As soon as Res saw the prince’s brain turn into mist, he dropped face-first onto the ground. The mental concentration required to hold on to that finger with his consciousness had nearly made him mad. Even when the explosion had passed, he held onto that finger together with Jason as if it was their only lifeline. Which Res supposed it had been.

Jason’s dull voice whispered: “Good Job … brother.”, before he felt Jason’s consciousness fade into his dreamworld to rest. Res wished to do the same, but the metallic voice of Jason’s younger self-rang out in his head:

“Gratulations! You beat everyone who challenged you. Survival of the fittest means that you will be the king until someone greater comes along and kills you. I don’t know what to say now except that you should be nice to your citizens. You stand before two options: You can either absorb all the aether cultivation bases from the participants and turn that power into your own. Or you can leave things as is. If you want to absorb the aether from all the participants, then channel aether now.”

Res chuckled and sat down next to the prince’s headless form. He didn’t have the energy to be tempted by the option. Jason’s voice resounded through his head once again: “You chose the stupid, but the right choice. Great! You seem to be an amiable fellow. Citizens first, as I like to say. Like everybody else, your consciousness will now be transported home. You will get a clone that should be ready for you to pilot. Yeah, that was all. Bye!”

Res’s body turned numb, and he felt a deep part of himself lifted higher at increasing speed. Res tried to relax as he watched the representation of his soul, a tiny blue flame, shoot up to the sky. Chained to him was another flame that Res supposed was Jason. He realized that the heaven was in fact more magic mirrors, but he didn’t mind right now.

All he wanted was to get home and relax. He would plunder the treasury and buy a house somewhere far away. Then, he would sit and think for the rest of his days. That didn’t sound bad. His incorporeal soul shot through levels of klengan’s looking into magic mirrors. The density of klengan’s increased the higher up he went, and Res finally reached the surface. Once again, he looked at the klengan planet with its enormous glass tubes.

“I will relax, but I could also find the recipe for that amazing potion. I could also make education available for anyone like the klengan’s do.” He stared at the bustling city and its metal buildings. “On second thought, no. I think I will stick with the farmhouse.”

After a last glance at the enormous moon, he turned his view towards the way he was going. That enormous black void of nothingness. Yet, instead of finally zipping away, he was stopped. Something began to suck him back towards the planet. The metallic voice of Jason’s younger version resounded through his head. “Why would I record an error message? There are no errors in my system, but fine.” The metallic voice changed to an ironic pitch. “It is impossible that one of my construction will fail, but if you hear this message – You are fucked.”

Panic welled up in him as he continued to get pulled towards the planet. In his soul form, he couldn’t do anything and instead had to watch as he was sucked into an enormous metallic device. He came to a stop within the device and the voice of the Gamemaster resounded in his head: “I am sorry, but also not sorry. I can’t let you go. I got an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

The flame next to him, Jason, jittered in its invisible bonds, but the Gamemaster only laughed. “There is no breaking out of your bond. I suppose you are his spirit, but you are still too weak. You will love your job. We will inject your souls into a beast. Then, we will create a machine that continuously hacks off your body parts. You have discovered such a unique cultivation technique that even I get excited about.”

The Gamemaster sighed dramatically. “You can rest assured that we will sell your highly potent aether body parts throughout the entire galaxy. There will be a new generation of powerful aether users that will only eat your flesh. They will have a constant stream of high-powered aether and turn into the super soldiers. Ahhhh, such a bright future for you.”

Res processed everything he heard in horror as they were dragged into another tube. Jason next to him was struggling, but he couldn’t move a centimeter. At the end of the pipe, Res saw how klengan’s were killing a slimy octopus with a clean cut. He could see the ghost of the octopus leave the body and vanish. Res couldn’t think of something closer to torture than being forced into the body of an octopus while your limps are being hacked off.

When his panic mounted to insurmountable levels, he released it in a cry of help to the world. Res couldn’t resist the pull of the metallic device inside the octopus. Before he was sucked in, a soothing white glow encapsulated him and Jason both. Res could hear sirens going off all around them and klengan alchemists shouting in panic. He didn’t notice any of it as he was wrapped into the presence of that entity. The feeling changed from acceptance to purpose and intensity. It didn’t convey a message in the sense that he could hear someone speak, but he understood it nonetheless. He should prepare, act, build, defend, love … live.