“We’re done,” Ahvra came pattering back over. “The device is removed. Did what I could to help it heal, but it’s still not great. Few days at least before the vocal cords are fully recovered. As for whether he’ll talk anytime soon, guessing the trauma was more than just physical. So may take a while to overcome the hurdle.”
“Should probably go ahead and send me back. My missing presence will be noticed if I’m gone for much longer, especially if I’m not back for the pointless midnight toast. But I’m guessing you don’t want everyone to know you’re out yet, or you would have just come home. I’ll say I went to the bathroom. But I am keeping this as a souvenir.” She held up the small mechanical piece from Drim’s throat like a trophy, still drenched in his green blood.
Ahvra vanished from sight, and Drim went a few steps away to a vacant spot in the tree and began reabsorbing part of it, explaining why Phon had brought them here in the first place instead of somewhere more hospitable. Xard went over to Kada, and started elaborating on a few things she’d missed over the past year, leaving Jaid to believe her final question would go ignored but…
“Go ahead, Jaid,” Phon encouraged her to the knight’s surprise. It seemed she really had turned over a new leaf when it came to empathy.
“Why was it so important for me to come visit you?” Jaid’s voice grew somber. “Was it just for me to accept the error of my ways and beg forgiveness? This is the part I still don’t understand. Why did you have to wait until now?”
“An annoying question,” Phon lips twisted in thought. “Not because of the answer, just because it’s difficult to explain. Again, it didn’t have to be you, specifically, but… Okay, let me actually start at the beginning with Project Fiendless. That is the name of our grand master plan, our endgame, the point of it all and everything we do. You should be honored, only the generals of our organization know about it. But I think it’s fine to tell you, because if it gets leaked, the traitor will be obvious.”
“There are five steps to the project. The first was ‘Attention’. We achieved that with our New Year’s grand reveal now several years back, along with our actions following soon afterwards. Certainly our names helped with that fact, so it was by far the easiest step to achieve.”
“The next step was ‘Expansion’, to expand our operation to the point that it could run as its own self-serving entity even without our presence if necessary. You were part of that initial recruitment, and you’ve already guessed another facet: that it was partially a ploy to help reign in the growing Fiend crisis, to monitor them and give them a constructive outlet for their powers.”
“And for a while now, we’ve been stuck on the third step, ‘Reliance’. If it wasn’t for this step, we would have actually recruited every single Fiend and Lesser who came to our door in order to keep them in check. However, we needed not just a strong group, but a group who genuinely worked for good with a goal of helping others and making the world a better place.”
“If we had too many self-serving pricks, that would have made Reliance much harder to achieve. You can see that with failed groups like Above. If our group was just in it for the fame and money, we wouldn’t have the renown and respect of the world that we do now.”
“And this may sound… I don’t know, evil? I guess. But the point of the third step was to alter the zeitgeist of the world—to become so prevalent and relied on in the public eye, that the thought of a world without us in it would be terrifying to most. That was the goal of most of Chorus’ work, and why we strived so much to become an influential power and bring real change, such as the positive revamp of the economy, repairing the world with Ledmer, creating new entertainment and the tournament for all to enjoy.”
“If we can do all that, what else could we do? That’s what we wanted people thinking. But we also became a bit too powerful. People put us higher than the CP, and that was a problem. They couldn’t envision a scenario where we’d lose, so we had to manufacture one, to cash in on that reliance, and give them a taste of what it would be like without us.”
“So we let the world stew a little bit without our influence. We didn’t do anything to negatively affect or hurt anyone, we just stopped intervening. And everything that has happened is the result. So we’ve been waiting for the right point, where it reached the apex of peril without us, but it was always hard to tell when that would be, so we’ve been waiting for a sign.”
“And you, Jaid, were just that. If someone who declared herself our enemy were to come begging for our assistance, not just to help them with their problem, but to save the world that they’d doomed from destroying itself… Well, I’d say at that point, we could consider step three ‘Reliance’ as a success. So it’s time to move on.”
“And what’s the next step?” Jaid was almost scared to ask.
“Well it’s your plan, Drim,” Phon glanced over at her brother who had destroyed nearly half the tree while she’d been monologuing. “I don’t want to steal your thunder.”
The man stopped his work and stood up. He held out his hand, and vines swirled out of a portal. They began twisting in the air, forming letters that floated in front of him. And finally, they spelled out a single word: Domination.
“So basically, our next step was what you were already asking, Jaid,” Phon couldn’t help but snicker. “World domination! That was always the plan from the start, but it may not be quite what you’re thinking. We can't do what our parents did—refusing to take the same path. If we wanted to, we could have taken the world over by force long ago, but that would defeat the point of everything.”
“No, we are taking a more diplomatic approach. We won’t wage wars, threaten anyone who stands in our way. Instead, the plan has been to win the favor of the populace, to restore faith in the Drazah name, to earn our place through reliance, respect, by doing genuine good. That is our method.”
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“But that’s not the goal. We don’t want power for power's sake. In fact, running the world sounds like a horrible time, but it’s necessary. We need Domination, not to destroy Rathe, but to make sure it doesn’t destroy itself when we begin the last step—to hold enough power and trust that they’ll accept what we do. And before you ask, I’m not going to tell you what that step is right now.”
“I’m not the best person to explain it, since even I’m not privy to every minute detail. When Drim has his voice back, you can ask him. And it’s something that’s still being worked on and tweaked as we speak, something ever evolving until we’re happy with it. Hell, in its more primitive state, Xard even tried to kill Drim to stop it.”
The man in question merely shrugged at the fact. “Because it was horrible. But it’s gotten much better since then.”
“Yes it has,” Phon agreed. “And we won’t move forward with it until we’re completely satisfied, and not a moment before ‘Domination’ is complete. The world wouldn’t be ready for it otherwise.”
“Speaking of, we should discuss our next plans,” Xard started to move things forward. “I know what you and Drim needed to do. But as for me and Kada. I think—” The man’s words were stopped by Drim. He came over and grabbed Xard’s hand. He pulled out the redhead’s palm and began tracing letters into it with his finger.
It took a minute to convey everything, but Xard hung on every word. At first, his face turned to shock, so Jaid wondered what Drim could possibly be saying, but then Xard’s face became deadly serious. “I understand,” The Artillery nodded in compliance. “I’ll head back to the compound then and secure things there before heading out.”
“Alright, I’ll teleport you, get ready,” Phon warned.
“Wait,” he held out his hands to stop her. “I’d like to fly back, work through this atrophy so I can be back to full strength when I get there.”
“Pfuah, with what energy?” Kada doubted, pointing at his arm. “In case you forgot, you’re tapped out, kid.”
“Oh right,” Xard looked at his arm and then smirked. “I’ve been doing this for so long now that it’ll almost be hard to stop.” He stepped back from the group, took a deep breath, and then focused as he held out his arm. The numbers suddenly changed, from all 0s, to every slot of his tattoo filled.
“That’s what I was working on for my year. I made a promise to Nathym to never let it drop below a certain number. Still don’t know what for, but I intended to keep it. So I started circulating my energy throughout my body, never letting it rest so that it wouldn’t be counted in the tally. Every time they thought I was draining it, I was just adding more into circulation.”
“And not just that, but I’ve been refilling it. They restricted every part of my body that they could, but not my tongue so that I could eat and swallow. Just a little bit at a time, I’ve been using that to build energy, along with any other internal muscles I could clench. It’s nothing compared to the rings, but I’ve gained back all they made me release and more.”
“Impressive,” Phon had to admit. “Do as you like. Now then for Jaid and Kada…”
“Wait, if we’re discussing next plans,” Jaid jumped into the conversation. “I know I promised to go with you and do everything you asked, but there’s one last thing I need to take care of first. There’s someone I owe a lot to, and he’s been missing for a while. I just found his location recently, and he’s been imprisoned too. Before I can move forward, I need to set him free.”
“Sure, we don’t mind,” Phon had no objections. “Go ahead and take Kada with you. If there’s anything she’s good at, it’s destroying everything in her path.”
“I’m cool with it,” Kada gave two thumbs up. “Anything to keep me away from having to deal with my business for a bit longer. Totally not mentally prepared yet to deal with board meetings again.”
“Alright, Jaid, just let us know where you need to go and we’ll get you there,” The Vixen directed. “As for Drim and I, you won’t hear from us for a few days. We have some plans to prepare and a few things we need to confirm with our own eyes. But when we’re ready to move on, you’ll know, the whole world will. Wrap up whatever you need to by then and we’ll all meet back up at the compound the next day. Then we can really get down to business.”
“Hold up, I have one objection!” Kada threw her hands up in protest. “Maybe I don’t have a right to ask for anything since I just got to skip the hell yall went through, but this shouldn’t take long. It’s New Year’s Eve, right? So let’s take a minute to pause and enjoy it, have our own little celebration together, and welcome Jaid back to our group. Because after this, well, things will be busy and serious again. Or did we miss it, what time is it anyways?”
Jaid pulled out her phone and held it out for them all to see. [998] just in time. Since there were no objections, the woman pulled up the livestream of Prosper celebration.
“Hmm, where’s Gedring?” Phon asked with genuine curiosity.
“Oh, uhh, apparently there was some big falling out with her producers, so she left a few months ago,” Jaid informed them. “I’m probably not the best person to ask about it. Chorus would probably know more.”
When the final-minute countdown appeared on the stream, Kada held out her hand in the middle, in front of the group. They didn’t have any drinks to toast, so she invited them to do the next best thing. “To our epic comeback!” she started the cheer.
Xard then placed his hand on top of hers. “To seeing this through.”
And then Phon added hers. “To world domination!”
The three of them looked at Jaid expectantly. She hesitated for a moment, but pulled hand out of its armor once more and placed it on top. “To making things right.”
Drim then added his last, but still spoke no words. Vines scrawled out behind him, forming his own declaration. ‘To the end.’
On the phone, the final numbers popped up, covering the entire feed. ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1…’
“““Happy new year!””” Those who could celebrate, yelled, all raising their hands into the air.
Except for Kada who shouted, “Happy 2080!”
“Err, it’s 2081 now,” Jaid corrected her.
“Oh, right, zjik. Happy 2081!”
That silly moment couldn’t help but make Jaid smile, the first real smile she’d had in a long time. Even out in the frigid frozen tundra, she felt warm. And watching the celebrations on the stream, she felt that there was finally something to look forward to. A new world was coming.
But then a familiar voice pierced into all of their minds.
❝One has blessed this world with an irreplaceable gift.❞
❝Jaid Luciri❞
❝One will be rewarded.❞
❝One will now ascend.❞