Nothing made sense.

I had once again been betrayed! It was Earth all over again. Used. Manipulated. Everyone I trusted played with me.

This time it had to be different. I had magic—the real deal. And a class that was completely mine, with no input or help from the System. I promised myself to be powerful and to make myself respected.

And I failed. Again.

I committed the same errors as I did in my pitiful life on Earth. I trusted Charlotte even though I barely knew her. And why? Just because she pitied me and showed me how to use my abilities.

Yasmin had known the truth from the first moment. She knew what I was. She knew what would happen. And she chose to lie.

Claudia was the worst. She outright made me feel guilty, so I would save her sister. Guilty about their own sins!

How could I not see!?

I sent a pulse charged with solid energy, and trashed everything around me. The room, washed out by my violent energy, echoed with the sound of furious wind.

And why! Why can't I feel angry at Yasmin! Why!

I risked my life to save someone who was part of the problem. I should be angry at her. I should have killed her right then! But she said she tried to stop it, that she fought for me, and that even Charlotte has defied her summons and risked the consequences.

And I fucking trust her!

Was I falling once again into the same trap? Was I turning my life in Fixun into the same shitshow as Earth had been?

I sent another impulsive pulse; the walls shook and the building groaned.

No…

No. I was lying to myself. I knew why I was so mad, why I was raging against everything and everyone. All my rage stemmed from the same point. I was focusing on them instead of what the real issue was.

None of my decisions until now have been mine.

So easy, yet so complicated. I did what they suggested me to do. Closing my eyes and ears, I took their word and charged forward. They had been the captains of my destiny. Not me.

The Sanctum. Yasmin and Claudia’s faction. All of them were my enemies. They stood in my path. They stood between me and power, between me and making everyone respect me.

They are all my enemies.

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Not only them, but there was something else trying to control me. There were even tighter ropes around me neck, limiting me and telling me what to do and how to do it. The System, Bob.

Anything, System or not, that tried to stop me would meet the same fate. Death. If I couldn’t trust them, that would make them no different. Death.

I breathed a few times, regaining some of my lost composure. Venting was useful, but reflecting upon one’s mistakes was more so. I had been blaming others for my own faults. I had chosen to trust them. I had moved blindly.

Only I was to blame.

Where does that leave Charlotte, Yasmin, and Claudia?

That was still, for me, the biggest question. Because, when I thought about all of it with a cool and fresh mindset, perhaps they didn’t deserve death.

Charlotte had helped me. She did really only help me, and when she pointed me to Yasmin she did so with my best interest in mind. Yasmin herself… she almost sacrificed her life for me. And she did lie, but who wouldn’t when faced with a summonee who was, potentially, corrupted and could decide to wipe you out of existence.

Claudia was still a question mark on my mind. She clearly manipulated me to save Charlotte, choosing not to tell me the whole truth. Which, if she had, I would have probably still helped.

But there was one simple way to kill two birds with one stone. I walked out of the destroyed room where I had blown out my ire, and I went back to the main room.

Yasmin was still in the floor, her hair completely messed up and a desperate look on her eyes. She had not moved from there. She could have run, or tried to. But even after she had told me the truth, even after she heard me blast the other room apart, she chose to stay there.

“Yasmin. Are you a part of the problem, or of the solution?” I could not keep the creepy smile out of my face. I knew it was there, and I knew it would stay there.

Her confused looks told me that she did not know what I was referring to.

“I will wage war against this world. Against all other worlds. Church, Order, Sanctum, whatever faction you belong to, the System. All. Of. It.” I paused, letting that sink it. “Are you with them, or are you with me?”

She laughed, which I certainly was not expecting. At all.

“Them? I cut all my ties and burned all my bridges with them when I tried to stop this,” her hands moved in circles to point at the building. “The Church is after me, and by extension, the Sanctum. And, what makes you think it wasn’t my own people who turned me in to them?”

I didn’t say anything. I needed her to say everything he had to, and the only way to achieve that was by going through as many awkward silences as we needed to.

“You are everything I have right now. And I realize I betrayed you, as did my sister. I am on your side, and all I can ask is that you forgive Charlotte and Claudia. If we can ever save them…” her voice broke and she never finished the sentence.

“What I’m about to do might seem crazy, this is your last chance to walk away. If you really are with me, you will have to accept it.”

This was my first step into becoming the person I wanted to be. I would choose my next move and I would not let anyone have a say on it.

“I understand,” she said, “and I am willing to stay no matter what you decide.”

She was no longer crying, and while there was obvious fear of what might come, she was determined. She had stood up, her eyes locked on me all the time.

I’ll trust one more time.

I took a leap of faith. I trusted that she was with me. I decided her story was true—that she had left everything behind to save someone she didn’t even know. And trust her because I had just done the same for her. Because I chose to believe there was more people like me.

“This dungeon is my lair, I am the monster that created it. I am claiming it as my own. I am making this my home, and I’ll grow it until it takes over the city next to it, then the country, then the continent, and finally the entire planet.”

I raised my hands to the air and laughed.

“And when I’m done with that, all the other worlds and the System will come next.”