The nearest human encampment- the one that this ‘container’ had belonged to- was only a few hundred feet away, and so he was there in no time. He’d already killed the vast majority of the warriors of said encampment, as they’d all charged off to the ‘container’ and died there, but he still detected life. Turi leapt over the six-foot-tall chain-link fence and approached the nearest tent, ripping it open to find a human child hiding in its corner.

Turi instantly realized that the boy had been watching his massacre. He was holding a knife, trembling. Tears ran down his face, and the moment that Turi stepped inside, he tried to stab him.

The knife slid off of his feathers effortlessly, but he was unsure of what to do. The child had no responsibility for what his caretakers had done, but at the same time… he’d watched Turi kill those very same caretakers. There was no way that the boy was going to come with him peacefully. So… did he leave the kid? Kidnap him? Find a more reasonable adult to convince the kid? He was pretty sure that there were a few still left in here.

‘I should at least try talking first…’

“What’s your name, child?” Ascenturi asked. The child tried to stab him three more times, and just as he was about to settle on temporary kidnapping, the boy seemed to realize that there was no way out of this.

“I… I’m Parker.” The boy said, through heaving sobs. Turi was almost surprised by the fact he’d given in, but upon further thought… it was likely the child had learned to be strong to the weak and weak to the strong due to his… unfortunate caretakers.

“I am sorry for what has happened today, Parker. Will you come with me, please?” Turi asked. Several long, tense seconds passed before the boy managed to force out a response.

“I- I guess,” Parker said. Turi’s new attunement made it easy to understand what he was really thinking. ‘It’s not like I have a choice,’.

Turi turned around and left the room, glad to hear the boy’s hesitant steps and sounds of panic following him. He walked to the next occupied tent more slowly this time, with Parker in tow.

“How old are you, exactly, Parker?”

“Eight,” Parker forced out.

Sensing that the boy only talked to him in the hopes of surviving the genocidal humanoid bird creature, Turi shut up.

The next occupied tent he entered contained yet another child- a little girl, a bit older than Parker. Unlike him, however, she clearly hadn’t seen what he’d done and only heard the sounds- after all, it hadn’t occurred very far away. With Parker and the fact she didn’t exactly know it was him that had killed her family, it wasn’t too hard to convince her to come with him as well, thanks to his authoritative and personable aura.

“What’s your name?” Turi asked her. She seemed more open to talking than Parker, and responded without as much restrained hate in her voice.

“Lily,” Lily said.

“And how old are you, Lily?”

“I’m ten!” She answered excitedly.

‘Parker saw the killing, and seems a bit… dark, for a child. On the other hand, I don’t think she really understands the heaviness of death.’ Turi noticed, even as he responded.

“It must be exciting to be in the double digits,” Turi commented.

“How old are you?” Lily asked curiously.

“I’m two years old,” Turi answered, “I was a juvenile when the… System apocalypse occurred.” Turi said. He didn’t quite understand why the humans called it that, but they did, and so he did, too.

“That can’t be true.” Lily said, very skeptical.

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

“It’s true- crows age much faster than humans.”

“You’re a crow?” Lily asked, shocked. It was only then that Turi realized he had departed significantly from a crow- his coloring was entirely different, he was the size of an eagle normally, and could take the form of a humanoid. Still… Turi was a crow.

“I am- I’m just a very heavily altered one.” Turi answered.

“You’re not of the second Realm, are you?” Parker suddenly asked, causing Turi to pause.

‘What’s up with this child? This… can’t be normal behavior from an eight year old, can it?’

“I am not, you’re right. How did you know?” Turi asked curiously.

“You’re too different from a crow to have done it in a single ascension. Every other second Realm creature I’ve seen has only been moderately altered.” Parker reluctantly explained.

Unable to hold his curiosity back now, Turi focused his essence sense onto Parker. What came back was… alarming. The boy was very heavily attuned to logic. Turi felt a bit of kinship with the boy, surprisingly enough- after all, knowledge and logic often went hand in hand. Still, it did not seem healthy for a child so young to be so… cold and analytical. He’d watched Turi kill the entire encampment, but the moment he’d proven to be more than a mindless killer, he’d rapidly adapted so as to survive.

His face was perfectly neutral, not the slightest expression of grief or rage on it. His words were short and even his best efforts could not keep the hate out of his voice, but he tried his best regardless. It was… seriously impressive, as well as intimidating.

“I’m sorry, Parker, for what’s happened today.” Turi sent, excluding everyone else from the message. It was, perhaps, not a good move, but Turi felt very, very bad. Parker did not respond, and he did not blame him.

Remembering that he needed to be fast, he dropped the conversations with the children and rushed through the camp, locating as many people as he could. Even with his aura radiating positivity, he had to be a bit rough to get the second Realm adults to fall in line. There were five guards, seven slaves and two workers, valuable enough not to be enslaved but non-combatants regardless. He allowed the guards to survive, as they had surrendered instantly- judging by the radios that many of them carried, they knew how powerful he was, and there was no honor amongst thieves. The slaves were the easiest ones to convince, but it was undeniably difficult to trust someone that had just rampaged through a group of thirty people.

Lastly were the children, who he’d found six of, including Parker and Lily. The other four had all been near the center of the camp- which made sense, since it seemed unlikely than anybody but the most powerful were able to keep their kids alive in the ruins of Las Vegas. Of the four, three were very suspicious of him- likely a result of their environment.

He did not need their trust, though- not yet. He needed them to listen. He had everyone gather the encampment’s supplies. The adults grabbed everything they could in short order, and he dealt with everything else, having the air carry it. Then, they returned to the group of former slaves. By now, they had all recovered enough to be distinctly angry at everyone he’d gathered together, aside from the slaves- after all, they were the ones who had imprisoned them.

“I will not tolerate fighting. The children are crime-free, and the slaves had no part in this. The workers likely had no real say, and the guards surrendered and, thus, will be held on trial.” Ascenturi said, making his will clear.

“Calling those bastards ‘guards’ is an injustice- they worked for the mafia!” Deja objected loudly, and Turi frowned- as best he could with a beak, at least.

He had never heard the word before, which was rare. She had spoken it in the universal language that the Earth had introduced to them all, however, and so he knew what it meant in an instant. It was not a good thing.

“…They are evil people, but they’ve surrendered. I aim to recreate society, Deja, and I cannot allow unjust killing within said society.” Turi eventually responded, “While I did not expect to speak on this so soon, it is a good opportunity to mention that I do, indeed, intend to create a new nation of sorts. I will not take you prisoner, but it is unlikely that anybody here- aside from the… ‘guards’…- will be able to survive in Las Vegas without my assistance. Thus, I intend to take us all to Henderson, where the beginnings of many societies can be found. You can ditch me for them, if you like, but I hope that at least some of you will stay with me once we arrive.” Turi said.

After a few seconds of thought, he decided to continue. “I imagine that some of you have already recognized that it is strange how everyone, including yourselves, act like a bird person is normal. This is because of my aura, which contains a sense of peace, authority and order- but, to be fully transparent with you all, I will contain it, so that you can make decisions entirely of your own mind.” Ascenturi said. Only part of this was for them- the other part of it was because it was genuinely disturbing to see how easily everyone was deferring to him. Turi did not want to become a dictator- to create a proper society, he could not mess with the brains of his people.

His only worry was that he was doing this too soon. If they all ran away from him screaming, they would all be recaptured by the on-average less-than-savory people of Las Vegas. Turi did not want to risk falling to the temptation of being able to subtly influence everyone around him, though, and so he decided to stop while he could.