“Things are getting good.”

Sam’s eyes crossed to focus on the tapeworm, which had poked its head out of his nostril. Then, his gaze focused onto the blue ocean beyond the yellow shores of the beach. The waves reflected the sunlight, causing the water to glisten with flashes of white. The scenery hadn’t changed, and other than the demon prostrating off to the side, which Sam was done interacting with, there wasn’t anything he’d classify as getting good.

“Not in here,” Nwaps said. The tapeworm pointed towards the sky. “Things are getting good out there.”

“What’s the point of telling me that?” Sam asked and reached to the side. He was sitting on a lounge chair with his legs extended, a drink placed on the chair’s armrest. Sam grabbed the ice-cold glass and placed his lips on the straw, taking a sip of the colorful liquid. Floating in the space in front of him, there was a holographic screen with a video playing. If he was going to be stuck in the subconscious expanse, he was going to enjoy himself.

“Don’t you want to check it out?”

Sam squinted at the tapeworm. The worm’s head seemed to expand within his vision, allowing him to see two eyes and a mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to,” Sam said. “Wouldn’t my All-Seeing Gaze reveal our location to the blue avians if I observe them?”

“Yes,” Nwaps said, “but that doesn’t matter anymore. We’ve achieved our goal. Everyone within the capital is praying to us; the blue avians were surprisingly helpful with the conversion. If it weren’t for their relentless attacks, it would’ve taken us longer to convert everyone.”

Sam raised an eyebrow, and he released the drink. Instead of falling, the glass floated in the air beside his face, still completely full of liquid despite Sam’s previous sips. “Does that mean we don’t have to flee from the blue avians from now on?”

“Precisely,” Nwaps said. “We’re strong enough to keep them out of our territory, but we’re not strong enough to kill them all just yet.”

“Alright,” Sam said and nodded his head. “Take me out.”

The surroundings warped and shattered, filling with cracks that allowed white mist to enter Sam’s vision. Then, when the mist cleared up, Sam’s vision vanished as he returned back to reality, his eyes covered by the twin-headed snake, his sense of smell assaulted by a foul stench. The subconscious expanse was a much nicer place to be, and Sam couldn’t help but wonder if his familiars wanted him to spend more time in there to allow themselves more freedom out here. Then again, it wasn’t like Sam could order his familiars to do things against their wishes; he couldn’t stop them if they felt like doing something destructive.

“Welcome back, Sam,” Raindu said in Sam’s mind, the ferret crawling out of Sam’s shirt and standing on his shoulder. The black ferret placed its front paw on Sam’s cheek before settling back down.

“Are you ready to witness our greatness?” Vercedei asked. “Go ahead and use your All-Seeing Gaze.”

Sam ignored the twin-headed snake’s hubris, choosing not to answer its question. He activated his All-Seeing Gaze, spreading his psychic vision throughout the city. At the same time, he focused on his Vasundhara, letting his senses flow through the ground as well. Every human he saw was kneeling on the ground, their hands clasped in prayer with their heads lowered and eyes closed. Some mumbled while some spoke aloud, but most of them remained silent. The ground was shattered and torn, and buildings were floating into the sky where hundreds of blue avians were gathered.

“Honestly, I’m not seeing much greatness,” Sam said. The capital looked like it had been struck by a natural disaster, and there were more dead bodies than he’d like to see—though, the bodies were in such rough shape he hadn’t been sure what he was looking at. Well, since his familiars’ plan did involve humanity despairing, he supposed they did a good job on that front. Were the humans really despairing though? Sam took a closer look, and despite the ongoing devastation, he realized every one of them had the same, calm frequency as Joe, the sloth wrapped around his waist. Sam looked down at the sloth and patted its head. “Your aura is strong enough to spread throughout the whole city now?”

“Yes,” Joe said, the singular word taking several seconds for the sloth to communicate.

Sam focused his attention on the blue avians in the sky. Although they looked calm on the surface, their actions stated otherwise. Sam could see them grasping the ground with telekinesis, but they threw the large projectiles blindly in all directions. If Joe’s range improved, Sam assumed Werchbite’s illusions became more realistic, making the blue avians think they were hitting their target—which was probably him, right?

“Correct,” Vercedei said. “The blue avians think they’ve located you. They’ve become aware of your existence thanks to your All-Seeing Gaze making contact with them, but Werchbite created illusions tailored to each blue avian; they all think you’re somewhere else.”

A boulder flew towards Sam, and he bumped it telekinetically, causing it to deviate off course, landing not too far away from him and his familiars.

“Some of them have been given your real location,” Vercedei said. “You know, to make the illusion more convincing.”

“Yes, of course,” Sam said, communicating with the twin-headed snake through his mind. He deflected another large projectile. “When are you going to fight back?”

“After one more reset,” Vercedei said.

From its position atop Sam’s head, Birdbrained let out a squawk, and the capital moved in reverse, the clumps of land reforming within their impact craters, surging up towards the sky, and returning gently to the ground, filling in the gaps as the dead humans reformed from the bits of gore scattered about. The people in prayer stood up and walked backwards, returning to where they had started.

“Alright,” Sam said. “That was impressive.”

“Of course,” Birdbrained said and squawked. “I’m an impressive specimen, so anything I do is impressive by extension.”

Sam observed the capital with his All-Seeing Gaze; it had reverted back to its original condition, but with the blue avians stretching their auras towards the ground, it wouldn’t remain that way for long. However, before any of the blue avians could cause any damage, a black, mountain-sized paw appeared in the sky beside the blue avians. With a swipe, it crashed into the blue avians, causing them to get knocked about, scattering their formation.

“Concentrate! Defend yourselves!”

Although Sam hadn’t formed a connection with the blue avians to eavesdrop on their conversation, he still heard one of the blue avian’s desperate shout in his mind. The majority of the blue avians were fine, regaining their balance after the tumultuous strike, but a few blue avians dropped straight to the ground while some others flapped about with various parts of their bodies missing as if they had been surgically removed.

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“Was that you, Raindu?” Sam asked.

“Who else?” Raindu asked in reply. Another paw appeared in the air and swiped at the blue avians, but they were ready for it this time, scattering before the paw could even come close. Although the paw looked like Raindu’s foot to Sam, the humans and blue avians saw a different sight: a golden giant thrusting a mountain-sized spear.

“A deity has descended to save us!” a Venusian shouted as the humans below turned their gazes to look up at the sky. “Keep praying! Praying gives the deity strength! Pray for its triumphant victory! Aren’t you tired of dying over and over? Salvation can only be achieved through belief in the deity!”

“So, how exactly does that work?” Sam asked. “If people believe in you, you become stronger?”

“That’s right,” Vercedei said. “You know what a placebo is; it’s the manifestation of belief. When enough people believe in the same entity, their sparks of creation resonate with one another’s, becoming stronger and stronger until they’re a bright and shining beacon for creatures like us to follow. The more faith we gather, the clearer Oterra becomes, which allows us to utilize more of our strength. That’s the general gist of it.”

“So, Raindu can steal things from people without making direct contact with them?” Sam asked, turning his head to look at the ferret standing on his shoulder. At least, that’s what it looked like to Sam. The ferret didn’t need to get close with its small body to attack the blue avians in the sky.

“I can do this too,” Raindu said and made a swiping motion with its paw. Near the outskirts of the city, a group of people who were running towards the plaza let out cries as they were swept up by Raindu’s manifested paw. Through his All-Seeing Gaze, Sam saw the same people being deposited at their intended destination. They looked at each other with bewildered expressions before a Venusian—acting as an angel—waved at them.

“You’ve been transported here by the deity for your safety,” the Venusian said. “Give your thanks to the deity for going out of its way to personally protect you.”

Sam supposed Raindu’s act was akin to a miracle. The ferret could now pick up whatever it wished from a distance, and it could also drop off anything it had. “How far can you reach?” Sam asked. Could Raindu grab a reptilian in Et Serpentium and bring them over to the capital?

“Only as far as my followers,” Raindu said.

Sam recalled Vercedei’s beacon analogy. If the ferret’s way was illuminated by people’s faith, then it could see the items to grab, but if no one believed in the ferret within a given region, then it’d be difficult for Raindu to interfere within that area. Regardless, it was a strong ability considering one strike had taken out a few blue avians. “Did you remove their hearts?” Sam asked. “How did some of them survive?”

“Some blue avians protected themselves by severing the connection I formed with them to take their hearts,” Raindu said. “Some weren’t strong enough or couldn’t react in time. Some redirected my touch to other parts of their bodies.”

Sam focused on his All-Seeing Gaze, examining the blue avians’ reactions. They were creating distance from the capital, backing away. They grasped at the ground with their telekinesis, but their auras flickered when they realized they couldn’t get it to budge. The tugged and they pulled with their minds, each of their actions causing the metallic koala wrapped around Sam’s leg to twitch. Since there were so many blue avians attempting to lift the ground, Dirt was practically vibrating. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation, but it wasn’t unbearable either. If Sam had to take a guess, the koala was using its ability to manipulate the ground, preventing the blue avians from moving it. Considering the size of the region the city took up, Sam found it impressive the koala could defend it all from hundreds of blue avians working together. If the koala wished to make another puppet of earth to attack the blue avians’ homeland, Sam didn’t doubt it’d be much stronger than the first time it had assaulted their base; perhaps, it’d destroy a few trees before the blue avians could come up with a way to stop it.

When the blue avians realized they couldn’t even lift the ground, a few aimed their telekinetic grasps higher, attempting to tear the buildings from their foundations to use as ammunition instead. Unfortunately, their vision was distorted, thanks to Werchbite’s illusions, and they couldn’t locate the buildings. It didn’t help the blue avians that all of the buildings had been reduced in size, none of them taller than a single story, making it difficult for the blue avians to target them with their random grasps.

Sam placed his hands on his hips, one of the few actions he was allowed to do since his arms weren’t weighed down. He understood why his familiars were so confident in being able to fend off the blue avians once they had all the humans within the capital believing in them. In the capital and the region around it, they were practically invincible. The blue avians had no vision, no reliable information about the layout of the city, and they couldn’t enter it either, not with Raindu keeping them at bay. They couldn’t destroy the ground thanks to Dirt, and even if they tried to communicate with the humans living in the capital, Joe could keep them calm, and Nwaps could prevent anyone from becoming a traitor.

“Don’t forget me,” Ess said, the butterfly flapping its wings, causing a strong stench to assault Sam’s sense of smell. It was almost impossible for him to forget about the butterfly’s existence. Despite how long the butterfly had been on the tip of his nose, Sam never went nose blind to the smell of the insect. “They can’t even retrieve the souls of their fallen companions. I have control of everything that dies here. It must be demoralizing for them.”

Sam focused on the butterfly with his All-Seeing Gaze. If he were able to see it physically, he would’ve spotted multiple dots of flickering light on the butterfly’s wings, but he couldn’t thanks to the twin-headed snake. Instead, all he sensed was the butterfly’s wings giving off multiple frequencies, the vibrations quite discordant in Sam’s psychic vision like a bunch of bright colors mixing into an ugly brown.

“Mold some puppets for me,” Ess said.

The ground around Sam distorted as columns of earth rose up. The outer parts disintegrated, leaving behind three earthen sculptures of blue avians with piles of dirt at their feet. Whether they could still be described as blue avians or not was up for debate considering they were brown, but it didn’t really matter. The motes of light shot out of the butterfly’s wings and entered the sculptures, bringing them to life.

“The three of you are now the defenders of humanity,” Ess said. “Protect the capital; allow no harm to befall it.”

The earthen sculptures floated into the air. “As you wish,” they said together, speaking in the minds of those around them. Despite their words agreeing with Ess’ order, their auras told a different story: one of despair and helplessness.

Sam watched the sculptured avians fly towards the blue avians in the distance, positioning themselves between the capital and the invaders. He wondered if it was a good idea to agitate the blue avians, but considering they could no longer do serious harm, he figured it wasn’t that big of a deal. They already wanted to get rid of him, so why should he care if that feeling intensified? “So,” Sam said, turning his attention onto his familiars, “once you get the reptilians and mantids to believe in you as well, your reach will extend to Et Serpentium and Silva Volucris?”

“That’s correct,” Vercedei said. “If we can establish proper trade routes between the three capitals, our reach will also cover everything in between. From there, we can populate Oterra with humans, reptilians, and mantids, removing everything that doesn’t believe in us through force, and Oterra will be ours to do with as we please.”

“With the complete destruction of Oterra being your end goal,” Sam said.

“You know us so well.”

“And what happens to your believers after you destroy Oterra?” Sam asked.

“They can live on eternally within Ess’ dimension after they die,” Vercedei said. “Eternal life after death; isn’t that what humans wish for? It’s a much better option than the alternative.”

“Sam!” a familiar voice said within Sam’s head. It belonged to Paula. As for how he still recognized their voice after all those years, well, it was hard for Sam to forget the voice of the individual who had once killed him. “Are you willing to have a civilized conversation with us?”

“That’s funny,” Vercedei said, “considering what they did to you. What do you think? Are you interested in conversing with them?”

“I wasn’t aware that was up to me,” Sam said. If he did have a conversation with the blue avians, he wouldn’t put it past his familiars to do something sneaky in the background. Even still, he wanted to hear what the blue avians had to say; he was friends with some of them after all—though, that friendship did bloom in captivity.