After the ex-prince successfully maneuvered his sister Beyyele into taking care of Kohn and the other Earthlings he thought he could have a moment to rest up. Ever since long before he went on his expedition he had been constantly working. Preparing the ships, stocking up on supplies, hand picking the soldiers to go with him, trying to convince the important people that he needed to go with him and more. There were so many things that he had never expected were required to go on one of these trips.

“No wonder father never goes anywhere.”

And when he finally set off on the journey there were nothing but troubles from the beginning! One of the Dark Vessels in his fleet had a critical malfunction which caused it to leave the expedition early in order to get major repairs. Unluckily it had been the ship with his second in command and his most loyal vassal. The man had saved the ex-prince’s life on more than one occasion and had proven himself time and time again in the eyes of the royal family.

Then the first planet had been consumed by World Eaters. Then they had to avoid a region of space due to a Tempest storm, and so on and so forth. Problems kept rising up and the ex-prince was starting to lose faith in their chances of completing their mission. But then they came across a small blue and white planet.

It was the third closest planet to the sun, but was the only one out of eleven planets that could sustain life. In its atmosphere they saw some kind of equipment, but the ships deemed them to have no weapons so they left them alone. On its surface they found major population centers that could be seen from the Deep Dark and the ship’s scans had revealed the largest concentration of sentient beings that the Kingdom had ever found.

He had been so happy to find this little planet and set a course for the largest and flattest landing area they could find. It just so happened to be a barren biome of sand that fluctuated in temperature greatly depending on it being day or night.

At the time the Prince had been so excited. Not just because it was a type of land that he had never seen before, or because he was about to meet an alien species. No, he was excited because he figured that the best landing area had been created specifically over the World Heart Rift in order to welcome off-world beings. He never would have imagined that not only was the biome, which they called a desert, something that was naturally made, but they didn’t even know what the World Heart was.

An even bigger headache was awaiting him when he found out how divided they were. There wasn’t a single ruler or king, but dozens if not hundreds of leaders. And naturally all these leaders had struggled against each other in order to become superior to their neighbors which had led to war.

The Prince wasn’t explicitly told about the Earth’s World Wars, but he could see the eyes of all the gathered leaders there that day. Many were eyeing each other with disdain, superiority, even hostility and concern for someone else gaining the upper hand. And they didn’t have the means to leave the system and colonize other worlds. If he left things as they were, the Prince knew that it would only be a matter of time before a war destroyed them all or the very planet beneath their feet.

So he took their World Heart and even though it left him considerably weakened he decided a show of power was necessary to get them to work together, underneath him. So that he could guide them with a single good will. Naturally that didn’t go well and a number of humans were killed by Leete and the Prince’s best friend Kai’Roond, a member of the Order of Whispers. Leete’s second in command of his Dark Vessel even took it upon himself to fire the ships weapons at other approaching vehicles and weapons.

Afterwards, the Prince met up with a single figure from Earth. A mysterious man named Raj. Somehow he knew instantly that the Prince could understand what was known as the English language, even though Leete had been absolutely sure that no one had picked up on the Gathering of Words spell he cast during his time with the translators. So the Prince talked with Raj and explained why he had taken the World Heart and what it would mean.

He explained that it was a serious matter, and one that would probably end in severe punishment when he got back to the Kingdom.

“So why did you take it?”

“Because I see your planet like the history of my own. Right before the precipice of a war that destroyed so much that it was nearly impossible to come back.”

“You wanted to stop Earth from going through a similar fate?”

“In a manner yes, but it wasn’t the only reason. The Kingdom is suffering from a war with a species that consumes everything. The Jzanna.”

“And these Jzanna… they kill everyone? They don’t take prisoners?”

“The Jzanna are not sentient beings. They do not have the concept of war or prisoners. They only know of food.”

“So they would eat us? Wipe out everything on the Earth?”

“No, you misunderstand. The Jzanna would eat as much as they could, but they are like parasites moving through the Deep Dark.”

“Parasites need something larger in order to live.”

“They have that ‘something’. The Jzanna follow the World Eaters.”

And the Prince went on to explain about the World Eaters. But only recently they found out that the Kingdom’s knowledge was wrong and that the World Eaters were actually carrying what they thought to be the Jzanna. Meaning that the big monstrosities that previously just ate planets, were also the mothers of the Jzanna. And inside these mothers were millions of baby Jzanna that would grow up into World Eaters.

Raj had been quick in understanding that these weren’t things that Earth could fight alone. He was shown recordings of fights with the Jzanna and he pulled out a device to record it to show to his ‘superiors’. But the Prince could tell that Raj didn’t have superiors.

“So you took the Earth’s World Heart to prevent us from destroying ourselves, but also to help you fight the Jzanna and their World Eaters.”

“Yes. In exchange we would provide knowledge and understanding of magic, free trade with the Agossomore Kingdom and the protection of our fleets.”

After that the mysterious man had left under Kai’Roond’s watchful eyes. He didn’t speak, but Agossliam could see that the man held an interest in Raj as a potential pupil for the Order. Not even ten Earth minutes later he had returned with the support of the world leaders and asked that the Kingdom help train some of their people in order to show that the Earth was fully committed to being a member of the Kingdom. Of course Agossliam had been warned that the people of Earth would be told that the ‘aliens’ would be demanding this of them.

The Prince had readily agreed since it was what he had hoped to get in the future, but much further down the line. Unfortunately he almost immediately regretted it. The cost of preparing all the Brace of Words had been staggering and gathering mana from Earth was slow. They wouldn’t be able to replace all the mana they used on Earth.

Then he had to get the other ships to land on the planet and make space for the Earthlings. Then he had to alter the mana consumption budgets, create training regimes, course work for history and basic knowledge and settle issues from the other vessel commanders. Their entire return trip was a massive headache. And it didn’t help that he was still syncing with the Earth while getting further and further away from it.

When everything had been finished Agossliam thought he’d have a chance to rest during their return trip home. But then they came across a World Eater. They watched it go by unnoticed, so that success emboldened them into bringing what they thought was a Jzanna corpse. They lost a lot of people, but it helped reinforce a lesson for the Earthlings that they had to train under the Kingdom in order to become powerful enough to protect their families.

And then just as he was planning to sleep again, the Earthling Kohn showed up and he had to talk the fool down. Then a bunch of noise out in the corridor and he found Kohn and his vessel’s armorer in a hilarious situation. But that humor was short lived when the fools punched a hole in the Dark Vessel and also damaged one of the Formation Banks.

Of course that allowed him to see Kohn’s prototype suit in action and for the first time Agossliam saw someone go out into the Deep Dark and survive. It was a historic moment for the fleet. Which became even more historic when they found the massive number of Jzanna in the asteroid road and even more importantly they found the dead World Eater was actually creating the road with its body.

While thinking about how to deal with this new information Agossliam rubbed his head in a vain attempt to decrease the ache.

Now he was back in the capital and the punishment had him confined to his room, but that wasn’t an issue. If anything it was greatly welcomed. And after thinking about it for a little bit, his ‘punishment’ wasn’t even anything to be worried about.

Well, he did have to choose a new name for himself since he was stripped of his name, rank and family. But at least for now he could rest in peace without a shred of responsibility to worry about. At least, he was able to rest until the capital tilted and gravity ripped him out from his bed.

“Guard! Find out what has happened.”

“Sorry my lord, but you cannot give me orders.”

That’s right, he was just a prisoner now.

“Then please find out what has happened and let me know. A courier or maid would be all that is necessary.”

The guard decided that it wasn’t anything that would cause him problems so he sent out a page boy to find out what was happening. When he returned he carried news that caused the ex-prince to stress out again.

“The Administrator of Beasts, Princess Beyyele, as well as your lord’s Armorer and Earthlings have been escorted to King StoneTooth for causing an animal stampede that ran through the capital’s streets and damaging property.

“Ugh.” He felt a sharp stabbing pain in his abdomen. “What have they done now?”