There was one thing everyone from Earth in La'sing came to understand as the years passed: they were nothing.

Hindsight had been very cruel to Sai. None of the struggles for his family, the mental compulsion he had suffered, and the aliens invading his planet for resources mattered before the vastness of the Alliance and the ultimate enemy. The Void would kill them all equally if given the chance. This is where anyone could make a difference, not anywhere else.

Yet, what difference could a D-rank make?

On the front lines, he was a cockroach exterminator. In an emergency, he killed the weak roaches so the strong could save some energy. In any non-critical situation, he was coddled like a child. Weaker troops had priority fighting Void Spawn of their level so they could grow and also become strong. That single inversion of how things seemed to work in the civilian Alliance, where the strong ruled and took everything unless they decided otherwise, showed that the military really cared about survival and progress instead of just throwing bodies at the enemy.

True, throwing bodies wouldn't work. No matter if all D-ranks in the Alliance were thrown against a C-rank Void Warrior, they wouldn't kill it. A Law was required, and the basic course had said that no technique to mix Concepts from multiple people into something resembling a Law had worked to date. So, the military needed the weak to grow strong.

But Shen had said something that marked Sai.

"I'm just C-rank," he had declared a few months after he returned from his special training. He had called his entire Battalion to hear his speech. "For all my training and broad mind, I'm nowhere as smart as an S-rank. But one plus one equals two to both the wise and the stupid. Only so many factors and goals can be taken into account when deciding where to draw some lines, and I'm sure the military runs on a gigantic net negative of resources. They spent way too much on us, and the gains don't necessarily justify it.

"To be fair, not everyone who dies fighting the Alliance's enemies is a waste of the mana that was spent making them grow stronger; it depends on how much they did before they fell. But it's not just mana. We're trained. We're watched over. It takes time away from people who could exclusively spend it growing stronger, likely for a better result.

"Imagine this with me: place B-ranks with domains on the Subnodes to delay the decay would suffice and let a single A-rank make the rounds to destroy every Void Tear when it reaches the C-tier. That would be safe enough. Maybe safer for those very B and A-ranks than the current system.

"Instead, B-ranks spend time watching over C-ranks. Instead, I'm babysitting D-ranks, who babysit E-ranks. We all benefit from it, but that's the point. There are too many benefits for everyone; the weaker you are, the better. Knowledge that is controlled or forbidden in the Alliance at large is offered for free here if you show you deserve it. AP windfalls aren't typical, but from what I learned, they are ridiculously rarer in any other circumstance.

"We're rewarded for killing the Alliance's enemies despite the fact that someone more powerful could do it better and faster than us. We're rewarded for training. We're paid to grow stronger. Sure, the Alliance benefits from it, but we benefit more. It's a tight system that functions well but, ultimately, a useless one. At least from what I understand of the dangers the Alliance faces.

"The only thing that explains it is fear. The higher-ups always fear the Alliance might be forced to disperse one day. They are training warriors, yes, but more than anything, they are planting seeds. If anything ever happens, a few seeds might grow into a tree with a large shade to protect the others. Maybe enough trees will band together into a forest and a new Alliance. The very instinct to defend and see other trees grow is constantly nurtured inside us.

"I... I always thought otherwise, but the military seems to legitimately care about the greater good and the weak, and at least the original Alliance likely did so, too."

Sai hadn't fully understood it then, but he could see it now.

A cynic would insist people growing stronger would be better for the strong people in the Alliance, but there was one thing that was sorely lacking in the military: favoritism. Even Luthdel didn't see better deployments than everyone else. The rules controlled it well. All were equal in the military. Everyone had a chance to grow. Abuses were found swiftly and rooted out even faster.

That also helped Sai understand Shen's seemingly coldness towards Earth. Sai's family mattered, but only because they were his blood. Humans mattered, but only as strangers. Sai wouldn't want to see humankind gone, but everyone should learn and grow by themselves. Everyone should help fight for their very continued existence.

If the strong got lost fighting for scraps of social power instead, they got what was coming for them. And it would eventually come. Someone would eventually reach the military, learn the right techniques, and not let themselves be corrupted when they returned. They would be a better person. They would fix things. And the very Path they walked to get there would make them that much better for it. And humanity itself would learn from their mistakes and grow as a whole.

If that failed, then an "outsider" strong enough would come and fix things. For instance, Shen himself. Or, in the Alliance, the S-rank who started the fight was doing, from what Sai understood.

The Calamity was much more important than Sai had thought. He had heard bits and pieces of information that let him form a picture of a side fighting to return to the origins and the other to keep pushing the Alliance into a more egoistical system. Shen's speech gave Sai perspective. If the latter won, it would be only a matter of time until the Alliance as a whole broke down.

Similarly, he guessed even if everyone worked together for the communal good on Earth, they might grow lax or corrupt in time. What if even their strongest did? What if Shen did? Who would come to fix things? The Alliance, he guessed—and someone like the S-rank who had started the war.

Sai looked at his fellow Earth fighters and wondered if they understood the same or if he would have to kill them when they returned.

Because he had decided that before he joined Shen—if the C-rank would even have Sai—he would cleanse Earth of all corruption.

Unless things were very different in Samir, Martino should be having the time of her life thanks to this Calamity.

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The Czarina didn't dare to raise her eyes from the ground. Her master wasn't known for his patience.

The male high elf sat on a throne of bones in an Assembly Point. It was illegal for him to be there, but he did it to prove a point. A point that she had been sure would long have been unproven.

Marzia had miscalculated. The new Acting General in charge of Samir didn't seem to care that the former Acting General's son, who abused his—

Marzia felt it and looked up from the ground just in time to see a lightning bolt as black as the most bottomless abyss fade away. The image was burned into her retina.

The smell of burnt flesh came from the smoldering arms and legs of the former Major, the only thing that remained of him.

Thunder spoke from everywhere. "I have been watching," the Acting General informed. "I have noted those who refused to act when they should. I have witnessed the treason. Now, I have purged the evil from Samir's ranks, as the former Acting General requested when we swapped postings. Now, I quote her words for all survivors: 'A Queen has no need for corrupt officials. I expected the drow to act like rats when I wasn't watching. If you're hearing this quote, I'm afraid I was wrong. You're high elves. You're better than any. Act as such.'"

That was that. No apologies. No further explanations beyond the fact that the Acting General had been letting people incriminate themselves. He had allowed people to suffer to take the rot from its roots.

Before Marzia could consider all the implications, she got a yellow notification. It was the first time a personal message was of that color.

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| Samir's Commander (A): One thousand D-ranks, fifty C-ranks, and one B-rank have been selected for the Justicar Program, which was extinct in Samir, but I shall restore to prevent further complications. You were summoned to be a part of it. You have ten minutes to get to my office, or I'll consider it a refusal of this invite.

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Ten minutes. If she ran, that was barely enough to get to the Acting General's office. She only knew where it was because she had ordered the entire mobile fortress mapped.

Marzia stood up and ran away from the Assembly Point, ignoring the looks of the few hundred individuals present, former slaves in all but name like her. She turned a few corners until she found the six people she had asked to wait for her.

"Come with me," she ordered as she kept running. "System, I want to buy a primer on the Justicar Program. Louise and Ricardo, rush ahead and report any obstruction."

She didn't think anyone would dare to hinder her path after the General's demonstration, but if she had thought of getting rid of competition that way, others would, too, and some might not be as smart as her. And if she was left with no alternative, the people with her would have to be enough to fight their way through. She had received a yellow notification, so she could fight to ensure the summon was obeyed.

Instead of information, the Guardian System gave her two notifications.

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| Purchase failed: permission denied

| Denial partially rescinded: the Primer on Military Justice (B) will be gifted to any summoned individual who tries to purchase it within nine minutes of Samir's Commander's message. It will be delivered to all of you when there's one minute left to heed the call

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So, she was being tested already. Good. It meant the position would need a brain and might not be just a bogus attempt to make the military look good for those in Samir after the latest shit show.

Marzia increased her pace.

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Alicia watched Shen's back as the Battalion returned from their deployment location. They would walk for days in the gray desert before going through a Breach back to the mobile fortress.

It would be more days of being ignored.

She hated it more because it was her fault.

After the E-ranks came to La'sing, she thought she finally understood the mental gap between ranks. Her mind was faster and better at analyzing anything that didn't get a massive boost from an E-rank's Concept. Even then, she could take more things into perspective to reach a slightly worse conclusion than any E-rank.

But when Shen returned from his special training, she truly understood the gap.

Only she, Sai, and his direct Lieutenant subordinates knew about the training. Shen had come from it strong. Not in a "direct power" way; his Laws were at the same level, or so he had said. But he had become a better fighter and a more ingenious commander—even more so than he had been. He radiated power and surety. Stability. Purpose.

Yet, she had had nothing to show. That's when it finally dawned on her that they could never be together.

Alicia would always be chasing Shen. That was the absolute truth. She had yet to master all her Concepts, while Sai had already done it.

Sai still needed to touch a Law to rank up, and Shen had insisted reaching the peak of D-rank first didn't mean anything; plenty of people failed to take that last step. But that was proof for her. Proof that she had no talent. Proof that if she ever reached C-rank, Shen would soon reach B-rank. There would always be an unsurmountable huge divide between them.

Alicia couldn't see what Shen saw. She couldn't understand his struggles. They belonged to absolutely different worlds. And that was on top of their Paths not being compatible, as he had explained so long ago in the Pioneer Tutorial.

Alicia had always hoped love would trump everything, but in the end, it became obvious that they had never been destined to walk parallel Paths.

She suffered for it.

She would get over it.

She feared it might take forever.