“You slipped?” The officer asks, his leathery skin soaked in the blood that drips from his neck. The wound is not superficial but neither is it particularly harmful, yet it’s a clear violation of rules.

“Yep. I slipped.” Eshya says, her voice flat as she keeps the sword on him. “Knocked my head a little bit ago, my support device just does things like this now. The Skills just activate on their own.”

“Is that so?” He asks, clearly not believing a word of it, which is frustrating since it’s almost the truth.

He tries to step around Eshya but the blade pressed to his throat keeps him from moving too far. She’s hesitating, her instincts were too fast and she threw herself into this position without thinking it through. I know it well without feeling the chaotic thoughts spiralling through her mind.

Getting into trouble now could be bad, but will it really be so bad? The welfare officers here at the moment aren’t that much of a threat to us, and they’re already calling in support from their more dangerous superiors, so it’s not as if we’re causing an incident for Arduelle. We’re just giving the welfare officers a little extra work before their boss shows up.

I look at Adler for her thoughts, but she’s frozen in indecision herself. While we’re all trying to find a solution, our teacher finally takes notice of the situation. His eyes move from the welfare officer to us, and then over to Adler.

“Are they beasts?” He asks the welfare officer, who’s still dripping with blood.

“They are.”

“They aren’t,” Adler interjects.

Freid looks between us before focusing on Eshya and her bloodied sword, another glance at Adler gives him pause, but he doesn’t stop.

Eshya steps back as Freid grabs the welfare officer and throws him to safety, she lifts her sword to deflect his follow up attack, but he anticipates the movement. While punching straight with one hand, he uses the second to grab the blade of her sword.

Twisting his grip on the sword as his punch lands, he wrests it from her and tosses it aside, simply taking the blows from Vii’s magic as she moves to support Eshya.

“Subdue the beasts!” Freid shouts, calling for support from the rest of our class. Most stumble backward in confusion and the few who hear choose to retreat instead. They’re not nearly powerful enough to cause us trouble and they know it.

I rush Freid before he can take down Eshya, but they move back and forth so quick and close that I can’t squeeze between them. Eshya is on the losing side of the fight, taking blow after blow, but refusing to give in.

Instead of trying to separate them, I rush to the welfare officer who’s picking himself up from the dirt. He’s got another silver collar in hand, but it’s about as dangerous as a water bomb to us.

“Stop!” I shout at our teacher as I kick the knees out from under the leather-skinned officer, he trumpets a short whine through his foot-long trunk. Spells gather at the ready in my hand as I grip his skull, ready for an impromptu lobotomy.

Freid backs away from Eshya, pausing to take in the state of the battlefield.

Vii summons a small gust to throw Eshya’s sword back into her hand the moment they break apart. Our warrior stumbles a little before finding her battle-ready stance and sneering at our teacher through a bloodied expression.

“Why are you doing this?” Freid asks, “Listen to the welfare officers and submit to taming.”

“We’re just dealing with a violent beast,” Eshya says, glaring at the welfare officer that I’m holding at arm’s length. “He was trying to hurt innocent people. That’s what we’re meant to be stopping, right?”

“He was trying to capture a beast.”

“There were no beasts here,” I say, taking his attention while holding the officer hostage. “There are only people trying their best, but these idiots don’t seem to get that.”

“Kyra, look at yourself,” Freid says. “You’re threatening to kill that man just to make me stop fighting. Is that something that a person would do, or something that a beast would do?”

“This is something a person would do,” I say without a hint of doubt. “People and beasts aren’t as different as you like to make out. A person pushed to their limits will act just the same as a beast, because they are the same.”

“We are different,” Freid says, shaking his head, and looking for support from the others with us, but finding only silence. “It’s in how we act, how we choose to behave. That’s what separates us from the beasts.”

“It’s illusory, no, less fancy than that, it’s a lie. A simple lie that you tell yourself to make you feel as if you’re different, as if you’re justified.

“You claim that there’s a difference between people and beasts to excuse the murder and slaughter that your society commits,” I reply. “Look at your civilisation as a single organism. One great big beast.

“It kills, just like any beast; it consumes and hoards, just like the lowliest of hungry insects; it exists to gather resources, to grow bigger and stronger just like the monsters out there eating whole stars.

“You are a single cell within that organism, and because you treat the other cells nicely, you think that makes you all superior to those who you kill. It’s arrogance.”

“You sure like to talk,” Freid says adjusting his stance and waiting for something. He’s likely waiting for support, but that’s fine. I can deal with it.

Adler is healing Eshya’s injuries, so it’s not time wasted, and perhaps I’ll even convince him or the students still lingering around us, to see the truth.

“I like to think,” I say. “Something that’s not quite explicitly banned, but we are punished for ‘beastly’ talk. It makes sense, they wouldn’t want us prying apart the true nature of this civilisation. So, it’s best to discourage free thought, free speech, and free expression. It’s a common enough practice in the cruellest of civilisations.”

“You can think what you like,” Freid says. “Just don’t behave like a beast, that’s all that’s asked of you.”

My composure nearly breaks, but I bury the emotional turmoil. I’m being stupid. He’s leading me on into conversation to try and gain an advantage, he’s not appreciating any of the topics.

Meanwhile, I’m just venting. It’s almost a childish reaction, so why am I leaning into it?

“If talking like a beast is enough to make us beasts, then that’s stupid,” Vii says, hovering in the air above and looking down at Freid like he’s talking nonsense. “Especially if we lose all rights just for asking questions, even if they’re silly questions that’s just ridiculous! It makes it so that everyone is afraid to ask things, or to think things, or to express themselves at all.”

“It’s better for you not to think dangerous things,” Freid says. “It’s how you end up acting like this. Like beasts.”

“We ended up acting like this in response to the violence of the systems you support,” Adler says stepping forwards and shocking the teacher. “They steal our minds, Freid. They collar us and order us to forget. To behave. We become… nothing.”

“It’s not true,” he shakes his head, refusing to believe it.

“This system doesn’t care for us,” Adler says. “We are just parts of a larger machine, and when the cogs wear down, they are disposed of and replaced.”

“I commend the social engineers who designed this system,” I say. “The Unified States is amazing, and in so many ways it seems to be nearing perfection, but… I don’t like how gentle this place is.

“You do not care about anyone, your civilisation is no different from others. Just like when refining you separate the useful metal from the unwanted slag, you separate the useful ‘people’ from the unwanted ‘beasts’.”

“We trained you not to kill ruthlessly, to respect each and every life you take, from the small insects to the most intelligent of beasts. We separate beasts from people because we must, the beasts cannot behave as productive members of society.”

“Pragmatic, isn’t it?” I ask, chuckling to myself. “You support your machine, your great big beast. I’ll support mine. That’s all this is in the end, isn’t it?”

“If that’s how you want to see it…” he says. “You should know that you’re surrounded.”

“I know,” I reply, looking at the students surrounding us. They’re older and more powerful than the rest of our peers, but they’re still weak. “Say, Mr welfare officer, don’t you think that this conversation is rather beastly?”

“What are you doing?” Freid asks, but I shut him up with a glare.

“Your job is to collar beasts, no?” I ask the officer, squeezing his head a little to get his attention. “Then, shouldn’t you go and collar that beast? You’ve heard our conversation?”

“I can’t,” he says. “Not while you’re holding me here.”

“Oh, so sorry,” I say, letting the officer go.

He turns around and tries to hit me with a collar, but it just rolls off my skin. The man blinks at me before trying it again.

“I’m immune, try someone else.”

He huffs in frustration through his trunk but gives up on me. Likely he’s setting me aside so that he can have some soldiers deal with me later. That’s fine.

“Anyone who interferes will have their limbs cut off,” I say, turning to the students waiting at the edges of the grounds. “Just sit and watch, please. It’ll be over before you know it.”

Freid looks between me and the welfare officer in confusion. His lips curl up into a snarl, but he’s lacking the energy to make it seem a genuine threat.

“I will capture the beasts,” he says, but the welfare officer shakes his head.

“Submit yourself to collaring,” the welfare officer says, his tone dry.

“Wait, what?” Freid shouts. “What did you do to him? The same thing as with the other one?” He waves at Adler.

“I did nothing to him,” I say. “You were talking, thinking, expressing doubts.”

“I wasn’t! I was supporting the Unified States!”

“By admitting the truth,” I reply, watching the officer close in on him with a silvery collar. “By admitting that we kill and slaughter beasts for a pragmatic reason, and looking behind the ideals that you are meant to be parroting.

“This is the consequence that you expect others to suffer? Then please, bow your head and wear that collar. Give up.” I say.

Freid backs away from the officer shaking his head back and forth, his teeth showing more and more, just further convincing the officer of his beastly nature.

Still, it’s the students with the most reaction. They watch the scene with deepening horror. To see their own justice turned against them, while they’re trying their best to behave honourably and righteously, it’ll break their spirit.

“No!” Freid shouts, leaping at the officer and throwing off the silver collar. With a series of quick strikes, he knocks the officer down, and unconscious.

“You did something to him!” Fried says. “Just stop this! Bow and accept your collar! It’s for your own sake!”

“The same one that you threw aside?” I ask. “Even if I believed you, I don’t think I would be able to accept your offer. I will not allow any of these people to have that much power over me, Freid. I trust them with my lovers even less.”

“Then you truly are a beast,” he says shaking his head.

“As are you,” I reply.

Freid charges and some of the students follow suit. Their training is too much for them to simply retreat now, especially when that retreat could cost them their basic rights.

I cast a powerful force spell on the teacher’s ankle to trip him up for a moment and Eshya thrusts her sword into his thigh. Freid doesn’t even pause, continuing to run for me and snapping the tip off of the sword.

When he’s closer, he stomps at the ground, summoning a small earthquake. I stumble, back and forth trying to keep my balance and losing my focus instead.

He leaps while we’re recovering, but Vii blasts him with wind, keeping him afloat. I throw a few of my stored spells at the floating target as soon as I’m confident of my aim.

“I am sorry for failing you,” he says, dropping from the sky and slipping past my spells. The weight of his landing sends a tremor through the earth, and he charges right for me a second time.

I move towards him, expecting a grapple. A battle I can win because of my durability and mana drain. I can just pull the Skills right out of him and finish him while he’s out.

Adler and Vii turn their attention to the combat students while Eshya joins me in fighting Freid.

I strike fast and recklessly, knowing that I’ll lose in a battle of movements. He dodges my fist and grabs at my arm, but a field of annihilation burns to life through my adapted pours.

His palm turns to ash, as he steps to the side to dodge Eshya’s broken sword, the tip still sharp because of the angle of the break.

I try to catch him with a few spells, but he moves fast somehow anticipating the travel paths and keeping himself from getting hit anywhere vital.

Eshya is fast enough to keep up, thrusting at his side and blasting with a concentrated blast of mana inside of him.

He stumbles and we both move closer, attacks ready to finish him. He’s hardly strong enough to compare to others that I’ve fought, especially while holding himself back.

As I’m about to land a punch and finish him with an annihilation spell, he moves. I see his closed fist coming at me and I shield myself from it, but Eshya can’t.

He grabs her head from the side, and while she’s still struggling, he swings her head right at mine.

I can’t shield against it.

I try to catch her, to slow the momentum, to melt away Freid’s hand, all at once.

I’m too slow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I am sorry for what I must do.”

A deep, mournful voice wakes me, and I pull myself up from the ground. My head aching badly, but what is pain but signals and warning lights. I can push through this.

The dappled light spreads through the field, revealing a world not much different to the one that I saw when I…

I was knocked out…

Freid.

“Eshya!” Vii’s shout turns my attention toward Freid whose standing over our elvish lover. She’s still unconscious.

Unconscious.

Not fighting.

Subdued.

A beast.

Uncollared.

Uncollarable.

I’m moving before the pieces can come together, but Freid is right there, already above her. His foot on her head.

I cast everything that I have ready, and summon more magic still, flinging it all at him as his foot presses Eshya’s skull into the hard ground.

“I’m sorry,” Freid says, shifting his weight and summoning magic from beneath his heal.

I invest most of my mana into a force spell to keep him still. He freezes in place, my annihilation burning away the flesh of his leg until there’s nothing but ash and blood.

“Magic!” Vii shouts, and I turn my eyes to the spell already formed under his heel.

The earth churns with energy, pushing upwards.

A spike.

A spike of concentrated soil.

Stained in blood.

Piercing her skull.

A shrill whine steals away sound as I arrive. I summon annihilation magic as a claw over my hand, and I carve Freid out of existence. Every energy that is his, is unmade and carved out of reality, but it’s already too late.

Covered in ash and blood, Eshya lies perfectly still. Her head is impaled by a spike, covered in sharp blades. It’s still spinning, churning away.

I lean down and destroy it too, but the work is already done. Adler appears, casting her magic, but…

Vii is shaking me.

Arduelle appears, enveloping Eshya in thick currents of healing magic.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 4,141 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 2,059 / 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)