POV George alias Flash

Temporary Elders went to their house. Someone watched them going through window.

-= What will we do now? – Asked Eva. We asked her to shorten her alias and she was thinking

We all have heavy thoughts. During meeting Nameless, one of Temporary Elders, and most straight forward one told us, that they were tied to some demonic entities. From good side, they gathered us, paid us some money in exchange for us creating cultivation society, even taught us magic abilities. From bad side, they probably manipulated us, even if just a little and had some hidden agenda. Worse was, we still were depending on them.

-= We should just cultivate. – Said Vov.

There was moment of silence.

-= And what? Ignore all we heard today. For me it’s impossible. – Replied Darth.

-= We can’t ignore, but we are too weak to react properly. – Vov defended his point. – For now, let’s care mainly about ourselves and become stronger. It’s easier to change something, when you are strong.

Vov and Ahila, which was fresh alias of Eva, were next in line to minor completion in lightning ability. They were important. I felt, that if four of founders were able to make some decision rest would go along it. And we, lightning ability users, needed cultivation chamber and cooperation to succeed in our cultivation. I wanted to have good relations with Temporary Elders for some more time. Darth seemed to be angry on them. Mike, alias Elemental, was training by the forge with his plasma ability. He seemed to be calm guy and probably would want to train more at forge.

-= I think, - I said. – that all lightning users should use time, we have here, to get to minor completion of ability. Also plasma users probably have more chances while training by forge. When we complete, what we can here, we can return to topic, how to treat Devas. For now any violent action could sabotage CHoMiA.

Some nodded on those words. Elemental was among them.

-= And I think, - Said Darth. – That you are under their psychic influence. Wait, wait. – He pick up his hand in gesture of stopping. – Even if Yola can’t see influence on you now, you could have been influenced earlier. Brainwashed completely. More of us could.

Darth was creating fear around us, that way we would doubt ourselves. I just wanted to cultivate in peace, not fighting war. Was there any defense from those accusations?

-= Maybe you’re right. – I had idea. – Maybe I’m influenced, brainwashed. But I know, what I want. I want to cultivate. I would like to cultivate with all of you together. It’s safer and lighter that way. I don’t want to go into hiding and cultivate and watch over Devas from there.

-= Ha! – Shouted Darth. – You talked with Nameless a lot, I saw it. He would say similar thing. It’s rotten compromise.

-= Darth! – Interrupted Ahila. – You are attacking Flash personally, but don’t attack idea of cultivating here directly. Is Flash brainwashed or not, means not so much for those that want to get to minor completion of their magic ability. I want to take risk, stay here and get there. Who is with me?

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All lightning and plasma users except Darth raised their hands. Dancer and Yola had sad faces. They had no help in way to minor completion.

-= So, only we three can see sinister nature of Devas. – Said Darth.

-= Sorry Darth – Interrupted Dancer. – I didn’t raise my hand because I’m sad that I can’t complete my magic ability, not because I support you.

That left Darth and Yola opposed to idea of further cooperation with Temporary Elders. It looked funny enough for me, that Yola, that Devas put among us was against Devas.

-= Ok guys, - Said Darth after moment. – don’t tell me later, that I didn’t warn you.

He wouldn’t left us alone. We were group of people that had some problems, problems for each of us. Then we met by chance and became friends or good mates. We had our kinks and needles sometimes, but we appreciated our company. At least I did.

POV Yola

I could see, that magic aura after minor completion became more dense. Two of people here already got it. People here, in Atroadlike village were different from friends I had among Devas supporters. They, cultivators, as they called themselves, kept some distance from themselves on emotional level. They didn’t tell one another, what one should do. They asked politely. They acted as if some little things could hurt them. Those were strange people there.

They were suspicious of me at the beginning. Quite fast they accepted me. I didn’t even know what made them trust me. I spent some time, half a day, with them and at some point they started treating me as one of them. I knew, I did something or said something that changed their attitude, but I couldn’t guess what it was.

In the evening it was time for showdown. I testified that Devas were linked to some sinister entities. Some even have much of sinister aura already. Cultivators were moved, but were able to calmed down. Then Nameless told his part. It was like punch in the face.

Earlier I saw him as knight on white horse that rescued me. He had minimal sinister aura and seemed to care. It was charming. Then I got to know, that he used his psychic abilities to be more charming to girls. What a disappointment, what a scumbag. I wanted to get out, but there was nowhere I could go. In the end Temporary Elders left and Nameless with them.

Cultivators were discussing how to react after those revelations. I was asking myself, if Nameless used psychic ability on me. When they voted, whether to stay and cultivate I was against it.

I talked a lot with Betty, alias Dancer, later in the night. It seemed that two of us would have some bleak days. I told her, that I liked Nameless before I heard, how he used his psychic powers. She told me, that she wanted to be famous dancer as a child, so she put lot of effort to learn magic abilities, that she associated with gracious dance. We became best friends.

POV Vov

I wanted to preserve that place. I wanted for our Cultivation Humanhood of Mountains intersecting Abyss to last. I was very lonely person before I met people, I could call friends here. When I went earlier, to watch Devas supporters, I already was looking for people I could connect to. I felt, that there was some manipulation and I grew suspicious. I tried to expose them and somehow I was directed here. Nameless directed me here. I felt debt of gratitude.

One thing was, how much truth was in Yola’s words, another if we could live and cultivate peacefully. We had nothing Devas could take from us, or so I thought.

I talked with Elemental and Ignacy later in the evening. We mostly talked about cultivation plans. Elemental dreamed of learning all elemental magic abilities. He didn’t went for lightning first, because most of us did. That bit him later as training by the forge wasn’t so fast and effective. He told me, that progress with plasma felt slow but steady. He would get to minor completion with enough time.

Ignacy waited for his turn at lightning cultivation chamber. He wanted also learn plasma ability later. He seemed to be hard working one. We had similar opinion, that we should be not too close, not too far from Temporary Elders and just do our thing. We wanted to get to minor completion of ability and then search for a way to make money from magic. Temporary Elders couldn’t help us with it. Elemental said, that our abilities were energy based. If we could find ways to use that energy or even store it, we could change world. Magic plasma was like fire but without burning trees. Lightning ability was different, unresearched kind of electricity. Our whole civilization ran on fire and electricity. Way to run things on magical plasma and lightning should exist. We believed, it existed. We just needed time to research it.