It was a fucking mess. While his mother would cuff him over the head for swearing, there was simply no other way to describe it than with a healthy amount of f-bombs and related swear words. It had only been two weeks, and life at the farm had taken a serious turn for the worse. Who would have thought that chasing away the most powerful being in the area would come back to haunt them, not like having a massively powerful, if petite, predator living next to you wasn’t acting as a serious deterrent for anything planning to move into the area?

First, there had been these dog-thingies, not the usual barking mob of dogs that happily hunted around town and the farm, taking down beasts and keeping the area clear, but some monsters that might as well have escaped some horror movie, large canine creatures of shadow and darkness, melting out of the very night to tear into some unsuspecting soul before retreating with a literal pound of flesh. They were difficult to deal with, as they could seemingly phase in and out of reality at will, preventing anyone from fighting them effectively. team attacks worked out, but the beasts were smart enough to simply disengage and come back later. Their mere presence was enough to turn the night watch from a relatively cushy gig into a horror show that left multiple people scarred, both mentally and physically. Well, a cushy gig, if the Pale Lady wasn’t around to test their attentiveness.

Additionally, people didn’t just let things be. No, now that the Pale Lady was gone, those who had hated her were starting to target those who had learned from her, had studied under her and continued to spread what she had taught. Magic, the arcane variant, mixed with a few teachings about the divine. Teachings that focused on self-reliance, on mastering your own abilities instead of praying to the heavens for help. It was, in some ways, the perfect target for religious or spiritual believers, the great deceiver or whatever they wanted to call her. Even now, after she had gone, they were continuing to discredit her, ignoring the insane amount of good she had done, to say nothing of the continued efforts made by the arcane casters.

No, if these religious nuts were honest, they’d have to talk about the fact that a sizeable number had been saved directly thanks to her actions. And that’s only for those she had directly rescued in some way, if the idea was expanded to all those saved by those the Pale Lady had taught then the number of saved people would jump up to a much higher number. Maybe a few could have survived on rations and bottled water, but not many. Nor was that including threats they might not even have heard about, threats taken out by the Pale Lady as she was living nearby.

The Withered made for an excellent example, Kevin had seen a few of their broken remains and he had no real desire to go against them, even after he was capable of turning the water he conjured into a cutting tool strong enough to rend steel or break rocks with a bit of time. No, fighting swarms of mentally connected enemies, all trying to tear you and your friends to pieces was not his idea of fun. That it seemed to have been the Pale Lady’s idea of fun was something he didn’t really want to think about, simply for his own peace of mind. The Lady had been incredibly scary early on, with her deadly mist capable of choking hundreds of creatures to death at the same time, he had no desire to extrapolate what would happen now, with many more levels and skill-points under her belt.

Maybe it was for the best that she had decided to leave, Kevin had no desire to be on the receiving end of her mist. Nor did he have any illusions about the whole strength-in-numbers thing or that it would grant him victory. No, numbers had their advantage but only if you could bring them to bear. And against somebody who could use devastating area-of-effect attacks and was, according to everything the guards had said about her surprise inspections, incredibly good at staying unnoticed? There were easier ways to commit suicide than by pissing off someone able to kill many people at once while remaining completely unseen. Sadly, nobody had been able to get that idea into the heads of these fools, one of them was even carrying around a firearm as if that was some sort of force equaliser. Ignoring that the thing would most likely blow up in his hand, ignoring that it might not even work against somebody with a level as high as that of the Pale Lady, ignoring everything and yet continuing forward with an air of smug confidence that was almost amusing to observe.

Almost, sadly the entire amusement went away when the confidence was enough to draw in followers who listened to the idiot, followers who spread the idiocy and made others believe in it.

They offered simple solutions that sounded great, at least as long as everyone ignored what would be required to make them work. Sure, building a wall around the farm would be great, having gun-posts and watchtowers even better but the logistics? Those were entirely ignored, to say nothing about the idiotic idea that the magicians, as he called them, were unnecessary and promoted faith in the Pale Lady. They didn’t say who should be believed in, but there was a constant, if somewhat quiet, suggestion to return to the ‘real’ faith, a fairly banal understanding of Christianity.

Sure, promoting that idea ignored the entirely changed world around them, but maybe that was why so many found it comforting. If their faith returned to the somewhat lazy and casual way it had been before everything went to shit, maybe the world would follow, or so they might believe.

There were even demands that the council who had pulled the different groups together in the first place, building up the farm into the village it was now, should be replaced with some sort of democratically elected government, obviously modelled after the old system. Not that the old system had been bad, but whether it still fit the new reality was a difficult question. And one that would better be addressed once things had settled to the point that it wasn’t questionable if everyone would survive the winter. They had planted a variety of crops, Nature Mages had managed to help them grow and soon it would be time to harvest, but that might not be enough. And yet, there were people already claiming that they could do better, that these problems would go away if only they were put in charge. Oh, and of course, everyone should only listen to them, as they could make plans, and they could direct the different powers and abilities far better than anyone else.

Amusingly, the people proposing those ideas were generally those who didn’t really take on dangerous jobs or trained for combat. Instead, they were trying to make do, to organise and impose their vision, acting as managers. Only, what would happen if the people they wanted to manage didn’t agree with their vision?

Kevin had already given up trying to understand their beliefs, instead focusing on two things. One, keeping the Farm going and supplied with water as long as he could and two, making sure that, once things couldn’t go on as they did, he had a solid exit strategy in place.

Sadly, he wasn’t the only one thinking that way. There were multiple people who had either studied under the Pale Lady directly or learned from those who had, and they all heard the sentiment. The more Kevin thought about it, the more it became clear that if they all left, or at least the majority of them, the entire community might collapse. There were others who could conjure water, but when it came to volume, he was the one who could do the most, maybe second to the Pale Lady, because the Lady didn’t focus on a single element, which only made her more impressive.

He had tried to make other elements work, but it was hard work and slow going. Getting the water he conjured to warm up had taken him weeks of work, as had turning it into a sandy slurry, but both had been worth it. Warm showers were great and the added sand turned the power of his water cutter up to eleven.

Maybe he should prepare to leave sooner rather than later. There was a reason the Pale Lady was so far beyond him and everyone else when it came to magic. Well, there were multiple reasons but one of those reasons was undoubtedly that she continuously tried to push the boundaries of what she could do, that she didn’t fulfill the rote task of conjuring multiple cubic metres of water every day to supply a village.

Did great responsibility come with great power or did great power come from avoiding great responsibilities? Kevin wasn’t sure, but maybe he should find out.