I turn my eyes toward a distant world, far removed from my own reach, a world of chaos and destruction where resources are mined from the earth and hunted from the forests. Where vast empires are consumed by giant beasts, where a single life has no meaning but power means everything.

I watch through the eyes of runaway soldiers, betraying their nation, and yet betrayed by their nation. These are the soldiers we encountered on our return journey from meeting Unity, and after all the violence and all the surprises, the ship that they stole crashed in the getaway.

Crashed on a wild world far from the safety of civilisation, the soldiers, whether due to familiar duty, sincere empathy, or a desperation to connect with a life somewhat more normal, the soldiers chose to protect those who fell with them. While it makes perfect sense at a glance, I’m surprised that the soldiers didn’t simply abandon the other people on board the ship.

You see, those of us selected to be soldiers in the Unified States, we’re abandoned by society and civilisation. Forced into conflict and violence, regardless of our own will, and then many soldiers are looked down upon as beasts-adjacent. People who are barely people.

The ex-soldiers are now protecting a ship full of people who despise them for a duty that they did not choose to bear. I can sense the spiteful thoughts directed at the soldiers’ backs even as they fight to protect the fallen ship and the survivors on board.

Yet, they still rebuild civilisation from the ashes and the wreckage. A small village forms in the protective walls of the ship, an enchanter is already working on strengthening the walls, while a chef is preparing the meals, and a craftsman is preparing new tools.

The ex-soldiers guard the ship and the small town growing within, while the civilians inside do what they were trained to do. They work.

Everyone has a trade and they’re skilled enough to be worth transporting between worlds to ply it. Even starting with what little they have, they manage to thrive.

“Another swarm coming from under us,” The vanguard calls out to his team, floating on the air above while his eyes stare at something beneath the ground.

The man made of stone is already standing nearby and responds quickly, casting magic into the earth beneath the fallen ship. I can’t see the magic in action but the results are terrible and quick to surface.

The earth swells into the shape of a mound and then peaks into an imitation of a volcano as it bursts with red liquids. Yet, it is not lava that tumbles and flows down the sides of the small hill.

Blended corpses, from the pale look of them and a few of the limbs I think that they’re something akin to molerats. Limbs and chunks of flesh and bone ride down the sides of the hill on rivers of fresh blood, flowing right into waiting hands.

“Can’t let food waste,” the archer says, passing along a larger chunk of flesh to someone nearby. While the people here still send dirty looks toward the soldiers—understandably so since from their perspective the soldiers are responsible for the entire disaster that brought them here—they still help gather the meat to bring to the kitchen.

A stray mole, still somehow alive, crawls from the top of the mound, only for its life to be severed by the sharp claws of the vanguard soldier dropping down on it with his full weight.

“This is great,” he says, a wild smile on his face, twitching with difficult emotions. Slightly too manic to be called joyful. “The food comes to us here.”

“I hope you can squeeze a big lunch into that small body of yours,” the archer says with a chuckle her hands already soaked in blood. “We need to grow up big and strong, so we can survive when the bigger beasts come.”

“That’s the thing,” the vanguard says, shivering though the weather is warm. “We can beat the stronger beasts so much easier now. We don’t need to restrain them anymore. We can just kill them, and it’s so much easier to just…”

His shivering grows more intense as his complexion turns yellow. He crouches to empty his stomach, into the flowing red rivers of blood that are quickly sinking into the soil.

“We’re just beasts now,” he whispers as if to himself. The realisation is too much for him, affecting him more than I’d expected. I have to take a moment to put myself in his shoes.

His entire life he’s followed rules, and even in his most cruel imaginings, he’s never thought that he’d become what he is today. Yet, he has to have seen this coming, others are collared around him, and he’s fought the beasts himself. Now, he’s seeing their qualities reflected in himself.

“We killed people, just like we are now,” he says. “We are now the same as the beasts we used to hunt. We’ve been killing people just like us.”

“Everything will be alright,” the stone man says, trying to soothe his friend. “Not all beasts are the same, we are not like the others, we aren’t as cruel and violent.”

“Are you sure?” The vanguard asks and the man of stone nods firmly.

Though he doesn’t show it, I can sense the doubt stuck in the back of his mind like a shard of glass digging into his brain. His hope is decaying even as he tries to inspire his friend.

“You are not alone,” I send the message more on instinct than with any actual thought or plan. “Survive until I can find a ship, and I will invite you back into civilisation. Have hope, there are others like you, and together we are stronger.

“Find the things that separate you from the beasts you hunt, qualities that you value in yourself. Love, companionship, empathy, and whatever else that makes you who you are. Hold onto those things.”

I send the message to their entire team, and they quickly confirm that their surroundings are still secure before talking in whispers. All of which I can hear clearly, though I see no reason to tell them as such.

“You’re a rebel?” The stone man asks.

“I am. I have a small empire already,” I reply to them. “You are welcome to be a part of it when we meet again, or perhaps I can help you connect with another civilisation that will accept you.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“How can we trust you?” he asks, looking toward his team and receiving their support. “You’ve been watching this whole time, haven’t you?”

“Not the whole time, I’m not entirely omniscient, not yet at least,” I reply, chuckling to myself.

It takes some time to explain what I can to them, but they at least seem like they’d make for decent citizens. When I find a means to reliably bend space to my will, then I’ll have to go pick them up.

Unfortunately, they are not alone in their suffering. There are more than a few villains in this reality, and my limited focus turns to the next that I must consider.

Gale.

I’ve tried to ignore the man, but it’s not because he’s suddenly chilled out. He has not chilled out.

His cavern is a mess of kidnapped students and teachers who have made only the slightest of mistakes, some few are those that I’ve already marked and it’s through their eyes that I can see what’s going on.

These ‘beasts that must be tamed’, are nothing more than ordinary people made into marionettes. They sing, dance, and work under the will of one man, one director who leads this entire façade of life.

It’s as if reality is trying to encourage me into accepting the Unified States as it is, as even this failure of a welfare officer can only craft a horror show of a civilisation. Nature meanwhile knows only the cruelty of an endless resource war, and all the civilisations I know otherwise are just trying to survive that eternal conflict.

Is life so chaotic and awful that there is nowhere else where we can find peace and happiness apart from the Unified States? Thus, nowhere at all for those of us unwelcome there?

Much like on that foreign world where the ship crashed, experts and students work on their craft to form the basis of a village inside Gales territory. They must, for they’ve been ordered to and they have no way to refuse, their collars bind their minds and the flesh entirely.

A village already stands atop the burnt husk of Gale’s first attempt at building his own mirror of the Unified States. At glance, it’s almost picturesque in its charm.

The people there laugh, talk, and toil in their work. Not one shows any tendency towards violence or hatred, no one even levies a small complaint. Some even take to more amorous relationships in private, which would ordinarily be fine…

None of this is of their free will, not a single smile, not a word spoken. All of it is a lie that they’re forced to live out.

One man, not even cruel in his intent, has created a small hell for those that have been caught and collared. Their screams echo silently in their minds, unheard by the mastermind who proudly watches them from above.

Worse yet, they aren’t ever going to be freed by the welfare officers that will come to deal with Gale. They will only be punished further for their ‘participation’ in this, and at best they’ll be shadowed by officers the same way that Adler shadowed us.

I want to rescue them.

It’s impulsive, and there would be consequences, but it’s the right thing to do. I’m just about ready to charge in there and deal with the problem.

There’s but one issue.

They’re not the only ones who deserve to be saved.

There are people dying in the republic even now. People are starving in the streets, some because of their own failures, some because of misfortune, and others because there are simply no opportunities for them in the streets they were born into.

Bugs are especially hard done by, dying en masse just as they’re being born en masse. I can offer a small fraction of these people a home here, I can offer food, shelter, and opportunity, but only to a small few, and I’d only be spreading thin the resources that could instead be used to help my own people.

I have to choose who I save, and who I let die. Those who are food and those who get to eat. The only other choice is to let nature and chaos make those choices for me or to abdicate my position to someone like Malea.

There is simply too much life in this world, this universe is like a Disney movie, but with all the unrealized horror of the toilet coming to life alongside the chairs and tea set. So do we accept that the toilet has to suffer, or do we shit on the living floor instead?

That said, some solutions are better than others and Gale’s little show isn’t something that I can forgive in the long run. I will destroy this if it lasts long enough for me to get the chance.

Until then, I’ll use my time carefully to tend to the home that I intend to build. I can’t save everyone, but I must save my own people.

Through whispers in the spy network formed from my own mind and Skills, I can hear the beginnings of plots. Some are harmless, some are cruel but none of my business, and some few are important. It seems that the Grand Council, or what of it will survive the transfer, intend to act against me.

Not directly, and not in any way that will leave me holding a grudge, but in the small and petty ways that politicians mess with their opponents. There are already agents in my home, and some of them have been given orders.

“I’m listening, I’m watching, do not betray your neighbours.” I send a simple warning and keep a close eye on them, most shudder at the message, it’s not the first that I’ve sent. Some maintain a calm disposition though they still do panic a little underneath it all. This ability to spy on them disturbs even me, which is the reason I’m unwilling to share it with a full organisation.

If I want these people to behave themselves, then I need to create an empire so valuable that they’ll reconsider their allegiances. I need to create a home for them and for everyone that I want in my life.

“Kyra, are you paying attention?” Vii asks, prodding me in the side as we listen to the teacher give her lecture.

The young woman is worked up and passionate, trying her best to help us become what we ought to be. Her eyes shine with life, and I know that she must have a good life here.

How would she react if we took her away from this? How much would she suffer?

With a sigh, I scratch her off of the list of recruits. As talented as she is, she’s already got a home here, and it would be too cruel for me to take her from it.

“We need to find those who have nothing,” I say to Vii. “Those who are suffering here, that was always my goal, we’re not just trying to gather talent, but save talent from being crushed by a system that doesn’t appreciate it.”

“Wait a minute,” Vii says. “I want to write that down.”

“Are you writing down everything I say?” I ask.

“Not everything…”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 57,713 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 28,690 / 30,271 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (Adapted)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (Adapted)

-Layered Space Muscles (Adapted)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (Adapted)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (Adapted)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Functional)

-Mana surge movement (Functional)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Functional)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)