The sun is yet to rise, darkness still embracing the cold world. One rock floating in an unimportant corner of space. The only thing to be found here of any real value is the people, the sort to have enough ingenuity to survive, even thrive, out here where there’s so few resources to make it by.

Is that really so unique? Does that really make these hairless apes any more important than anything else out here? Maybe I should grab some dogs and dolphins and see how they manage to adapt to mana.

Actually, I’m going to go grab myself a lizard egg, or no, a chicken egg, and I’m going to raise them like a child. They’ll grow intelligent in no time, I’m sure, and my kids need some friends, so it should work out fine.

“Are you awake?” Vii asks, shuffling about and sitting up in bed. She covers herself with the sheet, still holding onto that vague nervousness that she tends to have around me. It’s just a part of who she is in the end. The ceaseless anxiety of existing in a violent world, has hit her twice as hard.

“Yep.” I reply, sitting up and taking a long peek out the window. There’s little traffic passing through our part of town, only a small handful of folks who need to start the day extra early. It’ll still be a few more hours till dawn, but I’ve found that I simply can’t sleep through anymore than this.

“Your parents are nice.” She says, “And your brother, and this whole world is peaceful. I think I can understand now, why you are who you are.”

“How’s that?” I ask.

“You knew what peace was like before you had to experience war and that gives you perspective on the way the Unified States functions. Others, they live hellish lives and either get used to surviving in a natural system where the strong take from the weak, or they accept the compromises that come with bowing to the Unified States way of life.

“Growing up here, you saw that there could be another way. That we can have the peace provided by a powerful empire, without bowing to that particular one. That, and you’re strong enough to actually achieve it.”

“Luck.” I say, closing my eyes and seeing every near-death experience flutter through my eyes. It stirs nothing within me because I don’t feel like my life was ever in danger. “I was lucky to be born here, lucky to have certain talents, and lucky to find the right people who would speed me on my road towards real power.”

“Lucky to be born as Kyra Baker. The one insane young girl who could turn the universe over and not flinch at the consequences.” Vii says, with a light chuckle.

“Yeah… I do, it’s just you’re one of the few people I’m willing to share it with.” I sigh, pulling myself out of bed. “Do you want breakfast?”

“Okay, what’s for breakfast?” She leaps out of bed, following me to the small kitchen before realizing that she’s still naked.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“So, it seems as though you’re starting to make an impact on the internet.” Berty says, over the tall pile of pancakes that I threw at him when he came into the house. “I wouldn’t call it viral, but it might be getting there.”

“Okay, so it won’t cause us any problems before we leave then.” I say nodding to myself.

“Actually, it might.” He says. “A colleague of mine is concerned about the possible groups that might try to make contact with you.”

“So… what are we going to do about it?” I ask, “I’ve already decided that I probably shouldn’t take over the world, but I won’t be held responsible for melting any assholes that come after me.”

“Yeah, then I’m going to go ahead and schedule a meeting with him.” Berty says. “After our training session for potential employees, would probably be the best timing. He was rather interested in all of this.”

“I’m guessing he wants to get his hands on a translator?” I ask.

“No, he’s… it’ll be easier to let him explain it all himself.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Our morning class goes about as well as I expected, most of the more talented ones can now retain enough mana for me to keep a proper tag on them. I’m starting to feel a little more paranoid that someone is going to kidnap my people, so I don’t hesitate to intrude on their privacy to ensure their safety.

Leaving the office building, Berty leads us out towards the meeting location for his friend, and I can already tell that a few more people are looking at us. A few kids with their phones out, stare at us with wide eyes as they point their camera’s our way.

“Excuse me, miss.” A young man says approaching us, he looks like he’d fit in perfectly well around here. Like he’s just some random passer-by. “I think you dropped this.”

The ground cracks under my feet as I let my mana swirl back into a defensive formation, a tightly bound collection ready to be turned into magic at any moment.

I grab his hand as he offers the letter, prying it from his fingers and holding him in place while reading through the contents of the letter. He struggles to try and free himself, panicking more than I would’ve expected from a spy, then again, I’m not really an expert on these things.

“You want a meeting?” I ask him, reading through the contents of the letter, “And you’re confident enough to subtly threaten me? Shit, that’s my tactic. Is it this offensive when I do this to people?”

“Probably, yes.” Berty replies, clearly anxious, but also a little angry.

“Piss off, if you cause us any trouble at all, I’ll come after your bosses and personally see that their entire families are reduced to ash and meat slush, and I’ll live-stream it all so that everyone else gets that I’m serious.”

He tries to pull away, but I don’t let go. Eventually he twists so hard that his wrist snaps in my hand, he pulls it away with a stammering shout, leaving behind the letter that he gave to me and not even daring to look back.

Strange that he was so unprofessional.

“Was that bad?” I ask Berty as we start walking again. “Sorry, I kind of just defaulted to my normal reaction.”

“It’s… we can work with it.” Berty says, rushing me on towards our goal while I carefully watch our employees through my Skills. I’m sure that there’s going to be some trouble sooner rather than later, and while I can’t watch all of them, some have lost their trackers, I can still defend those I can see…

Theoretically.

I don’t have a wide enough network to shoot from afar, but Vii can fly me in close and we can just do a rescue that way.

“Here we are.” Berty says, leading us down some narrow stairs into a little pub without any name while looking behind us for anyone that might have followed.

“So, who is it that we’re meant to be meeting with?” I ask, looking about the room. It’s old, and there’s stains on every wooden surface, but it’s still thoroughly clean. The man working at the bar looks at us and nods towards a back room, all very… I mean not normal, but it doesn’t quite feel special enough. None of this really seems special enough.

There’s no grand court, or manor house, just a private room in an old basement bar.

“Hello, hello, hello. I have quite the grand guests today.” A lanky young man says as we walk into the private room. The walls are thick enough that I’m confident that they’re sound proofed.

The man wears a broad smile, but there’s no joy in it, and of all parts of his appearance he seems to take great care of his floppy mop of pale blonde hair. His teeth aren’t all straight, but it’s not so bad as to be completely unsightly.

“Well, I am an Empress.” I reply lightly, taking a seat at the table. “We making any orders? I could do with a lunch.”

“It’s already cooking. Robert already forewarned me, so I’m prepared.” The man replies, chuckling. “I’m Steven, no need to introduce yourselves, I already know you all. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to understand your friend, though. I’m not ready to try out that little device that you’ve been handing out to your employees.”

“Ah, you’re not into brain-chips?” I ask. “At least I know that you’re smart.”

“Why thank you, your majesty.” He says jokingly bowing over the table. “So, how’s Earth been on your return visit?”

“Same old, same old. Doesn’t seem to have changed all that much.” I say.

“On the surface? Not at all, but underneath everything has been tossed this side and that. World powers are in decline, and others are nipping at their borders.” He says. “The world is ever changing, but you won’t notice it if you don’t know where to look.”

“So what are you after?” I ask, waving at the group of us. “From… all this?”

“Honestly?” He asks, leaning on the table across from us. “I want you to be the next evolution on a nuke.”

“You want me to be a nuke?” I ask.

“I want you to be seen as someone more dangerous than a nuclear arsenal.” He says, “Put the world powers into a position of assured destruction­ should they cross you, and prove to them that their own weapons aren’t nearly so effective. I want you to scare them. The leaders, not the people.”

“How does that benefit you?” I ask. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”

“It is.” He replies. “It benefits us. I have aspirations but I’m not stupid. I can only get so far on my own, I’m betting on a horse, joining the winning team and proving my worth.”

“Yeah…?” I ask, as the food comes in, disrupting the conversation. It’s nothing special, but the meal is well made, and the gravy is high quality, if not to the standard of what gets served in my own glorious home.

“I’ll tell you how I picture the Earth of the future.” The man says, slicing a piece off his steak. “If my vision fits well with yours, then I propose we work together to try and make it happen. No one person can manage a world as massive and diverse as ours, not well at least, so we all need to learn how to work together.

“I want a new social order, the destruction of nations and national identity, without hurting anyone. A bloodless take over, or at least that’s how it should be publicised. There’s always enemies that won’t simply roll over when we’ve bested them, and killing is sometimes going to prove necessary.

“Essentially, I want to remind humanity that we’ve only come this far by working together, and force everyone to come to the table and compromise. We already have something close with nukes and mutually assured destruction, but there’s no way for anyone to step in and do anything when the nuclear powers start misbehaving.”

“That’s enough.” I say stopping him short. “The general picture is nice enough. Allow people their religion, their culture, their beliefs, police violence and all that. I’d go further and say that I want basic survival to be ensured. Food, water, housing, and education, then socially encourage people to participate in society and do what they can to improve themselves and their community.

“The problem you mentioned with nuclear powers is simply the basic nature of power. Whoever holds the power can easily become unaccountable, for my empire, that person is me. You can construct whatever complex system that you want, but you’ll either have someone who is unaccountable, or a complex system of bureaucracy that will be corrupted to the point where that position of unaccountable power will form regardless.”

“Right.” He nods, looking at me again. “Right, right. So what’s your solution to the problem?”

“My solution is no solution at all.” I say. “I’m the ultimate power and all I can do is self-police and make sure that people around me are willing to tell me when I’m fucking things up. In the end, I get to decide what happens; I get to do whatever I like. I’m the ultimate power and the ultimate justice of my society.”

“So, the classic monarchical system where the royal monarch holds full power over their nobles. It’s got its flaws, but it’s efficient in the construction of a society. The largest issues come from the generations that follow, and the reliability of the noble class. Even if you intend to do good, it’ll be easier to develop a management system designed to kiss your ass than actually provide useful feedback.

“The corruptibility, and fallibility of the ruling class is only one failure point in the design of a social system, but there are many, many more that I’m quite sure you’re going to stumble into.”

Well, it’s at least refreshing to have someone who can talk back to me, and seems to have at least some interest in these issues. Already he’s setting himself up as a functional leader within my empire, and I’m sure that his advice will lead to him being the man responsible for directly leading Earth.

Now is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

“My intention for Earth is to correct and smooth out the inefficiencies that are corrupting our society. There are countless corporations that exist simply by paying off politicians and destroying their competition through any means available. All while racing after short term gains and sacrificing any long-term potential of their business and society as a whole.

“The leaders and politicians are more interested in increasing their own personal portfolios at their countries’ expense. Then there’s the issue of blind leadership, coming from both corporations and dictatorships.

“The managers feel they can’t tell their bosses about losses and challenges that are more than likely to come. They’d rather lie and say that everything is fine, than acknowledge an issue and work towards resolving it.”

He gets worked up, explaining just the systems that need to be reengineered, and what systems need to be torn down. The organisations that are like cancers on society, both governmental and corporate. He even goes so far as to explain how any changes have to be made carefully, to ensure that no social collapse occurs in the changeover of power.

“So, we need to develop a reporting system that ensures that relevant issues flow up the command structure to the point where resolutions can be found. The only issue that I can find, is finding a means of holding a leader accountable for their failures.”

“You can’t.” I say. “Here on Earth, it’s difficult, but possible, in the wide universe it’s just simply impossible. Leaders take their role through pure, raw power, and it’s only with even more power that you can replace them.”

“The people…” He starts.

“They don’t matter. I could wipe out countless armies from Earth.” I say with a shrug. “You need to be close to the same power for numbers to really matter. Disposable armies of millions can work as a distraction, or they can wear a person down, but it depends on a quite a few factors. Most importantly they still need to be reasonably close in terms of power. I’m associates with a dungeon, a living creature that is essentially a whole planet, and I’m tasked with killing a god-king that can crush whole galaxies into fine powder with a snap of his fingers. Numbers don’t make much of a difference against them.”

“That’s… difficult to work with.” He says, shaking his head. “You’d become the rudder for your society, forever.”

“It’s just how it is. It’s how the Unified States are, the whole empire under this god-king fellow.” I say, “Feel free to keep thinking up solutions. I’ll come talk with you about it later. For now, what’s our stance on Earth?”

“Our stance?” He asks with a chuckle.

“I’m fine working with you for now. You keep my family safe, and help prevent this world turning to nuclear slag, and if you cause any really big trouble for me, I kill you and replace you.”

“Talking like that is how you end up with ass kissers who can’t do their jobs.” He says with a chuckle. “You’ll have to work on your communication skills.”

“Ah, shit. Why does everyone keep telling me that?” I sigh. “I’ll talk to my therapist about it, maybe they have the freaking answer.”

Vii chuckles at me, wrapping a wing over my shoulder.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 32,705 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 16,255 / 30,266 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,266 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (20,000 mana shards)

-Bone Magic Storage (40,000 mana shards)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (8,000 mana shards)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (80,000 mana shards)

-Prehensile hair (10,000 mana shards)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (5,000 mana shards)

-Wide ears (5,000 mana shards)

-Sharp nose (5,000 mana shards)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Stealth

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire