Lepochim gave Bath a rather unsatisfied look. "You mean, whip these kursi into shape?" Lepochim knew when he was being used.

Bath gave Lepochim a bashful expression. "Lepo, think; who else would be better for the job? It must be done, and you're the only one I have on hand with knowledge on kursi military tactics."

"Why do you even need these Ritus people? Can't you just send them off to some random corner of the world and be done with them?"

Bath gave Lepochim a dark look. "Don't play the fool. Even I can guess that kursi are a symbol of a world's strength. After all, kursi affinity levels are measured in percentage of a population able to become a true host for the kursi symbiote. I have a feeling we'll be needing every single one of the kursi here...and the others, those part of that other organization Jessup mentioned."

"Fungsoeng," Lepochim muttered.

"Yes, that's the one."

"I'll do it," Lepochim said flatly after a few seconds. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

Bath's gaze was fierce as his eyes met Lepochim's. "Do you have to ask?" Lepochim shrank back. Bath continued on, rumbling, "What leads you to believe expressing such subordination is acceptable?"

Lepochim was silent; Bath shook his head and faced Lisa. "How do you propose I distribute these house seeds?"

Lepochim unexpectedly began to spew out some nonsense about making a bank account in some tiny island nation to avoid taxes and make a company to legitimize the seed-selling enterprise.

"I didn't ask you," Bath snapped, mildly surprised at Lepochim's apparent knowledge of Earthly enterprising. "Lisa."

"I think we should distribute them at various locations worldwide, free of charge. We could partner with the UN or some other international organization."

Lepochim's face began to turn pale. Bath completely disregarded him and replied: "Fine. We have no use for money, anyways."

He turned around and looked at the window. "We'll go back to school tomorrow. You have until then to draft up a plan. I don't care what means you use to legitimate the creation of these seeds."

Lisa gasped. "That's not even half a day!"

Bath snorted. "You'll be fine."

---

While Lisa was figuring out her plan, Bath decided to pay Fungsoeng a visit. According to Lepochim, they were based in East Asia, with a central headquarters in Hong Kong. Bath had unceremoniously abducted Lepochim into his chest cavity and flown off, forcing the sapient to direct him to the right place.

Before they came close to Hong Kong, Bath shifted into a large dolphin and approached the towering city from the ocean. They both entered Hong Kong with the appearances of normal humans. Hong Kong had been one of the destinations on Lisa's itinerary for Juserin, so Bath was already somewhat familiar with Hong Kong's general structure.

He and Lepochim ghosted through the streets, making good speed by relying on their phone GPS's despite making a few wrong turns. It only took them around one hour of running before they made it to where Lepochim claimed the Fungsoeng headquarters was stationed.

"So they have kursi, and no gate," Bath confimed out loud.

"Yup."

Bath gave Lepochim an amused glance. "So they're less powerful than Ritus?"

"Obviously. Regardless, they're defenseless against us." Bath had his weird black-hole shell and Lepochim's kursi was sealed, destroying his ability to have any kind of mental connection with other kursi.

"Let's make this quick."

---

Later at night:

Despite her grumbling, Lisa did manage to get the job done. Bath smiled contentedly when, before she went to bed, Lisa called Bath open to review her plan.

"You suck," she grumbled, her eyes drooping with exhaustion. It was already 2 am.

"I'm eager to see what you've come up with," Bath smiled. He shifted into his wolf form and encircled Lisa.

She sighed as she pulled open a hologram from the chip reader. "I've been experimenting with the chip reader," she explained, "and I've realized it can do a lot more than just 'read chips.' I've been fiddling with its AI, trying to get it to help me pull data from different sources in the encyclopedia. I've also managed to sync the chip to local wifi, believe it or not, which was completely beyond my expectations."

Bath listened patiently, his head nestling into Lisa's lap.

"So anyways, I was doing a lot of research, pulling data from the giant encyclopedic database as well as Wikipedia. This is the plan that I've come up with."

She took in a deep breath, then continued. "I feel like this plan is almost as crazy as your past plans," Lisa admitted, "but it's really simple and straightforward when you look at it from the top."

"I was looking into religion the other day because I was curious about whether religion has been used by galactic imperial powers in the past to unify disparate groups of sapients.

"To my surprise, I haven't been able to find any records of such a thing occurring. This, to me, implies that such attempts have been censored. Which in itself is both interesting and troubling.

"Which brings me back to my plan. Actually, I was planning to suggest something similar to what I'm about to tell you, even before I heard about the seed house things. They actually play perfectly into my general plan," Lisa acknowledged. "Anyways: what we're going to do is start a new religion, our own religion."

Bath cocked his wolf head. Lisa gave Bath a bump on the muzzle with her fist. "Wait for me to explain!"

"I didn't say anything," Bath grumbled.

Lisa sighed, then continued. "We made a pledge to conquer the universe together, right? A pact to stay together? To do so, I've determined a few key components we'll need to accomplish in order to succeed."

Lisa's holographic display, which previously had shown a black rectangle, suddenly became animated with the flashing images of various unfamiliar planets and sapients.

"Most of the worlds away from the Core have many problems, just like Earth," Lisa explained. "Lack of resources is a big one, like energy. Solar power is fairly standard, but lots of planets don't have very good infrastructures due to poor administering. The trend I've been able to observe is that Waymasters and other big-shot travelers enter these worlds and milk them dry. Juserin is a fairly benevolent Waymaster, however even he was unable to set up proper infrastructure on the majority of his worlds. As a result, a few hundred years back, a sapient population on one of his planets was enslaved and sent off to a distant Core planet."

"Really?" Bath exclaimed. "What do Core worlds have to gain from enslaving sapients?"

Lisa shook her head. "It's all incredibly convoluted. But suffice to say, lots of fringe worlds have been stagnating for the past few thousands, even millions of years. The thing is, if you just come to them as another conqueror, it'll be a continuation of the same conditions they've endured for the past who knows how long.

"If we're going to be serious about our conquest, we're going to have to change things up."

Bath was able to follow her line of reasoning fairly easily, especially since on the holographic screen, "HOPE" was displayed in giant, pink letters.

"You want to give them hope," Bath said rather lamely. It seemed so...cliched. Wishy-washy. Insubstantial. All things Bath didn't like.

Lisa tsked. "Think a bit bigger. While you only have a range of a few miles where you can actively use your essence, you can genetically engineer anything at will within that range. Those modifications become permanent. It's quite possibly the most OP ability I've ever heard of, even after reading through sapient profiles on the chip reader."

"So?"

"So, you use your ability to grant all subjects under our dominion improvements."

With that, a huge list of "improvements" appeared on the screen.

"Just think about it."

Bath was unprepared for the exhaustive ranking system Lisa had prepared for their...empire. At the very top of the ranking page was: "The Church of the Dragon." Next to it was an image Lisa had taken on her cell phone of Bath in his favored dragon form.

Below that was a list of rankings, at least twenty of them, all with different responsibilities and different afforded "improvements," listed as "abilities." Among these were longevity, strength, immunity...the list went on.

The system was set up so that high-ranking government officials all had the best kinds of abilities all around, with different branches of the nonsecular government having various "necessary" abilities. For instance, judges were to be granted the ability to test the truthfulness of sapients on trial. Peacekeepers were to have increased strength and defense.

"Most government systems in the universe are formed around a carrot-stick model," Lisa explained. "And of those, most use capital as the carrot. I propose we use abilities as the carrot. They don't cost you anything to give and are permanent. Moreover, they actually build sapients up physically and mentally and have a practical use."

"So, in this theocracy, what are the majority of people supposed to do?" They couldn't all be government officials. Bath knew they were probably listed somewhere in the ranking system but figured asking Lisa to explain was more efficient.

"Ordinary people are either going to live with the intention of peace, or live with the intention of war. We're going to need a massive army if we're serious about conquest," Lisa asserted. "The base of peaceful society will be teachers, people who will spread knowledge.

"Above them will be caretakers, people who serve others, whether through service-based industries or through production-oriented industries like agriculture. Above them will be the artists, who produce all sorts of works and popular entertainment. Above them will be the administrators."

"This doesn't sound like all that much of a theocracy," Bath mused.

"We don't need to invent any myths or legends about you. Those will invent themselves as we go on. Unlike other religions with gods that have been, on the whole, silent, the entire infrastructure of this world is going to rely upon you as its base. Moreover, because one of the goals for any sapients in this society will be to obtain the 'longevity' ability, they'll quickly buy into our mission: 'conquest.'"

"The people who devote themselves to war will enter into a system I haven't really fleshed out yet, but suffice to say it'll be similar to a typical army with rankings and stuff.

"So? What do you think?"

Lisa had a nervous expression on her face. To be honest, Bath wasn't sure how this would all pan out. Him, the center of a...religion, of all things? It didn't appeal to the side of him that valued straightforwardness and honesty.

But he supposed he could give it a shot. What did he have to lose, after all? If it didn't work on Earth, they could think of a new strategy. After all, Bath had the ability to change his identity at any time.

Bath gave Lisa's arm a sloppy lick. "Sure. So how exactly are we going to combine this Church of the Dragon of yours and the house seeds?"

Lisa gave him a tired smile. "I'll leave that to you to figure out. After all, unlike most of us, you don't have to sleep."

Bath snorted, then gave Lisa a gentle nuzzle with his nose before leaving her to sleep in peace. He headed to the living room where the original seed had taken hold.

'Let's see...'

Bath sent a mouth out to contact Lepochim.

"Bring the Fungsoeng kursi," he ordered, his smile from being with Lisa transitioning into a serious frown.

"Yes, Bath," Lepochim sighed. Soon, 78 kursi were in the living room, filling it to the seems. They all had shocked expressions as they took in the green, grasslike foliage melded into the modern decor.

Then their expressions turned to fear as they saw Bath.

He turned around, his eyes glinting red and his face twisted up into a calculating expression.

"Hello, Fungsoeng," Bath spoke. He'd already tested whether the translator could be used to translate between different human languages; it could. That'd serve Lisa's plan well. "I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Ritus." With a few modifications.

"From this day forth, all of you work for me, Bath. If you resist, I will imprison you until I can enslave you. I will be fair to all those who serve me.

"I will not tell you my intentions from the beginning, nor will I explain any commands that I give you. You are to follow the will of myself and any I call my companions without hesitation."

"Lepochim is to be your direct superior. He will instruct you on how to better use your abilities to achieve a series of objectives that will be given to your over time."

"You have within the next 30 seconds to submit." Bath gave them all an icy smile.

Completely within his expectations, the members of Fungsoeng all submitted. After he finished talking, they immediately began to ask questions. Bath silenced them all by making his eyes literally glow crimson, as though they were on fire. If they hadn't realized by the near instantaneous speed of his no-nonsense abduction of their entire headquarters, they realized it now: Bath was untouchable.

Bath had knocked them out before actually taking them from their headquarters, so they didn't know about even a fraction of Bath's abilities. To them, they'd merely been assaulted by tendrils of black threads and then woken up on the other side of the world with an entity called Lepochim who was completely immune to their mind attacks.

And this Bath, he was even more terrifying: not only was his kursi immune to their attacks, it looked like a hungry black hole. What kind of monster was he?