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“Let’s discuss some deals.”

I smiled,

“Mmkay?”

Behind Iona, the two rulers in diplomatic robes peered at one another. Mana streams ceased flowing from them, their magic muted. Behind them, the two guards wore graphene plating while they fiddled with their weapons. With a casual inspection of their gravities, I uncovered the guards’ armors weighed more than they did. They wore some kind of lead under shielding for the rays of Leviathan. The warriors crippled themselves to stop radiation’s rampancy.

On the other hand, the diplomats never left this place, each member showing no wear or tear from the elements. The humanoids kept slender forms with low densities throughout, owing to their lifestyles. They sat in chairs and talked a lot, so they fit the mold they made for themselves.

All of them besides Iona that is.

Her bones mirrored the density of graphene, and her muscles carried a similar density as well. Molds of metal in her arms and head exposed the presence of cybernetics along with silicone. She surgically replaced her bones and laced her musculature with graphene or something similar, and she owned expensive augments.

She went under a surgeon’s scalpel many times; that much was certain. Feeling a bit icky about looking under everyone’s skin, I lowered my hands, “Alright everyone, I can guarantee a habitable zone that’s perfectly safeguarded here. That’s my initial offer.”

Iona wanted to say something, but she quieted after our confrontation. Good. A different ruler stepped up, its body like a short and squat catfish. Around its maroon skin, it channeled water magic that flowed through its gills and misted over its exposed, slimy skin. Its jewelry showed wealth, but its eyes expressed little emotion as it garbled out,

“You’re certain of that? It would appear your body is the only reason you’ve survived. After all, that metal shell’s robustness can’t be shared, now can it?”

I pointed at him, “Fortunately, you’re wrong about that. Anyways, where is everybody? There should be hundreds of you, not five.”

Iona slid into the conversation, “Not every ruler is present each time someone arrives.”

Peering around at the pyramid’s underground entrance, various humidifiers aimed towards us from several directions. We talked in a decontamination center, so I nodded, “Makes sense. Come on, let’s see how everyone else is doing. I want to see what I can offer and where I can help out.”

The rulers stepped out of my way as I walked forward. Iona snarked, “Hah, help us. You’re here to make some quick credits. And anyway, do you even know where to go?”

I kept walking, “Yeah. I do.”

While we stepped towards a doorway, echoes reverberated off every surface. Throughout the building, the heat from plasma tubes ebbed in, but the rooms kept comfortable temperatures. The gravitation only lessened slightly by comparison. Using the tactile info like pieces of a puzzle, I constructed a map of this place in my head.

Considering the simplicity of the building, it wasn’t hard to use the map in real-time. When I reached the first doorway, two pieces of graphene-reinforced steel stared back at me. I turned to the rulers, “How do you open these? Well, besides breaking them.”

Iona frowned, but she stepped up to the panel and surged her mana into the device. It opened while I furrowed my brow in confusion. She answered my questioning glance,

“My mana signature is used to open doors, and the tech here doesn’t respond to anything else.” She pointed up at me, “And before you go calling everyone lunatics for relying on me like that, I gave everybody mana crystals already. Everyone stored them in their personal storage rings, and each crystal’s plenty of mana for our stay here. It was for security, and I just so happened to be someone with a lot of mana. I mean it when I say that’s all there is to it.”

I raised my brow, “That’s a solid defense…It sounds like it’s not your first time making it.”

Iona peered off, “It’s not like I’m trying to make life more complicated here. I’m the only healer left, and everyone else does something useless. It’s a real pain.”

The four other rulers stared at her before she coughed into a hand. Iona stammered, “You know, for this world and, uh, at this time. Everyone’s talents shine in different ways.”

They gave a few nods, accepting the awkward apology. Soaking in her mana, the doorway opened, revealing more reinforced steel walkways lined with plasma power couplings. This single hallway composed the entire bottom piece of the diamond base. It led up to stairwells that went all the way up to the upper floors.

My head nearly scraped the roof here, so I bent down and tapped one of the top panels while raising a brow, “You all walk up the stairs in this place? For real?”

The red catfish ruler spoke up, “It’s not that simple. We’ve been forced to use them because of power concerns. Aside from that, establishing a warp isn’t possible given the mathematical complexity of Leviathan-7’s orbit.”

Iona sighed, “Yeah…Lots of the people here can’t sustain the gravity and radiation. A few were poisoned by the atmosphere too, and some are still recovering from when Valgus destroyed my faction. It was a dark day…Here, we’re dealing with people who had their metabolism’s destroyed, so they require constant medical attention. Dialysis, tissue regeneration, etcetera.”

The catfish gave her a knowing nod, “Don’t forget the others experiencing organ draining and blood pressure issues from the enhanced gravity. It’s a complex situation, and every solution requires power to fix it.”

With my arm down, mana sparked in my palm, “Give me some space for a second.”

I generated a panel of ice between the others and me. Simultaneously, I lifted my arm. Temporally accelerated and visceral, my mana coursed with violence, the conversion of the energy creating a hazard. After a few seconds, a shockwave unleashed from my fingertips. Leviathan-7’s levity lessened over the entire base as I saturated an antigravity well over the whole building.

While I lowered my arm, my palm glowed white. The metal hummed before I flash froze the heated dimensional fabric. The icy shield melted into a warm mist, the catfish ruler garbling out,

“Well, I must say, this is quite refreshing even without considering the pressure you’ve taken off. It reminds me of the marshes of my homeworld. Ah, beautiful just to remember them.”

His whiskers bounced all over the place as he moved in the mist. The other rulers let out sighs of relief, mainly from gravity lessening. Their ears popped from the pressure change while I looked up. I eyed the cieling,

“Think of that as a diplomatic gift. Now, let’s remodel the place.”

Pacing over towards the center of this structure, I snapped my fingers.

A steel plate above me splintered, the wall panels lacking graphene reinforcement. Without the gray material, the metal sheared like peanut brittle. The sound rippled through us like a hailstorm of bullets, and the rulers cringed in pain.

I gazed down at them, “Oh, sorry about that. I should’ve softened the sounds, but I can only do that with runes. Hm.”

I remembered how I quietened my cities in the ossuary. I used a premade inscription that Torix lent me for just such a purpose. Another pang of loneliness shot through me, but I quelled it. It wasn’t the time for that. Instead of wallowing, I inspected the opened structure. Nothing traced through it, two plates composing a thick floor supported by struts.

I pierced the rest of the floor, this time with heat instead of force. The molten steel rained down and pooled into a gravity well as I split open the center of the survivor’s fortress. After liquefying a hole in the roof, I pressed a hand down. Dispersing my shove’s force into four telekinetic blades, I cleaved the steel plate beneath us. Lifting my lowered arm, I raised us through the place using a gravity well.

The third diplomat, a cerulean and thin lizard, shouted, “Did you even check to see if there was wiring or insulation first?”

I rolled my eyes while lifting us off the floor, “Of course. That’s why I went with physical force in the first place. The energy’s easier for me to control.”

While speaking, I composed runes onto the cut panel, crystallized a thin sheet of mana under it for power, and replaced the floor panel I took. I waved at all of it,

“This will be an elevator for you all to use. These runes will solidify the gravity wells of this structure, and I’ve replaced the struts used here. It isn’t as if steel is in short supply anyway. I’ll make sure to give back any I take.”

The blue lizard hissed, “Powering this device will be difficult, and we already struggle to frame the electronics to respond to everyone given the language constraints here.”

I leaned back, his concerns valid, “Huh…I’ll make it a psionic control then. Either that or we can default to Iona’s mana signature like everything else. Anything else?”

The blue lizard’s eyes narrowed, “As of now…No.”

We rose to the second floor of the base’s foundation, and I peered around at a medical bay. Many rulers of different shapes and sizes laid out in pain, most of them suffering grievous wounds or illnesses. They gasped and sputtered out in agony, many wanting an end to their suffering. I muttered, “These are the victims of the radiation and gravitation?”

Iona looked with sadness, “Yes. The radiation here’s caused DNA damage to everyone who isn’t resistant to it. This is the best facility we can offer them, and if you couldn’t tell, this isn’t enough. Restoring shredded DNA is taking everything we have. Power systems are run by manual mana instead of electricity or something else. Ugh, it’s hard to work with.”

I tapped my side, “I can stop further radiation exposure and remove what they have in them, but I can’t fix the damage that’s already done. Also, there will be plenty of power for everything. That much I know I can fix.”

I pointed at everyone, “Can someone write this down for the other survivors? I don’t want to have to repeat myself over and over.”

The rulers stared at each other, wondering who’d do it first. Iona sighed before pulling out a pen made of mana. Elegant, refined lines of quintessence constructed a sheet of silky paper in her palms, and in gorgeous prose, she wrote down what I said. I couldn’t read it, but damn, it was pretty.

She sighed, “Ok big guy, I’ll do it.”

I gazed at the other hallways, finding resources buried here. Rainbow bones, four hundred blue cores, and rare treasures piled up in several storage compartments. I gave a nod of approval, “Huh, you guys have more stuff than I expected.”

Iona frowned, “It’s split up between the survivors here, so it’s not as much as you’d think.” Her eyes narrowed, “But, uh, you’re not going to take our artifacts and resources…Are you?”

I shook my head, “Stealing from the poor isn’t my thing. I prefer earning my awards.”

The blue lizard raised his brow, “Thank you for calling us poor. We appreciate it.”

Shalahora condensed an arm and raised it, “Ah, Daniel likely meant pitiful or weak.”

I held down a laugh before Shalahora raised two condensed arms, “Oh, I didn’t mean pitiful. It’s, uhm, more like pathetic and cowardly. Wait, I mean useless and muted. That’s not quite right, hm, think of it like this-“

The other rulers gawked at Shalahora before I put my arm over the rough approximation of his shoulders, “Shalahora, I meant that some of these rulers are down on their luck. Seeing that, I want to help them so they can help me.”

A thoughtful glance passed over Shalahora, “It is like a donation to the dying. I didn’t realize you enjoyed charity.”

Iona scoffed, “Ok, we all understand what you guys think of us. Can we move on?”

Before Shalahora offended the rulers further, I lifted us up another level. Metal pooled over me, and greenery came into view. Many plants filtered the base’s atmosphere, pools of algae oxidizing the air. A few captured creatures from the surface roamed around, pollenizing and pruning the shrubs on their own. Three rulers processed the food in the meantime. They butchered animals, peeled fruits, and cut veggies.

My mouth watered at the sight, not having enjoyed any food in a long time. Those rulers must’ve kept the base fed, their positions secure. Regardless of their jobs, they gawked at our group melting through their floor. Before they panicked, I raised a hand,

“Hey, I’m new, and I’m helping remodel the place. Continue as you were.”

Iona rolled her eyes, “He’s not lying. I’ll vouch for him.”

They ignored me but listened to Iona, the three rulers getting back to their botanical work. I looked at the massive room before mouthing,

“You know, this is a lot of space for air purifying and food. Does this place serve a different purpose? Like a park or something?”

Iona put her hands on her hips, “What? No. Breathing and eating are pretty important, and it isn’t like we’re making this place take up three floors or anything. It’s necessary to reduce mana costs.”

I waved my hands at the terrarium, “I can turn this into a small room, and it will supply more of what you actually need. You’ll save some space and food, something you’re probably all lacking in.”

Shalahora oozed out his words like liquid dark, “He speaks the truth. He may bring life from nothing more than mana. I’ve seen it.”

The blue lizard peered at a bubbling pit of algae, “Food and space are the least of our concerns, but we can exchange something for the base adjustment. It frees these three to handle other work at the minimum.”

I shook my head, “Right now, they’re focused on getting everyone baseline nutrition. They’ll be able to focus on making the food taste good by the time I finish, and that should bolster morale at a minimum.”

The catfish ruler patted his robed belly, “You speak a language I quite like to hear, from the tone to the inflections.”

I walked back to the center of the room, my hand saturated with mana, “Then let’s see what else is going haywire.”

After lifting everyone up, I gazed at the third floor. At this point, we neared the middle of the pyramid. Scientists experimented in a lab, many rulers studying the various fauna and wildlife of Leviathan-7. This included a few unique capsules holding the behemoths and piles of rainbow bone they investigated.

A few enigmatta roamed in the ranks, their pressurized suits having their settings on low. The gravity and atmosphere did a lot of heavy lifting in that regard already. A few golemites also hovered and floated around, their airy forms shimmering. They carried and helped control different creatures, flowing in and out of the beasts.

I wasn’t the only one looking around. Several scientists gawked at me, and one shouted, “Have you had that building project ratified yet?”

I gave him a confident smile, “Absolutely. I’ll show everyone the paperwork later.”

The scientist nodded before getting back to work. I pointed at the golemites, “I’m guessing they’re the scouts?”

Iona raised her brow while thinning her lips, “That’s what they’re good for…That and mind magic, but you can only control so many of these giant eldritch at a time. Even they struggle with that, but I know a few rulers who’d handle it easily.”

Wondering if she knew the extent of my mind magic, I said, “Who’s able to control the behemoths?”

Iona furrowed her brow, “Behemoths?”

I waved away her question, “It’s an easy name to differentiate that sub-class of eldritch.”

The catfish ruler burbled, “Hm, it is fitting given their large stature…But if you’re wanting to classify eldritch by titles, you must have seen other eldritch here as well…What else is out there?”

Shalahora seethed his words like dense smoke, “The others are what we call the primevals. They are walking calamities, bringers of death and destruction. You will find none in this land, but the bounty you reap suffers from the lack of their presence.”

Iona blinked, taking that in, “Uhm…We’ll take this one step at a time, mmkay?”

I gave her a look, and she frowned. She crossed her arms, “What? I like the word…Or are you saying I can’t use it anymore?”

My eyes widened, “Well, it’s a pretty obnoxious catchphrase, so I guess it fits.”

She feigned distress, putting a hand over her forehead, “Oh my, could anyone come to my defense.”

The blue lizard hissed at me, “You do understand that the definition of annoying is relative. It’s a matter of opinion, something that can’t be proven. By labeling her, you’re reducing her agency which-“

I scoffed, “Come on now. Surely you know what she’s doing there? It’s obvious to everyone, right? You’re like some puppet on strings, and you’re dancing in her palm.”

The blue lizard’s voice rose, “If you’d been here from the start, you wouldn’t make such rash accusations. Iona has done miracles for setting up and establishing this place. We’d be lost without her, and her medical knowledge is second to none.”

Iona beamed, “Thanks, honey. I won’t forget you said that.”

I peered up and slowed time, giving myself a minute to think and for my minds to discuss. In about a minute, I came up with what I’d say next. I decompressed time, and I locked eyes with Iona,

“Is that why you didn’t want me here? I mean, you wouldn’t want the rulers here to be sick, weak, and helpless, now would you? I know that’s how you gained your influence and power after all; you treat the symptom to a problem, meaning that the problem’s solution invalidates you.”

I glared down, “It’s just a conflict of motives I’d like to bring up.”

The nearby scientists quit their chatter, and Iona flushed red with rage. Her fists tightened by her side before she menaced, “You have a lot to say for someone who hasn’t done a damn thing to help anyone here.”

I raised a brow, “Besides for the elevator and fixing the whole gravitation issue.”

Iona’s eyes narrowed, “But unlike me, you’re going to leave, and once you’re gone, your magic will leave with you. I’ll still be here, helping the sick and dying while you throw out criticism for it.”

I put my hands on my hips, “You’re ignoring my point. I’m not arguing that saving people is bad. I’m arguing you’re little introduction for me was because you didn’t want solutions here, and that’s a valid point you haven’t explained to me. Also, even after I leave, my magic won’t be coming with me. Everything I make will be here to stay.”

Shalahora peered at Iona, and she met his eye. A second passed, and she winced. She crossed her arms and stared at the ground, “Then I’ll take your word for it, Harbinger.”

I peered between them, and a tense air passed. Shalahora tilted his shadowy head at me, “I’ve settled it with her. She means well, so give her the grace so that she may loosen this noose you’ve tied around her neck.”

Confused by Shalahora, I let it go for now,

“Huh…Yeah. Alright.”

Iona looked up, and her eyes met the other rulers who stared at her with suspicion. She sighed before striking another pose, this time with a peace sign to match,

“Hey everyone, you know how this guy is. He says anything and everything, am I right?”

The other rules laughed, Iona somehow changing the topic and avoiding my argument entirely. I shook my head while walking across the lab, but my uppermost helmet spike scraped the ceiling. To stop the outflow of sparks, I condensed my body some. In my more diminutive form, I leaned over towards several scientists’ studies. They continued toiling away, and I gave it a thumbs up,

“This is the perfect fuel for an exchange. I’d like everything you guys know about this planet.”

The blue lizard snapped, “You want our information? That’s one of the only resources we’ve piled up for Schema, so that’s going to be hard to give up. You’d better be ready to pay us handsomely for it.”

I pulled several blue cores out of my storage, the spacial warp rippling as they came out. Spiraling the humming spheres around me, I gave the lizard a knowing look, “I think I can make it worth the survivor’s while.”

One of the guards in the back of the group spoke up, her tone gruff like sandpaper. I recognized her voice since it was the one that interrupted Iona when we first spoke to the base.

The guard’s muscled arms rippled as she banged an energized spear against the floor. She reminded me of a standing, scaled rhino as she grunted, “You need hired muscle? Pay me, and I’ll do it.”

I locked eyes with her, the previous ruler reduced to mercenary work. I put my hands on my hips, “You’re fine with just being a guard now?”

She shrugged, “You know, I learned from ruling that there’s a time and place for everything. In my case, it’s not my time to lead. It’s my time to follow, and there’s honor in knowing my place. It’s the reason I rose through the ranks of my homeworld, and it’s why I survived thus far.”

I blinked, “By following orders?”

She gave her chest plate a bang, “No. It’s by listening, not by speaking. I try to lead through my actions, and I hope everyone has eyes enough to see what I’ve done.”

I pointed at Iona, “Like saving her when she dives into boiling water?”

The guard’s gray skin crinkled as she smiled. Several large teeth flashed in her giant maw, “She is important, so I do what must be done. She’s saved several of my friends, and I am returning the favor.”

Hearing the guard’s words reminded me that every person here carried a high status at some point. Given the extreme constraints of this planet, most of their talents ended up being pointless. That made forgetting their histories easy since they lacked relevance on Leviathan-7. However, once we escaped, those talents would come back in full force.

That realization sparked an idea in my mind, and I smiled at the guard,

“What’s your name? Mine’s Daniel Hillside.”

The guard stood up straight, “Goragonahna-Jakolivitch. You may call me Ragonah if you wish.”

Her lips moved strangely as if she growled out instead of speaking. Still, I understood her. Peering down, I remembered that we lacked Schema’s language system here. I gestured to everyone, “How do I understand you all right now?”

The catfish ruler chimed, “That was my own doing. I constructed a language cipher that works throughout this facility, and I’ve maintained it since our arrival. It’s facilitated the exchange of ideas, information, and the unity of the survivor factions.”

I tilted my head at him, newfound respect forming for the talking catfish, “That’s very useful.”

He puffed out his chest, his luxurious robes waving about, “Indeed. I was a prodigious linguist, and even Schema noted my abilities. I worked with him, assisting The AI in constructing and maintaining its own language cipher. My specialty revolved around strange, alien languages, and over the ensuing centuries, I bought a few planets. I must say, I’ve done quite well for myself.”

I pointed my finger at the blue lizard, “What about you?”

The lizard narrowed its red eyes and hissed, “Why should I tell you anything?”

Iona pulled on his sleeve, and she looked up at him with puppy dog eyes as she said, “Hey…Can you do it for me?”

I held down vomit as the blue lizard’s attitude changed. It wheezed out, “I worked with various wiring firms that assisted Schema. We enabled galactic communication networks, and the maintenance of the projects Schema carried out. Intergalactic connections are complex, and we allow the long-distance transference of messages, resources, and the like.”

The blue lizard gestured a clawed limb to the catfish man, “Drelex and I have worked together before this accursed lottery, his linguistic skills being top-notch. We probably own ten times your brutish empire’s wealth and then some.” The blue lizard simmered, “But…That’s meaningless here, isn’t it?”

The catfish Drelex put a webbed hand on the blue lizard’s shoulder, “It’ll be fine.”

The blue lizard hacked, “It won’t. We’ll all die here soon.”

Drelex’s whiskers wiggled, “You’re probably just feeling depressed. You should go and sunbathe. Your kind most certainly loves that.”

The blue lizard sighed, “That’s a good idea. Excuse me, everyone.”

He got on all fours and slithered away in a jerky, twitching fashion. I got whiplashed by how alien it was, but he was a lizard. That’s kind of what lizards did.

I watched where the lizard crawled to for a moment. Iona scratched her cheek and murmured, “Aren’t we going up?”

I lifted the platform, “Ah, yeah. Sorry, I got distracted.”

She gave me a smirk, “Apology accepted.”

I leaned back, “Huh. I take it back.”

She locked her hands behind herself, grinning at me, “No take backsies. Hah. Gotcha.”

I furrowed my brow, confused at what she was playing at. I shook my head while looking forward, “Oookay. Anyways-“

We reached the next area, finding the weaponry and barracks. Here, only a few rulers lingered, but they showed more mettle than the others so far. A few looked up at Shalahora and me, each warrior wearing old scars and fresh wounds. Pacing past them, I murmured, “You guys look capable. What’s the issue with the behemoths?”

A series of keratinous plates walked up, the beast having no visible face or features. Between its natural armor, its flesh glowed with mana, and many tentacles sprawled over the floor. The creature telepathically spoke up in a gruff voice,

“You’re a new ruler? Hmph, you survived this long, so you can’t be as useless as you look.”

I tapped the side of my head, “I added the antigravity well, and I’m adding an elevator too. Looking at what you guys have, I’ll probably be adding some weapons and armor to the pile of fixes you guys need.”

The alien squirmed, “Yeah, I’ll wait until it actually happens.”

A few rulers kept staring down, each of them exhausted deep to their bones. The keratinous monstrosity thought over, “Besides, we don’t have the leeway to concern ourselves with a little interior redecorating.”

I swirled molten metal over my head, “You should, and why is everyone so tired?”

The shambling series of plates thought over, “This is a killing field. Schema sent us here to die, and the elements do just that. If it were just the eldritch, we’d be fine.” The plate creature clicked and clacked its way towards a ruler sitting deep in meditation. The plate beast shivered as it thought,

“You see this? This is why everyone’s exhausted – we’re living mana batteries. When you become a walking power plant, you can snap at us about being exhausted.”

I held down a smirk, nodding, “Of course.”

The Cthulian monstrosity squirmed, “We’ve been putting every bit of our mental energy into making this place habitable for the weakest among us. They’re dragging us down, and we’re choking on the weight of it all.”

I frowned, “Powering this place is that much of a problem? Why not use solar panels or windmills?”

The plate monster spread its limbs, the body underneath grotesque like a bunch of exposed human gums and teeth, “Nothing holds up in the gravity here. That technology is exclusive to normal or low G planets. Hydrostatic powering methods work well, but Leviathan-7 is too hot for normal liquids.”

Shalahora’s words spilled like cold water, “Then what of the blue cores or the opals shards? You all exist as rulers that stand above others. Harnessing the energies present should be child’s play for so many of you unless you are all children yourselves.”

The plate thing stunk as it radiated out,

“Have you tried using the blue cores here? The energy’s too unstable. Every material disintegrates upon contact, and several have died trying to harness their energy. Even the bones of the behemoths can take over the minds of people, so only psionics can control them. Our best fighting force relies on the golemites…And relying on them requires sacrifice. Everyone knows that.”

I raised a hand, “I don’t. What’s up with the golemites?”

The plate thing got near me, fluids leaking from its body, “They create abyssals. Enough said.”

I’d ask someone else about it later, so I pointed at the putrid fluids, “Do you need that, or can I get rid of it?”

The plate thing retracted its many shells, its tone skittish, “Ah…I’m so sorry. I get like this when I’m angry. I ooze.“

With Event Horizon, I converted the material to mana, sterilizing the area. I turned to the others, “What did you guys do before arriving here?”

A gray insectoid turned to me, its body like a hornet and mantis fused together. The green and yellow carapace contrasted its orange eyes, giving it an exotic appearance, and its mandibles squirmed in its mouth as it hissed over,

“I own mercenary group for centuries. After long time group expand. Much wealth, so I buy planet. I get class, teleport here. Bad decision. Regret it. Life pain now.”

Simple, straightforward, and reminiscent of Hod, the gray insect stared at me with a predator’s eyes. I liked him. Her. It. Whatever it was. I turned to the plate thing, “What about you? How did you become a ruler?”

It writhed about, “I worked my way up in a defense contract company. After I routinely proved my worth, I was put onto the board of directors. After centuries, I bought a beach planet, set up a few businesses there, and retired.”

I furrowed my brow, “So none of you were active warriors before arriving here? Where’s all the fighters?”

Iona stepped up and grimaced, “With Valgus. Who else?”

Putting my hands on my hips, I shook my head, “I can’t wait to hear what that guy has to say because nothing he’s done makes any sense. Either way, this is his loss. I can eliminate all mana constraints within the next few hours, so don’t worry about that. Mana will be the least of your concerns.”

The keratinous set of plates expanded, “Words are cheap.”

The gray insect stood up, tilting its head at me, “You lie or tell truth?”

I shrugged, “Before long, my actions will speak for me.”

The gray insect spread its wings and arms, “Good. We need more of people like you. Valgus take all people like you to different place. Life pain now.”

I walked over towards the elevator platform, “We can hope so.”

Iona walked over, and the gray insect snapped itself over towards us in a violent jerk. Extraordinarily fast, it flashed over, and I raised my eyebrow at it. It hissed, “I want see too.”

I smiled, “Then let’s go.”

On the succeeding floor, we neared the place’s peak. This floor held an artificer’s den and a magician’s lair. Quite a few rulers set up shop here, nearly a hundred in this room alone. Most of them sat down while holding a cord in their hands, claws, or teeth. They channeled mana directly through the building, powering the systems. The plate thing wasn’t lying about power being a primary concern.

While lined up, the variety of the species stunned me. Not carrying any single shape or form, insects with hundreds of legs sprawled out besides fluffy, cloud-shaped forest critters. The sheer variety of people reminded me of posters showing many characters in a story, but the difference arrived in my others senses.

This place reeked.

It stunk so bad I wanted to get rid of my nose, so I did. Pacing around, Iona’s eyes watered as she coughed, “Sanitation and everything else is being maintained, so it’s not hazardous here. It’s…It’s tough if you just walk in. You, uh, you get used to it, though.”

Wielding Event Horizon, I sterilized the air, ground, and areas near the rulers. Raising a palm, I burst out a wave of fresh, cool air, and it replaced the musty moisture. Reforming my nose, I shook my head, “Damn, this place is disgusting.”

Iona narrowed her eyes, and she spoke through tears, “Look, there’s nothing that can be done about it. We need the artificers working full time or else this place will fall apart. That requires a ton of mana, and the artificers end up needing a lot of heat. We put them in the same room for conversion purposes. We can’t afford to lose any energy from long cords.”

She gasped, “So, ughhhk…We put everything close together. This is all a part of the process.”

I saturated a cooling aura over the rulers holding the mana cables. Iona’s eyes widened, “That antigravity well hasn’t faded yet, and you’ve been using plenty of high-level incantations for a while. How much mana do you have anyway?”

I walked towards the artificers, “A lot.“

The two crafters peered at their work, each of them using different tools. One wielded a hailstorm overhead, and the other swirled a maelstrom of magma. They created one portion of the room bathed in a cerulean glow and the other smattered with a crimson sheen. The majority of the mana cables ran into the icy ruler’s back, but quite a few traced into a lava wielder as well.

Each crafter worked with different tools, the ice wielder handling intricate electronics while the other maintained a pit of heated acid.

Working together, they alternated their heating or cooling methods to build a complex piece of machinery. I pointed at it, “What’s this for?”

Iona adjusted one of her wings, “It’s, gimme a second. That’s better. It’s a part I need to help with gravitation or the pressure. Or maybe some kind of machine. You know, I really don’t know which, honestly.”

I waved a hand, “That’s very helpful.” I eyed their speed and precision, “They’re unbelievably technical compared to what I do.”

They finished before I stepped up and raised a hand to them, “Hey guys, I’m Daniel Hillside. You both are the crafters here?”

Short and stocky, the fire wielder wore an advanced apparatus over his entire body. Many glowing mana cords lead to his back, feeding and converting the manas of the wizards nearby. Pulling off a heavy-duty tinkerer’s helmet, a magma imp growled up at me, “You interrupt us. Are you new or just stupid?”

Unphased, I raised a brow, “I’m the guy that’ll be making this job obsolete soon.”

A smirk grew on the imp’s rocky face, its teeth glowing red, “Hah, good one. You’ll fit in with the useless rulers below us.”

I turned to the ice-wielder, “We’ll see. What do you guys need here the most?”

The ice-wielder was a blue lizard like the ruler that went off to sunbathe, but she was a woman. It wasn’t in a humanoid sense either. She just carried a sleeker, more feminine form, and her higher tone of voice solidified that impression,

“Teraz, you let him know we can’t be interrupted, right?”

The magma imp smiled, his rocky skin pulsing with a heated glow, “He’s an idiot. What else can be said?”

She peered at me, pulling a set of furred goggles off, “Ok, we don’t have time for this.”

I gave them a tight smile, “Neither do I. Name the three most important things you need, and I’ll leave.”

The fire imp chided, “Wouldn’t you like to know-“

The ice lizard raised a hand and announced, “Mana, first and foremost, lightweight shielding for the radiation, and some materials that can withstand the gravity here. We’re beginning to wear thin. Is that enough to work off of?”

My thin smile widened, “Actually, yeah. That’s perfect. Good luck.”

The lizard peered toward the elevator I made before she nodded at me,

“You too. We need helpful people here, and by the looks of it, you might be a good fit.”

The fire imp snapped, “Alctua…We have plenty of good people here already. They’re either wasting time or dying downstairs.”

The ice lizard rolled her eyes and put her furred goggles back on, “Enough talk. Let’s get back to work.”

Teraz grumbled, but the fire imp put back on his tinkerer’s helmet. They synced back into their impressive flow, each movement matching the other. Reminding me of my many psyches coordinating, I marveled at the efficiency of them both.

Teraz and Alctua, I put those names down as ones to remember.

Back at my elevator, I lifted everyone up while stating, “None of those problems will be issues soon. I’ll be relieving a lot of pressure here soon.”

Drelex flopped his catfish whiskers around as he stated, “If you can give us mana, we’ll be plenty happy with it.”

I frowned, “Tell me about it. How many more floors do we have?”

Iona wrote with beautiful handwriting as she murmured, “One. The next one’s the last. It’s for the leaders of us all, and I bet they’re up there shouting like always.”

While I pulled us up, I dove into thought. I imagined most rulers would be these unstoppable beings that rode through hell and back to establish themselves. My assumptions fell flat when faced with the real thing. So far, the vast majority of rulers seemed like diligent wage workers that eventually owned a planet after centuries of skilled labor.

While impressive in its own right, I expected more. Thinking back to Obolis, he retained some semblance of my first impressions, but like many situations in life, reality dimmed when compared to what I assumed it would be. It made me wonder about life in general. It was like every time I jumped to a conclusion, I ended up destroying my expectations soon after.

In a way, it made me wonder about people who were delusional. Maybe they weren’t as misguided as I imagined? I mean, I fell victim to setting unrealistic expectations, and really, anyone could. Delusion could be the line that’s crossed when someone disconnects from the mundane, therefore living their lives off their expectations rather than their reality.

And in a way, everyone lived a delusion. The measure of someone’s deception might just correlate to how connected someone was with their actual world. So many factors could feed into someone’s misbeliefs as well. Refection. Fear. Bias. They all played into how someone perceived the world.

While making these deals, I needed to make sure I connected to what was actual and not what I wanted to be real. Those thoughts swarmed in my mind as we reached the pyramid’s peak. In this section, pinned charts, hovering maps, and holographic magic floated around. It gave the room a variety of colors as if someone sliced the planet apart and plastered it across the place.

The gem at the center of it all was a miniature approximation of Leviathan-7, showing the ossuary, dessert, and other extraterrestrial terrains. After slotting the elevator in place, I walked past the globe, the room echoing with shouts. A dozen rulers spoke and discussed their next course of action, voices and tensions high.

Turning to Shalahora, I sent out a telepathic message, “Hey, can you shroud us?”

Shalahora nodded, and we walked in. The diplomats wore robes similar to Drelex and the blue lizard accompanying Iona. Each member here discussed timelines for resources and a few specifics about the fortress. Another one of the monstrous plate-things writhed about as it spoke,

“We must level with one another. We have only a few more weeks worth of energy left. Most of our resources are being put to maintain the struggling rulers. Seconds tick by, and they are moments we no longer have.”

A familiar voice spoke up, his white fur bristled, “And that’s why we need to consider my proposition: cutting our losses and focusing on the remaining survivors. It is inevitable that sacrifices will be made. I offer that we make them now when they are minimal rather than later when they are maximal.”

It was Obolis speaking, the Emperor’s graphene armor looking commonplace here. His scars differed from the others here, him being the only combat-worthy ruler present. The others stood half his height, but that didn’t stop a short, chubby alien from shouting over him. The green and yellow alien reminded me of an overweight poison dart frog with a squealing voice to match,

“Yet you’re ignoring that those you wish to sacrifice are the only reason we’ve made it this far. They’re bedridden because they took on the harrowing missions required to build this facility, to build this refuge. They offered their bodies, minds, and souls as the foundation to our current prosperity, regardless of how limited that affluence maybe.”

Obolis peered down at the alien in disgust as the Emperor seethed, “Are you asking us to all die here so that we may hold up your moral ideals? Perhaps death is one of them?”

The round poison dart frog slammed its hand into the table, “No. It’s about honoring the sacrifices of those that paved this road for us. Will anyone else be our next heroes if we treat our old warriors with such cruelty? No. We are ending any chance of rising above our situation by snuffling out any future heroes.”

Obolis leaned to the frog, and the Emperor’s teeth flashed, “It is better to live for today than to die for tomorrow.”

The frog simmered, “You speak that because no matter the outcome, your false empire will be helped more by their deaths. You’re trying to kill them to fuel this death game Schema placed us in. Their armies will, in essence, become yours.”

I stepped up, several feet taller than Obolis. Shalahora’s shroud dispersed while I spread my hands,

“Hey Obolis, it’s good to see you again. I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.”