The old orphanage had been burned to rubble in our absence. Apparently, something about a whole bunch of kids jumping to Tier 3 in the span of a few seconds was just a simple recipe for disaster.

  “No worries though.” I smiled at all the rescued teens and at the smaller children we’d picked up back at the wreck.

  “The Whitmer estate is now ripe for the taking! And it’s way, way bigger than the old building. And much safer to boot.”

  Charlie didn’t say anything in return. The dark circles under his eyes seeming to grow deeper and deeper as we walked.

  The looks he was getting from everyone else in town seemed to be getting to him as we moved throughout the streets. People of all walks of life stopping and staring. For awkwardly long periods of time.

  Before, the few folks that did acknowledge his presence merely saw another street rat. Someone below their notice. Or someone afraid that he might have tackled them before making off with their purses or pouches or other valuables.

  However, they all seemed to have had a change of heart regarding Charlie and his family. Partly because of my usage of the carrot and stick method to educations.

  The carrot being my successful negotiation of a ceasefire and my astonishingly popular peace plans which were being ratified even now. Also, everyone got powers.

  On the other hand, the stick was that everyone knew who gave them powers and everything that had led me to that point. With some redactions here and there to keep my plans mostly under wraps. I made no secret of what had happened to poor old Whitmer junior and I also took the initiative to invite a few world leaders to my realm. All for a quick friendly chat of course.

  Everyone felt great. Amazing even. Helping others having become a source of delight. And those who I suspected might feel a bit miffed about the whole democracy thing I promoted would have the… context regarding what tended to happen to people who ticked me off.

  “World peace achieved.” I sighed with satisfaction. My head held high. “Alongside with an end to world hunger. An end to all common diseases. An end to political persecution and an end to slavery. All in an afternoon.”

  I patted Charlie in the back.

  “Honestly man, they should give us a medal.”

  Charlie did not look amused.

  “Oh, come on.” I jabbed him with my finger. “This is literally everything you’ve ever wanted. You got a much nicer place for your family, you got a good stable life ahead of you, you managed to curb the crime around here. Honestly, you could use a smile or two.”

  “Sister Nina is dead.” He said without emotion. “I could have saved her.”

  He clenched his fists.

  “You could have saved her.”

  “Yes.” I nodded solemnly. Putting some distance between us. “I could have. I definitely could have. I could have also saved all the people who didn’t make it from the disease. Them, and the guards that got possessed and hollowed out from the inside out. I could have done all of thast with a snap of my fingers.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “But I didn’t.” I agreed.

  “Because of me.”

  “Yes.” I confirmed again.

  Charlie chuckled and shook. Though I suspected he would have been crying if he still had tears to shed.

  “It was all my fault.”

  I didn’t say anything else, but placed an encouraging arm around my friend. Trying very, very hard to not show my satisfaction.

  ‘Yes Charlie. This is the lesson you and Henry and Luigi and Randall needed to learn. This is the lesson Vince learned when he saw all the people being gutted by gnomes and the lesson Mittens has known since becoming the thing he is.’

  I nodded internally.

  ‘Failure to act is nothing too abhorrent when you’re just some guy off the street. Things are different when you’re in a position of responsibility. When you have the power to change things. When the burden lies on your shoulders. Time to let that old orphan die inside of you Charlie. You and the others need to be heroes from now on. Because if you can’t…’

  I dispelled those thoughts from my head and smiled at some of the townspeople we passed. Some of them hovering around as though by means of some unearthed instinct, while others flew above us in newly grown bird-like or bat-like wings.

  Yet others reached out with their minds. Trying to gleam information from their neighbors or from me, just as they’d seen in the memories I’d shown them.

  The children were doing it too, though they at least were much more subdued.

  Still struggling to parse through the new information and the knowledge of what was out there. What their older step-brother had gone through. What was waiting upon the end of the Tutorial. Not just for us, but for all of humanity.

  Then there were the feelings of love. Of admiration. Of worship and obsession.

  My presence had messed a lot of them up, of that there could be no doubt. Yet, just as before, I had already foreseen that those feelings would eventually diminish until most people got back to a state that was akin to their previous baseline. More or less.

  There would be no squashing the worship, but that was par for the course and honestly, simply out of my hands at this point.

  I stayed to watch Charlie and the children getting settled. Silent helpers from town donating beds and bedding or otherwise stumbling through with fresh foods or tools with which to renovate the luxurious mansion into a space more suited to the children.

  “I just want you all to know that I appreciate what you’re doing.” I let one such group know.

  I’d been about to mention a reward, but the way their eyes lit up with love told me there’d be little point.

  “Okay, I think the System’s about to take us back.” I told our group after a few more hours.

  “How did we even manage to stay this long?” Luigi asked from the side.

  “Oh, that’s easy. I recruited a few volunteers to help out with that before going down into the mines. I used the spores to keep healing them without actually curing the diseases.”

  “Dude.” Henry piped up. The bags under his eyes almost as deep and dark as those under Charlie’s eyes.

  “That is the single evilest thing I’ve ever seen or heard of.”

  I huffed.

  “I’ll have you know that I explained the process to all my volunteers beforehand. I’ll also have you know that they were handsomely rewarded as promised.”

  “And what did this reward entail?” Luigi asked.

  “Swords.”

  Both men blinked.

  “Swords?”

  “Swords.” I confirmed. “Charged in the same way as Cherub and Slasher. Couldn’t do too much as the steel I acquired from the guard officers started cracking, but the things are still only slightly less potent than Slasher.”

  I wagged my finger in the air.

  “The main thing is that they can degrade the veil much more easily than someone with the regular powers. That, and they can also head over to my realm once a week to hang out.”

  “To hang out?” Luigi asked again. “Why would anyone want to hang out in a place crawling with those creepy kids? And the leather things with the claws? Why would anyone want to got there?”

  I thought back to Charlie’s reaction and to the general effect the place seemed to have on visitors who weren’t quite as absurdly strong as the Seeking Drake.

  “They have their reasons.” I assured them. “For now, I’ll call on the spores and have them healed. Get ready guys. Because we’re heading back.”

  Charlie barely reacted. Only staring out into the faces of his siblings. They stared back in turn. Their own tiny eyes judging him. Knowing what he’d done. Or rather, what he had refused to do. What it had cost them.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  He clenched his own fists tighter. His newfound strength from the second boost allowing him to draw blood as his nails dug into his toughened skin.

  And just like that, the air shimmered around us and we were gone from that world. Thrust back onto the beach with all the monster corpses drifting beneath the waves. Dolce still growing fat on their remains even now.

  ‘He’ll need a second boost soon.’ I reasoned. ‘Same with Buddy.’

  I had been putting it off because I knew what such a boost might entail, but the clock was ticking. If the Dragon tried to kill me, then he’d hardly think twice about killing Buddy alongside me. That was a problem, because I was very fond of Buddy and, in all honestly, I’d sooner butcher a couple million Kenari if it meant keeping him safe. Yet giving him the boost would…

  ‘Don’t worry Sully!’ Buddy quipped. ‘I’ll never stop loving you! No matter what!’

  ‘I know Buddy. I know. It’s just that the Divine who designed you Symbiotes never accounted for the things I could do. I won’t care, but I don’t know how other people would react if they knew what kinds of things you’d be capable off with the right… encouragement.’

  I said that in my head, but the truth was that my doubts went even further. The Divine who made the Symbiotes was allegedly one of the very first. A hard-working brute who started as a Shifter and then slowly built himself up over eons. Technically speaking, the Symbiotes were something akin to biological Intruders. Slices of dead skin he’d given life. Semi-conscious creatures he’d created after trying, and failing, to properly and permanently bind Intruders to objects in a way that would keep them from murdering their wielders over disagreements.

  No other beings could be upgraded using those tokens and the only reason they worked at all was because they connected the Symbiotes in question to Patches’ own realm in Pandemonium. From there, his own Shifter abilities took effect. Upgrading the thinking cuts of malleable meat in more or less the same way [Omniscience] could boost people with powers. Only, he could only generate powers in his own creations. His Symbiotes and some of his living weapons. Not on anyone else.

  Or so the story went.

  Because if I was a Divine who wanted to be left alone and do my own thing, I’d also lie my (Gnome) off regarding the limits of my powers.

  As strong and unique as Buddy was, he wasn’t anywhere near the limits of his power and pushing him too far would lead him to be much, much better than other Symbiotes. Breaking his limits, alongside his bond with Patches the Divine.

  I could predict how Buddy would grow. I could not predict how his maker would react. But all the info I’d gleamed from others using [Omniscience] told me it wouldn’t be pretty. Apparently, Mr. Patches could be rather possessive at times.

  ‘Take care of one problem and ten more pop up in their place. There’s never an end to it.’

  I dispelled those thoughts and left them for another time.

  I couldn’t read the Dragon at all, so for all I knew he fully meant to keep his word and act in good faith. Time would tell.

  I allowed my focus to drift from Dolce and Buddy and over to the group gathered around three wooden poles. And from them, to the three figures tied to them.

  “What’s going on here?” I asked as if I didn’t know.

  Grandpa Gus turned to face me from the innermost sections of the group. So did the others.

  Some, like Monique, had a look of horror on their faces. Others, like Dusty and Slab, had looks full of fury plastered on their features.

  While mom ran over to me. Weeping.

  “Sully! You’re back!” She hugged me and I hugged her back.

  “This seahorse woman. She, she says she knows you. She say’s you’ll be killed if he hurt her. She… she…”

  “She struck your mother.” Boris stated from the side. Thunder Fist nodding next to him.

  “I’m sorry we weren’t here to stop the attack young man.” Thunder Fist inclined his head. “I swear I would have stopped it if I could.”

  “I don’t doubt that.” I said truthfully. Since I had foreseen as much. I was the one who talked him and many others into going on an Expedition early. And I was the one who made sure grandpa stayed behind with mom and dad.

  Speaking of which.

  “Where’s dad?”

  “He tried to intervene and got hit by the other seahorse over there.” Grandpa said calmly. Wiping down the flensing knife as if it was merely another tool to spread Nutella on toast. The blood slowly clotting now being absorbed into the rag.

  “He’s fine.” He continued. “Honestly, this was a good thing. He kept going on and on about training by himself and not using the boosts. He’d forgotten what it really was to struggle. To be powerless.”

  Grandpa sighed as he went over to a nearby bench and tucked the flensing knife away with the rest of his “tools”. Not seeming bothered in the slightest.

  “Some people need a reality check sometimes. I’ll bet he’ll change his tune from now on.”

  He would of course. So would mom. But I didn’t want them suspecting I was aware of that fact.

  “What!” I roared instead. Letting [Social Hunter IV] take over for the most part.

  “Let me see him!”

  Grandpa snorted, while Dusty twitched and looked abashed. Ashamed.

  “I, uh.” She stammered. “That may not be the best idea in…”

  “I hit him.” Slab walked forwards. Standing there on the sands with his arms crossed and his lips pressed into a thin line. His red curls falling over his shoulders in a way that made him seem like some old mythical hero out of legend.

  “He was going on and on about nonsense. Refusing to take responsibility for being weak. For failing to stand up to those two while your grandfather protected your mother. So, I challenged him to a fight so that he could see just how weak he was. I broke his arms. Snapped them like twigs. Then I let Boris heal him and broke them again. I kicked him too. Lots of time. And when he tried to throw [Mental Bolts] at me, I shrugged them off and kicked his legs out from underneath him.”

  He took in a deep breath. Closing his eyes as if to steady himself.

  “I didn’t stop hitting him until Monique intervened. And even then, I made myself clear. I told him he was a weakling and a craven. That he was a waste of a great Type and great powers and that he would have gotten himself and his wife and countless others killed because of his weakness. If it weren’t for you. I told him he was less than a bug, because he failed to live up to his responsibility. Because he had the nerve to criticize the way his own father, your grandfather, defended his woman against attackers. I told him he’d be worth nothing if it weren’t for you and that he had no right to talk down to the rest of us.”

  He paused again.

  “Or to you.”

  Only then did he blush slightly. His freckles combining with the redness so that he looked like an overgrown tomato.

  “Then I may have kicked him some more.”

  He coughed into his hand. Breaking eye contact for just a moment, before bringing his eyes up again to meet mine.

  “I am sorry about those last few kicks. I think I may have shattered his hip by accident. But I am not sorry about the beating. Or the words I said to him.”

  Thunder Fist placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Nodding.

  “I usually despise people who pick on the weak. It’s unbecoming of a hero. But… I will admit he had a point. Mr. Carter wasn’t being very reasonable.”

  In fact, it had been much worse than that.

  What Slab had failed to mention was that dad had said some very hurtful things about him and his family before it came to blow.

  If it had been anyone else, Slab would have disemboweled them. Before then proceeding to strangle them with their own intestines.

  Dad only survived with what Slab considered a playful beating because he was my dad. A fact that both Slab and grandpa had no doubt made clear to him after the fact.

  That lesson couldn’t have been fun. And yet, just like Charlie, dad needed to learn to let go of his biases. For his own good. And the good of everyone else.

  “I understand.” I told Slab. “I know you man. Better than you know yourself. I’m sure you did it because you had no choice. I’ll talk to dad later.”

  He deflated. His shoulders sagging in relief.

  Dusty sighed out loud too. As did Monique and Boris.

  Grandpa only shook his head.

  “Okay. With that out of the way. Let’s see these attackers.”

  They all stepped out of the way and let me see the three figures.

  One was clearly Granny Golden, though. Standing there, unharmed, but featherless.

  She took one look at me, with the white suit that Buddy had become and started convulsing violently.

  “OH GOOZOO! WHY!!”

  “Calm yourself.” I told her bluntly. “I have nothing against you.”

  She vomited a mixture of some manner of green paste and blood. Her intestines having been damaged by stress.

  I turned and faced Deketer and Sky Heart. The latter had obviously put up more a fight from the onset, though a Tier 2 with a few combined abilities going toe to toe against a Tier 3 like grandpa who had a plethora of combined abilities to choose from was never going to end well. Furthermore, unlike Henry, grandpa had wasted no time getting used to all his new powers. Especially the Telepathic ones. Sky Heart never truly stood a chance.

  Both had had their finger claws torn out. With red hot pincers if the scorch marks were any indication. Furthermore, the scales along their arms had been ripped out with tongs. One at a time, while the tender flesh beneath them had been flayed open to varying depths and degrees of severity. The same could be said of their lower legs and of their tails. With the torsos sporting very few cuts and slices.

  From the looks of things, Sky Heart was missing one eye as well. He had also been turned into a eunuch, though that too could be fixed with my [Vicissitude].

  ‘Say what you want about grandpa, but he knows his business.’ I thought to myself. ‘Man didn’t even come close to touching any important organs or arteries that might lead them to bleed out. That’s saying something given how different Kenari physiology is from that of humans.’

  He had worked them over so well that he’d managed something even Hazimon hadn’t accomplished. Getting Deketer to shut up and assume a humble attitude.

  No mean feat, as all her tutors knew.

  “Who are you?” I asked them. “Why did you attack us? Why did you attack my mother?”

  Sky Heart’s one good eye turned to me. Blinking in confusion, before then taking in the way the crowd had parted before me. How everyone else was waiting for me to make a call.

  “Hazimon!” He wheezed and I noted that his mouth-tube had been slit open. The tiny teeth inside of it ripped out one by one.

  “We repre…” He gasped from the pain. “We represent Hazimon! He’s her grandfather!”

  I pretended to look shocked and took a few steps back. Turning my eyes to Deketer’s form.

  “Even if what you say is true, why would you attack my parents? I haven’t done Hazimon any harm.”

  Unless you counted the DMV of course, in which case you could argue that I’d psychologically tortured him for a few good months or more. Even I wasn’t sure how much time he’d spent in there.

  But he’d literally asked for it and he’d come out of there way, way ahead, so I suspected he was more grateful than anything. He did copy the instance to do it again after all.

  Sky Heart coughed up more blood and some bile.

  “I didn’t… I never meant to. She’s…”

  He inclined his flayed seahorse face.

  “She’s stupid. She is unbelievably stupid. Literally. No one here believed me. She thought it was fine to strike the woman. Your mother. She has no respect. No sense of self preservation. Please. You have to believe me.”

  “No one is that stupid.” I lied.

  “But she is!” He pleaded. “I swear it! She is absolutely that stupid! She wasn’t even being malicious! She honestly treats everyone that way! Like I said! Her skull’s emptier than the Nether Expanse!”

  He was right on that too, but I feigned skepticism.

  Then I narrowed my eyes and focused on them as if I was seeing their stat screens for the first time.

  “It seems you’re telling the truth.”

  He looked shocked that I’d believed him so easily, but then I could practically see the gears turning in his head.

  “Oh thank goodness! Finally! We’ll, we’ll make it right! I swear it! Free us and heal us and, and the master will reward you!”

  Not bloody likely. At best, Hazimon would react to his grandkid’s chastisement in the same way I reacted to dad’s. Seeing it as a lesson learned.

  At worst, he might not want to go through with the second part of our deal. But that was fine with me in any case as it kept him away from two other Types and ensured his ongoing cooperation after the original contract ended.

  “Okay.” I turned to Deketer. “Would you like me to heal you both?”

  This was it. The moment of truth.

  Deketer barely raised her head. Weeping teal-colored tears and sobbing.

  “Please. Please. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  She sobbed harder.

  “Please heal me.”

  I did so. Laying my hand on hers and letting my Psy flow.

  Marking her, just like all the others as I did so.

  If the Dragon killed me now, there would be chance I would come out of her. Her body and mind twisting into mine.

  And that was more than enough.

  For now.