“We’ll deal with it,” Arduelle’s response to the unfolding situation is uncomfortably terse, permitting no argument, but for all her usual confidence today there’s a slight energy about her. A shuffle of her feet, or a twitch of her usually steady hands.

She’s a titan, a being of such scale and might that the rest of us are less than worms under her feet, granted her attention for our curious potential. Now, for the first time since we’ve met, her life is the one in jeopardy.

I doubt that the welfare officers coming here for the inspection will be a threat through their own power, most that I’ve met have been only average in power, but they pose a danger if they end up calling for help. The Unified States is the largest organisation in all reality, they have enforcers capable of crushing any resistance, or at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe.

“We’ve survived this before,” Frey says, petting the growing tiger cub. “We just hide the things we care about and pretend that we’re good little monsters, not worth killing, and not worth taming.”

“How does that affect us and everything that we’re doing?” I ask.

“It means, that we’ll have to risk shifting you out of here,” Arduelle says, her lips dipping into a shallow frown. “We are prepared for it…”

“Shifting us out of here?” I ask.

“You don’t need to mind the details, but consider getting your house in working order,” Arduelle replies. “Focus on your own business, get strong, grow wise, and be ready to fight a monster more powerful than all the rest of creation combined.”

“Nothing changes?” I ask, “Is there anything in particular we should be looking to do?”

“Consider finishing your business here and prepare a small army that you might want to bring with you to survive in the wilds for a few months.” She says, “If you want a city on your return, consider making some political efforts in that direction as well.”

“So, you’re going to send us out into the wild… you think we’re going to mess things up if we’re here for the inspection, don’t you?”

“I’m sure of it,” She replies, with a shake of her head. She flashes away with another casting of magic, giving no further details to our second coming excursion. Maybe she’s off to deal with other problems, or maybe she’s lounging in a spa to relieve her stress, it’s impossible to know now that she’s escaped my limited omniscience.

“Have you prepared for your combat course activity?” Nel asks, wringing her hands as she leans on the side of my throne.

“Once I’ve gone through with those adaptions, I’ll be ready,” I say. “Have you identified anything that would help us in surviving difficult environments, like our new caverns?”

“The 'repulsive skin’ adaption you already have listed should help. It would allow you to repulse the smoke and lava away from you, perhaps you could even maintain a bubble of air around you by repulsing the water?”

“Ugh, ‘Repulsive skin’? Why did I name it that again?” I ask. Past me is an idiot, but it is sort of funny.

“Yes, you are an idiot,” Nel solemnly agrees with my thoughts. “That aside, there is a selection of adaptions available to allow you to survive without air, which is one of the largest limitations in exploring uncomfortable places. The more expensive options are simply better for us, as we’re looking to become immortal and half-baked adaptions would only weaken you in the long run until you spend more mana to address the problem again.”

“Don’t leave me hanging, what have you found?”

“This,” She sends the adaption over to my brain chip. “It allows you to replace all energy expenditure in your body with mana. Your organs, including your muscles and mind, will be able to function on energy provided by burning mana. No need to breathe, no need to eat, you can survive in any environment where you can find mana.”

“‘Mana drive’ seems like a good enough name for it.”

“Yes, well, get to adapting.” She says, waving me over to my throne. “We have little time with how much you’ve been wasting.”

“Can you really say that it’s wasted time when it was spent in your kind company?” I ask, sucking up. Nel is smart enough to see through it, of course, but it still draws a small smile from her.

“Hurry it up, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Pulling from the energy I’ve stored in the dark crystal throne, I funnel it into the physical adaptions that I’m hoping to use. With how much I have stored in my throne, I can afford a handful of adaptions.

‘Repulsive skin’ and ‘Mana drive’ are a given, since I’m going to need to survive in rough environments, and these would let me make it through rough spots, I’d quite like to fly up into space again as well.

After that, I choose a few budget options.

‘Prehensile hair’, which allows me to move my hair freely, there weren’t many better options that worked on my hair, and I refuse anything that just prepares me for the crystal stage development without giving me something extra.

Also, it just seems pretty neat.

My hair can pick up a brush and work out its own knots, what more could a girl ask for?

A lot.

The answer is a lot.

‘Bone magic storage’, let’s me hold fully formed magic spells within my bones, this means that my whole charging process, pulling mana out through my annihilation talent, can be done in advance. This should make my spell casting faster and a little cheaper since I can fully charge up each spell, whereas in the past I’d have to cast quickly instead of fully charging.

Tempting options draw my attention and I have the money to spare, but unfortunately, my money is also my ammunition. This throne needs enough mana to blast intruders into non-existence while I’m gone, so I can’t afford any more of a spending spree than I’ve already allowed myself.

“Kyra,” Nel holds my hand tight drawing my attention back to my body. The chills that come with these mutations are already in their dying stages as I turn toward her. “Don’t do anything too dangerous,” she says.

“I won’t, it’s just a small job. We’ll go on a quest for the Unified States and we’ll be back before you know it.” I pull her down onto my lap and hold her tight in my arms. Her warmth, her weight, and her presence in my grasp, it’s enough to settle the roiling anxiety that I didn’t know was building inside me. “We’ll kidnap a few teachers, nab some students, and be done with the surface. We can focus on building things down here until that company mandated holiday that Arduelle is forcing on us.”

“Okay,” She whispers, her voice delicate as thin, glass split by a dozen cracks. Dark thoughts float shallow over her mind, imagined worlds where I’m dead, and where she must survive on her own. Where, without help, she struggles against the republic and the monarchy. Where she bows to the Unified States and tries to raise our children on her own.

All fates that I cannot allow.

“Everything will end well,” I promise her, wrapping my ponytail up around her shoulder. “We’ll have our happy forever after, the world be damned.”

“That’s creepy,” Nel says, glaring down at the hair I’m winding around her arm. “Don’t do that.”

“Aww, I was just trying to comfort you.”

“Then all you need to do is come back to me,” Nel demands. “Fight your wars, conquer the enemy, but come back when it is done.”

“This is nothing so serious. Just a job.” I say, “Maybe we’ll make a few friends, maybe a few enemies, then we’ll be right back again.”

“Take care of Eshya”

“I know. She’s still unsteady on her feet.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to get at,” Nel shakes her head, leaning back on me. “She’s finding herself, her goal is simple enough that you’d think that there’s no ‘finding’ to be done but it’s not so easy. She wants to fight for a good cause, but she’s struggling to figure out exactly what that means. If you could give her clearer direction…”

“So you want me to find her some enemies to fight?” I ask.

“That you haven’t thought about it yet just makes you seem like a poor excuse for a lover,” Nel says, pouting up at me playfully. “Do you even think about us at all?”

“This is my first relationship, you know,” I reply shaking my head at her antics. “I kind of just expect everyone to do their own thing, I don’t like trying to ‘guide’ you or anything like that. I’m an Empress to my small empire, but I don’t want to be that with you.”

“All I ask is that you be an Empress with Eshya the soldier. You can still be just Kyra with Eshya your lover.” Nel says, shifting around and standing up. “Just consider it. Vii and Adler are troubled by things too, but Eshya is most unstable right now.”

“And you?” I ask.

“You trouble me all the time,” She shakes her head, but her tightening grip speaks of a deeper worry than her voice would say aloud. “All I need from you is a genuine effort to avoid more time-consuming wars and conflicts. That, and don’t do anything that would make the others leave us.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I reply, releasing all my frustrations in a long, weary sigh.

“It’s about time,” Nel admits, reluctantly pulling herself up from my lap, and pulling me up by the hand. She leads me out to the lower layer of our home spire. The others are waiting for us downstairs, armed and prepared for a fight. We’re leaving on a quest for the Unified States which will mean that we may have to restrain ourselves, or perhaps we’ll be on our own and free to kill whatever we like, we’re not certain on the details just yet.

“It’s about time,” Eshya says, smiling like a kid on Christmas morning. “We were just about to leave without you.”

“If you tried, I’d just send a message ahead and have the guards close the gates on you.”

“You think gates could stop me?” Eshya asks, her toothy grin more vicious than any monsters I’ve seen recently.

“Take care of yourselves,” Nel says, waving us off. “I’ll be watching over you.”

“Make sure you keep the messages flowing,” Vii says. “It’ll be like your right there with us. Give me a few more weeks and I might even be able to teleport you with us for something like this. I don’t want to risk it right now; not without a healer around to put the pieces back together again.”

“Those poor hamsters…” Adler shivers, her tail twitching back and forth.

“They got put back together again before they could die,” Vii says. “And I said sorry.”

“They still stare down at their feet sometimes, counting their toes…” Adler says.

“I didn’t mean it, it worked perfectly every other time.” Vii whines, just about ready to break out into tears.

“Come on, forget about the rats, we have some monsters to hunt,” Eshya says, getting them moving.

“I’ll be watching over this place, even while I’m gone.” I say, “If anything comes up message me immediately and I’ll make it go away with judicial use of violent magics.”

“I’m sure I won’t even need to cry for help,” Nel’s smile is warm, but lonely as she waves us goodbye.

I try out my new abilities as I walk, waving my hair around a bit, and cramming some charged up spells into my bones. My new repulsive skin doesn’t seem all that effective yet, but maybe I just need some practice with it. It should be a little more useful by the time this quest is done.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“These quests make up all necessary tasks that are suitable for local soldiers. The colour coding is to inform you of how immediate the tasks are.”

“Red means it’s not very important?” Vii asks hopefully.

“No. Red means an emergency, something that must be seen to with utmost haste.” Freid says, staring listlessly at the board covered in red notes. They’ve even seized the territory on the walls surrounding the notice board, and given a few years they might take over the streets outside.

The building is frightfully empty, and there aren’t any professional soldiers nearby. I’m sure that they’re already out trying to deal with some of these emergencies.

“Take your pick,” The teacher says with a shrug. “Read through the request and ensure that you’re capable of seeing it through, there is no reason to act recklessly on your first outing. I’ve already told you how to find a ship, are there any questions?”

“The other students can all return to their home worlds for a holiday, why can’t we?” I ask.

He stares between me and the bright red notice board, then back and forth a few times.

“Sorry for asking.”

Eshya doesn’t wait a moment to get started sorting through the optional tasks, if I know her at all she’s looking for the biggest, meanest monster around.

“Let’s take on something a little less extreme,” I say, pulling one particular ticket from her hands. “We aren’t quite ready to tame a crystal stage monster the size of a small moon.”

“I don’t like this one,” Vii says, pulling out one describing a volcanic world, and monsters made of liquid stone.

“Definitely not this one.”

“Ugh, giant slime monster? No thanks.”

“Air world?” I ask.

“A planet-sized bubble of air,” Vii explains, “If you can’t fly, you’ll just be falling until a gust of wind sends you flying one way or another. Unless you two can fly properly in a few minutes, that’s a no.”

“This one!” Eshya says, lifting one particular red note. “Investigate the disappearances of those who travel too deep into the tunnels. It’s a stone/water blended world, which we can handle, and there aren’t any large beasts that the disappearances can be attributed to. They currently suspect a migratory beast has taken up home beneath their town.”

“There’s no guaranteed fight?” I ask, looking deep into her eyes. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“I have a feeling,” Eshya says, her eyes practically glowing. “This one is the best, I know it.”

“Okay, I’m fine with it.”

“Me, too.” Vii chirps.

“Let’s go grab a ship,” Eshya says, leading us away, barely even twitching as she starts down the steps towards the port.

“You know, it might not have been so bad doing this for a living,” Eshya says. “I mean, the Unified States makes such a fuss about never being aggressive and I’d end up in the meat grinder eventually, but it’s still exciting, isn’t it?”

“The satisfaction of a simple job, and an achievable goal,” I say, staring up at the massive tree looming over us. “Let’s hope it all goes well.”

“It won’t go well,” Vii says.

“Hey, weren’t you the one complaining about spoilers the other day?” I ask.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 42,391 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 21,073 / 30,271 shards

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

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-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 (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

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

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Functional)

-Mana surge movement (Functional)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Functional)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)