New information had trickled in. My homunculus had made a move and the city of Esperanza had been wiped somehow. I had missed. That much energy, would have created a Calamity in miniature. An overwhelming surge of energy, which would have killed everyone.

Since it was night, you were either hit and died, or missed it. Especially since I went through a layer. But the slight increase in energy around me, while very subtle, meant that the system was now watching me closely. I technically still had a meta-point, but it was worthless except for using it as a get out of death card with the system.

I wasn’t sure what I had done wrong, but the portals to the more energetic layer, were not precise things. It would be far too easy, to be off in direction or distance. My guess, was that the portal shifted as it collapsed altering the direction.

The fact it had even worked was a bit of a surprise, but it showed those shards of pure energy could be weaponized. But it was too risky to try again. For one there was the system, and it was watching me. As the ultimate power of this place, messing with it too much was a bad idea. Also, those shards were past the Goldburg limit by a large margin.

Whatever that thing was, it was clearly damaged in some way. All those shards floating up in the air, indicated they were part of a larger whole. It was frustrating, but I had no time to contemplate the issue right now.

I needed to think about the newest development. “Get ready, we are going to the plaza,” I told Ruth. She nodded obediently. Chaos would soon erupt. My homunculus would make a play on Michael and I would watch from the sidelines.

“Astral Projection.” I took on the appearance of a younger woman who had been worn down. Someone who looked weak and vulnerable. It was amazing how no one thought I could disguise myself as a woman, but it was incredibly useful to make people overlook me.

I put on actual clothes that had been purchased. I had a couple hundred million points in reserve for medical emergencies. My time as the leader of the UCS had paid off quite well. Anyone who didn’t have at least ten million, was just asking for a horrible death. It was always amusing to watch the surprise on a person’s face when they didn’t have enough and would die soon.

Not that I would let anyone know. Appearances and all that. Perhaps I could institute death matches once I was in charge. That would be an amusing diversion. I put on a cloak and Ruth did the same, trailing behind me. I was bringing her along to use as a throwaway diversion if I needed to. One thing I had learned fighting the Divine Empress, it was never a bad thing to have human shields to block attacks.

We reached the inner portion of the city where they had made a wall with the building. “One moment, needle checks on everyone,” a soldier stopped us. I had heard about this and prepared a small bit of blood in a pocket in my astral projection. The soldier handed me the needle and I poked it in my arm, the blood welled up and I handed the needle back which was cleaned off for the next person.

I shifted the energy to quickly seal the hole but left the blood on my arm for all to see. It was a clever trick to find me and Michael might think it would be enough, but he was still new to this battle of wits. While not unarmed, he was no expert like I was.

Making our way into the plaza, everyone was gathering, and he was sitting on his throne. He glanced in our direction, but I had us maneuver to the side while looking around. There were a lot of soldiers and more showing up. I noted them on the roof tops as well.

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Oh, there were no children here. This was a trap of some kind. That was a weakness he should have crushed long ago. If he had the children here, then I wouldn’t have been so sure. It really would have made the event much more believable.

The important thing was winning. Lives were cheap, but victory and power were the true prizes. I made my way to the side of the plaza. Kind of close to his makeshift throne, but still within the crowd. I could see him intently scanning everyone and everything.

That was when people made way for the Protector. At least the man would be put to some use with his death. He only lived before, since neither myself or the Divine Empress wanted to take a risk moving on him. He also didn’t make waves which made it easy to ignore him for the longest time.

Now though, he was killed, and a projection was in his place. My homunculus was floating above him and controlling the projection. The shifts in energy were hard to make out, but I knew all my own tricks. A homunculus was but a pale reflection of the creator. A reason why I would never use that method to continue myself. It was easy, but it was a trap, that once you stepped on, you would be forever ruined.

The new birth plan was risky, but it was a way to help mitigate a lot of the issues. The fact the Envoy had lasted as long as he had was proof of that. Once I was set up, I would have a clone prepared just in case in a remote location. It would never hurt to be extra careful. But that would take time and resources I couldn’t invest in right now. Winning came first, then I could set about securing my rule and power.

The Avatar had clearly set us on a collision course. My homunculus was getting supplies from her to be a nuisance. I had escaped her notice. Whatever she had planned, would not fall on me. Measure twice, cut once was a way of thought I had lived by. Careful in all things, but when I needed to act, to not hesitate in the slightest.

Michael and the Protector were about to speak to each other, but I was looking around for anything out of the ordinary. I needed to see how the chaos would unfold.

My head snapped in the direction of one of the buildings opposite the plaza from the make shift throne. There were soldiers that were knocked out and several people fathering energy for beam attacks. I readied my defenses. A direct assassination attempt, how bold of whoever was attempting it.

Several soldiers noticed, but they were too late to act as the beam attacks were unleashed. There were ten of them. Five of them struck at Michael, but he dodged at the last moment, his left arm getting damaged. Explosions rippled out from behind him.

The other five beam attacks, struck the Protector and the false corpse. The Astral Projection popped like a bubble and the corpse was incinerated. The Avatar had made a bold move, but she should have aimed everything at Michael. Or it might be the opening prelude to a greater plan. I smiled as people screamed and chaos enveloped the plaza.

Soldiers began to shout and direct people to specific buildings to bunker in as the people who had unleashed the beam attacks retreated and were pursued by a large number of soldiers. That was clever of the Avatar, pulling his support away. Now it would be time for my trap to engage. That would give confidence to the Avatar to enact her next trap, which should be peak chaos and I would move in to capitalize on the situation.

Time to add some party favors to the mix. Two people in the crowd exploded, causing large amounts of injuries and breaking what little order had been established. I had placed myself near one of those explosions and triggered the blood hiding in my Astral Projection, expelling it, making it look like I had been heavily wounded.

Ruth quickly came over to support me as we slowly moved at an angle towards the throne. Michael was calmly looking around, but he was not used to true aerial combat. The first rule is always have the high ground. The second rule was that death comes from above!

I saw my homunculus hiding and floating high up. At least the traces of energy. He swooped down. This was going to be a suicide attack and incredibly hard to block. Let’s see how you handle this, Emperor Michael. I had made a sonic module and quickly activated it. “Zin bin!” The nonsense words echoed across the plaza. Let’s see if you are truly as clever as you claim or if you fall for the first layer of my trap and draw out the Avatar’s next move.