“I am your Empress, Kyra Baker, and I would like your attention for a minute.” This announcement has already been preceded by a message to ensure that they’ll have some time for themselves.

“We are soon to embark on a journey beyond the safety provided by Frey. There will be opportunities abounding in the worlds beyond, and the wide universe as we expand our reach, but there will be threats.

“I will defend our home, all of you included, with everything that I have, but I am not as strong as I wish to be.

“It may be in a week’s time, or it might be in a hundred years, but violence will befall this city and I want you all to survive it. I want you all capable of surviving even should my strength fail you, so for those of you wishing to train we have training in the morning.

“If you choose to come, you will be provided mana-rich food, new combat-orientated Skills, and proper instruction on surviving in a fight. No matter how strong or weak you are, please come join us for this.”

We finish the message, the ‘cameras’ shutting down as I heave a heavy sigh.

“I hope that all of this preparation is for nothing,” I say, closing my eyes. Nel wraps me in her arms and leads me to dinner.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I dip under the thin blade, but just a little too slow. The tip cuts into my shoulder and carves into my flesh then, with a flick of her wrist, Eshya flings a chunk of flesh aside. My writhing skin and muscle close the wound, but the blood sprayed on the ground, and the flesh left behind are still lost.

Red’s daggers stab me from behind, too fast for me to dodge, I twist but one dagger still cuts right through my heart and the other through my neck. Moving my hair around itself and forming a limb out of it, I pull the first knife from my neck, before working on removing the second that’s still driven through my heart.

Using simple mana-driven force it’s all too easy to pull the blades free, even though they’ve been enchanted to resist. Mana density is the only advantage I have against these two in a fight but it’s an advantage that should be supreme.

Eshya doesn’t wait for me to recover, moving in close and slicing at my arm with her sword. I use a typical mana shield to deflect the blade rather than using my annihilation on it, and thanks to my greater power, she can’t cut through.

“I’ve got a feel for you now,” I say. Smiling through gritted teeth and watching the pair of warriors through my Skills. It’s an added challenge to keep my eyes open but to focus only on my ‘eyes of an empire’ ability.

Through the wider senses I gain from it, I get a feeling for the pair’s movements. If I can move first, I can beat them.

“Then, try to keep up,” Eshya says, diving at me with a deep-set smile. Red chuckles as she moves in close, her steps in pace with Eshya, they dance together even on opposite sides of me, and I widen my stance to pretend to welcome them.

With a force push I throw myself back toward Red, I crash into her before either of us can properly prepare, but she comes away from the impact slightly worse off. I twist around and grab at her limbs, lightly draining her mana and twisting her around.

Before I can subdue her in any meaningful manner or hit her with a ‘lethal move’ by the referee’s call. Eshya forces her way into our duel and with a series of thrusts and kicks, she weakens my grip on Red and tosses me aside.

They recover and work to defend one another as they approach. It burns that they’re working so well together, aren’t I supposed to be working with Eshya against Red?

Gaining too much power too quickly has its consequences.

“Don’t get distracted,” Red chuckles, leaping at me with her knives.

While the pair work well together and move with similar deadly grace, I can get a read on Eshya. I understand her and can anticipate her strikes instinctively, but Red is different.

With two new knives, she swings from the right, one arm over the other. I move my arms to block, and push her arms out, but her knees drop out from under her and her knives glide under my arms to one thrusting right at my face. I catch her hand with both of mine, but a pain in my armpit warns me that I failed to notice the other.

Even with one arm failing to work properly, I overpower Red and push her back, but she’s not my only opponent.

Eshya takes the opening, sliding around from my right, and with a vicious shout, she slices my leg open. My guard is just a moment too slow to catch her sword, as it cuts clean through.

My flesh re-joins itself almost immediately, but it’s still too slow. Eshya kicks my leg out from under me, it disconnects from my thigh and slides out from under me right into Red’s clawed hands.

I thrust a hand out to catch her, but I’m just a second too slow. Red makes off with my leg as Eshya guards against my attempt to retake my lost limb.

“Victory for Red and Eshya!” Vii shouts, calling an end to the match.

“You are getting better,” Red says, holding my detached leg out as a peace offering. The moment I try to take it, she pulls it out of reach.

“Hey, give me that back!” I shout hopping after her and shaking my fist at her. “Damn thieves!”

“Come on, is that all you’ve got?” Red asks, lifting it up and giving it a sniff. “You know a beast wouldn’t just hold it out of reach…”

“Don’t you dare…” I say, glaring at her.

“That’s enough,” Eshya says, snatching my leg from Red. “If anyone’s going to eat her, it’s going to be me.”

“Yes, haha, very funny. Now give me my leg back,” I say, hopping over to Eshya.

I grab my leg but she sinks her fangs into my calf before I can take it from her.

“Was it worth it?” I ask, letting out a long sigh as she hands it back to me. There’s a small, bloody nibble mark on my thigh, but she didn’t take a chunk out of it or anything.

“I thought I’d give it a try,” Eshya says with a shrug, wiping my blood from her lips. “It’s not as fun biting you when you can’t feel it, but your reaction is still worth it.”

“Enough flirting,” Red says, “What have you learned?”

“Eshya might be hiding a dangerous cannibalism kink,” I say, but the suspect just smiles at me without giving anything away.

“Also, I’ve learned that you like being evil Red,” I grunt. “I thought you were secretly a good person, facing off against the forces of the universe and crumbling, but I was wrong. You were the true villain in my story all along…”

“Yes, and what else?” Red asks.

I’m about to reply with another sarcastic remark, but some of her thoughts and feeling float to the surface in response to what I’ve said. A conflicting sense of guilt and shame rushes about inside of her, but it’s wrapped in self-deprecating thoughts that keep the emotions from ever being expressed.

Most surprisingly, these aren’t hidden away, she’s well aware of it all but she’s unwilling to bring it up to me.

I calm down and focus on her question. She’s going out of her way to support me, and I mustn’t waste her time.

“Raw power isn’t enough to beat skill,” I say. “At least not at the difference between us.”

“It takes a fairly significant difference in power for it to become unbridgeable by skill, numbers, and smart tactics,” Red says. “That said, the difference between us is rather stark and you still manage to put up a reasonable fight.”

“So, I should just focus on sucking up more of the universe then get back to you when I’m untouchable?” I ask.

“You’re already doing everything you can in that regard, no?” Red asks. “If you can’t manage to speed that process up any further, then you need to be more precise with the power you can already use.

“Can you tell me exactly where you failed in our fight?”

“I’m not fast enough.”

“You’re plenty fast,” Red says, poking me on the forehead. “You’re just not smart enough. You don’t anticipate my movements, sometimes I can tell that you’re trying but you’re terrible at it. The only reason why you can respond to Eshya is because you train with her all the time.”

“Okay, so I need to understand how you’re moving and then respond?” I ask. “You see, the problem is I’m already trying to do that.”

“Then keep trying and I’ll keep stabbing you until you get it,” Red chuckles as I try to get my leg on right. Until I get proper healing it’ll still be a bit loose and weak.

“What great teaching techniques you have…” I grumble, stretching out and preparing my mind for more violence.

“What else?” She asks as she stands over me, taller my a good measure. “What else can you take away from this fight?”

“I’m honestly not seeing anything,” I admit, going back through the fight.

“The clue is your leg,” Red suggests.

“I should… learn to weaponize my detached limbs?” I ask. “Keep it kicking even while it’s loose.”

“If you can,” Red replies, “but there’s something more important.”

“Learn to fight without them,” Eshya answers for me, and Red gives her a small nod. “If we’ve figured out that this is one of your weaknesses then others will too. You can fix that by learning how to fight after you’ve lost an arm or a leg. You have the force magic to keep going, but you haven’t been using it as you could.”

“At least one of my students is worth the time I spend on them,” Red shakes her head at me as I stick my leg back into place. I make sure to release some of my blood stored away in my fatty tissues, trying to get used to the strange new adaption. I should’ve used it more during the fight, but I didn’t think of it.

“I get it, training, training, and more training,” I grumble, standing up and looking about at the rest of my people being pushed to their limits. I’ve been helping them with a high mana diet, but just like with my own power, that’s not enough.

Countless many citizens of all species and all backgrounds have come out for training after I warned them a little of what’s to come.

Those who are weakest, who don’t have the strength to fight back even if they wanted to, are being trained in running, dodging, and hiding. Anyone can learn a little something that might save their lives in the times to come.

Others have already chosen weapons and are learning to wield them properly. I’ve been helping with the development of more rifles and machine guns and there are quite a few people here learning the use of the new weapons.

Of the gremlins, there are countless many who are wielding the familiar rusted knives and swords that they used against me only a short time ago. The weapons are sharpened and repaired to a minimal standard at the very least, but I’m hoping to have all of them replaced with something more useful before they ever see use.

“They have spirit,” Red says, looking down over the massed group of trainees. Most aren’t looking to be soldiers, and I’m hoping that they never have to be, but I can’t ignore my own limits. They will see violence, and I won’t be able to save them all.

I’m not a god, as much as I wish I had the power of one.

“We just have to keep them alive,” I say, turning my head from the sight and clenching my fist.

“Death is a part of this world, Kyra.” Red replies. “You’ll never conquer it entirely. It comes for us all eventually.”

“Not today, and not tomorrow,” I declare, stretching my arms. “Every path is made up of a series of steps, and the road to immortality is no different.”

My eyes flicker to Eshya, Red, and Vii my mind finding my lovers, and those others who are precious to me. Those who I cannot let die.

“I have a few new things that I want to test out if you’re willing to help.”

“More new talents that you’re working on?” Red asks shaking her head. “There’s something to be said for sharpening the tools you already have, rather than getting new ones all the damn time.”

“This is technically just sharpening a tool I already have,” I reply. “I can influence the mana just outside of my body, I currently use that in a very limited way. I need to do better.”

“Show us,” Red says crossing her arms. “If it’s not impressive enough, we’ll get back to stabbing you. You need to be drilled in the basics, and that training never stops.”

“Fine,” I say, nodding firmly. “This is what I’ve got at the moment.”

I gather my willpower and carefully control the tide of mana running through me as I imagine a massive set of claws extending out from my fingers. The mana flows out of my body, taking the form that I imagine.

There’s no matter to them, and there’s no mass, but there’s a phantasmal glow to the mana as it flows around the inexistent limb.

There are four separate claws attached to my hand at my knuckles. My first attempts at this failed as I couldn’t accept the tumorous nature of the parts of me that weren’t really me. These claws at least I can accept.

“Does it have mass?” Red asks, carefully tapping at my claws with a powerful dagger. She manages to pry my claws up, but they stay loosely attached to my knuckles, with a bit of prying she manages to pull the claws far enough from my body that the mana flow turns turbulent, and they start to decay.

“Can you stand on them? Can they support your body?” She asks.

“Ah no,” I reply, “I might be able to add a force magic element to them, but I haven’t figured that out yet. They only do damage by their high mana density creating a fake limb out of the air, or whatever material I want, really.”

I lean down and press my hand against dirt, creating the same claws again but this time made up of pressed soil.

“Develop this Skill, and make it a core part of your fighting style,” Red says, her voice sharp. “That’s one of the more versatile abilities I’ve seen, it’s flexible and allows for a large range of tactics. You could potentially make wings to improve your flight, or new legs to hasten your running speed.”

She pauses and glares at me for a short moment, flicking me on the forehead.

“Before you start getting a big head, this isn’t like your annihilation magic where you get a free and easy kill on most enemies. This is something that will only be strong with serious training and considerable time invested into training.”

“Why did you hit me?” I ask, rubbing at my head.

“Because you deserved it for cheating at life. It makes the rest of us feel bad.”

“You just finished tearing me apart!” I shout my complaint but it falls on deaf ears. Eshya is already back to waving her sword around in memorized techniques, adapting to new circumstances and getting ready to tear me apart.

“Less whining more training, come on. Try using that new Skill while Eshya and I take turns stabbing you.”

“Damn it!” I shout, diving into the fight with my new ‘faux limbs’. My claws meet with Red’s dagger as Eshya swings around me, her sword glowing as she cuts at me again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 57,713 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 28,690 / 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 (Adapted)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (Adapted)

-Layered Space Muscles (Adapted)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (Adapted)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (Adapted)

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)