Each world is built around the mana vortex at its core, and from what I understand of it, sometimes mana vortexes can merge or overlap. Generally, this is caused by gravitational forces that drag worlds together and mash them into one.

Other times worlds that brush by one other can steal air, water, debris or other such resources, complicating my understanding of world mechanics even further. Yet it doesn’t change the fact that each world is slightly different, resulting in different forms of life thriving, and different architecture and technology finding favour among intelligent peoples.

This world seems to promote steel and stone most of all, and this village has evidence of both in its construction. The stone is merged into the tree’s stone armoured branches, not intruding on them, and not carving through them. This town exists at the mercy of the great tree, and not the other way around.

Steel is used prolifically in signs, doors, furniture, and the like, essentially, anything not stone is steel instead. Yet, not a speck of rust exists here, even though the clouds are within reach and the air is thick with moisture. Something to do with the electrification, perhaps?

As much as it might seem to be a quirky brutalist interpretation of a tree house, there’s no sign of modernity to the place. There are no complex machines here, and the prevalence of swords and spears denies any advanced technologies, though that’s no measure of the threat they might pose.

“Wait here,” Aegeus says, setting down in the open courtyard in the centre of their little town. “I’ll go see to the great one and see if she will speak with you.”

“Kyra, are you okay?” Vii asks, floating down to my side. “You look like you’re biting your tongue again. You didn’t bite it off again, did you? That was gross.”

“What? No.” I shiver at the remembrance. It wasn’t during anything important, but it was still uncomfortable until I was properly healed again.

“I expected you to threaten them more,” Vii says, hanging down by my side. “You usually threaten people a whole bunch when they pick a fight with us. It’s either that or you beat them up real bad.”

“Or kill them,” I remind her.

“Or that,” Vii shrugs. “So what’s bothering you?”

As I think of what might happen here, the worst possibilities, I feel scared. I usually turn that terror into threats or lash out violently at whatever potential enemies surround me.

Is this paranoia?

When these people have already proven themselves as violent threats, I think not. Still, I cannot be guided by fear and rage alone.

“Threats won’t work here,” I say, looking around at the people surrounding us. “They submit to the tree, and Aegeus leads them. He doesn’t believe that I’m a threat. It’d be meaningless to keep shouting out at them.”

Satisfying, but meaningless.

“So, we’re here to take over?” Eshya asks, her hand resting on her sword. A little of her old attitude returned. “What do you need me to do?”

“Be scary,” I say. “Be ready for this to turn into a fight and be ready to kill anyone that comes at us.”

Our group stays together, ready for this to turn into a brawl should the worst come about, but the blue, winged men and women around us look at us in curiosity. Even with so many weapons around, no one looks ready for a fight.

“Hello,” a young girl says, gliding closer to us. It’s difficult to tell for sure a person’s age in this universe, but it’s clear from how she acts that she’s a child regardless of the years she’s lived.

“Hello,” I reply, smiling down at her without lowering my guard.

Half the gremlins I fought to take my city would be children by my own measure of them. Children in this universe are just as capable of war and cruelty as any other.

“Are you blessed by Blue?” She asks, “I thought she only blessed us.”

“They aren’t blessed, dear,” says a woman warrior nursing a broken arm from being caught in my force barrier. “Aegeus is speaking with Blue-Crown now, they may be blessed, or they may fall, we don’t know.”

“Oh,” the girl says, looking at us again. There’s no malice that I can see to her. “I hope you don’t fall.”

“Thank you,” I reply, “I hope that we can all have peace as well.”

The mother looks at me worriedly as she marches the girl away, over to some sort of tavern, or communal kitchen. The creature stuck on a spit over the fires seems concerningly like one of the ferrets.

A few other children skip about, gliding around on wide wings as they chase one another around the sky. Adults go about their business, a good many of them cleaning or preparing meat, or fixing damaged weapons.

“They seem happy,” Eshya says, tracing her eyes over the town. Her gaze lingering a little long on one of the blue-skinned angels, a pretty enough young woman, I’ll admit.

“They’re in a good place,” I say. “They seem to have relatively safe lives here, they have plenty of food, and they don’t seem to be in any sort of rush. It’s stable.”

“What about the ferrets?” Vii asks, “These guys are happy, partly because they hunt and kill ferrets. Their happiness costs the ferrets their lives.”

Eshya purses her lips in thought, reminding me that she’s not quite the same as she was.

“Are we different?” I ask. “Our own meals cost people their lives, it’s the way things are.”

“Are we going to tell the ferrets that?” Vii asks, and I have no easy answer.

Cheerful smiles and laughter fill the town as the bandits gloat over their past raids, and even as they discuss their failure today. A young man laughs as he describes the moment I plucked him from the sky, showing off his broken leg as he leans against a building.

“Are we going to be friends with them?” Rare asks, the small dragon staring at the angelic people with an edge of concern. “Do you think they’d fit in?”

“Either we find a way to get along or we murder each other,” I say. “I’d prefer the former, but there’s a good chance we won’t find peace without some conflict.”

Rare nods slowly, puffing out thick black smoke. The others are tense, as they should be. There’s no guarantee that we’ll all be walking away from this, and my people know that well.

“Kyra,” Eshya starts, “Can we have some time when we get back home. I’m still sorting out all my memories, but I just…”

“I’ll make some time for it,” I say. “Is there something bothering you?”

“It’s nothing serious,” she says. “I just feel like I’m behind on things. I’m not as powerful as I should be, and when we talk I feel like I’m left behind. Why are we fighting? What’s the purpose of all this? I just… I don’t get it.”

“Sorry,” I pause, taking her hand and looking into her eyes. “I’ve taken for granted that you’re still… I didn’t think it would bother you so much.”

“You didn’t think it would bother me that I don’t know what I’m fighting for?” She asks.

“It never has before,” I say. “You’ve always fought for us, I guess. We’ll discuss it when we get back home.”

“For us…” she says, looking to Vii and I before sighing and rubbing at her head.

It’s not long before Aegeus makes his return, flying down from the skies above and landing before us.

“She will see you,” he says. “Only you, the leader.”

“I don’t feel comfortable leaving my people here without me,” I say in warning. “You were trying to kill us only a moment ago.”

“If you bow to her, then you will not come to harm. You will be one of us,” he says. Smiling broadly as if it’s some great offer. The whispers surrounding us prove that he’s not alone in that mistaken impression.

“Vii, take our people back home, if you would please,” I say, not looking away from the man’s eyes.

“What about you?” Vii asks, “We’re not going to leave you here, that would be stupider than stupid.”

“Arduelle will protect me, but I don’t trust her with your lives,” I say. “Just as I don’t trust myself to protect you when I’m not with you. Go.”

Eshya looks like she wants to say something more, but she holds herself back. She normally wouldn’t, she’d speak her mind without hesitation.

I can’t let her come to any more harm.

“Don’t interfere with them, I’ll be watching them and if anything happens…”

He looks confused and doesn’t reply at all, simply staring at me as if seeing me as an alien for the very first time. He can’t comprehend why I wouldn’t trust his master.

“Be careful,” Vii says. She seems defeated as she looks at me, and Eshya is still conflicted and biting her tongue. They leave shortly, flying quickly back down to the pit that leads to the dungeon.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Aegeus says.

“Thank you, but could you lead me to this Blue-Crown. I’m a rather busy woman, and I’m sure that she is much the same.”

He nods, flapping his wings and leading me again through a maze of leaves and branches. The blue leaves grow thick, and seem quite mana dense, at least somewhat more than the stone that covers the bark.

Arduelle is ignoring my messages, but at least I can feel confident as my lovers and followers are safe in the dark tunnels that lead to our home. So long as they’re not in danger, then everything else will be fine, no matter what wars come about from this meeting.

Aegeus leads me through the branches until we reach the main trunk, thinner here than it is lower down. A small hollow glows in soft amber light, welcoming us in.

From here I can feel the presence of the tree, we’re inside of its mana form, and it has the ability to draw upon us as food if it so desires, but it’s not alone in that. If this is a competition then I’m not going to lose without a fight.

“Greetings, young one.”

The voice flows like a trickling current, sounds that aren’t sounds flow into my mind, and impressions in my head are given meaning by the complex functions of my translator. The words precede the appearance of a tall humanoid that strides out from a tunnel deeper into the tree.

She’s feminine in form, but it’s clearly just an affectation, I would not go so far as to say that it’s an imitation of the elves, as instead it seems that she’s trying to stand above them instead. She stands comfortably in the room, though she could reach up to touch the tall ceiling if she so desired.

The deep blue orbs that she has in place of eyes are fluctuating in rapid spinning currents, crystalline shapes form and fade a thousand times in the moment it takes to blink. The ‘flesh’ made of pliable bark, looks softer than flesh but the artful striations suggest that it’s strong enough to resist any mortal injury.

She wears no clothes, and though her form is feminine there is no pretence of sex. Yet, it’s not as if something is missing or lacking, instead, it’s as if she’s achieved an even more perfect form.

Most concerning of all, many of these impressions aren’t simply my own fantasy, they’re spoken in her movements and translated into my mind. It’s a master application of the same Skills that Arduelle has trained me in but used far less subtly than the ancient dungeon prefers.

“Greetings,” I reply, shocked enough to show her my best formal pose. I was not an incompetent student, though I’ve had less time to study in these arts than I’d like. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

It would be too easy to think that this figure before me is a threat, and she might very well be so, but unlike Arduelle, this is not her true form. She is the tree itself, and this figure, this shape, is nothing more than a small fragment of a greater whole.

We’re already in the belly of the beast.

“You come to speak with me, to learn your place in the great cycle. Then I will grace you the opportunity to listen and learn.” Her words, for all their trained depth, sound much akin to the greetings of a clerk at a sales desk.

Dry and practised. Uncaring.

“I know my place well,” I say in reply, thinking fast. She’s likely dealt with arrogant pests before and acting rash would have me seem like all the others. I need something that will get her attention, and I know now that my own strength will not be evidence enough.

Again, I borrow the authority of others.

“I am the student of a being your superior and it is by her protection that I stand here in the confidence that I might leave regardless of your intents. I would appreciate your attention, so we might discuss the future of our relationship.”

She remains silent for a time, glancing at Aegeus for but a second, sending him away without a spoken word. The silence that hangs between us is fraught with countless thoughts, as finally, the true weight of her focus falls upon me.

“Who is it you serve? One of my brothers?” She asks, conveying no hatred and no frustration.

“I serve myself, but I learn from a powerful dungeon.”

“Rick? That living corpse that writhes in the earth below?” She asks.

I try to plant a mark on her, but it slides off without achieving anything important.

“No, an acquaintance of his,” I answer her. “The details matter not, just know that I have a backer protecting my life. It is me who you are here to deal with.”

“So, a child trying to grow with the protection of a parent?” She asks, tilting her head. “You wish to grow here? To compete with me under my own branches?”

“Yes, but no,” I answer shortly. “I do not intend to compete with you, I intend to take this entire world and I’m here to see if we can live beside one another. If there can be peace between us, or if we will war.”

“War?” she asks, her doll shivering in a display of revulsion. “Child, war is death to any who are arrogant enough to participate. It weakens us all. The survivors are left weakened, plucked and consumed by those who retained their strength.”

“Have you only ever had conflict with others of your species?” I ask. “I don’t work quite the same way. I recover terribly quick. I’m a few days out from surviving my last war, and I’m already prepared for another.

“Your strategies do not apply to me,” I warn her. “If you try to prey upon me, or my people, I will take that as a declaration of war and I will see you toppled.”

“The arrogance of the weak,” she says, not at all threatened by my words, but still paying close attention. “You may not be food, but you’ve not yet proven yourself worth the respect of a peer.

“Is this all you came here for? To bare your teeth and bark your threats?”

“I came here to… correct any misgivings you might have,” I say. “You see my threats as childish, or beastly, you’re not the only one. Unfortunately, I cannot think of another way to communicate to you the fact that I will defend my people with all necessary force.”

“Your people…” She tilts her head in a display of thoughtfulness. “You speak of them with great importance. As Aegeus does of his kin. Do I understand correctly?”

“You do.”

“How might I tell these ‘kin’ apart from my own prey?” She asks. “You’re all so small and unimportant and hardly worth the effort. Why invest so much passion, in such short-lived beings?”

“Because they are mine,” I say firmly, not backing down.

“It would take great effort and might even slow my own growth to do as you wish of me. No, if you truly wish to avoid this war that you threaten, then we will deal with each other as I do my siblings. We will compete.”

“How does this proposition work?” I ask.

“It is simple, it is the ways of life itself. We will eat, and we will grow until one of us is strong enough to consume the other,” she says. “First, let us test ourselves, as I’m not convinced that you are as important or as powerful as you proclaim.”

“How do you intend to do that?” I ask, readying my magic. “Do you want to risk your life on this?”

She pauses, taking longer to think than before. I don’t know what’s running through her mind, but I’m confident that at least this time, I can survive without any of my people dying.

“Violence should be used only against the weak,” Blue-Crown says. “There is an opportunity coming. In an hour there will be a flood, the weak will cover the land at my roots and far beyond. Compete with me. Hunt them and prove that you stand above them.”

“If I refuse?” I ask. I don’t yet know what sort of foes these are, and I’m not entirely convinced that it would be right to kill them.

“Then I see no reason to respect the lives of ‘your people’ as you see them. I will treat them as I treat any who stand beneath my canopy, they will be something to be consumed.”

“If it comes to that, I’ll have to warn my carpenters ahead of time,” I say, turning to leave.

It doesn’t seem like she’s much impressed with my attitude, but the thought of her killing my loved ones is enough to remove any inhibitions I might have had until now.

Either we make peace, or we war until the peace is found in the silence of the grave.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 31,673 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 15,745 / 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)