I idly watch the portal as another person steps through in the middle of our safe zone. Someone I hadn’t expected.

“What the hell is going on?” The former Grand Arch Druid asks me.

Those words send a shiver down my spine. Restricted by the very system to the pitiful level of this planet's stage of integration, he can’t exert more than a fraction of his power. And the level of troops under me… under us, NO…. under HIM. They are lacking. Not even a million troops after five months are enough to match the natives with their endless bag of tricks.

“I asked….”

My mind instantly gets into gear.

“Sorry sir, I thought I made clear the level of this planet’s danger. But I see that you came yourself.”

“Everything has turned into a disaster without a real commander. We are five months in and we hadn’t a sing leaf of territory outside what the system gave us. Even our city is only a tenth of the size it should be and our troop numbers are barely half the normal amount. With the loss of invasion slots each wave and the catastrophic losses over here…. I had to come by myself to see what is going on and put an end to it. We can only start the next invasion in this corridor after getting at least nominal control of the planet.”

“I… I don’t want to doubt your skill. But killing Satomi of the bright leaves wasn’t an anomaly. I think that the only reason their cursed champion hasn’t killed me is that I’m weak and they felt we were unlikely to send another while I was here.”

His eyes bore down on me, but after a moment he speaks.

“We didn’t get much on this Champion of theirs through the missives nor the other invasions. How is he causing so much trouble? Isn’t he only level 100?”

“The lower bound for his lowest stat is 200 and I’m certain he has Willpower nearing a thousand. Further than that, we don’t know how they are scouting, but it's like they instantly know any maneuver we make, no matter how small. We haven’t even managed to sneak a single assassin through their lines. They do all that with only a single outpost nearby. It’s straight inland roughly 10 miles away from the shores and it’s a fortress. City wide runes, large batteries banks, powerful defensive turrets and no obvious weaknesses.

“The only time we tried a surprise raid with most of our troops, they hunkered down for a whole night, but then after we were already tired from breaking down their defenses and we were ready to crack the shell, a huge stream of troops started climbing out. We could have probably taken them under different circumstances, but we ended up retreating. We are in the middle of a forest and they have nearly absolute control over nature they grow. Even Satomi couldn’t maintain a field more than a dozen meters wide with all his power without the help of the system.”

“You paint a grim picture, but this time I brought a core of real troops with equipment to match their level. We will take the initiative and crush the bugs that dared to step out of line.”

I nod acquiescence as we move inside a meeting chamber and out of prying ears. A few runes and a hint of mana stop any eavesdropping and I can be fully honest with him.

“It won’t be enough.”

“What?”

“I’m... intimately aware of my lackings. And I also know for certain that they are holding back something. They are too cavalier when a single mistake might have cost them tens of thousands of troops. But they deeply care for every one of them.”

He hums in thought.

“I will need to see that myself.”

“I would recommend that you do not leave this encampment. And when they come, either hide in a bunk with defenses ten times as powerful as we suspect they can get through or better yet, stay in the safe zone.”

His eyes burn with intensity, but I cannot let another one of our great ones fall.

Especially an elder like him.

“Are you afraid, do you doubt that our armies can overcome them?”

“No, but no matter what you brought we mostly play by the rules of the system… they don’t.”

That takes him by surprise.

“I know of the Aether Wielder.”

“It is much more than that. I will give you everything I have, but you won’t believe it before you see it with your own eyes. When you do, you will understand what is to fight against someone who seems able to kill you at the drop of a hat. Well, maybe not you, but no need to risk yourself for a single invasion.”

His eyes bug out, but I stand my ground. I know my limitations, but I won’t mince words for something this important and if he is offended by this and today is my last day, so be it.

“I will need to see for myself and then we will talk.”

===============

“Nash. The life detectors and the seeds using the perception field agree. They have a million troops. Their numbers are quite significant and there seems to be a change this time as well. Can you confirm this?”

I stare at the young scout instead of the distance in the upper balcony of my little hut as I stare nearly directly at the sun. Then I use another sense through the network to confirm what I had seen beginning a couple of hours ago.

“Yeap, they reached nearly a million elves.”

“Do you think this is the tipping point and they will start sending out massive scouting or raiding parties now?”

“You know as much as I do. That is my guess. After the last couple of months even with everything that we keep in reserve. Who knows?”

“At least recruitment is up.”

“We don’t even have 200 thousand and even many of those have relatively inferior combat standards to the first ones we recruited. We are running out of high quality defensive equipment while the enemy only gets stronger. Most other groups don’t even half of their soldiers clad in our armor.”

“But this is our world. And we have reinforcements from most regimes across our continent. Our troops aren’t weak, your combat standards are just too high.

“No, they are just right. You don’t get better by saying you are good enough, you get better by admitting your weakness and I won’t coddle our new recruits.” I say.

“They… We know quite well that we are lacking and your starting training is brutal.”

“How high are your base stats?” I say proud of one of my most monumental discoveries. With the help of Richard’s notes, the Titan’s methods and my own techniques to increase stats beyond the normal 20 points across the board. It is costly to use, not even counting my time or the Aether that Pando slowly pulled from the atmosphere, it consumed my soul scruff.

Only the tiniest of motes for each trainee. But given how sharply the efficiency dropped off, I limited everyone to three sessions. I wouldn’t give soul scruff for free, at least not on this scale. So now I had a few spoons from each of the nearly 200 thousand other people to experiment on.

If the system was trying to get some for itself, it must have a use for it, right?

“I managed 31.2 points, but my class averaged between 29 and 30 after the full three sessions.”

“That’s roughly 50 levels more physical stats compared to the natural limit put by the system.”

“I took the time to get my mental stats up as well after a good first round. I could have probably gotten one or two more points in the physical stats, but an extra 10 intelligence and 10 wisdom for each treatment was too tempting. And I even managed a few perception points in each treatment.”

“You are talented. Maybe you will even prove worthy of a couple more treatments even if they grow less effective and much more expensive.” I say actually impressed by the dedication that those results showed. “Take the test when the time comes, I have a feeling. Now, I have other things to take care of so take our leave if you don’t mind…. unless there is anything else.”

“There are a few dignitaries that want to meet you.”

“I know, I can sense them from here. Get someone to wrangle those cats downstairs so that I can say no to each of them face to face in short order and without other people around to embarrass them.”

He simply nods and moves out. Thirty seconds later the first one is entering and this one I don’t mind nearly as much. The military commander with the granddaughter who wouldn’t shut up about Pando.

Russel wore custom plate armor. Really high quality gear which meant that it was made by someone in our village. But he walked in without his helmet which reveal his short hair and the uncomfortableness of his task to my eyes.

“Nash.”

“Russel. Are they sending you to butter me up?”

“Pretty much.”

“And you do not like that.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“You are that truthful..”

“The ones back home would not say it like it is a compliment.”

“Coming from me it is. I’m not an enemy or someone that can be manipulated by fancy schemes. I seek the heart of the matter and I have the tools to discern truth from horse dung. Whatever is it that you are gonna ask, you are probably the only one that has a shot.”

“Join forces and conquer the world?” He says with a sad smile.

“And get all that extra work? No, I don’t think so. Plus I’m not a political leader or anything of the sort, but I won’t stay totally divorced from it as well.” I say lightly, and he turns his deadpan stare at me. “Ok, ok, I hold more power than any title I carry. I know that the political maneuvering is heating up. Everyone is jockeying for position. But I won’t be a political pawn, nor will Pando become partizan to any treaties that I don’t agree with. I… I may not be perfect and though I hold great power, I’m going to attempt to keep the balance where I can, not rule. If humanity can’t stare out of its own belly button with everything It managed to get and that I gave it, then I guess that we will fall to the enemy. But everyone has a chance to learn and I will guide our village where I can.”

“You are going to be so much more than that. Especially when Charlie’s Village comes back and joins Pando’s village.”

“They… we won’t really join together. We are close allies, but when they come back everyone will have a choice and only the best will be part of Pando’s village. Now without talking in hyperboles, what do they want?”

“I dispute that. Your entangling with them… is a lot deeper but fine, I will put their requests in concrete terms: We want preferential access to the tech that is coming out. More buying shares for your products, first hand access to that special stat raising technique, you name it, they want it.”

“They already get access to it on the open market and the liaisons that are sending orders down the pipe while your actual leaders don’t return from the instance don’t have anything that would warrant that level of consideration.”

“That is the final word isn’t it?”

“Yep. I get that you are mostly following orders when you come here, but I would only concede stuff like that if you bring me something I deeply care about. And I think you have a good idea of what that would be. More access to top secret stuff, tech, magic and researchers. Also no threats, doomsday scenarios or empty promises. A modicum of respect would be nice, but you already take care of that.”

“I will pass the word.”

I say goodbye to someone I was growing attached to, even if I have to keep him at arm's length. Our friendship could turn sour in an instant given the demands of our positions.

The others come in and out like my rom is a revolving door as I make sure to waste as little time as I can without actually offending them too badly. Then comes someone different than I expect and I hold my breath wishing that they are the real deal but dreading that same old breed of environmentalist that clashed with me and my interests.

That hope will net him a minute more of my time and attention.

“Hi, I represent the newly formed Earth’s Alliance for Nature Preservation. Six out of the ten largest remaining power are signatories and we wanted your endorsement.”

“Blunt, better than most other people that came here, but what do you stand for?”

“Well, I know that you have a relationship with Pando and you try to preserve Nature. You have shown a natural affinity with our ‘mandates’….”

I let him drone on for a little while exploring the duality of my interactions to people in his position. The way people tried to ‘protect’ Pando and other parts of nature before makes me wary of any Preserving efforts by an unknown party. Efforts that were driving him further to his end, efforts that might have taken me away from him. But now things are different and I let a connection build to this representative. Not naturally, instead, I force myself to read the words behind his words. One Step towards connection reaches across the gulf, even though we don’t have a soul connection that would have made this so much easier, I still manage to nearly read his mind.

I’m horrified by what I find there.

Worse yet, I learn we do have a soul Connection, it just isn’t the type I grew used to. Not harmony as we share the same frequency or particular fractions that add up to a complex note, but something dissonant.

The louder we try to play, the greater the sense of not just randomly hitting a piano, but true dissonance. Carefully selected keys that seem to be just as different as we could make it.

Then I get a clear sense of what his form of preservation meant.

My mouth works by itself and the words form without conscious intent.

I had heard stupid shit coming out of people’s mouths before but some of what I find takes the cake.

“Nature is pure and humans shouldn’t interfere with it.”

“I wouldn’t have put it like that, but not too far from true.”

I nearly get streams of thought manifesting in his emotions even if I didn’t directly touch him to activate telepathy, but his intentions get clearer and clearer.

“Look, I could take the time to point out everything that makes us incompatible and I might later. In principle, I’m not opposed to that protective instinct. BU something fundamental lurks beneath. While you think that humans are a cancer that grew out of control there is little sense in our discussion.”

“I also wouldn’t have put our interference and the harm we put on the planet like that, but you can’t deny how we alter the natural rhythm of the world.

“We ARE part of the world. I gave you the benefit of the doubt because properly aligned you had the potential to be someone I could really work with, but I see that I was wrong. Our goals aren’t compatible. Hell, they are mutually exclusive. Leave me to my thoughts and know that while I intend to protect nature, it won’t come at humanity’s expense. That is the wrong order of things.”

As he steps away, my insides roll in turmoil at my steadfast refusal. At least he is not one of the moralizing douches that didn’t take no for an answer. But as the detached arguments of people in the past that didn’t understand what nature needed in the least come to mind and the cost that their policies often caused, my determination builds.

Sure, it was all nice and cozy to spout about human harm when you were ten thousand miles away, but I know what I would choose if my neighborhood was cold and the only source of warmth was a tree.

At least if we were talking about a nonsentient tree.

And the fact that the ideas proposed often end up having the opposite effect of their supposed intentions is just eh icing on the cake. Artificial goalposts on bollock metrics that are constantly pushed further away. Many efforts in politics were filled with similar problems, but when environmentalism went out of wack, it usually took the cake in the stupidity chart.

So I put my thumb on the scale.

I will need to be careful of the results and my own biases. But if anybody wants to ‘protect’ Pando once again with crazy pie in the sky ideas, I’m going to throttle them myself.

The wryness and thoughts in my mind slowly give way as I let go of frustration and turn to the future. Ruminating on this isn’t on the plan and I have a good plan.