I peer with Lirathel through the Portal at Zarithrax without manifesting it and pull his basic information out of habit. Like Tenebris and most of the high Level dragonkin I’ve encountered, he exudes raw power even watching him from a distance. At the moment his glowing amber eyes and glowering expression oversee some kind of combat training that reminds me of Logan’s training at the Academy, but less grand based on the surroundings we can see.

  Zarithrax Vulkaainan, Draconic Warlord, Elemental Mage, War Leader, Destroyer of the Yiiltin, Underworld Combat Champion, more… (Level 29 Battle Tyrant) (L)

  [Tenebris Special Forces] [Laniakea Supercluster]

  I think what happened on Orvorax changed Zarithrax’s opinion of me from disdain to begrudging respect, but certainly not to the point I’d get a warm welcome. The best thing I can say about him is that I know him and Lirathel reckons he’s where we want to be, where Tenebris bases his operations out of for the Laniakea Supercluster. I can easily find him with Omnipresent so it’s convenient, but it’s not a sensible idea to surprise a Battle Tyrant at the peak of his Legendary Class in the middle of a crowded area where collateral damage is likely.

  I admit, I did try for a few moments to locate Tenebris for the first time with Omnipresent. I didn’t really expect to be able to find him and I didn’t push it too far when I felt the pressure against it with my will. My alarm bells went off and I decided it wasn’t an arm wrestle I wanted to win. Tenebris seems like the kind of person who would know if I was spying on him, and not appreciate it.

  “You want to go first?” I ask Lirathel, imagining she might have a better relationship with Zarithrax than I do.

  “Are you suggesting I’m less threatening than you?” she asks with the kind of interest in the answer that my younger self would have misinterpreted as curiosity.

  “I’m suggesting you might know him a lot better than me since you suggested him as a person for me to locate,” I answer, perhaps overly proud of my growth and awareness.

  Lirathel huffs in amusement, light from flames flickering in her nostrils.

  “The Battle Tyrant doesn’t get to know anyone, other than their strengths and weaknesses in combat of course. I could slip in unnoticed, but I think for this we should make a bit of a flare.”

  I’m guessing Taiwo would have said ‘a bit of a splash’, but I won’t hold it against the insanely hot and dangerous demon woman who’s meant to help me.

  “Ok,” I agree. “You should know already that subtlety isn’t my middle name, but I do have an idea.”

  I manifest the Portal in what I think is the ideal place and use my Affinity to tweak its composition to be sure Zarithrax can see me through it. I don’t go as far as making the Portal usable by anyone from both sides, just in case people on the other side come charging through with guns blazing.

  Zarithrax turns his attention to my Portal with an irritating level of arrogance and speed, letting everyone know he does not have any concern for who might be on the other side. A sandstorm rages on the other side. Once his eyes lock on mine through the haze his expression changes for a second before smoothing over, then he waits for a heartbeat and gestures for us to join him, spreading his arms while backing up and tilting his head to indicate our way will be clear.

  I stride through the Portal without any real concern for being attacked or about being in a sandstorm, but I do automatically check the AMLs to give myself an idea of how strong my Class might be here.

  Current Ambient Mana Level (AML): 2 (+58 Gift of Gaia)

  Just over a second for me to regain all my Health and just under three seconds for me to regain all my Stamina. Minimum power advantage for me, but should be fine. I fucking love the Dark Mana Knight Class. Lirathel slides through the Portal after me and should command all the attention based on her appearance, but I can sense she does something that causes the perception of her to fade into the background and even causes the sand around her to somehow move as if she wasn’t there.

  “Welcome, High Enforcer,” rumbles Zarithrax as he fixes his narrowed eyes on me. All around us on the rocky ground the combat training has mostly stopped, although most of the more distant, barely visible training exercises are still underway. The vibe all around us is interest rather than hostility, though I’m sure that would change in a second if Zarithrax went on the offensive.

  “Good to see you, Zarithrax,” I lie loudly to ensure he can hear it.

  “Ahh… the Inquisitor,” Zarithrax says as his gaze finds Lirathel. I wonder briefly if Zarithrax realizes that he is not actually looking directly at her, based on where my Perception tells me she is. Must be a Skill that makes her hard to locate even in close proximity; it reminds me of Kyle and the incredibly dangerous fights we used to take on with his ability to disappear. The next memory that smacks me across the face is the sight of Kyle’s dead body being held by his son while he screamed at me, rightfully blaming me for not getting there fast enough. The memory sharpens my focus of why I’m here and presses on me to move forward.

  Something must change in my expression or demeanor since Zarithrax shifts his position and a number of the Galactics close to us grip or raise their weapons. I focus on ensuring the threatening aura from my Charisma is fully under control and plaster a grin on my face which does actually force me to lighten up a bit, and to get a mouthful of sand.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “We will leave you, Zarithrax,” Lirathel informs him, and struts through the open training ground toward the large building at one end. Even the swirling sand seems to part for her as she draws every eye from every species and gender through her smoky and deadly beauty, now on display. It’s like watching a priceless work of art that might kill you at any time brush past you. There’s no doubt Lirathel leaves an impression when she wants to.

  I follow, not too close behind, without saying anything to Zarithrax. Lirathel has certainly cast a bit of a spell over everyone, though I don’t completely avoid attention and some shielded eyes narrow as I pass while they return to what they were doing. No doubt humans are as alien to some of them as Galactics are to me. Perhaps more so, since I’m confident humans didn’t visit any of their worlds before their Mana saturation reached AMLs of one or higher, whereas it’s clear explorers or small numbers of Adventurers from at least some of their species visited Earth sometime during human history.

  I catch up easily to Lirathel once we’re out of the training grounds and follow her without saying anything toward a mansion that seems to double as a fortress and a sanctuary. It’s not apparent until we’re close up or I focus with my Perception, but it appears to be constructed from a fusion of volcanic basalt and crystalline glass. A colossal arched gate covered in runes sits closer to the doors than I would expect, leaving only perhaps twenty meters between the walls and the building.

  “What is this place?” I ask Lirathel and stop for a moment to look around and take it in.

  “Fyrnath Fortress,” she says. “Check your minimap for an even better view.”

  I grimace when I realize I haven’t even used the basic tools available to me to understand the terrain and it seriously irritates me. It’s been a long time since I let my guard down so much and I start to mentally shift the blame to situational factors, then stop myself. I have to take responsibility for my own failings and learn from them, always. At least, this new and much improved post-Influx version of me does.

  I open up my minimap and see with interest that Fyrnath Fortress is truly massive to a scale you can’t see from the front that makes it clear Zarithrax is simply running a training exercise outside the city gates; it’s not the training ground at all and there’s no real need for any space between the buildings and the wall. The Fortress is vaguely pentagon shaped, with some accommodations for the terrain, and the entire compound must cover an area larger than the city of Calgary, split into a dozen buildings. The largest building is the one we’re about to enter and covers maybe 200 square kilometers. My mind boggles at the size of it and Lirathel has been watching me to catch my expression.

  “Not exactly what you’re used to?” she asks me with a sardonic smile that’s somehow still stunning and as close to perfect as you could make it. It shouldn’t, but the smile takes the sting out of her comment and I find myself wanting her to like me because I’m so attracted to her. My lizard brain is definitely reacting to her and when I realize it, I snarl and ignore her question. I don’t like having my mind fucked with.

  We walk side by side for a couple minutes as we approach the gate. My minimap is populating sporadically with details about what’s inside that I find fascinating to see. When we’re almost at the gate Lirathel breaks the silence.

  “Why don’t you slow down a bit?”

  “I thought you were setting the pace,” I reply, a bit confused.

  “I’m not talking about walking, Bronwic,” she says in a sultry drawl. “I’m talking about life. Why don’t you slow down? You’ve got plenty of time.”

  “What do you mean?” I still feel a deep level of anxiety just under the surface that I should be on Earth trying to save people or Leveling up right now so that we can face the next big threat.

  “Everything about you exudes urgency and it feels… rushed. The rules of thumb change for each species, but if humans are within usual Galactic ranges you’re going to have a very long lifespan. A lot of us slow down a bit and stay further from danger. Work on our skills and Affinities and other things. Sure, the quickest path to power is still Levels and Skills. Many Ascended take a decade or more to complete their Ascended Class Quest, and they see a different path.”

  It’s not something I’ve paid a lot of attention to. My lifespan always seems like it’s going to be short with all the trouble I get into.

  “How long are we talking?” I ask. I seem to remember having a conversation about this with Taiwo very early on, but I’ve forgotten the details. No doubt they’d be easy to look up.

  “As a rough minimum, take your Constitution and multiply it by five. Then multiply that by the golden ratio of your Evolution. One for Basic, two for Advanced, three for Mythic, five for Legendary, eight for Ascended.”

  Some super quick math gives me a minimum of 60,000 years of natural life expectancy. What? I shake my head and do the math again, but it’s right. I can’t help but wonder if the special aspects of my Class would improve it even further. Surely my life expectancy wouldn’t also scale with AMLs?

  Lirathel chuckles at me; she’s no doubt already roughly aware of the answer I’ll get based on my Health and Class.

  “Don’t worry too much. My pick is you’ll die way before then messing around with Dark Mana or because you pissed off the wrong person. Some Ascended become tired of the quest for more and end up going to low AML environments to act like, or even be, Gods to a pre-Influx world.”

  I ignore the barb. How does my perspective change knowing I could live that long? Should it? Shit, how much growth could the human population achieve over time with those kinds of dynamics at play and a situation that drives most people toward higher Levels and higher Constitutions?

  Now that the Mana Siphons are in place it seems possible that humanity’s population could grow again, eventually maybe even outgrowing Earth. Galactic Building techniques and the Shop could no doubt keep a much larger population than before the Influx easily sustained. I’ve heard of world populations getting to hundreds of billions and even trillions.

  As we approach the gate I’m lost in thought. Lirathel stops and motions me to stop as well. I comply because I don’t see a reason not to, then looks up at the top of the arch.

  “Tenebris asked me to look after you, so this is a good time to tell you not to bring any other Ascended here, or to any of the main facilities run by Tenebris, without his Mark or explicit permission from someone with authority. It will definitely go badly for them.”

  “What do you mean? Does everyone in this Fortress have the Mark of Tenebris?”

  Lirathel lets out a loud, amused laugh at my question, as if I’ve told a very funny joke.

  “Of course not. Tenebris only gives his Mark to a select few. But, if you had tried to pass above, through, or below the wall and not legitimately had his Mark, things would have gone very, very badly for you. Tenebris is one of the foremost experts in the Universe on Runic and magical defence systems and has a whole arm of the Academy devoted to it.”

  I wonder if Tenebris knows about my Runic Recall Evolved Skill, and if so what that might mean. My thoughts always seem to turn to glass half empty around this kind of shit. And now that there’s a potential to be held and studied for 60,000 years I feel even more paranoid. And worried for Logan. I have Omnipresent. What’s he got to help him out of a jam?

  “Come on,” Lirathel says, then leads me through a massive entryway into an area that looks like Grand Central Station, but exponentially bigger. It’s busy but the flow of people avoids us, whether consciously or unconsciously. “It’s time for you to properly join our ranks.”