Guardian stood atop the wall, on the battlements that surrounded Collinsville. His massive hands were folded behind him, and he stood tall. Taller than any of the humans around him, that was for sure.

He stood rather still, too. Guardian supposed he would understand if someone mistook him for a statue—though he was the farthest thing from a mere statue.

Guardian was a golem! A powerful one, in an extremely important role.

Though golem was a construct, he bore intelligence and personality. (More than the humans around him, that was for sure.)

Guardian chuckled to himself. The guard a few feet away jumped at the sudden noise, his eyes widening as he glanced over at Guardian. The woman gripped her spear tightly, then loosened that grip when she saw it was only him.

He had been still for the past hour, and that was the first time he’d made a noise. He didn’t need to turn his head to see outside of this place. Guardian was a protective construct, one that was plugged into the defences of the Sanctuary Seed. He could sense when others were nearby. He had a mini-map display in front of his vision that he was constantly monitoring.

If any threats neared Collinsville, there was no way that they would get past him.

After Xavier Collins had left Earth, Guardian was the strongest entity on the entire planet.

~

Alexic Kalcav slipped through the Collinsville defences with ease. He came in disguise after he encountered some refugees travelling through the forest from a nearby city. Alexic had tacked onto them, joining their little troop as they braved the beasts between them and the safety of Collinsville.

People all around Earth were hearing about this new city that had popped up in the middle of nowhere, and it wasn’t difficult for him to pose as a local.

Their speech patterns were a little strange to him—a young man kept referring to Xavier Collins as “the goat.” As far as Alexic knew, goats were four-legged beasts with small tufts of hair on their chin. They were stubborn creatures that headbutted their enemies.

Perhaps this young man thought the leader of their world was stubborn?

Alexic shook the thought away. Despite the odd ways in which the youths of this world spoke, he adapted to their speech patterns well, integrating into the group of refugees. Once they discovered he was proficient in combat, they allowed him along with them without a second thought.

In fact, they made him their unofficial leader. Which meant when he greeted the three E Grade guards at Collinsville, he was representing all of the refugees with him.

Guardian, the golem standing atop the wall—perhaps the only true threat to Alexic on the entire planet—didn’t so much as glance down at him.

This may very well be easier than I had thought.

Alexic had been sent to this planet for one specific purpose—to send a message to this Xavier Collins.

Xavier Collins himself had sent a message, not too long ago, to all of those in the Silver River sector. He had shown that while he might not be a threat to those in power today, he would be a threat tomorrow.

But Alexic did not represent anyone from this sector. He came from a neighbouring sector, one far more powerful than this one.

It was decided that this child needed to be taught a lesson, and Alexic had been sent to do the teaching.

Alexic was adept at discreet assassinations. At kidnappings and torture. He may look like a normal swordsman, but his class was closer to that of a rogue than anything else. That was one of the reasons it was so easy for him to pretend to be from this world.

He was a spy.

One that could alter his looks and the way that his aura was presented.

Unfortunately, there was one thing that Alexic was unable to alter—and that was the way that contracts functioned.

He currently had a contract running right now, one that instructed him to kill the different members of Xavier and his party’s families.

It wasn’t a difficult mission. He had easily gained the information he needed from a Champion from Collinsville that he’d captured and tortured. None of his targets would be difficult to kill—none of them were even halfway to achieving E Grade.

They were weak, and they would be easy prey.

But there was a problem. As much as Alexic thought this Xavier was owed a lesson, he was beginning to wonder if it would be the best course of action. His employer was a ruthless leader. A B Grade who was far stronger than anyone in this pitiful sector.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He was a man who thought that no one in the area was above him, and that no one in the area should ever become above him.

So he weeded out the talent that he discovered around him, or he took deals with them, ensuring that their power would become restricted and that they would never become a threat to him or his empire.

When Alexic and his people were brought through the gates, he couldn’t help but be a little stunned at how easily he’d entered this place. He was a master of infiltration, but usually places like this presented somewhat more of a challenge.

A newly created city in a fledgling world so soon after being integrated into the Greater Universe? These people should have been more afraid of strangers. More paranoid.

The security protocols in this place are horrendous.

Looking around the little city that had literally been grown from nothing, Alexic couldn’t help but be more than a little impressed. It had been some time since he’d been to a newly integrated world, and he’d never been to one that had so much infrastructure already in place at this stage in their development.

It was quite a sight, if he were honest. An achievement he wouldn’t have expected from a True Progenitor.

True Progenitors popped up from time to time, but more often than not they were lone wolves. They may create an elite team around them, and they may take measures to protect their planets—as all who chose to become Champions are want to do—but they didn’t tend to create places like this until they had been around for at least a year, maybe even two.

It was definitely a reason for his bosses to be worried.

Someone from the newly sprouted city came to show them around. There was a new section of Collinsville that was currently being grown to accommodate all the new citizens that were travelling to them, and the immigration policy was… close to non-existent.

The new area, however, had yet to be completed, so he was led to a tall apartment building with the others and told that this would be their dwelling until the places had finished growing.

The person leasing the way was a bright, perky young woman who carried a staff. She wore the white robes of a healer and seemed overly nice, like many healers often were.

The refugees that had come with him kept asking questions about safety and security, wondering whether beasts were able to get into their rooms. Some asked if other people would be able to enter their rooms.

Weak, Alexic thought. These people could barely fend for themselves out there in the forest. If it hadn’t been for him, most of them wouldn’t have even made it here.

He could have slipped away from the main crowd, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. The task he’d been given, while it was one he was confident he would achieve, was still not to be taken lightly.

To the best of his ability, he had to appear as though he was one of these people. Even after the first kidnapping was performed.

He had a fixed number of targets, and he was going to stick to them. Justin’s mother. Siobhan’s sister. Howard’s wife, daughter, and son.

And Xavier’s mother.

Alexic had been told to capture the people who might be deemed the least important to Xavier, and work his way through the others.

In the tall apartment building, he was taken up to the twentieth floor and shown into a rather bare room. It had a bed, a table, and a closet.

Nothing more.

And it was incredibly small. More like a broom closet than an actual room.

Better than sleeping outside.

“Please, feel free to make yourself comfortable,” the perky woman said in the hallway as everyone stood in front of the rooms they’d been assigned. “Tomorrow, you will each be assessed to see where you lie on the path. Your levels and classes will all be taken into account, as well as your interests. Then you will get to choose what you will do to contribute to Collinsville. We value freedom in this place, but know that everyone has to contribute something if we’re to function like a society again.”

The young woman turned and left.

That’s it?

Alexic was left to his own devices, as was everyone else from his little band of refugees. It didn’t make much sense to him.

Far too trusting. Too easy, even.

He didn’t spend long in his room. There wasn’t anything to do there. No, the first thing he did was step out of the apartment building and explore Collinsville. No one even gave him a second look as he walked through the streets. He did notice a guard or two, but they didn’t even appear to be on duty, as though they weren’t at all worried about security within the compound—or, well, city, as they were calling this place.

­Very strange indeed.

Alexic had learnt quite a lot from the man he had tortured for information. One of the things that he’d learnt was just how powerful Xavier Collins had become—or, at least, an estimation of how powerful he’d become.

And Xavier’s current level of power? Well, it was beyond Alexic’s employer’s estimation. Beyond any expectation. The footage provided in the information packet for what the man had done to a group of D Grades had reached several sectors beyond Silver River now. Everyone was watching. Everyone was curious to see what this new True Progenitor was capable of.

But no one had expected him to be as strong as he was now.

This Xavier Collins isn’t normal. He’s more powerful than he should be. More powerful than anyone should be at this stage of his development, no matter how many damned titles he might have earned.

And yet… he was this powerful.

Alexic had a decision to make.

He cased the various places where the man he’d interrogated had told him where Justin’s mother might be—the woman would be his first target. A plan was forming in his mind, one that would be difficult to pull off. One that would put him on the radar of a lot of powerful people.

But one that might ultimately serve him best in the long run.

Alexic had been loyal to his employer for many years. He had carried out every single mission the B Grade ruler had sent him on. Alexic was still only E Grade, and it had been a privilege to work for someone so powerful.

But he had also seen that his own path to power would be a long, slow one. With his ruler’s propensity to stamp out potential, he knew he couldn’t progress too quickly—knew he couldn’t stand out too much—for if he did, the stranglehold the man had on his freedom would only tighten.

Right now, the contract that he was under wasn’t a death-contract. If he refused to do what the contract told him to do, he wouldn’t lose his life. He wouldn’t even lose the System.

But he would lose every one of his levels, skills, and spells.

He would have to rebuild himself from the ground up, something he’d contemplated doing from time to time when he’d chafed at the hold that his ruler had over him.

With the power that Xavier held, and the task that Alexic had been contracted to carry out, he was starting to believe that in the long run, making Xavier Collins angry with him? Well, it wouldn’t be the wisest thing in the Greater Universe that he could do.

Either way, to achieve what he wanted, he needed to capture the people on his list. Whether that was for leverage, or to ultimately kill them… he had not yet decided.