Eve moved until she was directly under the massive starship falling from the still open breach. Even as she watched, the Primordial Dust was already taking action flowing into the breach as it rapidly ate away at the spatial rift. A casual calculation told her that the starship would finish exiting at around the time the silver dust started closing the hole to another world. She shifted her form and clothing to mimic the look of a pointy hat, a classical witch complete with random pouches. Her cane shifted form into a runic symbol carved staff topped with a sapphire orb which was actually a disguised Felix. Kudzu’s flower form rippled and shifted splitting into two flower bracelets that wrapped each wrist of Eve’s wrists. The Hut moved onto Eve’s right ring finger as a wooden ring-token piece of artwork. Last but not least Nota took her favorite lazy location chomping down on Eve’s left shoulder. Each of her allies may look like nothing more than eccentric props but they boosted her power close to what she had witnessed from Ohm himself.

Girded for anything I can possibly handle. Eve thought as she looked up to the sky.

For a brief moment, Eve considered launching herself into the breach on the off chance she could use it to return to Tal Mor. However, sanity reasserted itself as she saw the Primordial Dust’s silver cloud begin to stretch from far above into the shape of an enormous mouth.

Nope, not worth the risk. Eve thought. It looks like Dust is just going to eat the space and regenerate it. In that case, it would be impossible to survive in the rapidly collapsing tunnel the spaceship had traversed.

Even for Eve, there were limits when compared to Dust.

Turning her attention from the failed escape route, Eve gauged the falling ship before raising a single hand into the air beneath it. Runes flowed in ever-widening spirals from her hand, and where they passed Space grew still, and Time stuttered slowly. This trick wouldn’t last more than a few seconds at best, mostly because Eve had minimal understanding of how Time actually operated compared to Space. It didn’t matter though, in the few intervening moments the move bought her, Eve effortlessly chopped the ship into chunks. Flat panes of ultra-thin space shards were excellent cooking tools. They also did double duty in spaceship separation. The shards were vulnerable to a variety of methods of destruction, but at this moment they were the perfect slice and dice mechanism. She took care not to accidentally mince any of the ship’s crew. It was delicate work, made easier by her Witch’s Dust spreading into the surroundings to provide a massive boost to spatial awareness.

Eve didn’t think other people would just fail to notice the ship’s fall.

Once the metal monstrosity had been properly butchered into pieces Eve used Spatial Step to flicker among the falling components. A light touch was all it took to move these almost all Tier One individuals to the central cargo unit. From there a few more steps allowed her to store the rest of the ship with Looting and Storage. With the massive starship reduced to merely a very large cargo bay leftover, saving the survivors became easy. Eve focused and spun her hand like spinning a pot. Her action caused a twisting of the surrounding space into a curved ramp that generated immense friction. As the cargo bay spun along the spiral created by Eve, it bled momentum. The sensation of free fall was replaced by that of solid ground, and the shell-shocked survivors managed to muster themselves into a semblance of unification.

Eve carefully noted that a blond woman who the crew seemed to worship was carefully taking stock of the current situation. It was interesting to see that travel through the breach had caused minor mutations. The glowing golden irises ringed by pitch-black sclera marked the entire crew. Once the cargo bay shuddered to a stop against the sands, a small contingent of the ship’s crew approached her.

A metal bracelet of some type on the leader, ten to one that is some type of hidden weapon. More knives on the personal guard marine than a kitchen contains, bet she can deadeye them at a hundred paces. Eve thought cataloging those approaching her. The other two women give doctor vibes so probably the chaplain and the ship’s doc. If the only male in the group isn’t a Scotty I’d test Kudzu’s potions for a month! The group of four women and one man stopped two meters away before the leader approached in close alone to Eve.

Both women eyed each other for a good long moment before the presumable ship’s captain said, “So, I’m not dead, am I? Because I want to be clear, if I am I want a refund.”

Eve cracked a smile and said, “No refunds, however, I do have a bill for saving your lives.”

“Put it on my tab.” the space captain said with a straight face.

“Sorry, I don’t do credit,” Eve said with an even straighter face. She rather liked this spaceship captain, so banter came naturally!

“Talking to people is a lot harder when you can’t just look at their responses in the future.” the space captain grumbled.

“Ah, a psychic? Precognitive, I think was the fancy name for them?” Eve said as she suddenly understood the faint echoes in the ambient mana. Attempting to view the future was likely impossible until the woman attuned to the System allowing the spaceship captain to synchronize with Mana. Before that happened, the power being used was much like an electronic signal underwater. Pretty useless.

“Precognitive, yes. Also a bit of post-cognitive, along with telepathy, pyro-kinesis, electro-kinesis, telekinesis, and bio-kinesis. You can call me Iantha. So, would you mind telling me where we are?” Iantha trailed off as her eyes flickered in the tell-tale motions of reading a System message.

“Wilson will be acclimating you shortly, don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.” Eve said reaching out and fixing the position of each of the crew including Iantha into space.

Eve watched Iantha try to form another question fruitlessly as the System began to acclimate them. Watching from the outside it was clear the experience was incredibly euphoric, exactly as Eve remembered. She quietly cleaned the resulting messes caused by the intense pleasure of being synchronized with a multi-spanning dimensional entity for the first time with her Witch’s Dust.

I’ve long suspected the euphoria of connecting to the System and going up in Tiers have a purpose. Eve thought as she continued to examine the crew members of the starship. It serves multiple purposes from what I can see. The first impression is the most important, and no matter what comes after it is hard to equate ‘evil’ or ‘bad’ with something that gives transcendent bliss. Essentially the very first taste conditions people instinctively to regard the system as a ‘good’ thing. It is only a small step from there to obedience. All for the purpose of defending Reality, of course. Eve suspected that if her brother wasn’t an unholy terror the adjustment might have gone far differently when she first arrived. It wasn’t a pleasant thought so she dropped that line of inquiry as it lead to nowhere but a mad spiral of paranoia.

With casual disregard for the gravity of the current situation Eve immediately began crafting Contracts. It was practically a habit by now. She felt the need to keep her footprint minimal until reachingTier Seven. Witch’s Dust continued maintaining the pristine state of the spaceship’s personnel while scrolls formed one after the other to float slightly behind Eve’s body. Looking at the spaceship crew while she worked made her frown slightly.

The entire crew was completely human.

That doesn’t make sense. Eve thought checking some of the ship’s scans she took while chopping it to pieces in her Eternal Memory. There were definitely non-human lifeforms on board right before I moved them all to the cargo bay.

“Wilson…what’s going on?” Eve asked finally unable to come up with a coherent theory. They couldn’t all be shapeshifters, in her opinion. The message that was sent by Wilson had warped logic within.

All non-humans were converted into Humans for protection.

“Protection? There doesn’t seem to be any bias against non-humans though in the City of Gold.” Eve replied as her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t a fan of such things, and the military she’d been a part of didn’t tolerate them, either.

Unknown non-human Races are heavily associated with the Deeps.

“Oh, oooooh,” Eve said as her eyes widened in understanding. It wasn’t biased at all, it was protectionism at play. For those who had fought the Deeps for generations, there was probably a very much ingrained ‘kill first, question the souls second’ instinct at work. Since the System would be required to step in if say a Tier Seven casually obliterated them in fearful reflex, it was making the issue irrelevant. Those affected might not even feel any dysmorphia, as it sounded like this definitely wasn’t the first time it had happened.

I bet this is the most ‘optimal’ solution found. Eve thought imagining Ohm noticing the non-humans before she had a chance to explain and crushing them into meat paste. She shuddered at the thought. Since they are all Tier One a higher Tier killing them would force the System to kill the said person. That could devolve into a right mess, indeed. Better such things are taken care of before they turn into a nightmare-fueled spill.

“Are there ever problems?” Eve asked curiously as she kept forming Contracts.

Not in the past eight thousand years since this method was started.

Eve grumbled as she saw the information bill arrive, but paid the Soul Slot cost. It was a minor amount compared to her previous spending all told. Iantha and her party of the spaceship’s core personnel were the first to wake up. Eve gently released the spatial hold she had maintained on them to prevent injuries.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Welcome to the Prison Plane.” Eve said as Iantha’s eyes flickered rapidly scrolling through her messages with incredible speed for a Tier One.

“So this is Wilson?” Iantha asked as she finished reading her messages. After a few moments, the rest of the leading party did as well.

“Indeed, that’s my personal moniker for the System.” Eve said nodding before she continued, “As soon as everyone is up and about we’ll need to exit this bay to the open desert.”

Iantha looked confused before she asked, “Why?”

“Your spaceship was made of metal, lots of very precious metal,” Eve said with a serious face. “I happened to arrive first, but make no mistake. Others are on the way, both human and not. A chunk of metal of this size would make a fine feast for several types of insect swarms. At the same time, the alloy alone would inspire Crafters into a frenzy of brilliance.”

Iantha and her party blanched as their imagination supplied the unholy disaster about to occur. Taking charge the space captain turned to her people and said, “Get everyone moving as soon as they finish linking up with the System! We don’t want to be here when the natives decide to fight it out!”

“Are we certain we need to flee? Our technology must be far superior if she is a representation of what they use.” the male member of the leading party said gesturing at Eve.

“Meyun, do you remember where you were when we entered the rift?” Iantha said sweetly in a poisonous tone. Eve watched as the lead engineer quickly made the connection and realized that teleportation had been involved at the very least.

Then again, they probably think they still have a full ship, best to mention that. Eve thought as she said, “Not to put too fine a point on it but your ship has already been salvaged at this time. By me.” Eve ended her speech by pointing a thumb at herself and smiling in a provoking manner.

It’s best if children learn before they burn. Eve thought watching her actions inflame the person she suspected was the personal guard of the captain. Even as the woman launched into an attack, Eve could feel Iantha peeking behind the curtain of Time by the resonation of mana. The woman gasped as she realized the only thing restraining Eve was the System’s rules.

“Helsted, no!” Iantha shouted even as the guard teleported behind Eve ruthlessly stabbing at her kidney and lung. The locations were vital but would allow for repair by the surgeon easily with the ship’s superior technology. Eve’s expression grew mocking as the System now designated the ship’s crew as attackers due to the assault. They were no longer protected, which would allow for a small lesson.

Eve applauded the non-lethal approach the guard had taken even as Helsted’s daggers stopped inches from her skin. Raising an eyebrow, Eve stared at the crew remaining in front of her with a gentle smile upon her face as she said, “You are Tier One while I am Tier Six. The easiest way to help you understand the difference I suppose is a minor demonstration.” Even as she finished, Witch’s Dust was already flowing out to surround Helsted’s form.

The teleporter attempted to shift away but failed this time.

“Did you think you can just come and go as you please?” Eve said turning to glance at the woman. “Know your place, child.” Silver shackles instantly wove around the guard’s hands, feet, and throat immobilizing her in a full-body set of manacles that prevented movement. Even as the guard was dealt with, Witch’s Dust warned of another attack arriving from the front.

Shifting her staff into a bokken with Felix acting as a small sapphire gem at the base of the hilt, Eve blocked the desperate thrust of Iantha with unnatural reflexes. The small crystalline bracer had turned into a lethally sharp sword. If the addition of Felix hadn’t allowed her bokken to be indestructible by physical means Eve might have been cut. Iantha made several attacks, but Eve effortlessly blocked each of them as her Eternal Memory learned each strike.

This has been enough play. Eve thought blocking another blow from the strange crystalline sword. The space captain was clearly attempting to look into the future during the battle, but it was pointless.

“Children, let me provide a small lesson,” Eve said flowing into a freeform stance as her form moved faster than a Tier One could react. In a blur of motion, she chopped the strange crystalline sword into pieces by sharpening her own blade. Once the strange weapon pieces were dealt with using Looting and Storage, a gentle palm thrust precisely threw Iantha into the arms of her two female companions. Next, with a snap of the fingers of her free left hand, Eve immobilized the Meyun who had been quietly reaching for some small device during the combat.

Once everyone was dealt with, Eve shifted her bokken back to mystical staff form and said, “And that young one was without using any Mana. Trust me on this, you are not prepared to fight in this world. The weakest here are Tier Four. In mortal combat, their Stats alone would crush you, and I could crush endless numbers of them.”

“I think our savior has made her point clear.” the chaplain said as Iantha regained her feet.

“Bennie, she’s a monster in human skin,” Iantha whispered to the chaplain. “Then you should be great friends, isn’t that like a rule among monsters,” Bennie whispered back to the ship captain. “Right, it has to be part of the handbook somewhere.” the ship’s doctor chimed in a low voice. “Mishka making a joke, now I know the world’s ended,” Iantha said as she straightened her uniform.

Eve let the three of them banter as she turned her back to them to take a closer look at the guard, Helsted.

“What an unseemly number of knives you are wearing.” Eve said quietly.

“They might not have noticed but I sure haven’t missed how you are speaking our tongue with the wrong words.” Helsted said with a glare.

“Yes, that would be Polyglot at work. Bravo, you have a firm grasp of the obvious now.” Eve said. “Do all these weapons serve any purpose, other than making you look like an unstable individual?”

“Course they do.” Helsted said.

Eve’s eyebrow twitched as she said, “What would that be?”

“Opening cans, bottles, bank accounts. They work better than keys.” said Helsted with a straight face.

Eve stepped in closer so the others couldn’t hear her as she said in a soft voice to Helstad, “Let me be perfectly clear. You are an unstable risk. I get all sorts of bad feelings about you, and I have the Skills to make such feelings go away. However your captain gives me a good feeling, and thus I’m going to offer you a choice before the others. Sign this Contract, and I won’t wipe you from existence. Iantha trusts you because she can see the future, but her ability is massively curtailed in this new wonderful world. I won’t risk your unstable mental elements causing me a problem. Here, if you attack someone of a higher Tier, you expose your entire group to retaliation. Yes, I can see the understanding trickling into that meat-muscled brain. Make the right choice.”

With her body blocking the others, a single contract scroll was unfurled from the floating pile for Helsted to view.

“You have five seconds,” Eve said without expression. She liked Iantha, but someone who would act rather than think was a danger to everyone.

Helsted read the document quickly before looking into the cold expression of Eve’s silver eyes. Whatever she saw there broke what little resistance the guard had. Moments later the contract was signed, and Eve gave a small nod at Helsted. A casual hand wave removed the Witch’s Dust restraints allowing the guard to rub her wrists while grimacing. At the same time, the contract’s light show was contained within the disintegrated shackle dust.

“Bit tight.” Helsted said in a grumble as massaged circulation back to her wrists.

Eve smiled thinly and said, “You’re one of the rare few that has attacked me and lived. Treasure it.” Turning back to the rest of Iantha’s group, Eve moved to approach them while pulling a Contract scroll from the pile floating just behind her.

“So, now that we are all friends,” Eve said with a brilliant smile.

“You beat up friends like that?” Iantha said with a raised eyebrow as Helsted took up a place behind her.

“Training, merely a formality to see that you are all healthy.” Eve said without missing a beat, “I will require signatures on this contract before we exit. Nothing personal, everyone in contact with me has one with few exceptions.”

Eve personally handed Iantha her copy while floating scrolls to the rest of the crew as she said, “Refusal to sign these means you are a threat to me. My method of handling threats is very common here.”

Iantha read through her scroll with haste while saying, “If we don’t sign you’ll kill us?”

“Oh, goodness no. I’ll rip your souls from your bodies and sell them to a few demon merchants for spare change. Yes, of course, I’ll kill you. This isn’t whatever civilized universe you came from.” Eve said rolling her eyes. She felt Iantha tap into whatever sight she had of the future as the mana reverberated once more. It pained her slightly to see a possible friend turn white, but the space captain was made of stern stuff.

“She’s serious.” Iantha said to her officers before turning to the rest of the crew to say, “Sign! We’ve worked a deal out with the local guide!”

“Local guide?” Eve said raising her right eyebrow in a question.

“Easier than saying you threatened us with mass murder,” Iantha said as she signed.

“If it makes it easier, most people don’t get choices. Weaklings like you girls, with good looks, would have a slave collar slapped on them without anyone blinking an eye. It would pretty much go downhill from there.” Eve said in a sad tone.

“I suspected as much. That combined with the fact that killing us took you less time than it took you to blink made the choice easy.” Iantha said as watched the contract disintegrate into light. “So where are we staying? I saw the bit about room and board.”

As the last crewmember signed, Eve said, “You’ll be staying in my home of course. As explained, I will personally level each of you up to Tier Four. At that point, anyone who wants to stay in my employ will sign a slightly more extensive contract. Those who wish to depart, are free to do so with the understanding that the first contract will still be in effect.”

“It could be worse,” Bennie said with a shrug.

“Much worse.” Mishka nodded in agreement.

“At least food, lodgings, and grinding are promised,” Meyun said with a grin at Iantha.

“Don’t forget the hot showers,” Eve said watching the eyes of the female crewmembers light up. Once she had ensured everyone had a basic contract signed, it was a small twist of will to move everyone except Iantha’s group to the Hut. Her disciples had been notified to expect the new arrivals. They would handle getting them placed in separate rooms of the Hut, in a wing reserved for them all. Even if there was an argument, Eve wasn’t worried. The two children’s Stats far outpaced any of the ship’s crew, and Lily’s future group of guards was just overkill.

“Follow me. I want you to see the choice you made was correct.” Eve said as she moved towards a wall of the cargo bay. A twist of her fingers carved a door that fell outwards onto the sand below. Floating out, Eve turned her attention to the dark cloud of metal-eating locusts she had sensed approaching. Iantha’s group joined her, floating alongside her as Eve descended them all to the sand courtesy of her power.

Pointing at the insect cloud, Eve said, “Those will devour your cargo bay and they wouldn’t stop with just metal.” Another finger pointed at several groups of humans approaching from the City of Gold’s direction opposite the insect cloud. “Those would have slapped slave collars on without a second thought and then interrogated you for all your tasty secrets.”

The visceral impact of the humming buzz from uncountable insects and the thirsty gleam in the eyes of approaching humans sold her tale far better than mere words.

Eve turned to face them and said, “Fortunately, you picked the best option, me.”

A wave of her hand sent them all into the Hut, while a flicker of thought placed the cargo bay into Storage via Looting.

Eve looked at the two parties that focused their attention on her before calmly giving the middle finger to both sides. Spatial Step moved her directly back to the experience farm within the Dungeon. She grinned at the thought of Ohm being interrupted in his own leveling by those demanding answers from him.

Serves the old goat right! Eve thought vindictively.