Clarissa

I didn’t turn back to look at the stupid man that had walked up to Michael. The moment he smiled was the moment I knew that the man was going to die horribly. I was the one who put together all the information for Michael to look over and listened to his questions. I knew exactly what Michael planned for him, and it was probably going to be gruesome and horrible.

Michael was curious and liked to pick at things once they got his attention. Honestly it was a miracle I hadn’t been killed yet. I put that to two factors. The first was that I was actually good at my job. This helped but the second more important factor was that Michael hated dealing with day-to-day problems.

He liked coming up with ideas, but not all the details that had to go into organizing them. At least he didn’t micromanage me too heavily. The tricky thing was breaking bad news. I had been holding off after I found a huge issue with the tax payments from the Union. I was hoping to pressure Laura to get things sorted before it became an issue, but it probably wasn’t going to happen.

She was getting too many ideas of late. At least I knew Michael would have my back and by extension Naran. Annoying as he was, Naran didn’t want to be in charge. That was why he avoided every single leadership council meeting he could get away with. That was why he wasn’t present when the enchanting testing had been going on. He wanted to stay out of it all.

Michael’s attitude was a big reason why I was very careful about keeping track of the treasury and making sure everything ran smoothly. My position was one of very careful people management. If I pushed back on the other people helping to run Purgatory, then they would complain and make trouble. Michael would get involved and be annoyed with me. At a certain point I would have a permanent retirement. If I let other people do whatever they wanted, then they would make another kind of trouble and Michael would get involved again.

My entire position rested on my ability to condense information, keep idiots in their lane, and manage Michael’s home. All my authority came from him, and while I was slowly trying to build up steady income streams to get more stats, I was nowhere close to fast enough for where I wanted to be.

Michael started talking about the Almighty System, to the dead man. Another headache, setting up a church. But he occasionally asked about it, so I knew it was more important compared to other things he requested.

I could just start a church, but I knew he would want to interview the pastor, preacher, or guide. I needed to find the right person and unfortunately there was no one who qualified. I honestly knew why now recruiting before the internet was all about people you knew. Now professional recruiters would shop candidates around.

Though I had never recruited a religious person before. The hard part of this was starting a religion, not joining an existing one. Michael basically wanted to appoint the first pope and I had to find one. Still, I had faced far worse and wouldn’t let anything stand in my way from a comfortable life.

Looking at the idiot being escorted to his death, which could have easily been me. Timing was everything both in life and business. Don’t talk to Michael when he needed a human test subject. I knew about this man as well, just something that came up as an interesting note on the census from the usual slew of people.

If he had actually managed to keep his head down and survive the first 40 days, I might have considered reaching out to someone experienced with public speeches and political organization to take the reigns of the church Michael wanted me to start. Unfortunately, stupidity was often a fatal condition here in Purgatory. It still surprised me that Michael let me keep my hand after trying to stop him from leaving so long ago. He had less power then and been less self-assured. Now he was the supreme ruler without question or opposition.

The war had changed him if I had to guess. Less willing to tolerate failure and complaining. More willing to purge problems.

Doctor Ben Katz

I was checking the mixtures of blood and crystals working out the optimal ratio of liquid, crystals, and energy and see if there were any changes at the extremes. One of my many projects I was either running or supervising.

I pulled out my notebook and began recording my observations. Once I was done, I let out a sigh and looked at the wall. I had no doubt the lab would be a mess when Michael was done with it. Still, I had arranged everything like Clarissa had requested.

“Ahhhhh!” I let out a shout as I was suddenly pushed to the side and went tumbling along the ground and curled up in a ball to minimize the damage. I heard stuff crashing as I slammed into a wall.

The force suddenly disappeared, and I got back to my feet trying to regain my bearings. What had happened? The room was a mess. I quickly left and went to check on Tim and Sam. The alarm bell began to clang in the background.

“You two okay?” I asked.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Yes, what was that?” Sam asked.

“No idea. Let’s try and salvage what we can. Stop any dangerous incidents,” I said and we quickly got to work. It was probably Champion Michael. Whatever he did, I was sure I was going to have to work out the details once he shoved it in my lap. If it was something else, then someone would come and get us.

“Anyone there!” I heard a shout.

“Yes, just sorting things out,” I called back as one of Michael’s guards entered the room. More like Clarissa’s, she was the one who had taken a firm grip of the city in his long absences.

“We need to step outside. Immediately,” the guard said. I looked at my coworkers who both gave me a nod, nothing urgent needed to be done right now.

“Very well. Tim, Sam, let’s move.” We left the building.

I noted Michael looked like he had been painted. Blood covered him and I noted a piece of intestine stuck in the collar of his clothing. Of course, he was performing human testing. He went back inside with the other city leaders.

“What do you think happened?” Sam asked.

“Probably the crafting crystals we heard rumors about,” Tim said.

“Most likely. Still, we need to salvage what we can when we go back inside and clean up the mess,” I let out a sigh. I checked around and no one appeared to be injured. If anything, the regenerations would patch people up quite easily from minor injuries. It was annoying how useless medical knowledge was in the face of regeneration.

“I am interested in what new tests we will be devising,” Tim said.

“Keep your head and no talking outside the lab. You know the rules,” I said. Normally I wasn’t stickler, but no need to create trouble where there was none. Especially right now.

“Sure, sure. But weapons. Now that is interesting. A lot more interesting than summoning,” Tim replied.

“You already charted out the ranges, control, and sensing, to their limits?” I asked.

“Ah, no, but it isn’t that interesting. Now weapons, with a bang like that. I am a physicist as you know, that kind of force, well it is impactful. Properly applied, leads to some very interesting applications.”

“Boys and their toys,” Sam muttered.

Laura

I looked defiantly at Michael. Clarissa was his bitch and the way she threw me under the bus, just showed how much of a bitch she was. I needed to get back on track and reign in Michael any way I could.

“Human rights-“

“No longer exist,” Michael cut me off. That wasn’t a good sign.

“No one else will say it, because they are afraid of you. But you can’t do human experimentation,” I said. I wanted to say people would protest, but he didn’t care about any of that. I needed to appeal to his nature of not wanting to get involved.

“Can’t?” He then let out a long sigh. “It is necessary to see how energy impacts people. The Ritualist proved that by creating hybrids. We don’t have animals to test.”

“Then there needs to be a process in place. There is a process in place. I know since I keep track of who gets yanked for this kind of testing. What’s to stop you from just grabbing me and turning me into a test subject or anyone else here?” There was silence at that.

“It is based on how annoying you are to how useful you are. Before you were quite useful to managing the Union and the teams. Now you have gone to marginally useful with how much of a headache you are being and with the tax issue. Who knows, your usefulness might go below zero very soon.” I understood the threat, but I knew he wouldn’t just melt me for speaking my mind. At least I hoped, but I couldn’t let Clarissa force me into a corner. While I was currently down, I wasn’t out yet.

“People, myself included need confidence that we won’t be killed on a whim. This doesn’t help that.” I had no doubt no one was going to come to my side. Useless, all of them. The silence stretched on as Michael thought about what I just said. “That was one part of your Constitution. Not enslaving people. Otherwise, what do you call making people into test subjects without any due process on your whim alone?”

Everyone now looked at Michael. “That is a very good point, Laura.” At least he could listen to reason. If he didn’t I wouldn’t have dared to push back like this. “Unfortunately, the harsh reality of this place makes human lives the cheapest thing there is.” He held up a hand before I could speak.

“However, you are right. Since you feel strongly about this, you can be put in charge and approving any human testing. If the tests are not conducted in a timely manner, or there is a lack of test subjects, then I will hold you personally accountable and you will make up the difference. You will report to Clarissa and work with President Bob to take any vagrants or criminals for testing purposes.”

I wanted to scream, that wasn’t what I wanted. I had already been doing that. But arguing now would be pointless. The entire point was to stop human testing, not do even more. Now I was being put directly under Clarissa’s thumb just a little bit more.

“Should we consider the assassination potential?” Clarissa asked. Michael smiled and nodded at that. Of course, he would only think about killing his enemies. I had made my play to take us all off the chopping block, but just saddled with a headache that I didn’t want, but now my life depended on it.

“I had been thinking over that myself, but the force generated wasn’t that strong. I can’t think of a good way to take out the Ritualist using something like this,” Michael said.

“Well, the person you tested this on, clearly ate the crystals and you triggered them remotely?” Clarissa asked and Michael nodded at that before she continued.

“Then, knock out a new arrival. Keep them asleep. Insert activated crystals. Transport them to Heaven. Sneak them in with the next arrival. Then when the Ritualist goes to hybridize or do something, he will have to use his physical body. That is when we detonate the trap.” Now I was wondering how much experience Clarissa had with assassinations. It didn’t escape my notice that the guard who sold out Tyrese’s murderer had disappeared. The real terror wasn’t Michael, but Clarissa and he was too blind to see it.

“That…that is actually a decent idea,” Michael muttered and seemed to be considering. “We will keep the idea as a possibility, but for now we need to focus on defense. Having people capable of combat will go much further than any tricks. If the research progresses to a point, where it can be used like that, then we will go ahead. But I suspect, raiding the city of Heaven with a couple hundred people capable of fighting will have a higher chance work where an assassination has a high chance of failure.”

“Yes, Michael,” Clarissa said. “Then shall we leave and get this place cleaned up?”

“Yes, what a mess.” You just blew a person apart, what did you expect?