The System learned a lot about Terra by observing its denizens and their reactions to the Integration throughout the week. Amongst other things, that they no longer called their planet Terra, but rather Earth. Well, too bad. Earth was already taken. But Terra had certainly spawned a lot of interesting creatures in its time, these humans not least among them.
Certain creatures were very similar to ones encountered before; that was perfectly alright. Diversity in culture was far more important than biology, in pursuing the Dao. These new provinces had varied cultures in abundance. The only question now was if the descendants would find and take inspiration from what was left behind, or if they would go the route of forging their very own ways to survive?
Many things happened all at once on the pilfered planet, and all that the System learned was also learned by its own Master and creator.
Axargandr Lee watched carefully as his System set to work installing the Astral Magicore which would nurture the planet's Origins, before she began the Shuffle, performing the arduous work of carefully pulling the entire planet's surface apart; meticulously adjusting the orb’s Grace in accordance with His will.
His ancient will, still at work.
The Great Liberation had been ongoing for millennia, serving Lee's true goals of concealing the elimination of his rivals, while also entertaining a vain hope. Yet doubts had started to seep slowly into his mind about imperfections in the design, even in those early days. Yet its creation had been a costly affair, so for now he was stuck with this version. It was why he’d started breaking the rules, over the long years. The System was meant to prevent favoritism on account of his own bias. But turns out that it had some of its own, and that the hands-off approach came with a few glaring weaknesses.
Weaknesses that need not be suffered for long, if you were willing to place your thumb on the scale—a task easily tended to during one of his meditations.
Such drastic steps should still be taken only after measured consideration. Axargandr Lee had planned the design’s journey forward very carefully, personally combing through planetary bodies, picking out the ones to analyze more fully, the ones with enough raw potential and unique properties to grow into suitably unorthodox Lordship candidates. Yet his selections had fallen under self-serving criticisms since early days, from Lordships intent on missing the bigger picture. Now these initial Lordships wielded undue influence over the Celestial Hegemony's culture—all with various convoluted justifications—yet all seeking to subtly benefit from their established status in various ways, at the core. Axargandr had turned a blind eye, to start.
Resting on their laurels was no great sin, even if there was a price to pay. It was their own Path they were ultimately hampering, after all.
Right up until they had reached a tipping point, and finally started wielding that influence to prevent any new Lordships from gaining admittance altogether—rejecting every candidate who failed to fulfill their wishlist of demands.
The wishlist?
Beyond all probability—ordaining that any new ally ought to benefit the existing Lordships equally before gaining full admittance, lest those who benefit the least be allowed to stake a more violent claim.
Of course, Axargandr had ignored these clamors and kept judging the candidates he obtained solely by their true merits, looking primarily to what extent they matched his own extensive requirements.
Nevertheless, even the great System’s hand could be forced when every Lordship put their great differences aside, and insisted on their right to dispute the results of an Integration.
The design was not built with such shenanigans in mind. The Realm never fashioned in a way meant to be primed for civil war or infighting, with each planet’s needs fulfilled by the amount of natural spoils and challenges that the System had always provided. Yet the Frontrunner’s Lordships had turned into insatiable hoarders over time, having been influenced by the System to believe there would always be room for progressive growth if given enough time to pillage, despite how the challenge of breaking through each bottleneck had always taught otherwise—when you broke through them correctly.
Even complete amateurs were capable of intuiting as much.
Yet somehow the old stooges convinced themselves that the correct planet’s worth of resources—one more, always just one more—was the clear Path forward; a thirteenth Magicore to siphon off of, the solution to their every woe.
There was no end to the great endeavors they invented to invest their wealth and time into; always nurturing new creations, which they could then lord over, rather than learn from and incorporate into their cultivation, having grown convinced their Paths were beyond reproach already. So, rather than personally progress, they tended to their hoards and armies, their families and flocks, their cities and collections. The prevailing wisdom had become that ‘given enough time’, a solution to their bottlenecks could simply be bought outright, if not by all, then at least by some of them, eventually.
Sheer arrogance born from thinking they approached the top, when the wise knew to act as if there is none.
Ten in a row, ten full planets turned from promising candidates into slaves of the Frontrunners. Ten planet's worth of peoples' dreams all crushed by the unlimited greed of the Lords.
If only they had ambition to match.
This was a most forbidding turn of events, a sheer betrayal of the culture of freedom Axargandr was seeking to foster. Not to mention how far they strayed from the primary function of the Principle used; which had been designated to prevent destructive candidates from turning the Realm into one of constant strife and open warfare—not to be used for usurping any and all candidates regardless of quality, including perfectly good ones such as Terra—a candidate whose assets were exceptional and included a Sovereign Element being discovered within the very first week. Despite such a pedigree; the Lordships’ indiscriminate actions would happily doom its peoples to long-term enslavement.
Ten planets in a row. Ten planets with no Lordship surviving the trial years, and all resources nevertheless fully Integrated and distributed to the successful claimants.
The Symbios, the Twinhead Ogres, the Hivelings, the Satyr, the Grub Brood, The Ephllyos, The Spawn of Frida, the horned Calruzzians, Cordycepcians, the Mior, the Rubripes and the Cibus Covenant.
All amounting to nothing but servants, several struggling under leaders burdened by heart demons.
Makes one question the need to bother with a Principled tally in the first place, given they have so little understanding, such meager information to go off of at that stage. May be that delaying these votes until after Integration completion would be of help, but by then too much may also have been revealed, and obligations is no way to form a coalition.
Axargandr wanted them hungering to Explore.
Yet ten in a row was too much. Ten full populations fated for slavery, divested of an unrestrained pursuit for total freedom, which the worthiest found within an Integration were always promised—if not forever.
Great change was sorely needed. And so Axargandr had finally loosened the System's constraints, with some unexpected results already.
Only a single week had passed since the vote, yet Axargandr Lee could augur which Path things were headed down, and where they were headed was… interesting.
Perhaps it was an overcorrection, and the Lordships were liable to think the System was going haywire, but the lesson being taught was not a bad one.
Axargandr would just have to keep an eye open, and make sure the level of chaos remained just right, with his System likely keen to now pursue her tendency towards control. Her efforts were liable to steer things back towards an equilibrium now, especially once she observed the overreactions of the serving Principal Lords.
She liked to play the mathematical odds, but in Axargandr’s expert opinion, the serving Lords were chiefly lost causes. Despite being useless stooges stuck at early bottlenecks, their arrogance knew no bounds. Falls from such heights could serve well as wake up calls, but none of them would risk such dangers head on, not whilst living lives of such lofty heights, taking the risk of the century only when out on a royal hunt with their rivals—always during one of the System’s sponsored Festivals, where even old stooges could find prizes enticing enough to salivate over, and to make them bother to personally compete.
Never with any real stakes, besides those supplied by the System.
So, if the rivals themselves will not be goaded into breaking the stalemate?
This alone was no reason for heavy handedness.
Instead, you feed the quarry.
----------------------------------------
This was the 26th Integration in Realm history. The 26th member planet invited to pursue the Master's ideal, having been deemed worthy by a supreme intelligence. The eleventh in a row, slated to be narrowly rejected for early admittance through votes cast by the current Lordships of the Multiverse Realm.
The eleventh schemed enslavement.
When the Master foresaw this by now predictable choice, and observed the prognosticated fate of Terra’s Grace, he had reached a swift conclusion:
Enough.
But the System remained unmoved by the full extent of the membership's greed, believing it was a tangible sign of progress, no matter how miniscule. While Axargandr preferred to trust in the design’s original intent instead:
Finding that one in a trillion opportunity, for that one in a trillion talent.
Someone to seek and defy the heavens, without needing to stop and build a bridge to reach the golden clouds.
The Master saw their nature on full display, then the System reacted precognitively in his stead; enacting the greatest period of sanctuary and guidance ever conceived for a prospective Lordship's lull. While still only giving their new rivals a decade to stake their claims before being confronted with the final awakening of Terra’s Origin, and the completion of the Integration.
It was a counter-scheme conceived to invite chaos, with the Lords having taken too many liberties that relied on the System’s rigid ways remaining such forever. Whilst they plotted and schemed to find loopholes, the System was watching and preparing accordingly. Now, having taken the System’s unchanging nature for granted—they would come to find there was a price to pay for such foolishness.
They believed themselves valued, for having come so far. Then acted like squabbling children, robbed of their latest toy.
Their undignified tantrums would receive the response such petty acts deserved.
Conditions had been stagnant for too long regardless. Growing an appetite for riches and engaging in sloth for a period was no great sin, so long as you paid the piper eventually, because nor was it the Path to freedom—however gratifying for a time. By now it was high time to remind the Lordships of a reason to either step aside, or to strive ever higher.
The System would keep a close eye on things, to ensure they did not run amok for too long.
Until a time came, for the next stage.
----------------------------------------
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
~The current Principal Lordships, during emergency Integration announcement~
[Planet Terra scanning sheet: A-grade quality mass. C-grade size. D-grade esthetics. Ungraded energy. Diversity among sapients: Austere.]
*** *** ***
[Qualifications verified. Expedited Integration advised. Requesting assembly council votes for premium invitation…]
…
[Requested votes not cast.]
...
[Impasse… Active Lordships abstain, recording reticent acts. Requisites reached: Obligatory council review scheduled: Imminent.]
[Calculating readjustments...]
…
[Initializing Continental Shuffle.]
[Competitors for motivational rivalry remain sorely missed. Boosting predator populations intermittently.]
[Analyzing result: Insufficient. Lull requirements remain. Commencing full diversity project authorization - 100.]
*** *** ***
A murmur followed the abrupt announcement,
Soon disrupted by a voice like grinding rock. “W-H-A-T? One hundred, a lull extending one hundred years, O-U-T-R-A-G-E-O-U-S! The coming Festival will needs be postponed, or happen simultaneously, but that—”
“Calm your bricks, we can work around this. If that is the extent of the backlash we shall face, I for one say we gladly pay the toll. The plans proceed.”
One lone voice studied the pictured blue orb in fascination.
“How can such a small planet be called A-grade? Must be something within the oceans, if they run truly deep I suppose it is possible.”
...
[Qualifications reviewed. Planet Terra status in limbo. Full Lordship potential in question—number of Celestial Lords questioning Master analysis: 12...]
[Analyzing Celestial Council…]
...
[Aberrative endeavors detected: Fruitless pattern repeating.]
[Counteracting - Extending lull: 1000]
[Proceeding with Integration facilitation protocol. Activating All-natural Healing IV to nullify further interference prior to Integration completion…]
A deathly silence had descended in every council room projecting into the Principal Lordship’s meeting, as they were being analyzed for the first time since Ascension.
The feed cut off the main Hall of Lords and vassals, leaving six principal thrones sitting silenced, feeling perturbed, until one began to speak.
“This is war.”
Muad’s words were met with dismayed frowns, then more uncharacteristic murmurs as his peers addressed their advisors.
Chronicles
Explorer ID: High King Muad’Dib
…
Explorer Class: ???
…
Explorer Race: The Elders
Dao Path:
Dogma Key of the Elderbane
Dao of Minutes Dao of Youth Dao of Rebellion
Planet: Arrak
Muad’Dib continued morosely. “We are left with no other choice. She has closed off our every avenue for further influence. Now, not even culling their numbers during the Shuffle will work as normal. This is a declaration; the System is coming for us. And using this, this Terra to do it. These new peoples, they are being primed. We must be prepared,” Muad’Dib stared around at his peers. “When the time comes—we must unleash hell.”
Muad’s disconcertingly intense ape-like eyes held no mercy for the race being ‘Integrated’ below, despite their likeness to himself. This was no surprise, considering his own planet’s history and their low regard for their young.
The rocky voice from before was first to respond.
Chronicles
Explorer ID: Stonefather: Mocc
…
Explorer Class: ???
…
Explorer Race: The Earthfals
Dao Path:
Dogma Key of Life
Dao of Earth Dao of Water Dao of Salt
Planet: Earth
“YES! Invasion; it is the only legitimate response. We must raise elites, ones like never before,” The rock clacked and grumbled. “If we take this sitting down, we are no more than pebbles who’ve pretended to be star myriarchs.”
His slow but eager voice was met with steaming whistles, ignited whoomphs and concluding hisses, which they all waited for the translator spell to turn legible, lest they risk offending the enigmatic Alchemia of the Fogs.
Chronicles
Explorer ID: Alchemia Shiss’
…
Explorer Class: ???
…
Explorer Race: The Fogs
Dao Path:
Dogma Key of the Vapor
Dao of Water Dao of the Ephemeral Edge Dao of Chemistry
Planet: Pulsar
You turn to violence too swiftly, as always. The System will be given every excuse to escalate. This may still be considered a lost prize, with us insisting nothing untoward ever occurred in the first place.” She added a few more whistles near the end, saying: “If there are legitimate concerns by the end of Integration, we will raise and address them then. Liquidation remains on the table, always, when we stand united.”
The Fogs were indecipherable at the best of times, if you could pronounce one of their names it would mean that you were not wholly solid. Nevertheless, their power was undeniable, and they did have allies.
“I would have to agree,” Hanhiel tossed his glossy, black hair back. “Oh, don’t look at me like that Muad. You know I don’t mind a bit of frantic violence, but the System is on to us, there is no denying that part. I feel your response is just too predictable, a tad. We don’t have the means to strike for, what was it? A thousand years?” That seemed to nearly make him reconsider. “Oh my. But what are we but animals, if we cannot act with patience?”
Chronicles
Explorer ID: Genii Hanhiel
…
Explorer Class: ???
…
Explorer Race: The Lamias
Dao Path:
Dogma Key of the Gothic
Dao of Glory Dao of Seduction Dao of Fangs
Planet: Umbra Seraphoria
“I do still agree, invasion! But we must temper our expectations, and prepare for the unexpected. I smell change coming. Wouldn’t you agree, Fel’kiss?”
He turned to the only furred one being projected in the room, who growled in response. “Outright war against a System blessed, we cannot condone. A hunt? Always,” The prideful voice speaking had her own likeness coiled in her lap—only missing the oversized incisors—and she kept stroking its fur, ending with a long lick, before continuing. “If they are not prey, we will not be fed. You need not overcomplicate matters, as always.”
Chronicles
Explorer ID: Prowl Huntress Fel’kiss Silverfur
…
Explorer Class: ???
…
Explorer Race: Sabrelings
Dao Path:
Dogma Key of the Predator
Dao of Pride Dao of Fangs Dao of Shadows
Planet: Arz Felonia
The last one in the room squeezed himself into the conversation, awaiting no invitation. “Dismal. Simply dismal. Every projection thrown out the window like so much bathwater. You all had better be prepared for this to accelerate your mortgages. No Integration means no golden parachute was triggered, meaning your repayments will soon be defaulting.”
The news nobody wanted to hear.
Chronicles
Explorer ID: Viceroy Sawak’Geem
…
Explorer Class: ???
…
Explorer Race: The Navigators
Dao Path:
Dogma Key of the Privateer
Dao of Risk Dao of Gold Dao of Ropes
Planet: Elidoch
But Sawak was all too keen to deliver. “Hey-ey, what’s with the looks? Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s all in the contract. No delays either, or your upcoming fleet deliveries will be getting delayed in turn,” The privateer walked his rotund torso out of shot via four mechanical legs, already whistling a tune. “You good folks have fun with your military build ups, ambition’s always good news for industry.”
As usual when Festival times came around, the System did her utmost to present a new level of challenge. The smart ones would pay back now, and get better interests later. When the new model ships came out; all of them would come running, looking to extend new credit lines.
A thousand years was a preposterous amount of time to prepare, design and time the drop. It would turn into such a boring wait, might even make it a series of ‘innovation’ spurred drops? Ah. Now we’re cookin’.
The shipyard business was about to turn boomin’.