Keynes sat on the floor meditating and waiting for Daiyu Fen. He was ready to void his emotions at a moment’s notice. He didn’t wish to repeat the situation from the gym, Daiyu Fen had gotten too close to him. He still remembered the heat coming off her body and minty breath from her mouth. There was something wrong with the way he reacted to these types of interactions. He understood that.

Maybe the fault lay at his emotional affliction’s feet that slingshot simple awkwardness into an orbit. What did it matter in the end?

“Keynes?” a whisper came from behind.

He jumped to his feet, yelping lamely. His face went red and when he whirled he found Daiyu Fen standing there.

“I told you to not do this again.”

“I warned you I will be coming tonight.”

She did but this was lunatic. He almost had a heart attack. Seeing her expression Keynes decided to drop the topic and voided his emotions. Instant clarity was a relief.

“So how can I train the Mind attribute?”

“You’ll see,” Daiyu Fen said with sharp determination. “But you need to unlock the door though.”

“Why?” Keynes asked.

“You will see.”

Keynes considered it as he went to the door. It could be a trap but Daiyu Fen didn’t seem like that kind of a person. A quick, cold calculation later Keynes unlocked the door finding Tulli outside.

“Hi,” she said quietly. “Fen told me to wait here.”

“Yes, she should have heeded her own advice.”

“Hm?”

“It is nothing, please, come in.”

Once the door closed, Daiyu Fen launched into an explanation.

“Tulli here has a Talent that can help us.”

Keynes raised a hand.

“Were we not told to not share our Talents with others?”

Keynes didn’t try to stop her, his question was simply factual without a hidden motive. Both girls exchanged glances, Tulli showed doubt immediately and perhaps would have left here and now if not for Daiyu Fen’s strong stance.

“We aren’t here out of our own volition. The World Government forced us here—”

“Fen,” Tulli yelped, panicked. “Stop.”

“Don’t fret, Tulli. Keynes is like us. He’s here against his will. Right?”

“That is true. I was kidnapped by the government and sent to a secret base in Jamaica. I have not seen my family since then.” He sounded flat as he described it, both girls noted this and he noted their confusion. “I am actively suppressing my emotions.” He explained and saw their curiosity bloom but he didn’t want them to discuss his emotional affliction. Keynes guided the topic to the Mind attribute.

“Tulli can help us,” Daiyu Fen repeated.

“Us?”

“I decided I must max out all of my attributes as well. If I am going to reclaim the honour of my house, I have to be the strongest self I can be.”

“What about you, Tulli?” Keynes asked. “Do plan to max out your attributes as well?”

“No,” she replied softly but with finality.

“Alright, Tulli, tell us about your Talent and how it may help us.”

She still dithered between telling them and running away. Keynes understood the stake at play. Director Wolf and Officer McJames hyped punishment as a good way to increase discipline. And by revealing her Talent to him, she was breaking one of the first rules drilled by the director into them.

“Tulli, Keynes will tell us his Talent in ex—”

“I will not,” Keynes interrupted her.

“What? Why?”

“It is not something I can share with anyone.”

“And why is that?” Daiyu Fen asked, growing defensive. Keynes didn’t blame her. She wished to open up to him and he refused to do the same. But he couldn’t return her kindness. Not yet at least.

“It is too dangerous.”

“We aren’t afraid,” Daiyu Fen replied immediately even though Tulli didn’t look convinced.

“It is not you who would be in danger. My Talent is— okay, listen, can I tell you a different secret instead of my Talent?”

They fell silent thinking over then accepted but under one condition, he would have to say it first. He likewise had one condition. They couldn’t tell anyone about this. They agreed.

“The spiritual message that came a few days ago. It said: compact instead of guiding. I understood the words because I have been doing it for a while now.”

He paused to gauge their reactions, both, stared at him expectantly.

“It refers to the movement of essence inside your body. You can guide the essence lowering pain. That is how I managed it in the beginning.”

“And why should we do that?” Tulli asked hesitantly while Daiyu Fen was thinking over his revelation.

“Because this way you can strengthen your Spirit.”

They made large eyes as they looked at Keynes. Then Daiyu Fen’s eyes narrowed and he knew what was coming.

“So you haven’t told me everything.” There was a note of pretence but nothing hostile.

“Did you?”

She didn’t answer.

“Can we start then?”

“Yes,” Tulli nodded. Out of the two, she looked more agitated by Keynes’s secret. “So my Talent is Mind Control.”

“That makes sense.”

Suddenly, the puzzles clicked together. So their idea boiled down to a mental battle. On paper, it sounded very neat. The question was how in practice would their training look like.

He turned to the second girl, waiting. Daiyu Fen knew what he wanted and made him wait. She had a difficult character, nothing Keynes was a stranger to. He patiently waited, counting seconds in his head. He was on a timer here.

After what felt like five minutes, Tulli snapped softly.

“Tell him.”

Daiyu Fen gave her a wounded look but nodded.

“My Talent is Phasing.”

“Oh.” Both their Talents were overpowered. Keynes started to see the bigger picture. The special ops academy was about truly formidable Talents. If those trainees remained by the World Government’s side and trained to their full potential, Keynes saw a very dire future for those who wished to oppose it. With her Talent, Daiyu Fen could assassinate anyone and Tulli… god only knew the extent of her powers.

They didn’t discuss their Talents or the truth about the spiritual message. As they sat down in a circle, Tulli explained the process. She could attack up to two minds simultaneously.

At first, Keynes felt nothing from her. He felt nothing at all, only clarity, and so he waited. He heard Daiyu Fen’s grunt and noticed a strain on her face. Tulli’s Talent was so strong they had to start over thrice before she found the right balance. Then came Keynes’s turn.

How to describe a mind attack? It depended on the intent of the attacker. If Tulli wished to quietly take over Keynes’s mind, he wouldn’t feel a thing. Like with sleep, you could never pinpoint the moment when you fell asleep. It was a seamless experience and Tulli’s mind control was the same. Her victim didn’t sense the moment their mind was affected. On the other hand, if she desired to destroy your mind—which her Talent allowed her—it would be a different sort of ordeal. This kind of brute force attack resembled a headache but not any headache but the monstrous headache known as a cluster headache. The merciless, stabbing, tearing pain that took away everything and left only a wish of death.

In their mind battles, Tulli used both types against Keynes. Obviously, during their first contest, she was delicate. Keeping the strength of her Talent in check.

It didn’t stop Keynes’s Will from shattering though. It turned out that he couldn’t keep his emotional affliction boxed and have a mind battle at the same time. Even trained to maximum, his Will wasn’t strong enough. With his emotions running rampant, Keynes had a tough time opposing Tulli although she said that his mind already felt like a small stronghold. He suspected his raised Spirit at play here and, to some degree, trained Mind.

Their time together that night didn’t last long as they collapsed exhausted. Keynes tried to push himself beyond what his endurance allowed but sleep took him before he could propose his idea to the girls.

The next day, a messenger came to Keynes’s cabin with a laptop and a note. It turned out Director Wolf delivered on his promise. The laptop only had one application and no connection to the Web. The application was similar to IQ tests but this one explored a wider variety of intellectual games with one particular game that Keynes found exhausting. He read about this in a magazine where it was called by a neuroscientist a multi channelling. It was the ability to consciously think about several different things at the same time. Keynes failed at his first attempt, mostly because he didn’t read the instruction.

So he read it before his second attempt, it asked him to think about an object, for example, an apple and then made the apple fall off the tree in one instance and stay on the branch in the second one.

That was easy.

But as the instruction went on. Tasks and variations got complex and Keynes had to switch between them. After several hours of brain-hurting exercises, he nailed it. But this was the beginning.

The next step was to do two calculations at the same time.

His mental stamina was gone and he was hungry. He needed a break before Tulli and Daiyu Fen came. Nonetheless, the application looked very promising.

Two days until Esopp returns. I can do it.

***

Windsor stood in the garden of his sprawled mansion watching the construction of his new stronghold and palace atop of the Rock of Gibraltar. His architects had exceeded his expectations with concepts showing a futuristic structure that looked imposing, projected dread and awe but at the same time offered unmatched comfort to Windsor and his guests.

This stronghold wouldn’t be the only one Windsor had plans to build but it was going to be the first and most prestigious. The mix of luxury, incredible weather and defensive bedrock would allow him to host the most prominent individuals this world had.

From there, he would rule the world—no, the solar system—and perhaps stars beyond. He only needed to get rid of insurgents, of those who didn’t understand the true power of unity. The High Parliament had been a corrupted entity at the behest of the Old Blood and powerful organisations. They weren’t interested in driving mankind forward. No. For them, only their self-interest mattered.

Windsor and his Inner Circle lobbied for important projects for years and still, most of them had been rejected out of hand by the High Parliament. He no longer was bound by these constraints though. Many secret projects that he’d had to finance through illegal operations and off the book transactions finally saw the proper level of funding and attention.

Once he finished off Columbus Curt and the hostile Old Blood families, he would look up to Mars and Venus, the two planets, which broke away from the World Government immediately after the dissolution of the High Parliament.

His contemplation was interrupted by Pizzaro who acted as his right hand, Windsor needed to find a proper station for Pizzaro and Moonbane and those who would join their ranks. Those two were Windsor’s mouth and hands.

“President, High Lord Earl arrived.”

Except for Caesar who was in Lisbon supervising the Science Institute in their work on the Helios Protocol, and Letchworth who hadn’t come out of his ruined mansion in England, he had his entire Inner Circle here.

“Bring Esopp here first.”

Esopp Earl joined Windsor in the garden a few minutes later. But before a single word was exchanged, Windsor approached a large stone tablet and activated a formation. Suddenly, background noise was cut off, separating a small portion of the garden by an invisible sphere that blocked sound from going in and out. Windsor’s scientists worked to integrate the recently decoded magic formation and technology but without required Level 1 materials, the stone tablet from a rift was his best shot.

“Esopp, I am glad you decided to extend your stay.” It wasn’t like Esopp had any say in this. Windsor needed him at today’s meeting.

“Anything for you, Windsor.”

Windsor smiled.

“I may take you up on that.”

“Anytime.”

Windsor nodded, content with the answers.

“Your prisoner isn’t very talkative. He doesn’t appreciate broken limbs.”

“It has been necessary. He turned out to be stronger than any Level 5 has any right to be.”

“Yes. He has already regenerated most of the damage we’d done to him. This new attribute seems potent. He still hasn’t told us a thing though. I need you to look into his affairs again and also his dead parents may be a good lead. It seems they’d more secrets than we thought.”

“I will do so,” Esopp replied then his face darkened. “I received a request from the director of special ops academy in Scotland. He’s asking for more time for Keynes Kid to max out his attributes.”

Why would they want to max out his attributes?

“Did you forget the academy’s goal?”

“No.”

“Then such consideration shouldn’t even reach me.”

“I understand and if this request was about anyone else, I would have denied it out of hand. But his case is different.”

Windsor didn’t reply right away. Keynes Kid was a special case among special cases and Windsor had to tread very carefully around him. Most people who knew about his Talent and its connection to the outbreak were currently kept in a secret base in Jamaica. Those who weren’t were closely monitored. Even having Esopp near the boy was risky as it drew unwanted attention.

“Remind the director that his academy isn’t about getting the operatives stronger. He must only level them up. If he opposes you, feel free to eliminate him.”

“Director Wolf is a valuable asset, Windsor. His Talent nurtures loyalty to the World Government among the academy trainees. He wants to serve us as best as he can and he currently believes these trainees will be used in a different way to what we planned to do with them.

“If that’s the case, move him to the Human Project.”

“I am not sure he has a stomach for that.”

“As long as he does what he is supposed to do, I don’t mind where he will go.”

***

The war room held many maps showing Earth under different criteria. The most important one presented rifts’ locations. Even computer models concluded that the locations were random, which wasn’t ideal. It’d make Windsor’s life easier to have a prediction of the higher level rifts’ locations. Several Level 2 rifts his scientists had found were scattered in Europe.

“Our next move depends on when we can start opening Level 2 rifts,” the vice-president said. “We may have seventy percent of the army in our hands but the Old Blood and other prominent families control the vast majority of food production and technology. The World Government doesn’t produce anything. As of now, we rely on our enemies. If they decide to turn off the Web, cut off fuel and food production and deprive us of other infrastructural necessities, we’ll be screwed.”

“We are the GOVERNMENT,” Nitisha snapped. “As you said yourself, most of the military and their infrastructure is on OUR side. If they deny us food and petrol, we’ll take it from them.”

“Are you mad? Are you forgetting how many people live on Earth? If you suddenly take away basics from them, what do you think would happen?”

“What do I care about a bunch of Level 1s?”

“A bunch?” Ronald asked incredulously. “Over a hundred billion people is a bunch to you? Windsor, are you hearing this?”

Windsor had let them bicker before as there was no harm in doing so, but now his vice-president had a point. Food was a strategic resource in any war.

“What about the meat from the rift monsters?”

“It’s a mess,” Nitisha replied not very happy that he didn’t take her side. “Most get sick and die. Some get crazy, talk shit, or turn mindless like the monsters themselves.”

“No promising results?” Windsor inquired further.

“Not at this point. We would have to start doing tests on Level 2s and 3s though.”

“See it done,” Windsor told her.

“I will, Windsor,” Nitisha affirmed, then pressed her lips together staring daggers at Ronald.

“It may be worth to start thinking about the acquisition of lands,” Ronald said.

“We rule the planet.” Windsor reminded him. “We own everything.”

“We still must establish strongholds around the important rift clusters. These are key resources to us. We should focus on the important bits and shove Columbus Curt and his followers into the worthless parts.”

“I agree,” Esopp added. “As of now, we are spread too thinly and there are parts of the world with uncleared rifts. Australia is a deadzone, South America is in a bad shape. Columbus Curt’s majority of followers live in North America and some parts of Asia. If we pulled our personnel from these regions, stripping all value from them, it would hurt his cause. We hold Europe and Africa and it is where we should increase our foothold. We should rethink our strategy until we have opened enough Level 3 or even Level 4 rifts so we can freely roll over the resistance.”

This wasn’t what Windsor had planned. Withdrawing from some parts of the world would undermine the position of the World Government as the ruler of the planet. He couldn’t allow that. If they couldn’t keep the status quo, something needed to be done.

“Ronald, how is the infiltration going? How close are you to finding Columbus Curt?”

“Finding isn’t the issue here. What should we do when we find him?”

“Kill him of course,” Nitisha snapped. “I can kill him myself.”

Ronald tsked.

“He would smear a street with you, woman. None of our assassins are capable of killing him.”

“Do we know what spells he has acquired?”

“Rumour goes that he has two at the moment, [Wind Blade] and [Wind Punch]. But I’m sure he has more by—”

The door to the war room slammed open, everyone prepared for a fight but it wasn’t the fight that charged inside.

It was Pizzaro.

“President, there was an attack on the Science Institute in Lisbon. Caesar Stonewood is dead.”