~~Lee~~

"Sleep well?"

"Yeah," Lee mumbled sleepily. He yawned and stretched out on the bed… then recognized the voice.

Lee snapped his eyes open inside the Soul Fortress. He'd been working in here when Stanley started screaming…

In less time than it took to blink, Lee was standing next to his twin. "Stanley! Are you…"

Stanley blinked in surprise before smiling as he stepped back from the abrupt repositioning. "I'm okay… and I guess you really were in my dream?"

Lee nodded and said, "you scared me for a minute with that nightmare." It was disturbing to feel his twin's power being used against him, even in the Soul Fortress. Hell, it was terrifying in here, and Lee couldn't imagine what it must be like in the real world. He was just glad that Stanley had the healer with him…

Of course, Lee wasn't helpless here, either.

Stanley wouldn't meet his gaze as Lee pushed his own will against the Soul Fortress and moved both of them to the courtyard.

"You're getting better at that," Stanley finally responded, changing the subject away from his night terrors.

Lee sighed but reluctantly accepted the topic shift. "I don't have much else to do lately." The fact that he couldn't create any Runes without potentially dooming his brother, and himself by extension, didn't leave him with very many options. Of course, there was always the possibility that Stanley would be forced to use the Source, at which point Lee would be free to act as well… but waiting or hoping for that just felt like a terrible idea.

The one thing he could do in the meantime was to create RuneScapes in the Rune Library. It was a small consolation but better than nothing, and thanks to that, Lee had filled the open space of the courtyard with hovering symbols that ran all the way up past the third floor. Different sections focused on the various plans and needs that were waiting for him to resolve.

Stanley clearly didn't want to discuss his nightmares right now, and since Lee didn't actually have any solutions… he let it go.

Instead, Lee drifted across the open air and approached the area where his plans for Alejandro hovered in a menacing light. These were the Runes that gave Lee nightmares of his own. So many ideas, but no way to test them without potentially risking Alejandro's life… his unlife? Golem life? Whatever it was, Lee was terrified of the consequences of failure.

"You'll figure it out," Stanley said from beside him. His twin could be so perceptive sometimes, at least when it didn't involve himself.

"Thanks." Lee didn't know if he believed Stanley's claims, but he would find out eventually.

They made small talk for a time, each ignoring the looming threats to chat about amusing or interesting events. Lee smiled at tales of Caffeine being used to interrupt Stanley's chattering, and Stanley laughed when Lee told him of Anita's escapades. Stanley talked of Eve, with multiple interruptions from Caffeine, and explained how he was trying to help her improve her Soul.

Their chat ended when Lee was called away by the one thing that there always seemed to be time for. Meetings. Lee had been right so long ago when he rejected the idea of leadership. Technically, he had been wrong to let that weasel be in charge, but he had been right about the job being a pain in the ass.

Lee left the Fortress and returned his attention fully to the real world. Information bombarded him from every direction, and Lee took a few moments to adjust to the influx. Taking in so much and doing it nonstop was exhausting, but it was necessary. Lee had the power to watch over his little kingdom, and he wouldn't let some discomfort or fatigue keep him from protecting this place, even more so when it came to protecting his people.

"You coming?" the child's voice asked for the third time.

Anita had been sent to fetch him or, more likely, had overheard the others getting ready to call him down and had taken it upon herself to alert Lee. She did love having an excuse to go crashing through the building…

The little tyke was growing up too fast, and she hadn't found anyone to Apprentice a Class from yet, with many having dreadful Affinity and others that she was simply uninterested in. As far as Lee had heard, Jackson's Class was the only one she was remotely interested in. While that wouldn't have been a bad idea previously, near immortality was nothing to scoff at, now the man's Class was a bit more berserker focused.

Lee suspected her parents were holding out, hoping she would pick something a bit… safer, like her brother. Unfortunately, Anita was turning out almost entirely opposite to the patient and creative Gabriel.

All this left her with far too much free time to get into mischief, and the Guard had eventually been recruited to ensure that she did not wander past the walls. Lee suspected that her willingness to always wear the collar of Freedom was the only thing keeping her parents from constant panic attacks.

"I'm coming," Lee told her, and Anita vanished with a mischievous grin.

She had figured out how to adjust the recall function seemingly at will and now used it to teleport around the Fort. Lee's Mana Mind easily noticed her reappearing inside Saira's grove, right next to one of the woman's Apprentices. Anita snatched a Mana-rich fruit from the nearby tree and teleported away before the Apprentice could grab her, reappearing in one of the newly constructed buildings.

Lee could feel his own collar recharging hers after each teleport, and he could have stopped it, but… Anita divided the stolen fruit among the other children in the room she'd appeared in. The girl was a force of chaos inside the Fort, but she was still a good kid. Lee was happy enough to enjoy her antics while being glad that she wasn't his responsibility, not that he wouldn't do whatever was necessary to keep her safe, including the fact that he could never withhold the charge to her collar.

Besides, anyone who complained about her got referred to Maria… and that was usually the end of it. Mostly it was just other parents who didn't want her giving their own children ideas, and Lee was only too happy to let Maria handle them.

As for Jackson, he was on bodyguard duty and stuck his head in the door. Seeing Lee already moving, he guessed, "Anita beat me?"

Lee nodded in confirmation. "Yea, let's go."

Given Bradley's recent upgrades to the building, which had removed all the large windows and other gaps leading inside, Lee's guards no longer saw the need to stand watch directly over Lee. Now they would at least wait outside the door.

Unlike the Soul Fortress, Bradley had filled in the courtyard here, creating extra rooms in the space. He had left a large room on the ground floor, however, and that was where Lee headed with Jackson trailing behind. Along with one of the Anubi, his tiny chest wrapped to the hilt with potion bandoleers.

The meeting was already underway when Lee arrived, with Bradley and Alejandro included among some of the other civilian and combat leadership.

"We are currently preparing to take in the Tijuana fort," Bradley was saying, "the last attack on them was too costly, and they have agreed to join us. I am preparing the escort team to head out in the next few days. We want to retrieve them before their protection expires."

"What about Coronado?" Alejandro asked, nodding to Lee as he joined the table.

"We know someone is over there," another man said, "likely at the airforce base, but the land bridge to get out there is nearly overrun, and that expedition has been postponed pending the Tj mission."

"Lee," Bradley turned to him, "can you get eyes out that far?"

Lee thought about it and nodded slowly. "Probably… but I won't be able to do anything without…" He trailed off, not wanting to mention his current handicap. "I should be able to provide support when we do send people out, though."

Bradley and a few of this council did know about his Rune problems, but only those trusted to know about the Source, which wasn't very many. While Lee couldn't freely create Runes like before, his Mana Mind, and by extension, his Mana Mind's Eye, could still significantly impact a battlefield. Even if only as overwatch, and especially if Gabriel's communication discs were in play.

Bradley nodded. "I'll want your assistance with Tj. We're going to have a lot of non-combatants to keep watch over."

"I'll be ready," Lee said.

"How is the new food production going?" Alejandro asked.

Saira wasn't present, but Lee could 'see' her outside the inner walls and working among the others with more farmer-adjacent Classes. He could also see the various crops growing in the newly created and much less defended fields.

Bradley had created a much smaller wall further away from the Fort. In fact, he had built it right near the edge of Lee's Mana Mind range. It was only built tall enough to hopefully delay any random monsters that wandered in, with towers for the guards spaced out enough to keep watch in all directions. The area covered was too much for a serious protection effort, and the guards were only there to kill the weakest threats. For anything more they would sound the alarm and die fighting if it was too much.

Not that they actually died, but Greene was serious about his requirements for the Guards, and retreating was only an option if that was the only way to get an alarm out in an emergency. Otherwise, they all fought to the last.

Lee didn't know if that was really the best use of their resources, especially for the healers, but he wasn't going to undermine Greene. And honestly, it was hard to argue against having guards that refused to ever run away. Speaking of which… Lee saw magic start flying out from one of the outer towers. The spells flew beyond his Mana Mind range, and whatever they were attacking didn't approach close enough for Lee to see it. He did, however, sense the vibrations in the small metal band behind Bradley's ear, the Runes embedded there transmitting a message into his ears. Bradley didn't respond to whatever message came through, and moments later, the attacks from the wall ceased.

That was the standard way of things now—a few random attacks on monsters that got too close and the occasional assault on the walls. The only monsters that were any kind of threat now were the flyers, and that was primarily only in the fields outside the Fort proper. Bradley had built up the walls and buildings inside to make any airborne attack a challenge, with the only open spaces being relatively well-defended, such as Saira's grove and Martin's training field. Nothing would survive attacking the grove, and anything that attacked the training field was just extra practice for the students.

The discussion moved to more logistical matters after that. Lee only half listened as he looked over his growing kingdom and all the people scurrying about—thousands of people, his people, all living and working while Lee watched over them unseen.

Only a handful were aware of how much Lee could see, and while some of the more Mana-sensitive had noticed his presence, they didn't know what the feeling meant and just attributed it to being in the Fort. Lee could only 'see' everyone, he couldn't listen to them without placing Runes everywhere, and he wasn't quite to that level of paranoia… yet. Plus, his Soul Awareness gave him enough to know who to keep an eye on.

He had already pointed out a few people to Greene whose Souls felt suspicious. Fortunately, none of the guards had been among them, likely because only the most dedicated could pass the recruitment process.

By and large, they were safe here. As safe as anyone could be anymore. At least for now. At least until the next Invasion… No one knew what it would look like, especially considering that they had drastically increased the population since the last attack. Primarily this had been done by gathering in everyone from the surrounding areas. There were some holdouts, of course. People who didn't want to submit to any authority, others who just wanted to worry about their own little corner of the world, and some who thought they would be safer away from any Forts or other concentrations of people.

Some groups had to be forcefully recruited or disbanded, from cult leaders to wannabe dictators, but a few of the benign loners had been left alone. This still resulted in a massive influx of people into the Fort.

Whether because of the population growth or for some other reason they didn't know, the Fort's… territory, for lack of a better word, had increased nearly constantly. Everything within the expanding area was technically under Lee's control, and he would get notified if anyone tried to create an outpost or even a Lair inside the borders.

No one knew exactly how that growth would affect the Invasions, but everyone expected it would have an impact.

Lee dreaded the coming Invasion more than any of them because he knew what had attacked Stanley… and how much power his own presence might draw down upon everyone. The main hope he had now was that Three was indeed doing a good enough job at hiding the Source from detection.

Lee had a strong feeling that the blueheads would be coming for him. Honestly, he was surprised that they hadn't attacked already. Lee wasn't scared of them. He had crushed them once and would do so again. His biggest worry was that they would send someone with their own Source. Not that he thought they would be able to defeat him, but rather that they might force him to tap the Source himself… and, in the process, draw an Invasion down on Stanley. The fact that their earlier experiments hadn't triggered an Invasion on Stanley was a good sign, but not enough to let him relax. Especially since apparently Stanley had ended up with some kind of giant acid slime chasing him…

All of which left Lee helpless to contribute to the Fort. Meanwhile, Gabriel was in the garage working tirelessly on making up for Lee's lack of assistance. Unfortunately, he only had so much Soul to spread around…

Beneath the garage and spreading in every direction was the underground half of the growing city. Bradley was truly invaluable here. Not only was he a formidable combatant in his own right, but he was single-handedly responsible for almost every construction project as well. Nearly half again as much living space as they had above ground was now available below ground, including enough bunkers for all the non-combat personnel to hide during attacks.

Lee popped his consciousness back into the Soul Fortress while still somewhat paying attention to the conversations around him, another trick he was working on in regard to the Skill. The discussions now were not something he needed to handle personally; delegating was one of the best tools of leadership, and Lee trusted enough of the people involved. Not all of them, but everyone directly under him in the chain of command was one hundred percent trusted, and that was enough. Besides, Lee had more important things to spend his time on…

While he couldn't help Gabriel with actual Runes, he could still help the young man develop new ones. Though, at this point, Gabriel was close to outstripping him in that regard. The actual improvements would be from how Gabriel utilized his Soul in the Runic creations.

More importantly, Lee wanted a way to improve Three. The living building grew a little more each day, but it was slow. Rather than wait for the trickle of Soul going to the building to increase enough to make a meaningful difference, Lee had new plans. His idea was to grow Three, but by adding… tools rather than increasing what was already there. Unfortunately, while Lee suspected it would work, there was no way to test the theory without using Source… So instead, he would just have to prepare as many options as he could think of. That way, when the time came, he would be ready to act.

It was hard, waiting for the opportunity to create something while simultaneously knowing that same opportunity might just be the end… if something too powerful attacked…

"Relax," Stanley said, "what are you stressing about now?"

Lee ducked his head, not wanting to bring up his bleak thoughts.

Stanley sat in the courtyard's center, petting the slumbering pug and watching Lee. "Just tell me."

Lee relented and shared his worries.

"We've killed everything that's tried to stop us," Stanley said, "and we'll do it again. As many times as it takes." Stanley smiled at him. "We're Unbreakable, remember? Undying! We literally can't lose."

Lee smiled back. It was a ridiculous argument… but not wholly. They had survived some… extreme circumstances, so it wasn't that far-fetched to claim…

Stanley turned his head abruptly. "I might need to focus on this… give me a sec." And then he vanished from the Soul Fortress.

Lee sighed and took Stanley's place, petting the glowing pug. Whenever his brother did something like that, he wondered if this was it. Even now, Lee could feel his heart rate accelerating in anticipation of… something.