"Stop!" the lizard Observer yelled. "You can't talk about this!"
Liya glanced at the man, harrumphed, and created a null capsule around her and the Human Maiden. It looked like ever-moving liquid darkness separating the two and their section of the room from everyone else.
The null capsule, powered by the Laws of Annihilation, utterly destroyed all sound and light inside. Even the Guardians' sight enhancement had trouble piercing through it, which became evident in the Human Maiden's surprised and fearful face. Unfortunately, that was Liya's best defensive ability unless she released her domain, but doing so here would make things complicated for her later plans. She could only hope the girl would hear even through her fright.
"We're Observers," Liya said. "We're here to observe, nothing else. We'll not move a single hand to protect you or any other human on Earth. Helping you indirectly deal with a threat from your own race is already a stretch of the rules and one we would risk for the benefits of having you owe us; affecting how you deal with rifts is completely illegal, no matter how you look at it. Therefore, you'll need a D-rank human of your own to deal with the D-tier rifts, or your race will get decimated before any of you rise to the challenge—if anyone does."
To Liya's surprise, the girl recovered quickly and asked, "Why would the Alliance do that to us if the Pioneer Tutorial took so many resources?"
Maybe her recovery speed shouldn't have come as such a surprise. She was a Pioneer.
Liya squinted her eyes.
Or maybe the other human Pioneers had seen something more in the girl to pick her. Had the girl been playing the Observers, pretending to be dumber than she was? If so, that boded well for the human race.
"It's cheaper in the long run," Liya replied quickly, not getting into the intricacies of Alliance politics.
The faction that wanted to help everyone everywhere for free was still the strongest and in charge of mostly everything. However, as the system got stretched, it had been forced to make concessions in some areas to preserve others. One such area was caring for new, unproven races after the initial investment.
The Human Maiden was right that it made little sense, but the strongest faction saw it as a better alternative to not having the Pioneer Tutorial. The minutiae of why and how was lost on her.
"But we don't have time for questions," Liya continued. As if on cue, the room and her capsule shook violently. The beings outside had started attacking. "Rift of random tiers will start appearing at random locations on Earth, but you can use your Management Points to open rifts of a tier and location of your choosing. To protect your race, you must open a D-tier rift in front of your Rising Star. That will be doubly useful because it'll decrease the chance of a rift of the same tier from forming elsewhere. Your Rising Star might die, but he'll grow stronger if he survives." Then, Liya stressed, "It might be bad for your feelings, but it might also be the only way to save your race from a much worse doom."
None of that was a lie and would give Feng Shen time to recover if all went well. He was a D-rank, so his soul already had the blueprint of his brain memorized in the same space it stored part of his mind. Whatever had been done to him was reversible as long as his soul was intact and he had enough time to pull his body back in sync with itself.
Outside, the Observers kept attacking. The defensive capsule was shaking so violently that it was clear it would pop at any moment. Even though Liya was the strongest C-rank she had ever seen, she was limiting herself too much in not deploying her domain. That allowed the others to interrupt her, though defeating her would still be impossible.
"Why are you helping me or my race if Observers don't care?" The Human Maiden asked quickly.
"Because my people suffered much worse at the Dreamer's hands, and I don't want to see something even close happen to someone else. That's why your race even had mind healers to deal with traumas caused by Pioneer Tutorial. Use your B-rank privilege to get information about my race if you doubt me. I'm the Drow Maiden."
The bubble finally exploded inwards. The liquid darkness threatened to cover Liya and the Human Maiden, and they hid the powerful attacks also coming their way.
More importantly, the system was coming back to them. To expel an Observer, the others had to formally inform the Observer first. However, her nullifying ability was one of the abilities that cut off the connection with the system in a legal manner if used in battle. The idiots outside had just justified her use of it by attacking her, as she expected they would.
Unfortunately for them, Liya had perfectly timed things out.
The system covered them all in the teleportation white light while informing her there would be a formal vote at the tutorial for her illegal actions there.
The loophole she would abuse was that none of them would be allowed back in the tutorial. It was a stupid slight of words in the rules that would get fixed as soon as it was reported. However, she would get away with it.
The Alliance was formed with beings of such different cultures and comprehension, so there was no such thing as the "spirit of the Law" as she had seen on Earth. Only whatever was written was valid. The others would get pissed at her, but they would get even more pissed at not seeing or abusing the loophole themselves.
Liya smiled as she imagined their anger while they were all teleported to Earth.
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Colonel Walter Schneider was one of the thirty people allowed in the command center when the time came. They were organized in rows to one side, with their speaker closest to where the Maiden would arrive.
The Free Republic of Florence's forces had been the first to return to the city when the maniac Rising Star left for the East. This time, they came with fresh troops and equipment from the US and Canada, giving them much better control of the entire city. The arrival of dozens of Pioneers from all around the globe to help also hadn't hurt.
They were confused and divided about the Rising Star's latest killing spree, but almost all had agreed with helping protect the Maiden's arrival. After that, they would discuss what they would do about the crazy fellow.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
To Walter's dismay, his son had come too. At least Walter had managed to put Karl into guard duty instead of going to the actual fight. The boy was right outside, protecting the room with his life. It filled Walter with a mix of pride and fear for the boy's life.
The war had gotten even worse in those few hours before the Maiden's return, and even now, Walter felt the ground repeatedly shake as the troops fought outside.
But the restaurant still stood protected; the Republic had won.
Light flashed in the middle of the room, where the Maiden had been dining with her friends when the Alliance arrived. An instant later, the girl materialized there.
Schneider's first impression of her was how young she looked. She had been fifteen when she entered the tutorial, and now, a year and a month later, she looked only slightly older—if at all.
Marzia had short auburn hair and eyes of similar color. She was wearing what looked like equestrian clothes—except she might ride some robot horse in the Star Wars. It felt futuristic and functional at the same time. They were brown and white, with a black jacket on top.
She looked around quickly as soon as she arrived, seemingly looking for someone. She didn't seem to find whoever it was, but instead of being disappointed, she showed relief.
"Thank God they didn't come with me," she whispered, then said, "Inspect," and looked at the people in the room.
"Marzia, my girl," their spokesperson said warmly while stepping ahead. "I'm so sorry to have to say this, but..." he opened his arms to hug her.
The old man in a suit was the very image of a Mafia family from the movies. Schneider had never thought the movies were so close to reality until the "famiglia" appeared and took over the Free Republic once the Interim President died. How the nations of the world allowed that was beyond him, but then again, he knew his political knowledge was limited at best.
Strangely, he never finished the embrace or his words. He just froze there, his arms open wide about ten feet from the girl still looking around.
Her eyes went over Schneider and kept going, then returned quickly, as if she had recognized him. "Are you related to Karl Schneider, the Pioneer?"
Her voice was nothing like the young, naive girl she looked to be. It was icy, serious, and commanding. Schneider would've taken her for a spoiled rich brat if he saw her in an ice cream shop. In here, and considering she had E+ stats, she became a very dangerous person to deal with.
He was surprised at being addressed at all but nodded. "Yes... ma'am?" He had no idea how to address her.
"Where is he?" she asked. "Why do I only see old farts and useless bureaucrats around?"
He looked around, seeking his superiors' guidance on how to answer that. Most looked offended but didn't look his way.
In fact...
Schneider frowned when he noticed one of them with his mouth open as if he was about to say something, yet the man kept his silence, frozen like the spokesperson.
"Don't mind them," Marzia said. "I'm not in the mood to entertain whatever condescending gaslight you have prepared, much less pretend to fit in whatever manner of hierarchy you might've developed amongst yourselves. Earth is mine. You'll all come to understand that soon enough."
As if on cue, all thirty people except Schneider fell to their knees at once. It was an unnatural movement, as if they were controlled by invisible strings.
"Well?" Marzia said. "Where is your son?"
Schneider found himself not wanting to tell the girl anything about his son. If anything, he would rather find a way to tell the boy to run away.
She sighed and shook her head theatrically. "I see now why my father was killed if his subordinates are so incompetent they can't answer a simple question." She looked at the old man who had talked to her. "Luigi, you were my father's chief adviser and head of security. You swore to protect him with your very life, yet he is dead, and you're alive. I'll remedy that for you." She smiled slightly, and the man's head turned a full hundred-eighty degree.
Schneider, who was in the last row, shivered as the dead man's eyes seemed to lock straight on him.
Marzia shook her head, sighed again, put her hands behind her back, and started walking from one side to the other, speaking as if giving lecturing a problematic audience.
"My father was the worst person I've ever met," she said. "Yet, he was also one of the most competent. It's a shame that it was partly because of the people he surrounded himself with.
"Those people were very loyal to him while he was useful, but they were quick to ditch him when he became a problem. He was between them and me, a needless layer separating them from what they saw as an easily controllable kid.
"Unfortunately for them, they were wrong in almost everything.
"Foremost among all, they didn't understand all the privileges of being a Maiden. I got a full report of my father's death, the culprits, and everyone who led him to be where he was, doing what he was doing at the time of his death. He was fed false information about the Rising Star's power and personality so he would offend Feng Shen beyond redemption. He didn't find it strange because he had dealt with plenty of powerful yet easily intimidated people before. I hate everyone involved, and they will pay for being the snakes they are."
She stopped walking and turned her back to everyone.
"But most of all, I hate Feng Shen with all my heart, for Feng Shen took from me the pleasure of killing the man who beat me up at least once a week from the day my mother died when I was ten. The man whose birthday present when I turned fifteen was making me watch one of his clients fuck, demean, and hurt a hooker so I would learn to save myself for my husband. It worked. I fear human touch in a way neither of you would ever understand."
She turned to the audience. Her eyes were red with tears, and her face was filled with absolute rage.
"Let me repeat it: my father was the worst person I ever knew. And you put him in charge. I doubt any politically influential figure in Italy didn't know about him, and I doubt the best intelligence agencies in the world wouldn't find out about it.
"Most of you knew the person you were supporting, yet you backed him because it was a way to get to me. To control me. As far as I'm concerned, you are all complicit in that man's crimes, and you will pay for that too.
"But that isn't even why I'm more upset with you.
"I knew the dark side of the world; I was born in it. I learned to lie and manipulate to survive in a den of snakes. I had every few friends I trusted, but none I would classify as good—which, I now realize, was because my family controlled everyone I interacted with to make sure I would see the world through their lens. I was born and raised to accept that theirs was the only way to live because everyone was equally condemnable. The many supposedly good celebrities and kind philanthropists I met all had dirty secrets that my family made sure to inform me about. Whenever I became interested in a boy or saw someone as a hero, they crushed that person's image to me.
"Yet, they messed in one thing: they sent me to Catholic school. A deeply corrupted one, but the basics of human decency were still taught to me. I was taught and believed it was a stupid ruse to keep the naive masses controlled. Yet, a feeble seed of already dying hope was planted in my heart, and it germinated in the tutorial.
"There, I saw a boy who gave me hope that decent people might exist. People trusted him to do the right thing because of who he always showed himself to be. I chose to support him for that and nothing else.
"Then, I saw him kill my father when he noticed the danger such a man in a position of power would be. That's when I understood Feng Shen was actually an honorable person. He might not go around hunting evil people, but he won't stay there and let people like my father pollute the same air he breathes.
"And you tried to hunt him down because he was an inconvenience to your project of power. Because he did the right thing.
"You all sicken me, and you will pay for it too."
She then looked Schneider straight in the eyes. "Now, Walter Schneider, you better tell me where is your son because only other Pioneers can stop me, and I don't trust myself to make a reasonable judgment at the moment. I'm outraged at you all, and, worst of all, I was told to put the best person I know through a potentially lethal ordeal for the greater good. Unless someone stops me, I'll kill people I might regret later—starting with you."
Schneider gulped.
This was the girl which so many people had died to protect?
God help them all.