Despite the overwhelming presence of his current company, Daemon couldn’t help but object. The entire time Ankhoner had been in the room, he had felt like the bunny being put into the cage of a vicious snake. And now he had even been told he would become Ankhoner’s plaything. Whatever way the Ascended would decide to play with him, Daemon was sure he wouldn’t enjoy it.

“What are you talking about, I will be no one’s plaything,” Daemon said, trying to look as confident as he could. “I don’t care about your council or your rules. I just want to go find and join my family and friends.” His voice couldn’t help but waver, his overactive imagination picturing all kinds of games Ankhoner would like to play with him.

“Oh, but you will care about the rules soon enough,” Ankhoner said. “What your new friend might have failed to mention is that our rules make up the laws of all universes. They rule every one of your kind miserable lives. From the moment they become touched by them through the Advancement until your soul is lost in the void. Even we Ascended can not escape the rules. Only bend them a little, like what we will do to you.”

Turning to the gargoyle who was still dutifully standing in place, he took a coin from his hand. “Ah yes, it’s been a while since I used one of these,” He said, flicking the coin towards Adinoz. “If you would do the honors, save me the trouble of trying to figure out how yours work.”

As soon as Adinoz caught the coin, a white a large window-like portal appeared next to him, hovering over the table. Daemon immediately recognized Earth. The window zoomed out rapidly, quickly having zoomed out enough to show the entire solar system. After zooming out even more, Daemon eventually recognized that he could now see the entire Milky Way.

Before it suddenly all disappeared.

“Milky Way,” Ankhoner sneered. “How typical. Silly names for something they can’t even begin to understand. Watch closely Untouched, watch what happens when a sub-par civilization like yours Advances.”

After the disappearance of the Milky Way, the window showed a new scene. An enormous landmass, with many islands scattered around it. Before Daemon could take in the geography, the scene changed once more. It showed a group of humans wearing everyday clothes. A man in a suit, looking lost as he looked around him, his briefcase dropped on the ground. A woman holding a leash in her hand, with nothing tied to it. A bride still wearing her dress, whose smile of joy slowly turns into panic. All of them, people who had been seconds before leading their own lives. Every one of them started talking, no one could make any sense of the situation. The chaos continued for a while. Until a gargoyle appeared in the sky above them.

“Silence please,” It said, barely anyone paying attention to it. It waited a while, before adding so much power to its voice, Daemon could feel the urge to stay silent through the window. “Be silent and rejoice. Your Advancement has come, the Ascended welcome you to a new universe. Although your accomplishments have given you a low standing on the Index, fear not. Through Advancement there is a place for everyone.”

As the window went dark, Adinoz finally spoke up. “Whatever you are planning Ankhoner, you have to adhere to the rules just like everyone else. The council wouldn’t be pleased if their watchdog was caught breaking the rules. I will allow you control over Daemon but don’t forget he will be in one of my Rifts.” He said.

“Yes yes, keep your thinly veiled threats to yourself,” Ankhoner reacted, visibly irritated by the fact Adinoz wasn’t more shaken about losing Daemon. “So let’s see, what are we working with here?”

Looking at Daemon, Ankhoner’s eye flashes blue and he suddenly appeared busy reading something.

“A daemon, from a planet called Earth, how peculiar,” He mumbled. “He doesn’t look like a Daemon, guess even I can be surprised. Fairly low stats, even for a three out of ten on the Index. Must be a really low three. No wonder Adinoz let his gargoyles handle them. At least I can have some fun, for however long he lasts.”

Turning towards Daemon, he said in an authoritative tone. “Daemon, do you have a name? You know what, nevermind, Daemon will do. I will give you a quick rundown, try to keep up. As you might have guessed your people did very poorly during their existence before the Advancement. A ridiculously small amount of people with bad stats and no real physical way to fight. I guess Adinoz tried to salvage what he could from you. So two years ago, when your people Advanced, he mixed them with another universe. This universe, with a seven out of ten, did considerably better. But since they also had a small number of inhabitants, they can at least use you as meatshields.”

Taking what looked like a small magnifying glass out of his pocket, he looked through it at Daemon. “Since I don’t want you to be just another meatshield, I will address your severe lack of … of anything really. He tapped the magnifying glass on Daemon’s head, after which it stuck to his forehead. A stream of glowing red particles started flowing from Ankhoner into the magnifying glass. As soon as the first particles hit the glass, Daemon started screaming.

Daemon felt like he was on fire. Every cell in his body was in agony. His glass slipped from his grasp and shattered on the floor, sending fine crystal shards everywhere. Losing control over the muscles in his leg, he slid out of his chair and fell to the ground convulsing. He had no idea how long the pain lasted. It could have been minutes or hours, but he eventually welcomed the blissful unconsciousness.

When Daemon came to again, he was lying on a couch right in front of the fireplace. Trying to stand up, he groaned as he felt like he ran a marathon. Not that he had ever run a marathon. But if he had, he imagined this was what it felt like afterward. Hearing no sound but the crackling of the fire, he eventually managed to stand up without feeling like he would immediately fall over again. Turning around, he saw the 2 Ascended sitting across from each other at the table, playing a game of chess.

“You’re finally awake,” Concluded Ankhoner, while not even looking up from the board. “Took you long enough. Next time, don’t waste my time. Know that all the pain could have been avoided. I offered you a chance to escape your at best mediocre existence. And you didn’t even thank me. Normally that would have been your end, but I hate being wasteful. So you better thank me by amusing me for some time to come.”

Slowly walking around the couch, the soreness started disappearing from Daemon’s body. In fact, he realized he had never felt this good. His eyes could see the strange symbols on the books, ever far into the darkness. Much farther than he could before. His nose was picking up the smell of old books and dusty tomes under the overwhelming smell of the fire. He breathed in deeply, reveling in all the new aromas he could now smell. Is this how dogs go through life?

Not just his senses were enhanced. Whenever he walked, he felt more stable. He felt he could just jump higher, run faster and longer. His muscles were bursting with power and the need to use it. Had he not been in the presence of the Ascended, he would have. Instead, he chose to join the two at the table. Sitting down on the last available chair, he watched the board. It was the same chess he knew, but with actual moving pieces. Ankhoner had just told his queen to capture one of Adinoz’s pawns, checkmating him. The three of them watched in silence as the queen glided over the board. Once she arrived at her destination, she lifted one hand towards Ankhoner, before pointing at the pawn. From above the board, a red beam came, pulverizing the pawn and leaving a scorch mark on the square. The queen took the pawn’s place and looked over at the king with disdain. The king turned to Adinoz and fell to his knees.

“I have failed you, my Lord,” He said. “Forgive me and the others who are still alive. May we serve again in the next life.” With those words, all Adinoz’s pieces turned into dust. Ankhoner’s king just saluted, after which his pieces disappeared, leaving the board empty.

“I have never liked this board version,” Adinoz said, finally looking up from the board. “Too violent and too similar to the real thing. A game should never mimic a real war.” With a wave of his hand, the board disappeared, along with the last remnants of the once brave pieces.

He stood up from the table and walked to the fireplace, leaning on the mantel.

Ankhoner stood up as well, opening a portal. “I think I can leave the rest up to you Adinoz, I will be watching the daemon. Don’t try anything, he has been touched by me and I will be watching,” He said, before stepping through the portal.

After the portal closed, both the Ascended and Daemon said nothing for a while. The silence was broken by the sound of Adinoz chuckling. Looking at Daemon, he could no longer contain his laughter. “A daemon,” He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe after all this time, he is still so short-sighted. Still, I worry about what he will do if he finds out.”

“You have no idea what just happened, do you?” He said, noticing Daemon’s visible confusion. “Everything Ankhoner said was true. Sadly, the rate of your species development was atrocious. The near constant wars and weird beliefs set you back on many occasions. Combine that with very slow early development due to lack of natural weapons, and we have the recipe for your people’s Index score. The Index is not just merely a way Ascended categorize a universes growth before Advancement. We use it to measure a people’s potential.”

Daemon was getting more and more confused. “Potential for what?” He asked, trying to wrap his brain around what Adinoz was telling him. “And what did Ankhoner do that was so funny?”

We’ll get to that in a bit,” Adinoz answered, sitting back down again. “First you need to understand the basics. When the first universe was created, there was nothing apart from a strange form of energy. It has many names such as primal energy and soul energy, but the Ascended call it Aether. You would know it as a primal and very pure form of mana. The First Ascended were created by this energy. But they also found that when used, something was created as a byproduct. Something volatile, something destructive. A very basic comparison would be entropy. When something is created, the chaos is removed. The First Ascended found this chaos created beings polar opposites to themselves. They called them Shades. Destroying them was impossible without destroying themselves, their very being was still intertwined with the Ascended.”

Taking a drink from his glass, Adinoz shifted his position and sighed before continuing. “After eons of war, the First Ascended finally found a new way of using the energy. Since Ascended are polar opposites to the Shades, our fight would be without end. So instead of fighting the Shades ourselves, we send beings created by us to fight. Since then we have created countless universes, in the hope they will yield a people greater than ourselves. Some of us are more focused on this goal than others. But since creating universes uses Aether, it causes a shade universe to be created. We call these shade universes Rifts. Seemingly normal worlds with a negative amount of Aether. If this is allowed to pile up, it will wipe out both the shade universe and the originally created universe. Sometimes even resulting in a large enough loss in Aether that another Shade is created.”

Rubbing his brow, Adinoz stopped talking. Absentmindedly sipping from his drink, he sat in silence for a while, before explaining the rest. “So when universes Advance, they go to the Rift, where they start fighting the Shades. Trying to fight well and survive, inadvertently providing us with a positive amount of Aether. Of course, they don’t fight the Shades themselves, only manifestations of their energy. This is what your people are doing right now. As for why Ankhoner’s actions were funny, he misread you. You see, to encourage those that do well in their fight, we grant them minuscule amounts of powers using Aether. Like reinvesting in investments that pay off. Since daemons are a species frequently used by Ascended in the creation of universes, Ankhoner read your name as a species name. When he bound you to him, he evaluated you as a daemon. Including the basic investment that should be made when binding you. Basically, he gave you the power of a species that is regularly rated a nine on the Index.”