Beast Lord Phantom Fox stalked through the streets of the town with a consternated expression. "Where did all the humans go?"

"We aren't sure, my Lord." One of their lieutenants reported. "All our Spirit Beasts were taken out by that strange smoke, and the Essence and Qi Beasts simply report that the humans ran, and then they were gone."

Beast Lord Phantom Fox growled in frustration. Rune Beasts had little to no intellect without Spirit, though Qi Beasts could be canny at times. It wasn't that their minds weren't quick enough, there was just some spark that came from Spirit Runes that the others simply lacked. "Then where did they go?!?"

"They appear to have simply disappeared. There are no signs of any mass evacuation. It appears they simply went into the castle and vanished." The lieutenant shook their head helplessly. "We're searching for any hidden passages, but with so many of our Spirit Beasts gone… our forces are spread thin."

Beast Lord Phantom Fox snorted and disappeared, flitting out of the town and joining the other three Beast Lords. "Useless!"

"Calm, Phantom Fox." Beast Lord Mountain Turtle rumbled. "What have you discovered?"

"I've discovered nothing!" Phantom Fox snapped. "The humans are gone, and their monstrous ways are gone with them! Torturing our brethren was bad enough but now this smoke nonsense…" Phantom Fox shook their head.

Beast Lord Boundless Groundhog shuddered. "Torturing Rune Beasts until their only recourse is to detonate their cores… what could possibly have possessed them to go to such lengths?!? Did they really think we would just sit back and do nothing!?!"

"Obviously they didn't." Beast Lord Crimson Badger growled. "Otherwise they would be here, dying, instead of disappearing as they did! They were prepared!"

"The others are clearly incapable of finding the humans." Mountain Turtle sighed, climbing to their feet. "It seems we must take a more active role. Let us go to the castle."

The four Beast Lords entered the town, making their way to the castle, searching as they did for any signs of how the humans had managed to escape, spreading their senses and energy to the limit, but discovering nothing. That is, until they reached the castle and entered the audience chamber and a cloud of smoke rose from the floor, turning into a man. "Ha! I told you they'd come here eventually!" Greg whooped, before pausing. "You guys are the Beast Lords, right?" He looked around at all the other Rune Beasts giving the four of them a wide berth. "Yeah, you gotta be."

"I never said they wouldn't come here." Chris commented as he appeared next to him. "I said it was a waste of time to wait for them here. And it was."

"It is specifically not a waste of time!" Greg protested. "Instead of wasting our time searching for them, they came to us! That's called efficiency!"

"No, efficiency would be not waiting around when we could be going somewhere." Chris retorted. "It's a waste of time because we don't need to talk to these guys."

"But I want to talk to them, so it isn't a waste of time." Greg countered.

Chris cocked his head. "Okay, it's a waste of time for me, but not for you. Fair?"

"Fair." Greg nodded, before turning to the stunned looking Beast Lords. "So! Why'd you guys attack us, huh?" Greg waited a moment for them to respond, before turning to Chris. "They're supposed to be intelligent, right? Or can they just not talk… I suppose just being intelligent doesn't necessarily mean they speak the language, huh? Wait… my trait lets me speak with anyone, so that can't be it." Greg frowned as if trying to figure out a complicated puzzle.

The Beast Lords shared a look. These two didn't seem powerful, they didn't even appear to be Cultivators, but… that man had formed from the smoke that had terrorized their Spirit Beasts, and the other had simply appeared through some form of spatial ability! That, plus their apparent disregard for the four Unification Realm Rune Beasts in front of them, meant they had to be careful here. "You are Cultivators of this town?" Phantom Fox asked tentatively.

"Hey, they do speak!" Greg exclaimed.

"We're not." Chris answered Phantom Fox's question, ignoring Greg.

"Then… Why do you oppose us?" Phantom Fox asked with a frown.

"Well, we couldn't exactly just sit back and let you kill everyone, now could we?" Greg replied with a shrug. "We're kinda opposed to people killing people. So how about you tell us why you were trying to kill everyone, so we know if we need to kill you all or not?"

Phantom Fox blinked. "You oppose killing, but you would kill us?"

"Well, if I need to kill you to keep you from killing people, then that's what I gotta do." Greg chuckled. "Even if I like it."

"Don't you mean even if you don't like it?" Boundless Groundhog frowned.

"I said what I said." Greg winked at them.

"Stop being inciteful." Chris interjected, poking Greg in the side before turning back to the Beast Lords. "We can't even do anything to you at the moment."

"False, I can annoy the fuck out of them." Greg commented. "That's something."

Chris cocked his head. "Okay, we can't do anything violent to you."

"No, we can do it, it just wouldn't be very effective." Greg corrected again.

"We can't hurt you. Good?" Chris amended, raising an eyebrow at Greg.

"I can insult them and hurt their feelings." Greg smirked.

Chris nodded. "We can't physically harm you, then."

Greg cocked his head, considering the statement for a moment. "Yeah, I think that's got it." He eventually agreed with a shrug.

"You- can't harm us?" Phantom Fox asked.

"We can't physically harm you. Yet." Greg corrected. "I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Unless you die of old age first, but I'd still count that as a win."

"What if we kill you right now?" Crimson Badger growled, stepping forward menacingly.

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that." Greg frowned, turning to Chris. "Wow, we were really stupid to come here, weren't we? How could we possibly forget that the uber-beasts could kill us?!?"

Chris gave him a flat, unamused look. "Don't be an ass. They don't know we're immortal."

Greg snorted. "Yeah, well they should at least assume we're not idiots." Greg gave Crimson Badger a look. "Seriously. I'm disappointed in you."

"You-" Crimson Badger began in a shocked tone, before pausing. "You expect us to believe you're immortal?" They scoffed incredulously. "Why would gods care about some shithole of a town in some shithole of a country?!?"

Greg and Chris shared a look. "Because we're here?" Chris answered with a shrug.

"Also, I wouldn't say I care so much about the town as much as I care about stopping the killing." Greg added. "We could have been anywhere, and I'd still try to stop you. Unless there was a reason you had to kill everyone in the town… in which case we'd all sit down and have a long discussion to figure out if there's some other solution to your conflict. And if not, we just kill whoever is most wrong."

"What if neither side is wrong?" Chris asked.

Greg placed a hand on his shoulder. "Someone is always wrong. If you think they aren't, then you just aren't looking hard enough."

Chris frowned, before shaking his head. "No, see, sometimes there are simply conflicts of interest that can't be solved, but no one is actually right. Like two tribes surviving on limited resources who both grow to the point where they need to take the other tribe's resources to survive. They both deserve to live, but they can't unless they doom the other. Neither is wrong, but conflict happens anyway."

"Ah, but if they both took a loss, they could both continue to survive." Greg pointed out. "If neither side has any right to the other's resources, then resorting to violence to steal those resources is still wrong."

"But could you really watch your child starve to death when you know they could live if you simply took what you needed from a stranger?" Chris retorted.

"No, but that doesn't mean I'd be right to do it. Just because a motivation is understandable doesn't mean it's permissible." Greg countered. "Just because I would one hundred percent burn down the world just to keep Tessa and Ash safe doesn't mean I should be allowed to do it. People should totally stop me from doing that, if they can, and they'd be right, and I'd be wrong. If it was possible, they should even kill me, because I wouldn't stop. Similarly, it isn't right to condemn someone else to starvation so that you can live, and it would be especially wrong to use violence to make it happen, even if it'd be completely understandable. Like, I get it, but you're still an asshole, you know?"

Chris cocked his head. "What if neither side has any right to the resources, and the other simply out competes the other?"

"Sucks to be the loser, I guess." Greg shrugged.

"What if that competition involves killing each other?" Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Sucks to be the loser." Greg grinned. "I'm not against two parties voluntarily entering into violent competition. If two dudes want to fight to the death over some bullshit, all the power to them. It's only when one party uses violence to force the other party to give up whatever they have that I have a problem."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Hmmm…" Chris hummed thoughtfully. "Okay, let's say tribe one has claimed a certain set of resources, but tribe two doesn't recognize their claim and takes them anyway. Tribe one is understandably pissed, because in their eyes tribe two stole from them, but tribe two doesn't think they did anything wrong, because according to them, you can't just claim resources, you have to actually go out and get them. Who is wrong?"

"Did they forget we're here?" Boundless Groundhog whispered.

"Shhh! This is getting interesting!" Mountain Turtle hissed back.

"Does tribe one have the right to claim resources?" Greg asked.

"According to them, yes, but I mean, who really has a right to anything?" Chris shrugged. "Though, let's say that historically they have claimed the resources, but tribe two never needed them before, so they never touched them."

Greg frowned. "Oh, precedent. That does complicate things… but ultimately I have to say that tribe one never had any actual rights to the resources, and while being pissed is understandable, it doesn't give them the right to resort to violence."

Chris paused for a moment. "Okay, how about this. What if the resources tribe two needs to live are tribe one? Like with parasites. Or hunting." He gestured to the Rune Beasts. "They attack because they need to live, tribe one defends because they also want to live. Or are you going to say eating meat is wrong?"

"Well, if that meat is intelligent…" Greg glanced at the Rune Beasts. "Huh. Okay, that gets tricky." He frowned. "Tribe one is the only resource tribe two can use to sustain themselves?"

"Yes." Chris nodded.

"Do they have to kill tribe one in the process?" Greg asked.

"Yes." Chris nodded again.

Greg scowled, before shaking his head with a sigh. "If they're both intelligent, then neither has any more right to life than the other, and by attacking, tribe two is saying they're more important than tribe one, so they're wrong. Now, if I was a part of tribe two, I'd still definitely do it, but again, that just makes it understandable, not right."

Chris considered it for a moment, before shrugging. "Okay, I got nothing." He turned to the Beast Lords. "How about you guys?"

"Doesn't this suggest that you were wrong to kill all those Spirit Beasts?" Phantom Fox offered.

"Ah, no, see, that was self-defense." Greg replied. "You initiated the violence, I just ended it."

"Hold on!" Crimson Badger interjected. "You initiated the violence when you decided to torture Rune Beasts!"

Greg blinked, turning to Chris. "Did we do that?"

"We haven't been here long enough to know." Chris shook his head. "Wait a moment." In Chris's world, he appeared next to Albert and teleported Tiffany over.

"Stop doing that!" Tiffany yelped as she appeared.

"Were you guys torturing Rune Beasts?" Chris asked the two of them, ignoring her.

Albert frowned. "Why would we torture Rune Beasts?"

"The Hidden Blades wouldn't do something so pointless." Tiffany snorted.

Chris nodded as his other self turned back to the Beast Lords. "They said they didn't do it."

"Bullshit!" Crimson Badger retorted. "There's evidence of Rune Beasts detonating their cores all over your territory! Do you expect us to believe they simply destroyed themselves on a whim?!?"

Chris frowned. "They say there's evidence of Rune Beasts detonating their cores all over your territory." His other self passed on to Albert and Tiffany.

"Who says?" Albert asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The Beast Lords." Chris replied.

Albert's eyes widened. "You're talking to the Beast Lords?!?"

Chris shrugged. "It was Greg's idea." He glanced between the two of them. "So? Any idea why Rune Beasts are detonating their cores?"

Tiffany coughed awkwardly. "That, uh… that would be because of Thomas. Though I wouldn't say he was torturing them. He was just draining their cores for points, and the Rune Beasts kinda panicked."

Chris frowned. "So it is our fault…" He shook his head as his other self turned to Greg. "It was Thomas."

Greg raised an eyebrow. "Really? Huh… I never would have pegged him for the torturing random animals type. Kinda more my thing, don't you think?"

"Apparently all he was doing was draining their cores for points and the Rune Beasts panicked." Chris explained. He paused, turning to the Beast Lords. "Is getting your core drained painful?"

Mountain Turtle hummed. "I wouldn't say it would be painful, but for a Rune Beast, to lose your cultivation would be to lose everything. There wouldn't be much point in living after that." Mountain Turtle nodded. "Yes, that could explain the core detonations."

"But why would anyone drain someone's core while they still lived?!?" Crimson Badger asked. "If you have the power to drain their core while they live, then you have more than enough power to kill them quickly, avoiding the risk of them detonating their core!"

"Thomas isn't powerful." Greg commented, shaking his head. "I think he's around the peak of Core Strengthening? One core at that. He just has an ability that lets him drain cores."

Crimson Badger blinked. "He- really?"

"Yeah, like my smoke, and Chris's world." Greg nodded. "Just something he can do, not related to power."

Crimson Badger frowned. "Well… even so, driving Rune Beasts into such deep despair that they feel their only recourse is to detonate their own core is abhorrent, no matter how powerful you are! Such actions cannot be allowed to continue!"

"Sure, I can get that." Greg agreed, giving Crimson Badger a thumbs up. "We'll make sure Thomas knows and it won't happen again."

"And why should we believe that!" Crimson Badger growled. "If you'll do it once, you'll do it again! No, we've put up with you humans for long enough! No more! You are a blight on this land, and you must be removed!" Crimson badger finished with a roar, a crimson energy lashing out of him and slicing the two of them to pieces!

"You idiot!" Phantom Fox exclaimed. "They knew where the humans are! How are we supposed to find them now!"

"I think they had some good points." Mountain Turtle rumbled. "I would have liked to keep talking to them."

"I'm still worried about this 'Thomas' that was draining our people's cores." Boundless Groundhog added. "He's still out there."

"And because of Crimson Badger, we've lost our only lead on where he might be!" Phantom Fox growled.

"Why does no one ever believe us when we say we're immortal?" Greg sighed, causing the four Beast Lords to freeze.

"It is somewhat unbelievable." Chris shrugged. "I mean, besides us, how many other immortals have you met?"

Greg paused. "Okay, good point." He turned to the Beast Lords. "Well, you should at least believe us now, right? Or do you want to kill us again?" Crimson Badger roared, sending out another wave of crimson energy. "Dude, I was kidding!" Greg snapped as he reformed. He pulled out a rolled up newspaper and smacked Crimson Badger on the nose. "Bad badger!"

Crimson Badger pulled back with a shocked snort, before lashing out with a claw. "Bad human!"

"Bad badger!" Greg retorted as he smacked Crimson Badger on the nose again.

"Bad human!" Crimson Badger countered with another swipe.

"Bad badger!"

"Bad human!"

"Bad badger!"

"Bad human!"

"Enough!" Mountain Turtle roared, a barrier appearing between the two, stopping the endless loop of retaliation, before turning to study Chris and Greg with a serious expression. "So… you both are actually immortal?"

"Or they're simply projections." Crimson Badger muttered.

"Unlikely." Phantom Fox shook their head. "They have too much of a presence."

"But why would immortals be here?" Boundless Groundhog gulped.

"Why are you here?" Chris shrugged.

"We were born here." Boundless Groundhog frowned.

"And this is where we entered the World as well." Chris replied.

"You're saying your presence here is a mere coincidence?!?" Phantom Fox asked incredulously.

"Well, I mean, we're here because of Thomas. But I guess Thomas being here was a coincidence, so basically, yeah." Greg nodded. "Though, since he's the one who caused all this… not a coincidence?"

"What does Thomas have to do with anything?" Mountain Turtle frowned.

"He's immortal too." Greg replied. "As is Andrew. The four of us are kind of a set."

"The person torturing our brethren is immortal!?!" Boundless Groundhog exclaimed incredulously.

"Oh, don't worry, we'll get him to stop." Greg waved dismissively.

"We try not to be assholes." Chris nodded in agreement. "Bad habit to get into when you're immortal."

Mountain Turtle huffed in amusement. "You both have such interesting perspectives."

"Anyway, if you guys are still going to insist on killing everyone, I guess we're going to have to move on." Chris sighed. "Ah well. Probably for the best anyway. Great way to avoid all that 'Hidden Blades' stuff."

"The Hidden Blades?!?" Phantom Fox jerked in shock. "Why would a major sect have any interest in this area!?!"

"Well, for starters they're trying to take over everything." Chris replied. "Plus, one of their Elders has taken an interest in Thomas."

"Ugh, why is this Thomas the cause of so many problems?!?" Boundless Groundhog groaned.

"Well, he's been here the longest." Greg chuckled. "Give us time and I'm sure we'll cause some problems ourselves."

"Not that we want to." Chris added. "Just kinda happens."

"Hold on, are you actually suggesting the Hidden Blades are attempting to become an Empire!?!" Phantom Fox interjected.

"Yup." Chris nodded, before pausing and turning to Greg. "Was that supposed to be a secret?"

"Yes, but it isn't our secret, so it doesn't matter." Greg assured him.

Phantom Fox scowled. "We cannot allow another Empire to rise! Beast Lords are only just beginning to re-emerge! If another Empire rises, it could be the end of Rune Beasts on this continent! Our only place would be as fodder for the Empire's younger generation!"

"Now, now, even if an Empire does rise, there is no way they can completely erase all wilderness areas." Mountain Turtle soothed the fox. "However, the rise of a new Empire is still concerning, particularly if it's beginning in this region…" Mountain Turtle sighed. "Unfortunately, we cannot face the Hidden Blades. Their Sect Master would hunt us down and use our cores to raise their next generation. There is a reason we hide in the deep forest."

"So what can we do?" Boundless Groundhog asked nervously.

"We can run." Phantom Fox grumbled.

"No, we should fight!" Crimson Badger retorted. "We should gather all the Beast Lords and create a giant Beast Wave to tear down the Hidden Blades once and for all!"

"Yes, because that worked out so well here." Phantom Fox rolled their eyes.

"The Hidden Blades don't have immortals helping them!" Crimson Badger countered.

"Do you want immortals helping you?" Chris offered.

The Beast Lords froze. "What?" They asked in unison.

"Yeah, what?" Greg raised an eyebrow at him.

Chris shrugged. "We're all opposed to the Hidden Blades taking over, right? Why not work together to stop them?"

"Well, for one, they seem to have a bit of a grudge against humanity." Greg pointed out. "Not that I blame them… we literally have a giant organization dedicated to hunting them. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, is kinda fucked up given the fact that they're clearly intelligent."

Chris shook his head. "I'm not saying we need to like each other, just cooperate on this one task. Our grudge with each other is minimal, while the Hidden Blades represent a much more… significant threat. Why fight between ourselves while a larger enemy bears down on us?"

"I mean, I get that, but I feel like the end result of that is we defeat the Hidden Blades only to turn around and have a new problem ready to stab us in the ass." Greg frowned. "Just because we have a common enemy, doesn't mean we aren't still enemies. I know they say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but when the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy, I don't suddenly have two new friends."

Chris sighed. "Fine, we won't help them. Are we done here then?"

Greg paused. "I guess so." He shrugged, turning to the Beast Lords. "Nice meeting you all, thanks for the info, kill ya later!" Greg winked, shooting them finger guns, before turning into a cloud of smoke and flying off.

"Bye." Chris just waved and disappeared.

The Beast Lords blinked at where the two men used to be, and Boundless Groundhog gulped. "I feel like that's going to be bad for us."