“I think we need to know what you're all actually capable of before we start making plans.” Nadia commented. “Chris controls a space that he can grow and use to form connections with people, which allows him to open portals to them, temporarily grant them abilities, communicate telepathically with them, and return them to the space once they die, fully healed. The space itself can absorb material to recreate anything Chris has scanned, though this material is incapable of leaving his space, and it can heal any injury, including death as long as it happens within the space.”

“Wait, being your minion makes people immortal?” Quinn asked incredulously, unable to help herself.

“Eh, kinda.” Chris wiggled his hand. “You do get returned to the space fully healed, but you're healed using the space's material, so you’re stuck living in my space for the rest of… eternity, I guess.”

“A space which you're always growing and allows you to make anything you want, whenever you want.” Beth rolled her eyes. “Not exactly a negative.”

“Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a way to make sure certain people don't end up permanently gone.” Greg muttered, glancing at Tessa. “Anyway, my thing is all about controlling matter using my smoke. My smoke can turn into anything I've scanned and connect with other matter to transform it. It also has a telekinetic aspect, allowing me to grab, lift, and hit things with it. Oh, and I can dissolve anything my smoke can connect to. Aaand drain vitality, if it's alive, which makes my smoke stronger, but I can't imagine that's going to help anyone. Sort of the opposite, really.”

Everyone turned to Tori next, who sighed. “I have a system that allows people to earn points by completing tasks, which they can use to strengthen themselves physically and mentally. It also helps them learn skills faster, grow their energy, transform themselves, create anything I've scanned, heal, communicate telepathically… probably more, since I haven't exactly found a limit to what the points are capable of. It's just the more you want to do, the more expensive it gets, and I need to actually put it in the system for anyone else to be able to do it.”

“Okay, that sounds useful.” Nadia commented. “If we can make our people stronger, then we may not even need to evacuate!”

Tori grimaced. “I wouldn't count on it. The system is effective, but it's gradual. Plus, the stronger you get, the harder it is to earn points, since you need to actually push yourself to do it. It's better used as an aid than anything.”

Nadia frowned, turning to Andrew. “What about you?”

“I just kill people.” Andrew sighed. “I can control my aura to yank out people's cores, which gives me their forms and abilities. I've been working on manipulating cores so I can give people abilities, but so far all I've managed to do is create unholy abominations.”

“That he insists on showing us. Every. Single. Time.” Li Jing added.

“Hey, they may be unholy, but they're still neat.” Andrew shrugged, grinning slightly.

Nadia sighed, rubbing her temple. “Well, I expected a bit more, but… we'll make it work.”

“Do you think we can use Tori's system to convince people to become Chris’s minions?” Beth asked thoughtfully. “The benefits are already tempting enough, so if we add both it could tip the scales for a lot of people.”

“That- might actually backfire.” Tessa commented. “Offering too many benefits tends to make people more suspicious, not less. The more you try to sell something, the more people suspect there's a hidden catch, and since what you're offering carries a rather significant catch, piling on more benefits will just make people resist you more.”

Beth frowned. “So what do we do?”

Tessa hesitated. “Is there any way to hide his control? If you don't plan on ever using it, then your best bet is to just not mention it.”

Nadia shook her head. “Unfortunately once you connect to him, the authority he has becomes immediately clear. I don't think people would take it well if they weren't informed about it beforehand.”

“The connection makes it almost impossible to trick people.” Chris added. “Intent carries across the connection just as well as words.”

“Besides, our main issue is getting into a position to negotiate in the first place.” Beth grumbled. “Every group we interact with seems inherently hostile, and it's difficult to negotiate after we kill a few…” She looked around the cave at all the corpses. “...dozen of them.”

“What about convincing the people you're actually trying to save to do it?” Tori asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you need to go after other people?”

Beth sighed. “Because humanity isn't scared enough of dying to risk being controlled. We're too… comfortable, and even with the invasion, I don't see that changing. Particularly since the invaders will try their best to avoid killing humans, because ultimately they want to hold humanity hostage so they can control Chris. So as much as we want to not be in that situation, the risk of being… enslaved by Chris is still the more concerning option. However, for the creatures in the Maze, they aren't just risking their lives becoming uncomfortable, they're risking death, because the surface races have no reason to keep them alive. We just need to find a way to actually convince them of that before the surface races get here.”

“So, in a way, we are going after the people we're trying to save.” Chris pointed out. “It isn't like they deserve to die just because people they aren't even aware of are in conflict.”

Tori gave him a look before grunting noncommittally. “I guess there's an argument to be made there.”

“How urgent is this issue?” The Archmage asked.

“We probably have a couple weeks before the main armies show up, and the force we're trying to negotiate with has a stronghold right… well, there.” Chris pointed at the gate a little ways off.

The Archmage blinked. “That seems fairly pressing then.”

“Yeah, a bit.” Chris agreed.

The Archmage turned to Tori. “How pressing is the situation in your reality?”

“The war isn't going to start for a couple months yet, but we should probably deal with the whole portal mess pretty soon.” Tori replied. “Particularly since we could have people start pouring through at any moment, since as I said, it's literally in the middle of the Hunters Guild.”

“Same with that one.” Andrew added, waving at the system world section. “That's an apartment, so… we have neighbors.”

“We'll need to contact someone about our portal as well.” Li Jing commented.

Cathryn grimaced. “And we need to move. I am not living in the same house as that thing.”

The Archmage nodded. “The situation in our reality isn't particularly urgent, or at least nothing I can't handle myself for now, so I believe we should consider handling the discovery of this space as our primary concern at the moment, which includes handling the force situated so close to it.”

“I- may be able to assist with that.” The foxkin captain offered.

“Fuck!” Greg jumped. “Shit dude, I completely forgot you were down there! Almost gave me a heart attack. You know, if I actually had a heart at the moment. Which I don't, just FYI.”

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Chris crouched down, cocking his head at the captain. “You want to help? Why?”

“Do I need a reason to want to save my people?” The captain retorted with a scowl. “I have been paying attention, even if you forgot about me, and I doubt you would stage something like this just to trick me. But I suppose I would know the moment I became your minion, now wouldn't I?”

“Unless that was a lie too.” Chris grinned slightly. “But it wasn't. Still, the question is why would your people listen to you when they wouldn't listen to Vera? The whole reason we're even in this mess is because they decided to resort to torture once they learned she was connected to me.”

The captain glanced at Vera. “Because I'm the captain of the guard, while she is a random psychic?”

Chris shrugged. “Either way, you're both compromised. Even if you had authority, why would anyone listen to you now? You're defeated, captured, and under the control of an enemy.”

The captain hesitated. “Even if that's the case, I still have to try. If my people are in danger, then I must do everything I can to save them!”

Chris paused, then shrugged. “Fair enough. As long as you're willing to become my minion, I don't mind letting you go talk to your people.”

“Hey, hold on! I still want to study his ability!” Andrew interjected.

“Don't worry, as long as he's my minion you'll still have access to his ability.” Chris waved dismissively.

Andrew eyed him suspiciously for a moment, before sighing. “Alright, fine. I guess letting him try to save his people is more important anyway.”

Chris swept a portal over the foxkin captain and offered the connection, which he readily accepted. He then went to absorb the metal restraining him, only to frown as nothing happened. “Greg, can you get rid of the metal?” Chris asked as he brought the captain back out. “I can't seem to do anything about it. Probably because it's yours.”

Greg frowned as he turned the metal to smoke, letting the captain stand. “What'd you try to do?”

“Absorb it into my space.” Chris replied simply. “Which, now that I think about it, is essentially trying to steal matter from the god of matter. It'd be like someone trying to steal my space. Completely ridiculous.”

“Huh.” Greg grunted. “I never thought about someone trying to steal my smoke before… I'm not even sure how that'd work, since I am the smoke, you know? It wouldn't really be a theft at that point. More like… a kidnapping? Ish?”

Chris nodded. “As I said, ridiculous.”

The Archmage sighed and clapped her hands. “Before you get distracted, again, I think it would be best if those who have the need see to notifying their authorities of this cross reality portal space. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Tori nodded, heading for Rune world, the foxkin captain rushing off as well.

“I hope Arose is home.” Andrew muttered as he walked over to Beast world.

“I'll call Elder Barry as well.” Li Jing added.

“We should probably get the Generals.” Beth muttered, Chris nodding in agreement.

“I- guess I'll call the police?” Quinn offered tentatively, hoping someone would give her a better idea.

“No, call Justin.” Andrew replied. “I doubt he has the authority but I bet he’s better at dealing with weird shit than a random cop.”

“Like an uplift turning out to be some kind of Multiversal god?” Quinn retorted, somewhat hesitant as she still wasn't completely certain Andrew was Drew. Though she was about ninety-nine percent sure he was.

Andrew grinned. “Yeah, like that.”

Tori yelped as she hit the edge of the space, eyes widening as she split into two. “I- forgot about that.” Both of them muttered, before shaking their heads, the only that made it through rushing off while the other awkwardly returned. “So I guess I'm not going. Even though I am.”

“You know, this raises a good question.” Greg commented. “Do we have one self for each reality, or do we have one self per reality plus one for this merged space?”

“I don't know, but I think that's something you can test rather easily.” Chris pointed out, waving towards the edges of the space. He hadn't gone anywhere, since all he had to do was open a portal to the tent and wait for the Generals to show up, just letting the soldier there know to bring all of them.

Greg paused. “Well now I don't want to.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “Just go.”

“Yes, ma'am!” Greg snapped a salute at her before rushing off, chuckling to himself as he felt Tessa's glare burning into his back. “Uno! Dos! Tres! Quatro! Cinco!” Greg counted off as he hit each reality, starting with mage world and ending with Maze world. “And no seis! Guess that answers that.” He shrugged, all five of him stepping back inside, remerging with the one who entered first. “And that… wasn't even thinking about who would merge with who.”

“It also shows that there's no point in not being in every reality.” Andrew pointed out. “Since we're just going to be stuck here if we aren't.”

Cathryn grimaced. “Which means you're going to have five different lives.”

“Well-” Andrew began, pausing as a weird feeling washed over him, realizing that the him feeling Cathryn's emotions wasn't the him standing next to her. “Huh… uh, I mean, the lives won't be completely separate. I merge when I'm in here, right?”

“And how often are you actually going to do that?” Cathryn asked. “Once a week? Once a month? A year? A decade?!?”

“I think it depends.” Chris commented. “Initially I'm sure the lives will be quite separate, but as we grow this space, it will make more and more sense to live here, because everything we actually care about in those realities will be covered by it. So unless we want to eternally flee from this space as we grow, treating them as separate lives would be somewhat foolish, because eventually they will be the same. Inevitably even.”

“What, no second family? Lame.” Greg complained, only to burst out laughing as Tessa stabbed him. “I'm kidding, I'm kidding!”

“You better be.” Tessa humphed.

“But seriously, I can still date, ri- ack!” Greg cut off as Tessa tore out his throat. “No dating, gotcha.” He coughed as his throat reformed, snickering to himself as Tessa glared at him.

“I'm never going to complain about Jing pinching me again.” Andrew muttered, rubbing his throat.

“I feel like I should report you for domestic violence.” Nadia frowned.

“Nah, we're just playing cause my smoke makes hurting me a joke.” Greg waved dismissively. “You should have seen her face the one time she actually made me bleed. She was practically crying!”

“I was not!” Tessa retorted, flushing slightly. “I was the appropriate amount of concerned I should be when my boyfriend is bleeding!”

“Which was practically crying.” Greg countered, sticking his tongue out at her.

Chris glanced at Beth. “They have a weird relationship.”

Beth nodded. “I like ours better. I'll take cuddles over stabbing any day.”

“Agreed.” Chris nodded back.

“Okay, but actually seriously, how separate are the different realities?” Greg asked, turning to Andrew. “Is it like being in two places at once or is it like having a clone you can talk to? I haven't gotten a good feel for it yet.”

Andrew frowned. “It's- kind of both? You can remember everything the other you experiences, but it sort of feels like a dream, you know? So you definitely know you did it, but it also feels like you didn't. It honestly took a while for me to realize my second life wasn't a dream, and even then it was only because I woke up and didn't stop dreaming. But now it all feels the same, so I'd still go with Chris's point. Eventually it's all going to merge, and we don't want to start anything that will cause problems when it does.”

“Yeah, no, I agree, but that's going to be a pain while we're separate.” Greg sighed, glancing at Tessa. “Feeling like I only ever dream of you is going to suck.”

“I know.” Tessa agreed, grabbing his hand.

“It may not be the worst idea to start living here now.” Chris commented thoughtfully, not exactly thrilled at the idea of living apart from Beth either. “Or at least working towards that goal. It seems like forcing ourselves into multiple realities will be more frustrating than beneficial, and while I doubt we'll be able to avoid it completely, it seems like our primary focus should be making this our reality, since it's the only place we're… complete.”

Tori frowned. “That sounds good for us, but I'm not sure I want to expose the people I care about to threats from every reality. Though I can't say I'm excited about the alternative either…”

Chris shrugged. “It just means we'll have to work to make this place safe. I'm not suggesting we immediately move in, particularly not with all the dangers we're already faced with, I'm just saying it's something we should pursue.”

“I can agree with that.” Greg nodded, looking around. “We'll need to do some remodeling though… And deal with all these corpses. In fact, we should probably take care of that before people start to show up, huh? And set up some seating… and a table?”

Chris nodded as he began using portals to pick up the bodies. “Good idea. Quickly though. Who knows when they'll start arriving.”