Gazing at the notification, a wave of calm passed over me. Enormous amounts of mana radiated in. My psyches crystallized, becoming rigid and dense. I swallowed back down a wave of nausea, and my trembling lessened to shaking. Clarity coursed, and motivation surged.

That's right. I wasn't alone. After taking a breath, I said the word.

"Resist."

I winced, but it left no mark on me. I remained whole and sane. I repeated the word, testing myself, and I retained coherency. I stood on unsteady feet and squeezed my shaking hands. The tremors stopped. The fear faded. Before heading out, I gave myself a moment to remember my resolve. This would be a long road, and I'd only taken a single step.

It was time to take another.

Chapter Begin

I took a second to think my options through. Knowing the future, I considered rushing to crush Elysium immediately. After some thought, I came up with a different plan. First, I opened my status and invested my tree points into Owner of Worlds.

You hold in your hands the power of decision. Your words usher forth change on a global scale across regions, cultures, and species. You may guide those under you to oblivion or nirvana. You may squeeze to powder or carry to eminence. You may crush to nothing or build to bastion.

It is a history you make.

+75% to City Barrier Strength

+75% to City Barrier Efficiency

+30% to City Barrier Size

+30% to Credit Income Multiplier from owned territories

+30% to Experience Multiplier from owned territories

+75% to Bounty Payout in owned territories

+75% to Bounty Experience Reward in owned territories

-30% to Warping Costs in owned territories

Sovereign Exclusive: +18% to World Perk Efficacy

The bonuses clicked into effect as I shot towards Saphigia's center to compensate for lost time. I landed on the city's monolith, crushing it under my heel. Powdered stone billowed in a massive cloud, but I contained it with an ice shield. After pulling the rock and water out of the confined area, I pulled out the active blue core.

It hummed in my hands, still keeping this part of Saphigia safe, but I shook my head at the weak, tamed thing. It paled in comparison to the blue cores I gained on L-7. After pulling out twenty blue cores, I generated a new pillar and embedded cipheric markings. Once completed, I moved on to creating constructor golems.

With two made after several minutes, I took my time to create eight more guardians. Before I finished all of them, I sent the already-made golems to help against Elysium's vessel. However, instead of having them destroy it, I told them to only defend the imperial troops and Kessiah. My arrival would still be necessary for my plan.

An hour passed before I finished all of the golems. While crafting, I charged the twenty blue cores I put in Saphigia's central monolith. I doubled the core commitment from my last go-through, which paid off. A dynamic, dense, and resilient barrier covered the city, and I marveled at it.

The hexagonal shapes composing the sphere resembled crystal panels of ice, holding well over three hundred billion mana stored to protect this place. It could send out those panels and slice apart anything nearby, the cipheric augments taking on a life of their own. Even the buffs from the monolith improved, making everything stronger within.

They'd need more than Lehesion to take this place.

After the city's makeover, I shot across the skyline, making my body thin like a needle. The more aerodynamic form reduced friction, preventing any unintended ignitions nearby. After a minute, I reached the Elysium vessel. The imperials fought the Elysium troops with my golems as a backup, but the cored golems dwarfed the power of the Hybrids.

The pulsing machines piled up by the dozen, my guardians disintegrating the masses as they stacked up. The imperials stabilized the situation, and my barrier's buffs helped keep critically wounded soldiers alive. Wanting Lehesion to arrive again, I copied my previous landing. I crashed through the protective wall that Kessiah healed in.

The albony and others gawked at me. Kessiah peered up, and she shouted.

"It's about damn time someone showed up. Get these guys the hell out of here. I'm trying to make some money for Schema's sake."

I glared in their direction.

"They're not leaving."

Getting Deja Vu, I encompassed the entire area in a gravity well. From afar, any stray Hybrids or Elysium soldiers siphoned to Elysium's ship. I commanded my golems to get the imperials out of there, and I preemptively pulled the city's barrier over us. Once I piled everything together, I localized the gravity well into a shrunken point.

The vessel caved in, air bubbles bursting out of its smashed hull. I gave it one more squeeze, liquid squealing out of cracks. Three singularities later, the vessel was no more.

I turned to Kessiah.

"Yo. We have to go."

She pointed at the wounded albony.

"I'm kind of busy-"

I had already swiped several people into my pocket dimension, collecting them all in a few seconds. Kessiah gawked.

"Oh yeah. You can do that."

I swept up the last soldier.

"I'm isolating them within a dimensional stasis. They can't die without time's passage."

Kessiah stepped away from me.

"You...You're Daniel, right?"

I pulled my helmet down.

"Of course. Who else?"

Kessiah shrugged.

"A giant, metal monster?"

"Eh, maybe a little. One sec."

I turned towards Lehesion's warp in the distance.

"Try to finish up here. I'll be back in a few minutes. I can explain what's going on then."

I flew up the way I came in, leaving them with only one hole to fix in their insulating cover this time. As I crossed the blue core's barrier, I found Lehesion's spatial tear far further out than before. While I waited for him to get through, I charged mana for the coming fight. I needed him and Elysium to remember what I was capable of.

Lehesion smiled.

"Ah. It is you yet again. I thought we'd called a truce of sorts? Perhaps you wished for another thrashing."

"More like I want to give someone a wake-up call."

Lehesion smiled.

"You shall be the one to awaken, child."

He darted through the portal before breathing deeply. Jerking myself sideways, I let his beam billow out to my city. It crashed into the barrier in a massive explosion. I waved my hand over the resulting cloud of steam, pulling it away with gravity. After the ocean filling in the missing water, the shield showed no marks, holding up with utter ease. Perfect.

Lehesion grimaced at me.

"What is this? Face your destroyer."

He rushed at me, flipping in the water while dragging his tail behind himself. It built energy before colliding with my raised arm. His limb ruptured, unable to tolerate the forces he put on it. Rearing back my hand, I smiled.

"Yup. It's still just as satisfying the second time."

I splat him in an instant. He regenerated, and by the time he could move, I had already stretched my pocket dimension to its utmost extent. I swiped up a large portion of him but couldn't get his entire body into the pocket dimension. The entrance wasn't large enough, so a slither of him always remained.

From that slither, he reconstituted in his entirety. Either way, I wasn't getting his aura into the dimensional space, and that's what really mattered. Still, I held several of his bodies within my pocket dimension for later use. After a few more clashes where the golden balloon popped, he flew into the sky for his eclipse shenanigans.

I destroyed the stars once more, my body a flood of destruction and my mind its maker. Once thwarted, Lehesion's eyes rolled back in his head, his controllers taking him over again. Instead of assaulting my mind, enormous amounts of energy coursed in from afar. His body expanded. He engorged himself on power as he had against the Spatial Fortress long ago.

Gazing at me, Tohtella spoke through him.

"It's you again."

I glared at her. Lehesion turned a paw to me. The gesture didn't fit his body.

"This is a misunderstanding, I'm sure. You wouldn't want us to destroy this place and earth next?"

I coursed with an absurd amount of energy.

"Try it."

Lehesion's eyes narrowed.

"Do you think we lack the resolve to destroy your planet?"

I spread my hands.

"No. You lack the ability."

Lehesion bolted towards me, many times faster than before. He slammed his tail into my arm at a blistering pace. A shockwave erupted from the collision, liquefying nearby fish and corals. The ground glassed, and the ocean vaporized. I felt the impact this time, but I held with a slight effort.

Lehesion's bones crushed like wet stones, and Tohtella screamed. I grabbed the flesh of the tail.

"I'm not the same, and I will carve that understanding into your mind."

I pulled Lehesion down and psionically invaded him, but I left the lizard's psyche alone. He was Eonoth's champion, after all. However, the Old One hadn't said anything about Elysium. Once we made contact, they rushed into my head and killed my mind again.

They harvested pieces of me. They chopped, ripped, and tore me apart. I blinked out tears of blood and tasted copper on my tongue. Or mercury. Honestly, I didn't know what my blood tasted like. They didn't either, as I shook my head in disappointment. Their attempts at slaughter, they were shallow. I faced a puddle.

And compared to the endless sea of Eonoth, this was nothing.

While studying Elysium's tactics, strategies, and techniques, I died my shallow deaths. They employed many of them, most familiar but a few new. As they crashed against me, I offered a subtle resistance to exercise their own psionic approach. After a while, my face wrinkled, and I frowned.

It was time.

I enclosed them, many deep within my psyche. I flooded their minds with my own, psionically drowning them. They tried escaping, but I held them here in purgatory as I had before. After splitting most of Elysium's psionics into pieces, Tohtella's voice radiated out.

"You. What are you doing?"

I continued killing.

"Well, I'm decimating all of your current psionics. If I could, I'd pull you down here and kill you too."

Tohtella's voice hardened.

"This means war."

I slaughtered their forces for a while. Tohtella's voice rasped.

"This is about the lottery, isn't it?"

I furrowed my brow.

"Oh really? You think so?"

I pulled dozens more psionics down here, and I ended them.

"You think I don't understand your intentions after the lottery?"

Tohtella's tone changed as I killed swaths of her people.

"E-Elysium is a large organization, and we don't have absolute control of every branch-"

"No. War began on Leviathan-7. I'm showing you what war means to me."

I killed thousands.

"It's one-way slaughter. You line up. I knock you down."

The bodies piled up.

"You want more enemies? I am more than enough."

Their control waned until it no longer pressed on Lehesion. I ripped at what was left.

"You want to have goals? Safety? A place to sleep? To feel warmth without fear? If I am your enemy, then you will have nothing. I'll scorch your worlds. I'll kill every person you want alive. I'll destroy your heritage and history. I'll tear your memory from every mind that has ever heard of Elysium."

Tohtella shouted.

"We'll stop. We'll leave."

I released some mental pressure.

"Then go. If Elysium ever shows a sign of aggression to me or my planets, you will be met with total and complete annihilation. Never touch my worlds again."

Tohtella's presence dispersed, but I continued emptying Lehesion's mind aside from the lizard himself. Once I finished, I pulled myself out. I gazed down at him.

"You know, you're free if you want to be. That could still be possible."

Lehesion stared at me with wide eyes, his wings close to his body. He huddled close to the ground, his head low.

"What are you?"

Tired of hearing that damn question, I shouted.

"I'm Daniel. Don't ask again."

He cowered, and I walked over. I put my hand over his forehead, Lehesion sweating under the vast sea. I leaned close.

"Elysium will never touch my worlds again. And you? If you see one of my planets, I'll gore your mind to splinters."

I squeezed his head.

"Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes."

"I'm not accepting excuses if you land on a planet I just claimed."

"Of course."

I roared.

"Now get out."

I let him go, and Lehesion turned, splitting apart space-time and leaving. I stayed there for a while, hoping my plan worked. After decimating their psionics, Elysium wouldn't want another incursion with me for at least a bit. It also gave Schema some breathing room heading into the future.

I did all that without incurring Eonoth's wrath, which wasn't difficult. The Old One's definition of stopping a champion was absolute and pure. That meant I had plenty of wiggle room before the entity stepped in. Peering around, I winced at what lay around me. Glass patches, dead wildlife, and muddied water stretched for miles.

I had an absolute mess to clean up. I raised a hand and shouted.

"Yo Schema, I bought you some time. Make sure you use it."

Nothing was said, but all was heard. I bent down and jumped. The sand exploded underneath me, the water sinking from above before pluming upward in a wave. I bolted towards Kessiah's camp, finding them repairing the hole in the roof and getting people back into their vessel. I found the entrance, about ten feet too small for me.

After lying on the ground, I pulled my wake out of my body with my furnaces. I floated the ancient artifacts into the bubble and rematerialized my body from the ether. As I walked into existence, I raised a hand to Kessiah.

"You finished?"

Everyone gawked at me, my fight with Lehesion having just finished. The aftermath still lingered, and many of these soldiers had heard of Lehesion's wrath. I crushed him, making me something above their greatest enemy. Breaking the ice, I spread my hands while looking around.

"Hah, we taught that lizard a lesson, eh?"

Because of the tension, I got a few laughs from my joke. A few imperials walked up, thanking me for the show, saving them, and getting them out of this situation. I pulled different injured albony out of my pocket dimension, having Kessiah heal them one at a time without so much pressure.

I watched her work, impressed by her finesse. She learned the anatomy of the albony inside and out, allowing her to save fatal wounds of all kinds. Unlike most healing, she remade anything missing, so it wasn't a bandaid fix. Her recovery fixed everything but the mind itself.

However, she wasn't perfect. Hybridized soldiers couldn't be saved with her alone, and surgeons carved up any infected soldiers, trying to get enough living tissue to rebuild the main body. Any infections near someone's head spelled a rapid end, and too much missing tissue led to blood loss.

I couldn't handle anything technical but walked up to the surgeon's tables. With my strength, I could pinch off any Hybridized areas near the end of the infection sites. My armor could eat the leftovers, though stopping my armor from eating untainted tissues was difficult. I drained so quickly that I ended up using single wires and tapping them onto infected sites. My armor soaked it up like dabbing a napkin on water.

Despite my lack of proficiency, I eased the surgeon's jobs by orders of magnitudes. We finished within two hours, and I met up with Kessiah. She got her credits, counting them. I offered a high five.

"Hey, teamwork makes the dream work. Eh?"

She frowned at me. I lowered my hand.

"What's up."

She shook her head.

"It's nothing. I just wanted to do this on my own for once."

I furrowed my brow.

"You did. I can't heal at all."

She pointed at the cleanup.

"You know, there's a lot of steps that go into healing. It's not just helping regenerate. There's sanitation, decontamination, debridement, and other stuff. You're helping with all that."

I grabbed my arm and wrenched it off. As I did, I liquefied the connective parts so I didn't bust the glass nearby from how loud it would've been. Raising the injured arm, my tissues flooded like a cup filling with water.

"You can do this for other people. I can't do that, and trust me, I've tried. Hell, I'm worried I won't be able to continue with removing the infected-"

"Debridement. Technically, it's Hybrid debridement, but we don't call it that."

I leaned back.

"Well, my armor keeps soaking energy up faster and faster. It's becoming more difficult to keep it in check."

I peered around at my golems.

"Hm, but maybe I could specialize some of the golems for that. They're not quite as powerful as I am, but they'd still smash someone apart with a slight mistake."

Kessiah scoffed.

"Sounds hard."

I furrowed my brow.

"But not impossible...You ready to head back?"

Kessiah put her hands on her hips.

"Sure. I just got another job, but that can wait if you need me."

I leaned in.

"What's the job?"

Kessiah peered off.

"Hmm. It's for some albony royals. Apparently, that lottery thing didn't end up going too well for them. They're paying big bucks to make this happen fast, but you're the boss-"

I raised my hand.

"Actually, what I want can wait. Where is this?"

Kessiah peered at her nails.

"It's at their capital, Ostaltia."

My eyes widened.

"Let's go. Now."

I lifted her with a gravity well.

"No time to explain."

She pointed at me.

"Hey, you can't just grab me like this."

I set her down.

"Do you mind?"

She smirked.

"Nope."

I rolled my eyes and picked her up with a gravity well. I pointed at the vessel.

"Can they warp us there?"

"We need a main drive. There's one at Saphigia's center."

I pulled us out of the area before one of the soldiers pointed at the body I had left behind. They shouted.

"What are we going to do with this?"

I waved a hand, pulling it with me. Kessiah crossed her arms.

"What the hell happened at the lottery?"

I winced.

"It's a long story."