Four Days Later, Day of the First Meeting

With my major preparations out of the way, I spent the time up to the meeting setting up the shop, teaching the new employees, and rehearsing my lines to defend Jing. I set it up so that it could run without me. I didn’t want to leave this city, but based on the results of the meeting, I might just need to.

Brian, Jing, and I were sitting together on the couch again. Jing was giving out her free hugs as always, but this time, they weren’t the cheerful ones from before. She clung onto me, trying not to cry, “I’m so sorry.” The snake around my neck licked her face.

I embraced her head, my hands wrapping around her smooth black hair. “What for?” I asked, even though I knew the answer to my question.

“For being such a burden,” she sniffed.

“It’s ok. What kind of daughter isn’t a burden for their father? Stay here, and we’ll be fine.” I pushed her away and helped Brian off the couch. Geodude followed behind us as we walked towards the central volcano.

-

The Infernal Oak’s fruit were valuable, but their value alone wasn’t enough to get the top experts of the city to risk their lives. But they came anyway. Of the city’s top hundred most powerful figures, seventy two of them had shown up. This annual free-for-all was the place for the sects and organizations to show their supremacy. This was a competition for who could get the most fruit. More fruit meant more power.

For the top sects, not getting any fruit would be like having your country get no medals at the Olympics. It was a matter of pride.

It was minutes before the fruits would appear. The camps set up around the lake buzzed with tension. I led Brian to an empty part of the beach to sit. The Infernal Oak overhead cast an oppressive shade over the lake while the lake lit underside of the tree with orange.

“Are you excited?” Brian asked.

“I want to get this over with. All I need to do is convince them to not go after Jing.”

He nodded, “I’m sorry. I thought didn’t think you would take this ‘daughter’ business seriously. I understand now that you see that girl as far more than a creation. She’s a good girl. I’ll back you up as much as I can.”

“Just make sure you don’t say anything stupid over there.”

He chuckled, “You too.” I made some grapes and we shared them while we waited.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” somebody roared.

I looked up. A chinese dragon burst from the lake, dripping with lava. The beast was enormous, large enough to wrap around the oak’s trunk. It touched its jaw to a patch of lava next to the trunk. It transformed into a female human. She slipped into a shirt that read “1+1=2” and a pair of baggy long pants from the new world. I checked her face: she was Wisteria.

Bystanders screamed pointless questions in a panic. “Who is that?!-What is that?!-When the fuck did the lake get a dragon?!”

“What happened?” Brian shouted.

“One of your majesty’s classmates has arrived. It seems she has gained a dragon form,” Geodude responded.

“Show off,” I whispered. I felt hundreds of dragons land on the Infernal Oak’s upper branches, watching Wisteria. “That’s interesting,” I mused. She had brought subordinates, like us. I pet the snake wrapped around my neck. Jing had insisted that I bring the snake, although I couldn’t see why. We also brought Geodude and Brian’s leech. “It’s started.” We started our walk to the trunk, and nobody tried to stop us.

Across the lake, four other people headed towards our meeting place. Two of them were Sophia and Allison. Sophia hovered a water bubble above her head. She looked the same as ever, Allison floated inside, breathing from an air pocket. Sophia wore a hoodie and tight jeans from the old world, while Allison wore a t-shirt and shorts.

The other two were Reagan and Peter.

The seven of us classmates sat in a circle. Sophia sucked the heat from the lava beneath us, turning it turned into black stone floating on top of the lava. Her Qi filled the area around us, bringing it down to room temperature. Allison dropped out of her protective bubble, “Thanks for coming, guys! You’re all the otherworlders I was able to find besides Mark.”

Wisteria grinned, “Hey everybody.”

The oak emitted a pulse of Qi, and a hundred and six fruit appeared on its branches simultaneously. Sect members poured at the tree in unison.

“I also wanted to show the people native to this world, and ourselves, that none of us could be messed with. Please keep the body count to a minimum,” said Allison.

Oh, Allison. For all of her talk about peace, she made us start with a show of power. Clever, though. Every agreement needs an underlying threat. She was giving us a chance for each of us to show our power.

Sophia put Allison back into a protective bubble.

Wisteria’s subordinates, the dragons, dove down to stop the sects. Wisteria opened her mouth and roared. Hearing her command, the dragons halted and flew back to their perch in the treetops.

Wisteria closed her mouth, but the roar continued. It came from about a meter above her, but there wasn’t anything there. I narrowed my eyes. Tiny distortions of light appeared and disappeared in the air above her head. The air span so fast it sounded like a dragon’s roar, but it was controlled well enough that it didn’t disrupt the air around it at all.

An invisible wind tunnel formed out of nowhere, rolling over and sweeping up Qi experts like dry leaves. She licked her lips and the roaring stopped, “I’ve done my part. And if we’re displaying our power, I’ll also say my title, which is ‘The Sky Empress’. Besides controlling the wind, I can turn into any flying beast. Birds, dragons, and that kind of thing also feel more loyal to me.” She was a bit taller than I was. Her arms, slightly meatier than most girls, showed from under her short shirt sleeves.

I created a seven thousand mana explosive bulb and tossed it at the nearest group of natives. Geodude stomped, and a wall of lava rose between us and the explosion, shielding us. He didn’t need to stomp. He only did it to show he was the one who created the lava wall.

“I’m ‘The Cultivator,’ and I can control and grow all kinds of plants. That explosive bulb is one of my offensive plants.” It would’ve been more intimidating if I used the Infernal Oak, but I also didn’t want to show my hand yet. Casually tossing a seven thousand mana bulb was intimidating enough, although in reality, the bulb devoured almost half my mana.

Peter glanced behind his shoulder, and swaths of cultivators got blanks looks on their faces and fell into the lava. It was as if Esha was here. He looked at us, giving us a smile that was soothing just to look at. “They’re not dead, just asleep. I gave them dreams about cute puppies. My screen says my title is ‘Peter, The Lover’. I just make everybody happier. Not like drug happiness, but more like satisfaction. It’s less effective on classmates though.”

Peter was one of the people with genes delivered by the angels. He was one of the most good-looking people I’ve met, although he wasn’t quite on par with some of the people I met in this world. With that title and looks, I couldn’t help but think he was the main character of some harem novel. Just to be safe, I should keep him away from Jing.

And damn, his ability was lame.

Reagan lifted his hand. A sheet of paper and a brush appeared out of thin air. He caught them and wrote a single character on the paper: ‘BACK’. He flashed the paper at the cultivators behind him. The paper glowed, and everyone that saw it stopped and turned back. “I’m ‘The Emperor’. I write commands infused with my intent and people follow them. People also like me more.”

Reagan was right. He wore a polyester blue backpack and a set of plain robes. I remembered him bordering on being obese in the old world, but he had started cutting back. His belly still pushed his robes enough to show his belly, though. Other than that, his wide jaw and solid cheekbones gave him a square face. Nothing about his speech or appearance was outstanding, but he had a natural charisma that I couldn’t pin down to anything concrete. Under different circumstances, maybe I would’ve ended up working under him.

With that, the Grand Flames City’s cultivators backed away. I rubbed my forehead. Sects that I liked were part of the group decimated by our abilities. They must be confused and humiliated. This was their chance to show their strength, and we brushed them off using a fraction of our power. I suppose that was Allison’s point.

“Do you want to take over?” Allison nudged Sophia.

“Sure. So-” Sophia began.

“Wait,” Wisteria interjected. “You, you, and you.” She pointed at Allison, Sophia, and Brian. “You haven’t shown us your powers yet.”

“Sorry,” Sophia apologized. “Allison and I couldn’t show you because out abilities aren’t for combat. I’m ‘The Oracle’, and Allison’s ‘The Many’. I get hallucinations of the future, and Allison can make weak copies of herself. The Allison sitting next to me is a copy. She’ll be their spokesperson for the time being.”

Brian gestured at Geodude, “My title is ‘The Conqueror’, I can make minions, like this dude behind me. He’s at the second Dao Journey Stage.”

“What happened to your eyes?” Wisteria asked. I was about to give Wisteria a look, but I stopped myself. As ‘The Sky Empress’, she had an ability I didn’t want to fight against. I wondered how many other people here realized how much of threat she could be.

“Some people from this world did this to me,” Brian said. Wisteria still looked curious, but she didn’t press it.

Peter beamed, “I can’t tell you guys how happy I am to see all of you. Want something to eat? These are the fruit from this tree.” A breeze blew through were we sat, and an apple-like fruit fell into each of our laps.

I didn’t surprise me that Peter could control the wind. I could too, the same way I could control lava. The control was just a thousand times weaker than my control of plants. Without a decade of practice, we couldn’t hope to reach Wisteria’s level of control.

I used identify on the fruit. The one in my lap was pure red with a bit of a luster, like a perfect apple. They weren’t poisoned or altered in any way. I bit into mine, and a surge of Qi coursed through my body. The surge tried to clean my Qi but found that it was already perfect. The same thing happened to the others who sank their teeth into the fruit. The fruit’s medicinal effects were wasted on us. It was still sweet, though.

We chattered while we ate. Everybody was friendly except Allison, but that was because she was too shy to join in. Peter was the one who changed most after coming here. He had a seemingly endless treasury of hilarious stories of stuff he encountered in this world. He let us laugh together, making us feel like a group of old friends.

In our original world, we were just classmates. In this world, we were the only ones that could truly understand each other. We laughed extra hard at any joke that referenced our homeland.

But this couldn’t last forever. Eventually, we had to talk about what we came here to talk about. I didn’t lose myself in the laughter. I tried to make myself as likable as possible, so they would take my side when we started talking about Jing. But despite my best efforts, it was obvious that Peter was the most likable of all of us.

“Would you guys like to elect a leader?” Allison interjected. The smiles melted off our faces. The happy part was over, we knew this would mark when we started talking seriously.

“Rather not,” said Brian.

“No way,” said Reagan.

“No,” said Wisteria.

I made the connection instantly. Brian, Reagan, and Wisteria. The Conqueror, The Emperor, and The Sky Empress. None of the rulers wanted to be ruled.

“Um,” said Allison, taken aback by their instant refusals, “How about we form a team? Like a team of superheroes. We can save people, kill villains, and get rid of corruption. That kind of thing. I mean, we’re powerful enough to do that now, right?”

“Nah,” I said, “I’d do it, but there are other projects I’m working on right now. I don’t think the others would like to join a superhero team either. We’d do it if we felt like it, but being part of a team is too restrictive. We’re powerful enough to solve small scale problems on our own anyway.”

A team of superheroes also sounded lame, but I didn’t say that.

Brian and the rest nodded in agreement. “Oh…Um,” Allison looked to Sophia, “Can you take over, please?”

“If we can’t cooperate, at least we can shoot for peace,” Sophia said, raising her hand. “How many of you want peace? Please raise your hand” Allison’s hand shot up.

My hand went up too. Peter did his soothing smile and raised his. Reagan thought for a while before finally putting his hand up.

I elbowed Brian, hard. “Raise your hand.” He did as he was told.

Sophia smiled at Wisteria, “is there any reason you don’t want peace?” Sophia spoke calmly, but I could tell she was holding back her nervousness.

Wisteria waited a second before raising her hand. “It depends on what you mean by peace. I won’t fight as long as nobody tries to interfere with my people or my cities. I’ll stop my people if they try to wage war, but don’t blame me if humans get eaten from time to time. I’m not going to eat humans, but other dragons say we’re tasty.”

‘My people’? ‘My cities’? What was she talking about? She was a high school schoolgirl. I couldn’t believe how much she’d changed the way she thought.

“I’m happy we’re saying that we want to keep peace, but it’ll be difficult,” Sophia paused for dramatic effect, “To put it plainly, we pretty much can’t die unless we try to kill each other. We’ll soon be too powerful to be killed by people from this world, and we’re immortal. There’s one exception though, and it’s one of Vincent’s creations. I had a vision telling me that Vincent created a dryad who’ll become a world-ending threat one day. If we survive until that day, most of us will find it difficult to survive.”

They all turned to look at me. I suppressed my nervousness. It had started. Some part of me had hoped Mark had lied to me about this prophecy, but I didn’t really believe that. “Please tell me more,” I said, acting dumb.

“All I know is that her name’s Jing and that she’s a threat none of our future selves will be able to stop. I can’t tell you more because I don’t know anymore. My premonitions don’t come in neat poems. They come in hallucinogenic hazes,” she said.

“Can the future be changed?” Wisteria asked.

“That’s how my visions have worked so far.”

“Cool. Let’s kill her and be done with it,” said Wisteria. My chest went cold, and the goodwill we had built up vanished.

I looked her dead in the eyes, “That will not be happening.”

“It’s common sense. You know, I’m not messing around. I’m not going to let something that could lead to my death grow. I have a kingdom to rule.”

I had spent the past five days preparing for this moment. “We can’t kill her,” I said. “Using the death penalty on something somebody might do is overkill. Now that I know what she might do. I can change it without outright murdering her. I’ll change the way I’m raising her so she doesn’t do anything like that.”

Brian nodded, “We’ve met the girl. She’s not the type to do bad things. Plus, she’s Vincent’s servant. Vincent’s ‘The Cultivator’. He wants to build, raise, and improve. His servants wouldn’t want to bring a disaster. It goes against her lord’s wishes.”

“My servants won’t do anything that make me unhappy,” I said. “Loyalty is an unbreakable part of her character, even if the rest of her personality changes.”

Reagan nodded. “Yep. This is stupid. Let’s just kill her. It’s just one person, Vincent, and you’ve known her for, what, five months max? Just let her go.”

“I won’t let you kill Jing,” I said.

“I said,” Wisteria’s forehead creased from her frown, “I’m not risking it. I kind of like all of you. Please don’t force me to violence.”

“Wisteria, stop that. We aren’t here to fight,” said Peter. Even his voice was soothing. “There’s no point in killing Jing. Maybe it’s a self fulfilling prophecy kind of deal. It’s possible the reason she’s a threat is that we’ll go after her. I also find it hard to believe a creation of Vincent’s can become more powerful than all of us,” he looked at Sophia, “Even if the prophecy is true, there are parts that don’t make sense. Are you sure about this?”

“I have no reason to lie,” she said. “I can prove I have this ability. Vincent. Can you create two six-sided die and throw them?”

I took some time designing the first one, and copied it to make the second. Just before I threw them, Sophia said, “Ten.”

They hit the hardened lava floor, clicked against each other, and rolled into a six and a four. I looked up. A drip of blood trickled from Sophia’s nose and she caught it with a handkerchief. Her eyes were bloodshot. “I understand why you’d doubt me, but I have no reason to lie. Jing is by far the greatest threat this world will ever face. And I’ll do what I can to stop it in the next five years.”

Peter sighed and readjusted his robes. Allison grimaced and looked down at the lava Sophia had cooled for her. The stone was smooth in some spots and rough in others. She picked at a rough spot. The tip of her fingernail rubbed off, leaving a white line in the rock.

“I had a vision telling me I would die sometime within the next five years.” Sophia swallowed, “It didn’t tell me how, so I don’t know how to stop it.”

Wisteria stared at me, and her eyes hardened.

I put my hands in the air. “I wouldn’t do anything to her.”

She stood and walked to Sophia, taking her hand. “I’ll give you sanctuary anytime you want. I’ll have control of Fifth Vermillion Wyvern in less than six months. It’s one of the nearby dragon cities, and there’s nowhere more secure than the dragon cities. Nobody will be able to hurt you there.”

“I’ll give you shelter too, although you might not trust me,” I said. “It’s not obvious from my title, but my ability is very good at detecting intruders and defending against them.”

Sophia put her hand on top of the one Wisteria was using to comfort her. “I believe in all of you. About a month ago, I asked my ability about whether all your motivations were good or bad. I spent a week in bed because of the backlash, but it was worth it. None of us have bad intentions. Vincent— you, Reagan, Allison, Wisteria, and I all have good intentions, while the rest, Peter and Brian, have neutral intentions.”

“That won’t stop people from trying to kill you,” Wisteria said. “He could try to kill you because he thinks it’s for the better.”

“I know, which is why I can’t request protection from any of you. Even you, Wisteria. I’m sorry.”

Wisteria pat her gently, “That’s ok.”

Allison looked at me, “By the way. What happened to Mark?”

I tried to hide my gulp by tucking my chin in and taking a look at the ground. They probably heard it anyway. “I put him in an underground prison.” I would’ve lied, but I couldn’t. Sophia’s ability didn’t let me.

They all turned to me again. “Why?” Reagan asked.

“He… tried to kill Jing. His ability let him know Sophia’s prophecy.”

“Let him out,” he said. “He’s one of us.”

Shit. Reagan and Mark always worked on labs together. Were they friends? “I can’t-” I started.

“I’ll fight you if you don’t. You’ve gone too far, Vincent. I’m fine with you not killing your creation, but I won’t let you lock up a classmate. Trying to kill the girl may be an enormous crime to you, but it sounds reasonable to me. Let him go.”

Letting Mark out was pushing the boundaries of what I was willing to do. ‘The Watchman’ was an ability that was alright on its own, but paired with the others? If it came down to a war, the side with ‘The Watchman’ couldn’t lose. But Reagan wasn’t giving me a choice. I had guessed something like this would happen. There was no point in arguing to keep Mark imprisoned. There was no way they would let me, and it would only make me look worse.

“Fine, I’ll let him go,” I conceded, “if you guys agree not to come after Jing. Let me raise her. I won’t let her do anything evil.”

“That sounds good to me. What do you think?” Peter asked Reagan.

He hesitated but nodded. “I’d like to see this creation later, to see what she’s like. But as a whole, that sounds fine. Let me welcome Mark when you let him out, ok?”

I nodded, “And the rest of you?”

Wisteria clamped her lips together. Peter had put her and Reagan into an awkward position. Everybody here liked Peter a lot, but he was on my side when it came to Jing. “Yeah, that’s fine. Hey Vincent, I want to make it clear that I don’t want to fight you, so please don’t make me. I get that that girl is important to you, so I’ll trust you to raise that girl differently. I’d like to see her at some point too, though.” The others said their agreements.

“That’s it, right?” Brian asked. “Is there anything else we need to discuss?”

Nobody responded, so Wisteria smiled and said, “I guess not. Can everybody leave their contact information so we can find each other later?”

I created seven wooden boards, asked for locations, and carved them into the boards. “It was nice meeting all of you,” I said as I handed the boards out.

Wisteria grinned, “Yeah,” she sprouted wings and flew away. I watched her fly away, thinking about our discussion. The snake around me neck lept off my neck, “I’m sorry,” it said, before turning into a dragon and flying after Wisteria.

She turned back, holding her hand out. “You wanted to join me?” she asked. The dragon turned back into a snake and wrapped around her forearm. “I thought so. You don’t mind, do you, Vincent?”

I smiled, “Of course not! Take him!” My face scrunched immediately after she turned around. I glared at her receding figure, not knowing who I should be mad at, the snake or Wisteria. I tapped Brian’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Vincent!” Reagan called at me, “When will you release Mark? Make it soon.”

“Meet me tomorrow at noon in the Blue Fire Sect’s central plaza. I’ll release Mark then.”

Allison called before we stepped off the black chunk of rock floating in the lava. “Do you think Mark was watching our conversation?”

I shook my head, “Definitely not. He’s turned in a different direction.” Brian and I walked across the lake and left the mountain.

-

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The only people left under the Oak were Sophia, Reagan, and I. The majority of the people here for the fruit had fled, but a few natives had stayed to watch.

Reagan put the wooden board Vincent gave him into his backpack. Two sheets of paper and a brush appeared before him. He grabbed the brush. It glided across the two sheets, leaving a word on each. He held one of the papers up in the air and let the other fall to the ground.

LEAVE

The word glowed and swelled, coming off the page. It broke into dozens of rays of light, flying across the lake and hitting the few brave natives that had stayed to watch.

“What are you doing?” Sophia yelled, summoning her Qi.

“It’s ok,” I said, “I told him to do this.” Sophia calmed but remained on her toes.

The natives stood and jumped away, leaving us alone. “What’s going on?” Sophia asked warily. She blinked, and another drop of blood came out of her nostril. Her eyes widened, “No! Why would you-”

In one quick motion, Reagan snatched the second paper off the ground and slapped it on Sophia’s stomach. He relaxed and pat himself off. He looked at Allison, “Within five years, huh? What a shitty prophecy. Her ability was completely useless.”

“It was going to grow into something much worse,” I responded, looking down with my fists clenched. I didn’t want to do this. I punched the solidified lava, cutting the skin of my knuckles.

The only ones left on the volcano’s peak were Reagan, and myself.

Vincent, “The Cultivator”

Lv9

Ability Summary : Can control and construct plants. Also has a deep understanding of them, allowing him to create powerful medicine. Can raise a limited number of servant dryads. The dryads are loyal and do what they think is best for the title holder.

Brian, “The Conqueror”

Lv8

Ability Summary : Title holder can create and command soldiers made from his body(usually replaceable body parts, such as blood or hair). Soldiers follow commands with little exception.

Allison, “The Many”

Lv5

Ability Summary : Title holder can create clones of any human appearance that also have this title and ability. However, each clone is extremely weak and has little access to Qi. Increase in level increases the amount of Qi each clone has access to. Dead clones vanish. Each clone can also vanish permanently at will(aka commit suicide).

Each title holder may only create a certain number of clones. This number increases by one every ten seconds.

This ability can go exponential very easily.

Wisteria, “The Sky Empress”

Lv8

Ability Summary : Title holder gains perfect affinity with wind magic and can create uncontestable wind domains. Flying creatures and beasts also feel a large amount of natural charisma from the title holder, but this charisma is not absolute. Prior loyalties can easily override it.

The Sky Empress begins to unlock physics-breaking magic after lv10.

Peter, “The Trickster”

Lv7

Ability Summary : Title holder gains mind control abilities, mind reading, and some amount of memory manipulation. This ability is significantly less effective when used against other title holders.

Sophia, “The Oracle”

Lv2(No longer of this world)

Ability Summary : Ability user occasionally receives visions of the future naturally. Otherwise, the title holder must pay a price to have specific questions answered through a vision. The future can be changed.

Visions are not literal and must be interpreted. However, they are extremely easy to interpret correctly.

Reagan, “The Emperor”

Lv8

Ability Summary : Title holder can unlock a series of words. Each word has a different effect when written on a sheet of paper and activated. This effect is also diminished when affecting other title holders.

Mark, “The Watchman”

Lv9

Ability Summary : Title holder can see through objects and zoom in or out to see them more clearly. All intelligent social creatures feel a small amount of natural charisma from the title holder.