Greed trembled with fury, before finally spitting the words that Eric had been so desperate to hear. “Open the gates! Let the brats out to drain Aurelia’s pitiful grain reserves!”

In very short order the arena rang with the sounds of thousands of children, voices filled with laughter, tears, and desperate cries for parents Eric feared they would never see again.

Yet somehow they knew. Knew where to go as dozens of warmly smiling elves, elves Aurelia must have contacted via her interface from Queensland, came to meet them. Along with no less than fifty of Eric’s Milk Maids, each of them welcoming a half dozen sobbing children into their arms.

And in surprisingly short order, 500 assembled Elven troops and auxiliaries were organizing over a hundred times their number into food lines, each child receiving a tin of water and a bowl of soup. Eric was beyond impressed with their efficiency, and that his mother had somehow managed to arrange for even the most basic essentials, and have it shipped over so quickly.

As if she had already known how things were going to play out. Or perhaps she had intended it for her troops… but wasn’t she going to open portals to her own realm within their family’s territory? His intuition told him it would result in significant mana savings to do it that way.

Yet his mother’s enigmatic gaze gave absolutely nothing away. Not even when she exchanged a nod with Caliban and no less than a hundred armored Blue Corp vehicles appeared from the Blue Quarter, each driven by a professional clearly kitted for battle. Each more than capable of holding any number of children. Just as they had once lugged multiple tons of Eric’s gold, what now felt like a lifetime ago.

Greed’s eyes bulged. “What is the meaning of this? You’re impartial! You can’t help Aurelia get 70,000 brats across the plains! That’s her problem, not yours!”

Caliban’s icy smile didn’t quite reach is eyes. “Actually, as the surrounding plains are part of our shared territory, I am well within my rights to extend the courtesy, Greed. As you have done for all your VIPs sitting in attendance before you.”

“It was an empty fucking courtesy in their case,” Greed hissed. “They didn’t need any help from me!”

Caliban held the goblin’s gaze for long hard moments. “Nonetheless, you made your choice. And I have made mine.”

Greed’s lips curled in a furious snarl. “And I’ll bet those freight cars attached on back are absolutely filled with grain, produce, and shelter kits!”

Caliban shrugged. “The plains get chilly at night, and we would be poor hosts indeed if we were to allow our guests to suffer hunger or deprivation before arriving at their destination.”

“Pathetic!” Greed sneered as the Blue Corp vehicles drove off with several thousand children now in transit, the Sylvan troops still present no doubt there to soothe the remaining children and assure them they’d all be taken to a safe place where they’d be given food, temporary shelter, and eventually… a home to call their home.

The tears of heartfelt joy he saw on so many children’s faces brought tears to Eric’s own eyes, hastily blinked away. Seeing so many children taking comfort in just holding one another, sharing food, laughing as they gazed upon a peaceful blue sky, thawed something bitter cold that Eric had felt forming in his heart. It was as if the clang of Soul Steel being forged, the hot sulfuric stink of the fires waiting to claim them in eternal agony, was now gone as if they had never been.

For these children, at least.

“Was it worth it?” Eric’s mother asked when the crimson crow Eric had sensed hovering nearby finally made its move, a flurry of red by his hand missed by all save a grimly smiling Aurelia as Eric’s own troops began filing through the ten crackling portals, each leading to massive interconnected cages dangling over what must have been a foundry located in the heart of a volcano.

Eric slowly nodded, eyes remaining on his men as he was stripped of both his revenants and the most precious artifact he might ever claim. Still, he forced himself to smile with pride at the discipline his men showed, even as they faced their own extinction, forming orderly rows of revenants on both sides of each portal, as if to guide the flood of soldiers going through, moving so fast, half-spears and exquisitely polished bronze armor bouncing and catching the light as shadow cats streamed past them, Jurassic monstrosities constantly plopping down before the gates before they were somehow cajoled through portals way too small for them… such that one couldn’t even make out the dim insides of those cages.

Yet just as inevitable as the hard smirks of the administrators glaring at him when not squinting at the portals, was the fact that his seemingly inexhaustible hoard of revenants was dwindling away to nothing.

A final chance glance shared with his bunny before the flash of sunlight off bronze dazzled even his senses, and Eric could see absolutely nothing past the backs of the final handful of dinosaurs squawking indignantly as they waddled through portals that had to stretch in ways that made the goblin shamans snarl and groan, just to squeeze them through.

And then it was done.

The last of the portals closed with a snap, Eric’s mother having vanished just as quickly, racing down to the sands below to sweep a tiny frightened child up into her arms. Just one among thousands she would give the priceless gifts of hope and opportunity to.

Even Caliban was down there, organizing things with a brisk efficiency. And if Eric wasn’t mistaken, arranging for more vehicles, food, and emergency tents to be provided. Maybe some clothes as well. A true blessing of concern, when just minutes ago, all the children had to look forward to was being burned alive before their souls were eternally fused to goblin steel.

Hell, in every sense of the word. And never had Eric felt so fiercely victorious and utterly vulnerable as he did at that moment, standing alone before dozens of the most powerful men, women, and humanoids in North America. Every single one of them now flashing predatory smiles his way, all of them knowing what was to come.

Greed glared at him, sucking deep on the embers of his cigar before puffing the sulfuric fumes in Eric’s face.

“I’m gonna make you suffer, kid. Suffer like you ain’t never suffered before.”

“Sure you are,” Eric smirked. “But you might not want to get too distracted. Not until after you witness your betters transporting 350,000 troops through the gates that you and this entire council of corrupt assholes that dare to call themselves Earth’s administrators helped to authorize.”

“You would dare to mouth off, even now?” Screeched Judge Janice, trembling with ill concealed fury as she shook her fist at him. “Your abominations are gone! Your class has been crippled! Do you understand, you insufferable little shit? We have won and you have lost, and with any luck, your entire clan and all those snot-nosed brats below will have died of exposure and starvation before you can be any threat to the new world order, come spring!”

Countless administrators roared their agreement, toasting with their gold-lined cups in accord with bitter words audible not just to Eric but countless thousands of wide-eyed children below, due to the exquisite acoustics of this miniature seating hall in the middle of the half-dome Colosseum overlooking the massive gladiatorial proto-arena below.

Eric swallowed the hot bile he felt at the despairing sobs and weeping, the screams of dismay and betrayal as thousands of rescued children witnessed firsthand just how corrupt and vile their own supposed leaders were. Instead of pitying the children under their supposed care that had been rescued from certain peril… Earth’s so-called administrators were actually eager to see them all die by winter’s end.

And they weren’t the only ones to bear witness to the unthinkably callous sentiment the administrator had voiced that so many of the administrators had banged their fists and raised their chalices in support of, as the shimmering lights that had cocooned the near dozen youths at last faded away, revealing young men and women who were the farthest thing from lads and lasses trapped in System-induced slumber or unspeakable transformation.

And there could be no mistaking the looks of betrayal and horror upon the faces of the newly forged paladins from the open-faced helms of their fully articulated suits of mithril armor, far stronger than any mortal steel.

“You knew,” said Annie, the freckle-faced girl that was Vidrig’s niece, now glaring at her uncle with such loathing and contempt that she looked the mirror image of her kin, save for the direction of her hate. “Seventy thousand children rescued from death by the boy you’d have us call monster, promised us bonuses to cut down like those fucking goblin assassins you all pretend Greed doesn’t have on his payroll, and the minute this prince surrenders 17,000 of his own personal troops, you gloat about hoping those children all freeze to death and starve over winter? What the fuck, Vid! I knew you were a jaded mercenary fuck, but shit...”

Annie choked back a sob, shaking her head in disgust. “There’s no going back from that, uncle. You’re not ruthless, you’re just fucking Evil! And if that makes me a naive fool, fine!” She screamed, eyes wild with something transcending anger. “At least I can finally go to sleep at night not drinking myself to a fucking stupor! At least I’ll finally be able to look in the mirror as something other than your pet killer!”

“You were nothing of the sort!” Janice snapped, glaring at the girl. “You were defenders of the peace, keeping Freetown from descending into chaos!”

“No we weren’t,” declared a boy that looked just like her. “We were your fucking hit squad! Taking out the leaders not of dangerous dissidents, but people tired of being paid shit wages they couldn’t even afford to feed their kids on! So you just recommend everyone take out loans from the bank, and acted clueless when Greed and his friends imposed so many penalty fees that half the city no longer has workers, because everyone was collard and sold to our goddamned enemies!”

The young man then pointed his exquisitely articulated gauntlet down at the arena filled with gaunt children, so many clustered together in anxious groups, or gazing at the world with the frightened eyes of trapped beasts, or gazing up at the titans above with thousand yard stares and hollowed cheeks, paying no attention to their own tears.

“I recognize that boy right there. Timothy! His parents asked YOU to help them finance a new business!” The newly forged paladin sneered at Judge Janice’s mute denial. “Lying bitch, I was there! You sent them over to Greed’s bank with such a fucking self-satisfied smirk on your face. And those kids were all hanging over the fucking pits of hell! And you did nothing to help. Nothing! All you did was wish death on the one person who tried to put a stop to this fucking bullshit!”

The boy’s face was a study in disappointment and outrage, glaring at the woman whom Eric was certain was his mother, spitting on the ground. “You’re dead to me, you fucking psychotic bitch. You insult our own ancestors who fled from masters just as savage as these goddamned goblins, and you know it! If dad knew how badly you had sold out, he would be turning in his grave!”

Janice lurched in her seat, the former judge pale-faced and shaking, shattered by her son’s condemnation. “Johnny, please! You don’t understand! This is far more complex than one… tragedy. Mother’s trying to help save...”

“Nothing!” He screamed. “You did absolutely nothing to help any of the families in need who came to our house. Any more than you did when you were running for mayor! You left all the charity drives to me and Carla! All you did was take credit afterwards, after we busted our asses! And all you’re trying to now save is your own fucking wallet! You’re just a fucking a vulture feasting on the corpse of our own nation!”

“Don’t talk to me that way, Johnathon Singlebrock! You have no right! I’m your mother! And how dare you even whisper Carla’s name! You have no right!”

“I have every right!” John said with a sob. “She died carrying out your fucking orders! Joining Greed’s fucking hit squad? Making her play tank for a bunch of sniping monsters? You knew she was having second thoughts. You were just trying to rope her into your fucking schemes before she could finally break free of you!”

“I was keeping her from being hunted for unlawful possession of high tech!” Janice screamed. “She’d have been reduced to leathers and a fucking spear, John!”

“And now she’s dead,” John said bitterly. “Because you forced her hand, and she never wanted to be there. And why the fuck am I not surprised that Greed’s goons, who swore to bring her back in one piece, didn’t?”

“Greed apologized as best he could!” Janice screeched, tears now streaming down her own cheeks as her son laughed in her face.

“Greed paid you a million fucking credits and you choked back your tears with a whore’s smile!”

The air rang with the crack of Janice’s blow to her son’s cheek.

Superhuman strength brought her son to his knees. Before he rose once more with a glare while Janice gazed at her own hand in horrified disbelief.

“John, I… Please!”

John shook his head bitterly, secured his helm he had perhaps foolishly taken off, and returned to his friends. “I’ll never look your way again without this helm on my head, mother.” The boy called over his shoulder before locking gazes with all his fellow paladins. “And I’ll never come here again, until Greed breaks his oath, and we wipe this fucking city off the map. You hear me, Mother? We’re through.”

John exchanged solemn nods with all the other paladins present, all of them turning as one to the arena sands, ignoring the cries and imprecations of their relatives behind them.

Annie swallowed, gazing down at the famous actress who had somehow turned out to be the Winter Queen herself, now holding a young girl in her arms like she would her own child. A child who no one would mistake as anything but Aurelia’s flesh and blood daughter, no matter how impossible such a thing might be.

“Can we give you a hand… Your Grace? We’d love to help, if you’d have us.”

John nodded, as did his fellows. “Can’t think of anything more paladin-like than helping to rescue children from a fucking death camp,” muttered one.

A brown haired girl visibly shuddered. “And our parents are working for those monsters… We were working for those monsters.”

“But no longer,” said the boy beside her, his eyes saying so much as he gently clasped her hand. “We left the goblin Hoard and we’re finally joining the Alliance… the Sylvan Alliance… as the paladins we always dreamed of becoming, before our parents trapped us.”

The girl swallowed, her eyes bright with tears, squeezing the boy’s hand. And then she was leaning against him, and he holding her tightly to his side, their armor somehow not getting in the way at all. “Now we’re free of those vile contracts. Now we can finally be the heroes we always swore we’d be.”

Aurelia’s smile was like the first glimmers of sunlight presaging a glorious new day.

“By all means, my champions. Come. Help us care for these little ones who shall be nurtured and protected under our banner, no matter that the entire world would look away and pretend their lives never mattered. For we, my paladins, know that nothing is more precious than the wellbeing of a child. Nothing sweeter than the wondrous hopes and dreams that will one day be theirs to savor. For upon their salvation rides the futures of our own children, over countless generations to come.”

The former bodyguards and killers for the administrative faction smiled at the sentiment, many nodding their heads in complete agreement. And without looking back even once at the counselors who were either roaring for their wards to obey or begging their children to return, the Sylvan faction’s newest paladins quickly lost themselves in the needs of the countless thousands of children still remaining as a second and then a third convoy of Blue Corp shuttles continued to ferry the children away.

“You! This is all your fault! All of it!” Hissed a furious Janice, glaring at Eric with murderous intensity through her tears. “If Greed didn’t have a Bronze Tier collar around your fucking neck, we’d rip you apart in ways you can’t even conceive!”

At which point Eric laughed in the woman’s face. “Actually you wouldn’t, bitch. Not with the contracts now in play between us. And your contractual bindings have absolutely no power against someone who refuses to believe your existence holds even the slightest shred of legitimacy or authority. You’re all tin puppets standing on a pile of lies, corruption, and pure bullshit! So all I have for you fuckwads is absolute and utter contempt.”

Eric ignored the pounding of his heart, the furious look on Greed’s face as over a dozen administrator’s glared Eric’s way with helpless fury, more than one pair of eyes widening with dismay when they sensed it. For Eric truly had seared away the last shred of reverence and deference he might once have had for the borrowed authority of public office, at least as far as these pretenders were concerned.

So long as Eric signed no contracts they had a hand in crafting, their lawfare powers were all but worthless against him, no clogging of his ears with the Essence of Dominion needed.

He knew it, and they knew he knew it

It would have been the perfect moment, in fact, if Eric’s world hadn’t abruptly become one of indescribable pain.

He desperately tried to choke back the scream gurgling in the back of his throat as his spasming feet cracked stone, so vicious were the currents of dark arcane magics frying him from the inside, his otherwise half-decent Arcane resistance doing absolutely nothing to mitigate the massive tidal wave of agony now coursing through his soul as Greed’s foul, ashy breath washed over him as clever fingers deftly stripped him of nearly all his possessions, including his carefully prepared storage ring.

And it wasn’t like Eric could do too much about it, writhing in pain as he was, now unable to see a thing.

His eyes had ruptured with the first surge.

“What an obnoxious little shit you’ve turned out to be, Eric Silver,” said Greed with a sigh, before an ugly chuckle washed over Eric. “I think perhaps its time for you to get just a taste of what’s in store for you in the days, weeks, and YEARS to come, boy. So I guess you won’t be needing this fancy sword or this cute little storage ring.” The goblin chuckled softly. “And look at your mother over there… oh, wait, sorry, you can’t see shit. You’re eyes just popped! How amusing. I suppose a Bronze Tier pain circlet is a bit more potent than anything you’d normally have to deal with, here on Earth. Good thing I was able to grease some very greedy palms. Don’t you agree, boy?”

Greed abruptly stood up as Eric sensed his mother’s crackling aura rapidly approaching.

“Why, how adorable you look with your lost granddaughter in your arms, Aurelia. So glad I could help you rescue so many waifs from such unfortunate circumstances! You’re undying gratitude is all I ask, ha ha.”

“What do you think you are doing, Greed?” Said a voice chill as a winter storm… before easing to a cool autumn breeze when the girl in Aurelia’s arms cried out in sudden fear.

“Exactly what said you were more than fine with, dear Aurelia,” said Greed with a cackle while blood streamed out of a shaking Eric’s ruptured eyes. “Now don't worry about us, I'm just instilling some discipline! But don’t you worry. My promise to you still holds. He won’t die under my care. Not so long as I’m around, anyway. But who knows how rough his future handlers will be? Ha ha. Now, if you wish to speak of further concessions… I’m sure we can arrange something while we sort out the disposition of whatever Sylvan fools are stupid enough to jump into contested territories where all the farmlands lay fallow, just months before hard winter hits!”

Whatever words were said after that were lost to Eric as his world became one of unending pain, barely registering the massive paws of none other than Zanshi, the Ogre Contender, lifting him up with what Eric sensed was a pitying smirk.

“Come on, idiot. Let’s get you on your ride to New York. You’re going to love sitting beside Silvis. I’m sure you’ll have all sorts of things to talk about. That is, if you weren’t spasming with so much dark magic frying your nerves its a wonder you’re still sane. Let me guess. You’ve already passed a hundred Vitality? Figures. You Terrans are mostly slag. But the few among your kind who actually excel… those are worthy opponents. I’ll give you all that much.

Eric didn’t both answering, all his attention focused on choking back the scream as liquid fire seared him from the inside out, until his whole body was jostled, tossed inside the rear of a velimobile Eric sensed was shaped very much like a paddy wagon. “You enjoy your trip, little prince,” The ogre said with a mocking chuckle, smacking the outside of the vehicle with a thump. “And don’t think I didn’t sense that delicious fusion of Wind, Fire, and Death, swirling about your soul. You actually get out of this alive, and we’ll definitely have to trade pointers sometime.”

And with those final cheerful words, the whistling Ogre returned the way he had come, leaving Eric alone, save for a pair of goblins Eric could just barely make out with his full body heat perception, almost certain they were part of one of Greed’s reviled hit squads who all but ignored his groaning form.

Only then did Eric dare do that which he had held off for far too long.

Exercising every iota of discipline to slick the inside of the mithril collar with his blood. Blood infused with the essence of Resilience, Flame, and most especially, Dominion, to hold back the torrent of indescribable pain searing through his soul.

It took every ounce of what he once thought was an absurd ability to focus when the need arose, a Willpower far beyond human norms. Yet he needed all that and more to come to terms with the endless agony of being burned alive, a pain he knew all too well. He desperately embracing his Unified Restoration to heal the now significant damage being done to multiple organs while simultaneously seeking to sooth countless pain receptors that had effectively been bespelled to embrace unending pain.

Congratulations! You have successfully repaired multiple damaged organs! You have partially mitigated Agony’s Curse!

Unified Restoration is now Rank 10!

(Skill evolution deferred.)

So slowly every second was a timeless, endless eternity, he managed to reduce his torment to merely the muted agony he had felt when first crawling out of a sentient, soul-hungry pod. It was a pain he could live with, so long as he poured all his focus, all his concentration, into understanding the exquisitely intricate puzzle now sealed so tightly to his flesh. The killing device fastened around his neck. A device of Tier 1 magitech and fine steel springs that could instantly release mithril blades that would effectively decapitate him in the blink of an eye.

A device that he needed to understand, to somehow master, if he was to have any hope of getting out of this alive. And with the guttural curses of a furious-sounding Silvis rapidly approaching, a gnoll that absolutely despised Eric after his revenant had humiliated and butchered the Contender’s elite soldiers, Eric knew he was rapidly running out of time.

Because Greed had made it all too clear that he himself wouldn’t be so foolish as to press the button that would spring the collar’s deadliest enhancement. But Greed had said nothing about foolish gnolls who would no doubt be eager to do just that.

Eric’s only consolation as his heart began to pound with a growing sense of dread, was his sense of a certain bunny’s battle cry as a massive iron trap door ruptured open, sending at least a handful of his revenants to their inevitable death into the molten iron below.

Because he had not sent his 17,000 revenants to embrace bitter sacrifice, as Greed had so delighted in declaring.

He had sent them to war.

And whether they would actually succeed at the mad last-second plan he and Bunbun had contrived, he supposed he might never know.

But he knew his bunny would never go down without a fight, even if only a handful survived the deathtraps that were those cages.

Still, a handful might be all that was needed.

Because the boon of the terrible price Eric had paid for his familiar’s ascension was this.

All his Necromancer Perks were now Bunbun’s as well.

And he would earn no experience for her kills or accomplishments.

But she would earn those triumphs in full.

With all the blessings additional perks would bring her, her class now the mirror of his own.

Eric couldn’t quite hold back his bloody smile, even when his worst fears were realized and a screeching Silvis tore open the padlocked door to launch himself at Eric like a jackal eager to take down its prey, snapping teeth tearing free Eric’s ear in the blink of an eye.

Because should even a handful of his doomed revenants survive Greed’s crucible… he might just have a surprise waiting for that goblin beyond anything his foe could possibly comprehend.

Only time would tell.

Time Eric was suddenly certain he didn’t have when his pain ratcheted up ten-fold, even with his Bloodmagic and the Essence of Dominion muting so much.

Realizing too late that he had been utter fool to think he had experienced even a fraction of what this device was truly capable of, now certain that Greed had deliberately kept it at minimum level, that courtesy perhaps the only reason why he had dared to address Aurelia with such derision, and she had consented to let him live.

A restraint the jackal-headed freak presently savoring his screams clearly wasn’t hindered by, happily twisting the dials of the device in his hand.

“Think you can mock me to my face, little worm? That you’d be allowed to invade my territory wearing a conqueror's wreath? Ha! Stupid fool! You’ll be going to New York, alright. I’ll take you right to central square! Where you’ll be on your hands and knees, howling for mercy like the dog you are, for all of my slaves to see!” Silvis cackled. “I’ll make this trip one you’ll never forget!”

Much to Eric’s dismay, Silvis was absolutely determined to make good on his threat. The sound of his own own hideous shrieks and the cackles of Silvis and his lickboot cronies was the perfect discordant accompaniment to what truly was hell on Earth, at least for Eric, as he was forced to endure the longest velimobile ride of his life. A journey doomed to haunt his nightmares for the rest of what would no doubt be an extremely brief period of time, if he couldn’t focus through the agony searing through his soul and figure out the riddle of the pain collar around his neck.

Because the only thing Eric was more certain of than that fact that he couldn’t endure an entire 3 hour journey to New York with this collar frying every pain receptor in his body, was the utter and absolute certainty that Silvis fully intended to kill him long before they ever arrived. The only question was, would the gnoll Contender delay long enough for Eric to have even a chance of figuring out a way to break free.