Noah had to give a report about the war in Taulusia and the Endless Hive. Such an expansionist force wouldn't be happy with just taking that world. It would spread out and conquer more territory, eventually reaching Earth.
From a strategic point of view, helping the canine aliens was beneficial to humanity. If they could hold back the Endless Hive at Taulusia, they had a good chance of keeping the bug-fish aliens from ever setting foot on Earth.
They could keep that world as a buffer state and set a watch over the passage realms that might connect to their territory. Most passages were very army unfriendly. When only one or two creatures could pass through at a time, it was easy to defend the choke point.
He was a bit nervous as he waited for his audience. The door opened and a liveried servant entered.
"Sir Actus, Her Majesty summons you."
He stood and followed the servant, entering the audience room. He scanned with his mask's eye. Only the Empress and four Royal Guard Knights were in the room. The servant bowed and left, closing the door behind him.
Noah moved to the proper position and knelt. It didn't take a minute for the Empress to address him.
"Stand, Noah. We are all friends here," she said with a kind smile in her voice.
That was true. Not a single advisor was present.
"Kayla," Noah said as he stood up. He met the eyes of every one of his former comrades in arms, before he was cursed with the mask. "I bring dire news."
She returned his worries with a gentle smile. "I read your report. The investment in our champion is paying off splendidly. Allies with an alien species, ample hunting grounds, and early warning about a big threat."
"Yes, Robert's newest achievements only surpass the former ones."
"Good. We can talk about him later. Now, give me your full report."
Noah told the Empress everything he could. About the Endless Hive, and about the notable characters involved in the stories.
Not even her could force a teacher to break their head of secrecy about their students' confidential information but the tournament’s design intentionally revealed what they needed to know. Talents and affinities, along with hints of any new and unusual spells. The unique spells and affinities were a novelty because they were, well, unique.
"We understand the importance of your report and thank you for providing it with such celerity," the Empress said, trying to be more casual. "Can you estimate how long until they reach us?"
"It might be years from now. Following the current model for their expansion, before they send scouts into Earth, they will take over an adjacent passage realm as a staging ground. And their conquest is slow and methodical if faced with a strong resistance. Taulusia, for example, has been under attack for ten to fifteen years already. However, once the Endless Empire gets a foothold, it is extremely hard to dislodge them. Furthermore, they have five and six-stars in the army that's invading Taulusia. I conjecture that they have even stronger individuals defending their inner territories. The leader of the Taulusians expressed that he wants to reach an armistice. Apparently, the Endless Hive can be persuaded to ignore a realm that proves too expensive to conquer."
The Empress had a somber expression. "I see. I will need to contact the other world leaders. This is a threat to all of humanity but I can only imagine the ways they will try to use this for their own benefit. Noah, can we persuade the champion to gather more information to us?"
"I believe so, with the right incentive."
"And what incentive would motivate him?"
"Nothing too big. I believe that an edict making all the Taulusians sold and kept as pets property of the Empire so Robert can repatriate them would suffice. No. That would motivate him to even risk some attacks on Endless Hive positions to gather some serious intelligence."
"Wouldn't that put him in great risk?" She asked, a little worried.
"I believe he is well-equipped to deal with these risks. In any case, he will have all the information he needs to make his own judgment. But as I said in our previous talk about him, Robert is very stable and loyal. He wishes to stay a free agent, though."
"I wonder why Titania let him go. Why did Samson throw away such an asset."
"Titania didn't let him go. In her mind, she just reassigned him from one position to another. A promotion. As for the latter question, it is because Samson, just as almost every organization, is burdened with idiots who think their internal political squabbles are more important than the organization's prosperity."
It hit a bit close to home as the headmaster’s death was still fresh on their minds. They didn't know what the Shayver Group offered him to betray everything he stood for.
"Wise words, Noah," the Empress said.
Wise? It was wise to say it here, where nobody could hear. It would cause someone (most likely Noah) to lose their heads if said in public.
"I apologize," Noah said with a bow.
"Nonsense. If my trusted counselors cannot be candid with me, I'll be doomed. Speak your mind, Noah," she turned to the sides. "The same applies to all of you."
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The Knights adjusted their posture, standing just a little taller.
Noah talked about other, more private and less stately issues before leaving.
*
*
Robert took a lonely walk down the twenty-third District of Pittersville. Amanda was tied down in a series of meetings and had to postpone their visit to the household crafts realm, the one with pencil trees, cutlery skyscrapers, and cup people yet another time.
He could've gone raiding another realm or even make some bank turning in quests at Yolania's shop but he decided to take a walk in the park for one excellent reason.
A group of six people followed him.
It was ludicrous. Not only Robert could sense the people tailing him but he could also see them. With a set of prisms mad out of distorted space, he could reflect the light coming from behind into one of his eyes. He was seeing out the other while his imprint watched the image through the prisms. But the imprint worked six times faster due to the accelerated time in the mind palace, so he was watching his pursuers in slow motion The imprint worked the same as a parallel mind spell but without the constant essence cost. Instead, it only took him the equivalent of a century of work, eight hours a day, six days a week, to develop that ability by tempering his mind.
He walked to a deserted section of the park and set his trap. Flesh Tendrils was a Life spell that allowed the caster to make lashes of skin to attack and deliver contact or injection pathogens. Poison, chemicals, diseases, or even use spells that requires touch at a range.
He readied one such tendril for each of his pursuers, and waited until they were all in range. Using Haste with his two stars, he rushed and shot tendrils at all of them, coated in a powerful organic adhesive. Once he had a grasp on all of them, he dragged everyone to the liminal void.
Not anyone, he cursed as he noticed that two of them cut the skin lash at the last moment. Now they stayed behind in reality, all but frozen in time.
The assailants drew weapons and rushed to attack. Robert did a quick tally and saw that the leader was a three star, while the others only had two.
"Strike me and I'll leave you stranded here to die!" Robert threatened.
They didn't listen. He used psionic blast. The spell was still on stage zero but bought him some time. He hit every attacker with drain essence and sap stamina, then drew his sword.
The attackers cut the skin tendrils but Robert had already marked them as guests. It was a suitable time to test that talent evolution on people.
Then they sent their spells at Robert. Blasts of fire, shadow daggers, and even telekinetic punches. Moving more than twice as fast as the assassins, he parried and dodged but kept from hurting them. It didn't feel like assassins to him but he still labeled them so.
"Mind Blackout!" He used his spell on the three-star, who he assumed was the leader. Robert let his imprint control the spell and change the man's mind to make him an ally. He removed the debuffs from him.
"Subdue the traitors," Robert said.
He didn't cut the spell. Instead, he started to download the man's memories in reverse order, starting with the most recent. He recorded it in the usual metaphor, a VHS tape.
The ability to execute a parallel task, even with the restriction to only mental or magical tasks was amazing. Reaping the man's mind would take him most of his concentration, something impossible in combat.
He stalled for time. The assassins (the label would remain until they explained themselves) seemed confused by the betrayal.
The imprint (Robert needed a new name for it… he decided to call him "iRobert") finished copying the relevant memories. He reinforced the ally impression and released the spell.
"Mind Blackout!" Another one changed side. iRobert did the same thing, enforcing the directive to defend Robert and making a copy of their mind.
Soon, the brawl was over. Robert had four new best friends. They sat in a circle as Robert dove into his mental palace to see what they were after.
The MCP organization believed Robert was responsible for the attack and sent their elite retrieval team to kidnap him. They had a teleportation jammer but it was a specialized item to prevent the use of teleportation spells, not other uses of Space essence or planar shift. It worked by disrupting the essence tunnel created by the spell.
Robert looked at the former MCP commandos and thought it would be a waste to kill them right now. Their lives had worth and they could die helping the Taulusian Resistance fight the Hive.
No. That was a line he shouldn't cross. Just like he shouldn't and wouldn't take advantage of the women under his control. He stuck to his ethics code. Only mess with the mind of people he intended to kill.
Robert dragged them to the true void and consigned them to the Emperor's Feast. The deaths were instantaneous and painless. Or so he lied to himself. He endured the Affinity orbs' punishment. All in the name of power.
Back to the liminal void, he sat and used Jade Mind to ease his conflict and find his center. The meditation helped him understand his moral dilemmas and accept he was weak and hypocritical.
Once his time was over, he took the two who were fast enough to cut his tendrils straight into the void, their bodies an offering to nothingness and their souls, his boon.
He had to repay MCP's kindness.
*
*
Wearing his Academy uniform and his tournament champion badge, Robert walked into the ATA building. After reading about the organization's regulations, he learned that the Archhuman Trading Association considered possession ten tenths of the law. If it was in your hand, it belonged to you so long they were concerned. Unless you took it from them, that was.
He approached a desk with a kind-looking lady.
"Mr. Blaze, good morning. How may I help you?"
He smiled. She, or some internal system, had already identified him.
"I have some items I want to put up for auction. I want to see an analyst."
"Do you need them appraised, sir?"
"You will need to do it for the auction but I'm willing to do it under article seventy-six, paragraph twenty-third."
It stated that they would deduct the appraisal free from the sale value at a seventy-five percent discount. But the seller could not go back on the sale even if the item proved to be something the seller desired. The only way to take it back was to buy it at the auction but if he bid on the item, he had to buy it at ten percent more than the highest bid.
She froze for a while. "Please wait while I confirm it."
"Sure."
She stood up and left the booth. Minutes later, she returned with a slightly older lady in much better clothes.
"Mr. Blaze. I'm Kareena Black. It's unusual to invoke that article."
"If anything, Mrs.--"
"Miss," she corrected.
"Ms. Black, if anything, I believe it is because this article is seldom advertised."
"Yes, that might be the case. Would you mind if I helped you with them?"
"Absolutely not."
Robert went with Kareena to a meeting room. He showed her what he wanted to sell, some items, weapons, and Prime Vestiges. Nothing there would point at the raids he did and the auction didn't reveal the seller's identity.
She took the items and handed him a receipt. They would sell slowly as Robert chose the most profitable auction modality. This took a week, open to bidding from Tuesday to Friday. The ATA exposed the items for public examination on the Saturday, giving interested parties three days to examine them. Since it was a Monday, his items would sit with the ATA for a week before they got up for auction. That was perfect. Robert could wait.
"Can I leave some of the items for the next week?"
"We charge a storage fee," Kareena said.
"That's fine. May I have a bulk discount?"
He negotiated, got the auction history to see what was worth farming to put up for sale, and left.