Comfort was a thing to be chased. In a horrific study done during the birth of psychology as a science, one evil piece of garbage by the name of Harlow, along with some others, performed an experiment on baby monkeys. The babies were taken from their mothers, and then left in a cage with a “comfort mother” or a “food mother”. The comfort mother was just a soft thing, barely a plushie even, while the food mother was basically a bottle of milk with a monkey face drawn on.

Basically, the experiment was terrible and it didn’t really prove anything. However, it always stuck with me as an obvious answer that I would have just needed empathy to understand. Survival is important, but in moments of fear, it’s familiarity and comfort that humans and their primate cousins look for.

So in this strangest place I had been, I found myself searching for comfort. In response to my energy shifting, Naea gave me what I needed. I felt her place her hand on mine through our bond. She wasn’t physically here, of course. I still didn’t trust this thing after all. Though she could be doing anything she wanted, I knew she was waiting on the edge of the metallic border, ready to jump into action even though I told her to stay back. I would do the same, and I was grateful for her unwavering presence in my mind.

It was in stark contrast to the other connection pressing into my mind. The only thing keeping me from fury was the knowledge that this wasn’t intentional from my would-be familiar. If Steel Sovereign brought its full strength to bear upon our connection then I would not be able to hold back the flood. At the same time, the binding within the contract meant such an action would be lethal for the creature itself.

Steel Sovereign’s home was… shiny. The presence of a high quality resource was obvious in the sharpened aura all over the area. Like a different world had been transplanted onto Earth, for nearly two kilometres, a paintbrush of chrome had been used to blanket everything in sight. I walked towards the centre, watching for any movement. The wind whistles and howled aggressively through the metal world, but no other aggression came my way.

I tried to keep an open mind about the world around me. Magic meant things that didn’t seem natural were going to be. A biome made up entirely of metal was impossible to begin with, yet I could tell that these trees and flowers, even the grass which crunched under my feet like snow, were all alive. It would seed, and propagate and become a new part of the world. If it was invasive and took over, then so be it.

The strong survived now, at all levels of the food chain.

If I didn’t get the distinct sense that Steel Sovereign could control every inch of this place, I wouldn’t be so on edge - I would think it was gaudy. Then again, who was I to judge sensibilities, I lived in a chateau with many ridiculous chandeliers and such. I had magical lights in my bedroom, so maybe this was just a form of nouveau decor. I wasn’t in any hurry to see this style catch on. Before long, I found the middle of the expanding metal land.

“Hello, Grant Kaeron.” The voice came from behind me, a spout appearing in the floor, yet its body came from the front. Its form had changed slightly. The legs were longer, the arms less bulky and more proportional. I almost flinched at the clockwork-esque movements of the thing as the homunculus approached me.

Greeting me at the door? How civil. “Hello, Steel.” I wouldn’t call this thing sovereign, not to its face. There was even a twitch of amusement in its neck and the thin line of its mouth curved upwards. Considering its features were entirely controlled by its thoughts, showing me that was intentional. Steel did not have unconscious expressions.

“If you would like to kill me, there are ways, but they’re so costly that it wouldn’t be worth it. It would be best for now to accept our alliance.” It seemed that Steel was ready for battle, and I couldn’t blame it. There was no better place for it to attack me, I assumed. My act of coming here was as much of an olive branch as I could possibly extend, and while I wasn’t looking for a fight, it was better to get the conversation out of the way I supposed.

I sucked in a breath, but wished I didn’t. I had experienced ‘sharp’ breaths before, but nothing like the atmosphere around Steel’s home. Each breath felt like running a blade gently upon my skin, a fraction more pressure applied and the invisible knife would break through. “That was to the point,” I said, ignoring my own pun. Being forced into anything, even something arguably beneficial, was anathema to me these days but I swallowed my pride. Protecting what was mine was enough to soothe the draconic urge to get furious. “No, I’m not here to fight you.”

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The robo-reptilian smile extended. “Good. I do believe we can be beneficial to each other.” Was it fair that I didn’t like how natural its voice was sounding? Probably not. Either the speed of its growth meant it was noticeably better at controlling a human body in just two days, or it had been adept enough to pretend to be less capable in our first meeting. Both things being true at the same time was likely as well.

I didn’t like this situation one bit. “Is that so? What’s the benefit for me here?” My instincts were telling me to pace, or find somewhere to sit, anything. For a moment, I rebelled and tried to match the effigy before me but that was a losing game. In a burst of inspiration, I removed a wooden table and chair from my inventory, getting comfortable. As comfortable as it was possible to get while sitting in a bear trap, at least. For fun, I removed a warm pot of tea and two mugs, setting them on the table.

“Aside from the quest you were no doubt allowed to complete, and ownership of my precious resource? I can feel the nobility coming off of you, one ruler to another.” The Lord title and its subsequent achievement were still a source of discomfort for me. I hated feeling like I had been gifted the victory. “You’re a mighty warrior, one I have no true confidence in killing. However, I’m sure you can accept that you’re a novice to leading others.”

And it was telling the truth. Our bond was not one of trust, not even open in any real way, but whether I wanted to or not, I could feel how genuine Steel was being. “So you want to be my advisor?” I scoffed, but didn’t dismiss the idea outright. The world was so different, and as much as I wish I did, I couldn’t know everything right away. “How would that work? How do you work? I still don’t understand why you would do things this way.”

Steel smiled. “I cultivate as anything does. The System pushes me and I move with it. So long as we remain allies, your growth is my growth. I expect I can provide unique benefits neither of us are quite aware of yet. Humans are copied a million times over, but there is only one of me.” On cue with its words, two perfect replicas of the being in front of me left the residence. As it spoke, Steel created a chair for itself at the other side of my table before sitting.

“Oh, so you’ve also got a sense of humour, huh? Just what I need. Another familiar that thinks they’re funny.” They were just copies being puppeteered by the main body, judging from the mana signatures I could feel. The Steel which sat in front of me felt full of energy, while the others were hollow. To make itself part of the theatre, the two clones came over and served the tea which I had placed out.

“I try. Genuinely.” There was a pause. Steel wanted me to understand it. I could at least try, even if it unsettled me. It picked up the cup of tea and appeared to smell the drink. “I cannot survive the entirety of existence in opposition with everything around me. I do not want to die simply because I was born into the System.”

… Damn. Every reason I could think of for why I should just throw caution to the wind, ask Naea to get here as soon as possible and attack Steel was evaporating. Yes, the creature could be a master manipulator alongside being supremely powerful but if that was the case then I had no options anyway. I had been burned by my nature of free trust until the trust is broken in the past, but I didn’t want to let the world take it from me either.

“Ugh, FINE. Welcome to the team, Steel. Don’t make me regret this.” I stood slowly and extended a hand for them to shake. ”Let’s start as we mean to go on. What should we be doing, advisor?” Steel froze and I realised I had surprised the creature. “I can roll with the punches. What is it?”

“All signs pointed to you being far more stubborn.”

I choked off an argument in my throat. I could be pretty obstinate. “Let’s not talk about which assumptions are being reversed right now, shall we?” Every science fiction movie I had ever seen was telling me that working with the creepy alien creature made of metal was a terrible idea. If it was… well, I just needed to get stronger than Steel was. Quickly.

“Fair, then I shall also roll with the punches.” Steel held up a fist that rotated on their wrist a few times, spinning like a drill. Not quite the idea, but the spirit was there at least. “Let’s discuss the upcoming invasion.”

I didn’t have a great grasp on Steel’s apparent sense of humour, but I didn’t think they were joking on this one.

—————————————————

The inky void of Nothing was all that could be seen from the bridge of The Excelsior. A flagship, of sorts, it boasted incredibly impressive barriers against Nothing, as well as conventional ones too. Occasionally, within the impossible expanse there would be a flash of light and energy, immediately devoured by the Nothing.

“Such a waste.” Captain Redaali Wysterial sighed and waited. They had been sent here as the vanguard, which had been sold as an exciting task on paper. In practice, it meant waiting for an indeterminate amount of time for the System’s first barriers to drop. As a colony ship, The Excelsior held thirty million individuals all waiting to start a life in the new universe.

And they were tired of waiting.

Captain Redaali occupied themselves by watching the flashes of dying universes, not lucky enough to feel the touch of the Great Connection. Those evil worlds would fall into the clutches of The Accord, Tree bless their souls. Each spark in the distance could be the death throes of a trillion lives, and they all served to cement the captain’s mind. What they were doing here was important.

Often, a new universe was unprepared for the escalating level of danger it would face. Each of the myriad universal collapses Redaali themself had watched was one such universe. Once the System seeded a sector of existence, it left it to grow. Either it succeeded and pushed back The Accord and the Nothing which governed them, or they fell into darkness.

With an influx of cultivators who already knew how the System worked, those hungry for Aspects which were few and far between in the Great Connection, the universe was much more likely to survive.

They just had to get rid of the natives, first.