Who am I, and who do I want to be? Fundamental questions that I’ve ignored in favour of simply responding to the world around me.

I want to be nice. I want to be good. I want to be someone that can make a kinder world.

Do my actions work towards that ends?

The man I killed deserved it, by any measure that I can think of. Not just for the actions he’s taken against me, but for all the rest of it that I was told about later. He wasn’t going to stop just because I came by to share some harsh words. It wasn’t wrong for me to kill him.

Was it right to do so in front of his family?

No. Probably not. I caused unnecessary trauma to them, and I have no idea how involved his wife was, but his kids surely didn’t deserve to go through that.

Not to mention I recorded the whole thing. Those kids are going to grow up with that video floating around the internet, and I doubt they’re going to somehow avoid coming across it.

That’s… bad. Really bad.

I shouldn’t have recorded it.

The person I want to be, would have killed him because he’s a threat that can’t be eliminated through any other reasonable means, but I did it because it felt right. Because it eased the frustration in my soul, the feeling of losing power over my surroundings.

I have to be better than this.

Vii looks down at me with a smile on her face, her wings wrapped up around me.

“Are you feeling better?” She asks. “Done crying?”

“I was crying?” I ask, feeling at my cheeks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“I’m glad to see that you’re all gathered here today.” I say, looking out over the group of employees that are with me again today. Large boxes filled with loot gets unloaded from trucks, while a few eggs and small animals are gathered by the scientists.

“Some of you may be aware, at least partly of what happened recently. There was an incident, where Gemma and Patrick were kidnapped by a group of violent assholes. I saved them, and ensured that we won’t be troubled by those responsible again.

“That said, I have a few associates here on Earth who will be keeping an eye on things, so you don’t need to be concerned about your families. If there’s any trouble, I’ll be hunting down those responsible just as I have this time. So long as you are working with me, your families are untouchable, and I don’t care if it’s the leader of a nuclear power fucking about, I’ll make sure that they see justice for it.”

There’s some serious surprise showing on their faces, but they’re deathly quiet as they look at me. I’m sure they want to talk about this with each other, so I’ll give them that chance soon enough.

“Does anyone have any last minute questions before our ride gets here?” I ask, when none bother to raise their hands, I step down from the front and go to meet with Berty and Vii who stand to the side.

Gemma and Patrick quickly move to intercept me. It seems they had a more personal question that they don’t want to share with the group.

“I’d like to thank you for saving us.” Patrick says.

“I’d do it for anyone here.” I reply lightly, watching the summoning marker float on a body of air that Vii’s cast. It hovers at the edge of a private lake that we’re loaning from Steven. Apparently, the man does have riches of his own, even if he doesn’t always seem to show it.

“I’m sure you would.” Gemma says. “You care about people, don’t you? So, it must be hard on you to do this sort of thing.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, turning to face her.

“You’re trying to do what’s right and necessary to protect the people that you can.” She says. “That’s why you go so far, because you think it’s the only way to protect people. I’m glad that you stopped at only the man responsible, his wife and children didn’t deserve to be punished.”

“It’s not about who’s responsible, and it’s not about justice.” I reply, “It’s about scaring off the scavengers so that they respect me enough not to go after my people. That’s how it works in the animal kingdom, and believe it or not, that’s how it works for us too. I probably should have killed them too, I just… got squeamish, I guess.”

“No, you didn’t want to be that kind of person.” Gemma says. “It’s fine to admit that you’re not a monster. Anyway, I’ll give you some time with your family.”

I turn to look at my brother and notice that my parents are waiting there too. They look a little more sober than usual, their happy expressions toned down considerably, though they still hang off of one another like always.

“I guess this is farewell.” I say, walking up close. Vii intercepts me and hangs off my arm imitating them, I think, but her presence is calming.

“You can’t take us with you?” Mom asks. “I know that we weren’t always around when you needed us, but maybe now…”

“You haven’t had the training.” I reply. “I can’t let you board like this.”

“We should have been around home more often.” Dad says. “I know you don’t want to rely on us anymore, but we’re still your parents and we love you. Please don’t forget that.”

“I won’t.” I say, and it comes surprisingly easy. “I have others that I can rely on now, others I open up to. Just keep living life as you want to, travel the world, and I’ll do what I do. When we meet again, we can exchange stories of our adventures.

“I’m not sure I really want anything else from this. I just don’t think I can really open up to you about what I’ve been through, and… let’s just keep things how they are.”

They nod, but there’s still a weight hanging in the air from the topic of the conversation. They happily left me to leave on that journey, not knowing the sort of suffering I’d experience. Even still, I don’t think they understand that I wanted them to be home more often when I was a kid, I wanted a family that was there with me, not half-way across the world when I needed them. Now, I have that family with Vii, Nel, Eshya, and Adler, and I don’t really want to try and find that with my parents anymore.

I’m still glad that I’m close with Berty though. He’s reliable, and easy to talk to.

“Berty, is Steven confident that he can keep all the politics and intelligence agencies, and all that spy shit under control? I’ll be back in like a month for a quick visit to clean up, take care of business, and set up some of those murder satellites if that’s still fine.”

“He’ll do what he can.” Berty says, “But Earth is a complicated mess right now, he’s not… well he’s not you. He can’t get away with stuff like what you did last night. He’s going to be stirring up the rumour mill, and we’ll work to make sure nothing happens while you’re gone, but we can’t just delete nukes in flight.”

“Was that a nuke last night?” I ask, thinking back to the missile.

“We don’t know since you destroyed it.” He says, “But so long as you saw it coming, you could do the same thing to a nuclear warhead anyway, no?”

“If I can see it coming, sure.” I say with a shrug. “I’m still working on solutions to that. It’s unnerving to have such a limited sight, back home I can see my entire empire. Even now it’s there, hovering in my mind. We really need to update the messenger system to work through the more universal Skills like this one rather than whatever workaround it’s currently built on.”

“You really are leaving all humanity behind.” Berty chuckles. “What sort of monster will you be by the next time you visit?”

“Well, I am planning to build a space fleet to explore the galaxy when I have a chance, so look forward to that.” I say, earning another laugh from out the side of his mouth.

“Well, I guess it won’t be good to be outdone by my little sister, so I’ll get to work making something of myself on this little rock.” He says. “Maybe we can turn it into a race, and I’ll try to get humanity out there into the galaxy before you.”

“Just you try.” I say, leaning in to hug him. His big bear like arms wrap around me, and before Vii can retreat, he pulls her in too.

“I love you little sis, just keep on surviving. So long as you’re still alive, things can get better again.”

“Oh, I know. I’m actually in a pretty good place right now.” I say, “Though, I’m feeling more and more that I’m becoming my own biggest villain.”

“You’ll get past it.” Berty says, patting at my head before I struggle out of his grip. “You’ll have to take care of those little nieces and nephews, and raise them into good kids.”

“If there’s any reason to be a good person, it’s them.” I say, rubbing at my head. “It’s a good thing I have a harem of my own, it’ll take more than the one lover to kick my ass when I start going down the wrong road.”

A slight pop of air expands out from over the lake, and a familiar ship appears from nothingness. The wooden panels, on the side of the old vessel a little burnt here and there. Its chaotic crew is as I remember and the captain doesn’t give us a moment to get used to them, before leaping off into the water.

Using a swimming Skill, not unlike ours, he crawls his way over to us and looks about at the manor house on the shore.

“Quite a bit nicer than I expected from people without mana.” He says, taking it all in. “The craftsmanship is certainly better than most of what I see with the places I travel to. Still not sure it’d be worth anything without any mana in it.”

“It’s more the gadgets and ingenuity that makes them valuable.” I say, looking out at my employees. They’ve gotten used to the sight of Vii but the crew of the ship are decidedly more alien than they were expecting to deal with. The quicker to adapt are already getting everything together for boarding.

A long plank is lowered into place, some sort of magic keeping it from sinking into the soft earth, and the crew comes down to help with carrying the goods we’re taking on board.

“You paid well for the ride, but I think I’ll leave all this business to you.” The captain says. “It seems too much effort, with too little profit to me.”

“No skin off my back.” I say, observing to make sure that there’s no issues with my employees. Everything is moving smoothly and there’s no issues as far as I can see. “Are there many stops before we get back home?”

“We’ll be heading straight back.” He says. “We arranged the rest of our business around you today, so you’d better appreciate it.”

“Oh, I do.” I reply. “I’m hoping for repeat business actually.”

There’s not much to be done or said after that. I’ve already dealt with the important goodbyes, and everything that comes next is just as we’d planned it. The boxes are carefully stored away and my employees are getting used to the alien crew.

Before we know it, we’re floating up into the sky waving down to my brother and Steven, who decided to show up so late that he missed out on any of the interesting conversations. The magic starts to unravel around us, but this time all the other humans with me are shielded from the pain of its effects.

With a flash of power running through my flesh, we return to a familiar place. A warm cavern, a wide glowing lake, and a city of spires and tall white walls.

More than a few people are gathered here waiting for us, Nel stands tall with a tight-lipped smile, Eshya waves cheerfully, and Adler looks conflicted. Red has a few other soldiers by her side as she escorts that annoying noble of all people. Malea.

Is she here to cause more trouble for us?

She’s not alone either, there’s a man with her, well dressed and with some sort of suit that’s rather nicely made. The smile on his lips seems surprisingly genuine, though I’m not about to trust that on its own. Arduelle stands with them, a sickening smile on her face, I think she’s starting to have fun with all this plotting and planning.

“Okay, let’s get everything off board and out of sight before these idiots try anything.” I say. Thankfully, Red has a guard unit together to protect my new employees just in case there’s any assassins around to cause trouble.

“So, what sort of disaster have I missed?” I ask as I set foot on the stone pier. Finally, I’m home again, and it seems that my people are happy to have me back.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 28,451 / 60,892 units

Current mana volume: 14,141 / 30,266 shards

Mana volume at crystallisation density (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,266 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (20,000 mana shards)

-Bone Magic Storage (40,000 mana shards)

-Nail Shifters (50,000 mana shards)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (8,000 mana shards)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (35,000 mana shards)

-Layered space Muscles (80,000 mana shards)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (140,000 mana shards)

-Repulsive Skin (80,000 mana shards)

-Prehensile hair (10,000 mana shards)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (100,000 mana shards)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (5,000 mana shards)

-Wide ears (5,000 mana shards)

-Sharp nose (5,000 mana shards)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

-Tag and Film

-Trapping

-Stealth

-Mana surge movement

-Annihilation defence

-Annihilation flame burst

-Annihilation net

-Eyes of an Empire