Eshya acts as a proper guard, nervously watching for any threats that might emerge from the crowd while escorting Nel through the city. She’s lost the bounce in her step and regained something of the predatory grace that I’ve grown used to seeing in her.

Yet, where confidence ought to reign, she twitches and glares at strangers, filled with a quiet paranoia that speaks of deep anxiety that she’s failing to hide. I’m not sure just how ready she is to use the Skills that she’s still rediscovering.

She’s the same, but not.

I’m excited to get to know her again but at the same time a weight presses down on my chest. I’m not sure whether it’s because of the changes in her, the chance that things will turn out differently this time, or something else that I can’t quite understand, yet. I just know that it hurts, and I don’t know what to do about it.

Even expressing it would only make things more awkward with Eshya in the future, so for now I press it down inside and focus on our future.

From my expanded senses, I can see that there are no changes in my caverns from all that I can see of them. The exits are still defended, and there are no threats pouring in through the exits. We’re safe for today, but tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

Adler and Red are still preparing for the shift to this new world, it should take them into orbit above the world we’ve been transplanted into. Strangely enough, the dungeon hasn’t completely subsumed this planet, for good and for bad.

Apparently, Rick is a lazy slob and hasn’t even taken over the world yet.

Pathetic.

Everything is moving as I’d intended, my people are working hard to prepare for the coming days, assuming that the worst will come for us. I hope that I’ll have the strength to see them safe with my own power, but that isn’t guaranteed, and they’ve been trained to fight in case I fail them.

The streets are busy with life, neighbours checking on one another, training together, and helping where help is needed. The gremlins, starting to feel more at home, are some of the friendliest that I can see jumping at the chance to do something useful.

It warms my heart.

We’re a community, and almost everyone is happy to be a part of it, building this empire together. This was always my goal but I’ve made countless mistakes, and we’ve faced challenges that we were never ready for.

I simply don’t know what I’m doing. I’m trying hard, and I expected to fail, but my people, desperate for something to live for, have found a sense of camaraderie. I can’t even claim that this was of my making, though I’ve played my part in making it what it is.

I must be stronger to keep threats at bay.

I must be a more capable leader, to guide my people towards greater goals.

A smile crawls up my lips at the thought of what I must become.

I know that I’ll fail again, that more blood will be spilt, and more lives will be lost. There will be more close calls like with Eshya, and some days I won’t be enough.

That’s just the nature of the game that nature forces us to play. We’re all constantly chasing impossible ideals that we can never quite reach, learning from every mistake we make on the long road ahead.

“Kyra?” Vii asks, shaking me from the side. “Are you okay? You’re looking at the lamp really intensely. Don’t you like it?”

“I was just caught up in my own thoughts,” I say, leaning on her side. “I like being Empress.”

Vii laughs at me, squeezing me from the side comfortingly.

My guts still twist up when thinking of what’s happened with Eshya, but I don’t say anything. Not right now, I’ve only just gotten my head back on straight, and I need to focus on what I have to do next.

For today, that means bringing everyone in for a celebration of life and community so that we might be prepared for the wars to come.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The streets are cluttered with tables and chairs covered in a wide array of foods and drinks, it’s far from what I imagined when thinking of a street festival. It’s a little more homely, a little more casual.

The furniture, and much of the food, come straight from nearby homes, brought out at the mention of a feast in the streets. There’s no uniformity to the scene, it’s instead a glorious assortment of whatever was available.

It’s a mess.

A chaotic, beautiful mess that we’ve built together. As the meals and meats flood out into the streets, conversations arise between neighbours, and surprisingly few arguments need to be broken up.

There is a familiarity between us as if despite all our differences, we’re all part of one greater whole.

Near to me a young human, cheeks reddened with drink, starts ranting. A common enough thing now that we’re an hour into the festivities.

“I have a theory about people,” the young man says, and a great many philosophers scowl or smirk in amusement, I’m sure. As a young person myself, however, I listen closely hoping for something good out of the man. It was why I brought him here, after all.

“People want to be together, they want to be a part of something greater. There is no satisfaction quite the same as being a part of a gride tide that washes through the world, bringing change with it. Everyone wants riches of their own, sure, but they want to be a part of a rich culture as well.

“They want to look upon a group, or tribe, or nation and see it as theirs. When their tribe is rich, they are rich; when their tribe suffers, they suffer, too.

“It’s a togetherness born from sharing the glory of success and the shame of failure with everyone around you. We need to continue working together toward greater goals, and stand together as one people, one empire. Not just a slogan, but something that people can feel in their hearts!”

His speech is fine enough, but it seems too much like common sense to me. My people need to feel connected to this empire that we build together, otherwise we’re not an empire at all.

It’s like a family. You can’t hold it together with power, and blood connections only have what meaning we give them. To have a family, people need to see themselves as a family and seek to hold onto that relationship.

My people see themselves as part of an empire, they see me as their leader, and through that recognition, my empire exists. Otherwise, I’m just a thug with a big club ordering people around.

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“For you, that might be nice.” A serpent says, slithering into the conversation. She’s rather massive and stares down at the young human, who’s too drunk to feel fear at the sight.

“You group together because it’s in your nature. Some of us aren’t like that.” She says, her language much too alien for me to understand it without the help of my support device. “It’s… frightening to see the cultures you develop, and it’s even worse when you force us into them.

“I prefer to trade my labour for food and shelter. Pretending to care about a group of strangers just to be allowed to eat… I cannot do that.”

“You don’t care about us at all?” The young philosophy student asks.

“I care that you, as a group, are strong enough to threaten me. I care that you give me a chance to live without being hunted down and killed. I care that this group can protect me from other, more dangerous beasts.

“I do not care about your life, no. I cannot pretend very well, either.”

A few other people at the table nod their heads in understanding. There are many species that aren’t naturally inclined to group up and are more inclined to a pragmatic relationship of trade and mutual understanding.

I’m sure there are many other cultures and personalities that I’ve yet to hear of, let alone understand. I only have a surface understanding of some insect cultures, for instance. I have to be open-minded and listen carefully before making decisions that affect everyone.

Multicultural society isn’t easy to manage, but thankfully my empire is made up of so many people who tend towards cooperation. While I can use the threat of force to hold us all together, it’s like winding a roll of duct tape around a ball of writhing cats.

They’ll be stuck together, but they won’t much like it.

“This isn’t what I imagined a rebel society to be like,” Eshya says, sitting beside me at a big table just outside of the local bakery.

The fresh bread is still warm from the ovens, soaking up the oils from the juicy steak loaded into a massive burger. A few spicy mushrooms are sliced up like onion and added on top giving it just enough flavour to make me glad I haven’t ruined the meal with any sauce.

“We’re not savage enough?” Nel asks, carefully working into her own meal with a knife and fork.

“I guess,” Eshya says. “I just thought you’d be killing each other or watching fights over dinner, or something.”

“If that’s what you want, I’d be happy for a chance to test your limits again,” I say, putting down the burger before it can get cold. “We can clear out a space for it, I’m sure people would be glad for a show.”

“You want to fight?” Eshya asks, her eyes gazing into distant memories as she sifts through what she has stored in her support device.

“Okay everyone, clear a spot for us!” I call out, finding a good spot for a little tussle. The entire city has been training for the last week, and many others for longer still, so it’s not too strange a sight for them. Some are already cheering for the two of us.

Setting aside our fame, deserved simply for our role in founding this empire, I’ve earned quite some attention for my strength and fighting style, while Eshya has proven herself consistently terrifying in a fight. She’s not overly powerful, but her razor-sharp instincts help her move exactly where she needs to be, dodging before attacks are made and cutting at where an enemy will be.

When she’s developed her mana form a little more, she’ll be a truly terrible force to fight against.

When the tables are removed and our battlefield is set, Eshya excitedly steps up into the gap beside me. Her uncertainty blended with a naïve eagerness for the fight twists her expression up into an unfamiliar smile.

My guts twist up with uncomfortable joy and confused anxiety at seeing this new side of her.

“So how does this work?” She asks.

“Don’t hit my head,” I say. “We both have a few tricks to keep from totally dying from a head wound… but until we have some proper defences set up, I’d rather avoid testing just how far that goes.”

I don’t need to think about what happened to Eshya before, but I also had my brain partially mashed by an enemy spell during the war in the skies above the academy. If I had to guess, my ability to ‘glue’ my flesh back together again has kept the brain damage from being as severe as it could have been. I should still investigate it further when I get the chance.

“So, no attacking your head, what else?” Eshya asks.

“Don’t bother the audience, and preferably don’t attack clothes,” I say. “This is a fight, not a strip club.”

She nods firmly, her expression is still too tense. The Eshya I know isn’t afraid to say what she wants and even when in an unfamiliar situation she keeps a casual calm.

“Let’s get started.” I leap at her the moment I’m finished speaking, using the same techniques that she’s helped me to learn to move faster than ever before.

I’m fast enough to catch her by surprise, landing a hit on her side, but even with her changes, she still draws fast enough to punch at me with the hilt of her sword, an old favourite technique of hers.

The mana she’s concentrated into the base of the hilt is enough to break a rib but I gather a mana shield fast enough to defend against it.

I’ve used a few Skills to make myself slightly more vulnerable to her attacks, otherwise, this entire fight would be pointless. My crystalised mana form is powerful enough to make it near impossible for Eshya to win if I wasn’t giving her a handicap.

That said, I may have the power advantage, but Eshya is a much more skilled warrior.

Her sword flows through a series of arcs, I block with my arms or raise mana shields to keep the damage from building up, but she’s still keeping me on my toes.

We exchange a few more hits before Eshya steps up her game further, pressing on the offensive as if I was any other fighter. I laugh, seeing that same girl I fell for not so long ago.

She moves through familiar patterns, but there’s no chance to break through to her without taking at least a few hits. Sparring with her in the past has taught me that more than anything.

I launch myself at her again, using my force magic to try and throw her back, but she sets her feet in a way that I’ve only seen from her a handful of times. Her sword is thrust out at me, and there’s no good way to escape her, so I don’t.

The mana-dense sword tip hits my chest, penetrating through me more easily than it ought to. My momentum isn’t broken, and as Eshya’s eyes open wide in surprise I reach down to her hand and the hilt of the sword.

I wrap my arms around her before she can act. This close, I can pull her mana out, and we’ll sometimes consider it a win at this, but not today.

I trip up her feet and throw her off balance, sending us both falling to the ground. There I quickly force her arms down so that she can’t use her sword, which is still struck through my chest.

Eshya’s cheeks are warm, her breathing heavy and fast. This must feel like her first fight.

“You hesitated,” I say. “Usually you’d twist your sword and sidestep to try and escape me.”

“Was our relationship always this violent?” Eshya whispers, her eyes wide but without a hint of horror or disgust.

“You still have all the memories,” I say, “I’m not giving you any spoilers, find out for yourself.”

She chuckles at that.

“Again?” She asks

“I could go another round,” I say, pulling up.

Her expression is a little too nervous as she pulls her sword from out of my chest, but soon enough she’s standing ready again. She might still be recovering but her confidence was written into her combat Skills, and I can see her becoming more and more herself the longer we fight.

So why do I still have a deep feeling of dread in my guts when I look at her?

I throw myself at her again, taking more wounds as she ruthlessly cuts me apart. I still win, getting in close and overpowering her before she can get me.

Others are clearing space in the streets all throughout the city, some sparring like us, others setting up games or entertainment.

Our city is alive.

Eshya is alive.

We still have tomorrow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

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

Current mana volume: 30,271 / 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)