He converted the entirety of the monitor lizard's corpse. Most of the liberated cosmic energy escaped faster than he could claim it. There was so much that he didn't mind the loss.

Indeed, it wasn't until close to the end that he could even bring himself to think of such common matters as energy economy. He'd at first been enraptured by the expansion of his insight. Then had come an overwhelming obsession with improving the chaos bound into miasma. Emerging from his task, Hector found it hard to fit himself back into his usual frame of mind.

What Volithur had once given him was a wonderful foundation. It provided the greatest benefit a Xian could ever ask for. Yet now, having achieved a second glimpse… Volithur's insight had been so small. Useful in the extreme, but ultimately very tiny.

Hector felt like he'd ballooned in size and couldn't fit back in his old clothes. An apt metaphor, given that the miasma had disintegrated everything he wore. The kids were looking at him strangely. Maybe because they assumed him dead. Maybe because of the nudity. Maybe because he turned a massive corpse into glowing energy. He couldn't care enough to wonder for long.

Though nothing external had changed, everything was different to him.

Someone offered him a jacket. Hector stared at the item for long enough that the kids took the jacket back to wrap it around his waist themselves. He let his thoughts return to the sensation of tearing apart miasma. With the monster dead, the will of the miasma had been dormant enough that he could shatter it. A specific topological snap and twist caused the miasma to decay directly into cosmic energy. The process was faster and more productive than converting normal chaos. A certain tension caused it to explosively unravel.

"Mister Stalwart? Can you come with us now?"

Hector let the kids pull him into a walk. He noticed for the first time that he was once more above twenty percent energy reserves. It was growing dark outside. "How long was I there?"

"Many hours. We fought off a few more monsters while you were… doing stuff."

One of the scouts popped into existence on Hector's other side, coming out of concealment. "Was that a transformation technique or a destruction technique?"

Hector wasn't sure what the kid was asking. Non-Xian tended to have wildly inaccurate views of how things worked. "What I do is based around an insight."

"He melted the miasma away," a girl said.

The Users left him alone after that. They seemed more unsettled by what he had done than the fight with the monster. To be fair to them, their explosion had killed the lizard. They also failed to account for its speed, so their victory would have been posthumous without his intervention.

Back in the Stronghold, Hector cleansed the miasma from the air with easy motions of his domain. When he had been younger, he used to hold one hand outside of the car window to surf the wind. Converting ambient miasma felt like that. Only it also fed him a steady stream of cosmic energy. Hector remained outside as the kids fled into a bunker.

The escaping cosmic energy drew the attention of a flock of bird monsters in the middle of the night. He sliced them apart with cables that glowed bright white on contact with their bodies. Corpses fell and fluoresced under his watchful eye.

It didn't even occur to him until close to morning that he had become every bit as obsessive about his insight as Conflagration. The Sage had been seduced by the beauty of his glimpse into ultimate reality to abandon everything good about being human. Hector understood now how such a thing could happen. It was like inhabiting a wonderful dream. Why wake?

For Hector, the answer to that question was clear. Duty.

Making the decision did not instantly bring him back to a normal frame of mind. Hector at least managed to step back from his newfound fascination enough that he no longer looked for sources of miasma to transform. Instead, he returned to Union Central and collected another batch of kids. A second trip that day finished his mission to bring the Users to Stronghold Alpha. Both times the kids behaved oddly around him, but he didn't spend any time analyzing the situation.

Hector roused himself enough to give the kids a lecture about safety. They looked at him with a degree of sincerity that he found vaguely concerning. He had no idea how he'd left such an impression on them. The new arrivals were slowly being brought up to speed through whispered conversations.

When he returned to Tian Tower, Wayne was manning the counter. His brows were high on his forehead as Hector approached. "Did you forget to put on clothes, Hector?"

"What? Oh. I should probably do that." He was still wearing the jacket that had been wrapped around his waist, at least.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"That's a safe bet. Maybe you should get some sleep? I promise we won't run out of fish any time soon."

Hector rode the elevator to his floor and put on combat fatigues, leaving the jacket that had swaddled his waist on the floor. Then he went out into the common area to stare out a window at the city below. There were so many people in Promise City. Most of them lived such small lives. Like he once had on Earth, before Evelyn recruited him to serve a higher purpose.

"System? Did you make arrangements for Matthias to join the Reconquest?"

You are not currently alone.

"Hector? Who are you talking to?"

He turned to discover Riley beside him. "Riley. Sorry. I am a little out of sorts today."

"What is wrong?"

"I'm just struggling to return to normal. Glimpsing ultimate reality is a real trip, let me tell you. I always thought the Sage of Conflagration was a complete freak, but I get it now. It's hard for the mundane to hold my attention."

Riley looked past him. "Darius? What's wrong with Hector?"

"He's talking about insights." A finger poked his ribs hard enough to make Hector jump. "Did you cultivate too much chaos or something?"

"Miasma is chaos imbued with intent."

Is this a new insight?

"Yes, it's new."

Darius pushed Hector towards his room and forced him to lay down. When Hector didn't close his eyes, the eunuch dug through Hector's locker and then poured him a dose of the 'cozy nights' sleep aid in a plastic dosing cup. Hector drank it when it was presented to him.

"That knocked you out last time you had it," Darius said.

"I don't know if giving him drugs is a good idea right now."

"He needs to reset his mind. Sleep is the best remedy for that."

"Maybe I should cancel my date with Siegfried."

A sigh. "I will watch over Hector."

"Thank you, Darius."

"Such a good person I am," the eunuch muttered.

Oblivion came soon after. When it released its grip on him, Hector felt closer to normal. The 'clothes' of his mundane existence no longer felt so ill fitting. He cleaned up, grabbed a breakfast of fish soup at the cafe, and then checked in with the System.

"How bad was I yesterday?"

You were unresponsive to me. Other than the time you attempted to speak to me in public.

"System, I can transform miasma into cosmic energy. I need to get to Stronghold Gamma."

You should take a few days to stabilize your mental state first. Spend some time with Riley and Darius. Matthias already departed for Stronghold Gamma, so they have a resource for the Miasma Mitigation Project.

Hector quickly checked his energy reserves. They were down to fifteen percent after traveling about the previous day. "I guess I can stay a few more days. But I need to get to the dungeon to restore some energy."

Your friends are delving this afternoon. Perhaps go with them?

Judging by the way the System was mothering him, Hector suspected he had scared it. The suggestion wasn't without merit, though. Seeing Riley slaying monsters like a boss would do wonders for his morale. He joined his friends for lunch, then went on to the dungeon.

Riley bumped him in the shoulder. "Are you sure you can do this now?"

"I think you might underestimate me, Riley."

Darius grunted. "You are the one lacking a chaos bolt."

A smile wormed its way onto Hector's face. He had been anticipating a chance to shatter some more miasma, but suddenly the thought of watching his friends react to his new trick was even more attractive. "We'll see who has the upper hand in the dungeon."

"You are competing with a level four now?"

"No, Darius, I'm going to compete with both of you."

"I see that the sleeping potion caused you brain damage."

Riley turned on her flashlight and swept it across each of their faces. "Be nice, boys."

"I am always nice," Darius said. All three of them laughed at the absurdity of his claim.

"You guys should prepare to be surprised. That's all I will say."

The ride into the dungeon completed and Hector's friends debated which entrance they would take like they were trying to find a new menu item at their regular restaurant. Hector broke through their bickering. "Let's just go to the nearest one."

Darius shrugged. "Fine. Where we coming out?"

"Let's go straight across."

"A deep delve?" Riley whistled. "We never did one of those, Darius."

"Because it all pays the same," Darius said.

No one disagreed with Hector's request before the moving sidewalk deposited them at the mouth of the tunnel. They ran into the dungeon proper. Hector felt when they passed the edge of the runic protection as miasma suddenly filled the air.

He almost shattered it right then, but decided to save it for a more dramatic reveal.

They ran for two minutes before a huge rat scampered forward and attempted to stomp them into paste. Darius and Riley got to work putting holes into the building sized rodent. Hector formed a single cable, which immediately began to visibly glow in the darkness. He wrapped it around the neck of their opponent, which it sliced apart like a hot knife through butter.

The head dropped to the ground and a dome the size of his domain footprint lit up as miasma shattered into copious amounts of cosmic energy. The light let Hector see the expression of Darius. The eunuch's lips twitched back and forth a couple of times. "This trick is impressive. I grant that. But your trick only works on monsters. A chaos bolt is superior against human foes."

Riley's reaction was far more practical. "Is it safe for me to cultivate this cosmic energy?"

That snapped Darius back to his senses. "How long can you keep this up?"

"I could do this for hours."

"Riley, we finally have our cultivation cheat! Don't you dare tell Siegfried about this!"

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