POV: The Sacrifice.

The walls of the prison were still as solid as ever. The interior as dark as ever.

A pit of sand on the bottom, with a high stone ceiling up above. A domed arena with no audience. No life, save for mine.

It was in this space that I paced. My clawed feet shifting the small grains as I moved.

Old habits died hard and this one habit had never truly died. On better days, I might be compelled to make myself stop. I had tried to kill the habit over and over through the ages. But these days, it was all I could do to recall that it had once bothered me.

'Come to think of it, I had been doing this when the Drake opened that portal.'

It was funny. In a horrific and ghoulish sort of way.

I had been pacing all over this prison of mine before the small tablet arrived. Before the carcass.

But I had never once paced about when considering the boy. The transaction. The terrible, terrible mistake.

What was even more funny, was that he had warned me. With very little of the usual obfuscations that Telepaths gave out when dictating a prophecy that they were unsure about. He'd been very direct at that moment.

Would that I had listened.

'What was it he'd said?' I thought. My mind going back to the conversation.

'We could be the best of friends. Or the worst of enemies.'

My eyes went back to the carcass.

The new Shifter abilities had been levelling steadily as the body withered and putrefied here in this closed-off space. A silent reminder that even the best the Kenari had at their disposal was not enough to forestall what was coming. The Drake alone could never have killed her. He would never have dared such an attempt in the first place. But now the being which was my most hated enemy had all he needed to grow and develop into a true Divine. While I kept trudging along in this unforgiving, unyielding darkness.

'He's probably higher level than me too.' I mused with a huff. 'He would not have minded the boosts. He would not have been held back by pride or moral quandaries. Why should he stay at level 1 and grow naturally, when the boy was right there?'

His voice came back to me.

Calm as ever in the memories I conjured up.

"Fool." I said to no one in particular. "Bloody fool. Stupid fool. How could you ever fail to see it? How could you not see the signs?"

I had not been pacing back then though. No, I had believed that it was all under control. That all the pieces were all falling into place and that the worst was behind me.

What a fool I'd been.

"And now my daughter is dead. Her, and my apprentice." The carcass was not really her of course.

She would come back. But she had fallen once. She would fall again.

I didn't know if she really saw that. In the way that I did. Singing Metals… Little Twinkle, had always been obsessive. Always so narrow-minded. Much like her machines, in a way. Much like me, in that way.

If she saw a problem, then she believed it could be solved some way or another. She wasn't the sort to consider that a problem might be best avoided, rather than solved. That pure force and the weight of one's own name was not always the way to go.

I laughed. Laughed hard. At my own incompetence.

"How foolish. So much time spent trying to teach my little girl and Little Twinkle how to solve problems with kind words instead of threats. With understanding instead of coercion. How funny, that this would be the way I doomed my own people. How very, very funny."

I heard his words in my mind again.

'We could be the best of friends. Or the worst of enemies.'

Then, I thought of another one of his sentences.

'I will butcher your people, Haimon.'

I looked at the corpse in the darkness again. Smelling the rot and sensing the leftover Psy with my Shifter and Projector abilities.

'I should have listened. I should not have been so obtuse. What did I really have to lose? He told me he'd boost me of his own free will. How would things have turned out if he'd been allowed to finish the Tutorial?'

It was obvious. In my eyes.

The Drake would be dead, of course. Solomon Carter was not likely to spare him, if the monster went after his species. And he would go after every new species that emerged from the Tutorial. Because he always did that.

I might have helped. I might have finished him altogether for good and all.

But things had not turned out this way.

Nothing had gone the way I'd meant it to.

I kept pacing. Recalling my old world. My home world. How things had turned out during the Tutorial.

Thinking back on it, I could not tell exactly how my actions differed from those of my former employer. At least in principle. I had been the strong one. Imposing my will upon a weaker, younger being unilaterally. Leaving no room for justice or compromise.

My intentions had been noble. I still believed that, even now. But it had led to so much harm. So much suffering. How could I call myself a monk if this was the best I could manage? How could I call myself a Dragon? A protector? If this was what my protection amounted to?

'We could be the best of friends. Or the worst of enemies.'

I kept pacing.

Waiting listlessly until Solomon Carter came to kill me.

It was only a matter of time of course. I was growing blindingly fast when compared to a talented rising star. No, compared to my own daughter and even Singing Metals. Neither had managed to reach the 3rd Tier in so many Types so quickly. To reach these heights in a matter of months was unheard of. Incredible and awe-inspiring.

But it would not be enough.

He would kill me. Of that, I was sure.

In fact, I hoped he would be the one to show up. If the Drake showed up instead, having reached a high enough level in all the Types… well. Thinking back on it, an eternity spent as a living rug or some trophy upon a mantlepiece would be a fitting punishment for the likes of me. All the Kenari that had died in this conflict would certainly think so. Perhaps it would even be for the best. Perhaps Solomon Carter would deem himself satisfied if…

"Master!"

I turned. Whirling in place as quickly as I'd ever moved.

There, in one corner, was a portal. And through that portal, a head was poking through.

Singing Metals.

She launched herself at me and hugged me tightly. Her Symbiote using some bio-chemical process to light up the space and banish the darkness.

"How?" I managed after a second. "Did he not realize you were manifesting? Did he not try to stop you?"

She shook her head.

"He's talking to them right now. Begging them to help him and not us. The other Divines. The original four."

'The original five.' I thought bitterly. 'Gozo is one of the original five. He's their equal. He's not begging them as a supplicant. He's demanding as an equal.'

And that, was very bad.

I had not had much of an interaction with Living Stitches. He'd been old when I was young. But I knew enough to know that he despised me for one reason or another. He'd merely avoided me, instead of killing me and I had been content to leave things as they stood. After all, why should a Divine bother with a Savant's endeavors?

Balanced Scales didn't like me overmuch either.

The one time we'd interacted was after I'd refused to spare a member of her species after an honor duel. My claws had gone through his scales and out the other side. His heart being pulverized as his Psy failed him for one last time. He'd only been on the 7th Tier in half his Types too. Much to weak to challenge me over anything.

The Divine had spoken ill of me. Telling me that such a quarrel did not need to come to blows. Certainly not killing blows.

I'd shown a deferential attitude, but maintained that it was I who had been wronged, as the bloody snake had forgone his end of our bargain.

She had huffed, and wondered aloud that I might need the mercy of a stronger being one day.

I'd laughed at her. Not to her face of course, but soon after she'd departed.

And now the joke was on me.

"We have to leave." She said suddenly. "There isn't much left of our loyalists, but we should be able to re-group if we have you there with me. If we all mass together for one last stand, we can break the Tyrant without me using Telepathy and then I'll handle the others."

I held her shoulders. Pushing her away until she and I were face to face.

"No." I whispered.

Her eyes went wide.

"What do you mean, no? Have you gone mad? Do you like this place so much? You… you can't be thinking about running?"

I shook my head.

"Running would do us no good. It would only prolong this conflict."

Her eyes went wide again, then they narrowed.

"We prolong nothing! We're still on the stronger side as long as I'm still here!"

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"Stop." I said again. "Just, stop. Please. Stop and listen. The other Divines, the ones that really matter, are not going to side with us."

She looked bewildered. Her scales growing flush.

"Yes they will! You can't even imagine the things he's done out there! The horrors that the Drake is responsible for! The Universes he's culled of all life! He's a monster!"

"He is needed." I reminded her. "I see that much now. They need him."

I stepped back and waved down to myself.

"They do not need us."

She looked stunned beyond words.

"There is only one thing I can do now. One way I can still help end this whole mess I've gotten us all in."

It was only then that she realized what I had in mind.

"No." She gasped.

"Yes." I said, resolutely. "It is a price that must be paid. I just, couldn't do it myself."

I gave her a sad smile. Perhaps the last one I would ever give her.

"That's how my [Perfect Balance] works, after all. But you… you can do it."

I grabbed her claw, and pressed it to my chest.

"You need to do this. For those who are still alive, at least. To give them a fighting chance. He won't keep destroying us if I'm gone. I know him that well at least. Let me do this one thing right. Let me end the fighting."

I drew in a breath.

"Let me take responsibility for our people. For my daughter."

"No." She repeated. Trying to break my grip and back off.

I held her claw steadily. Until at last she looked at me again.

"Metals…" I started. Choking on the words. "Twinkle…please."

POV: Sully

Puffin stared at me in shock. Her green hair swaying in the unreal winds that swirled up to the raised platform. Her dress also swirled, along with her hair. A dancing weave of white. With embraided, pretty blue laces that trailed along the neckline and sleeves.

"Wha… wha…"

"Oh, don't show me that shocked face." I waved her off. Playing my part while I considered the current position.

"That very dress that mom and dad bought for you was made on a factory floor in Italy. The people who made it were not slaves. Nor were they compelled to make it with threats. They went to work, did their job and got paid. All after I'd originally boosted the people of my Earth. After the Hong Kong incident. They were not lacking in agency when they made it. Nor were they crying out for me to go away."

I raised a hand to forestall her rebuttal.

"Yes, they were changed somewhat by the boost and yes, their outlook on life was somewhat changed as well. But none of them could be said to be any worse off compared to how they were before. On the contrary. Giancarlo was high on life after the boost. His father and brother had owned a small business you see, and they had been in the awkward position where two different gangs were strongarming them for protection money. Both demanding that he stop paying the other. So, not only did they have to worry about paying the gangs while the police did nothing to stop them, but they were also at risk of being attacked by either gang at any time. All while neither band of goons was large enough to warrant the attention of the United Militaries' less discreet services."

Puffin looked confused at that last part.

"They weren't large enough to warrant sending Grandpa or someone like him after them." I explained.

"But in any case, Giancarlo's own brother had been paralyzed from the waist down after a particularly nasty enforcer went after him. But I made it so that he could walk. I also made it so that all the goons saw the justice they were owed. All of them. Overnight, Giancarlo had gotten his brother back, and the people who unjustly made his life a harrowing ordeal to navigate had gone away. He certainly wasn't mad at me. Neither was Paulina, who worked the line that embraided those blue laces you like so much. She had been the victim of a mugging. A simple thing, where she was merely beaten across the face while her attacker ran away with her purse. But even that changed her life for the worse. She no longer felt safe while walking down the street. She was plagued with nightmares. She would have panic attacks at random times of the day. She began to cut off people she'd known for years because she refused to get out of the house. She saw that man's shadow at every corner. She saw his shoes underneath every door. Her life now revolved around this one crime, this one trauma. But I made it so that she could move on."

Voice of Order croaked.

"Speaking of moving on…" He gurgled happily. "I can't help but notice that you keep cutting off your sister before she's able to speak. Why do this?"

He chuckled some more.

"I say, let her talk. Oh, Coffin Tyrant. Hear her out at the very least."

He was right of course, but that was only because I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. I wasn't even reading her mind, as the other Divines were clouding her thoughts as well as her future. It wasn't that difficult to guess what she was about to say. All I would have to do was look into the kind of thoughts I used to have before coming into the Labyrinth.

"After all…" Voice of Order continued. "She and yourself do have so much in common. Especially when it comes to your views of the world."

I expected Puffin to deny it. Expected her to lash out and scream at Voice of Order.

She didn't.

Instead, she bit her lip again and looked as if she'd been stabbed. Her beautiful emerald eyes looking at me with a new kind of emotion.

Pity.

She was feeling pity.

For me.

I blinked with no small amount of confusion.

"We like it when things are balanced around here." The great serpent spoke.

The Unconquered Sun clicked her mandibles in an odd pattern. Living Stitches rolled his eyes in a very human-like way.

"Oh, fine. I like it when things are balanced around here." She hissed merrily. The sounds coming across as more of a titter.

"I took the liberty of giving her a first-hand account of everything that was going on withing your mind. All that the System recorded. Even things that the dear old Dragon did not have access to. Memories that lingered even before you were picked up by our dear Tutorial."

Her eyes followed me, her gaze full of meaning. Her scales shifting colors to darker hues of mud-brown and leafy greens. All such traces receding further until all the scales were an ebony black.

"Up until you tore down our little System of course. But nevertheless, she had a longer, more careful look while you were out there undoing the Kenari Empire with your new Enhancer abilities. Not just the forced glimpses that your boosts gave out, but a much closer look. Through your own eyes and from within your own skin."

She turned to Puffin.

"Why don't we go about and tell our new friend what kinds of conclusions you came to, Puffin?"

She stared daggers at the great snake, but then lowered her gaze and forced her own breathing to steady.

"I'm not a fool." She murmured.

'Could have fooled me.' I thought to myself, but then another part of me snapped at the sudden impulse to dismiss her.

"I never claimed you were a fool." I spoke softly.

"No. But you thought it."

Well, it was hard to argue against that when she'd seen so many of my memories.

"Not quite in those terms." I corrected. "I may have thought you a bit dim, but I always knew it wasn't your fault. I merely thought that you were a bit naïve. A tad bit misguided. Though again, through no fault of your own. I just know that I have a wider perspective."

She rubbed her temples. Though it looked as if she hadn't meant to.

She grimaced. Her other hand clutching the hem of her dress.

"I know." She allowed. Then she swallowed.

"I know that now."

She drew in another deep breath and swayed slightly. Her legs suddenly unstable as she faced me.

"I saw what you went through. During that year."

I nodded without saying anything.

"I saw, I felt, I knew, that you didn't mean for any of it to happen. I saw that you felt everything the others felt. That you wanted them all to be free. I… I saw that you cared. That you wanted all of them to be free."

"I still want them to be free." I said softly. "I only want them to be both free and happy. I want them to be safe."

"But they can't be free AND safe Solomon. Not in the way you want them to be safe. You don't make it so that people do good deeds all the time. You make it so that they can't even conceive of doing anything else. You say that's because they understand their victims, but it's really because you make it so that they can't begin to think of doing anything you think is unseemly."

I scoffed, though her argument had gotten a lot better now that she wasn't shouting in rage.

"You make me sound like some kind of tyrannical puritan."

"Because that's exactly what you are!" She went on. "You'd have a world where people can't bring themselves to hurt one another's feelings. A world where people can't bring themselves to do anything that would hurt your feelings! A world where everyone is chained by you! Whether you admit it or not!"

I stopped right there. Really thinking about what she said. Then I nodded my head.

"You have a point, again. I have made it so that Giancarlo doesn't need to fear any gang members ever again. Because no one will ever want to be a gang member on my Earth. I have made it so that Paulina never needs to fear another mugger or another violent encounter. Because no one will ever want or need to mug another human being in the Earth I have made anew. Because no one will have cause to harm her."

"I saw your memories!" She snapped. "I know that the mugger never needed the money! He did it for the thrills! He would have still done it even if he was twice as rich as he was! You haven't made it so that he won't mug other people. You've made it so that he can't even think of mugging other people! You've trapped him! You've chained him! Enslaved him! You can think it was worth it all you want and you can even try and excuse it. But that's what you did!"

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I heard Cultist Sully's voice. He was laughing.

As that voice reached my mind, I saw Puffin's figure blink out of existence for a half second. Her frame switching to show my own. On the beach. Arguing to Cultist Sully that his use of [Presence] was abhorrent and immoral. Because what he did was no different than sandblasting away people's personalities and replacing them with his own. With shades of pleasure and happiness that did not resemble the original people in the slightest.

I shook my head.

"I… will give you that much." I allowed. "The people I boost are changed. But I would argue that it is for the better."

I waved about. My hands going to where the screen was.

"How bad is it really? To make sure that people cannot be randomly attacked on the street? How bad is it to make sure that slavers aren't hunting for more victims to throw into mines or other, less savory fates? How bad is it to make sure that people aren't starved into submission or culled for speaking out against a corrupt government?"

I took a breath, just now realizing how much this conversation was affecting me. I had momentarily forgotten who really mattered here and who I needed to be wary of. Who was really holding the reins and who I needed to converse and reason with.

Who held the fate of Hazimon, and of this whole war, in their hands.

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I heard Cultist Sully's voice once more. He was still laughing. Yet I could also feel another presence. Open-Handed Sully, in his child-like form. Staring silently from within my mind. From within the power he'd bestowed upon me.

When he spoke, his words came as a thunderous thought.

'You are the one who holds the fate of Hazimon in their hands.' His words echoed. 'You are the one who can end this whole war, right here and now.'

His words petered out in my mind. Cultist Sully was still laughing.

I shook my head. Forcing myself to focus.

"But that doesn't change the fact that they are chained!" Puffin pleaded. "That you're changing who they are! I'm not saying wanting to end crime or suffering is bad! I actually respect you a bit for your motives. It's the bets thing about you by far. But motives alone don't make a cause just or right or fair. How many monsters throughout history have made horrific decisions that cost thousands, millions of lives, because they had good intentions?"

"I am not one of those monsters." I replied cooly. "I am fully aware of the outcome of each and every action and re-action when it comes to meddling in people's lives. I am fully capable and willing to step back, but I choose to keep going because the futures in which I let people do as they please are all futures that hold needless suffering. Worlds that aren't merely bad to live in, but downright apocalyptic. Even Olga's world, which I would argue is the closest humanity has come to a true utopia, has its dark sides."

I closed my eyes and nodded to myself.

"I would also like to point out that their world only became such a paradise because the people in it left all the governing to a massive and advanced AI algorithm that made sure to maximize the well-being of as many people as possible and to make laws that would alter behavior to make something close to the perfect utopia. In other words, they went up and left all the hard decisions to a higher authority that could predict outcomes and thereby find the best course of action when running a government."

I waved to myself.

"Sound familiar?"

"That machine wasn't mind-wiping people!" She took a step forward. Hands spread out in front. Making pleading motions.

"You know that! The machine was making laws! I'm not saying you shouldn't make laws! I'm not even against the idea of you declaring yourself immortal emperor Sully or whatever. I'm not even against you intervening in crimes as they're happening. But the lines are crossed when you meddle with people's minds! With who they are! You know that's a step too far because you care about people's freedom as much as I do! I see that now! You wouldn't hate yourself so much if you didn't care!"

I suppressed a trembling shudder. My Shifter side working overtime to make it so that nothing was outwardly wrong.

"Of course I care." I told her. "But again, I made that choice because I care. I'd rather meddle in people's affairs a little bit, if means them being able to live in happiness and safety."

"But you do see that you are doing something wrong." Voice of Order chimed in. Looking amused. "We finally seem to be getting somewhere."

I stopped dead in my tracks. His words ringing in my head more than they should have, despite the lack of a Telepathic intrusion.

Once again, I heard Cultist Sully's voice. Still laughing.

"I will admit that I cannot… rid myself of a feeling of guilt." I spoke softly, turning around to sit back in my armchair.

"I will also admit that I hoped for a better way. One that did not have to involve entering people's minds and changing them. But I hold that they benefitted from it. Everyone I've helped feels that way."

"Everyone?" Balanced Scales asked, her eyes turning to Puffin as her scaled changed to match her emerald eyes.

"Almost everyone." I corrected.

"And yet, is that not a sign in and of itself?" The Unconquered Sun piped up. "That what you are doing is not a universal good?"

I made a rude noise with my lips.

"Have you ever tried getting a room of people to agree on anything? Her disagreeing with me doesn't mean my ideas aren't wrong."

"What about her disagreeing with you after seeing all your internal monologues and your logical deductions? How about her seeing all your turbulent emotions when you considered the fact that you were responsible for the Tall Man? Back there, in that hut belonging to a System Vendor? Is that not a sign that you are not completely comfortable with what you're doing? That you are not fully convinced that it is the right thing to do?"

I… didn't know what to say to that.

They were right that I was not comfortable with what had to be done. I wasn't. But what was the other choice? To let criminals run amok? To let evil people ruin lives? Countries? Planets? Was the right answer to shrug and let the dice fall where they may?

If so, what did what say about me? That I would have all this power and refuse to use it to prevent evil? What did that say, about the price that needed to be paid?

I didn't know the answer.

Yet I could still feel all their eyes pressing against me.

Waiting, with bated breath.

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