Zin'yesa, Captain of the Palace Guards, paced along a random section of the walls separating the Palace from the inner city as she did every morning, to ensure the Palace Guards remained alert and ready. In the evening, she would inspect a random section of the Palace, though sometimes she reversed the two, just to keep the guards on their toes. The King may have a cultivator guarding him at all times, but that didn't mean they could be lax in their duties. There was more an intruder could do to hurt the kingdom than kill the King. Honestly, if all someone did was kill the King, she might even be grateful.

Zin'yesa's expression twisted as she pushed away the traitorous thought. It was pointless anyway, since the oaths she'd taken prevented her from taking any action against the will of the King. And she had to admit, the King's policies did keep things… stable. When anyone who could resist was either bound by oath or watched by someone who was, there was nothing anyone could do but obey.

Zin'yesa sighed, staring off into the distance, bitter resignation welling in her chest as it so often did. Another reason she did this every day, using the early morning silence to be alone with her emotions and prepare herself for the rest of the day. She took a moment to appreciate the morning air, the birds chirping, the clear blue sky, the strange dot, the music- Zin'yesa blinked. Music? Strange dot? What-

“Incoming!” One of the guards with a far sight ability yelled. “Unidentified flying- thing coming in fast!”

“Man the ballistas!” Zin'yesa ordered, rushing to the battlements. “What are we dealing with?” She asked the guard who'd spotted the thing.

“It's- I don't know what it is!” The guard replied, squinting at the slowly growing dot as the faint music grew in volume. “Some kind of… craft? It- it doesn't look like a living creature. I think- I think it's made of metal?”

“Metal?” Zin'yesa frowned. “And it's flying?!?”

“I don't-” The guard shrugged helplessly.

“Forget it, just take it down before it gets into the city!” Zin'yesa ordered.

Ballistas and those with powerful projectile abilities fired at the object, trying to kill it or at least take it out of the air. The guard cursed. “It's a regenerator!”

“Keep the damage up!” Zin'yesa snapped. A lot of people would give up trying to hurt a regenerator, looking for alternate ways to subdue it, but that regeneration had to come from somewhere, and the more you hurt them, the more you drained their reserves. She watched as the object got closer, ignoring the attacks that tore chunk after chunk out of it, the damage repairing itself before her eyes.

A giant cloud of darkness began to billow out of the object, stretching across the sky and blocking out the sun, casting the Palace in darkness, the object disappearing as the cloud covered it. “We need lights!” Zin'yesa shouted as the cloud descended. “Get your torches and light abilities up!” She threw up a barrier to block out whatever this cloud was made of, covering as many of the guards as possible, in case this cloud was somehow poisonous, several others throwing up barriers of their own to cover the rest or reinforce hers. A tense few minutes passed as the cloud covered them, shrouding everything around them in darkness.

“Everyone spread out!” Zin'yesa ordered. “Form squads around the defenders and scouts, search for the intruders!” The guards split into squads, patrolling the walls and the courtyard, the weaker barrier users running into the Palace to warn the guards inside.

*Knock, knock, knock* “Are you satisfied with your current life insurance policy?”

Zin'yesa whirled towards the voice to find nothing, a cackle echoing out around her. She gritted her teeth, tightening her grip on her sword. “Where is he?!?” She snapped at her scout.

“He- I can't tell! One moment he's there, the next he isn't! It's like he's a ghost!” The scout exclaimed. “He's- there!”

“Din'klat, light it up!” Zin'yesa ordered. Din'klat stepped forward, placing his hands on her barrier and channeling his ability through it, causing the entire barrier to burst into flames.

“Gah, you got me! Oh, how cruel! I am properly roasted!” The voice cried, before bursting out laughing. “Seriously though, y'all just sit tight. We'll be out of your hair… Well, never, but there's nothing you can do about that.”

Zin'yesa turned to her scout, who just gave her a helpless look. “It- It's standing in the flames.”

“And right behind you.” Greg whispered, causing the scout to shriek and scramble away from him. “Dude…” Greg gave the man a concerned look. “Did you piss yourself?”

“St-stay back!” The scout stammered.

“Take him down!” Zin'yesa shouted. The squad pounced, abilities tearing into him, weapons flashing. “Keep going! His regeneration can't last forever!”

Greg almost choked as he laughed at that. “Man, you people have no idea who you're dealing with. But that's to be expected.” He shook his head. “Just remember to cover the ground the next time you make one of these barriers.” He added, turning back into smoke and disappearing into the ground.

“Damn it!” Zin'yasa cursed, turning to the scout. “Where is he now?!?”

The scout's eyes widened in horror. “Ev- ev- everywhere!”

*

While Greg played with the Palace Guards, Andrew and Victoria made their way into the Palace, navigating using aura and point vision. “Seems like some of these guys have sensory abilities to get through my smoke. Watch out for that.” Greg briefly formed a fairy to announce. “Also, Jer'tunal is either on the fourth floor, west wing, near the back, or under the throne room. Both areas are sealed and my smoke can't get in. Good luck!”

“Fantastic.” Andrew sighed.

Victoria smirked, pulling out her daggers. “Isn't it? I was beginning to think this was going to be too easy.”

Andrew scowled. “I was being sarcastic.”

“I wasn't.” Victoria grinned. “You take upstairs, I'll check out the throne room?”

“Sure.” Andrew agreed, shifting into an ant and shooting through the ceiling in a burst of light.

“And he's worried about getting seen.” Victoria shook her head as she made her way towards the throne room, grinning as several squads began to converge on her location, frost building up on her blades.

“Four paces! Two hands right!” A scout called as a squad turned into the hallway, several attacks flying in Victoria's general direction, and she dropped to avoid them. “Down!” Victoria cursed as more attacks flew at her, rolling out of the way. “Rolling right!” Victoria immediately scrambled the other way, hopping up and sending an icicle flying at the scout. “Attack!” Immediately a barrier went up, blocking the icicle.

“Oh, that is rude.” Victoria muttered. “But I'm ruder.” She grinned, flicking points at the scout. *Left, right, up, down, do the cha-cha now!* Victoria shouted in his mind.

“Left, no ri- wha- huh?!? Mmph!” The scout fumbled his directions, screwing up the attack as Victoria slid into the midst of the squad, slapping the guards with the flat of her blade, freezing joints, and the scouts jaw, as she flowed past, though she had to go back and knock out a guy with a heat ability.

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The next squad went down pretty much the same way, but the next was a bit more… challenging. She threw off the scout in much the same way, tagging the rest of the squad with her ice, but when she went to deal with the scout, a pulse of energy sent her dagger flying out of her hand! “Fuck!” She cursed, as the scout pressed her attack, hitting her with a vibrating punch that sent Victoria stumbling back as she coughed up blood.

Victoria dodged the scouts next blow, flicking her dagger towards her, causing the scout to flinch backwards before kneeing her in the side, driving a pulse of ice into her. The scout screamed in pain as her side froze, before cutting off as Victoria's fist drove into the side of her head, freezing that as well. “Keep her alive, Greg.” Victoria muttered, stretching as his smoke healed her back to full.

“Maybe don't freeze her brain next time.” Greg grumbled, appearing next to her and placing a hand on her head.

“Bitch hurt me.” Victoria growled as she continued to make her way towards the throne room. Thankfully the next squad didn't have any surprisingly competent scouts, and after she took it down, she had a clear path to the throne room, rushing towards the dense energy signature underneath. “Greg, do you have a way down there?”

“Of course.” Greg appeared, snapping his fingers as the entire floor turned to smoke, clearing the area and revealing some kind of vault.

“That- works, I guess.” Victoria shook her head, jumping down and looking for a door or something. “Looks like we need a key, but I don't see anyone inside, so Jer'tunal is probably upstairs.”

“Oh, yeah, I know.” Greg shrugged. “Andrew's fighting his bodyguard. Well, ‘fighting’. You know how it goes.”

“Then why am I here, and not upstairs helping Andrew!?!” Victoria threw up her hands in frustration.

“Because there's no way you could get up there in time to actually help and I was curious?” Greg offered.

Victoria glared at him, before letting out a sigh. “Fair.”

*

Andrew shot up to the fourth floor, making his way towards the east wing, easily avoiding the patrolling guards. There were two stationed by the doors to the blocked area, but Andrew quickly took them down, appearing in an instant and delivering a series of kicks that had them both slumped on the floor, then giving both cores a poke so there'd be no lasting damage. He glanced at the door, considering his options, then shrugged and gave it a firm kick, sending it bursting open.

“My, my, you're a bold one.” The Elf sitting in an armchair commented, snapping his book closed. “Unfortunately, the King has-” The Elf grimaced. “-commanded me to keep anyone from disturbing his rest, so I must ask you to leave.”

“Uh… no?” Andrew cocked his head.

“I'm afraid that's the wrong answer.” The Elf sighed, almost appearing to teleport as he rushed at Andrew, slamming a palm into his chest and sending him flying down the hall and through the wall on the far end.

“Ow.” Andrew groaned as he climbed out of the rubble.

“Hm, not dead yet?” The Elf appeared next to him, cocking his head. “Impressive. But let's fix that.” He delivered a savage strike to Andrew's temple, taking a chunk out of his head. “There we- eh?” He paused as Andrew's head reformed.

“That- was mean.” Andrew grimaced as he sat up. “But- urgh!” He grunted as the Elf's hand speared through his chest. “Yup, not done.” He coughed, sending blood spraying across the Elf's face.

“Oh ho! That's an impressive level of regeneration you have. I wonder how much it takes to defeat it.” The Elf's expression warped into a rictus grin as pressure descended on Andrew, crushing his body into a ball, before the Elf released it to let Andrew's body reform, only to crush him again.

A cloud of aura escaped Andrew's body, making its way down the hall back to the royal chambers, slipping into the King's bedroom, before inhabiting a random object, a hairbrush, and turning into Andrew. “Okay, now- uh.” He froze, blinking at the scene in front of him, a naked woman straddling the corpse of what he assumed was the Elf King. “That-” The woman transformed into a copy of the Elf King, jumping off the bed and sending a searing blast of fire at the corpse, burning it to a crisp.

“Guards! Intruder!” The fake Elf King cried.

“Hey-” Andrew began, before the Elf that had been torturing his other self burst into the room, hitting him with a crushing pressure. Andrew growled internally as he abandoned that body, dissolving the core as he flowed into the fake Elf King, connecting to his body with his aura. *Hey, what the fuck!?! Who are you and why did you kill Jer'tunal?!?*

“What- it's in my head!” The fake Elf King exclaimed, panicking.

The other Elf froze, eyes widening. “I- my King, I can't- I will find a psychic immediately!” The Elf grabbed the fake Elf King, rushing out of the room to find a psychic.

*Hey, don't ignore me!* Andrew growled, trying to pick up some information from the fake Elf King's surface thoughts, but all his thoughts were consumed with the whole ‘there's something in my head’ which… You know, fair. *Tell me who you are or I change you into your original form right in front of this asshole!* Andrew threatened, not exactly certain he could pull that off, but if he could stop Giana from teleporting, he figured he could stop someone from altering their appearance as well.

*You can't!* The fake Elf King cried, figuring out Andrew could read his thoughts. *This is the only way to save the City!*

Andrew paused. *But- we're saving the City.*

*How is starting a war going to save the City?!?* The fake Elf King growled.

*We aren't starting a war. We haven't even killed anyone! All we're doing is showing what we could do, and why it would be an incredibly bad idea to pick a fight with us.* Andrew retorted. *We may have killed Jer'tunal, since he's- he was an asshole, most likely, but other than that this is just a show of force.*

*A show of force?!?* The fake Elf King exclaimed incredulously. *You can't even resist Jer'tunal’s bodyguard! What makes you think you could do anything to a kingdom with hundreds of cultivators just like him!?!*

*We don't need to hurt the cultivators, we just need to prove that the cultivators can't stop us from tearing down the kingdom around them if they piss us off.* Andrew replied. *Besides this guy, we can kill anyone else in this palace, and he can't stop us. That includes you by the way, so you're going to need to give me some good reasons to not, because you're kinda fucking up our plans.*

*I- okay, I have the ability to absorb the essence of a person and completely copy their form and ability! I can perfectly replace Jer'tunal and keep the Elves from attacking the City!* The fake Elf King hurriedly explained.

Andrew paused. *Alexander?*

Alexander froze. “How-” *How do you know who I am?!?*

*Oh, I'm friends with Chris. Honestly, I should have put this together earlier. We kinda figured you'd go after the Elf King to prevent the war, since going after Chris is pretty pointless.* Andrew explained absently, considering how to handle this new situation.

Alexander grimaced. *Yeah… wait, is Chris involved in this!?!*

*Vaguely? We figured it'd be bad if the Elf King discovered he was on the surface, so he's sort of… in reserve at the moment.* Andrew replied.

*Just close enough to swoop in and claim the throne once Jer'tunal is out of the way, right?* Alexander sneered. *I can't believe I ever trusted that lying, manipulative bastard!*

*Are- we talking about the same Chris?* Andrew asked skeptically. *I'm not sure Chris is capable of lying.*

Alexander snorted. *That's what he wants you to think! He puts up this disinterested front, acting like he'll do anything to keep the peace, but the moment there's a chance to grab power, he jumps on it, not caring who it hurts!*

*I'm pretty sure you have some severe misunderstandings of whatever you think Chris did.* Andrew muttered.

*If that's the case, then he won't care if I take the throne instead of him, right?* Alexander retorted. *As long as the City is safe, he shouldn't care.*

Andrew paused. *That's true…* He sighed, stepping into The Room to talk things over with the others. *Okay, we can work with that. Though you're going to have to figure out how to save you from the psychic that's going to be rooting around in your brain. Even if I leave, there's no way the Elves are going to trust you haven't been compromised.*

Alexander froze. *How- How are you going to do that?*

*Not sure, but first… you're going to be getting some more company.* Andrew replied as a packet of points shot into Alexander. He almost felt sorry for whatever psychic was going to have to deal with this.