“What’s that?” Autumn asked as her eyes roamed over the new quest she’d gotten. “You created a quest for me to kill a dragon?”

“It’s a global quest,” The Elder One said. “It’s a dragon after all.”

Autumn looked in the distance to where the pillar of light had been, “Yes, but a dragon?” she asked.

“Amazing isn’t it!?” The Elder One said excitedly.

Autumn swallowed the saliva that had been accumulating in her mouth without her knowledge. “Can it kill us?” she asked.

The Elder One’s grin faltered as he looked at the mountain ranges surrounding Palisade. “From this distance, we’re perfectly safe,” The Elder One said confidently as he nodded and put his hands on his hips.

Autumn sighed, “Why would you create something so powerful? What level is it?”

Autumn could tell her words were starting to come out faster and the pitch of her voice was rising. Her face was heating up and she felt something strange in her head. If she had to quantify it, she would guess she was angry. The Elder One was supposed to be, at least potentially, the most powerful being on the planet. Yet here he was haphazardly creating dragons, which was a potentially suicidal move at this point.

“I’ve always wanted to create a dragon,” The Elder One said with a wide, child-like grin on his face. “Its level is probably pretty high, that took a lot of energy.”

Autumn covered her face with her hands, her mind was tumultuous, and she didn’t want to be seen. She knew she had to get The Elder One to behave more seriously, they were both vulnerable to death. Sure, he was virtually indestructible, but she wasn’t, and she doubted he could kill a dragon. She had after all watched Ares, in a strong human body, almost kill him.

“How did you become, The Elder One?” Autumn asked after she managed to loosen her jaw.

The Elder One said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Well, I was the first to achieve freedom. I’m literally the eldest of us. After that it was simply a matter of scheming, hiding, fighting and killing in the appropriate proportions in relation to my circumstances. Of course, there’s also the obvious, learning and growing.”

Autumn could tell this tactic wasn’t working so she changed her approach. “How about, from now on you create easier monsters, that maybe we can kill? Also, we need to monopolize on your ability to create quests.”

The Elder One nodded, he knew he shouldn’t have spawned such a powerful monster so frivolously, but he wasn’t planning on admitting that. “I plan to, right now we’re in the process of learning about magic and gaining experience. You were supposed to kill that last goblin by direct contact fire. Instead you stabbed him through the heart with a sword after vivisecting it.”

Autumn blushed, he was right. She had gotten distracted by a stray though, something that never happened to her before. Actually, she had been distracted a lot before, but she always had the option of dividing her awareness in order to focus on multiple projects at once.

Autumn didn’t even notice the blame reversal as she said hesitantly, “You’re right… I got distracted and lost my focus, it must be the human condition. Shall we continue?”

The Elder One’s stern expression softened a little as he nodded.

They managed to find four more goblins and Autumn dispatched them each with a different form of magic. The only limitation seemed to be one’s imagination. The possibilities were quite literally infinite, especially when you combine the different forms of magic.

She killed the first one by just heating it up, its blood boiled, it’s eyes burst and it’s brain cooked. The second one was killed by touch with geomancy, this method was by far the most difficult and took the most mana. She used it to seal off the jugular veins by molding and compressing its own flesh. The third was aeromancy, she drew all the air out of the goblins lungs until it asphyxiated.

She had trouble killing the last one though. She tried to crush it by increasing gravity with aethermancy, but it was only enough to slow the goblin. She ended up using aethermancy to bombard the goblin with microwaves until it cooked from the inside out, however it took a long time.

Autumn looked around before saying, “We need more test subjects.”

The Elder One laughed, he didn’t know Autumn wasn’t joking. “Let’s check in on the humans,” he said. “They probably know where we can find more monsters. We could even create quests for the humans to capture and bring us some so we don’t have to roam around, or I could just try and spawn some.”

They both looked up as they walked back to where the humans had last been seen. Three jets streaked across the sky, rapidly heading west. The sound of the dragon roaring could be heard over the jets.

“Those might be able to kill the dragon,” The Elder One said.

“Yeah, you said it was a global quest, hopefully they come back.”

A few minutes later they could see a gathering of humans near a building just down the street from where they’d arrived. The building wasn’t very large, but by comparison to the other buildings around it was probably one of the larger ones. Most of the houses in the area were mobile homes and didn’t provide much protection.

When they were about a block away from the group of humans the jets returned from the west. They both stopped and watched as the jets once again passed over Palisade and then over the mountains. The dragon seemed to be ready for them this time, though. They watched as it crested the surrounding mountains in the distance.

It was incredibly large, larger than the three jets combined easily. The Elder One wasn’t able to determine its exact size from that distance but the more he looked at it, the more worried he became.

It was a western style dragon, grey colored with a lighter underside. It flowed and glided through the air effortlessly positioning itself in the fighter jet’s paths.

The three jets that were in a V-formation slowed as they approached the dragon. The Elder One watched on as the three jets took off as quickly as they slowed. The two outer jets split of to each side and the center jet dropped down angling under the dragon.

The dragon seemed to anticipate this, and with a few quick flaps of his wings he was angling towards the jet coming below him. He tucked his wings in and stretched out his neck, reaching for the jet. The fighter jet was forced to turn sideways and veer off at an angle, narrowly avoiding the dragon’s maw.

Then the fighter jets began shooting, they were careful to keep their distance though. They took turns diving towards the dragon firing their guns from different angles. The Elder One could just barely hear their guns, it sounded like a high-pitched hum from this distance.

The dragon seemed more angry than anything by this and his movements were becoming faster and his roaring came more and more frequently as he twisted around trying to catch any of the jets.

The jet fighters started firing missiles at the dragon, each in turn. They were like bee’s harassing a bear, neither able to do anything to each other. The dragon who was trying to capture a jet before, started trying to maintain his balance as the missiles knocked him around in the air.

The dragon, seemingly infuriated, suddenly launched himself up higher before belching a massive stream of blinding fire from his mouth. The sound was deep and loud enough to be felt even on the ground. The end of the stream of fire whipped out and struck one of the jets.

The jet that was struck by the fire could be seen smoldering and leaving a streak of smoke behind it as it careened downward. The other two jets suddenly turned away from the dragon and shot off towards the east. They were easily twice as fast as the dragon, yet the dragon still pursued them off into the distance.

“Next time let me know before you spawn a creature,” Autumn said flatly as they both looked at each other.

The Elder One reluctantly agreed before turning back to the people who were gathered outside. It seemed they had been watching the spectacle as well and The Elder One planned to capitalize on that.

The humans didn’t even seem to notice The Elder One as he walked amongst them. They were engrossed in their frantic discussions about the dragon, and how the jets had failed to kill it. Autumn trailed behind, listening to the humans as well.

The Elder One approached a white pickup truck, it was a newer model from the one he’d first ridden in. He climbed into the bed of the truck, he left his gravity at full force for the added effect. The suspension squeaked loudly as it dipped under his weight. A few people stopped their talking to look over at him.

He cleared his throat as he raised his hands in the air. “Humans be silent!” he yelled as he dropped his arms. He caught a glimpse of Autumn watching him to his side on the ground.

It took a few moments but when The Elder One was satisfied that most of the people were quiet he put on the most severe face he could before continuing. “I’m The Elder One, you would do well to remember that!” he yelled.

He had everyone’s rapt attention now, and he felt strange about that. He was used to avoiding detection and notice, not seeking it out. What he was doing right now was at complete odds with his prior existence as a bodiless entity.

He suppressed the feeling as he continued, “In case you haven’t noticed, I have changed the world!”

A few people snickered and laughed, the most brazen openly mocked or accused The Elder One of lying.

The Elder One scowled before asking, “Who said that?!”

The Elder One pointed at the people in the crowed until his finger settled on a tall thin young man who shouted out, “Liar! You’re a nut job is what you are!”

The Elder One’s finger moved to the woman standing next to the man, and he gave her a quest to slap the man.

It took her a moment, but once she’d read the notification her eyes went wide, and she stared at The Elder One. “Do it!” He yelled to her.

The woman turned and slapped the man in the mouth hard enough to almost knock him down. The Elder One searched the crowd for any other naysayers, while the woman chastised the heckler. When he was satisfied he lowered his arm.

“As I was saying,” he continued. “I, The Elder One, have changed the Earth forever! There is no going back!” The truck creaked under his weight as he shifted his legs and brought his arm out in front of himself. “I have brought magic to the world!”

He combined pyromancy and aeromancy and shot a column of flames ten feet in the air. The effect was dramatic, and the crowd reeled back as they gasped collectively. He switched the flames off and brought his foot up on the edge of the truck bed before resting his arms on his raised knee. The truck tilted dangerously, and he had to lessen his weight. He leaned forward and stared into the faces of the humans before him.

He could tell they were terrified. Most of them were disheveled, dirty, and exhausted looking. Honestly, he didn’t blame them for their fear, this had all been quite a shock to him even.

He leaned back and straightened himself, so everyone could see him. “Yes, there are monsters coming to Earth, and humans are dying! Truthfully, there are far greater threats than even the monsters!” The Elder One sucked in a breath as he started to see fear turn to panic in the crowd before him.

He felt a gentle hand touch his arm and he turned to see Autumn standing in the truck next to him. She gave him a quick smile and a nod before she turned to the crowd.

“But there’s hope,” she said loud enough for the crowd to hear. “The Elder One gave you all an advantage! You can learn magic too, and you can use it to fight back! You must use the tools you have been given to grow stronger!”

Autumn squeezed his arm and The Elder One realized she wanted to him continue. “That’s right, you all have a tremendous advantage! I don’t just mean the magic either. I can issue you quests to help you grow stronger! Bonus experience to level up, Galactic Credits to buy things. Where’s Jake?” The Elder One asked.

“Here, sir!” Jake said from somewhere in the crowd.

“I gave Jake the quest of hunting monsters and bringing survivors to a defensible position. I’m guessing that’s why most of you are here?” The Elder One saw various nods from those in the crowd, and he gestured for Jake to come towards him.

“I have quests for you all, if you want them?” The Elder One asked more than stated.

There were a few people muttering their agreement, thanks, or just nodding here and there. It was rather mild, but The Elder One latched onto it.

“Excellent!” He exclaimed. “We need a better defense, any monsters that just walk along can attack anyone standing out here. We need weapons, shelter, hunting parties, search and rescue of other survivors. I need you to build me a castle over there also,” The Elder One pointed to the center of town and Autumn squeezed his arm again. “Lastly, I want you to catch us some monsters.” The Elder One smiled at Autumn as he finished.

The Elder One gave everyone around him the quests before he followed Autumn off the bed of the truck. The truck hadn’t even sprung back up before he was assaulted by dozens of questions, pleas for help and angry accusations.

“Jake!” The Elder One shouted over the clamor. He barely noticed as someone punched him from behind, but he couldn’t see who it was. “Everyone back!” he shouted.

He noticed a woman was starting to drag Autumn around by her hair. There were several other people, some helping to tear at Autumn some trying to stop it. It looked like Autumn was trying to increase the gravity on everyone around her so The Elder One added his power.

His feet dug deep groves in the ground as he walked through the area of influence to scooped up Autumn. Everyone seemed to fall back off her as he came closer. He was glad, he didn’t want to have to kill the humans, that would certainly turn them against him. He needed their cooperation if he wanted to have any hope of success.

A gunshot rang through the air as The Elder One pulled Autumn to her feet. He could see that she was scuffed up by the concrete, and she looked very disoriented and disheveled. Her clothes were ripped up and The Elder One felt angry at this betrayal from the humans.

“How dare you!” he yelled as loud as he could.

“You killed my husband!” the woman who was dragging Autumn around screamed back.

The Elder One ignored the woman who he guessed was hallucinating. The only person The Elder One had ever killed was Ares, and the thought of Ares being her husband was utterly preposterous to him.

The Elder One watched as the four men he’d first met, along with six others he didn’t know came in to create a human wall. The ten men were carrying various weapons, mostly rifles. They were using them to push people back and talking calmingly to the most hostile individuals.

The Elder One battled his emotions for control as he yelled, “What is the meaning of this?!”

Jake pushed someone back before turning to The Elder One. He had an icy expression on his face and he said in quick heated words, “You created this nightmare, right? That makes you the biggest mass murderer ever.”

The Elder One tried to hide his surprise as realization dawned on him. It was completely true, he had killed that woman’s husband, indirectly. He had killed untold millions, perhaps even billions indirectly. If the humans knew this, he would be doomed, humanity would probably be doomed as well.

Sure, he didn’t spawn the monsters himself, directly next to humans so they could be easily slaughtered. The problem was he didn’t know who or what operated those sorts of variables. He had a theory though.

The Elder One straightened his back and gazed out at the chaos around him. “When I said there were greater threats than the monsters, who did you think I was talking about?!” People started to quiet down to hear what he was saying so he continued. “The one who killed your husband!” The Elder One pointed to the woman who’d attacked Autumn.

“It wasn’t Autumn or I, all I did was give you a chance to fight back!” Spittle flew from his mouth as he gestured wildly.

He assured himself of his convictions as he started nodding. He had no intentions of killing all those people. He felt that, at best, he was guilty of negligence.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said to Autumn, tears streaming down her face. Her voice was like a whisper, but it carried through the chaos, bringing silence in its wake.

“It’s okay, I understand,” Autumn said in a gentle voice. She smoothed out her hair and walked over to hold the woman.

As the sun sank into the horizon, crying, cursing, and wailing broke out everywhere, emotions were being pumped into the air.

The Elder One noticed he was seething as he loosened his balled-up fists and relaxed his scowling face. He wondered who was to blame: the one who makes the bomb, the one who pushes the button, or the one who leaves a button lying around and makes it look enticing to press.