As I walked through the building towards The Wise One's private space, where I couldn't quite feel him, I knew that was why Lashina was so hard to detect. She was in a wellspring of Presence that was similar to the East Forest Glade. I couldn't tell if it was always there and the building was built around it or if it was created inside the building after it was built. Either way, it was there and I went there.

I killed everyone I met. Some tried to attack me, like antibodies trying to fight off a virus, and I crushed them and dissolved them into nothing. Others thought about running and I caught them. When I approached, I asked them if they loved their goddess. Most of them said yes and I killed them instantly. Others said that they just worked there and I killed them because they lied. When I stepped into The Wise One's outer office, the same secretary was there.

“Please, Hunter. Don't do this.” She said.

I walked over to her as I pulled my hood down and then I took her hand. “The Order killed my wife, a woman that was every bit a part of me as my heart. When she died, I wanted to die with her.”

The secretary started crying because she felt some of my pain.

“Shh. It's okay.” I said and wiped at her face. “Do you love the goddess?”

“I do.” She said and I felt her devotion.

“Then go to her. She's waiting for you.” I said and put her to sleep, then I crushed her into a little ball and made it dissolve. I walked by the desk and passed the office and went down the hallway. I came out into the heavily overgrown inner sanctum of The Wise One.

“There's still good in you.” The Wise One's voice said through the foliage. “Kind words to someone before you kill them is not the normal behaviour of someone who has done so much evil.”

I chuckled as I stepped into the foliage and it parted for me. “That's your viewpoint.” I said and I felt invigorated by the space. I didn't try to absorb it, though. That way was folly. I proved that a second later when something tried to slash at me through the thick underbrush and darted away. The slash had tried to manipulate the Presence that was inside the sanctum and it would have hurt me pretty badly, if I had absorbed any of the energy and let myself get torn up.

“I'm not that stupid, old bug.” I said. “I've learned a lot during my long years of life.”

“Yes, and it was all thanks to me.” The Wise One said. “You should be grateful.”

“Ha.” I barked a laugh. “You want me to be grateful?” I asked and sent out a pulse of Presence. Unlike anyone else, it didn't push the other Presence away and went through it. “You kidnapped me and held me prisoner for years and set me on a path of death and destruction.”

Three people were inside the inner sanctum with me; but, I couldn't tell who they were or where.

“I've found glimmers of hope that I could live a normal life over the years. They all seemed to fade away eventually, until the last one. Someone who I found that wanted to be there for me. She wanted to become who I needed. Not for herself, for me, and she did.” I said. “She showed me what it would be like to have eternal happiness... and then she was taken away by the alien that YOU LET STAY FREE!”

“You give me too much credit.” The Wise One said and something else tried to attack me.

I blocked it with a Presence Wall and it bounced away. “You claimed to be cleaning up The Order from the inside out and yet you didn't pursue Kralish for five years? Are you fucking stupid? Do you know how much he's influenced people in The Order in all that time?”

The Wise One didn't respond.

“Yes, I can feel that you do know... and I can also feel that you did it on purpose.” I said as my anger rose. I looked down at the ground, and it was actual ground connected to the planet. “Come out now, or you will see some of what I can do.”

“I know what you can do and it's not enough.” The Wise One said.

“We'll see.” I said and took out a device, placed it on the ground, and turned it on.

“ARRRRGGHHHHHH!” A woman's voice screamed as the inner sanctum was surrounded by a pitch black barrier. The pervasive Presence inside the area was cut off and I easily detected three people.

I walked through the foliage to the spot and found Lashina unconscious on the ground in a large group of vines that looked like they had her restrained. Beside her was the eleven foot tall Wise One with the giant fly head and he cradled a severely hurt being in his forelegs. A dryad.

“I knew it.” I said and both the dryad and The Wise One looked at me.

“How?” The dryad asked.

“One of your kind tried to keep me once.” I said. “When I was in her private space, it almost felt the same as this.”

“I apologize... on her behalf.” The dryad said. “Please... let me... connect...”

“No.” I said with finality.

The Wise One turned his large segmented eyes to me and I could feel the stirrings of anger in him.

“I have to kill you for keeping Lashina from me.” I said and used Presence to lift Lashina up and hung her on my back like a backpack.

“Such... strong devotion.” The dryad said and looked at The Wise One. “If you had shown me a fraction of that, I could have...”

“He can't. It's against The Order's rules.” I said. “It's the main point my parents defied The Order for.”

The dryad looked at me with a sad face.

“Yes, I could feed you forever.” I said.

She let out a soft laugh. “He isn't boasting.” She said and sighed as her life energy slowly left her. “He could... have...”

“Don't go.” The Wise One said and stood with her in his arms. “You have been my friend for years.”

“You mean her jailer.” I said and they both looked at me. “You put her in a tiny little living space and contained her like this, when she should be outside and enjoying the flow of life. I'm sure the glade would have welcomed you back.”

“How do you...” She closed her eyes. “...I see. Yes, you know why the glade... has so much Presence.” She let out another sigh. “Please... don't kill them. They care not for... the affairs of... of...”

The Wise One stood there and the dryad stopped breathing, then she started to wilt. Her body turned brown and folded in on itself, then it crumbled like a pile of dry leaves and fell to the ground.

“She shouldn't have died so quickly.” The Wise One said.

“The barrier is touching her connection to the ground that she kept trying to reestablish.” I said. “It sucked her dry.”

“Why did you do this?” The Wise One asked.

“Why did you take Lashina prisoner when you knew I was coming here?” I asked and he sighed.

“A bargaining chip.” The Wise One said. “Leverage to distract you.”

“Did it work?” I asked.

“Yes. You came right for me and left the others alone.” The Wise One said.

“By others, did you mean the rest of the compound or the rest of the planet?” I asked.

“Both.”

“Then no, it didn't work.” I said. “By the way, can you fly?”

“What?”

“I'm just curious. You being a giant fly and all. I was just wondering if you had wings, too.” I said and turned off the device and picked it up with Presence as the barrier disappeared. The large piece of earth underneath me dropped away and The Wise One's segmented eyes stared at me as he floated slightly above the surface as it dropped the two miles to crash into the communications building. The dust cloud it kicked up was phenomenal.

“It's too bad that didn't kill you.” I said and flew over to where Monna hovered nearby. I put Lashina inside and touched her head with Presence to make sure she was only unconscious and not brain scrambled or anything. I closed the hatch and looked down at the rubble, then I flew down to land in the middle of it. I used Presence to push the dust away and The Wise One still floated a foot off of the ground.

“Do you know how many innocent people you just killed?” The Wise One asked.

“Do you know how many innocent people you've had The Order kill all these years?” I countered.

“There will always be casualties when there's conflict.” The Wise One said and drew all four of his Light swords and activated them.

“Only because you refuse to just talk to people and see what they want, rather than imposing The Order on them all.” I said. “My wife was right. Good and bad? There's no such thing in The Order.”

“You really think that you can fight against me.” The Wise One said, surprised. “I have the Presence of an entire planet at my beck and call.”

“I hope you don't mean this one.” I said and drew two of my own Light swords. “It's not going to be here for much longer.”

“Excuse me?”

“This is The Order's home planet and I'm going to destroy it.” I said with a smile. “I'm the one that's been distracting you, you stupid bug.”

The Wise One ducked slightly and started to meditate, so I lunged at him and swung both Light swords at him. He blocked them with two of his own and tried to swipe at me with his other two. They bounced off of my personal shield and he stared at the impacts.

“Surprise.” I said and flipped over and kicked him in the chest as hard as I could.

The Wise One let out a satisfying grunt of pain and I felt his carapace crack. If he hadn't been holding himself still with Presence, it couldn't have hit him so hard. As if he realized this, he stopped hovering and dropped to the ground.

“Catch.” I said and tossed one of my modified crystals with a circuit board at him. He batted it away with Presence before it exploded and then he concentrated on me. I felt the weight of a planet land on my shoulders and dropped to the ground on my hands and knees.

“You can't be that easy to subdue.” The Wise One said.

“I'm not.” I said and used Levitation on myself, which countered my weight, and I stood up. “Want me to show you some of the things I brought back from my trip to Relique?” I asked and took out a small wooden placard. “Dragon's Breath!” I said dramatically as I used Presence to activate the spell. The words weren't necessary, though. I just thought it sounded good.

“AAHHHHHH!” The Wise One was engulfed in a ten foot wide and thirty foot long Breath of Flame spell. His robes burned away and a lot of the thick little hairs on his body wilted and cracked off from the heat. He used Presence to divert the flames and used Presence Heal on himself.

I tossed the placard up into the air and held it on him with Presence and then formed a huge Lightning bolt around my arm. I shot it at him and two of his Light swords crossed and took the shot... then both Light swords overloaded and exploded. It covered him in shrapnel and not surprisingly, most of it bounced off. Only larger chunks stuck into the folds of his limbs and shoulder joints. He used Presence to pull them out and used Presence Heal again. His thick hairs didn't grow back, though.

“Why are you so desperate to destroy an organization that's helped so many people?” The Wise One asked and held two forelimbs out to me and the claws twitched.

I felt the Presence build and had to wait to see what he was going to do before I could counter it. “The only people you've really helped are yourselves.”

A swirling mass of Presence appeared in front of The Wise One and he coughed a laugh, because the fire spell was still going and wasn't hitting him.

“You cannot counter this.” The Wise One shook his giant fly head and pushed the ball of energy toward me at the speed of light, then he was shocked when it didn't reach me and disappeared.

“Sorry, were you saying something?” I asked and took out another wooden placard and powered it up. “Are you thirsty? I hope you're thirsty.”

I didn't say the spell's name this time as a torrent of water spewed out and flew across the distance to hit him in the face. He gurgled and sputtered, then screamed as the water was boiled because of the excessive heat from the fire spell. Both spells were focused on him and combined to create steam. Unfortunately, they wouldn't last very long and I stopped the water spell when the fire spell's wooden placard cracked and broke apart to end the spell.

The Wise One had been essentially broiled and he shook and shivered. “You are trying my patience.”

“Are you telling me that you're still holding back?” I asked and took out another placard. “I'm sorry to say that I lost most of the large wooden placards that I used to have when my wife died.” I filled it with Presence and tossed it at his feet. “All I have are low level effects.”

A burst of ice came out of it and engulfed The Wise One's torso. It left his arms and legs outside of it and he used Presence to chip and crack at the ice, then he used a large amount to crush it like he tried to crush me earlier. The ice shattered and he looked at me with disbelief. I couldn't see it on his face, since it was the face of a giant fly and there wasn't any real emotional conveyance there. I felt it in his emotions and caught the stray thoughts.

I took out an assault laser rifle and shot at him, and he easily deflected the shots. I changed the settings and made the shots invisible, and he couldn't deflected them. He could still feel them and avoided them as much as an eleven foot tall fly could. I saw that he didn't have wings on his back, not even stubs for wings, and that just made me sad. He had all the drawbacks of looking like a giant fly and none of the advantages.

I felt someone enter my detection range and sighed.

“Hunter!” Kara yelled as she ran over to the battlefield. “What are you doing?!?”

“I'm here to squash this bug.” I said.

“He holds me responsible for everything bad that's happened to him.” The Wise One said.

“Not everything.” I said. “Some of it was divine intervention, which according to you, is also responsible for your actions.”

“The Goddess Chaiya guides her children towards the Light.” The Wise One said.

“No, towards her and for her own use... and yours, and everyone else who attained high ranks in The Order.” I said. “You've been instrumental in spreading The Order to all the places its gone, even to places that didn't want it, and that's not going to happen anymore.”

“You can't stop the Goddess' plans by killing me.” The Wise One said.

“It doesn't hurt to try.” I said and gathered Presence to myself. Or tried to. It didn't respond to me.

“Just noticing now?” The Wise One said. “I told you. I have this planet's Presence at my command.”

Kara and I felt it gather behind The Wise One.

“I believe it's you that will be squashed like a bug.” The Wise One said and slammed the massive Presence down onto me. It felt like every bone in my body shattered as I felt the planet hit me. It was... amazing.

“Mwahahaha!” I laughed maniacally as I let my anger take over and my body healed instantly. “That was wonderful!” I stood up with a huge grin on my face. “Do it again! I want to feel the planet hit me again!”

Both Kara and The Wise One were unnerved by my behavior. The Wise One hesitated for only a moment, then he gathered another amount of Presence behind him. At the very instant he unleashed it at me, I was across the distance between us and shoved my two Light swords through his chest where his lungs were. The Wise One tried to throw up something on me, so I left my Light swords there and moved around behind him. I shoved another Light sword into his back and out through his belly, then did it to one of his legs.

I climbed his back when he dropped to one knee and grabbed onto his neck. “Good god, you're just as disgusting to look at from behind as you are from the front.”

“Hunter! You can't kill him! He's immortal!” Kara said.

The Wise One hissed at her for giving away his secret.

“Immortality is overrated.” I said and shoved a Light sword into the back of his head and into his brain.