“Well this is very agreeable!” War exclaimed as he reclined in a form fitting chair that somehow accommodated his bulk. John had opened a portal to an undisclosed location in northern England. They sat perched atop an unnatural looking hill, a small fortified town below them. The portal at its heart cast a faint blue glow over the squat buildings and high walls as the sunlight began to fade.

“Going through the portal was amazing! One second we’re in central Africa- the next here! What level were you when you got that modification?” asked Life as he paced back and forth. “Hard to believe you saved the old country! Well played ladies and gentleman! We’ve all got some fairly weird powers now but this one is beyond anything we can do!”

“Early twenties. What we can do is probably nothing compared to you guys,” John replied noncommittally as he passed round drinks.

“So low? For such a versatile power? That’s loopy! What about the permanent portals?” asked Life excitedly. John liked Life, he seemed genuine. John had also arranged for Kev to be in Mothersbarrow town, down below them, to get a read on the two Kings.

Life is genuinely interested and there’s no ill intent that I can feel. War is prickly about discussing their own powers but more than happy for you to explain about your own. The words flicked across the bottom of John's vision.

“Those were a gift from the system. Didn’t you get Enigma stones at the end of the first wave?” he replied.

"Enigma what? We got a lecture from the lizard bastard!” boomed War as he reached for a cigar. The resident Bob-bot obligingly lit it with a thumbs up. “Ahm, thanks! I can see why you all like the cybernetics! We had roaches for our first wave.” He took a pull and blew out a cloud of smoke. “Then these terror-chicken things. Once those bloody bastards were dead we got whisked offworld for a few weeks. We’d been min-maxing our builds as much as possible from the start so it wasn’t too bad. Soon as we got back we signed up to go off-world to grind some more.”

“What was it like off-world?” Evie’s eyes gleamed in a way that made John nervous. She wouldn’t abandon them to go fight for the system but John sensed some lectures in his future about how it would let them level up.

“Only six of us came back,” said War sadly, reaching for a cup and taking a long drink. “This stuff is great! What is it?”

“Fermented Bluefruit. A product from the Tree in Treetown,” replied John. “Careful, it has a bit of a kick if you overindulge.”

“I can’t get drunk anymore. Class three enhancement made it impossible.” There was a hint of sadness in his baritone voice. “Still immunity to toxins was worth it, I suppose.”

“How are ye names not yer own?” asked Reg. In light of the level difference he had been unusually polite, refraining from abuse and foul language.

“We all got a modification around the mid sixties. It lets us change our names and block Identify if we want to,” said Life. “Pete, I’m very interested to learn more about your little army. Shelly sounds like an absolute delight!” The Dragon cocked his head to one side and blinked slowly before replying.

“We might be able to arrange that. We'll need to deal with the council before we can look at sharing any secrets with you,” the beast rumbled.

“Of course! Trust is earned, not given. Wouldn’t dream of interfering in your enterprises. Tell me, Sam, is your real body even here? We haven’t had long to get acquainted with what’s grown up in this world in our absence but I’m confused. All your clones are obviously you but none of them are truly alive.” Life said with a spark of interest in his eyes.

“They’re all me.” Sam had no intention of divulging any more information than necessary to these strangers. “As long as one of them is left I can start from scratch and rebuild the army.”

“Fascinating! We had a friend, she would have been called Queen of Replication or something like that, she could divide herself like a cell splitting to reproduce. She could never explain how it felt to be in many places at once. Do you mind if I ask how you perceive it?”

“I’m sorry, Life, but it’s not like that for me. There is only me, however many bodies I have. I’m not in many places, I’m many me’s, if that makes sense?” Sam lied.

“Wonderful! That's close to what Jennifer would have said, I think. I wonder if it’s a function of the human mind? Perhaps if I might be permitted to tweak… Never mind, when we have established a solid relationship I may ask again,” said Life.

“What are your plans for the council?” asked John, focussing on the pair of Kings and wishing he had an ace.

“Oh, not much. We’re impressed with how things have been handled. A bit miffed that less has been done to move us all along. It must have been frustrating for a lot of people to feel trapped at level twenty four. People are still so fragile at that level, once you get past fifty things start to get interesting!” War replied, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

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“What happens after fifty?” Raoul leant forward in interest.

“Ah, we’ll explain all that later but the gist is you move from being fragile to tough. You want to spar before we go? I think we’ll be busy afterwards and won’t get another chance for a while,” War replied, rising to his feet and offering Raoul a hand.

“You’ll crush me! What’s your physical enhancement at now? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Does the scaling on that stat ever start to make sense?” Raoul replied.

“Not really but I don’t have that stat anyway. Liberty does but she isn’t the friendliest person so I wouldn’t bother asking her about her power. I’ve got combat mods, stuff that makes me a better fighter. C’mon, it’ll be fun. I won’t go all out, just enough to challenge you.”

Raoul took the hand and stood. The pair headed down the barrow opposite to the town and squared off against each other.

“Feel free to use all your powers. Don’t worry about me!” War called cheerfully as plate armour materialised over his bulbous body. Raoul obliged and rose to tower a hundred metres tall, looking down on the tiny speck of silver armour. His own bronze gear and weapons appeared and a spear flashed down towards War.

“Hah! Excellent!” yelled War as he batted the spear tip to the side, launching himself in the other direction with the reaction. He skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust and walked forward like a metalled figurehead on a ships prow emerging from the fog.

“The thing about physical enhancement is that when you get to 1000% you're basically ten times stronger,” War began in a lecturing voice as he suddenly dashed forward and landed a solid blow on Raoul’s ankle that managed to move his leg, despite his weight being planted. “So you go from lifting 25kg comfortably to lifting 250. But you run into issues past that. Good job!” War leant to the side to avoid the spear cleaving through the air as Raoul used the momentum of his swing to pivot gracefully and face off against War once again.

“I’m well past that point! I should be able to lift…” Raoul paused as he tried to run the numbers in his head. War launched himself like a rocket and slammed a fist into Raoul’s armoured gut, doubling him over and landing the titan on his backside.

“About three hundred times 25kg or something if I’m gauging your speed right. So seven and a half tons or so.” Raoul rose back to his feet as War talked and assumed a fighting stance, spear tip levelled at the fat man. “How much do you weigh, tubby?” War asked with a grin as he patted his belly with both gauntlets, producing a hollow ringing noise.

The spear lunged forward but Raoul released it as soon as it was moving toward its target. He drew his sword and stepped in to catch War as the man dodged.

“No idea!” Raoul grinned inside his helm, the sword whistled as it cut through the air. War deflected the spear to the left again and Raoul's blade should catch the man before he could correct his momentum and recover his footing.

“A lot more than that!” War snapped as his left hand came up to block the sword and he was sent sliding back the way he had come, digging a deeper furrow in the grass. “So you shouldn’t be able to stand, let alone fight! We have no idea how it works. Eventually we decided the system was messing with physics and gave up. You should just sink into the earth due to your own weight but you can move and fight. We stopped worrying about the nitty gritty stuff a while ago.”

Raoul summoned another spear next to him as he sheathed his sword then grasped it in the middle. He shrank down until he was only three metres tall, his weapons and armour adjusting as he changed. He charged forward, now merely looming over War, but every cut was blocked, every jab dodged or deflected. Raoul couldn’t penetrate War’s defences at all.

“Perhaps we should take a break?” asked War as he blocked yet another swing with a gauntlet. Raoul backed off and nodded. He reduced himself to only slightly larger than his natural form and unsummoned his weapons and armour.

“Sure. You’re good at fighting,” Raoul said, extending a hand and shaking with the King of War.

“You have a lot of potential, Titan. Ah, when the black ships get here we’ll have a marvellous time!” laughed War as they made their way back up the hill.

The action had been closely observed by the Carnival while Life had ignored the spectacle to continue to quiz Pete about his constructs and Shelly. Seeing War in action had left them with more questions than before and one certainty: the man was a match to any bruiser they knew of. Protected as he was by the system's strange policy of reducing casters effectiveness against higher levelled people and monsters, this jolly fat man was probably the most dangerous human they had ever met.

He enjoyed that and it wasn’t a challenge for him. He could have taken Raoul down easily. These two are at least a lot more human-feeling than Death was. They still feel off though. Something isn’t quite right but I can’t put my finger on it, Kev sent to the team.

“That was impressive,” John said politely as Raoul and War retook their seats.

“A great exercise! This one will go far!” said War, smiling warmly at Raoul.

“Huh, I couldn’t do anything. You’re too fast and too strong,” grumbled Raoul as he took a long drink and smiled at Sam who gave him a worried look. “He didn’t hurt me. Each hit took off 1% of my constitution,” he continued.

“That’s impressive control,” Sam turned to look at War. “You’ve had a lot of practice?”

“Of course,” said Life as War chuckled to himself happily. “Some of our missions were pacification rather than destruction. You’ve got to know how to pull your punches. And when not to.”

“What are your plans for the council?” asked Vic.

“Oh, we’re just going to let them know they can’t continue stalling the levelling process. What we’ve seen since we came back… It’s not good enough. The Void will eat us for lunch, despite all your toys and pet monsters,” said War. “It’s time to shake things up a bit!” He grinned broadly as the Carnival glanced at each other worriedly.

They themselves had been moving to change things, recently at least. However John and his friends had been careful to respect, somewhat, the authority of the council and the Accords. How would the council react to some unknown powerhouses coming in and issuing orders? John wasn’t convinced this was going to be a happy meeting.