Chapter 596 (2/2)
Remembering the first trip to the world of the Patron of Ash, Randidly shivered. At the center was death, of a sort.
Although Randidly was happy with his decision to pivot the plans into something more iconic, it would cost money. So, with an aggrieved heart, Randidly went to the borderlands near them to hunt high-Level monsters to sell their carcasses, like some two-bit adventurer.
*****
The cameraman gave Tessa the thumbs up. She kept her hands folded on the table in front of her, although she had a strong temptation to fidget or check her hair. Instead, she began to speak.
“Hello, Zone 1. My name is Tessa DiCatto, and I am a Councilwoman from Franksburg, the largest city in Rawland. But I come to you today not as a politician, but a fellow citizen of this new Earth. Because right now, there are people in offices making decisions that will change our world. They seek to define what it is to be human by exclusion, and today, I hope to stop that.
“You likely have not heard, but there are 12,000 people in the Northeast section of Zone 1 that live in a junkyard. Their children have lived on rats and rainwater collected from sheets of tin for five weeks. No one has helped them or asked them if they needed help. Among them, all were victims of physical and mental abuse. They are not a well off people. But they can’t go for help, for all that they need it. Because they look like monsters.
“Undoubtedly, you have noticed that Father Foster has disappeared from the public sphere. That is because Father Foster was a megalomaniac that threatened and manipulated those true believers of the Unity Church for almost a year. During that time, she performed cruel experiments on people and monsters alike for a singular purpose; she wanted to see why we could obtain Classes, and the monsters could not.
“Eventually, her unfettered power and twisted curiosity led her to perform a series of transplants, where the organs and brains of humans and monsters would be examined. Bit by vital bit, this power-hungry woman moved flesh between hundreds of people to see when human shifted to monster. It is with great sadness that I admit that she was able to perform her experiments so many times that she succeeded. She found the line that separates human from monster.
“Once she found the line, she pushed past it. Could monster bodies be used to strengthen people? Always, her mind obsessed over the collection and consolidation of individual power. She became one of the most fearsome Classers the world had ever seen. It was only due to the brave sacrifices of many heroic individuals that she was stopped. If you require proof of her ills, look to the massacre that happened along the shores of Lake Apollo a few weeks ago.
“And now, I return to my first point; in Zone 1 there are thousands of people scared and alone, locked in the body of monsters. They are the remnants of one mad individual’s corruption and greed. It would be simple for your politicians to decide to exclude them based on how they look, without a drop of sympathy for their plight. But truly, you are the ones who will make that decision. And I would like you to remember those first terrible days after the System arrived. Remember how viciously you were pursued by changes you didn’t understand and nightmares that were more real than you could have imagined.
“Would you have survived then without receiving the help from a stranger?
“We are a people that have endured an apocalypse. Our backbones are straighter, our gazes are more clear, our hearts are stronger. Although it will be difficult to empathize with these poor people due to their scars, it is not impossible. Just like it was not impossible for that stranger to reach out and take your hand when you needed it. Because empathy and social connection are what it means to be human.
“We each hold more power in our hands than at any other point in history. And that comes with great temptations. The temptation to do nothing. The temptation to support the status quo. The temptation to abuse your power towards selfish ends, as was done by Father Foster. But we also have the power to work together to build great things. To build a future.
“Which is why, people of Zone 1, I have two pleas for you. The first is to contact your Senators and demand that these tragic victims of cruel and disfiguring experiments be protected. A society’s worth can be seen in the care that they give to the victims of the unimaginable. We are at that point of unimaginable, my friends. Rise up and be the innumerable shields that the vulnerable need right now.
“And second, I would like you to consider a proposal that has been accepted in my hometown of Franksburg. To support the founding of a Chivalric Order. Rather than holding onto the back of a powerful individual who will no doubt soon lose control, what we instead need is to focus on building organizations with broad foundations and the rule of law.
“Chivalry is a word with some weight, isn't it? It harkens back to when heroes road together in formation to fight the singular might of a dragon. And I have no doubt that there are dozens of bright individuals out there who have felt frustrated as they failed to grasp how to use their own abilities to help others. This could be that method. With enough motivated and committed individuals living the virtues of chivalry, things can change. We can build a future in these orders, by taking the best and brightest and giving them a scaffolding upon which to build a brighter future.
“Please, if you understand the struggle of living in a world dominated by the System, join me. Join me in protecting your fellow man. Join me in crying out against excluding suffering people simply because they were warped by an individual driven mad by power. Join me in creating a world where those powerful individuals are no longer renegade disasters scaring the canvas of our world with their wild crimson actions. Instead, we need the infrastructure to ensure they are bounded and controlled by peers, relegating them to puzzle pieces that snap into an orderly and prosperous world.
“Join me. Take a breath, and rise above yourself. Become the knights this dark world needs.”