Even after a full night, caring for the cute little cub, Kit shows no sign of developing control over his own mana form, and I just don’t know what to do with him. He rolls around languidly in my arms, pawing at the air while letting out a long growling meow.

I rub the soft fur on his belly, and he claws at me, but his weak little paws can’t do any damage and his teeth can only tickle me.

If I didn’t already have so much else to stress over, I’d probably care to give him a little more affection, but with Malea’s deal and Olima’s information, I have far too much on my mind.

“Frey.” I say, getting an idea. A stupid idea, but maybe… maybe if I can be polite. “Thank you for protecting my people while I was gone.”

I need to show more respect to the people that I rely on, it’s just so very difficult to do with those who are more powerful than me. I could thank any of my subjects easily, and I do… maybe not as much as I should, but it’s a night and day difference between them and how I treat those more powerful than me.

“Kyra.” Frey appears with her ghostly apparition, looking at me and the tiger.

“I… will avoid making a long list of excuses for my lacking respect.” I say, “Thank you for putting up with the difficulties that I force onto you and thank you for protecting what I love.”

Frey nods, showing no emotion. She hasn’t acted as far as I can tell, but even the fact that I can use her and Arduelle’s name to keep some threats from approaching us is more than enough to make a difference. There’s also a chance that she’s acted without my knowing.

“It was annoying.” She replies. “I don’t like watching things when there’s nothing interesting happening. I hate it, but I was watching carefully.”

I nod, not quite sure how to react to that.

“I’m not sure if you’ll want to accept, but I think you might like this.” I say, holding out Kit. “Do you want to raise a kitten? At the moment he needs his mana controlled for him to stay alive, and I can’t do that forever, but if it’s you…”

“You want to put off this responsibility as well?” Frey asks, pouting.

“Yes, but I wasn’t lying when I thought you might like this.” I say, “Everyone likes kittens. They’re cute, and fluffy, and adorable. You’ll need to manifest a little more seriously to pat him, but… are you interested, or am I just bothering you?”

She hesitantly gets closer, inspecting the cub in my arms. He’s still a little tired but he’s playful, looking at Frey with a tilted head.

“He is… strange.” Frey says, looking him over. “I haven’t seen anything like this before, the way his mana form isn’t even his own…”

Kit reaches up towards her with his paws, but they pass right through her fake body.

“He is interesting.” She says. “Fine. I’ll take care of him.”

“Thank you.” I say, and Kit floats out of my arms, lifted with phantasmal magic over to Frey’s fake body. She pokes at him, tilting her head at him as he tries scratching at her. I’m sure she’s already taking control over keeping his mana stirring, and hopefully keeping him from suffering.

Restraining my panic reaction, I take a seat and let her walk the cat out of my room. Most can’t take care of Kit the way Frey and I can, me, because I can influence mana outside of my own body, and Frey because we’re inside of her body. We’re all already in her stomach, and if she one day decides that she’s hungry…

“Maybe I should move that therapy session up a little.” I say, walking back to my room where my lovers are waiting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I spend most of my night and the following morning getting things in order and catching up with class. Our excuse for missing lessons doesn’t stand up to the same scrutiny when it’s not a combat excursion that we must attend, but somehow Nel helped to reschedule things into workable order.

Our city is developing nicely, and it seems that leaving everyone to do what they know best with only minimal oversight is currently working well for us. The builders are working on a theatre for movies and stage shows, the farms are slowly developing, and the crafters have found their footing and are already getting things working.

It seems the death of their guild leader Khet didn’t dissuade the others from joining the crafters guild, which I’m thankful for, as between the crafters and the farmers, the guilds that are forming are only helping everyone get on their feet. A formalised method for those in the same craft to assist each other. The paranoid part of me is concerned about future corruption, but that’s an issue for tomorrow’s me.

Our newly inducted employees will need some time to get their bearings and strengthen their mana forms before they’re ready to receive formal duties, and June and her growing group of volunteers are more than happy to help get them introduced with this world. More and more I think my strongest blessing isn’t in the form of magic, or mana, but in the people I’ve picked up along the way.

That said, not everyone in my city is a blessing of equal nature.

Gremlins have been stealing things. There haven’t been any assaults or violence yet if we let things like this go, then violence is all but inevitable. Fodder, their current leader, is managing this himself for now, with Adler’s help. Largely her help comes in the form of restraining him from taking things too far.

Seeing what the city was like before I took over this city, it’s easy to see how that lifestyle was encouraged. A culture where thievery and righteousness through strength is encouraged. The entire reason I went to the effort of taking over, of rolling in the mud in this natural struggle, is to gain the power to change all that.

That said, I’m not sure how to go about changing things for the Gremlins. Keeping them segregated from everyone else isn’t going to help in the long run. It’ll also be trouble if these incidents become common enough that people start seeing their entire species as criminals.

Thankfully, I stole a few experts from Earth, and a few of Red’s acquaintances sent some experts along too, packed into the vessel with us. I’ll get them to argue it out among themselves and look over the best ideas they can come up with, but I think Fodder and a few other members of the gremlin community would probably provide a useful insight into the matter as well.

With all these problems jumbled about inside my head, it’s not easy to focus on the issue of the Grand Council and their games. Frustratingly enough, even if I wanted to plan things out, there’s nothing much more that I can do.

“You should strike a more valiant pose.” Malea says, standing beside me with all the dignity of a princess attending her own personal ball. Even her clothes are made to accentuate her appearance rather than function in any defensive manner.

“Why does that matter to you?” I ask, trying my best not to show my irritation. I’m wearing something relatively light as well, it’s been enchanted to reconstruct itself in a similar way to my healing adaption. If I bring my armour to this fight, I’ll just have it destroyed.

“It matters greatly.” Malea says. “I do intend for you to one day act as my servant, and as such your dignity is of significant importance to me.”

“How about you save those lectures for when you accept a position in my Empire. It seems all the rest of my employees are giving me lectures every other day, it seems that you might just fit in.” Even with everything going on, that vampire lizard lady managed to track me down for another lesson on noble etiquette, without Arduelle distracting her she can be terribly serious in her own right.

“I’m sure such confidence seems charming to your sweethearts, but it quickly becomes tiresome when you haven’t the abilities to back your attitude. Stick to the battlefield and let your better’s lead.” She says, smiling coldly. “Though I suppose it shall be more satisfying to see you beg for my help, come the day of your greatest failure.”

“Do you really have to goad me even now?” I ask, “Can’t we at least pretend to be friends?”

“Oh, absolutely not. We are allies, little Empress, and you can only ever trust your allies when they’re spitting venom at you. Unless… are you the sort of person to fall for the lies of those who sell immortality in a bottle? Those who whisper sweet promises?”

“How are we going to fight this?” I ask, ignoring her jabs and taking in the battlefield around us.

This duelling ground, set up in the new academy cavern of all places, is plain as plain can get. The ground is solid stone, and Frey’s direct body, shielded and defended to keep anyone from disrupting the ground at our feet. The oval outline at the edge is supposedly the outer boundaries of the arena, and everything inside the oval grounds is perfectly flat.

“With poise and dignity.” Malea says. “We fight with poise and dignity so that all who watch think well of us.”

“Why did I even accept your offer…” I sigh begrudgingly.

“Because you had nothing to lose from it.” She says with a broad smile.

The deal that she brokered is a rather unusual one, and not what I’d ever expected from her what with her rather blatant admission that she wants to cause me trouble. Even after talking with everyone I could turn to, no one could come up with a serious downside for me.

Should I ever lose control of my territory, and find myself at a complete loss of what to do about it, Malea will be the first person that I will surrender my land to. It specifically demands that I have to willingly pass control to her, and only restricts me in that I cannot pass control onto another instead. I can still rely on a city manager, or look to experts to see specific tasks taken care of, I just can’t completely give up my power over the territory.

Essentially, for agreeing not to surrender my lands to anyone but Malea, I’ve garnered her support in the Grand Council. She’s guaranteed to discuss all matters relevant to the decisions with me, and keep no secrets from me which might pertain to the Grand Council. Already she’s given me information on the members that I should pay attention to.

“Why did you make the offer?” I ask, sighing as I reflect on it. I still feel like I fell for some sort of trap.

“That is simple.” Malea replies. “You like people. You want to protect your lovers and not simply exploit them, and the same is true for everyone in your city.

“You cannot rule over people if you have such an affection for them. It becomes too challenging to make the necessary decisions that will hurt them for the betterment of society as a whole, and the insect hordes that have recently been birthed are a good representation of that issue.

“Eventually, you will tire of your position. Not simply the work involved but the responsibility of it.” She says. “If you are the weapon of Arduelle, then the lands you will acquire will be truly vast. When you realize the truth, that you are not meant to rule, then those lands will be mine.”

“How do you know I won’t just go back on the deal?” I ask, standing straighter as Arduelle comes towards us.

“Oh, I’m sure that you’ll try.” She replies, with a confident smirk. “It’s rather well known among my colleagues that dealing with me is quite the pain.”

“And you’ll be trying to undermine my rule?” I ask, already anticipating that she’ll be trying to cause trouble for me just to try and make me surrender my position to her.

“I’ve told you as much already.” She says, nodding slowly. “I’ll do nothing so untoward that you feel the need to kill me, but don’t think that I’m going to go easy on you because of this limited alliance of ours. You will know the struggles of a leader, and I’m quite certain that it will be too much for you.”

“It’s nearly time for the duel to begin.” Arduelle says, looking at the two of us. “Are you two ready to start?”

“Of course, your ladyship.” Malea says with a deep formal bow.

“How ready can I really get?” I ask, stretching out my arms. “We’re here to lose.”

“Lose with dignity and poise.” Malea says sharply. “I do hope that you have enough fire in your heart to put up a proper effort.”

“That’s the last thing you need to concern yourself with.” I grunt back at her.

The first Grand Council meeting was such a sham that before my butt could even kiss the seat I was challenged by the entire assembly of nobles and ministers with a resolution that I simply have to stand my ground on.

As per the rules, we’re forced to battle it out in a duel.

Arduelle is standing as referee to keep any lethal attacks from landing and kicking out the ‘defeated’ parties. She also gets to decide the particular rules and battlegrounds for each duel, and no one gets to complain about it.

For today, Malea, who as part of our agreement is standing with me, and I are going to be facing down each and every other member of the council in a 2 on 2 sequence of duels that will continue until either we’re defeated, or we beat all of the other members, of whom there are over a thousand.

We’re going to lose.

Most frustrating of all, this isn’t purely just to smack me into the dirt so that I know my place. Oh, that’s certainly a big part of it, but there needs to be a resolution offered before the council for a duel of this scale to be forced. So, they decided on voting for a resolution that I simply have to stand against.

They have decided to limit my hunting rights in any cavern outside of my own. This isn’t just about food, but the crystals that we use to make currency also, and while the slayers can freely hunt as they wish, if Red can’t take a few of my own people out there to hunt then we’re going to lose a lot of resources that we’re relying on.

No matter how hard I fight, I can’t win this. We’re going to lose those hunting rights, and I’m almost sure that it’s only the first thing they’re going to take from me.

“It would seem that the show is beginning.” Malea says, turning towards the crowd that surrounds us. The rest of the gathered council are here to watch until it’s their turn, split into their two primary factions.

The republic and the monarchy stand opposite each other, and both factions carry with them relics that contain comparable power to my own throne. A tall woman who looks to be a relative of Malea, stands with the monarchy, a ring on each finger filled with such mana that each would be enough to nuke my own cavern no matter how much of a fight I put up.

She’s clearly beyond the stage of crystallisation, and she’s not the only one. Others with her are of similar strength by the look of the equipment that they carry with themselves. Yet it’s not just power that they exude.

Each tool is a work of art, rings and necklaces that would be worth riches even just for their beautiful appearance alone. Clothes that shimmer with power, reflect the light in stunning ways.

The republic is the same, each side is covered in power and wealth, and neither is ready to give it up. For the first time, I can see with my own eyes the people that I intend to overthrow.

Another step towards my goal of god slaying.

“Let’s get this started, shall we?” Arduelle gathers all attention and smiles broadly as she picks a pair of council members to fight us.

“As I thought.” Malea says with a rising smirk, watching the pair set up opposite us. One has with them a backpack filled with black rocks, while the other stands with nothing but a spear and his own noble clothes.

“What is it?” I ask.

“A noble and a minister. Their cooperation should be quite limited.” She says, “That is good for us.”

“Because our coordination is so much better.” I say, stretching and getting ready to engage.

“It will be by the time the day is done.” Malea says. “Now let us do this with dignity.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 40,956 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 20,357 / 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