Koren was shaking with effort, trying to pull his hand free from the rune he’d just inadvertently activated.

I wanted to help, but was losing the battle against the foreign mana and could barely think, let alone move.

The light of the place shifted, becoming darker, like dusk, everything outlined in a dim glow.

I couldn’t tell if it was the ground that was shaking or only my legs.

Blasts of noise like bombs going off erupted from behind us and the wave of mana abated, allowing Koren to pull his hand from the tree and stumble away.

I went to my knees, breathing heavily and covered in sweat.

A thunk drew my attention back to the tree and I watched as the rune twisted, the lines in it seeming to align with something I could sense but couldn’t see, then like the one before it, it sank into the trunk.

This time, instead of a frozen lake cracking open, five trees, including the one with the rune, lifted out of the ground, transforming into humanoid shapes, though still looking very tree-like, leaves and all.

The exception was the tree with the rune on it. This one transformed more than the others, becoming a creature with nine arms that was a near exact, if much larger, replica of the statue at the shrine at the swamp’s entrance, with only two notable differences. The first was that it had hair which was made of leaves and skin made of bark, and the second was that instead of an egg on the stone in front of it, this one had it embedded into its chest where the rune had been.

I looked at its mana and was staggered. This was power like— Well, I didn’t even know what. I’d never encountered anything like it.

Figuring it was already aware of me, I inspected it.

???

Rank: Gold

Level: ???

A few things about this stood out to me. First and most obviously, it was Gold rank. Second, unlike all the other monsters, this had a rank rather than a class, and no indication that it was a monster at all. Third, the system couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me what it was, instead giving only question marks. Finally, and most disturbing, was that I somehow recognized it.

For it was no monster. Not exactly.

“Rilen,” Vyrania said to the nine-armed creature, getting to her feet. “Always a displeasure.” She regarded the other tree-creatures arrayed around us. “Arcturus, Daranth, Jadriel? Can’t say I’m surprised.” She looked at the fourth. “Though I am with you, Sarixia.”

“What do you expect from telandrians?” Rilen asked. “They’re promiscuous.”

The tree who was apparently Sarixia gave him a dirty look. “You asked me to come.”

I was curious to see what a telandrian looked like, but I assumed this wasn’t it. Like with the dreamers, they weren’t actually here, but instead inhabiting the bodies of monsters. Avatars.

I wondered how Vyrania had recognized them, as they all looked like trees to me. I’d later learn it was due to her Copper awakening.

“You’re on their team?” Vyrania asked Sarixia.

“More like a tagalong,” Rilen said.

“I thought you said you registered me?”

“Don’t be so sensitive,” he replied dismissively, locking his eyes onto me. “Hello there, number one on the leader board. I bet you thought your pathetic little level one mind control card would keep me out, didn’t you?”

“Nope, I pretty much expected you to come back at some point. I have to say, the new look is an improvement. Your old body was pretty ugly.”

“What?” he snapped. “Don’t be stupid. My body was perfect. Is perfect. This is just a temporary form, you fool. I’m controlling a monster. Because I’m rich and can afford to.”

“Wow,” I said. “You’re definitely a very likeable person.”

“Flattery’s not going to save you.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I snapped my fingers. “Darn. Well it was worth a try.”

“Maybe if you grovel, I won’t torture you.”

“I’ll give it some thought.”

“Stop playing with your food,” Arcturus said.

“I’m not going to eat him.” Rilen looked down at his monstrous nine-armed body. “Am I?”

“Killer trees,” Arcturus said. Then he shrugged. His leaves rustled. “I guess you’re not a tree though. I didn’t read the synopsis, so maybe?”

“You’re supposed to—” Sarixia began, but the rest of her words turned to static and the five of them faded away.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Run,” Vyrania said. “It’s our chance to get—”

They reappeared.

“Sorry,” Sarixia was saying. “I forgot.”

“Whatever, they’re still here. They were too dumb to run.”

“No,” Koren corrected, “I just wanted the pleasure of ripping you limb from limb. You have so many extra arms now.”

Arcturus chuckled.

“I’d like to see you try, slop,” Jadriel said.

“Jadriel,” Sarixia hissed.

“What? It’s what he is. Tainting the vorian genepool.”

“You realize I’m not vorian?”

“Yeah, but you’re pure at least. And everyone likes the telandrians. You guys mind your own business. Well, you do try to seduce everyone you meet. But, I actually don’t mind that. You can’t help yourselves.”

“I very much can.”

“Wanna bet?” Jadriel asked playfully.

“Don’t tempt her,” Daranth said, “you know she’s obsessed.”

“I am not.”

“How much money do you owe us now?”

“I always repay my bets.”

“You can come by and repay me after this,” Jadriel said. “I’m free all night.”

“Must be depressing when your own race won’t have anything to do with you and you have to slum it with us lesser races,” Vyrania said to him.

Rilen glared at her. “Don’t even start, Nia.”

“So,” Sarixia interrupted, looking around. “This is fun. Nice to see you again, Koren.”

“And you, my dear. Though I can’t say I approve of the company you keep.”

“Yeah, neither do my parents.” She looked at Vyrania. “You’re looking good, killer. Freedom suits you.”

“She was free before,” Rilen snapped.

“I’m not a killer,” Vyrania said tightly, glaring at Sarixia.

Sarixia put her tree-branch hands up, looking between Rilen and Vyrania. “Sorry. Try to compliment a girl…”

“Don’t tease the poor human,” Daranth said. “You know they can’t take it.”

“You should come back to us,” Rilen said to Vyrania. “We can forget all about this. After all, it wasn’t your fault. I’d hate to see you go to waste.”

Sarixia looked between Rilen and Vyrania. “Wait, what? Are you two—”

“No,” Vyrania said at the same time as Rilen said “Yes.”

A tree though she may have been, even I could read the displeasure on Sarixia’s face at this discovery.

They were all distracted at this point, meanwhile I had gotten within arm’s reach of Rilen, so I took the opportunity to pull the egg from my storage and shove it against the one on his chest.

Of course I did.

There was an egg in his chest, I had an egg; the course of action seemed obvious.

He was quite surprised. Not the smartest vorian, that’s for sure.

“We’re supposed to fight first!” he whined.

I smiled at him, holding my hands out, palms up. “Whoopsie.”

I continued smiling as the egg floated between us, drinking up the lifeforce within him, and even more at the message that appeared for all to see, this time accompanied by a spooky voice that sounded oddly like that guy from all those movie trailer parodies.

You have fed The Egg.

It is… enough.

Its hunger is finally sated. Its need for sustenance is no more. Now, it must be brought home to roost.

Of course, there’s a saying about people in glass houses. And my own stone of ignorance crashed into mine, shattering its walls and evicting me.

Quite literally.

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

“Stop,” the Interviewer says, and Noah’s blood runs cold.

This isn’t how this is supposed to work. The Interviewer doesn’t talk. It listens, it interviews, it obtains the ‘facts’.

But now, for some reason, it is stopping Noah’s recounting.

Has it detected the deception?

No, it can’t have. Noah has hewn so close to the truth that even he’s not sure where the divergences lie. There’s only one thing he’s left out wholesale, and it is not something he’ll ever reveal to the Interviewer, no matter what.

A document suddenly appears floating in front of Noah, and his cold blood drops another degree toward freezing.

He was holding out hope that this was perhaps its way of introducing a calibration record, but that is not which floats before him now.

This is something different. Something more worrying, and not something for which he’s prepared. A sponsored broadcast. The curated record of everything that happened in the tower.

Of course, anyone who could afford the exorbitant price of the premium broadcast could control their own, but this one is The Corporation’s preferred version that the unwashed masses have access to at no monetary cost. The one with Noah as the star. This is only part of it, and he can guess which.

What do they have recorded that he doesn’t know about?

Nothing you do in a broadcast is supposed to be able to be used against you. But does that still apply here?

He racks his brain, forcing his demeanor to remain calm on the outside while a whirlwind of turmoil boils within him.

“There are…” the Interviewer begins, then pauses for so long Noah doesn’t think it’ll go on.

Noah waits in silence.

“…incongruities,” the Interviewer finally finishes, with extreme care.

Its words have power, so Noah supposes it’s a good thing it’s careful with them.

“Uh, okay,” Noah says, not quite as carefully. “What are they?”

The Interviewer indicates the sponsored broadcast.

“You want me to watch the broadcast?”

“No. Integrate it.”

If Noah could die of shock… well, this whole thing would be over.

It might even be preferable. He’s come back from death before, and at least it would get him out of here.

But he has a job to do. He has to keep going.

He just wishes he had been prepared for this.

“Sure, no problem,” he says with a casualness that he absolutely does not feel.

He takes the document and immediately integrates it.

He can tell the Interviewer is surprised at this.

Most people wouldn’t be able to detect it. But Noah can.

When it comes to reading mana, there’s not a being living that can match him. Because of course, it’s not really mana that he’s reading.

He just hopes it will be enough to get him through the rest of this interview.

He focuses all his effort and will, forcing the facts in his memory to align as they merge with the broadcast, creating one, seamless experience.

Or so he hopes.