Waiting for the acrobatic performance was worth it.
Skills meant perfection and in the higher levels surpassing it or outright breaking physical laws.
A young girl back-flipped four times. Each flip ascending her higher into the air. She landed balanced on two fingers upon a thin rope stretched between two others.
The two held the rope between their teeth.
That was impressive enough had each not been balanced on their heads atop a long pole being juggled by a pair of stout jugglers.
The two men added a flaming torch and three knives to make it a proper challenge.
But that wasn’t just it!
Juggling long poles in perfect sync would’ve been difficult enough had they not also been hopping on the backs of three other people that were doing their own push-up rotation thing like a wheel.
“I’ve seen stuff like this. Except they used barrels not people,” Howard muttered.
“That’s what you think about when looking at that?” Ginessa said.
“Nah, I’m really thinking about the combat applications of those classes, but I’ve been told not to share my thoughts,” his eyes flicked over to Cal.
“Unsolicited thoughts. Not everyone wants to think of their Skills as things to use in a fight.”
The jugglers tossed their torches up to the young girl, who caught them with her feet and spun them like helicopter rotors.
Its almost over. Get ready, he thought.
Radio telepathy was what he had told them.
There were understandable concerns, but he had honestly assured them that they wouldn’t be reading each other’s thoughts. It was just like talking to each other, but in their heads. And they had to deliberately focus to send something out. Just like pressing a button on a radio.
We really doing this? Howard thought. Missing my armor.
Full battle kit wasn’t acceptable nor allowed at a fancy state dinner.
Their gear was back at the hotel safe from tampering or theft because anyone that thought to do something found those thoughts slipping from their minds like mist through their fingers.
All they had were a few hidden magical items and their uniforms, of a sort, partially-threaded with thin strands of Threnium.
Cal hadn’t wanted to get anywhere close to a military look, so it was gray suits for both men and women with a Threnosh-made undersuit that was so comfortable that it felt like wearing nothing at all.
The latter appreciated not having to wear a dress and heels because that was just dumb when you knew you were going into a fight.
The phoenixes tensed.
The prince’s many daughters through many mothers were scattered around at many tables.
The empress’ son and daughter sat at their own tables a step lower than their mother’s throne.
Yes, as agreed, they were poised and eager to burn those that had dared to infiltrate their dynasty.
Their guests’ safety was a secondary concern.
Their servants were a distant third.
Fortunately for them, Cal cared.
They were his first concern.
Every single servant from those carrying dessert trays to and from the tables to the cooks in the back suddenly found themselves in invisible hands, carried far away.
Then went the performers, the acrobats, the musicians and the dancers.
Chaos erupted.
Opportunistic assassins struck.
They were all ostensibly in the employ of the Phoenix Dynasty, but it wasn’t that difficult to find levers. Be it vulnerable loved ones or simple greed.
He flicked the former away to safety and let Hanna deal with the latter.
Her sword aura flashed.
Bodies dropped, covered in slashes before they could get close.
Hundreds of guests panicked, running for the exits.
He helped the less objectionable ones.
There were kids and one couldn’t hold them responsible for their terrible parents.
The true targets, infiltrators, sought to join the exodus, but he snatched them and tossed them toward the Phoenix Empress on her throne.
There were four.
A bullet struck his telekinetic shield.
The faint bang in the distance followed a moment after.
That sniper stood up and walked straight to his superior officer where he would confess to taking a bribe to disobey his orders.
The Phoenix Empress stared imperiously down at the four.
They made a disparate group.
A general. A serving girl. An aide to a member of the civil council. A young son to an imperial sage.
The Phoenix Prince flicked a skeptical glance toward Cal.
He tore off their disguises.
The skin didn’t come off cleanly.
The divine energy infused in the chitin resisted.
But, enough was revealed to leave no doubt that these unfortunate people had been replaced. Hollowed out from within. Eaten over weeks by an Eidolon of Sunothi, the so-called god of devoured secrets, the swarm, the horde, endless life and parasitism among many other things they claimed in their portfolio.
The fake gods of their fake pantheon were a grasping lot from what he had taken from their agents’ minds.
It made sense.
The kind of being that sought to pretend to godhood would be a grasping and greedy lot by default.
Black chitin glistened red.
Fledgling phoenixes struck like a hungry birds.
Blasts of plasma burned the air.
The eidolon’s drones shrieked as they burned.
While the impromptu insect bonfire drew attention, Cal’s team sprang into action.
Cammi began casting the portal.
Ginessa hovered behind her protectively, while Cherry stared across a dozen feet at the four-tailed fox woman.
The two were like natural predators that happened to cross paths on the hunt. Neither blinked, unwilling to make the first move.
Another predator, though he didn’t hide his feral nature beneath a fair visage, Howard leapt through the panicking crowd, pouncing on the hapless general that they had marked from the beginning. He grabbed the man and the unloving wife, one under each arm before leaping back to their table.
Rupert enclosed their position with a glassy dome of conjured ice, while Grandmother, Bei and the four cultivators exchanged strikes with other cultivators. The dynasty’s cultivators were mindful of the Phoenix Empress’ displeasure so none went for the kill.
Hanna’s glare cut through whatever threats, protests or pleading the general and his wife had on their lips.
“Slavers. I see the chains connecting you to them. I won’t make them wait for freedom.”
Death was swift as a sword without physical form thrust into their hearts.
The chains she saw coming out of their bodies disintegrated.
Cammi finished her spell.
The portal ripped open in air.
Their destination was the dead general’s estate.
There was still the man’s personal soldiers to deal with before the enslaved could be truly free.
Howard went through first, then Hanna.
Cherry tore her gaze away from the fox-tailed woman, who leapt with a snarl, only to find herself suddenly a hundred feet in the air, on an arc to a large pond in a nearby park still within the Imperial City.
She probably needed five more tails to pose a slight threat to Cal.
Rupert was on Cherry’s heels.
The ice dome began to crumble without him maintaining it.
Time to go, Cal thought at the Bei and the cultivators.
Predictably, they dragged their feet like children at the start of adult swim time at a public pool.
He didn’t show them nearly the same patience that he had for his son, pulling them away from their little duels and throwing them into the portal.
Ginessa followed.
Cammi went last.
The portal vanished.
Secure the location and hunker down, he thought across miles of city. We have our deal, but I’ll keep the Imperial Army from getting any ideas. I’d hate for a ‘miscommunication’ to cause any problems.
This place is like a fortress, Hanna thought. We could hold it for a long time against anyone aside from the empress, the prince or the chicks.
Save as many as you can.
The courtyard had mostly cleared.
The only people remaining were the royal family and those confident in their personal strength.
Aside from the headless bodies near his feet, there were a few other dead.
Cut throats, stab wounds in the back or smoking holes from spells and cultivator techniques.
The result of deadly rivalries.
Personal and political.
This place was truly a den of vipers.
He blamed the Phoenix Dynasty.
They had the power to put a stop to that, but they found it more useful to play the various factions jockeying for position and status against each other.
Insecurity bred fear, such was the core of the Machiavellian way.
That power did a good job burning the eidolon.
Singular.
It was only one Eidolon of Sunothi among several in the service of the so-called god scattered through the many worlds.
This one didn’t know how many others existed and from what Cal had taken from the other eidolons’ minds that wasn’t uncommon.
To call the four drones had been a mistake.
The deeper he looked the more he learned.
Each was an individual though identical to the original down to the genetic level.
The eidolon inserted a piece of itself into an unfortunate victim, not unlike a parasitic wasp laying eggs in another insect.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The piece made its way to the brain, where it’d influence, then control as it grew.
All the while it devoured the victim to fuel its growth.
It took everything.
Memories.
Personality.
It was both the victim and the eidolon.
Each saw themselves as the singular being, the original.
The one thing that never changed was the undying loyalty to their god.
They wore the skin of the human like a suit.
Once that was burned away what remained was a nightmarish blend of human and insect.
The closest one Cal could think of was a locust.
Black mandibles clicked as they shrieked a soundless cry.
The noise swallowed by the raging fire.
They lasted longer than expected.
The phoenixes were the most surprised.
One by one they’re flames sputtered out until only the older ones remained.
Black chitin cracked.
They leapt on spring-like legs.
Half-burned wings buzzed with the sound of an entire swarm of locusts.
The kind that could block out the sun as they left entire fields barren in their wake.
Two went for the empress’ children.
The first princess and the third prince.
One went for the empress.
The last went for the closest target.
One of the prince’s daughters.
A 10 year old that had expended all her power in her zeal to show that she belonged with her half-sisters.
They weren’t going to be quick enough to save the girl.
The eidolon tripped… in mid air… slamming its disgusting human-insect face into the stone floor.
That gave the Phoenix Prince time to swoop in and bury it in an intense wave of plasma that melted a wide swathe of floor along with the eidolon.
The two that went for the empress’ children opened their mouth-mandibles wide and spat a thick cloud of buzzing insects.
The fledgling phoenixes calmly raised walls of burning plasma against the swarms.
The eidolon used the moment to escape.
They juked.
One went left.
The other right.
Leaping legs and buzzing wings took them on a fast, but erratic arc over the forbidden city with the phoenixes and a few of their cousins in pursuit.
Cal kept tabs on them just in case.
As for the remaining eidolon?
Already ash in a burst of plasma from the empress.
She hadn’t moved from her seated position.
Her many-layered robes and elaborate headdress had burned in an instant.
She stood revealed as she quenched her flames.
In what amounted to a sports bra and yoga shorts.
The fabric was enchanted to withstand her power for a time.
Though the deliberate choice of attire revealed that she didn’t think highly of him.
She could’ve just as easily worn something like the rest of the phoenixes.
A full-coverage body suit.
Or regular clothing like her brother.
The man in question checked on the daughters that didn’t join the chase.
“You know. I thought you were mostly full of shit. Spies you said. I pictured disloyal people that got greedy or ambitious. Insect monsters wearing the skin of our subjects like I wear this suit…” he grinned mirthlessly. “Next time we’d appreciate a more… detailed warning.”
“I couldn’t say too much or they would’ve realized that their secret was out.”
“Hmm… you’ve earned some standing with me, but I’m not the final word,” he eyed his sister, “have a good talk. I’m going to make sure the rest of the fledglings don’t bite off more than they can eat.”
The Phoenix Prince’s suit burned away as he took to the dark sky surrounded by a bird-shaped aura of plasma and fire.
Cal regarded the Phoenix Empress, who stared down at him coldly from her throne.
First thing’s first.
He needed to make things very clear.
“I’ve been in a loving and loyal relationship for over thirty years.”
“That’s too bad. I was planning on this being enough to secure you cheaply.”
“We’re not all idiots.”
He wasn’t remotely interested in being part of her great idea, but for the sake of appearances he had to let her pitch it anyway.
He maintained eye contact as she strode briskly down the steps of her throne platform.
The rest of his attention was focused on his team’s easy Quest at the dead slaver’s mansion.
“Now that I have you alone out of prying eyes and ears. There are so many things I’d like to talk to you about,” she said. “I want a child. Our world faces a greater challenge than any of us expected. This Terminus Decree… there an infinite number of worlds that have a direct road to us. You seem smart enough to understand what that means. We need powerful people capable of fighting them off. I don’t plan on bending over for any alien piece of shit out there. You’re powerful that much is obvious even though you’ve somehow managed to conceal the nature of your gifts. You swatted my children aside like gnats.”
“You ordered them to attack me when I was obviously not here to fight.”
“A test. Thank you for not hurting them, by the way.”
He’d question her parenting to her face, but that would’ve been a bad move, diplomatically.
“I love them—”
Another question unasked.
“— but, their ceiling is, at best, half of mine.”
“You don’t know that. They’re still young.” He chose his words carefully. “Eugenics is… just dumb… a fantasy, not science, not real.”
She held out her hands.
“And what world do we live in now? The hypothesis is that two equally powerful parents will produce an equally powerful child with the added uncertainty and opportunity of a mixing of powers. Won’t you at least consider the possibilities and how our children could save this world?”
“And you’ve tried different combinations?”
“My brother has. With women of different classes and a few women with lesser powers. His genes proved dominant with each attempt. My nieces are like my kids. They can only ever be half as strong as their dad. Not that it bothers him. I think he secretly loves having daughters. Over ten and counting. Hoping for at least a boy or five. As for me? I still love my husband though the monsters took him from us. See? I wouldn’t do this unless it was for something as great as our species’ survival. And I’ve yet to find a man close enough to my power to consider an equal. You’re the second. Relentless laughed in my face. Do you know him?” her eyes searched his.
The truth gems hidden in the eyes of the jade and gold dragons displayed around the courtyard were easy enough to fool.
He could simply alter his thoughts for the moment.
“Yeah,” he shrugged and refused to elaborate further.
Sometimes a lie wasn’t worth it.
“Well? One child to see if it works as I hope. Then more. I’m willing to have one every three years. Until my people develop an artificial womb system. I’m also willing to make concessions. We can have sex if you don’t trust donating your sperm for artificial insemination. Custody is negotiable. Although, I won’t settle for anything less than a seventy to thirty split since I’ll be doing most of the hard work.”
Her thoughts revealed that out of every ten kids, she’d get seven.
He almost laughed.
“No,” he said flatly.
“Very well. I don’t beg. Let’s move on. You’ve killed one of my generals and his wife to free the people he ‘secretly’ enslaved. You revealed these eidolons that ate my subjects from inside and wore their skins to spy and eventually assassinate me and my family. Those are the parts of our agreement that have been completed.”
“Both of those things should be on my side of the tally.”
“The general’s value to my dynasty outweighed the handful of people that, admittedly, suffered underneath him.”
“A hundred is more than a handful.”
“It isn’t when I have the fates of millions within.” She held her palm out.
“He forced slave classes. And, as you saw, we’ll destroy slavery wherever we find it.”
“Careful. You’re a guest, but I’m the Phoenix Empress. So, watch your tone or I might test your power out for myself.”
“You can ask Relentless how that turned out.”
Their fight had mitigating circumstances and from an Eron-centric point of view the youngest brother had won, but from a macro perspective, the eldest had.
The fog had been vanquished.
He and Nila got their perfect baby boy.
So, the winner of that fight had been obvious.
“I will if he was brave enough to show his face here again,” she frowned. “I’m not conceding this. The general was important.”
“You ever think that maybe you’d be doing better in your war if you had more cultivators rather than peasants. If you didn’t allow the old wealth and power to keep it. This is the world of the spires. The benefits of hard work and passion have never been more clear. Instead, you kept to the old, outdated model of a tiny ruling elite exploiting the masses.”
“You’re a terrible diplomat. To insult me and my family while expecting an alliance.”
“Is it you or me that needs more from the other?” He let his eyes drift to the melted stone.
“That was all of them… right?”
“Now? In the city? Yeah, but none of those were the original.”
“You will find them, it,” she frowned. “It is one entity in many bodies. A hive mind.”
“That was part of the deal. And that’s not quite right. It is a hive mind, but each instance is an individual. A mix of the original and the unfortunate victim. The undying loyalty to the ‘god’ remains unchanged.”
“This one is too dangerous to let live, but I want the other four eidolons alive for questioning.”
“You might not have the capability to do that or even keep them safely contained.”
“If we can’t then they will die for daring to war against us.”
“Moving on… the Sword of Freedom will not be hindered in her just quest to root out slavery.”
“I would amend portions of that.”
“I thought our requests were reasonable?”
“I find that summary execution is rarely reasonable.”
“It is our position, which is the correct one, that there are no good slavers.”
“One must weigh value. That general’s value was objectively greater to my dynasty than his servants.”
“Enslaved servants, literally slaves.”
“I am the Phoenix Empress not some auntie haggling over fish in the market. Your Sword will have her access supervised by my daughter and her personal guard. I will not allow her to lop off heads. The slaves will be freed, but I decide punishment.”
“Sometimes freedom can’t be achieved without the slavemaster’s execution.”
“I won’t sacrifice a useful piece for ones that you intend to take away.”
“The Sword of Freedom is compelled to free the enslaved no matter what the cost. And I owe her my support.”
“Enough to go to war?”
“It’d be a tough decision,” he said mildly.
The heat rose off her body as the aura that gave name to her dynasty started to form.
She counted to thirty in her head and imagined burning him to nothing, taking pleasure in watching his ashes carried into the night by the breeze.
“She can wait. I will guarantee the slaves’ safety while whatever the process that needs to remove the class is done. That is my only concession.”
“What kind of time frame are you suggesting?”
The muscles of her jaw and necked worked.
“A few days? A week? How long can it take? I’m guessing that all we need to do is make the master free them. That shouldn’t take long. They will obey me or face your Sword. Does that work for her?”
“Our position is that no one can call themselves free people when there are those that live in chains.”
“Poetic and a nice sentiment,” she scoffed. “I rule an empire. There is no place for sentiment.”
“A week would be too long considering our visa is only good for a month.”
She waved a hand.
“It’s good for how long I say.”
“Less than a week is acceptable. Hours is preferable. Make it instantaneous and you’d have no complaints.”
“I don’t care about what you find objectionable. One week at most, but” she held up a finger, “I reserve the right to extend the deadline if the subject in question is critical to my empire.” She thrust a finger at the headless corpse of the general and his wife. “Don’t forget that I’ve already given you them.”
“One for one exchange… if we uncover another similarly important slaver then you will have your time, but nothing changes the need for the enslaved to be freed. If death is the only way—”
“No. We will deal with that when— if it comes up. That is my final word on the matter.”
“Then, moving on…”
“I care nothing for your pet cultivators. They can play their little games. The dynasty will neither hinder nor help them or rival sects and individual cultivators. The war works to your favor in that regard. Most of the strongest or most violent ones have gone to Shenzhen for the glory and the levels,” she snorted. “About the war…”
“We flew over on our way here. Quite a mess. Eidolons forcing desperate refugees to secure a bridgehead for their actual army.”
“They are all invaders. They are killing my people.”
“They don’t fight out of loyalty. Their families are literal hostages on the other side of the spires.”
“You want me me to welcome them?”
“No.”
Her fiery eyes narrowed.
“You want them for yourself?”
“Wrong again. There’s plenty of empty land. We Earthians can’t possibly defend it all nor can we repopulate fast enough. Why not forge alliances with people that have no place to call home? They’ve lost their worlds to conquering empires, fake gods and eldritch monsters.”
“Because They are different species!” She stared at him like he had sprouted a second head.
“Not all of them.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that there are essentially humans out there. I haven’t seen it, but I choose to believe you. But, I’m not dealing with humans from another world in this case.”
“You’re wasting your strength fighting people that the eidolons don’t care about. Give ground temporarily. Get the eidolons to bring their true army through. Join forces. Smash them. Profit.”
“And you can make this happen in a month?”
“That’s the quickest estimate. Could be longer,” he shrugged.
“And you won’t share how you’re going to pull this off? All I have to do is surrender one of my most important cities.”
“Temporarily,” he added.
“The Phoenix Dynasty does not surrender. I will order my general to begin a tactical withdrawal.”
“Then the work really begins.”
“This wasn’t work for you?” She regarded what little remained of the Eidolon of Sunothi.
The other two had lasted a bit longer, but the phoenixes had eventually scattered their ashes in the night wind.
“They were new. We should expect the others to be much older, which means stronger. And then there are the four other eidolons,” he shrugged. “One last thing. We’re not interested in any of that courtly intrigue. If anything happens to one of my people. The agreements are off.”
“Well… for all sakes let’s hope that nothing gets in the way of our burgeoning friendship.”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.