Ben felt two things, as he ran and dodged around screaming Grays. The first thing was that he might have done a better job of figuring out the layout of this fucking building, because he felt he was getting hopelessly lost. The second? He might have let the wrath of his Holy Energy go just a scosche too far. Grays were running about, their faces and bodies emoting involuntarily; they were slamming their large heads into walls, trying to dislodge the voice that was in there now; they were rocking back and forth babbling incoherent babble that included the words ‘not my fault’, ‘i’m a monster’ and ‘i’m sorry’.

More worrying were the Grays who were laughing maniacally, heads thrown back, full-on evil laughter as their psychic presence took on a markedly sinister cast. They were the ones who remembered everything they’d done, and were proud of it. They were the strong minority, less than five percent, but they existed. Mostly, the other ninety plus percent of Grays were caught up in a horror-storm of their own creation.

Ben was only catching these details out of the corner of his eyes, however, as he was currently running for what he assumed was his life. He didn’t know if anyone was chasing him, but he was sure they would be, soon enough.

[Easy Mode Notification]

[Congratulations!]

“What the fuck!” Ben yelled, because normally The System voice didn’t interrupt him during the day.

[Your fragmented skill ‘Tactical Withdrawl’ has been integrated into the Prince of Wonders Class!]

[You have gained a new Core Skill! This skill is always on, and costs nothing to maintain or use.]

[Run Away!]

[As the Prince of Wonders, it is a well accepted fact that you will cause trouble wherever you go. Your speed, balance and grace are greatly increased! When running away from trouble you have caused, this effect is further magnified.]

Ben looked down, and sure enough, he saw two bits of [Golden Nimbus] attached to his feet. Though the situation was such that laughing was inappropriate, Ben did laugh, and started to glide/run down the hallway and let his feet be his guide. It was sort of like roller-blading with a bit of anti-gravity thrown in for good measure.

[Easy Mode Notification!]

“Fuck off!” Ben said, trying to dodge around a group of Grays that were muttering the words ‘Ben’ and ‘Prince of Wonders’ in equal parts rage and horror. Yeah, it was time to gtfo of here, and then gtfo of Precinct Six.

[Congratulations! You have earned the rarely awarded 23rd Card. When you are in a safe location, reach your hand out and receive it for your incredible accomplishment!]

Ben ignored the notification, and instead focused on looking for any way out of this fucking building he could find. There were no windows, and it appeared to only have the one entrance/exit. If Ben had been alone, he likely would have died in the building due to his own extremely poor sense of direction, or at least had to burn one of his increasingly scarce wishes to get out.

Ben was not alone, and he heard a bellow from another part of the building.

“Ben! This way, you’ve got to get out of here!” Short Bus was yelling, and Ben followed the sound of the man-shark’s voice, finding him quickly. “Come on!” Short Bus yelled again, “Red’s looking through the walls and I’m reading her mind! I’ll lead the way, let’s go!”

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Ben said and started running, easily keeping pace with Short Bus. Ben glanced down at the golden clouds around his feet, then kept his eyes up and looking for danger. They escaped the building, mounted their [Golden Nimbuses] and flew high into the sky.

--

Down below, Precinct Six was screaming. The psychic noise coming off of that part of the city was loud enough to be heard in the cavern layers below, awakening slumbering boss monsters. It was loud enough to be heard deep in the Overcavern Forest, where an increasingly nervous army of Night Fiends heard it and then decided invading Solas was probably actually a really bad idea. It was loud enough to be heard far to the north by the Ultima Tower without reaction. It was heard in the Elemental Wastes to the east, and new elemental beings were born from the scream. It was even heard far to the south by the Dark Cities, who heard the scream and celebrated the birth of a new people capable of true evil.

But mostly, it was heard by every resident of Solas regardless of their psychic ability. The Grays, as a species, had committed alot of sins, and now each and every one of them was getting absolutely fucking flayed by their brand new, extremely powerful conscience.

High, high above the city, Ben floated on a glowing golden cloud and heard what his judgement had wrought. Wrath was heavy upon him, and his eyes were bright with fire and power. He was, putting it simply and mildly, completely drunk on unlimited* power. He was, somewhere way way in the back of his mind aware that he wasn’t actually a god, but just a dude with a dwindling supply of wishes. Unfortunately, Ben had completely lost his mind, and all the psychic screaming made it pretty much impossible for anyone, anywhere to stop and think about things. It was all go, go, GO! Mentally speaking.

“Holy fucking busted geodes! You really fucking annihilated- I was joking! I wanted you to rough the fuckers up, not assassinate their entire fucking species! You’re fuckin crazy!” Cragg said.

“I had to stop them!” Ben shouted, dimly aware that he was in a total fucking tailspin, “They were never going to stop, not unless they could stop themselves!”

“Hey, look, I appreciate this, I really do,” Cragg said, “I really fuckin do. I’m gonna swoop in and get an entire fuckin precinct, which is a big deal! But, kid? I owe you big, but not big enough to keep you out of trouble. I’m bouncin, you better start runnin, because every-”

Cragg had been about to say ‘Every fucking cop and adventurer in Solas is about to pile onto you so hard and so high they’ll call it a fucking mountain of getting fucked,’ but he was interrupted by the sounds and sights of lights all over the city that indicated that every fucking cop and adventurer in Solas-

Well, you know the rest.

The smart, rational thing to do would have been to surrender. But. . . the thing is, Ben’s had a. . . an extremely stressful week. Consider for a moment all the things that have happened to him, if only to give his dignity a chance to survive what you are about to witness. Ben’s a good guy, he’s a stand up dude! But everybody’s got their breaking point, and dammit if Ben hadn’t reached his. His parents just died! He’d been stabbed, burned, arrested way too many times, seen his own corpse, kidnapped, killed a living creature in combat for the first time- oh, and he fucking died for God’s sake. Plus, plus, and this might seem petty, but he didn’t even get to go on fucking vacation!

Even all that might not have pushed Ben over the edge, which is really saying something about the tough bastard, except he was charged the fuck up with Holy Energy. Without getting bogged down in details, Holy Energy literally makes you think and feel like you are a God. Anyone who’s read the Old Testament, or really any book involving Gods and Holy Energy can attest. . . when these types get their wrath on, they really go for broke.

So when literally the army of Solas PD officers came for Ben, he decided that he wasn’t going to take this shit anymore. Ben decided he would go for broke and see if he was capable of solo’ing the entire Capital City of the Sunlets.

Spoiler alert: he can’t.

The fight that followed cannot be described in any other way except flashy. The rest of Ben’s party was very quickly apprehended and taken away, but Ben. . . well, he resisted arrest. The details are fuzzy, time loops were involved, and Ben started making wishes like crazy. His [Split Wish] ability was pushed to the absolute limit as he called down intelligent lightning storms, several tornados, an earthquake, he summoned several gigantic robots and exactly one Jason Voorhees.

The collective law enforcement might of Solas utilized the very intelligent tactic of sending low value, expendable minions at Ben, and then rotating them out to be healed. Ben, who was at this point basically a vessel for Holy Energy to do whatever it wanted, and what it wanted to do was act without much regard for what it was doing, managed to do a tremendous amount of property damage. . . just a truly stupendous amount of property damage. But he didn’t kill anyone, or manage to hurt anyone in a permanent way.

Here’s how it ended: Ben was backed into a corner, breathing hard, literally glowing so brightly specialized equipment was required to look at him without taking damage. He had a manic smile on his face, crazy person eyes and the sort of chuckle that was really only funny because of what was immediately about to happen.

“I shouldn’t even be here! I’m supposed to be in fucking Hawaii right now! I had a fucking itiniary!” Ben screamed, “My fucking parents should still be alive right now! I should be calling them from a beach on Waikiki sipping from a pineapple in a REAL FUCKING BODY!” and when he was met with confused looks, he decided to end it all. “Fine!” Ben shouted, “I’ll level this entire fucking city! You’ll never take me alive!” Ben held his wishing hand high and yelled, “I WISH A SHARK-NADO WOULD DESCEND AND DESTROY SOLAS!”

His ring glowed bright, and then suddenly went out with a sound like an electric discharge. A sort of sad little ‘bzzrt’. Ben stopped glowing, and an extremely tiny shark-nado appeared in front of him, wobbled about menacingly a bit, and then dispersed with a puff of magic. Ben blinked several times and looked at his entirely empty ring.

“[BUST!]” The voice was loud, extremely clear, and sounded like an energetic game show host. Ben suddenly felt, very, very human. He actually felt a bit shittier than he normally did back on Earth.

Ben blinked some more, and then realized just how surrounded he actually was. He reached for his Holy Energy and, all the sudden, found it alot harder to access and control than when he was in the middle of a [Boom!]. Ben’s last thought before all this thoughts were some variant of ‘ow’ was, ‘Oh’. A couple of the Sunlet cops started chuckling.

Then, Ben got the shit kicked out of him. They arrested him afterwards.

--

The city of Solas was burning, and the Sunlets up high didn’t mind the heat. The [Plague of Conscience] had spread at the speed of thought across the Gray’s psychic network, completely devastating their ability to function. Grays were considered gross, detestable little monsters, but their ability to function in clerical roles and bureaucracy was legendary. They were employed universally throughout the Outer Ring of Solas and down in the Roots, where the sun never shone. Only high up in the canopy, where it was Sunlets-only, were grays rejected from employment, and even there, they had been desired.

To call Grays ‘unfeeling’ or ‘emotionless’ would, on its face, seem a fair assessment. However, it missed the point entirely. Grays were absolutely capable of feeling the full range of emotion, and often intentionally employed emotional reactions in order to better interface with other species. Its just, emotions were voluntary, like ordering a specific item off of a menu.

They really felt them, they really did, but the emotion was meaningless. City Grays typically chose to feel nothing, while Grays out in the wilderness would experiment a bit more often with just feeling things all the time. But it was, again, an entirely voluntary and specifically created circumstance. A gray could stare at a rock and choose to feel real anger, or real sadness, or real joy, or real. . . pretty much anything. Their emotional state, after all, was just a cocktail of hormones and chemicals in their body, and Grays had total control of their nervous systems.

Humans, on the other hand, were not in control of their emotional state. Neither was their emotional state wild and uncontrolled, though it would seem that way to the average person. The human emotional state was under the direct and practically exclusive control of the mysterious system known as the ‘Conscience’, the human’s knowledge of what was good and what was evil. Without extraordinary effort to subvert the conscience, here’s how it typically worked: Do something good, feel good about it. Do something bad, feel bad about it, then continue to feel bad about it in proportion to how bad it was until its been made right.

The conscience does not, without intentional and continual prompting, provide any explanation as to why a human feels the way they do. It does not say ‘you must go and do x in order to feel better’, or ‘the reason you feel bad is because of y.’ The conscience, which is truly just a part of the human, which is as much a part of a person as their eyeballs or their name or their soul, is perfectly content to suffer forever rather than give up its secrets to someone who didn’t ask for them properly. It also doesn’t tell you how to ask for the secrets properly, it just ignores you.

For humans, this is their reality from birth to death, and life is short enough that sixty or eighty odd years of total emotional agony is a do-able prospect. Nobody likes it, but, eh. Life is short, and it’s the only thing we’ve ever known.

For the Grays. . . its hard to actually feel bad for Grays. They, as a species, are responsible for some of the most callous, cruel and breathtakingly awful things that have ever happened in the universe at large. Grays are able to freely come and go from the Dark Cities, though they aren’t much liked there either, but Grays are, well were, able to function in an environment of total evil without consequence.

They had a policeman in their head now. A judge. A jury. An executioner. A conscience which was by definition stronger than their will and woven deep in the beating heart of their psyche. Worse, it was woven into their very soul, as weak as the gray soul is, and even death could not free them. Several Grays had already killed themselves and transferred themselves to another body, only to find the celestial demon Ben had summoned still chasing them.

Not even death can free us. In this, humans and grays shared a similar doom.

What is curious is that most went mad, few went evil. . . but many among the Grays. . . its difficult to say properly, it really is. They screamed and writhed and fought against the alien force that had taken total control over their minds and emotions, but on some level they didn’t know they had, they thought that maybe this conscience guy had a point. Maybe there might actually be something wrong with me. What exactly is the conscience comparing me to?

What could I become if I started listening?

Yes, Solas had been fucking rocked by Ben’s arrival. The economy of the Outer Ring was busted because of all the treasure Ben had left in his wake. The balance of power pretty much everywhere was in total chaos due to the sometimes ridiculous boons both the [God Squad] and the [Lordes Oft Thee Moste Final Fortress], had bestowed upon tens of thousands of parade attendees. Plus, all the highest level human children in The World were now running about Solas. Plus, all those conjured elementals of [Treasure], [Wealth], [Enchantment], and [Prosperity] hadn’t just vanished, and were currently either causing massive property damage, being the target of a raid, or evacuating to the Elemental Wastes out east.

Oh, and there was that [Jason Voorhees] monster Ben wished up that just wouldn’t die no matter what Solas PD did. That, and all the other horror movie monsters that were stalking about, which wasn’t Ben’s fault specifically, but he was still getting blamed for that.

Long story short, Ben was sitting alone in a maximum security jail cell, while his trial was conducted in another part of the city. Solas justice didn’t actually require the defendant to be at their own trial, though the defendant was usually invited. That Ben was going to be found guilty of. . . alot of crimes was not in question. That Ben was going to be executed was also not in question. No, the only thing they were arguing about was whether the execution should be public or not.

Upside of a public execution: It set an example of ‘hey, don’t do what this guy did.’

Downside of a public execution: People would be like, ‘hey, isn’t that Prince Ben, the guy who did that really popular [Parade of Wonders]? I got superpowers from that thing! Free Ben!’

The argument had been going on for hours. Ben’s guards were getting updates and occasionally letting Ben know what was going on. They were kind-of dicks about it too, talking about Ben’s upcoming execution and all that. Ben pressed the button on his [Pocketwatch of Timeloop] again, and re-read the same notification he’d seen nearly a dozen times already.

[You must be under the effect of Boom! In order to utilize this item! Reason: Sufficient Holy Energy not available.]

Ben felt that, given the choice, he would probably never, ever, ever, ever, EVER allow himself to be without wishes again. Even a single nothing wish would be enough to trigger [Boom!] and give him access to the best parts of his class and power, but he’d lost it all. Ben’s conscience was. . . well, conflicted. On one hand, Ben had made a terrible mistake. On the other, he’d not been in his right mind and had been undergoing a complete psychological breakdown.

He sighed and leaned back in his cell. It was, by far, much more comfortable than the jail cell in the [Citadel of Horrors]. It would be any minute now that someone was going to open his cell and lead him to his execution. Lead him to die. Frankie had been captured in the first five minutes of combat; they’d put him in one of those fucking ‘Ben Proof’ glass cases like from the [Stall of Wonders], though there was no evidence they’d gotten them from Louis’s shop.

Any minute now.

“Sorry Dad,” Ben whispered, his face tightening up, his eyes shut closed tight as the tears started to fall, as he finally had a moment to really just grieve a bit. “I tried dad, I tried,” Ben whispered. “I’ll see you soon, I think. Real soon.”

There was a sound from outside his cell, the click of crystal feet on stone floor. The guards straightened up and saluted, and then were shooed away. Two people entered Ben’s cell, one a stranger, and one who Ben had been drinking with earlier in the night.

“Royal Sage of Solas,” Ben said, since he didn’t know the man by anything other than his title. The Royal Sage looked at Ben and laughed a bit, shaking his head.

“Kid,” the Royal Sage said, “you’re in big trouble. So I’m going to introduce you to a very important person, and you’re going to say the word ‘Yes’ to everything he tells you. Let’s practice. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Ben said, deciding to play along.

“Very good. See,” The Royal Sage said, looking at his extremely well dressed friend, “he can be trained.”

“That remains to be seen,” the Sunlet male said.

“Ben,” The Royal Sage continued, “This is the Executive Director of the Bank of the Sun, one of the single most powerful and influential Sunlets in The World. His name as far as you are concerned is ‘Executive Director’.”

“Yes,” Ben said, “hello Executive Director.” It goes without saying, but Ben had decided he ought to be on his best behavior for this meeting.

“I’ve been given the specifics of your class,” the Executive Director said abruptly, “the [Prince of Wonders]. It is to my knowledge, the only class ever recorded which deals directly with wishes as its primary class resource. According to the report given by the Royal Sage, wishes that you grant or cast receive a percentage increase in power. You also cause wishes to grow more powerful over time. In addition, any waste from a wish is captured with one hundred percent efficiency and repackaged as a smaller wish.” He paused. “And you receive a flat percentage bonus to any item which uses wishes as a component.”

“And he’s only level one,” The Royal Sage added quietly.

“At level one,” the Executive Director said, still looking at Ben with an unreadable expression on his face. “I’m going to make you this offer exactly once. Either you come and work for The Bank of the Sun in our Vault, working with our Wish Department, or you’ll be executed tonight.” Ben thought about it for a moment.

“Do you guys have a union?”

“No- I don’t know what that is.”

“Oh, well do you have benefits? Like good salary and time off and-”

“Yes, of course we do.” The Executive Director said.

“Will I be chained to a desk, or will I have set work hours.”

“You’ll have a set shift and you’ll be on-call, plus you aren’t allowed to leave the city.”

“For how long?” Ben asked.

“Till we fire you, or you die,” The Executive Director said.

“Hmm,” Ben said, then thought about it some more. “Well, I don’t want to die,” he said experimentally, “and I do like having a job,” he continued, seeing how the words sounded when he said them out loud, “Ok, I’ll take the job. But I reserve the right to die, how about that?” The Exectuive Director’s eye twitched, but he nodded.

“Very good You’ll-”

“What about my friends?” Ben asked, “they’re getting off the hook, right?”

“Excuse me?” The Executive Director asked.

“We’re in a Quest Party,” Ben explained, “so if one of us dies, we all die. Plus, if we don’t hunt down a bunch of Elder Gremlins in the Overcavern Forest, we’ll all die. We’ve got to be able to at least put forth an effort at completing our quest, right?”

“You didn’t tell me he was a Questor,” The Executive Director said, looking at the Royal Sage.

“Oh, I forgot,” The Royal Sage said, thunking his forehead with a crystal palm and then winking at Ben from behind the Executive Director’s back, “he hasn’t even picked a Quest Skill yet-”

“Really?” The Executive Director said, “New offer, I get to pick your Quest Skill.” Ben sighed.

“Fine.”

“Very good,” The Executive Director said, then he smiled, “very, very good,” he repeated, clenching a fist and getting a predatory smile on his face. It wasn’t directed at Ben, specifically. “Oh ho ho,” he growled, “we’re going to blow those fucking corpses and slugs out of the water with next quarter’s earning reports. Ha! Ha ha! Most profitable Signatory Bank, yes!”

Ben, who’d kind of been hoping that his new job would involve ancient wish-based artifacts and political intregue, huge world ending plots for Sunlet domination, felt all the air go out from him when he realized that, nope, he was literally being kept alive so the Bank of the Sun could make more money than the other two Banks.

“When will he be starting?” The Royal Sage asked, pulling out the Trivial Wish Ben had bribed him with earlier in the night, “I’ve got something I want to cash out.” Then, the Royal Sage winked at Ben, who realized the Royal Sage didn’t save his life out of friendship, but literally for the most selfish reasons possible.

“He’ll be reporting to our Djinns first thing tomorrow morning,” The Executive Director said, his eyes still shining with the light of profit and the triumph of good accounting.

“Djinns?” Ben said, sitting up, his mind latching onto the first interesting thing about this whole offer. The executive director just grinned at him.

“Every bank has its secrets,” The Executive Director said, “and once you’re one of us, you’ll learn a few of ours. We’ll come and get you in the morning,” he continued, and then briskly walked out of the cell.

“I hope to utilize your services very soon,” The Royal Sage said, then winked at Ben again, and walked away.

When they were gone, and when Ben was totally sure they were gone, and when he was totally sure that nobody anywhere could hear him. . . he grinned.

“I’m totally going to rob that fucking bank.”