“My name is Xavier Collins.” Xavier held his hand out to the man.

Alistair smirked at his hand, then looked at his own—which was still covered in blood. “Wouldn’t want go get this on you.”

Xavier withdrew his hand and nodded. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about this guy, but if he’d been in Fronton—or whatever this city would now be called—since the System integrated Earth, he might know a thing or two.

Besides, he was good with those daggers. The more strong fighters Earth had, the better.

“Have you been in this city for a while?” Xavier asked.

The dark-haired man inclined his head. “Ever since the System came.” Alistair looked over at the portal. His forehead creased, and he cocked his head to the side. There was something jerky about his movements, like a bird or a marionette. “Why hasn’t the portal closed? They’ve usually closed by now.”

Xavier stepped in front of the portal. “Sometimes they don’t close on their own.” He reached out to the surface of the portal, stopping his hand short, thinking about what Adranial had told him about making an impression on the enemy.

He could step through. In an instant, he would be in another world.

It’s certainly tempting.

“Don’t worry, I have a way of closing it.” Xavier could have stuck the Portal Block into the floor beneath him right then and there, but he still wanted to send his message.

“Do you now?” Alistair took a step toward him. His hands were folded behind his back. There was still something strange about the man. Then again, he wondered how people would see him these days, what with his dark robes, his vicious scythe, and his compulsion to reap souls and decapitate heads.

“I do. But first, I want to send a message to whatever world they came from.”

Alistair froze. “A message? I thought you were from Earth. Why would you want to send a message to another world?”

Xavier turned to fully face the other man. “I want them to know we aren’t worth their time. That Earth is being protected, and sending people to invade it is a surefire way to lose one’s head.” He summoned the head of the half-elf, half-orc leader, holding it by the hair. As the head materialised from his Storage Ring, Xavier studied Alistair’s facial expressions, testing his reaction to this.

Alistair wasn’t like the citizens back at Xavier’s base. He hadn’t been captured by invaders and turned into a slave. For the past weeks that the world had been under attack, he’d clearly been fighting. He was a man that was familiar with violence, and Xavier didn’t feel the need to hide his actions.

Another smirk slipped onto Alistair’s lips as he saw the severed head. The smirk didn’t last long—just a fraction of a second—but Xavier was easily able to perceive it. It made him think of a TV show he used to watch called Lie To Me, where the main characters were able to discern someone’s lies, and their true emotions, from observing micro-expressions that briefly flashed on their faces.

Th next expression Alistair wore was one of slight disgust. He cringed, staring at the head. “You’ve been carrying that around in your Storage Ring?”

Xavier thought of all the corpses of enemy beasts he’d gathered from battlefields in the past. “I’ve carried around worse.”

Alistair’s face scrunched up.

He’s not actually disgusted. He’s delighted.

Xavier wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Even he felt trepidation and a little disgust at what he was doing. He tossed the head through the portal, then summoned the Portal Block to his hand.

Alistair took an almost imperceptible step back. “What is that, some kind of mage weapon?”

“It’s called a Portal Block.” Xavier bent over and stabbed it into the ground. The crystal at the top of the iron rod glowed. Behind him, the light from the portal disappeared, and the portal along with it. Xavier tore the Portal Block back out of the ground.

Alistair stared at the item with something between desire and glee. “Where did you get that? Did you loot it from one of the invaders?”

“I got it while I was in the Tower of Champions.”

“The Tower… of Champions…” Alistair said the words as though he was tasting them. “Sounds familiar. I think the tutorial mentioned something like that.”

A notification appeared in Xavier’s vision—a quest notification. As it did, Alistair’s eyes glazed over briefly. He must have received one as well.

We’re not in a party, but did we just complete the same quest?

Xavier brought up the notification.

Quest Complete!

You have completed the quest: Clear bandits from the building.

Bandits from another world were seeking to gain an advantage from yours. They have been defeated, their portal closed, destroying the threat.

You have achieved a Partial Quest Completion of 65% for completing the quest with an unallied Denizen.

Here are your rewards:

1. 5 Mastery Points (E Grade)

What, no items? Was that because of the partial quest completion?

Maybe it was because this was a smaller threat than the invaders up on the mountaintop, and therefore it garnered a much smaller reward, a reward that’s been further cut down because of the partial completion…

5 Mastery Points. It almost felt as though the System was teasing him.

Only need one more…

He’d never attained a partial quest completion before. Xavier hadn’t even known it was possible, though he was glad to see that despite the fact that Alistair had killed more of the invaders than Xavier had, Xavier had gotten a higher percentage of the quest than the other man.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That must be because I killed the invasion leader and closed the portal.

He noticed Alistair scowl when reading through his own notifications, though the scowl only flickered briefly on his face.

Still trying to hide his emotions.

Xavier wanted to ignore the bad vibes he was getting from this guy. There were other things he needed to do. There was only so much time before he had to bring Adranial and her party into the fold. And then there was whoever wished to challenge him for the base at the end of the first twenty-four-hour period from when he’d created it.

When he used the Portal Stone, he wanted to return to the base having achieved more than just taking out a few invader bases and camps.

“Can I ask you a few questions, Alistair?”

The man shrugged. “Of course. We all need to help each other now the world’s gone to crap, don’t we?” He smiled.

Xavier frowned. “Of course.” Xavier went on to ask the man what he knew of the Safe Zones that held all those under the age of sixteen, and where they might be. As well as if he knew where other survivors might be.

Alistair ran a hand through his hair. The way he did it was strange. His forearm blocked his mouth. “I… I’m sorry, I don’t think I can be of any help on that. My tutorial…” Alistair dropped his arm. His face was drawn, forehead creased, gaze turned to the ground. “We were attacked.” He motioned to the dead elves scattered about the room. “By alien invaders.” He bit his lip. Shut his eyes. As though he were struggling to get the words out. “I was the only one who survived.” The man’s lip quivered.

He’s putting this all on.

It was clear as day to Xavier that this man was lying to him, or at least faking how he felt about everything. Perhaps he shouldn’t be ignoring the bad vibes he was getting after all.

“So, can I ask you a few questions?” Alistair said.

“Of course.” Xavier shrugged.

“What was it you did to them back there?” Alistair waved a hand at the door, indicating the outside of the building. “They came to attack you and just… froze. What’s up with that? Some kind of mind control spell?”

“Something like that.”

Alistair shuddered. “That’s powerful.” He eyed Xavier. “Did you read that notification about the Base Leader?”

Xavier nodded. “I did.” If not for all the weird feelings he was getting from the man, Xavier would have told him that he was the Base Leader. Now, that felt like something he should keep close to the chest. “That Base Leader isn’t you, is it?” Xavier asked, in an attempt to throw the man off.

Alistair chuckled. “No. But I’m curious to find out who it is.”

Xavier thought about all the small smiles he’d seen the man hide. The way he spoke about his tutorial. Then he wondered why he was bothering to beat around the bush. This guy was strong for someone currently on Earth—he would have been able to take down the entire invasion camp by himself, and he’d clearly done it before, the way he’d been talking about portals closing on their own.

That sounded like someone who could be an asset, but not if he was hiding something.

Xavier looked the man in the eye. “What are you hiding?”

Alistair blinked. His expression shifted. He smiled warmly. “Hiding? What do you mean?”

“There’s something you’re not telling me.”

“Oh, there’s a lot I’m not telling you.” Alistair paused. “But isn’t that the same for you? We’ve just met. There’s a lot of ground to cover.”

“Cut the crap, Alistair. I saw the way you looked at that severed head. The way you hid your mouth when talking about your tutorial. Were they really attacked?”

Alistair’s smile didn’t slip. “Yes. They were really attacked.” He sighed. “I thought I was better at this.”

“Better at what?”

Alistair cocked his head to the side in that eerie, jerky way that he seemed to like. “At hiding in plain sight.” He summoned his daggers to his hands. “I wasn’t lying.” His smile widened. “They were attacked. Murdered, actually. All of them…”

Xavier’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. “You were the one who attacked them.”

“Ding, ding, ding!” Alistair snapped into action. He teleported, slipping through a dark patch of shadow then stepping out of another one directly behind Xavier.

Xavier saw the attack coming. He could have summoned a Soul Block to defend against it. He could have used Otherworld Phase to get out of its way, or Soul Stepped, or simply dodged or blocked it with Charon’s Scythe, but all of those options seemed unnecessary.

Besides, he wanted to see how hard this guy hit.

A dagger stabbed straight into where his kidney was, only the tip of the blade barely penetrated Xavier’s skin.

He looked at his health.

Your health is at 99.5%.

Xavier blinked. Half a percentage point—that was actually better than he’d expected.

“Huh,” Alistair said.

Xavier poured purple mist from his body. Alistair was from Earth. He wasn’t an invader from another world. The man shouldn’t have been an enemy. He had been fighting the invaders.

Yet he’d attack Xavier unprovoked.

And apparently, he attacked his own tutorial. Killed them all. Was that how he became strong to begin with? Killing innocents? Amassing more and more Mastery Points from his own people?

If Xavier had gone through the Tower of Champions the way everyone else had, instead of gaining so many record titles, hitting the number one spots for most of the floors, and spending six entire months on the fifth floor until he finally reached E grade, this Alistair guy probably would have been able to kick his ass.

A purple mist shot from Xavier, moving to control the other man. Once again, he thought of Adranial’s sentiment—contract or kill. Right now, those were his options.

And he hated this man with a passion.

A rage filled him, one he hadn’t felt for a while.

This man wasn’t just an invader, trying to expand their own world and interests at the expense of Xavier’s. He wasn’t someone who’d grown up in the System, thinking all of this was just normal—which was something Xaiver could at least understand.

No, this was someone who’d grown up on Earth. Who’d then turned around and betrayed his own people. The very people he should have been protecting!

If he could contract this man, rein in his homicidal tendencies, maybe he would be an asset. Even if he was a deplorable person.

How’s that for a punishment, being forced to protect the very people you’ve harmed?

Commander Alden Trellot had called what he was thinking of proposing a slave contract. Xavier abhorred the term slavery, and Alden Trellot had called him out for his hypocrisy.

Perhaps Alden had been right to call him out on that.

I’ll give him a choice. He clearly enjoys killing. If I point him in the right direction, I could use that to Earth’s advantage, instead of its detriment. I just need to ensure he won’t hurt anyone…

He wasn’t thinking of sparing the man’s life because he felt for him, or because he wanted to avoid killing—he would kill the man in a heartbeat if he deemed it necessary.

But the purple mist, his Willpower Infusion spell, did nothing. Alistair held a familiar item in his hand, a Mental Defence Array. It looked identical to the one Xavier had seen used before.

“Thought this might come in handy,” Alistair said.

Xavier locked the man in a Heavy Telekinesis grip, but he should have realised it wouldn’t work. In his rage, he hadn’t been thinking clearly.

Alistair teleported away. His aura disappeared, then reappeared outside the building, on the opposite side of where the invaders had been slain—which meant there was no way for Xavier to Soul Step over there.

I’ll just have to use Soul Strike to kill him.

He couldn’t let someone like that get away. A self-professed murderer who’d attacked Xavier unprovoked. A man who’d betrayed his own people and derived pleasure from it.

Xavier blinked. The man’s aura jumped again, then it… disappeared?

That’s not possible.

~

Alistair Reed teleported as fast as he ever had.

Bless the System for the short cooldown on his teleportation ability. Without it, something told him he wouldn’t have gotten out of there alive.

And bless the System for the items he’d been able to procure from all the invaders he’d killed. He touched an amulet around his neck, one that had an imbued ability that allowed him to hide his aura.

Xavier Collins would never be able to find him now.

How could I have not been able to kill that man? And how was he able to tell that I was lying so easily?

Not only that, how in the hell was the bastard able to immobilise him with that spell? It must have been some kind of telekinesis, but Alistair had never come across someone who was able to use it as strongly as this Xavier Collins had.

The man may have been able to see through Alistair’s lies, but Alistair had been able to see through his lies too. When he asked about who the Base Leader might be, Alistair could tell the man had been lying through his teeth.

Later that day, Alistair had been planning on challenging the Base Leader. If he won the fight, took over the territory, it could jump start the next part of his plan.

But considering who the Base Leader was, and how powerful he was? Even if Alistair somehow caught him off guard, which didn’t seem likely in ritual combat, there was no way he’d be able to defeat him.

I guess I’m not the strongest force on Earth after all.

Perhaps that should have been disappointing. It was his goal to be the strongest. But instead, it was invigorating.

I need allies… and I think I know exactly how to find them.