, he voice''s inflection rising at the end in warning.


    "Or what?" Bath''s mouth curved up devilishly to one side. "Why do you get a monopoly on all the fun?"


    Lisa cocked an eyebrow. "Is it? Fun, for you?"


    Bath''s expression melted, exposing a tired face underneath. "Maybe. I''ve never conquered a foreign planet before." He sighed. "Though I''d say that, for the moment, building these cities and watching the consequences of my melodramatic appearances is more entertaining."


    Lisa beamed. "Excellent! Then, now that we have this all sorted out, would you please do the honors?"


    Bath snorted. "What?"


    "Take me to Illudis!" she cheered, lifting a hand triumphantly into the air.


    "Take yourself," he grinned. "I gave you damned good boons, and you finally had sufficient time to get acclimated to them. You should have more than enough power to get through the gate on your own."


    Lisa shuddered. "Can''t you just bring me?''


    Bath''s eyes practically crackled with glee. "Didn''t you just tell me to only interfere if you were about to die?"


    Lisa groaned. "That was on Illudis," she clarified. Her face screwed up into a sour expression before she added, "Fine, you win. Don''t you dare let me die if I fuck up."


    Bath nodded sagely. "Of course. Let''s see how long it takes you to get to the gate. Ready, set..."


    "Wait just a sec-"


    "Go."


    ---


    "Wow," Dean said under his breath, admiring the machine before his eyes. "How did...one month..." He couldn''t express his ideas cogently. The machine in question was a sleek, white, thirty-foot long rocket. It really did look like an overly-long, skinny space rocket. Dean wondered just how Virigard had arranged for its transport.


    "So, this can go through magma?" Dean asked, now turning to his right to address the three project leaders.


    One of them, a woman of dark complexion, nodded and gave him a smile. "Magma won''t be able to touch it. We should be able to transport twenty people at a time using one of these, and we can produce many more with the raw materials recently excavated on Magnet Planet."


    Dean nodded slowly to himself. "Incredible. I can clear this for testing," he said, looking expectantly at Virigard and mouthing, ''Right?''


    "Unmanned testing, to start things off," she interjected. "That can begin today, as long as you''ve made the system to work without sapient controllers."


    "Of course," another project leader, this one an olive-skinned man, replied. "We planned for the transportation system to be fully automated."


    "Then, um," his gaze had already returned to the large, sleek craft. "Have you worked out how to transport this through the Spire?"


    The scientists gave him blank looks. After a moment of awkward silence, Virigard cut in, saying, "We can make a tunnel. Just give us a half hour."


    Dean smiled appreciatively. "Great. Well, seems like everything''s figured out. I''ll be expecting a progress report immediately after the first round of testing elapses."


    Wasting no time to chat, Dean smiled crisply at the project leaders, then ran back to the Spire, his departure so fast that the three engineers were left reeling.


    "See you soon," Virigard chirped before escaping underground.


    The three project leaders shuffled awkwardly, then turned back to their creation. "Well, I guess we''ll just wait," the woman with the dark complexion murmured.


    ---


    Bath watched like a proud mother as Lisa wielded her improved magnetic sense to create an airtight shield around herself. The magma initially parted around her rapidly-fluctuating magnetic field, only to pushed away by the many shards of heat-resistant hafnium-composite powder she''d obtained from Earth. The granule-sized shards were numerous enough to coat her entire magnetic field in a silvery sheen, as though she were surrounded by a stretchy silver film.


    ''Giving her this boon first really was the right decision," he affirmed. While he''d given her two more excellent boons over the past weeks, this one was still by far the most useful, serving as Lisa''s bread and butter in everything from bodily locomotion to landing punches.


    And seeing her land fiery punches that left craters three feet in diameter was, to Bath''s mind, a thing of beauty, especially as the flames danced around her fists'' magnetic fields and streamed backward over her arms.


    Bath wasn''t concerned at all as Lisa made her way through the magma to the gate. She was currently flying downward to the gate with her eyes closed, her rapid descent sloshing up magma waves behind her. Bath saw that her eyes were closed, likely so that she could fully focus on using her echolocation boon to prevent magma from touching her skin.


    ''She really needs to break that habit,'' Bath thought, assessing Lisa''s performance. ''Closing her eyes just to use echolocation? Why waste all my carefully-designed eyesight boons?''


    In the span of a few seconds, Lisa torpedoed through the gate. Bath''s face broke out into a small smile, then he, too, raced into the gate, forming seamless metal armor around his body while plummeting into the magma''s depths.

 [Chapter 98] Heading to Juserin; History; Kray Citys Aftermath

    Lisa breathed out an enormous sigh of relief as she exited the gate. Using the extremely heat-resistant powder while using echolocation at the same time was extremely taxing. For one, controlling the powder was difficult since it wasn''t an ionic substance, meaning that it didn''t have a strong polarity. It was a huge challenge just to get the powder to follow magnetic fields close to her skin, let alone within a few feet of her body. On top of that, she needed to use echolocation to constantly monitor if there were any areas of her hafnium bubble where magma was starting to spew, a difficult task considering that magma was seeping through her shield everywhere.


    Thankfully, Lisa only had to keep the powder shield up for a few seconds.


    As Lisa took her second heaving breath, Bath jetted through the gate and landed next to her. Keeping up pretenses for any surveillance devices hidden inside Illudis'' gate room, Bath''s metal-coated dragon form froze. Then, it bowed its head down to the floor. Finally, its maw opened, through which Bath''s human form walked out. With a wave of his hand, the metal dragon began to fold in on itself until it was a cube just like the one Bath had first impersonated on Illudis.


    After reading through the Universal Law Codes, one thing had been made incredibly clear to Bath and Lisa: they could not, under any circumstances, publicly reveal that Bath was a World Devourer. Lepochim hadn''t been lying when he first expressed his shock over a World Devourer existing on Earth. Simply reading the World Devourer page in the chip reader encyclopedia informed Lisa and Bath that, as soon as a World Devourer''s location was established, Ildr would waste no time in deploying vacuum bombs.


    When Bath and Lisa looked up the vacuum bomb page, they discovered that these bombs effectively ripped an enormous hole in reality wherever they detonated, utterly destroying whatever planets--and gates--they touched. The first thing they did after reading this was confront Lepochim, asking him why, again, he neglected to bring up the existence of the Universal Law Codes.


    The conversation went as follows:


    "Lepo."


    "Yes, Lisa?" Lepochim said, looking up from his computer in Basalith''s Spire. His eyes twitched with annoyance at her use of his "nickname."


    "Did you know about the World Devourer section of the Universal Law Codes?" She gritted her teeth in frustration.


    "It''s common knowledge," he replied innocently. "As I said before, this whole COTD business has been moving too fast; mentioning the Universal Law Codes was simply lost in the rabble. It hasn''t been much more than a month since we met."


    Lisa looked over at Bath, who had been watching the exchange in silence from the couch. Seeing that he wasn''t going to say anything, Lisa shook her head. "Fine, whatever. Just be more thoughtful going on; remember, your fate is aligned with ours now."


    Lepochim''s mouth smashed into a thin line. "Of course. Is there anything else?"


    "No."


    Lisa and Bath then took their leave.


    Now, in the holding room on Illudis, Lisa gave Bath a questioning look. They hadn''t exactly planned what to do.


    "Should we go to Juserin?" Lisa asked.


    In the corner of the room, a speaker box started projecting a feverish voice. "Waymaster--"


    Bath looked up to the ceiling, completely ignoring the voice. "Whatever you wish. Lead the way."


    Lisa nodded, shifting her shoulders. Then, she took five steps, launching upward on the last. The propelled herself off the ground through a combination of her magnetic sense, physically enhanced body, and most-recently fire boon. The end result left the white, synthetic floor cracked and partially black. As she punched through the ceiling, she could just barely hear the speaker box say, "Please wait!"


    Lisa rapidly picked up speed as she burst through the compound, the wind streaming around the aegis-like magnetic field coating her figure. Flames burst out from her feet, further increasing her acceleration as she tore through the sky.


    "Is something wrong?" she asked as Bath joined her in the air, the two of them hovering above the compound.


    "Last time, a laser attacked us as we went through the gate. Now, it was gone, and the compound was stationed with twice as many people as before." He looked down towards the now smoldering building. "Now, separately, why did you ignore the speaker box?"


    Lisa looked at him, dumbstruck. "The speaker box...? Wait, I ignored it because you were ignoring it. I assumed that the place was rigged with explosives or something, which was why you suggested that I bust out through the building''s roof."


    "I just ignored it because you told me not to interfere," he replied, face stoic. "I said to do as you wish."


    Lisa''s eyebrows came together, her jaw dropping. "This isn''t a test!" She wasn''t on a field trip or a mock mission. This was the real deal, damn it! "I told you not to intervene by doing...well, you know. Doing anything that might give you away, for instance!"


    Bath cocked his head. "I don''t understand," he said. "Why does any of this matter?"


    "Why...?" Lisa gazed intently into his eyes, as though searching them for an answer. ''He asked me why I ignored the speaker box,'' she recalled. ''I said that I ignored it because I thought we were in danger. Now, he''s asking me why I''m getting worked up about not listening to the box instead of escaping the compound.'' Lisa found that laying out all the details of their conversation made answering the question far easier.


    "You''re right," she said after a few seconds of contemplation. "This doesn''t matter. Let''s go to Juserin." Lisa realized that worrying about her decision was what Bath found confusing. After all, in her position and with her kind of power, why would she ever need to worry about minor decisions like whether or not to listen to one of Juserin''s subordinates on a speaker box?


    Now that Bath inadvertently pointed this out, Lisa felt a bit silly. Why did she worry about whether she took the "correct" course of action? Lisa recognized that, while this mindset shouldn''t apply to decisions with potentially onerous consequences--she had a responsibility, in that case, to thoroughly research the "correct" decision--it was the mindset of a powerful leader...a predator.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Bath nodded, then set out beside Lisa across the blue sky, looking down over the veritable ocean of violet, grass-like reeds below. The two had no problem finding the mountain city where Juserin lived, its snowy peak and white bodice shining in the light of a single bright sun. As they approached, they could soon make out the crimson and gold banners on the city''s terraces and main gate.


    As the city entered Bath''s range of influence he stopped moving. Alarmed, Lisa halted her own advance.


    "What''s up?" she asked.


    Bath''s expression was solemn. "Did you ever look up the history of gate acquisition? For instance, what is the common aftermath of a Waymaster surrendering to another from a different planet?"


    Lisa''s face darkened. "No; why do you ask?"


    "We aren''t in a rush," he stated. "We should really look it up."


    Trusting that Bath had an important motivation behind the request, Lisa opened up her chip reader and began to search the encyclopedia. She thought about what to search. ''Perhaps I should look up wars over resources,'' Lisa thought. ''Those kinds of wars would probably lead to surrender.''


    Lisa did just that, eventually finding a series of historical wars over resources a few hundred thousand years back in some area of the universe Lisa had never even heard of called Akila Galaxy. Akila Galaxy sought a large plethora of resources, from those intangible--intellectual property--to natural resources, to sapients.


    Lisa read out loud. "Two hundred thousand years ago, Akila Galaxy had just begun to stabilize itself as a key power in the Intermediary Strand. It established its power by conquering any gates within its immediate vicinity, taking conquered peoples as slaves." Lisa swallowed. "After the first few gates, Akila''s reputation was such that any world it attacked would usually surrender, its Waymaster performing the surrender rite dictated by the Universal Law Codes."


    "And?"


    "The rite of surrender doesn''t provide any protections for those surrendering," Lisa murmured. "Akila Galaxy would treat the surrendered planets just the same as those it conquered through force...killing the former Waymasters on principle and enslaving the populace."


    Bath frowned. "That can''t be the standard way of doing things. The Universal Law Codes seem to imply that most worlds abide by a general code of honor."


    "What about places on the fringes of the universe?" Lisa said. "Juserin doesn''t know much about human culture. He only saw Earth before...and after COTD." COTD had, of course, fashioned Juserin a rather vivid video explaining the system of boons and the theological hierarchy. "And, if he knows anything at all from all the historical sites we visited...it''s that, for the majority of human history, humans have held slaves."


    Lisa gave Bath a worried look. "Do you think he believes the ultimatum is a lie?"


    "I''m not sure," he replied, "but the city in front of us is empty. Aside from a single sapient."


    "...Juserin?"


    Bath gave Lisa a sad smile. "Who else?"


    "He makes me think of an old, proud noble," Lisa muttered. "Even if he''s wrong, even if he''s failed those around him...he''ll keep his dignity until his dying breath."


    Bath reminisced about the days when proud nobles sent armies of humans to his doorstep. "Since when did you meet any nobles?"


    Lisa glared, then burst over to slap him on the arm before zooming towards the city. "Might as well meet with him now, rather than keep standing around."


    ---


    To Edgewood''s mind, COTD''s trajectory had completely changed the day that humans were first allowed to go through the gate...just after the release of the spearrows.


    At first, Edgewood had scoffed at the name--wasn''t that a god-awful pokemon?--but that was only because Russia was one of the last regions the birds arrived. He''d read numerous news stories online about the birds'' ferocious attacks, but hadn''t paid the topic that much attention.


    Then, the birds had arrived at Kray City...and nearly wiped the place out.


    Edgewood knew they Kray City was a mess, even before the spearrows came knocking. Susan and David had effectively left the city to "elope" two days after its formation. That just left Edgewood, Kayt, and Anne to figure everything out. Kayt decided that she''d be in charge of Kray City''s facilities and normal operations. Edgewood then claimed the position of overseeing the city''s defenses and organized combat training.


    This left, unfortunately, the final aspect of the city''s leadership, religious guidance, to Anne. While Edgewood had never visited one of her services, he did know Kray City''s official chant: "Power is the Way of Kray." At first listen, the chant sounded innocuous.


    However, because the city was located in Russia, one of the few countries that absolutely refused to submit to COTD, the majority of Kray''s early residents were Russia''s less-than-savory figures on the run from the government. As COTD gained more and more influence, increasingly large hordes of normal people entered the city as well...unfortunately, the shady folks who entered the city first had a palpable head start.


    They used this head start to set up a system of perverse feudalism. Edgewood assumed that the leader of religious guidance was supposed to prevent these kinds of things from happening, but Anne clearly didn''t get the memo.


    As a result of this system of oppression, the spearrows absolutely ripped through Kray City like a hurricane, pecking many who engaged in instituting the system of feudalism to death. They attacked nearly 50% of the city, ultimately killing around 10% of the population.


    This, on its own, couldn''t qualify as "wiping out" Kray City. No; the real shitstorm started as soon as all the people who had been oppressed had the opportunity to beat down on their heavily injured oppressors.


    That was when the casualties had really started to mount. Edgewood, Kayt, and Anne had all rapidly deployed their human and quasi-sapient subordinates to contain the damage, joining the fray themselves to engender order. Despite their efforts, by the time everything was under control, 40% of Kray City lay dead. The other 60% of its population were, almost without exception, wounded, though caretakers took care of their wounds easily enough.


    Ever since that day, Kray City had been noticeably different. It was a somber place, though inarguably a better place to live now that the feudalism was gone. Of everyone, Edgewood thought that Anne had been affected the most, if only because of how seriously she involved herself in her religious guidance position.


    ''It''s a shame she''s so young,'' he thought glumly to himself. Anne was just a kid, not even out of high school. Even if she acted tough and wielded her dragonleaf club like a baseball pro, she used to be surrounded by an air of energetic naivete. Now, Edgewood detected that this was gone.


    If anything, Anne seemed...lonely. A sense of pity is what spurred him to invite her over to his wing of the Spire''s living quarters. Sure, it was just up one flight of stairs, but he and Anne had never voluntarily spent time together.


    After a night of watching movies and eating copious amounts of popcorn, she''d asked him to go off world with her.


    And he''d said no.


    "Wait," he''d said. "Wait a few years until everything is safe."


    "You don''t think I can handle it?" she''d replied angrily.


    "There''s a reason why I''m still here," Edgewood had snapped. "Don''t think it''s because I love this city, or because I love Earth."


    "Then why...?" Edgewood had thought that this side of the teen, the reserved, confused side, was oddly endearing.


    He had then looked her square in the eye. "I''m not gonna die establishing a colony on some god-forsaken planet. Mark my words, kid: path points are the major currency now. Once people start to routinely earn years of lifespan, I''d bet yah 5 pp that they''ll enter the economy as well. When that happens, people like us--the leaders--will, at the very least, be able to afford lifespan increases."


    "So you''re saying that there''s no rush," Anne had finished. "You''re telling me to wait, then go later."


    "Exactly."


    "Where''s the excitement in that?" To Anne, exploring unknown worlds had the greatest appeal. Taking a pleasure cruise or winter vacation to nearby, already established planets sounded so...dull.


    To that, Edgewood had replied, "There''s excitement everywhere; some kinds you just have to make yourself."


    Anne had sighed in response. Then, dragging her dragonleaf club off the couch, she had said, "Thanks for the movies and chat. See you around."

 [Chapter 99] Grey and Tycho Find Adventure; Confronting Juserin

    Grey knew that some peacekeepers disliked their forced subjugation. They complained about being forced into mind-manipulating Earth''s population, complained about the taskmaster Lepochim.


    He just didn''t care.


    ''COTD has done more good than I have in...'' Grey''s mental train of thought faltered; he had lost count years ago of his age. He sighed, then surveyed the barren, gray wasteland that everyone called Lime World. He walked along the ridges of the steppes, wriggling his toes in the hard soil underfoot. He never liked shoes, though used them out of necessity. His feet no longer ached, their metal-like durability superior to any shoe of old.


    Few people had explored Lime World, content to stay inside the growing city-seeds. Unfortunately, Lime World''s aesthetic didn''t meet human standards of natural beauty: lime-green pools of caustic acid and volcanic rock weren''t picturesque. Even though tree-like organisms with immense, feather-leafed branches sparsely covered some regions, these, too, were unremarkable.


    As Grey stepped, each footfall led him closer to his goal. For much of his life, Grey relied on his kursi abilities to perceive reality. Only upon entering self-imposed seclusion did he develop his awareness of the world in a physical sense: the feel of silty earth, the smell of torrential rain, the sound of silent caves.


    With COTD, he seized the opportunity to elevate these senses further.


    As Grey walked, his eyes fixed on the darks of his lids, he created a mental map of the immense complex of labyrinths below Lime World.


    "Bet Virigard would love these tunnels," Grey grumbled to himself. Thud. Thud. Thud. ''Path points well spent,'' he noted. The vibrations from his feet on the ground, his body in the air, all but precluded the need for vision.


    After several hours of walking, Grey halted his advance. He opened his eyes, their piercing gaze affixed to Dean''s new city-seed, Snakeseed. He stomped, cognizant that the vibrations would carry to the jerboa hideout below. A few seconds later, a small jerboa popped out of the ground.


    Grey''s expression turned grim. ''They all look the same,'' he growled internally. This jerboa could be Virigard or anyone else. The only jerboa Grey identified on sight was Amalo...and only because the sapient had the habit of crossing his arms and wore a cowboy hat.


    "Hello, Grey!" the little jerboa piped up. Grey''s expression eased somewhat. ''Definitely not a jerboa I''ve met.''


    "Hello, little one. What''s your name?"


    The jerboa''s eyes shined. "Tycho!"


    Grey''s mouth ever-so-slightly curved into a half-grin. He gestured out with his left hand. "Adventure?"


    The jerboa cocked his head. "Adventure?" However, Grey was already walking away. The jerboa bounded after him, tail wagging in time with his leaps. "Where?"


    Grey grunted. "Follow."


    "You don''t like to speak much, do you?" Tycho rambled. "I heard all about Grey from others. They said that--"


    "Shh," Grey hushed, voice barely audible.


    Tycho eyes grew wide as he swiveled his head from side to side. "Here? Is the adventure happening nearby? Is there danger?"


    Grey rolled his eyes up and around to the left. "No." He looked down at Tycho. "What do you hear?"


    "Uhhh..."


    Grey sighed. "You''ve got enormous ears. You must hear something."


    Tycho gulped. "Just, the, uhhh, wind. And us walking. And maybe a little bit of noise from Snakeseed."


    "Keep listening." Grey picked up the pace, his casual walk taking him over increasingly greater distances, despite the fact that his strides appeared the same length.


    "H-" Tycho tried to ask, "How do you do that?" but was, unsurprisingly, cut off with a sharp hiss. Recoiling, he studied Grey''s gait and tried to emulate it in his own. The task proved especially difficult because a human stride and a jerboa hop have little in common, though Tycho gave the task his all.


    Concentrating on his leaping enabled Tycho to fall into a steady rhythm. As the world faded to the background, Tycho began to sense more of it.


    When Grey finally stopped, Tycho had to dig his claws into the Earth to stop himself from progressing further. The action abruptly snapped Tycho out of his moment and one-ness with his surroundings, striking him with vertigo.


    "Wha-at?" he asked, sounding somewhat dazed. "Did we arrive?"


    Grey nodded. "Do you feel it?"


    Tycho smashes his teeth together. ''Feel what?'' He thought back to what Grey said before: to use his ears to listen. The same could apply to vibrations, using his ears to pick them up. However, the wind lacked any distinctive properties. Tycho subconsciously gave Grey a dejected expression, his ears drooping.


    Grey tsked, then pointed a finger at the ground. Tycho let out a sharp, "Oh!" He immediately fell to the gritty ground below, the soil unexpectedly grainy, like sand instead of hard-packed earth or rock. He pressed both ears flat on the ground, then listened, desperately trying to tune out the sound of his rapidly-thrumming heartbeat.


    Grey stomped his foot on the ground. Tycho heard/felt the vibrations move through the soil...and into emptiness. His head snapped up, though upon seeing Grey''s imperious expression, Tycho self-corrected the rash behavior and resumed his ears-to-the-ground posture. Grey''s foot fell again. This time, Tycho knew what to listen for.


    "Tunnels," he breathed.


    "Right," Grey responded. "Can you dig down?"


    Tycho nodded. Within thirty seconds, a thin chute led from the surface down into the tunnel before. Grey jumped down as soon as the digging stopped, joining Tycho in the dark.


    "The adventure''s here," Grey said softly as he padded forward through the passageway, going left. "Keep alert. We don''t know what made these."


    Tycho took the command to heart, puffing up his little chest in the dark. Grey only perceived this through his enhanced senses; to anyone else, the endearing gesture would have been lost.


    Grey emitted a tiny cough, a real smile working its way across his features. Here, in the lightless tunnels beneath Lime World''s surface, such gestures didn''t matter...wouldn''t give false impressions.


    ---


    Lisa and Bath looked at each other once, then, expressions stony, the duo sped towards the white mountain ahead.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "We don''t even know this city''s name," Lisa murmured, admiring the majesty of the city''s ornate edifices. "I never even thought to ask."


    "Illusta," Bath said, voice devoid of emotion. He''d naturally overheard the city''s name during their previous visit. "I''m not sure if that''s translated." The city''s name sounded particularly similar to the word, "illustrious."


    Lisa sounded the word out. "Illusta. It reminds me more of the word, ''illustrate.'' The city reminds me of something out of a storybook."


    Bath glanced her way, a smile making its way over his features. "I see it."


    They traveled the rest of the way in silence, spirits somewhat elevated by their conversation. As soon as Lisa came within range of Juserin, she felt the man''s mental presence tightly folded in on itself, as though his mental aurora had compressed into a tight, impregnable ball. Lisa frowned, then tested the same kind of compression on her own shell. Compared to the shielding technique before, Lisa realized that Juserin and his kursi had all used "politely weak" shields. This technique was much more effective. The fact that the kursi back on Earth had only ever used the "politely weak" kind of shield indicated to Lisa that this was a fairly advanced technique.


    She wondered, then, just why mimicking Juserin was so...simple. ''Is it my boons?'' she wondered, mind gravitating to her teaching and artist boons. She resolved to find out later.


    While Lisa couldn''t detect anything concrete from Juserin''s shell, nor could she influence it in any way, the same went for Juserin. Even if Lisa''s shell was completely open, she had the sense that this absolute defense prevented the user from any kind of mental offense. She bemoaned his use of the shield: Juserin sensing her intentions, and she his, might diffuse the situation''s tension.


    Lisa and Bath decided, without words, to go to Juserin''s front door, both in tune with the other''s thoughts. Bath nodded his head as Lisa lifted a hand to the door in preparation to knock. Juserin''s shell hadn''t moved since it had come into Lisa''s perception, thought the time between then and now was only a few seconds. Lisa swallowed, then bit her cheek to stimulate her saliva glands.


    Knock. Knock. Knock.


    "Is he not going to move?" Bath wondered out loud, his essence already having infiltrated the house. He saw that Juserin was currently sitting ramrod straight in his office, his body''s fluids circulating rapidly. His two arms lay folded against his torso, while his feet draped lightly down from his seat, touching the floor. He wore a standard verdora robe that covered his whole body, though, interestingly enough, the sash that covered his two mouths was gone. Bath wondered absently if this was symbolic.


    "Juserin," Lisa boomed, her director-enhanced voice penetrating the residence''s thick walls. "We come bearing no ill will. We swear upon the honor of the dead and fallen." This saying was one that Lisa found scouring verdora culture on the encyclopedia.


    Silence, aside from light breathing. Then, the sound of footfalls as Juserin walked forward on four limbs. The door opened.


    "No ill will." Juserin said this sadly, eyes drooping, his mouths parted to reveal two rows of serrated teeth each. The verdora was obviously thinner, his robe hanging off his frame instead of fitting it perfectly. Lisa wondered just low long Juserin had been alone in his house. He didn''t strike Lisa as the kind of sapient who would be able to cook or prepare food himself. Lisa figured that, to her mild horror, Juserin probably hadn''t eaten in days, ever since he sent his servants away.


    "We promise," Lisa assured him, stepping into the opened threshold. Bath followed behind her, stepping lightly over the floor.


    Juserin looked at Bath. "Who is this sapient?"


    Lisa blinked, then remembered that she looked different than before. She glanced at Bath, eyebrows furrowed in uncertainty.


    Bath smiled serenely. "This is Lisa, who you met before. When we visited last, I regret to say that we hid our identities."


    Juserin crossed his two primary arms, as though huddling against a fierce cold. "Did you?" He said the words without accusation. His eyes kept their sad, enervated air.


    "We did," Bath continued. "We needed to confirm that you fit into our plan."


    "Plan?"


    Lisa thought that Juserin sounded incredibly tired, as though each breath were a great strain on his person. Seeing him this way sent her stomach into a coiled knot nearly as dense as her shell. She was thankful that Bath had taken over speaking, even if she told him not to interfere. Seeing Juserin so diminished had thrown her off from the start.


    "Lisa and I wish to ensure the self-determination of every sapient in this universe," he stated calmly, eyes newly alight with fiery intent. "Sapients have fought for millions, billions of years to destroy systems of oppression," he added. "And yet, we still have deplorable powers like Akila Galaxy. We remain beholden to the might of the Core Worlds. Most sapients live unfulfilling lives, beholden to corporate powers and capital interests."


    All these things, while not the whole truth, were true. Lisa and the wasps had delved into the encyclopedia to gain a general understanding of the state of affairs in the universe, leading them to a better understanding of universal economics and typical sapient lives.


    Juserin''s expression started to shift, his skin blue-ing slightly. "And why change this?"


    Bath''s smile became icy. "Why settle for plugging the leaks and cracks of the universe?"


    "So you''re suggesting that we solve all problems, everywhere," Juserin muttered, eyes frenzied in stark contrast to their dead look before. "I came here, alone, because this world doesn''t have nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction. Having them is, you understand, an insurance liability." He paused, as though regaining his thoughts. "What you speak of...is utterly beyond your means. Your planet doesn''t even have space travel."


    Lisa resisted the urge to correct Juserin, justifying to herself that to Juserin, "space travel" probably didn''t count being able to visit Earth''s moon, especially considering the high-tech functionalities of Juserin''s voyager.


    Bath somewhat agreed with Juserin''s reply. This was, at its core, Lisa''s vision. He was still pessimistic that this plan would work out in its entirety, even with his many boons and COTD''s abundant supply of kursi. However, he was COTD''s Dragon: he would play that role, and play it well.


    A quizzical expression appeared on his face. "What did you interpret our message as?" He intentionally avoided calling it an ultimatum.


    Juserin''s mouths snapped open and closed. "You said that the Church of the Dragon would be coming, whether I surrender or not. You said you wanted me to join, saving my people. I am here."


    "Do you understand what that means?" Bath asked, eyes probing, mouth flat.


    "No!" Juserin shouted, clearly upset by the situation at hand. "What is a church!?"


    Bath glanced at Lisa. While their search of the encyclopedia hadn''t found any prominent religions, they had just collectively assumed that this was due to scientific progress. They hadn''t even considered that perhaps, on some worlds, they hadn''t even been invented.


    Bath explained patiently. "A church is an organization that exists to elevate its members while providing a common doctrine of belief. Lisa and I are the deities of the Church of the Dragon."


    This seemed to spark a hint of recognition in Juserin''s eyes. "You mean...gods?"


    Bath was confused by how Juserin could understand "deity" and "god" while having never heard of religion. Regardless, he carried on, smiling. "Precisely." He looked Lisa''s way, mouth curling.


    ''No interference,'' she laughed internally. She flared her palms, then rose above the floor. Flames suddenly danced over the air in patterns sketched out by her magnetic field. She adjusted the blast of flame by controlling the minuscule igniters in her palms: isolated, millimeter-sized, bead-shaped rounded-cylinders that could, at will, flip over to reveal normal skin. Lisa specifically sent the flames into a crown around her head, almost like a flaming halo.


    She reached out a hand to Bath, who touched his hand to hers. Then, as though the fire passed onto Bath, a similar fiery corona sprang into existence around his now-levitating body. All this happened in the span of three seconds.


    Juserin''s skin color deepened, eyes shifting horizontally outward in what was clearly an expression of shock. "Real-life gods, from little Earth?" his dual-mouths made his voice at once eerie and unsettling, even as it expressed incredulity. He was clearly resisting the urge to say something along the lines of, "Impossible!" Instead, he watched, with rapt attention, as the flames flickered and danced in shifting patterns around Lisa and Bath.


    "Juserin," Bath spoke, breaking the silence, "we want you to join our following. We hope to elevate you and grant you true self-determination..." Bath trailed off, looking expectantly at Lisa.


    "Most importantly, we want self-determination for all verdora and sapients under your dominion. We want you to surrender your power to the Church of the Dragon. From there, we can reinstate you as a leader of Illudis within the Church''s hierarchy." Lisa''s eyes burned with fervor, her resolve already returned after Juserin''s initial demoralizing influence.


    "You say, swearing upon the honor of the dead and fallen, that you want to subjugate this strand of planets...out of generosity? To grant me, and my people, self-determination? What do you really mean?" Juserin''s expression was more subdued, less surprised. However, his words had a bite to them. He was clearly suspicious and unconvinced by Lisa and Bath''s flaming display.


    "We''re going to grant all sapients true freedom," Lisa stated firmly. "We welcome you to join us in this endeavor."


    Juserin looked, to Bath''s eye, as though he thought they were crazy. However, after a moment of contemplation, his eyes held a new kind of resolve.


    "To be frank: I am unconvinced. I doubt that you are both gods, and that you have both mine and my people''s best intentions at heart. However, seeing that I have little choice due to my people''s lack of defensive weapons..." he took in a deep breath, his mouths opening and closing out of sync. "On their behalf, I submit."

 [Chapter 100] Upping the Ante: Blood Construct; On Patrol

    "...On their behalf, I submit."


    Bath had already sent wisps of essence into the air and into the space surrounding Juserin. As he monitored the verdora''s motions, Bath noticed that Juserin''s limbs were shifting nervously under his robes. He''d discovered, after performing tests on verdora while initially visiting Illusta, that verdora did not, as a species, have a clear biological quirk that indicated lying. Bath had been mildly miffed by this, especially after relying on lie-detecting to interrogate human kursi and keep Lepochim in line. However, seemingly to compensate for this strength, verdora were terrible liars.


    ''He seems increasingly nervous,'' Bath noted. ''Submit?'' If anything, he wondered if the Waymaster was planning some kind of attack. Bath was certainly sympathetic to the sapient''s plight: any situation that forced you to do anything, let alone join a religious organization, was sub-optimal. Moreover, Bath knew that to Juserin, he and Lisa were still representing Earth, a planet that was truly at the very fringes of the civilized universe. Give up his own holdings and vastly superior technologies, just because he lacked the military might to contend with a planet of barbaric warmongers?


    Bath couldn''t believe that Juserin would give in so easily. The man had at least 500 years of experience under his belt, Bath was sure of it. With this being the case, wouldn''t Juserin have defenses in place? Bath simply couldn''t fathom a world in which a seasoned Waymaster like Juserin was so...careless.


    As he thought about Juserin''s mental state, Bath caressed Lisa''s face with his essence to read her emotions without physically looking her way. ''Why the diplomatic route? For Juserin...and us?'' he wondered to himself, essence tracing over her statuesque face. ''Why bother?'' While he''d put Lisa in charge of "diplomacy" and expansion strategy, Bath still didn''t fully understand the point. Why not just...conquer Illudis with brute force, no warning? That in itself would convince Juserin that they weren''t messing around when they claimed they would expand COTD out over the universe. ''Why would self-proclaimed deities engage in diplomacy?''


    Bath mentally shook his head. They wouldn''t. He hadn''t paid much attention to Lisa and Nevis'' diplomatic plans, but now, facing Juserin, Bath realized that he needed to step in. Lisa was going about conquering planets and gates like a human, not like the Church of COTD.


    ''Is this her idealism, or her inexperience?'' Bath sighed inwardly to himself, intentionally preventing his features from breaking into a wistful smile. ''She''s grown in the past month and a half.''


    "Juserin," Bath said flatly, intending to dispel any doubts the verdora held. "No doubt you have some contingency planned. Perhaps even a suicide contingency, where you detonate this entire evacuated city to kill us." Bath sighed, then took a long blink. When he reopened his eyes, his imperious expression caused Juserin to flinch.


    "Don''t ruin this beautiful mountain on misguided notions of pride, or honor."


    Juserin visibly spluttered as, the second the last syllable dropped from Bath''s lips, everything in the room was saturated in a viscous red mist. The mist, in turn, was suspending everything within its semi-gaseous, roiling curls. Bath was impressed by how quickly Juserin recovered his composure, only taking about two seconds to return to his previous level of agitation.


    "What is this?" Juserin asked, voice elevated slightly, pupils expanding outward.


    Bath''s imposing face cracked into a darkly chilling grin. "Human blood." Bath wondered idly what blood translated as in Juserin''s native tongue.


    Lisa kept her self-assured facade with great difficulty. She couldn''t help but feel a sense of ingrained repulsion as she felt the blood mist patter over her skin. At the very least, the mist was unable to discolor her white robe. Juserin, on the other hand, was starting to drip red, his previously blue robe turning a brown-violet.


    Without waiting for Juserin, or Lisa, to properly react, Bath waved a hand towards the door in a large gesture. In a vicious torrent, the gas condensed somewhat into a veritable river of blood that carried Juserin out the door. Lisa had the reflexes and foresight to levitate herself above the river as it appeared. She followed Bath as he, too went outside, his feet and lower legs submerged in the gushing blood as though he were a god rising from the blood of a decimated army.


    Lisa shivered involuntarily, but shrugged off her unease and joined Bath over the water. Realizing that they needed to be seen as a unified team, Lisa clamped her mouth shut and clenched her fist. Then, she lowered herself into the blood so that she, too, stood next to Bath in the river of flowing blood. If she didn''t look, perhaps...


    ''But it feels warm,'' Lisa protested internally. ''Why blood?''


    Truth be told, Bath had gotten the idea from watching and reading horror and fantasy movies. Understanding what made humans frightened was of critical importance to his human persona. While Bath didn''t have a deep understanding of verdora culture, he assumed that being washed away by a flood of alien bodily fluids would freak most sapients out.


    ''As expected,'' he thought. Juserin was flailing in the steadily-growing torrent, his eyes now seeming to pop out of his skull.


    "We aren''t here to scare him to death," Lisa breathed under her breath so that Bath could just barely hear. However, even if she hadn''t spoken audibly, he still would''ve been able to read her lips with his essence.


    Bath, taking the hint to speed things up, snapped his fingers. Then, the river of blood compacted into millions of beads. The compaction left Juserin exposed to open air, allowing him to fall awkwardly on his side without the buoyant blood on all sides.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Bath moved Juserin''s face with his essence, ensuring that the sapient would watch the incoming display. "This is why you never had a chance," he boomed. Bath then raised his hands, causing the beads to soar upward in a unified, fluid motion. They quickly took on a new shape, the spheres forming a massive figure in the blue sky above. Within a few seconds, the creation was complete: a devastating, flesh-and-blood dragon.


    Bath smiled devilishly, the gesture falling short of his icy eyes, then said, "Welcome to the Church of the Dragon."


    Juserin just looked up in humble awe, the action now completely independent of Bath''s influence. The dragon''s blood-red wings and tail cut like scythes through the air, sending tendrils of bloody mist out onto the wind. Its numerous spines appeared to bleed a scarlet liquid that dripped over its body, pooling along the talons terminating its arms and legs. Additionally, though its mouth was closed, Juserin could see numerous wickedly-curved, blood-drenched teeth poking out. Finally, the dragon''s nose exhaled a mist of blood with every breath, while the dragon''s eyes were completely red, with dark pupils on red-pink corneas.


    The fact that the dragon''s wingspan alone covered more than what Juserin''s eyes could see further enhanced the impression. Bath realized with satisfaction that Juserin seemed...convinced. Convinced of what, Bath wasn''t completely certain, but he doubted, now, that Juserin would try to pull something uselessly destructive.


    ''Is this a win for diplomacy?'' Bath wondered to himself, sending his attentions to the essence around Lisa. ''Well, nobody died...and blood rituals are realistically religious.'' Or so Bath justified. He would be enormously shocked if anybody, after seeing the blood spectacle alone, pegged him for a World Devourer.


    "I see that I was wrong to doubt you," Juserin muttered softly, voice saturated with the kind of disbelief that follows the untimely death of a family member.


    "Where are the rest of the verdora?" Lisa asked, seeing that Bath was finished with his spectacle. ''While I did tell him to let me handle everything...'' Lisa sighed inwardly. ''He did a better job than I could''ve by far.'' Self-doubt began to plague her psyche in full force. ''And I really thought I was improving...''


    Lisa really had improved in the past weeks on Gray Land with Bath. Bath certainly recognized this; however, to Lisa, Bath was her perpetual yardstick. To her, the gap between them was essentially the same as it had always been.


    Juserin gave her a stoic expression. "They''re hiding in various locations on the planet. I evacuated all cities, not just Illusta. Illudis is somewhat smaller than Earth, and verdora reproduce slower than humans, so in total there are ten billion." Juserin didn''t bother mentioning the verdora off world, as their numbers didn''t exceed one million.


    Lisa blanched. ''Ten billion?'' Earth was still a few billion short. When the verdora joined COTD...they''d actually outnumber the humans.


    "Excellent. First things first," Bath began, "we''re going to refurbish your capital city." Bath revealed a city-seed, then used his essence to place it in front of Juserin. "Plant this at the base of the city." While most city-seeds were planted miles away from major cities to avoid terraforming cities populated with millions of fragile lives...if Juserin was being truthful, all of Illudis'' cities were vacant, providing an excellent opportunity to dragonify the planet''s population centers.


    "What will this do?" Juserin queried. "How can a seed refurbish anything? It''s a plant." He sounded, to Lisa''s ears, hopelessly confused, further locking in her image of Juserin as a proud, olden-days-loving noble that didn''t understand the modern world. Lisa knew that this assessment was completely inaccurate, especially considering the fact that Illudis'' technology far surpassed that of Earth...even so, the grandpa-noble image was one she vehemently latched on to, if only because she needed more humor in her life.


    "Do you question the Dragon?" Bath asked calmly, raising an eyebrow. Juserin stood slack-jawed, his somewhat-emaciated form cowering under the still-flapping dragon above.


    "I''ll plant the seed."


    "Can you give him food?" Lisa grumbled softly.


    "Juserin, halt for a moment," Bath called out. "I''m going to restore you to health."


    "Wha-" Juserin began, only to grow silent a moment later. A weak, dog-like whine came out of his throat as Bath began to work, forcing nutrients, muscle, and fat into the verdora''s body. A second later, satisfied, Bath withdrew.


    Juserin, reeling, looked ahead with an even--if it were possible--more shocked expression. He immediately felt the vigor in his body, surpassing that of what he''d felt even before he sent away his servants. "This..."


    Bath gave him a slightly impatient look. "Now go and complete the first task for the verdora."


    Juserin bobbed on his legs, as though giving Bath an odd half-bow, before scurrying to the nearest lift down the mountain.


    ---


    Kayt was exhausted. Taking over the duties of Kray Cities services was, even with the help of countless human and quasi subordinates, far more difficult than she could have imagined. Part of this she attributed to the fact that Susan and David had disappeared into thin air.


    ''Why don''t you have the pack track him down?'' Nimesh suggested for the umpteenth time. Kayt rolled her eyes and stroked the white wolf''s mane.


    ''No point,'' she transmitted back. ''They aren''t worth it.''


    Nimesh snorted. Kayt wasn''t oblivious to the fact that Nimesh desperately wanted to see some action. Kayt did feel somewhat guilty that Nimesh, through being tethered to her, was forced to remain on Earth, despite being a wolf alpha. ''It''ll just be until the city can exist on its own two legs,'' she thought privately. ''Then I''ll take Nimesh as far as we can go.''


    The two of them were currently patrolling the city''s border. While Kayt''s primary duty was to deal with everything non-combat and non-religious, both she, Edgewood, and Anne took turns patrolling the city limits. This was a job that they wanted to ensure was done right, especially after the spearrows shed light on how deep Kray City''s corruption had grown in little over a month.


    ''Stop worrying about humans,'' Nimesh relayed, interrupting Kayt''s train of thought. ''Not your job.''


    ''It is when we''re tasked with the cleanup,'' Kayt replied, sighing. Moving so many thousands of bodies, even though she secretly encouraged predatory quasies to eat the more mangled ones...had left its toll. There was something about dealing with the aftermath of the bird attack that was fundamentally different from killing people in a two-sided battle, as Kayt had done previously. The worst part was, Kayt couldn''t pin down exactly what about the former scenario left her disturbed.


    ''Perhaps,'' she thought, ''the difference is intent.'' The majority of deaths, after all, were opportunistic retributive slayings...fueled by festering hate. The battles that she''d been in so far had lacked that kind of blistering passion. She wondered to herself how it would feel to look into the enemy''s eyes and see not just the desire to kill, but the desire to violate.


    She ran her hands over Nimesh''s velvet ears. Kayt knew the answer, and it comforted her: Nimesh would simply rip their face off.

 [Chapter 101] Averys Age Frustration; Self-determination; Evolutionary Convergence

    Avery slammed her foot into a compact ball of dragonleaf, kicking it diagonally across its top to spin spiral it into the floor. Without taking a break, she immediately formed another ball and kicked this, too, across the room.


    "I can understand why he never told me anything," Avery panted, running and kicking balls at the same time, "but then he went and left me behind!?" She let out a small growl as she slammed her foot extra-hard, rocketing the ball forward into the net lining the immense training room wall.


    Avery paused to rest as she reached the end of the room. She sighed, then looked down at her feet. She knew that, in truth, Bath hadn''t deserted her; however, now that she knew his identity as COTD''s Dragon, her preeminent desire was to follow him on his conquest across the stars.


    She inhaled deeply, then began to run across the room in the opposite direction. "Couldn''t he have waited a few years?" she snarled, ripping forward. Everyone around merely saw her as a child, especially her parents. Ever since finding out that Bath was the Dragon, they''d only encouraged Avery to avoid dangerous pursuits.


    This, too, Avery understood: if one of their kids--Bath--was destined to perpetually engage in dangerous situations, the parents McLane naturally wanted to keep their other child safe.


    ''They just don''t get it,'' Avery thought as she whirred her feet. ''They''re in denial. It''s not fair to coop me up because of him.''


    This time, after Avery completed her round, she let out a sigh of relief. "Dinner," she moaned, fetching a water bottle and a towel before leaving the training room. As she left, the open, blue atmosphere of Earth shone before her. She grimaced: Earth''s sky served as a reminder that she was here, while Bath was...somewhere. Gray World, if COTD''s official Wikipedia page was reliable.


    Before heading over to get food, Avery returned to her family''s dwelling. While people of all ages could get their own apartment-style living quarters, no questions asked, Avery preferred to live with her parents. Even if they nagged her about staying safe, or attending her classes in school, she''d lived with them her whole life: living alone at the tender age of thirteen sounded, to Avery''s mind, awfully lonely.


    "Honey," Samantha called out from the living room. After Bath left, the McLanes had left Basalith to return to their present residence. They''d since refurbished the house with dragonleaf, such that the traditional, colonial-style home brimmed with green flourishes and tendriling vines.


    "Mom," Avery replied, smiling. ''I''m not an idiot,'' she thought to herself. ''I know I''m not ready. I don''t...feel ready to leave home.''


    "How was the gym?" Samantha asked, while trimming greenery hanging from the overhead lights.


    "Fine," she stated blandly. ''I need to focus on the plan, instead of getting upset over being left behind.'' An image of Kray City popped up into her mind. ''That''s the goal. In the next two years, I need to be the leader of my own dragonleaf city, just like Anne.'' Information of all city leaders was public knowledge. As soon as Avery realized one of the leaders was just a high school dropout, she''d felt exhilarated.


    And along the way, she''d continue to amass power. When she had her own city, she''d be able to amass path points much faster. Then, she''d move on to other planets, established city-seeds there, and continue the cycle. She''d found her own schools, corporations, maybe even a line of clothes...


    "How much homework do you have?" Samantha probed.


    "Not that much," Avery fibbed. She groaned internally as she remembered the stack of worksheets waiting for her in her room. "Mom, why can''t I just quit school already?" she pouted, kicking her feet into the kitchen island''s lower cabinets.


    Samantha turned back from the ceiling, an eyebrow raised. "Really, kid?"


    "What?" Avery moaned, placing her head on the island''s dark, mottled granite.


    "You''ve asked me if you could quit school at least 10 times," Samantha admonished, "what haven''t I already made clear?"


    Avery released a pitiful whine. "But it takes up so much time," she grumbled.


    Samantha gawked at the ceiling, pausing her trimming motion. "School is only two hours per day," she remarked. "What do you mean it takes up so much time?"


    "Ugh, Mom, that''s two hours per day that I could be training! What''s two times five? ten! That''s ten hours per week! And since there are fifty-two weeks in a year..."


    Samantha sighed; once she got on one of these number tangents, she just kept going...


    "...520,000 hours in a millennium--"


    Samantha narrowed her eyes. "You aren''t going to be in school for the next thousand years," she muttered. "Something''s up with you today. Did something happen?"


    Avery exhaled audibly. "Today? Well, Ms. Adams gave us, like, a million pages of reading."


    "Due tomorrow?"


    "Uhh," Avery croaked, caught in her lie. ''Man, I totally walked into that. Future scheming is interfering with my concentration. "Only a little."


    Samantha gave a knowing look. "Mhm, sure. Hey, wait, where--"


    Before she could finish her words, Avery had already left her seat and to dash up the stairs and swap clothes.


    Samantha rolled her eyes and shook her head. Even though Bath and Avery were both adopted, Samantha had to wonder at a similarity between the two of them: ''Did they get their melodramatic tendencies...from us?''This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ---


    Dean grinned. "Awesome," he breathed, expression rapt as he watched long, thin torpedo-shaped vehicles enter--and leave--the lava without visible injury.


    "Glad to see it''s satisfactory," one of the scientists smiled.


    "Make a thousand of them," Dean ordered. "As many as you can fit into this area."


    "...One thousand?" The vehicles were difficult to make and, regardless of resource availability, they were huge and clumsy: put more than five within a few miles of one another and you''d almost certainly be beset by trouble.


    "Uh," Dean cleared his throat. "Just make a lot," he clarified. He had no idea how many of these vehicles were required to transport people to Gray Land in a timely manner. What he did know is that any solution he came up with now needed to be robust, scalable, suitable for similar gate obstructions in going forward.


    Dean clenched his fist in determination, as though crunching something between his digits and palm. ''Using the path points on developing my director skills was a good choice,'' he observed, noting the ease with which words came to his mind. The stutter of old was still gone, except for in situations where he was under great duress.


    However, given his growing familiarity with running dragonleaf cities and status within COTD as the first human to finish all fourteen boon professions, very few people had the ability to exert pressure on Dean. Two such people were, unsurprisingly, his parents.


    Dean returned to his office, intent on resuming mind-to-text communications. Before he could begin, a snake quasi-sapient wrapped statue-like around the Spire poked its head into the hall leading from the balcony.


    "Knight," she hissed gently, the sound carrying like the ringing of a struck knife. "Your parents are below."


    Dean''s self-assured composure faltered; he sat there, face ashen, back stooped. He looked up from his lap, eyebrows curving upwards. "Where''s Barkhad?"


    Kisserin''s pearly belly shone glossy in the light of the hall; simultaneously, her black scales sucked the light in like a winding sieve. Her white fangs were retracted into sockets within her mouth, leaving Dean with the bizarre, and ironic, impression that she needed dentures.


    "He went out to join Grey," she replied, eyes stormy. "When am I off duty again?"


    Dean gave her a thoughtful look. In truth, he only had his closest subordinates guard the Spire to keep up appearances: Dean would be shocked if anyone on Lime World could deal him a killing blow, even through assassination. Path points were incredibly easy for Dean to acquire; of those he chose to spend, Dean concentrated the vast majority on defensive enhancements.


    "You can leave now," he replied simply, refusing to beat things around the bush. Kisserin hissed cheerfully, then withdrew her head and neck from the hall and balcony.


    Dean, along with most people in COTD, agreed that path points were, on the whole, fair: path points provided for fairly logarithmic gains. Once you surpassed a minimum threshold, path points could only help so much in progressing down certain boon paths. Dean thought that this was odd: the system appeared to propel people to simultaneously progress lots of different paths at the same time to make full use of their points. However, in all his experience, specializing in one area was the most sure-fire way of attaining success.


    Dean scoffed at himself. ''As though you''re anything but the poster child of a jack-of-all trades.'' Unsurprisingly, he''d cleared out all the lower-tiered path boons without batting an eye, his path point riches merely dented. He actually didn''t know how his path points had accumulated so quickly: he didn''t engage in any other business than the running of Jerboaland and Snakeseed. Even as he walked sluggisly down the Spire''s stairs, his points continued to accumulate like bacteria in a petri dish.


    His mouth formed a thin line as he looked at his LeafWatch, a land-shaper invention that displayed both the current time (UST) and path points. Dean wasn''t sure how it worked, exactly, but knew that the watch''s dragonleaf sprout had the ability to tap into...whatever fountain his path points were gushing out from.


    Finally, he arrived at the bottom of the stairs. To Dean, the downward climb seemed long and arduous; however, in reality, he''d only been moving for around thirty seconds. He opened the door, then gave his parents a complex look. He looked around, then ushered them inside, keenly aware of the close proximity between the entrance to the reserved Spire and the bustling Anima.


    His parents followed him in silence up the dizzying steps, their breaths coming out in huffs despite their recent advancements along the fourteen professions. Dean didn''t even notice that the silence was, if anything, due to the rapid pace he established at the outset of the climb, leaving his parents little room to speak.


    As they reached the office, Dean looked on, leaning against the side of his desk, as his parents each took a seat on the couches: his father on one, his mother on the other. The silence felt like a ripe fruit about to burst, or rot.


    "You said you were coming to visit," Dean began, cracking the thin, ice-like calm. "I knew you had problems, but this?"


    They just gave him sad looks, his father''s tinged with anger, his mother''s with regret. "I haven''t been happy with our relationship for years," Dean''s mom, Hope, admitted. She glanced at his father, Robbie, before continuing. "It''s not your father. I--we just haven''t been in love. And that was okay: we spent our time caring for you, and your sister...saving for college. But with everything that''s happened..."


    Robbie remained silent, his dark brown face slightly red. In his eyes, Dean thought he saw embarrassment.


    "It''s fine," Dean murmured, eyes dark and inscrutable. "Just do what you want." Inside, he felt like his heart was folding in on itself. Without his director boons, he''d be unable to keep his serious, immovable facade.


    His parents shared a look before returning both of their attentions to their son. "We just wanted to let you know."


    Dean nodded, shifting his crossed arms closer to his chest. "Yeah, thanks," he replied emotionlessly, his eyes like two blank voids, as though his sight was focused on a far away location. "What about Gina? You told her, I guess."


    "Yes, she knows," Robbie replied gruffly. Dean was unsurprised, given that Gina still lived with the two of them.


    "Well," Dean began, clearing his throat. "I''m, um, kinda busy."


    Hope bowed her head. "Right. Well, love you."


    Robbie nodded. "Good work."


    Then, having nothing more to say, the two left the office and proceeded downstairs to the exit.


    Dean''s expression didn''t change as he walked from the outer side of the desk to his chair and sat down.


    ---


    This time around, Bath left Lisa in charge of establishing a city-seed from scratch. While she did that, he embarked on a serious tour of Illudis, just as he''d vowed to do when he first visited the planet. Bath found that the planet''s environmental conditions were quite similar to Earth''s. Interestingly enough, many of the species had convergently evolved with Earth species.


    Bath almost immediately realized, after swallowing countless lifeforms, that the primary non-sapient lifeforms on Illudis clearly shared a distant evolutionary ancestor with the verdora. These creatures were six-legged, aquatic dogs that filled Illudis'' mighty oceans.


    He compared the evolution between verdora and their ancestors, and, in turn, compared this to the evolution of humanity from its prehistoric relatives. He found few similarities, indicating that, for all intents and purposes, both species had developed without outside interference. Bath could only sigh: if their genetics couldn''t help him find out the cause of widescale convergent evolution, he resolved to find out the mystery behind the humanoid-dominated composition of the universe.


    Unfortunately, the rather inhuman characteristics of the verdora currently complicated this endeavor. After twenty hours of absorbing verdora from different region of Illudis, Bathgrinned, his eyes glinting. This evolution information search, while interesting, was only a way for Bath to pass the time: he was really killing time until Lisa announced that Illudis'' first human city, Whitesun, was completed.


    Finally, after aday, Lisa called Bath over to take an official look.

 [Chapter 102] The Verdora Myth: Djalets Line; Mapping the Labyrinth

    Whitesun was only a human city by virtue of the fact that Lisa was its primary architect: humans still hadn''t made their way to Illudis. In actuality, Lisa had been planning to sit back and lead Juserin through the city-seed growing process. However, despite being a kursi, Juserin lacked the capacity to properly communicate with the city-seed, necessitating Lisa''s intervention.


    "That''s so odd," Lisa had murmured out loud. As far as she knew, the city-seed growing process was fully automated. Only after the city''s completion would Juserin actually need to manipulate dragonleaf to do his biddings.


    Wondering if Juserin''s kursi compatibility was the problem--the verdora encyclopedia entry revealed that Verdora ranked in at 7230/10000 symbiote affinity to humanity''s ambiguous 8/10--Lisa had decided to just start growing the seed herself. She had reached out her hand and touched the seed where Juserin had dropped it, next to the city gates.


    Juserin looked on in awe as Illudis'' former capital underwent a fundamental transformation. The blinding, salt-white of the mountain gave way to dragonleaf''s domineering advance, green rapidly overtaking the crimson and gold decorating the mountain''s terraces.


    As Lisa watched this occur, she couldn''t help but lament the unsightly green, crimson, and gold color combination. Almost a second after she felt a sense of repulsion, her eyes lit up. She placed a hand on the closest extension of the city-seed''s dragonleaf backbone; then, she utilized her artist visualization boons to create the image of a stunning sunset city within her mind. The dragonleaf seemed to understand, translating Lisa''s desire into reality before Juserin''s dumbstruck eyes.


    ''He cannot be that surprised,'' Lisa had grumbled internally, feeling slightly smug at the Waymaster''s reaction. Crimson vines and leaves intertwined with golden woody boughs, blending in and enhancing the already-majestic Illusta. ''In his eyes, I''m a deity, after all.''


    Time passed; eventually, the city was near completion, Basalith''s building structure slanting over the jutting surface of the mountain.


    "How did you do this?" he breathed, eyes slightly convex saucers popping out of his pale blue face. "Earth has nothing like this." While Juserin hadn''t visited everywhere on Earth in person, his voyager had taken video footage of the planet''s surface. He had wasted no time in analyzing Earth''s culture, technological advancement, etc., eventually concluding that, no matter how knowledgeable Lisa seemed about kursi, she and Bath came from a hopelessly underdeveloped world. Juserin had written them off as a non-threat and possible ally. And now, scarcely a month and a half later, the same two travelers were back...as gods...taking over his home.


    "This? It''s just a city-seed. On Earth, anyone can grow one. You should be able to use it."


    "But I cannot," Juserin replied sullenly, a puzzled expression coming over his face. "Is it something only humanoid species can use?"


    Lisa shook her head. "No."


    Juserin paused, then continued his line of questions. "You said that all humans can grow these...how?" Juserin looked at the location where the seed was originally planted. "You told me to touch it, then try to communicate it by touching its shell. Very few humans are kursi; how could they control the city-seed?"


    Lisa gave him a sagely smile. "All will be revealed in time." On the inside, she was thinking: ''I really need to write some original lines.''


    Juserin bowed his head. "Very well, I will wait patiently." He sighed. "I see now how your knowledge of kursi was so inspired. Of course a goddess would have already received enlightenment."


    Lisa coughed gently. "I hope my wisdom was useful."


    Juserin nodded rapidly, his jaws practically bouncing. "Yes, infinitely so. I have made impressive gains with regards to my shell manipulation."


    "Tell me what you know of gods and goddesses," Lisa commanded, her voice soft and clear.


    Juserin''s two maws seemed in disagreement over which would speak first, leading the first few words to come out garbled. "They are myth." He said this as though it would answer everything.


    "Myth," Lisa murmured, eyes narrowing. "Tell me more. I am unfamiliar with this world''s mythology." Lisa was actually quite puzzled: she''d spent an inordinate amount of time pouring over the encyclopedia''s records on Illudis and the verdora. Perhaps because the encyclopedia came from Illudis, it contained boundless information about the verdora and their history. And yet, despite the fact that Lisa had specifically sifted through the data for hints about verdora religion or mythos, she hadn''t found anything, not even a creation myth.


    "You asked me about religion when I visited Earth," Juserin murmured, as though mumbling his thoughts aloud. "I didn''t understand what you were asking. Do you know the two elements that compose the word ''religion'' in my native tongue?" Juserin asked, his voice growing in volume and intensity.


    "Tell me," she replied, genuinely curious by where Juserin was going with this line of thought. ''Does religion''s translated name have something to do with verdora mythology?''This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Djalet''s line." Juserin then laughed softly, though his eyes appeared slightly manic. "How could humans know of Djalet?" He took in a deep breath, cutting off his laughter. Then, he exhaled, as though to steady himself. "You asked about myth. Djalet is the judge at the center of the universe. He has a rod, at the end of which is a long, thin line, such as the kind you''d use to capture an aquatic animal." Juserin gave Lisa a serious look. "He''d send out his line, hook sapients with a hook, and draw their souls out of their bodies."


    ''Soul?'' Lisa blanched. ''They don''t have a religion, and yet they have this kind of mythos?'' She clenched her fist. ''I refuse to believe that they never developed a religion.'' Lisa felt frustrated by her own lack of knowledge regarding the development of societies and cultures. ''I should really spend some time studying anthropology.''


    "When he let the souls off the line, they''d come back to their bodies different than before. These were the kursi." Juserin shifted his eyes skyward. "When sapients die, Djalet is the one to cast out his line and catch their souls. These he keeps, and doesn''t send back." Juserin sighed. "That is the myth of Djalet and his line."


    "Why does the encyclopedia you gave to me lack any information on Djalet?" This was, unequivocally, a religion: no wonder religion was translated as Djalet''s line in Juserin''s native tongue.


    Juserin flicked two of his arms out, causing the right drape-sleeve of his robe to billow out. "It''s nothing more than a primitive fantasy. There is no Djalet at the center of the universe, nor is there a fishing line that collects the immaterial leftovers of dead people. Why would Djalet be in the encyclopedia?"


    If Lisa wasn''t constantly self-regulating her facial features, she would be gawking. "Isn''t Djalet a figment of your cultural history?"


    Juserin scoffed, though hastily bowed his head in deference as he remembered who he was talking to. "Perhaps thirty-thousand years ago," he explained, "perhaps even longer than that; I''m no expert on the Septcidaric period. Djalet is culturally irrelevant: in fact, when you said Djalet''s name on Earth, that was the first time I''d heard it voiced aloud in countless years."


    Lisa pondered this explanation. When put that way...perhaps she did understand why they didn''t include Djalet in the encyclopedia. Earth''s ancient history could fill multiple textbooks, even though it only spanned the last few thousand years. Tens of thousands of years, on the other hand, represented a stunningly long amount of time.


    Lisa swallowed involuntarily. ''We''re going to conquer places...like Bright Galaxy, Lepochim''s home world. Planets with millions of years of history.'' Illudis was, for all intents and purposes, an incredibly young planet with a diminutively short historical record. The only planets worse off were planets even closer to the fringe like Earth, or planets that never developed sapient species.


    "Do you have records on Djalet? Mythology piques my curiosity."


    "There is an archive," Juserin said slowly, eyes scanning the area around them. "I may have trouble finding it, now that this city''s restructuring is effectively complete."


    Lisa shook her head. "We have all the time in the world," she replied. "First, now that the Spire''s complete, I''m going to take you to get your first boons." She looked Juserin up and down. "Grab my hand, and I''ll take you with me up the Spire."


    Juserin swallowed. "Very well." Then, in the most reluctant gesture Lisa had ever seen Juserin make, the verdora extended his cloth-covered hand over Lisa''s. She smiled warmly, then gripped his hand in her own.


    Juserin whined involuntarily as Lisa lifted them both off the ground with her magnetic sense. They picked up speed, taking a minute or so to reach the Anima from their current position. She dragged Juserin impatiently through the air, acutely aware of the Waymaster''s frailty.


    ''At least he''ll be a bit sturdier after an hour of constitution boon bestowal," she thought knowingly to herself.


    ---


    "This is so cool," Tycho whispered to himself as he and Grey proceeded ever deeper into the labyrinth, mapping out its many twists and turns through Lime World''s crust. He glanced over at Grey. "How many meters are we at now?" he asked tentatively. After being in Grey''s company for the past two days, he''d realized that the brown-robe would answer simple, fact-seeking questions.


    "Thirteen-hundred kilometers," Grey responded flatly. The duo made fast progress through the dark passageways, neither relying on their sense of sight to navigate. Grey''s powerful vibrational perception and spatial memory--both enhancements--enabled him to create a near-perfect map in his mind, while Tycho stuck around as a safety precaution in the event of a dead-end or tunnel collapse.


    While Grey considered Tycho''s presence in a wholly pragmatic light, Tycho thought of the entire trip as an adventure. While Tycho had given up on gleaning any details from Grey, he had the general sense that Grey was looking for something.


    Several hours back, Grey had stopped to give someone a phone call, asking them for reinforcements to explore the seemingly endless passageways. Suddenly, Grey stopped; Tycho didn''t need to ask to understand why: his sensitive ears easily detected the sounds of footsteps above.


    "Dig up to the surface," Grey instructed. Tycho nearly bounced into the ceiling with excitement. He wondered who was above...


    Tycho dug upwards until he breached the surface. "Hello!" he shouted jubilantly, eyes squinting in the harsh light of the surface. Then, without warning, he gave out a little squeak and tried to duck back into the tunnel. Unfortunately, Grey was directly below him. As the man climbed out of the tunnel, Tycho was forced out of its safety with him.


    "Barkhad," Grey said, nodding towards the man and his snake, Kisserin. A cross expression came over his face as he screwed his eyes upward. "Tycho," he grunted, "get your ass out of my hair."


    The Jerboa snapped out of his fear-induced stupor and dive-bombed into the tunnel. Grey rolled his eyes, giving Kisserin a pointed look. "You pranked the kid?"


    Kisserin''s tongue flicked playfully. "He and a small armada of jerboa dug into my burrow."


    Barkhad gave Kisserin an amused look. "Really?" Barkhad smirked, then returned his gaze to Grey. "Into the tunnel?" he asked, eyeing the jerboa-dug passageway.


    Kisserin gave Barkhad a rather pitying look. "You''ll be blind down there," she remarked. "Grey, why did you invite Barkhad when you can just have me?" the massive snake asked. "He''s just going to be a burden on my back."


    Grey snorted, ignoring both of them as he re-entered the hole leading to the labyrinth. "Grey," Kisserin hissed from the surface.


    "Downward," Barkhad said, motioning with his elbow while keeping both arms wrapped tight around Kisserin''s smooth bodice.


    Kisserin hissed disdainfully, then began to slither through the tunnel, enlarging it as she went.

 [Chapter 103] Traversing the Dark; Preparing Juserin; the Abandoned Cavern

    "You know, I''ve never liked dark spaces," Barkhad whispered, arms wrapped tightly around Kisserin''s sides. "And the only thing worse, is, of course, small spaces."


    Kisserin continued to squirm ahead, the walls of the main labyrinth barely containing her bodice. As she moved, her scales caressed the walls on either side of her, leaving behind faint, dusty impressions. Several times, Barkhad almost smooshed his hands between the walls and her ribs.


    "Mm, so you must be right at home," Kisserin hissed softly. Both she and Barkhad agreed that, as a rule, silence was golden: if Grey was in a silent mood as the Watcher, well...Unfortunately for them, after hours of labyrinth crawling, silence was far too monotonous. Even though Barkhad could speak to Kisserin through his landshaper abilities, the snake absolutely refused to oblige him the opportunity.


    "Halt," Grey murmured, his breath falling like a guillotine upon the desiccated air. He glanced at Tycho, then asked, "How far are we beneath the surface?"


    Tycho''s eyes grew round with excitement. "I reckon we''re thirteen miles beneath the surface!" he stated with a visible air of self-importance. After speaking, he hung his head bashfully, as though embarrassed by his own enthusiasm.


    Kisserin snorted. ''That kid''s shameless." She rolled her eyes, as though trying to stare backward at the man straddling her spine. ''Though not as shameless as him.'' Even as she thought this, her scaled lips pulled back into an imitation of a whimsical smile.


    "Dig down," Grey muttered. "Here." He pointed to a seemingly random patch of the floor. Tycho nodded, then bounded forward with a hop. In seconds, a lengthy tunnel stretched from the labyrinth into more ambiguously-deep darkness.


    "Whah--there''s a cavern!" Tycho''s voice echoed up, his words muddled by distance.


    Without a word of response, Grey leapt into the tunnel without an ounce of hesitation. A bead of sweat fell down Barkhad''s temple. ''Who was this guy before COTD?'' he wondered, just as he had many times previous. ''Who were the brown-robes before this started?''


    "Boons don''t make you that way," Kisserin murmured in assent, as though she could read Barkhad''s thoughts from the bead of sweat alone. In truth, she heard his heartbeat and felt him clench her scales just as she, too, felt the urge to burrow away. "He has no hesitation. None." Were Kisserin human, she would have shuddered; however, as a snake, she lay motionless upon the floor.


    "Let''s go," Barkhad said after clearing his throat, his voice filled with grudging resolve. "Besides, I''m curious what the jerboa found."


    ---


    "Well, this place is certainly different," Bath observed, his eyes taking in the reformed city of Illusta. "Whitesun seems a fitting name." The gold and red of the city adorned the white mountain like leafy brushstrokes. In actuality, Bath thought a better name for the city was Autumn, but conceded that Whitesun still made sense.


    He then looked to Juserin. As Bath''s gaze found the verdora, Juseerin subconsciously bowed his head. A moment later, Juserin''s body followed suit as he intentionally bowed in supplication. "Dragon," he said before turning his head toward Lisa to say, "Church."


    "Waymaster Juserin, is this city''s aesthetically to your liking?" Lisa asked.


    The verdora nodded. "My stunned expression should be proof enough." Of course, considering the fact that Lisa grew the city herself, Juserin would never have dared to say anything else. Fortunately, Whitesun really was beautiful: Lisa''s experience with Basalith, as well as her boons, enabled her to create a both functional and majestic city.


    "You''ve already received your first boons; good," Bath noted, looking towards Lisa. "So he understands?" Bath asked without any context. However, Lisa knew exactly what he was talking about.


    "He''s prepared to assume the mantle," Lisa replied, smiling softly. "I told him of Basalith, the first dragonleaf city; I told him of the peacekeeper kursi and the quasi-sapients."


    Bath nodded, while Juserin cringed: Lisa had explained everything while he was receiving his boons. Seeing the verdora''s expression, Bath''s mouth quirked into a barely-discernable grin.


    "Juserin, we are preparing you to lead this world, and others, should you desire," Bath said flatly. He didn''t think Juserin would mind if he...restated a few of the main points Lisa brought up. "On Illudis, the first step is training your kursi as peacekeepers to ease the transition and alleviate tensions. The second step is distributing the city-seeds and spreading COTD across this planet. The last step is fostering the growth of all sapients on the planet."


    Lisa pursed her lips slightly as Bath made a glaring omission. ''All sapients?'' "By all sapients, he refers to the sapients who survive the bird purge," Lisa clarified. "I outlined the process for your just a few hours ago," she said, somewhat frustrated by Juserin''s clueless expression.


    ''How is he so easy to read?'' she thought bitterly to herself. ''He''s an alien politician, and yet I read him like he''s an open book.'' While Lisa didn''t want Juserin to lie or mislead her, she would''ve appreciated it if the verdora at least acted like he knew what she was talking about.


    "As a reminder, the birds will come on the eve of the second month," Lisa enumerated. "At this point, the parasites the Dragon placed into the water will have matured and tapped into the brains of all sapients. Based on the goings-ons over the two months, such as violent activity against another sapient for the purpose of self-pleasure, the parasites will emanate a certain pheromone. The birds will hunt down sapients surrounded by the pheromone; the level of the birds'' attack depends on the amount of secreted pheromone. Understood?"


    Juserin nodded his head slowly, as though he had understood absolutely nothing at all. "Understood." He paused, as though contemplating a pressing problem. "By what title should I address you both?"


    Lisa recalled, with a hint of nostalgia, the many titles the leaders of the factions had called them. A small smile came over her face. "Whatever pleases you. Humans often call us by the title, ''Magnificence,'' ''Eminence,'' or ''Radiance.''"


    Bath didn''t wait for Juserin to respond to the information. "Now that you have a landshaper boon," Bath began, "you should begin restructuring the city."


    "In what way?"


    "You have complete power over this city," Bath reminded him, "and you should reorganize it to serve ideal ends, such as those specified by Lisa."


    "We both assume you have extensive experience running cities, at least from behind the scenes," Lisa interjected. "We trust that you can oversee the city without our assistance." Lisa really wasn''t worried: ''If Dean could figure it out--or that teen girl we sent to Russia--I''m sure a several-hundred-year-old kursi can manage.''Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "Of course, Eminence. This city will be a model of excellence; after all, it stemmed from your seed," Juserin flattered. Lisa glanced at Bath out of the corner of her eye. ''A literal seed, at that.''


    Bath nodded, then floated over to Lisa''s side. "We''ll return in a day to view your progress. Send all nonbelievers to the lake just beyond the violet grassland--we''ll be there to assuage their doubts. Moreover, the doubters are the ones with brains: they''re the ones upon whom we''ll bestow city-seeds."


    Having explained everything, Bath and Lisa took their leave, flying off towards the purple grass spanning the horizon and bordering a clear-blue lake. There, Bath wasted no time in constructing an enormous throne that he levitated ten feet over the water. The throne--hewn from the same white rock of the mountain--looked as though it could easily fit a house-sized giant. The space from armrest to armrest was approximately ten feet, while the throne''s back extended for eighty feet into the air. He carved intricate designs into the throne, personally using sharpened digits to etch the stone. Finally, he studded the throne with glimmering precious gems.


    Were Bath to depart the immediate 3.6-mile area, the throne would disappear; however, for impressing the locals, the temporary throne would suffice. As soon as Bath finished the first throne, he duplicated it so that two identical thrones lay suspended above the water.


    Lisa walked over to the throne on her right, then sat down. ''Without all my boons, this stone would hurt like a bitch,'' she realized. The throne lacked any kind of cushion or comfort-providing amenities. Lisa recognized the utility of doing away with such luxuries: the austerity of the thrones--excepting their ornate inscriptions and gems--supported the claim that Lisa and Bath were deities. ''Zeus certainly didn''t need a comfy cushion to support his ass,'' Lisa reasoned.


    "So we''re just going to wait here?" Lisa asked, somewhat dreading the monotony of sitting in the same place for a full day.


    Bath smirked. "You make it sound so boring."


    Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Isn''t it? People come, we give them a city-seed, done."


    Bath snorted, face incredulous. "People come, we convince them we''re really gods, then we give them a city-seed." Bath''s mouth quirked up into a lopsided grin. "I think you''ll enjoy the convincing part."


    Lisa sighed. "Why?"


    Bath''s eyes glinted with a devilish intent. "Because you still have so much room for improvement."


    ---


    At the center of the cavern was a human-like sapient. The sapient''s legs were crossed and its eyes were shut, giving all the distinct impression that it was meditating. While the dark rendered the creature''s features unclear, their general outlines were all visible to Grey and Tycho.


    "I can''t believe the treasure is a person," Tycho twittered. Remembering that Grey was behind him, Tycho smashed his lips together. ''I thought it was gonna be a real treasure, like vast riches, or a priceless library.''


    Grey''s expression was completely neutral as he stepped forward towards the meditating figure. "He isn''t alive," he murmured. ''No heart beat or respiration,'' he noted. Then, sensing through the Earth that Barkhad and Kisserin had arrived, Grey grabbed a small flashlight from his pocket and turned it on.


    Barkhad looked on in mute horror. ''What the hell is it?'' The meditating figure was incredibly bizarre: it had seven digits and four eyes. At the same time, practically everything else about the figure was outwardly identical to that of a human. Barkhad''s first instinct was to dispatch this...abomination.


    "It''s so peaceful," Kisserin whispered, her breath streaming into Barkhad''s back. He shuddered involuntarily.


    "Wait, he had a flashlight all along?" Barkhad menaced, realizing that he was only able to see the meditating sapient because of Grey''s illuminating light. "He''s using it now to see the freaky alien?"


    Just then, as Grey entered within a meter-long radius of the inanimate sapient, its eyes opened, revealing stunning, bright-green, luminescent eyes. As though the eyes signified the entity''s awakening, neon green lines began to spread out over its exposed skin. They progressed in jagged, straight lines with ninety-degree turns.


    "Welcome, sapients: twenty-six thousand years past, my master, Ludwig, left me in this remote cavern. In compliance with his orders, I will give all here good fortune."


    "It''s a robot; heavens," Barkhad hiss-whispered.


    "Beneath me is the Sizikguron Arc, my master''s personal library."


    Tycho looked to Grey with a knowing smile. ''So it was a library after all; I was right to go adventuring with the brown-robe!"


    "Why did your master leave a library on this deserted planet?" Grey asked, face tilted to the side.


    "Deserted? Ah, perhaps it is deserted by now; none of you are Fezosisn, and are undoubtedly travelers." The android cocked its head upwards, as though remembering a time long past. "My master left this library to the dark: I don''t think he expected any to find it."


    Grey narrowed his eyes. "How are we communicating?" The android was, to all present, speaking Arabic.


    "Translator."


    "A translator?" Barkhad muttered, not believing the simple explanation. "Does this robot have access to the ''intergalactic internet''? Humans weren''t speaking Arabic twenty-thousand years back."


    The android''s slit of a mouth curved up into a small grin. "Back then, you were speaking something close enough," it replied, addressing Barkhad''s nearly inaudible comment.


    Grey glanced back towards Barkhad before returning his gaze to the android. "And you''ve been listening to us," he guessed, "for the past few kilometers."


    The android''s smile widened. "My master has found an astute beneficiary." As he finished speaking, a click sounded out from the floor. Suddenly, at the center of the room, a green light flared out, splitting the room in two. "Beneath this is the Sizikguron Arc. My master was, understand, eccentric: while he likely never expected any to find his library, he spent his final years preparing it for an eventual successor. Treat this library as though it is priceless, for that is exactly what it is."


    "What is your name?" Grey asked, stepping toward an expanding gap between the green lines on the floor.


    "AI Ninety-Seven," it replied. "Creativity was my master''s strong suit."


    Grey studied the android, appraising its emotionless facade. Then, without provocation, the man erupted into booming laughter. Barkhad gave Kisserin a nervous look, while Tycho''s tiny jaw dropped to reveal long front teeth.


    "It''s happening," Barkhad whispered. He turned over to Kisserin, glaring. "Will you say something!?"


    "I prefer this personality," Kisserin muttered, her voice no longer restrained. "Now we can talk openly."


    "But he''s..." Barkhad appeared to try, and fail, at finding proper words.


    "You''re a real character," Grey began, his voice completely different from before. "Real funny. The master left? Deserted you?" Grey chuckled darkly. "Cruel, isn''t he?" Even though Grey''s words seemed to address the android, he uttered them as though speaking to himself.


    The android''s mouth popped open. "Cruelty cannot apply to nonsapient artificial lifeforms," the android replied simply.


    "Brainwashed," Grey shook his head sadly, murmuring the word as though nobody else could hear. Without further words, he walked over to the android''s side. Then, with a jerk of his arm, he pulled the android behind him toward the floor gap.


    "I''m supposed to stay in this room," the android exclaimed. It struggled, but was unable to pull free of Grey''s vice grip.


    "He''s rescuing you," Kisserin stated flatly.


    "Don''t even try to break free," Barkhad added. A moment after he spoke, Grey dragged the newly-distraught android into the Sizikguron Arc.


    Tycho watched this scene with the most confounded expression. ''But...he''s laughing? And it''s so loud...''


    Kisserin, seeing the confusion on the jerboa''s face, decided to step in. "He''s cracked," she explained. "He went from the Watcher to the Hero."


    Tycho almost couldn''t believe his ears. "Watcher? Hero?"


    "It''s what we named them," Barkhad clarified. "His personas." Observing that the jerboa appeared just as confused as before, he added, "forget it. He''s crazy; just don''t question anything. Literally."


    "Hey, he isn''t crazy," the jerboa muttered halfheartedly. ''He took us on this adventure, after all.''


    Kisserin and Barkhad gave each other knowing looks. "It''s a good kind of crazy: the predictable kind, with rules," Barkhad explained. "With the Watcher, don''t speak. With the Hero, don''t question."


    "Any day now," Grey grumbled up from the Arc, addressing them for the first time since switching personas.


    "On our way," Kisserin hissed down. She slithered towards the gap only a hair slower than Tycho, hauling Barkhad behind her. The chasm beyond was a fathomless black, devoid of all light except for that of the gap above.


    "Moving forward...numerous clusters...books? Data?" The peacekeeper mumbled under his breath as he advanced forward. After the tenth step, a brilliant flash bathed the surroundings in white luminescence. As it faded, everyone could clearly see the first section of the Sizikguron Arc.


    "It''s a bedroom," Barkhad breathed. Disregarding the light--and the bedroom--Grey paced forward, parting the room''s exit archway for whatever enticed him beyond.

 [Chapter 104] A Show of Strength; Wings! The Little Sailboat That Could

    "How many more do you think are gonna come?" Lisa asked, her hands clasped over her lap. "We''ve been baking out here for seven hours."


    "There''s a group approaching now," Bath chortled. "Stop pouting; it''s time to show these verdora your strength."


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "Yup, as I''ve been doing for the past seven hours."


    Within the span of a few minutes, the group of verdora fell within Lisa''s line of sight. She exhaled a puff of air, then straightened up her spine. When the group of at least fifty-strong reached the lake, Lisa extended out an arm. As she did so, flames jetted out from her palm and formed a glistening corona above her head.


    "Subjects of Illudis," Lisa boomed, "do you approach doubting the power of your new deities?"


    Bath grinned, knowing that the group below wouldn''t be able to see the expression. ''She''s mastered the imperious face," he noted gleefully, taking pride in knowing that she used his very own expression as a model. Of course, Bath had no actual evidence that this was the case...But who else would she be emulating?


    The verdora below didn''t respond immediately; several at the front of the group chattered in hushed whispers before one, at the front, spoke: "We''re incredulous that two...deities...from another planet have come to Illudis," the verdora said back, his voice nearly elevated to a shout. "What is your purpose here?"


    The edges of Lisa''s mouth curved up, looking incredibly predatory on her stone-cold facade. "You verdora don''t seem to understand," Lisa replied, voice saccharine. "Our purpose doesn''t matter. We are indomitable; we are gods. What we will, we do, and our will is to deliver the universe out of its age of darkness." Lisa took in a deep, dramatic breath. "We will continue on our path until all have self-determination," Lisa explained. "You appear confused," Lisa said sadly, as she had every time previous. "Then let me make this simple: all present have heard some form of the phrase, ''life isn''t fair,'' correct?"


    Lisa didn''t bother waiting for a response: she knew that the verdora did, indeed, have this saying. "Why is life unfair? Let us enlighten you: life is unfair because sapients lack control over their own lives. They are subjects of a greater system, cogs in a wheel." Her smile widened, while her eyes gleamed in the light of the fire. "We have come to liberate you."


    As she finished speaking, Lisa pressed her feet against the base of the throne. Then, she pushed off, rocketing herself into the air and directing her motion with magnetic sense. In a split second, she was hovering only ten feet from the verdora below. Lisa pointed her arms up and out before slamming them downward toward the water. Suddenly, the water began to rise, completely ensnared within her magnetic sense. At the same time, a bough of dragonleaf lashed out from the depths of the lake, forming the center of a large vortex just under Lisa''s feet.


    The verdora watched this with inscrutable expressions, though Lisa could feel their awestruck shells all the same. As they looked on, the stream of water continued to cycle around her. Its form gradually solidified into the image of an Asian dragon, its long bodice contorting and dancing in the air around Lisa, flowing into and out of the water.


    Finally, as the dragon began to burgeon in size, Lisa''s mouth curved into a self-assured smirk. The dragon descended toward the group on the shore, undoubtedly intending to crash into them. This next part was the trickiest of all, but Lisa had been practicing now it for several hours.


    All below flinched and looked on in horror as the dragon came closer. Twenty feet...five feet...Then, a fiery wall encircled each of the people present. This wall of flames appeared to vaporize and effortlessly reflect the water, no small feat considering the thousand-foot-long form of the dragon and the speed at which it crashed. There was, of course, a trick to this: the water wasn''t actually rebuffed by the flame shield. Instead, Lisa simply controlled both of them, making use of strategically-placed superconductive magnets beneath the terrain of the shore to magnify her magnetic sense''s range.


    The end result was, to the verdora observer, that Lisa had performed many seemingly-impossible feats without showing any signs of exertion. Lisa couldn''t help but feel elated by the awe and fear of the verdora below.


    "Who is the leader of this contingent?" Lisa asked, nearly causing a few verdora to fall to the ground in shock, as though her voice was imbued with a newfound power.


    Unsurprisingly, the verdora who asked the questions earlier spoke up. "I am the leader," he replied robotically, his expression visibly dazed. "What do you want with us?"


    Now Lisa returned to the throne, letting Bath take over. He smiled, then flicked his hand casually, causing a flurry of vines to dart out from the lake below. As they grew, building upon the dragonleaf spike that Lisa had grown during her own display, Bath floated over. Then, he placed his hand over the spike, causing the entire dragonleaf complex to shudder. He was suspended in the air such that his eyes were level with the 4/5 mark of the spike''s length. Without warning, he jabbed his left arm into the writhing dragonleaf spike, withdrawing a spherical, greenish object.


    "This is a city-seed," Bath stated cooly. "Your task is to make a flourishing city. Juserin has already given you the details as to the purpose of out religion, the Church of the Dragon." Bath narrowed his eyes. "Plant this seed at the center of a city you deem worthy of our righteous bestowal," he bellowed. "If there are no further question, begone."


    After the verdora left, Lisa raised an eyebrow, leaning out over the edge of her throne to look at Bath. "You know what I''m curious about?"


    Bath mirrored her expression with a lopsided grin. "Why the verdora have such toothy mouths?"


    Lisa snorted. "Not even close. Do you think the verdora have video games?"


    "Why?"


    Lisa chuckled. "This would be so much easier to explain if they knew how to play the Sims."


    ---


    "I never would have expected," Edgewood began, his fur-lined coat whipping against his well-muscled frame, "that COTD would lead to this." His hand wrapped firmly around the rope of the sail rigging, one foot planted on the ship''s rail, while the other on the deck. The smell of seawater drifted into his nose, accompanied by the rushing spray of the Baltic Sea.


    All around, several hundred other seafaring vessels could be seen, ranging from enormous, ostentatious clippers and galleons to smaller carracks and even one-person sailboats.


    "Nothing here looks newer than 200 years," Edgewood muttered disdainfully. Though, he had to admit that these recently-grown ships exuded a charm that military and trade vessels of the past few decades lacked. Moreover, because dragonleaf was extremely buoyant and could be molded into any shape with enough time and path point investment, the ship fad had rapidly overcome Kray City.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Considering the fact that humans also had access to numerous quasi-sapients, such as the ever-helpful and impressively nimble-fingered squirrel quasies, people had little trouble finding enough hands to work their decadent ships.


    "Y''know, I could have one of those enormous ships too," Edgewood frowned as he looked over to the raptor on the deck of his custom-made, two-sail...whatever-ma-call-it; Edgewood never bothered to give the ship a proper model name. As one of the three leaders of Kray City, he had path points in abundance, and while Edgewood hadn''t invested into the land-shaping path, he could easily commission Black faction to make the "ship to end all ships."


    "I could," Edgewood insisted after seeing the raptor click its claws and give him a somewhat pitying expression, its eyes tracking the mast of an elegant, swift-approaching galleon. "Dandy, right?" He asked, confirming the raptor''s name. The raptor gurgled in assent. "Don''t give me that kind of look. All those sailboats you see are outdated eyesores. Now this baby, here, is a dragonleaf-refurbished, modern, top-of-the-line sports sailboat from before COTD." He sighed as the raptor''s eyes began to go blank with boredom.


    "You''ve only just got on the ship," Edgewood grumbled menacingly. "Wait until we catch a good wind, then you''ll see."


    ---


    Kayt looked over the Kray City Spire''s balcony, her eyes fixed on the coastline and sea pooling into Neva Bay. Having established the city-seed just outside of St. Petersburg a mile or so from the shore, she had an excellent view of the sea and its lively waters.


    "At least people are being productive," she thought with a sigh. "I would''ve thought people needed more time to recover after the birds." She stuck an arm over the balcony, enjoying the sensation of the light, salt-scented wind over her hand.


    She smiled. "Then again, with all the free time people have..." Nimesh glided over to the window, her face innocent and goofy, her tongue flapping out into the air. Kayt leapt up onto the balcony''s ledge, then jumped onto Nimesh''s neck. The wolf pivoted expertly to accept the load, then beat her white, angelic wings to gain altitude.


    ''Most people would''ve thought me crazy for investing all my path points in flesh-shaping,'' Kayt transmitted to Nimesh as she stroked the wolf''s silky fur.


    ''They''re fools,'' Nimesh replied confidently back. ''Now, I can fly.'''' She transmitted this last phrase as though it, alone, served evidence of Kayt''s excellent choice in path point investment.


    In truth, Kayt really had invested an absurd amount of points into flesh-shaping. While she did invest points into land-shaping and constitution, she had already invested a whopping 1290 points into the flesh-shaping path. Many of these points came from being leader of Kray City, as controlling the city-seed netted her a solid ten points per day. That meant, in around a month, she''d make 300 path points. The remaining points, however, were made up by her diligence in practice.


    Flesh-shaping was an absurdly hard path, making it fairly unpopular beyond the basic tier which offered automatic healing on top of the caretaker boons. Sure, flesh-shaping made it really easy to mess someone''s body up beyond repair, but the same could be said for essentially every other path. Actually shaping bodily tissue in a desired manner while keeping said tissue alive and functional was, unfortunately, far more difficult than most expected.


    ''What shall we try today?'' Kayt mused, her hands moving methodically over Nimesh''s tense shoulders. ''Seems like the wings are a definite keeper.''


    Nimesh transmitted the image of a wet, bloody, mammalian heart that proceeded to explode into red muck. In reply, Kayt transmitted back the image of a red, cartoon heart bursting into many small, sparkly, pink hearts. "Love you, too," Kayt said out loud.


    ''Make them bigger,'' Nimesh suggested. ''Maybe make me bigger!''


    Kayt leaned her cheek into Nimesh''s neck. ''You wouldn''t fit through any doors,'' Kayt reminded her. ''Besides, big wings won''t help you fly faster.''


    Nimesh transmitted back the color of vomit.


    ''Stop moping,'' Kayt scolded. ''How about this: why don''t we work on changing your tail to give you better control?'' By far, fine-control was the area in which the newly-winged wolf lacked. Nimesh began to pant excitedly at the idea, so Kayt nodded and started working.


    A month ago--heck, a week ago--she might''ve freaked out at the thought of doing what could only be called surgery on a flying creature; however, she turned around and crawled backward over Nimesh''s back and rump to grip her tail. Thankfully, the wolf hadn''t really been using her tail anyway, and continued her flight in a steady fashion, her wings effortlessly riding the sea breeze.


    Kayt got to work with practiced efficiency: she knew her subject and knew herself, allowing her to start flesh-shaping Nimesh''s tail immediately without first mapping out the target area. First, she shed all of the tail''s fur, leaving her with a rather unglamorous whip of pale flesh. She quickly grew the tail out, drawing from the reservoir of undifferentiated flesh and bone she kept stationary in her backpack at all times. For a huge job like wings, Kayt would need to spend at least a day gathering up the requisite flesh and bone before beginning the procedure. However, for the tail, the flesh in her bag would suffice.


    She simply grabbed a handful of flesh with one hand while wrapping her legs squarely around the wolf''s stomach and hips for support. Then, she thwacked the lump of flesh onto Nimesh''s naked tail. She quickly ran her waiting right hand over the biological tissue while her left hand returned to the backpack to fetch out more gore-like tissue.


    Were anyone to see the scene, an impossibility given how high the duo were in the air, they''d likely feel sick. However, as Kayt worked, Nimesh only transmitted warm, happy feelings and scenes of ripping rabbits and soldiers to shreds. ''Smells like dinner,'' Nimesh said, whining with desire.


    "Shhh," Kayt murmured offhandedly, her concentration fully focused on her work. Deciding where to grow and place the new bones, vessels, muscle, and keratin feathers demanded her most rapt attention. Thankfully, Kayt had already dissected and studied numerous birds over the past week, and so had a good grasp of how their tails functioned. However, Kayt also recognized that while birds lacked bones in their tails, Nimesh didn''t: this discrepancy gave Kayt ample room to experiment with design.


    After an hour of feverish flesh-shaping, Kayt let out a groan of relief and lifted her slimy hands to the sky. "It''s done!" she crooned. She squirmed her way back onto the wolf''s neck, then held out her hands in front of the wolf''s muzzle one at a time. Nimesh eagerly cleaned the hands of any biological leftovers before looking at Kayt with expectant puppy eyes.


    ''Can I use it?'' she asked.


    Kayt smiled and ruffled the fur on her head. ''Be careful: the tail is a lot stronger than you''re used to. No sudden--''


    Nimesh''s tongue pressed flat against the right side of her face as she suddenly dive-bombed down toward the water. Her enhanced reflexes enabled her to quickly get the hang of the new tail: she whipped through the air with the speed of a (normal) falcon and the precision of a honing-missile. Kayt hung on tight to Nimesh''s neck, flattening her body to the wolf''s back.


    Nimesh looked back for a moment at Kayt, her lips pulled back in a grin over black and pink gums and sharp, white teeth.


    "Don''t take your eyes off the--" Kayt yelled in warning. The wolf was traveling faster than before; now that she was gliding only a few feet over the surface of the water, she was right in the line of fire for the Baltic Sea''s many sailboats. Right as Nimesh swiveled her head back toward the front, her wing clipped the sail of a small, unfashionably-simple, two-person sailboat.


    "Kayt!" a familiar voice roared. However, Kayt was already a hundred feet away and getting further by the second. Her eyes grew wide, then crinkled in carefree amusement.


    ''Can you believe that little ship is Edgewood''s!?'' Kayt transmitted to Nimesh, laughing raucously into the biting wind. Her smile quickly dissipated as she looked back. ''Shit, he''s actually keeping pace with us,'' she transmitted. ''How the hell is he going so fast in that little boat?''


    ''He wants to race?'' Nimesh growled excitedly, muscles bunching with excitement.


    "You bitches almost broke my sail," Edgewood bellowed angrily from behind. "And then you started laughing! Making fun of my boat like Dandy, here?"


    Kayt gave the back of Nimesh''s head a dubious expression. ''Dandy? Is that his raptor?''


    ''Maybe a girlfriend,'' Nimesh transmitted back.


    Despite Kayt''s initial hilarity over the boat''s diminutive size and unadorned aesthetic, she had to admit that it was exceptionally fast.


    "Wanna race?" she called out. As she did so, Nimesh wagged her tail in a taunting gesture that nearly spun her into the sea''s cresting waves before she self-corrected.


    Edgewood snorted angrily at the sloppy display. "Bet you a hundred PP," he called out.


    Nimesh howled. ''Excellent: more points means more flesh-shaping.''


    Kayt nodded and rubbed Nimesh''s right ear. "You''re on." Nimesh circled back around to Edgewood''s approaching ship. Right as the two were perfectly overlayed, Kayt yelled, "Start!"


    As she did, two enormous serpents crested out of the water, tugging the sailboat behind them.

 [Chapter 105] Race Over Water; Counter Offer; Dating

    "He hired snake quasies!?" Kayt exclaimed angrily, her hand tightening on Nimesh''s fur. "Damn it."


    ''Those aren''t quasies, they smell different,'' Nimesh observed, her nose twitching. ''Look: he''s controlling them with a standard dragonleaf tether, like those used on normal animals.''


    ''Those are not normal animals,'' Kayt snarled, her legs digging into Nimesh''s sides as the wolfdove forward into the spray of the sea. ''They look like mini sea monsters.''


    Nimesh licked her lips. ''Dinner?''


    Kayt scowled and sighed in disgust. ''No, ugh. We can still beat Edgewood, anyway: the snakes aren''t impossibly fast, though they''re faster than any waterborne creature should be.'' She looked down to the water below: Edgewood currently had a slight edge in distance, mostly due to the surprise the snakes'' emergence caused Kayt and Nimesh.


    ''Don''t worry,'' Nimesh thought, sending an image of a calm pond. ''Flying is faster than swimming.'' Over the pond appeared a fish and a dragonfly. While the fish darted swiftly through the water, its dorsal fin leaving a ripple-trail over the surface, the dragonfly zoomed ahead.


    Down below, Edgewood was furiously egging on his two serpents while adjusting the sail rigging. He had Dandy on crew, while he himself assumed the role of skipper. Dandy''s main job was to adjust the sails and plan the boat''s trajectory through the water, while Edgewood manned the helm and focused on directing the serpents. Previously, he had only used the serpents below water for a bit of extra speed. Now, however, he directed them to the surface where they could exert the greatest amount of force on the sailboat.


    "I feel like this sail is just getting in the fucking way," Edgewood grumbled ferociously while angling the sail away from the oncoming wind.


    Dandy just gave him one of her typical, pitying looks. Edgewood could practically hear her say, ''Or maybe you have no idea how to work a sailboat...''


    Regardless, Edgewood was absolutely determined to win. He wanted those path points, damn it; moreover, he wanted to beat Kayt and her meddlesome wolf, Nimesh. Considering all the bizarre mutations Kayt had given the poor test subject alpha wolf, Edgewood couldn''t say that he was surprised by the wolf''s newly grown wings. Personally, he didn''t really get the point: if Kayt wanted a flying quasi-sapient, she could just contract one of Basalith''s three bird varieties: hawks, falcons, and spearrows. Technically, she could also contract out a devilbat, although those were notoriously difficult to find in the North.


    But no, she had to go out and painstakingly reinvent the metaphorical wheel. "There''s a reason nobody invests so many points into flesh-shaping," Edgewood yelled, the wind picking up and partially distorting his voice. With the fierce wind, even he was starting to feel the slight chill of winter: after all, soggy clothes, cold temperatures, and harsh wind made for a terrible combination.


    "Oh? Care to elaborate while we win?" Kayt shot back, head positioned just over Nimesh''s right shoulder blade.


    "Don''t be too cocky," Edgewood warned, a savage, determined grin on his face. "COTD''s Dragon gave us our boons. Flesh-shaping is the ability to make your own boon-like enhancements."


    "And?" Kayt didn''t fully agree with this, but she let the generalization slide.


    Edgewood smirked, his hair whipping wildly around his face. "You think you can make better boons than the Dragon?"


    Kayt''s mouth smashed into a defiant line. "We''ll see who has the last laugh in the end. If you think about it, isn''t liberating oneself from dependence on the Dragon''s boons the ultimate form of self-determination?"


    ''Keep talking,'' Nimesh transmitted with a devil emoji. ''He''s easily distracted.''


    Edgewood''s eyes narrowed. ''Well, shit.'' "Nope, not even close," he lied confidently. However, as he looked up to make eye contact with the neck-at-neck wolf above, the sail flipped open and parachuted outward.


    "Dandy!" he bellowed, scrambling to keep his feet on the precariously-tilting deck. Dandy simply glared back, as though to say, ''Don''t you dare pin this on me.''


    ''Sassy motherfucker,'' Edgewood thought menacingly. Though he only took a second to right the sails and set the boat back on course, the damage was done: the wolf had pulled ahead. Edgewood sighed, lamenting his poor luck and inexperience with sailboats.


    "You win," he called out dejectedly. ''One hundred path points; ouch.''This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Nimesh barked jubilantly, while Kayt replied, "We know. One hundred points, right?" The duo circled back around. Nimesh landed on the boat, jostling it with her added mass.


    "A deal''s a deal," Edgewood said reluctantly.


    "Or," Kayt began, a devilish glint in her eyes. "We could make a deal."


    Seeing the expression in her eyes, Edgewood couldn''t help but feel that forking over the points was the safer option. "Like what?"


    "Oh, you know. Give me some of your raptors as test subjects."


    Edgewood''s pupils contracted. "No fucking way." Just the thought of his raptors being subjected to Kayt''s butchery sent shivers down his already cold spine.


    Nimesh whined, while Kayt''s eyebrows pulled together. "C''mon. I''ve really improved since a month ago. What do I have to do to gain access to, say, three raptors?"


    Edgewood looked over at Dandy. "Actually, I''ll make you a counter-offer. You get Dandy here, and that''s it."


    ''How could you?'' the raptor''s soulful eyes seemed to say.


    Edgewood ignored Dandy''s accusatory stare. "Do whatever you want with her as long as it''s all reversible and won''t leave her a vegetable from pain." In all fairness, Edgewood wasn''t being cruel to Dandy: he loved all of his raptors, even if he treated some of them rougher than others. While Dandy had pissed him off with her attitude, he sure wasn''t willing to subject her to the torture Kayt put Nimesh through.


    The real deciding factor, here, was that Edgewood believed that Kayt really had improved: only a few weeks ago, she struggled to do simple things like increase the wolf''s muscle mass or claw length. Now, she had created a set of working wings along with a host of no-doubt invisible bodily modifications that made wolf-flight viable.


    Edgewood was curious...what would Kayt do with her hands on a raptor?


    Nimesh grumbled, clearly unhappy with the arrangement. ''More path points!'' she squealed mentally. ''Why do you want a raptor?''


    ''Because: Edgewood has control over all Kray City raptors, which probably constitute 40% of Earth''s total raptor population. If I have access to one raptor, and show that I can make design improvements...''


    ''He''ll give you more raptors,'' Nimesh finished. ''But why do we care?''


    Kayt sent the image of golden, flashing light. ''Think of all the path points I can net from working on the raptors.?''


    Nimesh transmitted back her customary exploding heart as an expression of her love. ''I see: this''ll be like the squirrels, or the hawks...''


    ''Exactly.'' Because this exchange happened via direct thought, it only took around 4 seconds to elapse. Edgewood was used to the two''s communication pauses by now and didn''t think much of the silence.


    "We agree," Kayt finally replied. "When can we pick her up?"


    Edgewood looked over at Dandy, then at the two serpents swimming idly in the freezing water. He shrugged, then said, "You can take her now." He doubted the raptor would be a willing sailing partner after he effectively "sold" her to Kayt for a hundred PP.


    Kayt gave Nimesh a dubious glance. ''Uh...can you carry me and a raptor? And fly?'' The raptors were heavy, with thick, leathery armor and wickedly curved spikes. Kayt wasn''t sure if Nimesh could lift the raptor, let alone carry its spiky form in her maw or on her back.


    ''Of course,'' Nimesh replied brazenly. She approached the raptor, keenly aware of its shifting eyes and feverish talon clapping. Without warning, Nimesh lunged, pinning the raptor''s tail between her jaws.


    ''Let the poor thing down!'' Kayt mentally shouted, shocking the wolf into doing just that. ''You can''t carry it to shore by its tail!''


    Nimesh whined. ''It''s the biggest part that fits into my mouth.''


    Kayt''s eyes met Edgewood''s; as she did so, the two both broke out into knowing, companionable smiles. "Think we can catch a ride with you and enjoy the view?" she asked.


    Edgewood put his hands behind his head. "Don''t see why not. Wanna take over for Dandy?"


    Kayt scoffed. "I don''t know any of the controls."


    Edgewood shrugged. "Neither did Dandy; I think she just made them up."


    Kayt gave Edgewood an incredulous look. "Why don''t you just...ask her?" Even if Edgewood hadn''t invested any path points into land-shaping, he still had his expert land-shaper boons: talking to a quasi-sapient should be as easy as breathing.


    Edgewood waved a hand dismissively as he returned to the rigging near the helm and began to transmit commands to the serpents via tether, aka the dragonleaf reins in his hands. "By now, I''m an expert at reading raptor body language. It''s more natural that way."


    ''He''s an idiot,'' Nimesh thought. ''Body language is dumb.''


    ''Well, it''s clearly worked,'' Kayt transmitted back. ''Otherwise, how would he have an army of loyal raptors?''


    Kayt walked over to Dandy, then placed a hand on the raptor''s shoulder.


    ''This guy''s an idiot,'' was the first thing to come out of Dandy''s mind. ''But he''s an excellent teacher.'' Even as Dandy thought this, warm thought streamed through Dandy''s mind to Kayt and Nimesh, conveying sentiments of love far exceeding those between a teacher and pupil. If anything, the emotion felt like...love between a father and a daughter.


    Kayt immediately gained a better understanding of who Edgewood was as a person underneath all the bravado. As she looked back at his fur-covered silhouette, she smiled.


    ''Do we like Edgewood?'' Nimesh asked quietly, if thought could be described in terms of volume. ''We didn''t before, right?''


    ''We...we don''t really know him,'' Kayt replied. Not the real him, at least.


    ''Do we want to?''


    Kayt paused. A heat rushed to her cheeks. ''Maybe.''


    ''I''ll take that as a yes!'' the wolf stated with an air of self-importance. ''You, me, and Edgewood: what a great love triangle!''


    Kayt snort-laughed out loud at Nimesh''s misuse of the word.


    ''Do it!'' Nimesh cheered. ''Ask him to go on a date with us! Do it do it do it~''


    For the first fifteen minutes, Kayt endured this mental barrage, growing more annoyed by the second at Nimesh''s inhuman persistence. However, as the thirty-minute mark came, Kayt growled in annoyance before shouting, "Edgewood!"


    Startled, he replied, "What!?" His first thought was, humorously, ''Is the ship on fire?''


    Cheeks quickly turning crimson, Kayt asked, "Wanna go out?"


    Silence.


    "Umm..."


    More silence, of the extremely awkward variety. ''Kill me now,'' Kayt thought.


    Then, belatedly: "Sure."

 [Chapter 106] The City of Ash Glass; Investment and Mutual Pleasure (X)

    Two Days Later


    Dean surveyed the pool of lava obstructing Illudis'' gate from Ash Glass'' crystalline observatory. Two days past, when they''d first developed the bore-shuttle technology, Dean had been one of the first to step foot on Gray Land; the others had all been engineers from the consortium that built the bore-shuttles. Dean planted a city-seed, then watched as it tried...and failed...to set root on the noxious planet.


    In fact, in the beginning, nobody could leave the shuttles: the air was toxic. For a time, Dean had been genuinely worried that colonizing Gray Land was an almost insurmountable obstacle.


    Luckily, their Dragon had left a present: a prefabricated city of crystalline glass and obsidian rock. In addition, he''d placed boon pools at the entrance to the city that bestowed the biological mutations required to breathe in Gray Land''s harsh air. The city was visible even from the low-vision terminals of the bore-shuttles, being only fifteen or so miles away from the entrance gate.


    Even as Dean contemplated his imminent departure to Illudis, he marveled at the sight of Ash Glass: beautiful, organic, glassy spires and buildings pervaded. Everything appeared to be made out of spindles, almost like the city were a crystallized, impossibly-dense spider web. The city''s remodeled Anima was exquisite, its domed, intricately-patterned ceiling refracting light like a kaleidoscope. The storm-gray sky prevented the glass from shining too bright, instead shrouding the city in gloom.


    "You''d think this city would be a nightmare," he murmured to himself. "Dark, sunless skies, little vegetation, unbreathable air..." He sighed, then drew his eyes up to the clouds above. "If anything...it''s calm." At this point, calm was the last thing he sought: he didn''t have time for calm, nor did he desire it: after founding city-seeds on Earth, Lime World, and now Gray Land, Dean had received an astronomical 900 path points per month.


    He''d been incredibly shocked at this when he visited Ash Glass'' boon pools a day after the city''s creation. Upon entering one of hundreds of processing terminals, a recently-arrived squirrel had given him the news. She had first placed her bushy tail on his arm, as was customary, and he had reciprocated the action by creating a standard dragonleaf tether. Once connected, the squirrel...did whatever squirrels did to check path points. Then, it told him his current balance.


    "3,203 path points," she announced, voice effervescent and eager. "That''s the most I''ve ever seen!"


    Dean, somewhat overwhelmed at the sum, could only gulp and look awkwardly to the side at the quasi''s outburst. ''She doesn''t recognize me?'' On second thought, he realized that this wasn''t surprising: relatively few people and quasies had seen him directly, and his "photogenic self" (as in, horrendously un-photogenic self) prevented people from recognizing him from photos. ''I guess spearheading the advance outward still isn''t enough to be a full-on celebrity here,'' he thought mockingly.


    "Wait..." the squirrel''s spherical, black eyes blinked rapidly. "You...you''re the Knight!?"


    Dean flushed, then coughed lightly in embarrassment. "Yeah, that''s me."


    "Oh wow! No wonder you have so many!"


    Dean had just looked at her confusedly. "What do you mean? Why would I have a lot of PP?" Dean actually knew very little about the path point system, seeing that understanding the mechanics of COTD''s economy was relatively low on his list of pressing priorities. That was exactly the kind of issue he delegated out.


    Sure, Dean had used path points, but he had never visited an appraiser squirrel to find out just how many he possessed. Dean would simply just...use path points until he ran out.


    Except he never did. Which was, consequently, the reason why he was getting his PP appraised now.


    Over three thousand truly was an unprecedented number; even Dean knew that. He wanted to know exactly why they''d grown so quickly.


    "Why would you..." the squirrel looked at him with a complex expression. Due to putting many of his infinite PP into paths dealing with perception, Dean could tell that the squirrel thought he was a complete moron but didn''t want to say anything given his status. "Have so many PP?"


    "Yes." Dean gave her a tired, dry look: he couldn''t be in the know about everything, damn it.


    "Well, you have the city founder bonus," she noted. "Holders of city-seeds accumulate 300 PP per month. Moreover, conquering existing cities steals these PP and provides a conqueror''s initial bonus. Finally, a founder bonus goes to anyone who grows a city-seed for the first time on a planet."


    Dean gaped. "So I''m getting hundreds of PP passively every month?" Dean paused, then began to consider the world-shaking implications of the squirrel''s second statement.


    "But wait, there''s more!" the squirrel cheered, sounding awfully similar to an infomercial. "The more points you invest, the harder it becomes to improve through path points alone. However," the squirrel held up a paw, "If you control a city-seed, your individual progress will improve at a much-more-rapid rate, allowing you to reap more improvements from fewer path points!"


    Dean had felt a cold pallor come over his face. "Excellent," he replied crisply, relying on his speech and social behavior enhancements to mask his mounting astonishment. "Who has access to this information?"


    "Oh, just us squirrels...but I couldn''t just refuse the Knight, so I made an exception this one time and let you in on the details!"


    He left in a panic; as he reached the Spire, he felt awful, like his stomach was a nest of agitated bees. He had looked down at his hands, at the various messages waiting for him on his computer. He then plopped down onto one of the Spire''s ash-colored couches, sinking into its fabric.


    ''If anyone finds out that they''ll get path point bonuses from conquering cities, aside from the normal city-holding bonuses probably everyone is already aware of...'' His eyes darkened with anger, his pupils contracting. He slammed a hand on the arm of the couch in fury. "Just what the hell are you planning?" he hissed, as though Bath could hear him. His anger subsided as quickly as it came, replaced instead by a resigned sadness. "Why would you do this?"


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    That had been a day ago: now, Dean was prepared to enter Illudis and find out in person just what Bath was thinking. After finalizing a few details, appointing a leader to rule in his absence, and readying a fleet of needle-thin bore-holes, he''d be off.


    --- Warning: the rest of this chapter rated X


    Susan was sitting between David''s legs, which were bent at the knee so that his feet rested a foot or so beyond her hips. One pair of arms pulled her rump into his groin, while the other pair were stroking her left arm and right leg, respectively.


    "You''re right," David murmured into her ear. "We really fucked up by leaving Kray City."


    ¡°Imagine what 300 extra points would mean," she sighed back, arching her back into his chest like a stretching cat. "Why are you bringing this up now?"


    "Just thinking," he replied back. "Why don''t we start over, form our own city-seed?"


    Susan snorted gently. "We''re only growing further behind, you know, now that we''ve missed two months'' worth of bonus points," she pointed out.


    "I didn''t say steal," David laughed gently as he moved his right hand to her thigh. "I said we should make a new city-seed."


    "How?"


    "Though, come to think of it...maybe stealing a seed is easier."


    Susan gave him a look. "How so?"


    David grinned as his fingers drew circles on Susan''s arm. "I mean, I haven''t been totally idle," he murmured softly, his breath tingling in Susan''s ear. "I''ve been reinvesting our points, hon."


    "I know," Susan replied. "So?"


    "We''ve had some excellent returns," he grinned, voice full of desire.


    "Oh really?" Susan said, voice incredulous. "I thought you quit investment banking." She''d assumed it had been because he wasn''t very good at it. ''I really don''t know much about his past,'' she realized.


    David squeezed her ass with his first and second hands. "I quit," he began, voice soft and deadly, "because I believed in the COTD."


    Susan turned her head sideways, so that her nose made contact with his. "David," she said softly, her voice breathy, "where did you work?"


    David sighed, then moved in to kiss Susan''s cheek. "Susan, I''m a middle-aged, unmarried, and at Goldman-Sachs. Use your imagination."


    Susan blanched, though her cheeks quickly became rosy as David''s third hand gravitated towards her left breast. She guided it along as she said, "So, you invested our PP."


    "Of course."


    "And you said we had excellent returns."


    "Yes."


    "Care to elaborate?"


    David chuckled, this time drawing Susan into a passionate kiss. After their lips parted, he whispered, "300% returns."


    Susan inhaled deeply. "And we invested how many points?"


    "800 total," he answered, squeezing Susan''s breast in precise, measured movements that would''ve torn the sensitive flesh to pieces before COTD enhancements.


    "2,400 points," Susan gasped. "Fuck."


    "If you really want to get a city-seed, I can sell off our shares and we can spend the points."


    Susan looked him in the eye, then said, "Let''s think about it some more."


    Sensing an end to the conversation, David nodded his head once. Then, Susan began directing his fourth hand underneath his borrowed over-sized button-down and toward her exposed crotch. He began to finger her in slow, gentle caresses. Susan moaned, her eyes closing in rapture. The fingering, combined with his masterful squeezing of her breast, caused her midsection to rapidly ignite with passion.


    "How are you not hard?" she asked accusingly. Right after, an involuntary yip forced its way from her mouth. At this, she finally felt David''s member harden against her ass through her shirt and his pants. She laughed gently at that.


    "What first?" he asked, his voice starting to shake.


    Before answering, Susan manipulated dragonleaf with her currently unoccupied hands to awkwardly pull away his pants, exposing his lower body. Unsurprisingly, given that they were in their house, he wasn''t wearing anything underneath.


    Just the way she liked it.


    "Ass first," she huffed.


    Without replying--he didn''t know if he could at this point--David lifted up Susan with his first and second hands, forcing her onto her knees and palms.


    "I don''t know how people did this without pain-reducing boons and healing," Susan panted in anticipation.


    David just grunted in response as he began to merge into her, his engorged cock pressing against her tight hole.


    "Start, damn you," Susan whined desperately.


    "I love you," David managed to force out as he forced his member down her anus, stretching it as he went. Susan''s back arched dangerously as her aroused body faced a new source of stimulation. Once he was far enough along, David rammed her repeatedly, riding her ass. With each thrust, the two of them grunted sharply. Without Susan''s constitution boons and substantial PP investment, David would have ripped through her anus into...whatever lay beyond.


    He continued to finger and knead her as he thrust, sending her on a quick ride to orgasm. After she did so for the first time, she moaned, "Out!"


    David, familiar with his partner, happily obeyed.


    "My turn," she growled. She then turned around and forcefully thumped David to the ground, her hands on his shoulders and her legs on either side of his hips. David''s four arms were now free to pinch and prod her entire upper body, while Susan wasted no time in slipping onto his cock. She then began to rock into him, hard.


    ''If this was pre-COTD,'' David thought breathlessly, his mind almost completely gone, ''my dick would''ve been torn off at the balls.'' In fact, Susan''s rough sex was starting to tear even his reinforced dick slightly, though David was able to heal the damage the instant it appeared.


    After the two of them orgasmed several more times, Susan fell flat onto his chest and the two began to passionately kiss. Breathless and panting, the two stayed there for a while, content to lay with one another and be in the moment.


    Investing, path points, and city-seeds were a topic for another time...perhaps tomorrow.

 [Chapter 107] Humanity Reaches Illudis; Flashback to Lime World

    Lisa smiled, then began to wave her arm in greeting. One look at Bath''s serene, unmoving figure halted the motion in its tracks.


    ''Dean,'' Lisa thought, her eyes latching onto his form clearly at the head of the vanguard traveling from the gate to Whitesun. As Lisa and Bath''s de facto lakeside thrones were on the way, they had a clear view of their advance. The forward group, spying the enormous, hovering thrones from afar, had no difficulty deciding the first stop on their journey.


    Soon enough, the vanguard approached the lake shore as countless groups of verdora had before. Dean glanced behind him, an all-too-real pressure weighing down from behind. He stepped forward, then knelt down.


    "Church, Dragon," Dean began, his head upturned toward Lisa''s smile and Bath''s emotionless gaze.


    Lisa glanced at Bath, figuring it was time to reveal the official name she''d chosen for herself. After all, the Dragon had a name: Bath. The Church, on the other hand, remained nameless.


    He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth curling imperceptibly.


    She addressed Dean amiably: "You''ve done well," she beamed, "call us not by title, but by name: Bath," she glanced over, "and Asil."


    Dean''s eyes narrowed slightly. ''Lisa, backwards,'' he observed. Dean still found the concept of his former schoolmates lording above everyone as deities...ludicrous. Even so, after witnessing the rise of COTD, he couldn''t doubt that they deserved to be treated as such.


    "Bath and Asil," Dean echoed, starting again, "A group of 1,000,000 has made it to Magnet Planet. 250,000 currently occupy Lime World, while 50,000 are on Gray Land." He took in a breath. "Finally, 7,000 will be on Illudis by the end of the day." Dean averted his gaze to the sun blazing in the sky. He quickly looked back, amending his statement: "That is, a standard Earth day."


    Lisa and Bath turned away to look at one another over the sides of their thrones. Then, the welcoming Lisa and stony Bath froze, their expressions slowly thawing into matching, mildly pleased smiles.


    ''We''ll have enough,'' Lisa noted happily.


    "Excellent," said Bath, steepling his fingers. "You have already encountered alien sapients, correct?" While technically, everyone from Basalith had interacted with Lepochim, none besides Bath, Lisa, and some kursi knew that he was an off-world sapient.


    Dean nodded. "We engaged with a few suited sapients on Lime World," he noted, "but they were extremely cooperative. They stayed secluded within a sheltered complex and only came out in the beginning to, well, say hello." Dean really didn''t know any other reasons why the aliens had emerged. They''d simply announced their existence before barricading themselves behind reinforced doors.


    Lisa nodded. ''Well, Bath gave them a warning,'' she recalled. On their way to Gray Land, Bath paid the slug-men a little...visit.


    ---


    Lisa and Bath''s Memory


    Bath and Lisa whipped like bullets through the gate. After they arrived, Bath wasted no time in transforming into a fifty-foot long dragon, while Lisa whipped up a magnet storm and punched the ground in a dramatic fashion. At this time, she hadn''t undergone training on Gray Land and was limited to basic magnetic sense attacks.


    "Sapients of planet 39981," Bath announced, his voice cutting razor-like through walls and eardrums. "You may remember my partner and I from before. Then, we came as travelers, Waymasters. Now, we come as your gods." Bath extended out his wings and roared, sending out shock waves that resonated with and cracked the numerous one-way mirrors around the gate-holding hangar. As the glass fell--assisted by Bath using his long-range manipulation to pull shards down--numerous slug-men were visible, their exoskeleton suits granting all of them a human-like appearance. Due to the suddenness of Bath and Lisa''s appearance and the stunning force of Bath''s cry, nearly all were frozen sitting and sipping some sort of steaming beverage.


    Thankfully, the one-way glass, through absorbing the brunt of the shock waves, protected their odd, proboscis-like helmet projections from shattering. They all remained frozen in shock even as the dark, reinforced glass settled on the ground and the steam of their drinks clouded their helmet visors.


    This plan was, in actuality, of Lisa and Nevis''s design. After sizable amounts of research, they''d discovered that the slug-men were a species from another planet that had been conquered for its resources long ago. While they weren''t slaves, they had been contracted out to Juserin to serve on Lime World for a trifling fee. In actuality, the slug-men had been granted the planet as a new, inhospitable home.


    A key feature of the species was that, on the whole, the slug-men were incredibly submissive towards figures of power and authority. They had rigid chains of command that precluded fighting between individuals and even armies of substantially different ranks. In the end, at the time of their conquest, they had, in actuality, been spared because of their almost immediate surrender: after recognizing their own technical and physical impotence, well...


    "Gods?" said the first slug-man to recover his wits, one that Bath recognized from their encounter before.


    ''He has the most necklaces of anyone in the main command room,'' Lisa noted, her eyes fixed on the now-exposed room directly in front of the gate. While she hadn''t noticed previously, the people in the command room all wore different amounts of utilitarian metal bracelets. She realized that this was likely a rank-differentiating custom.


    "Yes," Lisa replied, voice calm and majestic to offset the savagery of Bath''s roar. "We are your gods. We embody the Church of the Dragon, also known as COTD."


    She and Bath switched off, essentially giving the same spiel they would later give to Juserin, albeit rougher in some parts. At the end, the slug-men had all bowed to the floor, their hands touching the ground.


    "We pay our respects to the Church and the Dragon of COTD," the lead slug-man called out, representing the voice of all.


    "Then, let us begin the bestowal of your city-seed," Lisa smiled, hovering over to place a seed onto the quivering, outstretched palm of the slug-man leader. After he received it, Lisa closed his hand around it, then said, "Plant this at the center of your base. This seed is directed to grow down, making use of this planet''s low-lying fertile soil." Indeed, Lisa had been quite interested to find out that, according to the encyclopedia, thousands of feet below Lime World''s surface, the soil was much more nutrient-rich than that above.


    "To ensure your peace and well-being under our protection," Bath interjected, his dragon form overlayed like a spectral hologram over his human one, "I will relocate this planet''s arrival gate."


    Without further warning, Bath floated over to the gate. Then, he lifted it from the ground as though it were a plastic toy buried in sand: effortlessly.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    ''My long-range manipulation has improved by more than I could have ever guessed,'' Bath thought joyfully as he carried the gate off with him. He currently had his essence wrapped all along the gate and, like he did when flying at high velocities, Bath rapidly shot off particles from these essence tendrils to propel the gate''s movement. The size of these particles, however, was much smaller than those he originally emitted while flying: those had been the size of bullets. These were, to the human eyes, imperceptible.


    Lisa had to work hard to conceal an incoming laugh. ''He literally...just left...through the exact same hole he left the first time.'' This much was obvious from the mismatched metal patches covering the walls and ceiling of the hangar...which Bath had just smashed through.


    Nevertheless, Lisa had business to accomplish. Really important business, actually.


    "What is your name?" she asked, directing her gaze toward the slug-man holding the city-seed.


    The slug-man''s many necklaces jingled as he replied, "Akuh."


    Lisa nodded warmly, then directed Akuh in planting the city-seed. As this occurred, the rest of the slug-men remained paralyzed, clearly unsure what they were supposed to do. Doing nothing, certainly, was safest.


    Unlike Juserin, Akuh was not a kursi, so Lisa didn''t waste time in trying to get him to grow the city-seed out. Instead, she simply let the sapient plant it into the ground--or rather, place it on a platform of metal--as a symbolic gesture. As Lisa activated the modified seed''s growth, she began to address Akuh in earnest.


    "Akuh," she began, "the Dragon and I are gods originating from Earth. The universe is immense, and injustice proliferates throughout."


    Akuh nodded his agreement.


    "When the two of us first arrived, we had never stepped off our Earth before. This was the second planetary stop on our first expedition beyond." Lisa sighed. "We thought that all worlds would be blessed with benevolent gods. Thus, when we came to you in the beginning, we disguised our identities...and our intentions."


    "Of course," Akuh crooned understandingly, clearly pandering.


    "After we returned to Earth, we realized that our duty lies not to that small world...but to all worlds. We believe that you, Akuh, and your people have the power to spread the influence of COTD and bring self-determination to all."


    Akuh jangled his bracelets. "It is an honor."


    Lisa smiled innocently. "Two gifts which you bestowed upon us during our last visit, we believe would greatly aid this endeavor."


    "Yes?"


    "The translators and the data chip."


    Akuh''s shoulders slouched forward to form a hasty demi-bow. "Yes, how could I forget?" He righted his posture before continuing. "We have the facilities necessary for their creation."


    Lisa''s eyes gleamed. "You have won your species great merit."


    ''Thank heaven that these guys can make more translators and data chips,'' Lisa thought in relief. ''Otherwise, things might be a bit difficult.'' After all, while other sapients would understand COTD members through their own translators, such a crucial technological deficit would broadcast Earth''s laughable position on the fringes of civilization. Lepochim had previously demonstrated the difference between conversations where both sides had translators and where one side lacked.


    While not entirely obvious in the beginning, after a few minutes of conversation the reality would make itself known. Conquering the universe would be much easier if worlds didn''t berate their invader-liberators for their backwater technology.


    Moreover, Lisa wanted to exploit the many teaching boons and lone scholar boon Bath had established by distributing data chips and encyclopedia''s throughout Earth. While Lisa had toiled to compile and export data from the data chip to Earth''s computer systems, she found that the formatting of the data itself was extremely complicated, taking up enormous amounts of disk space to display and parse properly.


    Ideally, they could forgo this process by simply giving people data chips. Soon, Lisa figured, information from the encyclopedias would become standard curriculum in schools. In this way, when they visited foreign gates and planets, COTD''s sapients would appear--and genuinely be--well-informed.


    "How many of each do you have currently?" Lisa asked, her calm demeanor completely masking the giddy girl within.


    Akuh''s visor flashed white for a moment. "We have 2,000 data chips and thirteen translators," he reported. "Do understand, this is a small outpost."


    Lisa fingered her jaw contemplatively before asking, "what are your production capabilities?"


    The sapient''s posture straightened. "We can produce 1,000 data chips in one SUC."


    Lisa inclined her head. She knew about SUC, or Standard Universal Cycles, from her encyclopedia-delving with Nevis: One SUC was, approximately 27 Earth days. To Lisa, SUC was effectively synonymous with an Earth month.


    "For translators, we can only produce four-hundred per SUC," Akuh added. "This...I believe it must be insufficient."


    Lisa sighed to herself. She figured that Illudis and other planets would have the capabilities to make data chips and translators, so she wasn''t too concerned. Even so...


    "Why don''t we wait a few days," she stated, a flashing a cooler smile than usual. "The production conditions might have changed."


    ''With the progress humanity has made in basic mechanical engineering and computer science, I have faith some data chip and translator production units can be thrown together,'' Lisa reasoned.


    "Y-yes."


    ---


    Lisa continued to address Dean. "We, your benefactors, will bestow upon all of you a gift. All present have led the advance to new and foreign worlds. Your bravery and drive will make you the first to receive the following advanced technologies." Lisa brandished her arm. As she did so, a stream of translators and data chips emerged in the air like a swarm of insects. "You are to bind these technologies to yourselves."


    As she explained how to activate the chips and translators, Bath directed them to all present in the crowd, whether they be human or quasi-sapient. In actuality, Dean hadn''t counted quasies in the counts of people on the new planets. The crowd by the lake, therefore, currently numbered around 4,000; Bath assumed that, by the time all 7,000 humans arrived, the crowd would number at least 12,000. Nevertheless, they would have enough of translators and data chips, both.


    Even Bath had been pleasantly surprised by the slug-men''s expanded production capabilities. They had taken quickly to the concept of boons, their natural desire for power hierarchies coinciding well with COTD''s mode of operation.


    After fifteen minutes, all present had activated their translators. At Lisa''s urging, all refrained from opening their pre-installed data chip encyclopedias until later. First, humanity needed to meet its first real sapient power...the verdora.

 [Chapter 108] The Identity of the Church; Exploring Illudis; Sunbathing on the Beach

    After distributing the translators and data chips, Lisa felt like she was going to collapse. "Now, continue forward. On the horizon lies Whitesun, the first city-seed on Illudis. There, you will be received by Juserin, leader of the verdora." Having said this, Lisa gave Bath a knowing look. In front of the two thrones spawned an enormous monarch butterfly. As it beat its wings, countless other normal-sized monarchs emerged and took flight. Soon, the entire throne area was covered in a fleet of orange-gold butterflies.


    When the butterflies dissipated, Lisa, Bath, and even the thrones were gone.


    ---


    Bath and Lisa made their swift retreat into the lake, remaining there for a few minutes until the vanguard departed. After Bath sensed that none remained, the two of them emerged from the water: roiling waves of blue streamed off of Lisa''s electromagnetic bubble, while Bath flew out of the water like an arrow, dimpling its surface.


    As Bath looked at Lisa, he compared the figure before him to the woman he saw her become all those years ago, when they were both still children: the differences were glaring. The Lisa of his imaginings had gushed carefree independence and a genuine love of life.


    ''She...is unhappy,'' Bath realized bitterly, perturbed. However, Bath truly had trouble understanding why: he had given Lisa unmatched power and influence. What else could she want? As he looked at her, he began to deeply ponder this question before realizing it might be easier to just...ask.


    "Why are you unhappy?" he asked bluntly, eyes narrowed.


    Lisa flinched as though struck, then turned around to face him. "Unhappy?" she murmured weakly. "Why? Do I seem unhappy?"


    Bath''s words proceeded unrepressed. "Yes. I think...I might know why."


    Lisa''s eyes crinkled as she beheld Bath. ''He looks so serious, like he''s a kid trying to figure out why leaves are green, or the sky is blue.'' Lisa missed this side of him, the one that shone through when they were younger and Bath was still so clueless about the human world.


    "Does this stymie you?" Bath asked, gesturing vaguely to the entire visible area. "Putting on the airs of a goddess?"


    "No," Lisa replied firmly. "I''m fine."


    The corners of Bath''s mouth turned downward. "Lisa, I don''t think you understand COTD''s own message: self-determination. You shackle yourself with this made-up identity of Asil, COTD''s Church."


    Lisa frowned, hair whipping around her face as wind blew off the surface of the lake. "What are you getting at?"


    Bath sighed, his face emanating a feeling of ancientness. "Why are we conquering the universe, Lisa? So you can be unhappy, frozen into the portrait of a goddess?" Bath shook his head in a severe gesture.


    Lisa recoiled slightly, her mouth''s frown transforming into a confused slant. "People won''t follow me, the real me," she insisted. "They''ll follow what they expect: They''ll follow Asil."


    Bath''s face suddenly softened completely, a genuine smile lighting up his features. He floated over to Lisa, then pulled her into a side hug. She snorted, then bopped him lightly on the arm. "What?" she groaned, confounded by his change in demeanor.


    "Is there anything we can''t do?" he asked softly, his voice melding into the wind.


    Lisa''s eyes widened slightly; she repeated, "What," although this time, her voice was small, the question practically dissipating upon contact with the atmosphere beyond her mouth.


    He looked down at her warmly. "Be yourself. Me, I''m naturally a cold, ruthless predator." Lisa looked as though she wanted to argue, though quieted herself. "I am ruthless, unbridled power. What is the Church?"


    "Serenity, patience, generosity" Lisa replied.


    "What is Lisa?"


    She gave him an awkward look. "I don''t know," she answered, a hint of anger in her voice. "What eighteen year old knows who they are?" she muttered dejectedly.


    "Then why limit yourself to what you think the Church should be," Bath murmured, his right arm wrapped solidly around Lisa''s side. He looked down at her, his eyes sparkling with the reflected light of the water below. "...When you have eternity with me to find yourself?


    Her jaw dropped slightly, and her eyes unfocused at his words. "But...then I''ve been going about everything...it''s too late," she finally stated. "I can''t turn back now."


    Bath chuckled. "Listen to yourself. Why do you care what these worms think?"


    Lisa bristled. "Worms? They aren''t--"


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "Fine. But my question still stands: why do you care what they think?" He withdrew his arm, then made a gesture to the sky.


    "Sky''s the limit?" Lisa snorted dismissively.


    "Think," Bath said; as he did, ripples of electricity broke out over the clouds above. Soon, the entire sky above the lake was crackling with electricity. "Higher."


    The electricity flashed and cracked, like a giant whip. Suddenly, everything above was clear; Lisa could see the sky, even a smattering of stars, despite the distant glow of the sun. She looked over at Bath, only to find him gazing intently at the stars beyond, a quiet peace falling over his features.


    "My greatest fear," he muttered softly, "is reaching these heights, only to be lost...and blind. Trapped." He then averted his gaze in a grudging fashion, locking eyes with Lisa. "Isn''t it cruel," he continued, "imprisoning World Devourers, black holes embodied...in black holes?" His eyes gleamed. "Likewise, isn''t it cruel, incarcerating a goddess in a prison of her own--and others''--expectations?"


    Lisa ran her tongue over her dried lips, then swallowed, wishing she had water to wet her mouth. "I suppose," she finally said.


    Bath moved so that he floated in front of Lisa; then, he placed both of his hands on her shoulders, as though he wished to draw her into a formal dance. "So, Asil," he murmured, the seriousness in his features almost...melodramatic, "What now?"


    Before Lisa could respond, Bath grinned devilishly. In a flash, he was in the form of a small dragon, gliding towards the ground. As his feet met ground, his form shifted into that of his white wolf.


    Lisa grinned, her eyes glinting with mirth. She ignited the burners in her feet, using them to accelerate to Bath''s position. She walked over to his side, then placed her hands on his sides. With a trivial exertion of strength, Lisa hopped up onto his back.


    "Let''s see Illudis," Lisa murmured.


    "Hmm?"


    "You asked what next," Lisa chided. "I wanna see Illudis. It''s supposed to be beautiful£¬if the encyclopedia is anything to go by. Though, considering that it was sourced from the verdora...it might be biased."


    Bath sneezed, his snout puckering up. Lisa giggled as she patted his head. Their pace was about that of a car on a highway, allowing them to appreciate the scenery as Bath ran past. Aside from its many lakes and violet grassy fields, Illudis had numerous canyons and cliffs. In these steep rock faces were typically clusters of hundreds of small caves, giving the rocks the semblance of bisected bee-hives. The entire planet''s surface almost seemed to resemble an uneven, cracked piece of concrete: flat, but broken, with different elevation levels throughout.


    "Illusta...the mountain is artificial, isn''t it?" Lisa murmured after their second day roving over the planet. While they had discovered a few mountains--generally the result of volcanic activity--none approached Illusta''s--Whitesun''s--mountain in size. The mountain was, undoubtedly, the tallest structure on the entire planet.


    "I''m still unsure," Bath replied. "It looks natural, and is made out of the same odd rock many canyons are made of...Though it isn''t volcanic in origin."


    Lisa nodded. She hadn''t found anything in the encyclopedia about the mountain''s geological history, but figured Juserin might know.


    As they continued over the surface of the planet, Lisa found that she was much more alert than before, sitting on her temporary throne. Then, the sun had felt like an oven, the many verdora who came to see them inconveniences to sort out. She''d dismissed these kinds of thoughts from her mind, but in reality, they were still there.


    Now, on Bath''s back, traveling through this new, beautiful world...she felt a sense of contentment. The sun was now a beautiful lamp illuminating the landscape, as though the world of Illudis deserved--demanded--to be seen.


    "Bath," Lisa muttered, "maybe we should try slowing this universe conquering thing down a bit."


    ¡°Enjoy the scenery, stop to smell the flowers?"


    Lisa cracked a grin, observing as a herd of Illudian grazers munched on a blue-violet heather look-alike. Like most of Illudis'' animals, the grazers had six legs. Each leg ended with thick, rugged pads that were nearly as hard as hooves. Instead of the two maws of the verdora, the grazers appeared to have two upper faces, with a second pair of eyes and ears on the back of the head symmetric with eyes and ears on the front. They had one, enormous, sideways-oriented mouth that hinged open and low to the ground, snapping shut like twin scythes to collect the heather.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Bath, too, appreciated this slow trek around Illudis: while he had already devoured essentially all of Illudis'' extant lifeforms, he hadn''t spent any time viewing their behavioral patterns. While on Earth, he had all the time in the world to observe the behavioral patterns of everything from single-celled organisms to dinosaurs. Sometimes, he even took on the guises of certain, more interesting lifeforms. He only began to demonstrate this behavior in the past hundred million years; before that, he hadn''t seen any point, limited by his own intelligence and primitive desires.


    Whenever he engaged in this practice, he always came away with a better knowledge of the species in question. While he wasn''t taking on the appearance of one of Illudis'' wildlife, observing its species was still an excellent way to increase his knowledge base.


    "Sure," he replied, "we can take our time."


    "Great!"


    "...Only until you get bored," Bath sniggered. "A thousand years from now--"


    Lisa gave Bath a swift karate chop to the neck, interrupting his speech. Bath whined, as though injured. "You''re such a little drama queen," Lisa grumbled. "Who woulda thought?"


    Bath let his tongue loll out of his mouth, tasting the air as it ran over his taste buds, enhancing his already superior sense of smell. "You smell the air?" he asked expectantly.


    "It smells like...salt," Lisa replied, sniffing. "Have we finally found an ocean?"


    Bath picked up his pace, following the scent of salt until...


    "Wow," Lisa exclaimed as Bath emerged from a patch of foliage, his inertia nearly teetering them off the edge of a cliff. "It''s beautiful."


    A strikingly green ocean lay before them, its waves crashing on a gray, fine-grained, sandy beach. The entire waterfront was teeming with verdora attired in thin, evidently water-proof robes that almost matched the conservativeness of their standard clothes. Instead of the long, drape-like, closed sleeves of typical verdora clothes, these bathing suits had skin-tight arms that, surprisingly, revealed the verdora''s large, padded hands to the elements. Their faces were covered by goggles that, unsurprisingly, included drapes covering both maws.


    The bathing suits were beautiful, each made of a different, elegantly-patterned cloth. Lisa and Bath watched them from the isolated cliff. When they had roved around previously, Bath had avoided populated areas, namely the planet''s up-start city-seeds. Actually, in his initial sweep of the planet, he had missed this stretch of coast entirely, and thus hadn''t known to avoid it.


    Seeing Lisa''s awestruck, beaming face, he was happy they''d come.


    "I''ve never really seen baby verdora," she laughed, squinting her eyes. "They''re so small; they look like little ghosts with those bathing suit draped over them like sheets." The babies, lacking the coordination of their parents, ran around on six legs instead of the two expected of polite company. Because of the nature of their suits, they often tripped and fell into the water, only to raise their heads above the surface. As they did, they snorted sea water, flipping their veils unceremoniously over their goggles. Blinded, they would often whine in terror, only to fall back under the waves and repeat the process until their parents'' intervention.


    "These suits are design disasters," Lisa observed, giggling at the expense of the verdora babies and flustered parents. "You''d think they would''ve given up by now on propriety...especially when at the beach." People certainly had in most countries on Earth.


    Bath waved his tail. "There''s a certain charm to the suits."


    "Yup, it''s somewhat admirable to see all these sapients vastly complicating the act of swimming and sunbathing," Lisa noted, "if the latter is even possible."


    Bath snorted. "I didn''t pay attention to human societies for most of their existence," he began, "but humans have had some disastrously inconvenient fashion trends."


    Lisa''s laughing only increased. "Fair, fair." Corsets immediately came to mind...followed by foot-binding; recalling the grotesque process of breaking a woman''s foot and reshaping it sobered her mood. She cleared her throat. "Still...Nothing beats going to the beach in a bikini and sunbathing."


    "Want to go?"


    "Wait, what?" Lisa squawked, drawn out of her temporary melancholy.


    "Down to the beach, now." Bath waggled his shoulders, rocking Lisa back and forth. "What''s the point of being a deity if you can''t do whatever you want?" Bath asked.


    "But..." Lisa looked down at the beach in horror. She couldn''t even fathom what they would think if she and Bath showed up and started sunbathing. However, considering their conversation from a few days ago that sparked this entire planet-wide trek...


    Lisa sighed as she recalled the question that started it all: ''Why do you care what they think?''


    Why did she? ''Because!'' the naturally insecure teenage part of her blustered. ''Because...they''re going to be judging you! Looking at you like you''re the weirdest goddess they''ve ever seen! Thinking that you must be an imposter!''


    She closed her eyes, as though placing a dark curtain over all her misgivings. As she opened them again, she huffed once, then assented: "Fine. But only if you sunbathe with me!"


    Bath let out a small, wolfish howl of agreement. He shrugged his shoulders, giving Lisa the hint to dismount. She swung her legs off, landing gracefully on the cliff. Bath morphed into his human self, though instead of wearing his typical COTD uniform...he donned a pair of American-style swim trunks.


    Lisa had seen him in a bathing suit before, but not since they started realizing the Big WD. She found this unprofessional side of Bath extremely refreshing, having only seen him recently without his uniform when in one of his non-human forms.


    She looked down, surprised to see that she, too, was now wearing a bikini perfectly mirroring that of the last swimsuit she wore in Bath''s presence: yellow, with navy polka dots.


    "Ready?" he asked, grinning deviously. Lisa took his outstretched hand and followed him as he descended the cliff in long strides, sliding down the cliff''s steep incline when they lacked adequate footholds. They reached the base of the cliff in under a minute; from there, they walked to the coast, relishing the feel of sand and reedy purple grass under their feet.


    They didn''t say anything, not bothering to announce their presence. They simply walked into the crowd of startled verdora like loud, touristy Americans on vacation, laughing and reminiscing about life on Earth. Lisa, in particular, thought Bath''s stories about people''s discontentment with his dragonleaf toiletries hilarious.


    The verdora present no doubt recognized the duo: all verdora were aware of the recent COTD takeover. However, in reality, most verdora hadn''t realized exactly what COTD conquering their planet meant. Like Juserin, they couldn''t fathom what these...deities were.


    Whatever information or impression they''d had about COTD''s Church and Dragon was, of course, turned on its head by the duo''s arrival on the beach. The verdora present, lacking any kind of precedent for what was happening, initially watched Lisa and Bath in wonder and shock.


    Bath pulled a towel out of thin air, spreading it onto the sand. Lisa, extremely aware of the awkwardness following their arrival on the beach, self-consciously lay down on the towel. She closed her eyes, though found that she was unable to relax with the unnatural silence of the beach front. She heard Bath set up his own towel next to her and lay down, the gray, white-flecked sand shifting under his human form.


    To Lisa''s relief, after a few minutes of palpable silent uncertainty, the verdora children broke free of their parents and rushed toward the water, tripping over sand on their way. This reanimated the adults into action as they chased their kids down, the arrival of Lisa and Bath seemingly forgotten.


    After twenty minutes, as before, the sounds of the beach rebounded with life and conversation.


    "See?" Bath murmured after a time, "we can do whatever we want."


    Lisa tsked, pushing up her Bath-fabricated sunglasses. "We''re the center of practically every conversation," she retorted. "We can''t do whatever we want without making a stir," she corrected.


    Bath smiled at the sky, his eyes, like Lisa''s, closed. When he and Lisa first resolved to go on their tour of Illudis, he had withdrawn all of his essence into himself. Now, his human skin, human body...was all he had to sense the world.


    "Good thing," he continued, "we don''t care what they think."


    Lisa sighed, wiggling her toes against the sand. "Good thing." She turned her head to the side against her towel, frowning. ''If only.''

 [Chapter 109] Flight Over Illudis; Troubleshooting; Awakened Hunger

    After spending some time on the beach, Lisa and Bath continued on their tour of Illudis. Bath originally suggested that they swim in the water a bit, to which Lisa adamantly refused. Sunbathing alone was more than enough, she thought scathingly. We''d probably scare the verdora babies to death.


    After an additional day of travel, the two decided to return to Whitesun. This time, instead of passing by the landscape at a steady, slow lope, the duo took to the skies and flew over.


    "Seeing everything from above..." Lisa began, trailing off.


    "It''s beautiful, isn''t it?" Bath said, finishing her words.


    "Yeah."


    "You know," Bath began, "when I first assumed the form of a human, I had this..." Bath snorted, shaking his head, "absurd misconception that I couldn''t change my form."


    Lisa laughed. "Really? That''s so stupid."


    "Anyways, when we were in grade school, it dawned on me that I didn''t need to confine myself to a human body 24/7."


    "Mhm," Lisa intoned.


    "Do you know what the first creature I turned into was?" He glanced at her expectantly.


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "Well, let''s see: what started this entire train of thought?" She look off to the right. "We were essentially talking about how a bird''s eye view is awesome." She looked pointedly to the left. "Therefore, the only conclusion that I can draw..." Now she looked directly at Bath, "is that the first creature you turned into after assuming the form of a human is none other than a glittering, pink pegasus."


    Bath''s eyes crinkled. "Very astute," he replied, a sagely expression on his face.


    Lisa struggled not to laugh, but failed, a snort-laugh escaping her carefully-composed features.


    The time passed quickly; soon, Whitesun was on the horizon.


    "What the hell happened to it?" Lisa asked, voice filled with awe.


    "They were quick to emulate the city-seed I left for them on Gray Land," Bath noted. He turned his head toward Lisa. "Do you remember how it looked?"


    Lisa nodded. "You''re right. But...how? That isn''t dragonleaf."


    Bath shrugged, flashing Lisa a lop-sided smile. "Evidently through technological means."


    The marvel at the center of their attention was the giant, spiraling tower wrapping snake-like around the mountain. It looked as though someone had taken the Spire from Gray Land''s city-seed, stretched it out, and bent it into a spiral shape. After the first few hundred feet, the mountain narrowed out enough to form the center of what appeared to be a continguous glass structure: as the spiraling Spire wrapped around the narrowed mountaintop, it looked like a seamless whole.


    "We''ve been gone three days," Lisa muttered in disbelief. "How?"


    "Why don''t we go and ask?" Bath replied, eyebrows pulled up in curiosity. "Dean will know."


    Lisa and Bath swiftly approached the city without announcing their arrival; Bath sent out his essence for the first time in days. After abstaining from doing so for such a long time, he realized...Filling up the entirety of my 3.6 mile range of influence...he flexed his jaw, makes me...hungry.


    The increase in hunger was barely perceptible. However, it got Bath thinking: Why? His essence was his essence, himself. Why would reforming himself into tiny, linked, mist-like microorganisms and sending them out...make him hungry?


    Bath''s face grew severe. Organisms become hungry when they lack energy, he noted, though this isn''t the case with myself. My hunger...never dissipates, only lessening when I devour all new organisms I come across. His knuckles turned white.


    Or maybe, he thought, cocking his head slowly to the side, maybe...this isn''t typical. Maybe there''s an organism here, one I cannot sense...or that I can only, just barely sense through proximity. His eyes suddenly flashed.


    "Lisa," he murmured, snapping out of his reverie. He stopped moving; startled, Lisa looked back, already hundreds of feet ahead. She arced around, eventually coming to face him in the air.


    "Something wrong?" she asked, eyes squinted against the sun.


    "Remember how you wondered at the origin of this mountain?" Bath asked, face devoid of emotion.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "Yeah," Lisa replied. "Hold on; you have a theory?"


    Bath sighed. "Not really. I think...there might be something beneath the mountain."


    Lisa''s eyebrows rose up. "Huh?" She pivoted to face the mountain''s white majesty. "Beneath the mountain?"


    Bath described to Lisa the small increase in hunger he felt when spreading his essence over the mountain. "I''ve never felt this before, just spreading my essence out."


    "Well, why don''t we troubleshoot what''s going on?" Lisa offered. "Internalize all your essence into yourself like before, then go...oh, several miles away. We''ll see if it''s you, or the mountain."


    Bath blinked. "Oh."


    "Pfft, you''re so helpless." She blinked her eyelashes rapidly, giving Bath a dazzling smile.


    "And you''re hopeless," he muttered back, mouth quirking up.


    The two of them rocketed away, back towards the direction they came in. After traveling more than twenty miles, they stopped, hovering in the air. "Okay; now," Lisa ordered, giving Bath an expectant look.


    He nodded. In an instant, his essence was flowing outward like an invisible torrent of water. "You''re right," he said, looking back toward Lisa. "This was an excellent idea."


    "So, what''s the verdict?" she asked, voice elevated with anticipation.


    He grabbed her hand before shooting off toward Whitesun. "There''s something beneath Whitesun."


    Lisa nodded her head, unable to talk with the wind whipping into her face at speeds exceeding terminal falling velocity. Despite her many enhancements, she still felt like her arm would snap off if Bath made any sharp turns. Thankfully, their path to Whitesun was straight.


    Without warning, Bath stopped; Lisa shot forward ahead of him several hundred feet before using her magnetic sense to counteract her movement forward. She turned back, shooting Bath an accusatory glare.


    "Well, that''s one way to arrive," she grumbled, patting her head to make sure her hair wasn''t a mess. "The wind felt like it was trying to tear my clothes off." This was largely due to the fact that Lisa''s dress tapered at the bottom, catching the wind at several points.


    "It does worse to my cape," Bath rebutted, "and it''s still on my back."


    "Whatever," Lisa sighed. "So, what''s the plan? Maybe we should ask Juserin first like we originally planned, see if he knows anything."


    "Eh, I doubt he knows," Bath said dismissively.


    Lisa groaned and rolled her eyes. "You''re just like my dad when we need to stop and ask for directions..."


    Bath ignored her. "What do you think would happen," he murmured, "if I just...dig down?"


    "We could also ask any jerboa the humans brought along," Lisa reasoned.


    Bath''s eyes flashed. "Good point."


    Lisa smiled in self-satisfaction. Bath simply formed an avatar of himself next to what appeared to be Whitesun''s jerboa headquarters.


    "Virigard," Bath called out, unsurprised to see Dean''s companion on Illudis. "A word."


    Virigard squeaked, startled, her elongated teeth snapping together like a noise-maker. "Of course, Creator." She swished her tail and bowed forward.


    "Is there anything peculiar about this mountain?" he asked, exuding an air of absolute authority, such that even the air seemed to still around him.


    Virigard snapped to attention. "After several thousand or so feet of digging into the mountain, the rock becomes...spongy."


    Bath''s pupils dilated. "Spongy?"


    "It''s terrible for digging," Virigard complained. "It closes up and stuff. I was gonna tell Dean about it eventually," she said, a guilty expression on her face.


    "Do you have any tunnels leading to this spongy rock?" Bath asked.


    Virigard nodded happily, her expression brightening. "Yup!"


    Bath smiled icily. "Excellent. Lead the way."


    At the same time, Bath grabbed Lisa by the hand again. "Follow," he urged, flying toward the location of his essence clone and Virigard.


    "See? What''d I tell you?" Lisa said triumphantly. "Sometimes it''s easier to ask for help, even if you''re...well, you." Part of her felt strangely elated that Bath wasn''t as omnipotent as he sometimes seemed.


    "Yeah, yeah," he murmured softly, his attentions focused on the tunnel that he and Virigard were moving through. After around thirty seconds of flying, he and Lisa entered the tunnel and caught up with Virigard. Bath released his grip on Lisa, then destroyed his clone. Concurrently, Lisa flared a small flame in her left palm, illuminating the cavern in a dim light.


    "What!?" Virigard suddenly cheeped, freaked out by the spontaneous disappearance of her Creator. Hearing the approach of two individuals behind her, she spun around. A sense of relief pulsed through her.


    "Oh," she said, straightening up. "Chur--Asil." In this moment, she realized that Bath must have simply moved so quickly from his position at her side that she''d thought he had disappeared.


    "Hello, Virigard," Lisa beamed. This jerboa is the luckiest little quasi alive, Lisa noted. Being Dean''s companion is a huge blessing. How else would both Lisa and Bath know Virigard''s name?


    "Your Radiance," Virigard stated, bowing ceremoniously.


    Bath snorted. "You didn''t give me that kind of treatment."


    Virigard gave him a wide-eyes, innocent stare. "But you''re the Creator," she murmured.


    "You''re like her father," Lisa chuckled. "I''m her aunt; with that in mind, her behavior is entirely appropriate."


    Bath gave them both a deadpan expression. "Fine. Virigard, we should be approaching the spongy rock, correct?"


    "Yeah." She bounded forward, her long legs propelling her through the already-erected tunnels at a blistering pace.


    After traveling another thousand feet, Bath''s eyes suddenly grew wide, and his mouth began to salivate. Despite the darkness of the tunnel, Lisa noticed the change in Bath''s demeanor immediately.


    "What''s here?" she asked, eyes alert.


    Bath didn''t reply immediately. "It''s...enormous," he breathed.


    "What?" Lisa repeated, slightly annoyed at Bath''s lackluster description. "What is it?"


    He didn''t respond until they reached the end of the tunnel. He placed his hand upon the spongy rock at its terminus, inhaling deeply.


    "It''s like...a giant tumor," he said at last. "At least, that''s what this wall smells like." Without any warning, he transformed into a worm with a giant, tooth-lined maw. He began to burrow immediately into the spongy wall. After a few seconds, Lisa and Virigard completely lost sight of him, the only sign of his passage being the hole he left behind.


    "..." Lisa looked at the hole in disbelief before turning to Virigard. The two of them shared a moment of silence.


    "Well," Virigard said, breaking the silence, "the Creator looks like he''s busy. Wanna have some rum coke?"

 [Chapter 110] Burrowing Through the Cortex; Juserins Verdora Legacy

    Lisa let out an exasperated groan. "What the actual hell?" Bath!?


    "Just don''t worry about it! Drink to forget, right?"


    Lisa gave Virigard''s small, seemingly innocent form a once over before directing her vision back towards the gaping hole in the wall. I can''t believe he just...Lisa struggled to express her thoughts. Her mouth twisted into a scowl. Why am I even worrying? she wondered, somewhat confused by a growing sense of uncertainty in her stomach.


    "Virigard," she began, "let''s go see Juserin."


    "Alright," the jerboa sniffed. She then grumbled something unintelligible like, "only Dean...rum coke..." as she bounded forward. Lisa followed swiftly behind as they traversed the tunnel, edging up on a different path at a fork in the passageway.


    At the same time...


    This isn''t it, Bath thought ravenously. It''s like a dead husk, a mindless mass of semi-inert matter...though I''m getting closer. He could smell it, taste it...sense it. If he were a shark, this was the equivalent of blood in the water. What...what is this?


    Part of Bath couldn''t believe that something capable of producing a mountain''s worth of spongy, rock-like tissue actually existed: No living organisms on Illudis indicated that such a thing was possible. All creatures on Illudis ranged within the same bounds as creatures on Earth, unsurprising considering the ecological conditions of both planets were extremely similar.


    And yet...here this behemoth lay, dormant beneath Whitesun. How long has it existed? Bath wondered, continuing to marvel at the depth he was traveling through the spongy mantle. Considering how long trees live...and how large they grow on Earth, when exposed to the sun and proper nutrients...this is on the order of millions of years, he realized, his entire being quivering with anticipation. He vaulted forward, his nightmarish mouth tearing a slick path downward, downward...


    Abruptly, his teeth met with something more akin to rubber then stone, tearing through the softer material like paper. In a blink, he was deep into this new substrate, his essence seeping out of his writhing worm''s body in an attempt to breach the new material around him and sink his metaphorical essence fangs--


    Unlike the spongy rock of the cortex he''d previously traveled through, this material...was growing back.


    And pushing inward.


    What...Bath snarled, changing his form so that his segmented body shot out numerous arms, each covered in rotating, toothy-maws. His speed suffered slightly, but he also left a far greater dent in the surrounding flesh. Essence...isn''t effective here. Indeed, Bath normally wafted his essence into other creatures or around physical constructs as a gas; however, in this environment, the tactic failed miserably, the rubbery surface surrounding him remarkably nonporous.


    When this failed, his normal course of action was to jab essence tendrils, creating a puncture that he could then proliferate his essence through like a liquid. However, this, too, failed: only the rotating, buzz-saw motion of jagged teeth on flesh proved effective at tearing the rubbery surface.


    The logical solution was, of course, to simply form his essence into mini buzz-saw blades of doom...but in the small space of the tunnel, there was simply no room for them to take form...altering his form to produce spinning mouth blades was, on the other hand, a viable option, and the one he chose.


    Maybe I should''ve talked to Juserin first, Bath realized, daunted by the sheer size and difficulty with which he was progressing through this rubbery layer. I''m still a ways off...from whatever it is that''s awakened my hunger.


    As Bath traveled deeper, his hunger continued to increase. At this point, it was worse than when he first entered the Ritus mansion and was confronted with the presence of hundreds of new animal species, all from different evolutionary backgrounds...their newness intoxicating.


    As he continued, he became increasingly wary of the encroaching matter around him: it flexed and seemed to bounce into him, as though trying to crush him or slow his progression. At times, he felt like a morsel of meat traveling down a mammalian esophagus, the rubbery surroundings contracting against him with unrelenting force.


    If the worm had a face, it would have shone gleeful as it broke through the rubbery layer and entered what could only be described as the core...fleshy, bloody, delicious. Bath''s body distended like a tick; instead of simply burrowing forward, eating as he went, he encompassed that which he devoured within himself. In seconds, he had the semblance of a grotesquely segmented blimp, his spinning jaws no longer needed to rip and tear.


    It''s absolutely delicious...he cooed to himself, lost in his ecstasy. How long will I be able to feed like this? he wondered, a million maws smiling over his expanded flesh. Long, slimy tongues licked out like tentacles, spearing forward like bedeviled snakes. A long, long time...


    ---If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Lisa and Virigard arrived at Juserin''s house; while renovated by the city-seed''s dragonleaf, it was clearly the same place. Lisa almost knocked at the door, before realizing that a goddess would never do something like that.


    Just as she was about to barge in unannounced, she paused.


    Isn''t that the point? she thought to herself. I should just be myself: screw trying too hard to be a goddess.


    And so, Lisa knocked, three loud, obnoxious thunks on the outside of Juserin''s reinforced estate door. Virigard shot Lisa a complex look, to which she graced a lone eyebrow-raise.


    "Yes?"


    "Her Radiance Asil the Church is here!" Virigard blurted out, her tail waving back and forth.


    Lisa heard the frantic sound of feet thrumming on woody ground. The door opened; in the entryway, Juserin somehow managed to both swing the door open and bow with his legs bent on the ground.


    "Radiance," Juserin said, his voice clear. Lisa could sense many more servants around him, their shells all visible through the walls of the abode. They, too, were bowed in supplication, though unlike Juserin, all of their limbs were prostrate on the ground; their foreheads, too, made contact with the floor, their mouth-veils falling to the floor to reveal their dual maws.


    Lisa waved a hand dismissively, then walked forward into the house, nearly causing Juserin to fall over himself as he scuttled backward on his knees. The robe certainly didn''t help matters, only causing him to slip across the smooth floor.


    "Do you have anything to eat?" she asked, walking towards Juserin''s living room. The entire house looked suspiciously unchanged, though Lisa credited this with the original''s semblance to a military bunker. I guess the dragonleaf had trouble penetrating the walls and floor, she thought. However, the estate hadn''t been impervious to dragonleaf by any means, and garlands of twining crimson and gold wound around the interior of the house. However, unlike in other abodes where dragonleaf had a more...complete transformative effect, these vines and fronds seemed almost superficial, temporary.


    "Aorun, Pilfam, Deliah," Juserin said after a moment, as though snapping out of a shocked stupor. "Prepare her Radiance something to eat." He turned back to Lisa, following her out to the living room area where he put his finest, most antique furniture on display.


    She wouldn''t set this room on fire...would she? he wondered, a trace of dire fear in his countenance. Not the Isbosm paintings, he murmured to himself, already preparing himself to mourn the loss of his painstakingly-collected treasures. As he looked at Lisa''s smiling face, he saw them blacken in the gleaming fire of her eyes.


    "Hey, you okay?" she asked, plopping down onto one of Lepochim''s cushion-couches.


    "Ah, yes," he muttered. That''s new...he lamented, keeping close attention to Lisa''s hands and feet, where he knew she started those...blasted fires.


    "No seriously, is there something wrong?"


    Well, if she insists..."You aren''t going to set anything on fire, are you?"


    Lisa''s lower lids rose up as he mouth flattened out, giving her the semblance of a confused frog...a perfect, godly frog, at that. "What?"


    "You destroyed several antique paintings in my entryway when you..." Juserin visibly shuddered, as though reliving an viscerally traumatic experience.


    Seriously? Lisa thought, not for the first time in the past few minutes. I thought Juserin was normal!?


    "Sorry," she replied, features regaining their composure. "That wasn''t intentional." She coughed, then proceeded on: "I did come here to ask about something."


    "Oh?"


    "Is there...anything beneath the mountain?" She kicked her foot downward into the plush carpet beneath the pillow-couch. "This mountain."


    Juserin''s eyes began to bug out. "Of course."


    "Wait, what?" Bath, Lisa tsked knowingly, Juserin did have info; look who''s right, as usual: moi.


    "It''s an heirloom, passed down for countless years by the kursi that proceeded me," Juserin explained. As he explained, his poise returned, leaving Lisa with the Juserin of expectations rather than the fearful...art connoisseur? Antique collector?


    "It''s an heirloom?" she asked, shaking her head slightly. "But...is there something alive, beneath the mountain?"


    Juserin cocked his head. "Like I said, it''s an heirloom."


    Translation error? "Can you elaborate?"


    Are deities supposed to be so...polite? Juserin wondered. Then again, if she truly is as powerful as I''ve been led to believe...I can''t fault her for not caring how this looks. If Juserin was to show such deference to his underlings around any company of note, he''d surely lose face.


    "Beneath the mountain," Juserin began without hesitation, "is a secret, ancient trap." He brushed his robes. "You don''t have to pay it any mind. I''m surprised you even asked about it--though I can''t say I''m unsurprised you detected it. It is rather enormous, or so I would assume."


    Lisa''s skin turned clammy. Why would they..."It''s a trap for something native to Illudis, or something else...?"


    Juserin sighed. Does she really not know? Then again, she comes from that unfortunately...he self censored his thoughts before continuing. That unfortunately unenlightened Earth. "Do humans fear anything on their planet, aside from one another?" Juserin asked, giving Lisa a pointed look.


    "...No, I suppose not," Lisa replied. "So what is the trap for, then? How does it work?" Why put a trap under a mountain? That sounds like the most unintuitive strategy I''ve ever heard of.


    Juserin snorted. "It''s the shame of all who have previously held my station." He shook his head. "Long ago, perhaps twenty thousand years past, one of us invested all our accumulated wealth on the trap." he growled this last word. "Granted, back then, I hear the threat was far more pressing, even near the fringes of the Intermediary Strand, but still..." he rambled, looking off into the distance. Lisa tapped her foot, snapping Juserin back into focus. "It''s a trap for the Doom," Juserin said, though he hushed the last word, as though it were forbidden, his expression grim.


    The Doom? Lisa thought, twisting the word around in her mind. The Doom...I''ve never heard of such a thing. Suddenly, something clicked in Lisa''s mind: she recalled something she''d read just a few weeks back. ''...They go by many names,'' Lisa mouthed, recalling the encyclopedia passage, ''as they have existed as long as recorded history, and have been forgotten, only to reawaken remembrance with absolute carnage. They have been called Catastrophe; it is correct, in most worlds, to actually use this word as a measure word. For instance: "A Catastrophe of Dooms." This is the redundant, if not common euphemism used in many core worlds where their presence is more common. Everywhere else, they are usually referred to simply as Black Holes, or...''


    She clenched her jaw. When she spoke, her voice was low and quiet, foreboding. "Don''t tell me...the trap is for Devourers?"

 [Chapter 111] The Nature of the Trap; Testing the Shell; Lisas Determination

    "Isn''t it silly?" Juserin said, sighing once again, his face downcast.


    "But..." Lisa fingered her jaw. "Why is the trap under this mountain?" Bath could barely discern that something was present, Lisa recalled. Why would any World Devourers on rampage even think to look under the mountain, instead of just...eating everything else?


    Juserin took in a deep breath, then exhaled, as though trying to control his temper. "Why, indeed," he replied scathingly. "See, the trap my great forefather, Juserin the twenty-ninth, purchased had an expiration date." He began to slowly pace, working his way in a square around the carpet. "He bought the cheapest trap possible, you understand. Back then, Illudis was less advanced than it is now, less prosperous. However, Juserin the twenty-ninth decided to invest all our holdings on a defense against the only threat that could, foreseeably, spell this planet''s demise. ''Twenty-thousand years,'' he said. ''We''ll be rich by then,'' he said."


    Lisa watched, face filled with pity as Juserin''s countenance grew increasingly unsightly. Wish I brought popcorn.


    "Unfortunately for him, Illudis'' utterly unstrategic position never lent itself well to accumulating wealth. Actually, if you ask any experts--"


    Lisa cleared her throat impatiently. "So the trap was supposed to last for twenty-thousand years...but it''s been fifty-thousand years since Juserin the twenty-ninth bought the trap, correct?"


    Juserin nodded sharply.


    "How was the trap originally supposed to work?" Lisa asked, radiating an air of intensity.


    "It was simple," Juserin replied dryly. "Just a simple tortus. Or is it fungoise?"


    Lisa looked at him blankly. Tortoise? Fungus? "A what?" Translation error again!?


    Juserin''s eyes swiveled to meet her own. "Oh, you really have no idea," he sighed. "Let me show you." He walked over, pulling up his chip reader for her to see. On it were a host of applications and functions that Lisa didn''t recognize, though one was familiar: the encyclopedia.


    He entered something in, his fingers moving painstakingly over the chip reader''s holographic touch interface through the fabric of his robes. "Ah, here it is," he said after a time. He nudged the hologram, expanding it before Lisa''s eyes.


    She grimaced. That is so disgusting, she thought, recoiling. It''s like a month-dead bloated tortoise...without legs...Why does it look like its rotting everywhere, especially that nasty shell?


    Lisa gasped as she realized what Juserin had been saying: in Juserin''s language, apparently the "trap" was the equivalent of a liger, or another cross-breed species. Based on appearance alone, it really did look to be the demonic cross between a tortoise and a fungus. I wonder what its name actually is, Lisa mused, because while this thing kinda looks like a tortus, it really just looks like a biological nightmare.


    "So that''s it? The trap?" Lisa asked, voice betraying her own incredulity. "And that''s under this mountain?" And Bath''s burrowing into it like it''s an ice cream sundae, she thought tragically. Of course, she was completely unaware of Bath''s current, equally disturbing leech x buzz-saw-mouth form.


    Juserin folded his arms in his robe, nudging his mouth veil. "After twenty-thousand years or so, the shell...it begins to harden." He said this as though it was the complete explanation to Lisa''s question.


    Lisa, on the other hand, just narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "Hold on. Why is it a trap in the first place?"


    Juserin looked at her dumbly. "What do fungi do?" he asked.


    Are fungi a class of organisms recognized throughout the universe? Lisa wondered. Or, is the translator taking the liberty to simplify species naming so that I more easily understand? Lisa couldn''t fault it for doing so, if that was the case.


    "Well," she began, "they decompose organic matter."


    "Torti decompose rock," Juserin explained, "among other things. In the wild, on some no-doubt gargantuan mega planet I''ve forgotten the name of, they just sit, anchor themselves into the ground, and feed."


    Lisa nodded slowly, piecing together the puzzle. "So, these torti must heal extremely fast, as they can pull in more rock to repair themselves."


    "Yes, and No. Yes, they heal extremely fast. No, it isn''t because they internalize rock; it''s because they...well actually, if you consider the energy released from breaking them down in the magma stomach--"


    "So they heal really fast, and are really big, and have very tough flesh," Lisa summarized. "This trap will catch World Devourers...how?" I''m convinced no matter how big or tough, Bath would eat this ''trap'' for breakfast.


    "Honestly, I''m unsure," Juserin admitted. "The trap is useless. Truly, the only good thing to come from Juserin the twenty-ninth was this mountain."


    Before Lisa could respond, a crack! resounded through the area. The ground shuddered, as though someone had kicked the mountain and the mountain''s reflex was to kick back (though with a notable delay). Lisa, seated on the pillow-couch, was fine, while Juserin had to readjust his feet to stay vertical, relying on his second set of arms to assist his dedicated legs.


    "Is this normal?" Juserin asked, not at all concerned. "Is the dragonleaf doing something?"


    What the actual fuck is he doing!? Lisa seethed internally. To Juserin, she smiled radiantly and nodded. "It''s nothing to worry about. Thank you for the information: it''s been informative."


    "A pleasure, of course," Juserin said graciously.


    Lisa abruptly leapt off the couch and exited the estate, heading towards the opening Bath originally left in the spongy-walled tunnel.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Back in his living room, Juserin shook his head in wonderment. "Deities are very difficult to understand," he muttered. Just then, his servants delivered a savory appetizer, floating it over atop a hover dish. "The first thing she did when she came here was demand food," he murmured, recalling her domineering entrance. He exhaled a puff of air, then shook his shoulders. "And then she asked about an entity under the mountain when we had more important things to discuss. No matter: who am I to question her Radiance Asil''s actions?" However, the politically savvy side of Juserin filed away this encounter for future analysis; as always, he''d recorded the whole thing.


    ---


    Lisa landed at the end of the tunnel; she stuck out her hand, using it as a source of light. Her eyebrows turned inward as her mouth curved down. "The tortus has already healed the damage," she hissed under her breath. She slammed her fist into the spongy dead-end of the tunnel, splitting one of her knuckles. She gritted her teeth.


    However, there''s still something I''m forgetting, Lisa realized. She stretched out her injured hand, watching as the line of blood stitched up into unbroken flesh. She closed her fingers slowly, contemplatively. I can find him. If I get close enough.


    Lisa frowned, concentrating. I haven''t recently tested how far my range is. She knew that, before COTD, her detection range was under a thousand feet. Her manipulation range was within fifty feet of herself. If she wanted to influence entire crowds, however, this meant that the closest member of the crowd had to be within twenty feet of her person; in general, it wasn''t a huge limitation.


    Since COTD, she hadn''t done very much non-crowd manipulation; as a result, she hadn''t needed to test her range to its utmost limit.


    And to find Bath, I only need him to be within my range of detection. Besides, I can''t manipulate his shell anyway.


    And so, Lisa pushed out.


    And out.


    And out.


    "Holy fucking shit," she hissed. "What the fuck!?" Three miles, and still going...


    She was almost hesitant to keep expanding her shell outward. This was way too much of a jump...who the hell went from under a thousand feet to over three miles in just a few months?


    I need to talk to Lepochim, she thought, wishing the sour deepthink had come with them to Illudis. The annoying alien had insisted on staying behind until they "actually decided to leave this abysmal wasteland," by which he had meant the string of gates leading away and to Earth.


    Lisa continued to expand her shell outward until she was unable to go further. It''s almost the entire width of the city, she noted. The city is about seventeen miles from end to end. I''m able to cover around two-thirds of that distance, so I''d guess my shell is about...11, 12 miles long? That gives me a radius of around 6 miles.


    "Well, shit," she said, beginning to chuckle nervously. "And my range of manipulation is likely a tenth of that. So what, point six miles?" She did the conversion in her head from miles to meters. "Man; that''s almost exactly one kilometer."


    She shook her head. "Is this how powerful kursi get after a few decades?" she wondered. Nevertheless, when she''d tested her range, she''d been expanding horizontally outward, as was normal: most entities she''d want to mind-touch would be parallel with her, on the ground. Her shell''s influence didn''t function like Bath''s: instead of a sphere, her influence was a cylinder, with a height equivalent to her own.


    She was already in the jerboa tunnel a thousand or so feet from the surface. Thank god, she thought to herself. No verdora kursi--akaJuserin--were able to feel me expanding out my shell. She didn''t know what Juserin would think of it--he knew that Lisa had a shell, obviously, and that she could manipulate it like a kursi. After all, she''d given him a freaking lesson on their way back to Earth.


    In addition, Bath''s shell was extremely bizarre, what with it looking like a hole in reality. Perhaps Juserin just thinks that deities have kursi symbiotes, too, albeit strange ones. I suppose that would make sense.


    So, in theory, Juserin shouldn''t think anything of Lisa expanding out her shell...but she wasn''t so sure. I really, really need to speak with Lepochim. She sighed in resignation.


    Nevertheless, she figured that restricting her range of manipulation to a semi-circle and rotating it out was easy; the process reminded Lisa of taking the integral of a sphere. All I have to do is send my shell out and around, almost like I''m drawing a half-sphere. She''d never done such a thing before, but she had no doubt in her ability to do so.


    She restricted her shell to a half-circle, in front of her, then began to twist it downward. To her surprise, she found...


    Oh my fucking...it''s even bigger than I thought. Turns out, her range really, really didn''t work like Bath''s range of influence at all. She felt like face-palming. How did I never try doing this before? She lamented. Her shell, being a shell, naturally took the form of a sphere around her body; when she expanded it out, it was still...3D, though it only expanded horizontally. Did it really never occur to me to change its shape from a circle to a semi-circle, or a line, or...something else?


    She groaned in frustration and missed opportunities. I''m sure people in Ritus and other organizations had this kind of advantage, she grimaced. What the actual hell, Lepochim!?


    Lisa took in a deep breath. Not the time. Without further hesitation, she sent her shell out to its fullest length in a semi-circle. It''s area effectively doubled, allowing her to expand out the full eleven or twelve miles in a single sweeping direction. She felt the tiny, inconsequential shells of worms and insects, and then...


    The shells stopped. There was a very clear point at which they stopped, somewhere beyond the layer of sponge-rock. That must be where the tortus''s main body begins. While the spongy-rock was clearly alive, as evidenced by its self-healing in Lisa''s absence, worm-like entities were still present throughout, no doubt feasting on the seemingly inexhaustible, rocky flesh.


    A few miles down, however, and the tiny shells disappeared. That''s where Bath will be.


    But even if I find him, what am I going to do? Lisa thought, staring daggers at the spongy rock in front of her. I need to find a way to get through this rock. She considered the boons at her disposal. Jerboa weren''t able to break through this tunnel, she noted, and Bath did so with ease. Why? She considered the methods that jerboa would use to dig. They use their teeth and feet, she thought, obviously. On the other hand, Bath used a mouth of rotating teeth to rip the wall apart. She sighed. So, slashing into the rock won''t work. But how the hell am I supposed to dig into the rock like Bath?


    She clenched her fist and stomped her feet into the ground, a manic expression coming over her face. "We''re supposed to be equals," she snarled. Her expression softened; her lip quivered. "Which is stupid." He''s the reason I''ve come this far, she sighed exasperatedly. She shut her eyes. "That''s not true," she said, as though arguing with herself. "I created COTD. The other kursi and I are its backbone, the reason why people are so..." she opened her eyes. "Peaceful. Without us, we have disasters like Kray City." I still can''t believe the two kursi sent there made their own prostitution rings instead of pacifying the population...


    "We are--can be--equals." She still didn''t really believe this--after all, what inherently made her different from other human kursi? But that wasn''t the point: she was trying to psych herself up.


    Her eyes suddenly grew wide, her pupils constricting to fine points. "That could work..." She flicked her hand out, as she''d seen Bath do many times when trying to show dramatic flare. Then, she swiped her hand towards herself, her magnetic sense''s force augmented by the physical movement. Tiny shards of metal bit through the earth, congealing around Lisa''s hand. Her face scrunched up as she concentrated, manipulating her magnetic sense out to draw in more sharp, metallic elements.


    Finally, after she had enough material to make a toddler, she ceased her efforts to gather more.


    "Let''s see what I can do," she whispered, eyes emanating a startling intensity.

 [Chapter 112] Who Shook the Mountain? Dean Gets Involved

    Virigard bounced impatiently outside the heavy door to Juserin''s estate. Ugh, when''s he gonna get out? she wondered, twitching her tail impatiently. I have the worst luck! After leaving the tunnel, Virgard had returned to the jerboa headquarters in search of rum coke. To her disdain, there was absolutely none to be found in the newly-established city-seed. Upon this realization, she''d approached more than a few verdora in the hopes of procuring rum or coke.


    Why? she lamented internally. Why do they look at me like I''m crazy? She had a translator now; shouldn''t they understand her when she spoke? Back on Earth, everyone understood "rum" and "coke," even the Arabic-speaking denizens of Jerboaland. In her naivete, she didn''t understand that rum coke was an export of Earth, and Earth only.


    Alas, after failing to track down rum or coke, Virigard had immediately sought out Dean. Just when she caught up with him, he''d disappeared into the verdora leader''s mountainside abode. I''ll just have to wait.


    Inside...


    "A pleasure to see you again, human ambassador Knight," Juserin greeted warmly, his pale blue skin shone full of health in the light of the foyer.


    Dean bowed his head respectfully, in line with verdora customs. He''d read all about the verdora before entering the Illudis gate. If there was one thing Dean had realized since assuming a position of political power, it was that knowledge was his friend.


    Now, with the improved thought-to-text technology relaying notes he''d compiled on verdora cultural customs straight to his mind, he had little difficulty in maneuvering through a simple dialogue.


    He''d first tested this new application of the technology out when the Earth vanguard first arrived at Whitesun. Then, it had been a little clunky, and Dean found his "notes" more of a distraction than an asset. However, after a few days of practice, he found the notes undoubtedly helpful.


    "To bear witness to your home is a pleasure all its own," Dean said smiling. Thank god for the director, artist, and tactician boons, he thought to himself. Or else I''d just be a stuttering mess. Standing before Juserin, Dean gave his other boons the credit for his ability to stand firm under pressure, but in reality...he knew that the unspecified, secretive mental boons Bath had bestowed upon everyone were the reason that, standing before the strongest of humanity, striking out through the gates, discussing politics with an alien overlord...Dean no longer felt fear.


    In fact, doing all of the above felt...familiar, like he''d been doing it for years rather than months. Dean originally felt repulsed by the thought of people rapidly acclimating to violence and other aspects of COTD. However, now, his inhibitions lay stagnant at the back of his mind, shackled by the phrase, "no use worrying about what can''t be changed."


    "To be blunt, why have you come?" Juserin asked, his eyes searching.


    Dean nodded. He''d last visited four hours ago, so Juserin''s question had merit. "Do you know what shook the mountain a few minutes ago?" Dean asked, forehead wrinkling.


    Juserin''s eyes enlarged slightly. "Is that...irregular?"


    Dean nodded sharply. "The city-seed''s done growing; the mountain shouldn''t be cracking underfoot. If anything, the dragonleaf should stabilize the mountain."


    Juserin turned his head slowly. "Ah, of course. Well," he began, "I asked the same question of Her Radiance Asil, and she said that there was nothing to fear."


    Dean''s expression remained candid, the PP investment in the artist tree''s acting path assisting him in concealing his turbulent thoughts. "In that case, I''m sure that Her Radiance knows best."


    "Indeed," Juserin replied, inclining his head with a sagely air.


    "Until the next," Dean smiled.


    "Until the next," Juserin repeated as he gestured for a servant to open the front door. Dean bowed his head, then stepped through the entryway into the brightness of day. He nearly tripped over a small, white form...


    "Dea-Knight!" Virigard exclaimed, bouncing back like a fencer.


    "Hold on," Dean murmured, dashing forward. Virigard kept pace until, after a few minutes, they were at the base of the crystalline mountain Spire. They walked inside, proceeding to a room five floors up. This remodeled Spire had a plethora of rooms designated for COTD''s quasi wasps, however, until the wasps arrived, the rooms lay vacant.


    Dean sat on one of the office room''s swivel chairs, his legs straddling the backrest. Virigard decided, instead, to hop up on the table; now, Virigard towered three or four feet over Dean''s sitting form.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    "I want rum coke," she said. Tallest speaks first, she thought smugly.


    Dean rolled his eyes. "Wait a few weeks. Now, getting down to business..."


    Virigard thumped the table with her feet impatiently. He blew me off, like that! This is a serious--


    "--do you know what caused the mountain to shake?"


    Virigard froze. "Uh, like it was struck by thunder? That cracking noise?"


    Dean nodded. "Yeah, I guess," he said, scowling. "But, anyways, do you know?"


    Virigard gave him a dead expression. "Well, I might know...if you had a little something, y''know, to loosen my tongue."


    "Virigard, seriously," Dean grumbled. "I hate having no idea what''s going on."


    "Alright, alright, ''cuz we''re friends," she said, sighing dramatically. "I think it might be the Creator''s doing."


    Dean''s pupils dilated. "Wait...Seriously?"


    "Yeah. He found something really delicious under the mountain." Virigard''s expression screwed up in contemplation. "I wonder if it tastes like--"


    Dean growled. "Viri, it doesn''t taste like rum coke. It just doesn''t, whatever it is." Virigard''s eyes widened, her hands pulling up to her chest. "Not to be harsh or anything."


    "Okay," she whispered back.


    "So he''s digging under the mountain now...Can you bring me to the tunnel where he first dug into the Earth?"


    Virigard shook her head, her ears compressing against the sides of her head. "Can''t."


    Dean groaned. "Why?"


    "The rock closes up."


    Dean gave Virigard an exhausted expression. Of course it does. "Can you show me?"


    Virigard shrugged, her tiny shoulders rising up. "I guess."


    ---


    Lisa knew that Bath''s technique of eating the rock wasn''t an option: she didn''t have a bottomless pit for a stomach.


    However, what she could do was make a different kind of rotating, sharp object: a drill. If she could spin it fast enough, and angle it around to make a bigger entry hole, Lisa felt confident she could drill a hole to Bath in a few hours.


    This is a trap, thankfully, so he probably won''t move around too much once he''s found the tortus'' juiciest part. And if he does, I''ll track him down.


    Lisa was slightly apprehensive about digging into the outer tortus shell. It self-healed, for fuck''s sake. Considering that the hole Bath had made less than an hour ago was completely filled it, it''s healing speed would be comparable to her drilling speed.


    "If I mess up, I could be stuck," she murmured, cognizant of the situation''s dangers. Thinking of that brought up other concerns. What about oxygen? Lisa knew that Bath had given her excellent survival boons, but she still wasn''t sure if she could survive in an environment with almost no air.


    If I keep hesitating, I''m never gonna go, Lisa thought, steeling herself to use her rapidly-spinning metal drill head to bore into the rock. Just as the drill made contact with the wall...


    "Lisa!" a male voice called out from behind. Lisa was uncharacteristically startled: her shell was currently radiating out below her, rather than parallel to her body. As a result, she''d completely missed the approach of...


    "Dean?" Lisa called out, turning around to behold Dean and Virigard running toward her. "Why are you here?"


    "Probably for the same reason as you," he replied. "Is something going on with Bath?" He peered at the dead-end wall of the tunnel. "Also, that''s a pretty, um, sizable drill."


    Lisa beamed. "Thanks!" Immediately, her expression returned to its former severity.


    That''s a quick turnover, Dean thought nervously.


    "You asked if something is going on with Bath," Lisa stated before giving Virigard a look. "Well, he burrowed into this wall," she pointed, "because there''s a giant monster living underneath it."


    "Monster?" Dean asked, perplexed. Under the mountain? "I thought...Virigard said there was something delicious under the mountain."


    "Wanna see?" Lisa asked, snorting. Without waiting for a response, she pulled open her chip reader and opened her encyclopedia. After a few seconds, she found the right entry. "This monstrosity," she bellowed, "is that wall, right there."


    Dean''s upper lip curled up in repulsion. "That''s disgusting," he exclaimed. "What the hell do you mean, it''s the wall, right there?"


    "That thing is living under the mountain, like a disgusting growth," Lisa explained. "Bath is, well, he''s trying to destroy it. But it heals really fast, so he''s having trouble...and when it heals, it draws in material from the mountain, so..."


    "And when that thing--what''s it called?--heals, the mountain cracks above it?"


    "It''s called a tortus." she said, spelling the word out. "And yes, that''s the gist. So, to prevent Bath from inadvertently collapsing the mountain, I''m going to find him and tell him to stop."


    "Wait, why do you have to find him? Don''t you guys have some sort of..." he trailed off, pointing to his head. "Thought thing, going on?" Dean had seen the two communicate remotely a few times.


    Usually, Lisa groaned internally, he just uses his essence to keep track of me.


    "It doesn''t work through rock," she sighed. "The only way to contact him is to find him. Hence, as you see, the drill."


    "How is that gonna solve anything?" Dean asked. "He could be anywhere."


    "Remember that stuff I told you about kursi, a while back?" Lisa said. She saw a hint of recognition in Dean''s eyes, taking this as a cue to continue. "Well, I can sense Bath''s mind through the rock, so I can find him that way.¡±


    Dean nodded slowly. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. How fast can you drill?"


    Lisa groaned. "Not very. Maybe a few miles in an hour through this layer of rock; if the rock changes, it might take longer."


    Dean averted his eyes to the ceiling, his hands crossed behind his back. He locked his eyes onto Lisa''s, then said, "Well, uh...think you could use some help?"


    She blinked. "Sure." In truth, Lisa didn''t know how they could help her; however, the thought of two others accompanying her into the depths of the tortus was comforting. "Do you have something in mind?"


    Dean paused. "That drill." He looked pointedly back through the tunnel. "Can you attach it to something?"


    "Yeah; it''d be easiest if the something is metal."


    "Give me a few minutes," Dean muttered, his shadow stretching across the ground as he retreated from the tunnel. "I need to make a call."

 [Chapter 113] Fartuun Enters the Tunnel; Preparing the Tortus Descent

    Dean dashed away towards the surface, exiting the tunnel at a breakneck pace, leaving even Virigard trailing behind. "Virigard, go back," he called out.


    "But Dean, why does the Church need our help?" she asked, her spherical, black eyes fathomless.


    Dean regarded her warmly. "¡®Cuz it''s hard for even gods to fight monsters," he explained.


    "Oh, okay," Virigard nodded. "Makes sense. And how are we gonna help?"


    "Well," Dean began, pulling out his chip reader. "I guess it''s time to try this stuff out." He activated the chip reader, pulling it from one of his back pockets. He fumbled for a moment, still unfamiliar with the controls; however, his plethora of teacher boons still gave him an edge in figuring the alien technology out. "Fartuun," he called out. Lacking the dial tone or delay of any human-designed calling service, Dean was startled by Fartuun''s immediate reply.


    "Oh, Dean; you''ve started using the chip reader? Excellent, excellent!" she called out. Dean felt a bit woozy as he listened: the differencebetween Fartuun''s elegant Arabic and broken English and her artificially-generated English was striking. He knew it was her on an intellectual level, but his instincts were telling him he was speaking to another person entirely.


    "Yeah, it''s useful," he replied helplessly. "That''s not why I''m calling, though."


    Fartuun''s snickered playfully. "Yes, yes, always so busy. What do you need? I''m quite busy establishing an engineering task force within Whitesun to address the ''space gate'' problem."


    Dean tsked. Forgot all about that, he thought. What planet is that on again? The second one after Illudis, right?


    "Oh, before you ask your question, I have one of my own: how is the performance of the upgraded thought-to-text software?"


    "Uh, it''s very useful," he replied, his voice hesitant. "I use it all the time."


    Fartuun clucked. "Confidence, little Dean. Was it useful or not?"


    Dean looked confusedly towards Virigard, who simply shrugged. "I just said it was useful," he repeated.


    "Of course, mhm. So, your question?"


    "There''s a stretch of composite rock that I need to bore through. I have a metal drill that can be fixed onto the body of a vehicle. Think you can make it happen?"


    Fartuun clucked again, only louder. "Really, Dean, I tell you every time to give me specifics."


    "Didn''t I?" he protested, nostrils flaring slightly.


    "No."


    Virigard concealed a laugh. "I bet she''s crossing her arms right now," she whispered fiendishly, aggravating Dean''s already annoyed self.


    "Fartuun, what do you need to know?" Despite his annoyance, if Dean knew how to do anything, it was to keep his cool. Definitely don''t want...incidents, he thought, grimacing internally at the memory of smashing in a wall at Alens. Incidents when you''re as strong as I am won''t end well.


    "First, why...?"


    "Why what?"


    "You''re supposed to be intelligent," Fartuun muttered.


    Dean rolled his eyes. "Why do we need to burrow into the Earth?"


    "Why not just use a quasi snake or jerboa?" she said, clarifying. "Why use a drill?"


    "It''s special, self-healing, jab-resistant rock," Dean explained. "Jerboa''s don''t leave a lasting mark, and I doubt snakes can do much better."


    "Oh, really? So a drill can do what super-powered quasi-sapients can''t?"


    "It''s a really powerful drill," Dean argued, sighing. "To answer what I assume will be your other questions: One, how far do we need to dig? An indeterminate distance, perhaps more than a few miles. Two, how can we attach the drill? Don''t worry about it. Three, how big does the created tunnel need to be? Big enough to fit two humans and a jerboa."


    The first thing to escape Fartuun''s mouth was, "Oh, two humans?"


    "Yes; does it matter?"


    "I suppose not," she sighed. "You''re no fun, Knight."


    "This is kind of urgent," he insisted. "I really need to make this work."


    "Why don''t I come out and investigate the rock myself?"


    "Um," Dean looked back towards the tunnel. "Could you? I thought you said you were busy..."


    "Bah, I can make time for COTD''s Knight." Dean heard rustling over the line. "Where are you now?"


    Dean''s expression was dumbstruck. She''s coming in person?


    "I''m by--" he closed his mouth. "You''re tracking my position, aren''t you?" he accused.


    "Guilty as charged," she laugh-cackled.


    Dean cracked a grin. "Hurry over."


    "Yes, Knight," Fartuun said as she terminated the connection. Dean''s eyes suddenly turned hard; he looked back toward the tunnel, then started racing into its depths. Once again, he was back by Lisa and the tunnel''s dead end wall.


    "You need to leave," he bellowed, slightly out of breath from his all-out sprint. "Just for a few minutes."


    Lisa''s expression darkened. "Wait, why the hell do I need to leave?"


    Dean shot her a pained look. "I don''t want your reputation to take a hit," he hissed, counting down the seconds until Virigard caught up. "One of my trusted leaders is coming to take a look at the wall and devise a better way to drill into it. Until she leaves, you should probably stay out of sight."


    "Oh." Lisa''s countenance fell. ¡°That''s thoughtful of you," she murmured, clearly dejected.


    Why can''t I ever do anything right, even with all my social boons!? Dean fumed. "It probably doesn''t matter," he added, "though it might be hard to explain why COTD''s Church needs help burrowing into spongy, flesh-like ground."


    "No, you''re right," she replied. "I''ll be back as soon as she leaves. I''ll know," she said, pointing to her head.


    "Dean, stop rushing off like that!" Virigard blurted, darting into the range of Lisa''s flaming hand.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    "Not my fault you''re so slow," he teased, simultaneously shooting Lisa a pointed look.


    "I''m going to check something out," she said, "so wait for my return." She began to walk forward, putting on a deceptively large amount of speed as she progressed.


    It looks like she''s walking, but she''s moving nearly as fast as me, Dean realized. The hell kind of boon is that?


    "Awe, Her Radiance left~" Virigard sighed. "She''s coming back, right?"


    Dean nodded, patting Virigard''s head. "Yep."


    "Hey, don''t poke my eye out!" she growled cutely, recoiling under Dean''s hand.


    "Sorry, I can''t see in pitch darkness," he grumbled. "You got ears made for this kind of environment; me, I just got my hands."


    "Can''t you make your ears better?" Virigard pouted.


    "Yeah, but it''s pretty hard to improve on what I already have without restructuring my ears," he snorted. "What do you think: could I pull off jerboa ears?" I''d never live that down, ever. Jerboa ears, alone, would be nigh indistinguishable from rabbit ears. All hail Knight, Earth''s bunny commander.


    Just then, Fartuun''s voice echoed through the tunnel, announcing her arrival. "Dean?"


    "Here," he called back.


    "I dislike tunnels," Fartuun grumbled, her footfalls heavy in the darkness as she gracelessly continued forward. "Dean, this shows my loyalty, yes?"


    "Without a doubt."


    Fartuun smirked; her straight, black hair swished over her shoulders, her bangs motionless over her dark, dilated eyes. As she reached Dean''s exact location, she powered on a portable floodlight.


    "Ugh!" Dean and Virigard called out in unison, their pupils rapidly constricting in the harsh light.


    "Is it this discolored rock, here?" she asked, pointing to the plane of the spongy rock.


    "Yes," Dean replied.


    "Hmm." Fartuun''s African-print garb flashed garishly in the light, its loose fabric draping over her shoulders. She pulled a device from a sack fastened around her waist, placing it against the wall. "This is a fun little device that''s still in the approval stage," Fartuun explained. "Detects biological matter, takes its DNA, all kinds of useful things. It also has a mineral composition analyzer."


    Dean cocked his head. "Is it a portable spectrometer?" he asked.


    Fartuun chuckled. "No, those are far too cumbersome; it will take more than a handful of months to condense them down to pocket size." She continued to shift the device''s position, pressing it up against the wall at odd angles. "This is strange," she murmured, squinting.


    Then, as though realizing something, she spun around, eyes gleaming.


    "Dean," she intoned, "is this wall alive?"


    "Um, maybe," he gulped.


    "It''s actually a giant monster!" Virigard interjected nobly. "Dean got a personal quest from the Church to kill it!"


    Dean glanced at Virigard out of the corner of his eye. Subtle, Viri.


    "Of course he did," Fartuun sighed, raising her hands in defeat. Her gaze sharpened as she asked, "Just what kind of monster...is made of rock?"


    "The kind that has a giant shell," Dean answered flatly. "That''s why I need to find a way to burrow through the material and reach the central, vulnerable part of the monster."


    "It''s called a tortus, by the way," Virigard muttered, feeling neglected.


    "How interesting; a tortoise fungus hybrid monster?"


    Dean''s eyes narrowed, his jaw dropping in incredulity. "Wait, what?"


    "Yep, pretty much," Virigard replied. "How''d you guess?"


    Fartuun looked at the jerboa quizzically. "It wasn''t difficult. But perhaps...How do you spell tortus in English?"


    "T-O-R-T-U-S," Dean replied, catching on. "How about in Arabic?"


    "S-A-L-I-H-A-F-A-T-A-R."


    Dean looked at her blankly. "Okay, well, that''s good to know, I guess."


    "It''s a mix of salihafa and fatar," she explained, stating the entire sentence in English. "Ah, that worked, didn''t it?"


    Dean nodded. "Learning Arabic was not waste after all," he added, speaking in butchered Arabic.


    Fartuun gave him a small, playfully-mocking smile. "But truly, do you have this creature''s identity in our chip readers'' encyclopedia?"


    "Yeah, hold on," he said, whipping his chip reader out. "Tortus..."


    "Heavens," Fartuun grimaced. "It is abominable. Tell me; what does the encyclopedia page say about it?" As Fartuun was still occupied with analyzing the tortus'' outer layer, she didn''t have a free hand to use her chip reader.


    "It says...It''s a species native to a planet at the center of the universe. Apparently it''s highly valued for its ability to lure in a dangerous creature called a Doom, whatever that means."


    "Oh? That must be why this planet has one. Sounds a lot like fighting fire with fire to me," she opined.


    "Let''s see...they usually rest atop land in isolated areas, such as mountain crags or deep canyons. They internalize rock into themselves, increasing their mass over time; while above land, their..." Dean grimaced, "succulent, fragrant flesh attracts any wandering Doom." He shook his head. "That word...It''s so unhelpful."


    "Yes, I agree; it''s just as useless in Arabic," she replied. "What on Earth is a Doom?"


    "I''ll look it up later. The next part is important" He paused to skim the text for its most useful parts. "So, after several thousand years, though no less than twenty-thousand years, torti enter a period of suspended animation. They crawl beneath--into--the earth, holing up until they eventually die after a few million years or so."


    He gave Fartuun a knowing look. "I''m not sure why, but the one beneath this mountain caused the tremor you must have felt half an hour ago. Maybe it''s awakening because of the city-seed."


    Fartuun nodded slowly. "This would make sense. I think I have an idea for how to drill into this rock. Actually, as luck would have it, a team of engineers has just filed a design for approval...If it works here, I''ll consider it a success."


    Dean''s mouth quirked. "How long will it take to bring that invention here?"


    "Oh," Fartuun cocked her head, "I believe it''s already arrived." She smiled, stating, "I''m nothing if not prepared, Knight."


    Dean snorted. "I can''t deny that. Virigard, let''s get the...invention."


    The two of them returned two minutes later with a cylindrical plastic-metal object that looked, if anything, like a shortened version of the magma-torpedos used to reach Gray Land and Illudis, respectively. The two of them tugged the vessel over, Virigard''s tiny arms comically latching on to the shuttle''s exterior, her form actually adding more, if minimal, weight for Dean to pull.


    "This is it?" he asked warily. "It looks just like one of the vessels we used to traverse Gray Land''s gates."


    Fartuun shook her head, her green earrings jangling. "This is a fork project from the same consortium of engineers," she explained, "and so, unsurprisingly, the bodice looks the same. This guy, however, is specifically made to drill into rock. If you go inside of it and activate the controls, you''ll see what I mean."


    Dean gave the ship a dubious once over before pressing the green "open" button on its exterior. An air-tight door disengaged, popping up to let a limited number of passengers inside. The inside of the craft also mirrored that of the magma-crossing vessel, so Dean had no difficulty climbing into the driving seat. The screen in front of the controls was dominated by a live-feed from a camera mounted in the hull, allowing him to see Fartuun''s figure by the wall.


    Virigard, unsurprisingly, had boarded the ship with him, and was currently inspecting its interior.


    "How do I work it?" Dean asked, elevating his voice so that Fartuun could still hear it from beyond.


    "Dean~" Virigard whined, clutching her ears.


    "Turn on the ignition," Fartuun instructed.


    "Ignition..." Dean pressed another large, green button to the right of the twin steering joysticks. "Wait, what''s happening?" he boomed, somewhat alarmed by the crunching sound under the ship...and the fact that it was beginning to rapidly descend in place. Dean wasted no time in directing the joystick forward, preventing them from losing altitude in one location.


    "According to the mineral composition of the wall, you should be able to cut through. However, I''m not sure about what''s beyond that."


    Dean directed the ship towards the dead end wall, killing the ignition as he approached its surface. He popped open the door and stepped out, Virigard following immediately behind.


    "You aren''t going now?" Fartuun asked, confused.


    "Soon; Virigard and I have to discuss strategy first. You should return back to the space gate task force." His tone contained an authoritative air that made this suggestion into a command.


    What is he hiding? Fartuun wondered, aware that Dean was effectively shoeing her away. Nevertheless, she fought against her nature and smiled. "Of course, Knight." She exited the cave, leaving Virigard and Dean alone. Only around thirty seconds after her departure, Lisa reentered the tunnel and reestablished contact with the duo.


    "Any relevant developments?" she asked, looking between the two of them.


    Virigard, proud that Lisa was paying her some attention, stood up straight and reported, "We have acquired a specialized digging torpedo, which, I can attest, may comfortably sit four!"


    Recalling the inside of the ship, Dean could only grace Lisa with a tiny, knowing smirk. Sure, it fits four if one of the passengers is a jerboa...


    "Wow, that''s pretty epic," she nodded. "Actually, I might not need my drill until we reach the second layer..."


    "Second layer?" Dean echoed. "You found information about it?"


    Lisa nodded. "The first layer is spongy, like you see here. The second layer is rubbery, while the third and final layer is fleshy. The second layer will prove the biggest challenge, and will probably slow us down the most."


    "Makes sense," Dean replied. "So, are we ready to go?"


    Lisa crossed her arms, placing a hand upon her chin. "Well, I suppose so. The ship solves the problem of insufficient air and increasing pressure as we proceed further underground." She walked toward the craft, pressing the green button on its exterior. As the main door slid open, Lisa turned around and grinned. "We''ve already delayed enough; let''s go!"

 [Chapter 114] Encountering Bath; Heated Discussion; Trust; Impudence!

    Why...Bath''s self-awareness returned as he sensed violent tremors in the flesh around him, as though something was traveling through the surrounding flesh toward him. His form, engorged on the surrounding flesh for an area of around 6 square miles, continued to expand outward. Since his range had a radius of 3.6 miles, he could fit just over 40 square miles within his shapeless, meat-sack body. His strategy so far had been to stay still, expand outward and suck everything dry, move to a different location, and repeat.


    A few seconds after he felt the initial vibrations, a bullet-shaped object ripped through his body. Startled, Bath focused his essence around the foreign object in an attempt to crush it.


    Pop!


    He paused his assault once he realized that this object was human-made, some kind of ship. Dessert, Bath thought, his inner voice ravenous.


    "Bath!" a voice boomed from within the craft.


    Lisa''s voice.


    Bath''s initial assault had cracked the hull slightly, giving Bath a point of entry. In a moment, he manifested an avatar of himself within the craft.


    Why is this so...Bath''s eyes darted between Lisa, Dean, and Virigard. He subconsciously licked his lips, his mouth dry, tongue burning despite the copious amounts of saliva running over it. Normally, he would control the automatic physical responses of whatever form he assumed, but he found himself unable to think straight, unable to do anything requiring that kind of finesse. So difficult?


    He wanted nothing more than to eat everyone present, devouring them quickly, like the small morsels they were. Why shouldn''t I? He knew he couldn''t, but when he tried to remember why...his memory was fuzzy. This compounded the confusion he currently felt: Why can''t I think straight? This...is unlike me.


    Lisa''s skin paled as soon as Bath appeared, his eyes blood-shot, his body stock-still. As his eyes darted between herself, Dean, and Virigard, Lisa had the distinct impression that he wanted to eat them. Her eyes widened in shock. He wouldn''t, she thought, this is a ''trap,'' not a brainwashing serum.


    He didn''t say anything, just looking at them, as though imagining how they would taste. Nobody had the presence of mind to remove their eyes from Bath''s terrifying face.


    After a full twenty seconds of intense staring, Bath spoke, his voice cool and callous. "Why have you three come?"


    Lisa swallowed. His voice doesn''t match his demeanor at all. She practically expected him to growl at her. Just as she was about to speak--


    "Okay, that fucking settles it," Dean replied fiercely, his expression suddenly turning uncharacteristically vicious. "I knew Lisa wasn''t a god, and I had my doubts about you...I thought that maybe, you might just be the real deal." He glanced down at his chest, focusing on the small, silver cross hidden beneath his jacket. He took in a deep breath before reestablishing eye contact. "But, like, you''re looking at Lisa like she''s dinner."


    Dean wasn''t an idiot before receiving his scholar boons, and he certainly wasn''t an idiot after. In conjunction with his artist boons that assisted him in making connections between different things, he didn''t find it all that difficult to make his next statement. "Lisa, he''s an alien, right? The thing under the mountain was meant to trap him?"


    Lisa opened her mouth in denial, before closing it again. "That''s why we have to kill the tortus," she stated firmly, eyes flaring with killing intent. "You see what it''s done to him, right? How can you stand there when COTD''s Dragon is in trouble?"


    "What do you speak of?" Bath asked. "What is doing this?" Do they know what''s clouding my thoughts, this wretched poison? In truth, the only thing that disturbed Bath at this point was that his thoughts were muddled: he didn''t give his intense hunger a second thought.


    Lisa''s eyes narrowed, her lips tightening. "Bath, you''re under the influence of the tortus, this fleshy monster beneath Whitesun," she explained. "It''s responsible for your inability to think straight. Moreover, it''s healing itself by taking in rock from around itself: The ground around Whitesun is caving in."


    Bath''s eyes became further bloodshot, the whites of his eyes shining red around his yellow irises. He gritted his teeth, his expression immediately becoming savage. Beyond the craft, the rest of his body ceased feeding.


    His mouth curled up over his teeth as he snarled, giving him the appearance of an attack dog. "I..." He was seemingly too incensed to speak. In an instant, he was gone from the craft, as though all along he was nothing more than a haunting specter.


    Suddenly, the craft shook, expelled from the fleshy mass that was Bath. It hurtled through open air until landing on soft, stringy flesh--that of the tortus. Lisa, Dean, and Virigard all remained silent, deeply disturbed by what they''d just witnessed.


    "What now?" Dean asked, voice small. "This is just great. This ship is cracked."


    "Shit," Lisa hissed, turning her face away. "I can''t fucking believe...it''s a trap, damn it!" Do I mean so little to Bath? she wondered pitifully. When all''s said and done, is it like Dean said? Am I dinner?Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    While both Dean and Lisa were speaking with Bath, Virigard had opened up her own chip reader. Now, as the two were moping, she was on the encyclopedia app.


    "A Doom...redirect to World Devourer?" Virigard frowned, following the link. "World Devourers are the prime enemy of the civilized world."


    Huh, that sounds pretty bad, Virigard observed, reading on. "The total destruction 30,120 worlds has been attributed to World Devourer activity. The majority of these worlds are located within the rim of the Core; this number does not account for worlds destroyed before the past twenty-nine billion years."


    Virigard glanced at Lisa. So...the Creator is a World Devourer? "Asil, is Bath the enemy of civilization?" she asked, expression downcast.


    "Enemy of civilization?" Dean grumbled, eyebrows rising up. "What are you talking about?"


    Lisa exhaled sharply. "He isn''t," she assuaged. "He''s the Dragon; how could he be the enemy of civilization?"


    "But he''s a World Devourer, right?" Virigard asked. "Didn''t you say so?"


    "He''s...he isn''t really," Lisa murmured. She sighed. "He thinks he is. But I don''t think he is, not really."


    "What the fuck is a ''World Devourer''?" Dean asked, clearly frustrated by the exchange between Lisa and Virigard.


    "It''s the enemy of the civilized world," Lisa drawled melodramatically, rolling her eyes. "Bullshit. Propaganda." She sighed. "I don''t know. The records all indicate that World Devourers are mindless, ravenous harbingers of destruction. They swoop through gates, devouring everything they come across before heading off to a new world. Some reports claim that they spontaneously generate out of nothing, attacking planets without any warning." She shook her head. "That''s why Juserin''s adopted ancestor purchased this trap: it''s a way to buy time to escape once a World Devourer appears." Lisa chuckled darkly. "That''s the kicker, isn''t it? The best the universe could do, or the best Juserin the 19th or whatever could do, was buy a trap, so that people could evacuate."


    "..." Dean looked on silently, while Virigard inclined her head in acknowledgment.


    "That''s why I said that Bath isn''t a World Devourer: wherever World Devourers go, everything in their wake is rubble." Lisa exhaled deeply, closing her eyes. "Do you both understand?"


    "What are you implying?" Dean asked hesitantly, his expression inscrutable.


    "In the encyclopedia, it says that once a World Devourer is discovered, its current location will be razed by vacuum bombs," Virigard noted, swishing her tail. "What''s a vacuum bomb?"


    Dean gaped. "Wait, who drops these bombs?"


    "Vacuum bombs create super-massive black holes wherever they''re deployed," she explained, voice soft. "I assume that Ildr deploys sapients to carry out the task. It''s probably tricky, considering the difficulties inherent in transmitting messages from a planet as far out as this to the center of the universe, but...dropping the bombs is effective in containing the threat, even if they destroy everything along with the World Devourer."


    "You''re saying..." Dean shifted in his seat, once more facing the control panel. He felt like he followed most of the conversation, having read the Daily Black and White''s report on Ildr a month or so ago. "If anyone, ever, found out that Bath''s a World Devourer...we''re all dead."


    "No," Lisa snapped, shaking her head. "Like I said, there''s time to evacuate. Since Bath isn''t a mindless beast--" Dean shot her a look, which she ignored, "he can arrange for our swift getaway. Of course, closer to Ildr we go, the faster the deployment of the bombs...eventually, we''ll go to planets who keep these bombs in stock. That''s when the real danger will begin."


    "So...nobody can ever know the Creator''s maybe a World Devourer," Virigard piped up, summarizing the conversation.


    "Yeah, essentially."


    "Back to the present issue at hand, what are we going to do?" Dean interjected, gesturing to his control panel. "The razor legs are smashed, so I don''t know how we''ll move, moreover the ship''s structural integrity is compromised." He groaned, continuing with, "At the very least, we won''t suffocate, since the oxygen still works, and the pressure at this depth isn''t enough to kill us with the air lock broken."


    Lisa sighed, readjusting her position so that her legs bent up against her chest, her arms wrapped around her shins. "We''ll be fine."


    "There''s no way we can make it past the rubber layer on our own," Dean argued. "I''d say we''d have a good shot if the spongy rock is all we have to push through, or this fleshy layer, but even this ship barely made it through that middle layer."


    "I know," she said, her voice cutting through the tension like a blade. "Stop worrying."


    Virigard nodded. "Alright."


    Dean gave the two of them an absolutely incredulous expression. "Am I the only sane one left?" he murmured.


    "Dean, for being the COTD''s Knight, you have strikingly little faith."


    He scoffed. "What, in you, Bath? No offense, I really like you, Lisa, but you aren''t a goddess. And since neither is Bath, I don''t even know why I''m here. Why any of this is happening."


    Lisa snorted. "Why do you think any of this is happening? You know what main characters from movies always say?"


    Dean rolled his eyes. "What?"


    "I can''t help everyone, so I''ll settle for helping the people in front of me." She gave him a pointed look, clutching at the white fabric of her elaborate dress.


    "So this is about doing better," he said acerbically. "No, it isn''t enough to just help a few people; we have to help everyone."


    Lisa paused. "Yeah, that''s pretty much it. Got a problem?"


    "No," he sighed, relenting. "I guess I understand why you''ve done everything so far."


    "So have a little faith."


    "In who?"


    "In me."


    Dean tsked. "Well, you haven''t led me astray yet," he said eventually, thinking of the advice Lisa gave him when he was just starting out as a leader.


    "Thanks, I guess," she muttered.


    "So, what next?" Dean asked. "You said to put my faith in you, so what''s the plan?"


    Lisa chuckled lightly, her expression serene. "We wait."


    ---


    "This...tortus," Bath snarled, ripping into the flesh around him with every ounce of his being. "Controlling me!"


    When Bath struck out, he did so with the intent to annihilate. Instead of before, where he contentedly leeched the flesh of the tortus dry like a suckling calf, he was like a fiendish demon ripping free from its mother''s womb. He lashed out like a primordial fire: wherever his whip-like body struck, the flesh beneath pulverized and fell away.


    This is an animal, he thundered internally. Impudence.


    He optimized his body''s surface area by condensing his form into thin tendrils, each of which he filled with highly explosive liquid that exploded upon impact. He progressed through the body at a breakneck pace: while he hadn''t been fully capable of understanding Lisa''s words, he gleaned the fact that this tortus was healing itself by absorbing rock.


    If I''m going to put this hideous truffle in its place, he thought, I need to take decisive action.

 [Chapter 115] Tactics of Biological Warfare; The Mountains Inward Collapse

    Bath continued to expand his limbs out into the tortus, whipping them fast enough to liquefy the creature''s flesh on impact. After the first five seconds of pure destructive fury, Bath began to get...creative.


    It''s difficult to wreck this tortus from the inside, he observed, I don''t have knowledge of it''s genetics...I haven''t devoured it yet. No biological precursors to go off of, either. Even so, Bath had no reservations spontaneously generating the most fiendish toxins and bacteria that he could imagine.


    Acid spray explosions, he hissed in contentment. Spread the lesions with ten paralyzing agents; one should work, at least, he speculated. He concurrently added in batches of miscellaneous bacteria to the mix, hoping that at least one variety would quickly take root and multiply.


    As Bath moved forward, he plugged the empty space behind him with gnarled dragonleaf wood, growing the fronds out into bark as tough as steel. An outsider observer equipped with echolocation would likely balk at the absurdity of the scene: a giant tentacle/needle blob was shooting through an endless mass of flesh that resembled the insides of clams or mussels. Wherever it went, pops sounded as the fleshy environment exploded and seemed to gush a watery liquid; this, in turn, melted the flesh. In a blink, before the disintegration of flesh could be fully observed, innumerable ash-green branches expanded out from behind and plugged the area.


    The result of Bath''s rampage was that the tortus'' flesh was rapidly torn to shreds, its healing obstructed by the addition of woody dragonleaf. After a minute of moving through the tortus, Bath narrowed down on a potent toxin combination that paralyzed flesh and caused rapid and expanding necrosis. Now, when the pops of his explosions occurred, the flesh in the surrounding area carried paralyzing/necrotic toxins outward.


    The modified dragonleaf, imbued with the basic understanding that it should expand out, feed upon, and displace dead or dying flesh, expanded at an even faster pace due to the new necrotic toxin. Because this variant of dragonleaf incorporated the flesh of the tortus into the matrix of its cells, the tortus'' flesh inadvertently was unable to receive any kind of restorative assistance from surrounding flesh: the dragonleaf effectively turned everything it touched into irreparable scar tissue, so that disconnected and dying flesh couldn''t be reattached and incorporated into the main body.


    ---


    "I wish he would''ve waited a second before leaving," Lisa sighed. "I would''ve been able to point him in the direction of the tortus'' ''brain,'' so to speak."


    "Kursi abilities? Like how you found Bath?" Dean asked.


    "Yeah; I finished sweeping the area around us, and I think I''ve picked up on the tortus'' shell."


    "What''s the shell like?" Dean asked, recalling that Lisa''s kursi ability visualized shells in different colors based on a number of factors. "You said on the way that Bath''s is like a black shadow."


    "It''s mustard yellow," Lisa replied carefully, "with little crawly things radiating out of it. It''s pretty weird, considering that most humans have shells that look like auroras."


    "What kind of shell does Virigard have?" Dean asked, looking at the jerboa.


    "All of the quasies have auroras, like humans," Lisa replied. "It''s probably because Bath used human intelligence as the model for all quasi species."


    "What about verdora? Or the things on Lime World you apparently forced into making everyone data chips? Dean queried, chuckling as he recalled Lisa''s explanation of that scheme just a few minutes ago.


    So far, they''d been trapped for fifteen minutes; within that time, Dean had asked a plethora of questions, surprising Lisa: she''d thought him more of a...quiet type, introverted. I guess once he gets going with a line of questioning, he doesn''t stop.


    "Wait," she said, holding up a hand, ignoring Dean''s latest question. "I think he''s found it. The center of the tortus'' shell. He''s approaching it now..." Lisa recounted Bath''s current movements in real time, reminding Dean of a radio sports announcer. "His movement is sluggish, jerky, like the tortus is pushing him back with walls of new flesh. I can''t tell what he''s doing, but his speed is steadily increasing...now, instead of being knocked back, he''s making steady progress forward, He''s begun to approach the center in a helical pattern...interesting..."


    Suddenly, the world cracked around them, the flesh under the craft emitting the very un-flesh-like sound. "Shit, it''s healing itself," Lisa murmured, shaking her head. "But it isn''t working; Bath is getting even closer, circling in faster--"


    Her real-time report was interrupted by the collapse of the floor beneath the craft, sending the trio dropping down.


    ---


    This is it, Bath slavered, his many millions of mouths ripping into nearby flesh like mini tornados. As they did so, they slathered the toxic, bacteria-filled poison in the wounds they left behind They really were tiny, each the size of a human mouth, though outfitted with fangs serrated and bent like those of a tiger shark.


    Fangs with the sole evolutionary purpose of ripping rotating to bore into flesh were monstrously effective against the soft tissue of the tortus. In fact, the flesh near the tortus'' center was the fleshiest of all.


    Good thing, too, or else I might have never found the tortus'' brain. After a few minutes, Bath realized that while slight, the softness of flesh varied on a gradient, with the slightly harder flesh closer to the border of the rubbery second layer.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Now that he was as close to the so-called brain as he was, however, he no longer needed to use this gradient to find his way. No: he relied on smell and taste. The mineral concentration of the bizarre, somewhat decentralized neural network of the tortus set it apart from the rest of its fleshy layer. By following the concentrations of these minerals to where they were most potent, Bath felt confident he could identify and swallow the neural tissue to shut down the tortus'' primitive mind.


    ---


    Shit, shit, shit, Lisa thought, panting with the shock of the craft''s plummet. "The tortus'' body is shrinking," she snapped, righting herself in her seat.


    "How do you know?" Dean asked, tense, jittery, his eyes watching the screen for signs that the area around them would collapse again.


    "People above," Lisa explained, "their shells are falling downward. Not by a lot, yet."


    "Wait, people are falling? Like, into cracks in the earth?" Dean glanced at Virigard. Have the jerboa tunnels collapsed?


    "No; think of it like...the mountain rests on a tower of Jenga bricks. Right now, a whole layer of Jenga bricks was removed at once."


    "So the base of the mountain''s sunk in?" Dean asked, confused by the analogy.


    "Ugh, it''s hard to tell exactly," Lisa groaned. "I''m trying to make sense of thousands of pinpoints above," she explained. She estimated that at least a hundred thousand sapients fell within her current range as she swept her shell back and forth. "All I sense is that 70% of all shells fell down several feet, and stayed down. Considering what''s happening down here, my only conclusion is that the foundation of the mountain is starting to collapse."


    "What about the others?" Virigard asked.


    "Not sure," Lisa replied. "Could be anything; maybe they''re using dragonleaf to keep themselves in place? Maybe I''m just picking up that everyone was in their residential buildings and, in the wake of small earth tremors, they all decided to evacuate."


    "...Or, maybe they''re just moving down the mountain," Dean said at last, raising an eyebrow. "How can you tell that--"


    "People don''t all just teleport ten feet down at the same time," Lisa argued dismissively. "This is also why I don''t think people are simply leaving their living quarters. This...it isn''t a result of natural human migration."


    "Well, um, what are we going to do about this?" Dean asked, his dark skin melding into the murky low-light mode of the craft.


    "Nothing," Lisa sighed, crossing her arms. "We''re stuck, like I said before."


    "But what if--"


    "I told Bath about the tortus."


    Dean tsked. "Do you really think he was paying attention?"


    Lisa smiled, her expression suddenly filled with amusement, though she didn''t respond. Dean groaned and dropped the conversation, waiting for his former roommate to kill the tortus and rescue them from its corpse.


    This is my life now, Dean thought incredulously. And I really didn''t think it could get any weirder. "Lisa?" he asked, "Why does COTD have Path Points?"


    "Hmm? Path Points?"That''s kinda random, she thought.


    "Yeah; why do people make Path Points?"


    "Oh, you mean,why bother with a form of currency?" Lisa asked, catching on. "Ugh, it wasn''t my idea. Bath, Lepochim, Nevis, and even the leader of the devilbats, Olm, argued for such a system." She sighed, recalling the "argument."


    "Wait, you guys sit down and decide that kind of stuff?" Dean asked, curious and somewhat annoyed other humans had no say in the process.


    "Not really," Lisa said, shifting her position. "It''s more like...I--every week I suggest a plan of action. Nevis makes some changes to it, then sends it off to get implemented. But this time, somehow Lepochim of all people got access to it."


    "...And?"


    "Once Lepochim had it, he told Olm, the devilbat leader, and his own personal mount," she snorted. "The two of them expressed their displeasure over my plan to Nevis, who said she''d look into their concerns."


    "...And?"


    Lisa gave him a disparaging look. "And, she said they made good points. The main concern was that, without a form of currency, sapient civilization would be impossible."


    Dean cocked his head, considering this point. "Well, what did the encyclopedia say? Have there been any successful instances?"


    Lisa sighed. "That''s where they got me: every civilization of over twenty million sapients failed at implementing a system without currency."


    "So, um, all of them," Dean added, mouth upturning slightly into a smile. "Did you know about this before making your original plan?"


    "Yeah, I knew; it''s the first bit of information that shows up when you search ''Communism.'' Which, by the way, has naturally and independently come into being on thousands of other planets."


    "Then why...?" Actually, I still don''t even know what her original plan was.


    "I think that the reason why all those civilizations failed is simple: they lacked a raison d''etre. Hundreds of millions, billions of sapients living without purpose is a recipe for disaster. Capitalistic systems give sapients a powerful impetus to get off their asses and get stuff done."


    "Right," Dean nodded.


    "My plan was to simply have a ranking system, where people would be ranked based on personal power. It would bring prestige and influence, nothing more...substantial. People would still strive in the spirit of self-determination to move up through the rankings, while the two factions would handle the distribution of supplies and resources much like they still do now.


    "Unfortunately, everyone thought my plan was ''destined for failure,''" she stated in a decrepit voice, raising her fingers into air quotes. "And they proposed to have PP instead of prestige. In the end, I agreed because, in the proposedsystem, PP are fairly innocuous. Just considering the amount you need to collect before they start having a noticeable impact...it''s in the triple and quadruple digits."


    So that''s how it is, Dean thought. "So where does Bath come into this?" he asked; Lisa had only mentioned Lepochim, Nevis, and Olm.


    "Oh, Nevis asked him for his opinion."


    Dean inclined his head, fiddling aimlessly with the joysticks on the dash. "Well, sounds like he agreed with them."


    "He thinks I''m too idealistic," Lisa sighed wistfully.


    Virigard chose this moment to butt in. "But isn''t that the point? Aren''t you supposed to complement one another?"


    Lisa clucked, cocking her head in contemplation. "Yeah, I guess." She had put a lot of Daoist Yin and Yang stuff on COTD''s website. "He''s pragmatic and vicious, while I''m, well," she gestured to herself with a hand, wiggling her toes.


    "You''re idealistic and empathetic," Dean finished.


    Lisa pointed a finger. "Yeah. That''s true, I suppose. About me, and about the both of us balancing each other out."


    Suddenly, the flesh underneath them began to wither once more. From the Dash, Dean could see that this time, instead of just giving out below them, the flesh of the tortus was blackening all around them as well.


    And as it blackened, pale, ashy worms poked through the black like hungry maggots.


    "They''re roots," Lisa breathed, craning her head over Dean''s shoulders to see the screen.


    "It''s dragonleaf!" Virigard cheered. "Does this mean Bath''s--" Virigard''s breath cut out as the craft plummeted downward.

 [Chapter 116] End of the Line; Rescuing the Trio; Juserins Investigation

    Bath had to admit, devouring the tortus was the most fun he''d had in, well, forever.


    Earth was a fragile place, filled with fragile lifeforms. In the beginning, I was similarly weak, constrained by all that I devoured previous...constrained by infantile, single-celled organisms. He hated those times. Later, after Earth''s fauna had developed, Bath began to mix and match physiologies, moving through the world as the most apex of predators: Bathiosaurus exorexus and the Permian extinction were evidence of this fact.


    However, Bath had never experienced a serious challenge to his destructive capabilities. He had few doubts that, if he wanted to destroy all of Earth, or Illudis, he could do so in a day or two. Anything that breathed, or was permeable to air or water, was absurdly easy to destroy from the inside out.


    In this sense, within his range of influence, Bath really was a god of death. Faced with the infernal size and physics-breaking healing abilities of the tortus, he actually needed to exert some serious conscious effort to destroy the monster''s body and find its central nervous system.


    Exerting conscious effort was, of course, complicated by his cresting hunger. Wrapping and jabbing his tendriling essence into the depths of that central nerve cluster, tasting its salty exterior while biting into its chewy, soft tissue, only made his impossibly-distracting hunger further glaring.


    This...end, he thought incoherently, feral, primordial instinct driving him on to feed. As his many mouths finally reached the center of the nerve cluster, shredding through its tangy flesh, Bath''s hunger skyrocketed, driving him literally insane.


    Thankfully that lasted for less than a second, Bath thought a moment later, his mind already recovering from the shock of his own hunger. The space around him looked as though it had been mauled by no less than a thousand bears, their paws shearing deep into the creature''s flesh. While the tortus'' body no longer affected him because his appetite was sated, Bath still felt...different. Good, different; euphoric, different. This feeling is what makes humans jump off buildings because they think they can fly, Bath noted, his body gorging itself on the tortus'' corpse as though on autopilot.


    Instead of tempting him to jump off a building, this sensation encouraged Bath to literally eat everything ''tortus'' beneath the mountain; essentially, the whole foundation of Whitesun.


    I can do that, Bath thought, moving his essence over the dead, now-emulsified flesh of the tortus and drinking up its body like a spider. His dragonleaf roots used the husk as soil for growth, looking eerily like maggots as they poked through flesh. Challenge accepted. Though I must be mindful of what I''m collapsing. As he''d been doing before, he could use dragonleaf to fill any leaks he made in the tortus.


    Then a thought struck him. I really need to think plans through, he groaned internally. Though I suppose I can blame the hunger for my inability to plan properly this time.


    He sent a hulking section of dragonleaf up through the tortus. I should be able to reach...Whitsun''s spineroot shield, established soon after Illusta''s dragonleaf restructuring, extended downward through the root system of the dragonleaf. He wasn''t actually sure how far the spineroot burrowed underground, but hoped it was at least a few miles.


    He smiled internally, having no face to actually smile with at present. Excellent, he thought as he felt the dragonleaf from the tortus connect with the spineroot. As Bath did at the outset of making dragonleaf, he issued the plant a few directives.


    Hello, little one, he said.


    Hello! the little frond replied through their connection. Big, delicious.


    Bath chuckled over their connection. Yes, you understand. Bring brother spineroot in on the fun.


    Bath felt the dragonleaf''s acquiescence through their connection. A few seconds later, the dragonleaf reopened their communications. Brother spineroot is thankful, creator, the dragonleaf transmitted reverently. Hungry, delicious, feast.


    Bath smiled benevolently, though a trace of vengeful fire sparked in his eyes. Tell Brother spineroot I have a few...stipulations.


    ---


    As the ground cracked and creaked underneath, Juserin had the distinct impression that the mountain was revolting against them. We''ve never had earthquakes, he lamented as the shifting of the ground caused him, once again, to lose his footing. I thought that the Church said everything was normal?


    This, certainly, did not seem normal.


    And where is the human leadership, hmm? Juserin wondered bitterly. I tried contacting the Knight thirty minutes ago and every five minutes since; nothing. He wondered, in horror, if this COTD occupation was secretly a genocide of the verdora people.


    "Ridiculous," he seethed. They''re from Earth; they couldn''t possibly be anthropomorphic purists. His face paled as he recalled that COTD seemed to have what amounted to a slave class of "quasi-sapients" that served the human population as steeds, fighters, guides, among other things. Do they intend to destroy this city, then enslave us in the same way?This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "No, that wouldn''t make sense..." he murmured to himself. Why bother? The Church and Dragon could easily enslave this world, or kill everyone on it. No, this must be something else.


    But what?


    Juserin hurried over to his recording room, assisted on both sides by young, spry servants. He still hadn''t had time to make much progress on his boons, and so was affected by the precipitating earthquake more than others. He sighed with relief as they opened the door and entered.


    "Thank you, now please, wait outside."


    "Yes, Waymaster," the two replied as Juserin shut the door behind him.


    "I wonder what I''ll find," he muttered to himself, "if I replay the conversations from today."


    ---


    Somewhere in the middle of sending the spineroot to do his bidding, Bath remembered that Lisa, Dean, and Virigard were trapped somewhere within this inner region. Since he was no longer in a rush to dispel his hunger, he decided to find them before doing anything else.


    Luckily, I''ve seeded everywhere I''ve been with dragonleaf. This being the case, Bath could use the dragonleaf to sense for any oddities...such as an ovular, synthetic vehicle.


    Ah, they aren''t too far, Bath noted; he quickly followed the dragonleaf to their location, zipping rapidly through the small gaps in the plant''s tendrils.


    He arrived to find dragonleaf fruitlessly attempting to pry open the craft''s cracked exterior, followed by Lisa''s shouting: "Damn you, Bath."


    "I came back, didn''t I?" he responded cheekily, manifesting himself inside the craft. "Besides, you should be more careful when driving to avoid cracking the hull."


    "That was your fault, asshole," Lisa bellowed. "Don''t you remember?¡±


    His eyes drew upwards, as though he was trying to recall such an incident. "No."


    Lisa took in a deep breath, her expression venomous. "How did it taste?" she asked.


    "Oh, delicious, without compare," Bath replied sonorously. "It truly lived up to its name as a trap."


    "Do you have anything else to say?" she asked, strongly implying that he should.


    "Hmm..."


    "Bath!" Lisa chided.


    His innocent expression turned devilish. "I''m playing you," he chuckled. "Yes, I remember cracking the hull," he admitted.


    He crouched forward a step until he was before her face. He lifted her face with his hand by her chin, his expression complex, contemplative. "Thank you," he said at last. "I don''t know if this trap would have been the death of me; I don''t think it would have," he said slowly. "But--"


    Lisa slapped his hand away, staring at him intently. "Don''t even think about thanking me for saving you," she said with a commanding air. "It''s what friends do for one another."


    He gazed at her for a moment before snorting, then breaking into raucous laughter. "Of course," he said, eyes pooling with mirth.


    Why does he seem...Lisa couldn''t put her finger on it, but Bath seemed sad, the kind of sad that comes from revisiting memories.


    "Not to ruin the moment," Dean said quietly, "but, um, I think we should get out and make sure Whitesun doesn''t fall into ruin."


    Virigard looked at Dean with uncharacteristic disgust. "Dean!" she side whispered, "you''re ruining the moment!"


    He gaped at her in response, mouthing, "What!?"


    "You''re right," Bath stated, his jocund expression vanishing as quickly as it came. "Come, everyone, out of the craft."


    ---


    Juserin paused the final tape, already knowing its conclusion. He sat in place, body still, thinking over the implications of what he had just watched.


    "Everything revolved around the tortus beneath the city," he said softly. "But why?" He roused himself and exited the room, his servants leading him to the salon area. He sat down on one of his cushion couches, contemplating what to do.


    "If they were confronting the tortus, the quaking of the mountain would make sense...but why destroy the tortus? It''s harmless! It''s already reached its full size thousands of years ago; when it dies, it''ll simply harden in place. Perhaps they don''t understand this?"


    Interrupting his train of thought was a resounding crack! that carried throughout the entire mountain. Juserin, seated on his pillow, lurched in place, nearly falling onto the floor.


    "That...it feels as though...the entire mountain just dropped!?."


    ---


    "This is so much more disgusting in person," Dean observed with a grimace. In the dark, the screen only gave us a blurry, uncolored image. Lisa''s fire makes this place look like a science experiment gone horribly awry.


    "It''s also admittedly more...repulsive due to my interference," Bath admitted sheepishly. "In its original state, the tortus'' interior looked like the interior of a mollusk."


    "You did this?" Lisa balked. "Uhg, Jesus, it''s like...it looks like frostbitten, maggoty flesh soup."


    Bath blinked. "Does it?"


    "It''s pretty disgusting; thankfully the Creator made jerboas beautiful!"


    Dean sighed and shook his head. "Honestly, whatever works, works, as long as this thing is dead. How much longer until we reach the second layer?"


    "Not long," Lisa reported, using the shells of life forms above for reference.


    "I see you''ve picked up a new skill," Bath observed.


    "Eh, it''s nothing new. I just decided to test my limits a little. I''ll tell you about it later."


    They soon reached the rubbery second layer, only to find it encrusted with gnarled, root-like tendrils.


    "Is that...spineroot?" Lisa asked incredulously.


    "It is," Bath replied, an amused expression on his face. ¡°I decided to put it to work."


    "But I thought...the tortus was delicious," she said, confused. "Don''t you want to, y''know, eat it?"


    "Oh, I do," Bath replied with a knowing grin. "I''m letting it eat around...oh, 10% of the tortus."


    Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Uh, what?"


    "I instructed it to build pillars into the bedrock below the tortus," he explained. "It''s allowed to eat anything around itself. In turn, when I return to feed, I''ll be able to move around much more efficiently."


    Dean closed his eyes tightly. Ugh. He speaks about eating this horror-movie monstrosity like it''s normal. Dean shuddered as he thought about that the tortus looked like even before Bath destroyed it further.


    As they continued up, Bath instructed Dean and Lisa to make contact with the dragonleaf and spineroot around them, using their landshaper boons (and in Lisa''s case, kursi abilities) to sense the growth of the two plants through the Tortus'' cortex. The three of them directed the dragonleaf up and out, filling in obvious gaps that might lead to structural instability.


    Soon, after traveling for a few more minutes, the party of four finally reached the surface.


    "I never thought I''d be so happy to see the sun," Virigard chirped merrily.


    Dean looked over to give her an amused look. When he turned back...


    "Damn it," he cursed, punching out a fist. Due to moderate investment in the administrator path, his fist emitted a concussive force that broke the ground with a satisfying thud. "They''re gone."

 [Chapter 117] A Promise of Truth; Discussing Politics With Juserin

    After a few minutes of foreboding cracking, the seizing of the mountain began to subside.


    What...did the Church and Dragon deal with the tortus? he wondered as he stood up, smoothing out his robe and adjusting his mouth veil. He dismissed his servants and turned the corner into the foyer, intending to leave.


    He opened the door, only to find the Church''s beaming face and the Dragon''s cool regard staring back at him. Startled, he jumped back and bowed his head.


    "I am graced by your twin resplendence," Juserin said hastily, eyes peering up at the two youthful figures.


    "Hello, Juserin," Lisa said. "In case you were wondering, the Dragon and I have just dealt with that horrible nuisance underneath the city. I believe you called it a tortus?" She looked back to Bath for confirmation. "Well, anyways, it''s dead and gone, and we''ve granted this city a dragonleaf-spineroot foundation instead. Much more stable, I assure you."


    Juserin''s mouth veil pressed inward slightly as his mouths opened incredulously. "Yes, of course," he murmured. "But, I don''t understand why the tortus needed to be removed," he said carefully. "While it is useless in its current state, in theory, we could harvest the creature for its eggs once it reaches the end of its lifespan. Then, we could use these to grow one or two more torti in the future." He spoke as though walking on thin ice.


    "Any worlds under the domain of COTD need not fear Doom attacks," Bath said, voice devoid of emotion. "With that being the case, torti are no longer needed."


    Juserin looked as though he desperately wanted to refute these words. "Have you ever encountered a Doom?" he asked, eyes bulging.


    Bath smiled, the gesture not reaching his glinting eyes. "Have you?"


    Juserin didn''t know what to think anymore. He was half convinced that the two gods were crazy to think they could stave off World Devourer attacks, and yet...they spoke with a confidence that belied knowledge. They knew something that he didn''t; this, in itself, wasn''t surprising. However, that they concealed information regarding their ability to defeat, or at least defend against, World Devourers was another matter entirely.


    Just who are they? Juserin wondered. When he went back through his recordings, he''d also taken the time to review the duo''s initial visit. Seeing this through the lens of the present was, he found, highly useful: it solidified the doubt he held towards the supposed "godliness" of the two.


    All the same, they had incredible power...such that Juserin had no choice but to submit. I don''t necessarily revile them for invading, he thought, especially if they can bring us rim worlds closer to Ildr. The real sticking point was their lack of knowledge and experience. They''re from Earth, of all places.


    "What I would appreciate," Juserin said after breathing deeply, "is a bit of straightforward honesty." He looked to Lisa: after her candid and breezy attitude a few hours earlier, he was hoping she might gift him with something truthful, or at least believable.


    Lisa and Bath looked at each other, Lisa shooting Bath a pleading look. He snorted, crossing his arms, before smiling softly.


    "We wanted to tell you the truth, Juserin," Lisa said, eyebrows furrowed. "We''ll tell you eventually. I promise, seriously. Just wait a little longer, maybe a year or so; we want to show you what COTD could be before letting you in on the mechanics behind its operation."


    Juserin nodded slowly. "So, there is more behind all...this," he said, gesturing out with his robed arms.


    Lisa smiled sadly. "Just know that what we told you--everything about self-determination and helping people across the universe--that''s all true; the ideology, true."


    "Very well," he replied stoically. "A year is nothing."


    Lisa nodded, looking at Bath, who also inclined his head in acknowledgment. "Excellent."


    Bath rolled his eyes to the side, his mouth curving up into a lopsided, savage smile. "Juserin," he said coolly, a devilish glint in his eyes. "Though we intend to work with you and bestow unto you power, do remember your place."


    Juserin flinched. This Dragon, he thought, is the most intimidating being I''ve seen outside of Akila. As this thought crossed his mind, he cocked his head slightly. "Radiances, I have information to pass onto you."


    Bath smirked. "Do tell."


    Lisa glanced at Bath. He even scares me sometimes with this facade, she noted, raising an eyebrow slightly.


    "One year from now," Juserin began, "COTD should send representatives to the Centennial Congress of the Intermediary Strand. I was prepared to depart, using my voyager." In six months rather than a year, though they don''t know that. Juserin smiled inwardly. Ideally, they''ll give me the information I need in a year from now; then, they''ll take me with. Juserin recognized his true asset: political knowledge. They''ll need me.


    "A Congress?" Bath murmured. "Interesting."


    Bath, Lisa thought awkwardly, stop looking at him like he''s prey. While Lisa wasn''t touching Juserin''s shell, she could still see that it was exhibiting the colors of fear, anxiety, and defensiveness.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    "Where is the Congress?" Lisa asked, cutting Bath off. "You mentioned it''s in the Intermediary Strand?" Good, Lisa thought, he''s calming down. I need to talk to Bath about toning down the intimidation-factor from time to time.


    "Yes," Juserin replied. "My goodness, how rude of me; we''ve been in my doorway for too long. Come in," he gestured.


    Lisa had to stop herself from bursting out into laughter. We really have just been conversing by his front door.It wasn''t a privacy concernsince she didn''t detect any other sapient shells nearby, but itwas odd.


    "The place is inconsequential," Bath said, making a shooing motion. "By now, even with your current boons, you should recognize that standing is just as comfortable as sitting."


    "Take us to your living room," Lisa said, "we can speak about this inside."


    Juserin led the way indoors, anxiety clearly pulsing through his shell. When they reached the parlor, he paused. "Radiance Church, would you like the appetizer you asked for earlier?"


    "Ee....yes," she said slowly, trying to recall what the verdora was talking about. It''s been a long day, she muttered to herself, shaking her head.


    "Excellent." His robe swished gently as he proceeded forward, gesturing for them to sit down. After he did so, he excused himself to converse with his servants.


    "Can you imagine this happening on Earth?" Lisa murmured humorously. "Just imagine: the president of the U.S. invites us over just after his country''s been conquered. Y''know, to discuss politics."


    Bath chuckled wryly. "The equivalent of asking Zeus for dinner."


    "Exactly." She wagged her eyebrows. "It''d never happen: Humanity has too much respect for ''beings with otherworldly power.''"


    "It''s cute, when you put it that way," Bath whispered, leaning into Lisa''s side. "Juserin''s lucky we''re ''benevolent gods.''"


    Juserin chose that moment to come back into the room. He coughed nervously, gesturing for his two servants to push hovering trays of food into the parlor.


    Appetizers!? Lisa balked. That''s, like, a three-course meal.


    "Thank you, Juserin," Lisa exclaimed. She elbowed Bath.


    "This is exquisite," he said. "Now, sit and tell us about this conference."


    The contrast between his polite comment and his icy demand was, to Lisa, hilarious, though she controlled her expression. She noted that, faced with political talk, Juserin''s shell began to take on green and blue, colors of stability and familiarity. In his element, Lisa observed. Good.


    Is he getting...comfortable around us? Bath wondered, eyeing Juserin contemplatively. He smiled, showing teeth, as he waited for Juserin to speak.


    "The Congress meets every hundred years. There, all civilized worlds from the fringes to the edge of the Core convene." Juserin''s eyes narrowed as he lowered his voice: "It''s a bloodbath, you know."


    Bath didn''t say anything, instead looking at Juserin with the patience and arrogance of a stalking panther.


    Juserin ignored Bath''s expression, continuing smoothly. "All civilized worlds with the means to do so are expected to send a delegation to the Congress. I''m sure you''re wondering why this is necessary." Juserin sniffed. "Currently, Akila Galaxy holds the rest of the Intermediary Strand in an iron grip. To put it simply, Akila offers ''protection'' to all from the Core Worlds in exchange for tributes."


    Lisa frowned. "Protection from the Core Worlds?" she asked.


    "Yes, protection from the Core Worlds. Sometimes, they grow...bored." Juserin didn''t know how else to explain it. "They''ve been feuding for the past several billions of years. Occasionally, their conflicts reach the outside, much like a solar flare torching an unsuspecting planet."


    Lisa supposed that made sense. She couldn''t imagine peace for billions of years. Humans hadn''t stop warring ever...well, hopefully COTD had put a stop to war, but she wasn''t going to bet any money on it. "I thought the universe was a fairly peaceful place, without wars," she commented. The encyclopedia, at least, suggested this. As soon as the thought crossed her lips,Lisa scoffed internally, rethinking her previous supposition.What am I saying? Lepochim''s a secret super-soldier; damn straight there''s war.


    Juserin exhaled sharply. "Nobody dies in the Core," he explained. "You must understand that such a thing is considered unsightly. Faction fall, rise, live, and die. This is natural. Death by fight...unheard of."


    "Is the fighting nonlethal?" Lisa probed. "Like duels with blunted weapons?"


    "Something like that," Juserin said. "The information isn''t available, Radiance. What we beyond the Core do know is that wars on the interior rend no blood."


    Lisa gave him a questioning look, while Bath''s eyes darkened. So, it''s like this, he thought. "Whatever technologies they use to play their war games inside the Core, when unleashed on the worlds beyond, wreaks havoc," Bath guessed, relying on intuition. "And so, the Intermediary Congress meets to support a lone power to suppress this activity."


    Juserin twitched his ear holes, their position rising slightly on the sides of his head. "No."


    "Then what is the truth?" Bath asked with a predatory, icy smile. Lisa jabbed him menacingly with her elbow.


    "I said that Akila offers protection from the Core Worlds. This is true, on the surface. In reality, Akila Galaxy offers protection from Akila Galaxy. Conflict from the Core Worlds only reaches the planets of the Intermediary Strand once in many millions of years."


    "So it''s a political ploy," Lisa said. "Akila Galaxy...they accept tributes as slaves, don''t they?"


    Juserin sneered. "Yes, slaves. So you do know about Akila."


    Lisa glanced at Bath. "Yeah. They''re the world that conquers other worlds just to steal their resources and sapients, right?"


    Juserin''s blue skin darkened slightly. "Yes, that''s them," he said, voice bitter. "The Congress will convene in their capital, Akilia."


    "So we need to set out in a year?" Lisa asked, confirming what Juserin had said before.


    A year for them should be sufficient, Juserin thought. Though, in truth, they really should leave in six months to be safe..."Yes, one year."


    "Do you have a map of the gates we''ll need to take?" Bath asked.


    "Of course; I''ll give you my own." As Juserin accessed his chip reader and began to go over his map of the gates leading from Illudis to Akila Galaxy, Lisa and Bath listened attentively while sampling the verdoran delicacies in front of them.


    "It''s twenty-nine gates in total?" Lisa said, balking at the number. "That''s...a lot."


    "It''ll take far more than a year to conquer," Bath noted. Seeing the look on Juserin''s face, he added, "Though the conquering can wait until later."


    "Most definitely." We''ll see how this plays out, Juserin muttered internally. If they can forge sapients into weapons capable of defeating Akila galaxy, they''ll have won my genuine support.


    "Thank you, Waymaster," Lisa said, grabbing Bath''s arm. She stood up, taking Bath with her. "We will take our leave."


    Bath, several verdoran pastries in hand, gave her a questioning look.


    "Of course, Radiances," he said, bowing deeply. He walked them to the front door, then watched them depart, their forms vanishing in an instant as they took flight. After they were gone, he let out a breath of relief, tension dissipating from his body. "At last, alone." He didn''t even want to think about how many times he would need to rewatchthis exchange.

 [Chapter 118] The Secret of Sizikguron Arc; Ludwigs Good Fortune

    Several Days Previous:


    "Y''know what I think is weird?" Tycho murmured as he followed the rest of the group behind Grey, "That the android''s master is named Ludwig."


    Barkhad snorted and rolled his eyes from atop Kisserin''s black back. "Are we truly surprised? At anything?"


    "Humans are always surprised by everything," Kisserin added as she slithered forward. "It''s because you''re unobservant."


    Knowing that, of the two humans present, Kisserin was clearly calling out himself, Barkhad bristled. "Hey, I''m observant," he said defensively. "I noticed that the bedroom desk in the last room over had that secret lever, right?"


    Kisserin hissed laughter, though didn''t say anything in reply.


    Unable to comprehend Barkhad''s self-deprecating humor, Tycho piped up, "But the lever was painted red, while the rest of the room was white."


    "Little mouse," Kisserin chided, "you need to learn when to be silent."


    Tycho gasped. "I''m excellent at being silent. I spent days with Grey! Before he, um, went from being the Watcher to being the Hero." Tycho looked nervously ahead to Grey''s babbling form. The peacekeeper hadn''t stopped speaking at the android feebly struggling in his grip, almost as though he were just talking to himself.


    Kisserin gave Barkhad a look. "Kids," she whispered.


    Barkhad rolled his eyes once more. You''re the same age, he thought to himself. Not that you''d ever admit it. To her credit, Kisserin was much more mature and aware than Tycho.


    "I heard that," Tycho mumbled. "What are you even good at, Barkhad?" he asked, looking for someone else to criticize.


    "Me?" Barkhad pointed to himself, shifting his position on Kisserin''s back. "Why?"


    "Well, I''m really fast, and I''m really good at listening," Tycho said. "Kisserin''s good at digging and carrying stuff."


    "Sure," Kisserin hissed softly, "that''s exactly what I''m good for." Then, more loudly, "Tycho, I keep this guy around because he''s funny; seems like you''d be an excellent replacement."


    "Hey, hey," Barkhad muttered hastily. "I have skills, c''mon."


    Kisserin hissed in short, breathy bursts, as though chuckling.


    "You''re such a jerk," he grumbled, climbing forward. "You guys really wanna see what I''m good at?"


    "Oo, now you''ve excited him," Kisserin stage-whispered to Tycho, who just looked uncomfortable.


    "You ready!?"


    "Yeah!" said, Tycho, fist raised high, as though trying to make sense of what was going on.


    "Ka-boom," Barkhad said, lips curving into a sly grin. As he did so, he stood up and ran to the top of Kisserin''s head. Before she could protest, he was already catapulting off her head, spinning in a somersault to land on the floor. Without skipping a beat, he brandished an ornate, metal scepter that he immediately began to wave towards the ground. As he pumped it downward, a concussive force rappelled him down the hall.


    Suddenly, Grey stopped his advance through a long, many-doored corridor. He turned around, looked a frozen Barkhad in the eye, and smiled. "You''re causing property damage," he said, unblinking.


    His words and manner gave everyone chills. He''s cracked, Barkhad noted with a tinge of fear.


    Barkhad moved the scepter back into his pack and returned to his place atop Kisserin. Grey nodded once, then continued running forward.


    "This door--" the android yammered, reading off the name of each closed room they passed. Finally, they reached the end of the vast hallway.


    How many miles was that? Barkhad wondered. We''ve been running for at least fifteen minutes; at our speed...


    So far, they''d only been in one room, the bedroom, within which they''d found and activated the glaringly obvious red lever. Aside from this, the room had contained nothing of import. More importantly, the pulling of the lever had produced no visible result, leading Kisserin, Barkhad, and Tycho to conclude that it must affect some far-off mechanism.


    However, so far, not a single door had been open: At the very least, Barkhad thought, whatever this lever is connected to must be important. Why else would it be painted red? The more logical side of him asked a different question: Why put an obvious lever in the first encounterable room? Maybe the lever only led to a trap.


    A minute later, everyone stopped when the end of the hallway came into sight: a red, towering door. Is this what the red lever was for? Barkhad wondered.


    "AI Ninety-Seven, How big are Fezosisn?" Grey asked, approaching the door.


    "Fezo-what?" Barkhad whispered.


    Tycho shushed him. "That''s the species of the robot''s creator," he responded, voice low.


    Barkhad nodded his understanding: He remembered now. These names are too difficult to remember...Fezosisn? Sizikguron Arc? He sighed as he watched Grey address the android from Kisserin''s back.


    "You need to bring me back," AI Ninety-Seven alarmed. "But in response to your question, Fezosisn is the size one would expect."


    "What arrogance," Grey sighed as he gave the door a once-over. "A door fit for gods, abandoned in an ancient library, left to the dark."


    Barkhad counted the syllables. Phew, I thought he was speaking in haiku for a second. Now that would''ve been a new level of crazy.


    "It''s open, I presume," Grey said, manner somehow both stately and tragic. As the android began to repeat its compulsory alert, Grey simply shook his head and dragged the android over with him to the door''s frame. He pushed; as he did so, a line of light appeared where the door opened, a sliver of white that fit in well with the austere whiteness of Sizikguron Arc''s color scheme.


    Everyone shielded their eyes when, with a decisive push, Grey fully opened the red door to behold what lay beyond. A voice suddenly rang out, echoing through the chamber ahead as well as through the AI Ninety-Seven''s struggling form.


    "Travelers, unfortunately," said the thundering voice. "I expected this. Regardless of who you are and what you are, I have promised you good fortune." A sigh swept out like a low, ponderous boom. "This is the Arc''s control room; within, find the indices of all works, as well as controls to open the many doors in the corridor." A smirk resounded at this last sentence. "Do be careful, travelers."Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    The voice shut off. The android looked about as though confused.


    "Everyone, to me," Grey announced, his voice leaving no room for insubordination. "They''re lucky they have me to lead them," he continued, as though nobody could hear. "There are things moving in the halls, moving parts, ticking gears. A scheme, a veil covering truth..."


    He turned back and actually addressed them, saying, "We shall investigate each of these rooms. Remember everything that you can; at the end of this expedition, we cannot be sure that we will be able to return. Put your scholar boons to good use."


    He talks like he''s addressing an army, Barkhad thought self-consciously. Do the quasi-sapients even have boons? He didn''t think so, at least not the human variety.


    "We''ll go through the rooms in alphanumeric order," Grey announced as he walked over to a large, but unadorned, control panel on a pedestal at the center of the room. Aside from cryptic geometric markings in black and red on the floor, the room appeared only to have this single pedestal.


    How do you even know how they''re organized? Barkhad wondered internally. The index might be nonstandard!


    Kisserin, aware of Barkhad''s mounting frustration, hissed in his ear: "Remember...no questions."


    Barkhad nodded. "I know," he replied softly while continuing to regard Grey''s actions with a critical eye. The brown-robed peacekeeper was currently placing his hands on the control panel, as though randomly touching it would have some kind of effect.


    "So this is how it is," Grey murmured mysteriously. "I understand, yes, mm..."


    Barkhad narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but kept his mouth shut. Like hell he can talk to a shiny white control panel by touching its buttons, he thought, sitting up and crossing his arms. He, Kisserin, and Tycho all approached the pedestal in anticipation of Grey''s next request.


    "We''re going outside," he said as soon as they were within touching distance of the controls. "We have knowledge to save."


    Barkhad concealed his snort by breathing quickly. It sounds like "knowledge" is a damsel in distress. He gave the two quasi companions a knowing look as Grey led them out of the control room, back through the red door, and into the hallway.


    They walked all the way back to the start of the corridor until the bedroom was in their line of sight. At this point, Grey about-faced left and stared at a door. He took a permanent black marker from a pocket--Since when did he have that? Barkhad wondered--and marked the door with the number one. Then, he pushed the door inward, and, unlike every other door, it actually moved.


    A disgusting, rotten-eggs smell came from the door''s opening. Beyond the threshold was a world of black: no lights were activated, even after the door swung inward. From within the darkness, everyone present could hear a steady, but almost silent, clicking noise, almost like an analog clock.


    As though brandishing the Beacon of the Church (which didn''t exist, but sounded to Barkhad like it should), Grey swapped his marker for the flashlight and held it aloft, clicking a button to turn it on.


    "Filth," he said. "Infection on the Arc."


    "Purge," the android dirged, "purge~"


    "Wait, I don''t see anything," Barkhad whispered.


    "I..." Kisserin began, flicking her tongue. "I don''t see any irregular heat signatures."


    "You--you don''t hear that?" Tycho said, voice hushed.


    Without warning, Grey struck out, leaping into the space beyond with only the flashlight for illumination. As he ventured out, he looked back, a sad look in his eye. "You need this more than I do," he stated, promptly tossing the flashlight back.


    "What the..."


    Present Time:


    Grey looked behind himself, smirking. They''ve been trying to put a name to my current personality for days. But now, as they came to the conclusion of the Arc''s extermination, Grey was growing tired of their squabbling.


    "You could just ask," he said, sighing. "I''ve been alive for quite some time, been around the block, as people like to say. Friends have called this the Cynic."


    "Wait, the Cynic?" Barkhad paused, grimacing as he felt a piece of goop slide down his neck. "You''re awfully quiet for a cynic," he added. "Well, we didn''t know how to act around you ''cuz you didn''t say anything. Worried you might''ve gone back to the Watcher."


    Grey rolled his eyes, though a seriousness pervaded his features. "I''ve been hoping you would figure it out," he replied. "Isn''t that funny?"


    "Grey," Tycho began, "Why do you switch personalities all the time?"


    The brown-robes snorted. "When you''ve lived as long as I have on Earth...sometimes, you just need a change of face to make sense of everything."


    "You''ve been in this one for so long, though," Tycho added nervously. "Are you, uh, gonna switch again?"


    "Who''s to say?" Grey replied with a disdainful smirk.


    Barkhad narrowed his eyes, staring intently at Grey''s back as though he could see into the man''s mind. "What made you switch to the Cynic, anyway? It happened when you opened the third room."


    "Yes, it did."


    "So...?"


    "Kisserin, you''ve been awfully silent," Grey observed, voice emulating that of a superhero villain.


    Kisserin, eyes suddenly alight with focus, flicked out her black tongue. "It was when he realized why Ludwig left Sizikguron Arc."


    Grey began to laugh, a booming, almost manic chuckle. "Our good fortune," he explained, "is the evacuated lair of a pirate." He laughed unabated. "Fezosisn isn''t a species; it''s an outlaw organization. Ludwig isn''t an actual name, but a fake identity. The Arc?" He turned around and looked at their startled faces in the eye. "What is this place, if not a library, hmm?"


    Everyone present gave him blank stares. How does he...?


    "You all need to pay attention," he chided. "Was there a theme to the information you were reading?"


    No response. Grey''s expression turned dour. "Did any of you actually read anything?" he asked scathingly. "Or did you only come here to wipe estevek juice off your tongue?"


    Barkhad looked at Grey in horrific fascination. Maybe it was best that he kept quiet before, he reasoned. I don''t know if I could take several days of this. But seriously, tongue? It''s not like I''m eating these disgusting centipedes with my mouth. He glanced down at Kisserin. Wait, maybe he''s actually criticizing someone other than myself for once. He wondered if he should feel relieved.


    "Since you''re all so timid, I''ll explain this for you: this place is freshly abandoned. Maybe one or two thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries. This vessel''s lovely pilot, Ludwig, was transporting this vessel to an unidentified location.


    "However, somewhere along the way, he was attacked from afar; the assailant planted a sac of estevek eggs on the ship. Ludwig, unable to locate them, departed, leaving AI Ninety-Seven behind, along with the rest of this cargo ship. Now tell me, lady and gentlemen," he said, exhaling and catching his breath. "What was Ludwig''s cargo?"


    Everyone seemed surprised to find that, while absorbed in Grey''s display, they had walked back to the pedestal at the center of the red-doored room.


    "They...they were just stories," Kisserin blurted, tail weaving behind her in agitation. "Boring, without context. I didn''t understand more than a handful. His only cargo was rooms upon rooms of books!"


    Grey smirked, putting a finger to his chin. "You''re trying. I''ll bite; here''s a hint: what format were the books in?"


    "Format?" Kisserin hissed, indecision clearly visible on even her inhuman features.


    Barkhad felt like the answer was on the tip of his tongue. Grey stared at him in anticipation, as though he knew that Barkhad knew. Fucking creepy, Barkhad thought, shivering.


    "They''re hard copies," he said slowly, thought solidifying in his mind. "They''re actual books. If you were smuggling books for the sake of their content, you''d put them into a digital form." His face screwed up into a frown as he said this last phrase. He gave Grey a questioning look, like a pupil looking for guidance.


    "Good enough," Grey sighed. "The books are relics, stolen from Ildr, if that means anything to you." While Grey had learned basics about the universe from Lepochim, he knew such basic information was online.


    "From...the Core Worlds?" Kisserin breathed, freezing in place.


    "This is Sizikguron Arc," Grey chuckled, holding his arms up and out, as though beholding the heavens. "The Library of the Ninety-Seventh Era." His laugh became increasingly manic; soon, he was doubled over."


    Grey recalled when AI Ninety-Seven first introduced itself.


    <blockquote>"What is your name?"


    "AI Ninety-Seven. Creativity was my master''s strong suit."


    </blockquote>


    "Ludwig...he really was creative," Grey said between guffaws. Without warning, his laughter stopped, and his visage once again became serious and sharp. "You all do realize," he began, "if any sapients leak this information, what would happen?"


    They all looked at him in stunned confusion: his transition away from maniacal laughter to apparent lucidity was shockingly sudden.


    "Ildr is a place with nothing but time on its hands," Grey said, voice eerily quiet. "They would send sapients to investigate." A cool, slightly crooked smile stretched across his face. "Now that would be disastrous," he said quickly, rolling his eyes and snapping out of his quiet, predatory gait.


    "We should leave this place," he said, his voiced clipped. "AI Ninety-Seven, open the back exit. I''m impatient," he said, hissing this last word and thrusting the android forward by its neck.


    Barkhad only realized now that, during Grey''s explanation, the robot had finally shut up its alarm. He had learned, along with everyone else, to tune it out after a few hours of arriving at the Arc; he''d even been able to sleep with it blaring in the background. However, now that he noticed the alarm''s absence, he couldn''t help but feel a sense of foreboding.


    The android turned around and bowed its head, facing Grey''s now-narrowing eyes. "As you wish, Master."

 [Chapter 119] Exiting the Arc; Planning the Neighborhood Conquest; Thaddeus

    Grey looked down toward the AI Ninety-Seven, showing teeth. How unfortunate, he thought, that technology has no shell.


    He looked around, eyes resting back on the trio. Mm, Grey subvocalized, Fear, confusion, uncertainty, annoyance...looks like a sunset.


    "Come," he called out. As the word left his lips, a clicking noise sounded out from the back of the room. "It''s time to go."


    As he walked forward, he bade the many hidden estevek goodbye, their dormant gray and blue shells visible through the walls. He envisioned the clacking of their carapaces, the snapping of their claws, the thrumming of their countless feathery legs.


    He gripped the android once more, dangling it out in front of him as he walked. It''s finally shut up, he observed, now that it''s recognized me as its master. I wonder, does that mean... Grey had his suspicions about this entire setup. Much of what he said was pieced together out of small clues, most coming straight from the android''s talkative mouth. He''d played the trio behind him, acting as though he''d gleaned all that he knew from the books alone.


    I almost feel bad, he thought, but I don''t. He''d lied, when he told them this persona was the Cynic. I don''t even think of myself in terms of personas, he murmured internally, climbing up through a tunnel to solid stone.


    "Tycho, dig."


    No, not personas...just me. Grey smiled to himself. Me, in this world of color, deceit painted in marigold yellow and ember orange.


    "At last..." he stated as they reached the surface. Barkhad flopped off of Kisserin''s back onto the land above, soaking in the white sun of this charcoal-gray planet. Kisserin uncoiled her body, stretching it out to its full length, while Tycho thumped his feet happily on the ground, stirring up dust.


    "You''re getting dust in my eye," Kisserin complained, glaring at Tycho. Tycho swishes his tail instead of thumping his legs, the action also stirring up dust.


    "Everyone," Grey said, cocking his head. "Back. Into. The labyrinth."


    Their shells swirl anger red, passion red, the unfurling of a rose, the rebirth of the phoenix. The sundering of death from the life-ridden corpse, resurrection of blood. Grey licked his dry lips. Confusion, pressed emerald velvet, twinkling. "You''re confused, I know. We need to finish mapping out the network of tunnels beneath this planet. The Sizikguron Arc and the labyrinth are two separate entities." He stepped forward, feeling the pulse of vibrations through the Earth. He sighed, reveling in the feel of the ground''s response. It speaks to me, when it never spoke before.


    "There, Tycho, feel in that spot. Dig down; we''re approximately three miles away from our entry point."


    Tycho''s eyes suddenly grew shiny, moisture filling their spherical surfaces. "Can we go back?" he whimpered. "I''m tired."


    Grey''s nostrils flared. The black and grey of fatigue, swirling around the sunset like impatient night. Storm clouds weeping. "All of you are tired. Why is only Tycho complaining?"


    Emerald confusion returns, like weeds in a rainbow garden. He glared at them. The blue ocean of fear upon which the sun sets...it swells, like a tsunami. Beautiful. He snorted, then began to laugh lightly. "We''ll return for now. Remember, you know what will happen if word of this gets out..."


    ---


    Lisa and Bath pored over Juserin''s star map, marking up a 1000% copy of the map carved into the surface of the office room''s desk.


    Lisa looked out to the side, squinting despite the shades covering the glass walls. Is this what city skyscrapers are like? she wondered. She''d seen towering glass skyscrapers before; she''d even visited the Empire State Building. However, she hadn''t ever considered what it would be like to live in one. Or, at the very, work in one for several hours a day.


    "Hey Bath," she said, looking out the side of the blinds. "I think we need a new strategy."


    "Hmm?"


    "Y''know, good cop, bad cop, that thing." She pointed to herself. "So far, in this partnership, I''ve been the good cop. You, the bad cop. Amiright?"


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "Sure."


    "Well, y''see, I think it''d be better if I was the bad cop. You can never be too nice, but you can be too intimidating. Since I, the illustrious kursi of this operation, can actually tell when too bad is too much, well, I think that I should naturally assume the bad cop position."


    Bath covered his mouth with his hand, laughing. "We can try," he said after a moment, mouth curled into a wry grin. "You think you can handle bad cop?"


    Lisa snorted. "You think you can handle good cop?" she asked.


    Bath laughed once again, this time doing so freely. "We''ll see, won''t we?" he replied. "We should go over the neighborhood map Nevis made us."


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "The neighborhood map, yep. The neighborhood gates."


    Bath pulled in his seat and walked to the door. Just as Lisa reached the threshold, he slammed it in her face; she dodged just barely, relying on pure reflex.


    "Bath!" she squealed.


    As she opened the door and stepped through, he formed his right hand into a pistol and mock shot her. "Bad cop," he said before blowing the tip of his index finger.


    Lisa struggled not to smile. "Yeah, bad cop," she said. "Who the hell were you trying to impersonate?"


    Bath shrugged. "I don''t like Westerns."


    Lisa rolled her eyes up and to the left, looking at him from the side. "Bath, Westerns have outlaws and sheriffs," she stated, speaking slowly, as though talking to an infant. "Detective and crime shows have cops."


    "That just shows how little you know," he replied stoically. Lisa sped up and swatted him against the arm, the two of them both breaking into laughter.


    "Y''know," Lisa began. "I''m glad we haven''t lost this: just...having fun." She looked out over the unobscured glass of the hallway, admiring the way the light of Illudis'' sun hit the city below. The reds and golds looked absolutely resplendent in the sun''s rays.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Same," Bath agreed, holding the door to the conference room they had already set up for conquest strategy. Giving him the stink eye, Lisa walked cautiously through the threshold, eventually taking a seat in one of Illudis'' levitating spinny chairs. She spun in place, pushing off on the ground to get herself going. When she perceived that Bath''s black hole shell was also seated in a chair, she stopped.


    "Best part about these boons," she said, "is that you can do this for years and never get dizzy."


    Bath closed his eyes, a humorously tired expression coming over his features. "Wanna test that?"


    "If I had a year to spare, I would spin in a spinny chair," she snorted, rhyming in a mock sing-song voice. "Anyways, let''s see: we''ve already named the neighboring planets, so check...we already have a list of basic geography and land features based off of knowledge from our experiences, the encyclopedia and Lepochim..." Lisa flipped through a section of notes etched out onto a piece of paper. "How the hell did Nevis actually get Lepochim to supply this much information?"


    Bath smiled innocently. "Who''s to say?"


    "Anyways," she repeated, "we need to figure out who''s going where, when. We can keep Dean as the vanguard; he seems to be comfortable with the position." Which is surprising, but definitely a good thing. "We can do this two ways. One, we just let the vanguard try its best to make a full circuit back to Earth. In the mean time, we continue to circle around in a loop, bringing information and coordinating movements between planets. Two, we stay with the vanguard and go slowly."


    "Two sounds much simpler," Bath noted, steepling his fingers. "What''s the advantage of one?"


    "Coordinating people...?"


    Bath smirked. "People can handle themselves. Two."


    Lisa raised an eyebrow. "I thought you''d choose one."


    "Lisa," Bath began, grinning. "I''m still hungry. From the voyager, I didn''t get the opportunity to explore any of the planets between Illudis and Earth. There are..." he counted on his hand. "Nine planets in between. I don''t want to rush through; perhaps, in our haste on other planets, we missed something important."


    Lisa nodded. We almost missed the tortus. "Alright. So, when do you want to leave for Vast Desert?"


    Bath got out of his chair to inspect the map from a better angle. "Vast desert is demarcated as the easiest planet to traverse."


    "...But on the flip side, the next planet, Equinox, has its gate in outer space."


    "Right," Bath said, nodding and thrumming his fingers against the carved dragonleaf table top.


    Lisa gave Bath a pointed look. "Have you made any progress toward maneuvering through that gate?"


    Bath took a deep breath, then looked up. "I should be fine. In theory, I should be able to propel myself forward much as I do to accelerate while flying."


    "You don''t sound very confident," Lisa observed, putting a finger to her lower lip. "You''re talking about moving by particle ejection, right?"


    "Yes."


    "You''re right, it should work; actually, I''m not sure if you know, but some of the latest space ships are using that kind of technology." She didn''t know the specifics, but she''d read about it somewhere.


    "Huh; really?"


    "Yeah, so don''t psych yourself out. You''ll be fine, right? Especially with your increased range."


    Bath nodded dismissively. "Yeah, of course. Easy."


    "Mhm, well, good. I think we should inform Dean, like, today, that we''re planning to advance to Vast Desert."


    "We should tell Juserin as well," Bath noted. "I''m not sure if he''s offered, but I''m certain that our engineering team would profit immensely from discussions with technically-inclined verdora."


    "I think they''ve been in contact," Lisa said. "The problem is that Juserin bought the voyager, and doesn''t know how to make one. If we could just manufacture our own fleet of voyagers...damn." She sighed. "Though that''s a long way ahead."


    "Unfortunately," Bath sighed.


    ---


    "Hello, I''m Jordan. Your name is...?"


    "Thaddeus."


    Jordan looked down over his glasses. After COTD''s take over, psychologists were in incredibly high demand. While Jordan didn''t charge money, since, well, that was outdated, he did accept Path Point donations. At the end of the day, however, the best reward was the experience of using his mental abilities.


    He tugged on the sleeve of his blazer, pulling it over his watch. He pushed his glasses up with the butt of his pen, thinking over his next question.


    "So, Thaddeus..."


    "Call me Tad," the teen replied.


    "Tad: what brings you to my office?" Jordan gestured to his fairly ornate dragonleaf-made space, clearly commissioned from an experienced land-shaper.


    "I need assistance," he said.


    Jordan smiled amiably. "Sure."


    After a tangible stretch of silence, Tad began to speak. "I have a phobia."


    "Nothing to be ashamed of," Jordan said. "Most people do." Jordan gleaned that this last comment irritated Tad, but wasn''t sure why, so he continued on. "What is it a phobia of?"


    "Empty spaces," Tad said. "Big, wide spaces, with nothing in them."


    "What about empty spaces makes you uncomfortable?"


    "I feel...like I''ll get lost." He squirmed in his seat.


    Why does that make him feel vulnerable? Jordan wondered. "Have your boons helped with that at all?" Jordan recognized that many people found comfort in their boons; fears of heights and deep water had declined as people realized jumping off a building wouldn''t kill them and that drowning was nigh impossible.


    Tad''s eyes gained a sharpness. "What do boons have anything to do with this?"


    Jordan backpedaled. Why does his reaction have me on the defensive? he wondered. My initial reaction is to back away, literally. Jordan knew just how odd this was: he was tall, somewhat gangly, but toned; people didn''t normally intimidate him. And here was this random kid--a college student, maybe?--who had him leaning back in his seat.


    Odd.


    "Many people find their boons help to ease their fears," Jordan explained. "Has your enhanced eyesight or spatial perception helped at all?"


    Tad cocked his head, narrowing his eyes almost imperceptibly. Almost, Jordan noted. I don''t miss much, these days. "I''m not talking about a rural countryside," Tad said, his voice slightly demeaning. "I''m talking about...space. Empty, empty, space, stretching for thousands upon thousands of empty miles."


    "So, outer space," Jordan said, voice clinical. What a strange fear, he noted.


    "Or any kind of theoretically empty space of the like," he replied. "Some gates are off the surface of planets," he added, shifting gears. "So I could be talking about outer space."


    He''s...confusing, Jordan observed, suppressing the urge to shake his head in befuddlement. "Let''s just assume we are talking about outer space. When do you anticipate you''ll ever go through one of these gates?"


    "Soon." Tad''s gaze was unreadable.


    "What do you think of when contemplating space?" Jordan asked.


    "Entropy," Tad replied solemnly. "Nothingness." This last word sounded tired, to Jordan''s ears.


    "You mentioned that you feel like you''ll get lost," Jordan said. "Do you think you''ll ever go into space alone?"


    Ted gave him a complex look. "Yes."


    I''m not sure why he believes that, Jordan thought. Though I''ll roll with it. "Have you told anyone about this fear?"


    "Maybe," Tad replied, inclining his head slightly.


    So, he keeps his fears to himself. "In all honesty, I''m not sure how to help you with this particular phobia."


    Tad tensed up, evidencing clear frustration to Jordan''s trained eyes.


    "My advice would be to never go into space, to go with a friend, or to go in a ship, to acclimate yourself to the environment."


    Tad chuckled dryly, the sound contrasting oddly with his innocent, youthful appearance. Actually, everything he''s said and done after the first two minutes seems disconnected from his appearance. This is a kid who is not at all what he seems.


    "So, I''m hopeless," Tad said, smiling sardonically. "This has been..." he rolled his eyes skyward. "Productive."


    Is my advice all that terrible? Jordan wondered. Besides, when would any human be going into space alone and without a ship?


    "Thanks, anyways," Tad said. He stood up, brushed off his pants, and left the room.


    Jordan didn''t stop him.


    Bath hovered in the air, his yellow eyes glinting as he stared at the black beyond. The Spire twinkled in the distance, its glassy silhouette reflecting the light of the unfamiliar stars.


    "I suppose, in the end, there''s only one way," he murmured. He shot up, sending out particles behind him to rapidly accelerate. They dissipated as they reached the end of his 3.8-mile range, the loss of mass rocketing him forward.


    Momentum, Bath thought to himself. I wonder how it works with my spontaneously generating and disappearing particles.


    Bath assumed the guise of the Dragon, although a much smaller, streamlined form. He rose through Illudis'' atmosphere, feeling the icy cold sting of the altitude set into his temporary bones. Higher and higher he flew, until...


    He reached the end. The end. Nothingness.


    And, fulfilling his own meager expectations, he panicked.

 [Chapter 120] Facing Down the Abyss; COTD Questions and Answers

    Space tore at Bath''s flesh in strange, unfamiliar ways, distending his skin and threatening to blister him inside out. The vacuum tugged him everywhere and nowhere, its infinite cold superseding the freeze of the North and South poles, the depths of the ocean.


    I wonder, Bath thought, if this is what death feels like. This line of thought didn''t help his frenzied state of mind, instead fanning his fear into a raging inferno. In the freeze of the abyss, Bath froze, his eyes locked onto what lay beyond. While his muscles locked out of fear, his body churned around him: flesh blued and bloated, scales cracked and rose, his organs failing.


    Bath only lay frozen in fear for a moment. I''m moving forward, he realized, fear escalating even further. Now, instead of freezing him in place, it spurred him to frantic action. He forsook his dragon form, reforming his mass almost completely into little projectiles that he launched out, toward space.


    In a few seconds, he was back in the atmosphere. He turned around and faced the void beyond, his incorporeal heart and mind quaking. Going out into that, for miles and miles...


    A nightmare come true. The void was insidious, a thousand angry tentacles eating warmth and life.


    Perhaps Black Hole is overkill, Bath thought self-deprecatingly. Maybe they should just call World Devourers Outer Space.


    "Well, I did choose option two," he murmured sadly, as though trying to convince himself that he didn''t need to go back into space. "We can just use whatever humanity thinks up to traverse the distance between Vast Desert and Equinox. Or, at the least, Juserin''s voyager."


    Even as the words crossed his frozen dragon lips, announced to the world as a breathless, garbled mess, he steeled himself to ascend. What god fears nothingness?


    He knew the answer: it rang loudly within his mind, like a gong. The fake kind. And if there was anything in this universe that Bath disliked, it was being dishonest. Which, of course, was laughable, considering COTD and all that he''d done as the Dragon.


    But it isn''t a lie if it becomes true, Bath breathed, pulsing upwards through the outer boundary of Illudis. If I become their god, if Lisa becomes their goddess, if it''s all true... Bath snorted as the last puff of air escaped his nostrils. Children fear the dark, not I. He said this last phrase like a mantra as though it would be an aegis separating him from his deep-rooted fear.


    No such luck, Bath thought bitterly as he raced back to Illudis as quickly as he left, like a swimmer leaving a too-cold pool after submerging a single toe.


    He continued to repeat "pick me up" phrases while he vacillated between Illudis and space. You''re dusk, darkness, the Dragon, the black hole, the devourer...space cowers before the black hole. Space is the domain of darkness. Space is your domain, space is your birthright, space is...


    He sighed, defeated. Space is space, damn it. As he retreated back to Illudis this time, he was now four miles out from the end of the atmosphere.


    If I lose sight of this planet, he thought, I''ll never find my way back.


    Bath couldn''t think of any reason he''d lose sight in space, at least not if he continued to regenerate his rupturing organs. Moreover, unlike a human, he could orient his eyes continuously as he moved, ensuring that he kept a pair permanently fixed on Illudis at all times.


    Even so...


    It''s irrational, he told himself. It''s irrational: you''ll never be lost. Illudis is right behind you...


    Another part of him screamed that he couldn''t be sure. And what about if you step on a gate where you can''t see the nearest planet? If you don''t know where it''s supposed to be? You''ll be stuck here forever. Stuck in the empty abyss.


    But he forced himself to go back out, relentless, angered by his own unfamiliar fear.


    ---


    "Bath," Lisa called out, "where were you?"


    Bath opened the glass window pane of the Spire from the outside, climbing in. "Hey," he replied, walking over to Lisa''s bed.


    Thud. He sprawled across its quilted form, arms and legs splayed wide. "I''m tired," he said at last.


    "Wait, say that again, let me get my phone ready," Lisa said, a giggle rising up in her chest. "You weren''t tired after making dragonleaf, nor were you tired after munching up the tortus," she added. "What the heck were you just doing?"


    "I''m emotionally exhausted," Bath sighed, moaning.


    "Sounds like you''re physically exhausted," Lisa quipped, smirking. She walked over to the bed and stood over his stretched-out form. "You aren''t wearing your uniform," she noticed. "What''s up?"


    "I tried something new," Bath said. Many somethings, actually. "This, Lisa, is Thaddeus."


    Lisa''s jaw dropped. "Holy shit," she exclaimed, "you went out as a human?"


    Bath grumbled something unintelligible, rolling over.


    "Wait, shit, that sounds fun!" Lisa said, pushing his side. "See, I was thinking: there''s more to ''being able to do what you want'' than just, well, doing anything because you can."Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Bath nodded weakly; Lisa noogied his head in response. "Case in point, when we went to the beach. We startled everyone half to death and probably ruined some poor verdora''s day out. On top of all that, it wasn''t even fun:It was just weird and awkward." Lisa punctuated each accented word with a small karate chop to Bath''s exposed, t-shirted back. "Wait, is your name actually Thaddeus?"


    "Why?" he asked, grunting. "Is it weirder than Bath?"


    Lisa snort-laughed. "Um, no. Well, I already have a human name, so that''s one thing I won''t have to worry about when we go out together."


    Bath pivoted his head slightly so that he could see Lisa in his peripheral vision. "Are you implying that Bath isn''t a human name?"


    Lisa leaned against him. "That''s exactly what I''m saying."


    Bath smirked, pushing her off. "Fair enough." He sat up, sighing. "Damn, I''m tired."


    "You''ve said that twice," Lisa observed. "Seriously, why are you so exhausted?"


    Bath looked at her, expression stoic, pensive. Why...don''t I want to tell her? "I was practicing."


    Lisa gave him an exasperated look. "For?"


    "Space," he said, holding out the "s" sound. "Experimenting with movement."


    Lisa nodded twice, slowly; then, a look of realization came over her features and she began to shake Bath vigorously. "Wait, why didn''t you take me with!?"


    Bath looked at her with alarm in his eyes. Take her with me? He didn''t even want to tell her about going into space, let alone take her with. He looked away, a sense of shame coming over him which, in turn, made him clench his fists until his nails bit into the palms of his flesh.


    "Lisa, I''m still experimenting a bit. I''m still not sure if I can space-proof you," he said. This was true: he was only able to survive in space because he technically didn''t have a fixed corporeal body. He could supervise her, certainly, and keep her alive, much like he did when they first went through the Ritus gate and ventured onto Magnet Planet...but it would hurt; even if he kept her alive, her body wouldn''t fair well in the vacuum unless he internalized her within himself.


    That''s what I''ll do when passing through Vast Desert, Bath realized. "If you come with me, I''ll just be babysitting you," he reasoned.


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. "Bath, the hell? You''re telling me I can be the first woman in space without astronaut equipment, wait wait wait, no, the first woman in space on a different world, without a ship...ugh, too many firsts," she said, catching her breath. "Damn it, Bath, I''m the Church: lemme go into space!"


    Bath looked at her relentless expression helplessly.


    "Please?" she asked, smiling sweetly. It was a fake sweet, the kind that always made him laugh. Bath looked away, trying to keep a smile off his face.


    "You''re impossible," he murmured.


    "Can we go now?"


    "Aren''t you a little impatient? I said I''m tired."


    "Lies~" Lisa mewled, laying down on the bed. "Ugh, fine. What else do you want to do today? We already told Dean and Juserin about Vast Desert and our imminent departure."


    Bath cocked his head. "Why don''t we pay some of the new city-seeds a visit, like what you did on Earth?"


    Lisa''s nose scrunched up. "Uh, sure, I guess."


    Bath chuckled. "I never did hear about you making the rounds."


    Lisa closed her eyes. "I''ll let you know if the rounds here differ significantlyfrom what Iexperienced on Earth."


    "From what Lepochim told me, we''ll be lucky if they''re different."


    Lisa squinched her eyes closed. "Like, it wasn''tthat bad; there were just a few city-seeds that werereally weird."


    Bath nodded. "Actually, question: is the faction system still a thing?"


    Lisa looked at him as though he was crazy. "Have you been asleep the past few days?"


    Bath glowered playfully. "No, but I haven''t been spreading my essence throughout Whitesun. The city''s too big, and I don''t see the point of knowing what every sapient is doing." Plus, and perhaps more importantly, trekking across Illudis as a wolf reminded him just how pleasant being embodied was.


    "Fine, then, let me explain: the faction system is huge on Illudis. Once the people behind the vanguard arrived, they began to travel all over, proselytizing. Y''know, getting entire cities of people to say the words, ¡®Dawn'' or ''Dusk'' with intention."


    "Have they started doing colosseum battles here already?" he asked.


    "It''s been almost a week, Bath," Lisa said. "Some verdora must already be on their third boon."


    He shook his head. "You''re right; of course they have."


    "Though," Lisa interjected, "that isn''t the main focus of the factions. They also serve as buyers and sellers of goods, the competition between the two generally keeping prices down."


    "Wait; didn''t we get rid of money?"


    Lisa glared. "I wanted to," she said, "but you and the others voted me down."


    Bath yawned innocently. That''s right, I remember."That prestige idea of yours never would have worked."


    Lisa clapped her hands together. "And so, we have money, in the form of PP."


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "PP isn''t very important." In actuality, the kinds of stat boosts given by PP were so minimal as to be insubstantial. "PP capitalizes on the placebo effect: if people think they''re getting more powerful, and they technically are by doing the kinds of actions that generate PP in the first place, then they''ll think that it''s the PP making them stronger."Typical false causality.


    Lisa frowned. "Wait, but PP does actually make people stronger," she argued.


    "By how much?"


    Lisa''s lips formed into a thin line. "Enough."


    Bath waved his hand dismissively. "Maybe a hundred or a thousand PP will make a difference," he admitted, "but it''ll take months, or years, to get enough PP to matter...if you''re steadily making PP, at most 5% of your own growth will come from it alone."


    Lisa grunted in grudging understanding. "I guess that makes sense. But what about people who use their own power to steal PP from others?"


    Bath looked at her as though this was a stupid question. "I made the spearrows, didn''t I?"


    She paused, thinking. "What about people who legally obtain a disproportionate amount of PP?" she asked.


    Bath smiled knowingly. "All growth is logarithmic," he replied, flicking a lock of hair spread around Lisa''s head. "After a certain point, maybe the 10k PP mark, more PP have almost zero effect." From that point on, sapients will need to grow in new ways, he thought.


    "Okay, enough talking," Lisa said, poking Bath''s chest. "Let''s do the rounds. Get your Dragon clothes on," she snarked, tugging on his t-shirt. "Wait, actually, screw that; let me first take a shower."


    As Lisa sat up, Bath lay down, taking her place. She walked over to the bathroom concealed by opaque, layered, webbed crystal and turned on the water. I have no idea why plumbing works in this building, she thought, but I don''t care.


    "Have a good nap," she called out.


    "Mm," Bath grunted weakly.


    Lisa shook her head, whipping her hair out of a bun. "He never told me about the PP cap before," she muttered. "Would''ve been good to know." She ripped off her dress, as was her typical way of getting undressed. Bath''ll just form a new one, anyway.


    She kicked it to the side, by the sink, and walked over to the shower. Technically, she didn''t need to shower with Bath by her side, but she liked showering, just like she enjoyed sleep.


    She continued to speak softly to herself as the water streamed down over her head and shoulders, the heat aiding in her decompressing. "He''s clearly uncomfortable talking about space," she murmured. "It''s easier to see now with all the perception-oriented boons. He just clams up." She sighed, running her hands through her hair. "And what the heck is up with Thaddeus?" She laughed softly to herself. "If I didn''t know him, I might be angry." She smiled. "He''s so...bafflingly...naive."

 [Chapter 121] Deans Departure Speech; Eyrin, the Rebellious Son

    Dean looked down over the newly-selected vanguard. The biggest change was the addition of one hundred to the pruned one-thousand sapient force. Dean felt some reservations toward not counting quasies toward the vanguard''s personnel count, but he conceded that the number of quasi-squirrels required to set a city-seed up was mildly terrifying: counting their numbers would overwhelmingly dilute the number of human and verdora sapients.


    Today''s the day. "Vanguard of COTD," he began, his speaking voice carrying through the gathered forces below. "Today, we set out for Vast Desert, also known as planet 39811 in your encyclopedias. If you''re here, you should already know that," Dean said, chuckling lightly. A few humans below let out a few cheers and whoops of excitement. "I''ll go over a refresher for those of us who need it." He scanned the crowd below, a wry expression on his face. A general wave of laughter followed his eyes.


    "Vast Desert is most likely the easiest gate hope you''ll ever do," he said. "The atmosphere is practically the same as Magnet Planet''s, meaning we''ll be able to adjust to it. Moreover, the planet is a flat desert wasteland, meaning we should all be able to cross its surface unimpeded by geography: It''ll be a steady jog from the entrance gate to the exit gate, already demarcated on your maps. Yes, I know that there are two gates marked on your Vast Desert map: you are absolutely not, under any circumstances, to cross through the unmarked gate."


    His serious expression as he said this last command left no room for questions. I am curious, though, he thought, what lays beyond it. Not so curious that he would directly disobey Bath and Lisa and go through it.


    These gates are serious business. "This is for your own safety. If you go through the unmarked gate, chances are you''ll never find your way back. We will not come after you. Remember, our objective as the vanguard is to blaze a trail from Earth and back: in a few years--maybe, if we''re quick, in a few months--we''ll get the chance to explore outward. Until then, be smart and safe."


    He pointed toward exit gate, located within a canyon on the southwestern side of the planet. "The gate is just beyond the threshold of this cave. If anyone present has reservations, bring them up now; else, we''re going into the cave." Dean waited for a good thirty seconds for any raised hands, not once faltering in his cool demeanor. "Seeing no reservations..." an enthusiastic cheer erupted from seemingly all present, even, Dean noted, the verdora.


    "Let''s go."


    ---


    Several Hours Earlier


    "Father," Eyrin murmured, stepping forward into the well-furnished office. "You called for me?"


    Juserin looked up from a stack of etched, 3-D plastics. "Eyrin; you''ve come." Juserin gave the verdora a once over, frowning noticeably at his dress. Southern primitives, he lamented internally.


    Eyrin didn''t say anything. Why did he call me here? His shell...it''s water: calm, stable. Cold.


    "I''m sending you with the human vanguard to planet 39811." Juserin paused. "Do you have anything to say?"


    "Nothing."


    Juserin coughed. "You know, I think of you as--"


    "Father," Eyrin interrupted. "I''ll be fine."


    Juserin sighed. "Can you dress properly, for when you go off world?"


    Eyrin simply bowed and left, leaving Juserin alone. Juserin grumbled disdainfully:Not even wearing a veil.


    Eyrin stepped outside of his father''s estate and pounced onto his hovertrack. He accessed its interface through his already-synced chip reader, selecting "Home" from the list of pre-programmed destinations.


    One hour later, he was on the opposite side of the planet in a city called Eyrus, named after himself. He cringed at the thought--the only reason I have a city in my name is because of him, he thought, picturing his Juserin''s spotless, illustrious persona.


    He dismounted the hovertrack and bounded over to the Hideaway: once a reclaimed ruin, it now had the semblance of a dragonleaf treehouse. He ducked inside, shaking out his feather-braided mane.


    "Kade," a few verdora greeted.


    "I''m back," Eyrin announced, crossing the room in two loping bounds, showing off his close combat boons.


    "Eh, getting pretty comfortable with those," Tramin observed, patting Eyrin hard on the back as he passed.


    "Can''t believe the humans came up with this shit," Jusera sighed as she practiced shaping a sprout of dragonleaf.


    Eyrin snorted. "Wasn''t the humans, Jusie," he corrected. "It was their gods."


    Jusera shot him an impetuous look. "And how do you know? You''ve been gone this past week, out in the ''Wilderness,''" she said.


    Eyrin rolled his eyes. "I just know."


    "Whatever," Tramin interrupted. "You up for a challo hunt?"


    Jusera flicked Eyrin''s braided mane. "Well?"


    Eyrin looked around the room at the twelve or so other youthful verdora. "Who else is going?"Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Everyone," Tramin replied, grinning. "There''re gonna be a few rules to keep things fun and fair, now that we all have some boons," he said, spreading his unclothed, painted arms wide. The plates covering the backs of his joints shone red, while the indents between scales of his skin shone white. "You in?"


    Eyrin sighed. "Sorry, Tram, everyone, I''ve been drafted."


    Several previously disinterested verdora snapped their eyes over to Eyrin. Drafted?


    "Wait...what?" Jusera asked, her navy lips pulling back over bruise-purple gums. "Who? Is it Digus? I thought we made things clear to that asshole."


    "No, nothing here. I mean..." he sat down. "My father. He needs me."


    Tramin flinched. "Keldor?" Fear saturated his voice. "So you''re going to Dederus?"


    "I hear it''s a total war zone now that the humans have arrived," Jusera hissed, spittle flecking out of her unveiled maws. "All the peace of before, gone. Fuck autocracy." She whipped out an arm, causing her dragonleaf sprout to coil inward as though cowering before a blow.


    "Well, I guess I''ll see first hand," Eyrin smiled sadly. "Don''t try to find me, guys. I can take care of myself."


    "When are you leaving?" another verdora, Yellin, asked.


    "I''m saying goodbye," Eyrin replied, implying an imminent departure. "Just going to grab a few things before I split."


    "You better come back, Kade," Jusera growled. "Things just go...better when you''re around."


    "Yeah, alright," Eyrin smirked, throwing his loosely-robed primary arms up in the air. "I get it: my legendary charm is--."


    Jusera grunted and picked up a chisel at her side. Normally, she used it for etching; now, she used it as a focus. Eyrin dodged slightly to the left as he felt the passage of a force through the air.


    "Hey, kidding," he said, loping forward towards the ladder leadingthe Hideaway''s second story. He trod over to his quarters, a small, cell-like nook, essentially identical to the rooms of everyone else. He had a few hovering shelves looming over a nest of pillows he used as a bed; he passed over these, instead aiming ahand toward a discrete hole in the wall.


    Got it, he murmured, pocketing hismiranite necklace. He exhaled as the draft from the entryway blew across his back, tickling his skin. Before he left, he grabbed a small sack from the corner of his room, along with a spare chip reader already outfitted with...usefulapplications.


    I should probably hurry, he thought, frowning.


    "Come back soon!" and other such farewells resounded through the deck space below as he exited. I''ll be back, he thought. Eventually. He envisioned Juserin''s regal personage and frowned.


    Eyrin walked casually through the streets of Eyrus, his unruly mane and dirty, unfashionable clothes hiding him from the eyes of strangers. If anyone paid him any attention, he simply touched their shell to put them at ease and continued nonchalantly on his way.


    Sneaking into Eyrusta used to be the biggest pain, he thought as he scaled a building bordering the palace. When I get back, I bet it''ll be even more difficult than before. However, at the moment, entering Eyrusta was easier than ever before, his enhanced strength and endurance more than allowing him to launch over Eyrusta''s imposing white walls.


    While Illusta''s color scheme embodied the image of fire, Eyrus'' embodied the image of clouds: white and blue tapestries and banners decorated the city, while its gated center, Eyrusta, featured cloud holos overlaying the walls in a thick, cottony mist.


    Eryin used this mist as a cover to reenter his official living quarters. He scaled the slick walls with practiced ease, gripping onto slashes he''d made into the rock face years past; conveniently, the mist also hid these imperfections from sight.


    He dropped into his room from the lip of his bedroom''s window. His near proximity was the only requirement to unlock the window, assuring smooth entry into his quarters. He trod into his opulent room, the pads of his unrobed feet expanding as he stepped. His first priority was to enter the bathroom and clean himself up.


    He stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, snorting with contempt. Why did he call for me? he wondered. And here I thought he''d deemed me a lost cause.


    Eyrin bared his teeth, inspecting their color and sharpness. He grabbed a few metal tools and cleaned them personally, forsaking the metal-beaked mouth-pigeons most well-off verdora used to clean their mouths. He preferred to clean his teeth himself rather than allow a small, unintelligent animal into his mouths.


    After cleaning his teeth to satisfaction, he licked both maws. Then, he stepped over to his bathing pool, frowning when, with only his third set of arms submerged, the water turned brown. He dipped the second set and the water darkened further.


    This city is disgusting, he thought, growling as he grabbed a rough spine-comb from the utility shelf hovering at his side. He dragged the comb over his skin, the thin spines catching on the grooves between his nearly microscopic scales. Perhaps my disdain for Eyrus is why Juserin has sent me away.


    After cleaning all three sets of legs of grime, he walked away from the soiled bathing pool and toward his dressing room. A set of fans lining the floor blew under him as he went, drying him off. By the time he entered the dressing room, he was completely dry; only his short robe remained wet along the hem.


    He went through his dressing room unassisted, pushing hovering stacks of robes aside. When he reached the back of his wardrobe, he smiled at the highly-illegal, highly-practical ribbon wraps coiled at eye-level. He immediately wound the strips of black cloth around his second and third pairs of legs, weaving the wraps in a cross pattern along the pads of his second and third sets of feet. Before wrapping his first set of limbs, he walked to the side and picked out one of his traditional robes styled after Juserin''s own. A stark difference between this robe and Juserin''s was its tailored shape: instead of draping formlessly over his body, only pulling taught around the chest and hips, this robe followed a more practical field model, with the fabric additionally pulled taught over the lower halves of his limbs.


    The wraps on his second and third sets of limbs were, at most, precautionary: if he found himself in a precarious situation, he could tear the fabric of his robe off to reveal the wraps beneath. However, with regards to his first set...


    He pulled the robe on over his head, tugging at its durable, smooth fabric. The robe left his mane exposed, as was standard for this type of design; despite this, Eyrin left it alone, leaving the feathers and braids visible. Just one, pathetic form of rebellion, he sneered, mocking himself. He wished he were brave enough to do more.


    With the robe covering his body, he returned to the final set of ribbon wraps and began to wind these around his forearms and hands. By the time he finished, the wrapping was seamless enough to pass for a pair of inconspicuous black gloves.


    Eyrin traipsed over to his collection of veils, all of which floated in the air, suspended. He''d bring at most three during this voyage, washing them at the end of each day. He selected two single-colored veils for daily usage, a red and a light blue for the colors of Illusta, Illudis'' capital, and Eyrus, the capital of his province. The third veil, for formal occasions, was more difficult to select. In the end, he chose a slightly sheer cloth with sharp, silver geometric patterns stitched onto a white background. Conservative, he thought as he pinched the veil between two digits.Not.The cloth wasn''t intended to be translucent, though its light color allowed nearby sapients to see the outline of his jaws.


    The diplomatic side of Eyrin knew the veil was a poor choice. The pragmatic side argued otherwise: what a better veil for intimidating foreign sapients? He snapped his jaws together, inspecting how his fangs looked beneath the flimsy fabric.It''ll do.

 [Chapter 122] Tying Up Loose Ends; Farewell, Father

    Eyrin''s chip reader automatically provided him the time as he dressed, making him constantly aware of the dwindling time remaining before traveling to the exit gate. Just as he finished packing his chosen vestments in his sack, he activated his chip reader to conduct a summons. Contact Kerelin, he thought. Tell him to meet me in my bed chamber.


    Finished with the dressing room, Eyrin returned to his bedroom to wait. In stark contrast to the cramped nook of the Hideaway, this room was spacious, comically so: Eyrin spent very little time here, filling the thousand square rod room with nothing aside from a pillow bed and desk. While the bed took up a full one-hundred square rods by itself, the room felt despairingly empty and cold.


    He noticed a thin layer of dust on the desk and wiped it off in some vain attempt to make the room look as though someone actually lived there. Why do I bother with the little things, Eyrin wondered, when I leave everything else to rot?


    "Prince Eyrin," Kerelin bellowed, announcing his presence as he entered the threshold of the room.


    Eyrin sighed. "Come, Kerelin. Has my father told you?"


    Kerelin nodded sharply. "Your departure is imminent, I am aware."


    Eyrin smirked. "Are you happy I''m being sent away?"


    "No."


    Frowning, Eyrin crossed his wrapped forearms. "Won''t it be easier for you? You won''t need to fabricate excuses about where I am, or why I''m not doing anything befitting my station."


    Kerelin winked, his slanted eye shining with sadistic humor. "I enjoy the challenge."


    Eyrin groaned. "I suppose I''ll miss your creative attempts at damage control."


    "I suppose you will. Just a few months, do you think?"


    Eyrin sighed. "Probably, but who''s to say?"


    "Is this the end, then, for the Candidacy?"


    What? "The Candidacy?" Eyrin''s skin darkened slightly. "How can this be the end, if there was never a beginning?"


    Kerelin shook his head. "Prince, so long as you remained on Illudis, a chance remained. In your case, perhaps, a very slim one..." Kerelin let the thought trail off as he saw Eyrin''s waning patience. "Unimportant," he concluded.


    Eyrin''s eyes crinkled. "Unimportant," he repeated crisply. "Well, keep busy without me, as you always do."


    Kerelin bowed his head. "Be safe."


    Eyrin blinked his eyes twice, the verdoran equivalent to an eye roll. "I swear upon the dead and fallen that I will return, Kerelin. Now, I need to leave."


    Kerelin winked again before leaving Eyrin alone with only his bed and desk for company. He waited a minute before leaving Eyrus, contemplating the fanfare his exit would arouse: Because he departure was actually expected, he could depart through the palace doors without causing a stir. People outside will wish me well, he noted, snorting. Yes, wish Eyrin the Candidate, Eyrin the kursi, Eyrin the Prince a good trip. His skin further darkened as his disdain mounted.


    Eyrus was a typical, cookie-cutter Candidate palace, one that Eyrin had acquired from a kursi that had decided to venture off Illudis as one of Juserin''s ambassadors. Because he almost never walked through its halls, Eyrin took an extra minute to admire the geometric designs on the floors and the cloud-colored tapestries. Though he would never admit it, he felt a certain reluctance to leave Eyrus.


    When I return, Juserin may choose to disinherit me. As he walked down the hall towards the palace doors, servants froze like statues, prostrate before him. Isn''t that my goal? he wondered, passing through the doors and into the courtyard between the palace and the gates to Eyrusta. He felt a sour taste in his mouth as he proceeded on, looking every bit the noble prince the public probably thought he was. I know what it is, Eyrin realized. Why I feel so uncomfortable with this change of events. It''s because this isn''t my plan, but Juserin''s.


    He felt his front hands stiffen beneath their wraps, padding heavily across the slabs of stone leading up to the now-opening gate. So, even as I escape the Candidacy, I find myself ensnared in another political web. He snarled softly, his white and silver veil concealing the unsightly expression from onlookers.


    One of the palace''s hovertrack zoomed out of a subterranean hangar, touching down directly in front of Eyrin. A growing crowd exclaimed at his arrival outside of Eyrus'' gates, many exclaiming, "Prince!" as he mounted the white pod. The hovertrack''s elevated form increased his visibility, making him appear as though standing atop a pure white podium. He gave the verdorabelow a quick wave before he closed the top of the hovertrack and set his destination for a set of coordinates in Dederus, just outside of Dederesta.


    The pod zipped through the air, only switching skytracks once before touching town. Eyrin disembarked to an open stretch of purple reeds that came up to his head. His enhanced strength facilitated his movement through the dense reed forest, enabling him to reach his father''s residencewith time to spare.


    His father, Keldor, lived in the literal middle of nowhere. His small house, a plasticast two-room, was submerged underground; Eyrin was only able to locate it because of a large red tapestry mounted on a jujura tree next to the abode''s porthole.


    He knocked on the small jujura wood door, then waited.


    "Eyrin?" Keldor called up, his voice faint.Stolen story; please report.


    "Father, I''m here," he replied.


    "Coming," Keldor grunted, voice growing louder as he approached. "Why the visit?"


    Eyrin smiled at his father''s gruff, cliff-side accent. "I''m leaving Illudis."


    Keldor''s step faltered. "Ay, I''ll wait for you to explain inside," he grumbled, finally reaching the porthole. Eyrin stepped to the side to allow enough room for the door to swing up and over.


    Eyrin pounced forward, playfully tackling Keldor to the ground. "Eh," Keldor grunted. "When''d you get so strong?"


    Eyrin''s face fell. "Father, don''t tell me...you haven''t left your house recently, have you?"


    Keldor''s beady eyes twinkled in the light of the sun shining through the opened port. "Why?" he asked, voice tinged with suspicion.


    "Invaders have come from planet 39123, Earth," he explained, stepping off of Keldor''s shoulders and into the narrow passageway from the entrance to the rest of the house.


    "39123? You''re not serious," Keldor grunted, following behind. "We sent them back without punishment, didn''t we?" he snapped his jaws. "The current Juserin is too forgiving."


    "On the contrary, Juserin the fifty-sixth surrendered," Eyrin said, voice devoid of emotion. "He knew they were coming," Eyrin said softly. "He knew they had something, a weapon or the like. You know, he evacuated Illusta, loaded the citizens into hangarcraft and sent them away."


    "...39123? One two three?"


    "Yes, our neighbor, one two three. Earth."


    "But...how?" Keldor''s voice shook with unconcealed fury.


    "The sapients of Earth have two patron gods," Eyrin explained. "Beings with unfathomable power."


    Keldor scoffed. "Sounds like propaganda. I''d wager Juserin is using them as a convenient enemy to reaffirm sentiments of verdoran unity and secure his hold on power. He''ll mount a counterstrike soon enough; our weapons systems are terrible, but they certainly aren''t worse than those on 39123."


    Eyrin smiled grimly under his veil, stepping into his father''s multi-purpose kitchen-parlor room. "Let me explain."


    "Sounds like it''ll take some time," Keldor huffed, sitting down in a chair hovering by his jujura-wood dining table. "I''m inclined to think this is a joke," he muttered, "but you aren''t that funny."


    Eyrin snapped his jaws in mock anger, reclining in another hover chair off to the side. "As I was saying: Earth''s gods are powerful. Father, I don''t think I can describe exactly what they are capable of; it''d be better for you to head to Dederesta yourself to see."


    Keldor folded his arms. "Try."


    Eyrin''s eyes crinkled. "Don''t blame me for anything that breaks," he murmured, stomping a foot into the ground. With his enhanced strength, the action generated a loud thudas the plasticast of the house recoiled and shook. Keldor''s haphazardly strewn reader components let out tinkling noises as their inner components scraped and jiggled around.


    Keldor blinked. "So, your strength, it comes from these gods?" He murmured in confusion. "But why would they aid you if they came to conquer Illudis?" Keldor''s skin suddenly darkened. "They intend to use you as an insurgent!?"


    Eyrin shook his head. "No, nothing like that. They seek to build an empire, a theocracy, spanning innumerable planets. While they have come to conquer us...they have also come to bring us into their fold."


    "You sound as confused as I am," Keldor chuckled bitterly. "This is ridiculous. Theocracy?"


    "I''m leaving," Eyrin said, cutting the conversation short. "Juserin the fifty-sixth has ordered my dismissal. I''m to accompany the sapients of Earth and their gods until they reach Illudis once again."


    Keldor''s skin paled. "Eyrin..."


    "While I''m gone, go to Dederesta. You can''t afford to stay secluded like this when Illudis is in this precarious state of flux."


    "That man..." Keldor seethed. "Surrendering to planet 39123? Letting that backwater''s gods occupy our cities?"


    Eyrin closed his eyes and sighed. "You know I dislike him as much as you," Eyrin stated, "but this time, I don''t think Juserin is to blame." The current time loomed heavily on Eyrin''s mind, reminding him to wrap things up. "I really do need to leave. Before I go, can you help me with something?"


    Keldor nodded stiffly. "As long as you promise to come back as soon as you can."


    Eyrin stood up, sliding out of his chair. "I need a miranite jammer and a ribbon wrap battery," he said, eying the menagerie of parts scattered throughout the room.


    Keldor groaned and gingerly stepped from his chair. "I have a ribbon wrap battery somewhere...alkalite crystal and a conversion pipe..." his trained eye scanned the room until, with a tsk, he started forward. "Here, found it." He picked up three pieces, two onyx, one lavender. "I trust you know how to put this together," Keldor chuckled, tossing the pieces to Eyrin. "A miranite jammer, though..." he sighed, rubbing his first pair of limbs together. "I don''t think I have the parts on me at the moment."


    Eyrin padded over to Keldor, nuzzling the grizzled verdora. "It''s fine: the battery is more important, anyway."


    Keldor looked down at his son, his eyes burning with emotion. "I''m an old man," he whispered. "Sixty-seven. You make me forget how much time has passed.."


    Eyrin flinched. Suddenly, a thought shot through his mind. "I hear that the gods of Earth can reverse aging," he whispered.


    Keldor sighed. "That technology''s heavily restricted."


    Eyrin adamantly shook his head. "I''m not talking about technology; again, you need to see for yourself. If I get back and you haven''t gone to Dederesta, I''m going to skin you, mount your corpse on your banner, and let your insides putrefy."


    "Fine, point taken," Keldor muttered, winking.


    Eyrin nodded, winking back. "I''m off, then."


    Once his son was a good distance down the corridor, Keldor shouted, "Good riddance!"


    Eyrin simply thudded an arm against the porthole, blasting it off its hinges. If I''m not mistaken, that''ll require a trip to Dederesta to properly repair, he thought, smiling.


    He made his way back to the hovertrack, assisted by his chip reader''s pathfinder ocular overlay. He entered the pod, expression grim. "Only one place left," he murmured. The pod soundlessly lifted upward until it came into contact with a skytrack leading southwest. Because of the long distance, the pod switched tracks numerous times before finally arriving at the programmed destination, Valiance Cavern.


    As the pod approached, Eyrin noted the peculiar mix of sapients below: humans, the native species of Earth, were mixed in with several other non-standard sapients. Are they from other conquered worlds? he wondered, eyes alight with confusion. Of the non-standard sapients, the only species he recognized was the brown, bushy-tailed variety the humans stationed in all their cities.


    He didn''t have much time to observe the gathered sapients before his pod touched down on solid earth. As the pod''s translucent cover retracted to allow his exit, Eyrin leaned back and looked at the clear sky. I won''t be seeing you for a while, he thought nervously.


    He grabbed the miranite necklace from his pack and placed it over his head, tucking it under his mane and into his robe. Then, he grabbed the battery components and quickly strung them together, pressing their connectors together with practiced ease. He grabbed a gold-colored wire from his pack to wind the components together, coiling them into a condensed, circular disk. He slid the battery under his primary left-hand ribbon wrap, just under the clasp securing the wrap to his robe. He shook his hand to ensure the disk was snugly in place, then, having no other excuse to remain in the craft, Eyrin stood up.


    Oh; almost forgot. Eyrin ripped off his fancy white veil, folding it and placing it back in his pack. He regarded his more-practical, single-color veils, trying to decide which color to wear.I''ll be back, father, he thought, tyingthe red veil around his mouths. Father''s red.


    Eyrin shuddered with anticipation as he bounded forward onto the ground. The hovertrack rose into the sky, winking out of sight. "Tramin," he muttered, smiling, "you always said I needed a good adventure."


    No turning back.

 [Chapter 123] Stepping Onto Vast Desert; The Five Kursi

    "Seeing no reservations...Let''s go," Dean commanded, pointing toward the gate-holding cavern.


    Dean squinted his eyes against the falling light of Illudis'' sun. It''s past time to go; we need to hurry up: Lisa and Bath are waiting.


    As he fixed his eyes on the setting sun, a flash of white streaked through the azure, cloudless sky. A ship? he wondered. He looked down, frowning. Did we miscount? Either way, they''re lucky, whoever they are, that they''re coming now.


    Dean''s enhanced vision tracked the white pod''s descent, recognizing the familiar verdora make. He turned back to the crowd pouring into the narrow cavern. Huh. I guess there were only ninety-nine verdora. Didn''t they all come together, as a group? Why is this one late?


    Since the vanguard was already streamlining into the gate, Dean felt no reservations leaving his position on the bluff overlooking the cavern to meet the straggler. He landed effortlessly before the new arrival, a plume of dust swirling around his feet. His head snapped up and he waited for the verdora to start the exchange: verdora culture dictated that the sapient of lower status made the first greeting.


    However, instead of this newcomer bowing and saying a customary greeting, he or she locked eyes with Dean, entering into a bizarre staring contest. After five seconds of intense awkwardness, the verdora shook its head and cleared its throat.


    "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," the verdora spoke. "I am Eyrin, prince of Eyrus."


    Dean cocked his head. Okay, a prince. Interesting. Does Illudis have a monarchy? If that''s the case, then what position does Juserin hold? He certainly doesn''t live in a palace...


    "A pleasure," Dean replied, revealing his most charming smile. "I am the Church of the Dragon''s Knight. Are you joining this expedition?"


    Dean found Eyrin''s expression unreadable. Probably the species barrier, he decided, somewhat perturbed that his perception PP investment wasn''t giving him any insight into the prince''s mind. I''ll have to talk to Bath about this.


    "I have been sent here by my father," Eyrin replied. "Juserin, if that wasn''t clear."


    "You''re Juserin''s son?" Dean asked, surprised. Not that I''d know; all verdora look alike. "He never mentioned you." Whoops, Dean thought, cringing internally. Subtle.


    Eyrin smiled sardonically. "Of course he didn''t: he has too many of us to keep track of."


    Dean''s eye twitched. A harem? Juserin has how many sons? This image of Juserin didn''t fit Dean''s impression of the verdora at all. "Fair; he never mentioned he had children."


    This seemed to get Eyrin attention, his eyes flashing. "Didn''t he? Well, I believe it''s time we join the rest of the sapients."


    Dean gave Eyrin a steely look. This guy seems like he''s hiding something. "Yes, I think it''s time. Before you join them, I have to ask: what boons do you have?"


    Eyrin matched Dean''s regard with a calculated look of his own. "Close combat, artist. Though I don''t think that''s why I''m here; you should place me with your kursi."


    So that''s why he''s here. Suddenly, everything made sense. He isn''t a son by blood; the chances of Juserin having a kursi kid is one in many million. Must be a political thing...


    "I''ll lead you to them," Dean replied. "They should already be through the gate, as they led the vanguard."


    Eyrin nodded. "Very well."


    Dean and Eyrin approached the cavern, Eyrin grunting lightly as he tried to keep pace with Dean. By the time they reached the cavern, only a handful of sapients remained; Dean and Eyrin took the last spots in line.


    ---


    I was starting to worry, Eyrin thought, that this human-led expedition had no other kursi. Thankfully, the Knight lay this fear to rest. The realization that, for the first time in his life, he would collaborate with another species of sapients, hit him as he stood in front of the gate, surrounded on all sides by foreigners.


    I wonder what human kursi are like. He glanced over at the Knight, who was urging a few people in front of them to hurry and get their asses through the portal. For a supposed Knight, he reminds me more of Tramin than anyone else. Not the kind of person he''d expect to lead a group of gate travelers.


    Though there''s clearly more to this Knight than meets the eye: he''s met Juserin in person, for one. And just now, that speed...


    Half a minute passed, and soon it was Eyrin''s turn to enter the gate. He gulped, staring in apprehension at the blank, opaque surface of the gate''s opening.


    "First time''s the worst," the Knight said, grinning as he took Eyrin''s wrist in his hand and tugged him forward. "It''s better with a partner."


    Eyrin didn''t have time to protest before the Knight pulled him into the gate. The next time he took in a breath...he was on an alien world.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "39811..." Eyrin murmured, eyes widening in awe. Instead of the familiar blue of Illudis, this planet''s sky shone red, with white clouds suspended like cotton throughout.


    "Huh, Vast Desert," the Knight said, bending down to pick up a handful of sand. "It''s really red," he noted. "Iron, maybe?" He turned over to look at Eyrin, an expression of wonder lighting up his features. "It''s beautiful, isn''t it?"


    "How can I breathe?" Eyrin asked, suddenly self-conscious.


    "Divine intervention," the Knight said, waving a hand dismissively. "We need to make our way to the head of the vanguard. Come." Once again, he gripped onto Eyrin''s wrist like a vice, ripping the verdora forward.


    "It''s a good thing you''re wearing gloves," the Knight said, his voice barely audible over the wind caused by their high-speed passage. "Very practical."


    Eyrin panted. "Too practical for Illudis," he commented, voice dry and raspy.


    "Here," Dean breathed, releasing Eyrin''s wrist. The verdora fell over, gasping. "You should be able to find the kursi without me."


    Eyrin placed his first set of arms on his second pair, heaving. His flexible spine twisted upward, allowing him to arch his body up and better inflate his lungs. After his breathing normalized, Eyrin flexed his spine again as he elevated his second pair of legs, standing on only the third pair. He walked forward, his second pair of limbs clasped tightly around his midsection for added support. I do concede that the flowing robes preferred in high society look better when walking bipedally.


    Eyrin found the group of kursi without assistance, their shells clearly visible in the crush of congregated bodies. Five humans, he noted as he scoped them out from afar. He walked over, his robed feet slipping on the sand below and nearly causing him to fall over. He licked the inside of his mouth, moistening his gums in preparation for speaking.


    "Hey, it''s a verdora kursi," one of the humans exclaimed, turning to her companions and shaking their shoulders. "Wo~w, you''re tall," she noted, shifting her weight onto her left hip. "I didn''t realize you guys could walk on two legs; all the others walk on four."


    A male human laughed. "Kinda looks like a, uh, one of the devilbats."


    The humans all gave the man dubious looks. "What!?"


    "Have you seen them walk? Without their wings?"


    What...what is this? Eyrin coughed lightly into his veil, dropping back down onto four legs. If anything, they mock me for being bipedal. How peculiar.


    "Oh, right, buddy," the man said. "I''m Zhou Wang. This is Ida Moore, Khalid Abboud, Priscilla Duval, and Lisa White."


    Eyrin looked on in confusion. How am I supposed to know who is who? "...I am Eyrin, prince of Eyrus, son of Juserin the fifty-sixth." He added the "son of Juserin" part because he doubted they would recognize the province of Eyrus.


    "Wait, Eyrus?" one the women said, cocking her head. "The place with the black rock canyon?"


    Eyrin blinked once in surprise. "Yes, actually."


    "...The place with a beautiful beach?"


    Eyrin blinked twice. Eyrus is one of twenty provinces bordering bodies of water; of course it has beaches! "If the beach in question is near Black Night Craig, yes, it''s in Eyrus," he said.


    The human woman nodded. "Good to know. So, how old are you?"


    I didn''t immediately peg her as the leader of this group, but something tells me...she''s the one in charge. "Forty-four."


    The woman nodded. "Zhou''s two-hundred and ninety-nine, Ida''s one-hundred and four, Khalid''s ninety-eight, and Priscilla''s forty-two.


    So, by process of elimination, this is Lisa White that''s speaking.


    "Wang is in charge of our unit for the duration of this expedition," she explained. "So you''ll get all your assignments from him. In general, our job will be to pacify our own forces in the event of fights breaking out and the like."


    If Zhou Wang is in charge...why is Lisa White saying so? Eyrin frowned imperceptibly, his red veil covering the motion. She also never mentioned her age; just who is she?


    "Reasonable," Eyrin replied. "These are Juserin''s holdings; we shouldn''t run into trouble between here and Earth."


    "The biggest difficulty," Lisa explained, "is that we need to blaze a trail from here," she pointed to the gate leading from Illudis to planet 39811, "back to Earth. We''ll probably be reliant on our engineers to deal with the biggest problems, such as constructing a terminal or ferry between the next gate, in outer space, and Equinox--planet 39786. We can personally assist in growing city-seeds and laying down other elements of infrastructure."


    "Why don''t your gods simply do all of this?" Eyrin asked.


    Lisa''s mouth curved into a devious grin "Because: this expedition is an excellent way to accumulate PP and--oh, it''s even better for you: I bet you''ll be done with all your boons in under two weeks. You''ll be using them all the time."


    "Oh."


    Lisa strode forward, grabbed him by the arm, and brushed out the front of his robe. "Cheer up: it''s gonna be fun."


    Eyrin flinched at the extreme breach in etiquette: he didn''t actually care, since verdoran etiquette was one of the most outdated, useless social constructs in the universe (or so Eyrin liked to complain to his companions at the Hideway)...but he''d never experienced someone reaching out and touching the front of his robe.


    Though, in truth, it was wrinkled and dusty.


    Lisa paid his reaction no mind, already dragging one of the women off--the one who first noticed his approach--to discuss something. Eyrin sat down in meditation, unsure about what, exactly, he was supposed to be doing; his mission supervisor was just walking around and drawing aimless patterns in the sand.


    After a few minutes, Lisa returned. "Zhou," she barked. "Give Eyrin something to do. Look at him," she said, pointing, "he''s sitting alone by himself."


    Eyrin kept his eyes shut, as though doing so would make him invisible. I can hear everything she''s saying; I''m five rods away.


    "Yo, Eyrin," Zhou called out. "Why don''t you check in with the other verdora, make sure any cultural differences are sorted out."


    Eyrin opened one eye. "Now?"


    Zhou chuckled, his black hair swishing over his shoulders. "Why not?"


    Eyrin stood up, shaking the sand from his robe. "I''ll be back soon." Who did Juserin send with this expedition? he wondered, scanning the disorganized sapients. Where are they standing?


    After a minute of searching, he finally spotted them: ninety-nine verdora clustered in a haphazard circle, basking in the harsh red light streaming through the clouds. They all seem slightly nervous, though that''s to be expected.


    Thankfully they''re all clustered together, he noted, or else this would be more difficult.Once he was in range, he reached out to touch the shells of the ninety-nine verdora, invoking within them feelings of obeisance and submission. Recognizing this conspicuous influence as that of a kursi, they immediately bowed, veils draping across the desert sand.


    "Rise," he said, waiting for them to return to their former positions. Seeing that all were sitting and attentive he began, speaking slowly: "My name is Eyrin, Prince of Eyrus. I am here to listen to your grievances." He gave all of them a sharp, calculated look: the procedure for airing grievances was one they all knew by heart. "I will moderate, and will forcibly pacify anyone at my own discretion." He waited a moment, expression grave, before saying, "Present your grievances."

 [Chapter 124] Giving Testimony; Thaddeus house Clanemic of Illusta

    Several Hours Previous:


    "Radiance Bath," Juserin began, "You grace me with your presence."


    Bath straightened up a little. "To bear witness to your home is a pleasure all its own," he replied, inclining his head slightly. "Why have you called me here?" Odd that he didn''t ask for Lisa; she''s the nice one.


    Juserin sighed, as though composing himself. "I have many sons and daughters," he explained, turning away semi-dramatically. "Adopted, of course; they''re all kursi."


    Bath looked on impassively. Sons and daughters, kursi...reminds me of Lisa''s aunt and uncle. "Are you intending to send one of them along with us to Earth?"


    Juserin looked mildly startled by the proposition. "Why...yes."


    Bath smiled. Why else would he bring up the matter of his adopted children mere hours before our departure? "Your child will take the place of another verdora. Tell him or her to be at Valiance Cavern by 7:30 Standard Illudis Time." That sounds about right.


    "Yes, ahem, well...this son of mine, his birth parents...they are quite troubled."


    "...Do you wish for me to help them?" The parents?


    Juserin snorted flippantly. "Oh, no. However, they have had a rather...deleterious influence on this son''s development. With regards to father figures...he''s had very few. None, actually."


    Bath suppressed a chuckle. This verdora has two fathers, and no father figures?  "But aren''t you his father?"


    Juserin sighed, shaking his head dejectedly. "Alas, I adopted him too late; he doesn''t see me as a father."


    As in...you took too long in finding him. "Your words suggest that you think I have the power to solve this problem." Bath gave Juserin an icy, impassive look, as though the verdora were no more than an insect. "I believe Asil and I made quite clear the limitations of COTD two days ago." Bath referenced one of the first major uses of the glass spire: a meeting between a team of quasi-wasps and Juserin''s officials. "This being the case, you should understand that we affect the material world, the physical. We have no domain over the immaterial, such as issues pertaining to relationships." Bath raised a questioning eyebrow, inviting Juserin to explain himself.


    "Of course," he said hastily, "I don''t want you to be a father to my son. That would be..." he coughed lightly into his veil. "Interesting. No, I simply want you to watch out for him: Now that you have some grasp on the circumstances of his background, I hope this task will be easier."


    Bath smirked. "Asil and I will keep him in mind. Is that all?"


    "Yes, Radiance."


    "Excellent." Bath''s human body fell apart into strips of ribbon that almost instantly subdivided into thin squares; this makeshift confetti burst, flying everywhere. Accompanied by the smell of iron, the flesh and blood confetti display was, on a fundamental level, deeply unsettling.


    I''m never giving up bad cop to Lisa, Bath thought. It''s too easy,


    ---


    "What is going on," Bath murmured to himself, looking furtively around from a pair of eyes manifest in the air. He couldn''t see anything from behind his veil, which had slid up over his eyes.


    "Rise."


    Bath tried, and failed, relying on a well-placed tendril of essence to prevent himself from slipping and face-planting unceremoniously on the sand. This insufferable robe...


    "My name is Eyrin, Prince of Eyrus. I am here to listen to your grievances. I will moderate, and will forcibly pacify anyone at my own discretion."


    Why is he staring at me? Bath wondered. Oh, is that the kursi Juserin sent? He immediately manifested a mouth behind Lisa''s ear. "Did you send the little verdora kursi my way?"


    "Probably," she replied, speaking under her breath. "If he asks about your shell, say you''re wearing a piece of miranite. It''s an extremely rare mineral that masks a sapient''s shell. Honestly, I have no idea what this kind of masking looks like, but I''d be shocked if this verdora knew."


    "What kind of jewelry?" Bath asked helplessly.


    "That''s what you ask..." Lisa grumbled back. "Just make it a bracelet. It''s a purple stone, by the way."


    "Thanks."


    Bath returned his full attentions to Eyrin, who was currently sitting down atop a mound of dragonleaf-covered sand. Eyrin seemed to be waiting for something, not that Bath had any idea: He simply followed along with the other verdora, who were presently self-organizing into three horizontal arcs around Eyrin''s makeshift chair. After a moment, the entire fleet of verdora sat down, apparently signaling that the grievance proceedings could commence.


    "Present your grievances," Eyrin said, looking over the verdora like he was their king. Bathsuppressed a snort. The irony of this little prince lording over him was mildly hilarious.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    One of the verdora stood up, her head inclined politely. Eyrin pointed her way. "Speak."


    "The humans don''t talk to us," she said, voice meek.


    "All those giving support to this grievance, stand."


    Only two stood. Frowning, Eyrin gestured for them to be seated. "The grievance is dropped. Further grievances?" Three verdora stood. Eyrin chose one, commanding him to speak.


    "The humans talk to us disrespectfully," he stated, giving the previous grievance-presenter a smug look.


    "All those giving support to this grievance, stand." Bath watched mutely as more than seventy of the collected verdora stood, their heads all inclined to the ground, veils draping over their chests.


    Eyrin nodded. "The grievance stands. All willing to testify, stand, and deliver testimony." Twenty verdora stood, all looking, to Bath''s critical eye, incredibly prudish.


    Who did Juserin send with the vanguard? A legion of old nobility?


    Eyrin stopped, as though recalling something he had forgotten. "Before we commence, will one verdora volunteer to record the testimonies?"


    Bath''s eyes bulged out of his head. He stood up, then said, "Thaddeus volunteers." I have no idea what they''re going to say, but based on all the posturing so far...it''ll be worth rewatching.


    Eyrin inclined his head, giving Bath a fixed, appraising stare. "Thaddeus is selected. Start the recording." He then selected one of the standing verdora. "Present your testimony."


    The verdora cleared her throat. "I was waiting in line to go through the portal," she said, "when three human males looked at me, said a vulgar greeting as though we were intimate friends, and asked if they could touch my mane."


    The gathered verdora all bristled, as though greatly shocked. Many also gave sympathetic looks to the testifying verdora, as though telling this story would reawaken her memories of the traumatic incident.


    Eyrin called on another verdora to testify. "A pack of white, long-legged, long-eared, short-armed sapients encircled me and tugged on my robe and veil," another female verdora reported, sniffing pitifully.


    Eyrin continued to call on verdora to testify; hearing the testimonies of peers, soon fifty verdora were standing, all riled up and revving to implicate the foreign sapients in some treacherous business.


    This...I have no words.Bath sorely wished Lisa were here with him. However, having a video recording on his chip reader was good enough.


    A male verdora stepped up onto two legs and bowed; the gesture looked as though it belonged in the court of a noble. "I believe I speak for all of us," he began, "when I say that the female humans are insufferable." His eyes flashed with anger; he paused to close his eyes and regain his composure. "The human women say that we are ''cute,'' and wonder if our manes are soft. They try to pet us. One small human female claimed I bore resemblance to her dog, Booboo." He took in a deep breath. "To humans, dogs are nothing more than pets. Moreover, Booboo likes to..." he paused, as though stuck on the next word. "Chase his tail." A silent gasp rippled through the gathered verdora, their incensed eyes blinking rapidly.


    Next, a particularly tall verdora walked into the middle of the circle unsteadily, almost as if he were on a boat approaching a swelling tsunami. He bowed deeply, his forehead almost reaching the ground. He then boomed in a boon-augmented voice: "Prince, this is most unacceptable!" He coughed once, then proceeded to speak in a whisper, saying, "Three humans heckled me for not knowing the names of their gods. However, as far as I know, this information is not a matter of public record. They then proceeded to mock my limited understanding of the concept of gods, and religion."


    After hearing several more testimonies, Eyrin gestured for all standing to sit down. "This is more than enough to make a case. I shall present your testimonies to the leaders of this expedition and demand the inappropriate behavior of the foreigners be rectified."


    That''s literally never going to happen, Bath thought to himself. These testimonies are ridiculous.


    Bath nearly jumped in place when Eyrin called him out. "Thaddeus, see me after these proceedings to transfer over the recorded material." He then refocused his attentions on everyone else. "For now, all are dismissed."


    I never realized learning the verdoran common tongue would be so useful, Bath thought. Then again, I never imagined myself impersonating one of their nobility. Speaking common verdoran was the only way to integrate himself into their community: the verdora would recognize if he used a translator to communicate.


    "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Bath said, voice saccharine, "I am Thaddeus house Clanemic of Illusta."


    "A pleasure." He smiled, then frowned only a moment later. "I must ask...what are you using to protect yourself from my mental abilities?" Though he phrased this as a question, Bath had the feeling answering wasn''t optional.


    "I have a bracelet," he began, "of miranite." Before Bath could continue, the prince cut him off with a harsh, un-princely snort.


    "Don''t lie," he said. "Nobody would announce to the world they have miranite unless in jest."


    "I wouldn''t dare to conceal such a possession from a prince, and a kursi, no less," Bath replied.


    Eyrin''s laughter stopped. In its place arrived a steely cold that reminded Bath of the air he himself cultivated. "Don''t test my patience," he menaced. "I am intimately familiar with the effects of miranite on the sapient shell--"


    Oh shit.


    "--and I know that whatever you are using is not miranite. Though, perhaps...something far stronger." He now gave Bath a quizzical, searching look, his head cocking slightly to the left. "For now, I''ll let this go. However, don''t lie to me again."


    Bath nodded. "Yes, yes. Here is the recording you requested," he said, redirecting the conversation.


    Eyrin nodded once, sharply, his veil creasing against his twin maws. "Excellent; start the transfer."


    Transfer...um... Bath pressed a tentative gloved hand on his chip reader, which was conveniently woven right into his robes. I wish I could use these freely, even when changing form, he thought, lamenting the need to keep to one shape. How do you do this? He stared at the chip reader''s holo display helplessly. Recording with the chip reader was simple, as the device had a clear "record" application functionality. But transferring the recording locally?


    "I must confess..." Bath began bashfully. "I don''t know how to transfer files between chip readers."


    Eyrin''s eyes widened slightly, his skin turning a slightly darker shade of blue. "You don''t?" he asked, voice small. "You''re from Illusta, and you don''t know?"


    "Well, I say I''m from Illusta; however, I''m actually from a small village fifty miles out. We don''t...we generally forsake the communication technologies of the cities."


    Eyrin''s skin color returned to normal, his gaze softening. "In that case, let me assist you. First..."


    Bath nodded along as Eyrin gave him a step-by-step guide to transferring files between close-by chip readers. He doesn''t fit the profile I expected, the alleged troubled son sent away by his father. The patience with which he was instructing led Bath to wonder just who this "prince" was before Juserin adopted him.


    "Sent," Bath said, smiling. "Thank you, Prince."


    "A pleasure," Eyrin replied, an appraising glint still present in his eyes. "Until the next."


    "Until the next." Bath bowed respectfully and walked away, rejoining the contingent of kursi once again sitting in a circular formation. As their errant chatter and gossiping entered his ears, he sighed, sitting down and folding his gloved hands into the sand.


    I still don''t know how Lisa talked me into this...

 [Chapter 125] Chatting With Zhou Wang; House Delelen

    Lisa was slightly confused by Zhou Wang''s behavior. He''s supposed to be one of Lepochim''s top kursi, mainland China''s Prime Peacekeeper (µÚÒ»±£°², diyi baoan). And yet, Zhou Wang reminded Lisa of a surfer dude.


    He''s literally just drawing in the sand.


    However, the other kursi, all of whom had already been traveling with Zhou for the past few weeks, didn''t comment on their leader''s truancy. In fact, they had given her a few weird stares, one of them, Ida, even pulling her aside to tell her to "calm down."


    Lisa had to admit, she''d been a little hurt by the reprimand. I''m not out of line, am I? It just felt so weird for the "elite" kursi of COTD to be standing idle. As their de facto leader, she expected more.


    "Zhou," she finally asked, walking up to him as he finished etching a smiley face, "what are you doing?"


    He didn''t look up from the rouge-colored sand, insteadtilting his head as though to regard the smiley face from a different, more enlightening angle. "I am practicing."


    "...What?"


    Zhou sighed as he used a finger to smudge out the smiley''s left eye. "I know you''re a special circumstance, appointed by the Church and Dragon themselves, but I can tell one thing: you''re young."


    Is it that obvious? "Is that a problem?"


    Zhou finally made eye contact with her, shooting her an easy-going smile. "Not if you''re powerful, which I''m sure you are. Young kursi are refreshing," he added, turning back to the sand. "I like young kursi. Why else do you think the vanguard is composed of kursi aged under three-hundred years?"


    Lisa paused. I haven''t actually thought of that. "I''ll bite; what''s the problem with older kursi?"


    Zhou tsked, walking forward while dragging his right big toe through the sand. "Older kursi are unstable disasters," he stated, his voice devoid of its previous lightheartedness. "Humans...they aren''t meant to live longer than a few hundred years. After a while, too much bad shit happens to them, and..." he made a messy zig-zag in the sand. "They either commit suicide, become inhumane autocrats, or go crazy."


    Lisa''s pupils dilated. What? "You sure that''s true?" she said, following him as he drew cloud-like swirls. "I know two kursi who''re at least one or two thousand years old, both of them...highly functioning." I guess I can''t say for sure that they aren''t crazy, but I don''t think they are. "And, moreover, what about Juserin, the verdora Waymaster?"


    Zhou froze in place, his head cocked in contemplation. "Are they a couple? The two kursi you know?"


    "They are."


    Zhou snorted. "Figures. Some lucky kursi end up finding a partner who won''t age and die like the rest. They might be fine for now, but if one of them dies, the other''s going to follow soon after."


    Lisa gulped. Aunt Lauretta, Uncle Bern... Even if they infiltrated her family and implanted false memories, they were still her aunt and uncle. She grew up with them, visited their lake house, confided in them...the last thing she wanted was for the two of them to die. Or, for that matter, go crazy.


    "What about Juserin?"


    Zhou shrugged as he made a sharp stroke in the sand jutting into one of his swirly clouds. "He''s a verdora. We should ask little Eyrin what he knows; Juserin is his father."


    Lisa nodded. Little? He''s damn tall on two legs and more than twice my age. At least a foot taller than Juserin, I''d reckon. "I wonder when he''ll be back."


    "Speak of the devil," Zhou remarked. "He''s coming this way now."


    Lisa looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, Eyrin was walking towards them, a sour expression on his face. When he was close enough to hear--much closer than Lisa was used to, considering that Eyrin didn''t yet have perception boons--she called out to him: "Eyrin, come over here." She then gestured for Zhou Wang to take the lead. He raised an eyebrow, but then gave her the same lop-sided, easy-going smile as before.


    "Pleasant to see you both again," Eyrin said, his voice clipped.


    "Yeah, you too," Zhou said. "I have a question for you, about verdoran kursi."


    Eyrin''s skin darkened almost imperceptibly. "About what?"


    Zhou''s eyes glinted. "Tell me...how long do verdoran kursi usually live?"


    "Is that a joke?" Eyrin asked, shaking his head. "Kursi don''t age."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "What is the average age of all extant kursi on Illudis?" Zhou asked, rephrasing his original question. "For instance, Juserin is the fifty-somethingth of his line. I presume that the other Juserins died sometime in the past."


    Eyrin''s veil pooled inward as his maws popped open. "I''m not entirely sure," he replied. "Generally, once a kursi''s age exceeds one thousand...the number becomes irrelevant, and we stop counting."


    Zhou didn''t seem satisfied by this answer, his expression stiffening. "Give me a ballpark estimate. Actually, I''ll give you information in turn: The average age of human kursi is around five-hundred, if I had to estimate."


    Lisa glanced Zhou''s way. It is? She didn''t know what she expected, but Zhou made it sound as if all of Earth''s kursi were young because the others died off. Then again, COTD had recruited a lot of kursi; it was impossible for all of them to be relatively young.Jeez; how many of Earth''s kursi are emotionless tyrants or flat-out crazy?


    "That is...troubling," Eyrin said softly, his skin darkening further. "So young...I don''t know the average age of verdoran kursi, but I presume it to be in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. The number is difficult to place, since a few extremely ancient kursi live in solitude and skew the average."


    Why don''t they just use the median, or mode? Lisa wondered. One kursi of over ten thousand years on Earth would skew the average by several years.


    "So, they do live for longer," Zhou murmured. "Well," he said, snorting, his expression reverting back to its good-natured default, "I hope we can learn a thing or two from your kind. I''m getting up in years," he added, chuckling.


    How is Eyrin''s shell so steady? Lisa wondered. It hasn''t flickered once in this entire conversation from its neutral gray, even when he initially approached with a pissed-off expression. She wondered if he had some kind of control technique; if so, she was definitely interested in learning it.


    Eyrin cleared his throat. "This conversation has been interesting, but I have an urgent matter to attend to. Do either of you know where I can find the leader of this expedition?"


    "...You mean, the Knight?" Lisa asked.


    Eyrin blinked twice. "Yes, the Knight, the dark-skinned male with the strength and speed of a natural disaster."


    The corner of Lisa''s mouth quirked up. "That''s definitely him."


    "He''ll be at the front of the camp, the furthest away from the gate, planning our path," Zhou added as he returned to tracing what was apparently a mountain range into the sand.


    "Many thanks," Eyrin said, inclining his head politely as he made his exit.


    "Y''know what," Lisa said when he was sufficiently far away, "I have a feeling that underneath all his decorum, Eyrin''s funny."


    ---


    I still don''t know how Lisa talked me into this... Bath thought, staring expressionlessly at the surrounding verdora, all of whom seemed to be in their own cliques. But at least I can spend my time elsewhere. To keep busy, he had already sent a whiff of essence into the air to follow around Dean: He was interested to see how COTD''s Knight would lead the vanguard and, perhaps more interesting, deal with the complaints of the verdora.


    Currently, Dean was discussing the establishment of five city-seeds on their way to the exit gate in the arbitrarily-assigned northern hemisphere. The discussion was technical and boring, especially since most of what Dean was telling his subordinates were details that he and Lisa had confirmed before departure.


    Nothing else in the camp offered any interest; the most lively goings-ons were the shenanigans of a few jerboas playing tag underground, but Bath didn''t have much interest in watching their game. Absorbed in the other parts of the assembled vanguard, he almost didn''t realize when two similarly-robed verdora approached his main body.


    Perhaps because of his self-confident air, perhaps because he had already had a private conversation with Prince Eyrin alone, the approaching verdora introduced themselves first. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," the left one said in introduction. "I am Juselin the Eighth house Delelen of Thirgard."


    The right one then spoke: "A pleasure to make your acquaintance; I am Erzey house Delelen of Thirgard."


    So they''re related, Bath thought. Even if they weren''t wearing matching green robes, the family resemblance is strong. While most humans thought all verdora looked alike, much like they considered most animals of the same species indistinguishable from one another, Bath had devoured enough verdora to have an excellent sense of distinguishing features between sexes, between verdora from different regions, etcetera. He ensured that his own verdora body included features common in Illusta/Whitesun, such as close-set eyes and fringed ear holes. These two verdora--a man and a woman--had ridged eyebrows and distinctive scales around their noses.


    "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Bath replied, smiling politely: He knew they''d recognize the smile by the riding-up of his veil. "I am Thaddeus house Clanemic of Illusta."


    He noticed Juselin subtly knock his sister in the ribs.


    "We wish to know more about your auspicious house," Erzey said, beaming back. "While we know everyone else here, we don''t know you. Moreover, you say you''re from Illusta...have you never attended any social gatherings?"


    Bath had the impression that Erzey was sincere in her questions. I didn''t realize Juserin chose verdora who all knew one another for this expedition. "House Clanemic is a little-known house," Bath began, "located fifty or so miles from Illusta proper." He gave Erzey a devilish smile. "You might say I''m from the Wilderness."


    Erzey gasped. "Oh, indeed? You must tell us about the Wilderness."


    "But why are you here?" Juselin interjected, blinking once. "What kind of connection do you have to Juserin?"


    "I was chosen to join this expedition," Bath began, "because..." I had a story, he thought, Lisa made one up...why can''t I remember it? Oh. She wrote one for me, but I forgot...to read it...hmm...y''know what, screw it. "I have a certain family heirloom that protects me from kursi manipulation. Juserin decided that I would be an excellent addition to the trip, ensuring that Prince Eyrin and the human kursi do not abuse their abilities."


    Suddenly, the two seemed even more interested in him than before; several surrounding kursi, who had been feigning inattention while listening in, started to actively look his way.


    "An heirloom?" Erzey said, smiling. "How incredible."


    "Yes," Bath said, grinning. "The legacy of my great grandfather. But, enough about me: I assure you that my life is nothing remotely worth discussing, devoid of any interesting adventures. Tell me about yourselves."


    Just as these words left Bath''s mouth, his attention was stolen away by something moderately more interesting: Eyrin was approaching Dean to discuss the testimonies.

 [Chapter 126] Eyrin Mentors Dean; Baths Philosophical Inquiry

    "Knight," a voice called out from behind, one Dean recognized instantly from its silky baritone. "I am frustrated."


    Dean regarded the two subordinates at his side. "I think I''ve said enough for now. Do you both feel equipped to lead the vanguard out?"


    They both nodded; the one in the red hoodie also gave him a thumbs-up. "No prob, Knight."


    Dean bumped them each lightly on the shoulder as they left, speeding off to direct their own subordinates on the next course of action. Dean turned to Eyrin, sober expression on his face. "Something wrong?" he said. Eyrindid away with the decorum involved in verdora greetings.


    "The humans have been..." Eyrin cocked his head and sighed. "Insensitive."


    Dean''s mouth pressed into a line. "Humans tend to be that way, unfortunately."


    The Prince blinked once. "You speak as though from experience."


    Dean snorted. "Hah, yeah. Humans are terrible to each other, never mind aliens from other worlds. Y''know, I almost killed someone, two months ago." Dean wondered why he was talking about this story now; for some reason, he felt compelled to talk. He''s a kursi, but...I don''tfeel like I''m being manipulated."He came up to me for no reason other than that he could; said I hit on his girlfriend or some other nonsense. I denied it because it wasn''t true."


    Eyrin''s veil shifted. "What happened?"


    Dean chuckled humorlessly. "I told you, I almost killed the guy: He tried to punch me, and I reacted on instinct and tried to punch him back." Dean gave Eyrin a sad smile. "Unfortunately, back then, I was strong; not like now, but...if I would''ve hit that guy...he definitelywould''ve died."


    Eyrin frowned. "So you''ve never killed anyone?"


    Dean''s expression darkened and he turned away. "It''s...complicated." Why is it complicated? he thought to himself. The answer is a clear, resounding "yes."


    But that wasn''t me: it was...whatever Bath made me into. Switching off my brain, or whatever he did to turn me and thousands of average Basalith people into a savage killing force.


    Dean shook his head, as though the action would unscramble his thoughts. He''s a good listener, Dean thought, noting that Eyrin didn''t seek to fill the pause with speech. "I have killed sapients," he murmured, his eyes looking off into the distant crimson of the sky above the even deeper red of the sand. "Though I killed them in a battle."


    Eyrin had a complex expression on his face. "I heard your gods can reverse the aging process. Is that true?"


    Dean shifted his head around and gazed intently into Eyrin''s eyes. "Yeah, they can."


    "How does it work?"


    Dean''s eyes narrowed. "I''m not sure; the Church and Dragon simply announced that I received a few extra years of life. I don''t feel any different because of it."


    Eyrin continued his line of questioning, a fiery curiosity burning in his eyes. "Have none of you humans bore witness to this alleged age reversal?"


    Dean gave Eyrin a tired look. "Eyrin; I don''t know what you''ve been told, but the COTD is new. Two months ago, nobody knew who the Church and Dragon were; nobody had heard of city-seeds, boons, PP...only Earth''s kursi knew about gates and sapient life on other worlds.


    "Though, if you''re asking about age reversal on behalf of someone..." Dean smirked and rolled his eyes, as though looking back on a humorous memory. "Trust me, it''s the real deal." I''d bet my life that Bath could make everyone live forever if he wanted.


    Eyrin shook his head slowly. "No--that''s not why I''m asking," he replied, his voice low. "This camp, you, the commanders of this outfit..." he snorted sadly into his veil. "You''re all children." Eyrin''s tone of voice was such that Dean didn''t feel offended by his incredulity. Instead, he felt that Eyrin pitied him, which only made him want to hide his face in one of the many surrounding dunes.


    But he was past hiding; his boons made sure of that. "People grow up fast when they need to," Dean replied. He laughed, then said, "On Earth, we have two famous sayings: One is, with great power comes great responsibility; the other is, absolute power corrupts absolutely."


    Eyrin sighed, walking around Dean''s body to face the distantexpanse rather than Dean''s face. "They''re similar," Eyrin observed, sitting down on the sand.


    "Yeah, I guess they are," Dean replied. "COTD gave all of Earth power; no matter how old I, or anyone else is, we''ve had to accept the accompanying responsibility. Actually, Ihave another saying that''s applicable."


    Eyrin snorted warmly; Dean had the impression that the sapient was smiling underneath his veil. "Do tell."


    "Some people are born great," Dean began. "While some people have greatness thrust upon them."


    Eyrin turned around, looking Dean in the eye, his gaze fierce and tainted by disgust. "Interesting," he murmured, his eye crests furrowing inward. "So, COTD''s mantra of self-determination isn''t just empty words."


    Dean smiled cooly. "To find true self-determination, all sapients must be given the opportunity to do well: Equal opportunity at its finest." He closed his eyes.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    "Isn''t it better to ensure an equal outcome?" Eyrin asked.


    Dean opened his eyes, tilting his head. "Equal outcome?"


    "Never mind," the verdora muttered. "This isn''t what I came here to discuss, though I did find it interesting. I''ve come to petition on behalf of the verdora on this expedition for enforcement of cultural acclimation classes."


    Dean walked over to Eyrin and sat by his side, his legs up and his arms out to support him as he leaned back. "Can you, um, explain that? I''m not saying no, but I''m not exactly sure what that entails."


    Instead of replying with words, Eyrin began to project a hologram from his chip reader. Dean watched with interest as Eyrin''s recorded voice called on a verdora woman to speak.


    Dean listened through all of the testimonies. He was silent, though at times he expressed his emotions by clenching his fists or flaring his nostrils. Suddenly, the video recording cut off.


    "I would like to avoid these occurrences in the future," Eyrin stated. "I believe the best way to do that is to teach humans the cultural practices of the verdora. In turn, the verdora will learn about the cultural practices of humans."


    "You think that''ll work?" Dean asked dubiously. People on Earth learn about the Holocaust in school, then go out and become neo-Nazis. People take history classes about slavery, Jim Crowe, learn about MLK and the Civil Rights movement...and somehow think that racism is a relic of the past.


    Eyrin waited a moment before responding. "I think it will help," he replied. "Moreover, cultural training will provide an excellent opportunity to practice teaching boons." Eyrin smiled and nudged a gloved hand into Dean''s wrist. "I know you have little faith that this will work," Eyrin acknowledged. "But remember, you have a contingent of six kursi to smooth any tensions over."


    Dean chuckled. "Why are you advising me? Just a one or two hours ago, I was leading you into the gate and directing you to the other kursi."


    "Because," the Prince replied simply, "you need advising. And, I think, a good listener."


    Dean was silent for a spell. "Why are you speaking to me without decorum?"


    "I hate decorum," Eyrin replied, running a hand through his mane. "Though I am unsure of its efficacy, I prefer your method of leadership to those I have been exposed to in the past. We verdora have a saying of our own: Fear accompanies respect; love accompanies loyalty. The balance is important, though too often leaders on Illudis engender fear and neglect love."


    "It''s the same on Earth," Dean replied wistfully. "It''s probably the same everywhere."


    Eyrin shot him a quizzical look. "Not here." With that, he stood up and shook his body to clear his robe of clinging sand. He glanced back, saying, "Everyone in this camp is getting into formation." He waved as he strode off. "Until the next."


    And then there was one, Dean thought as he stood up and whipped around to face the camp. Time to move toward the gate.


    ---


    Bath''s disembodied eyes floated just off to Dean''s side, flitting about so as not to be seen. He watched as Dean and Eyrin talked, watched the testimonies, talked some more, and then departed, each going his own way.


    Why did Juserin say to watch out for Eyrin? Bath wondered as he dissipated the set of eyes. The Princeseems fine to me.


    In actuality, though Bath wouldn''t admit it to himself, he thought that Eyrin might actually be...wiser than himself. Which was, of course, impossible; Bath was millions of years old. How could a youngling like Eyrin even hope to compare?


    And yet...he was able to act as a mentor to Dean. Me, I''ve never been able to fulfill that role. Their conversation struck a hard note within him, in particular with regards to the human and verdoran sayings.


    I''ve thrust responsibility in the form of power on humanity, he realized, as though such a reality had never crossed his mind before. Humans are awful.Though to my credit, I''ve already made them better. Part of the pain killing boon he''d made for the human brain also numbed certain emotions at key set points. For instance, when adrenaline pumped through the body, the boon numbed fear, regret, and disgust, while the adrenaline still provided a relatively potent thrill unhindered by the suppressed negative emotions.


    The boon also worked to stymie feelings of hate and sadness, emotions he identified as harbingers of outward and inward violence, respectively. I also included the educator boons, four of them, for purposes such as those Eyrin brought up. Though Bath had to give Lisa credit for that: in creating the preliminary COTD hierarchy upon their return from the eight-day gate-traveling escapade, she dedicated a large block of hierarchy positions to those involving the dissemination of knowledge.


    However, the verdoran quote about fear and love...Bath found that it left a sour feeling in his mouth. Which is odd, he remarked after banishing his tongue in an attempt to dispel the flavor, since I can''t taste.


    "Erzey," Bath said, looking back and to the left. The two Delelen verdora flanked him as they walked forward in line with the other verdora. "Do you enjoy philosophy?"


    "Ah," Erzey exclaimed, smiling. "You''ve asked the right Delelen."


    Juselin snorted. "Indeed; your intuition is impeccable: I detest philosophy."


    "Tell me your thoughts on the saying, ''Fear accompanies respect; love accompanies loyalty.''"


    Erzey cocked her head, skin darkening. "I don''t recognize this saying," she said. "Though that won''t prevent me from offering an analysis. If you don''t mind me asking, where did you find this?"


    Didn''t Eyrin say that this was a verdoran saying!? "Haha, no problem: It''s a saying in my village."


    "From the Wilderness?" Juselin asked, as though the possibility were scandalous.


    Why not. "Yes," Bath replied, laughing lightly. "I''m surprised you guessed at its origin."


    "It''s a fairly simple phrase," Erzey began. "Self-explanatory, really," she said, giggling. "What philosophical analysis are you looking for?"


    This is stupid, he growled internally. The English version of this saying is much better. "Let me rephrase: is it better to be feared, or loved?"


    Erzey snorted. "I detest false dichotomies. If I had to choose to be anything, I''d choose to be respected."


    "But if you had to choose?"


    "Feared," Juselin interjected hastily, voice uncharacteristically harsh. ¡°Love is unreliable, difficult to read."


    Erzey glanced around at the crush of verdora and the humans and quasi-sapients beyond them. "Agreed." Her voice was tight.


    This response surprised Bath. The two cousins had spent the past hour detailing the various luxuries with which they had grown up, such as their opulent, football-stadium-sized hover palace. Living in a mobile palace had many advantages, such as the ability to touch down all over Illudis and explore all of its bountiful provinces. This was all possible, Bath discovered, because their father was Juserin''s equivalent of a Secretary of State.


    And yet, despite the many tales the Delelens have told me...amongst all these verdora, they only have each other. I''m still unsure why they''ve latched onto me, going as far as to follow in my wake and cling onto my every word like magnets.


    "Hold on," Bath said, interrupting the conversation. "We''re moving out."


    As he announced their imminent departure, he noticed how ill-equipped the two cousins--and the other verdora--seemed to traverse the desert''s uneven, shifting terrain.How will these verdora keep pace with the likes of Dean? At most, they have close combat boons.


    Oh. Right, Bath smirked. The horses.

 [Chapter 127] Inconspicuous Bath; Pacifying the Verdora; Hoofing It

    One of the primary reasons that only the "sapient," as in human and verdora, head count was taken was because of the large numbers of quasi-sapients that the vanguard dragged along in its wake. Not just squirrels, Bath thought, but also quasies like the horses being led over now.


    Bath joined the surrounding verdora in looking perplexed by the approaching horse quasi-sapients. Luckily, Illudis has a species of wild, lightly-scaled grazer that bears a marked resemblance to the horses of Earth. Although the unnamed Illudian equine look-alike reminded Bath more of an okapi or long-necked zebra, he thought that the verdorans ought not to be as shocked as they seemed at the arrival of the horses.


    "What are these things?" Erzey muttered, recoiling back from an Arabian horse quasi walking her way. "They smell terrible."


    The horse quasi, whatever her name was, snorted, then kicked up the sand into Erzey''s face. The verdora spat, blinking her eyes furiously.


    Bath smirked. "You two," he said, clearly addressing the cousins, "don''t mock the horsies."


    Get it? Bath thought to himself, enjoying his own private joke. Horse quasies? Horsies?


    The horse snorted indignantly again, clearly aware of Bath''s sad attempt of humor at its expense.


    "Horsies?" Juselin asked, eying the horse as though it had fangs and claws. "That''s what they''re called?"


    "Er, horses," Bath corrected, coughing lightly. "I misspoke."


    "Why are they here?" Erzey snapped as she brushed her arms against her robe in an attempt to shake off the tiny particles of crimson. "Are they supposed to carry our tents?"


    Tents? Bath wondered. They brought tents? "No," he replied, smile saturated with grim humor, "we''re going to ride them."


    Juselin flinched. "Um, okay" he said simply. "They''re tall."


    Bath snorted. "Get up on two legs; you''re taller than the humans, with an extra pair of hands to hold on to the saddle. If they can do it, you can, too"


    "What saddle?" Erzey inquired, eyes glinting with confusion.


    Bath sighed. They forgot to make saddles, didn''t they? Bath didn''t know who "they" was, but clearly they weren''t doing their job. He was slightly annoyed Lepochim wasn''t around; even if the deepthink was annoying, he still got things done. How were these complete amateur verdora supposed to ride bareback?


    "That saddle," Bath replied smartly, pointing. The entire contingent of verdora gasped; one might have even fainted, though he regained consciousness too quickly for Bath to verify if he properly blacked out. "Looks like the Church and Dragon really are watching out for us."


    "These leather saddles just appeared out of nowhere," Juselin and Erzey breathed, their voices oddly in sync just an octave apart. Bath had a feeling that they had experience singing together.


    Bath''s eyes flashed. "Is that surprising?"


    Erzey''s eyes flickered to his own. "No, I suppose not." Without wasting further breath, she approached the nearby mare and stood up tall, vaulting herself onto the horse''s back.


    Well, that was fast, Bath remarked, mildly impressed at Erzey''s initiative.


    "Everyone''s looking at us," Juselin murmured, voice barely audible; Bath wasn''t sure if Juselin intended for him to hear or not.


    "They''re looking at Erzey," Bath replied knowingly. "She''s the first one on a horse; can''t miss her in this densely-packed crowd."


    "No, they''re looking at us," Juselin insisted. He blinked once, his eye crests rising up. "Actually, they''re looking at you," he whispered.


    Bath groaned. What now? "Is there a problem, fellow Illudians?" They really were all looking at him.


    One verdora dressed in robes of deep violet walked forward, distinguishing herself from the rest of the flock. "Thaddeus house Clanemic," she began, "from where do you draw your vast reservoir of information?"


    "I had the privilege of meeting a group of humans before embarking on this expedition," Bath explained. "I hail from the region just outside of Whitesun, formerly known as Illusta, where most of the humans have congregated. They offered up a few relevant bits of information, such as details about the many quasi-sapient species of COTD; these horse quasies are one such species."


    The violet-robed verdora tsked. "If only we could all be so fortunate," she purred, her gaze predatory. "I suppose we should all be grateful for your human friends."


    Bath manifested a mouth behind Lisa''s ear. "Hey, things are getting testy with the verdora right now," he whispered. "Might wanna calm them down."


    Lisa flicked the back of her ear, her index finger striking Bath''s disembodied lips. Her mouth twitched up into a smile when Bath yelped softly in response. "I''m well aware," she murmured. "Seems like this is somehow all your doing."


    "What? Preposterous," Bath replied, invoking an innocent tone. "I''ve done nothing wrong!"


    "You''re such a moron," Lisa replied, chuckling under her breath.


    Bath sighed in relief: despite Lisa''s dismissive words, the group of verdora was showing signs of calming down, the tense atmosphere all but completely diffused. The violet-robed verdora shook her head, then walked away, leaving Bath and Juselin alone on the ground next to the mounted Erzey.


    "Let''s saddle up," Bath muttered, gesturing for Juselin to get on the black-footed Arabian stallion to his right. "We don''t need anymore trouble."


    At the same time, Lisa shook her head and asked, "What happened over there?"


    "Well," Bath said slowly. "None of the verdora were briefed about riding quasi horses."


    Lisa nodded. "And?"


    "I was telling these two verdora cousins--wait, they have the same father, so that can''t be right..."


    "Telling them about the horses?" Lisa said, finishing the sentence.


    "Exactly. As I did so, the rest of the verdora looked at me like cats eying a mouse."


    "Bath..."


    "How was I supposed to know everyone else would listen in on our conversation? Technically they had been listening in before--"Stolen story; please report.


    "Ugh, Bath..."


    "--but I didn''t think that was for anything other than the fact that they had never heard of my verdoran identity before."


    "Stop!" Lisa commanded, her voice soft, yet filled with intention. "Remember why you''re acting like a verdora in the first place: try to assimilate into the group."


    Bath sighed into Lisa''s ear. "Point taken."


    "Now shoo and follow the rest of us toward the gate," she replied, grinning.


    Bath slipped smoothly up onto his own Thoroughbred stallion, gliding his primary right hand over the horse''s neck. He sent a dragonleaf tendril toward the horse''s skin, opening a communication channel with it.


    Hello, horse, he said, smiling. Your name?


    Kendrick, the horse replied, seemingly startled to find that a verdora was communicating with it via dragonleaf tether.


    How did you end up on this expedition? Bath asked, genuinely curious how one of his quasies ended up so far from home. He knew very little about regarding the selection of sapients, kursi, and quasies for the vanguard, and figured it must be a somewhat interesting tale.


    Kendrick whinnied softly, shaking out his mane. There are two reasons why I''m here, he transmitted. One, I''m fast. Two, I like to kick things.


    Bath nodded. Tell me truthfully, how do you like your own respective abilities? Do you wish you could acquire the full range of sapient boons?


    If Kendrick was suspicious of Thaddeus'' curiosity, he didn''t let it show. I told you, Kendrick replied, I''m here because I''m fast and I like to kick. Hard. That''s all I really need in life.


    Bath nodded to himself. Horse-speak for he''s satisfied with the horse-boons I''ve created. Good.


    "How did you get on this thing?" Juselin grunted in frustration, his limbs splayed awkwardly against the side of his stallion. "Erzey, Thaddeus: a little help would be appreciated."


    Erzey flicked her reins awkwardly, still trying to get her bearings. "Just stand up tall and push off the ground: you have your close-combat strength boons--use them."


    Juselin looked down at the sand, frowned, and leapt up two feet into the air, nearly tumbling onto the back of his horse and falling off the stallion''s flank onto the sand. However, he managed to stabilize himself and grip onto the saddle. He harrumphed once, then gripped the reins tightly, knuckles white, as though he''d never seen a bridle in his life.


    Oh, this could be a problem... Bath looked down at the reins resting slack in his gloved fingers.


    "Neither of you has land-shaper boons, correct?"


    "We don''t," Erzey and Juselin replied flatly, their voices conveying their exasperation.


    "Why?" Erzey asked, flicking her reins down and causing her mare to back up.


    "You can use the land-shaper boons to communicate with the horse quasies," Bath replied. "It''s extremely convenient; if you had them, your horse would be able to explain everything."


    Once again, verdora in the nearby area glanced Bath''s way, shock and curiosity in their eyes. Can these verdora mind their own business? he thought, grumbling internally.


    "Do you have land-shaper boons?" Juselin asked as he adjusted his seat and stiffly emulated Bath''s hold on his reins.


    "I do," Bath said. "I''ve been communicating with my horse; his name is Kendrick."


    Erzey squealed, producing the most un-verdoran sound Bath had ever heard a verdora make. "They have names?"


    "You''re drawing attention to us," Bath reprimanded, pinning their trio''s conspicuousness on Erzey''s outburst. "But yes, they all have names, at least Kendrick says so."


    I didn''t say anything, Kendrick snorted.


    Erzey gasped lightly. "The horse speaks to you? How are these creatures only called "quasi" sapients? They seem to have all the mental faculties of a typical sapient species."


    One of those types, Kendrick huffed, swiping his right forehoof on the ground.


    Explain, Bath demanded, his interest aroused by the horse''s apparent ire.


    She''s just like one of the PETA people who tried to set myself and two-thousand other horses loose from our city-seed skyscraper. Set the damn place on fire.


    How is she like a PETA activist? Bath asked confused.


    How do you know that PETA is a group of activists? Kendrick replied, pawing at the ground with his left forehoof.


    Bath waved the left rein dismissively. Unimportant; continue on.


    Kendrick whinnied and rolled his eyes in a distinctly human gesture. Those humans thought they were doing the best thing for me, granting myself and the other horses COTD''s sacred "self-determination." However, in trying to rescue us, they failed to recognize that we were in that city-seed by choice, fulfilling the will of our Creator, the Dragon.


    Huh, Bath transmitted in response. Interesting. You don''t consider yourself a sapient?


    I am what I am, Kendrick replied. Whatever the Creator made me to be.


    Bath found this response mildly disturbing, resolving to discuss quasi-sapients with Lisa at the next convenient time.


    "How do you know how to ride these horses?" Erzey grumbled as she maintained a death-grip on the saddle with her second pair of limbs. "You''ve definitely been in a saddle before: I refuse to believe otherwise."


    "We had something similar in the Wilderness: hide harnesses fashioned for sport riding."


    "Sport riding?" Erzey glanced over at Juselin. "When this is all over, I insist you bring us to your place of residence; it clearly holds much more adventure than you originally let on."


    Bath chuckled boisterously. "Certainly." Well, they''ll have to pass through Earth to return to Illudis...


    Suddenly, female voice projected out instructions over the verdora. "Illudians, mount your horses, then proceed to the center of the formation for further instructions."


    Erzey looked Bath''s way. "Care to lead us, Thaddeus?"


    "A pleasure." Bath didn''t even need to tell Kendrick to move: While the quasi-sapient''s mouth and lips were unsuited for human speech, he had the capacity to understand English. Kendrick autonomously followed the instructions of the woman, leading the other, equally obeisant horses toward the center of the vanguard.


    "Huh," Erzey muttered. "This wasn''t as difficult as I thought it''d be."


    Bath suppressed a snort. Your horse is moving on its own.


    "Now that you''ve all arrived at the center of this vanguard expedition," the woman''s voice boomed, "I will give you your instructions. My name is Athanacia Samaras, though you can address me as Cia. I am the handler of these horse quasi-sapients; if you have a problem with your horse, report to me."


    Cia rubbed the neck of her own horse, a gray, spotted Appaloosa, while she spoke. She wore the attire of a jockey, looking oddly conspicuous compared to the other humans in the vanguard wearing their White- or Black-aligned faction tabards over street clothes and dragonleaf armor. She positioned herself in front of Bath and the Delelens located at the head of the verdoran ensemble.


    "Today may be your first day in a saddle," she said soberly, inclining her head. "Scratch that; you''re all stiff as boards: today is your first day in a saddle." She gave Bath, both the closest verdora to herself and the only verdora visibly comfortable on a horse, a puzzled look before continuing on. "First, I''m going to lay down some ground rules."


    Bath let his attention wander to other areas of the mobilizing expedition while Cia Samaras went through an incredibly obvious list of rules, such as "Feet go in stirrups" and "Don''t pull the reins all the way back and choke your horse." Despite the self-explanatory nature of Cia''s "ground rules," the ignorant verdora lapped her information up like it was liquid gold.


    "...So, in summary: let your horse do its job, hold on, and be respectful. Your horse is extremely intelligent, and will follow my lead horse without issue as long as you abide by all the ground rules and remain in the saddle."


    Cia cocked her head, as though listening to something. "Ah, that''s the signal," she announced, snapping her reins dramatically and directing her horse to rear up. "We''re moving out!"


    A moment after Cia addressed them about the mobilization of the vanguard, her horse turned around and dashed forward. The rest of the horses followed, leaving their hopelessly-unprepared verdoran riders reeling in their seats at the sharp and unexpected acceleration. Many verdora let out cries of pain as the reins cut into their hands and the saddle bounced jarringly beneath their legs.


    Bath''s teeth chattered within his mouth, his veil flapping over his snout. Kendrick, he said, trying to get his horse''s attention. Please try to keep the bouncing to a minimum.


    I''ll do my best, Kendrick replied, transmitting the image of a smiley face dubiously rolling its eyes.


    Bath had never actually ridden a quasi-sapient horse; this being the case, he never realized how unpleasant the experience was: The saddle, which cut into the verdoran equivalent of a pelvis with each long lope of Kendrick''s legs, was utterly insufferable.


    As they rode, Bath worked on improving the shape of the saddle to reduce the shock of Kendrick''s footfalls. He applied the improvements to all the saddles as the contingent rode, attempting to make the trip to the gate bearable. His actions bore fruit when, half an hour into the ride, the until-then silent verdora began chattering once more.


    "We''re going as fast as hovertracks," Erzey said, her voice almost impossible to hear properly over the wind of their passage. "Insane!" she exclaimed, grinning wildly, her toothy maws visible beneath her upturned veil.


    Bath heard such exclamations all throughout the mounted verdora. I never thought they''d take so well to riding, he thought. These noble verdora struck me as the type to sit at home, sipping tea and discussing politics. And yet, here they were, their bodies pressed streamlined against the necks of their horses, laughing into the wind.

 [Chapter 128] Clarissa, the Self-Proclaimed Goth Devilbat; Eyrin the Escort

    "Why the rush?" Khalid asked, his voice muffled by the beige shawl he kept wrapped around his head. "We have no way to pass through the gate."


    Priscilla huffed feverishly as she ran forward, lifting her dress hem above the ground. "Walking on this sand is a nightmare."


    "Oh, hush," Zhou clucked. "Stop complaining: as Khalid has pointed out, once we reach the gate, we''ll be camping out for a bit until we finalize the technology required to go reach Equinox."


    After Zhou''s reprimand, the verbal complaints stopped, though Priscilla and Khalid ceaselessly glared daggers at the sand as though it were a potent adversary. Lisa ran just to the right of Zhou, using her magnetic sense to push the sand out around her feet, giving her significantly more lift with each step.


    The administrator boons help a lot, Lisa observed, noting how the concussive force produced by whipping her feet down into the sand magnified with her electromagnetism. It''s amazing how easy this is. Keeping pace with the other kursi and the rest of the vanguard was simplicity.


    She shielded her eyes against the ambient light streaming through the clouds, making out the distant form of Eyrin. He really has no idea how to fly, does he?


    ---


    "You aren''t going to die," Clarissa rumbled in a gravelly alto. "Calm down."


    "Do I look nervous to you?" Eyrin yelled, struggling to be heard over the high-altitude winds.


    Clarissa cocked her head sideways, stealing a glance at Eyrin''s face. "You should be."


    He whooped, shaking out his mane. "This is incredible. I think I''m beginning to understand the fervor humans feel for COTD."


    Clarissa snorted. If he holds on to my neck any harder, I''ll choke to death. "Is this your first time riding a quasi-sapient?"


    Eyrin whooped again as Clarissa traced the edge of a cloud with her wing, twisting in air. "I think I''m doing fairly well," he replied smugly, humor glinting in his eyes. "I haven''t fallen off yet."


    Clarissa drew Eyrin into a tight spiral, nearly throwing the kursi off. She chuckled low in her chest as Eyrin gripped onto her neck with renewed vigor.


    "This," he panted, "is what the Hideaway--no, the verdora, need."


    Clarissa slit her eyes. "The verdora need to fall tragically to their deaths?"


    Eyrin didn''t say anything for a moment. Then, he laughed, his entire body shaking. "If I fall, will you catch me?"


    "I''m not going to let you die; you''re one of Leprosy''s precious kursi."


    "Leprosy?"


    Clarissa sighed. "Don''t ask; you''ll meet that asshat when you go to Earth."


    "Well," Eyrin said, eyes darting downward. "Catch."


    ---


    "Oh my god," Ida shrieked, pointing up.


    Lisa gasped. "The hell!?"


    "That little brat," Zhou hissed, uncharacteristic worry saturating his tone.


    They all watched as Eyrin fell off his devilbat, plummeting downward. The devilbat didn''t even react for a moment, clearly stunned. Then, she dove-tailed around and shot downward after the Prince. A few seconds later, when he was only two hundred feet from the ground, the devilbat scooped him up in her talons, carrying him back up into the clouds.


    Lisa let out a sigh of relief. Well, I''m sure Bath wouldn''t have let Eyrin die after promising Juserin he''d watch out for him. Even so, the kursi''s unexpected fall put her on edge.


    ---


    "Excellent," Eyrin sighed, his body limp in Clarissa''s talons.


    "That all you have to say?" Clarissa asked, her expression incredulous.


    "Yes."


    "You jumped from my back."


    "I did."


    Clarissa''s fanged mouth hinged open. "...Why!?"


    "You aren''t going to die," Eyrin murmured, twisting her words around. "Calm down."


    "If I let you die, I very well might!" she hissed insistently. "Don''t ever do that again."


    Eyrin remained silent for a solid minute, almost leading Clarissa to think he''d fallen asleep in her talons. Which is impossible, she thought. I''m jerking him up and down like a rag doll.


    "What if I procured a parachute?"


    "What if...no!" she blustered. "I''m supposed to be the angsty one in this partnership. I''m a Devilbat, a creature of the night, a walking goth icon." She shook her head, flipping her mane, which she''d painstakingly dyed black. "And here you are, recklessly jumping into open air on a foreign planet!"


    "I don''t see the problem," he replied. "You said you''d catch me."


    Clarissa groaned. "Get on my back," she ordered, shaking him up and down.


    "Your talons," Eyrin drawled, "are they naturally black?"Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "No!" Clarissa howled. "Now get off!"


    Eyrin flexed his abdominal muscles, pulling up out of the devilbat''s talons and reaching for her back. Then, he jumped off. Again. However, this time, Clarissa was ready: she immediately dove around and flew under so that Eyrin landed directly on her back.


    "How fast can you fly?" Eyrin asked calmly, as though he had been riding on her back the entire time.


    "Fast enough to make you sick," Clarissa replied, voice riveting with indignation as she accepted the question as a challenge. "What''s your problem, seriously?"


    Eyrin laughed, the carefree noise making Clarissa flinch. "I love flying," he replied, his voice filled with conviction.


    "Me too," Clarissa said, "but I''m not crazy like you are."


    "Clarissa," Eyrin said, his voice suddenly sharp and sober. "Do you truly think me a fool?"


    Clarissa inhaled, shocked by Eyrin''s sudden change in mood. "Uh..."


    "I am many things," Eyrin sighed. "I am a Prince. I am a kursi of Illudis, a verdora. I am also a member of the Hideaway." He stopped, as though catching his breath. "I am also my parents'' son."


    Clarissa narrowed her eyes as she dove through a strip of billowing clouds. "None of that means anything to me."


    "Who are you, Clarissa?" Eyrin asked.


    "I''m a devilbat."


    "Where are you from?"


    "Basalith. The first city-seed of Earth, the house of the Church and Dragon."


    "To what family do you belong?"


    Clarissa reared her head, beating her wings through the air with gusto. "I don''t have a family."


    "How did you get here?"


    "Enough questions," Clarissa roared. "I''m here because I want to be."


    Eyrin chuckled melodically. "Do you still want to be here?" he asked, staring intently into the barely-distinguishable red-on-red horizon.


    "I said," Clarissa growled, "enough."


    "Your mane is beautiful, you know," Eyrin murmured, running his fingers through the silky strands. "Do many devilbats care for their hair like you do?"


    "None that I''ve met," Clarissa grumbled.


    "Do you see the feathers, in my mane?" Eyrin asked.


    "I can''t see anything behind me," Clarissa stated indignantly. Then, as though sensing that Eyrin would remedy this situation by jumping off in front of her, she added, "But yes, I''ve seen your feathers."


    Eyrin nodded. "When the Hideaway first found me, I was seven." He lay his head against Clarissa''s neck, settling into a more comfortable position.


    Clarissa breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Seems like he isn''t going to jump off again. "My father, Keldor, had disappeared; it had been fifteen days since he left, and I was alone. I didn''t go hungry, though I was terrified that he wasn''t coming back. So, I left our house and set off. Soon, I was lost in the Wilderness."


    When he speaks...I feel like I want to listen, Clarissa noticed, frowning. Damnable kursi.


    "What''s the Wilderness?" she asked gruffly. Speaking of which, what''s the Hideaway?


    "It''s where verdora go to have fun...of a different sort."


    "The kind of fun that includes jumping off of a flying devilbat?" Clarissa snorted.


    Eyrin''s eyes glinted, his fingers tightening on her neck. "That''s exactly the kind."


    "It--it is?"


    "Yes. Do you see the verdora below?" Eyrin asked, focusing his own eyes on the vanguard.


    "They''re riding the horse quasies," Clarissa observed. "Why?"


    "You can''t see from this height, but I guarantee they''re all delirious with exhilaration."


    "Wait, what!?" Were they all poisoned or something? Were verdora just crazy?


    "Patience," Eyrin said, once more relaxing his grip. "As I was saying: a group of thrill-seekers were adventuring in the Wilderness by my father''s house. Their escort, a man named Tramin, found me, and took me back to Xelin. Effectively orphaned, I spent three years at the Hideaway, training to become an escort."


    "What does an escort even do?" Clarissa asked.


    "Escorts provide many services," Eyrin explained. "All of which involve exciting the client."


    "Exciting the client...?" Sounds like a fricking Kray City prostitution ring. The Hideaway...Yikes.


    "Danger," Eyrin said slowly. "Escort''s bring clients safely into--and out of--danger."


    "Why?"


    Eyrin chuckled. "My father would say that our society is sick." He sighed, turning his head so that his other cheek rested on Clarissa''s neck. "That in repressing our sense of adventure and covering it with propriety and culture, we lose part of ourselves."


    Clarissa beat her wings downward, riding a warm patch of air. "What do you think?"


    Eyrin snorted. "I''ve had more than enough adventure for one verdora, and yet I still crave more." He sighed. "In the simplest terms, adrenaline drives verdora into an elatedpsychosis."


    "Wait; you''re all adrenaline junkies?" she rumbled, voice dripping with disbelief. How could the verdora, the most stick-in-the-mud society imaginable, get high off of danger!?


    "Which is precisely why our society prevents us from coming into contact with dangerous conditions," he elaborated. "Leading to demand for escorts, fueling an economy of high-stakes adventuring, all of it illicit."


    Clarissa gnashed her teeth. "If you already know about this, why''d you jump off me like a crazy person? Twice? Don''t you have any self-control?"


    Eyrin remained silent, electing not to respond.


    He''s quiet now!? Clarissa balked. She swerved wildly, corkscrewing and dipping through the cloud line. She looked back, trying to determine whether her antics produced any effect. He doesn''t look any different, she thought. Though, now that I think about it, I still haven''t flown fast enough to make him throw up. She grinned wickedly, flaring out her wings and tail. Then, she pushed her wings down, her form rocketing forward with a thunderous clap. This''ll show him.


    ---


    Eyrin stared intently at the vanguard below. I''m glad Lisa told me about this devilbat. According to her, the devilbat was a gift from the Church and Dragon to Juserin''s son. Though the devilbat''s sapient-like intelligence made its status as a "gift" more than slightly worrisome, Eyrin endeavored to discuss the topic of quasi-sapients with the other kursi at a more convenient time.


    Though at the very least, I hope to turn Clarissa into an ally.


    The Prince had given the Devilbat an incomplete, intentionally mysterious glimpse into his past, one he had carefully curated years ago. The abandoned orphan turned danger-seeking escort, finding family in an enclave of outlaws. Most clients found this tale tantalizing: after all, an escort that had a dark, mysterious past made them feel as though the danger were real, as though they were truly adventuring with the kind of person they wished they could be.


    Of course, the personage was a one-dimensional fabrication: the true circumstances behind the disappearance of his father, as well as his own connection with the Hideaway, were secrets kept close to his person. However, nothing in the story was fallacious--Eyrin recognized the omitting the truth was a much better tactic around astute, politically-inclined individuals--practically all verdora--than outright lying. His father had gone missing, and he had wandered off into the Wilderness. Tramin senior had scooped up his small form and dragged him off to the Hideaway. In the absence of his father, he had trained to become an escort, learning from the organization''s young members how best to bring straight-edge, prim-and-proper verdora into situations of danger.


    In truth, the main omission in Eyrin''s story was the fact that he was a kursi.


    Which, in the end, is the crux upon which everything else has turned.


    ---


    "Clarissa."


    The devilbat''s head snapped around. "What?" she asked crossly. I can''t believe he didn''t get sick from my flying, damn it.


    "I appreciate your attempts at elevating my adrenaline levels," he said, smiling sadly, "however, you aren''t an escort: you lack the appropriate training."


    Clarissa gaped. I lack...the appropriate...training? Clarissa hissed. Even if this guy is a kursi, she thought, I wanna kill him!


    "Though, well, no, I shouldn''t..."


    "What!?"


    Eyrin''s eyes focused on hers. "I could teach you."


    Clarissa blinked, then looked away. "The hell you can."


    Several minutes of silence passed.


    "Damn it," Clarissa muttered under her breath. "Tell me more about what exactly escorts do."


    Eyrin smiled. "If you insist."

 [Chapter 129] Reaching the Maw of the Abyss; Priscilla and Clarissas Tale

    So that''s why the verdora are acting so strange, Bath thought as he rode alongside the group of verdora. He snorted derisively. Their danger-sense is tingling...because they''re riding horses?


    Bath wasn''t an expert at riding horses, but he was pretty sure they were safe. Moreover, the quasi-sapient horses were intelligent and wouldn''t be unruly mounts, or so Bath assumed. Then again...Sometimes I feel like Kendrick jumps intentionally high just so that when we come back down, I fall four feet onto his saddle. For a verdora with only a few COTD boons, a four-foot drop at these speeds would hurt.


    However, if anything, the wilder the horses rode over the monotonous dunes of the aptly-named Vast Desert, the more manic the verdora became, screaming the sorts of phrases expected of the extremely intoxicated. Fortunately, the wind of their passage muted all but the loudest unenhanced voices.


    Bath continued to eavesdrop on Eyrin throughout the rest of the crusade to the gate. However, even though Eyrin agreed to teach Clarissa how to be an escort, he refused to do so while they were airborne. To Bath''s annoyance, Eyrin didn''t talk about anything interesting for the rest of the ride.


    And things were getting so interesting, he thought, sighing. No wonder Juserin is wary of Eyrin; did he send theverdora with us to get him away from his criminal relations? Bath tightened his hold on his saddle and reins as Kendrick prepared to jump over a fissure. I''m still missing a lot of the picture, particularly information pertaining to his father, a so-called unsavory character, and Eyrin''s position as prince.


    Laying out everything he didn''t know made one thing clear to Bath: Eyrin wasn''t anyone that he pretended to be. He wasn''t the auspicious prince, the patient listener, the naive first-time traveler, nor was he a simple kursi.


    Couldn''t Juserin have given Lisa and I an intelligence report on Eyrin? Bath grumbled. I''m annoyedthat we havesuch a deceptive individual in our midst. The vanguard is supposed to pave the way for the rest of COTD; as such, it''s supposed to be filled with individuals honestly dedicated to colonizing the stretch of gates leading back to Earth. Lisa and I agreed to bring along verdora as a show of good faith, but perhaps...we should have waited a bit longer, at least until the first verdora received all boons and began to generate PP.


    Bath shrugged to himself. Whatever. What was done was done; next time COTD conquered a sapient species, they''d be more careful. Now that the vanguard was stuck with the verdora--who, because of their "danger" handicap, would be more of a nuisance than any source of help--Bath resolved to pay special attentionto their activities, particularly those of Eyrin. And if he discovered any unscrupulous behavior?


    Bath smiled savagely, his eyes glinting. Humans don''t associate the devil with a dragon for nothing.


    ---


    Two hours passed; in that time, they''d traversed the vast expanse of the planet''s all-encompassing desert, eventually arriving at the edge of a seemingly-bottomless chasm. As the first to arrive at the location of the gate, Lisa and the other kursi could only sigh in awe.


    The Maw of Abyss literally looks like a giant toothy mouth, she thought, eyes wide. Like a giant fish is opening its mouth wide, its bodysubmerged in the sand. The group of kursi approached the Maw''s edge, peering down into its endless black. Priscilla pulled out a flashlight from a neon pinkfanny pack around her waist, shining it down.


    "It''s no use," Zhou muttered. "This gate is deep." He turned to face them, a confident grin plastered across his face. "But at least it isn''t lava."


    "Hold on," Lisa said, stepping forward. "I have an echolocation boon. Let me see if I can map out the chasm."


    Nobody said anything, which Lisa took as a cue to lower her upper body over the Maw of the Abyss'' edge. She opened her mouth and closed her eyes, sending out sound waves and waiting for them to ricochet back and convey the depth and contours of the chasm.


    She inhaled sharply. "Damn," she murmured, pulling herself back to her feet. "I''d say it''s at least four miles down."


    "Americans," Priscilla sniffed. "How much is that in kilometers?"


    "Priscilla," she said flatly, "miles to kilometers is easy: just multiply by two for a rough estimate."


    "Eight kilometers?" Zhou said, cradling his jaw in his right hand. "Not too bad. Unobstructed, correct?"


    Lisa nodded. "It''s a hole leading straight down to the gate. If I had to reckon why there''s such a huge fissure directly over the gate...I''d say that all this sand was deposited at this location many years past. Eventually, the sand covering the gate fell through to the other side. Since the ''other side'' in this case is outer space, it has all probably just floated away."


    "Hmm..." Zhou intoned contemplatively. "Which seems to suggest that some power intended to cover the gate up."This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    "Right."


    "Khalid!" Priscilla shrieked, drawing everyone''s eyes. "Why are you in the Maw?"


    Khalid poked his shawled head out from the chasm. "What?"


    "It''s dangerous," Priscilla sniffed. "If you fall and land in the gate, you''ll be in outer space."


    "If I didn''t know better," Ida chuckled lightly, "I''d say that you actually cared."


    Priscilla glared daggers, looking as though shevery much wanted to say something insulting.


    "I''ll be fine," Khalid shouted as he continued his downward climb. "Eight kilometers is nothing. If I fall, then I deserve my death for my incompetence."


    "Wait, no," Zhou said slowly, as though processing Khalid''s words a second late. "Damn it, Khalid, I don''t care how incompetent you are: Lepochim would have our hides if you died."


    "Leprosy can rot in hell," Priscilla snorted, folding her arms across her chest. "Fine, Khalid: if you wanna die, don''t say I didn''t warn you."


    "Leprosy?" Lisa murmured, furrowing her brows. Is that what people are calling Lepochim? She felt like she should stick up for the irritable deepthink, but if she was going to be completely honest...


    The corners of her mouth twitched into a small grin. The name kinda suits him.


    "Where''s Eyrin?" Zhou asked, looking around. "I thought he was flying behind us."


    Eyrin chose that exact moment to fly out of a patch of thick clouds and dive toward the sand. His devilbat smashed into the loose top layer, stirring up a sizable dust cloud that covered the nearby Priscilla with dust.


    "Oh my fucking god," Priscilla lilted. "Thanks, Blueberry."


    "Did I miss anything interesting?" Eyrin asked, gracing Priscilla with a small smile. The devilbat walked beside him, struggling to move through the sand with her wing talons.


    "Khalid went down the rabbit hole," Ida sighed. Seeing Eyrin''s confused expression, she pointed behind. "He went down into the Maw of the Abyss."


    "...Which I told him not to do because our superior, Lepochim, would be angry if he died," Zhou finished.


    Eyrin frowned. "Is it that treacherous?"


    "Leprosy can die," the devilbat grumbled from behind, speaking over Eyrin.


    Priscilla shot the devilbat a look of interest. "What''s your name?"


    "Clarissa," the devilbat replied.


    "So, you hate the alien asshat too, huh?"


    Clarissa''s eyes narrowed, her pupils pinpoints of black. "He''s the worst."


    Lisa watched the exchange awkwardly. "Uh, what''s so bad about him?" she asked.


    Clarissa and Priscilla instantly turned to look at her, their expressions hateful. Then, they looked at one another, as though silently communicating how to best explain why Lepochim needed to die.


    Priscilla was the first to speak. "Okay. So, first off, you need to recognize that Lepochim isn''t human. I have no idea what the hell he is or why he''s on Earth or, more importantly, why the hell an alien is in charge of COTD''s mostly human kursi, but what I don''t know isn''t important."


    Lisa gulped. Sure sounds important from your tone.


    "What is important is that he bosses us humans around like we''re literal specks of dirt beneath his shoe. I showed up for Basalith basic kursi training; as soon as I did, I was sorted into this disgusting barrack. I shared a room with a guy kursi who was crazy." Seeing Lisa''s alarmed expression, Priscilla sighed, regaining her composure.


    "Of course," she began again, "it wasn''t necessarily Lepochim''s fault that my rooming accommodations and room mate were shit."


    Sure sounds that way, Lisa thought.


    "If this was the extent of my problems, I wouldn''t complain, nor would I call him Leprosy."


    Lisa heard Eyrin snort and glance toward Clarissa.


    "Lepochim placed us onto teams," she explained, "and made us engage in battles with one another. The rest of you should have experienced the same thing, with the exception of Eyrin."


    "Hey, Priscilla--" Zhou interrupted.


    She glared at him. "I''m not done yet. Now, the difference in our experience is that I''m a young kursi, and you''re not.In case you forgot, I''m forty-two. You know what happened to all of us younger, and less powerful, kursi in these ''war games'' of Lepochim''s?"


    Priscilla gave Clarissa a look. The devilbat nodded and cleared her throat. "I was the mount of a thirty-one-year-old kursi named Caleb. Every match we entered, Caleb and I would be subjected to endless mind assaults. He was unable to defend against attacks on his own mind, let alone mine. After two weeks, Caleb was admitted to Lepochim''s kursi recovery hospital because he was mentally unfit to continue.


    "And me?" Clarissa laughed bitterly, her voice grating in a way that was almost harmful to hear. "I was reassigned to another kursi the day after Caleb left."


    She hissed, looking at Priscilla. The two of them began to speaktogether:


    "Relentless," said Clarissa.


    "Evil," said Priscilla.


    The two looked awkwardly at each other. "Er, relentless, yeah," Priscilla murmured, coughing lightly. "Anyways, he''s an insensitive, cruel, tasteless ass." She flicked her finger. "He ruins people he comes into contact with. Hence, Leprosy."


    Lisa cringed. I think we should tell Lepo to tone it down a bit. "While this is all true," she began, "have you considered that he''s just trying to prepare you for actual kursi battles?"


    Priscilla''s expression darkened. "You''d never send out a kursi under age one-hundred into a real battle," she rebutted. "Eyrin, you said the average age for verdora on Illudis is in the thousands, right?"


    "Right."


    "Yeah, well, I bet Illudis would never send out a kursi under age one thousand. And here Lepochim was pinning woefully underpowered kursi against some of the oldest kursi on Earth."


    Zhou sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Which is unfortunate, since many of the eldest, and most powerful, kursi have sealed off their emotions and any figments of remorse.


    "Or are completely crazy," Priscilla concluded.


    "Yeah, uh, I''ll talk to him," Lisa promised, voice uncertain.


    Everyone present whipped around to look at her. "What do you mean, ''Talk to him?''" Zhou asked, eyes glinting with humor.


    Shit. "If I ever become a big shot," she said, recovering, "I''ll give him a piece of my mind."


    Ida chuckled ruefully. "I''ll beat you to it, dear."


    "I suppose I appreciate the sentiment," Priscilla sniffed, giving Lisa a small smile.


    Clarissa grunted. "What are we waiting around for?" She looked behind, noting that the woman leading the entourage of horses and non-kursi had slowed down, drawing her own horse into a sluggish cantor. "Why have the others not reached us yet?"


    Lisa frowned, looking back. She''s right; we''ve been here for at least five or ten minutes. What''s taking the rest of the vanguard so long?

 [Chapter 130] Everyone Arrives; Meeting Dean; Eyrins Protege

    There was one reason why Bath chose not to immediately genetically edit-away verdora danger mania: he wanted to observe whether or not it could be useful. Based on the conversation he overheard between Eyrin and his devilbat, Bath speculated that after being exposed to enough danger, a verdora''s danger sense would build up tolerance.


    How else would escorts operate? If escorts, the agents who led other verdora into "leisurely" danger, were as affected by danger as their clients, they would be unable to properly fulfill their duties. In fact, Bath had a feeling that "escort training" had, at its heart, a series of dangerous situations that potential escorts had to overcome.


    And if they failed? Considering that some of the training was likely high-stakes and truly dangerous, Bath wouldn''t be surprised if at least some escorts-to-be perished.


    I really can''t disagree with the verdoran leaders'' decision to outlaw danger seeking and escorts: leading verdora into danger is bound to lead to unnecessary deaths. The entire scenario reminded him of the drug trade on Earth, with respect to the hardest, deadliest drugs like heroin.


    Bath snorted. COTD solved that problem. Bath had no compunctions modifying the human body so that humans no longer got high off of the most destructive drugs. While he didn''t specifically target drugs like weed, higher metabolism and healing undoubtedly muted the drug''s influence. Drugs like meth, ecstasy, cocaine, and the like would, however, have their effects almost completely nullified.


    Technically, an incredibly skilled caretaker could get enough PP investment into the human body to give back the ability to get high off of these substances. If humans want to get high that badly, he thought, not my problem.


    Towards the final stretch of their journey, Bath noted that Cia, the jockey at the head of the horse entourage, was slowing down. She continued to glance back, as though nervous about something.


    It''s unsurprising that she''d feel uneasy; we verdora must sound like demonic hyenas. As Cia slowed down, their crazed cries resounded even louder, no longer minced by the wind. Yes, their danger mania could definitely be useful, he thought, thinking back to the Basalith tournament in which he devised psychologically haunting challenges. Next time I hold one of those tournaments, I''m definitely going to include creepy cackling hyenas. And clowns.


    The beginning of the slow-down marked the climax of the verdora danger mania: Cia''s slow cantor led the group of verdora into a sober haze. He could hear her mutter about "crazy blue dogs" under her breath as she led them forward to where the kursi had stopped. The rest of the vanguard, currently flanking the verdora pack, shot ahead to reach the location of the kursi and begin setting up camp.


    Are you done now? Kendrick asked in his deep voice.


    Bath was pleased that his verdora facade was convincing. Yes; I apologize for my incontinence.


    Kendrick snorted. Glad to see you''re serious about this relationship.


    Bath couldn''t tell if Kendrick was being sarcastic, and elected to stay silent. After a minute, Cia led the verdora to the edge of what was quickly becoming a new city-seed. She stopped, then directed her horse to turn around with a flick of her reins. Facing all of them, she cleared her throat, then announced, "We''ve all arrived at the Equinox gate. I''ve been informed that this city''s name is Jure."


    Bath smiled. An interesting choice of word, he thought. Dean''s definitely going the diplomatic route.Bath knew that "Jure" means crimson in standard verdoran. The first syllable of the name Juserin actually shares an ancient root with the word, such that any verdora seeing the city''s name would immediately associate it with Juserin. Additionally, Jure perfectly described Vast Desert in all of its monotonous red glory.


    "Since you''re all new additions to the vanguard, and since none of you have obtained all basic COTD boons, you will all live in a dragonleaf apartment complex next to the Spire for your protection and convenience. Follow me: I''ll lead the way, in case you''re still unfamiliar with the standard Basalith-style city layout."


    You know the way, don''t you? Bath transmitted to Kendrick, who promptly sent back the image of a giant, yellow middle finger emoji.


    Like the back of my ass, he replied, neighing.


    Bath''s eyes suddenly widened. He''d been trying to place the familiar-sounding voice of Kendrick''s for a while, and now he was fairly certain he knew what it sounded like.


    "Lisa," he hissed, needing someone to share the information with.


    "I''m busy damn it," she muttered under her breath.


    "Just listen." Bath''s disembodied voice sounded positively giddy: the horse quasieswere his creation, after all."My horse''s mental voice sounds just like Charlie from the YouTube video Charlie the Unicorn."


    "I don''t think I''ve ever heard you so immature in my life," she snorted back, suppressing a laugh. "You''re such a proud dad,"


    "You''re no fun," he replied back, sighing dramatically in her ear.


    ---This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The Church and Dragon stood in the office of the Spire, Lisa reclining into a couch and Bath leaning against a wall. Dean sat in his office chair, regarding the two of them.


    "So, what''s the status on operation space ship?" Lisa asked, commencing the conversation.


    Dean massaged the bridge of his nose. "Well, it''s happening. Our contingent of eight-hundred engineers are working to reverse-engineer the voyager Juserin gave us access to, and they seem fairly optimistic."


    Lisa nodded. "Having a model to work off of is far easier than making a space-faring vessel from scratch."


    Dean swiveled in his chair. "Thank God we have the voyager," he muttered. "Our old space technology is wholly insufficient for our current needs."


    "How many more days?" Bath asked.


    Dean frowned. "The engineers haven''t been able to give me a solid number, though I''d estimate that it''ll be a week or two until we get an initial working prototype."


    Bath looked at him, expressionless. "We''re in no rush," he replied. "This gate is an excellent trial for our hardworking engineers."


    "Good to know," Dean said, looking at Lisa. "Are you guys just going to hang out, or...?"


    She smiled. "No worries: Bath and I have matters to keep ourselves occupied."


    Dean nodded. "I probably don''t even want to know," he chuckled nervously.


    Lisa shrugged. "We''re definitely not going to drag you into something like what happened with the tortus," she said, assuring him.


    Dean raised an eyebrow. "You sure you can make that kind of promise?"


    Lisa''s mouth popped open. "Well..."


    Bath smiled, a cruel, icy veneer over his face. "Vast Desert is an empty red shell. There will be no trouble."


    ---


    Three Days Later


    Thaddeus glared daggers at Eyrin. "This seems incredibly dangerous."


    Eyrin smiled back. "Isn''t that the point, my escort-in-training?"


    "I suppose," he replied, his eyebrow crests pulling together.


    The two of them stood over the edge of a deep fissure four miles away from the eastern edge of Jure. "You''re going first," Eyrin said, pushing Thaddeus lightly across the back.


    "Fine," Thaddeus grumbled, stepping gingerly forward. "I just...jump?"


    "Jump, then catch the wall with your wraps," Eyrin instructed, holding up his first set of hands. Good thing these land-shaper boons allow me to create cloth products out of plant fiber, he thought. I was able to create a second working set of my ribbon wraps.


    "What''s so special about these wraps again?" Thaddeus asked, his skin already darker by several shades.


    Eyrin sighed. "I told you: they adhere to surfaces when subject to high friction force."


    Thaddeus held out a wrapped hand, inspecting its dragonleaf ash-green color. "Why are yours black, while mine are green?"


    Eyrin''s skin darkened slightly. "There''s one way to become an escort," he murmured, stepping forward, walking with a predatory gait. "The way that I, and countless others before me, became one." Thaddeus tensed under his gaze, seemingly frozen in place. Eyrin''s smile tightened.


    Then, he pushed, and Thaddeus soundlessly fell into the fissure. Eyrin waited patiently for the verdora to resurface. I would never have attempted something like this back on Illudis, he thought. The chance for success is usually too low. If he really were to fail and die, his death might be traced back to me.He sat down at the edge of the fissure, staring intently down into its dark depths.


    But this verdora, Thaddeus...Eyrin grinned. I have complete confidence in him. Which was rare: Eyrin lived his life by the assumption that anything that could go wrong, would. But even assuming the worst case, that Thaddeus remains frozen and falls the entire distance to the bottom of the pit...


    Eyrin shook his head. "He''s indestructible." He''d seen Thaddeus improve over the past few days at what could only be described as a maddeningly-fast rate. He''d continued to master boon after boon, surpassing the other verdora and distinguishing himself from the rest. He wasn''t so far above so as to seem preternaturally gifted, but he was the most talented of those present.


    Considering the fact that Thaddeus also had a mysterious artifact protecting him from kursi shell manipulation, Eyrin recognized that he was far more than he appeared to be at first glance. However, more than anything else, Eyrin wanted to befriend Thaddeus because he liked the somewhat-oblivious verdora. Eyrin gave Thaddeus a genuine smile when, a minute later, he climbed up and out of the fissure, grinning wildly with danger mania.


    "How was it?" Eyrin asked, gesturing for Thaddeus to come over and sit.


    "Exhilarating. For a moment I thought I was going to die."


    Eyrin grinned. "I''m glad it was a good jump."


    "How do you bring other verdora along?" Thaddeus asked, sitting down. "Can you show me?"


    Eyrin smirked. "Come," he said, reaching for Thaddeus'' wrapped hand. "You''re accompanying an escort grandmaster."


    "What do you mean?" Thaddeus asked as he stumbled behind. "A grandmaster?"


    Eyrin laughed. "Remember, I''m a kursi," he said. "I''ve been an escort for the past thirty years." So long that I even needed to kill my old identity off and come back as Kade.If I stuck around any longer than fifteen years, and I would''ve stood as a threat to Adursa.


    Just thinking of the shadowy verdora brought a bitter taste to his mouth. Eyrin hated Adursa, but she was the leader of the entire escort network: while he wanted to kill her, he recognized her presence as a necessary evil keeping the various escort branches in line.Moreover, while he faked his death to avoid conflict with Adursa, dying also allowed him to continue concealing the fact that he was a kursi.


    In general, Eyrin most disagreed with how Adursa handled politics within her organization, pitting rival branch heads against one another in danger challenges. She schemed and manipulated so that, at the end of the day, she remained secure in her own power while her most talented underlings lay dead.


    She was exactly the kind of sapient Eyrin despised. In fact, she stood for everything he hated about Juserin.


    "Ready?" Eyrin asked, looking toward Thaddeus. The young verdora nodded. With a knowing grin, Eyrin jumped, pulling Thaddeus along with him into the deep fissure. He waited until they had fallen seven-hundred rods: that was usually the cutoff point in a depression of this size, approximately fifteen-hundred rods. Thaddeus was currently falling just above him, his hand still secure in Eyrin''s iron hold.


    Then Eyrin twisted, planting the feet of his third set of limbs against the wall. He pushed off at an angle, spinning his body while tucking in his limbs and pulling Thaddeus into his chest. He proceeded to whip out his two ribbon-wrapped hands, planting them expertly against the fissure''s walls. He held onto Thaddeus with his second set of limbs while using his third set of limbs to adjust his trajectory and tweak his center of mass.


    Eyrin and came to a stop around eleven-hundred rods underground. He smiled down at the verdora currently cradled in his arms. Thaddeus matched the expression with a grin of his own.


    "I''ll never be able to pull that off," Thaddeus said, referring to the display of agility in which Eyrin effectively back-flipped off the wall into a tight spin.


    Eyrin snorted as he began to climb up the wall''s surface, his ribbon wraps providing excellent traction against the sandy rock. "Stop being modest. You''re my protege: what kind of protege remains in his master''s shadow?"

 [Chapter 131] The Dressing Room; Deans Appearance; Aberashs Performance

    Bath was mildly annoyed by Eyrin''s gullibility. For a verdora with a mysterious past and a double life, Eyrin seemed to have no doubts about the integrity of his "protege."


    Bath knew he was being somewhat unfair: his black-hole of a shell prevented Eyrin from reading his intentions; moreover, his complete lack of political ties gave Eyrin no reason to be suspicious. And since he was also chosen for the vanguard by Juserin, Eyrin could take this as an additional vouch of character.


    "I tire of Vast Desert," Bath sighed, inclining his head toward the Delelens.


    Erzey elevated her brow crests. "I feel much the same...while training up our boons is a fulfilling way to pass the time, the omnipresent red is stifling."


    Juselin stretched out in the sand, curving his spine upwards. "Do either of you know who tonight''s public performers are?"


    Bath cocked his head, his veil shifting downward over the side of his left maw. "Isn''t Aberash singing in the Arena?"


    "I hear she''s one of the personal escorts of the Knight," Erzey said, blinking once. "Is this the first time she''s singing for the vanguard?"


    Bath shrugged. "I''m not sure. However, if she''s the escort of the Knight, she must have a large amount of PP. If she''s willing to do a public performance..."


    Juselin inclined his head knowingly. "She''s likely invested a good deal of it into relevant boons."


    "It''s decided then," Erzey smiled. "The Arena has already been open for an hour; why don''t we secure good seats?"


    ---


    The trio made their way to the Arena, passing through its towering, heavy front doors and climbing up one of three staircases leading to the right. Erzey''s desire to go early to the Arena for the purpose of "securing good seats" was folly: as the Arena had the capacity to fit many thousands of sapients, the relatively small size of the vanguard (one-thousand sapients, with a few thousand more quasies) ensured that the entire vanguard had access to prime seats.


    Bath did note that the Arena was slightly more full than usual, likely on account of Aberash''s reputation. While Bath would never tell the Delelens, he knew that Aberash had actually invested much of her PP into the artist boon, specifically investing down pathways pertaining to vocal and string performance. As he and the Delelens sat in the Arena stands, Bath swept out essence tendrils to comb through the structure, searching for Aberash.


    Found her, Bath thought as he narrowed in on the slight woman. She was currently within one of the Arena''s dressing rooms. There, several squirrel quasies attended to her makeup and costume. A jerboa in a violet feather scarf and red fedora appeared to be ordering them around, her keen eyes appraising Aberash''s budding aesthetic. Bath observed the scene for a minute, curious by the seemingly-massive effort that went into preparing Aberash for the stage.


    Then, he let his essence drift into her body, pooling in her lungs. Essence strands internalized, Bath began to get a more accurate read on Aberash''s PP investment.


    He found that, aside from investing in the artist boon,Aberash had invested her PP into the director boon, enhancing the charisma and volume of her voice. Finally, Bath noticed that she had invested the remainder of her PP into the administrator path. Given the rest of her investment choices, Bath speculated that she was trying to adopt the administrator boon to work with her voice, the end result of which would be generating localized sonic booms. Or something. Bath wasn''t really sure what it would look like since he hadn''t originally thought to use the administrator boons for such a purpose.


    He smiled. It''s novel, unforeseen combinations of boon paths like this that affirm my decision to leave the path system so open-ended. Bath also disliked creating predetermined skills and linear ability progressions because doing so took time and patience: even though, ironically, Bath had an unlimited supply of both, he disdained the tedium of generating skills and abilities. The basic boons are enough: if people want more than that, they''ll have to forge their own ways forward.


    Wait...no way, Bath thought, steering his tiny disembodied eyes toward the door to the dressing room. Is that Dean?


    "Abbie," he said, passing through the threshold. The heavy door clunked loudly behind him, causing the hands of an attending squirrel to falter.


    This isn''t particularly out of the ordinary, Bath reasoned, or else the quasies in the dressing room would have been more surprised to see him.


    In Bath''s mind, a more important issue needed addressing: Did Dean just call Aberash...Abbie!?


    Bath suddenly felt quite out of the loop. He''d planned to keep his essence mostly internalized, keeping himself rooted to a physical body in a way he''d almost completely forgone when conquering Earth. Sure, he sent his essence out from time to time to spy on interesting sapients and communicate with Lisa, but that was a far cry from trying to monitor the goings-ons of an entire city of over fifty-thousand like Basalith.


    In lieu of constant surveillance, Bath was trying to improve his intuitive and deductive reasoning skills. Let''s see...he thought. Dean is alone in a foreign city, thrust into a position of power he never wanted...the metaphorical messiah to the people of Somalia, a failed state. He''s socially awkward, probably finds it hard to make new friends, but he''s a team player. So, he assembles around himself a team...


    "Dean," Aberash said, pushing herself up from her seat. The squirrels around her chattered in what Bath perceived to be routine annoyance.


    She called him Dean, not Knight, Bath noted.


    "You look beautiful," Dean said, smiling.


    Bath couldn''t remember ever seeing Dean give anyone this kind of smile. If he''d ever thought one of Dean''s smiles genuine before, those smiles paled before the smile he now gave Aberash.


    It''s so...real. Bare.


    Aberash let out a snort of quiet laughter. "Stop; there are people watching," she said, raising an eyebrow, smiling mischievously.


    Uh... Bath thought nervously.


    Dean laughed. "Don''t mind the squirrels," he said. "You guys can keep a secret, right?"


    "How many signatures?" one of them asked, walking forward.Stolen novel; please report.


    Dean fingered his lip, amusement glinting in his eyes. "One-hundred?"


    The squirrel let out a sigh. "Last time you gave us ninety; the time before you gave us fifty."


    Dean smirked. "Fine, how about one-hundred and twenty?"


    "Deal," the squirrel replied, holding out her bushy tail. Dean walked forward and grasped it in his hand.


    "Alright, now...scram," he joked, making a shooing gesture. The squirrels glanced at each other, a few beating their eye lashes and giving Dean coy smiles. The jerboa in charge of the dressing room left with the squirrels, though not before shooting Dean a knowing look.


    Bath was currently monitoring the heart rates of everyone in the room, and noticed that Dean''s jumped when the jerboa looked his way, an almost imperceptible bit of red coloring his dark cheeks.


    Aberash took the initiative, walking towards Dean. She had to step over a few pairs of clothes on the way, her bare feet padding lightly over the carpeted hard wood floor. Bath generated a second pair of eyes so that he had two vision inputs: a Dean-cam and an Abbie-cam.


    Aberash gave Dean a lopsided grin as she reached his position, placing a hand on her hip. Dean rolled his eyes and pulled her into his chest, the two of them hugging.


    Wow, this is absolute gold, Bath thought, grinning deviously to himself.


    Then, Dean pulled away. "I know you''ll sound great."


    Huh?


    "I really appreciate your support," she said, her eyes crinkling. "You coming out to the desert to hear me practice alone..." she inhaled deeply, a serious expression coming over her features. "It means a lot."


    "It''s nothing," Dean replied dismissively. "Only takes me like, two minutes to get to your practice area."


    Aberash let loose a giggle. "It would only take you two minutes. Anyways, thanks for being such a good friend."


    Dean cocked an eyebrow. "You better be as good on the stage as you were last night," he said, his voice carrying a note of humorous menace.


    "Yeah yeah, captain," she snorted. "Now get out so the squirrels can finish getting me ready."


    "You sure look ready to me," he replied, backing up and turning toward the door. "Well, I''ll see you in a few."


    The two of them waved, Dean opening the door and deftly exiting the immediate premises.


    What the hell was that? he wondered. I could have sworn this room was dripping with sexual tension; their heart rates were completely erratic, and then..."Thank for being a good friend." Am I that obtuse about human social behavior? For the millionth time since setting out on the vanguard, Bath wished Lisa were with him. She''d know what''s happening.


    Moreover, Bath was confused over why Dean had literally bribed the squirrel quasies to leave the premises and keep quiet about him meeting Aberash.A hug doesn''t warrant one-hundred and twenty Knight signatures.


    Seemingly alone in the room, Aberash surprised Bath by suddenly speaking out loud. "Damn," she said, sighing as she walked over to her dressing chair. She slid into it, splaying her legs out to the sides. "He''s so nice," she murmured. She slid her arms onto the desk in front of the chair, leaning forward so that her face reflected back in the mirror. "And he''s ripped as all hell...not even COTD muscles, which are kinda fake, but real muscles." She grinned, playing with a curl of hair.


    Real muscles? Bath thought, confused. But...isn''t it all the same? Muscle is muscle.


    Aberash sighed against, this time more pronounced. "It''s too bad."


    "Too bad" what, damn it?


    Despite Bath''s raging curiosity, Aberash chose this moment to shut up: the quasies re-entered the room, cutting off her monolog.


    Bath sighed, dispelling his disembodied eyes to focus on small talk with the Delelens. Fifteen minutes later, the ambient phosphorescent lighting in the stadium flared. Everyone began to holler in anticipation; after a minute or so, the stadium broke out into rhythmic clapping that steadily increased in tempo until, as Aberash stepped onto the dragonleaf platform elevated over the field, the tempo became so fast as to self-destruct like a bomb, the hundreds of clapping hands falling suddenly silent.


    "Thank you all for coming to the Arena tonight," she announced, her director-enhanced voice carrying well through the now-quiet stadium. "I don''t claim my performance is going to be the most interesting you''ve had the pleasure of seeing," she began, "but I hope you enjoy it."


    Aberash held out her hand, stirring the dragonleaf of the platform. In a matter of seconds, she had a set of three drums, and a harp arrayed before her.


    "What''s that string instrument?" Erzey whispered. "Does anyone know?"


    "I believe it''s called a harp," Bath replied.


    Erzey sighed. "Those humans you discovered by Illusta...they told you about everything, even stuff absent from planet 39123''s encyclopedia entries."


    "Shh," Juselin murmured. "I want to see her play."


    This is a vocal concert, Bath recalled. The drums make sense, however, the harp...an interesting accompaniment choice.He couldn''t imagine Aberash having access to harp lessons before COTD: she must be new to the instrument. His boons would enable her to rapidly learn the harp, but why would she waste her time and energy?


    Aberash'' flowing white and pink gown drifted along her arms as she sat before the harp on a seat of leaves. Bath thought the gown resembled a lotus flower with its coloring and folded material. Her brown eyes were outlined in a phosphorescent red paint, making them pop in the falling light of the evening.


    She smiled, placed her hand on the bodice of the harp for support, and began to pluck.


    Those must be tight strings, Bath marveled, appreciating how easy the motion looked when the Aberash must have been exerting significant force through her fingertips. Even though sound she produced was easily three times louder than a standard harp, it still possessed the grace and elegance of the standard instrument.


    While Aberash''s harp playing by itself was beautiful...Bath found himself growing ever more curious about where Aberash''s performance would go.


    After finishing the harp song, Aberash smiled and bowed her head. Without stopping to talk, she continued playing the harp. However, while she kept her hands in position over the harp''s arching frame and strings, she angled the rest of her body outward. Soon, she was playing the harp while her head was looking the other way, towards the drums.


    Then, she opened her mouth.


    "This is it," Bath said, anticipating the beginning of a vocal melody.


    ...And the drums began to sound.


    "What is she doing?" Juselin asked. "Is she...blowing on the drums?"


    "No," Erzey replied, shaking her head, "she''s sending some kind of shock way at them to set them off."


    It''s a soundless shockwave...until I expand my range of hearing to ultra-high frequencies. She''s blasting the drums with short, high-energy pops. From two or so feet away, I''m not surprised she gets this much volume.


    This song featured an odd combination of harp playing in tandem with three East-African-style drums. While the tenor of the drums moved in beat with the harp to make a harmonious whole, Bath wasn''t satisfied.


    I''m still waiting for her to sing.


    The song elapsed; this time, Aberash stood and bowed, twirling in her flowing robes. Continuing her trend of not speaking, Aberash walked over to the drums and adjusted their position so that they lay directly to the side of the harp, elevating them on a two-foot tall block of dragonleaf and angling them at thirty degrees to the horizontal. She sat back down on her seat, resuming a typical harp playing posture. Now, when she faced the drums, she peered straight into the audience by the Arena''s front doors such that Bath and the Delelens had a view of her left side.


    This time, before plucking, she turned her face away and began to sing. Bath sighed in contentment: Aberash''s PP investment into her voice was certainly paying dividends. While all but the most musically challenged could, after obtaining all their boons, sing in key and with good technique, these were only basic fundamentals. To truly excel at vocal performance, Aberash had no-doubt spent countless hours perfecting her technique and tweaking her voice.


    Moreover, and perhaps more important than any of those technical efforts, was the fact that her voice was stunning:Its exquisiteness went beyond charisma PP investment, whichwould make one''s voice sound more appealing to the ear.


    Dean gets a private show? Of this? Bath coughed lightly, mildly jealous.


    However, after only thirty seconds of pure vocals, Aberash pivoted her head to face the drums. Now, when she sang, her voice struck the drums, causing them to vibrate as they did in the previous song. However, this time when they rang, their tenor was lower, slower, warm and dark. They complemented her voice, seeming almost to harmonize with her in a lower octave.


    If the first part of the song seemed hauntingin its beauty, this part sounded mellifluous and calm. Two minutes into the song, Aberash decrescendoed. In seconds, only the residual thrumming of the drums was audible.


    Then, Aberash smiled, her stern concentration melting away. She placed her hands on the harp and plucked.


    The result was magic.

 [Chapter 132] Lisa and Bath Go Adventuring; AI Ninety-Seven?

    "Why are you making such a big deal about it?" Lisa sat on the bed, her arms folded across her lap. "They''re probably just friends."


    Bath gaped. "Just friends? Did you see the way Dean looked at her? Did you hear their hearts palpitating a million miles a minute? And then the monolog..."


    Lisa looked at Bath with mock disgust. "What have the verdora done to you?"


    Bath froze. "What?"


    Lisa giggled. "You''ve become such a gossip."


    Bath gasped dramatically. "Oh no!" he sighed in despair, collapsing onto the bed as though stabbed through by a knife.


    "Bath..."


    A devious cackle rippled through the bedding, muted by its fluffy dragonleaf composite material. He sat back up and turned around to face Lisa.


    "You know..." he said, giving her a lopsided grin. "I think you''re right."


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "You don''t seem very upset about it."


    Bath shrugged, his eyes glinting with humor. "I can see why the verdora live for drama: in a place like this, or a verdoran noble court, there''s nothing else to do."


    Lisa snorted, rolling over onto her stomach and kicking her feet in the air. "There''s always a lot to do, if you''re up for it."


    "I''ve been exploring the nearby area for the past few days with Eyrin," Bath explained. "And we haven''t found anything noteworthy: just crags and cliffs. Dangerous for the average pre-COTD human, sure, but not much more."


    Lisa smiled. "That''s where you''re wrong. I went out exploring this afternoon with the other kursi, and I think we went a bit farther than you and Eyrin." Lisa paused, flashing Bath a complex expression. "I''m glad Eyrin''s occupying himself with teaching you. I feel bad that he still isn''t able to keep pace with the other kursi, but he''s only had his boons for a week..."


    "I''m sure he understands," Bath said. "Besides, I think he appreciates the time when you''re gone: that''s usually when he goes out with me."


    Lisa groaned. "I''m still confused by what''s going on with Eyrin."


    Bath''s eyes hardened, his expression steely. "He''s involved in the verdora equivalent of a drug cartel."


    Lisa winced. I still can''t believe how thoroughly Bath''s spearrows decimated organized crime on Earth. Is the same going to happen to Illudis?"So, uh, what''s the end goal behind befriending Eyrin?"


    "Truthfully? I''m still figuring it out," Bath replied. "But, given his...skillset and connections on Illudis, I have a few plans in mind."


    Lisa didn''t like the sound of that. "Just how many plans are we talking?"


    Bath waved a hand. "It''s not important."


    Lisa nodded her head slowly. "Okay, well, why don''t you let me and the wasps think of something?"


    Bath sighed. "We left all the wasps on Illudis. They''ll come through once the signal comes that we''ve left for Equinox."


    That''s true, Lisa thought. Though I was thinking of talking to them later, not necessarily this second.


    "What were we discussing again?"


    Lisa grinned. "A cool thing the kursi discovered."


    "Ah, yes," Bath said, bowing his head in an exaggerated gesture. "Continue."


    "As I was saying before our tangent, the kursi went far away. I''m talking the complete other side of this planet. Luckily, the planet''s all sand, so we had few obstructions in our way."


    Bath nodded sagely. "That is good."


    "In all honesty, I have no idea how we discovered it," Lisa said, jaw grasped contemplatively. "We found this tiny opening in the sand, maybe five feet in diameter. Since we ran right over it, the hole was impossible to miss."


    "Seems suspect."


    Lisa chuckled lightly. "So, we went down into this hole, and...we found this guy."


    Bath''s expression darkened, his nostrils flaring. "And none of you sensed him? On Vast Desert, this lifeless hellhole?"


    Lisa smiled and closed her eyes. "That''s the thing: the guy wasn''t a sapient. He was this little robot dude named AI Ninety-Seven."


    Bath narrowed his eyes. "A robot? On Vast Desert? Did it say or do anything?"


    "It started talking about a library or something, but it was getting late, so we decided to return to Jure and come back later. But I was thinking: why don''t we go now?"


    Bath wiggled over to the side of the bed, then pushed himself to standing. "I''m ready when you are."


    Lisa beamed. "Excellent."


    ---


    Two Hours Later


    Lisa and Bath landed in the sand next to the conspicuous hole, sand spraying up as each slammed into a dune.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "So now that we''re here," said Bath, shifting out of the form of a dragon and into that of a white wolf, "do we just fall through the tunnel?" He spread out his essence, only to find that his range was insufficient to reach the hole''s bottom.


    Lisa nodded. "It''s maybe...four, four and a half miles deep." She walked over to the hole, Bath following next to her. She opened her mouth and blinked, using her echolocation to visualize the length of the cave. "Eh, maybe five miles. Essentially, we can fall the distance and walk away unscathed."


    Bath frowned. "Why would any sapient leave this here, in the middle of the desert?"


    Lisa shrugged. "Maybe we''ll find out." With a grin, she ran forward and leapt into the hole. Bath followed close behind, only reaching the ground a moment after Lisa. Having landed in the tunnel, Bath realized that the space was completely dark aside from the light streaming in from above. Unhindered by the lack of illumination, he and Lisa strode forward in the only direction there was to go.


    They soon found themselves in a chamber occupied by a seemingly...meditating android: it sat with its legs crossed and arms out, fingers curled. Its figure was similar, but not quite like, that of a human: its facial structure was more Lepochim-like than anything else, while it had three fingers on the right hand, four on the left, and four eyes, all of them closed.


    "Isn''t it weird?" Lisa whispered.


    Bath nodded slowly, his mouth turning up in distaste. "There''s something...off about it."


    "Now watch." Lisa walked forward until she was about three feet from the robot. Then, the robot''s eyes opened and its body flashed neon green, the light of its eyes seeming to stream out in square-wave lines over its skin.


    "Welcome, sapients: twenty-six thousand years past, my master, Franz, left me in this remote cavern. In compliance with his orders, I will give all here good fortune."


    "Error."


    "You may not pass."


    Lisa snorted, turning to look at Bath. "That''s new," she said. "What''s its problem?"


    "The unregistered biological weapon may not pass," the robot said. "If you continue forward, the Arc will close and its contents will be destroyed."


    "Hmm..." Bath turned his wolf head toward Lisa, then gave her a sloppy grin. "Give me a moment."


    What''s he doing now? Lisa wondered. "Don''t worry; this AI Ninety-Seven won''t be able to keep us from going forward. He''s just a robot."


    "Is the weapon disarmed?" Bath asked, now in a bipedal form eerily imitating that of the robot, down to the mismatched finger digits and four eyes. Even his voice carried its odd, bi-tonal tenor, as though a filter was being applied to his voice.


    "Weapon no longer detected."


    "What''d you do?" Lisa hissed.


    Bath looked her way, his four glassy eyes and bald skull glinting green in the glow of the robot. "I internalized all my essence," he said softly, his expression impassive. "As I am now, I should be all but indistinguishable from a true sapient."


    Lisa walked forward again. "Hello, AI Ninety-Seven." Lisa looked over to Bath, gesturing for him to walk forward. As he did so, coming within the three-foot range of the robot, the lifelike construct shuddered.


    "Vizier," it said, falling on both of its knees, its hands arrayed in an unfamiliar clasped formation. "This one is ready to serve."


    Lisa swiveled her head around, mouthing, What!?


    Bath''s expression remained impassive. "Lead us into the Arc."


    The robot rose to its feet. "This one shall lead." True to its word, the robot walked forward and tapped the ground with its foot. The floor opened up, green light flaring out and bathing the room in a pale glow. Bath and Lisa followed without speaking, Bath in the lead and Lisa trailing behind.


    The green lights obscured the stark white of the corridor beyond. While Bath showed no reaction to the room they found themselves in, Lisa was only barely able to suppress a gasp. They were currently in what was obviously a messy, purple bedroom.


    "Why is this place purple?" Bath asked, voice so monotone as to seem bored.


    Why ask that, of all things? Lisa wondered.


    "The Transporter of this Arc, Franz, believed the color to be aesthetically pleasing."


    Franz? Seriously? Lisa thought.I almost didn''t think the robot was serious earlier when it said its master''s name was Franz.


    Bath snorted cooly. "Hideous. Lead on, steward."


    The robot bowed its head and walked through the bedroom and down a hallway. Lisa wanted to tell Bath and the robot to slow down a little so she could properly investigate the bedroom, but held her tongue. We can always come back.


    "What is the full name of this vessel?" Bath asked.


    "The Egdelek Arc, Vizier."


    "How long were you in stasis until my arrival?"


    "Two-thousand three-hundred and forty-one years."


    Bath chuckled sardonically. "What was the reason behind the vessel''s descent onto this lifeless husk of a planet?"


    Finally asking the important stuff.


    "The transporter died of unnatural causes after the ship''s forced descent."


    "Present a report on the demise of Transporter Franz," Bath ordered as AI Ninety-Seven led them through a many-doored white corridor.


    Why does this place have so many doors? Lisa wondered, trying to make sense of the alien markings on each. The translator isn''t making sense of whatever code somebody has written on them. Are they rooms of the library?


    "Transporter Franz was passing through the Jeveda Galaxy gate and was waylaid by a hostile ship of make ATD-jefeal-0122. The ATD fired several missiles, impacting the arc''s hull and compromising the structural integrity of the ship''s main corridor. Forced to retreat, Transporter Franz redirected his route to pass through three uncharted gates. In the end of this transfer, he ended up on planet 39811."


    Lisa recognized the number. That''s Vast Desert.


    "And?" Bath asked.


    "Traveler Franz died of asphyxiation upon exiting the ship."


    "Accidental death?" Bath inquired, his eyes glinting.


    "Suicide."


    Bath sneered. "Pitiful creature. What is the status of this ship?"


    "Nonfunctional," the robot replied. "Fuel is insufficient to breach the surface. Damage sustained to the main corridor has worsened with time."


    "Present a report of requisite repairs."


    Lisa cringed as the robot listed off a series of random-sounding parts for the better part of five minutes. This is totally useless.


    As the robot finished its report, Bath nodded and said, "Very well. The parts I have brought with me are wholly insufficient: prepare a digital report with blueprints of all required parts, as well as a blueprint of this ship. Additionally, include at the front of this report a summarized list of missing parts along with their required quantities."


    "To be transferred to your Processor?"


    Bath snorted icily. "My subordinates are from a backwater fringe world; as such, they only have chip reader technology. Study the chip reader of my companion, Asil, and place the report into a format compatible with her reader."


    The robot nodded. "This one will obey." He turned toward Lisa, his green eyes flashing ominously. "Come, fringespawn."


    Fringespawn!? Lisa''s eyes widened. He called me afringespawn? Suppressing her inner desire to pummel AI Ninety-Seven, Lisa walked serenely forward and presented the chip reader currently fastened to her wrist.


    "Truly base technology," the robot sighed. "What tragedy."


    What kind of robot calls my chip reader a technological tragedy!?


    "Indeed," Bath sighed, his four eyes closing. "Perhaps we can outfit my subordinates with Processors at a later time, if the assistance of such advanced technology is required for the proper repair of the ship."


    The robot looked toward Bath, its eyes narrowing slightly. "This one does not question."


    Huh, Lisa thought. Is it weird to want to give Processors to backwater sapients that lack high-tech stuff?


    The robot finished inspecting Lisa''s chip reader, swiftly returning to the head of the party. It proceeded forward, leading Lisa and Bath deeper into the ship until, at last, they stood before a towering purple door.


    Bath smiled cruelly. "The end of the main corridor. Open the door."


    "With zeal," the robot replied, flashing an eerie grin that displayed pointed, razor-like fangs. It placed a hand on the door and pushed, forcing the towering structure open with seemingly trivial effort.


    "The control room," Bath breathed. "At last."

 [Chapter 133] A Swift Exit; Meeting with Dean; Disseminating the Blueprints

    "The control room," Bath breathed. "At last." He strode forward into the room, his expression the picture of an emperor returning to his throne. "This will do, for now," he said, smirking. "Transfer the blueprints to my companion''s chip reader, then lead us to the surface."


    Wait...we just entered this weird, open room filled with a glowing white pedestal at its center...and we''re going to leave? Lisa was somewhat incredulous: She itched to inspect the inscribed purple floor and touch the pedestal.


    AI Ninety-Seven inclined its head, responding, "This one shall lead." The robot led them back through the main corridor, taking them past the many closed doors and Franz''s bedroom. Finally, the robot reached the spot where it had originally lay in stasis.


    "I shall return," Bath stated as he peered up into the light of the hole leading to the surface. "Come, Asil."


    Lisa walked forward, stopping at his side. Bath looked down at her, smiled, and jumped up into the tunnel. As he did so and left the line of sight of the robot, his form rapidly shifted to that of a small bird. Lisa grinned and jumped up, combusting the air beneath her feet while pressing down with her administrator-boon-empowered magnetic sense. She launched into the air, surpassing Bath in speed as the wind whipped against her face and tousled her hair. She used her magnetic sense to cycle air around the flames beneath her feet, increasing the thrust they exerted on her body.


    She popped out of the tunnel like a cork off of a bottle of champagne, shooting into the open red atmosphere of Vast Desert and through a patch of fluffy, low-lying clouds. She quickly reversed direction with her magnetic sense, redirecting herself toward the hole.


    In contrast, just as Lisa was smashing down on the sand, Bath flew up, his wings pumping leisurely at his sides.


    "So, you''ve finally arrived," Lisa joked. "Slowpoke."


    Bath smirked. "From my current vantage point, seems to me like you''ve also only just reached the surface."


    Lisa stuck out her tongue and grinned. "I still beat you. Anyways, care to explain what the hell was going on down there?"


    Bath sighed. "You saw everything that I saw," he quipped. "All I''ve been able to glean is that some alien species built this ship and sent it on a mission. Its operator ran into trouble, and the ship crashed."


    Lisa began to pace. "The ship''s lone sapient occupant was transporting a library. We don''t know the destination, but we do know that the ship encountered trouble in the Jeveda Galaxy after receiving missile fire from a ship called ATD-jefeal-0122." Lisa sighed. "I feel like Juserin would be able to make more sense of this than ourselves."


    Bath nodded, rubbing at his eyes. "Probably. From the conversations I''ve had with the verdora on this expedition, I doubt any would have anything useful to offer."


    Lisa turned around, her eyes glinting. "What about Eyrin?"


    Bath cocked his head. "Maybe. I don''t know why he''d know anything, but it can''t hurt to ask. After all, we''re not going to be keeping this place a secret."


    Lisa frowned. "Bath, we don''t know if this place is safe or not. What if it''s another trap?"


    Bath shook his head. "I don''t think so. Actually, I think that this place is the key: while voyagers are small and limited to a crew of a few people, a ship like this..."


    That was the first thing I thought of, she noted. But we don''t understand the technology; moreover, I don''t think we''ll be able to manufacture all the parts in the blueprint the AI gave us. However, despite her misgivings, Lisa just shrugged. "Well, we can give the blueprints to the engineers and see what happens."


    ---


    Dean almost spat out his mouthful of water when Lisa and Bath appeared in his room without warning, flying in from the balcony. He rapidly swallowed, then asked, "Can I help you?"


    "Dean, Bath and I found a space ship," Lisa deadpanned.


    Dean blinked. No way. "Like, a space ship space ship? That can travel through outer space? Here, on Vast Desert?"


    Lisa nodded. "Exactly."


    Dean let out an exasperated gasp. "I almost can''t believe this is happening. Where?"


    Bath grunted a laugh. "On the other side of the planet. By the other gate."


    The second exit gate? Dean recalled, confused. "I thought that was just a one-way gate."


    "So did we," Lisa replied. "But apparently not."


    Is the data Juserin gave to us wrong? Dean wondered. "So this ship: how long has it been on Vast Desert?"


    "Roughly two-thousand years," Bath responded, plopping down into one of the Spire office''s two couches. "So, just a blink of an eye."


    Dean''s head spun. That''s like...year zero, on Earth. Back during the Roman empire. "Sure it is," he murmured, inhaling deeply while using his thought-to-text technology to transcribe the conversation and his personal thoughts. "How do you know how old it is?"


    "The ship has a robot," Lisa explained. "Its name is AI Ninety-Seven. I and the other kursi actually found the robot earlier today, submerged five miles underground. When I went back later with Bath, he was able to impersonate the species of the robot''s creator and trick it into bringing us on a tour of the place."The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Dean nodded his head slowly. "Okay, then. Um, so the ship is underground?"


    "Yep," Bath said. "Though I''m sure we can have the engineers fix it up and give it some fuel."


    That would be great, Dean thought. If we had any information to work with. "Do you know anything about the ship?"


    Bath grinned deviously, while Lisa snorted and rolled her eyes. "Bath ordered the robot to make him a document of blueprints for every part of the ship that needs to be created or repaired."


    "Along with a blueprint of the ship, as well as a summary of required parts," Bath added. "Will that be enough?" A smile played around the edges of his mouth.


    Dean gave the two of them an exhausted look. "This..." he finally muttered, trailing off and shaking his head. "Lisa, can you give me that document?"


    She smiled and nodded. "Sure thing." She walked over and paused, cocking her head. "Uh, do you know how to transfer files?"


    That''s when Bath''s face lit up. "I know!" he exclaimed.


    Dean raised an eyebrow. "Same." This quashed Bath''s excitement. Dean then explained to Lisa how to transfer the file, grinning when it eventually appeared on his chip reader.


    "Why don''t you give that to the engineers, ask them what they think, et cetera," Lisa suggested while leaning against Dean''s desk. "Also, what''s your relationship with Aberash?"


    Dean''s expression didn''t change, though he didn''t speak. Inside, his mind was in tumult. Why is she asking me that? he wondered. Could it have been...


    He looked over toward the couches, narrowing his eyes at a certain someone. Seeing the mischievous glint in Bath''s eyes, Dean tsked and groaned. "Bath, you are the worst suite mate," he grumbled.


    "What''s that got to do with anything?" Lisa asked.


    "What kind of terrible person stalks his suite mate?" Dean muttered, giving Bath a pointed look.


    "I''m not a person," Bath replied simply, crossing his legs and reclining across the couch''s length. "And in case you haven''t noticed, we aren''t suite mates anymore."


    "Stop dancing around the question, Dean" Lisa interjected with a chuckle, joining Dean in giving Bath a disparaging look. "I know that Bath can be a jerk, but I''m truly curious."


    Why? "There''s nothing going on," Dean replied. "Um, seriously."


    "You sure? Then why were you in Aberash''s dressing room?"


    Dean exhaled and closed his eyes. "That''s what you want to know?"


    Lisa gave him a questioning look. Crap, Dean thought. Did I just imply that she knows too little? A fatal mistake.


    "Lisa, I don''t want to talk about this now. How about we talk about this some other time, when I don''t have a pressing duty to transmit this file to our engineers?" I need some time to think this conversation over: it sounds like just the kind of social interaction he''d want to prewrite.


    Lisa gave him a small smile. "I''ll agree as long as you promise to tell me eventually. And soon."


    Though Bath sighed, he didn''t say anything in protest.


    Dean smiled nervously. Just what have I agreed to? "It''s a deal."


    ---


    Fartuun gaped, looking up at Dean and back to the hologram in front of her. "Th-this..."


    Dean frowned. I''ve never seen her shaken before. "Are you okay?"


    She turned to him, an expression of ecstasy taking root. "This is the best day of my life," she murmured. Then, she turned back to the hologram and squealed. "I always thought I was destined to give and never take in this relationship," she exclaimed.


    "Uh..." Dean didn''t know how to react. "Is this really the best day of your life?"


    Fartuun stopped and once more looked back to Dean, cocking her head so that her glossy hair shifted down her back and left arm. "You''re right: the best day was when you established Jerboaland."


    Dean made a dismissive motion. "I just planted the city-seed."


    Fartuun grinned. "I know. Thank god COTD showed up." She snickered. "It''s funny, how we continue to use phrases that reference the old gods..."


    Dean frowned. "''Old gods?''" he echoed. "As in, the pagan gods?"


    Fartuun snorted. "No; Yahweh, Allah, you know."


    "Didn''t COTD say that it was a church of the body?"


    "It did," Fartuun admitted.


    "And didn''t the Church and Dragon say repeatedly that they didn''t deal with anything beyond the corporeal?"


    Fartuun gave him a sad grin. "You don''t have to repeat the same sentence twice: I get it. Don''t tell me...you think there''s more than what''s here, in the flesh? A beyond?"


    Dean knew where this conversation was going. "Let''s get back on track," he said. "Blueprints: what can the engineers accomplish based on what we have?"


    Fartuun shook her head. "At this point, I don''t know. It''ll take time to sort through everything, even with the scholar boons helping us to sponge the information. I''ll report back to you in a day; wait for my call."


    Dean nodded. "Alright. I''ll see you around."


    He moved first, sprinting away as fast as possible so that all Fartuun saw was an afterimage. After he was several miles away from Jure and alone in the desert, he manipulated one of the tiny dragonleaf fronds fastened to the back of his Dawn tabard into two posts and a hammock. Then, he hopped onto it and lay down.


    "Why can''t I just have a normal conversation with anyone?" he sighed, rocking back and forth. "Even the damned squirrels won''t leave me alone when I cash in on my PP."


    He recalled the somewhat grizzly scene in the morning when he''d gone to the Anima to check his current PP balance. As soon as he walked through the doors, five squirrels had demanded a signature, each. They had all held out a postcard-like print of him punching a tank or something.


    At least you can''t see my face because of the dust, Dean thought. Though in hindsight, it''s probably for the best that those old, baggy sweats got ruined.


    This wasn''t anything new; he kept a pen with him at all times--it was currently in his jean''s right front pocket--for this purpose and quickly signed each of their papers.


    "Why do they do that only when I''m in a room with them?" Dean wondered, placing his fists into the central pocket of his brown, Dawn-faction-distributed dragonweave sweatshirt. The squirrels existed all throughout the city, making deliveries and assisting people in navigation. However, when Dean was walking about, the squirrels kept their distance.


    In the Anima, however, when the squirrel density was at its highest, the quasies gained a new-found confidence. In fact, the attention that they lavished upon him actively discouraged him from tallying and using his PP.


    And boy, did he have PP. He was swimming in it; Dean sighed and removed a hand to rub his forehead as he recalled how the squirrels lined up all around the appraisal stands when he entered. After he autographed the images of more than twenty squirrels, he finally arrived at an appraising squirrel.


    After she read off his PP number, no less than five of the squirrels in the audience fainted. Dean had no idea what Bath had done when he made the squirrel quasies, but it was extremely embarrassing.


    "Can''t a guy just check his PP in peace?"


    Y''know, I should ask Fartuun about that.


    Suddenly, a rocketing white object and a spray of sand stole his attention. After spitting out a few red granules, Dean smiled, then said, "Nice to see you, Viri."


    "Dean!" the little jerboa cried, leaping up into the hammock. "Finally found you."


    Dean scooched over, giving the jerboa a bit of room. "So, how are the tunnel networks going?"


    "They''re okay," Virigard sighed. "The sand''s an annoying material to work with."


    "I think I may have a big project for you guys," Dean said. "How do you feel about digging up a two-thousand-year-old alien space ship?"

 [Chapter 134] Producing the Arc Parts; Arrival of the Quasi Bears

    "I can''t believe the engineers managed to fabricate every single one of the required spaceship pieces," said Lisa incredulously as she regarded a warehouse full of requested parts.


    "Will they really work?" asked Dean. "A lot of them are made from dragonleafand glass refined from Vast Desert''s sand: doesn''t sound very scientific."


    Bath sighed. "AI Ninety-Seven specified that the parts be made out of unfamiliar mineral and plastic components. I personally intervened to change the physical properties of the dragonleaf to match, even going so far as to chemically combine the dragonleaf with fired glass." That had been a substantial challenge: Bath hadn''t yet encountered any species that naturally integrated true glass, meaning that he didn''t have the ability to manipulate or produce it.


    Bath personally held a lot of hope for the dragonleaf-glass composite: it seemed to embody many of the qualities as the substance AI Ninety-Seven requested for many of the ship components. According to the encyclopedia, at least.


    "So Lisa and the kursi are going to be delivering the materials?" Dean asked.


    Lisa nodded. "With the assistance of twenty bear quasi-sapients."


    Dean shook his head. "Twenty bears? Damn, I didn''t realize that these ship parts were so heavy."


    Bath gave him a look. "They aren''t."


    Dean frowned. "Then why..."


    Lisa chuckled. "Dean, this is only one of five warehouses."


    Dean shot her a confounded look. "Just how big is this ship that it can still travel through a typical gate?"


    ---


    "So, everybody: The higher ups, a.k.a. the Knight, have told us to grab the bears and get over to the Egdelek Arc."


    "Zhou," Ida began, her forehead creased. "When did we get bears?"


    "We requested them," Zhou explained calmly.


    "How?" Priscilla asked, leaning against Clarissa. "I thought we couldn''t go back through the gate, or send signals?"


    Zhou shrugged. "While we can''t send anything back, we can still send signals."


    Priscilla narrowed her eyes and gave Clarissa a look. The devilbat snorted and shook her wing.


    "If you''re curious, I can explain," Zhou said. "It''s simple: a rigid object is held on both sides of one gate. While the object can only proceed further through the gate, it can be slid horizontally along the plane of the gate indefinitely. This horizontal sliding can generate messages."


    "Kind of like Morse code, then," Priscilla muttered.


    Lisa knew that everyone had been briefed two days ago about the Egdelek Arc and the "misconceptions" that AI Ninety-Seven held, such as that everyone that would be comingwasalaborer/peon. Even so, she worried that people would botch the charade, especially if AI Ninety-Seven called people "fringespawn" in a disparaging tone.


    Establishing that everybody was ready to go, Zhou led the kursi over to the edge of Jure where the ship pieces had been gathered for transport. The parts were currently arrayed atop a flat raft suspended on four wooden supports. Next to the raft lay twenty quasi-sapient bears, all of them giving the kursi inscrutable looks.


    I haven''t had much contact with the quasi bears, Lisa noted, eying the bears in genuine curiosity. Bath told me that he made them at the Alaskan city-seed outside of Juneau, but I didn''t see them when I visited the city-seed on my "world tour" as COTD''s ambassador. The bears were actually a rather late development: while slotting them in for one of the original sixteen quasi-sapient species from the beginning, Bath had waited to create them. He told Lisa a few reasons for this choice, the main ones being that they were difficult to transport (he would need to move his quasi precursors from the northern United States to Basalith in Virginia) and that they had enormous appetites.


    Zhou walked over to the contingent of bears, creating a thin dragonleaf tether between himself and the bear heading the group.


    "She says they''re prepared to set out," he said, looking back, a queer expression on his face. "As soon as we harness them up, we can remove the supports and set out."


    Harnessing the bears was simple: as the twenty bears arranged themselves in a 5x4 matrix, the kursi manipulated fronds of dragonleaf throughout the raft and around the bears.


    This raft is going to splinter unless these bears move in perfect unison, Lisa thought nervously. Though I suppose they must be able to do so, otherwise they wouldn''t be carrying the raft on their backs.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Sure enough, when the bears began to run across the desert, the raft split into twelve pieces.


    "What...?" Lisa muttered, watching the carnage. Thankfully, the bears had only taken five steps and hadn''t been going very fast, so all the parts appeared undamaged. However, why did they even try this plan if it was destined to fail?


    "Thicket says that the problem was the sand," Zhou announced, relaying the words of the lead bear. "A few bears tripped and couldn''t get a good foothold."


    "Why don''t we just have them pull the raft?" Ida suggested. "After we reconstruct it, of course."


    Zhou looked back to Thicket. "She says they can do it better if they just carry the raft on their backs."


    "Will it work this next time?" Khalid asked, sitting down in the sand. "It''s hot." The implication being that he didn''t want to wait an hour for the bears to figure everything out.


    Priscilla gave him a disgusted look. "You always complain about the weather...and yet you''re the one who spent most of his life in a desert."


    "Thicket says that they just need five minutes to run around on the sand," Zhou said, cutting them off. "So, we''ll wait here for five minutes. Do whatever."


    Thicket led the rest of the bears out of the kursi''s line of site. Sure enough, five minutes later, the bears returned. Lisa thought that the bears looked clumsy, their bodies seeming to shake with each lumbering step. But they''re one of Bath''s creations, she thought, and with him, appearances can be deceiving.


    "Alright guys, let''s get the bears lined up and fastened in." Zhou directed the kursi to raft, Zhou having led the kursi to repair it in the five-minute interim. "Just like before. Thicket says to maybe make some of the restraints a little looser, though."


    Lisa admired the three or so bears she was tasked with strapping in. She had never seen bears outside of zoos, and never at a distance below fifty feet away. They look a little goofy, she thought as she regarded the bears'' large heads and sagging muzzles, but their claws look like they could tear me to pieces. While she felt more than confident in her ability to defend herself, if she was asleep, or completely incapacitated...something about the sharpness of those claws, the slabs of muscle on the bears'' shoulders, made her more on edge than the pointed teeth of quasi wolves or the razor-like claws of the jerboa.


    After growing knots of dragonleaf around the bears, Lisa stepped back to Zhou Wang''s position and waited for the others. Once all the bears were situated, Zhou nodded, saying, "Okay, whenever you''re ready."


    The bear at the head of the formation, apparently Thicket (though Lisa had trouble telling any of the bear quasies apart), grunted. The other nineteen bears grunted back, and they all set off.


    In the wrong direction.


    But at least they''re moving in sync, Lisa observed, lips upturned into a smile. She glanced at Zhou. Should we...?


    "Uh," he began, scratching his head as the bears disappeared into the horizon. "Eyrin, take Clarissa and tell ''em to turn around."


    Clarissa sighed, while Eyrin replied, "Of course." He leapt up onto Clarissa''s back and directed her up into the air in the general direction of the bears.


    "Zhou, is he going to be all right?" Lisa asked. "Does he have his land-shaper boons?"


    Zhou waved a hand. "He has everything besides two of the teaching boons and the cooking boons."


    Lisa nodded. He''s been moving fast.


    Three minutes passed before Eyrin returned, the bears running behind him. This entire setup is so bizarre, Lisa thought, shaking her head. Twenty bears with a giant raft packed with spaceship parts supported on their backs. Eyrin touched Clarissa down next to the kursi, somewhat out of breath.


    "Nice," Zhou said. "They give you a hard time?"


    "I was shouting to them," he explained, trying to conceal his heavy breathing, "And they could not hear me, even using the director boons. I even had Clarissa shout to them." He glanced at her, sighing.


    "Hey, I tried," she snorted.


    "I never said otherwise," Eyrin stated, blinking twice. "As a last resort, I directed Clarissa to fly next to Thicket and make a dragonleaf tether." Clarissa grimaced, shaking her head slightly. "This time, the bears are going to follow us," Eyrin explained.


    Zhou winced. "Oh, you tethered with Thicket?"


    Eyrin''s skin darkened. "Why?"


    Zhou chuckled and shook his head. "Well, you probably know. Whatever."


    Lisa looked first at Eyrin, then at Zhou, then to Clarissa. I certainly didn''t have a problem tethering to any of the bears I was strapping in, Lisa thought. I just told them to move their paws and adjust their posture, and they responded with simple affirmatives. Nothing notable.


    Clarissa noticed her gaze and gave her a small shrug. By this time, however, Zhou was just beginning to run, leading the other kursi with him towards the Arc.


    Because the bears moved comparatively slow, the group arrived at the Arc in six hours. By this time, everyone was somewhat put out by the oppressive heat of Vast Desert, despite any boons and bodily enhancements that increased their comfort. The kursi were looking jealously at Khalid''s head wrap, and a few were even eying Eyrin''s veil for its sand-deterring properties.


    Upon arrival, Zhou directed the bears to the left of the hole and led the kursi in erecting a new set of four supports for the raft and freeing the bears from their dragonleaf bonds. In a matter of minutes, the bears were on their way back to Vast Desert and the kursi were left alone with a vast collection of ship parts.


    "Well," Zhou said, pacing the perimeter of the raft. "Everyone, take three small pieces, two medium pieces, or a large piece each, then jump down the shaft and talk to the robot."


    Lisa cleared her throat, wishing she''d brought water. "Zhou, we''re supposed to say something specific to the robot, right?"


    He smiled. "Yes, don''t you remember?"


    Lisa felt like slapping her hand across her forehead. "Shouldn''t we go over it once to make sure everyone remembers?"


    Zhou''s smile disappeared, an uncharacteristic iciness coming over his features. He regarded the kursi present, saying, "If anyone ruins this, Lepochim will destroy you." Leaving everyone stunned, he leaned over and grabbed a particularly large part, proceeding to jump down into the shaft.


    He is 299 years old, Lisa thought. I''m almost more comfortable with him being icy and standoffish than his typical happy-go-lucky "bro" self.


    She and the other kursi grabbed parts near the edge of the raft, jumping down the hole in quick succession. Soon, everyone was standing in the room with the robot, Zhou clearly having waited for everyone else to arrive before proceeding.


    He smiled at them, then said, "Alright: Eyrin''s going first."

 [Chapter 135] Redirecting Thicket; Parlay with the Android; Transporting the Parts

    Six Hours Previous


    Eyrin directed Clarissa toward the bears, transmitting her the image of a devilbat swooping around the lead bear so that he could direct a dragonleaf tendril into its side.


    This would be easier if the bears weren''t deaf, Eyrin thought, annoyed. They aren''t moving so fast that my voice would be drowned out. Especially not with the raft full of ship parts on their backs slowing them down.


    He wondered if they were intentionally ignoring him. That wouldn''t make sense, he transmitted to Clarissa. It''ll be more work for them if they go in the wrong direction.


    The devilbat snorted. They''re bears: the definition of stubborn. If they think they''re going the right direction, you''re screwed.


    Eyrin frowned. "Do you remember what I taught you?" he murmured, wrapping his first and second pairs of arms snugly around Clarissa''s neck and back. Clarissa noticeably tensed at his words.


    Yeah.


    Eyrin smiled. Of course you do. Even so, he transmitted a reminder: If I don''t feel anything, you''re doing it wrong.


    Clarissa pumped her wings and prepared to dive. Yeah, yeah. One danger dive coming up. The devilbat plummeted, tucking her wings and legs in to streamline her form. As Clarissa came dangerously close to the apex of a relatively tall desert dune, Eyrin felt the stirrings of excitement in his heart.


    If she were to clip her wings on anything, at this speed...Eyrin thought himself an excellent judge of the consequences of stunts gone wrong, and his instincts said that such a misstep would result in both him and Clarissa breaking half the bones in their bodies and skipping over the desert like stones across a lake.


    He clenched his primary right hand against Clarissa''s hair-covered neck. These caretaker boons would fix any of our injuries. While Eyrin knew that any serious head injury might prevent him from being in the state of mind to initiate caretaker healing, he had the utmost confidence in his close-combat-boon-assisted reflexes: in the event of a crash, he would protect his head by reorienting his body and adjusting his center of mass.


    This knowledge in mind, he fearlessly ushered Clarissa on toward the bears, directing her to glide mere feet above the sand as he stretched out a dragonleaf tetherfrom an opening in his robe below his mane.


    Thicket snorted as Eyrin and Clarissa crested above her, as though the unorthodox pair were naught but buzzing flies. Eyrin smiled into the wind, his dual predatory grins revealed as his veil flipped up, teeth glinting red in Vast Desert''s sanguine light.


    Thicket growled as Eyrin''s dragonleaf tether made contact, though to her credit, the bear kept a steady pace. Eyrin laughed sharply as his adrenaline began to build; then, launching off Clarissa toward Thicket. He swung himself directly toward the bear''s snarling mouth, tucking in his second and third pairs of arms and curling in his spine. Then, when the bear''s bellowing cry was close enough to spray spittle onto his exposed face, he uncoiled, changing his trajectory so that his hands flew right into the iron-like tendrils of dragonleaf spooling around Thicket''s shoulders.


    He whipped around so that his body lay directly atop Thicket''s lower back, just above her hips. The dragonleaf girdle connecting her to the raft rose just above her shoulders and sides, the gaps between which Eyrin navigated without issue. This maneuver happened in the blink of an eye, Eyrin essentially slamming into the bear like a torpedo.


    Only when he was situated on the bear''s back did he initiate the conversation via dragonleaf tether, any fleeting attempts at oral speech forsaken as Thicket''s snarling reached a fever-pitch.


    Thicket, you''re going the wrong way, Eyrin transmitted gleefully, eyes alight with wonder as he effectively surfed atop Thicket''s back. Turn around and go back to the humans.


    Unexpectedly, Thicket began transmitting the image of a small, human infant. The infant, swaddled in some kind of blanket, was left outside. Thicket then transmitted an image of her violently mauling the baby, flaying its wailing lips from its head in a grisly display of animal ferocity. She ate the baby in three pieces, moving on in search of more prey.


    I''m not a human, Eyrin said, his mental voice seemingly unfazed. Truly, we must return to the others. This is childish.


    The sounds of grunting, seemingly malevolent laughter erupted from Thicket''s mouth. Then, without warning, Thicket reached back, shearing through any dragonleaf in her way. She swatted Eyrin clean off her back in one fluid motion, her forearm snapping to the ground a second later as though it had never shifted positions.


    Eyrin, on the other hand, skipped on the desert dunes in a fashion entirely like that of a stone. I suppose I did judge that correctly after all, he thought as he skipped forward, the fine sand grating against his exposed face. He flipped and tumbled, finding his attempts at protecting his head utterly lacking.


    Not what I was expecting, he panted, frozen in pain on a random dune as his motion came to a halt. He felt a piercing pain from his chest and realized that he felt no sensation in the lower half of his body. I''ve never been so hurt, he noted, thoughts foggy and muddled. Ugh.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Worst of all, in Eyrin''s mind, was that the blow of the bear had come so unexpectedly and with so much force that he''d only ended up bouncing over sand for under three seconds. As a consequence, despite his grievous injuries, he barely felt any lingering danger rush.


    By the time Clarissa touched down at his side ten seconds later, Eyrin had already healed the vast majority of his injuries, though doing so made him feel somewhat exhausted.


    Did the bears continue in the wrong direction? he asked, still dead-set on completing his assigned task.


    Clarissa gasped in disbelief. No, actually: they''re going the right way. The better question is, why do you even care?


    Eyrin snorted and transmitted back the image of a swantree, an arcing, white organism that remained stationary and ingrained its relatively fragile roots into the characteristically hard rock of his province, Eyris'', steppes. Swantrees were enormous, larger than most buildings, and represented peace and calm.


    Clarissa ignored the unfamiliar, seemingly-random image. Seriously! I saw how that bear flicked you like a pest across the sand. You''re a kursi, damn it: if that bear actually killed you, I''m sure your father would--


    Please, Eyrin replied, blinking twice. He wouldn''t bat an eye.


    They traveled in silence for the next minute or so until they finally caught up to the bears. From that point, they quickly rendezvoused with the other kursi and continued on toward the Egdelek Arc. Eyrin was thankful that he had Clarissa to rest on for the journey, allowing him to mostly recover from fatigue.


    The flight was uneventful, the red sand as monotonous as ever. When the group did finally arrive at the hole marking the Arc''s entrance, Eyrin had to work hard to suppress his peaking excitement.


    The Egdelek Arc, he thought, Crashed here a mere two-thousand-or-so years previously. Right here, on Vast Desert...and the Juserins never knew. His veil covered a smirk as he helped to transport a fairly heavy part down the hole. Because he was naturally the weakest and slowest--being the only one still without all boons, and therefore without any invested PP--Eyrin was the last kursi to enter the shaft, falling down its length to land at the end of a five-person line.


    It''s not even that I''m weaker than everyone else, he thought. The others have already been here once before and are able to better navigate the familiar space. He trained his eyes on the apparently-slumbering form of what should be AI Ninety-Seven, its crossed legs firmly rooted on the stark, white floor of the sphere-shaped chamber. Clarissa, who was toting a triage of lighter parts, opened her mouth in a clear display of echolocation.


    Just as Eyrin was getting a handle on the current situation, Zhou turned around and smiled directly at the back of the line. "Alright: Eyrin''s going first."


    Eyrin bowed his head in submission. He truly didn''t mind going first, his curiosity about the Arc and AI Ninety-Seven mounting with each passing second. He made his way past the other kursi, stepping gingerly on two legs toward the inanimate sapient-imitation. As he neared its face, the android''s body lit up with neon green light, evidently powering on.


    "We have been sent to deliver the requested parts," Eyrin proclaimed, head bowed respectfully.


    The android was silent for a moment. "Do you come alone?"


    Eyrin started, his head turning slightly back. Can the android truly not perceive anything before this point?


    "No; not alone...someone is clicking sound waves in this direction." The robot stood to its full height, opening all of its four glowing eyes. "How many serve your master?"


    "Innumerable servants," Eyrin replied circuitously. "He has sent seven to deliver all requested parts."What a peculiar sapient, Eyrin thought.I''m unfamiliar with its like.This wasn''t too surprising, given the size of the universe.


    The robot shot Eyrin a seemingly incredulous glance. "The report I prepared was long," it stated simply.


    Eyrin nodded. "We come bringing many parts."


    With that, the android smiled and turned around, facing a rapidly-expanding crack in the floor. It turned back, saying, "All who have come, follow." Soon, all the kursi and Clarissa had crossed the threshold of the chamber and were entering the purple bedroom demarcating the entrance to the Arc.


    Eyrin noticed that the android seemed particularly fixated on Clarissa, at times staring at her while proceeding unhesitatingly in the opposite direction down the corridor. Eventually, the android led them to a towering violet door, pushing it open and leading them into the barren room beyond. Eyrin noted the various nonsensical inscriptions on the floor, all glowing faintly iridescent.


    AI Ninety-Seven soundlessly trod toward the centerpiece of the room, a shining white pedestal. Itsglow makes my eyes hurt, Eyrin thought, instinctively recoiling from its splendor.


    "This is the control room," the android announced, its tone clinical. "Place your parts here, then return to the surface and retrieve the others you have brought. Inform me when all parts have been retrieved." Having issued this announcement, the robot sat down on its knees next to the pedestal and closed all of its eyes, the glowing green running over its skin dissipating.


    Looks as though it''s gone into a state of hibernation, Eyrin thought. Interesting.


    The group wasted no time, depositing their parts unceremoniously on the ground and sprinting to the outside to grab more. The fact that, between the seven of them, the transport process took a full hour was a testament to just how many parts the engineers had produced over the past few days.


    Zhou continued to insist that Eyrin be the one to address the android. "You''re up again, little blue."


    Somewhat confused by Zhou''s transfer of responsibility--after all, shouldn''t the leader of the kursi be the one to speak diplomatically with the android?--Eyrin blinked twice, though refrained from protesting. Speaking with the android, as of yet, hadn''t been very difficult: compared to the nobility of Illudis, the android was a breath of fresh, unpolitical air.


    Part of him did wonder, however, why Zhou didn''t put Lisa in charge of diplomacy: the woman was clearly vocal, always talking with one of the other kursi or quasies about something or other. Moreover, Eyrin sensed that the woman had a sense of authority about her that originally led him to believe that she was the leader of the kursi. If Zhou felt uncomfortable addressing the android--which Eyrin felt was plausible, given Zhou''s laid back manner--Lisa was the natural second choice.


    Despite this fact, Eyrin recalled how Lisa had been oddly mute ever since entering the Arc. Perhaps she isn''t as familiar in diplomatic situations as I originally thought.


    Zhou trained his eyes on Eyrin expectantly, causing the verdora to sigh inwardly and bipedally pad forward towards the android. As he reached within a rod of AI Ninety-Seven, it reanimated with a flash of green, rising fluidly to its feet.


    "Have you amassed all the parts?" the robot asked, voice clipped and devoid of emotion.


    Eyrin bowed his head. "Yes; they fill this room, awaiting your inspection."

 [Chapter 136] The Self-Repairing Arc; Second Path Ceremony

    "Have you amassed all the parts?"


    "Yes," Eyrin replied. "They fill this room, awaiting your inspection."


    The android nodded its head, its four eyes flashing green as it strode forward and proceeded to catalog each of the received parts. Ten parts in, it turned to look back at the group of kursi and Clarissa. "What are these parts made of?"


    Lisa looked around. Does anybody know besides myself? She hadn''t expected the robot to ask such a question, assuming that it would be able to "figure out" the materials used in the construction of the parts.


    Lisa coughed. I was hoping to avoid speaking with the robot...but seems like I have no choice. She looked different--when roleplaying as Lisa the kursi, she looked like herself, the old her. Dean''s face when he saw me with the kursi...priceless.


    She even modulated her voice slightly, making it slightly lower. Even though this was all the case, she still worried that the robot would recognize her as Bath''s companion. Which would be bad, considering what I have planned. She wished that she had a better idea of the android''s capabilities.


    Despite her misgivings, Lisa spoke up, saying, "The parts are made from..." She listed off a host of compounds the engineers had given her, having already committed the list to memory. After speaking, she waited for the robot to reply.


    "You made these parts from a trace biosilicate?"


    Can robots have emotions? Lisa wondered, speculating again as to the limits of AI Ninety-Seven''s AI. Because its tone soundspositively dubious.


    "Yes," Lisa stated, smiling tightly."We synthesized them to your specifications."


    "Did your master give you this technology?"


    "Yes."


    "Mm." AI Ninety-Seven turned around, resuming the cataloging process. After ten minutes, it let out a sigh and turned once more to face the onlookers. "I have finished cataloging the received parts." The robot sighed again, this time shaking its head. "What is the name of your master?"


    "He has many names," Eyrin replied, having stepped back into the role of representative.


    The robot crossed its arms behind its back. "By what name do you call him?"


    "Dragon," Eyrin said. "His Radiance the Dragon."


    Lisa smiled inwardly.Thanks, Eyrin.


    "I see," AI Ninety-Seven murmured. "Did His Radiance bestow upon you biological enhancements?"


    "In part," Eyrin replied, glancing to the sides. "In theory, he and Her Radiance the Church are jointly responsible."


    "Very well," the android said. "Assist me in transporting these parts to their respective locations."


    Lisa cocked an eyebrow. How many parts do we have? More than two-thousand, for sure. Bringing the parts to their respective areas sounded like a time-intensive process.


    Then again, to this android, we''re nothing more than labor.


    As Lisa suspected, the android did expect them to transport each part to its proper location. It first copied over a map of the ship to each of them, which was, admittedly, much easier to make sense of than the blueprint. Then, it marked the location of each part on the ship. When any of them picked a part up, its location would flash on the holographic chip reader map.


    After receiving her map, Lisa walked over to the nearest two medium-sized parts, holding one in each hand. Her chip reader projected a map that changed in real time into the space in front of her like a 3D GPS. She and the other kursi split up into the ship, proceeding down its main corridor until they eventually disappeared into random doorslining its walls.


    Nice: both of my parts have the same intended location, she observed, mildly pleased.


    The doors to all the rooms were easy to open: with just a push, they swung inward, clicking behind as they shut. The rooms were lit like the rest of the craft via overhead lighting, allowing Lisa to move swiftly through the unfamiliar territory as she entered the room flashing on her holo-map.


    Thisplace has so many books, Lisa thought,standing on the balls of her feet to reach the top of the back corner of the room. She realized now that she had no idea how, or where, to place the parts to repair the Arc.Is the ceiling supposed to pop open? she wondered, pushing against its surface.


    Frowning, she stepped backward, lowering onto her heels. Lisa leaned the two relatively-flat parts against the wall, planning to head back to the control room to ask AI Ninety-Seven for advice. Before she turned away, the wall began to shift: tiles withan area of approximately one square inch lifted off the wall to contact the two parts, their undersides adhering to and reelingthe oblong forms into the wall''s interior.


    That''s pretty cool, Lisa admitted. Makes sense to have a self-repairing ship if the vessel is intended to have a sapient crew of one.


    After twenty seconds, the two parts were no longer visible and the wall had already smoothed out to its former appearance. Lisa clasped her hands together and shrugged. Guess there''s nothing more to do. That was easy. She ran back to the control room, noting with curiosity that AI Ninety-Seven was absent.


    She didn''t want to waste time wondering about the android''s whereabouts.Based on the blueprint, this ship has plenty of small rooms: AI Ninety-Seven could be anywhere.She bent down and scooped up four small pieces, ensuring that they all had the same destination before heading into the main corridor. She passed other kursi making return trips as she ran. She made excellent time as shestole into the destination room, aligned the parts against the wall, and ran back out with only a cursory backward glance.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    She began to move in a steady rhythm, picking up the parts and running through the main corridor with practiced ease. Around the forty-five minute mark, she realized that only ahundred parts remained.


    Won''t be long now, she thought, grinning in anticipation. I can''t wait to see what this ship is like in operation.


    When the hour mark arrived, all of the parts had been returned to their designated areas and the kursi plus Clarissa were standing aimlessly within the control room. Lisa frowned: Where is AI Ninety-Seven? It''s already been an hour.


    Lisa looked around exasperatedly. She''d already spent time inspecting the room''s glowing sigils when AI Ninety-Seven first cataloged the parts. Now, she could only look at the walls and floors in boredom: the others had no penchant for small talk. Probably something that comes with old age, she thought glumly. Then again, Clarissa is only two or three months old...and Priscilla and Eyrin are under fifty.


    She scowled, considering whether or not to engage any of the three in conversation. However, before she had the chance to approach them, AI Ninety-Seven''s voice sounded from all around, clearly utilizing an intercom functionality of the ship.


    "The Arc needs a few hours to digest the parts," it said. "Return to your master and summon him hence."


    Digest? Lisa thought the word choice...odd.


    The group waited for more, but AI Ninety-Seven appeared to have nothingfurther to say.


    "Well..." Zhou said slowly, looking around. "We should probably return to Jure."


    Lisa suppressed a snort. Why do I find Zhou so funny?she wondered, a smile playing around the corners of her lips. Maybe it''s his gives-no-shits attitude.


    "Sure," Khalid said, nodding. "Let''s go."


    Since nobody had any qualms, they all headed back through the main corridor and up to the surface, scaling the hole''s walls by hand. Lisa wished she could fly out like before: rocketing into the air was much more fun than climbing. When they finally reached the surface thirty minutes later, Lisa let out a sigh of anticipation.


    Time to get Bath, she thought, smiling. And, more importantly, time to show this AI just whoit insulted.


    ---


    Bath lounged out across the spineleaf barrier, its normally all-but-invisible, permeable form solidifying into a stretchy net beneath his girth.


    "Bath!" Lisa shouted, flying up to his location in her Church vestments and facial structure, "Why the hell are you covering all of Jure with your wings?"


    Bath yawned. "I''m photosynthesizing."


    Lisa slapped him on one of his truck-sized cheeks. "Seriously; this is kind of weird." She glanced down at Jure below, the entire city prematurely bathed in darkness.


    "The first verdora received all of his boons," he said. "I gave him the path ceremony."


    Lisa gaped. I suppose he appeared as a dragon for the Basalith path ceremony when he set Dean on fire... "Who?"


    Bath''s enormous scaly lips curved up into a devious grin. "Thaddeus."


    Lisa groaned and turned away, shaking her head. "You''re impossible."Moreover,she reasoned, the path ceremony is stupid: I''m sure at least oneverdora back on Illudishas already reached the Expert level in each profession. If Bath were serious about the path ceremony, he would have stayed on Illudis until the first verdora did so.


    Bath snorted. "It was inevitable: if Thaddeus wasn''t the first verdora to receive all the boons, based on his growth so far, it would be suspicious."


    Lisa turned back around and narrowed her eyes. "Stop referring to yourself in the third person," she scolded. "Besides: we have more important things to do than worry about the credibility of your verdoran identity." Ora baseless "tradition."


    Bath''s eyes gleamed, though he didn''t move, his massive wings still encompassing the entire city in their feathery, chromatic splendor. "Is the Arc ready?"


    Lisa rolled her eyes and smiled, settling down into the web-like hammock around Bath''s head. "Are you prepared to leave if it is?"


    Bath shook his body like a dog shaking off water, his dragon form moving violently away from the spineleaf barrier and ripping massive tears along its surface. His wings stirred up a gale that buffeted the sheared threads of barrier inward. Without turning back to his human form, he gave Lisa a knowing look and set off toward the Arc, wings pumping him into the red-tinged clouds.


    Was that intentional!? she gasped, the flapping of his wings flinging her down along with the webbing. She grunted, then forced herself around, combusting the air beneath her feet and spiraling upward with magnetic sense to increase her acceleration.


    Several miles from the city, Bath was still ahead of her; more than that, he was flaunting his lead, doing twirls and loops in the air. Lisa gritted her teeth in pursuit, determined to catch up.


    As she pulled into a loop of her own, she noticed that there was a far-off contingent of twenty-two human sapients bounding along behind. She smiled to herself at their futile attempt at following the Church and Dragon: running along the ground, even though they were on wolves, would never be enough to keep pace.


    Sure enough, in less than a minute, the wolf-riders were out of sight. Now that Lisa and Bath were truly alone in the desert, Bath began to slow down, allowing Lisa to catch up.Damn it, she thought, frustrated with her inability to make up the initial distance between her and Bath through her own ability.


    My own ability? she thought dejectedly, mashing her mouth into a line. If anything, it''d be me catching up to Bath using his ability. She could only fly because of his boons.Even our next plan is mostly justin response to AI Ninety-Sevendisregarding me as a nobody "fringespawn."


    Lisa sighed. I need to stop worrying about my insecurities, she noted. That''s certainly not going to help anything.But knowing to stop focusing on her insecurities--namely, that she wasn''t worthy enough to deserve the position of COTD''s Church--was different from actually refraining from thinking about them.


    After catching up with Bath, she flew onto his backside and lounged about on his massive head.


    "Bath," she called out, elevating her voice to ensure Bath could hear it against the wind of their passage, "do you think our plan is childish?"


    "Why?" he asked, using a small disembodied mouth to direct the question next to her ear. Now that she had Bath''s attention, Lisa knew that she could speak in a normal voice: he would listen to her remotely, rather than by relying on his dragon ears.


    "I''m not sure if we should do it."


    "It''s childish, but I don''t mind," he replied.


    Lisa licked her gum line. "I feel like...we should be better than childish antics." She shook her head. "Anyways, we''d just be pranking a robot: Why bother?"


    Bath sighed, the sound echoing out in the air like a howling wind. "Fine; we don''t have to do it."


    Lisa opened her mouth as though to speak, but closed it a second later. She waited a minute before reopening the subject. "Bath?" she bellowed, recapturing his attention.


    "Hmm?"


    She smiled sheepishly. "I still kinda want to do it."


    Bath manifest an avatar of himself next to Lisa. The avatar had a wide grin on its face, its hair blowing about chaotically in the wind as it leaned on its elbows. "Me too."


    Lisa''s eyes crinkled with hilarity. "Good."


    Lisa expected the avatar to disappear, but Bath''s human self lay next to her for the entirety of the journey. His presence made her feel as though the two of them were riding atop a massive dragon together...instead of the reality, that Lisa was riding atop Bath by herself.

 [Chapter 137] Traumatizing the Android; Forming an Oath; Returning to Jure

    "Hell," Lisa growled, jumping out of the emergent craft and hovering stationary in the air. "Can you do something productive?"


    Bath shot her a questioning glance. "Like what?"


    "Anything!"


    Bath rolled his eyes. "The prank was your idea; you deal with it."


    Lisa let out a low groan. "Damn it, come on. How about you tell AI Ninety-Seven to set the Arc back down? He''ll actually listen to you."


    Bath''s face quirked in amusement. "Why don''t we just see what happens? Stick around for the ride?"


    "No, damn it!" Lisa howled. "We want this ship for the other sapients and quasies, not ourselves."


    "Well, I kind of want a ship," Bath replied. "The humans will make their own soon enough."


    Lisa narrowed her eyes and flared her nostrils. "Bath," she intoned, looking skyward. "I''m 99% sure you''re kidding."


    "Am I?"


    "Seriously. Tell this stupid android to lower the ship before someone gets hurt."


    Bath flashed her a lopsided smile. "Alright, alright. Do you know where the android is?"


    Lisa sighed. "He''s an android, and doesn''t have a shell. C''mon; I''m more surprised you haven''t already filled this ship with your essence and found him yourself."


    "AI Ninety-Seven can sense my essence," Bath reminded her. "Besides, it''s fine: I''ll think of something."


    Lisa remained hovering outside while Bath walked back through the bedroom--which was currently exposed to the wilds of Vast Desert--and into the main corridor.


    "AI Ninety-Seven," he called out, resuming his imperial facade. "Disregard the past five minutes. I had my companion issue you a test of loyalty, which you have passed." Bath continued forward, his feet falling lightly upon the white ground.


    No response? he thought, peeved. I''m almost at the control room.


    He pushed the purple doors open, stepping gingerly into the control room of the vessel. His eyes widened slightly as he noted the huge, glass window that encompassed the entirety of the room''s back wall.


    On second thought, it''s likely just a digital screen rather than a transparent material. However, the end result was the same: Bath had an excellent, even flawless, view of the crimson sand below and the darkening horizon beyond.


    He tore his eyes away from the screen, focusing on AI Ninety-Seven, who was currently standing next to the control pedestal. AI Ninety-Seven didn''t acknowledge him, which was odd.


    "You dishonor me," Bath said softly, stepping forward.


    AI Ninety-Seven gave Bath a blank look. "Who are you?"


    Bath cocked his head. Why ask this now? "I am Bath."


    "Your followers called you the Dragon," the android replied, its face devoid of expression. "And said you, and that detestable companion of yours, ruled over a church."


    Bath maintained his icy composure. "Do you even know what a dragon is?"Or a church, for that matter?


    "It wasn''t difficult to find out," AI Ninety-Seven replied. "You did give me unrestricted access to your companion--the Church''s--chip reader."


    Bath sighed and looked off to the side. "This is my ship," he stated, walking over to the back wall. He placed a hand on its cool surface. Maybe it isn''t a screen, he thought, noting how it felt like thick, sturdy glass.


    "It is."


    Bath let out a light chuckle. "Then land the ship, AI Ninety-Seven."


    The robot didn''t make any move to touch the control panel. Bath turned back, fixing his gaze to the robot''s inscrutable green eyes. "Are you truly insulted by our test of loyalty?" he asked, a derogatory smile playing at the corners of his lips.


    The android''s glowing body patterns flashed. "You almost destroyed this ship," AI Ninety-Seven replied.


    Bath shook his head, returning his eyes to the screen/window. "It was a test," he repeated calmly. "Do you need a demonstration?"


    "Of what?" the android replied. "Of setting the ship on fire and burning its archives to charcoal?"


    She didn''t set the damned ship on fire, Bath grumbled internally. Since when do androids use hyperbole?


    Bath really didn''t think the prank Lisa devised was that bad. Sure, she''d taken advantage of the superconductors she''d planted in the repair parts to jostle them around in the ship and makethe Arc go haywire, unintentionally starting a fire in three library rooms, but that hadn''t been intentional.


    Well, Bath thought. If it were only that... But because of the robot''s disparaging "fringeworld" remark, Lisa had taken things a step further. Because it was partly made of metallic materials, Lisa was able to use her magnetic sense to force poor AI Ninety-Seven into bowing on the floor. The end result was that the android was helpless to do anything while his newly-repaired ship was falling apart and "spontaneously" combusting.


    Bath figured that, for an AI programmed to run a ship, such a situation was a nightmare come true...if androids could have nightmares, which Bath seriously doubted, but wasn''t going to totally dismiss without evidence to the contrary.


    Worlds beyond have had billions of years to perfect their technologies, he thought, sighing inwardly. Lisa and I would be fools to disregard the technological advances of the Core Worlds--Ildr--and their outlying neighbors, such as Lepochim''s planet of origin.


    Bath knew that while Lepochim had, in the end, accepted Bath''s boons, his secret military background had provided him with biotechnologies that allowed him to adapt to worlds with drastically different environments on the fly.Lepochim managed to get to Earth in two years unassisted, without a ship to speak of, from Zder. Bath figured that the journey couldn''t have been easy, especially considering that Lepochim''s kursi symbiote had been forcefully sealed and he''d been sent out in exile.


    "If I promise to safeguard these books until the end of time," Bath said serenely, as though discussing the weather, "will you swear an oath to follow me unquestioningly until my demise?"Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "No."


    "What, then, is your purpose, if not to safeguard the library aboard this Arc?" While Bath didn''t technically need AI Ninety-Seven--he could just have his engineer humans figure out how to use the ship--he figured that the android could be extremely useful...if he could secure its genuine cooperation.


    "If you were truly a member of Fezosisn, which you are not, you would know."


    Bath rolled his eyes, his four-eyed, alien face reflecting back at him faintly in the glass. "If I promise to uphold whatever task a true Fezosisn would undertake, do you swear an oath to follow me unquestioningly until my demise?"


    "I would."


    Bath smiled. "As you have acknowledged, this is my ship: tell me of the promise I would make."


    "It is simple: deliver the Egdelek Arc''s library to a set location."


    That sounds too simple. But in all honesty, Bath didn''t really care if this was a trap or not: the last time he ended up in a trap, he emerged with a new essence manipulation range of 3.8 miles.


    "I promise to deliver the Arc," Bath said.


    "I promise to serve you until your demise."


    Bath chuckled, this time letting his natural deviousness seep out. "Excellent. First, a few questions: as an artificial life-form, what are your capabilities?"


    "Excuse me?"


    "For instance, how secure is your stored data? Could another android or world government hack into you?"


    The android sounded insulted. "Not any more than they could hack into your mind."Bath was fairly certain this was untrue, considering that his mind wasn''t really...a physicalthing.


    Bath turned around, gliding predatorily toward AI Ninety-Seven. "How is this true?"


    "Organic computing," the android replied, alarmed. "How are you so misinformed?"


    "Didn''t you mention, a minute ago, how you discovered that I was the Dragon from my companion''s chip reader?"


    The android rolled its four eyes. "Yes, I saw: you must be a powerful kursi. Though I am still unsure why one as fortunate as you would waste your time playing around with a fringeworld."


    Wow, it actually rolled its eyes. More importantly, Bath was curious regarding what the android had actually gleaned from Lisa''s chip reader. She didn''t have too much private stuff on there, he reflected, a few COTD documents and plans, such as the hierarchy, but not much else. Lisa had used the wasps to put together a chip reader application for COTD, styled after the website; Bath assumed this was where the android was getting the bulk of its information.


    Bath considered how much to tell the android. AI Ninety-Seven claims to be hack-proof, but I can''t afford to be so optimistic. He found it difficult to believe that any kind of artificial life-form was immune to having its memories--or mind--hacked.


    For one, it can''t know that I''m a World Devourer. That was far too risky to divulge. He tried to decide what else he could tell the android, though was only coming up blank.


    I should probably fetch Lisa: she''s been hovering outside the ship for a while now. Not that the ship was moving anywhere; while it had risen about forty feet above the sand, it was only inching forward at a snail''s pace.


    Now that AI Ninety-Seven had sworn to follow him loyally, Bath had no qualms using long-range manipulation in its presence, snaking a thread of essence out to Lisa and forming a mouth beneath her left ear. "Come inside," he said. "It''s time for politicking."


    Lisa wasted no time in dashing in, arriving in the control room in the space of a few seconds. Bath smiled. Looking lovely, as always. Her braided hair was pulled away from her face, seemingly immaculate despite the friction force the wind undoubtedly exerted upon it. Her flawless face stared expressionlessly at the android, her hands resting on her robed hips.


    With allthe white of her dress, she certainly looks like she belongs on the Arc. "Lisa," he said. "AI Ninety-Seven has sworn an oath to serve us loyally until our demise."


    AI Ninety-Seven''s eyes darted between Lisa and Bath. "As I recall, I only made one such oath to you, Radiance Bath."


    Now it''s being polite and using my COTD title? "We come as a package deal," Bath said, leaving no room for argument. He felt no guilt whatsoever.The deal was unfavorable to myself: if I were just a normal sapient, I''d be pledging to do a dangerous transport while only receiving this android''s loyalty. I probably wouldn''t live long enough to enjoy such a privilege.


    "What oath?" Lisa asked, brows furrowed. "What?" she repeated, confusion clear upon her features.


    "I promised to help the android deliver the cargo of this ship. In return, it pledged its loyalty to us."


    "Ugh, Bath," she started, shaking her head. "Why didn''t you ask me first?"


    Bath gave her a bashful look. "Eh, we can make the delivery on our own time, piece of cake. But just think..."


    Lisa rolled her eyes smirked, her eyes locking onto the android''slower set. "I have a few things I need to say if we''re going to have a working relationship."


    She sounds terrifying, Bath thought, shuddering at Lisa''smenacing tone.


    "First, you have to get something through your digital brain: the fringeworld of Earth is going to be a powerhouse. The Dragon and I have designated Earth as our home base. That being the case, you will not, under any circumstances, refer to denizens of Earth in a derogatory fashion."


    The android looked in Bath''s direction. "You came to Earth to colonize it?"


    Bath shot the android an appraising look. "Is it so surprising? The humans have a kursi mental faculty rating of just over eight. Moreover, they have a swift reproduction cycle and high fertility rates."


    The android began to appear contemplative. "Those are all indicators of a young sapient species," it muttered. "However, this span of gates on the fringe is utterly remote. What are your intentions?"


    Lisa grinned. "We''re going to..." she looked at Bath. "Expand outward. Our intent is to become a powerhouse in the universe, like I already said."


    "Through using your biological enhancements?" The android looked pointedly at Bath. "Where are you originally from?" it asked. "I''m profoundly surprised you were able to bring such taboo technologies out to the fringe."


    Are biological enhancements taboo? Bath wondered. Who is deciding these rules, anyway? Religion seems to be similarly stamped out. Moreover, it''s not like these rules are stated explicitly: the Universal Law Codes say nothing about biological enhancements or religion. Juserin hadn''t seemed alarmed at the prospect of biological enhancements, though perhaps he wasn''t the best example, as he, too, lived on the fringes of the civilized world.


    Lepochim, on the other hand, should have a better idea about what is andisn''t taboo. Actually, what AI Ninety-Seven is saying makes sense: Lepochim made it sound like his own enhancements were provided by his top-secret Zderian conquest organization on Sigenolf-74. That means they weren''t readily accessible to everyone in society, even though Zder was billions of years old. The technology to give everyone biological enhancements must have been invented...and yet...


    Moreover, why is the fact that kursi don''t age so important? I''m sure that humans could discover on their own, within a thousand years, how to halt the aging process.Bath''s thoughts swirled around him in a whirlwind. He realized that he hadn''t really given enough thought to...well, anything.


    He gave the android a stoic look. "The technology is my own; accordingly, it follows me wherever I go. AI Ninety-Seven, enough of this: fly the ship to Jure. If you truly read the Church''s chip reader, you should knowthe city''s location."


    Bath sighed as the ship began to move, beckoning Lisa over to the screen/window to track their flight over the red dunes.


    "Hey Bath," she said, leaning against his shoulder, "thanks for handling this."


    He snorted. "How did I handle it? I made an oath to a robot."


    "Just think: AI Ninety-Seven is going to give us so much in return for, by my estimations, comparatively little. It talked about giving us implants rather than chip readers, for instance, when we first made contact."


    "We''re also getting a space-faring ship," Bath added.


    "You were serious when you said you wanted this ship for yourself, weren''t you?"Lisaasked flatly.


    Bath chuckled, leaning his head on hers. He was tall enough in his alien form for her head to rest naturally in the crook of his neck. "It''s a nice ship."


    "It''s a freaking flying needle," she replied.


    "It''s a space-faring needle," Bath emphasized.


    "Do you really hate space that much?" she asked, narrowing her eyes into the dusky sky above. "I know you say it''s cold, and empty...but it''s so peaceful."


    Bath sighed. "A desert is peaceful," he murmured, gesturing to the sand below. "In empty space, it feels like the fabric of the universe itself is rejecting you, stealing away your warmth and energy."


    "Isn''t that the entire universe anyway?"


    Bath removed his head from hers pulling her into a side hug. "I guess so."


    "Then why is space different from a desert?"


    Bath didn''t respond for a minute. Then: "The two are incomparable."


    Lisa nodded slowly. "I guess I''ll just have to see for myself one day."


    "If you do get up into space on your own accord," Bath said, "I''ll take pictures."


    Lisa turned her head around to shoot him a sour look. "You''d better."

 [Chapter 138] Dean Confronts Bath; Landing the Egdelek Arc

    Dean was shocked when Lisa and Bath actually managed to fly an intact alien space ship into Jure''s immediate vicinity. Granted, it looked more like a long train than a space ship because of its bizarre twenty-foot diameter and several-mile-long length, but it was still a sleek,flying vessel.


    I don''t have time for this, he thought, sighing and turning back toward Aberash. Her silky hair lay over one of the Spire office''s couches, her head inclining back over one of the couch''s arms.


    "What''s up?" she asked.


    "I''ve gotta go," he said. "They''re back."


    Aberash''s eyes grew wide. "The Church and Dragon? You''re meeting with them again, alone?"


    Dean gave her a complex look. "I''m in charge of the vanguard; it''s kind of my job to meet with them."


    "Wait..." she said, pushing herself upright and squinting toward the windows. "Is that...what I think it is?"


    Dean snorted. Though it was pitch black outside--even the city''s bioluminescent mosses naturally dimmed just before dawn--the shine of the approaching vessel was barely visible as an outline in the sky.


    "What do you think it is?" Dean asked.She almost sounds like sherecognizes the ship.


    "A worm."


    Dean scowled and cocked an eyebrow. "A worm? What kind of worm is that big?"


    Aberash smiled. "From this angle, it also looks like a bullet, coming right~ toward us."


    Dean opened his mouth, running his tongue over his teeth. "Uh-huh."More like a bullet train than anything else.He shook his head as he headed for the balcony, intending to jump off and run to greet the approaching ship. His natural instinct was to help them land the craft, but then he remembered just who he was dealing with. The day that Bath genuinely needed his help seemed, to Dean, a day that would never come.


    "You''re really going?" Aberash asked from the office, her voice carrying softly into the hall before the balcony. Dean paused, his head turning slightly to the left, though still facing the balcony.


    "Yeah."


    "Dean, it''s an hour before dawn."


    "And?" he stepped next to the balcony, leaning into its edge.


    "Nothing." Aberash sounded bitter.


    "What were you expecting?" he said, staring out into the hazy black.


    "Nothing," she repeated, though this time her voice seemed resigned. She sighed, then said, "I''ll see you later. Tomorrow, same place as today?"


    Dean smiled, the action pained, not that anybody was watching. "Can''t wait to hear you practice with the ricochet drums."


    "See you then," she murmured, her voice barely audible. It wouldn''t have been audible save for Dean''s enhanced perception and hearing.


    Part of me feels like it was better to be ignorant about everything, Dean thought as he dropped down into Jure. Before COTD, the socially-awkward Dean followed along with the crowd and was generally overlooked by all women. Now that he had power, the opposite seemed to be true.


    Which was a problem, considering that Dean was extremely aware of this fact due to hisrecently-increased social awareness. Moreover, it was a problem because Dean had zero experience with anything...romantic.


    I really do like hanging out with Abbie, he thought as he leapt over a series of rooftops, but...she wants something more, obviously. And I''m not sure what I want. I already told her I don''t want to date, that I don''t have the time...but isn''t what we''re doing every night, me listening to her practice...isn''t that practically the same as dating?


    His thoughts jumbled into a tangled mess as he bounded over the sand, clearing several dunes with each stride. Dean almost lost his balance and dove head first into the sand when, seemingly out of nowhere, Bath appeared in front of him.


    "Dean," Bath said, smiling.


    Dean regained his balance, digging his heels into the sand. "What!?" he asked, somewhat out of breath from surprise alone.


    Bath''s grin widened. "You''re getting better," he said. "You sound annoyed, a clear step up from uncertain or fearful."


    Dean stared at Bath with his mouth open. "Okay, well, I''m sure you didn''t come down from your shiny new ship to tell me that."


    Bath gave Dean a knowing look. "Get the engineers ready," he ordered. "We''re landing the ship on Jure''s southern side."


    Dean raised an eyebrow. "Relative to Basalith, right?" Since Jure was technically the same "base" city as Basalith, all of its structures were the same. This being the case, as long as Dean knew which side of Basalith faced south, he would be able to determine the "southern" side of Jure.


    "Precisely," Bath said. He began to pace around Dean, giving the vanguard leader the sense that he was being judged. You don''t even need to look at me, Dean grumbled internally. You probably know everything there is to know about me by now. Considering that fact that Dean had originally served as Bath''s guinea pig, this assumption wasn''t inaccurate.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Dean swallowed. "I think I can take it from here, then," he muttered, turning around to return to Jure and wake the residents of the engineers'' apartment building.


    "What are you doing with your fingers?" Bath asked.


    Dean paused mid step, turning back around. "Um, it''s a thought-to-text thing."


    Bath''s brow furrowed. "How does it work?"


    "I think of something, and the program reads my brain waves or something and transcribes the thought." Dean still wasn''t sure how the application worked.


    "Why are you still moving your fingers like you''re playing a piano?"


    "Macros," Dean explained, shrugging. "I''m sending messages to people. I think ofa name, or names, then use a series of macros activated by finger movements to coordinate the format of the messages and send them off."


    "You''re sending messages now?" Bath asked, seemingly incredulous that Dean would be sending messages in the middle of their conversation.


    "You told me to wake the engineers," Dean said. "But I also have many more people in the chain of command that I need to wake up. The space ship is going to touch down in a matter of minutes." If I didn''t multi-task like this, I''d never get enough done.


    "You know what I think you need?" Bath said, looking Dean intently in the eye. "A break."


    Dean rolled his eyes. He''s just like everyone else. "Do you get a break?"


    Bath grinned. "Yes, in fact. Lisa and I took a tour of Illudis."


    Wait, really? "Well..."


    "And we''ve been essentially relaxing our entire time here."


    Dean''s mouth quirked. That''s possibly true. I assumed they were both working on something important...but they could also just be lazing about. "I don''t mean to insult you," Dean said, "but don''t you think you ought to be working a bit harder?"


    Bath laughed, gesturing back with a hand. "We''ve brought back a ship," he stated, his jovial gesture quickly turning predatory, his eyes...hungry. "What else would you have us do?"


    Way to open a can of worms, Dean thought. He opened his mouth to speak, but words wouldn''t come. Actually, I can''t think of anything I''d want him to do off the top of my head. Maybe help people perfect their boons? Continue developing new kinds of quasi-sapients? Help the verdora get caught up?


    However, all of these points seemed more or less trivial. People needed to perfect their own boons. Vast Desert wasn''t the proper place to start making new kinds of quasies, especially when the newly-arrived quasi bears were eating a good 10% of all food sent from Illudis. Finally, the verdora needed to progress on their own--short cuts wouldn''t help them in the long run.


    Dean thought about himself, noting that his current position was wholly the result of Bath''s direct intervention. Kind of hypocritical of me to discourage the verdora from taking short cuts, he thought. However, he stood by this point of view: while Bath had undoubtedly given him a head start, at the end of the day, Dean had still worked diligently to master all of COTD''s primary boons. Bath had opened the door to power; Dean had chosen, for better or worse, to step through it.


    "Sounds like you have nothing to say," Bath taunted, grinning devilishly.


    Dean sighed. "You know what you could work on?"Can''t believe it took mea few seconds to think of this.


    Bath cocked his head.


    "Figure out a way to stop messing with my head," Dean stated. "What happened back when Basalith was fighting against the U.S. military...it wasn''t normal, nor was it morally just. Civilian people don''t just...rip into soldiers with smiles plastered on their faces."


    Bath''s eyes narrowed, his smile falling. "Dean," he said, tone serious.


    Dean cut him off. "I don''t want to hear a justification or explanation," he said. "Just think about it."


    ---


    Bath watched as Dean bounded away, quickly disappearing from his line of sight. The ship was two miles from Jure, having traveled only three miles during his conversation with Dean. The Arc could reach air speeds of up to four-hundred miles per hour; however, upon nearing Jure''s vicinity, Bath and Lisa had instructed AI Ninety-Seven to lower its speed to a crawl as they prepared to land.


    He dispelled his avatar, devoting all his attentions to the inside of the Egdelek Arc. Lisa had been questioning AI Ninety-Seven for the better part of the past five hours, almost as though she thought the android would disappear into thin air, along with its accumulated knowledge, at any moment.


    "So why do lots of sapients look alike?" she asked. "The first non-human sapient species I ever encountered was a deepthink, which can pass for a human as long as his eyes are covered." Or I change their color, Bath thought. "Plus, in the encyclopedia, lots of sapients all look the same: species like verdora are complete outliers."


    If the android was tired of Lisa''s incessant questioning, it didn''t show. "The theories in response to your question numbers in the millions," the android replied crisply.


    Lisa sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn''t say that."


    Bath knew that Lisa had spent a good deal of time researching into this issue independently, using the encyclopedia as a resource. She''d complained to him several times about the fact that every encyclopedia article she found regarding the convergent appearance of sapients spouted a unique explanation for the phenomenon.


    "Can you discuss the most commonly-accepted theories?" Bath asked.


    AI Ninety-Seven inclined its head. "Are you ignorant of them?" it asked, eying Bath.


    He still thinks I''m a native...whatever this four-eyed sapient is. Clearly, whatever species the android--and by extension, Bath--was modeled after was advanced, probablyoriginating from a planet close to the core. If there exist millions of theories as to why most sapients look similar, I assume that it must be a subject warranting discussion in a classroom environment. If I truly was from wherever the android thinks I''m from, I probably would know the prevailing theories on sapient convergent evolution.


    "AI Ninety-Seven," Bath said, turning away from the near-black window of the Arc, "I am not...whatever you think I am. A Fezosisn."


    The android narrowed its four eyes. "I already knew this: you''re completely ignorant of the organization."


    It''s an organization? I thought it was a species. "What kind of sapient are you emulating?" Bath asked.


    The android gave Bath a worried look, though responded to the question. "I am made in the image of a stohmfig."


    Bath nodded stoically. "I am not a stohmfig."


    "He isn''t a kursi, either," Lisa said, giving the android a pointed look. "That''s me," she said, jabbing her chest. "Anyways, can you please go over the theories? I''m dying of curiosity."


    Bath nudged Lisa''s shoulder. "We should discuss this later," he said. "It''s time to land the vessel."


    "Ainsley," Lisa called out, "Bath''s right; we can talk about this later."


    Bath rolled his eyes at the nickname.


    "I shall land the ship," AI Ninety-Seven stated. "However, I am unsure where to land."


    "Lisa," Bath began. "Fly outside and make a fiery trail for AI Ninety-Seven to follow. I told Dean to wait for us to touch down on Jure''s southern side, by the wolf apartments."


    Lisa smiled, darting out of the control room and out of the back of the Arc. In less than a minute she was ahead of the ship, painting red into the dark of night for the ship to follow.


    "How are you not stohmfig?" AI Ninety-Seven asked as it maneuvered the ship behind Lisa.


    Bath glanced back. "I''m not."


    "How?"


    Bath maneuvered several avatars into place on the ground, coordinating Dean''s assembled engineers."You''ll figure it out."

 [Chapter 139] Sigils and Air Currents; AI Ninety-Sevens Presentation

    The engineers worked all through the remainder of the night and morning to analyze the Arc, comparing its appearance and components with the information contained within AI Ninety-Seven''s blueprint. Two days later, they already had a smaller, less-long prototype available for testing, a feat made easier by the unlimited supplies of dragonleaf and sand to fire the "biosilicate" (as AI Ninety-Seven called it) used by the ship.


    "Bath, this place looks just like my room on Earth," Lisa protested. "How did you even get a cup of soda and a fries?" This trash looks like it comes from McDonalds. Not that Lisa was surprised: lots of people set up their own little food stops to gain experience as chefs. Fast food was quick to make and would certainlybe in demand now that everyone''s metabolism had increased.


    Bath looked up from the control pedestal. "What?"


    "You need to clean up after yourself."


    Bath rolled his eyes, send a wave of essence over to internalize the trash into his Center. "Done. And you''re one to talk, saying that this place looks like your room."


    Lisa snorted. "Okay, well, not all of us can clean up by...devouring things like a sink disposal."


    "Come over here," Bath said, brushing the comment of. "I''m trying to make sense of the controls regarding the maintenance of the library."


    Lisa looked over Bath''s shoulder. "It''s not that difficult," she said, raising an eyebrow. "What do you want to know?"


    "How does the vent system work?" he asked, pressing his fingers into the pedestal.


    "The vent system?"


    "The books are kept in temperature-controlled rooms with circulating, dessicated air. Why?" He gave her a pointed look.


    "To preserve them?" Why else?


    Bath shook his head. "Lisa, these are hard copies. If they wanted to simply preserve the information, they''d keep it in a digital form. And yet, when I asked AI Ninety-Seven for a digital version of Egdelek''s library, he said that one doesn''t exist."


    Lisa frowned. That is odd. Maybe the books are super old and precious, which explains why they''re being transported. "But why ask about the vents?" she asked, stepping forward and placing her own hands on the pedestal. "Here, let me show you how they''re controlled." She manipulated the pedestal''s controls until she arrived at a Ventilation Control display which shone as a projection above the pedestal. "Here you go."


    Bath studied the controls, shaking his head slowly. "This isn''t right."


    Lisa let out an exasperated groan. "Bath, what are you trying to find?" It''s just ventilation, jeez.


    "You see the sigils on the floor?" Bath said, glancing at the glowing symbols in the otherwise stark control room. "There''s one sigil for each room."


    "How do you know?" Lisa asked uncertainly.


    "The air currents in each room are different," he muttered, backtracking through the vent settings and looking through the pedestal''s massive menu system. "Each current traces out a unique sigil in this room."


    Lisa''s eyes widened. She stepped aside and paced toward the sigils to the left, studying them with renewed interest. Now that I''m looking closely, I can see that the sigils are all made with a single stroke... She could make out the beginning and ending points of each, lending credence to Bath''s assertion. I can hardly believe these are all written in one stroke, Lisa thought as she inspected one sigil after another. Let alone that the air currents in the library rooms match them. Lisa had no idea how anyone could engineer a ventilation system to pump air through a room in the zig-zagging, twisting, tightly-compacted cursive-like symbols on the floor. They almost look like classical Arabic calligraphy. Moreover...how did Bath even think to make that kind of connection?


    "So where is the air coming from?" Lisa murmured contemplatively.


    "It''s coming from a vent system that flows through each of the rooms," Bath explained. "I''ve managed to trace the entire network of vents with my essence."


    "Nothing out of the ordinary?"


    Bath shook his head as he proceeded through the pedestal''s systems menu. "It''s different from an Earthen HVAC system, though it doesn''t strike me as particularly odd. Air flows out of a desiccating, oxygenating filter and into the vents, circulating into each of the rooms."


    "So nothing strange...Except for the fact that the air follows a strange--almost impossibly complicated--pattern of circulation in each room."


    "Right."


    "Stop fussing over the pedestal," Lisa commanded, stepping over to push his hands aside. "You''re not getting anywhere. Let''s just ask Ainsley." If AI Ninety-Seven doesn''t know, then it''s a true mystery. "Or, wait, have you checked magnetic fields in the rooms?"


    Bath gave her a look. "Do you really think that magnetism accounts for air moving like that?" he asked, gesturing to an array of sigils. "And yes, I checked."


    "Fine. I concede defeat," Lisa said. "Wait," she said a second later. "What if it''s the books?"


    "You think that the books are causing this?"


    Lisa shrugged. "Why don''t we do some experimenting?"


    Bath shrugged back. "Okay. So you''re saying I should just take a book from one of the shelves?"If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Maybe try taking it out of the room it''s in," Lisa suggested.


    "Why would that do anything?" Bath asked.


    Lisa gave him an exasperated look. "I''m just guessing. We can alternatively fetch Ainsley if you won''t want to do it."


    "It''s fine," Bath grumbled. "There; I''m taking out the book." He glanced at Lisa. "Nothing."


    "Maybe try...taking out all the books," she suggested.


    ¡°Fine," Bath replied, chuckling. "Done--wait, what?"


    "Did something happen?" Lisa asked, a grin coming over her face.


    "The entire ship...it''s self-destructing in ten, nine..."


    Lisa punched Bath''s shoulder. "Seriously! Did anything happen?"


    Bath snorted. "No."


    Lisa sighed. "Maybe...uh...try opening all of them at the same time?"


    Bath cocked an eyebrow. "You know, I''m supposed to be the one making stupid plans," he stated. "Why are you so sure that the books arebehind the air currents?"


    "They seem suspicious," Lisa retorted.


    "How could any normal sapient, especially one on a one-man ship, ever hope to open all of the books at the same time?"


    "Just try it," Lisa insisted. "It''ll take you less than a second."


    "Done."


    "And...?"


    "Nothing."


    "Ugh," Lisa grumbled. "Fine, put them back," she said. "Were they in a particular order?"


    Bath shrugged. "Not that I could tell." Suddenly, his hands stiffened. "Wait..."


    "Bath, look!" Lisa exclaimed, pointing at the floor. "The sigil is changing."


    His eyes darkened. "What is this place?" he whispered,gaze distant.


    "So if you put the books back on the shelf in a different order, the sigil transforms and the air current changes to match," Lisa summarized. "But...why?"


    ---


    From: Fartuun


    >Dean.


    >This is the best thing ever.


    >The best day of my life.


    >I''m dying of joy.


    Dean scowled at the rush of messages. Can''t she just think one message instead of sending four--each only fifteen seconds apart--with only a few words each?At least we can chat without missing anything:Instachat lives up to its name.


    From: Dean


    >I''m glad you''re enjoying the Android''s presentation of the ship blueprint along with an overview of the technology powering its, uh, y''know, the, um, particle projector thruster...thing. I''m following along, but I''m not getting too much out of it.


    Ugh, Dean grimaced inwardly. Thought-to-text Instachat gives no room for editing, or thinking things over. While Dean''s director boons helped him immensely in face-to-face, real-time communications, talking to people via Instachat was still a little too rapid for him to omit all the awkward "uhs" and "ums" that naturally prevailed in his speech.


    At least Fartuun is a friend, he thought glumly. But if Instachat stays like this, I''m never going to be able to use it for anything official.


    Dean''s face was an impassive mask of casual interest as he sat at the front of the small auditorium. The room''s dragonleaf construction was imbued with elegant carvings of nature, such as plants, animals, and natural structures. At the apex of the inscribed ceiling was COTD''s dragon symbol, the one readily found on both its website and on the tabards everyone wore.


    Right now, he was doing his best to trace the edges of the insignia. Just can''t look like I''m falling asleep, he thought.


    The android''s presentation of the blueprints and ship itself wasn''t boring. However, the current Q and A session was technically-oriented enough to bore Dean to tears. At least Fartuun and is enjoying this.


    A part of Dean knew that this presentation was absolutely unprecedented and paradigm-shifting and historical. However, he couldn''t bring himself to truly appreciate it. He wished that he could leave the engineers and the android alone for the next few days so that they could collaborate and perfect the already-constructed prototype ship.


    "...Seeing no more questions on the blueprint, I have one more topic to discuss." The conclusion to the Q and A snapped Dean immediately back to attention, his eyes falling from the ceiling to the android''sconspicuously four-eyed head.


    "Radiances Church and Dragon have instructed me to upgrade the technology that you have, if my records are correct, only just recently procured. The chip readers."


    From: Fartuun


    >Dean what is the android talking about did the Church or Dragon say anything you met with them Dean


    Does she not think with punctuation when she''s excited? Dean wondered.


    From: Dean


    >I have zero idea. Let''s just calm down and wait for the android to finish its explanation.


    From: Fartuun


    >...Right.


    Dean suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, his mouth quirking up into a small smile.Fartuun''s several years older than me, and usually seems so calm. I never thought an alien android''s presentation would make her so...spastic.


    The android began to project a three-dimensional image from his palm. "This is the body of the average sapient." The android''s eyes swept over the crowd, narrowing when they happened upon the section of quasi wolves and horses off to the side. "It should work fine on humans without modification, though if you wish to use it on non-standard sapient body types, that canstill be achieved after taking appropriate precautions.The Vertebral


    "The Vertebral Tap, also called the Vertical Tap or V-Tap, will replace three vertebra from your spinal cord."


    From: Fartuun


    >Does this confirm that endoskeletons are the norm, and that sapients across the universe have nervous systems that run vertically throught the body???


    Three question marks? Dean wondered for the second time just how the thought-to-text algorithm converted Fartuun''s thoughtsinto punctuation.


    From: Dean


    >Probably, though we already knew this from the chip reader encyclopedia indicating that sapients have convergently evolved to look more-or-less like, well, uh, us.


    "The V-Tap will interface directly with your central and peripheral nervous system, though predominantly the former. The three replacement vertebra will provide, as a whole, approximately twenty-nine times the raw processing power of your chip readers.


    "It would be more; however, any faster would increase your metabolism to an unsustainable rate, considering the biological enhancements you have all received."


    From: Fartuun


    >Wait so this thing directly takes energy from the human body? I need to get my hands on one of these things.


    From: Dean


    >Sounds like you''re going to get one soon.


    "The V-Taps all come with a standard adjustment and calibration procedure. As soon as the V-Tap is installed, you will naturally begin to use the system''s controls. I will provide you all the V-Tap schematic now."


    From: Fartuun


    >It''s on my chip reader. I''m gonna die.


    Dean glanced down at the chip reader resting on his wrist. He''d received a notification that an unknown file had been transferred to his device. He had to option to accept or deny the file onto his reader. Like everyone else, he selected the "accept" option and waited for the file to download.


    That was quick, Dean remarked as the schematic of the V-Tap appeared in his palm. Huh; it looks like a set of three molars.


    "I have three sets of V-Taps on the Egdelek Arc. As a demonstration of installation, the Church and Dragon have commanded that I install a set on your chief engineer, Vladimir Sokolov, your technological coordinator, Fartuun Roble, and your Knight."


    No way.


    From: Fartuun


    >Okay this is what heaven is like bye~


    From: Dean


    >Aren''t you at all concerned to be a guinea pig?


    From: Fartuun


    >The android said it''s completely safe. I trust technology more than I trust people.


    Dean felt like pulling out his hair and attacking Bath head-on. I told him to fix the issue of messing with people''s minds, Dean fumed. I definitely didn''t want him to invade my mind with an implant.


    "No need to take recordings: I am documenting the procedure and will disseminate it for your repeat viewing," the android said. "Now, who wants to go first?"

 [Chapter 140] The Implant Problem; Troubleshooting the Sigils; Lab Rat

    "Ah, AI Ninety-Seven," Bath said, greeting the android as it stepped into the control room.


    "Radiance...You''ve been meddling," the android replied, looking distastefully toward the glowing sigils on the floor. "Where is the Church?"


    "In the libraries," Bath replied. I sent her away as soon as I knew that you were coming. "So, how did humans receive the V-Taps?"


    The android glared, surprising Bath with its realism. "They didn''t," it spat.


    "Oh?" Not what I was expecting.


    "Their enhancements prevented me from even breaking their skin," AI Ninety-Seven explained, the green glow of its eyes flaring up. "My display was shameful."


    Shameful? Since when do robots feel shame? Then again...so far, AI Ninety-Seven has acted like a sapient in every conceivable way. Just as my quasi-sapients were created artificially by myself, AI Ninety-Seven was created by others.


    "What happened, exactly?" Bath asked, unfamiliar with the exact procedure to give sapients the V-Tap. AI Ninety-Seven had only given him a brief overview.


    "I needed to make two incisions: one on the neck, another at the shoulders."


    Bath nodded. I made the constitution boons especially strong around areas bordering the spinal column. Specifically, I made them most strong around the skull and neck.


    "Didn''t you say that the V-Tap came with a mechanism of inserting itself into the body of the user?"


    "That mechanism is precisely what failed," AI Ninety-Seven sighed. "There are other ways of implanting the V-Taps, but they''re all nonstandard. If we had to implant all humans manually by this method, it would take a significant amount of time."


    Bath sighed. This does seem like a problem. "You just need the flesh around the neck and shoulders from the epidermis to the spine to be accessible to the V-Tap, correct?"


    The android gave him a serious look. "More than that," it replied. "The V-Tap is also called the Vertical Tap because of how it extends up and down through the spinal column, fully integrating itself into peripheral nervous system of the host."


    Bath blinked. I''m not sure that''s a good idea... "Is the peripheral integration necessary?"


    "For monitoring purposes," AI Ninety-Seven replied. "And for facilitating and inhibiting action potentials in a localized and specific manner. They also work to stimulate muscle growth."


    "But is it necessary?" Bath repeated. None of those functionalities warrant such an invasive procedure.


    "Yes; the V-Tap is closed-source, and almost impossible to modify without a specific skill set which, I am sure, your COTD sapients lack."


    Bath frowned. "Closed source?" Besides, what about the verdora? Don''t they have skilled scientists and engineers? If humans could make advanced technologies at an increased pace thanks to his COTD boons, he had no doubts that verdora would soon make innovative--and even more advanced--technological innovations.


    The android sighed. "Yes, closed source, as in closed off. The makers of the V-Tap keep its nervous system integration programming under lock and key. The automatic implant process is state-of-the-art, at least by the standards of worlds beyond the Core."


    Bath gave AI Ninety-Seven an appraising look. "How difficult would it be to reverse engineer the technology?"


    The android''s eyes narrowed. "With your the technological capabilities of your current sapients? Impossible."


    Impossible...? Bath smirked. "We''ll see." What a shame, though, he thought.It''ll be some time before we can reverse-engineer the V-Tap.Then, a new thought crossed his mind. "You only mentioned the implant procedure for the peripheral nervous system. What about that of the central nervous system?"


    The android''s eyes blinked. "For the central nervous system, the upper neck vertebra replacement extends up into the brain."


    Bath nodded. "The problem you had today was with making the proper incisions into the body and placing the vertebrae replacements down, correct?"


    "Yes."


    Bath paused. "Was one of the individuals chosen to receive the implant today particularly...eager?"


    "Yes; a woman by the name of Fartuun Roble."


    Bath smiled. "Bring her here."


    ---


    From: Fartuun


    >Dean!


    Hmm?


    From: Dean


    >What''s up? I''m doing logistics work right now, so much that I''ve, uh, gained two PP from advancing down the tactician and director paths.


    From: Fartuun


    >AI Ninety-Seven has come to take me to the Dragon!!!


    Dean froze, turning away from the three arrayed holo-screens on his desk.


    From: Dean


    >Why?


    Dean wished that the thought text captured his incredulous, angered tone.The Instachat developer needs to implement an algorithm for turning thoughts into emojis.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    From: Fartuun


    >It''s got something to do with getting the V-Tap!


    Dean''s eyes widened with alarm, his right fist clenching.


    From: Dean


    >This sounds like a bad idea.


    From: Fartuun


    >Why? You talk all the time about how overpowered the Dragon is. It''ll be perfectly safe with him overseeing everything!


    Dean snorted. Perfectly safe? Bath knowingly programmed the spearrows to skewer millions of people on Earth guilty of "stymieing the self-determination of others." He killed off thousands of US soldiers because he could, only issuing the order to keep un-enhanced assailants alive after I told him to. And he did thatonly because not killing enemies meant that those humans could later join COTD.


    The only reason Bath has for keeping Fartuun alive, Dean thought, is because of her position in COTD. He probably wouldn''t let an important COTD human die, right?


    From: Dean


    >Just be, um, careful. Tell me about everything later.


    From: Fartuun


    >I''ll try my best.


    ---


    Bath looked to Lisa, who was currently at his sidestudying the sigils on the floor. "What have you found so far?"


    Lisa groaned. "Nothing makes sense. I moved all the books out, one by one, and then put them back in a different order. However, the sigil didn''t change. I did this in three different rooms."


    Bath inclined his head. "So it must have been something else I did while moving the books that triggered the sigil''s change," he murmured.


    "Do you know how long it takes to move thousands of books?" Lisa lamented, steamrolling over Bath''s commentary. "Even with my enhanced strength and speed, I have to go slow because they''re old and I don''t want toaccidentally damage them."


    Bath nodded. "I''m glad you''re being so careful."


    Lisa gave him a look. "You will let me know ifa sigil changes while I''m messing around in the library rooms, right?"


    Bath cracked a grin. "Of course. But,y''know, there are one-thousand and twenty-four sigils. If just one of them changes, I might not notice..."


    Lisa slugged him in the shoulder. "I''ll be back in a few. I have a few new ideas that I want to test out. I can see why Dean goes on about the utility of his artist boons: They definitely make it easier to see connections between the sigils. I feel like I''m on the crux of understanding something..." Lisa jabbered as she walked to the door.


    "Bye," Bath called out just before the violet door clicked shut. He was alone once more.


    Excellent timing, he thought. AI Ninety-Seven should be entering the Arc in a minute.While he waited, he began to study the approaching human.Fartuun Roble...one of the Somalian natives. He probed her body, taking measure of her current boons and PP investment.


    For Bath, measuring PP investment was troublesome since all PP was the same, regardless of origin. For instance, gaining insight into close combat would generate PP just as surely as gaining insight into cooking. Therefore, to judge the PP of a sapient, he needed more information than could be found by studyinga sapient''s physique andtaking stock of their PP-fueled bodily modifications.


    However, the innumerable possible uses for PP--just thinking of each boon''s different paths and those paths'' endless roots left even Bath overwhelmed--added another level of complexity.Furthermore, the inherent difficulties of measuring PP investmentin mentally-oriented paths (such as that of the artist boon) complicated things further: Bath still had difficulty understanding the human brain, even if he had recently made strides in modifying and enhancing it. Each human brain is so different from the next, he grumbled. Trying to gauge PP investment into mental areas is like trying to judge, at a glance, the number of ripples on the surface of a pond. Some PP investment would be obvious, like great disturbances on the pond''s surface. Others, however, would be subtle, appearing as little more than blips on the pond''s otherwise still surface.


    Bath had prepared for the difficulties in PP measurement from the very beginning by outfitting each human with a small symbiote of his own design. The organism--Bath hesitated to call it a protozoan--discretely kept a record of all PP gained and all PP invested. The process was automatic: generating PP prompted the human body to release a certain kind of modified chemical compound that would bind to a receptor on the protozoan''s surface. This, in turn, would lead it to register the change in a "registry."


    When the human visited the Anima for boon upgrades or for PP investment, the squirrels could measure the human''s currentPP by prompting the protozoan to transmit a copyof the host''s registry.


    While Bath had the capabilities to take this registry straight from the symbiote himself--in fact, he did this almost immediately with Fartuun--the information held within was general, just a record stating that Fartuun had gotten all her basic boons and had four-hundred and twenty-five PP invested and seventy-six un-invested. The registry didn''t include other information, such as how Fartuun had invested her PP.


    Only through probing her body did Bath discover that she had invested much of her PP into her mental faculties. And I only know this because, of the four-hundred and twenty-five PP she has invested, only around eighty have been used to modify her physical capabilities. She must have invested the rest of her PP into something else: her mind.


    "Radiance Dragon," AI Ninety-Seven called out as he entered the control room, Fartuun trailing behind him. "I have brought the human."


    Bath pivoted his head around, snapping out of his reverie. "Excellent. Come, Fartuun. AI Ninety-Seven, produce a V-Tap."


    "This one is honored to serve," AI Ninety-Seven replied, fishing a V-Tap out from within its loose-flowing robe. Bath whisked the V-Tap away with a swipe of his hand, sending his essence over to collect the implant and bring it into his waiting palm.


    Fartuun swallowed. "I-I didn''t know the Dragon looked like the android," she whispered.


    Bath''s eyes locked onto hers as his fingers closed around the three vertebra-sized V-Tap implants. While Fartuun had whispered so low as to be inaudible, Bath felt the movement of her lips through the air.


    He smiled. "Fartuun," he began. "You are from Somalia, correct?"


    She nodded. "Yes, Radiance."


    "Then you''ve never seen my human appearance," he replied, his expression serene. He whipped his hand across his face, as though clawing at the air. As his hand passed, his face changed from that of the four-eyed android to that of his youthful, human self.


    Fartuun''s eyes widened as she smiled. "Radiance, your face is a pleasure to behold."


    Bath rolled his eyes inwardly. My face isn''t anything special. Which was true: Lisa''s face was beautiful beyond compare,hiswas plain by comparison.


    "I plan to give you this implant," Bath said impassively. "I will make the requisite incisions into your back and neck myself. Then, I will clear the way for the V-Tap to take root within your brain. At the same time, I will prevent the V-Tap from interfering with your peripheral nervous system."


    The android looked at Bath as though it wanted to speak, but simply gave the Devourer a baffled look.


    "I consent," Fartuun said, beaming and inclining her head.


    Bath cocked an eyebrow, giving her a small, cold smile. I wasn''t asking. Before she could react, he whisked her forward with his essence, placing her over a spontaneously-generated dragonleaf table. Because of the suddenness of the act, Fartuun struggled briefly; however, after a full second, she regained her composure and waited silently for the Dragon to proceed.


    Bath held out his index finger; a wicked claw projected from its tip. He brought the tip over Fartuun''s neck, holding out the threeV-Tap vertebra in his left hand. "AI Ninety-Seven, you look like you have something to say before I begin."


    The android shook its head slowly. "I was merely making a series of calculations that used an uncharacteristically large portion of my processing power," the android stated.


    What kind of calculations leave AI Ninety-Seven distracted? he wondered."Excellent. Fartuun: because the procedure will affect your brain, I will keep you conscious. However," Bath said, tiliting his head forward. "You won''t feel anything."


    And with that, Bath plunged the single claw into Fartuun''s neck.

 [Chapter 141] Under Her Skin; Querying AI Ninety-Seven

    "Bath?" Lisa halted her advance through the main corridor. "What''s up?"


    Bath frowned. "Lisa. None of the sigils have changed; why do you want to go back to the control room?"


    Lisa smirked. "You sound awfully guilty of something," she said, placing a hand on her hip. "What''re you up to?"


    Bath squirmed. "Um," he began. "Why?"


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "You''ve accosted me in the hallway. You''ve been sending me away on, quite honestly, a stupid wild goose chase to find out what''s going on with the sigils. I went along with it because I am genuinely curious about the air currents and the books and whatnot. However, now you''re clearly trying to stop me from returning to the control room."


    Bath gave Lisa an expression of disbelief. Seeing his expression, she just laughed. "Sorry, but I know you too well." She stepped in close and punched him on the shoulder. "Remember the last time you tried to do something behind my back?"


    Bath gave her a blank expression. Lisa groaned. "Really?" She shook her head. "I''m not talking about doing stuff as Dragon of the COTD. I know you do a lot without consulting me, which is fine: I trust you."


    Bath nodded his head. "Well, I think I remember. We were in our senior year of high school."


    Lisa smiled. "You were trying to throw me a surprise birthday party."


    Bath grimaced playfully. "Ugh, yeah." He rubbed the back of his head. "I was still socially hopeless back then."


    Lisa frowned. "You were not," she argued. "Well, you were embodying the archetype of an awkward teenager." Lisa paused. "Actually, now that you''re bringing it up...how have you improved so much at acting in less than a year?" Bath had expertly adapted to stepping into different roles as the situation demanded, where before he was only able to passably emulate the behavior of humans his age.


    Bath cocked his head. "Effort?"


    Seriously? Effort? "Okay, sure." However, this isn''t the point of the conversation...what were we talking about? "Bath. I''m going into the control room. Sorry, lemme through."


    "Wait, first: you know how I promised that you''d be the first to get the V-Tap?"


    "Yeah, I remember."


    "Well..." Bath gave her a guilty look. "I planned earlier today to give three to other humans."


    Lisa balked. "Wait, what? Why?" If anyone is going to test out the V-Tap first, it''s me: Bath has given me the best constitution boons possible, not to mention he''d never let anything bad happen to me if the V-Tap interacted poorly with the human body. As the Church of COTD, she didn''t want anybody else to bear an unnecessary risk.


    "I didn''t want to use an experimental brain-implant on you," he said, giving her a stoic expression. "If something egregiously terrible were to happen, I would be able to restore you to full health...however, I''ve never succeeded in destroying someone''s brain and reconstructing it exactly as it was before."


    Lisa didn''t think much of Bath''s implied human experimentation. The two of them had wracked up a huge body count by now, if anyone was counting: between the spearrows, the war between Basalith and the United States...the death that inevitably followed the wake of change...millions had died as a direct or indirect result of their actions.


    Back in high school, when she learned that Bath had killed people in his misguided attempts to terrorize humans into buying electric cars, she hadn''t even batted an eye. Her reasoning back then was that judging Bath by human ethics and morals was misguided, wrong.


    But what about herself, doing the same kinds of things? Letting people die in the name of a better future?


    "You''ve never...succeeded at reconstructing a human brain?"


    "Right."


    Lisa frowned and pushed past. I thought he had a plan to resurrect people even if their brains were destroyed? Something about...crystals. She shook her head to clear her mind. "We can talk about this later."


    Bath didn''t stop her from going past, only sighing as she pushed open the violet doors. His avatar dissipated, leaving only the real Bath in the control room over a woman''s prone body.


    Since Lisa already knew that Bath had tried to give three others the V-Tap earlier in the day, she wasn''t too surprised to see him literally operating over a woman''s body.


    Who is that? Lisa wondered, not recognizing the woman''s face under her locks of deep black hair. And why does Bath have to install the V-Tap? She''d been under the impression that the implantation process automated. Moreover, why does he think it''s so dangerous that he''s going back on his word to let me receive the implant first?


    She walked over, stepping close to Bath''s right side and peering over his shoulder. She looked down at the woman''s back and neck where two clean, deep incisions had been made. She swallowed and looked up, locking eyes with the previously-unseen AI Ninety-Seven off to the side.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Her eyes snapped over onto Bath. Really? How long has AI Ninety-Seven been here? she mouthed, knowing that he''d understand.


    However, Bath feigned ignorance, continuing to diligently cut into the woman''s body with a finger. Or so it appeared, on the surface. Lisa quickly caught on to the fact that he was just sawing his finger in the same place. In actuality, he was reaching his essence tendrils into the woman''s body like an infesting root.


    "What are you doing to her?" Lisa murmured under her breath. Bath didn''t look away; however, this time he formed a small disembodied mouth beneath Lisa''s ear, whispering to her directly.


    "I''m temporarily stalling the restorative and elastically defensive properties of her body," Bath explained. "AI Ninety-Seven was unable to give the implant to anyone because their skin and regenerative abilities prevented the android from making the initial incisions and inserting the implants."


    "How are you stalling her defenses?" Lisa asked, morbidly curious. She shuddered at the image of Bath''s essence growing into her body like a voracious parasite, even if she knew it was just him.


    "I continuously rip her defenses apart," he replied. "It isn''t that difficult. It''s easier than the alternative, which is changing her cells back to normal and then changing them back after the procedure." He paused, adding, "Not that either is that difficult," as an afterthought.


    Lisa winced. "I think you should try to use the other method," she whispered. "This is kind of...gross." The woman''s flesh looked like mincemeat where Bath repeatedly slashed into it...and that was only what Lisa could see out of the two small incisions in her back. Lisa knew that under the skin, Bath was doing much more extensive damage.


    The mouth beneath her ear smirked. "What does it matter, in the end, if both methods work just as well? Besides: Fartuun can''t feel anything."


    Lisa clucked her tongue. Fartuun: Dean''s technology specialist. The vanguard was small enough that Lisa knew most of its members by now. She was especially familiar with Fartuun, what with the help the woman offered when she, Dean, and Virigard went to rescue Bath. Moreover, Fartuun had one of the highest positions in the entire vanguard.


    "Why isn''t she saying anything?" Lisa asked, frowning. "She''s still awake, right?"


    "I''ve temporarily crippled her senses," he said. "She can''t see, hear, or feel very well."


    Lisa snorted inwardly. Define "very well." "That''s probably for the best," she conceded. In this case, ignorance was bliss: Even if Fartuun couldn''t feel pain, Lisa figured that being able to feel and hear Bath snaking around inside of her would be an unpleasant experience. I feel more sympathy for Lepochim, Lisa thought, recalling when Bath had tortured the deepthink for his treacherous behavior on Lime World by skewering him with poisonous essence spikes.


    "Are you almost done?" Lisa asked, speaking a bit louder now that she knew Fartuun was effectively deaf.


    "Hmm, maybe," Bath replied ambiguously.


    Another two minutes passed. I''m just wasting my time here, Lisa thought, shaking her head. "I''m going to talk to AI Ninety-Seven about the sigils."


    Bath smiled. "Excellent. I''ll come with."


    Just as Lisa began to walk away, Bath split in two, his body distending down its lateral line like a cell undergoing mitosis. Lisa gagged in repulsion as Bath''s face stretched like putty as his two new bodies separated from one another. As one of the Baths pranced over to Lisa''s side, she gave him a disbelieving look. Throughout the entire process, Bath''s right hand remained glued to Fartuun''s back, ensuring that the operation continued uninterrupted.


    "That was disgusting," she grumbled.


    Bath chuckled, wagging his eyebrows. "I never knew you were so squeamish."


    Lisa tsked. "Like hell I''m squeamish. That''s just really gross."


    "The operating, or the splitting in half?" he asked, grinning mischievously.


    Lisa glared daggers as he pulled her arm forward. "Both." With an eye roll, she went along with his pull until the two of them were situated in front of AI Ninety-Seven''s contemplative visage.


    "Radiances," AI Ninety-Seven muttered as they approached.


    He seems distracted, Lisa noted. Can androids even be distracted? "AI Ninety-Seven," Lisa began. "I''m not sure if you''ve realized, but the Dragon and I have managed to alter a sigil on the floor of this room."


    The android turned, giving Bath a withering expression. "I did know, and I made my opinion quite clear to Radiance Dragon."


    Lisa turned her head slowly in Bath''s direction. "What opinion?"


    "AI Ninety-Seven said that changing the sigils is a bad idea and to stop," Bath said.


    ...Is that it? Lisa turned back to AI Ninety-Seven. "Please repeat the message you told him."


    "...I told Radiance Bath that the Egdelek Arc is one of several arcs that contain profound mysteries. In order to form stable sigils, books from the other arcs must be acquired. I discouraged him from moving around any books in the event that sigils might enter into unstable states."


    Lisa felt her heart pound. The sigils can go into unstable states? And just by moving around books, if I''m hearing right. This sounded too incredible to be real.


    "What is the scientific basis behind the sigils?" Lisa probed.


    "It is a profound mystery," the android replied, voice clinical.


    Lisa''s mouth popped open. "Why are you transporting this library?"


    "To deliver the books to a secure location," AI Ninety-Seven stated blithely.


    "Is it perhaps the case," Bath began, gazing at the android with piercing eyes, "that you are not permitted to explain the scientific basis behind the sigils?"


    "No," the android replied, recoiling. "Such information is beyond my reach."


    So, the information exists...Lisa thought. "How many arcs are there?"


    "I do not know."


    That''s frustrating. So, essentially, if I''m understanding Ainsley correctly: we''re supposed to leave the books alone until reaching the Arc drop-off point.


    "Can we study the books at all?" Lisa asked.


    AI Ninety-Seven nodded. "Studying them should be fine, though I think you''ll find their contents bland."


    "If that''s the case, can you tell us what, exactly, causes the sigils to change? I wouldn''t want to accidentally change one of them while perusing the libraries."


    AI Ninety-Seven looked between Lisa and Bath. "Just keep the books within their respective rooms," it finally said.


    Lisa gave Bath a look. Didn''t we change the sigil just by shifting books around within the same library room? "That''s all?"


    AI Ninety-Seven inclined its head. "That should be sufficient."


    Lisa smiled. "Can we remove books from the library, as long as we don''t bring them into any other rooms?"


    The android blinked. "That should be fine; don''t remove more than ten books at a time," it said.


    We removed the room''s entire contents, Lisa thought sheepishly. Maybe that''s one of the reasons the sigil changed.


    "Well, then," Bath interjected, grabbing Lisa''s arm. "We''ll be off."

 [Chapter 142] Fartuuns Implant; Bath Displays the Integration Process

    "They''re just...books," Lisa said, sighing. "Seriously. And they aren''t even good."


    Bath smirked, several books bobbing around him on essence tendrils. "I don''t think what''s written in them is the point," he argued. "Remember, AI Ninety-Seven doesn''t have a digital version of the Arc''s library."


    "Yeah, I know." She held her current book by its cover, letting it flip open at its spine. "Don''t you find it strange," she added, "that these look just like normal books from Earth?"


    Bath shrugged. "They don''t look just like normal books."


    "Okay," Lisa conceded, holding up a hand. "I''ll admit that they''re a bit different. The covers are all oddly thick."


    "Some of their coversare even as thick as an inch," Bath interjected.


    "You would know," she said. "They''re also written in a different language."


    "One completely different from the sigils."


    Lisa began to inspect her book''s spine. "Book binding is a complicated process," she muttered. "On Earth, you can grab a needle and thread and sew a binding shut, though it''s hard to do by hand." She pulled at the spine, stretching it out and exposingthe threaded connections to its pages. "This book--like all the others--has an elastic, tightly-secured binding string."


    Bath frowned. "In that respect, they are bound in a similar fashion to Earth books. However, given what we know about sapient evolution, this shouldn''t be too surprising: if all, or most, sapients develop hands with tactile digits, their civilizations will develop in similar ways."


    Lisa continued to rotate the book in her hands. "But that''s not necessarily true," she retorted. "For instance, the Inca never developed a proper writing system."


    Bath gave her a knowing look. "The Inca were the exception, not the rule. Our world history class said that a writing system is the fundamental basis of any civilization."


    "But a writing system doesn''t inherently suggest the creation of books," she said.Besides, she added silently,historians don''t know everything.


    "All humans have ideas and knowledge worth writing down," Bath argued, flipping his current book over. "I assume that all sapients are essentially the same way. I''d venture that most sapient civilizations have, at one point, created book-like objects as vessels to record knowledge."


    Lisa chewed her lip. "I suppose."


    After two hours, they decided to leave the library room and return to the control room. When they arrived, AI Ninety-Seven was the only...what does AI Ninety-Seven qualify as? Lisa wondered. She almost said that the android was the only living thing in the room. The only...entity in the room?


    She turned to Bath, who was casually strolling over to the control pedestal. "Hey; what happened with Fartuun?"


    "I finished giving her the V-Tap," Bath said, placing his hands onto the pedestal''s glowing white, his fingers dipping into its surface as though into a shallow pool. "So, I took her to the basement of the Anima to recover in the all-purpose healing pool."


    Lisa blanched. "She needed the healing pool after you were done with her?"


    Bath moved his fingers as though delicately pressing keys on a piano. He looks so self-assured, Lisa thought smugly, but I''d bet my life he still has no idea what he''s doing.


    "Nobody else was using it," Bath replied. "The microorganisms in the pool have been lonely without visitors."


    Lisa snorted incredulously. "What did you do to her that she couldn''t heal on her own?" She walked over to the pedestal, standing behind his back to watch.


    He looked over his shoulder, staring down at her. "Can you not look over my shoulder? I feel like you''re judging me."


    Lisa smiled. "Believe me, I am."


    "Ugh."


    "What are you trying to do?" Lisa asked.


    "I''m just fooling around with the menus," Bath explained. "Seeing what kinds of ship elements can be controlled or tweaked."


    "You never answered my question," Lisa said, redirecting the conversation. "What did you do to Fartuun to get the implant working?"


    "Does it matter?"


    "Bath!"


    He sighed. "The V-Tap was more stubborn and resilient than I thought."


    Lisa scowled. "What do you mean?"


    "Well," he began, "the device absolutely refused to work unless it completely integrated into both the central and peripheral nervous systems of the target."


    Lisa nodded slowly. "Okay. So what was the problem, exactly?"


    Bath sighed again, turning away from the pedestal and spontaneously generating a couch to recline on. "I''ve made numerous changes to the peripheral nervous system of humans," he replied. "The nervous system as a whole was never very efficient, using overwhelming numbers of neurotransmitters to trigger action potentials and then relying on a reset period to hyper-polarizecell membranes, which of course takes much too long...and changing the way neurotransmitterswere taken up at the neuro-muscular junction relied on several other modifications..." He trailed off, realizing that this was all going slightly over Lisa''s head. "I had to restructure the entire system," he summarized.


    Lisa cocked an eyebrow. "I thought the nervous system was fast." She waggled her fingers. "Converting the thoughts from my brain into physical action--without any perceptible delay--seems incredible."


    "''Fast'' doesn''t mean efficient," Bath rebutted. "Regardless, I had to redo the entire PNS, and made modifications to the central nervous system, or CNS, as well."


    Lisa swallowed. "I thought you said you couldn''t really...modify the human brain? Not well?" He''s clearly made some modifications to the brain, like reducing the perception of pain, and improving people''s ability to teach and think critically...but nothing world-changing, or even qualifying as super-human.


    "With regards to the CNS, I mostly focused on improving the transmission of signals propagating down from the brain and through the spine."


    Oh. Lisa felt a bit foolish. The spine is a part of the CNS too; I almost forgot. Generally, when she thought of the central nervous system, the human brain was all that came to mind.Somost of his CNS modificationsdidn''t pertain toenhancing the human brain.


    "So, you modified the entire human nervous system," Lisa stated. "No big deal, of course."


    "Yup," Bath chortled, smiling mischievously. "However," he added, his expression turning solemn, "as I said before, the V-Tap was programmed to work only after integrating fully with the CNS and PNS."


    Lisa frowned. "Can''t it integrate with both? Why should it matter that you''ve modified the human nervous system?" I doubt all sapient species have similar nervous systems, Lisa thought. I can hardly believe that most sapients look the same. To say that, aside from their outward appearance, most sapients also have similar physiology...it''s too improbable, isn''t it?Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "It doesn''t matter," Bath replied, shaking his head and rubbing the empty section of couch to his right. "I never said that refurbishing the human nervous system posed a problem to V-Tap implantation; I merely gave that information as background."


    Lisa plopped down on the couch. "So, the V-Tap had no problem integrating with the modified nervous system."


    "Exactly. Which brings us to the main problem: the V-Tap is too resilient for its own good. I didn''t want the damned piece of technology to integrate itself into Fartuun''s peripheral nervous system."


    "Why?" Lisa felt like she was asking too many questions, but she wanted to get to the bottom of why Fartuun needed thehealing pool. If I''m going to get the V-Tap, I want to know everything about it.


    Bath tsked, his face pensive, as though he were trying to think of the right way to explain. "The V-Tap integrates directly into the PNS for one purpose: to read information about the host and to stimulate muscles to act in unconventional ways."


    That doesn''t sound bad. "Okay," Lisa said, nodding along.


    "It''s terrible," Bath snarled. "I let the V-Tap integrate into Fartuun''sfull nervous system out of curiosity. I wanted to see how the V-Tap works to control the muscles and cells of the human body." He snorted, shaking his head. "It''s lacking compared to what I can achieve with biological enhancements. Technologically impressive, but lacking.


    "This being the case, I decided to undo the PNS integration process. I needed to strip Fartuun''s body of this web-like network of..." he struggled for a moment. "Plastic-metal nano-material lacing through everything."


    "Sounds difficult," Lisa assumed.


    Bath rolled his eyes, his head flopping onto Lisa''s so that her head rested in the crook of his. "The nano-material continued to reform even after I tore it apart and ripped it away. Itevidently needed to latch onto something. So, I ended up making Fartuun a secondary peripheral nervous system just for the use of the V-Tap."


    Bath said this last sentence with such calm that Lisa almost didn''t realize the absurdity of his words. "You made a secondary, secondary," she held up her hands, scootching away. "Secondary peripheral nervous system?" How the hell? That doesn''t even make sense! Lisa balked.


    Bath chuckled sardonically. "It isn''t a complete system," he explained. "I made a ring of cells around Fartuun''s spine. These cells have a few key differences from the normal PNS. As a result, after I intentionally wrapped nascent V-Tap threads around this new PNS, the V-Tap registered only this small circle of cells as the entire host''s PNS."


    What...? "That''s so...stupid." How is there not a better way? Lisa had trouble believing that, to use the V-Tap without its PNS-integrating technology, Bath had to invent a useless decoy PNS for it to latch on to.


    Bath shrugged. "As soon as I did that, the CNS integration worked like a charm. The entire V-Tap turned again like it did before, when I first allowed it to integrate unrestricted into Fartuun''s body."


    "How did you know that it started up?" Lisa asked.


    "It began to glow blue," Bath said. "The three implant vertebrae--which don''t replace the vertebrae in full, by the way--have tiny lights."


    "Wait, they don''t replace the vertebrae?" Lisa asked, confused. They V-Tap implants seemed the exact size and shape of human vertebrae. Not that Lisa was an expert, but she''d seen a few human skeletons before in movies, in textbooks, and in science class.


    "The V-Tap disassembles into three caps, which coat three existing vertebrae in a tight mesh. Their contents then unspool and extend out into the body in the web-like, lacey threads that I mentioned before."


    "Can''t you give me a diagram?" Lisa asked, gesturing to the space in front of the couch.


    "Sure." Bath used his essence to create an oddly-transparent human torso that floated aimlessly in space, its back facing them. "See this body?" He outlined its spine and brain in red. "This, here, is the CNS." Then, from the red, spiraled out innumerable lines of veridian. These seemed to connect to every part of the model human, turning it overwhelmingly green.


    "This is the PNS. Now, this is what happens when you place a V-Tap into a human body." In an instant, threerectangularincisions appeared, two on the neck and one on the back, between the model''s shoulder blades. Then, three blue spheroids floated into the cavities, quickly making contact with the spinal cord. As they made contact, angry strands of blue pierced out at all angles into the body.


    "Why are there two neck incisions?" Lisa asked. Wouldn''t it make more sense to evenly space the V-Tap implants along the back?


    Bath smiled. "That''s an easy question: the upper half of the human body has many more nerves than the lower half; for instance, consider the face and hands, both of which possess dense networks of sensory nerves. Even the implant between the shoulder blades has more than enough plastic-metal nano-material to integrate into the PNS of the lower body."


    "Huh." Lisa kept her eyes fixed on the display unfolding in front of her. The blue was weaving ceaselessly through the human model. Soon, it seemed as though every green strand had a parallel blue companion. The blue also delved into and encompassed the red sections of the CNS, though this didn''t seem nearly as impressive to Lisa as the blue snaking through the massive PNS.


    "As you can see, the V-Tap has incorporated itself into the host."


    "That''s...amazing."


    "It''s inefficient," Bath sneered. "We don''t need these blue threads taking up space within the human body."


    Lisa flinched."I''ll take your word for it."


    Bath pointed a finger at the torso, rotating it three-hundred and sixty degrees. "Now, watch how I fixed the problem." Suddenly, the mass of blue threads shuddered. Then, as though the threads were ivy anchored to the wall of a building, an invisible force began to yank them away from the red. The invisible force appeared to reel in the flaccid blue, binding the threads into a spool.


    "Watch as I create a secondary PNS," Bath murmured. To Lisa''s trained eye, he looked just as enraptured by the display as she was.


    Yellow lines began to expand out from and wrap around the spinal cord. These looped around repeatedly, almost fully obscuring the red of the spine CNS from view. Then, the spooled blue appeared to be dragged over the yellow and forcibly wrapped around it. The process reminded Lisa of a gardener binding a bonsai in wire. Just as the wire shapes the growing tree, the tree shapes the wire.


    It didn''t take long, however, for the blue to start latching itself onto the yellow of its own accord. Soon, it extended all the way down the spinal cord, wrapping snugly around the yellow.


    "And that''s that," Bath said, dispelling the colored torso with a wave of his hand. He then looked at Lisa, his attention fullyfocused on her. "Did that make sense?"


    Lisa nodded. "I know why Fartuun''s in the healing pool now," she said.


    Bath gave her a lopsided grin. "Let''s test that assertion."


    "When the blue threads--the V-Tap nano-material--detached from the green PNS, it left...holes. Everywhere."


    Bath nodded. "The damage was catastrophic."


    Lisa shuddered. "So, can you give me a V-Tap as well? It should be safe, right?"


    Bath gave Lisa an intense look. "Lisa," he began. "If I give you the V-Tap, there''s no going back. I could repair the damage done to her body, but if you ever wanted to remove the V-Tap from your brain..." He sighed. "I hope that I''ll have better control over the human brain one day, but for now, I don''t."


    "You''re saying that if I get the V-Tap now, I''ll be stuck with it."


    "Essentially. According to AI Ninety-Seven, there''s no way to remove the V-Tap once it''s been installed."


    Lisa paused. While that''s kind of sketchy...whywouldbeing stuck with the V-Tap be a bad thing? It''d be like having a chip reader working in tandem with your brain. "Didn''t AI Ninety-Seven say that he''s virtually un-hackable? The chip reader is probably the same way, right?"


    Bath glanced over to the corner of the room. AI Ninety-Seven was sitting down in the same meditating position they found him in when they first ventured down the hole leading to the Egdelek Arc. "AI Ninety-Seven," he called out.


    The robot''s green eyes opened. "Radiance Dragon."Is he pretending to be asleep? Lisa wondered.He''s obviously heard everything that we''ve been saying.


    "How secure is the V-Tap from outside influences?"


    The android bowed its head and stood. "The V-Tap is protected by the same encryption protocols used by myself."


    This information didn''t make Lisa relieved. If anything, a seemingly impregnable implant made her nervous. Nothing is truly impregnable, she thought. If we don''t trust information about Bath being a World Devourer with AI Ninety-Seven, then why should we trust that kind of information with an implant?


    Lisa sighed. Damn it. This is hard to decide: an implant sounds so cool. She recalled the small V-Tap informational pamphlet AI Ninety-Seven gave her a day back. Features like "memory optimization" and "dream capture" sounded neat, while capabilities such as "memory search" and "sensory recording" would undoubtedly be useful. However, these features all implied the same thing: all of Lisa''s memories and sensory input would be at the V-Tap''s metaphorical fingertips. If someone ended up hacking into her V-Tap, they would have access to everything.


    That was what sealed the deal. With a groan, she rammed her head into Bath''s chest. "You''re right, damn it. I can''t use the V-Tap unless we have better control over how it operates, but since it''s closed source..."


    Bath rubbed her back. "You''re screwed for now," he said. "However, I have faith COTD can make its own implants." He gave AI Ninety-Seven a pointed look. "Just wait a few years."


    Lisa sat up. "Mhm." She stretched out her arms and stood up. "Well, with that settled...we should probably check in with Dean and the engineers. The first ship should be done by the end of today, right?"


    Bath''s eyes danced with anticipation. "Right."


    Lisa''s laugh rang out as she ran up to the control room window, looking out over Jure. "Can you believe that in just a few days, the engineers havecreated an amphibious, space-faring ship?"


    Bath joined her at the window''s pane. "Can you believe that all of this has happened in under three months?"


    Lisa snorted. "No." Sometimes, I feel like this is all just a dream.


    "COTD has made this," Bath murmured. "We''ve made this."


    His eyes met hers.


    Lisa turned back toward the window, smiling."And we''ve only just begun." Despite her jubilant demeanor, the uncertainty in her eyes shone through her reflection in the glass.

 [Chapter 143] Approaching Equinox; Dean and Virigard Escort the Ships

    "I can''t believe it...we''re here," Lisa exclaimed, fogging up the ship''s glass display with her breath.


    Zhou Wang lay in his hammock, swinging idly. "Equinox. Land ho."


    In Lisa''s opinion, the person who seemed most moved by the current spectacle was, unexpectedly, Ida. She was currently sitting on a small block of dragonleaf covered by a red cushion.


    She''d been sitting there motionless for the past half hour.


    She''s over a hundred years old, Lisa recalled, looking at the woman thoughtfully. She''s lived through the 19th century, the space age, all that jazz.


    Lisa turned and looked back at Khalid, the next oldest after Ida at just under one-hundred years of age. He''s reacted in the opposite way by squirreling himself away in one of the ship''s bathrooms for most of the trip. He was currently sitting within a dragonleaf shelter that looked just like a child''s playhouse.


    Priscilla didn''t seem too fazed by the experience of flying through space. However, considering the rapid emergence of COTD and Priscilla''s ability to rise within its kursi ranks despite her young age (under fifty), Lisa figured that there was a lot more to the woman than met the eye.


    "Eyrin," Lisa called out. "How does this compare to your father''s voyager?" Unlike the rest of the kursi, Eyrin had received access to the voyager on Vast Desert to assist the engineers in understanding verdora controls. While Lisa had also had access to the voyager in the past, she was curious to see what Eyrin thought about the vessel.


    The verdora prince turned around from the controls console, swiveling in his chair. "This ship is much more spacious than the voyager," he said. "However, it''s slow: much slower than is practical."


    Lisa nodded. Juserin''s voyager crossed the distance we''ve been traveling for over half an hour in a few minutes. Moreover, you''d think that a craft of this size would be able to carry more fuel and generate more thrust in a zero-G environment than the small voyager.


    In truth, the person on the ship that Lisa was most intrigued by was Zhou Wang. For a guy who is exactly two-hundred and ninety-nine years old, you''d expect him to be more...moved by entering space. Three-hundred years ago, going into space would''ve been seen as folly. Of course, three-hundred years was nothing compared to the age of other kursi: in the seventeen- and eighteen-hundreds, people in China knew--and had known--about stellar bodies. Two-thousand years ago, on the other hand...


    Lisa''s mind suddenly drifted to her "aunt" and "uncle," Lauretta and Bern. I never realized just how special they were to be over a thousand years old and lucid, she thought. Well, at least mostly lucid. Lisa wondered if their misguided efforts to force their way into her family was due to their age--and consequently warped judgment. Lisa was still unclear how Bern was able to manipulate her family''s memories with his "primary ability," Nihilum.


    What even are primary abilities, anyway? Lisa thought back to the scene in the Spire when her family officially learned about her identity as Church of COTD. After attacking and being subdued, Lauretta and Bern had talked about Earth kursi having "primary abilities." However, since then, Lisa had never heard anyone else speak of such a thing.


    "Hey Zhou," Lisa began, "do you know anything about kursi ''primary abilities''?"


    "Hmm? Primary abilities?"


    Lisa looked around the room, trying to see if anyone looked like they knew what she was talking about. "Like, for instance, an additional kursi ability aside from normal mind-manipulation."


    Zhou''s rocking paused, his legs hanging precipitously off the side of the dragonleaf hammock. "Can you give an example?"


    Lisa nodded. I wonder what Zhou has to say about this. "Remember how I told you about a pair of old kursi that I knew?"


    Zhou sighed. "The couple who kept their sanity through the power of love?"


    "Uh...yeah," Lisa replied. Not the way I would''ve phrased it.


    "How sweet," Priscilla said, whistling. "I''d give anything for a reliable guy to pass the time with."


    "Well, anyways," Lisa interrupted, "one of those kursi possesses the power to plant false memories in people''s minds."


    Zhou''s eyes looked upwards, then to the side. "You sure that''s what the kursi claimed?" He resumed his rocking. "I''ve never met anyone who has an ability like that."


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. How else do you explain what happened with my family? "It''s definitely real."


    "How old are these kursi?" Eyrin asked.


    "At least a thousand," she answered. "They didn''t give me a straight answer."


    "And you," Eyrin looked at Zhou, "said that the oldest functional humans are usually only a few hundred years old, correct?"


    "That''s right."You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "I know what you''re talking about," Eyrin said, turning back to look at Lisa. "As kursi age, their power increases. In many kursi, the power increase registers itself as increased range and increased domination abilities."


    "Right," Priscilla said, crossing her arms as she leaned against the ship''s starboard bulkhead. "That''s how it is. But you just said many kursi. I get the feeling there''s a catch."


    "Some kursi wholly lack domination abilities," Eyrin noted, folding his arms into the creases of his robe. "Usually, these kursi are just talentless; however, some have alternative abilities. Unfortunately, most of these only show with age."


    Zhou''s expression seemed relatively unchanged. Lisa would think him bored if she didn''t see the curious fire in his eyes. "So these kursi with alternative abilities appear to be talentless for countless years," Zhou stated.


    "Yes."


    "And lack domination abilities?"


    Eyrin nodded.


    "So they can''t create mind slaves?"


    "He''s made himself pretty clear," Priscilla said, tapping her foot against the bulkhead. "Though I find it a bit unbelievable...I haven''t met anyone lacking domination abilities who''s made it past two-hundred years."


    Eyrin stared at her and blinked once, his skin darkening slightly in color. "And that is why you don''t know what I''m talking about."


    But if age is the number one factor in developing an ability....why did Uncle Bern say that he already knew what mine was? He calledmy ability Regis. And if Lisa remembered correctly, Uncle Bern had told her, "we call it Regis." Which impliedthat some group or organization existed (really, how many kursi organizations were there!?) that possessed knowledge about special kursi abilities.


    Lisa shook her head. I''ll just ask Lauretta and Bern when I return to Earth.


    ---


    "This is the life," Virigard sighed, kicking her feet up into the air. Dean glanced her way, a smile working its way onto his face. "This voyager is so nice. The couch, the TV, the sound system..."


    "Mhm." Dean passed his fingers over the verdora controls, finding the big buttons and explicitly-worded user interface quite easy to use. He was somewhat surprised that the voyager''s cabin had an entertainment area.


    I can''t believe that the only two on this craft are Viri and I, Dean thought. He supposed that, given the choice between flying to Equinox on one of the first-ever man-made gate-traveling space shipsor the voyager, most would choose the former. But that was the key word: most. Why hadn''t a single person, save Virigard, chosen the voyager?


    Not even Aberash or Fartuun had elected to take the voyager to Equinox. Dean would''ve asked Lisa to join him, except for the fact that she was "going undercover" as a normal kursi. I don''t even know why she bothers, Dean thought, sighing internally.


    "Virigard," Dean started, "do you think Aberash hates me?"


    "Of course not," Virigard chirped, her tail beating lightly on the couch''s cushion. "You''re her friend!"


    "But she didn''t want to ride in the voyager," he grumbled. "I was going to ride alone if I didn''t specifically exempt you from traveling on the quasi-sapient holding ship."


    "Well..." Virigard trailed off. "You kind of led her on, didn''t you?"


    Dean felt his cheeks turn slightly red. "Not on purpose," he muttered. "I was just...uh, erm...she made really beautiful music."


    "You snuck out into the desert every night just to hear her sing and experiment with different instruments."


    "I didn''t sneak out," Dean cried. "It''s my city; I can come and go as I please." Technically, anyone could come or go as they pleased: Dean didn''t run the city like a prison.


    "You told her that she and her music were both beautiful..."


    "Because they were!"


    "You visited her in the dressing room before her performance..."


    "Because I was excited for her! I wanted to show my support!"


    Virigard sighed, her eyelids closing over her large eyes. "Dean. You invited her over to the Spire from evening until dawn, just to hang out."


    Okay, Virigard is making a good point...Dean thought. But I''d do the same thing with any friend! If Aberash was a guy, this wouldn''t be a problem.


    "How do I make things better?" Dean sighed.


    "Are you sure you just wanna just be friends?" Virigard asked, her expression unusually serious.


    Dean swiveled around, giving her a look. "Do I have time for anything else?"


    Virigard shrugged her tiny, almost non-existent shoulders. "You need to make time for relationships."


    Dean tsked. "Viri, do you have any first-hand experience or is this all just from watching Friends?"


    "Does it matter?"


    Dean chuckled. Somehow, talking to Virigard always puts me in a better mood. "I guess not. Y''know what, I''ll try talking to her and ironing out whatever...misunderstanding there is."


    Virigard nodded sagely.


    "But what about Fartuun?" he asked. "I have no idea what''s wrong. All of a sudden, she stopped talking to me the day before heading off to Equinox."


    Virigard yawned. "I don''t thinkit''s your fault."


    "Why?"


    "Don''t blame yourself for everything," Virigard scolded, her voice elevated. "A few squirrels told me that Fartuun was sent to the healing pools."


    "What!?"


    "Mhm," Virigard said, nodding. "The healing pools. Something about getting a V-Tap."


    Dean''s eyes narrowed. "She what?" I thought the android failed at giving us the V-Tap? Why did it try to give it to Fartuun again? "Do you know how she got to the healing pool?"


    "The squirrels I talked to said that she just...appeared, like magic."


    Dean gritted his teeth. Bath...He didn''t have any proof, but who else could be behind this? He took his fingers off the controls so that he wouldn''t accidentally break anything.


    "What else did the squirrels say?"


    Virigard''s eyes snapped open. "Uh..."


    "Viri?"


    She coughed lightly. "They talked about you a lot!"


    Dean scowled. Ugh. "Of course they did..." he muttered.


    "Dean, can I have a few signed pictures of you with your shirt off?"


    Dean sighed dejectedly. "Why?"


    "The squirrels have a contest to collect signed pictures of you," she said. "They accumulate a lot of gossip, you know."


    Dean''s head rolled back against the back of his pilot''s chair. "I know."


    "I gave them three signatures of yours I found lying around in exchange for the information on Fartuun."


    Dean''s expression perked up. "You actually bargained for that information?" He assumed that she''d just heard it in passing with her preternaturally good hearing.


    Virigard nodded, her expression deathly serious. "Of course! You were so upset that she was ignoring your messages!"


    Dean turned away, smiling. "Thank, Viri."


    "See? This is why you need to buy more coke: I used your signed receipts as bargaining chips!"


    Dean snorted. "I thought you wanted signed pictures of me with my shirt off?"


    Viri shot him a knowing smile. "Those are worth way more gossip," she clarified. "The receipts are still worth something, though. That''s why I saved them from when we were on Earth."


    "Wait, hold on," Dean said, directing the pilot''s screen on the last ship to exit the Vast Desert gate and enter space around Equinox. "This is the last ship. Ready for thefinal escort?"


    "Yup!" she cheered, focusing intently on the screen in front of the couch. "I see the last ship! Lead the way!"


    Dean laughed. "Alright."

 [Chapter 144] Getting Settled into New Faajyun; Taunting the Chicken-Squid

    Juselin and Erzey flanked Bath on both sides, their eyes wide. This is a first for them, for all the verdora, he noted. Juserin had a monopoly on the voyager. While the encyclopedia stated that verdora had developed space-faring ships thousands of years ago, records indicated that said ships had been neglected.


    Whatever space program the verdora once had existed no more.


    "We''re touching down now?" Erzey asked, head whipping around as an announcement came over the intercom.


    "Seems so," Bath replied. Not that we can see. This part of the craft lacked windows; only the control room had a view of the outside. Probably for the best.


    The three of them were located near the front of craft''s terminal room. Instead of having a bedroom, as was the case in the Egdelek arc, this spacecraft had a lounge. Because of Thaddeus'' status as the first verdora to receive all basic boons, he and his retainers, Erzey and Juselin, were seated on the plushest cushion-couch present. This cushion-couch had the distinct bonus of being located along the back of the room, right next to the exit.


    "Thaddeus, how long do you think the ship will take to touch down?" one of the nearby verdora, Adarin, asked.


    Bath made a contemplative "hmm..." sound. "I estimate...perhaps five minutes?"


    "That short?" another verdora, Iara, gasped. "Indeed."


    In fact, the time was less than Bath thought. The voyager, piloted by Dean, zoomed into action, facilitating their descent into Equinox''s atmosphere.


    This was much faster than I anticipated. When we traveled with Juserin, he first had to pinpoint where the gate-holding asteroid was in relation to the Equinox proper before heading down to its surface. This time, because of the ships preceding ours, Dean already has a sense of where we need to go.


    Bath didn''t remember much from Equinox, other than that the planet looked kind of like Earth and Illudis from above. He was fairly excited to arrive and see the planet for himself.


    The lights on the ship briefly flashed red, then green. "You have arrived," a robotic voice called out. Bath''s lips curled in humor under his veil. Only humans would make an artificial-sounding artificial voice. AI Ninety-Seven sounded, for instance, indistinguishable from a sapient. Bath hadn''t heard any automated messages or announcements created by verdora, but figured they were advanced enough as a society to have created realistic voice-emulating technology.


    Bath wondered briefly if the robotic voice was a clever nod to human pop culture.


    "All assemble behind us," Erzey called out. While this command wasn''t necessary--all the verdora were already technically behind Bath, Erzey, and Juselin--it helped to establish order to the disembarkation process.


    The entire back wall of the lounge area opened, collapsing downward on a hinge and forming a ramp to the yellow-green foliage below.


    Yet another world resembling Earth, Bath sighed, inhaling the scents of Equinox. He felt a dire hunger stir within his Center, though quickly suppressed it. This hunger was a pale shadow of that which he felt in the presence of the tortus.


    Not that he wouldn''t act on said hunger...eventually. According to the encyclopedia, there were no sapients on this world. That meant that he could travel its surface without any consideration for its inhabitants...eating whatever he pleased without the need for subtlety.


    He''d read that this planet''s wildlife was reptilian-like. And also fungus-like. Reptilian fungi. He was eager to see the combination in person.


    He stepped out of the craft, the other verdora falling in behind him. He led them confidently toward the Spire growing steadily-taller in the distance. Its ashen-green form shone almost white in the light of the planet''s pale sun.


    The atmosphere here is...thin. To Bath, the area felt like it was at a high elevation, the oxygen fairly low in concentration. However, in general, the atmosphere was easy to adjust to.


    The group of ships that had arrived first--those carrying the humans and quasi-sapients--had left a clear-cut path forward. Bath led the verdora along the path, passing through the spring-green tubular trees that formed a thick, jungle-like strip.


    Unbeknownst to any of the following verdora, Bath had sent out essence all through the surrounding area. As he proceeded forward, he feverishly devoured nearby organisms, only-barely sating his ravenous hunger. The small satisfaction of feeding manifest itself as twin smiles.


    If not for his veil, Erzey and Juselin might have questioned his sanity.


    They didn''t encounter any organisms larger than the size of a human fist before they arrived at the new city-seed. Bath led the verdora to the Anima, where they quickly received their housing assignments--which were, unsurprisingly, in the same structure as before: a cookie-cutter skyscraper about three blocks southwest of the Spire.


    Bath led the verdora to the building, watching with interest as they returned to the same rooms as before and tried to operate the room upload mechanism. Bath had never used it before, personally, and struggled along with the rest of them to get it working.


    The idea was as follows: before leaving a dragonleaf city, one could "save" one''s room configuration to a dragonleaf frond dedicated to the purpose. In practice, the process was as simple as plucking a CSL--a COTD Storage Leaf--(Bath thought the name odd, considering that it nested an acronym within an acronym) from the room''s control panel.


    The control panel was a feature implemented early on in Basalith''s design, back when it was the only city-seed in operation. The first land-shapers, at Lepochim''s behest, created a means to control the layout of a dragonleaf room by first modifying it with one''s land-shaper boons and then saving this configuration to a frond of dragonleaf. This frond could then be taken to an empty room and serve as a stimulus, prompting the room''s dragonleaf to grow in the "saved" configuration. In this fashion, Basalith land-shapers could mass-produce certain room designs and layouts.


    The control panel, a small plank of wood on a room''s door, presented the name of the occupant, the room number, and listed any registered room designs in use. Considering the primitive intelligence possessed by dragonleaf, Bath wasn''t surprised that humans had found a way to implement this feature. Simply imprinting the layout of a room onto a frond of dragonleaf, moving that frond to a different room, and telling that room to match the "saved" layout was well within his expectations for the plant.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    This being the case, when Bath and the other verdora retrieved their "saved" fronds, they were uncertain exactly where to place the fronds.


    "The control panel is here," Bath muttered. "Do either of you see a space for the frond to take root?"


    Ezrey sighed. "No. I tried swiping the frond all along the border of the control panel. Even then, it never made a connection."


    None of the other verdora had success. After ten minutes of fruitless frond-waving, Bath manifest a mouth beneath Lisa''s ear.


    "Lisa!" he hissed.


    Lisa, who was currently involved in some social gathering involving the other kursi, almost spat out a mouthful of flavored water. "Hmm?" she intoned.


    "How do you work the dragonleaf CSL upload? I can''t figure out how to upload my Jure room design into this city-seed''s apartment room."


    She hid her mouth with her cup. "It''s easy," she murmured. "Place the CSL on the floor, anywhere, and it''ll be automatically taken up."


    That''s it? Bath dropped his frond onto his bedroom floor. Sure enough, the frond was almost immediately internalized into the dragonleaf wood planks. Within a minute, his room looked just as it had back on Jure. It was stark enough to look unoccupied, but it was definitely the same room.


    "Erzey, Juselin," he called out. Despite the fact that he only called out the names of the Delelen cousins, at least fifteen other nearby verdora trotted over and stuck their heads by his room''s entrance.


    "Thaddeus," Juselin huffed. "How did you figure it out?"


    Bath laughed. "It''s simple," he said. "I accidentally dropped my frond on the floor. Lo and behold, all you need to do is place the CSL on the floor for the upload to commence."


    No less than ten verdora let out cries of disgust before about-facing and rushing back to their rooms.


    "You''re right," Erzey called out, having returned to her own room next door. "It worked!"


    "How did you accidentally drop your CSL?" Juselin grumbled under his breath.


    In actuality, Thaddeus never would have accidentally dropped his CSL--he was far too coordinated for that. Nevertheless, Bath didn''t bother with a better excuse for how he discovered how to upload his CSL into the room.


    After the verdora were situated, Bath led Erzey and Juselin outside for a tour of the new city-seed, New Faajyun (л¨Ô°). The original Faajyun was a small town in southern China where Zhou Wang had spent his youth. Since he''d been the one to found this city-seed, he''d received the accompanying naming rights.


    The city wasn''t different from Jure, or Whitesun, on the surface. However, Bath had already used inspiration from local wildlife to adjust the pictures carved on the city''s buildings. He''d done the same to every city-seed he''d personally visited, altering the default carvings (those of Basalith) to feature wildlife of the surrounding region. For instance, while the carvings on the buildings of Basalith featured all of Earth''s life forms across its entire biological timeline, the carvings on Whitesun featured images of local wildlife and verdora.


    He was currently leading an entourage of fifty verdora through an "architecture" tour of the new city, stopping to admire various carvings of strange plants, bug-like creatures, and a few stick-like quadrupeds.


    If the carvings had been completely true to life, the tour would have been boring beyond all reason: Bath had yet to encounter any organisms bigger than a hand-span. To liven things up, Bath took some artistic and biological liberties and extrapolated both potential past and future life forms of the region encompassing New Faajyun.


    After an hour of the tour, the entourage split up, leaving Bath and the Delelens alone.


    "Are we going to go out exploring?" Erzey asked, her eye-ridges arching high in anticipation. "Like we did on Vast Desert?"


    Bath grinned. "How could we not? We''re only going to be here for a day or so before moving on to the next planet. We need to make the most of our time."


    Juselin and Erzey nodded, flexing their ribbon-wrapped primary hands. Unbeknownst to Eyrin, Bath had taken the Delelens on as his own "proteges," showing them how to explore and get into--and out of--dangerous situations. He had a reason for doing so: studying the verdora adrenaline/danger response.


    Bath led the two verdora out of the city, dashing out of the city''s gate. Since the Delelens had long-since obtained their Expert-tier close-combat boons, Bath had no qualms leading them into the dense jungle surrounding New Faajyun: the action was well-within expectations for the reliable, cautious Thaddeus.


    Just entering the alien jungle immediately elevated the heart rates of the two verdora. Bath continuously monitored their vitals as he led them deeper into the wilderness. To his jubilation, the deeper they went, the more new life forms they encountered.


    After an hour of trekking, they were at least twenty miles further away. To Bath''s mind, the further out they traveled, the more interesting the wildlife that they encountered. He speculated as to the reason, realizing belatedly, as a body of azure water came into view, that most of the larger life forms that they had encountered were amphibious.


    The local wildlife wasn''t amphibious in the Earth sense of the word. Rather, Bath and the Delelens had discovered various species of pod-like invertebrates that slithered over the land. Now that the water was within his long-range manipulation range, Bath realized that the same pod-like organisms on land also populated the water.


    Moreover, it was only near water that Bath and the Delelens spotted the first vertebrate worth their attention: the distinctive reptile-fungus creature that Bath had read about. From its appearance alone, Bath would''ve placed it as a larger version of the pod-like invertebrates. However, after having swiftly devoured one of the creatures, Bath knew that the species did possess a skeleton. In fact, the species almost reminded him of a cross between a squid and a chicken.


    "It''s not moving," Juselin breathed. "It looks almost like a jijik," he said, referencing a species native to Illudis. Bath didn''t recognize the name, but thought he knew what Juselin was talking about: a fleshy, almost peach-like fruit that grew on the southern half of the planet.


    "Look at those tentacles," Erzey panted. "I bet they could pound something to a fine pulp."


    Bath had to agree. "The primary tentacles are the size of tree-trunks. Anybody want to take a first stab at antagonizing one?"


    The Delelens looked back at him, anticipation flashing in their blood-shot eyes.


    "I''ll go," Erzey growled playfully. She bowed forward into her forearms, flexing her body like a dog about to pounce.


    Bath and Juselin remained still as Erzey stalked forward. Bath watched her intently as Erzey circled in on the stationary creature, her excitement approaching its zenith. The creature''s squid-like (and, apparently, fungal) top section quivered like jelly as its tentacle-covered mouth writhed over the ground. Bath realized that it was foraging for small, shelled creatures under the sand.


    The creature ignored Erzey until she actually pounced in front of it, releasing a frenzied cry into its face. The creature appeared startled, its head quivering violently as it moved up onto its two main tentacles. In a flash, the creature was standing upon two nimble chicken legs. Bath supposed that he could describe the creature''s legs just as accurately as dinosaur or raptor legs, but thought chicken legs a more...satisfying descriptor.


    It let out a gurgling noise as it jumped up and down on its feet. Considering the creature''s enormous head and relatively small legs, the display appeared almost gravity-defying. However, it didn''t so much as faze Erzey. She danced back and forth around it until, after about a minute of antagonizing the creature, she zipped back into the jungle, leaving the discombobulated creature alone and confused. The creature made a few pitiful gurgling noises before settling back down onto its tentacles.


    Erzey shot out from another section of jungle, running back to Bath and Juselin.


    "That thing is so...bizarre," she laughed. ¡°It has that enormous head and those teeny, stick-like legs."


    Juselin smirked. "That head is clearly made out of a light-weight, boneless material," he said. "It jerks around wildly with each of the creature''s movements." He looked to Bath. "Thaddeus, does this creature have a name?"


    Bath shook his head slowly. "No, I don''t believe so."


    "Oh, really?" Erzey said. "That''s surprising."


    Bath shrugged. "The encyclopedia has little information regarding planets lacking sapient life and valuable natural resources," he replied. "While ''fungus''- and ''reptilian''-like life forms are described, this specific creature is not."


    "So...we can name it?" Juselin said, voice hesitant.


    "As the first verdora to engage one," Erzey began, "I say that we should call it a gurgle."


    Bath snorted. A gurgle? "Are you naming it after the noise it makes?" Bath asked, trying to clarify her strange name choice.


    She nodded. "It''s oddly endearing," she said, tilting her head to the side. "I almost want one as a pet. I wonder if the Dragon will make them into a quasi-sapient species."


    Bath just shook his head in amusement. "Let''s keep moving," he said. "Who knows what else we''ll encounter?"

 [Chapter 145] Verdora Biology 101; Morality, Sapience, and Bath

    "Let''s enter the water," Bath said, eying the beach. "I''m sure we''ll find more interesting creatures in the water."


    Bath was certain of this fact. The sexual dimorphism of the gurgle meant that the males largely populated the land around seas, while the females inhabited the water. The two sexes were so different from one another that Bath only knew they were two sides of the same coin after devouring a few of them.


    He wasn''t sure if he agreed with the encyclopedia''s assertion that the gurgles were like reptiles and fungi. The gurgle reproduced like a fungus, sending out spores that matured and grew by decomposing dead matter. However, sometime later, the mindless gurgle would awaken, as though from hibernation. Then, at least for males, the gurgle would swim to the shore and pop up onto its two legs. From that point on, it would sift the sand for food and live a fairly simple existence.


    A simple existence with the exception of mating season. To Bath''s chagrin, the gurgle''s mating season wasn''t for a few months.


    The Delelens gave him blank looks. "We don''t have waterproof robes," Juselin murmured.


    Bath gave them a knowing look. "We''re members of COTD now. Both of you, take out a dragonleaf frond."


    They reached onto the back of their robes. The verdora as a whole hadn''t partaken in either of the human factions, meaning that the Delelens didn''t have the many-pocketed utility tabards worn by just about every human. This wasn''t too big of a problem--their robes had enough creases to easily hold one or two small fronds of dragonleaf.


    "Great," Bath said, holding out a frond of his own. "Now, create bathing robes from dragonleaf." He gave them both expectant looks.


    "With the dragonleaf?" Juselin echoed, as though he had misheard.


    Bath nodded once. "You''ve made far more complex constructs with the dragonleaf before," he pressed. This was true: to master the Expert tier of the land-shaper profession, they would have experimented with creating intricate and complicated dragonleaf constructs. Bath recalled that the Delelens had chosen to make ornate pieces of furniture to reach this level.


    "But...clothing?" Erzey mumbled dubiously.


    "All COTD-issued clothing is made from dragonleaf," Bath replied. "We''re all wearing hand-woven clothes from Illudis, but many humans have transitioned to all-dragonleaf wardrobes for convenience." He began to grow the dragonleaf out in his hand, its tiny tendrils spilling out like sewing thread. "I''ve never made dragonleaf clothing either," he assured them, "but how difficult can it be?"


    In the end, the biggest problem ended up being verdora propriety. Because creating swimming robes necessitated the removal of their current clothing, the group split up in three directions. A few minutes later, the Delelens emerged from the jungle on four legs, their primary pair of hands clenching their discarded robes.


    "You all told the dragonleaf to be waterproof, right?" Bath asked. One of the more useful properties of dragonleaf was its ability to take mental clues to change its physical properties. Bath disliked using the verb, "to tell," to indicate transmitting an idea to dragonleaf, but didn''t have an adequate substitute.


    "Yes," the Delelens said chorus.


    "That was the point," Erzey pointed out.


    "Excellent," Bath said, walking towards the water. "Remove your veils."


    "..."


    Bath turned around. "We aren''t splashing around," he said. "We''re going to dive deep into the water. Veils will only prove an impediment."


    The Delelens gave Bath pained expressions, but didn''t argue. They unsnapped the veils from around their manes and folded them gently over their robes, which now lay on a rock beside the shore.


    Bath began to tell the Delelens about what they could expect to find under water. "While I''ve never been to this planet, and the encyclopedia holds little information about its wildlife, we can extrapolate out from what we know about the aquatic life of Illudis." This was complete nonsense: Based on what Bath could glean from twenty cubic miles of long-range manipulation coverage, none of the organisms within this sea remotely resembled any animals on modern-day Illudis.


    Juselin cocked his head, his eye ridges pressing down over his eyes. "Should we expect to find creatures like swillin?"


    Swillin...swillin...Bath wracked his mind, trying to match the word with an animal species.


    "No," Bath stated, shaking his head. "I don''t think so. Regardless, the only way to find out is to enter the water and see for ourselves."


    With a glance back, Bath waded into the sea. The Delelen cousins had no choice but to follow behind, their eyes darting nervously over the water''s surface. The sea was slightly chilly; as a result, Bath and the Delelens instinctively rose up on two legs.


    The verdora of the current time didn''t live close to the water. In fact, only a few small, traditional villages existed along fast-flowing rivers. These villages used threaded hooks to thresh water for fish-like herbivores with large, fan-like fins.


    Bath wondered if, in the distant past, verdora had closer ties to water. He''d recently wondered about the evolutionary benefits of a six-legged sapient like the verdora being able to stand bipedally, especially when walking around on two--rather than four, or six, legs--moderately decreased their agility. Perhaps walking on two legs is a response to passing through waist-high water.


    Bath and the Delelens walked bipedally until reaching a drop-off. From there, they swam forward, only their heads sticking up above the water''s surface.


    "I realize now that I didn''t ask, but can you both swim?" Bath noticed that the Delelens were vigorously pumping their legs in the water to stay afloat. If not for their enhanced strength and endurance, they would have already tired themselves out. At the same time, the two exhibited mild danger-induced excitement. I suppose that swimming in uncharted waters, if you didn''t know how to swim, would seem dangerous.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    "We''re alright," Erzey replied, craning her neck out of the water. "Swimming doesn''t seem too difficult."


    Bath tsked. "As you both know, I''m from the Wilderness. In the Wilderness, people learn how to swim." Bath actually had no idea if this was the case, but it sounded true. "Swimming is a bit like running: you move your legs in tandem with one another, pushing the water in a fluid motion. You''re both currently lashing at the water like it''s your worst nightmare."


    Bath swam over to the verdora, agilely adjusting their leg movements. While he would have ideally instructed the cousins how to swim in the shallows rather than in the open sea, Bath wanted to see how mild, prolonged danger-induced adrenaline would affect the Delelens'' progress.


    After the two had acceptable swimming technique, Bath decided it was time to move on. "So far, we''ve only swum across the sea''s surface," he stated. "We haven''t seen anything worth notice. Therefore, it''s time to dive down. First, you need to take in a breath of air."


    The Delelens took in enormous mouthfuls of air, causing both of their cheeks to puff out. However, after a second, their cheeks deflated like leaky balloons.


    Right, Bath groaned internally. The verdora nose. Verdora noses were one of the more...questionable biological adaptations that Bath had ever encountered. The noses were giant, twin slits over the top of the verdora jaw crease, where the head diverged into two mouths. The "nostrils" were each the size of a sapient eye and shaped like thin isosceles triangles. They connected directly to the wind pipe leading from the mouth to the lungs, effectively preventing the Delelens from storing up air without consciously blocking their nostrils off.


    "You need to block off your nose when you swim," Bath instructed. Verdora had a natural flap of skin that could move into position over the wind pipe before it connected to the nasal canal. All the Delelens needed to do was orient this flap into position, a maneuver that should have been trivial.


    Unfortunately, because the Delelens had never needed to hold their breaths in their lives, the two were unfamiliar with this basic aspect of their own biology.


    Didn''t they go to school? Bath grumbled internally. He knew that verdora all received an education. However, moments like these made him question its quality.


    Teaching the Delelen cousins how to properly hold their breaths underwater took a mind-boggling half hour. Bath considered teaching the Delelens an exercise in patience and acting.


    So far, none of the ninety-nine other verdora on the vanguard had noticed anything strange about Thaddeus house Clanemic of Illusta. Bath wasn''t sure if this was due to his improved acting skills or, alternatively, the glaring naivete of the assembled verdora nobles.


    Even Eyrin is fairly naive, Bath thought. He only waited two days before taking me under his wing and teaching me everything he knows. If Eyrin''s "back story" possessed any bit of truth, particularly the part regarding him faking his own death, Bath wondered how he ever pulled it off while being so...trusting.


    Suddenly, Bath felt stupid. Eyrin''s a kursi: of course he pulled it off. Lisa wasn''t the most subtle person alive; all the same, she managed to keep hidden from her parents and friends the fact that, all throughout high school, she''d accompanied Bath for hours searching for other mind-manipulators. It wouldn''t be difficult for Eyrin to affect people''s minds to believe whatever he told them.


    However, the motivation behind Eyrin''s involvement in the verdora equivalent of organized crime remained a mystery. Most people on Earth get drawn into crime because of economic circumstances. Eyrin''s a kursi prince...he shouldn''t be motivated by a financial incentive.


    Bath had the impression that Eyrin''s involvement in the Hideaway (if that was what the unsavory organization was really called) rested on ideological grounds. He recalled the kursi''s conversation with his devilbat, Clarissa:


    <blockquote>Our society prevents us from coming into contact with dangerous conditions, leading to demand for escorts, fueling an economy of high-stakes adventuring, all of it illicit.</blockquote>


    Eyrin had never brought up the "danger embargo" situation to Thaddeus. In fact, Eyrin had only mentioned the Hideaway once or twice, in passing. Is Eyrin more cautious sharing his thoughts and political ideology with me because I''m immune to kursi mind-manipulation?


    Bath snapped out of his thoughts as the Delelens assured him that they were ready to do "real adventuring" beneath the sea''s surface.


    "Follow me," Bath said, dipping seamlessly beneath the water''s surface. The Delelens followed behind, their heads slapping into the water.


    All the boons in the world can''t replace experience, Bath sighed. The cousins had all the grace of toddlers. Not that Bath held this against them: the Delelens were inexperienced. All they needed was time.


    And if they work hard, they''ll have all the time in the world.


    ---


    "Dean, I know you''re angry at Bath, but he means the best."


    Dean sat on one couch by the hallway leading to the Spire''s balcony, Lisa on the other a few feet away.


    "I''m sure," Dean replied, exhaling slowly, as though releasing the tension in his face through his breath. "But he isn''t human."


    Lisa gave him a look. "So? Juserin isn''t human. Most of the universe isn''t human, Dean."


    Dean''s expression darkened. "Lisa, you have so much blind faith in him. He isn''t--he isn''t like us. The verdora are like us. They have a clear set of values that, on the whole, match our own. Bath?" Dean shook his head. "What values does he have?"


    Lisa''s mouth popped open. "Seriously? For one, he hates dishonesty." Lisa put up a hand, halting Dean''s oncoming retort. "Don''t call him a hypocrite for working with me to form COTD. Let me elaborate: Bath doesn''t like people who lie to your face for no other reason that they want to." She smiled. "Petty people."


    Dean inhaled deeply. "Disliking petty liars doesn''t indicate that he holds a value system," Dean argued. "Who likes petty liars?"


    Lisa let out a groan. "Bath isn''t a bad person."


    Dean smiled. "He isn''t a person."


    "Did you do debate in high school?" Lisa snapped.


    "No." Dean looked at her as though she were saying that the sky was purple.


    Lisa gave him a disgusted look. "Well, please don''t twist my words: it makes me frustrated."


    "I''m just telling it like it is," Dean said. "Bath kills people and doesn''t bat an eye."


    "Isn''t that how gods are supposed to be?"


    "Bath isn''t a god."


    Lisa rubbed her arm. "Why are you so intent on painting him as the bad guy? Look at everything he''s done for you. For humanity."


    Dean''s smile grew a little wider, his expression colder. "He did all of this to me, not for me. There''s a difference."


    "Dean, you''re being stubborn: you''re arguably the most important person in the entire COTD."


    Dean understood why Lisa thought he was being stubborn. From the outside, what she was saying was true: Bath had given him numerous advantages that, although forced, were overwhelmingly generous. At the same time, he couldn''t reconcile what Bath had done--and continued to do to others--with his own values.


    "We''re not getting anywhere," he said. "If I promise to sit down and talk with Bath about my reservations regarding what he''s done specifically to me, can you talk to him about something else, something specific?"


    Lisa cocked her head to the side, then nodded. "Before I say yes, what do you want me to talk to him about?"


    "I want you to talk to him about desensitizing people to violence."


    Lisa blinked. "Oh. What do you want me to say?"


    Dean crossed his arms, leaning his right foot on his left knee. "Whatever you want." Unlike Bath, Lisa seemed like a person with a conscience. "You''re a kursi; you have the power to mentally manipulate whoever you want, and yet, you don''t."


    Lisa gave him a complex look. "Alright, I''ll talk to him. Remember, you need to sit down and have a real discussion. I don''t want you to harbor resentment toward him."


    Dean nodded. "I''ll talk to him."

 [Chapter 146] Teaching the Delelens; Discussing Baths Pragmatic Methodology

    The three verdora emerged from the water, shaking the water out of their uncovered manes. The Delelens looked at the endless shore and the surrounding jungle as though in a daze.


    "Excellent," Bath said, stepping ahead. "You have both completed your first real adventure."


    "That--less than two weeks ago, we would have died," Erzey mumbled, still out of focus.


    Unlike his cousin, Juselin''s head snapped forward, his eyes locking onto the profile of Bath''s head. "Is this what life in the Wilderness is like?" His expression was characteristically serious, his eye ridges narrowed contemplatively.


    "No," Bath replied. He decided to be blunt: "If it were, the Wilderness would be inhospitable." He led them through the dense, reedy jungle, asking them questions about the adventuring experience.


    "Juselin," he said. "Summarize the first leg of the journey, before encountering the cavern."


    He answered like a straight-A student. "We first descended into the murk beneath the surface. On our way, we encountered numerous small organisms that floated in the water. The deeper we went, the more bizarre the organisms."


    "How did we adjust--or fail to adjust--to the changing depth? Erzey."


    She gave him a questioning look. "Our bodies naturally adjusted to changes in pressure. However, we were unable to adequately adjust to low levels of light. Moreover, we needed to return to the surface every five minutes to breathe."


    Bath nodded, pushing a tubular reed out of the way. "How did our bodies adjust to the rapid changes in pressure? Juselin."


    The verdora had all fabricated dragonleaf veils as a stop-gap until they returned to New Faajyun. The Spire''s white surface stuck out in the otherwise empty sky, making for an easy return trip. The trio planned to return to the city before heading back to collect their belongings (namely their robes and veils): The shore was too long to attempt to find them now, without any useful landmarks and a darkening sky.


    The Delelen almost choked on his makeshift veil as he tried to speak, its tendriling fabric catching on his teeth. "The COTD boons enabled us to adjustto the changes in pressure," Juselin said tentatively. "Though I''m not sure how."


    Bath nodded as he leaped over a fallen bundle of reeds. "Let''s think about what we know. Erzey, did you feel anything as you descended deeper into the water?"


    "I periodically felt pain in my face, around my teeth and my ears," she said. "I felt the sharpest pain when I rose to the surface, though this pain was also quick to dissipate."


    "Did the pain dissipate because you didn''t seriously hurt your body, or because you simply healed the damage?"


    Erzey batted away a thick reed. "Uh..."


    "We healed the damage," Juselin replied, voice low and cold. "Because of COTD''s painkiller boons, it''s easy to forget how much things hurt," he continued. "Even with them, the pain which we felt was truly painful, even if transient."


    Erzey gasped. "That is true...the real pain must have been agonizing."


    Bath knew that even with the painkiller boons, the painshould have been afflictive. The only reason they were able to disregard the pain was because of their adrenaline high.Bath was pleased with this discovery: the more he studied the verdora danger response, the more useful it seemed.


    "So, then, in the first leg of our journey alone, how many times would we have all died without COTD boons? Juselin."


    "Assuming that we died every time we surfaced," he said, voice clipped. "Then add the last two deep dives, when we dove into the trench leading to the cavern...Seven times," he said.


    Bath had counted twenty times, but figured seven was close enough. The young verdora didn''t know squat about the dangers of diving.


    "Okay. Now, Erzey, why don''t you describe the second leg of the trip, when we entered the cavern."


    "During the last deep dive in the trench, we encountered the lair of a leviathan."


    Mama gurgle, Bath silently corrected. "...And?"


    "We proceeded into the lair, which sharply upturned into a large pocket of air, the cavern. We traveled through the cavern until we came face to face with the leviathan, which was slumbering at the cavern''s deepest point."


    The female gurgle had been hibernating in a watery, muddy gunk. While Bath knew that she''d wake up naturally for mating season, turns out she''d also wake up to entertain visitors.


    "Juselin, why don''t you go detail our interaction with the female gurgle?"


    Erzey coughed wildly from behind, her dragonleaf veil tangling on her teeth. "Female gurgle?"


    Bath chuckled darkly, twisting his head around. "Couldn''t you tell?"


    Her nostrils tightened, eyes blinking rapidly, skin darkening. The classic verdora blush.


    Juselin shook his head. "Thaddeus, I also am at a loss regarding your certainty behind the leviathan''s species and gender."


    Bath only noticed that the female and male gurgle were from the same species after devouring a few specimens of both. However, this was only because, externally, the two appeared completely different. On the inside, however...


    "I''ll explain in a moment," Bath said. "First, Juselin, recount the battle."


    Juselin narrowed his eyes, but proceeded to explain. "When we reached the terminus of the cavern, the...female gurgle stirred at our approach. Her eyes were hidden under mud, so I presume that she heardus, rather than saw us, coming."


    Bath nodded encouragingly.


    "She began to squirm in the mud, her tentacles whipping about. She lifted herself up to a height of eight feet above the mud''s surface and glared at us with two enormous eyes. Then, she opened her mouth."


    The description''s a little flowery, but accurate, Bath thought.


    The mouth of a female gurgle lies underneath a curtain of tentacles and a vertical slit of skin. The vertical slit folds outward, turning inside out to reveal teeth studded within.A female gurgle''s mouth looks like a human mouth, if human teeth were embedded in the flesh of the cheeks and palate, about an inch away from the lips.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "The gurgle used her tentacles to propel herself forward, as though trying to flatten us with her mass." Not a terrible strategy, Bath thought. The female gurgle is a quivering fatty mess. "We jumped away, dodging the strike. The gurgle began to roll around, however, her teeth cleaving into the ground like grinders."


    "And?"


    "She crushed my foot under her body, though she was unable to impale me with her teeth. At this point, Erzey rushed over to the gurgle and batted her away. The gurgle rolled away like a cannon ball, smashing into the wall."


    Verdora have a word that translates to "cannon ball?"


    "Erzey, you continue."


    "After the gurgle crashed into the wall, she became extremely angry and launched herself back in our direction. Then, she began to recklessly throw herself onto the cavern''s floor, as though she were a hammer trying to smash us. Unfortunately for her, we were able to dodge the rest of her onslaught and she collapsed, exhausted."


    "Juselin?"


    "Then, as the gurgle lay in a blubbery heap, Thaddeus...pounced onto it and bisected it from the top of its body down to its writhing mouth."


    Bath frowned. I didn''t bisect it. I merely cut half a foot into its cranial region, slicing its brain as I parted the skin between its eyes. Juselin makes it sound like I did something...barbaric. In Bath''s mind, he''d done little more than gut a fish.


    "What happened next?"


    "The gurgle let out a few gurgling noises before it went limp. Then, you...proceeded to rip it into two halves. You then dissected the gurgle and explained to us what everything inside of it meant."


    Based on Juselin''s tone alone, Bathknew the dissection hadunsettled him and his cousin. In the moment,Bath had noticed their discomfort plain as day. However, he had gone through with the dissection because, if anything else, learning to dissect your enemies for potential weak points was a useful skill.


    "What did you learn from the dissection? Erzey." Bath asked. I hope they learned something...


    "The female gurgle''s body has very little things within it. It only has a long, thin, squiggly brain, a swillin-sized stomach--" I need to look up swillin in the encyclopedia-- "tentacles, and a fleshy mouth."


    "There''s more to the gurgle than those things, isn''t there?"


    Erzey frowned. "The rest is just...rubbery, jiggly flesh. It''s packed on in layers, providing the gurgle a solid shock-absorbing defense."


    Bath turned back toward the cousins. They were almost at the city''s walls, only a minute or so left of travel. "Juselin," he began. "Based on the dissection, why was I able to conclude that the leviathan, as Erzey called it, is a female gurgle?"


    Silence fell over the group for a solid five seconds. Then, from Juselin: "Its cranium was wrapped in a skin-like sac. At the base of the sac was a few small globes, within which were...something. I confess I didn''t pay much attention to them."


    Bath wasn''t too surprised. This was a lesson in being observant, in trying to pick up on things that weren''t obvious, or, more importantly, weren''t pointed out.


    "You''ve hit the nail on the head," Bath said. "If you would have looked closer, you would have been able to make out the forms of three half-developed gurgles, two of them male. I presume that gurgle mating season recently passed; the female took her clutch of fertilized eggs into this cavern. The rest is history."


    Erzey gave him a dumbfounded expression, while Juselin eyed him intently. However, before the cousins could say anything in response, the trio arrived at the gates of New Faajyun.


    ---


    "You wanted to talk?" Bath said, settling into the cushions of Lisa''s upper-story Spire abode.


    Lisa sighed. He looks so innocent, staring up at me with his wide eyes. "Bath."


    "Lisa." He gave her a lopsided grin.


    "We need to talk about...what''s going on." Ugh. Too general. "Let me elaborate: I know we both agreed that COTD would, eventually, diverge along two different routes: one centered around peace, primarily learning, and the other around combat and expansion."


    "Right."


    "Regarding the latter, how exactly have we gone about...ensuring that people are ready to fight?" She wetted her lips. "If hostile alien sapients were to invade right now, how would we react?"


    "Assuming that you, myself, and a few heavy-hitters like Dean are insufficient to deal with the threat...we''d send in people who have all their boons. Neophyte verdora have enough raw power and speed to check almost any threat: give them and the humans a month, a year, and we should prepared. Not to mention the quasi-sapients..."


    Lisa cocked her head. "Okay. So how do we make sure that the people we send to fight actually will fight? In general, COTD members are untested for battle and might freeze up."


    "We solved this problem," Bath replied. "Everything went swimmingly when we sent our untested COTDlegion against the U.S. army."


    "I''m still fairly unclear how much of the victory can be attributed to the humans," Lisa retorted. "There were around six-thousand quasies and twenty-four thousand humans on site. There were approximately fifty-thousand U.S. troops. Of those, we only killed a few thousand and maimed a lot more; however, how many of those casualties were due to human activity? For instance, I have information saying that each jerboa killed on average one-hundred soldiers."


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "Lisa. Didn''t you see the humans fight in their little battle formations and groups?"


    Lisa nodded. "They seemed to form almost...organically."


    "The human body count was only lower because the humans moved in groups, as opposed to jerboa, who worked alone. Most humans simply couldn''t find humans to kill."


    "But, Bath," Lisa began, "humans don''t normally act like that, grouping up and hunting down people."


    Bath sighed. "I know." He squeezed his eyes shut. "Humans need conditioning to work together. Clearly delineated power hierarchies. Moreover, they need superiors they can trust." He gave her a knowing look.


    All true, Lisa thought. Ugh, this is a harder point to bring up than I originally thought. "I''ve been thinking about how to square...that, with COTD''s motto of self-determination," she said. "Isn''t the whole...making people form groups and relentlessly search and destroy enemies...removing people''s free will?"


    Bath cocked his head. "Well, I already updated how the painkiller boon works," he admitted. "Humans acting like a pack of wolves is a symptom of modifying the nervous system, as I explained the other day." He rolled his head on the couch cushion. "I told you about how the brain worked, and about action potentials, right?"


    "Nothing that I hadn''t read about in biology."


    Bath chuckled. "Well, I changed the perceived thresholds for pain,screening out low levels of pain, and modified pain reception across the board, decreasing pain felt. I also added a different, secondary setting that could be triggered through release of a hormone I designed for this express purpose."


    "What triggers the hormone?"


    "Oh, for now, only I can trigger its release," Bath stated. "But don''t you want to know what the secondary setting does?"


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "No, I''m not curious in the least."


    "It...well, it makes people exude pheromones, causing them trust one another and band together. I made it so that people who used certain boons more often than others would exude complementary pheromones and group up."


    "...That doesn''t sound like a side-effect of the pain-killer boon."


    Bath shrugged. "The next part is: people killing other people is a symptom of detachment. While the painkiller boon, in its normal operating state, works well enough, the secondary setting--with the pheromones and stuff--sends it into overdrive."


    Lisa looked at him blankly. "So, what, the secondary setting turns everyone into a group of psychopaths?"


    "I just told you, I updated how the painkiller boon works," he replied, flopping exasperatedly against the cushions. "Actually, the main reason why I even thought to change it was Dean."


    Lisa''s eyes widened slightly. "Why?"


    "Well, he explained it in pragmatic terms, reminding me that keeping enemies alive and converting them is better than the alternative. So I modified the secondary setting to no longer put the painkiller boon into high gear."


    "Do we even need the secondary setting, though?" Lisa asked.While I''m glad he nixed the "psychopath engage" button, do weevenneed the ability tomake people form groups on the fly?


    Bath shrugged. "Based on how strong one COTD member is, probably not. Hence why only I can activate it."


    I suppose that''s true, Lisa thought.And now that I know more about this, I''m not going to let him activate the secondary setting lightly."Good to know. Y''know, Bath, I''m glad you removed the modified painkiller boon from the secondary setting."


    "Because it makes practical sense?"


    "Because it''s the right thing to do," she grinned, flicking her finger towards his face. "Sometimes, I find that, with everything we''re trying to do, it''s easy to lose sight of our mission. But don''t forget: we''re doing this to free all sapients from oppression. From what we''ve seen of the universe so far, there sure seems to be a lot of it, whether from Akila Galaxy or the secretive Core Worlds."


    Bath smiled. "I know. Tell me if I ever seem to lose sight of the end goal, okay?"


    Lisa nodded. "I expect that you''ll do the same for me."

 [Chapter 147] Fending off the Quasi-Squirrels; Traveling to Drift Jag

    Dean worked into the night to organize who would remain on Equinox, sending out various thought-to-text messages with detailed instructions. Sending the quasies--particularly the quasi-squirrels--their assignments proved to be a slight headache. He sent out two messages to the squirrels, one to those who would stay on Equinox and another to those who would proceed onto...Drift Jag.


    Dean groaned internally at the name. Drift Jag? Lisa claimed it was a literal translation from the planet''s verdora-given name. Just because it''s a literal translation doesn''t mean we have to use it. He could think of a million better names for a planet with jutting mountains and Earth-like deserts.


    The problem with sending the squirrels messages was that the squirrels tried to respond back. Not through digital means--they had no way to send him messages over chip reader. Instead, the squirrels designated to stay on Equinox collaborated to track him down and accost him, demanding that they be sent along to Drift Jag.


    Dean understood the logic behind the request: staying on Equinox while the others continued to other planets wasn''t optimal. Were the situation reversed, he knew that he''d be disappointed.


    At the same time, I''m fairly certain they''re only protesting because if I go on ahead, they can''t accumulate anymore Dean signatures.


    While Dean didn''t condone the use of his signatures (and signed photos) as currency, he didn''t know how to stop the squirrels from collecting them. He could technically order them to stop--they''d listen to a direct order...probably--but Dean considered such a measure heavy-handed.


    And so, while Dean toiled all night long to transmit messages and take stock of their food stores, (really, what was Bath thinking when he designed the quasi-bears to be so hungry?) Virigard patrolled the Spire''s office. Dean had long since filtered out the light swooshing-sound of her body cavorting from the balcony to the office door and back. The squirrels almost made a game of it, tag-teaming Virigard from both office openings and trying to sneak in.


    Unfortunately for them, Virigard obsessively liked games.


    When morning came, Dean gave her a smug nod and stood from his office chair. He led her out of the Spire and outside, meeting with the rest of the assembled vanguard. He had told all those advancing onto Drift Jag to be ready at 8:00 UST, the arbitrary military time-zone that the vanguard was using. From his chip reader, Dean gleaned that the time read 8:32. If anybody wasn''t ready to go by now, Dean felt no qualms leaving them behind. We have a lot of people as it is, he thought. A few more on Equinox versus Drift Jag won''t make a difference.


    "Viri," he said, glancing over at her sleek, gently-bouncing form.


    Her tail twitched. "Yes Dean?"


    "How many squirrels did you stop?"


    Virigard hummed softly. "Maybe...three-hundred?"


    Dean nodded, his lips quirking up into a smile. "Thirty rum cokes, when we get back to Earth," he promised.


    ---


    Eyrin''s hands lay over Clarissa''s mane, barely touching the strands of meticulously-dyed hair.


    "You''re going to fall off," she grumbled.


    Eyrin knew her heart wasn''t really in the argument. "I''ll be fine. If I fall, you''ll catch me."


    "You know, you verdora are weird," she sighed. "Last time I saw your brethren on horses, they all went crazy. Now, they''re running alongside the horses like everyone else, and still..."


    Eyrin smirked. "I know. They need to get out more." Most verdora were still too affected by any danger, such as moving at high speeds.


    Clarissa shook her head, batting her wings against a draft of warm air. "They''ve been out plenty," she argued. "If you''d been around, you would have noticed that they went out into the jungle surrounding New Faajyun and interacted with nearby wildlife. Your protege and his two followers went as far as the sea to the city''s southwest."


    Eyrin scoffed. That sea is only filled with harmless, jelly-filled, lantern-shaped animals. "Like I said, they need to get out more."


    "Where were you, then?" Clarissa asked. "I hear that Clanemic and the Delelens had quite an adventure."


    I''ll have to follow up on that later, Eyrin thought. "Mm...I went to the East," he replied. "I found a network of caves."


    "Did you find anything dangerous there?" Clarissa asked, rolling her eyes.


    Eyrin smiled. "The caves themselves were fairly perilous," he admitted. "I didn''t find any truly dangerous organisms."


    "Oh, really?" the devilbat asked.


    "...If you don''t count eyeless, thousand-toothed jumping fish and web-spinning glow stalkers."


    Clarissa''s mouth dropped. "What...you need to explain what those are."


    Eyrin chuckled. "The jumping fish were small, not even the size of my hand," he said. "When I was crossing through some of the water-logged areas of the cave network, the fish would swarm."This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Sounds deadly," Clarissa sighed.


    "Maybe two weeks ago," Eyrin admitted. "The web-spinners were these...stick-like, exoskeletal creatures with the propensity to create long, gooey strings of webbing across the ceilings of the cave. These strings had bits of phosphorescent glow studded within them, though for the most part were completely invisible in the lightless setting."


    "Those don''t sound deadly."


    "The web-spinners are twenty-feet across," Eyrin added. "Their strands of webbing are thick enough to catch villin."


    "Villin?"


    "Mm...it''s a large, horned animal on Illudis."


    "So, like a bull," Clarissa said slowly.


    Eyrin looked the English term up. "Sure." The similarity between a villin and a bull was uncanny; Eyrin had difficulty judging whether the main difference between the two was due to the six legs or the two maws. Everything else looked approximately the same, if one ignored differences in coloration.


    "So, maybe deadly," the devilbat amended. "Did the web-spinner trap you and try to suck your blood?"


    "No," Eyrin grinned. "I used the network of webbing to roll across the top of several connected caves."


    Clarissa snorted. "Okay. No offense, but your adventure sounds way less cool than Clanemic''s."


    "Why?" Eyrin asked, curiosity piqued. He''d planned to simply ask Thaddeus for details later, but if Clarissa was willing to tell him now while they traveled to the exit gate...why not?


    "So, Thaddeus house Clanemic and the two Delelens found an underwater cave at the bottom of a trench. A few verdora and humans went out to see for themselves, and found that the trench proceeded for thousands of feet."


    Rods, Eyrin sighed internally. Rods are the universal standard. Why do these humans--and their quasi-sapient vassals--insist on using a backwater term of measure? "Was the cave in its entirety underwater?"


    "No," the devilbat said, pulsing her wings upward into an approaching fog. "The underwater part of the cave led into pocket of air. At the end of the air-filled cavern, Clanemic and the Delelens fought off a giant, violent, female gurgle."


    Eyrin blinked. "Gurgle?"


    "You went to the beach before," Clarissa stated, "so you should remember seeing the, uh...large, squid-like creature on the beach."


    Squid? Despite his ignorance of the word''s meaning, Eyrin did recall a large creature on the shore surrounding the sea. Since this was the only creature bigger than a fist, he figured that this must be what Clarissa was referencing.


    "I remember." He tightened his grip as Clarissa corkscrewed through a somewhat-violent tropical storm, the wind and rain beating against both of their bodies.


    "Well, that thing is a gurgle."


    "They fought a gurgle?" he said, voice incredulous. "What, do the docile creatures possess hidden scythes or lasers that turn them into a threat?"


    "They didn''t go into a secreted cavern just to fight any gurgle," Clarissa snorted. "The gurgles on the shore are all male. The gurgle in the cavern?"


    "Female."


    "Clanemic took a video recording of the fight," Clarissa said, beaming, her teeth glistening. "I''ll share it with you later."


    "Later" turned out to be in five minutes, as soon as the vanguard passed through the tropical storm. With only calm winds at her back, Clarissa could spare the concentration needed to manipulate her chip reader and share the video with Eyrin.


    "That''s a female gurgle?" he murmured, entranced by the footage. Clarissa was right: Thaddeus did have a better adventure than myself.


    After the video finished, he let out a grunt of defeat. "Maybe some of the verdora did get out a bit and experience a little adventure. Did any of the others encounter anything similarly dangerous?"


    "The others all stayed in the jungle, for the most part. The few that went later to investigate the underwater air-pocket don''t count."


    My protege is improving at such a breakneck pace, he thought. I can hardly wait for our return to Illudis, together.


    ---


    "I''m glad that everyone''s through the gate," Lisa said, sitting back in a dragonleaf chair. "How long for the city-seed to finish growing?"


    Bath glanced over. "No longer than half an hour."


    Lisa nodded. "Also, when we choose the path to the gate next time, we should probably try to avoid extreme weather."


    Bath chuckled softly. "The verdora certainly had the time of their lives."


    "Every time lightning struck, they all went a little crazy," she complained. "And then when we ran through that one stepped region of jungle, they started trying to slide with the mudslides."


    Bath shrugged, looking out over the nascent city-seed. "They''ll get better with time."


    A few minutes later, Lisa asked, "So: after trying things both ways--putting the city-seed at the exit gate on Vast Desert, and at the entrance gate on Equinox--do you have a preference?"


    "Well," he said, looking at her. "We''ve already started growing this city-seed at the entrance gate. I guess that works fine."


    So, no preference, Lisa thought. "Who''s in charge of growing this city-seed?" Lisa asked.


    Bath gave her a guilty look. "Fartuun."


    Blinking, Lisa adjusted her position on the hastily-constructed seat. "Oh. Because of...everything?"


    "Yeah. But more than that, because I''m curious to see what she can do with a few extra PP per month." He looked back toward the city-seed, fixating on its infant Spire.


    Lisa followed his gaze. The Spire looks like a snake winding its way into the air. "I get you. If she can continue to invest in the boon paths that have allowed her to oversee the development of technology, this will accentuate the capabilities of her V-Tap." What those capabilities were, Lisa wasn''t entirely sure: while AI Ninety-Seven had told the two of them about the V-Tap and its processing capabilities, Lisa had a hard time visualizing what such a...massively powerful implant could do.


    Half an hour passed. Lisa and Bath moved into the city, the two of them rejoining the kursi and verdora, respectively. Bath had created avatars of the two of them as stand-ins, allowing for them to meet away from the rest of the vanguard.


    Bath simply led his copy of her out of the group of kursi and out of eyeshot, probably giving some excuse such as needing to go to the bathroom. Lisa simply met with the copy and returned back a minute later.


    They didn''t notice anything different between her and Bath''s copy, enabling her to seamlessly slip back into the flow of a conversation the kursi had been arguing the whole way over.


    It was a stupid argument, but the kursi had little else to do as they trekked overland to reach Drift Jag. They''d discussed pros and cons for much of the way, and were only now, as the first Drift Jag city-seed grew to completion, debating the two sides.


    "I think we should definitely colonize empty worlds," Priscilla stated. "It''s apparently a common practice throughout the universe. Besides, if COTD''s life-prolonging stuff pans out, humans are going to rely on colonizing other worlds, just for space."


    Ida, on the other hand, seemed uncertain. "But if so, what kind of planets should we colonize? The kinds that are like Vast Desert, or Mars, certainly." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "But what about worlds like Equinox? The planet holds no it sapient life now, but, one day...it could, potentially.


    Lisa listened to the debate; however, her attention also drifted to the cool, dry, environment on Drift Jag and its teal sky. Almost like White Sun, this city-seed ingrained itself onto the face of a mountain. However, in this case, the mountain was small enough to serve as only a section of the city, its sleet-ray form almost blending into the darker, ashier segments of dragonleaf.


    "Lisa," a voice rang out. She refocused on the conversation.


    "Hm?"


    Zhou gave her a calm smile. "What''s your opinion?"

 [Chapter 148] Radioactivity Beneath the Mountain; Discovery Below; Bug-bots!?

    "Lisa, What''s your opinion?" Zhou asked.


    Lisa opened her mouth to respond.


    She never got the chance.


    ---


    "AI Ninety-Seven," Bath said, spinning around in a spinny-chair he''d brought into the craft. Its black, plastic, cushionedform was refreshingly synthetic. "What is it?"


    "The ground here is showing signs of radiation," it replied.


    Bath cocked his head. Now that he thought about it, the city-seeds growth was a bit odd; some of the buildings were growing in wrong, requiring him to provide manual corrections.


    "Is it trace radiation?" Bath wondered, scooting his chair up to the craft''s false windows. If it was only radiation left over from something else--like a nuclear detonation--he''d just manually transplant the seed to another location himself. After a few cycles of growth, he''d be able to isolate any radioactivity and send it off to ground zero.


    "No. Something underground is sending out alpha particle waves, inducing radioactivity in the surrounding area."


    Bath looked at the android dumbly. "This isn''t a sapient world," he said. "Is there anything natural that could produce the alpha particle waves?"


    "In the natural world, nothing is absolute," the android replied cryptically. "However, for this planet, the probability of naturally producing localized alpha waves of this strength is nil."


    Bath couldn''t get over the fact that the radioactivity-inducing waves were only showing up here, right where COTD decided to put down a new city-seed. I think I would have noticed if the grass on this mountain exhibited signs of radioactive mutation.Moreover, what were the chances of such a strange phenomenon being just outside of the planet''s entrance gate?


    Even as this thought passed through his mind, he realized that this wasn''t in fact the case: he had nothing to compare the grass to, having only just stepped onto the planet. Though it looked like the grass of Earth--green and spiky--it had its own unique evolutionary history.


    "I''ll investigate," Bath grumbled. In an instant, his body disappeared and reappeared outside the craft as he transferred his Center along the gaseous pool of essence saturating the Egdelek Arc and the outside area within his range.Because his range reached into the center of the new city-seed, he was able to immediately reform next to the Anima and its upper level, the Spire.


    He zipped forward as a small spearrow look-alike, darting down to the ground and changing into the form of a jerboa. He dug a hole, disappearing down its rapidly-lengthening depth for a few hundred feet. Then, content that he was alone, he assumed the form of his rock-rending worm--the same form he''d used to eat his way through the mantle of the Tortus.


    He didn''t know what he was looking for as he dug through the rocky mountainside under the still unnamed city-seed. His goal, for now, was to create a network of tunnels through which he could send his essence.


    This was a job usually reserved for the jerboa: he just did it faster. And, if the radioactivity was serious, it was much safer for him to carve out the mountain''s underbelly. He wasn''t entirely sure what harm alpha particle waves could cause mammalian bodies. If the radiation adversely affected the brain...he wasn''t confident that he could freely reverse the damage.


    He doubted damage from radioactivity would affect their brains in a truly deleterious manner--radioactivity killed people by giving them cancer, not psychosis or memory loss--but...better safe than sorry. He liked his quasies, damn it.


    A few minutes into carving up the mountain, Bath stopped digging. He rotated his worm''s maw in shock, then proceeded in a new direction, thinking.


    ---


    "Lisa," Bath said, whispering into her ear. "There''s another alien ship beneath the mountain that''s sending out radioactivity. Well, I think it is, at least.You need to come down--actually, scratch that, I''ll just bring the ship up. Give me a few minutes"


    Lisa''s words caught in her throat. She looked around at the expectant kursi, her eyes growing wide. "Uh, I think we should ask people who actually do this stuff for a living. Consultants, people who study ethics, lawyers." She coughed, then stood up. "The best response I can give is that we need to look at each planet individually and assess the pros and cons behind colonizing it."


    This was apparently an acceptable answer, so Zhou nodded and asked Khalid to give his opinion. The man gave Zhou a dubious look and turned around before talking about the effects of colonialism on the Middle East.


    ---


    "Erzey, Juselin, I hear that the jerboa have already carved out a network of tunnels beneath the city," Bath said, lazing with the other verdora in one of the city-seeds cookie-cutter gardens. While most of his attentions were focused on digging up the Arc, he also recognized the need to keep up pretenses. Moreover, theDragon wasn''t supposed to intervene directly in things more than necessary. Sure, the Dragon could excavate the Arc, but so could anyone else.


    As usual, Bath only addressed his two official followers. However, around fifty other verdora lay in the gardens, listening in on the conversation.


    "We should investigate. Who knows what''s beneath the mountainside?" he said, shamelessly pushing his agenda.


    The Delelens gave him excited looks. "Certainly," they chorused.


    Two minutes later,the fifty-three verdora were filing single-file into the tunnelBath had hollowed out onlyfive minutes before.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Let''s see what''s this way?" Bath said, leading them directly toward the still submerged Arc.


    Soon, they arrived at its exposed back entrance hatch. Because only the shiny, white hatch was visible, none present recognized it for what it was.


    "This is different from the stone," Bath said, looking back. "What is your opinion of it?"


    Erzey narrowed her eyes. Juselin inclined his head slightly, snorting into his veil. "It bears a striking resemblance to the material used to make the new ships." He stepped forward and placed a hand to the hatch''s surface. As he did so, the hatch popped open, revealing a familiar--though markedly different--interior.


    The inside was that of a bedroom, though it looked like it had been ransacked. The furniture had all been either overturned or smashed in; moreover, because the ship wasn''t level, the furniture had all fallen to the right side of the room in a jumble.


    "Another Arc?" Erzey mumbled, following Bath and Juselin into the craft.


    The other verdora stood behind, looking uncertain. Bath looked over his shoulders and shouted, "Anybody up for adventure, come along."


    The fifty-three verdora congested the main corridor of the vessel, their footfalls echoing conspicuously through the seemingly empty craft.


    Does this craft have its own form of artificial intelligence? Bath wondered. He would have expected to see something like AI Ninety-Seven by now.


    Even as he walked through the craft as Thaddeus, he continued, as a worm, to burrow an exit path for the ship through the mountain up to the surface.


    Soon, they arrived at the door to the control room. Unlike the Egdelek Arc, the door shone a bright orange. Bath wondered offhandedly who chose the color scheme.He pushed the door open, revealing the room''s interior.


    He stepped gingerly through the threshold, the Delelens flanking him, eyes alert and muscles coiled. He understood why.


    So, there was an android at one point.


    "What happened to it?" Erzey gasped, skin darkening. The contingent of verdora all locked eyes on the gutted form of what was clearly a clone of AI Ninety-Seven. It robotic form sprawled on the ground, chest completely gutted, as though some animal had ripped clean through and gored it.


    "I''m going to see if I can fly this ship to the surface," Bath said, padding toward the familiar control pedestal. "We can have COTD''s engineers inspect it then."


    Suddenly, a loud crack noise sounded out. Silence fell over the room. Bath''s eyes narrowed as he stepped back from the control pedestal. He then noticed something interesting.


    The sigils in this room are all completely different from the Egdelek Arc, except for one: the one that I accidentally changed. That sigil is here.


    Before he could adequately inspect the sigils, another crack rang out. This time, instead of coming indistinctly from the main corridor, the sound seemed to come from above.


    Peculiar, considering that there''s nothing above the ceiling. According to the blueprints, at least; Bath supposed that he ought to ask the engineers to know for sure.


    Then, instead of a crack, a long, metallic rip rang out. If the first sound came from everywhere, and the second sound indistinctly from above, the third sound came from directly above the pedestal. A few verdora gasped and recoiled as the ceiling ripped outward from the inside, white metal-plastic curling up and around. A few small, tile-like white segments fell onto the floor below.


    A second after the ripping noise, a shiny, silvery form about the size of aGerman shepherd dropped down to the ground. Its limbs clicked as its body made jerky, insect-like movements.


    Well, observed Bath, this is new. He considered trying to talk to it, but only for a moment.


    The robotic creature wasted only a moment''s worth of time before launching its assault.


    To the left of Bath, Erzey was the closest to the robotic invader and thus the first to receive its attack. The robot darted nimbly forward, slicing at Erzey with a sharpened appendage. She defended with a dragonleaf-armored forearm, striking back by elevating onto her back legs andmauling the robot with her second pair of hands.


    The robot sustained serious damage, its internal components sparking where Erzey ripped them apart. She, on the other hand, remained unhurt, the dragonleaf arm guard shrugging off the robot''s slash.


    "Mm, good," Bath said. "Everyone," he continued, raising his voice. "There should be more coming. They aren''t too strong, nor are they very sturdy, but remember: two weeks ago, they would have killed any of us without difficulty. Don''t be careless."


    More turned out to be an understatement. Scarcely two minutes later, the fight spilled out from the control room into the main corridor. At least a thousand of the sharp-limbed, fleet-footed bug-bots had swarmed in, engaging the fifty-three verdora. The most annoying part of the situation was that, even after the bug-bots were rendered unfit for battle, their dysfunctional formslay strewnabout the ground. Anywhere the verdora stepped, they fell within a one or two feet of their fallen adversaries.


    And, apparently,even with most of their componentsbroken, they could swipe their bladed arms out. Even some of the ones that had been most savagely trashed--their entire bodies smashed to smithereens--retained the ability to move their spiky legs back and forth.


    In any other setting--such as an open field--the bug-bots would have been easy foes to beat. However, in the closed-off ship, the verdora had to fight an incoming stream of bug-bots in a space littered with defeated bug-bots swinging their legs around like bladed propellers.


    Bath had to admit that the bug-bots were frustratingly resilient. One of the flaws ofthe verdora''s inexperience--and their danger adrenaline--was that they were overexerting themselves and running out of energy. While Bath had taken great pains to make his close combat boons energy-efficient all while enhancing the ability of the sapient body to store energy,the verdora couldn''t continue fighting for too much longer.


    After subduing two robots near the pedestal, he did the only thing that made sense, considering that he''d finished the tunnel to the surface before the fight even began: he activated the manual flight controls of the pedestal.


    Can''t be too difficult, he thought. While AI Ninety-Seven had always handled flying the Egdelek Arc, the new, man-made Arcs were all human-piloted (though, of course, computer assisted). Bath wouldn''t have any software assisting him, but all he needed to do was drive the Arc straight forward--it was already oriented at a diagonal, nearly perpendicular to the slant of the mountain.


    He gunned the ship''s engines and felt an uncharacteristic jerk as it launched forward. Too fast, Bath cringed, jabbing his right index finger into the pedestal. The ship''s acceleration slowed, though it continued forward, picking up speed.


    "You''re hitting the tunnel!" Juselin roared, stomping on a whirring leg to his left and blocking the thrusts of two bug-bots attacking from the left and right. "Doesn''t it have an auto-pathing algorithm?"


    Bath shook his head. "No; I think that''s what the AI--" he pointed in the direction of the AI Ninety-Seven look-alike-- "is supposed to do."


    Bath cringed with each heavy scrape of the ship against the rock. He tried to use his essence to cushion the ship as it flew out of the mountain, but the needle-shaped ship''s body was too long and massive toproperly shield.


    Shit, Bath thought as the ship bumped especially hard against a segment of tunnelborderinganother segment of tunnel. He heard a distant rumbling sound. I really hope I didn''t just commence the collapse of the mountain...


    ---


    Lisa listened to the debate for fifteen minutes, then felt Bath''s weird little disembodied mouth clear its throat (?) beneath her ear. She coughed, then walked toward the control room''s exit, saying, "I''ll be back in a--"


    The shiny, new, man-made kursi Arc shook. Lisa turned around, looking through the ship''s window. Her jaw dropped.


    "Well, that''s interesting," Zhou said, turning around along with everyone else. He massaged his jaw, then asked in the same way he''d ask about the weather, "Is that another Arc?"

 [Chapter 149] Landing the Ship; Speculations; Evacuation; New Mogadishu

    "Well, that''s interesting. Is that another Arc?" Zhou asked.


    "Sorry, that''s me," Bath murmured, his disembodied mouth speaking directly into Lisa''s ear.


    Lisa stared blankly at the Arc torpedoing out of the mountainside and into the air. "What?"


    "You might want to drive the kursi Arc off the mountain," Bath said. "The city may no longer be structurally stable. Moreover, the radiation is potentially unsafe..."


    ---


    Bath was working feverishly to plug all tunnels beneath the mountain with dragonleaf. Last time, after the death of the tortus, White Sun''s mountain had collapsed in a similar fashion. However, unlike last time where dragonleaf ravenously tore into the tortus'' fleshy corpse, the dragonleaf here dug into the mountain''s rocky interior.


    To Bath''s relief, rock proved an easier dragonleaf substrate than tortus flesh. The dragonleaf rapidly expanded out to burgeon the mountain, stoppingits collapse before it could really start.


    While Bath was relieved that the mountain was stabilized, he was otherwise occupied by the chaos aboard the surfacing Arc. Just because he (Thaddeus) was flying the ship out of the mountain didn''t mean that the situation had improved. Even as he steered the Arc, numerous bug-bots lunged and slashed at him, their limbs silver gleams at the corners of his eyes.


    Moreover, the fifty-two other verdora worked hard enough fending off their own bug-bot adversaries while the ship was stable: Now, as it cavorted and twisted through the mountain and into the air, they had to fight with the ground moving out from under them. The Arc had stabilizing systems to negate inertia and protect the ship''s inhabitants from G-force. However, the way that Bath drove the Arc rendered them insufficient.


    Bath eventually touched the ship down five miles from the nascent city-seed. The landing wasn''t pretty, but since he''d landed the ship into a bank of sand, he felt confident that any sustained damage was minimal.


    After the ship stopped moving, Bath led the verdora on a charge back through the main corridor, opening up the hatch in the bedroom and ushering everyone out. The bug-bots didn''t attempt to follow past the ship''s threshold.


    The contingent of verdora welcomed the reprieve from fighting with sighs of relief. Many of them were completely exhausted and lay on the sand, their chests heaving. Others simply sat and watched the ship with careful eyes, wary for a potential attack.


    Bath looked over to the Delelens, giving them a lopsided (albeit veiled) smile. "Tell me: How was your second real adventure?"


    ---


    "Let''s continue along this line of thought," Lisa said, standing at the front of one of the Spire''s conference rooms on the lower levels. While the conference rooms on White Sun remained without compare--the city''s all-glass, prismatic Spire was stunning to behold--the typical, unmodified conference room of the nascent city-seed was sufficient for their needs.


    Lisa currently stood in front of a white wall, her chip reader projecting a series of questions onto its level surface.


    The whiteboard currently looked like so:


    ------------------------------------------------------------


    Why does the ship have bug-bots?


    What gives off radiation?


    Why are the sigils different?


    The android is dead. AI Ninety-Seven?


    Is the ship definitively from the same organization (Fezosisn) as the Arc?


    Why did the ship crash?


    How did it end up beneath a mountain?


    When did the ship crash?


    Who was the former pilot and where is he/she now?


    Why is the ship fully operational?


    ------------------------------------------------------------


    She recorded Dean''s question, wishing dejectedly that they''d decided to bring wasps on the vanguard. They''re damn good advisors...and scribes. Of course, she and Bath had never anticipated running into so much trouble on their way back to Earth: Bringing the wasps on a "routine" trip seemed like overkill.


    "I think we have enough questions for now," Lisa said, sighing and walking over to the nearest chair. "Do either of you have any theories?" She looked at the Dean and Bath, who were currently looking disinterestedly at one another. "Okay, well, I have a theory of my own. I think that the ship likely headed out on the same mission as the Egdelek Arc. While I don''t have evidence, I think that the Arcs headed out at different times, a few years apart, and that all of them were intercepted around the same general area." Lisa exhaled. "I''ve been doing some research on the way that gates connect to one another, as well as consulting with Eyrin, who received a formal education on the universe gate economy."


    Dean nodded. "I know a bit about it myself after talking to Juserin."


    Dean spoke to Juserin...about economics? Lisa found the idea somewhat incredible. "Oh? What did Juserin say?" If anyone knew how networks of gates functioned, it would be Juserin.


    Dean tilted his head forward, as though trying to consider how to word his response. "I transcribed exactly what he said," he began, "though considering that fact that he spoke for over an hour on the subject, I''ll try to condense his explanation. Um." He took in a breath. "Gates exist all over the known universe. They originally expanded out from the Ildr, the universe''s center." Dean frowned, giving Lisa a confused look. "What exactly do sapients mean by the word, ''universe?''"This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Lisa matched his expression. "The universe is--well, the vast expanse of space," she replied.


    Dean sighed. "But that can''t be it," he retorted. "The records in the encyclopedia talk about the universe being trillions of years old. More specifically, they state that records only exist for the past twenty-nine billion years. However," he said, giving Lisa and Bath a hard look, "the universe is only supposed to be just under 14 billions years old."


    Lisa chewed her lip. "Earth''s scientists could just be wrong."


    Bath remained quiet, watching the exchange.


    "How could they be that wrong?" Dean exclaimed. "Calculating a rough estimate of the universe''s age is easy, if you have data on stars and planar bodies. Calculating the universe''s size based on its current speed of expansion andaccelerationthereof suggests that, at the very least, the universe is less than twenty billion years old." He raised an eyebrow. "And the encyclopedia talks about trillions of years?"


    Lisa tsked. "Maybe it has something to do with relativity, and perception of time," Lisa suggested, crossing her arms. "Or maybe, the universe expands and collapses, and it collapsed twenty-nine billions years ago. That would expand why records don''t exist from before that time: records literally...disappeared as the universe remade itself."


    Dean put his hands on the table. "I''m sure we can find out more about this later," he said. "The only reason why I brought this up is because I''m trying to understand exactly what gates are. Everything I''ve heard from Juserin or read from other sources are incredibly vague: are gates portals to distant locations within one contiguous universe, or, portals to other planes of existence? Er, other dimensions?"


    "Uh..." Lisa frowned. "I don''t think so. For instance, the Zder galaxy has been--" she made air quotes with her fingers-- "peaceful for the past twenty-two billion years. That''s most of the age of this universe, which is still more than fourteen billion years. That galaxy is definitely in one place."


    "Life-supporting stars don''t live that long," Dean grumbled. "They live for only a few billion years before dying. Maybe ten billion years. A planet existing for more than ten billion years--as much as twenty-two billion years--seems impossible."


    Lisa shrugged. "Zder isn''t a planet, like Earth, with only one star," she chided. "It''s a galaxy. It has lots of stars. And planets. Anyway, since when do you know anything about astronomy?"


    Dean closed his eyes and massaged his temples. "I needed to level through the scholar boon," he muttered. "Let''s get back to the main questions."


    Lisa smiled. "That''s my line. If I recall correctly, you were trying to talk about what Juserin said...I think you were going to discuss the parameters influencing which gates connect to which."


    "Right," Dean intoned, drawing out the word. "Well, he just said that the distance between locations is the greatest factor. So, for instance, in the universe, Earth is physically closer to Magnet Planet."


    Lisa nodded. "Makes sense." This was the same concept that she''d gleaned from individual research and talking to Eyrin.


    Dean gave Lisa a wry smile. "The ''distance'' aspect is why I brought up the question regarding whether the universe is a single, contiguous plane, or technically a multiverse, with a lot of different planes all connected by gates. Assuming that the universe is, somehow, contiguous, I assume that, if we sent probes radially out from Earth, the probes would first make contact with Magnet Planet, and then Lime World, and so on."


    "Yeah, that sounds right."


    "Okay, well..." he trailed off. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed slightly as he latched onto a new line of thought. "The Egdelek Arc is how old again?"


    Finally, Bath spoke up, expression calculating. "I''m not sure if you caught this, Lisa, but when AI Ninety-Seven first welcomed us into the Egdelek Arc, it said two different numbers regarding its age. First, it said that its former master, Franz, left the Egdelek Arc twenty-six thousand years previous. However, only a few minutes later, I asked it how long it waited for my arrival." Bath''s eyes peered intently into Lisa and Dean''s. "It replied: two-thousand three-hundred and forty-one years."


    "That''s...odd," Lisa murmured, narrowing her eyes.


    Dean pinched the bridge of his nose. "We aren''t getting anywhere with these questions," he stated, gesturing to the projection of questions on the white wall. "I think we should table the discussion for now until we return to Earth."


    Lisa sighed. "I guess you''re right: There''s just too much we don''t know. Can you send me the full transcript of the conversation you had with Juserin?"


    "Sure."


    Bath''s eyes darted between the two of them. "When was the last time either of you slept?"


    The two humans gave Bath a droll look. He grinned devilishly back, shrugging his shoulders as he pushed out of his chair and stood up. "Get some sleep," he said, rocking on his heels. "Away from this mountain."


    They still hadn''t evacuated because the level of radiation at elevation wasn''t serious. Moreover, if anyone was going to be last to leave the mountain, Lisa argued that the kursi and higher-ranked COTD members should depart last as a show of responsibility.


    Bath didn''t care either way: as long as radiation didn''t affect people''s minds, he could clear their systems of radiation himself.


    ---


    Bath sighed to himself as he regarded the now-empty city-seed. While the vast majority of the vanguard had run over the surface of Equinox to reach the exit gate, Drift Jag''s topography complicated matters: The vanguard had flown, in shifts, all of its members to the Drift Jag''s exit gate in the North, clearly wary of the jutting mountains that speared out of the planet''s surface like a wall of broken teeth.


    Bath had given them all a new city-seed to plant in the exit gate''s proximity. Given that several hours had already passed, Bath figured that the new city was already up and running.


    "The radiation in this city..." Bath murmured, frowning. Even if the Arc were the source of the area''s radiation (which Bath still wasn''t sure was the case), simply removing it from the mountain wouldn''t have any impact on its habitability.


    The first city of Drift Jag would, for many years, remain radioactively toxic. Unless Bath did something to rectify the problem.


    Unfortunately, he didn''t have any bright ideas. The entire mountain was radioactive, along with some of the surrounding few miles. His dragonleaf city-seed and spineroot had both already taken root over the mountain, ingraining themselves into the rock. In actuality, Bath had only exacerbated the problem by drawing out the city-seed''s dragonleaf and directing it to support the collapsing series of radioactively saturated tunnels beneath the surface.


    Every part of him knew that the city was a lost cause. At the same time...


    An image of an empty box flashed in Bath''s head, transmitted by the giant dragonleaf plant that embodied the city. The image quickly shifted to a desert, then an ocean, and a bottle bobbing on cresting waves.


    Bath sighed, transmitting thoughts of his own back. Patience. Plants experienced time in a warped, accelerated manner. Soon, people will come. He transmitted the experience of waiting, when he was younger, and the oceans dead and empty. Waiting for the cycle to renew itself, like a giant, turning wheel: the passage of thousands of years might equivocate the turn of a single spoke.


    He transmitted the feeling of loneliness, and calm: the calm of anticipation.


    As Bath left the proximity of the mountain, he took on the form of his now-iconic feathered dragon. His wings pumped through the sky, casting a rainbow on the ground below as the planet''s rising star peaked out from nearby crags.


    We''ll return. He mouthed the words of the city''s name, mimicking the movement of Fartuun''s lips hours before. New Mogadishu.

 [Chapter 150] Naming Liberty City; A New Form of Flight

    Because of New Mogadishu''s evacuation, Fartuun received a second opportunity to name a city-seed.


    "Liberty," she said, smiling into the wind. "Liberty City."


    "Why?" Dean asked, glancing over. The wind was strong enough to stir even his short, coiled hair.


    Fartuun looked to the side. "COTD''s motto is self-determination," she said. "Over my recovery these past two days, I''ve given this concept some thought."


    Dean sighed. "You''ve been working too hard," he chided, walking forward and leaning on a jutting slab of gray rock. "Damn, this is a nice view."


    "The northern part of Drift Jag is almost like Earth''s taiga," Fartuun remarked. "If you swapped out pine trees for sparse brush." She looked away from the verdant valley below, shooting Dean a look. "And what do you mean, I''m working too hard? Coming from you?"


    Dean stared intently at the serpentine tangle of creeks below. "You''re the technological coordinator of the vanguard. You coordinated the construction of space ships. You''ve even led a team onto the Egdelek Arc to investigate its library rooms and runes."


    "It''s not like we need to sleep much anymore." She ran a foot over the smooth stone of the bluff. "I like what I''m doing. And that''s the point I was getting at before: I can do this, what I want to do, because of COTD."


    Dean cocked his head to the side. "That''s true. You don''t have to worry about money."


    She let out a dry laugh. "I don''t have to worry about a place to sleep," she said, shaking her head. "Or food."


    "It''s the little things that matter most," Dean stated.


    "Those are big things," Fartuun replied. "Dean, you spent a month in Somalia when you established Jerboaland. I don''t think you realize the extent to which Jerboaland stabilized the region."


    Dean narrowed his eyes on one of the valley''s patches of cream-colored sand. "Lots of people call--or called--Somalia a failed state," he said. "High unemployment, few economic opportunities, inept government."


    "It''s hard to do much of anything if you don''t know whether you''re going to eat," Fartuun said, shaking her head. "The city''s name, Liberty...it represents my freedom: The freedom to do this. To not have to worry about people with guns."


    "What do you mean, exactly?"


    "Armed militants used to walk through the streets," she said simply. "Who was going to prosecute them if they killed people, hmm?."


    Dean paused. "How exactlydid Jerboaland stabilize the region?" He hoped that Jerboaland had fixed things: while he knew of a few basic improvements Jerboaland had wrought, he valued Fartuun''s opinion.


    "Somalia''s been getting better over the past few years," Fartuun prefaced with a sigh. "But it''s still highly disjointed. Just two decades ago, the country fractured into several different autonomous regions." She took in a deep breath. "Jerboaland unified the entire country by a network of underground tunnels. I don''t think I can understate how important the tunnels were to a country without adequate infrastructure."


    Dean nodded slowly. "Makes sense."


    "Jerboaland physically connected the country, providing rapid mobility and unrestricted access to housing, resources, and education. How could that not stabilize the region? In a country without an established government, how could COTD not take control?"


    Dean remained silent, regarding the landscape below.


    "Did you always used to be so stoic?" Fartuun asked.


    Dean''s mouth was a thin line. "Am I stoic?"


    "Uh, no," she backpedaled. "I think I was looking for a different word."


    Deanlaughed dryly. "I''ve never thought of myself as stoic," he added. "Just quiet."


    Fartuun hummed softly. "Quiet. Makes sense, then, how often you use the thought-to-text tech."


    Dean''s lips quirked. "That''s almost worse, in a way," he admitted. "I mostly use it because I have too many people to talk to and not enough time to write out messages and hold verbal meetings."


    "What?" Fartuun said, cocking her head to the side and crouching onto her knees, her skirt and white tabard flowing around her feet. "I thought you liked thought-to-text. That''s how we always communicate."


    A sound not unlike the barely-audible creaking of a door escaped Dean''s lips. "Forget I said anything."


    "No, really," Fartuun persisted. "Tell me what you don''t like about it. You were the technology''s first alpha tester, after all."


    "I don''t like how there''s no filter," Dean explained. Seeing Fartuun''s expression out of his peripheral vision, Dean felt slight red come into his cheeks. "For instance, if the thought-to-text edited out filler words like ''ums'' and ''uhs'', that''d be useful."


    "Oh, so a style filter," Fartuun clarified, speaking slowly. "Making your thoughts more eloquent. Y''know, I think I can try to have some of our engineers and computer scientists look into reverse-engineering aspects of my V-Tapto do that."


    For the first time in a solid three minutes, Dean''s eyes locked onto Fartuun''s. "How is it, anyway? You haven''t brought the implant up, and I wasn''t sure..."


    "Most of its features are disabled," Fartuun replied. "Only for now, though, until I complete the tutorial."


    Dean''s eyebrows rose. "You haven''t finished it yet?"


    "It takes two weeks to finish," Fartuun said, holding up two fingers. "After then, I''ll be able to access all the memory functionalities."


    Dean nodded once. "Makes sense."


    "No, not really," Fartuun retorted. "It''s normally supposed to take only four days. Unfortunately, because of the damage my body sustained from the V-Tap implantation process, the V-Tap needs more time to integrate itself into my nervous system. For that reason, the tutorial has been going at a snail''s pace."Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "So, twelve days," Dean breathed, looking back down into the valley.


    "Twelve days."


    ---


    The vanguard spent the rest of the day relaxing and exploring the mountainous terrain of Drift Jag. The planet was fairly empty, even thoughits climate was temperate andits atmosphere permitted ample sunlight. Because there was little to do while they waited for the next day--and the next planet--the idle members of the vanguard decided to try their hands at wingsuiting.


    "Humans did this before COTD?" Erzey gasped, looking out from her station atop a medium-level plateau. "They made tiny wings for themselves and glided down mountains?"


    "Seems so," Bath replied.


    "That''s...so dangerous..." Erzey mumbled, eyes wide with awe.


    "You''ve been fantasizing about joining them for the past hour," Juselin muttered, his eyes crinkling with a veiled grin.


    "Only if you accompany me," Erzey insisted. "We can all jump from here. You''ve both been paying attention, right?"


    Erzeyand Juselin both gave Bath expectant looks. He nodded his assent. "We''ll need to strip again," he said. Seeing their perturbed expressions, he revised his previous statement, saying, "Nevermind. We can wear dragonleaf wingsuits over our clothes."


    "A wingsuit?" Juselin echoed, his eyes narrowing. "Is that what they''re called?"


    "According to humans," Bath replied. "First, take a strand of dragonleaf." He took one from his own robe, pinching it between two fingers. "Create a harness that will wrap around your body, holding excess folds of cloth in place." He directed them by example, swiftly forming a dragonleaf girdle. "Next, extend out from the skeleton we''ve created andenvelop your body in aerodynamic plates."


    The Delelens gave him confused looks. "Aerodynamic plates?"


    Bath smirked playfully, growing a set of chitin-like armor over his body. The Delelens soon wore matching sets of light-weight, ash-green armor.


    "I feel like we''re peacekeepers," Erzey commented as she inspected her fledgling wingsuit. "Why do we need this protection?"


    "It''s not for protection," Juselin murmured. "It''s to reduce our drag as we move through the air."


    "Right," Bath said. "Ideally, we''d also have goggles, but we''re limited by what we can make with dragonleaf. Finally, we need to account for the most important part of all: wings."


    Bath gave them both a stern look. "You see all those other sapients flying?"


    "Yes," the Delelens chorused.


    "They haven''t paid attention to the physics of flight." Bath began to grow a pair of dragonleaf appendages encircling his first and second pairs of arms. "We verdora are aptly equipped with six limbs. This being the case, we can create a modified wingsuit that will allow us better control and the ability to flap and gain altitude while airborne." Of course, this new model also took into account the enhanced strength of the verdora: without close combat boons, having three sets of limbs versus two wouldn''t make a difference. Flying with only natural human or verdora strength was impossible.


    "Do you see how Ifastened the sheet of toughened dragonleaf like so?" Bath remarked as he moved his first and second sets of limbs. "I reinforced them along the middle for added strength. Try to make the wings such that you have two sets of wings, one for your primary arms, and the other set supported by your secondary and tertiary arms."


    They''re following along well, Bath thought, pleased at the Delelens'' progress. After another fifteen minutes of fiddling, Bath deemed his followers ready for flight.


    "I''ve never flown this way, either," Bath cautioned. This was actually true: flight had evolved on Earth to use two wings, such as in birds, or to use two sets of wings in conjunction, such as in insects. There might have been a few outlying creatures over the past millions of years, but Bath had never paid them any mind.


    The Delelens returned his solemn expression, flexing their wings back and forth.


    "To adventure," Bath cheered, breaking the poignant silence of the moment and rushing off the plateau''s edge.


    ---


    "Guys," Lisa gasped. "What the hell is that?" Three sapient-sized, ash-green constructs were flying through the air, their two pairs of wings fluttering like the beating legs of a millipede.


    The other kursi looked up from the mountain, squinting into the brightness of the setting sun. "Those are suits. With...wings," Priscilla muttered. "Verdora wingsuits, I guess." She shook her head. "The weirdest wingsuits I''ve ever seen."


    Everyone''s eyes shot over in her direction. "What is a wingsuit?" Khalid asked, frowning.


    "It''s where you jump off a mountain and use a suit outfitted with wings to glide down to its base."


    "You''ve never tried it?" asked Zhou nonchalantly, his gaze already returning to their current mountain''s peak.


    "And you have?" Ida scoffed.


    "Sure."


    Priscilla gave Zhou an appraising look. "Y''know, why don''t we have a race? Let''s try gliding to the bottom of the mountain from its peak. Whoever wins..." she looked around at the kursi entourage. "Actually, no: whoever loses has to teachKhalid how to do it." She began to laugh, the sound somewhere between a cackle and a giggle.


    At the present time, Eyrin stood completely enraptured by the wingsuit display above.


    "Hey, Eyrin, we need to go," Lisa said, nudging him as the others restarted their ascent. At her touch, the kursi prince snapped out of his reverie.


    "Do you know who those people are?" he said, breath short.


    "Uh..." Of course Lisa knew. She''d recognize Bath''s shell anywhere.


    "They''re fairly far away," Eyrin stated, "but I can just pick up the traces of a...remarkably familiar shell."


    "Interesting," Lisa intoned slowly. "It wouldn''t happen to be your protege, would it?"


    Eyrin''s eyes locked onto hers. "I can''t blame you for being attentive," he said, his smooth eye ridges raising slightly. "Yes, the verdora I''ve taken a liking to is flying above us." Eyrin shook his head in a gesture of incredulity. "How is he...?"


    Lisa shrugged. "You can ask him later."


    Eyrin narrowed his eyes, staring intently upward. "Thaddeus!" he boomed. Seeing no response, he spoke once more, his voice elevated even higher. "Thaddeus!"


    "I don''t know if he..."


    Suddenly, the two verdora accompanying Bath began to dovetail down towards the mountainside. Bath darted between them, obviously trying to get their attention.


    "Hey!" Lisa exclaimed. "What the hell do you think you''re doing?"


    Eyrin huffed. "Getting his attention. Look, I''ve already released their shells from my influence."


    Lisa didn''t know what to say. "What if you made them lose control of their wings and they fell from a distance exceeding a thousand feet, er, rods?"


    "Then it would be a test for Thaddeus," Eyrin replied, voice cool and detached. "I would be shocked if he were unable to rescue them."


    While Bath was currently flying their way, it would probably take him a minute to arrive. Lisa decided to use the time to probe what Eyrin thought about "Thaddeus."


    "You seem confident in his abilities," Lisa remarked.


    Eyrin gave her a knowing look. "Thaddeus is an enigma. Despite his uncultured Wilderness upbringing, he''s managed to assume the position as de facto leader of the vanguard''s verdora."


    "That''s fairly impressive," Lisa acknowledged.


    "It''s a feat of legendary proportions," Eyrin replied sourly. "The vanguard is entirely composed of young verdoran nobles, you understand."


    Eyrin refocused his attentions on the fast-approaching triage of winged verdora, cutting the conversation short. "Thaddeus," he called out, no longer raising his voice.


    "Eyrin," Bath replied, beating his wings in such a manner as to keep himself aloft in the air. Lisa marveled at the thought that, with her close combat boons, she, too, could fly. While her magnetism-powered flight was superlative, it didn''t feel like flying so much as floating and accelerating in a certain direction. Using my magnetic sense to flyalmost feels like I''m on a swing that never reaches the top of its arc, hurtling further and faster into space.


    Lisa couldn''t believe that only now sapients were experimenting with using winged suits to facilitate flight. Then again, who knows what things are like right now on Earth.For all she knew, everyone on Earth had a wingsuit.


    "I apologize for using a rather...unorthodox method of seizing your attention," Eyrin said, glancing briefly toward Lisa. "However, I am compelled to inquire upon the design of your flight apparatus."


    "It''s a wingsuit," Bath said, expression inscrutable. "Juselin, Erzey, why don''t you seize this opportunity to teach Eyrin how to fabricate one."


    The twins'' eyes bulged slightly, their skin darkening a shade. However, they quickly regained their composure.


    "Climb up the mountain; we''ll meet you and instruct you there," Juselin stated. At Eyrin''s nod, he, Erzey, and Bath flew away, their wings beating rhythmically against the orange backdrop of the sky.

 [Chapter 151] Gliding Across Dawns Shadow; The Promised Talk

    Dean squinted into the dusky sky, an incredulous expression falling over his features. "This is the most impractical method of transportation I''ve seen," he noted. "And by now, I''ve seen a lot." He still couldn''t get over the fact that Bath had made him run several hours from Alens all the way to Basalith in Virginia. That had been in the very beginning of COTD; his boons from then were incomparable to those he had now.


    "Dean!" Virigard chirped. "I want a wingsuit!"


    The Knight looked down, rolling his eyes. "Viri, do you see how slow people are moving through the air?"


    "But..."


    "They aren''t flying more than a fraction of the speed they''d maintain running on the ground." He gave her a knowing look. "Also, how would you even fly?"


    "With a wingsuit," she said, as though this conclusion was obvious.


    Dean''s mouth twitched. "With what arms?"


    Virigard held out her arms, flexing her fingers. "What''s wrong with them?"


    "Viri, your arms are tiny. That''s why you have big feet, for burrowing."


    The little jerboa looked as though she''d been struck. "I''m strong enough to slit people''s throats," she retorted, whiskers bristling.


    Dean sighed.Just because you have sharp claws doesn''t mean you have strong arms..."Regardless, you can dig far faster than you can fly. That''s a sign as good as any that flying jerboas just...aren''t meant to be."


    Virigard gave him a disparaging expression, crossing her arms over her chest. "Dean, make me a wingsuit," she demanded. "I''m gonna do it."


    "Viri..."


    Her gaze was unrelenting.


    Dean scratched his head, then pulled out a strand of dragonleaf from underneath his tabard. "I have no idea how to make one of these," he cautioned. Even so, he found that, considering Virigard''s size (approximately that of a bulldog), making her a flying suit wasn''t too difficult. He essentially made a little suit that covered her body, growing fans of sinewy dragonleaf between her arms and legs.


    When he finished, he stepped back, then cocked his head. "If you manage to fly with this suit, I''ll be impressed."


    Virigard swished her tail, familiarizing herself with the new membrane of dragonleaf enveloping and expandingthe appendage''s surface area. "Dean," she began. "How do I walk--or jump--in the suit?"


    Dean gave her a look. Itdid look unwieldy."How about this: I''ll throw you a few feet up into the air, then you give flying a try. Fair?"


    "Okay!"


    "I''ll give you three," he held up three fingers, "tries. If you can do it, I''ll give you unlimited rum coke for a day."


    Virigard''s eyes grew shiny with anticipation. "I''m ready," she said, coiling into a shape not dissimilar from a cannon ball. Dean grabbed her, realizing that, technically, this was the first time he''d ever held Virigard in his hands. She was small, furry, and cute, but she definitely wasn''t a cat: her bony limbs and stiletto claws made her petite formalmost dangerous to hold. Dean''s boon-enhanced constitution was all that protected him from being scratched or bruised as her powerful legs pushed against his arms.


    Dean counted down from three, hoisting her up into the air. As soon as she reached the peak of her ascent, she expanded out her arms and legs and began to do...something. It looks like she''s drowning in air, Dean thought, raising an eyebrow.


    Two times later, Virigard never managed to fly: her forearms were simply too small and weak. Moreover, her legs weren''t jointed to move in a sideways flapping motion. The best she could do was hold her arms and legs out horizontally; however, heruneven limbs thwarted any attempts at gliding downward.


    As soon as Virigard unceremoniously touched down for the third time, Dean tore the wingsuit off of her with an effortless wave and knelt down to her level.


    "Hey," he said, giving her a half grin. "If you really want to fly that much, I''ll ask Fartuun to whip some kind of technology up for you."


    Virigard pouted, her eyes round like bowls. "Why don''t you just grow me wings?" she asked,bouncing in place. "You have caretaker boons. You could do it."


    Dean''s eyes rolled up to the sky, his expression complex. "Virigard," he began, "you don''t need wings. You''re you. You run and dig and, uh..." he made a slashing gesture at his throat. "If you had wings, you wouldn''t be able to run or dig as well."


    Her expression immediately brightened. "You''re right," she conceded. "Actually, I want something else. I want my very own flying mount!"


    Sure... Dean thought, coughing lightly.We''ll see.


    ---


    "This is seriously the most impractical method of transportation that I''ve ever seen," Dean grumbled, tapping his foot against a stair-like rise of white crystal. It''d already been at least two hours since they''d passed through Drift Jag''s gate onto Dawn''s Shadow.


    "You''re right," Virigard said, emulating his foot-tapping. "Sapients are bad flyers."


    Dean groaned. "Why did I let them use the wingsuits on Dawn''s Shadow..." he grumbled. "The planet''s almost completely flat." While flying made some sense on a mountain-studded world like Drift Jag, Dawn''s Shadow was the easiest planet to traverse so far. While Vast Desert was also fairly flat, its sandy dunes inhibited movement. The surface of Dawn''s Shadow, on the other hand, was composed of a close-packing salt sediment. Even accounting for the planet''s mildly high gravity of 1.4 times that of Earth, running across its surface was child''s play. Contrastingly, flying under such increased gravitybecame almost ludicrous.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    But of course, the vanguard''s members were dead set on flying to their destination, the exit gate of Dawn''s Shadow. Dean knew that there was no point in telling them to run: there was no rush, as the vanguard would technically reach the exit gate''s location within a few hours. Moreover, flying appeared to provide adecent boost to morale.


    However, part of him, a very large part, hated the inefficiency of taking hours to fly a distance that would take maybe half an hour to run.


    "Flying is a very childish behavior," Virigard snooted, tilting her nose up into the air. "It is significantly more demanding than running. Think of all the food we''ll need to feed them for dinner!"


    Dean smirked. She''s definitely still bitter about being unable to fly. "We''ll be fine once we reach Dusk''s Halo," he said. "There''s supposed to be lots of good food there. Apparently, the Verdora have leased out the planet to some world close to the Core. The planet has two exit gates, one of which feeds into said world''s gate-traversing shipping routes."


    Virigard''s little jaw dropped, revealing her over-sized teeth. "What!?"


    "Yeah," Dean said, shaking his head. "Apparently, the planet''s worked by a fleet of androids." As Virigard''s shock deepened, Dean felt the need to clarify. "They aren''t very advanced," he said. "Well, at least not compared to the verdora AI programs or AI Ninety-Seven. COTD humans have already been working to develop similar farming androids."


    Virigard gave a small gasp, her mouth hinging shut with a click of her teeth. "Oh."


    "Yeah," Dean said, sighing. "Apparently, worlds close to the Core are stingy with their technology. They don''t want worlds on the fringe obtaining anything advanced."


    "I read that in the encyclopedia," Virigard said, sighing. "It''s so unfair."


    Dean nodded. "Juserin really must have paid a fortune for his voyager," Dean said, referencing the verdora''s all-terrain ship.


    As they spoke, the vanguard came into view over the scintillating horizon, the pink-tinted blue sky accentuating the gray-green of the wingsuits.While the verdora, who had six pairs of limbs and better maneuverability, sustained flight, the human sapients didn''t fly; rather, they leapt up, glided several thousand feet, and then leapt back up again.


    The quasi-sapients advanced underneath the sapients at a leisurely pace. Many engaged in races with one another over the level terrain, denting out swathes of hoof-beaten track.


    Dean wasn''t quite sure what the quasi-bears were doing, though it apparently involved throwing the quasi-squirrels up into the air and fetching them in their mouths and paws.Some form of American football, or rugby?


    He and Virigard waited another half-minute, then began to dash off again. Virigard used her claws to dig an impression into the ground, marking the way forward. She and Dean continued in this way until, finally, they arrived at a gate half-submerged in a salty pool.


    Because he and Virigard arrived four-or-so minutes ahead of everyone else, Dean pulled out a city-seed and decided to get the city-making process started. However, when he put the seed on the ground, he was stumped: it seemed unable to grow.


    "Viri," he said, frowning. "Can you dig down and see how far this salty substrate lasts for?" Dean figured that the salt of both the gate''s pool and the top layer of the planetinhibited the dragonleaf''s growth.


    A minute later, Virigard popped back up. "It continues for a long time," she said, panting. "It''s also really hard as I go further down. Very densely packed."


    Just then, a familiar voice came from behind. "Let me see the seed."


    Dean whipped around, startled. "Bath," he uttered, eyes alight with curiosity. "Do you know why the seed won''t grow?"


    Bath followed Dean''s gaze left, falling on a diminutive nut-like capsule sitting in a small impression on the ground. He raised a hand and the city-seed rose up, seemingly suspended in air. Bath''s mouth was a thin line.


    "This is going to be difficult," he murmured, his voice almost inaudible. He broke eye contact with the seed, turning to face Dean and Virigard. "You''ve dug a hole more than four miles deep," he remarked. "Can you dig deeper?"


    Virigard nodded her head almost spasmodically. "Yes!"


    "Don''t stop until you''ve located soil that doesn''t taste salty."


    "Yes yes!" Virigard exclaimed, gulping. Without waiting, she dashed into the hole, disappearing into its depths.


    "She''s scared of you," Dean said, crossing his arms.Nothing scared Virigard, at least not until Bath went crazy underneath White Sun.


    Bath exhaled deeply, his gaze inscrutable. "Dean. What do you really want to say?"


    COTD''s Knight sighed, squinting his eyes closed.I promised Lisa I''d be diplomatic."I appreciate how you''ve listened to my advice," Dean said, "and I recognize...why you modified how humans think in times of conflict. Battle. Whatever."


    Bath remained silent, waiting for Dean to finish. He''s unnerving when he''s like this, Dean thought, shuddering involuntarily under Bath''s impassive, icy stare. I can tell he''s not even trying to seem human.


    Dean groaned. "I understand why you''ve done all the things you''ve done. I just...I don''t know why, but I''m still angry at you." He began to pace. "I know I should probably be thankful for what you''ve done, for making me the Knight, for ending homelessness and hunger and disease." Dean clenched his fists, knuckles turning white. "I think, at the root of all my anger, is fear and unease." Even as Dean said this, he sounded confused. "This was all so easy. So quick. This new world you''ve created is tenuous. I''m worried it''ll snap, and that''ll be it." He looked up from the ground, meeting Bath''s eyes. "At the end of the day, you wouldn''t care. You don''t need Earth, nor humanity."


    Bath waited a moment, allowing Dean time to process his thoughts. However, after it was clear Dean didn''t intend to say anything more, Bath began his own response.


    "We don''t have much time until the others arrive, but know this: I do need humanity."


    Dean could only half-suppress a scoff.


    "I see you don''t believe me," Bath said, his eyes flashing. "But the universe is too vast to conquer alone."


    "You don''t need humanity. You just need minions, and you already have your quasi-sapients."


    Bath''s inhuman expression melted into a warm smile. "I like humans, Dean. And I protect that which I like."


    Dean just gave him a blank stare. "Why?" he sputtered. Bath certainly didn''t care about humans when he sicked COTD on (essentially) defenseless U.S. soldiers, or when he sent the spearrows off to literally peck people to the point of serious injury or death. Dean''s thoughts raced. He killed them by, for all intents and purposes, deploying drones. He treated people worldwide like they were hostile terrorists. Killing off people just because they stood in his way or because they "oppressed others" didn''t sound like the actions of someone who "liked" humans. Moreover, considering Bath''s uncanny ability to spy on people and appear in random locations at will, Dean figured that Bath must have afirst-hand understanding of humanity''s depravity.And he likes humans?


    "There will never be a species of sapient that I understand more," he prefaced, clasping his hands behind his back. "...As I never intend on spending millions of years on a single planet ever again."


    Dean wasn''t sure he understood why this mattered. Seeing his perplexed expression, Bath continued to expound upon this point.


    "I was upon the Earth when it was empty, Dean." He gave the Knight a serious look. "I was there from the beginning. I remember feeling, seeing, perceiving the world for the first time. Vague memories, but there is a beginning to my recollections, when the first microorganisms developed the ability to sense the world around them. You humans arose out of these humblest beginnings." Bath now took one arm from behind his back, holding his hand out in front of him. "I''m only able to think as I do now because of your species'' evolution."


    Dean swallowed.


    "So," Bath said, teeth shining white through his parted lips. "I like humans."


    Dean wasn''t sure what to make of Bath''s speech. Does he feel gratitude toward humanity? he wondered, uncertain.


    "Time''s up," Bath breathed, turning around. "The vanguard''s arrived."


    Dean felt like he should say something, but didn''t know what. Instead of saying anything substantive, he asked, "Uh, where''s Virigard?"


    Bathpeered over at theconspicuous hole in the ground. "Your guess is as good as mine."

 [Chapter 152] Endless Salt; The Dragons Intervention; Exploring Saltflat

    "I''ll go down and check up on her," Dean said, starting toward the tunnel.


    "Wait," Bath said, pivoting back around. "Someone needs to stay here to greet the vanguard." Bath gave him a whimsical look. "You."


    "You''re going to go searching for Virigard?"


    Bath snorted, giving Dean a lopsided smile. "Was that unclear?" He walked forward, side-stepping around Dean and disappearing into the hole.


    I''ll need to be careful, Bath thought as he reformed his body at the end of his range. Thaddeus, his current true body (in that it encapsulated his Center), was at the head of the vanguard, roughly one mile away from the hole''s surface. Because the radius of his range was 3.8 miles, if Thaddeus rested directly atop the hole, he''d be able to send this projection a maximum of 7.6 miles downward.


    He simultaneously touched down as Thaddeus, congregating with the rest of the verdora, and dove downward as Bath, finally reaching the 7.6-mile mark. And yet...


    "Virigard," Bath called out, his voice ricocheting down the shadowy passage. He used echolocation to create a vague image of the tunnel in his mind. At this depth, he was finally able to perceive the hole''s nadir another mile or so down.


    "Dragon?" Virigard said, her voice soft and ghost-like over the distance.


    "Did you find suitable substrate for the city-seed?" Bath asked.


    "Even down here, the soil is really salty," Virigard replied with a huff.


    "Hmm." Bath figured he could just do a repeat of Ash Glass on Gray World, fabricating a city through his own power rather than the automated mechanism of the city-seed. "Can you climb out?"


    "I''ll be okay," Virigard said."


    Silence. Then: "I protect what is mine, Virigard."


    "O-okay."


    Bath felt...foolish. Why did I tell her that? he wondered. I just awkwardly stated the obvious: of course the Dragon protects his own creations. Besides, why should I care about the feelings of one quasi-sapient? If Virigard really was afraid of him as Dean said, it was only because she''d truly bore witness to his overbearing power on Illudis. Comforting words wouldn''t erase her fear.


    "That includes you," he clarified, filling the silence. Why do I feel so unsettled, as though I''ve done something abhorrent? As though I need her to tell me she isn''t scared? Bath felt a sick churning in his Center as unfamiliar emotions surfaced.


    Silence filled the tunnel for a moment. "I know!" she cheered with renewed vigor, as though conscious of his need for absolution. "You''re my Creator."


    With that, Bath dispelled his avatar.


    ---


    Dean had to admit: Bath could really put on a display when he wanted to.


    Currently, the Dragon was hovering over their camp, his wings pumping rhythmically against the sky. Dean wasn''t even sure if Bath was genuinely airborne because he was flying or, alternatively, if his enormous dragon form was an illusion. There is definitely a limit regarding how large flying animals can be, he thought, and it''s definitely smaller than Bath''s full-size, three-mile-long Dragon form.


    Regardless, Bath''s scintillating rainbow scales and feathers reflected the light streaming through the near-cloudless atmosphere, casting kaleidoscope shadows onto the ground. And as the Dragon flew, the new city came to life.


    Bath unquestionably has control over salt: it''s one of the primary ions inside animal bodies. Even knowing that this was the case, watching Bath fabricate an entire city out of salt crystals struck Dean as an abuse of World Devourer mechanics. Bath engaging in civil engineering and architecture was akin to an Olympic athlete taking part in a competition for five-year-olds.


    Dean watched, enraptured like everyone else, as Bath''s draconic self blew a stream of fire over the rapidly materializing city, bathing its skyscrapers in a pale orange flame. He grew the city up from the ground, directing the environment''s naturally-crystalline terrain into the standard Basalith-model. Every minute or so, he would bellow a gout of flame, firing the surface of the salt buildings into a shiny, hard glaze. Repeating this firing process gave the entire city a beauty distinct from the appearance of Gray Land''s similarly-synthetic Ash Glass city-seed. Where Ash Glass looked as though made of web-like spindle fibers, this new city almost looked as though made of layered ice cubes.


    Eventually, after around two hours of careful work, the city was complete, and the Dragon''s massive form dissipated like a desert mirage. Now that the Dragon no longer obscured the city with its wings and flame, Dean could truly appreciate the absurdity of the present situation. This is literally a city made out of salt, he thought, shaking his head. Table salt, if taste is anything to go by.


    Even as he marveled at the city''s...unique construction, Dean felt a sense of uneasiness in his gut. If Bath weren''t here, we would have been completely unable to establish a city-seed on this planet. Technically, this wasn''t a serious problem--he could have just simply led the vanguard onto the next planet, Dusk''s Halo. After making the circuit back to Earth, they could do things the old-fashioned way, building up a man-made metropolis.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    But what if, in the future, a group of sapients goes exploring far-off strings of gates? What if they run into a strand of planets with utterly infertile land? The vanguard relied on Bath''s city-seeds to do pretty much everything, from collecting solar power to extracting and purifying water from the ground and air. If a group of COTD explorers couldn''t plant a city-seed and found themselves stranded, they might very well thirst to death. This brought Dean''s thoughts in another direction.


    Even now, with Bath''s assistance, this planet was still unable to provide the basic functionalities of a living city-seed. Even though this was also the case with Ash Glass--COTD transported amenities over from Lime World--Dean had never viewed it as a liability until now. He''d always assumed that supplies could be brought in and delivered, infrastructure developed, and eventually, inhospitable planets terraformed.


    But what if it never got to that stage? Dean''s mouth twitched downward. I''ll talk to Bath about a boon to reduce consumption of food and water. Also, we need to further study existing planetary relay systems... The verdora system of gate-gate communication struck him as somewhat clunky: moving a rod-like implement horizontally to simulate the zeros and ones of binary (or Morse code) was less than ideal. What they really needed was--


    "Dean," Virigard said, pulling on his tabard with a tiny, clawed hand. "Let''s lead everyone in. They''re waiting."


    Dean''s head whipped around. Shit, he thought. The entire vanguard really was waiting for him to give the go-ahead.


    "The Dragon has personally fashioned us a city," Dean announced. "It will have all the same limitations as Ash Glass, so be stingy with water and food."


    Part of Dean wished that Bath really could just spontaneously engender permanent matter. That alone would solve their rations problem. But unless the soil already contains water, or the elements necessary to create food, he can''t permanently make anything. He was only able to make the city by manipulating the already-present salt.


    He didn''t need to say anything else: his disappearance into the city was signal enough for the vanguard to enter.


    ---


    Eyrin decided that this time, he would tag along with his protege rather than spend time with the kursi. After the incident with the Arc and the bug-bots on Drift Jag, not to mention the gurgle-slaying adventure on Equinox, he''d discerned that his protege was an absolute magnet for thrilling situations.


    There is much I do not know about him, Eyrin thought as he lounged about in his temporary quarters. His origins are a mystery. He claims that he comes from the Wilderness near Illudis? Eyrin shook his head. Unlikely. Moreover, despite hisuncertain background, he captured the loyalty of the other kursi. Finally, he has an uncanny ability to get into preposterous situations.


    When the human hour turned (all in the vanguard adopted the human UST clock), Eyrin left his room and wound down the stairs to the courtyard. As all the verdora lived in one apartment building, many others were also traveling downward to meet outside.


    This...is why I hate being a prince, he thought grudgingly. Others halt their steps just to let me pass, as though the stairway isn''t big enough for two. It was senseless, impractical, and utterly typical of Juserin''s vision for verdoran society.


    "I love how the verdora make way for me to come through," Clarissa said. "I can barely fit in this stairwell."


    Eyrin blinked once, then shook his head slightly. Whenever Clarissa entered his living chambers, she usually exited by jumping out of his room''s window. It was naturally too small an opening for her to fit, but he could dilate and contract its dragonleafedges on demand.


    However, in the just-fabricated city of Saltflat, the windows weren''t made of dragonleaf, but of salt, and Eyrin hadn''t the power to modify the room''s structure. He realized just how much he took for granted controlling the layout of his typically dragonleaf room.


    It''s only been a few weeks...and I''ve already grown so used to the convenience of dragonleaf. Eyrin wasn''t sure how to feel about that. This entire "Church" development feels like it arose out of nothing, he thought. Just a few hundred years past, all our texts indicated that the humans were backward and infantile. Then came the Church and Dragon; with them came dragonleaf, boons, and city-seeds. Eyrin sighed, a complex expression on his face as he rounded the spiraling staircase down. How could anything ever be the same again?


    As they left the building, the two followed the other verdora to the next-door garden area. Or, at least what was usually a garden area.


    "Woah," Clarissa said, coming up to a crystalline bloom of flowers. She sniffed the blooms, then licked a jagged, translucent petal. "This is the garden?"


    "Yes," Eyrin said, proceeding forward at a brisk pace until he reached the area of the garden where he saw the empty black of Thaddeus'' shielded shell. As he neared the location, he saw the back of his protege''s head.


    "Thaddeus," he called out.


    "Eyrin," Thaddeus replied, turning around. "It''s wonderful to see you."


    "I''ve decided to accompany you and the other verdora this evening," he stated, smiling softly beneath his veil. "None of us have yet explored a non-dragonleaf city."


    Thaddeus smiled, his veil pressing taut against his maws. "If this garden is anything to judge by, I''m certain we''ll encounter various interesting elements." Thaddeus'' eyes shifted to the left and right, scanning over the crowd of verdora. "At least interesting enough to satisfy this audience."


    Eyrin grinned back. These verdora are a rather...excitable bunch.


    They headed out a few minutes later.


    ---


    "Bath," Lisa said, groaning. "How?"


    "It wasn''t that difficult," he said, shooting her a playful smile. "The verdora are willing to do anything in the name of a good danger high."


    She rubbed her forehead. I feel like the more time he spends with the verdora, the more inclined he is to keep and improve upon their danger sensitivity than remove it outright. She remembered his complaints when the vanguard first set out and the horse-riding verdora became completely high off of an adrenaline rush. He''d called it impractical: if the verdora lost control over their faculties, they''d be a nuisance.


    "So it really is true," she began. "They''re acclimating to the adrenaline highs."


    Bath nodded, leaning against the crystalline Spire''s equally-crystalline balcony. The wind was dead, leaving his hair and vestments alone. "I''m not surprised," he replied. "I knew such an evolutionary development must have had a genuine functionality. That necessitates a sense of control."


    "But..."


    "I know you''re mildly incredulous that I actually convinced each verdora to freefall off of the Spire''s rooftop," Bath said, his hands resting lightly on the guardrail.


    "They haven''t known you more than a month," she lamented. "They might have actually died from that height, especially if they landed on their heads."


    "Oh, they would have definitely died if they fell wrong," Bath admitted.


    The verdora are literally junkies, Lisa thought. "What did you actually tell them to do?"

 [Chapter 153] Experimental City Design; Racing Toward the Ground

    "I know you''re mildly incredulous that I actually convinced each verdora to freefall off of the Spire''s rooftop," Bath remarked.


    "They haven''t known you more than a month. They might have actually died from that height, especially if they landed on their heads."


    "Oh, they would have definitely died if they fell wrong."


    "What did you actually tell them to do?"


    "I told them that we would race to the ground," Bath said as he looked out over the Spire''s balcony. "The concept of a competition lessens the sense of danger somewhat."


    Lisa joined him at the balcony''s railing. "Sure: I can see why a ''race'' would give them a false sense of security, and a diminished adrenaline rush." She bumped up against his shoulder. "But that''s not what I''m asking. How did you convince them to jump from that high up?"


    Bath glanced her way. "I jumped first," he smiled.


    Lisa snorted, shaking her head.


    Bath shrugged. "I decided to try something...new with this city."


    Lisa just stared.Everything is new...it''s made of salt, damn it. "Like...?"


    Bath chuckled wryly. "Have you tried using your magnetic sense around here?"


    Lisa''s eyes widened. No, she thought. I''ve been roleplaying as my human kursi self this whole time. In an instant, Lisa expanded out her magnetic sense, reading the area around her for any abnormalities.


    "Did you lace this entire place with magnets?" she gasped, marveling at the crisscrossing pillars of magnetism within her bubble of perception.


    Bath chuckled lightly. "Remember the hole that Virigard dug while searching for arable soil? While the salt content of sediment far underground is still too high, I found highly-magnetic particles everywhere."


    "So, you filtered said soil for its magnetic bits and used them to make...?" Honestly, she had no idea what it was that she was sensing. The magnetic field around the area looked as though it had been raked by a cat with claws the size of children.


    "It took a bit longer to set up than I would have liked," Bath said. "That''s why I kept breathing fire over the city: to keep you all out while I finalized the matrix."


    "The matrix?" Lisa echoed.


    "Yep," Bath replied. "The matrix. I laced the ground and all the buildings with magnetic particles, doing so with different levels of particle density. I made a few additional towers and platforms explicitly for this purpose. The differential between different magnetic fields will, ideally, allow for a sapient to use the magnetic force to travel in the air. It''s much more clunky than your magnetic sense, but it should be sufficient for certain purposes."


    "So let me get this straight. You convinced all the verdora to jump off the roof of the Spire by first jumping off yourself. The jump wasn''t dangerousbecause of this new magnetic matrix."


    Bath cocked his head. "Essentially, yeah."


    Lisa groaned. "Hold on; let''s back things up. How does the matrix work?"


    "To interact with the matrix, you need to first stud a ribbon of dragonleaf with magnets, oriented so that they repel the magnets below. You string this around yourself."


    "So you need to wear a set of magnets," Lisa murmured. "Okay, I think I''m following. However, the magnets underground shouldn''t be powerful enough to actually allow anyone to move around," she reasoned.


    Bath nodded once. "You''re right," he said, rubbing his hand over the railing. "The repulsive force is weak. However, it''s still enough to cushion a fall from the Spire''s peak to the ground."


    Lisa laughed. "I guess. How did you explain to the verdora that they needed to wear magnet-studded ribbons?" After all, why would Thaddeus know about the city''s magnetic field?


    Bath turned her way and shot her a devilish grin. "Here''s the story..."


    ---


    After all the verdora assembled outside of their designated apartment complex, Bath instructed all of them to form five orderly lines. The verdora responded unquestioningly, much like they had when the vanguard first set off and Eyrin held a grievances proceeding. Eyrin regarded the entire spectacle with an appraising eye.


    Reminds me of when I got my driver''s license, Bath thought, grinning internally. He and Lisa had joked for weeks about the experience of obtaining a driver''s license, particularly because they both failed their initial driver''s test. They shamelessly blamed their failure on their shared test administrator, a sour, shriveled woman with greasy yellow hair.


    Eyrin looked nothing like that woman, and yet, the expression he currently wore gave Bath the most peculiar--and humorous--sense of deja vu. He''s watching, expecting me to do something suspect, he thought, sighing.


    Bath began leading them towards the upper part of the city. He told them all that they had the civic duty of creating a "map" for the new, "unconventional" city. He used this as a segue to "discover" the irregularity of the city''s magnetic fields.


    "We should be in the northern part of the city," he said, scowling at he unfinished map the Delelens projected at the front of the group. "The chip reader compass indicated that we were headed North. But now, as I check again, it says that we''ve gone West..." Bath gave the group of verdora a serious once-over, as though trying to glean from them some kind of insight.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    He looked to Eyrin. "Perhaps..."


    The verdora narrowed his eye ridges. "What?"


    "This place, it''s formed out of salt," Bath said, eyes growing wide with epiphany. "But they can''t be completely made of salt. What if..." he trailed off, stepping forward, his chip reader''s compass projected above the group for all to see. As he walked, the digital compass--an eight-pointed star--fluctuated like a spinning top.


    "I understand," Bath said. "The ground must be rife with magnets!"


    Eyrin just looked at him like he was crazy. "Let''s not jump to conclusions," he cautioned, looking down at the white ground. "There''s nothing I can see that''s magnetic."


    "It wouldn''t be on the surface," Bath retorted. He turned back to the rest of the excitable crowd. "Everyone, dig a small hole, a fist wide, three feet deep, right where you are. Let''s see if we can''t locate any minerals with magnetic properties."


    Seconds later, several verdora cried out in exclamation. Eyrin himself wore an expression of quiet disbelief, his skin paling slightly.


    Bath reached down into his own hole and grabbed a fist of magnet-laden sediment. He opened his fist, letting the crystalline salt sediment fall away. He was left with a denser, gray handful of pebbles.


    Bath looked toward Eyrin, who in turn looked toward him. The two of them wore impassive expressions before simultaneously breaking into grins that stretched past their veils.


    ---


    "It didn''t take long for me to convince them to use the magnets to pursue adventure," Bath explained. "In actuality, we had all used magnet-studded ribbons to leap across the city and slow our descent before we tried jumping off the Spire."


    Lisa snorted, crossing her arms. "Why am I not surprised," she said, her eyes full of humor. "I guess I shouldn''t beshocked if, over the next hour, everyone else in the vanguard follows the verdora example."


    Bath shrugged. "We''ll see. Not that it''ll matter much--we''ll be heading to Dusk''s Halo in a few hours."


    A comfortable silence fell over the balcony. Bath and Lisa stared out at the vast, white expanse, eyes tracing the sparse--and deceptively-large--spades of salt crystal jutting out from the ground.


    "It''s funny you mentioned the driving test lady," Lisa said, breaking the quiet. "Just two years ago, when we--well, when I was sixteen--we didn''t pay much attention to getting our licenses and being able to drive around."


    Bath smiled. "Why bother drive when you can just ride your white wolf?" he chided. "And of course we failed: neither of us had spent much time behind the wheel."


    Lisa tsked. "We should''ve passed," she insisted. "Well, at least you should have." Lisa sighed. "But just think about it: cars, the symbol of mobility, freedom..."


    Bath snorted. "Big oil, pollution..."


    Lisa punched his shoulder. "I said think about it," she snarked. "But...cars are gone. Outdated. Nil. Doesn''t something about that feel sad to you?"


    Bath cocked his head. "Nope."


    Lisa sighed and looked down. "Maybe it''s just me."


    "No," Bath replied. "I think many other humans feel the same way."


    Lisa''s head snapped up. "About cars?"


    "About human civilization," he clarified. "In the span of a month, everything classically human was washed away by the tide of COTD. You could make the argument that we transformed all of humankind...such that humankind no longer exists." Bath shrugged. "Though I''ve never been one for ethics or philosophy."


    Lisa frowned. "That''s not true," she argued. "People still have friends and families. They still have technology. Access to knowledge is unchecked, and people can do...well, whatever they want. If before I said that cars represent freedom, well,post-COTD society is a definite step up."


    "Then why do you feel sad?" Bath asked, his expression genuinely curious.


    "I suppose it''s the same kind of regret you must feel, looking back," she said, leaning into his shoulder. "Do you think the current Earth is better than the Earth, say, a hundred million years ago?"


    "No." His voice was clipped, emotionless.


    "...Nevermind then," she muttered. "In my case, I really wish I could have seen the great ancient civilizations of Earth at the height of their respective power."


    "Sure," Bath said.


    "But I''m glad I live now, when all of this--" she gestured to the Spire-- "is happening. At the same time, while I''m excited to live now, when people don''t need cars, part of me wishes that they weren''t totally obsolete." Now that Lisa thought about it in these terms, she wondered if her parents harbored a similar sense of longing toward her.They''re undoubtedly happy for me as I travel the universe, but at the same time... Lisa knew that they missed her being home.


    Bath gave her a wry look. "That''s the essence of change," he replied, pulling her into a side hug. "And the purpose of memory. And, specifically, art."


    Lisa smiled. "At the very least, we now have spaceships."


    "Which, thanks to alien technology, are decidedly better for the environ-"


    Lisa pushed him to the side, breaking out in laughter. "Give me a string of magnets," she instructed, stepping onto the balcony. Bath obliged her, forming a lengthy ribbon out of thin air. It would undoubtedly dissipate as soon as it left Bath''s long-range manipulation range, but for the moment, it was perfect.


    "Wait--how do you put this on?" She was struggling to lace the magnet-studded ribbon around her body. As she wrapped the ribbon around her legs, she couldn''t help but feel like she was stringing Christmas lights on a tree. She wondered why Bath hadn''t just generated the ribbon on her body like he did with normal clothes.


    "It''s easier with two sets of arms," he admitted, voice saturated withexaggerated concern. "And while the ribbon''s made of dragonleaf, I wouldn''t manipulate it if I were you: the magnets are in a very precise arrangement."


    Precise arrangement my ass. Now she understood why Bath let her put the ribbon on: it amused him. Lisa rolled her eyes, then took out a strand of dragonleaf from her pocket. She expanded it out into a set of tactile tentacles, then set about stringing the ribbon around her torso and arms. After she deemed the task complete, she directed the dragonleaf to wither and fall off onto the ground.


    "Okay, so now what?" Lisa looked back over at Bath, realizing that he, too, was now covered in an inch-thick, tightly-wound dragonleaf ribbon.


    "We jump." His mischievous expression left no doubt in Lisa''s mind: this would be a race.


    In an instant, the two of them launched off the balcony, disappearing into the air. The rules were obvious: they couldn''t use anything other than their bodies and the ribbons to descend.


    As Lisa fell through the air, she felt the magnets strung around her body react to the magnetic field coming from behind (the Spire was a source of magnetism) and below. Her first instinct was to condense her body into a diver''s pencil, her arms outstretched into a point.


    She soon, realized, however, that the ribbon she''d laced around her wrists slowed her down and threw her off course. Within two seconds of freefall, she was already spiraling out of control.


    Thankfully, instinct and experience kicked in. While Lisa wasn''t using her magnetic sense at the moment, part of her initial training had been learning to sense magnetic fields and maneuver within them. She closed her eyes, taking stock of how her body felt within the magnetic field. She kept them closed, relying on echolocation to ensure that she didn''t splat on the ground.


    She used the magnetic ribbon to adjust her momentum and catapult her forward, pumping her arms, legs, core, and torso to cut through the air.


    "Nice," Bath called out. "You stuck the landing."


    Lisa, huffing, ran a hand through her hair. "No fair," she panted. "You''ve done this before." She couldn''t deny that he''d beaten her by his own ability. While Bath could change form at will, he didn''t use this to his advantage. How else could Lisa beat him in basketball? Instead, he limited himself to human--or, post-COTD, boon-boosted human--capabilities.


    Bath looked up, his gaze locking onto the now unoccupied Spire balcony. "Rematch?"


    Lisa''s competitive spirit practically emanated from her eyes. "Yup."

 [Chapter 154] Flying Over Dusks Halo; Investigating the Superstructures

    "Finally," Zhou sighed, staring at the Arc''s front window and revving up the engines, his fingers twisting within the pedestal''s white glow. "This place was boring me to tears."


    Ida balked. "Boring? To you?" She curled her skirt around her body, sinking into a cushioned dragonleaf chair. As a pair of brown reading glasses fell down the woman''s nose, Lisa wondered why she was wearing them. She must, by now, have perfect vision. Perhaps it''s just a familiar comfort.


    Zhou''s expression remained impassive as the ship began to rise off the ground. "There''s nothing but salt," he replied. "It''s depressing."


    "What?" Priscilla grumbled, looking up from her chip reader. "Why?"


    "It''s so bland."


    The entire ship fell quiet.


    "Is that supposed to be a joke?" Priscilla said at last, uncertain.


    Zhou cracked a grin and winked.


    I feel like I don''t know anything about him, Lisa thought, studying the man intently as he began to direct their ship toward the exit gate. Zhou never talks about himself. All we see of him is this cool, confident individual...but there''s a reason why he''s the head of the vanguard''s kursi. Lisa had the impression that Zhou was far more intimidating than Jessup, the former head of Ritus. At the same time, as far as she knew, the man didn''t have a noteworthy past.


    Then again, she thought, how would I even know if he did? It''s not like I have a face book of all COTD kursi.She realized that if anyone had such a book, it was Lepochim.I''ll ask him about compiling one.


    Soon, the ship was passing through the gate, bringing up the rear behind the other ships as they made landfall. All those not riding in the ships had departed through the gate three hours ago, setting out early to plant a city-seed.


    "Wow..." Lisa murmured, struck by the stark difference between Dawn''s Shadow and Dusk''s Halo. While Dawn''s Shadow shone largely white, its salt surface only occasionally broken by crystal growths, Dusk''s Halo shone an intense green. Waves of short, hair-like fibers carpeted the ground.


    The kursi''s craft followed behind the other ships, casting thedistant ground in shadow. The terrain seemed to consist entirely of rolling plains, the grass unbroken by trees or animals. Five minutes into the flight, however, an enormous tilled field came into view. A rib-like superstructure the size of an airport arched over the field, its translucent form glinting in the light of the planet''s star. Using the superstructure as a scaffold were a number of small, moving metallic constructs that gleamed harshly star''s radiation. A few of these same constructs also tended to the field on the ground. To Lisa''s eye, the ground constructs appeared to be doing nothing more than walking through the dirt field in straight lines.


    "These must be the farming androids," Ida said, coking her head to the left.


    "They look suspiciously like the bug-botsthe verdora fought off on Drift Jag," Priscilla muttered. Khalid chose this moment to exit the shift''s small bathroom, his face pale.


    "We have arrived?" he exclaimed, quickly settling into a dragonleaf cushion. "How far are we from the city-seed?"


    "Not far," Zhou said, his eyes locked onto the outside. "This time, we established the city-seed in a geographically optimal location."


    Lisa nodded. "Unlike the other planets, planet 39744--Dusk''s Halo--has practical uses. We have access to maps of its surface and records detailing the arrangement between an entity known as Vora Star and Illudis."


    "Vora Star?" Zhou murmured, raising an eyebrow.


    Lisa met his eyes. "It''s a relatively powerful cluster of gate planets within the Intermediary Strand. They serve as a middleman, connecting the crops from Dusk''s Halo to their unnamed buyer within the Core."


    Ida frowned. "Are the androids from Vora Star?"


    "They''re from the unnamed buyer," Lisa clarified.


    Nodding, Ida crossed her hands and observed the passing of farmland below. Between the separate superstructures stretched untilled, grassy land. Fromwhen they initially spotted the first superstructure to when the Spire finally came into view, the only grass within their line of sight populated these half-mile long border areas.


    "The city-seed...it''s greener than usual," Khalid murmured, his voice partially obscured by his head wrap.


    Lisa blinked. The city-seed did appear over-saturated. Though perhaps that''s just in contrast to the city-seeds on the previous two planets. Drift Jag''s city-seed--New Mogadishu--was stark, its dragonleaf taking on ashy-gray hues, while the city-seed on Dawn''s Shadow--Saltflat--was a monochrome of white.


    "Why here?" Priscilla asked, still curled up on her chair. "What''s special about this part of the planet?"


    "Do you see how the ground is sloping up?" Zhou queried.


    "I suppose."


    "The land juts out, forming a large, natural bluff overlooking a freshwater lake," he explained. "Recall that unlike Dawn''s Shadow, Dusk''s Halo has a salt deficit. All but one body of water hold fresh water."


    "Huh," Priscilla intoned, looking intently at the rapidly-approaching city-seed. "How big is this lake, then?"


    Zhou smiled. "You have a chip reader, don''t you?"


    Priscilla grumbled something under her breath, focusing her eyes on an encyclopedia projection that only she could see.


    "Just tell her," Ida sighed wistfully, giving Zhou a disapproving look. She turned Priscilla''s way, then cleared her throat. "The lake is approximately the size of the Mediterranean Sea."


    Lisa swallowed. While she''d knownhow big the lake was, in square miles, the number hadn''t meant much to her. Big was, well, big. But visualizing this lake as the Mediterranean Sea suddenly made its enormity tangible.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    No wonder this world is such a desirable bread basket, she thought. The amount of fresh water on its surface is staggering.


    "By area, or volume?" Priscilla asked, frowning.


    Ida blinked. "Volume."


    "The encyclopedia says that the body of water--I assume I''ve found the correct one, based on our current location--is only 3.5 kilometers deep at its lowest point." She gave everyone nearby a knowing look. "Moreover, it has an average depth of only half of kilometer."


    This means nothing to me, Lisa acknowledged sadly. I need to better familiarize myself with geography and orders of magnitude.


    Khalid gave a short chuckle. "So this lake is enormous," he stated. "Interesting."


    "The planet itself is 1.25 times the radius of Earth in size," Lisa added. "It''s not too surprising that it has larger bodies of water."


    Thirty seconds later, the kursi disembarked from the ship, stepping eagerly onto the grass strip off to the city''s left side.


    "The atmosphere feels heavier," Priscilla noted, breathing in deeply.


    "It doesn''t feel like sticky, or heavy with humidity," Khalid murmured. He took in a series of slow, careful breaths. "The chip reader states that this planet''s atmosphere has a greater concentration of CO2," he observed. "Perhaps the air is simply just difficult to breathe."


    Lisa snorted. Compared to the atmosphere on some of the other planets we''ve been to, this place''s atmosphere is easy to breathe. Unenhanced humans would probably be able to breathe the air, though they might be short of breath.


    "Breathing in elevated levels of CO2 isn''t the problem," Lisa argued. "The atmosphere literally is just...thicker."


    The group fell in behind Zhou as he loped to the open front gates of the city-seed. As usual, the kursi set about locating their temporary living quarters and freshening up. Lisa elected to visit the bathhouse, craving the relaxing flow of water and steam over her body.


    However, when she arrived at the entrance, a large, poorly-made sign discouraged her from openining the door.


    "OUT OF ORDER."


    "Bath," she hissed, flicking Bath''s tiny ear resting behind her own.


    "Hmm?"


    "What''s wrong with the bathhouse?"


    Bath began to chuckle. "It''s out of order."


    "Yeah, I can clearly see that from the sign. Did you make that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.


    "Maybe," Bath drawled.


    "The first two words are enormous," she snickered. "You ran out of room?" "Order" was smooshed into the last quarter of the sign''s length.


    "Ha-ha," he chortled. "Regardless, I''m doing some modifications to the bathhouse."


    Lisa walked toward the entrance, opening the door and stepping inside. "Like what?"


    Bath appeared in front of her, his expression mischievous. He beckoned her forward, leading her into the bathhouse''s main chamber. Because steam, a staple of the bathhouse, was nowhere to be found, Lisa could actually appreciate the attention to detail that Bath had paid the room.It was divided into three parts: a section for men, on the left; a section for people of any gender at the center; and a section for women on the right. These two walls bore striking scenes of alien life and tropical jungles.Well, alien to me, at least. Lisa had no doubts that the creatures on the wall had once populated Earth.


    "This place is beautiful," she breathed, transfixed. She glanced up at the ceiling, where a patchwork of colored glass shone rainbow light down onto the floor. "That''s new, right?"


    Bath nodded. "Right."


    Lisa turned around, facing him. "What else have you changed?"


    Bath pointed downward. "I''m connecting the bathhouse to the lake below," he explained. "Ideally, before the day ends, we''ll have a functional water slide."


    Lisa gave him a look. "How long is the drop from here to the lake?"


    "Half a mile."


    "Uh..."


    "The goal," Bath began, "is to build a slide that twists and loops, taking advantage of the elevation and the force of gravity for the full half mile."


    "How, exactly, does this slide tie in with the bathhouse?"


    "People can use the bathhouse as a waiting room," Bath explained. "Do you remember all the times our parents took us to the pool as children? Remember how you were always shivering as we waited in line to slide again?"


    Lisa nodded. "I remember; but that''s how it always is: after getting out of the water, the air feels cold." She smirked. "Which is why you''re redirecting the line for the slide to the heated bathhouse."


    "Exactly."


    "Where are the people going to stand in line, then?" Lisa asked, raising an eyebrow.


    Bath snorted. "I''m working on it," he exclaimed, his voice defensive. "That''s why this place is out of order, for the time being."


    "When should I come back?"


    "I''ll tell you as soon as its finished."


    Lisa sighed. "That won''t work," she said, tapping her ear. "I was going to go in an hour, but I''ll just go now if I can''t take a bath. I''ll be beyond your range."


    Bath tilted his head. "Where are you going?"


    "To check out the enormous farms," Lisa explained. "Where else?"


    "I''ll go with you," he said. "I haven''t investigated them, either."


    Lisa gestured to the floor. "Don''t you need to focus on finishing this place?" She smiled. "I''ll be fine, seriously. I''ll take all of the kursi with me."


    "You''ve noticed that the androids bear a resemblance to the bug-bots, right?"


    Lisa rolled her eyes. "It''s a pretty hard resemblance to miss. It might just be a coincidence. We won''t know until we study one of the androids in detail." She sighed. "Not sure how we''re going to do that, though. Remember what Juserin said?"


    "Not to break any of the androids. Or, in his words, not to even touch them."


    "He didn''t say what would happen if we broke one, but he gave me the impression that it wouldn''t be good." If a Core world decided to mete justice on us for destruction of property...what would that entail? Lisa wondered if the Core world would even personally get involved. Perhaps that''s the role of Vora Star.


    "Lisa," Bath said abruptly. "Take the kursi, explore, and come back after two hours. The bathhouse will be done by then."


    Lisa grinned. "I''ll be back soon." With that, she turned around and sprinted out of the bathhouse, the "OUT OF ORDER" sign clanking behind her.


    ---


    Eyrin walked gingerly through the rows of stalks, his feet falling lightly on the loose soil. Behind him trailed a contingent of verdora ninety-eight strong.


    So, everyone. Aside from Thaddeus. At Eyrin''s sides were the Delelen twins, both of whom were transfixed by the superstructure overhead.


    "Our first adventure away from Thaddeus," the female Delelen said, her voice low. "Needs to go perfectly."


    "Thaddeus doesn''t expect perfection," the male Delelen argued. "Adventure is a messy business."


    A verdora--Eyrin recognized him as the son of a major lord--following behind the two broke into the conversation. "What kind of adventure are we going to find here?"


    None of them have any idea that the one who taught Thaddeus...was me. Hefound the dramatic irony humorous. Having lived out much of his life in one identity or another, Eyrin was no stranger to this kind of situation. However, while he normally felt no need to prove himself, part of him...wanted the other verdora to respect him.


    Not for being a kursi, of course--they already respected him for that. Instead, he wished that they saw him as a figure to go to for guidance. How did Thaddeus so quickly capture their faith and devotion?


    Eyrin cleared his throat. "It seems to me," he interjected, "that there''s only one thing to be done: investigate the superstructure and the androids scurrying about." He looked distastefully at the surrounding stalks of green. We''re definitely not going to find adventure in these monotonous fields: the superstructure is the only valid point to investigate.


    "Where do you propose we begin our investigation?" the male Delelen asked. I really should remember his name...


    "We should continue along this stretch of untilled ground until we reach the edge of the field. Then, we should climb the superstructure and map out its mechanical components," Eyrin instructed, walking swiftly ahead.


    Seeing no dissent, that was exactly what the verdora did. They reached the end of the field in a minute, emerging out onto the grassy barrier bordering its side.


    Eyrin went first, scaling the structure''s surface with ease. It had many square-shaped footholds, no-doubt in use by the androids. While his feet were a little large to fit into them comfortably, he only needed to push off against them and keep his balance. Soon, he found himself at the top of the structure.


    He motioned for the other verdora to come up. The verdora began climbing up the dome-shaped structure from the sides, congregating at the metal supports parallel with the ground.


    The cage-like superstructure was more than enough to support all of their weight. As soon as the last verdora fell into place, Eyrin began to voice his next instruction.

 [Chapter 155] Conversing With the Androids; Questions Without Answers

    Around ten verdora, the Delelens among them, used strands of dragonleaf to secure themselves to the translucent superstructure. By the time Eyrin began to speak, ninety-eight eyes pointed his way, their hosts all gingerly balanced in dragonleaf webs.


    "I trust that we''ve all known about the status of planet 39744 as an agricultural holding of an unspecified Core World, mediated through Vora Galaxy planet 75526, Tatsuin." The verdora inclined their heads. Considering their noble status, not knowing would be cause for concern. "According to records available to the princes of Illudis," he began, intently eying the crowd, "the Core World in question requires a set quota of food from the planet each year. To meet this quota, the Core World utilizes a workforce of androids." He gestured with a hand. "You can see them everywhere."


    Eyrin sensed their confusion and mild boredom, their shells bubble-like orbs of pastel yellow. They already know all this, as they should. "No doubt many of you are wondering why I said that my information comes from records available to Illudis'' princes." Their orbs turned pastel violet. So they''re mildly interested, at least. "While part of our contract with the unnamed Core World involves non-interference with their agricultural production, we have never been prohibited from visiting planet 39744. Several thousand years ago, we sent a team of engineers and scientists aboard a ship--not the voyager, but a leased vessel--to visit the planet."


    "Only once?" the female Delelen murmured absently. She immediately tensed as she realized who she was questioning. Her fear and embarrassment gave her violet shell a smattering of sunset red and midnight blue. "Apologies," she said, voice uncharacteristically soft.


    Eyrin shook his head dismissively. "There''s no need to emulate statues," he remarked, brow ridges rising up. "If you have questions, simply follow traditional rules of decorum and ask them."


    No less than twenty-percent of the verdora present pinched the fabric of their veils between fingers.


    "I''ll take questions in a moment," he added, eying the female Delelen. What''s her name...Arey..Arzey...Ezrey...Ah. "Erzey house Delelen--" that must be right-- "you asked why I only mentioned an expedition several thousand years ago--four-thousand and twenty-five years ago, to be exact. The answer is economics: leasing the required ship was exorbitantly expensive. As Juserin only acquired the voyager in the past few years, we had no financially feasible method to send more researchers to the planet before then.


    "Perhaps more importantly, based on our findings, we saw no reason to send another expedition."


    The pastel violet turned plum. Now they''re truly curious.


    "The androids will speak if spoken to," Eyrin said, his smile peaking out from his veil. "According to the archived report, they have no programmed knowledge of their creators or anything beyond the scope of the Galactic Encyclopedia. Even so...they have fairly peculiar behavioral patterns.


    "I''m not going to tell you what the report said--instead, I want everyone present to observe the androids carefully. Take note of their mannerisms and body language, as well as their manner of speech." Eyrin looked off in the distance towards the glare of a white sun. "I''ll gather all of you in an hour or two."


    All present looked at him with expectant eyes, now more than half pinching their veils. Oh, right. He cleared his throat. "Questions?"


    ---


    Lisa ran her fingers through vegetation as she progressed down the center of the field. The crop here is like...hairy corn. Thick, fibrous stalks stretched in rows for the entirety of the field. Above loomed the superstructure, glass-like against the intense aquamarine sky. She chose to walk, deigning to assume the same point of view as the androids that tended the field.


    She tried to understand why a civilization with potentially billions of years of technological development would use vaguely humanoid androids to manually till and harvest fields of crops. She had difficulty conceiving of such a society needing to export crops from a random planet like Dusk''s Halo. How did they even find this place? And why here--why not someplace closer? Dusk''s Halo was a full three years out from the Core World. No doubt, the string of gates leading from Dusk''s Halo to the unnamed Core World was almost impossibly inefficient--based on what she''d read, getting from the fringes of the universe to Ildr could take decades.


    Even so, Lisa had no doubt that there must be planets closer to the Core who could also produce agricultural goods. If the Core Worlds could have fresh crops, why settle for crops preserved?


    Ah, she thought, stopping abruptly. It''s one of the androids. She stepped to the side, watching as it used a series of brush-like protrusions to...fondle (?) a stalk of the hairy corn. She walked close to it, following it as it continued to move to other stalks.


    Wondering whether it had some way of detecting her presence, she walked off to its side, then waved her hand in front of its face.


    "Rather rude," a sinuous, deep female voice articulated.


    Lisa''s jaw dropped. She whipped her hand back, eyes wide. "Um..."


    "To stare," the android clarified. "I hoped you would leave."


    "Staring...?"


    The android continued to brush a stalk of corn. "I''m working on a tight schedule. You should leave."


    "Can''t I just watch?" I don''t see how conversing is slowing you down, she thought, noting how the android''s pace remained unchanged.


    "Mm..." the android intoned. Lisa had the distinct impression that, were the android human, she''d be smiling. "Why are you here?"Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Curiosity," Lisa said. "Why are you here?"


    "I''m tending these fields," the android replied matter-of-factly.


    Lisa''s lips pressed into a line. No shit. "What''s your name?"


    "Jezebella," the android replied, voice deadpan.


    Lisa paused. "That''s a cool name," she murmured.


    "I lied," the android said, following the words with lifelike laughter. "What do you think my name is?"


    Lisa coughed. Since when do androids lie? "Uh..."


    "Concision is everything, dear."


    Lisa''s eyes narrowed. "Maybe I was wrong to assume," she muttered. "Do you have a name?"


    More laughter. Then, in a starkly robotic, ungendered voice, "No."


    "Fine then, no need to string me along," Lisa grumbled. "What are these crops called?"


    "Vigigi," the android said.


    Lisa raised an eyebrow, padding along next to the android. "Vigigi?"


    "Why the focus on names, hmm? You seem to have a few of your own."


    Lisa''s knuckles tightened. Wait, what the hell?


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about."


    "Dear, don''t lie to auntie now, hmm?"


    This is the strangest--


    "It''s not that strange," the android mused.


    Lisa''s nostrils flared momentarily. "Why are you here?"


    "Some prisons are black metal," the android replied. "Some are clear sky."


    Lisa''s forehead crinkled. "Why are you here?" she repeated.


    "I know of you," the android sighed. "Church, Asil, and girl of another name. Your legacy spreads by the day and gate, and I am here, unchanged."


    What''s with the sing-songy prose? Lisa wondered, deeply unsettled. Though if the android has access to an up to date encyclopedia, it isn''t impossible for her to have heard about COTD and myself.


    "How long have you been here?" Lisa asked, changing the subject.


    "Time is meaningless."


    ...Seriously? "Time kills stars and planets," Lisa argued.


    "Time is deadly," the android said, "but meaningless. Time is rot."


    "Time is also potential," Lisa rebutted. "People can do great things."


    "But in the end," the android said, her artificial voice wistful. "Time will waste you."


    Lisa chewed her lip. While Lisa found the subject matter interesting, she wasn''t here for a philosophical debate. This android isn''t giving me any useful information.


    "Before I leave," Lisa said, "is there anything you want me to know?"


    "The universe is a vast place, as vast as it is old," she said. "A tree of time and space, winding both inward and outward." The android stopped, and Lisa turned away. Just as she was about to zoom off...


    "Remember the name: Jezebella Vigigi."


    Lisa furrowed her brow, her head whipping around. "Who?"


    "Jezebella Vigigi."


    Yeah, I got that much. "Why?"


    "What, how, when, where?" Deep laughter. "Who''s to say?"


    Lisa sighed, then turned away for good. She resolved to find another android, one less...erratic.


    ---


    Bath finished the water slide ahead of schedule. The bedrock of the lake made for a good building material: Bath layered rock with thick sludge, hardening the slide components and weaving dragonleaf around them. The issue of connecting the slide to the bathhouse turned out to be a non-issue: he created a high-rise catwalk above the bathing area below that stretched from the entrance to the back of the room.


    The steam should keep everything private, he mused. Probably. Besides, it was a public bathhouse: prudish western propriety was positively unwelcome. If people want their own private baths, they can make them.


    He didn''t know when Lisa was getting back, and noted that Dean was engaging important vanguard personnel in conversation regarding the ships and fuel sources.


    Not my ideal afternoon...


    He whipped out of the bathhouse, his thin, feathery wings propelling his slight body into the air. He scanned the surrounding area for signs of the verdora, other humans, or Lisa.


    Hmm...humans, he noted, swooping lower. A group of five were walking through a field, clustering around a metallic object. One of the androids.


    Bath vanished, his body dissociating in the air. The feeling was mildly unpleasant, but quickly remedied by the formation of a new body: that of Thaddeus house Clanemic.


    "Greetings," Bath called out, pushing away a crush of stiff, green crop. Spikes on its edges bit into his hands, though didn''t make it past his ribbon wraps.


    The humans jumped, startled, though the android remained as passive as before as it trimmed one of the stalks. He recognized them, having already memorized the identities of all thousand-or-so vanguard members. Clayton, Avery, Zina, Stevie, and Angela.


    "Haha," Stevie chuckled. "Thought you were another one of them." He gestured back to the android.


    "You lost?" Angela asked, her accent the same as the man''s. Australian, Bath thought.


    "No," Bath replied, coming closer. After his experience with AI Ninety-Seven on Vast Desert, he was careful to keep his essence contained within his body until he developed a sense for the android''s observational capabilities. Even if they were allegedly simple androids vetted for use on the rim, "simple" was a relative term.


    The humans appeared a bit uncomfortable. "Want to join us?"


    Bath smiled, his eyes crinkling. "The pleasure is mine." He regarded the android. "Does it speak?"


    "It did until you came," Zina said, her tone mildly accusatory.


    Bath snorted, then asked, "What is your purpose?"


    "Ah, an easy question," a deep, female voice replied. "To prepare and harvest crops."


    Bath nodded. "Excellent." He turned back to the others, noting their baffled expressions. "Problem?"


    "We''ve been talking to it about the meaning of names for the past half hour," Stevie stated. "In that time, we haven''t gotten a single straight answer out of it."


    Bath cocked his head. "Perhaps you just aren''t asking the right questions." He turned back to the android. "What''s an easy question?"


    "Those I''m permitted to answer."


    "Do you have a list of answerable queries?"


    "There are infinite."


    "How do you determine whether a question is difficult or easy?" Bath asked.


    The android swapped plants, drawing its pair of shears across the browning nub of a stalk. "How do you determine whether a question is difficult or easy?"


    "Here it goes again," Avery grumbled, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.


    "He got pretty far," Angela murmured. "Not surprising, considering he''s a verdora."


    Bath wasn''t sure why being a verdora would make him better at conversing with androids, but decided to let the comment slide for now.


    "Using your definition of an easy question," Bath began, "determining whether a question is difficult or easy would depend on the identity of the asker."


    The android sliced a patch of rough skin from the surface of a stalk. "It is as you say."


    "Wait, what?" Zina hissed.


    "Do you know who I am?" Bath asked mildly, ignoring the chittering off to the side.


    "No."


    "Does it matter?"


    "No."


    "Then tell me: what is your purpose?" Will she respond as she did before, or will our conversation change her answer?


    "To prepare the harvest."


    Bath cursed inwardly. The same response, for all intents and purposes.


    "For whom?"


    "The powers that purchased the rights to farm this planet." An encyclopedic answer. Bath sighed. However, as he did so, he emitted a cloud of essence. He directed it to the android, molding it over her metallic body and pushing it into the android''s joints. There''s scarcely any space at all, he thought. This android is air-tight.


    "Very well," Bath murmured, stepping back. He eyed the humans. "I tried." And no apparent reaction to my meddling; excellent.


    They nodded. "Angela, why don''t you take a crack at it?" Stevie suggested.


    Bath decided to watch them for the next ten minutes, sending his essence into the android''s exterior folds and creases while probing its body for openings. After that, however, he set off on his own, this time to inspect the superstructure.


    If the superstructure is any less closed-off than that android, I''ll be satisfied.

 [Chapter 156] Proposing a Wager; Slide Race; Bluff View

    Eyrin ran a ribbon-wrapped hand over the superstructure''s surface. It gave slightly when he applied pressure, another factor affirming his intuition: the superstructure was made out of a plastic. If only we could just...take part of the structure off, study it.


    He grunted. Only an idiot would be willing to chance the wrath of a Core World.


    He continued to scale the superstructure''s surface, his eyes peeled for any control panels or instrumentation. However, despite forty-five minutes of careful crawling, he had yet to see anything besides smooth, arching bars of clear plastic and their square-shaped footholds.


    These superstructures must do more than just...serve as scaffolds for the androids. They came from a Core World: even if the world in question only sent "primitive" farming mechanisms, Eyrin knew that a giant clear superstructure seemed, itself, unnecessary. The androids did most of the pruning of the crops below, while the few androids clinging to the superstructures appeared to simply hang aimlessly in place.


    Eyrin approached one of the hanging androids, a frown hidden beneath his veil. I''ll just talk to this android, then call everyone back. He originally said that he''d collect the verdora after one or two hours; after the fruitless, anger-inducing frustration of talking to the androids, he thought that even one hour was more than enough time.


    "Android," he called out. "What are you doing?"


    "Gardening." A mellow, deep feminine voice called out.


    "To my eye, you appear as though resting. Is resting part of the harvest?"


    A bubbly laugh sounded out. "Not all actions are visible to your eyes. I am here, gardening."


    Eyrin narrowed his eyes, his skin darkening almost imperceptibly. "Define ''gardening.''"


    "The sowing and reaping of life," she sighed, voice lilting in a sing-song manner.


    "And how do you sow crops on the ground," he began, eyes peering downward, "from up here?" His eyes returned to the android.


    "Some things require a gentle touch," she said. "You might not understand, Prince Eyrin." For the first time since the conversation''s start, the android''s head pivoted around to face him. The android''s unnaturally wide, mechanical grin made him involuntarily shiver, his skin darkening a shade.


    In the space of a breath, she crawled to him, limbs moving insect-like over the superstructure''s struts. Her face was only an inch from his when she said, "the reluctant prince, lacking a mother''s love."


    Eyrin could have sworn he felt her breath fall on his face. But in the end, the android''s face was a flat piece of metal, shifting as though deformed from behind. There was no true mouth, nor any breath: just a mask and a speaker.


    He flinched and recoiled backward. While Eyrin knew that the androids had access to an encyclopedia and informational reports on Illudis--he wasn''t surprised the unnamed Core World kept its androids informed about the sapients with which they''d formed a planet leasing contract--the details the androids knew were uncanny. This was the third android already that had referenced his mother, or lack thereof.


    Eyrin gritted his twin pairs of teeth. They endlessly deflect questions onto other topics, he seethed. Each time they''d made things personal before, he''d simply left, telling himself that he''d find a different android and try his luck again. He knew it was futile--the androids were all cut from the same metaphorical cloth.


    Now that he''d decided that this would be the final android he''d talk to (today, at least), he felt a burning desire to win. He couldn''t just leave again the same way as he''d left the other androids.


    For the sake of winning, you''ve gone as far as to fake your own death, he reminded himself, thinking back to the Hideaway. For the sake of liberating verdora from the chains of propriety, you masterminded dangerous adventuring schemes. Eyrin blinked twice. Melodramatic, he chided, laughing internally at himself.


    Eyrin thought about what made, for him, the aforementioned activities worthwhile...thrilling. They were all risks, he noted, cocking his head slightly.


    "Have you ever played a game?" Eyrin asked, leaning forward so that his head once more lay an inch from the android''s.


    "Nobody''s ever asked to play a game with me," the android replied, her voice breathy.


    "Games have stakes," he said. "Play a game, and then the winner takes something from the loser. Will you play a game with me?"


    The android hummed. "There''s nothing you have that I want."


    "What do you know," he began, cocking his head, "about the Church of the Dragon?"


    "Enough," she replied. "One of my sisters has already talked to your Church." The android smiled. "She''s no more than a sapient: quick to anger, impatient."


    The Church? Eyrin supposed having the Church present on the vanguard made sense--the Dragon had certainly made an appearance. But the Church was talking to the androids? Interesting.


    "If she''s just a sapient, how do you explain all that she can do?" Eyrin asked.


    "I haven''t seen her do anything," the android replied.


    Eyrin grinned. "We should play a game," he insisted. "If I win, you tell me what purpose these superstructures hold. If you win, I tell you of the Church and her abilities." He looked at the android expectantly.


    "No." Her voice was firm, like that of a parent to a child. "I don''t wager."


    Eyrin''s eye ridges rose. "Shame."


    "Good luck, prince," she said. "Besides, I think you''ll find that we''ve been more than generous with your goddess."


    What is that supposed to mean? "How so?"Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "We gave her a name."


    Eyrin blinked. "A name?"


    The android smiled. "A name. You should leave now, prince: I''ll speak no more."


    True to her word, she stepped away, hanging from the superstructure and falling silent. Eyrin shook his head once, then began climbing towards the superstructure''s apex.


    "Verdora," he called out. "It''s time to return."


    ---


    "Bath!" Lisa called out as she stepped into the bathhouse. His black hole shell stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all the sapient shells filling the new city.


    "Lisa," he murmured, appearing before Lisa''s eyes in a blink. She ignored him, looking up.


    "Where are you, actually?" While Bath had manifested himself here, on the ground, Lisa knew that his shell was actually higher up, somewhere by the..."What the actual hell is that platform!?" She twisted around, giving his avatar a look.


    "What?"


    "Why is there a platform stretching above the bathhouse?" She pointed with a finger.


    Bath smiled devilishly. "How else would people get to the slide?"


    Lisa''s jaw dropped. "What?"


    "It''s the passageway!" he cheered. "Besides, it''ll be so steamy in here it won''t matter: people on the platform will see nothing but a wall of fog below."


    Lisa chewed her lip. "Why isn''t it steamy now?"


    "I intentionally prevented dragonleaf from burrowing into the crust toward the planet''s mantle," Bath said. "I suppose it''s time to get the bathhouse working."


    Lisa punched his shoulder. "Get it working now, and I''ll be the judge of whether this ''catwalk passageway'' is a good idea." She crossed her arms, looking at him expectantly.


    Bath chuckled. "Fine." Lisa suddenly felt the ground beneath them quiver. Water filling the pools ahead rippled, waves breaking against the walls separating the three bathing sections.


    Less than a minute later, the water began to bubble. "There," Bath said. When Lisa turned back, she realized that she was now face-to-face with Bath''s actual body, his shell surrounding his shoulders and head like a halo from aMedieval masterpiece...Though the color is inverted.


    "I don''t see any mist," she snorted, smiling.


    "Give it a minute," he replied, rolling his eyes. "While we wait, why don''t you tell me about your experience with the androids."


    Lisa groaned. "They''re impossible!" she groaned, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "They never gave me a straight answer to any question I asked."


    Bath nodded sagely. "Same."


    "You too?" she said. "I thought you didn''t have time to see the androids ''cause you were busy making your slide."


    Bath shrugged. "I finished early, so I thought I''d go out and try to communicate with a few of them."


    Lisa laughed. "So you know what I mean then. About the androids being impossible little shits."


    "It''s like...the Core World they came from decided to play a prank on all of us."


    Lisa nodded. "If they didn''t want the androids to say anything, they could''ve just made them mute. But no, instead, they just make the androids so infuriating to talk to that they melt your ears off."


    Bath gave Lisa an incredulous expression. "I''m not sure that was ''melt your ears off'' level," he began, smiling wryly, "but it was obnoxious."


    Lisa sighed, noting how steam was slowly starting to fill the space. "Did they tell you anything interesting?"


    Bath shook his head. "No. You?"


    Lisa frowned. "The first one I talked to told me a name."


    "A name?" Bath was fairly certain that none of the androids had told anyone anything substantive. And yet one of them had told Lisa a name?


    "Jezebella Vigigi," Lisa said, pronouncing the name carefully.


    "The first name sounds...Earth-like."


    Lisa shrugged. "So does the name of the guy who used to pilot the Egdelek Arc."


    Bath nodded. "Franz."


    "Right. I think it must just be a coincidence," Lisa muttered. "In all the universe, if sapients generally converge to the same human-like phenotype...they undoubtedly think of the same kinds of names as well."


    "Did you look up Jezebella Vigigi in the chip reader''s encyclopedia?" Bath asked, eyes bright with curiosity.


    "Not yet," Lisa admitted. "I''ll look now." She opened up the encyclopedia''s search interface, then gestured to type in the name. "It''s still searching..." she murmured, looking up. By now, the room was almost completely awash in white steam.


    "It''s taking a while," Bath observed.


    "Yeah," Lisa replied. "I''ve never seen it take so long. Oh, wait, I think..." She projected the results for Bath to see.


    <<No Results Found>>


    The two looked at each other with stoic expressions, then laughed. "We tried," Lisa snorted. "For all we know, the android was trolling me hard."


    Bath sighed. "Wouldn''t surprise me."


    Lisa turned her eyes toward the mist-filled beyond. "Okay, I think it''s ready for use." She turned back toward the entrance and the "OUT OF ORDER" sign.


    Bath''s eyes flashed. "Don''t you think we need to first test the slide?" A lopsided grin made its way across his face.


    Lisa placed a palm to her forehead in mock disbelief. "How could I have forgotten?"


    "Race you," Bath said.


    Lisa groaned. "After Dawn''s Shadow..." She looked at him, then breathed in deeply, shaking her head. "Whatever, sure." Without waiting for him to reply, she began to count: "Three, two, one!"


    Echolocation rocks, Lisa thought as she dashed up toward the platform mist-obscured platform. There weren''t any stairs, but at this point, anybody in COTD should''ve been able to make the jump. She pressed off on the ground, using her magnetic sense to increase her force downward. Can''t look behind me, she thought, even if she wanted to see where Bath was relative to her current position. Doing so would only slow her down. Theoretically, echolocation should let her see Bath even if he were behind her...but the two of them were moving too fast for it to work correctly.


    She sprinted for all she was worth once on the platform, practically flying across the ground. Had her eyes been open, she would''ve noted the change in brightness from indoors to outside as she rocketed into the slide. Instead, she registered the emptiness of space beyond like a gaping rift in the structure of the bathhouse.


    As she slid into the slide, she opened her eyes and let go of everything else: no more magnetic sense, no more super strength...just sliding.


    The slide was smooth, probably some kind of dragonleaf root Bath had shaped into a snaking formation. Lisa had to give him credit: the slide was long. It reminded her of a roller coaster in that it ducked and looped in such a way that she never lost speed.


    Then again, the slide might only work this well if you have a running start. She had entered the slide at, well, inhuman speed.


    After a solid two minutes of sliding, she finally dropped off into the lake. She came up with her eyes squinted closed, treading water and waiting for Bath.


    She didn''t have to wait long. A moment later, Bath dove face-first into the water, evidently having gone down the slide on his stomach. As he came up, he, too, squinted his eyes closed, shaking out his hair and putting a finger in an ear.


    Lisa sighed. He seems so...human. "I beat you this time," Lisa stated, beaming.


    "Yup," Bath replied, scrunching his nose as he gingerly opened his eyes. "You won this one." He swam over to her, then raised a hand into the air. "Lisa White, slider-supreme."


    "Slider...supreme?" she echoed. "That''s awful."


    Bath shrugged. "It''s a hard-won title."


    Lisa pursed her lips, then punched him on the shoulder. "Brat."


    "Slider-supreme."


    Lisa groaned. "Let''s get out of the water and back to..." She gave Bath a look. "What''s this city even called? I didn''t even think to ask."


    "..."


    "You don''t know?"


    "Give me a moment," Bath muttered. "Well, people are calling it Bluff View, so I guess that''s its name."


    "Who named it?" Lisa wondered. "Dean?"


    "I think so," Bath replied, unsure. "We can ask him tomorrow before we depart."


    Lisa turned around in the water to face Bluff View. The city jutted out, its ashy-green dragonleaf melding seamlessly into the stark sienna rock. "Four more places after this," she murmured. "Then we''ll be home."


    Bath nodded. "Earth."


    "Home, not Earth," Lisa insisted. "What else can you call the place in which you''ve spent most of your life?"


    "Home, then," Bath stated. "Excited to see what''s happened since we''ve been gone?"


    "Yeah," Lisa replied. "I want to see what people have done now that all their most basic problems have been taken care of."


    Bath nodded slowly.


    "How about you?" Lisa asked. "Excited?"


    Bath tsked. "I''m not sure how I feel...but I am curious to see how things have played out in our absence."


    Silence fell for a moment.


    "What now?" Lisa asked.


    Bath raised an eyebrow. "Rematch?"

 [Chapter 157] Dashing Across Dragondeep; Trailblazing the Way to Fiendstrom

    Dean watched as approximately eight-hundred members of the vanguard flowed into the ships. From the balcony of the Spire, he had an excellent vantage point to watch the already-boarded kursi ship as it hovered over the massive lake.


    Dean cocked his head. The lake must have a name by now...right?


    >>Fartuun, do you know the name of the lake?


    A moment later, she sent a message back.


    >>Wait...


    Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose, then sighed, shifting his gaze to look over the coastline beyond the city-seed''s borders.


    >>Why don''t you just name it?


    Fartuun suggested. Dean cocked an eyebrow.


    >>You''re telling me that a lake the size of the Mediterranean still hasn''t been named?


    Beyond marking how to proceed from one gate to the next, the extant verdora maps contained only the crudest of details. As a result, the vanguard had been making maps and naming landmarks as they went.


    Didn''t we bring an entire team of people skilled in cartography? Dean mused. This is within their domain. While the planets had been named by COTD sometime back on Earth, and the city-seeds successively named by select members of the vanguard, everything else was the responsibility of the cartographers.


    >>I never said it didn''t have a name, just that you should name it :3


    Dean rolled his eyes. I''m not gonna name it if it already has a name. He felt bad founding and naming so many cities already.


    >>What''s it called?


    >>One of the cartographers encountered an android. He was, apparently, the only one to ask an android about the names of local features. According to the android, the lake''s name is Ire.


    Dean spoke the lake''s name under his breath. "Lake Ire." He nodded slowly. Definitely not the worst name we''ve seen on this expedition.


    The next planet they were visiting, Dragondeep, was supposed to be volcanic, more so than Gray Land. However, while Gray Land''s gates lay submerged in Lava, those of Dragondeep rested exposed atop rocky outcrops. According to the encyclopedia, the planet was a mess of islands and cracked continents.


    Because of the planet''s volatility and conditions unsuitable for cultivating plant life, Bath and Lisa had informed him that they weren''t going to bother setting down a city-seed. Instead, they were to continue straight on to the next planet, Fiendstrom.


    Based on the descriptions in the encyclopedia, Fiendstrom sounded almost as inhospitable as Dragondeep--as its name suggested, the planet was wracked by ferocious storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, the works. Something about the planet, however, had sparked Bath''s interest, and he expressed great excitement during one of their meetings about colonizing it. I wonder if it''s something he saw while flying over it, Dean wondered.


    Either way, he thought, I''ll see what he has planned in less than a day. The suspense, if Dean could call it that, was entirely bearable.


    ---


    "This is, by far, the most hideous planet yet," Dean exclaimed as he ran over the mottled, burnt ground. "Worse even than Lime World." Dean had difficulty quantifying exactly why the planet was so off-putting. While Lime World had been mildly ugly because of its dull terrain and toxic-green cesspools, Dragondeep''s terrain stretched and distended like a corpse...one first blazed to a charcoal-crisp finish, then left to bloat in water so that its black finish cracked and made way for pale, pink flesh.


    Virigard chirped her assent. "Just walking on all this obsidian is leaving my nails black," she whined.


    "Hey," Eyrin''s devilbat, Clarissa, shouted. "What''s wrong with black?" She pumped her wings furiously to keep pace. "I really don''t get why we aren''t establishing a city here: this is my kind of place."


    While Dean and Virigard didn''t have eyes for anything but the rough terrain in front of them, they had no difficulty imagining the incensed look on Clarissa''s face.


    "Clarissa," Eyrin said, his steady voice barely concealing laughter, "this planet looks as though afflicted by a fungal skin disease."


    Dean chuckled. I never realized the verdora prince had a sense of humor. The last time they''d traveled together was when they were entering Vast Desert. Based on that encounter alone, Dean had pegged him as a stereotypical Jane Austen noble with "daddy issues." But on their trek across Dragondeep''s surface, Eyrin had taken every moment possible to take jabs at his devilbat companion.


    Because Clarissa was incredibly easy to make fun of, Dean and Virigard had quickly joined Eyrin in aggravating the devilbat to pass the time.


    "You guys are the worst," Clarissa sniffed. "This is what I get for wanting to see more of the world." She sighed dramatically. "Flying across this planet was my only opportunity to see its goth-inspired surface."


    Virigard giggled. "I still haven''t seen much of the world," Virigard piped up. "I''m short! Really short!" She jumped up into the air to prove her point, bounding several feet above Dean''s head before falling back in stride. She turned around to look at Clarissa. "Can I--" the breath went out of her lungs as she promptly tripped on an elevated slab of red-crusted obsidian and flew forward seven feet.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Watch where you''re going," Dean chided, shooting her an expectant look.


    In that moment of lapsed concentration, he, too, rammed his foot into a slab of rock. However, instead of him tripping over the rock, he simply kicked it apart. Nevertheless, the motion slowed him down.


    "Shit!" he hissed, shaking out his foot.


    Eyrin laughed uproariously from the sky, his veil whipping wildly about his face. Clarissa had a smug expression on hers as she watched two of her verbal tormenters suffer mishaps.


    As Virigard scrambled to her feet, she exclaimed, "Take me with you!"


    Eyrin''s laughter stopped. "Hmm?"


    Clarissa snorted. "You wanna fly, mouse?"


    "Dea--Knight help~" Virigard called out. She began to address the flying duo once more. "I''ll give you guys each three rum cokes if you let me fly!"


    "Just put on a wingsuit," Clarissa suggested.


    Virigard''s eyes grew wide and bulbous with unshed tears.


    "Guys," Dean intoned, shaking his head. Now they''d done it.


    "I can''t use a wingsuit!" Virigard lamented. "My arms are too short!"


    Eyrin laughed once more. "If you can jump onto Clarissa, be my guest."


    Dean snorted at the offer. There''s no way that Virigard will be able to jump high enough to hitch a ride, he thought. Seeing the determination in her expression, though, almost changed his mind...until he remembered that she''d had the same expression when she tried--and failed--to use a wingsuit. Now that I think about it, she also had this expression when I told her digging up through the Spire to reach my office was impossible...and look where that led her.


    For the rest of the trip, the group of sapients trailing behind would wonder at the white blur that lunged toward the ducking and swooping kursi prince and his devilbat.


    ---


    Several hours later, the contingent arrived at the designated exit gate leading to Fiendstrom. The four approached the gate, while the rest of the ground crew congregated in an area off to the side. Dean recalled the instructions given to him by Juserin and his team of specialists back on Illudis: Before stepping onto Fiendstrom, use a transcriber at the gate threshold to get a reading of planet''s weather.


    This was the main reason that the group outside the ships went first: they needed to determine the conditions on Fiendstrom to ensure that the ships could enter the gate safely. While nobody doubted that the ships could withstand the void of space, they weren''t invulnerable. While Juserin''s smaller voyager would likely do well in even the worst of weather, the larger arc ships and their needle-thin designs made Dean uneasy. The last thing we need is for one of our newly-constructed vessels to get ruined in a storm.


    Dean pulled the verdoran transcriber from one of the pockets on the inside of his tabard, looked at it, then walked forward over the cracked obsidian and placed it on the ground. As he watched the transcriber sprout stalk-like legs and teeter away, Eyrin addressed him from behind.


    "Is that why they sent us out here first?" he asked.


    Dean nodded. "Testing the weather is a priority. Taking the rest of the vanguard along who didn''t fit into the ships is a secondary benefit." As he spoke, the transcriber-bot tentatively approached the gate, two antennae swiveling wildly in front of it.


    "And you call this planet hideous..." Clarissa grumbled in the background as she gave the transcriber-bot a look of abject disgust. "Fuckin'' spiders..."


    "Couldn''t we fit all the vanguard onto the ships?" Eyrin asked. "Fitting two-hundred-or-so more shouldn''t be impossible, especially since we acquired the arc on Drift Jag."


    Dean shook his head. "We haven''t been able to use that one," he explained. "We actually left it behind with a few engineers."


    "Really?" Eyrin murmured, eyes alight with interest. "Does that decision have anything to do with evacuating Drift Jag''s original city-seed?"


    "We had concerns about the ship emitting radioactivity," Dean admitted. "Moreover, it was submerged under a radioactive mountain. While, according to AI Ninety-Seven, the arcs are outfitted with radiation shields, we still haven''t confirmed that the ship is safe to board after years of radiation exposure."


    Clarissa nodded, her bobbed hair swishing around her face. "That would suck."


    Eyrin gave Dean a peculiar, searching look. "Can''t your Church and Dragon heal radiation poisoning?"


    Dean narrowed his eyes. I know that Bath can...but there must be a limit, otherwise he would have just cleaned the mountain surrounding New Mogadishu instead of planting an entirely new city-seed. "They can heal radiation poisoning, but in the end, I think they''d prefer to keep their subjects...away...from harmful influences."


    Eyrin chuckled dryly. "I''m not sure you believe what you''re saying."


    Dean suddenly felt very aware of the fact that he was alone with an experienced kursi. He''d never considered being alone with kursi a problem until now: so far as he knew, Lisa had never used her ability to influence him. But Eyrin''s knowing, calculating gaze reminded Dean of a cat eying a mouse. I need to be less naive, he thought, annoyed at himself.


    He grimaced. "Eyrin, I don''t want to accuse you of anything...but don''t use your abilities to read me, okay? Thanks."


    Eyrin stiffened. "Knight," he said. "That''s like asking me to turn off the color sensors in my eyes."


    Dean crossed his arms. He''d assumed kursi abilities needed to be activated, rather than being active all the time. Is that what it''s like for Lisa whenever she talks to me? Dean blushed at the thought. While he didn''t like Lisa, there had still been more than a few times while talking to her that he''d...well.Socially awkward guy meets real-life goddess...and is unable to think clearly. Who would have thought?Of course Dean didn''t consider Lisa a real goddess, but in looks alone she more than satisfied every requirement.


    Dean was glad that his dark skin hid his embarassment...until he remembered that his shell--and current emotional state--were clearly visible. Wow, this is going downhill quickly.


    Dean scrutinized the verdora, trying to catch any reaction. "Eyrin, why didn''t you go with the other kursi?"


    "Because," Clarissa butted in. "Like I said, we wanted to see the planet too inhospitable for a city-seed up close and personal."


    Eyrin shot her an amused look. "Something like that."


    Just then, Virigard began to giggle.


    "Hm?" Dean intoned, spinning around.


    "If I''ve learned one thing about the verdora, it''s that they just wanna have fun." She pointed a tiny finger at Eyrin. "Is this more fun than riding on a ship?"


    "Yes."


    Virigard nodded sagely. "That''s your answer."


    Suddenly, a beep pulsed through the air, attracting the four pairs of eyes. "Let me see..." Dean murmured, walking over to the gate-bisected transcriber. As originally instructed, he placed his chip reader up against its exposed side. A moment later, a weather status report appeared on the chip reader''s holoprojection.


    "As we thought, the weather is okay," he said. "No large storms expected."


    "Yay!" Virigard cheered, sauntering over to the devilbat. Clarissa regarded Virigard with a cool, composed face, but still gave her knuckles all the same.


    Dean nodded. "The signal for the others will go through as soon as we enter the gate." Another transcriber lay betweenDusk''sHalo and Dragondeep: once it no longer picked up a signal from Dean''s chip reader, it would notify Lisa, Bath, and the ship pilots.


    Dean ran over to a nearby rock, his body a veritable blur. "Everyone," he called out, gathering their attention. "We''re entering the gate. Line up!"


    Only minutes later, the Church of the Dragon''s first followers set foot on Fiendstrom.

 [Chapter 158] The Vanguard Investigates the Secrets of Fiendstrom; Discovering Discrepancies

    Dean, Eyrin, Virigard, and Clarissa stepped single-file across the gate. Virigard was the first of COTD to enter Fiendstrom, her whiskers twitching furiously as she scented the new world. The smell reminded her of Virginia...home. Or at least the closest thing to it; she''d never stayed in one place for more than a month. At the very least, it''s the place where I was created.


    "It''s...fresh," Eyrin remarked. "Somewhat humid, like a temperate forest in late Spring."


    Virigard sniffed, resisting the urge to point out that half of the current group had only ever experienced--at least over an extended period of time--Autumn.


    Clarissa exhaled, expression inscrutable. "Reminds me of Greece," she murmured.


    Virigard''s ears pricked up. "Greece? You''ve been to Greece?" Virigard''s eyes grew round with jealousy. I''ve only been to the United States, Africa and the Middle East. Europe was still one region she had yet to check off of her bucket list.


    "Greece?" Eyrin echoed, cocking his head. "As in, the ancient civilization?"


    Dean raised an eyebrow. "You know about ancient Greece?"


    Eyrin snorted dismissively, though his eyes flashed with intensity. "Your Church has taken the time to learn about the ancient history of the verdora," he replied. "She even asked me one or two questions regarding passages in the encyclopedia."


    "So you''ve been studying Earth''s history in return?" Dean asked.


    "I''ve been studying its religions," Eyrin clarified. "I''ve been trying to get a better grasp on religion as a concept separate from myth and legend."


    "Well," cut in Clarissa. "I was talking about modern Greece, anyway."


    Virigard rocked on her legs as she hopped forward, nose ceaselessly twitching. Even as the other two-hundred or so vanguard members streamed through the gate onto Fiendstrom, she continued to prowl over the rocky, sparse terrain.


    "Viri," Dean called out from fifty feet or so up the incline, "something wrong?"


    Virigard swished her tail. "No," she replied.


    "Viri..." He inclined his head, trailing off. "Nevermind."


    Virigard filtered out the rest of the world as proceeded onward. There''s something here, something familiar, that I haven''t scented since Earth.


    She suddenly stopped, her paw draping lightly over a section of taupe-colored rock.


    Concrete. Virigard smiled, then used a claw to carve out a section of the weather-beaten slab. She popped it into her mouth, then began to crunch. Beaming, cheeks puffing, she turned around and headed back up the hill to the overlook where Dean, Eyrin and Clarissa watched the gate.


    Eyrin gave her a searching look. "What exactly did you find over there?"


    Clarissa shook her hair, then addressed the verdora prince. "It''s clearly just a chunk of rock, right?"


    Virigard shook her head as she continued to chew.


    Clarissa rolled her eyes. "You picked up a rough, blocky object...put it in your mouth...and came back over."


    Virigard nodded, then finished swallowing. "Mhm!"


    Dean sighed in exasperation. "It''s obviously not just a normal rock. What is it?"


    Virigard twitched her tail. "It''s concrete." She looked at everyone expectantly. Dean was the first to realize the implications of her statement, his brow furrowing. Actually, he''s probably the only one who will understand why this is important, besides me, of course, Virigard thought smugly. She had never seen concrete on Illudis, so Eyrin wouldn''t be familiar with it; additionally, she doubted that Clarissa, who spent most of her time flying above ground, would recognize it.


    She pointed with a finger. "There''s concrete over there. That means that something on this planet was intelligent enough to mix and pour concrete!"


    Dean flashed over to the side of the mountain to take a look. "There''s so little of it," he called out.


    Eyrin and Clarissa gave each other confused looks. "Concrete?" Eyrin murmured.


    "Concrete," Virigard repeated. "It''s a building material."


    "What''s it used for?" Clarissa asked.


    Virigard stood up straight, one hand on her hip. "Concrete," she began, "is used for many things."


    The two gave Virigard blank looks. "...Like?" Clarissa probed.


    "Sidewalks," the jerboa replied.


    Clarissa''s face screwed up, her snout wrinkling. "Oh. Wait, so concrete isn''t just..." She halted her line of thought. "When was it invented?"


    Virigard held up her off hand, projecting the encyclopedia page for concrete. "Concrete has existed since the dawn of civilization," she proclaimed, summarizing the page''s contents. "No fancy technologies are needed. Any civilization that has mastered the use of fire should be sufficient."


    Eyrin was next to catch on to the significance of discovering concrete. "So there was sapient life on this planet," he stated. "Or at the very least, proto-sapient life." He frowned. "We didn''t find any evidence of civilization when we visited this planet in the past..."


    After having Eyrin spell the situation out, Clarissa grunted in understanding before walking off toward Dean. Virigard and Eyrin followed behind until all four were before the concrete deposit.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Noting the three''s arrival, Dean began to delegate tasks. "Clarissa, take Eyrin and see if you can find evidence of sapient life," Dean commanded. "Virigard, I want you to explore the underside of this mountain and see if some structure lies buried under the rock."


    Dean turned toward the gate, noting the congregating mass of two-hundred-or-so vanguard members. "I''ll lead the others on to the exit gate; we''ll establish the city-seed there. The exit gate is marked on your chip reader holo map: set a timer for six hours. Be back by then."


    Virigard and the others felt the air swirl in response to Dean''s rapid departure toward the waiting vanguard members. Clarissa gave Eyrin an exhausted look, shaking out her mane.


    "Might as well get on with it," Clarissa muttered. She narrowed her eyes at the prince. "Seriously, don''t get yourself killed. You can''t rely on me to catch you."


    A moment later, the two were off. Virigard sniffed the air, then began to pat her foot nervously against the ground. The encyclopedia says that this planet never developed sapient life. Virigard''s fur bristled. And when has it been wrong? Virigard didn''t count Earth: the encyclopedia contributors obviously wouldn''t have been able to foresee the emergence of Bath.


    Soon, the chatter of the vanguard disappeared along with Dean, leaving Virigard all alone on the mountain. The inclement clouds to bore down on her as she rocked on her legs, leaving her with an uneasy feeling.


    Virigard reached down, picked up a chunk of concrete, and fed it into her mouth. She reminisced about Earth, remembering the time that Dean--no, not Dean, not back then...it would have been Lepochim--passed down an ordinance that jerboa were absolutely forbidden from eating concrete sidewalks and infrastructure.


    Not that the ordinance stopped the jerboa...it had just made concrete that much more desirable. I''m actually surprised I didn''t recognize its scent. While the scent had felt familiar, it hadn''t immediately drudged up memories of pilfering chunks of sidewalk.


    Virigard leaned down over the small patch of concrete, nose twitching as she sniffed. It''s...probably because it''s made out of a different kind of concrete than I''m familiar with.


    She scratched a claw against the gray material. Why am I so apprehensive to dig down? She''d been standing in place for at least a solid minute--in other words, for a small eternity. Shaking her head, she stepped off to the side and began to dig down into the mountain, taking care to leave the concrete untouched. This is an excavation, she told herself. Five minutes ago I was an explorer. Now, I''m an archaeologist. She would have smiled if her teeth weren''t fully engaged in the art of tunneling. The best archaeologist, of course.


    ...And then she tunneled a bit too far, ripping into a solid foot of concrete about twenty feet underground. She paused, then shrugged. Even the best archaeologists make mistakes! And so she continued, burrowing down until, at around a hundred feet down, the concrete completely disappeared.


    Virigard then went to work stripping the land around the concrete structure, disregarding the mountain. She reveled in the mind-numbing work, her ability to follow the contours of the buried concrete structure improving as she went along.


    In her frenzy, she barely noted the passage of time. About an hour later, she stood, huffing, on a precipice carved out of the former-mountain. Well, she thought. This is cool!


    ---


    "Now that you have your wingsuit, I don''t even know why I''m here," Clarissa grumbled.


    "Because," Eyrin replied, his words minced by the whipping wind. "Flying by wingsuit is slow."


    "You''re making me slow," Clarissa retorted, giving her torso a shake. Eyrin swayed, the ten-rod dragonleaf rope connecting his body to Clarissa tensing up. "I''m literally towing your un-aerodynamic body through a stormy, near-hurricane-weather sky."


    "Exactly. Gives me a better vantage point...you see the world in front, I see the world in back."


    Clarissa groaned. "If the rope snaps I''m going to have to dive after you. Again." The worst part was, Clarissa was fairly certain that was the point. How else would Eyrin get his danger fix? "Besides, I don''t need your damned eyes. You''re here to sense sapients with your kursi powers. I''m here because of my echolocation."


    "But it''s hopelessly boring," he lamented. "All the lifeforms I''ve sensed are all hopelessly simple."


    Clarissa blinked. Then she spoke, voice elevated above a particularly fierce gust of wind: "So you''re sensing sapients?"


    Eyrin laughed dryly. "There''s life on this planet," he explained. "Intelligent life. Not sapient life. At least, none that we''ve flown over."


    "There''s something below us," Eyrin said after a time.


    Clarissa snorted. "Nothing but ocean, Eyrin."


    Eyrin squinted. "Seriously," he said. An instant later, he severed the dragonleaf connecting him to Clarissa.


    I can''t believe I''m already desensitized to free falling off a moving object, Eyrin thought, disgruntled. I barely feel any sense of danger at all. Eyrin knew this was particularly due to the fact that he severed the rope himself: if the dragonleaf line had randomly snapped, the disorientation and uncertainty of the moment would have ratcheted his danger senses into high gear.


    A few seconds, later he exhaled a sharp oof as Clarissa swooped in underneath him. He wrapped his arms around her neck in a practiced motion, manipulating two strands of dragonleaf to secure his attachment.


    "Don''t pull my hair," Clarissa snarled. She pumped her wings above the water, looking down. "And fine, I admit you were right."


    Eyrin''s eye ridges rose. "Really?"


    Clarissa groaned. "Echolocation usually works," she argued.


    "Good thing I was hanging behind you."


    "Whatever," Clarissa sighed. She flew them down to the water''s surface. "You up for a dive?"


    ---


    Dean hated to criticize the verdora who originally explored Fiendstrom: they''d had a near-impossible task, at least for normal, unenhanced sapients. Dean couldn''t fathom trying to explore Fiendstrom as a normal human: the weather was fickle, transitioning from calm to devastating in minutes. Moreover, the craggy terrain lacked any clear paths and was difficult to navigate by foot.


    The verdora mapping out this place would have only had a rented interplanetary vessel--like Juserin''s voyager. Based on what Dean had seen of verdora technology, their transportation relied extensively on established infrastructure. For instance, the high-speed pods skeeted exclusively along established routes. Some vessels, such as the giant dirigibles of the verdoran elite, floated aimlessly over the planet''s surface, but Dean considered them more as floating cities than as means of transportation. Dean certainly hadn''t seen any vehicles like cars on Illudis.


    While it''s been a few thousand years since the last expedition here, I''m under the impression that Illudis has undergone very few changes over that time. It wouldn''t surprise him if the expedition team had wholly lacked the means to navigate Fiendstrom in any capacity. Especially if they didn''t know what to expect. Which, considering that the expedition was intended to collect information and map out the planets connected to Illudis'' gate...


    Dean sighed. Whatever the reasons, the information in the encyclopedia on Fiendstrom seemed completely wrong...as the vanguard members he was leading took every opportunity to point out. He couldn''t blame them: at least ten percent of them were cartographers.


    Dean tapped his foot on the rock as the group halted...again. Five people were arguing heatedly over whether the ground they were standing on had ever been a mountain. The map clearly indicated that a mountain had once been where they all now stood. Dean disagreed with one of the cartographers, a woman named Valia, that a series of vicious storms had somehow destroyed the mountain over the past few millennia. He found the proposition of another woman, Angelica, much more likely: the verdora had marked the mountain''s position wrong.


    A few minutes later, everyone agreed to simply mark down the discrepancy and continue on. Ad so, Dean led the group out again...only to stop not thirty seconds later.


    "Not again," Dean sighed quietly, pivoting mid-stride. He had completely missed whatever it was that had caught everyone else''s attention. He fell to the ground, impacting the grass softly. His eyes widened as they fell on the source of the group''s attention. There, hollowed into the side of an oppressive mountain, was a cracked and weathered door.


    Well, that''s definitely something the verdora missed.

 [Chapter 159] Enter the Burial Chamber; Flashback to the Warring Desert

    Dean fell to the ground, impacting the grass softly. His eyes widened as they fell on the source of the group''s attention. There, hollowed into the side of an oppressive mountain, was a cracked and weathered door.


    Dean paused, then exhaled, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he stood in front of the door, his hand hovering an inch from its gnarled surface.


    He looked to the left and right, saying, "I''m opening the door; be cautious."


    The door lacked any kind of knob, and didn''t appear to have a hinge. Dean pressed his palm to its surface and pushed, gradually increasing his applied pressure. Eventually, the door popped inward. Dean caught himself before he stumbled forward, resting a hand on the rock above the unsealed entrance.


    He used his chip reader to send out a projection of white light, illuminating the cavernous room. He stepped gingerly forward, the other vanguard members following in behind.


    Dean felt a churning sense of reverence and fear as he took note of the room''s contents. Stacked across each wall were pillars holding platforms, almost as though someone had constructed king-sized bunk beds from stone. As he neared the center of the room, he looked up, and noticed that across the ceiling stretched a cracked mural.


    He looked at the two people behind him. "Maxime, Jeffrey, you''ve been recording?"


    They nodded. "Yes," Jeffrey replied.


    Dean nodded back. "Good. Make sure you get everything." Dean wasn''t going to take any chances: for all he knew, once fresh air flowed into the room, everything might disintegrate into dust. Even a light brush up against the wall might prove ruinous.


    With this in mind, Dean walked stealthily toward one of the room''s walls, footfalls soft on the stone ground. As he neared the stacked, bed-like construct, Dean''s eyebrows furrowed together. Lying on each of the stone beds was a humanoid-like form veiled in a diaphanous cloth.


    I bet the covering will burst into dust if I so much as breath on it, Dean thought. He brought his chip reader up to his head, opening the "toolbox" application Fartuun had given him. He hadn''t looked through everything it could do, but was pretty sure...


    Dean gave the dark a small smile as he pulled up the x-ray scanner. He flashed the scanner above the covered body, moving his arm carefully into the bed-like enclosure. He breathed a sigh of relief as he recovered his hand.


    He didn''t want to see the body under the cloth.


    While Dean had killed people in defense of Basalith, he''d been under the influence of Bath. However, he couldn''t deny that it made the act...easier going forward. The first time he killed someone in cold blood had been on one of the expeditions where he led COTD members from Jerboaland west to rescue people from war zones. Dean shuddered as he remembered--not because of killing, but because of why.


    ---


    Dean gave the signal to stop: he held his hand up in the air, fist closed. It was dark, the sun a dying ember on the horizon. He frowned when he realized that Grey was a hundred feet diagonally to his forward right. He knows he''s supposed to follow behind...Dean shook his head. Grey was...useful, even if he didn''t listen to instructions.


    Barkhad was to his left, the young man''s limbs coiled around Kisserin in a firm lock. The quasi-snake lifted her charcoal face to the town, her tongue flicking out.


    Virigard tugged softly on Dean''s hand. "Dean," she said, waiting for him to look down and give her eye contact.


    "Viri?"


    She sniffed. "I hear something."


    Dean looked toward Grey. "Do you hear anything?" he asked, trusting his voice to carry far enough for Grey''s hearing to pick it up. This seemed to get the man''s attention: he zipped over in a matter of seconds.


    "Do I hear anything?" Grey repeated. "Well, I hear bruises in bloom."


    Dean stifled the need to pinch the bridge of his nose.


    "Viri," he said, "what do you hear?"


    Her ears twitched. "Mm...sounds like someone''s being hit. Out in public."


    Dean took in a deep breath. "Okay, well, let''s go in and take a look." They needed to pass in this direction, anyway.


    After reaching the city''s gates, they walked in at a human pace. It was already two months into the post-COTD era, such that nobody gave their party a second glance. The quasi-snake was nothing to worry about, especially considering that it had a human rider.


    If the few locals out at this time had seen Virigard, they would have reacted far differently.


    But they never do, Dean thought. Whatever people like Edgewood might say about her size--especially when he compared the jerboa to his armored raptors--it made her incredibly adept at staying hidden.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    They walked through the central road of the small town, taking note of stalls clearing out on the side of the street where there must typically be a bazaar. Overall, the layout of the hamlet was familiar, practical.


    What they found at the center of the town wasn''t.


    A woman was being stoned to death.


    Dean and his small party stood still for a moment, transfixed by the scene. All but Grey, who murmured, "Garden of blue."


    Dean couldn''t even spare the energy to respond to the remark, steeling his attention on the scene in front of him. He gave Barkhad and Kisserin a look, then tapped Virigard lightly on her head.


    She disappeared into the ground.


    A moment later, the woman disappeared with her.


    No matter what happens here, at least that woman is out of harm''s way. He didn''t care what the woman had done: she didn''t deserve to be stoned. And based off of what he''d seen in this part of the world, he would be absolutely shocked if she deserved punishment in the first place.


    He knew he might be projecting his own cultural norms and whatever--he''d at least learned that much in his few months of college. But with the more he saw...the less he cared.


    He swallowed, hoping that it wasn''t just power swelling his head. He didn''t think so, but decided that he''d maybe talk to Lisa about it next time he saw her.


    In a moment, Virigard appeared next to him. As she spoke, she was barely audible over the screaming crowd. The woman''s disappearance had thrown the entire crowd of spectators into disarray.


    "Dean," she said, her eyes round. "There''s something really bad underground."


    Dean swallowed. "What?" Even as the crowd pushed into him, he remained immovable. Virigard scurried up his leg and torso, electing to speak directly into his ear. Dean recoiled as Grey leaned his head in at the same moment, nearly kissing him on the cheek.


    "There''s a lot of people underground," she noted. "Lots of people. There''s a place where they...take them."


    "Oh? They place their unsanctimonious in a burial chamber?" Grey asked.


    Virigard twitched her nose, her whiskers brushing over Dean''s and Grey''s faces. "More like a dumping ground."


    Grey smiled, then stepped away, walking through the crowd. Dean couldn''t help but stare as the crowd parted neatly around him. Dean shuddered, remembering what Lisa had told him about kursi. Even if their people-controlling powers made him feel...uncomfortable, he had to admit that having one on his side was far better than the alternative.


    He walked over to Barkhad and Kisserin to relay Virigard''s message. The jerboa lay tucked under his tabard and in his sweatshirt, her head poking out of the front pocket.


    "Grey''s going to do something," Kisserin sighed. "We should follow him."


    "We still don''t know what''s going on here," Barkhad pointed out. "All we know is that people were stoning a woman. That''s not why we came here."


    "Why did we come, then?" Kisserin asked, her tongue flicking.


    Dean frowned. "To evacuate people from war zones."


    Barkhad smiled grimly. "This isn''t a warzone; it''s a public execution. We should move on. We''ve rescued that woman," he gave Virigard a tip of the head, "and we won''t be able to accomplish much of anything else."


    Dean wasn''t sure. He recognized that Barkhad, having grown up in Somalia, would have a better sense of the cultural and societal quagmire in which the village was situated. He''s probably right: we won''t be able to change anything. And like Viri said, it sounds like this isn''t something out of the ordinary.


    He cleared his throat. "Let''s find Grey first. Then we can decide what to do."


    Virigard led them to Grey. As she thumped her feet against the ground, she used to vibrations to determine his location.


    He was, of course, in the chamber that Virigard had mentioned previously.


    He''d apparently gone down--and widened--the small rabbit hole that Virigard had used to rescue the woman.


    "Viri, where did you put her, anyway?"


    Virigard snuggled her head into his sweatshirt pocket. "I told her to stay put in a little pocket of air under the surface, at least until things quiet down. We can bring her with us, or we can leave her and she''ll run away and save herself." She thumped her tail into Dean''s waist. "It''s good to have more than one option."


    Dean agreed. While he''d prefer to bring the woman with him, if she didn''t yet have any boons at all...Maybe we can have her wait for us until the return trip, he thought. Bring her to a nearby village, have her stay at an inn.


    Dean''s musings came to a stop as they joined Grey in the "burial chamber." Strewn throughout the room were corpses in various stages of decay. The smell was, undoubtedly, the worst that Dean had ever smelled...and he''d already scented the burning, bloody, bodily-fluid-saturated stench of battlefield--both on these kinds of rescue expeditions and in the battle of Basalith.


    He stepped backward in disgust, but quickly recovered and started forward. As long as I breathe through my mouth, it isn''t that bad. He joined Grey at the room''s center. There, he saw the women in detail, illuminated by an overhead light.


    His heart began to race, his pupils contracting in disgust. "Who could do something like this?" he breathed.


    Grey kept his eyes fixed on the corpses. "People."


    Dean''s entire body was tense, his muscles clenching up. "They..." Dean looked at Virigard, who had hopped out of his pouch to get a look for herself. He couldn''t get any more words out. It was just...so...


    Dean felt as though his rage and disbelief were overflowing, as though they had surpassed whatever vessel had comfortably filled them before.


    "Oh, someone had fun with them," Grey acknowledged. "Most of them were dead before the fun began, but not all." He walked over to a particularly disgusting corpse, poking it with his foot. "See the blood in her mouth? This one came down alive."


    Dean felt his stomach sink. Her...mouth? Now that Grey directed his gaze to it, he couldn''t look away. The girl''s mouth was a rictus, her lips...missing? No, the black at their edges...


    They''d been burned, Dean realized. Then he saw her teeth. Shattered, rotting yellow, like porcelain after a fall.


    Grey smiled again, his eyes settling ominously over Dean''s. Once more, Dean found his attention drawn to the kursi.


    "Someone put a hot iron in her mouth," he explained. "Cracked her teeth, burned away her flesh."


    Dean didn''t want to hear anymore. It didn''t matter--he couldn''t think of anything worse than that. And he didn''t want to know why Grey spoke with such certainty about the methods of torture.


    Grey''s smile remained unfazed. "Don''t shy away from your anger, Knight," Grey said. "You''re still so young, so full of passion. Would you like to meet the woman who did this?"


    Dean blinked. The woman...?


    Behind him, Barkhad snorted, "I want to meet her." His eyes were dark, face stoic.


    "Knight?" Grey repeated.


    Dean looked down at Virigard. She gave him a slow nod, her eyes wet.


    Dean met Grey''s eyes, then solemnly nodded. "Show me the person responsible."

 [Chapter 160] The Veiled Sapient; Hatred Unsurpassed; Underwater Castle

    Dean looked away from the veiled body, his x-ray scanner having already completed its purpose. He held his wrist out in front, projecting a 3D recreation of...Dean swallowed.


    How? he thought to himself, face expressionless, hands clammy. He instinctively looked behind, his eyes searching for Eyrin. He isn''t here, Dean chided internally, shaking his head.


    To say that verdora and humans looked different was an understatement. While apparently that made verdora almost anomalies compared to most sapient species, Dean found their inhuman appearance almost...reassuring. He found the verdora naturally less unsettling than Lepochim.


    Maybe that''s just because Lepochim''s, well...Lepochim, Dean thought. Maybe meeting any other human-like sapient would feel like meeting a normal human on Earth. Maybe. He couldn''t explain why, but he doubted that this would be the case.


    He continued to stare at the x-ray projection. What''s the difference between this entity....and any of us? He looked back again, this time to take in the tens of humans inspecting the cavernous tomb. As he swiveled his head, he took in the number of deceased. At least a hundred, he thought.


    Dean sighed, his breath coming out unevenly. He reached forward, his fingers caressing the sheer piece of fabric separating the body in front of him from the open air. As his lips creased into a line, he plucked the sheet off. I can''t believe it didn''t turn to dust, he thought, surprised by the resilience of the paper-thin fabric.


    The skeletal figure in front of him was young. At least as far as Dean could tell. The x-ray projection had only given him the sense that the body was, at least skeletally, indistinguishable from a human. Flipping off the sheet, however, made a few differences clear.


    The figure was wrapped in a colorful robe, reminding Dean of a tie-dyed summer dress. It had long hair that was tied into an elaborate, Celtic-style knot around its neck, a few strands continuing down and resting over its chest. The figure wore tiny little shoes, each barely half a foot in length.


    Dean closed his eyes, letting the sheet fall haphazardly over the body.


    ---


    "Show me the person responsible." He remembered saying the words, remembered that they felt hollow. He remembered that he didn''t want to see the person responsible. He didn''t know what he would do if he was left alone in a room with the kind of monster that could...


    Dean saw the vivid color of the corpses, their headscarves seared into his memory. They were all beautiful, clearly added posthumously. They all lacked the brown stain of blood.


    The scarves also partially hid their mottled, tortured faces. The scarf of the lipless girl lay around the girl''s neck where Grey had pushed it down.


    "Come with me," Grey said.


    Barkhad hesitated. "How do you know where this person is?"


    Grey smiled. "It''s not that hard. She''s rotten to the core, her mind a disturbed reflection of her techniques."


    Dean suppressed an involuntary shiver. "Let''s just make this quick," he said, his voice low. "I-uh, I um...I think we should get, um, moving. We''re not helping much staying, um, here." I still can''t get the right words out, he thought, berating himself. Even with director boons helping improve my speech...


    As Grey walked past him, the kursi put his hand on Dean''s shoulder. He didn''t say anything for a solid five seconds. Then, he removed his hand and walked on toward the hole leading to the surface.


    Dean didn''t pay much attention to what happened after that. He remembered mechanically following Grey through the city. And then he remembered being there, in a relatively opulent dwelling.


    "She''s in the room straight ahead," Grey said. Straight ahead meant no more than ten feet forward. Dean felt his stomach lurch. The person who tortured all those women...is just beyond the door? He found the prospect distracting, so much so that even with his memory enhanced by boons, he couldn''t later recall anything about the house. He only remembered the woman and her room.


    As they walked through the door, Dean barely noticed that Grey had effortlessly broken through its lock. The woman was sitting on her bed, gazing into a mirror as she fixed her makeup. She jumped as they entered the threshold, dropping the mirror onto the floor. She said something quickly in a language similar-sounding, but different, from Arabic. Not that it would matter, Dean thought. Even if she were speaking Arabic, I''d be lucky to understand a quarter of her words.


    Barkhad gave Dean a knowing look, shaking his head slightly and shrugging. Grey, however, gazed intently at the woman, a shark''s grin on his face. His smile revealed the whites of his teeth, stark against the weathered tan of his skin. Grey''s lips covered the tips of his teeth; based on the man''s expression alone, Dean wouldn''t be surprised to find that they were filed to points.


    He replied to the woman, speaking slowly, his smile widening, the expression even reaching his eyes.


    She began to shake. Then, she stood, flicking a curved knife from the sleeve of her gown. Grey didn''t even try to dodge as the knife struck a glancing blow across his chest, cutting through his tabard but not piercing his skin. The woman bared her teeth, her eyes manic.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "She said that they deserved it," Grey said calmly, "for taking power from the devil."


    Dean felt himself at a loss. On one hand, I see where she''s coming from, he thought. Bath...he even appears as a dragon, a leviathan. While Dean wasn''t an expert on the Quran, he knew that Bath did closely parallel biblical descriptions of the devil. Even so...


    "Is that all she had to say?" Barkhad asked, his arms crossed over his chest. Kisserin hissed, as though to give his words emphasis.


    "No. She said that we''ll never be able to usurp God''s work."


    Dean blinked. God''s work?


    Seeing his confusion, Grey clarified. "We''ll never destroy humanity."


    Dean recognized where the woman was coming from. None of us are truly human anymore, he sighed internally. He''d wrestled with the question of humanity a great deal, especially at the outset of COTD. Now? It''s all moot point: almost the entire global population has received a boon of some kind. If humanity were limited only to unchanged people like this woman, humanity was on its deathbed. There was nothing anyone could do about.


    The woman remained in the room, huffing like a feral animal, her eyes narrowed. Grey reached for the knife on the ground. As he did so, the woman moved, darting toward the exit of the bedroom.


    I can''t let her go, Dean thought. As the woman passed him by, he stopped her with his arm, grabbing her dress. She shrieked, the sound reminiscent of a devilbat''s scream. He reacted to the woman''s outburst by whipping her into the floor. The wind exploded out of her lungs and the shriek morphed into a dry croak.


    As she looked at him, he felt the full extent of her hatred. It genuinely shocked him how much rancor the woman could fit in her thin, brown eyes. Dean recalled the kind of casual hate he''d felt in the past. Sometimes it was because of his race. He recalled the fight at Alens: Back then, he''d retaliated by almost killing one of the assailants and smashing a wall to smithereens.


    It all felt so long ago. Moreover, it the scorn he had reacted to back then felt trivial juxtaposed with the seething, inhuman hatred in her eyes.


    How could someone...hate me so much? He glanced at Grey. He''s like Lisa...he can sense emotions. What does he sense from her? Is she like this all the time? Is that how he found her?


    The woman on the floor didn''t give him time to think. Instead, she barreled forward, snapping at him with her teeth and nails. Dean''s constitution was such that he didn''t need to fear her attacks--they wouldn''t be able to hurt him. Even so, he stepped back under the force of her assault, perplexed by her single-minded ferocity.


    "She''s rabid," Barkhad said.


    "Put her down," Kisserin continued. Dean noted the disgust in their eyes.


    Virigard, poking out of his sweatshirt pocket, had a determined expression. That was all that Dean needed to see.


    As the woman struggled out of her robe, tearing at his hand, Dean reacted by backhanding her against her right cheek. The blow sent her into the wall several feet away, her form streaking past Barkhad and Kisserin. Based on the force Dean had put behind the strike, and the crack that he''d heard, he knew that he''d broken her neck.


    She didn''t get up.


    "That was quick," Grey remarked. "A cleaner death than she deserved."


    Dean felt almost disembodied as he stood. He''d just killed this woman. She was defenseless, unarmed (she''d lost her dagger, after all), without boons. Dean figured that she had to be mentally ill...nobody could feel that much hatred and be sane, he was certain.


    Virigard jumped out of the pouch, scaling his tabard and perching on his left shoulder. She was slightly too big to perch comfortably, her claws digging into his shoulder as she worked to keep her balance.


    She nuzzled her face against his cheek, thumping her tail against his right shoulder as a counterbalance. "At least there''s no blood," Virigard remarked. "If I''d have killed her, there''d have been a slash of blood through her neck. Then I''d have her blood on me." Virigard shuddered in disgust. "Did you see how much she hated us?" she murmured.


    Dean absentmindedly stroked her head.


    Kisserin directed her eyes toward Grey. "What was wrong with her?"


    Grey''s expression was uncharacteristically serious. Dean thought he detected a hint of sadness in his eyes, but he could''ve been mistaken.


    "She was a person," Grey said simply. "Let''s go."


    And so they went.


    ---


    Eyrin and Clarissa dove into the water, the rough waves seemingly unaffected by their entrance. Eyrin opened his eyes, finding himself nearly blind in the surrounding murk. The surface danced above him, casting light and shadow over his form. He swam over to Clarissa, forming a dragonleaf tether between them.


    Clarissa, he transmitted.


    Eyrin, she replied. This is new.


    He nodded. I''ve only used it on nonverbal quasi-sapients, he noted. It''s part of the training for the land-shaper boon.


    Clarissa transmitted a feeling of understanding. Then, she began to use her echolocation.


    I thought it didn''t work on water?


    It works now that I''m underwater, she explained. The water-surface interface messed up my echolocation before.


    The two were silent for a minute. Eyrin held onto Clarissa''s hind leg as she swam forward, her leathery wings serving as fins.


    Can you try to show me what you''re picking up with echolocation?


    Clarissa didn''t reply. However, soon, Eyrin saw a noisy image in his mind. Over the next few seconds, the image cleared up. Even in the dark of the water, he could see that the images in his mind overlaid with a castle-like form in the distance.


    They reached said form in the next thirty seconds. Eyrin used his chip reader to project light, illuminating the space immediately ahead. He and Clarissa began to explore the ruin.


    It''s been horrendously corroded, Eyrin transmitted. Close up, this looks like a sheer underwater cliff. It clearly wasn''t, given that it stuck up hundreds of rods out of the surrounding area. It was the only landmark for hundreds of broads.


    They followed part of the structure downward. Even though the chip reader could only illuminate a few rods ahead, Clarissa''s echolocation painted a clearer picture of the structure as they continued down. The two noted how the structure Eyrin had originally picked out from Clarissa''s back was only one spire jutting out from a much larger base. Smaller spires, each stretching for around fifteen rods, studded a ten-rod high perimeter that formed a square. Following the tall spire downward eventually placed them at the center of this square.


    There''s no way this is natural, Clarissa observed. What do you think happened here?


    Eyrin shook his head, his eye ridges raising. I''m unsure, he admitted. This...castle...it''s submerged at least one broad under water.


    Clarissa transmitted annoyance. Broad?


    Eyrin gave Clarissa a sense of the distance, showing a broad-length race track.


    Oh, she replied. Around half a mile.


    But as for how long it''s been here...I lack the knowledge necessary to make a guess.


    Same, Clarissa sighed. Well, we do have the vanguard humans with us. I''m sure at least a few of them will have some idea.


    Eyrin blinked. Then until we rendez-vous with the Knight, we should see if we can find any relics left behind by whatever erected this building.


    Clarissa signaled her agreement by cutting forward through the water, towing Eyrin toward the central spire''s base.

 [Chapter 161] Departing the Tomb; Sigil Research; Quick Escape

    Dean''s eyes continued to inspect the sapient''s skeletal form. Her hair...it''s violet, and pleated almost like...he blinked. Feathers.


    Dean dropped the sheet, watching as it floated lightly above the sapient''s body before settling. He inhaled deeply, then turned away. Others in the vanguard inspected the tomb, expressions grave as they held out instruments and recorded their findings in their chip readers.


    He elevated his voice, projecting outward while still retaining a calm, self-assured air. "We need to head out." Everyone looked up, facing in his direction. Dean suppressed the desire to flinch under their gazes. I''m the Knight, he reminded himself.


    He swallowed, debating whether or not to say something before heading out.


    He decided not to. They followed him outside, talking amongst themselves. Dean noted that, once they emerged outside, their quiet murmurings gave way to excited speculations. Even as they sped up to cross over the harsh terrain, their voices remained audible over the wind.


    That''s the loudest I''ve heard them, Dean observed. He squinted as the wind lashed his face, then looked up, realizing that the overcast clouds above had darkened. Roiling coils of charcoal gray loomed above, casting the ground beneath in near dark.


    Dean narrowed his eyes. This is probably a bad sign...


    As he sprinted around a house-sized boulder, he saw several flashes of light. He moved on reflex, dodging diagonally left. He whipped his head around, looking behind at the contingent following him toward the planet''s exit gate. A quick sweep of his eyes revealed that none had been struck by lightning, though he noted that many in the group were frantically looking around.


    "Let''s try to hurry through the storm," Dean bellowed, picking up the pace. Fifteen seconds after he did so, lightning streaked across the black above, thunder resounding in his ears. He grumbled under his breath and looked down at his wrist, re-enabling the navigation overlay HUD he''d disabled once they entered the tomb. The chip reader projected a transparent map in the space in front of him, always in the upper left corner of his vision. It also displayed the distance between his location marker and the destination he''d entered in when planning the city-seed''s eventual location.


    Only another two hundred miles to go...


    ---


    "But why?" Lisa groaned while clawing at her hair. She turned away from the pedestal and the five books that lay on the ground by the sigils.


    "Stop glaring at the books," Fartuun murmured.


    Lisa took a deep breath. "I''m just annoyed."


    Fartuun snorted. "I can see that much. I--" she paused, then looked down at her hand. She shook her head after a moment. "Sorry."


    Lisa nodded. "I can''t believe how...much it is to get used to." Every so often, Fartuun would get lost in what she was doing, freezing up for a few seconds. Lisa still wasn''t fully sure what the reason was, but she''d overheard Fartuun grumble "overload" at least a twenty times over the past hour. And that was still days later. She wondered idly how Fartuun had even done something as simple as walking in the twenty-four hours proceeding the implantation.


    Fartuun waved a hand dismissively. "It''s fine. Can you go back to the pedestal?"


    Lisa assented by turning around and dipping her hands into the pedestal''s control sphere. "Now what?"


    "Uh..." Fartuun put a finger to her mouth. "Okay, open the door to the eleventh library," she instructed. "And retrieve the twenty-nine-hundredth book."


    Lisa looked over her shoulder. "How am I supposed to know which one is the twenty-nine-hundredth?" she asked. It''s not as though the books were marked with numbers. To her knowledge, the only metric by which to find the twenty-nine-hundredth book would be to identify the first book in the library and begin counting from there. Besides, Lisa thought, for all we know, we could''ve already shifted the books around in our attempts to figure the sigils out. The original twenty-nine-hundredth book might be in the completely wrong place.


    "It should have the number on its spine," Fartuun observed.


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. "You sure about that?"


    Fartuun raised an eyebrow. "All the books I brought to you have numbers on their spines," she pointed out. "Including the one you and Bath found."


    Wait..."Oh." She bit her lip. Can''t believe I didn''t notice that before. Then again, when Fartuun had come to her two hours ago with information on the sigils and four books in hand, Lisa had gone straight to reading the books'' insides, not their covers.


    "Okay, I''ll direct Ainsley--AI Ninety-Seven--to grab it and bring it to us." She did so through the pedestal''s service request menu, flicking her fingers through its golden projection. "Done. Anything else?"


    Fartuun shook her head. "We can''t change too much at once. Let''s see what happens when we add that one book."


    Lisa stepped back from the pedestal and rubbed her hands together. "Fine by me." She walked over to Fartuun''s side. "You really don''t know why these books are special?"


    "No." The woman gave an annoyed groan. "I ran every kind of textual analysis I could on them," she explained. "But at the end of the day, they''re just...books. Storybooks." Myths, legends, fables...


    "Have you made any headway on deciphering the sigils themselves?" Lisa asked. Fartuun had started on that project half a day ago, claiming that she needed a good mystery to keep her overactive mind occupied.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Nothing definitive, but enough that I was able to see the briefest hint of a pattern. After a bit of guessing, I found the first book, then the second..." Fartuun glanced up at Lisa. "It helps that you and the Dragon were lucky with that first book."


    Lisa nodded. When Bath had originally fooled around with shifting around books and seeing how the sigils reacted, he''d unintentionally failed to put one of the books back in its original room. I still can''t think of any explanation regarding how that happened, Lisa thought. He put back every single book aside from the one that mattered. The entire situation was fishy.


    Ainsley had found it on the floor a few days ago, though had only delivered it after Bath left. When she''d asked him why it took so long, he''d only given the non-committal response, "I tried to find the library to which it belonged."


    Wait...He tried to find the library to which the book belonged...why did he fail?


    AI Ninety-Seven arrived just in time to answer her question.


    "Ainsley!" she exclaimed, hailing the android down. The android''s four eyes trained on her.


    "You made a service request," the android stated crisply while inclining his head.


    "Okay, this is a two-part request. First, we need you to get a book for us. It should be a book in library eleven with the number, ''two-nine-zero-zero'' on its spine. Got it?"


    "Yes, Church."


    "Great. Now, the second part is a question. When you returned that book to me," Lisa began, pointing to the book in question where it lay on the floor, "you said that you tried to find the library where it originated to put it back. Right?"


    "That is correct."


    "So, why weren''t you able to find its original place? It''s right here, in the catalog." She put both hands back on the control pedestal and opened the catalog, searching for the book, The Nezera. The book popped up, the pedestal projecting a slowly-rotating three-dimensional depiction of it into the air.


    "See? It belongs--" Lisa froze. The area that normally held a book''s information-- its title, author, and location in the library--was partially missing. Specifically, both the author and location looked blurred, almost like the faces of people who had been blurred out in video footage.


    "I was unable to find the location because it was missing," AI Ninety-Seven replied simply.


    Lisa felt like an idiot. I didn''t think to even check...She glanced over at Fartuun. "You didn''t notice either, right?"


    Fartuun rolled her eyes. "No. Well, it''s clear we''ve missed the obvious."


    "Right. Ainsley, is there any way for us to find all the books that are missing location metadata?" Lisa gave the android an expectant look.


    AI Ninety-Seven crossed his arms. "No."


    No...Lisa moaned internally. "Why?" she gritted.


    "Some would come to this arc to destroy only certain books," AI Ninety-Seven replied. "All those books classified most at risk have been unlisted."


    "So that''s how it is," Fartuun tsked. "Then we''d better get back to work," she said, giving Lisa a knowing look.


    Lisa put a hand on her hips. "Right. Okay, remember, bring the book to us as soon as you find it."


    AI Ninety-Seven gave her a small, mechanical smile. "I''ll be back with all due haste."


    ---


    Eyrin continued to shudder and breathe rapidly, his entire body cold from the wet and wind. Clarissa seemed, ironically, much better off, her rugged constitution protecting her against the cold. Moreover, her lack of clothing meant that she wasn''t a half-drowned dog once she returned to the surface.


    It was times like these that made Eyrin curse propriety most. Wearing wet clothes in a frosty wind was impractical, and yet...even as Eyrin recognized his compulsion to remain clothed for what it was--a social behavior long-since planted into his psyche--he couldn''t bring himself to disrobe.


    It''s not like I''m at risk of dying, he smiled. Though my body doesn''t seem to know that. With each shudder, Eyrin felt a small surge of adrenaline course through his body. It made being so miserably uncomfortable almost worth it.


    "We need to go to the city-seed," Clarissa growled, blinking her eye rapidly. "We need the healing pools."


    Eyrin blinked once. Clarissa certainly did--she was missing the upper right corner of her face. Even though Eyrin had been able to reduce the damage, he noticed that healing Clarissa was much more difficult than healing himself or another verdora. As a result, while her pain was greatly reduced, she still needed immediate medical attention.


    He''d already healed his own wounds, even though doing so had left him weak. Just the thought of them--and looking at Clarissa''s mottled face--made him shudder.


    In her pain, Clarissa flew on to the new city-seed''s location at a breakneck pace. They arrived in just under an hour and a half to an open stretch of grassland.


    "Don''t tell me...we beat them to it!?"


    Eyrin hobbled off of the devilbat''s back and almost collapsed onto the ground. It had taken all his dwindling strength just to hold on to Clarissa''s mane as she cut through the air.


    "I think," he huffed, "I''m going to sleep."


    And so he did.


    His dreams transported him back to the submerged, eroded castle. He watched from afar as he and Clarissa swam downwards, watched as they began to look through rooms for signs of past life. A futile search, given how long ago the barely-recognizable--and yet impossibly tall--stone castle had sunk.


    He felt a growing sense of dread as he watched himself accompany Clarissa down into even deeper depths. Eventually they stumbled upon what could only be a basement area, throwing open its entrance.


    He tensed, tried to tell himself to leave, tried to tell Clarissa, all for naught: they opened the door.


    The laugh that echoed out as they did so sounded louder and perhaps even more malevolent in the dream. It certainly seemed more pervasive, as though it echoed out for miles rather than a few feet ahead.


    A garble of sound followed the laugh, sounding like a foreign language. Their translators did nothing to help, so Eyrin could only assume that the language was unrecognizable through the water''s distortion. Or, perhaps the chip readers didn''t recognize the language at all.


    Then, a flurry of rainbow tentacles burst forth, each squirming uncontrollably while reaching out towards the exploratory duo. Eyrin looked on as he and Clarissa retreated backward up through the water.


    The rainbow monster jetted after them, its thousand one-eyed many-toothed heads narrowing their eyes and gnashing their teeth. It failed to catch up to them as they reached the surface, but in a last effort, the fiend had used its many heads to spit a volley of acid.


    How did it remain undiluted by the water? Eyrin wondered, shaking his head.


    This time, the acid swallowed him whole, and he woke up.


    Clarissa gave him a look. "Bad dreams?"


    Eyrin stroked his veil. "Something to that effect."


    He sighed. While the monster hadn''t been rainbow--it had been black--and had only possessed three heads, it had still been terrifying. Why had it even been in that abandoned, sunken room anyway? Had it been locked down there? While he and Clarissa had effortlessly opened the door, it was entirely possible that it had been sealed tight before they used their enhanced strength to force it open.


    "You think it lived down there?" Clarissa asked. She was currently resting her head on the ground, placing all pressure on her good side. Eyrin thought that the position looked particularly uncomfortable.


    "Maybe," he replied. "Its draconian appearance certainly matched the castle''s war-like structure."


    "War-like?"


    Eyrin blinked. "Did you see a single normal window anywhere?" he asked.


    Clarissa frowned. "I wasn''t exactly paying attention to the windows..."


    "There were only slits," Eyrin explained. "The kind from which you send out punishment."


    Clarissa narrowed her eyes. "Speaking from experience?"


    Eyrin paused, then broke out into raucous laughter. "No," he said, catching his breath. "There''s nothing like that on Illudis."


    "Then..."


    Eyrin smirked. "I learned about that from reading up on Earth."

 [Chapter 162] Identity Profiled; Setting Off for Fiendstrom; The Imperial

    Lisa looked down at the sigils, frowning. AI Ninety-Seven was taking forever to fetch the book they had requested. "You know what," she muttered, "this would go so much faster if we had Ba--the Dra--" Lisa cleared her throat. Keeping track of Bath''s three identities was mildly annoying. In this circumstance, she actually did mean to say the Dragon. "The Dragon helping out."


    Fartuun turned around and placed a finger on her lower lip. "I--yeah." She laughed. "A god''s assistance would undoubtedly speed things up."


    Lisa cocked her head. Fartuun knows all about the...incident under Whitesun, with the mega fungus of doom. She wondered what Fartuun actually thought of Bath and his capabilities after bearing witness her efforts to bail the Devourer out of trouble.


    Fartuun raised an eyebrow. "Not that we have any way of contacting him," she stated pointedly.


    True...I''m Lisa now, not Asil.


    "Besides, this is probably beneath his notice."


    "Actually," Lisa began, "the Church and Dragon discovered this ship together. They were the ones who assigned me the task of figuring out the sigils."


    "They did discover the ship," Fartuun acknowledged with a smile. "Anyways, looks like AI Ninety-Seven has finally returned." She gave Lisa a pointed look.


    Lisa pivoted around, surprised. She suppressed a grimace. I need to find a way to stop androids like AI Ninety-Seven from sneaking up on me. Because she always detected the shells of living beings long before they approached her, she found AI Ninety-Seven''s silent approach deeply unsettling. While she could technically fire off her echolocation non-stop to detect nearby non-living entities approaching her...doing so was incredibly distracting. She sighed inwardly to herself. Bath criticized her inability to properly use the echolocation boon, and even though she''d had it for less than a month, she had to agree that her progress was sluggish.


    "AI Ninety-Seven," Lisa nodded, snapping out of her thoughts.


    "I''ve brought the book." AI Ninety-Seven held the book out, pinching its thin cover between two slender fingers.


    "Excellent," Lisa said, smiling. "We''ll send another service request if we need anything."


    AI Ninety-Seven bowed his head. "Best of luck, Church."


    Lisa flinched. He just...called me Church? She glanced back toward Fartuun. The woman appeared completely unfazed. Did she not hear? No way.


    When Lisa turned back, AI Ninety-Seven was gone. She cleared her throat, then walked over and passed the book to Fartuun.


    The woman winked at her. "He called you ''Church'' last time he came, as well," Fartuun pointed out. "And the time before that..."


    Lisa''s jaw dropped. Seriously? I didn''t even notice until now. And I thought my progress with echolocation was bad...I can''t believe I failed so badly at hiding my identity.


    "I thought it polite to not point it out," Fartuun said while placing a hand over her mouth. Then she began to cackle. "Sorry, I''m just--heh. Your jaw is literally hanging."


    Lisa walked over to the nearest wall and leaned against it, arms folded across her chest. "What?"


    "I actually figured it out a few days ago, after receiving the implant," she admitted. "I went through my memories, processing them and letting the V-Tap run profile analyses."


    Lisa frowned. "Profile analyses?"


    Fartuun nodded. "Running analyses on all people I''ve come up with. Whenever I walk around, the V-Tap automatically displays people''s names above their heads. If I focus on someone, it''ll also provide information on them based on previous interaction we''ve had."


    Lisa nodded slowly. "So, let me guess: it found out that Lisa and Asil are one and the same." Lisa sighed. Shit.


    "Exactly. Actually, it displayed your name as follows: Lisa White in large letters, with Asil, Church of the Dragon in italics underneath." Fartuun shrugged. "Sorry."


    Lisa shrugged. Well, at least only one person has the V-Tap right now. I''m going to need to be better about keeping my two identities separate... But how? She originally had Bath change her face to look less-perfect whenever she was Lisa, but had since mastered making the changes herself. She''d considered ridding herself of her reliance on Bath to switch between her personas a final step toward realizing her goal of keeping Lisa and Asil separate. But if the V-Tap still discerned that Lisa and Asil were one and the same even when their appearances were different...


    "It''s fine, not your fault," Lisa said, trying her best to mask her disappointment. She could tell that Fartuun was a bit embarrassed from the pinkish-yellow color of her shell and didn''t want to make her feel any worse. "Since you already know...well, I''ll call the Dragon over to work with us."


    "Isn''t he busy with something?" Fartuun asked.


    Lisa scoffed. "No." The familiar black hole of Bath''s shell was currently racing down the bathhouse slide. "I''ll get him."


    Lisa smiled as she left, putting up a veneer of self-assurance. As soon as she was out of the ship, she gave the ground a dejected look and sighed. "Have I already blown everything?" If my two identities are too similar...I''ll have to change one of them if the V-Tap becomes widespread, or if people independently develop the profiling technology Fartuun mentioned. "And I can''t exactly change the Church''s identity at this point..."


    Shaking her head, Lisa ran off to fetch Bath. When she arrived at the bathhouse, she was nearly knocked over by two verdora racing past the entrance and up to the overpass leading to the slide. She rolled her eyes and decided to wait until Bath circled back around.


    She counted down on her fingers. Three, two...


    "Yo," she stated. "You''re needed on the ship, Thaddeus."


    Bath froze mid-stride, swiveling his head to face her. "Now?"


    "We''ve been making progress on the sigils," she explained. "And actually..."


    Suddenly, Lisa received an instant message from Fartuun. She opened it up, projecting it from her chip reader.


    >> Lisa: just received a notice that the Knight has established the city-seed.


    Lisa''s eyes met Bath''s. "The city-seed''s done," she relayed. "We actually do need to return to the ship. Tell the verdora to come along; Fartuun and I will send out an announcement to everyone else in Bluff View."Stolen story; please report.


    Bath blinked once. "Got it. See you in a bit."


    Before Bath left, Lisa coughed, then said, "Also...Fartuun knows."


    Bath''s eye ridges rose. "Knows what?"


    "Her V-Tap let her connect the dots between Lisa and Asil," she mouthed, her lip barely moving.


    "Oh."


    "Yeah. Be careful," Lisa muttered. With that, she backpedaled through the bathhouse door and headed back to the parked Egdelek Arc.


    ---


    "I''ve returned!" Virigard squeaked triumphantly, raising her diminutive arms to the sky. "Wow," she murmured. "That''s a city-seed, alright." She''d never seen a violet city-seed before, but that''s the color that a lot of the foliage had taken on. She bounded forward, zipping over the wall and into the city without causing a stir.


    She found Dean within the Spire. No surprise there. "Dean!" she called out.


    As he looked up from his desk, a smile came over his features. "Viri!"


    She jumped onto his lap and scrabbled around to his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against his head. "I missed you," she cheeped.


    Dean''s smile widened. He reached up a hand to scratch her back. "Did you find anything interesting?"


    "Yes!"


    "Like...?"


    "I found a giant thing!"


    Dean snorted and shifted his position as he suppressed a grin. "A giant thing?"


    "Yes." Virigard sniffed. "I don''t have a name for it."


    "Did you take pictures with your chip reader?"


    "Pictures?" Virigard echoed incredulously. "I took video." She gave Dean a smug look, her tail swishing over his back.


    Dean gestured to the desk. "Can you project it, then?"


    Virigard tapped the chip reader on her wrist. Soon, a projection of a massive, cylindrical slab of gray filled the tabletop.


    "Kinda shaky," Dean observed.


    Virigard gave him a small headbutt in reply. "Don''t you see the thing?"


    Dean placed a hand over his jaw. "Yeah. That''s all made of concrete?"


    "Yup!"


    "Huh."


    "So," Virigard piped up after a few seconds. "Whaddaya think we should call the thing?"


    Silence.


    "Dean!" She began to swipe furiously at his head, claws that would shear metal merely mussing up his hair.


    After another solid few seconds, Dean leaned back and sighed, defending his head with two hands. "Why do I have to name everything?" He gave Virigard a look, cocking an eyebrow. "Do you know how many things I''ve been forced to name on this trip?"


    "But Dean..."


    "Nope! Virigard, you found this thing, and you get to name it."


    Virigard''s eyes began to seemingly increase in size, shining like black crystal balls.


    "Fine," Dean relented. "Give me three adjectives and I''ll think of something." He steepled his hands and gave her a serious look.


    "What''s an adjective?" she asked meekly.


    "...Just give me three words that describe the thing."


    "Big."


    "That''s one," Dean encouraged.


    "Thick."


    "...That''s another."


    "Long!"


    "Seriously," Dean muttered, flicking Virigard on the back. "Could you think of any other adjectives besides those? For one, they''re completely vague...moreover they''re..." His face began to redden slightly.


    "They''re what?"


    "They''re immature," he replied, crossing his arms.


    "You''re so harsh!" Virigard retorted, giving him a hurt expression. "I''m only a few months old."


    Dean''s lips pressed into a thin line. "Give me three more adjectives."


    "Fine!" Virigard said. "How about..." she began, trailing off as her eyes wandered back to stare at the paused video projection. "Gigantic. No, enormous. No...gargantuan!"


    Dean''s eye twitched. "That''s one."


    Virigard began to rub her hands together nervously, as though confronted with a difficult puzzle. "Powerful. And then..." Her face screwed up, her whiskers bristling. "Imperious."


    Dean whistled. "Big word," he praised.


    "Hehe," Virigard replied. "Isn''t it?"


    "You looked it up just now on your chip reader, didn''t you," he accused.


    Virigard looked at him guilelessly, her tail swishing. "Did you see me do it?"


    Dean rolled his eyes and let out a small chuckle. She could''ve easily found the word imperious on her chip reader without him seeing, given that a chip reader''s interface was normally only visible to the user.


    "Given your words," he began, "The thing shall henceforth be called..."


    "What!?"


    "..."


    "Dean!" Virigard pouted.


    "Godzilla."


    Virigard froze. "Wha..."


    Dean''s deadpan expression gave way to uncontrolled laughter. "Sorry Viri," he forced out between breaths. "I really needed a laugh." When he turned back to the projection now, he had a hint of sadness in his eyes. "This isn''t a thing, Viri. It''s a monument." Dean narrowed his eyes. His analytical eye had improved leaps and bounds after mastering the artist profession. The monument was clearly ancient and almost completely destroyed...but he could make out what he thought it should look like by extrapolating out. He envisioned the way the cement would look once smooth and full, without cracks and missing chunks.


    Why had they made this out of cement?


    Dean understood the reasons why Virigard had described the thing as gargantuan and powerful. He also knew why she''d initially called it big, thick and long, assuming she''d completely misinterpreted what the "thing" was. But...


    "Viri, why did you describe the thing as imperious?" That was the one adjective he didn''t find immediately obvious.


    "Look at its big eye," she murmured. "Its face is gone...but that eye..."


    Dean rubbed her leg. "I see now. Right," he said, suddenly getting up. "We''re going to call it The Imperial."


    "Oo, okay!"


    "Viri, hop off my shoulders for a minute." He headed over to a conference room on the floor below, intending to make use of its whiteboard. The whiteboard technically wasn''t an actual whiteboard, but its hard, white dragonleaf surface made an almost indistinguishable facsimile.


    "Are you gonna draw?" Virigard wondered as Dean grabbed a blue dry-erase marker from a pocket under his tabard.


    "Yup."


    She knew better than to keep speaking and hopped into one of the room''s office chairs. She swiveled around in circles to pass the time, each revolution revealing that Dean had added more and more details to his creation.


    After about five or so minutes, he paused in front of the image. Virigard jumped out of the chair and grappled onto his back, ears twitching. "Who is that?"


    "The Imperial," he replied.


    Virigard cocked her head. "But that doesn''t look anything like The Imperial. All that I had in the video was a big block of shapeless concrete with a giant eye at its top. It looked like a...finger with an eye instead of a fingernail!"


    She''s way too innocent, he thought to himself, cringing internally. "Viri, that''s only because the monument you found had been ruined by thousands of years of elemental exposure. While what I''ve drawn here is only a rough approximation...it should be a fairly accurate representation of what the monument once looked like."


    Virigard grew quiet. "It looks serious," she murmured. "And sad."


    "That''s because it is."


    She placed a paw on his ear. "How did you know its face looked like that? I can''t see anything but an eye!"


    "You can kind of tell by the way the face chipped off," he replied, inclining his head into her silky fur. "Remember the way that the ridge on the original jutted out and had a crack at the corner? That was actually a fairly intact part of the original face."


    "But still..."


    Dean shrugged. "The rest is just intuition," he admitted. As was the case with all of COTD''s boons, they made things easier, expanding the capabilities of the mind and body. Dean didn''t know how his boons worked; accordingly, he didn''t know why the artist profession had given him the insight to see what the monument had originally looked like.


    "Maybe this isn''t right," he whispered. He thought back to the girl in the tomb, his thoughts drifting toward her tiny slippered feet, of all things. Am I projecting onto this statue reconstruction? he wondered.


    "I like it better the way you drew it," Virigard interjected, nodding her head once. "Much better than a cyclops finger."


    Dean rubbed her head. "Thanks, Viri."


    "Of course!" she cheered. "Hey, when are the other arcs gonna arrive?"


    Dean looked out of the room''s window, looking out over a gray landscape dominated by oppressive clouds and churning waves. "Soon, probably."


    "Good!" she exclaimed. "After this, only two more stops until Earth!"


    Dean chuckled. "You seem excited." Truth be told, Dean couldn''t wait to be back. He''d thought that traveling to planets that nobody had ever seen before would never grow stale, but he had to admit that part of him was excited to return to Earth. How much had it changed over the past month without the Church and Dragon to keep it in line?


    Virigard looked at Dean as though he was the stupidest man alive. "You owe me rum coke; of course I''m excited." She crossed her tiny arms and puffed up her chest.


    "You''re right," he replied in acknowledgment, nodding his head. "Is that really all you''re excited about?"


    "Uh..."


    Dean just snorted and made his way out of the office and toward the balcony. He rested his hands on the balcony''s railing, inhaling the pungent scent of sea air. "You know, this planet isn''t half bad," he said. "Reminds me of what England might look like."


    "Might?"


    "Never been there," Dean replied. "Aside from Somalia, I haven''t spent much time away from the United States."


    "Me neither. How about we make a visit together?"


    Dean rubbed the back of her head, smiling. "It''s a date."

 [Chapter 163] Bath and Lisa Forge Ahead; The Extinction of Amethyn

    "Why is this city seed violet?" Lisa asked. She and Bath were hovering over the new city seed, accordingly named Violet Hold, and observing the surroundings. From this height, they could see the planet''s exit gate resting on a distant outcropping of stone.


    Bath shrugged. "It''s the best color for this environment."


    Lisa sighed exasperatedly. "Don''t you know why, though? It''s your city seed."


    Bath''s expression grew slightly more serious. "I wasn''t here to see it grow," he began. "I can easily tell you what the violet color does--the ways that violet suits this environment better than the color green--but I can''t definitively tell you why the city seed settled on violet."


    Lisa squirmed. "You''re talking about it like it''s making conscious decisions." But it was just a plant...it didn''t have a shell, and thus couldn''t, in her opinion, be considered intelligent life.


    "I imbued each of the seeds with information," he explained, raising and cupping his hand, as though intending to form a seed from the air around them. "My intentions, conditional responses, and other things that are difficult to articulate." He paused, realizing that he needed a better way to explain. "The city seeds are like primitive children. They can only think by forming attachments with sapients and tapping into their minds; the rest of their lives ruled by the automatic responses that I''ve programmed into them."


    Lisa nodded slowly. She''d interacted with dragonleaf enough times to recognize that the plant fronds had a way of communicating that couldn''t be wholly unintelligent. For instance, at the beginning of COTD, the fronds had only been activated after people thought their conception of a dragon at them. Now that she thought about it, she almost couldn''t believe that had worked. There are so many different types of dragons, after all...


    She looked over to see Bath giving her a warm smile. "What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.


    "I asked the city seed why it turned itself violet," he replied, still smiling.


    "Wait, you asked it why? I thought you just said you couldn''t know why it became violet unless you were here to see it grow in person."


    "That''s assuming I just read the city seed''s DNA and fully understood its fixed structure." He sighed wistfully. "Which is easy, but...It''s impossible to perfectly know the past from the present," he said, looking at Lisa.


    "It is?" Lisa asked.


    Bath nodded.


    "Why not?" Lisa was genuinely curious. For instance, if she really knew everything there was to know about the city seed, wouldn''t she be able to represent it as a mathematical system? Just as the city seed would move forward and time, she could use the created system to extrapolate backward. Assuming she knew everything there was to know about it, which was a claim only Bath could make. But in theory...shouldn''t Bath, then, be able to figure it out?


    "You just can''t," he replied, eyes narrowing. He looked off over the slate-gray ocean. "I''ve tried before," he continued, "and I''ve never been right." Then he chuckled. "Of course, in this case, there was never any need. The easiest solution of all was just to ask."


    Although unsatisfied with Bath''s answer, Lisa decided to let the topic go for now. I''ll have to do more research on this later. "What did the city seed tell you?"


    "It thought that violet would be beautiful," he stated. "Isn''t that interesting?"


    Lisa recoiled slightly. "What do you mean?" How could the plant have become violet for such a reason? Did the plant actually have a sense of aesthetics?


    "Seems like the conditions on this planet, specifically the way that its clouds and soil absorb and reflect light, make a spectrum of colors from dark green to violet all viable plant colors, at least as far as the city seed is concerned. Actually, I should probably look into the exact composition of the clouds--" he stopped, realizing that Lisa was waiting for him to come back from his tangent. "As city seeds are driven by instinct to create beautiful, sustainable sapient population centers, this one chose to become violet."


    "...Does the city-seed have eyes, now?" she asked, incredulous. The violet did look absolutely stunning in contrast to the omnipresent gray and harsh yellow brush, and was most certainly an excellent choice on the city seed''s part, but it was a plant! Why did it care?


    "No, but I did give it memories of sight," Bath explained. "Conceptions of landscapes and different kinds of climate. I used these memories to aid it in creating aesthetically pleasing city seeds."


    Lisa considered this for a moment. So, she thought, it didn''t actually choose to make the city seed violet because of a human-like whim. It had been Bath''s plant-programming (seriously, how did he do that?) all along.


    "Bath," Lisa called out. "City seeds are really fricking cool."


    "I know," he replied smugly, floating over to her side. Lisa wasted no time socking him on the arm and the two burst out into laughter.


    "We should probably get going," Lisa muttered. "The arcs are ready to go." She could sense that all the people who had been chosen to go--most of the vanguard, aside from the standard contingent of quasies and a small group of mapmakers and archaeologists intrigued by the sites that they''d found--were aboard the arcs, their individual shells forming a large, shining, spherical amalgamation.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    The group''s collective shell shone blue with weariness but also burnt-yellow with excitement. With only two more planets left, she found herself in a similar state of mind: weary after a long trip, but also excited to complete the circuit between Earth''s exit and entrance gates.


    After all, from there, COTD would really begin to take off. They''d enter an age of expansion, and who knows where they would go from there?


    ---


    The arcs entered the gate and appeared on its opposite side without much issue. Bath was the first off the arc, soon followed by Lisa. The two of them pulled ahead of the group, Lisa hitching a ride as Bath rocketed forward.


    "We should''ve done this from the beginning," Lisa chortled. "This is way better than just sending Dean and a few others to establish a city seed."


    "I think both ways are fine," Bath replied.


    Though it was difficult to speak over the wind, Lisa couldn''t let this opportunity go. "You''re only saying that because you wanted to play with your new water slide," she retorted, laughing.


    Bath tsked, but didn''t say any words in his defense. This, of course, only made her giggles increase.


    "It''s not like we were in a rush," he grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Dean and the others got the job done in a few hours."


    That was true. "But then why are we speeding so much now?" Lisa wondered. They really were like missiles as they shot across the sky. Lisa would''ve been torn apart by their speed without her enhancements.


    "Mm...I have a feeling," he said. "I only started feeling it after arriving on Fiendstrom, but I feel like we''ve spent too long away."


    Lisa understood where he was coming from. "It''s been less than two months, but considering how long COTD has been around..."


    "...Who''s to say how much things have changed in our absence?" Bath concluded.


    "Everything''s probably fine," Lisa assuaged. "They don''t need our constant guidance. They have Lepochim--"


    Bath snorted.


    "They also have the quasies like Nevis, then," Lisa finished. "Besides, even though you''re skeptical about Lepochim''s capacity to get anything done, he definitely whipped the kursi into shape and did a decent job administering Basalith. There''s no way he''d just let Earth go to shit that quickly."


    "Even so..." Bath trailed off, his eyes picking up something in the distance. He slowed the two of them down so that they could clearly see the massive ruin below.


    Lisa inhaled sharply. The two of them remained silent, Lisa''s arms wrapped tightly around a draconic Bath''s arm.


    "The verdora named this planet," she murmured. "Amethyn." While it was gibberish in English, in a precursor language to verdoran standard, the word meant Extinction. "Remember?"


    "I''m surprised we haven''t seen more evidence of of the planet''s namesake," Bath replied. "Probably because we''ve been going too fast."


    "Probably."


    They continued to look on, committing the scene to memory.


    "How many are there?" Lisa asked.


    "I''m still counting," Bath said, as though that alone was an answer. In a way, it was: the crystallized bodies seemed innumerable.


    "Have you read the records that the verdora left on this place?" Lisa asked, her voice quiet.


    "Yeah. Pretty terrible, isn''t it?"


    She gave Bath a searching look. "You can protect us from something like this, right?"


    His feathered face swiveled around so that his maw touched her back. "I should be able to."


    The remnants of a once a city lay below. Thousands of people littered its streets and corners. They weren''t people, obviously, but Lisa couldn''t tell the difference with them all encased in a layer of white crystal.


    "How do you think they died?" Lisa asked.


    "Their deaths would''ve been slow and excruciating until the crystal covered their spines, and even then, they would still feel pain in whatever part of their upper bodies remained. Most of them probably died from suffocation: The crystal would''ve torn their lungs to shreds and prevented them from oxygenating blood long before it ever reached their hearts."


    Lisa shuddered involuntarily. The verdora claimed it had been some kind of superweapon, though their results had been inconclusive. The end result of said weapon''s use, however, was crystal clear: extinction.


    Now that they had slowed down to take a look at the city, Lisa''s eyes began to move on to the immediate surrounding area. There she began to spot crystallized trees and animals and even a giant, white-crusted flower.


    The planet wasn''t completely devoid of life, however. Small bushes of green and thick grass covered the ground, clearly taking advantage of the planet''s allegedly excellent soil and climatic conditions.


    This new growth didn''t surprise her: this planet had supposedly developed, reached its peak, and wiped its lifeforms out all before the verdora built their first city. After the passage of millions of years, it would be strange if new primitive life had failed to take root.


    "I bet this place is going to make an excellent colony," Lisa observed, turning away. "We should keep going."


    Bath once more began to pump his wings, accelerating on to the planned site of the city seed.


    "I can''t believe that these sapients triggered the destruction of their entire planet," Lisa muttered, her thoughts almost lost to the wind. "It''s depressing." It was more than just "depressing," though she lacked the words to adequately describe the tragedy of Amethyn. She wondered how many civilizations had reached a similar end in the grand scheme of things.


    "That''s why I stepped in," Bath replied. "You humans were setting the Earth up for an early mass extinction."


    Lisa blinked. That''s right, she realized. Bath has lived through things like this before. "It wouldn''t have been like this," she argued. "Maybe we would''ve nuked things to oblivion, but I doubt the age of humanity would''ve ended with the total death of Earth''s multicellular life."


    Bath shrugged. "The signs were all there. While I can''t know what would have happened without my interference, I think humanity would''ve messed things up worse than you think. Without using nukes," he added.


    They remained silent for the rest of the flight. As they approached their target, Bath slowed down and began his descent. The two of them landed on a vast field with rippling, green grass. Lisa breathed in the freshness of the air, closing her eyes.


    "This place is beautiful," she remarked.


    "Use your echolocation," Bath rumbled, suddenly absent from her side. Lisa snapped to attention, realizing that something was amiss. She sent out a sonic click, quickly processing the return echo. A tunnel? she murmured to herself, darting forward. Hidden in the grass was, apparently, a hole leading into a tunnel. Lisa''s angle hadn''t allowed her to discern anything else.


    She ran to Bath''s side, unsurprised to find him peering over the edge of a gaping black hole surrounded by grass. He shot her a knowing look as she approached and quickly shifted forms, reappearing as a human. He stood side by side with Lisa, his carmine cape streaming out gently behind him and touching the backs of her calves.


    "I wonder what we''ll find in this tunnel," he murmured. "Based on what we''ve seen so far, large, mysterious tunnels lead to trouble."


    "Well," Lisa began, "it''s a good thing that we''re the ones who went ahead."


    Bath flashed her a grin as he prepared to jump over the hole''s rim. "Let''s hope this trouble is as fun as the last."

 [Chapter 164] The Mysterious Circumstances of the Empty Arc; Influencing the Seed

    Bath led the descent into the tunnel. It wasn''t as deep as the passage on Vast Desert, but it was still a solid five-hundred meters deep. When they reached the bottom, they found that the tunnel made a sharp ninety-degree turn, proceeding parallel with the surface.


    Eventually, they found themselves standing before the threshold of a pitch-black chamber.


    "Feels like deja vu, doesn''t it?" Lisa murmured.


    Bath had to agree: the passageways were similar to those on Vast Desert. Did Amethyn also possess a crash-landed arc?


    "But there''s nobody in the room," Lisa added. "Last time, AI Ninety-Seven was sitting in wait."


    Bath quickly condensed his form, drawing in any strands of essence that he''d kept out as feelers. He didn''t want to set off any protective systems that might view his diffuse essence as a threat. Then, he made the first step into the room beyond.


    "There wasn''t an AI Ninety-Seven at all back on Drift Jag," Bath reminded her.


    Lisa made a face. "But that ship was different: It had clearly been overrun by robots, was radioactive, and buried deep under a mountain. I don''t think it was meant to be found, or at least it crash-landed way worse than the Egdelek Arc."


    "Check the room again with echolocation," Bath instructed. By now, he was standing at the center of the chamber. "See where I''m standing? There''s an impression in the ground that stretches across its diameter."


    "I see it," Lisa replied, walking forward. "But how are we supposed to turn this room on?" The glowing lights that had illuminated the room last time were all dark. Bath cocked his head. Before, AI Ninety-Seven had activated the mechanism that supplied power to the floor and opened up to the arc below.


    Instead of answering her, Bath bent down and pressed his fingers into the impression in the floor. He began to push in opposite directions. Soon enough, he pried the floor apart, revealing the entrance to an arc-like ship.


    "Nice," Lisa called out. "This door wasn''t built with people like us in mind, right?" Bath had clearly had to exert a decent amount of effort to manually open the floor; no normal sapient would be able to similarly brute force their way onto the ship.


    Bath gave her a lazy smile and began to drop down. "Come on, let''s see what''s here."


    ---


    The inside of the ship was completely empty. Every library had been sacked and looted, while even the ship''s entrance room--normally the bedroom--had been stripped of all furniture. The control room''s pedestal was still intact, but one of its window-screens had been cracked. Altogether, the ship had clearly seen better days.


    As he and Lisa stood in the control room together, he couldn''t help but voicing aloud a suspicion. "Do you think that whatever was contained within this arc had something to do with Amethyn''s last extinction?"


    Lisa sighed. "I was thinking something similar, but I can''t rectify the facts. AI Ninety-Seven said that the Egdelek Arc had only crashed a few thousand years ago. If this ship had crashed years earlier, I''m sure that whatever organization sent it out would have realized this strand of gates is dangerous. That being true, I doubt that the other two arcs would have crash landed on their respective planets. Therefore, I have a feeling that this ship arrived within the past few thousand years."


    Bath nodded. "That makes sense--after all, I can''t imagine that a ship''s blueprints wouldn''t change over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. If this ship really had arrived before Amethyn''s latest extinction event, it would have to be significantly older than the Egdelek Arc."


    He paused, looking at Lisa, the two of their eyes widening.


    "So, if the ship only arrived within the past few thousand years..." she began.


    "...Who was on Amethyn to loot it?" he finished.


    Lisa looked around, an expression of unease clear on her face. "We''re missing something," she muttered.


    "We''ll have time to figure it out later," Bath said. "Let''s return to the surface for now and establish the new city-seed."


    "Okay; you''re right. I bet Fartuun will be able to use her V-Tap to pick up on details we''re missing and try to figure out what''s going on."


    ---


    When the two of them returned to the surface, Lisa rifled through her Church gown''s concealed, slitted pockets and retrieved a city-seed.


    "I''m planting this one," she stated. "Bath."


    "What?"


    "You said that the city-seed has thoughts of its own."


    He gave her an amused look. "It does, in a sense."


    Lisa reached out to the city-seed, initiating a tie between the two of them. Dragonleaf fronds felt like blank slates to be molded; to Lisa''s mind, the city-seed didn''t feel any different. It certainly didn''t have a shell.


    "You have to grow it first," Bath added. "It''s dormant now."


    "Is there any way to slow down the growth process?" Lisa inquired. "I''ve seen lots of city-seeds grow, but I still don''t really understand how they develop. It''d be really helpful for my own understanding if I could view the process at half speed."


    Bath nodded slowly. "It''s done."


    Lisa didn''t give any indication that Bath''s on-the-fly gene editing surprised her.


    Good, he thought. Even though Lisa had known what he could do for years, she''d still been a bit startled when he actually started putting his power to use. It''d been less than a half year since they''d started college, after all; before then, she hadn''t seen him do much more than transform into different animal shapes.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Plant it, but keep your hand connected to a part of it at all times. It''ll probably receive a good deal of influence from your mind," he explained. "In return, you should get a better sense of how it develops."


    As soon as Lisa put the seed onto the soil, it began to spring up, leaves and roots expanding in every direction. She quickly gripped onto a coil of green stretching out horizontally, treating it like the kind of dragonleaf tether people used to communicate with non-verbal quasi-sapients.


    For the first few minutes, she watched attentively as the seed''s kernel expanded out. While she couldn''t see what was happening below ground, she had a clear view of the city-seed''s rapidly expanding canopy. Even slowed down by half, the growth reminded her of a nature video accelerating a year''s worth of plant growth until it fit within mere seconds.


    "How is it growing so fast?" she asked, genuinely perplexed. She''d never asked Bath before, taking the city-seed''s growth for granted, but now she was curious.


    Bath turned around to give her a sheepish grin. "I might have cheated a bit," he confessed.


    "What?"


    "Why do you think that I needed to personally make each of the city-seeds?" he asked.


    "Uh..."


    "I put a tiny sphere of condensed energy within each of them," he explained. He held out his hand; soon, a little dot the size of a fish egg hovered over his palm. "See this? It''s incredibly massive."


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. "The city-seed is light as a feather," she observed.


    "Hold on," Bath interrupted. "What''s important is that the mass doesn''t want to stay in one place. It actually becomes raw energy, which in turn saturates the seeds, exciting their electrons."


    Lisa gave Bath a dubious look. "How could the tiny mass you put into the seeds do that?" Wouldn''t that lead to high levels of radiation, or something?


    "Well, it''s not that much energy," Bath replied. "A big part of why the city-seeds work is that they''re much more efficient than unmodified plants."


    Lisa shook her head. "Bath, I don''t care how efficient your plants are; the city-seeds are the size of cities."


    "Anyways," he said, continuing with his explanation. "The atoms in the seeds, whose electrons are in an elevated state of energy excitement, contain a huge, but balanced, repulsive force. This dissipates as the seed expands out into a city; after its growth is complete, it will rely on solar power and nutrients from the soil to sustain its growth."


    "So you''re basically saying that you energize the electrons within the seed so that the repulsion between adjacent atoms is much higher than it should be," Lisa summarized. ¡±Which in turn creates a source of harvestable energy." It almost sounded like a bizarre reactor.


    "Something like that."


    Lisa sighed and leaned on a nearby dragonleaf wall. "I still think it''s impossible."


    Bath shrugged.


    "Maybe you''re bending the rules," Lisa hypothesized. "All of the things you''ve been doing with COTD are seemingly impossible." It was one of the reasons why people so easily believed that Bath was a real god.


    Bath narrowed his eyes. "I''ve been considering about that," he admitted. "But it doesn''t feel like I''m bending the rules."


    Lisa was about to reply when she felt the city seed''s thoughts begin to develop. "Oh!" she exclaimed.


    "What''s it showing you?" he asked.


    "Darkness and cold," Lisa replied, frowning. She sent back feelings of reproach--darkness and cold definitely aren''t sentiments that a newborn plant should be thinking about--accompanied by the image of a warm house fire. In response, the city-seed began to poke at her memories, reminding Lisa of an illiterate child in a library haphazardly pointing to shelved books. It wasn''t able to access her memories, of course, but it seemed to be aware that they were there, and that alone was enough.


    She began to feed the city-seed random information, curious as to how it would use the memories and ideas that she was sharing with it. In general, the memories she was giving it weren''t very clear and were jumbles of sentiments and images, but the city-seed took in all of them and wanted more.


    Eventually, she had to break off the stream of information by removing her uncovered hand from one of the seed''s dragonleaf branches.


    Bath''s eyes flicked up. "How was it?" he asked.


    "Disorienting," she replied, cringing. "Whenever I shared a memory with it, I was forced to remember it as well. But they didn''t make much sense. Honestly, I couldn''t really understand the majority of what I was sending over."


    ¡°You think differently than I do, and differently from the city-seed," he said in agreement. "But that''s not a bad thing. I can already see that the city-seed is taking influence from what you''ve shared."


    Lisa followed his finger as it pointed to a nearby building. Instead of a normal, blockish shape, the building''s edges were wavy and malformed. Lisa grimaced, worried about its structural integrity.


    "Uh, Bath, maybe this is why humans shouldn''t try to share lots of information with city-seeds."


    He began to laugh. "Lisa, the building is beautiful. Just look around you."


    She did, and began to realize that other buildings were also taking on a wavy aspect. Many of them looked like thick trees rather than apartment buildings. In an attempt to get a better vantage point, Lisa used her magnetic sense to rise into the air. From a few hundred feet up, she began to realize...


    "Do you recognize them?" Bath asked, suddenly materializing behind her. His torso brushed against her back, his arms crossing over her shoulders and draping down her front. She twisted her head to make room for his on her right shoulder.


    "Yeah, I recognize them." The city seed below was quickly coming to resemble the forest in which she and Bath had often visited in high school...though on a larger scale.


    "Told you the city seed would take inspiration from your own thoughts."


    "But it still doesn''t have a shell," she retorted. "It can''t really think."


    "Does that matter?" he asked. "AI Ninety-Seven doesn''t have a shell, but is, for all intents and purposes, a sentient being."


    Lisa paused, unsure of how to respond. She understood Bath''s point, but after spending her entire life touching people''s shells, the lack thereof felt...extremely unnatural. It was like someone saying that a headless person could think without a brain. Even Bath had a shell.


    "Remember, Lisa," Bath added, "You''re only able to read shells because of the kursi symbiote. Just because the symbiote doesn''t affect AI Ninety-Seven doesn''t mean that AI Ninety-Seven can''t think." He shifted his head''s position to the other side of her shoulders. "That''s still up in the air, I know--AI Ninety-Seven might not actually be intelligent--but the point stands. The neural network of the city seed is spread out and decentralized. That might be what prevents the kursi symbiote from infecting it, leading to your inability to register its emotional shell."


    "...Maybe," she said. "I see your point. I might be conflating lack of intelligence with immunity to the kursi symbiote."


    Bath nodded.


    "Hey, what''s that?" Lisa asked, her eyes focusing on one of the city''s gardens. Her eyes lit up and she slipped out of Bath''s arms, hovering forward. "It''s us," she laughed.


    At the center of the garden was a wooden growth. She could tell that the dragonleaf had been naturally shaped, rather than carved away; while this was unsurprising, it only served to enhance the beauty of the statue before her. While each city seed''s many gardens contained artistic statues--many of which she knew that Bath had personally designed and imprinted upon each of the city seeds--she had never felt a personal connection to any of them.


    This statue, though, brought warmth into her chest. It was a scene of her riding on Bath, his wolf''s head gentle and proud. While the wood made it hard to tell, she could discern that the Lisa riding the wolf was still young.


    "Is this the first time we went out in the woods?" Bath asked, shooting Lisa an inscrutable look.


    "I''m not sure," she replied.


    "Lisa," he stated. "Think of the thoughts you shared with the city seed."


    "I shared a lot of thoughts," she grumbled. "But...I think you''re right: this is the first time I really began to see the real you."


    "We make quite a pair," he replied, eyes distant.


    Lisa turned away from the statue to look at Bath. "You know, however you''re able to make all of this possible...thanks. Without you, I''d still be in school, living out a boring, meaningless life." Well, at least until some kursi organization recruited her. More than that, though, millions of people on Earth would still be dying of preventable things like hunger, thirst, old age, or disease.


    "It''s not for you," Bath intoned, voice coming out in a low, serious monotone. He paused for a moment. Then, his expression softened and he gave Lisa a lop-sided grin. "It''s because of the Big WD!"


    She stared at him for a solid two seconds before erupting into a fit of laughter. "Right," she drawled. "The Big WD." How could she forget?

 [Chapter 165] The Ethics of Form and Aesthetics; Deans Squirrel Problem

    The two of them spent the rest of their time waiting for the others to arrive by trying to find signs of Lisa''s influence on the city seed''s growth. They noticed that some of the residential buildings had features copied from her home--notably her house''s red brick.


    "Why?" Lisa scoffed, running her hand over the surface of a building. "It''s literally just wood molded into the impression of bricks."


    "The city-seed doesn''t discriminate between stone and wood," he explained. "All it''s done is try to emulate things from your positive memories." Lisa spent most of her life in that brick house; Bath wasn''t surprised that the city-seed had used it for architectural inspiration.


    She frowned, looking at the building intently.


    She doesn''t like the brick?


    "Lisa," he began, "is there something you want to change?"


    "It''s just...a little weird," she admitted. "It''s one thing to make buildings look like trees because of all the time you and I have spent in the forest, but making buildings look like my old house..."


    After hearing about her discomfort, Bath began manipulating the dragonleaf structure, smoothing out the brick-like indents. Since the entire city-seed was within his essence range, he did the same to every other similarly-constructed building. Lisa jumped back, clearly not anticipating the sudden change.


    She laughed nervously, saying, "Bath, you really didn''t have to do that. It''s not a big deal."


    I don''t understand her, Bath thought. If the building was making her feel uncomfortable, then why keep it?


    She placed a palm on the building''s woody surface. "The city-seed made this building the way it did because of me," she murmured. "If the city-seed is really an intelligent lifeform like you seem to imply it is, then this city is its body."


    Bath narrowed his eyes. "And?"


    Lisa turned toward him, eyes bright and full of energy. "I can''t just change its body to match my own aesthetic preferences," she said.


    Bath just stared at her. But that''s exactly what you''re supposed to do, he protested internally.


    "Lisa, the city-seed is a plant," he said firmly. "It doesn''t care what you do to it."


    She gave him an incredulous look. "Didn''t it choose to look the way it does now?"


    Bath sighed. "Yes."


    "So who am I to force my will on it?"


    "You''re being unreasonable," Bath replied, shaking his head. "You''re supposed to change the city-seed. That way, it can better meet the needs of its inhabitants."


    "What if there was something about my appearance, for instance, that made you uncomfortable?"


    Bath groaned internally. "Lisa..."


    "Wouldn''t I have the right to my own bodily autonomy?" She looked at him expectantly. "You wouldn''t just change how I look without asking, right?"


    "But there isn''t anything about your appearance that makes me uncomfortable." She could have antennae and a proboscis for all he cared.


    "But if there were something..."


    He raised an eyebrow.


    She suddenly had a gleam in her eyes. "What if I looked like Jabba the Hutt?"


    Bath had to give this some thought. "Still wouldn''t bother me."


    Lisa narrowed her eyes. "Seriously? You wouldn''t care if I looked like a giant, disgusting slug frog?"


    This conversation is going to end well. Instead of answering, Bath shot her a lopsided smile and began to walk away.


    "Come on," he said. "Let''s see what else we can find."


    Lisa snorted and shook her head, but followed along. They continued to silently view different areas of the city. A few minutes after they left the brick-wood building, Bath decided to better explain his point of view.


    "Lisa," he began. "It may seem odd to you, but I genuinely don''t care about appearances."


    "You expect me to believe that when you made the quasi-wasps?" The attractive wasp-women didn''t exactly support Bath''s previous statement.


    He rolled his eyes. "While I don''t care about appearances, most beings do," he explained. "You''d be surprised how exceptional a quasi-wasp is at gathering intelligence." Even he''d been mildly surprised at the ease with which they''d been able to steal access codes and sensitive information.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Lisa blinked. "Wait," she began. "I thought they just...hacked into government systems."


    Bath shook his head. "Some of those systems were too difficult to break into from the outside. A good quarter of the quasi-wasps spent their time paying personal visits."


    Hearing this, Lisa burst into laughter. "You actually made them sexy to seduce people into giving them information?" Bath could see tears of mirth in the corners of her eyes. "How the hell did that work? No matter how attractive they are, they''re still wasps!"


    Bath cocked his head. "Well, I also gave them human pheromone glands as a back-up," he added.


    Lisa shook her head. "You didn''t think anyone would be suspicious that a human-wasp hybrid was trying to ask them for access to classified information?"


    "I think you''re overestimating human males," he said hesitantly.


    "And I think this is just another example of one of your ridiculous plans," she smirked. "The kind that you probably should have run by me first."


    "You were busy with everything else," Bath said dismissively. "Besides, if the plan was so terrible, why did it work?" The wasps had succeeded in getting relevant information needed for the hacking team to get significant footholds in various security systems.


    "You were lucky," she said. "Lucky that you thought to give them a pheromone backup, at the very least."


    Bath sighed. "The point I was trying to make is that I don''t care about appearances for appearance''s sake. Why, Lisa, did I make the Church beautiful?"


    Her mouth thinned into a line. "Because gods don''t have imperfections."


    "Right. So if you looked like Jabba the Hutt, and thus couldn''t fulfill your role as the Church, I''d change your appearance. If a building in this city-seed doesn''t foster a peaceful, secure environment, I would change it."


    "Utilitarian as always," she commented. "Which is fine for you; you''re the Dragon. You''re supposed to be a hardass."


    Bath chuckled. "And you''re supposed to be the idealist?"


    "Exactly," she replied in a mock-serious voice. "The visionary pursuing a better vision of the future. At her heels are the snapping jaws of the tyrannical dragon..."


    "That''s my line," he retorted. "At my neck is the idealist''s choke collar."


    A complex expression washed over her face. "A choke collar, huh?"


    Bath flashed her a smile with teeth. "Believe me, Lisa," he began. "Though I know you think that I''m the real power behind COTD, and that everything here only exists because of my actions...at the end of the day, the one they should be worshiping is you."


    "We''re partners," Lisa insisted. "People worship both of us." Her lips curled up in distaste as they formed the word "worship."


    Bath knew that she didn''t fully believe what she said, but let the issue drop. The humans will probably never realize how close they were to my crosshairs. While Lisa knew that he''d began taking violent actions in the name of preventing further escalation of the greenhouse effect--namely by causing gas-powered cars to explode--she didn''t know that if push came to shove, had they never met...he probably would''ve wiped the human scourge out to keep the planet''s natural balance in equilibrium.


    Though none of that matters now, he thought. The entire world is my oyster.


    ---


    Since Juserin''s borrowed voyager was far faster than the arcs while traveling over land, Dean arrived at the city-seed only two hours after they initially commenced its growth. It took three more hours for the other ships to arrive.


    To clear up any confusion about their whereabouts, Lisa and Bath had told the sapients aboard the kursi and the verdora arcs, respectively, that they''d been flying with Dean in the voyager. Nobody had asked too many questions: many had seen the Knight and Lisa talking in the past, while Thaddeus was, by now, a legend amongst the verdora. None of them doubted him, though the Delelens had seemed a bit dejected when they''d realized that they''d need to stay behind on the verdora ship.


    While waiting for the arcs to arrive, Lisa, Dean, and Bath decided to hang out in one of the gardens. The two humans lay reclining on dragonleaf lawn chairs while Bath--in the guise of Thaddeus--lay in a hammock.


    "You seem oddly relaxed," Lisa commented.


    Dean glanced over in her direction. "Do you know how many city-seeds I''ve established on this trip?"


    "Nope."


    "Neither do I--it''s too many, though."


    Lisa scoffed. "What''s the harm in establishing new city-seeds?"


    Dean sighed, but before he could answer, Bath provided an answer of his own.


    "Lisa, do you know how many PP Dean has at this point?"


    She huffed in exaggerated annoyance. "Do you guys think I''m a stalker or something? I literally know nothing about Dean''s PP."


    Dean gave Bath a menacing look. "Of course you know. It''s more than I''ll ever be able to use, and I get more of it with every passing month..."


    Bath chuckled. "Guess, Lisa."


    "Hmm...Maybe...two-thousand?"


    Dean continued to groan in the background.


    "Multiply that by two," Bath stated.


    "Holy crap," Lisa blurted. Then she turned to Dean. "Stop being such a baby; you should be happy you''re swimming in PP." With that much PP, Dean was probably the equivalent of a billionaire on contemporary Earth.


    "I can''t go anywhere with this much PP," he pointed out. "The squirrel quasies won''t leave me alone."


    "What?" Lisa asked, perplexed.


    Bath thought back to the strange scene he''d seen back on Vast Desert: Dean had entered a dressing room to pay Aberash--his "friend"--a visit before her musical performance. At that time, a contingent of quasi-squirrels had all demanded his signature.


    Bath hadn''t actually paid too much attention to the quasi-squirrels, given that they mostly oversaw the mundane goings-ons in the city-seeds. He was suddenly curious why they had earned Dean''s ire.


    "Why do quasi-squirrels ask for your signature?" Bath asked.


    Lisa''s eyes widened. "They ask for your signature?"


    "They use it as currency," Dean said, face expressionless. "I still don''t understand." He didn''t even question how Bath knew about the squirrels'' signature-collecting.


    "Wow," Lisa exclaimed, covering a laugh with her hand. "I see how it is. How''s it like to be famous?"


    Dean''s mouth curved into a grimace. "They literally watch me everywhere I go."


    Lisa placed a finger to the corner of her mouth. "You know, the past few city-seeds, I haven''t seen many squirrels around."


    Bath smirked. "I actually picked up on that a few planets back. You dumped a solid percentage of them on Equinox."


    Dean closed his eyes and shifted in his chair. "I will neither confirm nor deny."


    Both Bath and Lisa were laughing now.


    "Ha ha," Dean intoned. But soon enough, even he was smiling.


    ---


    The arcs eventually arrived, parking on an open stretch of valley bordering the city-seed. Everyone streamed out and headed into their respective apartment rooms. By now, they moved like a well-oiled machine, every person knowing exactly where to go. Moreover, during their flight, they had been briefed on the protocol for taking off the following morning. This freed them from the need to attend informative strategy meetings that typically took part the evening before the departure.


    Without anything to attend to, the temporary inhabitants of the new city-seed, Brickwood, relaxed and prepared for the final planet to come.

 [Chapter 166] Another Giant Fungus; Emeraline and Marsh Lash

    While the kursi arc ship had always been fairly quiet, once the arc crossed the threshold onto the final planet, planet 39309, or Emerald Lash, the ship fell completely silent.


    It wasn''t because the planet was especially strange or beautiful. Eyrin wondered if the silence was due to the circumstances: this was the final destination before reaching planet 39123--Earth. Since Earth was as foreign a planet to him as any other, he hadn''t anticipated the pensive looks that came over the countenances of the human kursi. While all the kursi were shielding their shells from one another--nobody liked to wear emotions on their metaphorical sleeve--Eyrin had been practicing reading human expressions. It had been one productive way of passing time while traveling for hours on the arc.


    Especially when they played the human game of poker. Especially then.


    How long have they been gone? he wondered. Based on Juserin''s intelligence briefing, they couldn''t have left Earth more than two month''s previous.


    Eyrin cleared his throat. "This is the swamp planet," he stated. "What kind of city-seed do you all expect will grow in this environment?"


    Zhou yawned. "We had at least one swamp city-seed on Earth," he commented. "Anybody care to look it up on the chip reader?"


    Nobody replied.


    He shrugged. "We''ll see in an hour or so first-hand."


    Zhou Wang had a good point: this planet was smaller than the others, and its relatively flat surface made for smooth gliding over its surface.


    Eyrin felt himself growing somewhat restless on the needle-shaped ship. He much preferred running, gliding, or flying on Clarissa to sitting still in the control room. It wasn''t because of anything as trivial as adrenaline withdrawal. Rather, it came out of a strong desire to use and develop his boons.


    Even as he looked out the window and peered down on the endless mass of coiling green characterizing Emerald Lash''s surface, he attempted to improve his mastery of the artist profession. He tried to find inspiration in the designs and shapes in the overgrowth, though wasn''t having much success. Everything below was a shapeless mass of green. He hated to admit it, but he''d been making fairly slow progress. As the artist profession was the only one he had yet to elevate to the expert level, he couldn''t help but see the artist profession as an annoying bottleneck.


    He frowned. Seeing it that way definitely isn''t making progress any easier.


    While Eyrin recognized that he was only second to Thaddeus in his boon advancement, every second he spent fruitlessly working on the artist profession felt like wasted time. It had only been eight days since Thaddeus had magically attained all the basic boons and began to amass path points, and Eyrin knew that he wasn''t that far behind, but even so...He''d taken on Thaddeus as his protege: lagging behind despite his age advantage and experience irked him.


    A few minutes later, one of the kursi, Lisa, walked over to him. Eyrin turned around and nodded his head. She gave him and smile and clasped her hands behind her back as she stood by the window-screen.


    "What are you doing?" she asked.


    "Finding inspiration," Eyrin sighed.


    Lisa studied the terrain outside the craft and made a face. "Honestly, I have no idea how you''re supposed to get any inspiration from that."


    Eyrin blinked twice, smiling wryly underneath his veil. "How encouraging."


    "It''s like someone was lazy and just copy-and-pasted the exact same patch of land over and over again."


    Eyrin coughed. "That is exactly what it feels like."


    Lisa cocked her head, expression thoughtful. "Honestly, it is a little suspect."


    Eyrin''s brow ridges rose up. "What?"


    "You''ve never been able to sense plant shells, right?"


    Eyrin blinked once. "Plants are incapable of intelligent thought," he said. "So no, never. Why?"


    "Hmm...nevermind," she said. She furrowed her brow. "I have an idea, but I won''t be able to test it until we touch down."


    What is she talking about? Eyrin wondered, now curious. "Regarding the swamp?"


    "Yeah. I have a hunch that the swampland is all interconnected."


    What? Why? Eyrin was surprised by the woman''s assertion. Eyrin didn''t think much of the swamp''s uniformity, given that all plants of the same species tended to adopt a uniform appearance.


    "What leads you to this conclusion?"


    Lisa shrugged. "Like I said, just a hunch. I''ll have to wait until we actually get off this ship to test my hypothesis."


    "You do realize this is a swamp," he said, giving her a confused look. "Don''t you?"


    "...Yeah...?"


    "It''s supposed to be uniform."


    Lisa''s mouth hinged open. "Not like this," she insisted. "It''s like this is all one giant plant."This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Is she daft? "Exactly."


    "What!?"


    ---


    Dean had gone ahead this time, though he''d taken Fartuun with him and forced her to found the new city-seed.


    "I still don''t understand why you''re passing the seed off to me," she stated, giving him a look. The two of them were currently in the Anima, the central building at the base of the Spire. Because of the relative lack of administratively-oriented quasi-sapients, Dean decided to go ahead and start setting up the city-seed''s residential records.


    The process was fairly easy: He and Fartuun simply copied the names of the three-hundred or so remaining sapients/quasies into the residences ledger. First, back in Brickwood, he''d cloned the dragonleaf ledger sheet containing everyone''s housing information. Afterwards, he''d manually blanked-out the names of all those who had stayed behind. All that they needed to do was sync this city-seed''s blank ledger with the modified one from Brickwood.


    "You''re head of technological innovation for COTD," Dean pointed out. "And you only have one city-seed."


    "Isn''t one already a lot?"


    Exactly! "Yes, but better you than me."


    Fartuun gave him a coy smile. "You could''ve asked other people to found the seed," she said.


    Dean''s face began to slightly redden. "Well, it''s too late for that now. Besides, you''re the one with the V-Tap; if anyone''s cut out to manage multiple city-seeds and do it well, it''s you."


    She laughed. "That''s true," she acknowledged. "Though I''m not sure how much the V-Tap will help in running a city-seed."


    "What do you mean?"


    "They seem to run themselves," she said with a shrug, pushing a coil of hair behind her ear. "The Dragon has made them incredibly self-sufficient."


    That''s true; even though I knew nothing about running a city--nothing at all--Jerboaland turned out alright. He couldn''t help but attribute most of the success to the numerous utilities of dragonleaf and the many quasi-sapients, such as the quasi-snakes, that helped transport people from tumultuous regions to the safety of Jerboaland.


    Then again, some of the city-seeds had been complete failures, requiring violent intervention from Basalith''s jaybirds as part of the "war on oppression." Dean recalled this being a particularly egregious issue in Russia, but even in the United States there had been a stream of jaybird-liberated refugees into Basalith.


    Though it seemed like most victims weren''t coming from city-seeds. Many people still lived in dragonleaf-refurbished homes. The proliferation COTD''s physical boons, along with the introduction of mountable quasi-sapients, made commuting to far-off city-seeds a trivial affair. This being the case, the distribution of the population at large had remained fairly constant. Jerboaland had been the exception to the rule, though Dean attributed that to the war-torn, poverty-stricken region where the city-seed had arisen.


    After they finished updating the ledger, the two of them exited the city-seed to clear a section of the swampland to serve as an airfield.


    "I''ve never seen swampland before," Fartuun commented as she strutted out of the city-seed''s gate.


    "This isn''t a swamp," Dean replied. "We don''t even have a proper word for it."


    "Oh?"


    Dean gave her a look. "I spoke to Prince Eyrin about this planet a few days past. Apparently, the English translation for--" he paused, "actually, probably any Earth language''s translation for this planet''s ecosystem is incorrect."


    "Swamp isn''t right?" she asked.


    Dean tsked. "We don''t have anything approaching what this thing is."


    Fartuun cocked her head, her hair draping over her shoulder. "Now I''m really curious...what do you mean?"


    Dean held up his hand. "Watch." He slashed out into the thick grove bordering the nascent city-seed. As he did, the swamp began to thrash in the immediate area around them. Even parts of the swamp that hadn''t been hit began to writhe like worms.


    Fartuun grimaced. "The V-Tap says that this entire grove of trees is in communication with one another," she said, looking over at Dean. Actually...it seems like she''s looking through me.


    "It''s trying to map out exactly how these trees are all communicating one another. It''s drawing lines all over the place and drawing out red target boxes..." She stepped backward. "It''s dizzying."


    Interesting, Dean thought, rubbing his jaw. Fartuun was still a novice at utilizing the V-Tap; if COTD was serious about trying to disseminate similar, if less invasive, implants, it should definitely come up with a combat regimen. While the V-Tap came with a tutorial mode, it clearly hadn''t prepared Fartuun for this kind of unexpected circumstance. The implant seemed to be tracking the movements of the trees like it would a team of hostiles.


    I wasn''t aware that the V-Tap had been made with combat in mind, Dean muttered internally. AI Ninety-Seven definitely never mentioned anything about it...Not that his silence was a surprise. Dean couldn''t help but feel that the android was keeping information from them, especially after hearing about the android''s cryptic remarks about "waiting for Bath''s arrival" for thousands of years.


    "Your V-Tap is on the right track," Dean said. "The trees are communicating with each other...but not in the way you think. They''re actually all part of one organism."


    The queasy expression on Fartuun''s face disappeared. Her eyes widened and her mouth popped open in disbelief.


    "That''s absolutely amazing," she exclaimed. She began to turn in a slow circle, as though taking in every angle of the swampland. "This thing must be the biggest organism we''ve ever encountered," she said. "And just imagine if this were a bigger planet..."


    Dean nodded and crossed his arms. "Yeah. Well, anyways, we should probably clear the airfield now."


    "What''s the organism called?" Fartuun asked.


    Dean shrugged. "Not sure. Like I said, the technical translation for the official word is ''swamp,'' which is clearly wrong."


    Fartuun cocked her head. "I was just communicating with Vladimir," she said. "And asked him to do a search for me across his chip-reader."


    Dean nodded slowly in understanding. Vladimir Sokolov, the vanguard''s chief engineer, had been the second recipient of the V-Tap. The man wasn''t on Dean''s radar because he was always absent from leadership meetings, choosing to spend every waking moment working on replicating alien technology. Dean didn''t begrudge the man, though; because of him, they had succeeded in reconstructing the Egdelek Arc in only a few days.


    "The two of us both started from two different queries, but we came to the same conclusion: it''s probably a species of giant tree fungus."


    "Giant...tree fungus?"


    Seeing his expression, Fartuun burst into laughter. "It''s nothing like that fungus you found underneath Whitesun," she said.


    Dean laughed nervously. "Good to know."


    "The encyclopedia''s biological life is actually classified by a different taxonomic hierarchy than we use on Earth. It''s actually a lot more complicated than the one you''re probably familiar with...not that we should be surprised. One of the major differences is the addition of a kingdom that''s similar to both plantae and fungi."


    "Sounds reasonable," he said. "So this thing is a completely different kind of organism than we''re used to."


    "It''s exciting, isn''t it?"


    Seeing her glowing expression, Dean couldn''t help but smile back. "Story of my life since COTD," he snorted. "But we really should get busy clearing the land; the ships will be arriving soon."


    "What should we call it?" Fartuun asked as she followed him into the overgrowth.


    "You''re asking me?"


    Fartuun smirked. "Fine; I''ll name it after the city-seed."


    "Isn''t that redundant?"


    Fartuun humphed. "The planet''s called emerald lash, and it''s capital city naturally called Emeraline."


    "Naturally."


    "So we can call this plant fungus ''Marsh Lash.''"


    "Doesn''t that sound kind of...violent?"


    "Nope!"

 [Chapter 167] Total Carnage; COTDs "Concentrated Storm of Destruction"

    When the ships arrived at the city-seed, the vanguard''s members could only stare down at the devastated terrain below in shock.


    "It looks like a bomb went off," Ida muttered bitterly. "Goodness."


    "Looks like it was hit by a tsunami," Zhou Wang corrected.


    Khalid rolled his eyes at both of them, but didn''t say anything verbally.


    "It''s safe to land, right...?" Priscilla asked.


    "Yeah, it''ll be fine," Lisa said dismissively. "Whatever happened, it''s over now."


    Eyrin gave her a curious look. "Does this have something to do with your suspicion from before?" he asked.


    Lisa shrugged. "Maybe?"


    Suddenly, everyone was staring in her direction.


    "Lisa," Zhou said. "Theory?"


    "Heh," she said, leaning against the glass of the ship. "Don''t look at me; ask Eyrin."


    Eyrin adjusted his veil. "The swampland is all connected."


    "In what way?" Zhou asked calmly.


    "Everything you see below is part of the same organism."


    Zhou shook his head and sighed. "I can''t even begin to understand what that implies. Anyways, for now, I agree that it''s probably safe to land, so let''s get going." He gave them all a level look, his eyes finally returning to fix on Eyrin. "If this really is one giant plant..."


    Lisa leaned in her head. He''s taking a long pause, she thought.


    Finally, Zhou nodded his head once. "Well, that''s pretty cool."


    ---


    "Wow!"  a group of the five remaining jerboas exclaimed, peering out the windows at the city-seed below. Virigard was the most vocal of the bunch and was currently pumping up and down on her hind legs.


    "Knight!" she whined. "How dare you leave me out of the fun!"


    "Yeah, how come we didn''t get any fun?" another one of the jerboas moaned, eyes downcast.


    "Can you guys shut up?" Clarissa shouted from the other side of the control room, glowering in their general direction.


    A few quasi-horses snorted from the other side of the room. Neither Virigard nor Clarissa knew what the gesture meant, so they ignored it.


    The ten-or-so remaining squirrels were busy preening each other''s hair or something in the arc''s designated sleeping area, right next to the exit hatch.


    At least they''re gone, Clarissa thought. The jerboas are tame compared to the squirrels...


    For some reason, whenever the squirrels encountered Clarissa alone, they took it upon themselves to try and style her hair. They always seemed to be extremely confused when they succeeded in completely pulling parts of her mane out.


    "They''re extensions!" Clarissa would always growl. Thankfully, her mane was full and lustrous enough that it could successfully weather the squirrels'' tugging. But seriously, what was up with their upper arm strength!? Eyrin frequently held onto her for dear life (especially when she indulged his danger sense), and yet the verdora had never even once pulled out her extensions.


    "Clarissa," Virigard said. "You should see this!"


    "Ugh," the devilbat groaned. "What?"


    "A giant battle happened!"


    This seized Clarissa''s attention. "A battle?" She trod over to the window, sitting down behind the jerboas.


    "Huh."


    "See?" the jerboas chorused.


    Clarissa shook out her mane. "Alright, I can see why you guys were making a fuss."


    "The Knight did that!" Virigard stated proudly.


    "I''d believe it," Clarissa replied. "It''s kind of...terrifying, actually."


    Virigard stood up tall, her tail swishing behind her. She closed her eyes and stuck up her nose. "That''s the Knight, alright!"


    "That''s the Knight, alright!" the other jerboas repeated.


    I''ve never seen him get serious, Clarissa thought, concealing her surprise at the destruction below. He''s a legitimate monster. She suppressed a shudder.


    ---


    "What kind of monster could do that?" Erzey asked, her eye crests elevating in horror. "Are the Knight and Fartuun alright?" She tugged the arm of her cousin.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "I''m sure they''re fine," Juselin said, though he didn''t sound very confident.


    Thaddeus nudged his way in between them. "They''re both fine."


    The two Delelens looked at each other, then at Thaddeus. The other chattering verdora also turned around to see what Thaddeus had to say about the situation.


    "It''s clear that this damage was caused by none other than the Knight himself," Thaddeus reasoned. "If you look at the pools of water in the soil, you''ll see that their impressions follow a tube-like pattern. The Knight clearly busied himself uprooting a significant number of the trees we''ve seen covering the surface of this planet."


    The verdora looked at Thaddeus with expressions of total reverence. How he had figured this out within the span of ten seconds was anyone''s guess, but nobody doubted the veracity of his words: Thaddeus had never been wrong before.


    But it all sounded too incredulous. The area within a one-broad radius of the new city-seed looked as though it had been whipped by a real-life manifestation of Djalet''s line. The depth of even the smallest impression in the ground appeared to be rods deep, with the deepest few impressions rivaled the many-storied buildings in height.


    That the peaceable Knight had supposedly inflicted such violence on the forest came as a surprise to all of them. Many of them began to darken in color, revealing their distress at such a revelation.


    "The Knight has strength to spare," Thaddeus said. "And he''s only been training for a few months." Thaddeus finally turned away from the window to face everyone. If it hadn''t been hidden by a veil, they would''ve seen the predatory grin stretching across his face. "It''s no surprise why Juserin surrendered to COTD, is it?"


    ---


    "You made quite a mess out there," Bath said, manifesting an avatar in the bathhouse.


    Dean jumped. "Jesus," he cursed. "What''s wrong?" I''m just trying to get clean in peace.


    "I''m just coming to congratulate you," he said.


    Dean narrowed his eyes as he scrubbed himself clean of dirt.


    "On what?"


    Bath chuckled. "Don''t sound so suspicious. I''m pleased with the impression you''ve given everyone today."


    Dean sighed. "What impression?"


    Suddenly, Bath''s expression grew serious and his head manifest itself directly in front of Dean. Since the bathhouse was filled with a cloudy steam, his head''s sudden appearance nearly made Dean fall over.


    "Lisa says that they''re all intimidated by you," he said calmly. "Before, they thought you a smart, genial, organized young man. Now, they think you''re a monster."


    Dean flinched as Bath''s head appeared in the steam from a different angle.


    "What do you think of that?"


    Dean turned away. "I''ve been called that before," he said. "Besides, I think you''re exaggerating. I was looking up kursi abilities and they only provide information on emotions. There''s no such thing as a ''monster'' emotion."


    Bath''s head came closer until it was uncomfortably within Dean''s personal space. However, instead of moving back, he decided to stand his ground.


    "Why are you doing this?" he asked, genuinely perplexed.


    Suddenly, the head disappeared.


    "I wanted to see how you''d react," Bath replied from afar. "Your behavior fascinates me."


    Dean clenched his fists, but expelled his anger with a deep exhale. "I really hate it when you do psychological bullshit like that."


    "When did people call you a monster?" Bath asked.


    Dean snorted. "Back in the Middle East, when I spent my free time rescuing civilians."


    "Mm, I heard about your activities."


    "Yeah, well, some of the people I encountered were real pieces of shit." Dean sighed and grew quiet.


    To Dean''s surprise, Bath backed off. "I apologize for testing you," the Devourer said. "But what I said is, technically true: the devastation outside has frightened everyone."


    "I already said I don''t care," Dean replied.


    "I know you''re lying," Bath said.


    Dean took in a steadying breath. "Well, I''m not exactly sure what you want me to do."


    "Get video footage from Fartuun," Bath suggested. "Then show them what happened."


    ---


    "Dean, I''m still a little...worn out," Fartuun said from the inside of her room.


    "Um, uh..."


    "You''re just going to keep standing out there, aren''t you?"


    "Yeah."


    The door opened inward to reveal a wet Fartuun, her hair done up in a towel. "What''s up? You could''ve just asked by thought-to-text."


    "Look, I just want to say--"


    "Save it," Fartuun said, giving him a small smile. "Thanks for rescuing me from the plant fungus."


    Dean rolled his eyes, but smiled back. "Told you so."


    "What?"


    "All giant fungi are bad news," Dean observed, shaking his head. "Bad, bad news."


    Fartuun cocked an eyebrow. "We''ll see about that. Well, if that was all..."


    Dean coughed. "Actually, I was wondering if you could export your, um, memories of what happened and send them to me."


    Fartuun blinked. "Why?" she hissed.


    Dean knew this wouldn''t turn out well. "Nevermind."


    Fartuun grabbed onto his shoulder as he turned to leave. "Why?" She studied his face, eyes searching.


    "Well, I''ve apparently freaked out a good portion of the vanguard with the destruction outside. They think I went crazy or something on the swamp."


    Fartuun''s brow furrowed. "That''s so stupid."


    Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I know."


    "...But you''re serious."


    "Yeah."


    "Fine," she said. "I''ll give you all the relevant parts."


    "No, it''s fine--"


    "Too late! Already sent."


    Dean''s eyes widened. "That was fast."


    Fartuun shrugged. "V-Tap."


    He tapped his chip reader, verifying that he received the video in a compatible format. He projected it for a second, then turned the chip reader off.


    "Thanks," he said.


    Fartuun tilted her head. "No problem, Knight."


    ---


    Lisa had to admit, the video was a bit...extraordinary.


    It showed Dean and Fartuun--thought mostly Dean--fending off a veritable army of giant, green whips. Lisa could hardly believe that the immobile, tightly-coiled swampland that had once covered the area had the potential to so rapidly shift gears.


    A good deal of the damage to the ground, Lisa realized, had actually been caused by the "trees" smashing into it in an attempt to squish the humans, rather than Dean--


    Lisa held a hand over her mouth. Nope. Turns out Dean really had been responsible for most of the damage outside. The only way to kill the tree whips was to yank them out of the ground. Dean quickly turned tree-yanking into an art. First, he grabbed onto a tree whip. Then, he ran with it gripped firmly in his hands. After stretching it out, he yanked forward and swished the stalk out of the ground and over his head.


    Then, he smashed the green tree whip down onto the other tree whips. Toward the end, he began using whips to carve up the ground and even managed to uproot a bunch of the tree whips by scooping them up.


    But Lisa understood why Dean decided to show the video explaining what had happened. While it clearly made a show of Dean''s peerless physical prowess and battle instincts, it also presented Dean''s control. Not a single one of Dean''s movements were sloppy; every single one fed into the next as though he were performing a bizarre ribbon dance (with the uprooted tree whips standing in for ribbons). If anyone had the misconception that Dean had gone on a rampage, or that he was dangerous, the video put these fears to rest.


    The Dean of the video was the kind of person they all wanted on their side: a concentrated storm of destruction. If these green whips came after the city-seed, Dean would protect them, and people found comfort in that unspoken promise.


    Lisa smiled knowingly to himself. He is the Knight, after all.

 [Chapter 168] Lepochims Impossible Goal of Attaining Peace and Quiet

    Lepochim folded his hands in his lap. His head fell back against the headrest of his armchair, eyes closed so as to ignore the thick stack of reports on his desk. Many deepthinks from Zder Galaxy''s habitable worlds preferred paper over digital projections, specifically because projections were widely thought to reduce productivity.


    Lepochim had to grudgingly agree with the popular consensus: There was nothing quite like a physical stack of paper to remind you just how much you still had left to do.


    Lepochim knew that Lisa and Bath''s return would be imminent. He had set up a primitive gate relay at the junction between Earth and Magnet planet and then instructed a group of humans to go through the gate and set up a new array at each gate until they reached Illudis. He knew that Juserin would have set up gate arrays of his own, and would share the technology to do so to the vanguard. In particular, since Juserin had contracted out planet 39744--Dusk''s Halo--to one of the Core Worlds, he (or one of his predecessors) must have established a gate array communication network to monitor the planet remotely.


    While Juserin''s gate arrays were likely high-quality imports, the ones that Lepochim had commissioned from people of Basalith had sufficed. The humans he''d sent to establish the arrays had succeeded in setting up a communication line to Illudis, securing Lepochim access to daily updates on the vanguard''s progress.


    The latest report suggested that the vanguard would be returning to Earth within the next few hours. Because Earth''s single gate lay cloistered beneath the Anima, Lepochim had already closed off access to the underground--including access to all the training rooms--to facilitate the vanguard''s disembarkation. Now all he had to do was wait...a difficult task, considering how his thoughts kept wandering to all the problems he''d planned on dealing with after Lisa and Bath returned.


    I thought I could keep everything in line in their absence, he thought, frowning. But I underestimated the trouble that humans get themselves into. Lepochim opened an eye. Rather, I underestimated the human imagination.


    For all their technological progress, Lepochim couldn''t deny that deepthinks had long since settled into a peaceful, plentiful rut. Such stagnation was only natural: Zder galaxy had been around for billions of years. Everything worth thinking about had already been thought, and everything worth doing, done.


    Or so Lepochim had thought. People of Zder Galaxy certainly hadn''t thought to develop a highly mutable plant lifeform like dragonleaf, nor had they engaged in anything like the ridiculous (though reportedly entertaining) territory wars embroiling Earth.


    Ever since the deepthinks entered the space age, they had broken free from the rise-and-fall cycle of civilization. There had been a few instances of planets failing as their political systems imploded, but these isolated incidents had little impact on the galaxy as a whole. After one planet failed, its denizens simply resettled on other planets.


    In general, there was little cause for political turmoil: resources were plentiful and education available to all. All tasks below sapient-grade intelligence designations had been mechanized and automated.


    The only wrench in this peaceful scheme, Lepochim thought, are the kursi. Unlike in some other worlds, kursi weren''t permitted to hold positions of political power in Zder. Zderians often hailed their long-standing peace and prosperity as the result of this ancient ordinance.


    But of course, time was the surest way to accumulate a high volume of kursi, given that they don''t age. And with nothing meaningful for them to do to pass the time, many Zderian kursi ended up in military camps like Sigenolf-74. After all, while Zder Galaxy was peaceful internally, it still had to protect itself from other worlds. Moreover, life as a kursi special forces operative usually led to travel and adventure.


    While his superiors on Sigenolf-74 had repeatedly stated how Zder''s peace relied on the power of its kursi special forces, Lepochim was no longer convinced that this was true. Just thinking about the power the humans now had made Lepochim''s head spin: Any human with sufficiently high PP investment in one of the combat-oriented professions could obliterate a kursi in seconds.


    Even if a hypothetical kursi operative attempted to hide, administrator boons gave humans the ability to detect hidden foes. While the kursi would have the surprise advantage, and would be able to disable humans remotely, eventually they''d be found and overrun by sheer numbers.


    I''ve run two-hundred battle simulations since Lisa and Bath left...and not once did a team of kursi with "unenhanced" capabilities defeat a contingent of enhanced humans. And that''s not even factoring in quasi-sapients...


    Lepochim sighed.


    "You''re like an angsty teenager," a voice said from behind the office''s main door.


    Lepochim immediately sat up straighter at his desk as Nevis'' head poked out of the doorway.


    "They''re coming back any minute, right?"


    Lepochim looked at the ceiling. "It''s more likely that they''ll come back after the passage of another hour or so."


    "Why the dreary expression?" Nevis asked, hips swaying as she walked up to Lepochim''s desk. She placed a hand down on the stack of papers as she leaned in. "They''re coming back to fix all your problems. Isn''t that a good thing?"


    "They aren''t my problems," Lepochim sniffed. "They''re just as much your problems as they are mine."Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Nevis smiled sweetly while shaking her head, her antennae bouncing lightly behind her.


    As she placed a finger to her lips, she asked, "Was I the one who didn''t do anything while that four-armed upstart and his wifey took over the northwestern United States?"


    Lepochim cleared his throat. "My job is, and shall continue to be, administering Basalith."


    Nevis chuckled softly and walked around to the other side of the desk. As she began to give Lepochim a massage, the deepthink flinched.


    "A girl might think her hands are freezing cold," she said, "the way you always jump."


    "Nevis," he finally asked, regaining his composure. "Did you need something?"


    She leaned over and peered into yellow eyes as inhuman as her own, her antennae drooping into Lepochim''s lap.


    "When you leave this city, take me with you."


    Lepochim was left speechless. "I''m not planning on leaving anytime soon."


    Nevis stood back up and gave his shoulders a few more circular rubs before stepping back.


    "It''s funny how little your plans matter when the Church and Dragon are around."


    What is she implying?


    "Lepochim...why do you think they founded the vanguard? Why did they go on this trip?"


    "I''m not an imbecile," he snapped. "I know that the Dragon''s aspirations, in particular, revolve around leaving this planet."


    "And they''ll be bringing you with them."


    Lepochim gave Nevis a hard look. "I know."


    Nevis rolled her eyes. "Then who are you kidding, Lepochim?"


    He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "I can''t imagine them leaving this strand of gates within the next decade. They aren''t in a rush, and there''s so much here that needs to be done..."


    Nevis shrugged her shoulders. "Just make sure you bring me along."


    "We''ll se--" Lepochim watched wide-eyed as the office door closed behind the quasi-wasp with a thud.


    ---


    Lepochim snorted as he snapped up in his seat.


    I fell asleep!? he asked himself, disoriented. His chip reader was blaring an alarm that Lepochim silenced on reflex.


    He took in a deep breath. So...trouble has returned to my calm city.


    He walked out of the Spire and into the Anima, turning into the closed-off entrance to the labyrinth of tunnels below. His face was expressionless as he put one foot in front of the other.


    Soon enough, he stood in front of the door to the gate room. He gazed into the recently-installed retina scanner barring the door and stepped back.


    Then, the door swung open.


    "How?" he said. "How?" It hasn''t even been a full two months!


    Lisa was standing in full Church regalia in front of the gate. Bath was at her side in his human form. Lisa turned around at Lepochim''s outburst and broke into a grin.


    "Lepochim!"


    "That''s not going to fit into this room," Lepochim lamented, gesturing to the white craft currently squeezing through the gate.


    "We know," Lisa replied. "We''re working on it."


    ...Working on it? Lepochim didn''t know how big this ship was, but he was familiar with crafts constructed for the sole purposes of traversing gates. They tended to be as long as human passenger trains, a length which far exceeded what the gate room could handle.


    Suddenly, the gate disappeared. Or rather, it, along with the ship awkwardly sticking out of it, had been rapidly elevated. Lepochim blinked once, barely believing his eyes. Since when had Bath been able to control--or at the very least, burrow quickly through--solid ground?


    He watched helplessly as Lisa pushed off the ground and rocketed upward. He held up an arm in front of his face as the shock-waves from her liftoff sent a gust of wind rippling through his clothes.


    Lepochim ran over to the new hole in the ceiling, peering up at the sky in disbelief.


    "Trouble has certainly returned," he spat. No feeble push-over himself, Lepochim bounded up through the hole, digging his hands into the exposed earth whenever he needed handholds.


    He shook out his dirt-covered hands as soon as he reached the surface. He continued to do so for a solid minute, his brain latching onto the motion as it tried to make sense of what his eyes were seeing.


    An absolutely massive gate-grade space-faring ship was making its way out of the gate. It only took it a few seconds to finish its exit. Almost immediately after, another identical ship began to fly out of the gate. One more identical ship came next; that one was followed by a ship that was identical except for that its length was only half that of the others. Last came Juserin''s voyager.


    In total, three long white ships, one short white ship, and the voyager lay suspended hundreds of feet in the air. Immediately after all ships departed the gate, the earth directly underneath the area began to churn. Since Bath had relocated the gate to the other side of Basalith''s wall, Lepochim ran over and scaled it to get a proper look.


    Thirty seconds later, the gate lay anchored atop what could only be described as a dragonleaf-covered ziggurat. Lepochim could only watch in awe as he took in the strange scene around him.


    I suppose a pyramid makes sense, considering that it has a side for exiting and entering. Sapients will simply climb the stair-case-like walls to enter the gate, while airborne vessels will be able to fly out of the gate without worrying about hitting anything on the ground.


    It was a much more practical setup than they''d had in the past. Whenever Basalith opened the gate for passage, the line always took up every inch of the Anima and even backed up into the street. Placing the gate outside, at the very least, made sense.


    Just as Lepochim was getting comfortable, he felt the wall collapse around him. He lept to the side, securing his footing on a section of the wall still standing off to the far right.


    The absurdity never ends...


    He watched from a safe distance as Bath tore down the wall separating Basalith from the outside with a lazy wave of his hand. Then, he pushed both up his hands up and out to form a new wall that encompassed the ziggurat.


    Lepochim squinted his eyes shut, then opened them again. He''s absolutely destroyed the city''s symmetry, the deepthink grumbled.


    At the same time as Bath erected the ziggurat, the ships descended and began to let out the members of the vanguard that hadn''t been left to station the new city-seeds. First was the ship with humans, then the ship with the verdora, and after the ship with the quasi-sapients. The smaller ship held the kursi (though even that seemed excessive in Lepochim''s mind; why did less than ten people need an entire ship?), while the voyager held none other than Dean.


    Bath suddenly appeared in front of Lepochim, a predatory grin on his face.


    "So," he began. "How have things been?"


    Lepochim struggled to speak. "Things here have been quiet," he muttered.


    Lisa flitted over to Bath''s side, leaning on his shoulder. "Quiet?"


    "...Relatively quiet," Lepochim replied.


    "Well, we''re going to fix that!" Lisa beamed, raising an eyebrow at Bath.


    Is she actively trying to dismantle everything that I''ve been working for? Lepochim wondered. Isn''t she the Church? Isn''t a church supposed to be a place where humans find peace and calm?


    Lepochim fluttered his eyelids and breathed out a deep breath.


    "Congratulations," he began, forcing his mouth into a smile, "on your successful campaign."


    ---END OF PART 6---

 [Chapter 169] Jezebella the Younger On the Job

    Jezebella Vigigi the Younger sat on the cushion bordering her open window, her legs hugged to her chest. The breeze from the outside tousled her tightly coiled hair and stirred her diaphanous dress. The mist obscured most of the city below, leaving her alone with the blue sky and the clouds.


    She reached a hand out and brushed her fingers through the Filter Field. Installed over her windows to prevent small airborne particles from entering her chambers, the Filter Field caused a gentle, tingling sensation to come over her digits. It provided very little protection: it wouldn¡¯t prevent anyone from entering her room, nor would it prevent her from leaving. However, the slick black of the exterior was impossible to scale, and Jezebella had never been attacked.


    Jezebella Vigigi XXVII, her mother, was entertaining guests downstairs. Jezebella the Younger, confined to her room, had little else to do than her job: monitoring their agricultural holdings.


    She removed her hand from the window, swiping it down and leftward. A holo display appeared in front of her, filling the room from floor to ceiling. The display began to react to her thoughts, pulling up the android displays. It rapidly shuffled through video feeds, staying on each android¡¯s point of view for less than a second.


    Suddenly, the shuffling halted. Jezebella the Younger narrowed her eyes. Records of planet 39744 filled her vision. It had been hundreds of years since any sapients bothered the androids on this planet.


    ¡°Fringeworld,¡± she murmured to herself. ¡°Could a new sapient race have risen to prominence?¡± she wondered. It wasn¡¯t unheard of, but it was rare. The universe was ancient, and most of it had long since been colonized or abandoned as utterly inhospitable.


    But on the Fringe, organic development was still possible. She played through the android¡¯s feed from the beginning of contact with this new group of sapients. After watching that video feed, she started to watch others, gaining a better understanding of contingent with each interaction. The sapients appeared in colors ranging from deep brown to off white, with hair in a variety of different styles.


    A few of the sapients interacting with the androids weren¡¯t this new species, however. Some were strange, beastly creatures, while others were a species she recognized as verdora, the sapients from which her family had leased planet 39744.


    One of the sapients interacting with an android in real time unexpectedly prompted an informational profile to fill her vision. She briefly skimmed the report, cocking her head as it finished.


    ¡°Church of the Dragon?¡± she murmured pensively. ¡°What a weird name for the organization leading this new group of sapients.¡±


    Asil asked for the android¡¯s name. After a moment of thought, Jezebella made the split-second decision to seize control of the android and humor her.


    ¡°Jezebella.¡±


    ¡°That''s a cool name,¡± Asil replied. Jezebella smiled, then let the android once more take control.


    ¡°I lied. What do you think my name is?¡± the android chuckled.


    Jezebella furrowed her brow, then coughed lightly. The android was supposed to avoid revealing the identities of herself and her family...but this was a bit forced.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Asil seemed perplexed by the android¡¯s sudden about-face. ¡°Uh...¡±


    ¡°Concision is everything, dear,¡± the android said. Jezebella the Younger snorted a laugh.


    ¡±Maybe I was wrong to assume,¡± Asil replied testily. ¡°Do you have a name?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    How boring, Jezebella thought. She decided to take control again.


    ¡°Fine then, no need to string me along. What are these crops called?¡± Asil asked.


    ¡°Vigigi.¡±


    Her eyebrows rose, an action Jezebella¡¯s HUD informed her indicated incredulity.


    ¡°Vigigi?¡± Asil asked.


    ¡°Why the focus on names, hmm? You seem to have a few of your own,¡± Jezebella retorted, amused at Asil¡¯s confusion.


    ¡°I don''t know what you''re talking about,¡± she replied.


    ¡°Dear, don''t lie to auntie now, hmm? It''s not that strange.¡± Jezebella laughed out loud as Asil¡¯s face visibly began to redden.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡±


    Jezebella paused. There was a good reason why she was here, alright.


    "Some prisons are black metal," she said, thinking of the crashing sheets of metal that formed Ystal City. Then she looked out her window. ¡°Some are clear sky.¡±


    ¡°Why are you here?¡± Asil repeated, her forehead skin folding in on itself in an unsightly fashion.


    ¡°I know of you,¡± Jezebella admitted. Her HUD made sure of that. ¡°Church, Asil, and girl of another name. Your legacy spreads by the day and gate, and I am here, unchanged.¡± Her HUD had wasted no time to inform her about the recent appearance of a powerful kursi: the Asil before her. But Jezebella had recognized the unique opportunity she had been presented with: Asil was an unusually powerful kursi, and from a Fringeworld, to boot. She would be wholly unconnected to any of the Ildritch¨Cthe powerful players from Ildrip, the Core Worlds.


    A potentially untethered knife.


    While Jezebella thought all of this over, the android had reverted back to its own controls.


    ¡°How long have you been here?¡± asked Asil.


    ¡°Time is meaningless.¡±


    Jezebella studied Asil as she continued to banter with the autonomous android. When she realize the kursi was about to leave, however, she once more assumed control of the android¡¯s speech.


    "¡±Remember the name: Jezebella Vigigi.¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± she asked, her forehead crinkling once more.


    ¡°Jezebella Vigigi.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Asil wondered.


    Jezebella¡¯s mouth popped open. Suddenly, she heard a crash from downstairs. She sighed, then shrugged. At the end of the day, she didn¡¯t really expect anything to come from this encounter. The Fringe was simply too far away.


    But at the same time, perhaps this untethered knife before her would find some way to reach Ystal City. She hoped that this encounter would plant seeds of curiosity in the young kursi¡¯s mind.


    ¡°What, how, when, where?¡± Jezebella the Younger finally answered. ¡°Who''s to say?¡±


    Asil shook her head, then turned and sped away.


    Jezebella dismissed her holo display, no longer in the mood for work. Besides, after the crash downstairs, her mother would probably need her help to keep things under control.


    She walked over to her closet, its doors opening as she drew near. She grabbed her garnet-colored gloves, the symbol of the Vigigi¡¯s, then stepped over to the mirror in the corner. She flipped through her preset faces, choosing the one called ¡°Fierce.¡± As she selected it, she watched as the pigments of her face changed to match the face in the mirror. Contoured cheeks, stark white across her nose, black on her jaw and neck. Characteristic red and black framed her eyes.


    She nodded, tugging her gloves a final time before she exited her room and headed downstairs.

 [Part 7] [Chapter 170] A New Kind of Contest; Avery鈥檚 Annoyance

    [Part 7]


    On any other day, Avery would have heard news of the vanguard¡¯s return to Basalith.


    But today wasn¡¯t any other day.


    ¡°Contestants, please enter the arena,¡± came through the speakers overhead. However, a more detailed message soon followed, coming directly to her microheadset.


    ¡°Head straight for the right edge of the dome,¡± Miles instructed. ¡°That way you¡¯ll take advantage of the heightened tree coverage at the outskirts while also minimizing angles of ambush.¡±


    Avery didn¡¯t respond, but took his advice. Every other contestant likewise had their own microheadset and would be receiving instructions. What Miles had said wasn¡¯t too unexpected, and Avery figured that most other people would receive similar orders.


    The key, she realized, was securing a safe location before anybody else.


    The egg-shaped arena stretched for miles. Its gnarled surface and everything-proof exterior supported the claim that it was a specimen of spineroot, the very same dragonleaf-derivative that protected Basalith.


    Avery heard that people two rounds back had accidentally set the entire eastern side of the arena on fire. After brushing off a thin layer of charcoal-black, the land-shaper repair crew had summarily reported that the ashen-brown walls were unscathed.


    Typical of bro to go a bit...overboard, Avery thought, shaking her head at the memory of spineroot keeping what seemed to be the entire US armed forces at bay.


    Each one of the contestants would be entering the arena from the southern side, though not from the same location. They each would enter from a separate holding area, preventing them from seeing the first moves of their opponents.


    As Avery darted into the arena¡¯s door, she moved with diligent caution, dribbling her ball between her feet. The root-covered ground and winding trees vastly complicated the simple action; more than once Avery needed to leap up and knock the ball back to the ground with her head.


    She hadn¡¯t encountered anyone yet, which was either an indicator that she was making swift progress, or going too slow.


    Miles appeased any of her doubts. ¡°From the records we have on the previous round, you¡¯re making great time,¡± he assured her.


    If by ¡°records,¡± he means banter from the gossipy squirrels hogging the main atreum, Avery snarked knowingly.


    ¡°Also, be careful of the roots by that tree ahead. They¡¯re moving.¡±


    Avery grimaced, noticing the undulations in front. She decided to kick the ball up into the air and knock it forward past the unsteady ground, leaping in pursuit. She hated the trees with moving roots; she had twisted her ankle when going through them on the practice course. A twisted ankle only took a minute or so to completely heal, but Avery was wary of anything that might reduce her speed.


    ¡°This spot up ahead looks good,¡± Miles said. ¡°See those two trees there? Good place to set up your goal. It¡¯s at an awkward angle above the ground.¡±


    Avery immediately locked onto the trees in question: two in close proximity had effectively grown together, their boughs braiding seamlessly. Avery grabbed the goal stickers from the black utility pouch at her waist, sticking two on each tree. She pressed the activation button on her wrist, causing a thin field that shimmered like oil to appear between the stickers.


    ¡°What do you think?¡± she finally said. ¡°Offense or defense?¡±


    Miles sighed. ¡°The group that went in with you is super offense heavy. I¡¯m not sure if that means we should try to strike first, or if we should try the defensive route. It¡¯s up to you.¡±


    Avery tried to think about what her big bro would do. If I were a Bath...and surrounded on all sides by aggressive forces...


    ¡°I¡¯ll do defense,¡± Avery stated confidently. She carved out a small indent in the overgrowth, hunkering down with her ball.


    One of the reasons why Avery usually played offense was that she notoriously zoned out at important junctures. If she wasn¡¯t actively running at something, there were no guarantees that she¡¯d be paying attention to her surroundings.


    ¡°...You sure?¡± Miles confirmed.


    ¡°Yeah. Don¡¯t worry, I got a plan.¡± Miles couldn¡¯t see what Avery was doing with her hands. She held them up for a moment, showing him fronds of dragonleaf taking shape. ¡°I¡¯m not just gonna zone out.¡±


    ¡°Okay. Well, I¡¯ll let you know if I see anything.¡± Now that Avery had set up her goal, Miles had two camera angles: one from the top-right field sticker, and another from the top of Avery¡¯s right ear.


    Bath wouldn¡¯t just go after the enemy, Avery thought. Nor would he just sit around like a sitting duck.


    As she manipulated vines of dragonleaf all across the area, she continued to think of more and more things to try. After fifteen minutes left to her own devices, Avery had instituted no less than eight different forms of torment for any contestants seeking to score in her goal.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    She was riveting with anticipation when the first person approached. He sped through the undergrowth confidently, as far as Avery could tell from the vibrations picked up from her dragonleaf roots.


    ¡°Stage one,¡± she murmured to herself, eyes gleaming. She grasped her dragonleaf control fronds¨Cthe ones fully connected to the dragonleaf network she had set up¨Cand activated her first layer of defenses.


    She couldn¡¯t see what was happening, but did notice that the intruder¡¯s progress had noticeably slowed down. Slowed, but not stopped.


    She activated the second set of traps, then the third, continuing until the sixth. At this point, Avery finally caught sight of the intruder¡¯s beleaguered form: his clothing was torn half to shreds, and blood trickled down his chest and arms from currently-healing gashes. His eyes were red and watering, and his skin was puffy and speckled red on his left cheek and hand. Breathing heavily, he dribbled his ball between his feet in a zig-zag pattern, likely trying to avoid more traps.


    Avery snorted. What was this guy, desperate? If she had encountered this many traps, she would¡¯ve ran away by the fourth layer, when she encountered dragonleaf rash spores. But this guy lasted until the sixth layer.


    ¡°What did you do to that guy?¡± Miles hissed.


    ¡°He definitely had some injuries before I got to him,¡± Avery replied defensively. ¡°But you¡¯re right, he¡¯s in bad shape. I should finish him off so he can get actual medical treatment.¡±


    Avery activated the seventh layer of defenses, which would only work if an intruder came within 1000 feet of her goal. She¡¯d set up an especially dense network of dragonleaf there.


    Due to the proximity, she could actually appreciate her handiwork as countless dragonleaf vines constricted around the intruder, slowing him down. He quickly began to break through them, using far more strength than Avery had anticipated.


    ¡°Not on my watch,¡± she muttered, jetting out from her hidey-hole and kicking her ball with all the force she could muster. The ball hit the intruder square on his back, sending him forward with a sharp ¡°oof.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I hit you with my ball within proximity of my goal,¡± Avery announced as she walked up to the intruder. ¡°You¡¯re out!¡±


    The intruder chuckled bitterly. ¡°I guess you got me.¡±


    Just as Avery was about to cut the guy loose, another intruder kicked his ball into her goal.


    Avery could only stare in astonishment. Where the hell did this person come from?


    Miles let out a groan of frustration. ¡°The second guy must¡¯ve been trailing the first guy and using him as a distraction,¡± he said dejectedly.


    Avery sighed, then approached the person who stood next to her goal.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Peter,¡± the guy replied, brushing his black hair out of his face. ¡°You¡¯ll be coming with me,¡± he added. ¡°Since you lost, the only way for you to increase your standing will be to score a goal. If you score, great; we can both score in the same goal. But if you don¡¯t succeed, no harm; I¡¯ll score a goal when the defender¡¯s guard is down.¡±


    Avery¡¯s face screwed up. ¡°Why the heck would I let you follow me?¡± She might as well strike it out on her own.


    Peter smiled coolly. ¡°Because, for every two goals you get me, I¡¯ll take you to one of the places I¡¯ve already been to.¡±


    Avery crossed her arms. ¡°How many places are we talking?¡±


    Peter raised an eyebrow. ¡°Oh, maybe...fifteen or so.¡±


    Avery¡¯s eyes grew wide. Fifteen...?


    ¡°This guy¡¯s almost definitely going to be in first,¡± Miles interjected. ¡°Even if he¡¯s exaggerating, he probably has at least seven or eight goals.¡±


    Avery mulled over his words. They did make a good deal of sense...she¡¯d probably benefit from the arrangement if he really did bring her to places he¡¯d already scored goals in. Because none of those people could win as defenders anymore, their goals would likely be left unattended.


    ¡°I think you should go for it,¡± Miles remarked. ¡°The guy clearly has a selfish motive, but he¡¯s not wrong about you needing to score as many goals as you can.


    ¡°Fine, let¡¯s get this over with,¡± Avery muttered.


    ---


    Half an hour later, Avery couldn¡¯t help but grumble to herself about the situation.


    This game is annoying, she thought. If you lose even one goal, you can no longer win as a defender. So stupid! The win condition for a defender was to completely fend off any opponent. If they did so, however, they would automatically win¨Cor at least tie first place¨Cin the round.


    But if they lost even one goal, they¡¯d have to go on offense.


    And even that¡¯s not fair! she grumbled. If you¡¯re on offense and get hit within proximity of someone¡¯s goal by their defender¡¯s ball, you¡¯re no longer allowed to gather any points offensively, either.


    So essentially, if you failed as both a defender and an attacker early on, you were doomed.


    Usually Avery had no qualms about the game, but the current situation was bringing out her plaintive spirit. After she had spent so much time setting up her defenses, here she was, forced to watch as Mr. Annoying swooped in at the last moment and made easy goals.


    But he had stayed true to his word, bringing her to unattended goals. Moreover, Avery noticed that Peter must have some kind of sixth sense: he always detected offensive contestants before Avery did. The two of them would hide, then follow the contestant to either their own goal or to another person¡¯s goal.


    In this fashion, they managed to hit fifteen new goals before the time elapsed.


    ¡°I never asked your name,¡± Peter admitted. ¡°Everyone else before you didn¡¯t last more than five goals.¡± He said this like it was some kind of excuse.


    ¡°Are you asking now?¡± Avery clarified.


    Peter rolled his eyes. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Avery.¡±


    He stared at her intently. ¡°You know, if it weren¡¯t for me, I bet you would¡¯ve been able to hold out ¡®til the end with your manifold traps.¡±


    ¡°Avery,¡± Miles cautioned. ¡°Take that as a compliment. He¡¯s trying to compliment you.¡±


    I¡¯m not stupid, Miles, Avery grumbled internally. But this guy, Peter¨Che was really pushing her patience.


    ¡°Yeah, I know,¡± she replied, expression aloof. ¡°But now that I know people like you exist, I¡¯ll be better prepared for future rounds. Just watch.¡±

 [Chapter 171] Visiting Home; The Ukraine Problem; New City-seeds

    ¡°What is she doing?¡± Bath asked, expression irate. ¡°I was hoping to meet with her.¡±


    Samantharaised an eyebrow as she washed a pan in the sink. ¡°You know, you sound just like any other teenager,¡± she remarked.


    Bath visibly sulked as he sat down at the kitchen island and pushed a coaster back and forth.


    ¡°Sounds like you miss her,¡± Samantha smiled. It¡¯s hard for me to reconcile this Bath with the Dragon of COTD, she thought. The ease with which he switched between different roles was disconcerting, but Samantha was determined to focus on the Bath in front of her.


    My son, she reminded herself. The same Bath she¡¯d taken on vacations, chaperoned on field trips. The son whom she¡¯d tucked in at night and cuddled with under blankets by the fireplace.


    My son, an alien, she sighed internally, shaking her head slightly.


    ¡°I guess,¡± Bath replied, looking up sheepishly.


    Samantha chuckled. ¡°She¡¯ll be back soon,¡± she reminded him. ¡°Or, you can go and attend the competition she¡¯s participating in.¡±


    ¡°Maybe I will. Where¡¯s she at?¡±


    Samantha rolled her eyes as she placed her towel to dry on the rack by the window. ¡°She¡¯s at something called the ¡®Junior Dragonleaf Olympiad¡¯; it¡¯s in Virginia somewhere. You can look up the details online.¡±


    Samantha couldn¡¯t remember where the competition was since Avery¡¯s middle school had taken care of transporting the student athletes. And even after listening to Avery go on about the various new sports in the Olympiad, Samantha couldn¡¯t definitively recall what any of them were. She knew they were twists on pre-COTD sports, and that they involved dragonleaf, but that was it.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Dad?¡± Bath asked.


    Samantha walked around and sat down next to Bath.


    ¡°He¡¯s working on one of the government projects,¡± Samantha explained. ¡°Since you¡¯ve been gone, there¡¯s been a push by local city leaders to put people to work on restoration initiatives. I believe your father is working on cleaning part of the shore.¡±


    The two of them continued to talk, though Samantha was careful not to ask too much about what Bath had done in his capacity as the Dragon. She was inclined to go along with Bath¡¯s clear separation of identities.


    Since Avery was coming back in two days, they planned to have dinner together then. After sorting that out, Bath excused himself, announcing his intention to seek out Avery¡¯s competition.


    ¡°See you soon,¡± Samantha called out as he left.


    ¡°Bye Mom,¡± he replied as the door closed behind him.


    ---


    Bath was a little surprised that Brian was working on a restoration project. He had told Lepochim to write up a report of the many goings-ons and changes in his absence, but he hadn¡¯t received it yet. While he had extended out his essence to cover his immediate surroundings, he hadn¡¯t been focusing on information-gathering.


    It seems like humans are really taking my environmentalist message to heart, Bath thought, smiling wryly to himself. It only took me taking over the world¡­


    Before finding Avery, Bath decided to return to Basalith and do some professional-grade eavesdropping. While he¡¯d gleaned from Nevis¡¯ critical, offhanded comments that Lepochim had screwed some things up with regards to keeping all of COTD in check, he didn¡¯t know the extent. He couldn¡¯t imagine Lepochim messing things up too badly, especially since he¡¯d placed so many responsibilities on quasi-sapients, but then again¡­


    He dispersed his essence into a cloud of tiny gnats that changed into miniature ears all over the city. He resigned himself to listening for a few hours. All the while, he called Lisa to meet with him in one of the Spire¡¯s office spaces.


    ¡°Wait, Susan and David are who again?¡±


    Bath sighed. He and Lisa stood in front of a white board filled top to bottom with information he was picking up.


    ¡°They were part of the team that won Basalith¡¯s tournament, remember? Edgier Than You?¡±


    Lisa tilted her head. ¡°Jeeze, that feels like ages ago.¡±


    Bath nodded. Though it was barely a month since the tournament, so much had happened that it felt more like a year.


    ¡°So they¡¯ve, what, taken over the Ukraine?¡± Lisa asked incredulously. ¡°...Why?¡±


    Bath inhaled deeply. ¡°I sent them to Kray City with Edgewood and the others on the winning team,¡± he explained. ¡°It seems like they decided to head next door and found another city.¡±


    ¡°Found a city? They¡¯ve taken over the entire region, though,¡± Lisa pointed out. ¡°How did they do that?¡±


    Bath shuffled his feet. ¡°Well, you know how the city-seeds give their possessors extra path points, right?¡±


    Lisa nodded.


    ¡°David and Susan were already quite powerful, powerful enough to take over a city-seed. Once they obtained control, they funneled their new source of PP into strengthening their power and expanding out.¡±


    ¡°I guess that makes sense,¡± Lisa grumbled. ¡°So what¡¯s the big deal, anyway?¡±


    ¡°Well, they¡¯ve turned the entire Ukraine region into a massive trading center,¡± Bath explained, writing ¡°TRADING CENTER¡± in capital letters on the whiteboard. ¡°They¡¯ve assumed the position as a halfway point between Western and Central Europe and Asia.¡±


    Lisa fingered her lip. ¡°So...¡±


    ¡°This is a problem because they¡¯ve been sponsoring all sorts of ridiculous things with their wealth and influence,¡± Bath added.


    ¡°Like what?¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Bath rolled his eyes and shook his head. ¡°Do you know what their capital city-seed is called?¡±


    Lisa shook her head.


    ¡°Sodom.¡±


    Lisa stared at him blankly. ¡°Uh...¡±


    Bath underlined ¡°SODOM¡± on the board. ¡°Instead of focusing on advancement in a useful capacity, much of their citizens focus on self-pleasure and sitting around at home all day. Or, at the very least, many are involved in that industry.¡±


    Lisa appeared uncomfortable with the way the conversation was progressing. ¡°That...sounds interesting,¡± she finally managed to say. ¡°What about all the kids living there¡­?¡±


    Bath shrugged. ¡°They¡¯re still there.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not really sure what to do with this information,¡± Lisa admitted. ¡°It¡¯s not like it¡¯s against the law or anything, but I can¡¯t believe an entire country is focusing on...you know.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure how to treat the situation, either,¡± Bath replied, staring intently out the window onto Basalith. ¡°There¡¯s a time and place for such pleasures, but all in balance.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s face began to redden.


    Bath smiled at her, but didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°I think we should probably send someone that way to balance things out,¡± Lisa said. ¡°If we can reduce their area of influence to their city alone, versus all of Ukraine, hopefully things will be less, erm, extreme.¡±


    ¡°That can be arranged,¡± Bath said. ¡°Anybody you wish to promote to leader of a city-seed?¡±


    Lisa massaged her jaw. ¡°What about...¡± She turned toward Bath. ¡°Why not give one of the verdora a city?¡± she asked. ¡°You¡¯ve already given one to Lepochim.¡±


    Bath considered the notion. ¡°It would be difficult,¡± he said. ¡°The verdora all received their boons later than humans. Moreover, it might be insensitive to send in verdora to deal with this kind of issue.¡± Besides, Bath thought, most verdora are obsessed with propriety. They¡¯re not the most well-equipped bunch to deal with a city called Sodom.


    ¡°What if you sent in Eyrin?¡± Lisa suggested. ¡°He¡¯s pretty strong, and has all his boons...moreover, he¡¯s also a kursi.¡± Very few people would be able to mess with him. Since ¡°brown robes,¡± or the kursi assigned to keep city-seeds under control, were only supposed to act as peacekeepers, Eyrin would be in a superior position to any non-kursi.


    Bath shook his head. ¡°We can give him a city-seed somewhere, but not in the Ukraine. We can appoint one of the kursi from the vanguard, however, to go there.¡±


    Lisa nodded. ¡°True. Do you have anyone in mind?¡±


    ¡°Since language is no longer an issue due to the translators we received from Lime World...we could choose anyone. You¡¯ve spent more time with the kursi than I have; you decide.¡±


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s true. Fine, then. I¡¯d suggest Zhou, but I think we want to save him for other things.¡± He was the most powerful kursi in the vanguard given his 299 years of age.


    Suddenly, Lisa¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°What if we put my Aunt and Uncle in charge of a new city-seed?¡±


    ¡°Lauretta and Bern?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Bath narrowed his eyes. ¡°You forgive them for what they¡¯ve done to you and your family?¡±


    Lisa met his stare. ¡°No, but I understand why they did what they did, at least a little. But I think being with the kursi on the vanguard clarified things a bit for me.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡±


    Lisa closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. ¡°Kursi really don¡¯t tend to live for very long, not as long as they have.¡±


    Bath inclined his head. ¡°I am familiar with the fragility of the human psyche,¡± he replied blithely.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Lisa said. ¡°Anyways, if you think about it, the fact that Lauretta and Bern are mostly sane¨C¡± excepting the ridiculousness of mind-wiping her family into mistaking them as genuine relatives¨C ¡°makes them a large asset for COTD as a whole.¡±


    ¡°Fair point. Fine, I¡¯ll inform Lepochim to reach out to them. We can give them this specific assignment as a way for them to redeem themselves. I¡¯m still surprised that you¡¯ve suggested them for this role, though,¡± Bath said.


    ¡°I can¡¯t ignore them,¡± Lisa replied, ¡°and I¡¯m not going to waste their abilities.¡±


    ¡°Quite utilitarian of you,¡± he said, grinning mischievously. ¡°Sounds very Big-WD-ish.¡±


    ¡°I guess.¡±


    They continued to discuss other topics and gossip Bath gleaned from the citizens of Basalith. After another hour, Lisa remembered the issue of giving Eyrin a city-seed.


    ¡°We need to ask him first,¡± Bath said. ¡°He¡¯s one of the princes of Illudis; I don¡¯t want to sow seeds of resentment.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Lisa asked, genuinely puzzled. ¡°Why does that even matter? Nobody can threaten you in the slightest. Even if people did have resentment, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it.¡±


    ¡°Just because I can doesn¡¯t mean I will. Why, you wouldn¡¯t ask him first?¡±


    Lisa frowned. ¡°I mean, we¡¯re not asking any people on Earth what they want,¡± she clarified. ¡°Why are we giving the verdora special treatment?¡±


    ¡°Humans worship us,¡± Bath said. ¡°The verdora aren¡¯t there yet.¡± They don¡¯t even understand the concept of religion, Bath quietly lamented. That made things more difficult. ¡°Assigning them to a position on this foreign, supposedly backwater planet might appear to be a punishment rather than a reward.¡±


    A look of understanding came over Lisa¡¯s face. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡±


    Bath smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve already asked him, though.¡±


    Lisa blanched. ¡°Wait, I thought you just said¨C¡°


    Bath looked at her smugly. ¡°I just asked.¡±


    ¡°I guess he said...yes?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, he agreed to start a city-seed.¡±


    ¡°...Where?¡±


    ¡°Texas.¡±


    ---


    Fartuun pored over a slew of screens and notifications, parsing reports and writing responses in the blink of an eye thanks to the V-Tap.


    I¡¯m really starting to get the hang of this thing, she thought. But even with it speeding things up, it¡¯s still going to take me days to get through all of this.


    In the time that she had been gone, numerous inventions had come into being. Since she was technically in charge of vetting all new inventions as one of the heads of the Consortium of Information and Engineering¨Cas she¡¯d found the organization had been named in her absence¨Cshe had a lot of paperwork to sort through. And she technically was supposed to delegate this kind of thing out, but now that she had the V-Tap...she was using this as an opportunity to test her limits.


    I¡¯m easily doing the work of twenty people, she thought to herself. We need to learn how to make something like this implant on our own.


    One thing her implant had pointed out to her was the stunning levels of innovation coming out of regions of the world that, before COTD, people had written off. Places like her homeland of Somalia, or Honduras. The innovations weren¡¯t necessarily the most impressive, but they solved key issues involving infrastructure and food production, as well as dissemination of information. Places like Jerboaland, for instance, served as a model for how previously undeveloped regions could rapidly rise up.


    Fartuun felt her heart swell a bit as she thought back to her own childhood and teenage years in Mogadishu. Comparing that world to Jerboaland, she felt very little nostalgia.


    ¡°People can go anywhere, do anything,¡± she murmured. Within reason, of course¨Cthe threat of spearrow attack was still raw in the minds of all.


    She looked out the window from her Jerboaland apartment, watching as humans and quasi-sapients roamed the streets. A pair of falcon quasies soared through the sky overhead, their talons clamped together like a couple holding hands.


    She smiled as she turned back to her array of displays. ¡°It truly is a good day to be alive.¡±

 [Chapter 172] Reclaiming a Legacy; Relocation; Return to Tollan

    Al Jessup regarded black gate with reverence, mentally counting off the days until the next predicted switch. The gate rotated destinations on a cyclical basis. Depending on the destination it rotated to, it was possible to bring things from the other side...back.


    ¡°Angelina, this is your legacy,¡± he said, inclining his head. Though unrelated by blood, Angelina shared his honey-colored hair and hazel eyes.


    She nodded. ¡°I know, Dad,¡± she said insistently.


    He smiled, then bent his neck to kiss the top of her head.


    ---


    Ten years later, Angelina stepped out of the shower and stared at the mirror, inspecting her form.


    Well, I¡¯ve never looked better, she admitted with a sigh. COTD¡¯s boon regimen certainly worked wonders on her muscles, not to mention her complexion.


    She blow-dried her hair, put on underwear, then picked up her signature peacekeeper¡¯s brown robes off the floor. As she pulled them on, she couldn¡¯t help but feel like a monk, even if the material hugged her curves and accentuated her long neck.


    She¡¯d been stationed away from Basalith¨Cher old home¨Cand sent to Jerboaland, one of the new dragonleaf metropolises. The view from her window featured a sliver of the ocean, which was filled by numerous dragonleaf boats. She could see everything from sailboats to tiny dinghies.


    If she had to be honest, there wasn¡¯t anything to complain about. Life as a peacekeeper was, surprisingly, peaceful, especially after the spearrow purge. Her main tasks were pacifying people with her kursi abilities and reporting any abnormalities to the more senior peacekeepers above her.


    She had lots of time off, allowing her to continue some of her studies at one of the newly-established schools and work on accumulating PP. As one of the individuals right in the thick of COTD¡¯s takeover, she¡¯d also been one of the first to obtain access to boons. As a result of her head start, she had been able to invest PP early on and make a killing in returns. Over the past month alone, she¡¯d made a five-hundred percent profit off of some three-hundred PP she¡¯d invested in the Ukrainian Exchange.


    Even though life as a peacekeeper was relatively simple...Angelina felt bitter about the current situation. She¡¯d been brought up knowing that the Ritus Gate would be her legacy, and now...she felt like she had nothing. She was just a newborn kursi¨Conly 18 years old!¨Cin a sprawling city whose inhabitants had, before COTD, largely subsisted on grit. The people here were quick to recognize a new lease on life when it literally sprouted up on their doorstep, and exhibited ambition the likes of which Angelina had never seen among her American peers.


    She knew she didn¡¯t have their inner fire, and it terrified her.


    But if she didn¡¯t want to keep living the rest of her life as a peacekeeper, she needed to keep building on her initial advantage. She needed to be like the Knight, the ruler of Jerboaland, someone who had enough power to make the earth quake. Someone worthy of being in the Dragon¡¯s retinue, someone who got to visit distant planets...


    It was the only way to reclaim access to her birthright. But she definitely had a long way to go...


    ---


    Lepochim stared down at the new report from Lisa and Bath in his hands.


    ¡°Lauretta...and Bern?¡± he hissed, shaking his head. ¡°Why are they sending them to the Ukraine? There¡¯s already a city-seed there and a flourishing new economy!¡±


    Lepochim shot out of his chair and began pacing the room, looking indignantly out of the Spire¡¯s windows. Bern had been proving valuable, his ability to directly jumble people¡¯s minds at once fascinating to Lepochim on a personal level and useful as an interrogation tool. For people that were tough nuts to crack at the hands of the jerboa, Bern was an effective last resort: If people thoughtthey were genuinely talking totheir boss, or daddy, or whatever, they tended to loosen their lips.


    ¡°They can¡¯t just send away two of my thousand-year-old kursi so casually!¡± he blustered. ¡°They¡¯re sterling assets to the operation I have going on here!¡±


    ¡°Operation?¡± a voice said from behind.


    Though used to disembodied voices appearing out of nowhere, Lepochim still jumped slightly.


    ¡°Bath,¡± he said, turning around. The Devourer sat down on the couch, his human countenance serene.


    ¡°Go on,¡± he said, folding his hands. ¡°Tell me about what you¡¯re using Bern for.¡±


    Lepochim licked his lips. ¡°While you¡¯ve been gone, we¡¯ve been busy dealing with a...crime element.¡±


    Bath nodded slowly. ¡°I¡¯m sure I¡¯d know all of this if I had your report, but continue on.¡±


    Lepochim¡¯s eye twitched. Did Bath even know how long it took to put together a comprehensive report on everything that had happened? It was way too much to do in the span of a week, let alone a month. On top of everything else, Lepochim still had his usual responsibilities.


    ¡°...As I was saying, we¡¯ve been dealing with criminal activity that has proliferated around areas where Nevis has difficulty monitoring human activity. Those parasites you made that allow spearrows to detect when people have engaged in criminal activities? People found ways to get around it days after you left.¡±


    Bath didn¡¯t reveal any emotion, his silence prompting Lepochim to continue on.


    ¡°It¡¯s especially bad in sparsely-populated badlands like the western United States and sub-Saharan Africa,¡± Lepochim explained.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you know what those places are,¡± Bath jibed.


    Lepochim resisted the urge to roll his eyes. While he could admit to being a bit slow on learning the countries and regions of Earth, he¡¯d become rather proficient in Bath¡¯s absence.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been sending in teams to deal with them,but often capture tight-lipped scoundrels who refuse to break under torture. Usually seems like they have some kind of modified painkiller boon that prevents them from feeling extreme or prolonged pain. So, we bring in Bern, and problem solved.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Bath said, thinking. ¡°If you¡¯re so keen on usingBern for interrogations, I suppose we can afford to keep him here. I¡¯ll speak to Lauretta and see if she agrees to being split from her partner.¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Lepochim was about to prepare an argument when he paused, almost not believing his ears.


    Bath...actually gave him what he wanted?


    ¡°...Excellent,¡± Lepochim said, as though vomiting up the word. He smoothed his robes, shaking his head to regain his composure. ¡°I¡¯ll continue working on the report.¡±


    Bath yawned. ¡°Don¡¯t bother. I think I have a handle on most of what¡¯s happened in my absence.¡±


    What?


    Seeing his expression, Bath smiled coolly, flashing teeth. ¡°I talked to Nevis, Lepo,¡± he said, shaking his head.


    Lepochim flinched. Nevis? But¨C


    ¡°Nevis is literally made to write reports, Lepochim. Now calm down and get back to your real job.¡±


    Before Lepochim could say a word of response, Bath vanished. He stood there for a second, expression blank.


    ¡°Damn him!¡± he shouted, slamming his fist against his desk.


    Unfortunately for him, the desk broke.


    ---


    Lisa flexed her fingers in anticipation of some real, knuckle-dusting action. One of the things she and Bath had discussed was the cult-city of Tollan. Back when she¡¯d visited on her ambassadorial world tour, the city¡¯s enormous pyramid looked eerily like some kind of sacrificial altar.


    According to some rumors, that wasn¡¯t too far from the truth.


    If you¡¯ve really taken things this far, Maya, we can¡¯t let the situation escalate further.


    Lisa understood why Nevis had alluded to Lepochim letting things on Earth get out of hand. Technically, Lisa didn¡¯t have concrete information on exactly what Maya had been up to the past month, but she had lots of unverified tips suggesting that Tollan was out of control.


    After about two hours of travel, she landed in a forested area several miles from the city. If she disregarded the creepiness of the stark, white pyramid, Lisa found the city fairly beautiful. It¡¯s intentionally non-cookie-cutter design struck her as artistic and sensual, its sloping buildings blending into one another like waves. All featured intricate carvings and many even had stylized animal figures that appeared to melt out of the woodwork.


    The intelligence from Nevis¡¯ information collecting was correct: the city appears to be divided along three new factions stemming from Dawn faction. They all have something to do with light: Sun, Star, and Moon.


    Lisa paused for a second. Wouldn¡¯t ¡°Moon¡± be a better sub-faction for Dusk faction rather than Dawn faction? She shrugged to herself. Whatever.


    Apparently, one could display their affiliation to one of the factions by commissioning an animal carving on their house. This made sense, given that Tollan had grown out rather than up: each person, or family unit, had their own roof.


    A feathered snake indicated allegiance to Sun, a swooping bird allegiance to Star, and a howling wolf allegiance to Moon.


    Lisa noticed that the art seemed to vary a lot from house to house, with some of the more stylized carvings stumped her animal recognition skills. It¡¯s a square with beady eyes and feathers...Or is that fur?


    If they weren¡¯t so small (relative to the oversized quasi-sapients of COTD), some of the more-realistic roof sculptures would likely pass for real animals on dark nights.


    Lisa wore a scarf to disguise her appearance as she entered the city limits, planning to do a bit of initial scouting before taking direct action. As she walked through the streets, she didn¡¯t sense anything particularly out of the ordinary. People and quasies went about their business, as could be expected.


    Seeing the relative normalcy of Tollan, especially in comparison to her last visit, made her doubt the gossip claiming that Tollan was sanctioning human sacrifice. But if it was true, Lisa needed to stage an intervention.


    That¡¯s the worst case scenario, she reminded herself. She had a long list from Nevis of all the possible things going on in Tollan, ordered from most to least concerning. While first on the list was human sacrifices, second was already significantly better: clearcutting nearby forests. According to Nevis, there was still a decent market for non-dragonleaf timber, especially among people trying to spruce up their homes.


    Pre-COTD, this clearcutting would be legal business as usual; now, it¡¯s something worthy of investigation. Yet another example of the way things had changed.


    The next thing on the list after that was the censorship of all forms of press. Much of the reason why Lisa was being sent in was the complete lack of verified sources and information coming out of Tollan. All they had was hearsay and gossip, complicating the investigative process.


    In the span of an hour, Lisa combed through the entire city-seed; however, she hadn¡¯t found anything worth mentioning. She¡¯d arrived when the sun was setting, and now that the sun was gone, it seemed like most people were already in bed.


    She sighed, then sat down on a public bench, the luminescent fungi overhead bathing her in blue-green light. She contemplated calling Nevis to phone in an update, but decided against it. She probably needed to do a lot more investigating during the day before she could draw any conclusions.


    After no less than five meetings in Basalith followed by flying to Tollan, Lisa was a bit tired, and began to lose focus. However, she snapped to attention with a start as a large, deep-red shell stalked toward her.


    What...is this? she wondered, standing up. She tried to manipulate its shell, but didn¡¯t have enough time to do much before it was upon her.


    Lisa dodged right as a monstrous hound leapt at her, its slavering jaws overflowing with teeth. Lisa wasn¡¯t even sure it could properly close its mouth. Its bloodshot eyes glared at her, as though the dog took her dodge as a personal insult. It had bone spurs all over its body, as though someone had tried to modify¨Cspecifically, expand¨Cits skeleton and had met with only partial success.


    That red...I thought it was just mindless anger, Lisa thought. But now she realized it was something else: pain.


    This poor dog has been warped, then discarded like trash. She could hardly believe her eyes. How could someone abuse the caretaker boons like this? It must¡¯ve been a flesh shaper who took a normal dog and tried to enhance it.


    How could Maya not know about this? Lisa ranted internally. Could this be why people stay inside after dark?


    She frowned. But lots of people should be able to fend off a dog like this, she reasoned. This attack alone doesn¡¯t explain what¡¯s going on here.


    As the dog charged toward her again, Lisa swallowed and tried to think about how to proceed. This dog needs to be rehabilitated. I don¡¯t have the time; I¡¯ll incapacitate it for now and make sure it gets care when people are up and around.


    Suspicions toward Tollan rekindled, Lisa rooted the dog in place with dragonleaf and once more began to patrol the city, this time electing to fly and scout for any fast-moving figures on the streets.She had a few false alarms, such as when she touched down in front of a pair of quasi-wolves on a romantic, moonlit stroll. But after another half hour of searching, she finally found a real target.


    Or, rather, the target found her.


    How are these things sneaking up on me? Lisa thought, incredulous. My range covers this entire city; while it¡¯s a bit hard to isolate individual shells in a city of this size, I should definitely be able to do so from two-thousand feet away.


    And yet, a warped falcon had flown at her from behind, nearly clipping her robe as it dove past.


    Something is definitely up, Lisa grumbled, using vines of dragonleaf to incapacitate the bird and lower it to the ground. And for some reason, I don¡¯t think Maya¡¯s to blame.

 [Chapter 173] Ambush and Poison; Tactical Retreat; Lepochim鈥檚 Visit

    I should¡¯ve tried to talk to Maya as soon as I got here, Lisa thought as she headed toward the central ziggurat. Trying to snoop around beforehand has only led me in circles.


    When Lisa touched down, she searched around the ziggurat¡¯s base for an entrance, eventually finding one on its northwestern face. Lisa wasn¡¯t surprised to find the entrance shuttered, even though city-seeds were always supposed to have their ground-floor welcome-centers open around the clock. It was one more inconsistency that supported the idea that something was seriously wrong.


    Unfortunately for her, the door had been built with super-strength in mind, and she found that it wouldn¡¯t budge to force. She decided to use a bit of concentrated flame¨Cthe kind she usually produced for accelerated flight¨Cto weaken the door...only to find that it must have been made of spineroot rather than dragonleaf.


    She stared at the door for a moment, then hissed in frustration. Damn it, Bath, you¡¯re too vicious! Who the hell would ever be able to muster the fire power to breach a spineroot fortress, much less a door? Flameproof, waterproof, acid proof, and she was pretty sure plasma proof...None of their enemies would ever stand a chance. While Lisa was eager to have such an annoying building material on her side, at the moment, she felt powerless.


    It¡¯s been a long time since I¡¯ve been stumped like this, she thought to herself, frowning. She sensed that there were a few shells in the ziggurat, but she didn¡¯t know whose they were. One could be Maya¡¯s, or they could all belong to regular staff. Someone has to be on the inside to open this door, Lisa figured, given that there was no visible unlocking mechanism on the outside. Even attempts to interface with and communicate with the spineroot led to failure, its surface sealed by a thin, glassy veneer.


    Suddenly, she felt a sharp pinch on her ankle. She whipped around, coming face to face with a snake the size of her arm. It didn¡¯t look particularly dangerous, its scales a muddy color that suggested it wasn¡¯t poisonous.


    Before she could kick it aside, she buckled forward, her face a mask of revulsion. She held her arm out to the ziggurat¡¯s pale wall as she struggled to keep the contents of her stomach. At the same time, she noticed the world starting to grow dizzy, an effect which seemed to compound her nausea. Her bleary eyes noticed the snake slithering back over, but she couldn¡¯t seem to will her body to move.


    No! Lisa thought, breath coming out in short pants. I absolutely refuse to let this stupid snake touch me!


    She closed her eyes, hoping to reduce her sense of dizzy vertigo. She immediately switched over to echolocation to visualize the world around her.


    You little...she thought, clenching her teeth. She waved a hand; the motion felt sluggish, as though she were swimming in molasses. But the gesture had its desired effect: the snake flew backward, repelled by a wave of force as Lisa flexed her administrator boon force pulse.


    What the hell? she thought, her echolocation painting a continuously updating picture of her surroundings. Up from the ground had popped several more snakes, their mouths within striking distance of her legs.


    Lisa knew she was in bad shape: she felt like she could pass out at any second, and any kind of movement left her with a sense of gut-wrenching nausea. Worst of all was that she couldn¡¯t even sense the shells of her assailants.


    Actually, that¡¯s not true, she thought. They still have something faint. They didn¡¯t have shells, so to speak, but they seemed to have something, almost like a kernel that might have the potential to generate a shell.


    If anything, the small, dull kernels reminded her of Lepochim¡¯s sealed shell.


    But she didn¡¯t have time to mull over this realization. Using all her strength, she bent down, then pushed off the ground. She used her magnetic sense to alter her trajectory, aiming for anywhere not in the city. Given the location of Tollan in southern Mexico, this meant any of the verdant forests at the city-seed¡¯s perimeter.


    Lisa crashed gracelessly through a grove of trees, her body carving a trail of torn up dirt and snapped branches. As she came to an abrupt stop, she felt like every bone in her body was broken, and her muscles were mush.


    It was a struggle to stay awake, but Lisa wasn¡¯t willing to give into the embrace of sleep. She was here on a mission, after all, and this attack had cemented her growing feelings of unease. It was undeniable that Tollan needed help.


    Instead of sleeping off the effects of the snake venom, she began to intentionally hasten the healing process, not satisfied to rely on the passive recovery of her caretaker boons. Unfortunately, she had let her caretaker boons languish since reaching Expert rank, relying on Bath to repair and enhance her body. She laughed bitterly as she realized how this reliance was coming back to bite her.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe...I let a few little snakes...get the better of me.¡± Shaking her head, Lisa finally grabbed her phone and made a call to Nevis.


    The dial tone rang five times before she finally picked up.


    Jeez, I was worried someone jammed my phone. Nevis usually picked up as soon as Lisa dialed her number. She¡¯s probably just busy with something, Lisa figured.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± Nevis said, her voice a bit strained. ¡°How¡¯s Tollan? Didja find any sacrificial rituals?¡±


    Lisa breathed in deeply. ¡°No, but I¡¯ve found something else.¡± She explained the situation, noting the seemingly normal activities of humans and quasies before dark and the stark contrast after the sun went down.


    The wasp quasi seemed profoundly incensed by the situation.


    ¡°How could none of my spearrows or falcons report back to me about any of this?¡± she hissed. ¡°They all reported that things were fine. Fine!¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Hey, Nevis, it¡¯s probably¨C¡±


    ¡°No!¡± the wasp quasi retorted, seeming to forget herself. She immediately coughed before carrying on. ¡°Sorry, please continue.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s mouth twitched. ¡°It¡¯s probably a kursi that¡¯s to blame,¡± she said. ¡°I bet that they somehow managed to fool the spearrows and falcons that you sent over.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    Lisa paused. ¡°Remember what my Aunt and Uncle were going on about? With human kursi having special, alternate abilities?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Nevis replied. ¡°Actually...here, I¡¯ve pulled up my database on it.¡±


    Lisa recoiled. ¡°Database?¡±


    Nevis laughed mischievously. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to find out more information on these abilities. We¡¯ve pretty much roped all of our brown robes into telling us what they know. Like Bern said, most kursi have an ability that allows them to dominate people, creating mind-slaves. Some of them have different abilities, though; we found at least two kursi who also have the ability to change people¡¯s memories.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s what I think is going on here,¡± Lisa said. ¡°Additionally, every animal that¡¯s come after me has been altered in some way, by someone who has probably invested a lot of PP into flesh shaping. On top of that, their shells are weird.¡±


    ¡°Define, ¡®weird.¡¯¡±


    Lisa sighed. ¡°It¡¯s hard to explain. Actually, Nevis, is Lepochim available?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s...¡±


    There was a sudden crackling, as though someone had bumped into Nevis¡¯ microphone.


    ¡°What?¡± Lepochim said, his voice tinged with annoyance.


    ¡°Wow, that was fast...¡± Lisa murmured, narrowing her eyes. ¡°Let me give you a quick recount of¨C¡±


    ¡°I heard everything,¡± Lepochim muttered. ¡°I think you¡¯re probably onto something, but I don¡¯t see why you need my help for this.¡±


    ¡°Lepochim, do you know anything about how the shells of dominated people look?¡± Lisa had seen them a while back, when she visited Ritus for the first time, but wanted to make sure her memory was right.


    He sighed deeply. ¡°They should appear like normal shells.¡±


    ¡°Then that can¡¯t be what¡¯s happening here,¡± Lisa stated. ¡°Do you know of any kursi abilities that might partially seal shells?¡±


    ¡°No, none that I¡¯m aware of. Though it is possible that the domination of creatures without sapience, such as the creatures that attacked you, might result in a receding shell.¡± He paused, as though mulling this possibility over. ¡°Though, I¡¯d say it would take a fairly powerful kursi to produce that effect.¡±


    Lisa didn¡¯t like the sound of that. ¡°I thought we took all kursi into COTD by force?¡±


    Lepochim snorted. ¡°We took in the major organizations by force, but not loners. Those are far too difficult to track down. Additionally, there are a few kursi clans that we left autonomous.¡±


    ¡°Why would we do that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very difficult to subjugate an entire clan of kursi,¡± Lepochim explained wryly. ¡°Those that remained are ones that Bath failed to visit.¡±


    Oh. Lisa supposed that made sense. Bath had focused on targeting the kursi groups with the most power and influence. When COTD was first taking over, their main focus wasn¡¯t necessarily subjugating each and every kursi, but creating a powerful force to keep peace among the masses.


    ¡°Do you think...a group of kursi is to blame?¡± Lisa asked.


    ¡°I think you should back out of Tollan,¡± Nevis interjected. ¡°If you¡¯re up against an entire contingent of kursi...things might not turn out well.¡±


    Sensing Lisa¡¯s reticence, she continued. ¡°Battles between kursi aren¡¯t pretty. People often become kursi cannon fodder, and it sounds to me like Tollan¡¯s already had enough violence if the entire populace stays indoors at night.¡±


    Lepochim snorted. ¡°You¡¯re also a young kursi, Church. Powerful for your age¨Cpowerful beyond all reason¨Cbut still young. You¡¯d probably lose if you stuck around.¡±


    Lisa felt her face turning red.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right,¡± she replied. ¡°What¡¯s the back up plan, though?¡±


    ¡°Who do you think?¡±


    Right. Who else?


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be back soon.¡±


    Lisa couldn¡¯t quell a feeling of insignificance worming its way to the forefront of her thoughts. This entire mission had been a disaster. Here she was, Church of COTD, ¡°supposedly¡± equal to and foil of the Dragon, and yet she couldn¡¯t handle one troubled city.


    She was too unobservant, and hadn¡¯t noticed anything suspicious during the day. She hadn¡¯t even thought to find Maya. In her arrogance, she hadn¡¯t been on her guard even after she realized modified animals could avoid her detection.


    In the end, she¡¯d barely gotten away.


    And here I thought I¡¯d made some real progress, Lisa thought, expression blank as the wind streamed against her head. But it seems like training with Bath has only made me really good at synergizing with him, rather than making myself powerful enough to stand on my own.


    Lisa put on a burst of speed, twin flames jetting out behind her. Her mind immediately gravitated to a person who could help her get strong enough to settle things on her own, someone who wouldn¡¯t want to focus on her kursi abilities over her physical might and battle instincts.


    But first, she needed to see Bath.


    ---


    ¡°I cannot believe you put me on like that,¡± Lepochim grumbled, sulking from his position on the divan within Nevis¡¯ office. ¡°The Church didn¡¯t even need to speak with me.¡±


    ¡°It was her request,¡± Nevis pointed out, clicking something and then typing a few words. She then turned away from the monitor, her chair swiveling until she faced Lepochim. ¡°Am I supposed to just refuse her?¡±


    Lepochim narrowed his eyes and looked away. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯s the problem?¡± Nevis looked at him with big, innocent eyes.


    Lepochim tersely patted his robes. ¡°I should leave.¡±


    Nevis leaned back in the chair, placing her elbow on the arm rest and cradling her chin with a hand. She leaned forward. ¡°So soon? I still don¡¯t even know why you came.¡± He had walked in just as Lisa started her call.


    Lepochim looked at her with a dour expression, his lips forming a tight line.


    You always have such a big stick up your ass, Nevis thought, smiling. She gingerly stood up from the chair, her legs sashaying back and forth as she approached the pale, yellow-eyed Deepthink. She put a finger under his chin, then tilted his face up until his eyes locked with hers.


    ¡°Two words,¡± she said, holding up two fingers with her left hand. ¡°Chill. Out.¡±


    By the time she finished uttering the second word, her lips were a scant inch away from his.


    Nevis wasn¡¯t surprised, however, when Lepochim tilted his head to the side, stuck out two hands to buttress her shoulders, and stood up. He about faced sharply, eyes glinting as he excused himself from the room.


    Nevis sighed, then slinked back to her chair.


    So close! she thought, staring intently at her door. One of these days...you¡¯re mine!

 [Chapter 174] Change of Destination; The Dragon鈥檚 Sudden Descent

    After a minute of flying, Lisa was forced to stop, her chip reader indicating that she had an incoming call. Just when I was picking up speed, she sighed. As soon as she saw the caller, however, she perked up.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± Bath began, ¡°you wanted to speak to me?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. What do you know about Tollan?¡±


    ¡°Everything,¡± Bath said cheekily.


    Must¡¯ve been eavesdropping, Lisa thought, snorting at Bath¡¯s complete disregard for privacy.


    ¡°I kind of messed everything up, didn¡¯t I?¡±


    Bath tsked. ¡°It wasn¡¯t your best moment, but what happened wasn¡¯t really your fault.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Your trump card¨Cmind manipulation¨Cwas rendered useless, and you were caught off guard. You were sent into a situation that exploited your weaknesses.¡±


    Lisa harrumphed. ¡°I guess.¡± Like you have any weaknesses, she grumbled.


    ¡°Anyways, we have something more important for you to work on.¡±


    Lisa paused. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°How would you feel about helping your Aunt in the Ukraine?¡±


    Lisa mulled it over. I was headed in that direction anyway, she reasoned. Kray City would only be a short flight away.


    But the idea of working with her Aunt made Lisa nervous. Aunt Lauretta was a much stronger kursi than herself; Lisa didn¡¯t want to jump right back into a situation where her ¡°trump card,¡± to use Bath¡¯s terminology, was rendered moot.


    ¡°Can¡¯t she handle the situation herself?¡±


    ¡°She could,¡± Bath admitted. ¡°But she actually asked for you by name.¡±


    Lisa did a double take. ¡°She did?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°I thought we were sending in her and Uncle Bern?¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± Bath intoned. ¡°Right, about that...Lepochim requested that Bern stay in Basalith.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s eyebrows pinched together. ¡°Is he still using Bern for interrogations?¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± Bath said, voice clipped. ¡°Anyway, Lauretta agreed to go to the Ukraine, but she requested that you come along. I¡¯d go if I were you.¡±


    Lisa crossed her arms, looking down at the yellow Mexican plains below. ¡°I¡¯ll do it, then.¡±


    Appearing to sense her reticence, Bath continued, saying, ¡°I think it¡¯ll be a good idea. She has over a millennia of experience, more than any of the kursi you¡¯ve spent time with so far.¡±


    Lisa had to concede Bath¡¯s point. Zhou Wang, the leader of the vanguard kursi, wasn¡¯t even three-hundred years old. ¡°Fine, fine, I get it.¡±


    ¡°Cheer up,¡± Bath said. ¡°Remember that COTD wouldn¡¯t be possible without you.¡±


    His words were like a punch to the stomach. But...wouldn¡¯t it be possible without her?


    Bath fleshed out his point. ¡°Without you, I wouldn¡¯t have ever considered making an organization like COTD, nor would I have discovered the Ritus gate. Truly, Lisa; don¡¯t sell yourself short.¡±


    Lisa¡¯s mouth twitched, her lips curling up into a reluctant grin. ¡°Alright, I get it. Let Lauretta know I¡¯m on my way to Basalith.¡±


    ---


    Bath smiled grimly as he hovered in the sky above Basalith, his signature cape rippling behind him. His essence, strewn throughout the city, continued to give him detailed sensory input on all that was occurring within his range. After encountering the tortus ¡°trap¡± on Illudis, his expanded range of influence made it easier than before to roam around Basalith. Where previously he needed to be conscientious not to overstep the city¡¯s boundaries (lest the opposite end of the city fall beyond his range of influence), now, he had an extra 0.2 miles of radius to work with. With a radius of 3.6 miles, he used to have a maximum volume of influence of 195 cubic miles. With an improved radius of 3.8, his volume of influence stood at 230 cubic miles¨Can almost 20% increase.


    Well, Bath thought, flexing his right arm. It¡¯s time to go. In an instant, his essence dissipated. Now, Bath was contained unto himself, his body: he only saw through his two human eyes, only felt through his soft, human skin. It was relaxing: constantly monitoring Basalith wasn¡¯t tiring, per se, but it did take a nontrivial exertion of effort.


    In the blink of an eye, he took on his favorite guise: that of his multicolored, feathered dragon. He shot forward, pumping his wings and shooting out particles of mass behind him. At one point, he was going so quickly that he needed to materialize scale plates over his face to protect himself from the whipping wind.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    He knew that Lisa had gone the subtle route, so he decided to do just the opposite. When he reached the outskirts of Tollan, Bath began to rapidly increase the size of his form until his wings encompassed half of the city in a rainbow crescent.


    When he roared, the city itself shuddered. Bath was pleased to see that all below him were frozen in shock. Well, the humans, at least: the quasi-sapients had recognized his presence immediately, and had accordingly bowed in supplication. Upon the ziggurat at the city¡¯s center, the many feathered snake quasies met his roar with little crowing noises of their own, jubilation clear on their faces.


    Bath noticed at once that many of his quasies had a yoke of haziness about them. When he tried to communicate with them directly, as normal humans could do with the assistance of a frond of dragonleaf, their minds seemed half-closed. Almost as though their thoughts are being censored, Bath thought.


    The tampering with his quasies quickly sent Bath¡¯s temper into a roiling boil. There was no doubt in his mind: some kursi was audacious enough to interfere with his quasies, his creations; by many definitions of the word, his children.


    To say that Bath was not pleased was a serious understatement.


    He roared again; this time, his roar sounded like a wailing screech straight out of a Jurassic Park film. His fangs shone sterling white in the light of the sun, while his feathers scintillated dangerously, as though each feather were an oil-soaked blade.


    Then, a disembodied voice boomed out:


    ¡°The Dragon has come to liberate this city from its hidden oppressor.¡±


    Each word was so loud, they caused the ground to tremble. All present felt an immense pressure come over them, as though there were a physical weight to the air, and they were submerged in water.


    ¡°For where free will is stifled, so dies self-determination.¡±


    As the final syllable exploded out, the ground buckled. Innumerable mottled, thorny vines snaked out, seemingly encompassing the entire city in a spiny thicket.


    Thankfully, whatever power muffled the minds of my quasies only had a trifling influence on spineroot. The usurpers had only controlled spineroot via ordinary dragonleaf-tether communication, suggesting that these mind-control kursi powers were unable to effectively work on the defensive plant. Even if most kursi lacked the expansive mind-dominating ability manifest in Tollan, Bath expected that they would run into kursi with similar powers in the future.


    Realizing that his spineroot was resistant to kursi domination caused a swell of confidence to rise in his chest, one he tamped down on as he focused on rectifying the situation at hand.


    Ever since his arrival, Bath had been sending out his essence into the city in an attempt to locate the individuals responsible for the current situation. Where words failed to make the culprits reveal themselves in panicked fear, his spineroot demonstration produced the desired effect.


    Deep in the labyrinthine basement of the ziggurat, Bath snared a contingent of five individuals with his thorns, digging deep gashes into their skin. He couldn¡¯t hear them scream, as he neglected to manifest ears in their location, but he could feel their mouths gaping in rictus, their eyes bulging wildly with pain.


    Bath¡¯s eyes narrowed coldly. He yanked the people out of the ground, spineroot tearing open a path to the surface. He saw that all he uprooted were garbed in the brown robes of peacekeepers; however, Bath didn¡¯t recognize them: He had taken careful note of the peacekeepers assigned to Tollan, and these people weren¡¯t them.


    A moment later, his expanding essence detected the presence of people located at the very ends of his range, buried deep underground.


    His expression darkened. If not for my expanded range, I wouldn¡¯t be able to detect them. That indicated that whoever these five conspirators were, they had intimate knowledge of his limitations, and had tried to exploit them to hide their captives. It was unlucky for them that they were working with outdated intelligence.


    He suspended the five above the ziggurat for all in the city to see. As he did so, he confirmed that the people stashed underground were the missing kursi. No Maya, though.


    ¡°These five have used their power to cast a shadow on Tollan,¡± Bath boomed, his voice severe enough to cut metal. As he spoke, he constricted the thorny vines, causing the captives to yell out in pain as blood dripped down their bodies. ¡°They usurped your peacekeepers, profaning the gifts I granted them.¡± This was true: Bath could sense that the quintet possessed his boons. If they take my gifts, and then turn around and stab COTD in the back¨Cthey have no excuse.


    If they were kursi attempting to stand up to the sudden takeover of COTD, stubbornly resisting his power, Bath would have no small amount of respect toward them. In fact, while he¡¯d publicly punish them, he¡¯d privately send them over to Lepochim with the intention of turning their allegiance towards COTD. Bath recognized the utility of having subordinates with strong backbones.


    These people, however, appeared to be only interested in accumulating power. They¡¯d taken his boons, then greedily worked to take over one of his cities. They¡¯d even gone so far as to attack Lisa.


    He constricted the vines further, letting the cracking of ribs sing out. Even as he made their punishment into a spectacle, Bath continued to ponder the five¡¯s motives. They had to know that this would end in failure, he reasoned. They hadn¡¯t been subtle in their activities, what with silencing all news sources. Moreover, Bath couldn¡¯t fathom what they had been trying to accomplish by turning mutated animals on the city after dark, as Lisa had reported.


    Nothing seemed to add up.


    After a solid minute of constricting the quintet, Bath made a show of devouring them with his massive jaws. In reality, he merely internalized them in his gullet, knocking them unconscious for transport to Basalith.


    Whether it was the intense pain, or being knocked out, Bath wasn¡¯t certain; but the cloud over the minds of his quasi-sapients began to subside. He began to communicate with them directly, hoping to dredge up any information about Maya¡¯s whereabouts.


    Nobody, however, seemed to have any idea where she was.


    By now, three minutes had transpired since his arrival, and Bath was growing impatient. Had they hidden her somewhere outside the city?


    If that was the case, she could be anywhere. Bath sighed internally at the situation, frustrated that he couldn¡¯t immediately wrap everything up.


    ¡°Maya is no longer in this city,¡± Bath¡¯s disembodied voice sounded out. ¡°Until she is located, a new human shall be appointed to preside over this city-seed. All interested in vying for the position should meet at the stadium. A small tournament will be conducted; the winner shall become the new ruler of Tollan. I shall wait ten minutes before conducting the trial.¡±


    With that, Bath¡¯s draconic form vanished in a puff of shimmering dust. In the meantime, he relocated the five kursi imposters to the chamber underground where they had originally stowed the real peacekeepers. He¡¯d pick them up on his way out.


    A moment later, he appeared in a flash of light over the stadium, his human form garbed in his black COTD uniform. He crossed his arms and began the ten-minute countdown.

 [Chapter 175] High-Grade Nepotism; Steep Competition; Bath鈥檚 Labyrinth Challenge

    Lisa was taking a walk around Basalith, killing time and distracting herself with people-watching. Thousands of people and quasies bustled through the streets, all seemingly busy. Lisa wasn¡¯t sure what she expected to happen when COTD eliminated the need for people to work a job, but she liked the result: The people in Basalith seemed happy, excited; like they were actually happy to face the day, rather than just slogging through.


    Is this really possible because of me? she wondered, brushing a hand through her hair. Her eyes traced the figure of a large wooden statue that wasn¡¯t present two months ago; she stopped when she was a foot away from it, then placed a hand on its smooth surface.


    A year ago, I never would have thought someone would ever make a statue in my likeness, she thought. Well, Asil¡¯s perfect likeness, not the face of Lisa. But still. Did I earn this? She looked down at her hand, her outstretched arm. The only thing that set her apart from other kursi was her ability, Regis: the one that let her easily influence the masses.


    Everything else that set her apart was a gift from Bath. But she couldn¡¯t help but wonder at the question of whether she was worthy of anything he gave her.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± a voice called out, interrupting her thoughts. Startled, Lisa¡¯s head whipped around.


    ¡°Lauretta,¡± she replied, straightening up and stepping away from the statue. ¡°How are you?¡±


    Lauretta smiled. ¡°I¡¯m fine, but you seem a bit...¡± Lauretta cocked her head. ¡°Troubled.¡±


    Lisa didn¡¯t know how to respond, so she didn¡¯t, letting awkward silence prevail. Lauretta walked forward until she was within a foot of the statue, then reached out her hand and felt its ashen-yellow surface.


    ¡°You¡¯re letting your emotions leak out, you know,¡± Lauretta pointed out. Lisa flinched and tended to her shell.


    Damn, Lisa thought to herself. I could¡¯ve sworn my shell was fine, yet she was able to pinpoint and read its smallest inconsistency...just another marker of her inexperience.


    ¡°There, that¡¯s better,¡± Lauretta said. ¡°I really do care for you, Lisa.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡±


    ¡°I cared for you enough to watch over you and your family, to spend years playing pretend. The last time Bern and I did such a thing was...a long time ago.¡± Lauretta¡¯s hand stilled, and she tilted her head toward the cloudless sky. ¡°Just trust me when I say I want the best for you.¡±


    Lisa kept her face emotionless, but inside she felt her stomach tense uncomfortably. She wanted to believe her aunt, but the woman had brainwashed her family. Lauretta didn¡¯t play pretend out of the goodness of her heart, but because she had something to gain: Lisa as an ally.


    Being Lauretta and Bern¡¯s ally wasn¡¯t a bad thing, considering that the two were practically ancient and had decided to join COTD. But just trust Lauretta blindly, like a naive little girl? Nope.


    ¡°Lauretta...¡± Lisa began, meeting her former-aunt¡¯s clear gaze. ¡°I¡¯m not willing to forget what happened, but I am willing to have a fresh start. I know you have a lot you can teach me, and I¡¯m willing to learn.¡±


    ¡°You do have a lot to learn,¡± Lauretta acceded. ¡°I¡¯m glad we¡¯re going to the Ukraine together. Nothing like having the real world as a classroom.¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    Lauretta¡¯s shoulders slumped, and she sighed. ¡°I know that things have been hard on you, holding your own amongst the other kursi and a titan like Bath.¡±


    Lisa looked away.


    ¡°But you should remember why he¡¯s your friend in the first place.¡± Lauretta paused, then turned away. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go; if we take one of the falcon quasies, we can be there in a few hours.¡±


    Lisa almost wanted to retort that Bath was only her friend because she was a kursi, but realized saying so was untrue. It was actually more accurate to say that Lisa became Bath¡¯s friend because he was unreadable, the mysterious boy with the emotionless black shell. To him, Lisa would¡¯ve been just like any other little human. So why did he become her friend? Because she was smart and tried hard? Because she loved adventure, loud music, and basketball?


    Lisa followed after Lauretta as she mulled over her relationship with Bath. Their relationship...it just was. It came into being like most relationships, because they simply enjoyed each other¡¯s company. Is that why Bath was so insistent that she was important? Because she was his friend?


    But if she really thought about it...that was probably what mattered most to someone like him. Because Bath could turn anyone into an overpowered existence, technically anyone was disposable. But Bath didn¡¯t want anyone else to rule with him¨Che wanted his friend.


    It made sense, even though it didn¡¯t make her feel better. Being Bath¡¯s friend seemed like poor justification to give her so much authority. It felt irresponsible, if she had to be honest, like high-grade nepotism. She wanted to earn it.


    She was drawn out of her thoughts when she and Lauretta arrived at the falcon roost, an apartment building converted into a giant nesting complex, complete with numerous dragonleaf nests hanging from the ceiling and nestled into corners. They took the elevator up to the top, then got out and met their assigned falcon escort, a quasie named Didgie.


    Lisa boarded first, resting her legs in the dragonleaf harness spanning the bird¡¯s torso. She¡¯d never been on a falcon before, but figured it had to be intuitive enough since nobody had yet died riding one. Well, at least that was the case two months ago...


    Lauretta followed suit, climbing into place just behind Lisa.


    Are you both all set? Didgie asked, his voice chirping merrily as he communicated by way of dragonleaf.


    ¡°Yeah, think so,¡± Lisa replied.


    Since this is your first flight, I¡¯m going to go over a few rules! Didgie warbled. First, don¡¯t try to talk! You¡¯ll just get nasty stuff in your mouth! Second, don¡¯t try to move! We¡¯ll be going too fast for motion to be safe!


    What next, don¡¯t breathe? Lisa wondered.


    Finally, Didgie said, make sure you keep your flight goggles on at all times! On cue, two dragonleaf fronds rose up from the side, each carrying a pair of simple black goggles.


    Lisa took her pair, surprised that they were passing out safety equipment. That was definitely a new development. Shrugging internally, she put hers on, slipping the band around her head. Lauretta did the same, and the two shared a brief moment of mutual laughter at the goggles¡¯ bug-like appearance.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Okay, we¡¯re off! Didgie mentally announced, his voice chirping with excited vigor. First he braced his legs, then fluttered his wings briefly while remaining grounded. He then walked over to the edge of the apartment building, peered down, and cooed. Finally, he braced his legs again; this time, he flapped his wings and propelled himself off the roof, swooping down before pumping his wings vigorously to gain altitude.


    This doesn¡¯t seem so bad, Lisa communicated through the harness¡¯ dragonleaf. She was met with Didgie¡¯s mental expression of laughter.


    We haven¡¯t even gained altitude yet, the quasie chortled. That¡¯s when you humans start to scream.


    ¡ª


    Kayt sat across the table from Edgewood, toying at a few remaining pieces of carrot with her fork. Edgewood, meanwhile, looked on with a calm smile, looking like the picture of relaxation.


    ¡°What do you think about the news?¡± Kayt asked. ¡°About the vanguard, and what they found. The fact that they¡¯re back.¡±


    ¡°It seems...crazy, but all of this is crazy,¡± Edgewood replied before taking a sip of beer. ¡°Makes me wish I had followed Anne offworld. That crazy kid...I bet she¡¯s finding no end of adventure up there.¡±


    Kayt snorted. ¡°Probably beating something half to death with her club. Maybe she¡¯s on Equinox.¡±


    Edgewood frowned. ¡°Which one is that again?¡±


    ¡°The one with lots of wildlife,¡± Kayt reminded him with a chuckle. ¡°It has lots of aggressive stuff to smash.¡±


    Edgewood chuckled heartily. ¡°Yeah, sounds like a match. I bet the whole pack would have fun there as well,¡± he added, referring to his veritable army of trained raptors. ¡°You know what I heard the other day, in other news?¡±


    Kayt smiled. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Andrew Nolenberg has taken over California.¡±


    Kayt snorted. ¡°The guy behind the new wave of self-driving cars? You¡¯re full of shit.¡±


    ¡°Honest,¡± Edgewood said, raising his hands. ¡°Well, at least he¡¯s taken over San Francisco.¡±


    Kayt fished her phone¨Cif you could still call it that, since it was essentially a screen that interfaced with a watch wearable¨Cfrom her pocket and did a quick search. ¡°Huh. Seems like he really did take over San Francisco.¡± She looked back up. ¡°Wait, the city-seed is still called San Francisco? That¡¯s a little boring.¡±


    Edgewood chuckled. ¡°Not quite as exciting as Basalith or Kray City.¡±


    ¡°Anyways...how did he do it? Did he keep some of his employees even after COTD took over?¡±


    Edgewood shrugged. ¡°He probably hired a bunch of people to go over to Basalith when COTD first began. When COTD finally spread across the country to California, Nolenberg must¡¯ve had his people give him some special instruction. I bet a lot of other elites did something similar.¡±


    Kayt sighed. ¡°I wonder what other rich people are doing. I haven¡¯t really heard too much about other tech giants, or elected officials, for that matter. I just kind of assumed that they¡¯d all gone into their rich-people hidey-holes until this whole transition blows over.¡±


    ¡°Eh, some of them, maybe,¡± Edgewood replied. ¡°But not all. And like you said, just until the transition blows over. Which, in my opinion, it already has.¡±


    He gave Kayt a searching look, then gestured with his hand. ¡°Follow me for a sec.¡± Kayt weaved her arm in his, stepping lightly out into the cool, moonlit night. Edgewood leaned against Kray City¡¯s Spire balcony, his arms draping casually over the edge.


    ¡°You see this city?¡± he said as she joined him. ¡°It¡¯s ours, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Do you honestly think we have more influence than Andrew Nolenberg?¡± Edgewood asked.


    Kayt chewed her lip. ¡°The man has a virtual monopoly on self-driving car tech, especially now that people are using it in car alternatives. So I¡¯d have to say clearly not.¡±


    ¡°And yet,¡± Edgewood continued. ¡°The end game on Earth for him, or any of us, is holding a city-seed.¡±


    ¡°Probably holds even off-world,¡± Kayt added.


    Edgewood¡¯s face grew uncharacteristically severe. ¡°Yeah. And there aren¡¯t very many city-seeds, but think of all the people who want them. If someone like me, a fucking Captain, has control of a city-seed, I¡¯m sure every one of my commanding officers is also going to want one.¡± He wrapped his arm around Kayt. ¡°We might¡¯ve gotten here first, but there¡¯s going to be steep competition from here on out. Get me?¡±


    Kayt gave him a questioning look. ¡°Think I¡¯m slacking off?¡±


    Edgewood snorted. ¡°That¡¯s not what I said. Just...we should be careful.¡±


    ¡ª


    11 minutes after announcing the tournament, Bath was still hovering over the stadium, surprised that almost nobody had come to fight for the chance to rule the city-seed. There were just eight people standing around at the stadium¡¯s center.


    I suppose I should just get on with it, Bath thought. The eight seemed pretty powerful, based on a cursory assessment; he could give them a fun little challenge. Not a tournament, but a...competition.


    ¡°All competitors have been identified,¡± Bath stated coolly, his voice resounding through the space. The sizable crowd of people and quasies suddenly grew quiet. ¡°Each of you, state your name, loudly.¡± If they still didn¡¯t know by now how to raise their voices using educator boons, he¡¯d be shocked.


    Thankfully, they all got the hint, and introduced themselves in short order. While they made short introductions and riled up the stadium¨Cthrowing the quasi-squirrels especially into a frenzy¨CBath worked on setting up his challenge.


    ¡ª


    Enrique Tsai almost felt like his chest was going to burst when the Dragon¡¯s words crashed over the stadium. Though the Dragon¡¯s human form spoke in a normal voice, the way his words rumbled through Enrique¡¯s chest suggested that the Dragon also spoke with an inaudible, heavy bass.


    I''m doing this for Maya, he muttered to himself under his breath. Shit. Enrique looked around at the other competitors and felt beyond out-classed. They were all people who had worked with Maya''s second-in-command, Miguel, a man who liked to run things from behind the scenes.


    Enrique didn''t understand entirely why Miguel didn''t want to rule the city-seed himself, but he had a suspicion the man was trying to evade notice. Perhaps he was trying to wait out the whole Maya debacle? He was in charge of the city''s security and combat-ready quasies, and Maya disappeared under his watch. Moreover, what had he been doing the past month-or-so, when it became unsafe to venture outdoors after dark? What happened to the quasies under his control?


    These were all unsolved questions, but they left Enrique with an ominous feeling. I can''t let him, or his people, take control of Tollan. That feeling was what stirred Enrique to enter the stadium after noting that all 7 contestants were in Miguel''s pocket...even after recognizing the people were high-ranking, buffed-out combat experts.


    Enrique was last to give his introduction; hands shaking with nerves, he smoothed down his hair and cleared his throat in preparation to speak.


    ¡°Hello, everyone,¡± he began, struggling not to stammer. ¡°You might know who I am, might not. I¡¯m Enrique Tsai, and I¡¯ve worked extensively on the city remodeling project.¡± Specifically, as an architect by trade, he¡¯d been working with Maya and her council to create stylized buildings and emblems. ¡°I worked closely with Maya, and if deemed leader of this city-seed, I¡¯d work tirelessly to make Tollan a place she can feel proud to return to.¡± After greeting his previous words with disinterested chatter, the audience finally responded to this last line with hoots and hollers. ¡°Thanks.¡± He gave a small bow with his head.


    Heart beating wildly in his chest, Enrique took a deep breath. Now that he''d finished the unofficial challenge, public speaking, he just needed to get through whatever the Dragon had in store. It couldn''t be too bad, right?


    ¡ª


    ¡°Now that all have introduced themselves, I will announce the rules of the competition. I have created a labyrinth under this stadium, one filled with numerous aggressive entities and traps. If you are incapacitated for any reason, you will be disqualified. The person who reaches the end of the labyrinth first, or the last person standing, will win.¡±


    Bath smiled. ¡°Any questions?¡±


    ¡ª


    Enrique swallowed. A labyrinth? He knew for a fact that there was no labyrinth under the stadium, meaning that the Dragon must be making one on the spot. Jesus. Just focus, focus.


    The Dragon raised his arm, and his cape began to ripple out majestically behind him. Then, as he closed his fist, a hole opened up at the center of the stadium in the middle of the competitors.


    Jesu~s, Enrique thought, gripping the small cross he kept in his front-right trouser pocket. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. Lord help me. He had a feeling he¡¯d be needing all the help he could get, what with the hole in the ground looking like a toothy, gaping maw. When he thought his anxiety couldn''t get any worse, a moment after the ground opened up, all present could hear a bestial scream and a far-off wet-tearing sound, like something tearing off a piece of meat.


    Enrique closed his eyes. His mind felt like a mush of fear and adrenaline, and he could hear the rhythm of blood pulsing through his chest and making a circuit around his body. He tried to focus on that, the rapid, but steady, rhythm. In, and out, like the tide. He took deep breaths, one for every six beats of his chest: in two three, out five six.


    When Enrique finally opened his eyes a 15 seconds later, they shone with determined resolve. Let¡¯s do this, he told himself. Just do it. Do it. He clenched his fist, knowing that there was no backing out.


    He was so focused, he didn''t even register that, of all the competitors, he was first to jump down the hole.

 [Chapter 176] Exhilarating Arrival; Questionable Motives; The Competition鈥檚 Conclusion

    Riding the falcon was a novel experience. It¡¯s like I¡¯m riding a missile, Lisa thought. A big, feathery missile. But seriously, how the hell is this safe? If Didgie messed up and rammed into something, they¡¯d all be dead, splat, mush. Not that she didn¡¯t trust Didgie, but...she was honestly more surprised that Bath trusted Didgie and the falcon quasies enough to let her ride them.


    There must be some kind of system in place that acts to safeguard the passengers, Lisa reasoned. Probably.


    Lisa wasn¡¯t sure how high they were, but she could see the clouds stretching out around them like snowy ice flows. And Didgie was still gaining altitude, wingbeat by wingbeat. Lisa was frigid and had difficulty breathing, but it was bearable: they¡¯d only been flying for 30-or-so seconds. Boons definitely helped Lisa and Lauretta to stay conscious with less oxygen, while Didgie was a source of warmth, preventing their digits from numbing and losing circulation.


    Everyone, Didgie suddenly communicated. We¡¯re getting ready to dive. Are you both okay?


    Fine, Lisa replied, gritting her teeth.


    I¡¯m alive, Lauretta grated. What does ¡®diving¡¯ entail, exactly?


    It means I¡¯m gonna start the descent, Didgie clarified unhelpfully.


    Isn¡¯t it going to be dangerous going so fast without any protection? Lisa asked, wondering if she should start to use her magnetic sense to shield them from particulate debris.


    Didgie transmitted the image of an explanation point, followed by a COTD insignia. This journey would certainly kill any normal humans, he explained. But you aren¡¯t normal humans!!! You should have boons that increase your pain tolerance and toughen your bodies. Additionally, there are several ways in which you might sustain damage over the trip, though none that aren¡¯t immediately heal-able using your caretaker boons. And now we¡¯re even supplying you with protective goggles! You¡¯re very valuable kursi, after all; you¡¯re definitely safe with me!


    Lisa began to open her mouth in incredulity before remembering to keep it shut. That¡¯s...not encouraging at all!


    Didgie, she began, can I use an ability that creates magnetic repulsion around us to deflect incoming particles? That¡¯s what she did when she flew solo.


    You can try, Didgie replied, its mental voice dubious. Doesn¡¯t matter to me.


    Do it, dear, Lauretta interjected.


    Alright, we¡¯ve wasted enough time. Starting the descent in 5, 4, 3, 2...1!


    Lisa felt her stomach lurch as Didgie dove forward, the dragonleaf harness immediately straining at her legs and arms. She squinted her eyes closed out of instinct while activating magnetic sense.


    Ack! rushed over the dragonleaf thought network, soon followed by Lauretta transmitting a sensation of biting pain. I don¡¯t think your repulsion field is working.


    Lisa pressed her lips tightly together, acutely aware of fine particles¨Cand the biting wind¨Cbombarding her skin. Yeah, we¡¯re definitely going way too fast for it to do anything.


    Just enjoy it! Didgie exclaimed. Stop panicking! It¡¯s better that way. He then transmitted the image of a smiling emoji.


    ¡ª


    When Didgie finally touched down on the ground, Lisa was actually a bit sad to disembark. Though there was a bit of a learning curve at first¨Cnamely, getting used to the stomach-churning speed and whipping wind¨Cthe flight was probably the most viscerally enthralling experience she¡¯d yet had in COTD. She never flew that fast on her own; and when she flew comparably fast with Bath, he always tucked her away safe inside some interior compartment, letting her outside only when traveling at a more reasonable speed.


    Expression excited and somewhat regretful, Lisa disengaged from the dragonleaf and gracefully slid off the falcon quasi onto the ground. Lauretta, meanwhile, wore an expression of relief as she jumped off Didgie, shooting the quasi a piercing look before removing her goggles and shaking out her hair.


    Lisa removed her own goggles and walked over to Didgie, depositing them into a small pouch on the bird¡¯s oatmeal-colored breast. She placed a hand on his beak, giving him a wide smile and a light chuckle.


    ¡°Thanks, Didgie. You were right: it¡¯s better when you just chill out.¡±


    Didgie warbled merrily, rubbing his beak into her hand.


    ¡°Lisa,¡± Lauretta called out. ¡°We arrived just outside Sodom. Look.¡± She pointed off into the distance, where a large object stood...erect against the skyline. Lisa walked over and sighed. I guess we were moving too quickly to see it on our way down.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s...a lot.¡± Lisa crossed her arms. ¡°A real lot.¡±


    Lauretta planted a fist into her left palm, dragonleaf flaring to life around her feet. ¡°Who had the gall to make something so...absurdly amusing?¡±


    Lisa looked over, surprised by the sentence¡¯s conclusion. Sure enough, Lauretta wore a whimsical expression on her face, her eyes glinting with curiosity. Lisa blinked. When roleplaying as Aunt Lauretta, the woman generally filled the archetype for ¡°cool aunt,¡± though was still wholesome enough to weekly bake and donate cookies to church bake sales.


    ¡°I guess we should get going,¡± Lisa smirked while touching her wrist, pulling up her chip reader¡¯s interface. Lepochim said that Nevis pulled together a brief on the city...found it. Lisa began to project her screen in the space in front of her, creating a transparent holo. ¡°Let¡¯s look at the city¡¯s official tourist brochure while we walk.¡±


    ¡ª


    Enrique had been scared out of his wits when the ground opened up like a sinkhole-earthquake between him and the competitors, moving past fear when he dove into its gaping hole. His breathing exercises helped to regulate his body¡¯s response, but didn¡¯t actually address the root of his anxiety.


    That being the fact that he was entirely outclassed by the other seven competitors.


    Just don¡¯t think about it, he whispered to himself as he scrambled into the labyrinth, taking one of five passages at random. If I were to build a labyrinth, and needed to do it quick, what would I do?Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°I¡¯d make it as complicated as possible,¡± he hissed while leaping over a four-foot fissure. Nearly missed that one, if not for the glowing mushrooms giving night vision boons something to work with. They wouldn¡¯t be very much help in perfect darkness.


    He continued to race forward as fast as he could, mainly relying on his land-shaper boons to feel the wall and ground around him with extensions of dragonleaf. He essentially created a thin, multi-directional veil of dragonleaf around him, using it to develop an area of enhanced perception. He¡¯d spent quite a few path points investing in these hyper-sensitive, tiny dragonleaf fronds, intending to use them to ensure smoothness and assess the integrity of land-shapen dragonleaf buildings and objects.


    Sometimes in his haste he missed things, his fronds unable to provide feedback fast enough to register; this led to him stumbling past the occasional fissure or circular pit. But for the most part, Enrique felt like he was making good progress. Probably. I hope.


    He hadn¡¯t run into anything violent until the first minute mark; that¡¯s when he first felt heavy shaking through the ground, soon followed by noises indicating the presence of a massive, stomping entity.


    No~ Enrique moaned, rubbing a hand over his brow. Just keep going...


    Enrique finally reached a small clearing where two people were engaging a veritable giant T. rex look-alike. It was covered in fuzzy feathers, with giant feet and chicken-wing arms. Aside from its mammoth size, it wasn¡¯t too dissimilar from the raptor quasies, so Enrique quickly dashed around and ran as fast as he could down another corridor. Raptor quasies were vicious when on the attack, and he had no chance against one the size of a truck.


    Besides, the point was to traverse the labyrinth, not fight monsters, right? I¡¯m being smart by leaving those two people behind to fight...


    ¡ª


    Bath looked out over the stadium where the crowd was cheering out different names as they watched the competitors¡¯ progress. After the first person entered the labyrinth, Bath had projected the point of view of each competitor to sate the crowd¡¯s appetite. He¡¯d made it easy on himself, planting tiny cameras (generously donated by the Lime World slug-like sapients) on each competitor¡¯s shoulder/neck and magnifying their camera feeds onto a giant screen. He¡¯d kept the cameras on-hand in the hopes of using them to see Avery¡¯s competition. He certainly hadn¡¯t expected needing them before that, but at least this was a good way to test them out.


    But as Bath continued to follow the activities of the competitors, his stoic, professional expression failed to reflect his inner mirth. Who is this Tsai guy? He¡¯s running like his feet are on fire, and didn¡¯t even bat an eye at my razor-claw megaraptor. The other contestants had already run into their monsters, and all had chosen to engage, exchanging powerful blows and demonstrating Expert-level combat prowess.


    Another 30 seconds passed; the competitors defeated the first monsters¨Cessence extensions remotely puppeted by Bath himself¨Cand the competitors were dashing through the cavernous maze unfatigued.


    Bath considered the next round of monster essence puppets. I wonder what Enrique will do when he has no other option than to fight...Doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯s invested PP into combat, and I¡¯m planning to make combat increasingly difficult.


    Bath let the competitors run for a bit longer, then decided it was time to spice things up a bit and start eliminating people. ¡°The competitors have all made it through the first stage,¡± he boomed, eliciting cries of excitement from the crowd. ¡°The second stage begins...now.¡±


    ¨C


    To the eyes of the competitors, the ground was shaking. Actually, it was more like something had grabbed the entire cavern and started yanking it back and forth, causing the walls to crack and smash into one another.


    The screen of most interest to Bath, and the audience, was that of a competitor named Jorge L. The live camera feed followed Jorge as he darted through a narrowing tunnel passage, dodging two jutting columns of rock just as they smashed together behind him, sealing the way back. Jorge continued onward unfazed, keeping his rapid¨Cbut steady¨Cpace through the increasingly chaotic labyrinth.


    When introducing himself in the beginning, the man had only given a single letter for his last name, and had said only a few words in introduction. Bath noted that most people knew who the man was, however: His short introduction worked because the man needed no introduction.


    Bath had sent a tendril of essence to consult with the wasp quasi-sapients after arriving in Tollan, and was still questioning the head wasp to gather some information on the city¡¯s current situation. Like the other quasies, they¡¯d been charmed by the imposter kursi; however, they still had a good sense of the city¡¯s politics before Maya¡¯s absence. Apparently Jorge L. was the mysterious enforcer of the city¡¯s security division under a man named Miguel. He was the one sent out to deal with people breaking the city¡¯s codes, and was apparently most active outside Tollan proper, protecting some local historical monuments from vandals.


    The wasps appeared confused regarding the entire Maya-disappearance debacle, specifically because Miguel, Maya¡¯s right hand man, and his security force were so strong and active. They noted that the next item on their agenda was to interrogate the security force, all of whom¨Cbesides Miguel¨Cwere competing in the labyrinth challenge.


    Bath¡¯s essence clone at the wasp hive frowned upon hearing this detail. So, all but Enrique Tsai were in the pocket of one man, and someone who was first on the wasps¡¯ list of suspicious individuals? He shook his head, then vanished in a puff of smoke.


    On the screen, Jorge leapt into a small hole, then rammed his body into a pouncing panther beast, placing a palm thrust to the monster¡¯s head and shattering its skull in one fluid movement. The attack didn¡¯t even interrupt his stride. The other competitors from Miguel¡¯s security division fared similarly, but none moved with the ease and grace of Jorge, and failed to capture the audience¡¯s attention. Meanwhile, Enrique Tsai drew many eyes for the wrong reason¨Cthe man appeared to be holding on for dear life, scrambling forward and clumsily dodging nearly every enemy that came his way.


    Hopefully nobody notices I¡¯ve made his path a bit easier, Bath thought. He might really die if faced with the same difficulty as the others.


    Bath couldn¡¯t in good faith let Enrique win over someone like Jorge, but also felt uneasy with empowering anyone from the security division with control over the city.


    Maybe leaving control over an entire city-seed up to the result of a tournament, or challenge, isn¡¯t exactly the best way to do things, he thought sheepishly. I should maybe do a bit of research on how other powers in the universe choose their leaders. Illudis had some kind of nobility system that revolved around kursi being adopted into the royal family; he couldn¡¯t say he knew much about any other planet¡¯s politics. Lepochim had briefly mentioned how Zder worked, but hadn''t gone into too much detail.


    I¡¯ll need to fix this knowledge gap before we leave Earth and head to the Intermediary Strand for that centennial congress Juserin discussed. Bath hoped to get some more information from both Lepochim and Eyrin; relying on Juserin¡¯s information network, and the short encyclopedic entries stored on the chip reader, seemed ill-advised.


    Bath sighed internally. Regardless of how he felt now, he¡¯d need to elevate someone from the competition to head the city-seed. And to be honest, he knew it had to be Jorge. But part of him couldn¡¯t help but respect Enrique¡¯s decision to enter the competition and break up the security force monopoly. Bath didn¡¯t know the man¡¯s motives, but clearly he hadn¡¯t entered the competition for selfish reasons: he appeared scared out of his wits, like he wished he could be anywhere but in the shifting labyrinth. Enrique could¡¯ve forfeited, but instead continued on, sweat pooling generously on his brow and on his back, his heart hammering from exertion and adrenaline.


    As Jorge defeated a particularly dangerous-looking monster modeled after the female ¡°mama¡± gurgle on Equinox¨Ca boss monster, for all intents and purposes¨CBath called the challenge to a halt. The caverns stopped shaking, and the ground under the competitors rapidly rose up, extracting them up to the surface. The security-seven quickly righted themselves, while Enrique seemed to nearly keel over and faint upon reaching the surface and solid, non-shifting ground.


    Bath levitated to the center of the stadium, stealthily removing the tiny Lime world cameras from the competitors and positioning them around the stadium to provide a multi-angle view of himself and the stadium.


    ¡°Everyone, the competition has come to an end.¡± Bath paused, allowing the audience to applaud and cheer. He smiled. ¡°I have decided who will lead Tollan into the future. Jorge L., I pronounce you leader because of your physical prowess and experience defending Tollan.¡± The audience erupted into hoots and hollers. ¡°And Enrique Tsai, I pronounce you leader because of your bravery and vision for Tollan.¡± The audience was silent for a moment before applauding slightly less enthusiastically. Bath could imagine the audience¡¯s confusion over two victors¨Cand particularly Enrique Tsai, who never even engaged one monster head-on¨Cbut many city-seeds were jointly ruled by two or more individuals, such as Sodom and Kray City. Besides, if anyone had any misgivings about Enrique winning based on his performance, they needed to send their complaints to him...which was laughable for the average Dragon-worshiping COTD member.


    Bath didn¡¯t feel the need to linger in Tollan any longer than necessary; he quickly ushered the two victors to the wasps for an informational briefing, and then collected the imposter brown-robe kursi. Then he was off, feathered, multi-colored wings propelling him toward Basalith.

 [Chapter 177] Eavesdropping on Avery; Healing Mechanics; Relationship Headache

    The competition is three days long, and I¡¯ll arrive in time for the final matches, Bath reasoned after looking up Avery¡¯s competition schedule for the Junior Dragonleaf Olympiad. The competition permitted only competitors in the 7th and 8th grade, though it placed all children in one bracket. As a result, Avery would be at an age disadvantage as a 7th grader.


    But according to the results posted online, Avery had done well the first two days of the competition. Even though her performance was commendable, it seemed like some other kid was the highlight of the olympiad: Peter Beady. He was an 8th grader from somewhere in North Carolina...and that was the extent of his bio. In the competition, however, the kid was, according to a small local news reporter, notorious his aggressive tactics: using other competitors as both bait and shield.


    Bath touched down outside the competition dome, quickly assuming his guise as a normal, non-COTD-uniformed human. He paused for a moment, ultimately deciding to change his eyes to a less-recognizable brown color.


    While most people in the area lacked the more-elaborate armor designs of Basalith¡¯s core Dusk and Dawn factions, they all wore some kind of dragonleaf drape on their person. This universally contained their CSLs¨CCOTD Storage Leaves¨Cwhich acted as a key to their residences, holding the saved configuration of their home¡¯s dragonleaf. With the key, they could immediately shape a standardized COTD dwelling to match that of their permanent residence, making traveling much more comfortable. People stashed various other assorted tools and small personal items in their drapes as well.


    Bath styled himself a drape in the fashion of the people nearby, wearing a pair of shorts and a crewneck underneath. Satisfied with his appearance, Bath walked over to the Stadium¡¯s main doors where a number of people were verifying tickets. Mouth upturning into a crooked smile, Bath disappeared, reappearing inside the bustling atrium. He immediately noticed a series of screens projecting the current match schedule for the final day. Bath¡¯s eyes pinpointed Avery¡¯s event, dragonleaf soccer: She was set to compete at 1:00 pm EST in the dome. It was currently 11:39 am, so Bath had more than an hour of time to kill.


    It¡¯s probably best she doesn¡¯t know I¡¯m here, right? Wouldn¡¯t me being here put a lot of pressure on her? Bath wondered. Or would knowing I¡¯m here give her some encouragement? Bath debated whether or not to seek Avery out before her match.


    First, let¡¯s see what she¡¯s doing now... Bath murmured to himself. After entering the main atrium, he¡¯d seeded his essence out to encompass the entire competition grounds.


    They really weren¡¯t messing around when they made this place, he thought wryly. They actually made a domed competition area out of spineroot two miles in diameter, even going as far as fully populating it with assorted trees and foliage. He figured that they must have built the dome for larger events: A junior-high tournament felt somewhat undeserving of such an expansive and meticulously constructed center.


    He quickly located Avery, who appeared to be in some kind of waiting room with another boy Bath quickly intuited was Avery¡¯s team member.


    ¡°...try the spinning top defense, stack that on a layer of spearing needles?¡± the boy offered to a pacing Avery.


    She waved her hand dismissively. ¡°No, it¡¯s not going to work. We need to think of something completely different to catch him off guard. He¡¯s practically seen every defensive trap in the book at this point.¡±


    The boy seemed a bit put out by her words. ¡°But that idea is different,¡± he grumbled.


    Avery appeared not to hear him, her head bowed and feet padding along rhythmically as she mulled over strategy. Seeing her so intensely competitive made Bath smile.


    ¡°Miles, has anyone ever done a pitfall defense?¡± she asked, head snapping up.


    So that¡¯s his name. ¡°Obviously,¡± Miles replied.


    ¡°But...on what scale?¡±


    Miles raised an eyebrow while pressing a few keys on his laptop¡¯s keyboard. ¡°What did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°How can Peter escape once he¡¯s in the middle of a GIANT pitfall trap? Like, one that¡¯s a full 200 meters across. With a small area in the middle with the goal and myself that¡¯s protected.¡±


    Bath considered Avery¡¯s vision. So, a large circle of land that appears to be firm ground, but that collapses on Avery¡¯s command, all but a small circle at its center that stays level.


    Miles opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again: ¡°That sounds nice, but how are you actually gonna pull that off in a minute or so? You¡¯d have to dig pretty deep for the trap to do anything, and you¡¯d have to make the collapse nearly instantaneous and inescapable. Sounds pretty impossible to set up.¡±


    Avery¡¯s brow furrowed. ¡°It does sound pretty hard,¡± she admitted. ¡°But that¡¯s why Peter wouldn¡¯t expect it, right?¡±


    Miles shook his head. ¡°We need a strong, actionable plan.¡±


    ¡°We have over an hour to make it actionable,¡± Avery replied. ¡°Pull out the dome map.¡±


    Bath decided to leave the pair alone to devise a game plan; there¡¯d be plenty of time later to talk. While walking the halls of the atrium area, he decided to keep one essence ear close to a collection of quasi squirrels manning the ticket booths, finding their chatter expectedly...entertaining. Especially when one of them brought out a signed picture of Dean shirtless, throwing the entire squirrel contingent into a frenzy and slowing up the entire ticket line. He wondered what Dean would think about a picture signed during the vanguard trip finding its way to a sports dome just outside of Norfolk, Virginia.


    ¨C¨C¨C


    David stared intently at the monitor while crushing a stress ball in his left hand. He only had two arms at the moment, with his other two stored in a small cryo-chamber, ready if he wanted to reattach them. Four arms was a hassle for a number of reasons, not to mention that they made him immediately identifiable whenever he went outside.


    He felt like he was doing that less and less nowadays. It was all fun and interesting creating a sex-paradise like Sodom, but the shock-value and rush that came with establishing such a ridiculous city had long-since worn off. Looking outside my window and seeing the skyline...David shook his head. It just feels...tacky. He assumed that most people who lived in the city probably felt the same way: Since it was easy to relocate in the era of COTD, lots came to the city, stayed for a few weeks at best, and moved on. It was immensely touristy, cheesy, and nonsensical.


    Fun for the first month or so, but now Susan and I are stuck here as long as we want to keep our steady stream of PP as Sodom¡¯s city-seed co-rulers.


    Narrowing his eyes, David zoomed into the 3D model of a heavily-damaged limb. At least I¡¯ve found another way to keep busy.


    While David had never been to medical school, he was serious about his desire to leave finance and become a doctor. Before COTD¡¯s apocalyptic coming, he¡¯d already invested in taking prerequisite classes at a local university, and had filled his free time by reading numerous notable scientific papers.


    Earth post-COTD ushered in a wave of new scholarship. All of it was preliminary at best, given the fact that COTD wasn¡¯t even six months old; however, David had already absorbed over 100 of these poorly-researched, question-identifying-rather-than-answering papers, and had decided to conduct some research on his own.


    A number of preliminary papers focused on the caretaker boon, and the way that it heals the body. On the surface, the boon seemed impossible: how can someone, just by making physical contact, heal another person (or themselves), and so quickly? How can they repair not just scrapes and bruises, but things like serious structural damage, organ function, and limb loss?The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    These papers all pointed to a set of public, ultra-high-speed camera recordings obtained from Lund University in Sweden. The recordings were massive, with trillions of frames per second, offering a painstaking¨Cbut promising¨Cway to study the repair mechanism.


    Another group took these recordings at multiple angles and attempted to create something like a 3D model of several recorded objects and activities, such as the healing of a scrape, a nearly-destroyed human arm being regenerated (David¡¯s current focus), and the complete reconstruction of a human eye.


    David frowned in annoyance as he rotated the partially-healed arm. Even zoomed in 3000x, the resolution was decent; however, the available information was limited. The Lund camera had only taken surface-level images, meaning that it was impossible to see a truly accurate volumetric model of the arm at one time frame, and David was forced to use a layered model that stacked the healed surfaces over time. What he really wanted was a cross-sectional model of cell growth over time, but none of that data was public.


    Just looking at the current model, however, gave David a clear view of the main mechanism identified in most papers: Intelligent Memory Extracellular Matrix, or IM-ECM. Looking at the time-lapse of the wound site, David watched as a number of newly-discovered (newly-created by the Dragon?) Railroad Cells (RCs) zipped forward and spun a new extracellular matrix where none existed, almost like nano-spiders spinning a highly-complex, extremely-particular web. Flesh soon grew to fill the empty ECM skeleton, with energy provided in part from the user¡¯s metabolism, as well as organic flesh cannibalized and completely restructured on-the-spot through other mechanisms nobody seemed to understand yet.


    Common consensus was that the Dragon introduced RCs, cells that somehow held the capacity to ¡°intelligently¡± remember missing ECM and recreate it from scratch. But David wasn¡¯t even convinced that the RCs were cells at all. He¡¯d recently purchased some pricey medical equipment on the cheap, and had been able to visualize a metal-coated section of flesh using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). It had given him a closer, albeit static, look into the surface of a wound site. He had been able to see a few RCs heading off filaments of nascent ECM, and little bundles of cells blooming in their wake like mosaic flowers.


    Realizing the limitations of this method, David had then attempted to isolate an RC cell for study. He lamented the lack of literature providing details on RC cells, including methods of how to actually isolate them. They seemed to go dormant and disappear when not regrowing damaged ECM; and even when David induced in the flesh a wound site, RC cells were so tiny and fast as to be impossible to separate out.


    Repeated failures spurred David to return to paper-trawling and looking at public data, like the Lund image series.


    Feels like I¡¯m just going in circles, he grumbled while turning his head around. ¡°Zoya,¡± he called out.


    She peaked out from her desk just around the corner, her dirty blond hair pulled into a tight bun. ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Can you help me set up the SEM? There¡¯s something I want to check.¡±


    Zoya stood up and pushed in her chair. ¡°Need me to prepare a specimen from the freezer?¡± the biochemist asked.


    David shook his head. ¡°Just get the microscope ready. I¡¯ll handle the rest¡±


    Zoya cracked a grin. ¡°You¡¯ve learned a lot in a month.¡±


    David smiled back. ¡°It¡¯s a lot easier to absorb information nowadays.¡±


    Zoya sighed as she accessed the dedicated SEM computer monitor. ¡°Some of us learned all of this the hard way, you know,¡± she quipped wryly. ¡°Let me know when your specimen is ready.¡±


    David nodded as he continued to study the Lund image set. ¡°Will do.¡±


    ¨C¨C¨C


    Dean stood on the Jerboaland Spire balcony, expression inscrutable, eyes squinting into the sun-scorched terrain below. At least the buildings here are made of dull dragonleaf, rather than reflective glass or metal.


    I wonder what Fartuun and Aberash are up to right now, he thought to himself, drumming a few fingers on the balcony. They¡¯d left Fartuun on Drift Jag to start establishing the main informational relays between Earth and the other planets. Since Drift Jag was the seventh of thirteen planets in the circuit, not including Earth, it was as good a halfway point as any. Dean hoped that its Earth-like environment would turn it into a major population center.


    Dean also liked the idea of Fartuun building up Liberty City on Drift Jag because it was close enough to Earth that she could continue to send a constant stream of updates and monitor technological innovations remotely. He was acutely aware of the heightened role she¡¯d taken on as COTD technological coordinator in the innovation screening process, especially because of the V-Tap. She was doing the work of an entire office on a daily basis, checking and verifying documentation and coordinating with a few others, all off world. Incredible.


    There was something more pressing on his mind, though. He felt himself blush, though thankfully his dark skin hid most of the color change.


    Aberash.


    What am I supposed to do about Abbie?


    Dean felt confused and guilty: after hanging and talking with Aberash on Vast Desert, spending practically every moment of free time either listening to her or thinking about her, he¡¯d cut himself off after all the AI Ninety-Seven Arc business and arriving on Equinox. He¡¯d told himself he didn¡¯t have the time for anything other than a casual friendship. He¡¯d told her over a few single-sentence messages that he was too busy to listen to her or talk.


    But he still felt a nervous sensation in the pit of his stomach whenever he thought of her. He refused to think of it as butterflies; it was just....indigestion...or something.


    He breathed in deeply and sighed out. I really don¡¯t have time for a serious relationship, he thought, repeating himself for the hundredth time. I really don¡¯t have time...and besides, I don¡¯t want to assume anything. I¡¯m also technically her boss: she¡¯s one of my direct human subordinates, along with Fartuun and Barkhad. It would be gross if I tried to make a move.


    ¡°Dean,¡± Virigard piped up from behind, whiskers twitching. ¡°You look like someone¡¯s biting you on the butt.¡±


    Dean wrinkled his nose and turned around. ¡°What now?¡±


    ¡°You look all...contemplative~¡± Virigard explained, bouncing a bit on her legs. ¡°You¡¯ve been up here just thinking for half an hour straight. Weren¡¯t we gonna clear out some area or check on the tunnel networks?¡±


    ¡°I asked Amalo to coordinate with the snakes and check over the tunnels.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s Aberash, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Dean¡¯s head whipped around. ¡°What? It¡¯s, um, just...who told you that?¡± He closed his eyes and let out a soft moan.


    Virigard waggled her tail. ¡°Who do you think? And guess what, it cost me ten of those signed shirtless pictures you gave me.¡±


    Dean¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°Those squirrels never leave me alone.¡±


    The petite jerboa hopped forward, placing two tiny forepaws on Dean¡¯s right calf. ¡°But you know, I kind of already knew what was going on.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s so dumb,¡± Dean murmured.


    ¡°Nope, not dumb.¡±


    He rolled his eyes. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t be this, um, distracted. I just need to get over it. Keep busy.¡±


    ¡°Well, I think you should say something to her. She¡¯s playing in one of the concert halls tonight. Maybe you could go see her?¡± Viri¡¯s eyes shined like bright black globes.


    Dean blanched. Damn. She didn¡¯t even invite me.


    ¡°Uh, when? And, um, where?¡± This conversation makes me so uncomfortable that I¡¯m reverting back to saying ¡°um¡± every other second, Dean seethed. Ugh. Just imagine if I try to see her face to face...I can¡¯t go back to just thinking of us as platonic friends. Damn it.


    Viri smiled. ¡°Hehe, the concert info was part of the ten-signature information package. I can bring us there later, around 7:30 pm. The squirrels even gave us two tickets, one for each of us!¡±


    Dean smiled, eyes brightening considerably. ¡°Thanks, Viri.¡± It¡¯ll be nice to see her...and since it¡¯s just a concert, I can always just leave at the end. No need to actually interact if I¡¯m not ready.


    ¡°You know, I also heard something else from the squirrels.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, something about a young brown-robes named Angelina. Apparently she even went to your school.¡±


    Dean¡¯s curiosity was piqued. ¡°I didn¡¯t know I had a kursi here in Jerboaland who went to Alens. How old is she?¡±


    Virigard paused for a moment. ¡°I think she¡¯s supposed to be a year ahead of you in school, but she¡¯s your age.¡± She cocked her head. ¡°What do you call her? A sophomore?¡±


    Dean nodded, surprise evident on his face. ¡°Yeah. I have no idea who she is, but that¡¯s interesting. I thought she was going to be much older. To think, we were all there at the same time...¡±


    Both Lisa and Angelina were enrolled at Alens? Dean thought. I wonder if Angelina knows anything more about what happened with the gates and COTD¡¯s beginnings? I honestly don¡¯t know much about how Bath and Lisa discovered the gates and decided to...well, take over the world and...universe. Multiverse? It¡¯s still unclear.


    ¡°You know, I think I¡¯m going to try and meet with her.¡±