Chapter 307: The Past and Present (1/2)

I pointed Tera towards the set of stairs leading to Torix's lair. Tera followed me in a nervous trot. Once up the stairs, we found Torix still reading with his eyes plastered to a book. Little did he know I did the same. I waved a hand at the lich, ”Hey, do you mind casting your silencing magic over one of the rooms in the temple? Maybe one with a view?”

Torix raised his hands and snapped his fingers, ”On the uppermost floor, third room on the left.”

I thanked him before Tera and I walked up. The skeptilian mercenary kneaded his hands out of nervousness, but I waved away his concerns, ”You'll be fine to talk as you like once we're in the room, and there won't be any consequences for it. I'll make sure of that.”

Tera listened but chose to stay silent. Whether out of fear or respect, I couldn't say. We crossed a hallway, a flight of stairs, and reached the room covered in Torix's silencing magic. Once inside, Tera and I stepped up to a view of Saphigia. It was an ancient opening designed for the flow of water into the building. There, Tera and I rested with a full view of our surroundings.

Hybrids remained in the foreground, but they no longer lingered. Elysium called them back towards vessels siphoning them elsewhere. They carried their dead and dying, along with other on-field supplies. We watched this retreat while I said,

”So, you continue to serve the Empire. Why?”

Tera stared down at the Hybrids, ”They own us.”

”Us...You mean the skeptiles?”

”They conquered our planet long ago. We've been under their imperial subservience since.”

A manifolded mind searched my memory. Something popped up. After first leaving BloodHollow, I fought two mercenaries scrounging in a low-level dungeon. They hunted for easy dungeon cores, ones they could then sell on the black market for credits. Their status showed they were petty scavengers at the time, so I managed to kill them despite them boasting a level lead.

Unlike them, Tera was different. He was the first classer I ever saw, so I held him in higher regard. In the end, the Empire and Schema found no difference between them. I frowned,

”You couldn't escape subservience even when you're capped and have a class?”

Tera gave me a sardonic smile, his teeth like needles, ”You would be amazed at how binding contracts can be when desperation and blood are the ink used to sign them.”

I tilted my head, ”How's that?”

”I'm surprised you know so little about a faction you're allied with.”

I stared down, wincing at his words, ”Yeah, so am I.”

Tera waved his clawed hands, ”It doesn't matter. The Empire used standard tactics on our species. We bordered on becoming a fringe world, so they offered protection. We neglected their offer at first, but when the threat of glassing loomed overhead, we signed away our planet and our people.”

He let his palm clap against the stone railing, ”And now this is what we've been reduced to. Servants.”

I shook my head, ”Damn. I didn't know.”

He shook his head, ”You don't have to apologize to me. I understand your position better than most. You were only a normal person a few years ago. This must all be unsettling, and the Empire must've been one of the only factions offering anything to you. Of course you'd take their deal. And just so you're aware, most large factions aren't any different from them. You shouldn't judge them too harshly. They are not overtly cruel to us. Not usually.”

I guess being a gouging, autocratical asshole wasn't so bad as long as everybody was doing it. Choosing to bring it up later, I nodded,

”What I'm wondering is how the Empire still has you serving them despite your position. I mean, you're a classer. Doesn't that mean something?”

His face contorted in pain, ”Ah, you...You lack perspective. I must remind myself of that.”

”Did I say something rude?”

”Yes. You did, and you're right. Being a classer means something. I'm tied to the albony because I wished for my clan to be free, as you estimated. For them to remain unshackled, I've pledged servitude to the albony. I work for the albony now, and they pay me a modest stipend.”

I gazed at his variety of tools, ”Ah, so that's why your tools are from eldritch.”

He narrowed his eyes, ”I am too poor to afford the proper gear. Thank you for the reminder.”

I gave him a thumbs-up, ”Hey, it's what I'm here for.”

Tera's grim mood cracked, and he let out a small laugh, ”Hah. I told you the same sort of thing when we first talked. You even mentioned how uncomfortable my own words were at the time. I guess I deserved that.”

I smiled, ”Yeah, but you still gave me that vial of eldritch energy. I have to admit, it really changed my circumstances back then. I'm willing to do the same for you.”

Tera's eyes narrowed, ”What do you mean?”

”I'm willing to offer a new host planet for your village, along with a position in my guild.”

Tera's jaw slackened. He raised his hands, his claws shaking, ”What? Really?”

”Yup.”

”This isn't necessary. I'm satisfied with my arrangement. You don't have to do that.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”You have no reason to feel fear right now. You helped me once, and I aim to return the favor.”

Tera blinked, ”That was a vial of eldritch energy. I held it to throw away for a Fringe Walker I worked under.”

I sighed, ”Here's the thing - you remind me of myself in a lot of ways. I just finished working with Schema, and he gave us nothing for battling his war. We were being taken advantage of, and I wasn't able to move forward because of that. You're like that right now.”

I raised a fist, ”I don't have to sit by and watch you wallow in that kind of state anymore. I can change circumstances if I so choose, and I want to.”

Tera shook his head, ”I'm worried you don't understand my position. You're going to put yourself in another war, but this time with the Empire.”

”Are you that big a player in their guild?”

”It's as you've said. I accomplish a lot but am left with little. They skim off all that excess, and I doubt they'll want to throw away that advantage.”

I narrowed my eyes, ”They will.”

Tera gave up, letting his hands drop to his sides. Resigned to his fate, he shook his head at me, ”You're a raging eldritch in conversation, you know that?”

I peered off, ”Thanks for the compliment. Here's a friend request. Send me the details of your current employer and all that. I'll hand it off to Torix to get you and your village squared away.”

Tera watched me with a look of wonder on his face, ”You're more kind than you let on.”

I grimaced as Hybrids carried the corpses of fallen Elysium soldiers, ”Eh, we can agree to disagree there.”

We gazed off at the view for a while. My reach, despite my lack of sight, was well beyond my expectations. The vibrations in the ground, the temperature shifts from variances in light, even the currents streaming, it fell into my comprehension. I kept my face oriented that way as Tera gave me a bow,

”Thank you, Harbinger. I must be off. My lord is calling. If you don't wish to follow through with all this, I won't hold any animosity against you...Unless you don't stop the repercussions, of course.”

I gave him a curt nod, and he left. Leaning on the edge of the temple's opening, I contemplated. If there was one thing Tera was right about, it was my lack of knowledge regarding my allies, my enemies, and my everything, really. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I stared down at my hands, as I often did when I wondered about what I'd done up till now. At times, I felt like a fool way in over his head. I allied with the Empire without fully understanding their methods, though I signed on out of necessity at the time. I could've at least researched them first and tried to understand what they were trying to do.

Yet, I hadn't, and because of that, killing Plazia would support the Empire and their methods. Those weren't procedures I agreed with, though they seemed better than Elysium at least. I also neglected so much of my potential by misusing my mana. I always, at all times, poured it into my cipheric markings. This paid dividends over time, granting me a lot of stats.

But, the price for that proved dear. I stunted my processing speed for tasks all the time up until now. That inability to see past my own nose was precisely why I was so inept. Something that enormous, that groundbreaking, lay at my feet, and I walked all over it instead of picking it up. I was an idiot. An imbecile. An oaf.

I tried punching myself in the face. Forgetting my helmet was on, the echo from steel on steel grated my ears while the force of the tap shook the temple. More frustration mounted. Even that might've interrupted the party below, and my irritation just mounted even more. It was like I was given a gift I couldn't even fully comprehend.

And in my ignorance, I wasted it.

My own powers exceeded my competence to use them. Hell, even my intelligence exceeded my ability to use it, if that even made sense. I mean, I always understood I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but I never took myself for a fool. This and my other mistakes made all of that obvious.

These thoughts about my lack of foresight lingered as I stared at Elysium's retreat. At least with them leaving, I could get this place up and running, along with Earth. I found some peace in that, and my self-loathing waned.

Minutes passed before a pair of footsteps tapped along the cold stone of the Vagni temple. They sounded behind me, but I didn't turn my gaze, inspecting the gravitation and finding the outline of a guild member. More precisely, a soldier, one equipped with an Omega Strain. Turning to them, I got a better look via my other senses.