“Wait!” Theodora Greyman said, folding her arms across her chest as Tatiana made to turn away and speak to a woman that Theodora didn’t recognize beside her. It was a risk to speak out now, but Theodora Greyman didn’t want to leave tonight empty-handed. She needed to gather a bit of goodwill and this seemed like a good way to do it?

When Tatiana turned around, her eyes had something in them that Theodora recognized as pity. “Yes? Is something the matter?”

Even more annoying that this strange woman also looks at me without the faintest hint of respect, Theodora thought as her eyes flicked to the white-haired woman next to Tatiana.

“It’s difficult for me to simply go on enjoying myself at a party right now,” President Greyman said rather matter of factly. “Considering the many threats against Earth. These Corrupted Invaders… I think it would be best if we spent some time right now discussing how we plan on meeting this threat. And meet it as a united Earth. I was thinking-”

“I appreciate your dedication to Earth, President Greyman, but we won’t need to waste our time with that subject right now.” Tatiana cut in.

President Greyman didn’t know whether she should be pleased that Tatiana had reacted as she had expected or annoyed at how dismissive the woman was being. Because even with the shame of the recent attack on Zone 1, President Greyman was a much more influential individual on the world stage. Did Tatiana really think that she was a pushover? “Really? Is that the official stance of Kharon? Because my read of the notification is that there is a hard time limit to the benefits we can receive from the System, but the dangers are permanent. And not to state the obvious, but the rest of us don’t have the luxury of having our entire city run away from a threat. So if we at least don’t divvy up the Danger Zones we need to investigate-”

“This is a bit earlier than expected, but since you are so enthusiastic about this issue… Randidly Ghosthound already informed me that he would talk about the Corrupted Invaders later. He’s already located the Danger Zones that have been corrupted. He will distribute the information once he is prepared.” Tatiana gave Theodora a warm smile. “As I said, such a discussion would currently be a waste of time.”

Without waiting for more of a response, Tatiana turned and ascended the right staircase to the second floor of the ballroom without looking back. Some surrounding people spared Theodora a few glances, but they seemed more interested in the party favors and open bar than even gossiping about the deft rejection Theodora had just received.

Theodora gritted her teeth and spoke quietly to Mark Rowel. “Think there is a chance that they are bluffing?”

“No,” Mark said rather bluntly. “Even Randidly Ghosthound wouldn’t be able to get away with lying to so many people. Nor would I think he cares enough to lie. And that woman wouldn’t have been as ice cold as she was if she was hiding something. No, I think it’s better to wait to make a move later. I really don’t believe that nothing dangerous will happen here. And once the veneer of invulnerability fades away, we will have more leverage.”

Theodora thought about that for a few seconds and was finally going to respond, but she noticed that Richter’s gaze next to them suddenly sharpened. She twisted around to follow the focus of his eyes. A man she recognized from being one of the more powerful individuals from Donnyton, Kayle, had stepped out onto the shimmering black tiles that took up the majority of the ballroom.

Light began to bloom underneath his feet as he moved forward.

It started small enough that it was easy to miss, but by the time that the man had taken three steps outward, the radiance had grown to the point that people were turning and looking at the sudden light source. Kayle stopped abruptly, looking down at the ground and frowning. The light seemed to pulse gently, sending out ripples over the surrounding ground.

And then, radiating slowly outward along with the warm waves of light that his contact with the floor was producing, President Theodora Greyman felt an image that was strong enough to make the hairs on her arm stand on end. A blade seemed to be hovering in the area of the middle of the ballroom, incredibly sharp and wielded with deadly precision. The could feel the cold steel pressed against the soft veins of her neck. If Theodora was to move, she had a strong impression that the blade would descend and bisect her.

“Jesus,” Richter whispered as he frowned over at the Kayle. His favorite coin continued to dance across his knuckles. “The floor is somehow a conduit to images-”

Perhaps reaching a similar conclusion at the exact same time as Richter, another member of Donnyton leapt out to land on the stardust tiles about ten meters away from Kayle. This man, who Theodora believed to be Paolo, grinned over at Kayle then looked down at the tiles beneath his feet with obvious relish. Immediately, his own light began to rapidly grow toward the five-meter orb of brightness that Kayle now possessed.

A new image spread outward in soft ripples. Ripples that contained the sounds of a roaring crowd and a bloody champion standing with his arms raised in victory. The two images pressed against each other but truly seemed to both exist simultaneously in the air. A fascinating layer, but one that placed a lot of mental pressure on the surrounding people.

There was a change in the lights beneath their feet, however. They both continued to grow brighter and spread out until they brushed up against each other and then the lights shrunk to a more manageable size. Finally, they settled at about seven meters in diameter. It looked like the two were standing on balls of white fire. The light they produced wasn’t blinding, just illuminating. With two sources, a balance was soon achieved.

But then Paolo offered Kayle a wide smile. “I hope this isn’t your limit.”

Kayle simply snorted. Then the light beneath them both erupted with all of the violence of an incandescent volcano.

Some of the weaker aides that some of the factions had brought to the party were knocked off their feet by the shockwave of images as the two people of Donnyton intensified their contest. There wasn’t a true physical presence associated with the images, but it was clear that the floor of this place gave the images a grounding they didn’t normally have. Just by releasing their pure image, the two created a clash that everyone could feel and see.

Theodora’s mind was racing as she stared at the floor. Was this material the secret to Randidly Ghosthound’s strength? Perhaps if they could figure out its secrets-

“Mind if I join?” The leader of Zone Eleven, the man who called himself Warlord, walked calmly out onto the tiles. There was a flare of brightness and suddenly there was suddenly a third bonfire of light filling the ground. The three individuals grinned at each other, clearly savoring the chance to have their images clash directly. Warlord’s light grew quickly to five meters and then began to slow its expansion.

Around her, other forces began to stir. The Orders looked at each other and took several steps backward. In fact, many began to head up to the second floor of the ballroom, either to get a better view of the conflict below or in order to track Tatiana down. Theodora couldn’t help but release a weary sigh. If these tiles truly helped ground images enough so that they could be trained directly, Zone 1 likely wasn’t the only group that would want the secret.

Possessing the ability to train images in that way was something they all dearly wanted.

“This seems fun, mind if I join?”

Theodora twisted back around, surprised by who had spoken this time. Mrs. Hamilton stood at the edge of the normal tiles, grinning out at the three men. When they didn’t immediately respond, she took that as a yes and stepped out onto the stardust tiles. Almost immediately, Theodora and several other individuals in the room shivered.. Mrs. Hamilton’s image induced a deep sense of dread in half the people that were standing around the area and revulsion in the other half.

Theodora flexed her hands, feeling like her body was slowly being wrapped in spider silk and bundled away to a dark nest. Even when the movements of her fingers were free and easy, it didn’t dispel the uncomfortable feeling.

The tiles reflected the difference in this image, too. While the other three had been relatively equal in strength in brightness, Mrs. Hamilton’s image arrived and grew larger and larger until the other three’s images began to dim. Theodora Greyman wasn’t sure how reliable the tiles were in terms of magnitude, but it looked like Mrs. Hamilton was one third again as powerful as the other three people on the floor. Her light source was probably nearing ten meters in diameter.

“So that’s Donnyton, huh…?” Richter said quietly. To Theodora’s surprise, the partially paralyzed man was smiling with genuine excitement as he looked over.

“Is this a joke to you?” Mark Rowel whispered ominously. “These people are our competition in a very real way. I think it’s been made clear that the System is designed to make individuals from a world compete against each other for a finite amount of resources. And if what Tatiana said earlier is true, Randidly Ghosthound already has a vast advantage in terms of information. If we are at a disadvantage in terms of both power and information-”

“No, I understand this isn’t a joke,” Richter said lightly. He considered the leader of the Order Valorem for a moment before shrugging. “But I’m not going to pretend like I won’t enjoy the challenge. I’m tired of spending most of my time in a laboratory. I want to test my limits.”

And with that, Richter began to wheel himself forward to join the others on the tiles. However, he was not alone in that desire. Some others joined Richter in descending onto the dark and gleaming tiles. There was a towering ogre, King Phirun himself, a few chosen champions of the Orders, and also the woman with white hair who had been standing with Tatiana.

Truly, coming here might be worth it just to see the tiles, Theodora thought with a frown. But because of the competition… it also functions as a natural way to weed out the weaker parties; they won’t be able to endure images of this level for long… in fact, even I...

The individuals on the tiles spread out so that their images didn’t mix too directly. As it turned out, Mrs. Hamilton continued to reign supreme as the others began to fully release their image. Lights flickered and shrunk as more and more images saturated the floor. Most of the people were a little weaker than the original three that went out onto the floor, becoming relatively forgettable beacons around the central individuals. It was only Phirun who came as a surprise, possessing an image that was about halfway between the original three and Mrs. Hamilton.

And then the woman with white hair coughed lightly. “This feels like bullying… but I’ve felt very stifled in my professional role for the past several months... I think Randidly will understand if I let loose a bit now that I have a body again…”

Then her image spread outward. The immediate effect wasn’t that the previously unimpressive light beneath her feet grew, but rather that every other light on the tiled floor began to rapidly shrink. Those individuals that had been unimpressive before soon barely produced a glow. The original three had their halos of light shrink to about one meter. Even Mrs. Hamilton was ruthlessly pressed down until she was about half the size of the new dominant force on the floor.

As Theodora looked on in alarm at the power demonstrated by this woman, she couldn’t help but notice that the tiles created an aesthetic that was positively cosmic; it was like she was looking at a painting of the celestial bodies in the universe.

Once the others had dimmed, then the white-haired woman’s light began to grow. She achieved the largest area for her light, reaching almost thirty meters. The other people on the tile slowly backed away from her so that they weren’t standing in the area dominated by her image.

“Looks like a fun toy… ssss…. How about you let us try?”

Perhaps it was due to the constant press of images against her senses, but Theodora was genuinely shocked when she realized that another party had arrived without her noticing.

A serpent with feathered wings. A human woman followed by an undead bear. The raucous grin of the Bandit King. The weary eyes of the Obsidian Duke.

The Nemesai had arrived at the party of Randidly Ghosthound.