After being escorted outside, John was brought to and placed near the stage where the ceremony would be held. Many Peerless were gathered in a beautiful garden right next to the portal center in Hub City. There were far less robots around than usual. The ceremony was being shown on all the screens throughout Gani. It was a mandatory event, so all the Peerless that could watch had to watch.

John saw Amber and it sent butterflies flying around his stomach. She didn’t once glance toward him. She was all smiles and charm as she mingled with the Peerless filth. It infuriated him that she had painted her nose dark and covered her round ears. He thought it made her look ridiculous. He wished it made her less beautiful. He wished she didn’t make him feel the things he did when he looked at her.

John truly hoped Amber had no idea what the Peerless would do to the people of Earth. If she knew and kept it from him, Amber was every bit one of his sworn enemies as the rest of the Peerless and he would be obligated to kill her, as was also true of Hubaba.

People often said ascension made cultivators more attractive. John never really believed that was true until this moment, as Amber seemed impossibly beautiful. He wondered if it was true for him as well. He never really thought about if women found his face attractive.

Many women had told John he was handsome, but he knew women often just said things or lied to entice a man into marriage or to please their husband, as was also true in reverse. He had many homely wives and had told each one she was beautiful. A husband had a duty to lie to his wives about such things, especially as they aged.

John had always assumed what made him attractive to women, and should, was his qualities. The biggest item on the list had usually been his great wealth, but he was no longer wealthy. His great height used to be on the list, but modern men ruined that by somehow growing to such freakish sizes.

If all John’s plans worked out, he would be able to add his great height back onto his list again. And hopefully sooner rather than later. Until then, he still had his other qualities. His loyalty, his honor, his strength, and how fell and tall he was.

John wondered if Amber wouldn’t look at him because of his highlights. That bothered him, that someone with so much Lilly coursing through her veins would dare judge him. But then he realized if the situation were reversed, he would be furious and unforgiving. He had to talk to her. At the very least, he had to find out if she was one of his sworn enemies or not.

Then the ceremony began, so John had to focus on much more important matters.

Akeoli Hyavod was brought on stage naked, chained, and gelded. His genitals had been completely removed. No reasons were given for why this was happening to him other than a charge of heresy.

Hyavod was made a Wena-Kahaki. Everyone in attendance turned their back to him besides the Alii. They all lined up on the stage to walk by and spit on him.

Once Hyavod was done being spit on, one of the Nani Empire took to the podium as he was marched off. She stated Hyavod would be killed in the old way, the same way as Kahaki that had stayed loyal to Circle Joyat.

John didn’t know what that entailed, but he figured it was a bad way to die, and that made him happy. He wished he could kill Hyavod himself in fair battle. He also knew that was a pipe dream and that he was very far away from making that wish a reality.

Then Talker’s Alii, Alii Pono of Heiau Hanani, Kauwa Piapa Ka, took the stage. Though no details were given, she stated Talker knowingly gave his life to root out heresy. She said she knew Talker was special since he was a legacy, and spoke of his bravery, honor, and commitment to the Aikapu.

The Alii called John on stage. She sang his praises for his role in rooting out heresy and stated how she hoped he spent credits on her.

After this, a very elderly Alii took the stage. It wasn’t announced what clan and house she was from. Since she was fully clothed and so elderly, John figured she was one of the clan Nani, and probably known by sight, needing no introduction. He also thought he had seen her during the weekly recaps.

That elder also sang John’s praises. She congratulated him for winning the most points during the Purge and reviewed the other credits he had just earned. Again, no real details were given.

John kept trying to catch Amber’s eye, but it was as if he were a ghost. The elder deemed the annual Purge a success and Kiamoni free of demons and other threats to Gani.

With that declaration, John was escorted from the stage and given a seat in the audience.

The elder stated this year’s ceremony would be in a new format – a format heavily influenced by the Kahaka of their latest conquered planet, Terra.

The large screen above the stage turned on and showed the words, ‘Honoring our Heroes.’

Many Peerless were brought up on stage and honored one by one. A name would show and a Peerless would step forward. A professional pre-recorded segment on that Peerless would play on the screen, reviewing the reasons he was being honored. John paid close attention. He needed to win many honors if his plan was to work.

The honored Peerless were ushered off the stage to sit in the audience. The screen changed to say, ‘Our Empire Advances by Small and Great Steps Over Time. We Have Taken a Very Great Step Forward. Part 1: The Meleua of Alii Pono Nani Empire of Heiau Koa, Kauwa Kalea Ka.’

The segment that played honored a Peerless John knew and had met. The Meleua of the old crone. He had won the zenith and was offered and refused the honor of becoming an Ake. He only spoke in one clip and said, “I will now have a tremendous amount of sex.”

Part 2 honored Akemele Gauss Cannon for being the first Peerless to pass the bottleneck. Soon after he accomplished that feat, seven Alii also passed the bottleneck. One more Mele and four more Alii were expected to ascend to mid-high Transcendent in the coming months.

Only non-fighters had ascended past the bottleneck and only non-fighters were expected to ascend in the near future. Mele weren’t supposed to fight but certainly could. Alii weren’t ever supposed to. Alii passing the bottleneck wasn’t helpful.

John was surprised the segment admitted it was an issue that no Oli had ascended or were expected to ascend anytime soon. He figured they’d try to hide or underplay that.

The screen then said, ‘Changes to Policy and Interpretations. See Your Alii for More Details.’

New steps addressing the aspect issue were reviewed. Changes to Advancement Chambers and new SOPs guiding ascension were announced. Alii could not ascend past the average tier of her Oli. This rule made allowances for passing the bottleneck.

The screen changed to say, ‘A New World Conquered. Our Empire Expands. Keeping to the Tenets of the Aikapu Part 1: The Natural, Alu Four-five.’

This pre-recorded segment really went all out selling Amber. Pictures showing her great beauty and short videos of her smiling and laughing sold her charm. It reviewed how well she was testing, training, and performing her duties.

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There was a reenactment of Amber saving John during the Challenge of the Mighty Khaga back on Earth. He thought it was very inaccurate and a very poor representation of the true events.

It then reviewed Amber’s various abilities. The first clip showed her lifting a vehicle while in demon form, and even the demon had a painted nose. She dashed and blinked around as a bear, leaving an illusionary copy of herself that also attacked, and the like. All the clips featured her combat prowess in all her forms, a strange segment to include if Alii were never supposed to fight.

Much to John’s embarrassment, the screen said, ‘Part 2: Kahaka Four-two.’

This segment started by playing the highlights of John’s night spending credits. All other footage, including actual live footage, showed him with a darkened nose. He had never once darkened his nose and never would. And there was a lot of footage, from a different reenactment of his fight with Ele Four-three, to training, the arena, his strange abilities, and being brought out of the Nether portal strapped to a board with two missing legs.

Somehow, even footage from a little earlier in the ceremony when John was on stage being honored had his nose darkened.

Then it flashed his point total from the Purge, and the total amount of credits he had earned since arriving on Gani, 27.1 credits.

All in all, John was thoroughly embarrassed, especially when all the Peerless turned to look at him and clap. All the Oli near him lightly patted his back as if he were frail. He was very happy when it was over.

The next segment was something John had not expected at all. He had a competitor. The screen said, ‘Part 3: Kahaka Six-five.’

It was about the Platinum biosynth from the Kotown arena. He had joined the Peerless Empire as a Kahaka and was also going to attend a Li academy.

John paid very close attention to the segment as it reviewed many abilities of his new competitor. If the last look the biosynth had given John in the arena was any indicator, his new competitor wanted to murder him very badly.

The biosynth’s prior name was Nine. He came from a world that was taken over by an artificial intelligence named Yellow before the world was ready to advance to Tech 1.

Since the NCS was the most powerful AI in existence, it forced its rules on all other AIs. If Yellow advanced its world to Tech 1, it would lose much of its control and much of itself, so it became a rare Tech 0 ‘skeever’ world.

At some point, Yellow had no choice but to advance to Tech 1, but its androids needed to be at least 33% organic for it to do so, thus Yellow birthed its strange biosynths. A puppet monarchy was set up to appease the NCS. Yellow still controlled the biosynths, but not as it controlled its androids when the world was Tech 0.

Nearly a hundred thousand years later, there was finally a rift. The biosynths of Yellow had become increasingly organic. As they ascended up the climb, they had become more individualistic and less willing to be controlled. After being Tech 1 ‘skeevers’ for so long, a different consensus was formed outside of Yellow, against Yellow’s desires. The majority wanted to finally advance to Tech 2, an event that would further reduce Yellow and its control.

There was a civil war. Since most loyalists were much lower tier than the separatists, even with the powerful Yellow directing them, the loyalists suffered a resounding defeat. Thirty-one loyalists escaped off-world including the sole surviving member of the royal family. Nine was the ninth most powerful to escape. Thirteen, the princess, was the thirteenth.

No explanation was given as to how or why Nine and Thirteen ended up in Kotown or fought in the arena. Nine said once his princess died, he had lost his function. He would never return to Yellow and join the separatists. He repurposed himself to become a Kahaka and swore to the Peerless Empire.

Nine had a lot of control over his body. He could repurpose his function to excel at a certain task to the detriment of other functionality. And, most interesting to the Peerless, was the tech he had brought with him on his ship, his ship itself, the tech within himself, and that he donated it all to his new empire.

The last clip was of Kahaka Six-five stating he needed more cycles to refine his soul. In a few short years he’d be ready to perfectly ascend to seven-one. He claimed to possess many cultivation secrets and would share them all with his new masters.

When that segment finished, the screen said, ‘End Public Portion.’ The rest of the ceremony was only for leadership in attendance.

A brute escorted John back inside the portal center. Most of the Oli had to go inside the portal center too, but they all left through portals.

John and Amber were both escorted into a side room. A Gold Oli guarded the door.

Amber refused to look at or even acknowledge John. He was fine with that for the moment.

One large benefit of being a vampire was that John’s senses were much better than others of his tier. He could hear the segments playing on the screens. Currently, it was a yearly review of defectives caught before birth, soon after birth, or had slipped through the cracks and executed or sent to Palm.

There was a large segment on how the Peerless were incorporating terran genetics into their own, and how it was expected to raise their racial grade.

The next generation of Li were supposed to naturally hit B-grade, and some Nani thought Alii and Mele should wait for that before incorporating the terran DNA into their own.

Terran DNA wouldn’t just increase the racial grade of Peerless, it would also somehow reset their [SupraType] chain and eventually result in another permanent grade increase in the distant future.

Preliminary data on how Nine could improve their DNA was also reviewed.

John forced himself to pay close attention until the subjects turned to ones that wouldn’t help his mission. And paying attention to anything was hard now that he was so close to Amber again. She still wore the spatial ring he acquired from Muzaran, though she also wore a storage bracer that had a much higher storage capacity.

In case the Peerless took Talker’s bracer back, John wanted to ask Amber to return his ring. Since he could tell she was trying very hard not to cry, he decided to hold off. And before anything else, he needed to find out if she was his enemy.

“We must speak,” said John.

Amber ignored him. John hobbled closer on his crutches and stood near her. She said, “Just…get away. Leave me alone. We’ll get in trouble.”

“I don’t care. We must speak.”

“No, John, we mustn’t,” said Amber sarcastically. “And I don’t care. Just…just leave me alone.” After saying this, her watery eyes began shedding tears. “You’re an animal! I never want to talk to you again!”

John held out his hand hoping Amber would hold it. She ignored it. He attempted to grab her hand and she dramatically and angrily moved away as if John was diseased. “Leave. Me. Alone,” she hissed out vehemently, wiping her eyes with her arm and smearing the paint on her nose.

John followed and made a grab for her hand again. “Please, Amber. Just for a moment. I must try. I will succeed.”

Amber, with a disdainful look on her face, saw the look of desperation on John’s own. She finally let him grab her hand. He did his best to quickly find her mind. He knew any second she’d pull her hand away. He couldn’t fail. He wouldn’t.

John felt something he thought was Amber’s mind and pulled on it mightily. It slipped through his fingers. He did it again and again until he managed to hold onto a piece of it. All his titanic will went towards holding onto that piece of her mind and pulling as hard as he could. It felt like the pull was accepted so he strongly thought ‘Mind’s Eye.’

The world flashed by as John began the process of entering his mind, but it was not nearly as fast as usual. He forced the piece of Amber he held onto to be dragged along with him. His mental grip holding onto part of her began to throb. The piece of her resisted and constantly tried to pull free. He wouldn’t allow it. He couldn’t allow it. All his will was applied. No matter how much it resisted, no matter how much it tried to be released, he held on.

The world flashing by stopped blurring and slowed to a crawl. John split his mind and frantically pulled himself forward as he desperately clung to the piece of Amber. It seemed like time stopped. Whatever controlled things didn’t want Amber to come along. But she had to. He had to make it work. He was done failing.

John grabbed onto what was in front of him and pulled. He forced his split mind to move things forward. His hand holding a piece of Amber felt as if it would break free of his arm at any moment. All the universe and the powers that controlled it conspired to prevent him from dragging Amber into his Mind’s Eye, but he had a will born of ages lived in an endless nightmare and knew of suffering like no other. Pain would not stop him. He would not fail again.

And John didn’t. His will prevailed. The world began to speed past, and he dragged Amber along with him.

The world stopped blurring and John stood in a blank mind-space. Amber appeared in front of him. He assumed she wouldn’t have an appearance in his mind. Or her own mind. That she did have a body meant she put the work into building it in her mind space the same as he had.

With a mighty effort, John forced himself to not hold and rub his sore and raw hand that began to cramp terribly. The dullness his Mind’s Eye provided as relief did nothing to curb the pain. His body in his mind was fake. A fake hand couldn’t hurt. But it did. Badly. He would endure as he had always endured all else. Amber would not see him show weakness.

And John wouldn’t let himself celebrate this victory. He succeeded. He pulled Amber into his mind. But success was all he would ever accept from himself from then on out. As had just been proven, he was done failing.