Raika steps out of herself and takes a long, deep breath.

She tastes the city as the light hits her, the balcony of bone and marble she’s crafted out of herself letting her get a good look at her surroundings.

The city of Singheart is massive. Its number rival and likely surpass Cragend, making it officially the largest city Raika’s ever been in.

Unlike Cragend, it’s not so cleanly divided between lines of class. Where Cragend had the mines, miners housing, a sprawling urban area leading towards the arena and mercantile districts, and then a peak of noble and merchant’s houses surrounding the Imperial Palace, Singheart feels… chaotic. Not in a bad way, at least not to Raika’s senses, but it does seem much more eclectic- if anything, it actually reminds her of the fortress-city. There, there were dozens, maybe hundreds of different sub-neighborhoods in the trenches, all of them built atop or around one another and many entirely distinct from each other.

Here, it’s all distinct. Every house looks like it was built by hand or by a specific group, with only a few basic trends carrying over between each of them. The majority use massive leaves, bent and folded but almost universally kept intact, as walls and ceilings, building their floors into the roots of the massive ur-tree that dominates the sky above. The space is in perpetual twilight, with gaps between city-sized leaves serving as communal areas, parks, or places to grow batches of crops that aren’t moss or tree-branch related. What other architectural marvels exist tend to be built up out of wood, woven vines, clay and crystal fragments.

And the source of said crystals towers almost as high over the city as the tree.

Jutting from its center and shaped suspiciously like a weapon, the massive diamond glows in even the faintest light, illuminating the world for miles around. It’s the main source of light, its prism refracting the sunlight that trickles down into a thousand multi-hued beams that ripple over the city, giving an impression almost like the whole space is underwater.

Raika takes in a long, deep breath, enjoying the smells of the city. Cooking foods, herbs, sweat, grinding metal, animals, the sounds of music and the glowing lights of the prism above- it all comes through in a rush of sensation that she can’t help but luxuriate in. The whole space is beautiful.

It would be perfect, if not for the actual people.

Raika looks down, and flinches as a few hundred throats have a collective intake of breath.

They set her up with an empty house, one possibly made on the fly, considering the high powers of the cultivators here. She’s up a ways, on one of the taller vines of the ur-tree- interestingly, no one seems to have built any living areas on the trunk of the tree itself, but the closer they are to the base of it and the crystal, the more people seem to treat the homes with reverence. Many of the homes remain small and humble, but the traffic around them reduces- if she had to guess, it’s probably the homes of those strong enough to hold their place so close to the tree.

She grew herself out from that house, weaving her own fibers in with the leaves and wood and allowing additional rooms and platforms to form along the exterior. Originally, the idea was that it would intimidate people while giving her space to set up as much sensory equipment as she can and preparing defenses semi-subtly. This idea has backfired horribly.

She pinches the bridge of her nose as the crowd continues to (at least somewhat politely) whisper to each other at the sight of her.

The street and quasi-perimeter around the branches that make up the base of the house is completely crowded with people, all of them staring up at her. Most of them are at least in the Foundational realm, with some in the beginning of Nascent Core, all mingling together. The lines of social divide are… lesser, here, but she can’t help but notice the glaring lack of Qi-Gathering realm individuals.

With her senses, it wasn’t hard to note that most of them are working in… less-than ideal situations. While there doesn’t seem to be any stigma to different labors, with plenty of higher-realm people still handling animals, buildings, and farming, the actual amount of work is pretty drastically different. The weaker the cultivation base, the longer people work, and the stronger they are, the more it seems… generally optional?

She’s yet to meet any actual authorities, and there’s nothing like a palace or central governmental chamber she can detect, but she rarely detects crime. It’s… weird. Somewhat anarchic, but also very much defined by personal power. She’d need to see someone be punished for an action, or a mass-response, to really understand how the system here works, but if she had to guess, it’s just a lot of communities and families that rely on each other, mixed with the idea of individual power reigning supreme. The community is made of families, but the more powerful you are, the less your actions seem to be viewed as part of said family, at least politically.

It’s weird.

Aaaaand she’s theorizing about socio-politics to ignore the amount of people staring at her.

She doesn’t want to scare them away, that’s not fair, but… ugh. The novelty of her presence, and their seeming lack of fear for her, means that she’s a source of interest for people.

She forms a teacup out of bone and cycles Qi through her bloodstream, turning some of it to something semi-alcoholic with her Truth. It emerges from the railing in front of her, another part of her body, and she takes a sip.

The crowd below murmurs, staring up at her as she forms a cup seemingly without Qi.

Ugh.

She leaves the balcony, walking back inside.

At the moment, her guest-list has shifted. The two cultivators of the Crashing Rainfall sect are kept isolated for now, same as Many-Grasping and another iteration of herself, but she’s lost one- Wei Zin. The still unconscious and deeply malnourished stranger that she saved from Imperials just a day and a half ago was taken in by Chu Ari, who seems like one of the… more influential (?) members of the city, and wore similar clothing. She asked to stay informed. Additionally, Li Shu leapt at the opportunity to interact with another Craft user, and the Witch with the hair-Sacrifice was amenable enough. She heard that his name was Rohis, and has kept one brain trained on his and Li Shu’s presence, but otherwise it seems… fine.

All in all, for the most part, it’s just her, Dink, and Jin. And technically, she’s not with Jin either- though Jin is with her.

It’s… weird. Watching a body that looks just like her, and is her, and which she sees and experiences through, walk away. On the one hand, she is with Jin right now, and on the other hand, she isn’t, and while it’s not a bad feeling, it does take some emotional processing. But the kid needed a walk and wanted to experience the city, and she needs to stay in one place, secure a perimeter, protect the others.

And spread.

Since she got here, she’s been… processing.

She’s more minds than she’s ever been before. One of her watching over Li Shu, another chaperoning Jin, one “communing” with Many-Grasping, one watching her prisoners, two watching the perimeter, one working on her biology and its constant need for updates, and one… drinking a cup of recycled alcohol, and wondering what’s next.

She killed a Warrior-realm master. A cultivator capable of devastating whole cities on their own. If there are hundreds of millions of Nascent Soul cultivators in the Empire, there’s maybe a few tens of thousands in the Warrior realm. Less than one in a few thousand makes that next step.

And now… she can kill them.

It has been almost four years since she was crippled. Sure, she’s cheating, having so many minds to work with at once, but her rate of growth is nearly unprecedented.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

And now… she needs to know what the fuck she’s doing.

Four years since she was crippled. Three years since she met Taurus. Two years, if that, until his supposed plan catalyzes, killing two or more Divisions of the Empire, a kingdom that spans nearly all the world and numbers its population in the tens of billions.

So. What now?

With a force of will, Raika calls on her Heart, expanding the spatial coordinates of the room she’s in. With another thought, she alters the interior, altering the coloration and texture to match the specifications of a handmade wooden cabin.

A second room forms off to one side, and a few seconds after, the sizzling sounds of cooking begin to emerge.

Raika takes a seat at the table that has formed from the floor, drinking the cup of… something wine.

And waits.

The sounds of ingredients being cut echoes from the room, joining the sizzling, and in a few moments, the smells of cooking begin to waft from the room. The smells aren’t quite right- she hasn’t managed to create the spices just right, after all, and the ingredient’s source is rather distinct compared to the originals… but it’s not bad.

Raika begins to form a pipe, and then… thinks better of it. The pipe is good for expediency, durable enough to last if she gets thrown about and quick to pack, but she’s feeling nostalgic.

She has to call on her Reactor’s CHANGE radiation, the Heart, and really push her processing to recall the exact makeup of things- but over the course of a few minutes, she manages to print a thin roll of paper from her fingers. A flex of will later, it falls to the table, and she takes another few minutes to try to recreate her particular herbal preferences.

It doesn’t come out quite right. Too wet, too much like skin and coral, but close enough. She takes the moss, the leaves, crushing them between her palms into a semi-fine powder. She sprinkles the powder into the paper, rolling it carefully, sealing it with a lick that is absorbed a bit too much by the faux-paper.

When she’s done, she sets about making a second one.

It’s meditative. Fucking difficult, too. Metal and flesh, she’s familiar with, but paper and plant-life are not metal and flesh. Except… they kind of are, in a way that she can’t quite articulate.

By the time she’s finished rolling the second cigarette, she’s blocked out the sounds of the crowd outside. She’s delegated all her worry about Jin, Li Shu, her new patients, her… lover? Head priestess? to her other minds.

She looks up as the food arrives, plates of ceramic-like bone laden with thick cuts of meat, fried dumplings, and faux-vegetables and fruits landing in front of her.

“Sorry for the mess,” Raika says, taking a seat. “Couldn’t figure out how to make rice without making the plant first, and that just felt like an all-day sort of thing.”

“No worries,” Raika replies, putting both cigarettes to one side to leave more room for the plates. “Kept myself busy, and I figured we should both wait until we’re properly ready.”

“Mmh.”

There are differences between the two Raikas- one has the neural-matter for hair, the other has thick braids of feather-like growths. One has eyes that ripples with every color in the rainbow, while the other has eyes that pulse with every color of the rainbow. One has both arms, human-like, while the other has one biological arm and another that’s a prosthetic of Blacksteel. Both are barefoot, but one wears a sort of casual toga, breezy and easy to remove, while the other wears robes, their fabric almost matching their skin and open to the navel.

They stare at each other over the table and break into a smile.

“Been a while since we’ve done one of these.”

“A few months, I think. Though not this intensely. That might be-”

“Cragend, yeah. Right after we fell.”

“Mmh. When we swallowed Zhoulong properly.”

“Well, he did still come back up after.”

“Sure, but we couldn’t exactly predict how he did it.”

“Fair. You going to eat?”

Raika shrugs. “Yeah, I probably should. You put all this effort in, and better to recycle than waste.”

She takes a small plate, lifting something that’s part leaf, part crispy-fried skin and putting a few slices of beef-like meat atop it. She pours a bit of a thick, sweet sauce over top of it, letting the steam rise and adding a few pieces that look like enoki mushrooms.

She blinks. Those are enoki mushrooms. She raises an eyebrow at herself.

Raika shrugs. “Mushrooms are… weirdly easy. Not easy to get right, but easy to make, and they’re not nearly as picky as plants.”

With that, she starts making a plate as well, piling it high with cuts of meat, cubes of diced tubers, starchy balls of dough.

Together, Raika eats of herself, enjoying the flavor of it. Not nearly as enjoyable as someone else would be- she can’t really make the rich flavors of Qi that she enjoys so much in her meals, that she needs, but enhanced senses make the food’s natural flavors explode. The meat is tender, the sauce thick and rich, the leaf crunchy and adding a zesty pop to the whole wrap.

Meanwhile, she tastes the doughy softness of the fried starch, juxtaposed with the sharp (over-sharp, really, she violently overdid it with the capsaicin) spice of the diced tubers and the salty, fatty meats. The whole blends together, especially with a little vinegar to balance it out, drizzled atop.

For a few minutes, she just eats, enjoying the meal. It’s only when the food has been entirely (re)consumed, the plates put down, that she sighs in satisfaction, reaching over to the cigarettes. Wordlessly, she lights them both with a flick of True Flame, handing one of them over to herself and taking a drag.

She exhales, and then again a few seconds after, filling the room with a smoke that’s more purple than the usual blue… but which tastes right enough.

“So. What’s the plan?”

She takes one more pull before exhaling, meeting her own gaze. “Review goals?”

“Mmh. In order, or in general?”

“Some stuff doesn’t quite fit in a “first this, then this” framework. Let’s just list them as we think of them?”

“Sounds good. First one; protect our loved ones. Maen, Jin, Li Shu, Qen Hou, Hao Nera, Hisheng. Slightly lower priority, in large part because we’re not as worried about them being unable to protect themselves; Kaena and Taran. Lower priority, because she’s good people but we’re not close: Yun Ka. Off doing their own things and in less danger: Jun Vral, Shapefixit, and… maybe our sister. If we can even find her.”

“Agreed. Second: limit the damage. The collapse of the Wall already puts a lot of people in danger, people who don’t deserve it. Whatever we’re going to do, however we decide to act, it can’t be so drastic that we don’t try to hurt only what needs hurting.”

“Seconded. Third, and right on the back of the second: killing Taurus, the Feng Clan, and the Division of Altered Cultivation and the Division of War.”

“More and less complicated than the others, because on the one hand, we get help. On the other-”

“Some of the things that help us are going to be our enemies in the next breath. And some of the people we want to protect, some of the damage we want to limit, are very involved with those enemies-to-be.”

“Mmh. Risk we have to take. It…”

“It can’t stay like it is.”

“No. Even if it’s sustainable, it’s wrong. The dead sands are proof enough of that. Thousands of years of unending war, worn down to a fucking desert around the chosen sheep.”

“And judging by that vision we had-”

“Which reminds me: fourth, kill the Emperor.”

“-the Emperor seems to profit from, yeah. If the Feng clan and the Divisions weren’t proof enough, the way it treated us, the way it talked about people…”

“It’s done something to the Empire. Remember what it said about impurities and Tribulations? If I had to guess, if we ask the people around here about how advancing realms work for them, they’d mention some issues we’re not used to.”

“And it can’t be trusted that that reason is good, because… well. Eternal war, perpetual subjugation and lying about the world while letting monsters roam and taking resources from the outer rings exclusively for the inner rings-”

“Not something we can really allow.”

“Not something we want to allow.”

Raika nods, taking a pull of her cigarette. “Right.”

“No. We should face it. We can allow it. If we get strong enough, I think that whatever the Emperor is, it would let us kill Taurus, the Fengs, and whatever general or researcher we fucking want. It would meet all the other criteria we have, it changes the world, stops the monsters we know best, and keeps our people safe, maybe for the next ten fucking generations.”

“But would they want that?”

“We don’t live by what other people want, not even our loved ones. We respect what they want, help them with it if we can and choose to, but they don’t rule us. I think that I could live with them being hurt, with them losing respect for me, if it meant they were safe, and their kids were safe, and their families and followers and friends were safe. And since I’m me, and you’re me, I know that you’re ok with it too.”

“Yeah.”

They both take a long, quiet breath of smoke, letting it twist and dissipate around the top of their lungs, diluted by the massive air reserves in them. Then a shorter breath, held near the top, and exhaled back out as smoke.

“But we won’t.”

“No. Because fuck that.”

“Because fuck that. We aren’t doing this to leave the world the same, just a little better for us and a chosen few.”

“No. If it needs to change, then it needs to CHANGE.”

The air ripples in the chamber, the word-that-is-more-than-a-word resonating through every part of her.

“So.”

“So.”

“Kill the Fengs. Kill Taurus. Kill the Divisions, at least the nasty ones. Kill the Emperor.”

“And protect our loved ones as best we can. Those who’ve helped us, who don’t deserve the monster and all our teeth. Wayun village, the people of Cragend, Paleblossom, Shapefixit-”

“All of them.”

“So. How do we do that?”

They both turn their heads, perfectly synchronized to face the far wall of the chamber. An alert from the minds in charge of perimeter defense.

A few seconds later, someone knocks on the exterior wall of her added architecture.

Eyes bloom and swivel to face them, each of them miniscule but together making a perfect image.

The thin, pale man, who smelled of honey and darkness, Aurick, the centaur beastman, and someone wearing the same clothing as Wei Zin but considerably older, float on their Qi or stand on nearby footholds. Aurick knocks again, his smile polite.

“Hellooo~? We’re hoping to chat for a minute?”

Raika turns back to look at herself. One of her shrugs.

“Can’t fault their timing. Terrible and perfect.”