Lisa breathed out an enormous sigh of relief as she exited the gate. Using the extremely heat-resistant powder while using echolocation at the same time was extremely taxing. For one, controlling the powder was difficult since it wasn't an ionic substance, meaning that it didn't have a strong polarity. It was a huge challenge just to get the powder to follow magnetic fields close to her skin, let alone within a few feet of her body. On top of that, she needed to use echolocation to constantly monitor if there were any areas of her hafnium bubble where magma was starting to spew, a difficult task considering that magma was seeping through her shield everywhere.

Thankfully, Lisa only had to keep the powder shield up for a few seconds.

As Lisa took her second heaving breath, Bath jetted through the gate and landed next to her. Keeping up pretenses for any surveillance devices hidden inside Illudis' gate room, Bath's metal-coated dragon form froze. Then, it bowed its head down to the floor. Finally, its maw opened, through which Bath's human form walked out. With a wave of his hand, the metal dragon began to fold in on itself until it was a cube just like the one Bath had first impersonated on Illudis.

After reading through the Universal Law Codes, one thing had been made incredibly clear to Bath and Lisa: they could not, under any circumstances, publicly reveal that Bath was a World Devourer. Lepochim hadn't been lying when he first expressed his shock over a World Devourer existing on Earth. Simply reading the World Devourer page in the chip reader encyclopedia informed Lisa and Bath that, as soon as a World Devourer's location was established, Ildr would waste no time in deploying vacuum bombs.

When Bath and Lisa looked up the vacuum bomb page, they discovered that these bombs effectively ripped an enormous hole in reality wherever they detonated, utterly destroying whatever planets--and gates--they touched. The first thing they did after reading this was confront Lepochim, asking him why, again, he neglected to bring up the existence of the Universal Law Codes.

The conversation went as follows:

"Lepo."

"Yes, Lisa?" Lepochim said, looking up from his computer in Basalith's Spire. His eyes twitched with annoyance at her use of his "nickname."

"Did you know about the World Devourer section of the Universal Law Codes?" She gritted her teeth in frustration.

"It's common knowledge," he replied innocently. "As I said before, this whole COTD business has been moving too fast; mentioning the Universal Law Codes was simply lost in the rabble. It hasn't been much more than a month since we met."

Lisa looked over at Bath, who had been watching the exchange in silence from the couch. Seeing that he wasn't going to say anything, Lisa shook her head. "Fine, whatever. Just be more thoughtful going on; remember, your fate is aligned with ours now."

Lepochim's mouth smashed into a thin line. "Of course. Is there anything else?"

"No."

Lisa and Bath then took their leave.

Now, in the holding room on Illudis, Lisa gave Bath a questioning look. They hadn't exactly planned what to do.

"Should we go to Juserin?" Lisa asked.

In the corner of the room, a speaker box started projecting a feverish voice. "Waymaster--"

Bath looked up to the ceiling, completely ignoring the voice. "Whatever you wish. Lead the way."

Lisa nodded, shifting her shoulders. Then, she took five steps, launching upward on the last. The propelled herself off the ground through a combination of her magnetic sense, physically enhanced body, and most-recently fire boon. The end result left the white, synthetic floor cracked and partially black. As she punched through the ceiling, she could just barely hear the speaker box say, "Please wait!"

Lisa rapidly picked up speed as she burst through the compound, the wind streaming around the aegis-like magnetic field coating her figure. Flames burst out from her feet, further increasing her acceleration as she tore through the sky.

"Is something wrong?" she asked as Bath joined her in the air, the two of them hovering above the compound.

"Last time, a laser attacked us as we went through the gate. Now, it was gone, and the compound was stationed with twice as many people as before." He looked down towards the now smoldering building. "Now, separately, why did you ignore the speaker box?"

Lisa looked at him, dumbstruck. "The speaker box...? Wait, I ignored it because you were ignoring it. I assumed that the place was rigged with explosives or something, which was why you suggested that I bust out through the building's roof."

"I just ignored it because you told me not to interfere," he replied, face stoic. "I said to do as you wish."

Lisa's eyebrows came together, her jaw dropping. "This isn't a test!" She wasn't on a field trip or a mock mission. This was the real deal, damn it! "I told you not to intervene by doing...well, you know. Doing anything that might give you away, for instance!"

Bath cocked his head. "I don't understand," he said. "Why does any of this matter?"

"Why...?" Lisa gazed intently into his eyes, as though searching them for an answer. 'He asked me why I ignored the speaker box,' she recalled. 'I said that I ignored it because I thought we were in danger. Now, he's asking me why I'm getting worked up about not listening to the box instead of escaping the compound.' Lisa found that laying out all the details of their conversation made answering the question far easier.

"You're right," she said after a few seconds of contemplation. "This doesn't matter. Let's go to Juserin." Lisa realized that worrying about her decision was what Bath found confusing. After all, in her position and with her kind of power, why would she ever need to worry about minor decisions like whether or not to listen to one of Juserin's subordinates on a speaker box?

Now that Bath inadvertently pointed this out, Lisa felt a bit silly. Why did she worry about whether she took the "correct" course of action? Lisa recognized that, while this mindset shouldn't apply to decisions with potentially onerous consequences--she had a responsibility, in that case, to thoroughly research the "correct" decision--it was the mindset of a powerful leader...a predator.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Bath nodded, then set out beside Lisa across the blue sky, looking down over the veritable ocean of violet, grass-like reeds below. The two had no problem finding the mountain city where Juserin lived, its snowy peak and white bodice shining in the light of a single bright sun. As they approached, they could soon make out the crimson and gold banners on the city's terraces and main gate.

As the city entered Bath's range of influence he stopped moving. Alarmed, Lisa halted her own advance.

"What's up?" she asked.

Bath's expression was solemn. "Did you ever look up the history of gate acquisition? For instance, what is the common aftermath of a Waymaster surrendering to another from a different planet?"

Lisa's face darkened. "No; why do you ask?"

"We aren't in a rush," he stated. "We should really look it up."

Trusting that Bath had an important motivation behind the request, Lisa opened up her chip reader and began to search the encyclopedia. She thought about what to search. 'Perhaps I should look up wars over resources,' Lisa thought. 'Those kinds of wars would probably lead to surrender.'

Lisa did just that, eventually finding a series of historical wars over resources a few hundred thousand years back in some area of the universe Lisa had never even heard of called Akila Galaxy. Akila Galaxy sought a large plethora of resources, from those intangible--intellectual property--to natural resources, to sapients.

Lisa read out loud. "Two hundred thousand years ago, Akila Galaxy had just begun to stabilize itself as a key power in the Intermediary Strand. It established its power by conquering any gates within its immediate vicinity, taking conquered peoples as slaves." Lisa swallowed. "After the first few gates, Akila's reputation was such that any world it attacked would usually surrender, its Waymaster performing the surrender rite dictated by the Universal Law Codes."

"And?"

"The rite of surrender doesn't provide any protections for those surrendering," Lisa murmured. "Akila Galaxy would treat the surrendered planets just the same as those it conquered through force...killing the former Waymasters on principle and enslaving the populace."

Bath frowned. "That can't be the standard way of doing things. The Universal Law Codes seem to imply that most worlds abide by a general code of honor."

"What about places on the fringes of the universe?" Lisa said. "Juserin doesn't know much about human culture. He only saw Earth before...and after COTD." COTD had, of course, fashioned Juserin a rather vivid video explaining the system of boons and the theological hierarchy. "And, if he knows anything at all from all the historical sites we visited...it's that, for the majority of human history, humans have held slaves."

Lisa gave Bath a worried look. "Do you think he believes the ultimatum is a lie?"

"I'm not sure," he replied, "but the city in front of us is empty. Aside from a single sapient."

"...Juserin?"

Bath gave Lisa a sad smile. "Who else?"

"He makes me think of an old, proud noble," Lisa muttered. "Even if he's wrong, even if he's failed those around him...he'll keep his dignity until his dying breath."

Bath reminisced about the days when proud nobles sent armies of humans to his doorstep. "Since when did you meet any nobles?"

Lisa glared, then burst over to slap him on the arm before zooming towards the city. "Might as well meet with him now, rather than keep standing around."

---

To Edgewood's mind, COTD's trajectory had completely changed the day that humans were first allowed to go through the gate...just after the release of the spearrows.

At first, Edgewood had scoffed at the name--wasn't that a god-awful pokemon?--but that was only because Russia was one of the last regions the birds arrived. He'd read numerous news stories online about the birds' ferocious attacks, but hadn't paid the topic that much attention.

Then, the birds had arrived at Kray City...and nearly wiped the place out.

Edgewood knew they Kray City was a mess, even before the spearrows came knocking. Susan and David had effectively left the city to "elope" two days after its formation. That just left Edgewood, Kayt, and Anne to figure everything out. Kayt decided that she'd be in charge of Kray City's facilities and normal operations. Edgewood then claimed the position of overseeing the city's defenses and organized combat training.

This left, unfortunately, the final aspect of the city's leadership, religious guidance, to Anne. While Edgewood had never visited one of her services, he did know Kray City's official chant: "Power is the Way of Kray." At first listen, the chant sounded innocuous.

However, because the city was located in Russia, one of the few countries that absolutely refused to submit to COTD, the majority of Kray's early residents were Russia's less-than-savory figures on the run from the government. As COTD gained more and more influence, increasingly large hordes of normal people entered the city as well...unfortunately, the shady folks who entered the city first had a palpable head start.

They used this head start to set up a system of perverse feudalism. Edgewood assumed that the leader of religious guidance was supposed to prevent these kinds of things from happening, but Anne clearly didn't get the memo.

As a result of this system of oppression, the spearrows absolutely ripped through Kray City like a hurricane, pecking many who engaged in instituting the system of feudalism to death. They attacked nearly 50% of the city, ultimately killing around 10% of the population.

This, on its own, couldn't qualify as "wiping out" Kray City. No; the real shitstorm started as soon as all the people who had been oppressed had the opportunity to beat down on their heavily injured oppressors.

That was when the casualties had really started to mount. Edgewood, Kayt, and Anne had all rapidly deployed their human and quasi-sapient subordinates to contain the damage, joining the fray themselves to engender order. Despite their efforts, by the time everything was under control, 40% of Kray City lay dead. The other 60% of its population were, almost without exception, wounded, though caretakers took care of their wounds easily enough.

Ever since that day, Kray City had been noticeably different. It was a somber place, though inarguably a better place to live now that the feudalism was gone. Of everyone, Edgewood thought that Anne had been affected the most, if only because of how seriously she involved herself in her religious guidance position.

'It's a shame she's so young,' he thought glumly to himself. Anne was just a kid, not even out of high school. Even if she acted tough and wielded her dragonleaf club like a baseball pro, she used to be surrounded by an air of energetic naivete. Now, Edgewood detected that this was gone.

If anything, Anne seemed...lonely. A sense of pity is what spurred him to invite her over to his wing of the Spire's living quarters. Sure, it was just up one flight of stairs, but he and Anne had never voluntarily spent time together.

After a night of watching movies and eating copious amounts of popcorn, she'd asked him to go off world with her.

And he'd said no.

"Wait," he'd said. "Wait a few years until everything is safe."

"You don't think I can handle it?" she'd replied angrily.

"There's a reason why I'm still here," Edgewood had snapped. "Don't think it's because I love this city, or because I love Earth."

"Then why...?" Edgewood had thought that this side of the teen, the reserved, confused side, was oddly endearing.

He had then looked her square in the eye. "I'm not gonna die establishing a colony on some god-forsaken planet. Mark my words, kid: path points are the major currency now. Once people start to routinely earn years of lifespan, I'd bet yah 5 pp that they'll enter the economy as well. When that happens, people like us--the leaders--will, at the very least, be able to afford lifespan increases."

"So you're saying that there's no rush," Anne had finished. "You're telling me to wait, then go later."

"Exactly."

"Where's the excitement in that?" To Anne, exploring unknown worlds had the greatest appeal. Taking a pleasure cruise or winter vacation to nearby, already established planets sounded so...dull.

To that, Edgewood had replied, "There's excitement everywhere; some kinds you just have to make yourself."

Anne had sighed in response. Then, dragging her dragonleaf club off the couch, she had said, "Thanks for the movies and chat. See you around."