“Are you breathing alright?” I ask, looking at Eshya and the bubble of air that surrounds her head. Her lips move but I can’t hear a thing from my own bubble of air, maintained using my repellent skin adaption.

“Are you breathing alright?” I ask, pretending like I didn’t just try talking to her through two layers of air barriers.

“Yeah, this thing works great. Our crafters think of everything, don’t they?” She asks, stretching and testing the bubble of air. It doesn’t pop when she cuts her hand into it but bends around her limb.

The thick black ash of this little cavern roars all around us, managing to be audible even though I’m trying to repel it. Apparently, my adaption doesn’t work like that. The ground is soft underfoot, but not quite molten, it’s still so hot that little flames keep bursting to life around my shoes.

My mana is thick enough that I can barely even feel the heat. It’s like a warm spring day, but with enough ash and fire to make it feel a little like hell.

At least the air doesn’t taste like sulphur, which would make this hell on my nose. There’s no sulphur, which means no brimstone, so either this isn’t hell or the devil packed his bags and moved deeper.

“So, what are we hunting?” Eshya asks, drawing her sword. It’s glowing a little but it’s not melting just yet. I’m not sure how much good it’ll do her down here, but she doesn’t have any other weapons.

“We’re hunting the biggest and strongest monster that we can find,” I reply, walking along the island of cooled stone. There are a few tracks here and there, a frail three-toed footprint about a metre long, a few clawed paws as large as my hand, and one sequence of perfectly round steps pressed into the soft ground.

“What made you want to go hunting?” She asks, walking by my side and looking for the monsters hidden around us.

“I just want to spend some time with you,” I say, turning to her. “We hardly get to have any fun together with just the two of us, and this is your favourite hobby, isn’t it?”

“So, this is your attempt at a romantic date?” she asks, rubbing her shoulder up against me. “Did you at least bring a picnic basket?”

“I was thinking we could eat what we hunt,” I reply. “You don’t think that’s got a charm of its own?”

“We’ll see,” she smiles at me, taking a step ahead and glaring into the flowing river of magma that runs parallel to our little island.

“I didn’t think to bring any fire-proof fishing line,” I say, staring at the glowing mass. There are a few waves, some large and some small, but the liquid is incredibly thick and slow-moving. Running my fingers through it, I pull up a handful of magma. It slowly hardens into the consistency of cake, sliding through my fingers and splattering on the surface of the river’s flow.

“Do you want to change the rules of life?” Eshya asks, turning her attention back towards me.

“The rules of life?”

“The strong get to determine the meaning of justice, and those who live get to do what they want with those who die,” she explains, her sombre expression lit from below by the glowing river of stone.

“I don’t like that,” I answer, standing up. “I don’t like the way things are, and I want to change them. That’s what you’re asking about?”

“Okay, then we’ll change it,” Eshya says. “I’m fine with the way things are, I don’t think the world has to change, but I don’t mind if it does.”

A wave of thick smoke washes past us both, but it’s gone in another moment. The air that gusts between the smoke is surprisingly fresh and clean.

“I went on a date with Adler the other day,” Eshya starts.

“Is that really what you want to bring up on our date?” I ask. “Are you trying to make me jealous, perhaps?”

“She’s excited to have a chance to make the world a better place for everyone,” Eshya says, turning her eyes to me. “You aren’t like that. It seems more like something that you feel obligated to do. A duty. A burden.”

“It’s not.”

“Then why are you so sour?” She asks, turning to me and taking my hand as she leads me into a thick swirling mass of black smoke. “You should live more honestly with yourself. If you want to kill, then kill. If you want to lead, then lead. You’re letting yourself be crushed by the work, and you’re not enjoying it as you should.”

“What does that even mean?” I ask, shaking my head in the darkness.

“It means that you can be evil if that’s what makes you smile. If that’s what brings you happiness, then I’ll accept it. I’ll accept you no matter what you want. If being good and being a kind and proper leader is causing you to suffer, then be a shit leader and have fun with it.

“I don’t care, I just want you to be happy.”

Her hand tightens around mine, and through the smoke, I can feel something moving. A body much larger than either of us and from the feel of the smoke around us, I’m sure that it’s powerful enough to be a threat.

“Life will always be difficult, there will always be challenges,” she says, pulling me closer to the monster. I tug at the spells buried in my bones, magic that will undo reality itself and turn all to ash. Yet, that strength still isn’t enough for the battles to come.

“What’s important is learning to face those challenges with a smile,” she says, launching us at the beast hidden in shadows. It roars, and the ash redoubles on itself, pouring over us and painting the world in the deepest of blacks.

“Then why have I caught you frowning so often recently?” I ask. “Are you failing to live up to your ideals?”

“Of course, no one lives up to their ideals,” she replies, and I know that she’s laughing even through the darkness that separates us. Through the flooding magics that the beast uses to create the ashen storm, I see a pinprick of light where Eshya’s sword shines through. A star of magic powerful enough to cut through a torrent.

The strike lands and blasts into the enemy, sending gusts of air throughout the storm and clearing my vision for just a moment. The beast that was hidden, now unmasked, isn’t nearly so frightening as the darkness would make it seem.

It’s a pathetic thing, hugging the ground and hiding in a shell of blackened bone. The smoke pours from three chimneys that tower along its spine, one of them already shattered, releasing the black haze without any force or direction.

A beaked head snaps out at me, and I barely step back in time, slapping it with an open hand and a minor annihilation spell that causes its skin to flake off.

It screams loud enough to quiet the storms raging and the magma’s bubbling, before blasting out another wave of ash, seeded with magical blades condensing the storm and cutting at us both. I step ahead to guard Eshya who is more vulnerable than me.

“No one truly lives to their ideal, Kyra,” Eshya says, returning us to our conversation. “Ideals are dreams, they’re what we hope to be, but what we can never quite achieve. Don’t measure yourself to the ideal that you can never reach.”

“If I fuck up, then tens of thousands will suffer and die.”

“Will they suffer any less because you’re contrite, or because you work yourself to death?” Eshya asks, “No, they’ll be dead and gone. No longer able to blame you, or forgive you. The dead don’t matter. Do what you can in life and find joy in it. You know you don’t want to be like Unity.”

What she’s saying isn’t new to me, they’re thoughts I’ve already considered and thought over. I was convinced that I’d taken something from them, but every time I come back to my empire, I work myself ragged to try and make things better.

I’m not wrong, but neither is Eshya.

I need to enjoy this. How can I be a decent Empress if I hate my job, how can people trust me to do what is right, if I’m loathing life itself and wasting away focused only on the family that I’m not with? If I cannot enjoy being a ruler, then I should not be a ruler, and I should hand it off to someone else.

“The man most suited to rule is the man who doesn’t want the crown,” I recite the adage, as I dive into the smoke seeking our prey. Am I the person who wants to rule, and who should be kept from the role?

“Here,” Eshya calls, drawing me to her and the beast between us. We strike from both sides, her with her sword and me with my fists and magic. I use a lesser spell to keep from wasting the mana in our prey.

I punch hard into the darkness, and my fist cracks the black bone, the destruction I seed into it crumbling the body of the beast. Eshya’s sword strikes the opposite side, cracking the bone and blasting it apart.

“A stupid saying, if a ruler were to turn away the throne then they’d be unfit to rule,” Eshya says. “Who would ever trust them to do what needs to be done, if they refused the role in the first place.”

“It’s about corruption,” I say. “Those who most want to rule, tend to be those who are most corrupt. Those who would not lead but use their power for their own selfish gain while letting their people suffer.”

“It’s bowing to a coward in place of a pig,” Eshya says. “A leader must be motivated. Just like a good soldier needs to have a reason to see their enemy felled, a leader must have something that they want to achieve with the society they lead.”

Together we strike at the last chimney on the beast’s back, smashing it in on itself and ruining the creature’s control of its ashen magic. The bone crunches as Eshya leaps to stab into a split in the bone shell.

The beast snaps out at her with its beak, but that was always the point of her feint. Eshya’s sword cuts through the beast’s neck, severing it in one blow.

“When did you start talking about topics like this in-depth? Have you entirely graduated from being the horny idiot of our group?”

“You’re just trying to deny your true role, my idiot Empress,” Eshya snorts a laugh, her sarcastic smirk more affectionate than any overeager smile. “I don’t always join the conversations, I feel a little underprepared, but I’m still thinking. I always think about these things.”

“Do share more often.”

“You like to be browbeaten?” Eshya asks, “I’ll oblige so long as you give me something in return.”

“Foul capitalism, I thought we were married.”

“Not yet we aren’t,” Eshya laughs. “Besides isn’t it more fun this way, asking and negotiating, and then taking by force when things sour.”

“You want me to take you by force?” I ask, stepping up onto the beast’s back. “Well, a good wife must submit to the desires of her lover.”

“Now, now, not just yet,” Eshya says, catching me as I step over to her. “We still need to figure out how to cook this thing, it’s never good to play on an empty stomach.”

The beast beneath the shell is surprisingly tender, the meat is marbled when Eshya takes to it with her sword but it’s incredibly resistant to heat, even as we lay it down on the soft magma.

“Kyra…?”

“Don’t say it,” I cut her off. “A lunch box would’ve fried down here, it’s not like I could pack us a lunch that would’ve survived.”

“So, you did consider it?” She asks, smiling warmly and clutching at her chest in a feigned display of a lovestruck maiden.

“Of course I thought about it,” I reply, “I’d have brought one too if Nel didn’t stop me.”

Eshya snorts another laugh, I can’t hear it, but I’ve heard the same from her so many times before that my mind can fill in the blanks. We’ve spent most of our time together since I helped rescue her from our downed ship.

“You were arguing that you weren’t an idiot?” Eshya reminds me as I pick up one of the steaks that she carved from the beast. If we cut it a little thinner, we could eat it raw. A sort of alien turtle sashimi, maybe?

Before I resort to that, there’s one more option.

I lean down by the edge of the island where the magma is still wet and bubbling, dipping the steak into the liquid stone. It would have to cook in here, at least.

“Would this count as deep-fried?” I ask, lifting the steak up, magma dripping from it like thick steak sauce. Extra spicy.

The meat has graduated from raw, but it still needs some more time in the ‘deep-fryer’.

“Not unless you put it down a little deeper into the magma,” Eshya suggests.

“Like this?” I ask, pushing the meat down into the semi-liquid mass as it moulds around my arm. I get it down to my upper arm, but it feels like little more than a hot bath. At least, until something tugs at my hand.

“Hey, I’m cooking that!” I scream, pulling the steak out of the ‘water’ with a little something extra attached. The ‘fish’ is about a metre and a half long, covered in scales, and it has half of my lunch jammed down its gullet.

“Sashimi it is!” I scream, punching the fish in the face until it stops moving.

“Ah, my girlfriend. Her fishing skills are something to be admired,” Eshya says, hauling over a large chunk of black shell with an array of meat displayed neatly atop it.

“I hunt, I provide meat, what more do you want?”

She snorts another laugh and strips down right then and there.

“I have to admit, I didn’t think it would be that effective at getting you naked… is this why men like fishing so much?”

“I don’t want my clothes to burn in the magma,” Eshya give me a strange look before sliding into the rock pool and setting the bowl of meat afloat atop it.

“Oh,” I follow suit. “What about the fish nibbling our toes?”

“I’ll let you take care of it. I wish to admire your fishing skills from up close, and your naked body makes for quite a pleasant sight while you’re struggling.”

“Shut up and eat,” I sink into the magma and pull down some meat to get it cooking. I watch the water around us for any signs of magic that would indicate something coming for us. I don’t want to risk being too slow, so I sidle up to Eshya and wrap an arm around her just in case.

I wouldn’t want her to get pulled under.

“We could make a holiday home here,” Eshya says. “After we deal with all the smoke.”

“I’m not sure what we’d build it out of,” I reply. “I get the feeling what doesn’t melt will sink.”

Eshya laughs, gnawing on a whole steak like a cavewoman, and I start gnawing on my own after brushing off the droplets of rock forming on top of it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 44,394 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 22,069 / 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)