“Put it back in your pants, Balent,” Penelope said as she smacked the man she was talking to in the back of his head. “The rest of you, too. He just saved our lives, so stop being a dumbass.”

Even with how they seemed to defer to her, as if she was in charge, the Martials staring at Larek and Nedira didn’t seem to want to back down. “That may be, but they also hurt the two of you and took you away; that’s not something we can forgive. Besides, he looks like one of those—”

“Balent, shut your mouth before I shut it for you,” Penelope barked, cutting him off. “If you had even the slightest bit of sense in your head, you would realize that I’m fine and they were actually helping me and Vivienne. But no, you just let that stupid prejudice everyone in the Kingdom seems to have spout out of your mouth like some sort of ignorant toddler, and you need to knock it out.

“As for who he might look like? If anything, he’s the opposite of one of those giants you’re wetting your pants over. That thing that knocked us unconscious? It removed the commands placed upon us by one of those same giants years ago… and I bet you attacked them because of it, didn’t you? Are you working for the Gergasi now?”

For the first time, Balent took a step back in surprise. “What? Are you crazy? Of course we’re not working for them!”

“Well, it certainly looks like you are, all up in arms and threatening the people who saved your asses from the Calamity. You all know it’s rare that anyone escapes its territory once night falls, so you should count yourself lucky that you’re alive.”

Larek was taken aback at how quickly Penelope came to his and Nedira’s defense, but that was only overshadowed at how fast Balent and the other Martials from the Kingdom seemed to fall in line at her words. The Fusionist could tell that they weren’t exactly ready to trust him fully, and they still gave him suspicious looks, but none of them appeared to be threatening to attack either of them at that point.

“For my part, I apologize for the abrupt ‘attack’, as you were calling it,” Nedira spoke up. “It was something that was necessary because the command that the Gergasi placed upon their minds might have defended itself by triggering dangerous actions, dangerous either to other people or to themselves. It wasn’t ideal, by any means, but it was what needed to happen. In addition, it will also make you completely immune to the mind-controlling bugs that are spreading throughout the Kingdom.”

Only somewhat mollified by her apology, it was the last part of her statement that caught their attention, including Penelope. “The rumors are true, then? There’s a group out to the east near the former Calamity that is using some sort of creepy bugs to control people?”

“Is that what the SIC is telling people?” Larek asked, appalled at what he was hearing.

Everyone looked at him then, including those who were still suspicious of him, but they at least didn’t appear ready to fight. “Are you saying it’s not true?” Balent asked.

“No, it’s not true,” Nedira answered for him, “at least not fully. There is a self-propagating swarm of mind-controlling bugs that we believe originated from a subservient Aperture inside the southeastern Calamity, but there aren’t any organizations controlling these bugs. Instead, those who have been freed from the bugs’ control have banded together in defense against the Calamity when the Factions and the SIC pulled all of their support and abandoned everyone along the border of the Calamity’s territory to die. They call themselves the Volunteer Militia for Freedom, and it was with their help that they were able to finally close the Aperture in the center of the Calamity. Banding together, they now control and regulate nearly the entire southeastern portion of the Kingdom, maintaining the Apertures there to ensure that none of them have the chance to expand out of control again.”

“That doesn’t seem possible,” Penelope argued. “With how spread-out they would be, there’s no way that anyone could organize so many people in so short of a time. Unless this Volunteer group has been hiding itself for a long time now?”

Nedira chuckled, shaking her head. “There’s a lot that has changed, Penelope. Our favorite Fusionist has figured out how to provide fast travel with large Transport vessels, allowing for people to travel across the entirety of the Kingdom in less than a day. Those staves that you’re using have also allowed even normal people to fight against the monsters that come from the Apertures, so there are tens of thousands of Volunteers ready to take on that duty to keep themselves safe.”

“So, they’re kicking out all the Mages and Martials, then?” Balent sneered. “They can’t possibly think that these staves are all they need to fight against every monster out there.”

“Not… exactly. While it’s true that there are very few Mages and Martials that are part of the Volunteers,” Nedira said with a knowing smile, “that doesn’t mean that they’re gone. They just aren’t only Mages and Martials; instead, they’re something different. What was it that the system calls them, my love?” she asked as she turned to Larek.

“Uh… Guardians?” He wasn’t sure if that was precisely what they were, at least not yet, but he was fairly certain that the system that governed his Status would consider them Guardians once the Aetheric Force inside their internal cores was purified enough.

“That’s right: Guardians.”

“What does that even mean?” Balent asked impatiently.

With a grin, Nedira said, “Oh, just this.” And then she displayed her stats for everyone to see. Both her Mage stats… and her Martial stats.

There were gasps all around, as well as protestations of disbelief. They all stared at Nedira as if they were looking at an impossibility, which was understandable given that it would’ve been impossible for most people approximately a month before. Penelope and Vivienne, however, were staring at Larek, and he winked at them with a nod.

“This has to be a lie, an illusion! No one can be both a Mage and a Martial!” Balent protested, looking angry again. Larek was beginning to think that was his default emotional state.

“No, I think it’s real,” the blue-haired Martial stated, causing everyone but Vivienne to look at her as if she was crazy. “Just take a look at the staves you all are carrying, as well as those healing Fusions a few of you used to fix up your wounds. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the one who made them could figure out a way to give different stats to Mages and Martials.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Somehow, Penelope seemed to get that Larek didn’t want everyone to know that he was the one who created the Fusions in the first place. In fact, he was fairly certain that she hadn’t even used his name yet.

“It’s not just Mages or Martials with existing potential,” Nedira corrected her. “Anyone can now become a Guardian, with access to Martial and Mage stats, as well as spells and Battle Arts.”

“Unbelievable! Faking your stats is one thing, but now you expect me to believe that anyone can become a Mage or Martial? What do you take me for—?”

Nedira moved quickly, far faster than a simple Mage would be able to, and slammed her staff into Balent’s face, making him stagger backwards in surprise and pain as his nose was broken from the blow. “You’re an ignorant moron who doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Is that about right?”

Thankfully, before he could retaliate, Vivienne was next to Balent and smacked him in the back of the head similarly to what Penelope had done earlier. “She’s right. Shut your mouth, or I’ll shut it for you.”

The angry Martial still seemed to want to fight, but Penelope shouted, “Alright, that’s enough! We’ve all just had a traumatic experience from which we barely escaped, and now it’s time to get back to Dreenwood before we have to stumble around in complete darkness. Let’s get moving, soldiers!”

The Martials – and trio of Mages – assembled into a column fairly quickly at her order, and while Balent gave Nedira dirty looks as he got into his place, the rest of them seemed more eager to get home rather than expend any energy on being angry. In fact, from the conversations he overheard, they were talking about the whole “Guardian” surprise more than anything else, as they wondered if they would be able to have access to that kind of thing.

“So, Larek, it seems as though you’ve done the impossible yet again,” Penelope said in a low voice as she moved up next to him near the rear of the column. “You apparently killed a Gergasi, learned how to give potential to everyone, and figured out how to transport people great distances in nearly no time at all. What exactly did I miss while I was under the influence of that nasty woman?”

“I, uh, helped to close two Calamities? Other than that, I haven’t done much, other than try and figure out a way to free my family from the clutches of the Gergasi.”

Nearby, Vivienne snorted. “Yeah, for some reason I don’t believe that.”

“It’s… a long story. Not one I want to go into right now, though. But what about you? What are you doing here?”

The two Martials looked at each other for a second. “Well, I graduated from Fort Ironwood and joined Viv as we tried to plug holes in the sinking ship that became of the Kingdom, only to be largely cut off from the SIC after a few years. They’ve reestablished communications over the last few months, promising help in the future, but for now we’ve been working for the Defend Faction working out of Dreenwood, doing our best to keep the Calamity from expanding any further. Unfortunately, it feels like it’s getting harder and harder every day to accomplish that goal, as we can’t move in further than we can backtrack to leave when it gets dark, greatly curtailing how many monsters we can kill.

“Normally, Viv and I are team leaders and take a 40-person squad into the Aperture at dawn, where we move in as far as possible and kill everything along the way. We’ve rarely run into issues like what happened today, however; it was almost as if something stirred up the Apertures today, causing them to bunch up and attack us all at once – which is where you found us. Thanks again for the rescue; I was almost certain that the majority of us wouldn’t make it out.”

“You’re very welcome,” he choked out, cognizant that it was more than possible that his and Nedira’s presences in the Calamity were what had caused the change that killed a few of their party. He didn’t say anything, though, nor did he torture himself with the feeling of responsibility; it wasn’t something that they’d intended, after all, and he had no idea anyone was even nearby.

“I know you don’t want to go into where you’ve been lately, but at least tell me what you were doing in the Calamity. I don’t see a team with you, so what were you doing? Scouting it out, perhaps?”

The Fusionist shook his head. “Not exactly. We were fleeing from two Gergasi who we think were a little mad about me killing Chinli. Fortunately, I don’t feel them anywhere around here.”

“That sounds like a whole other story I’d love to hear, but it can wait. Can you stay a while? We’d love to have you around for a bit, and not just because of your Fusions.”

Larek looked at Nedira, who shook her head. “We can stay the night, but we really have to get back as soon as possible,” Nedira answered. “Tell me, what have you heard from the SIC about us?”

Penelope chuckled. “It would be easier to say what we didn’t hear about you two. From what we were told, there is a rogue group of people who are using mind-controlling bugs to take over the Kingdom as they push out from the southeast. Apparently, they’re some sort of cult that are using unknown magic to slaughter innocent people, and the entire southeastern region is devolving into chaos as we speak. Oh, and they are led by someone called The Fusionist, who is in control of these bugs and looks to style himself as the new King once everyone has been infected or dead. Death, famine, and all that fun stuff are coming from the area, so… yeah. I’m assuming that’s all a lie? Other than there being mind-controlling bugs, as you said earlier.”

Nedira nodded. “Pretty much. We assembled the Volunteer Militia to help free as many people as we could from the bugs, but it’s now turned into a massive organization of tens of thousands of people that have taken it upon themselves to protect their land from monsters and the Apertures, using Larek’s Fusions. Unfortunately, the SIC doesn’t want to lose what control they have, and so, they have attacked us in the past, but now they’re turning the Factions against us, spreading lies and half-truths that are designed to rile up the nearby population to try and fight back against our ‘tyranny’.”

Penelope and Vivienne were silent for a few seconds. “I have to say, the SIC is rather devious in this respect. If I didn’t know you two, I would’ve believed everything they told us. Hell, up until you arrived, I did believe what we were told, as we’ve come to expect the worst to happen after all the stuff that’s occurred over the last few years. It’s going to be hard to convince anyone that it isn’t true.”

That was what Larek and the rest of the Volunteer leadership were worried about. It was why they were planning on taking out the SIC leadership, so as to correct the information being spread from the top of the chain.

“Is Balent or anyone else going to be a problem?” Larek asked softly.

Fortunately, Penelope knew what he was getting at. “He’s a hothead, but he normally has a good head on his shoulders. I think you’ll be fine, but stay away from him just in case. I’ll have you put up away from Faction headquarters for the night.” She paused for a moment. “Can you really give me Mage powers? I’d really love to be able to fling spells around.”

Larek nodded. “Of course. I have a Fusion that can give it to anyone. I even have enough in my sack here,” he said, gesturing to the bag on his belt, “to handle a couple of hundred people, and I can make some more. The only thing is… I’m hesitant to give it to anyone who might use it against the Volunteers, if they are convinced to attack.”

“Understandable. But for Viv and I? Please?”

Larek chuckled at the way she was practically begging. “Of course. In fact, would you be interested in joining the Volunteers? We’re looking to expand, and once the SIC situation is handled, we’ll probably be looking into closing this Calamity before we take on the Gergasi.”

“That’s… a bit to ask. I want to say yes, but I also don’t want to leave the Faction here in a lurch. We’ve been barely hanging on as it is, and with the recent losses… let’s just say that if we were to leave, the relatively stable situation we have going on will likely change for the worse.”

“Ah, but we have Kimble, Verne, and Norde with us – plus your favorite Martial in the world, Bartholomew, to help us,” Nedira added.

“You found Barty? What hole did he climb out of?”

“The SIC. Fortunately, after we saved him from a bug in his head, he’s on our side now. You really should consider it, Penelope. We could turn this Dreemwood into an outpost for the Volunteers and supply your people with the Fusions to really make a difference.”

She didn’t answer right away, nor did she get a chance to immediately after that, as Larek could see a town coming into view – and there was a large group of Mages and Martials heading their way from that direction.