Calvin and Tzen were discussing Bolesian politics as they rode side-by-side along the mountain path, Boles stretching out beneath them as the mountain fell away.

“So how exactly does the Hapain clan have any kind of a chance against yours? I’m assuming the emperor is the Royal in charge of Boles.”

“My father’s been dying for years now,” Tzen said with a scowl. “He is powerful, but just as likely to forget the names of his sons as perform his duties.”

Super Alzheimers, huh?

“So it’s been your brothers running the show for a while now?”

Tzen nodded.

“They’ve formed factions,” Tzen said. “My eldest brother offered my seventh brother a high position in his court, and they have banded together. Second and third brother have each made their own groups, aiming for the throne. The lower ranked brothers have mostly chosen sides, hoping for a generous reward from the winner.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Which brother are you?” Calvin asked.

Tzen looked away and muttered something quietly into the wind of the mountain pass.

“What was that?”

“Forty-second, by a concubine. My mother was awarded queen status posthumously. One of the last conscious acts of my father, out of grief of her passing.”

Tzen threw his hands up in frustration. “Of course he didn’t care that doing that made me a legitimate heir, and therefore absolutely FUCKED if anyone else takes the throne!”

Calvin stifled a laugh.

“Forty-second? You’re screwed. Also your dad really got around.”

“Regretting your choice to back me?” Tzen asked, eyeing Calvin speculatively.

“No skin off my back if you lose,” Calvin said with a shrug. “Besides, I like to think I’ve faced worse odds.”

Past Tzen was a little discoloration on the horizon, causing Calvin to squint.

“What does that look like to you?” Calvin asked, pointing down the side of the cliff. Far off in the distance, there was a plume of dust, and two tiny smudges on the horizon, with little flags with nearly imperceptible writing on them.

Tzen glanced out into the distance, eyes widening. “A battle!”

It didn’t really need to be said who that battle was between. The whole purpose of their visit this far east was to try to bring a semblance of conclusion to the massive war between The Tzen clan and the Hapain Clan, their most powerful vassals.

Tzen figured if he stepped in and fixed the problem where his brothers were floundering, he could score enough points to take the throne.

Or, failing that, get exiled instead of beheaded.

Calvin was a little confused on that front, because it seemed to him like Tzen’s brothers were more capable of mass murder than the princeling was. If they weren’t strong enough to end the fighting, how would Tzen do it?

Tzen jumped off his guar and leapt off the side of the mountain, freefalling to the forest below. He was obviously taking the ‘shortest distance is a straight line’ very seriously.

Calvin turned to the stunned mercenaries watching the prince’s body shrinking into the forest below them.

“Well, are you just gonna let him go into battle alone!?” Calvin demanded.

With a whooping cry, the more powerful men and women of the mercenary group tore off down the side of the mountain.

The Veterans with enough confidence in their Body simply leapt straight off the side of the mountain, taking the straight route, while the rest hopped surefooted from stone to stone like goats.

“”You want me to go too?” Ella asked.

Calvin shrugged. “If you’re up for it. I’m going to be following after as soon as I’m sure nobody’s going to try and steal the payroll during the commotion. If you could be naked and covered in blood by the time I get to the battle, that would be great.” Calvin gave her a thumbs-up.

Ella shook her head and snorted, Jumping over the side of the cliff, freefalling down to the ground with the others.

Terminal velocity didn’t mean much after about thirty Body

“You wanna go too?” Calvin asked Learner, who shook her head.

“My brain suffers violent disgust at the prospect of humans harming each other. I will wait here if you don’t mind.”

Calvin considered that for a moment. Kala had guided the eldritch creature’s growth into a gentle scholar admirably, but she still needed positive reinforcement every now and them.

Calvin patted Learner on the head, causing her to blush.

“You’re a good girl,” Calvin said.

“I know exactly what you’re doing,” she said, glaring up at him, causing his hand to stop. “So you better give me extra pats.” She pushed her head into his palm, a smile creeping across her face.

Calvin chuckled, extending his other hand while petting Learner’s soft hair.

Chained Spirit

47/54 Bent remaining.

Kurawe formed out of the smoke.

“Don’t let anybody walk off with the payroll,” Calvin said, nodding toward the two oversized chests stuffed with Nem. Without those, the mercenaries Tzen had hired would have little to no reason to aid him.

“As you wish, Ravager.”

Calvinian Summoning

Atom Ant

Chimera

Heart of the Swarm

Calvin changed into a battle form and flew down the side of the mountain, catching up to and surpassing Tzen in a matter of minutes.

The battle in front of them grew from a smudge to a stain, then widened out to the size of a dinner plate, then eventually dominated the scenery beneath him.

The battle took place in a narrow section of clear land, around a fortified bridge, seemingly the only bridge across the massive river for miles in any direction.

There were two major groups, each flying large rectangular flags, presumably with their affiliation written on them.

Too bad I can’t read Bolesian, Calvin thought, scanning the battlefield. One side was getting torn to shreds, barely holding onto the bridge while cowering behind hastily erected fortifications. Their armor was ragged and they looked exhausted. The other side seemed to be better equipped and well-rested, directing teams of Guar riders to ride by the fortifications and take pot-shots at the defenders in an unending stream of assault.

Normally I would assume the better equipped side belongs to the emperor, but…

Calvin watched as Tzen burst out of the woods, flanked by a hundred Veteran hunters.

They aimed their assault directly at the attackers, taking down dozens of guars and causing chaos in the attacker’s line.

This disruption gave the defenders an opportunity to solidify their position, hauling the wounded back and making sure the men guarding the barricade were the freshest they could muster.

From a bird’s eye view, Calvin could see the chain-reaction that Tzen’s interference had on the battle in real-time.

Time to get the Warp.

It wasn’t nearly a big enough battle to Break, but it would help top off his Warp tank, which was getting a little low.

Calvin flew down and landed in the middle of the battlefield, just outside the edge of the bridge’s fortification. He could feel the cloying sensations of Warp against his skin, accompanied by the smell of blood and death.

He had to change out of his Battle-form to take in the Warp, unfortunately. The battle form completely replaced his physical body with a fake one, so he couldn’t feed nor could he use Bent.

“Have I become an abomination, I wonder?” Calvin mused to himself as he took deep breaths of the live-giving battlefield air.

13/36 Warp

14/36 Warp

15/36 Warp

…

Eh, Elliot grunted noncommittally.

Calvin was gradually feeding on the substance that kept his undead body going, but he wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. A dark skinned foreigner lands in the middle of the field, implodes in green smoke to reveal a pale skinned foreigner, breathing in the blood-soaked air like it was ambrosia?

Calvin didn’t hold it against them when both side focused their attention on him.

From the barricades behind him, several crossbow bolts were launched toward him, swerving violently aside as they entered his Beli Ma sphere of influence.

A Bolesian man in dark lacquered armor charged Calvin, screaming some kind of shrill battle-cry, brilliant red tassels on his spear fluttering in the wind as he attempted to ride Calvin down.

The man, the Guar and his pretty spear were violently deflected, forcibly shoved aside as they entered Calvin’s Beli Ma.

“A Sage!” The soldier shouted at the top of his lungs as he was diverted away from Calvin. He pointed the spear at Calvin as he yelled, pointing him out to a number of fancily dressed men wearing bone pins on their chests, reminiscent of the lord of the city they’d left behind.

Ooh, what’s this? Calvin thought when the Bolesian wizards approached him.

In Boles, they were called Sages, but Calvin thought of them as wizards.

The leading one grabbed one of his bone pins and pointed it at Calvin like a man with a holy symbol warding off a powerful undead.

That might not be too far from the truth, Calvin thought idly as burst of light and heat erupted from the bone talisman. An oversized cat made of lightning leapt out of the talisman and charged Calvin with a feral snarl.

That reminds me of Kala’s birthday present, Calvin thought as it flashed towards him. The massive cat dissolved into raw Bent and was drawn into Calvin’s skin, leaving the sage standing there, staring at his talisman like a man with a broken tool.

Fifty bucks says he smacks it to try to get it to work again.

The sage beat the bone talisman against his palm before pointing it at Calvin with a ferocious scowl, causing Elliot to let out a joyous whoop.

21/36 Warp

“Stand back!” Another of the sages said, plucking a talisman off his chest and allowing it to sink into his hand.

The man’s feature’s became animalistic, but not in a good way. It must have been a dragon talisman that he absorbed, because his mouth widened, his neck turning into a pouch.

A moment later, he leapt toward Calvin, spitting burning goo at him.

Interesting magic system, Calvin thought, catching the sage midair with his ghost hands and diverting the burning goop away from himself.

It seemed like they could adopt the traits of creatures or make temporary summons of them. Or attacks, perhaps?

The major difference between their ability and Calvin’s was that they needed talismans carved from the creature’s bones – or the like – in order to manifest their effects.

It was something like a blend between Calvin’s dupdomancy components and his summoning and mutation abilities. A way to harness Warped abilities without a mutation.

The dragon-man wiggled out of Calvin’s grasp with some kind of goop on his skin. He charged forward and tried to land a punch on Calvin’s face.

Calvin diverted the attack, broke the man’s arm and hit him with a simple front kick. As his opponent flew back with bulging eyes, the sage’s spit accidentally got spewed out at Calvin. Calvin’s ghost hands warded the flaming goop off, but he could feel where it burnt off some of his hair.

He could also feel his Shining Armor aura trimming his hair to match the new length.

Weird.

Behind him, he saw the vision of someone aiming a crossbow at himself.

Calvin shifted his mass into his right hand and pulled himself to the right.

The bolt hissed through the air and lodged itself in the chest of the dragon man while his compatriots charged Calvin.

Well, this has been fun, but…

Calvin manifested a knife in his palm and gave a lazy stroke to his right, the invisible blade extension of Beli Ma bisecting two of the men charging him.

The remaining sages came to a screeching halt, backing away warily, watching him with wide eyes.

Multi- gradual-Shaping.

50/54 Bent remaining

Calvin created a massive, ornate chair out of the hundreds of ingredients stored inside his body, with embroidered silk padding stuffed with the softest down and an abyssal steel skeleton to support everything. Above his head was his house symbol of wasps facing each other, lightning arcing between them thanks to gradual shaping creating a living ball of lightning.

Calvin climbed up and sat down.

The mud and blood covered soldiers stopped to gawk at the attention-grabbing throne that had appeared in the center of the battlefield.

“You’re welcome to keep trying,” Calvin shrugged, making eye contact with the remaining sages. They began tossing the word ‘elder’ around nervously.

The fancily armored man on the guar snarled silently, glancing at Tzen’s crew cutting into their flank.

“Retreat!” the captain shouted decisively, riding up and down the line shouting at the top of his lungs to make sure everyone got the message.

In a matter of minutes, the roar of combat shifted tone and began to gradually diminish as the massive glob of enemy soldiers detached themselves from the battle and began marching into the dark woods.

“Prince!” Calvin heard someone shout over his shoulder.

Damn throne, I should’ve made it swivel, he thought, glancing over his shoulder, spotting the leader of the men defending the bridge kneeling in front of Tzen.

“What happened?” Tzen demanded with an air of imperious authority.

“The Hapain clan weakened the defense of the southern farmlands with large scale assaults against the more populated areas to the north, then they launched a secret attack on our entrance to the floodplains. I believe they want to starve the royal family out.”

Tzen grunted. “I will decide what their aim is, you merely tell me the facts.”

“Yes prince,” the man said, nearly doubling over to bow. Calvin was getting out of his chair when he spotted the captain glancing at him.

“May I ask who that is, prince?” the leader of the defending forces said, glancing at Calvin, still bowing deeply.

“My servant, a man of little consequence.” Tzen said, waving the question off. “Where is the heaviest fighting?”

Excuse me? Calvin thought, scowling. He didn’t appreciate the misdirect, but he needed a bit anonymity, after all, so he let it slide. He couldn’t be seen to outrank Tzen, or It would make the prince’s bid for the throne fail automatically.

“To the northeast, the city of Ming’nai is under siege.” The captain said.

“How was the Hapain clan able to afford such excellent gear?” Tzen asked, kicking one of the dead soldiers with his toe. The corpse was dressed in flashy lacquered armor. “When I left, they weren’t the richest clan in the empire. Was it just this detachment?”

“No prince, they are all well-equipped. Ever since they began selling unity, the Hapain clan has been making money hand over fist, and people have been joining their cause in droves…may I speak honestly?”

“Speak.”

“Some of the men, not me, of course, but some of them think that the Tzen clan may have…lost the mandate of heaven?” The captain cringed as if he expected violent retaliation, but Tzen just grumbled in the back of his throat.

“Tell me about this Unity.” Tzen said.

“It’s distributed by the Hapain clan in little ampules of delicate glass, about this big,” the captain said, holding his thumb and forefinger about two inches apart. “It makes you feel blissful pleasure, and a sensation as if you’re a part of something bigger than yourself, for two hours or so…” The captain took on a dreamy look before realizing who he was talking to. “According to accounts, of course.”

“Of course,” Tzen said, looking like he was debating whether or not to execute the man on the spot.

Interesting.

What is?

Using a mass produced drug to fuel a rebellion in a proxy war. Someone or something is probably funding the Hapain clan indirectly by supplying them with the drugs. It reminds me of China’s history with opium.

Tell me everything you know, Calvin thought, settling back into his throne.