Zacharia's wings fluttered erratically as the man hunched over the lance that had just pierced his chest and heart. His lips trembled, eyes wide in terror, and Ethan could see him try and fail to pull air into his lungs.

It should have been a fatal strike. Ethan believed it might still be, but then, he heard the words ring in his ear as barely, almost inaudibly, Zacharia kept repeating the same thing. And it was as if reality itself agreed and was trying to make his vision a reality.

"I'm okay. I'm okay…"

The words trailed off, but there was no mistaking the familiar presence of a Prime Manifestation. Ethan could see color return to the man's face, and he felt the lance being pushed out. If he sat down and watched, the man might actually shrug off having his chest and heart impaled.

If Ethan let him.

With the lance still holding the man up, Ethan extended his left claws, and Zacharia's eyes flicked to it. There was fear there for a moment, and then resignation.

"I guess… the better man did win… in the end," he muttered, blood trailing down his lips, as if speaking to himself.

Ethan spared him a little nod. And with his own Zenith State running through his body, he stabbed.

***

When Ethan landed back on the ground, having collected the fragments and one interesting looking primagem, he set toward the settlement.

He could have flown. He could have done without the hateful glares and the muttered curses. But he didn't want to run away from the consequences of his own actions. And he needed them to really understand that there was nothing they could do to stop him.

They had gambled—maybe not them, but their leaders. But they had still gambled, and they had lost.

In the end, no one dared to stand before him. They all parted as he approached the pylon. Some of them had already gone running to check on their leader, but the rest kept clear of him. Only those who had been looking at him hopefully were slowly inching toward him, and Ethan realized he might need to do something about those.

He had a feeling that they might not weather what was to come well, now that the unifying figure behind this faction is gone.

Foreign administrator is claiming the pylon.

Current administrator deceased. Time to claim is significantly shortened.

Subjects of the pylon have been alerted.

Pylon will fall under your control in 1 minute.

Ethan waited quietly, spellforms and flames still wreathed about his figure, accelerating his recovery. After this, he had to head down to Providence, but maybe he could carry the servant toward New Dawn? It looked like there were barely ten of them. Only for a few minutes, so that they'd have a head-start over the rest of the camp. As for them…

"What are we supposed to do, now?" Ethan heard one of them say. Murderer, others whispered. But he spared them no attention. No matter how right they might be. Instead, he focused on the pylon.

The options for what to do with the pylon showed up, and he hit Salvage. Just like the last time, there was a pulse that ran through the structure, before the lights began coalescing in front of him, while the rest of the pylon began to crack and break.

The survivors. He didn't want them in his faction. They were trouble. He also didn't want to kill them, because that'd be taking things too far. But odds are, sooner or later, they were going to be absorbed in his own faction, whichever way they ended up heading.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Sooner or later, we'll have people in the faction who hate my guts, he thought, hearing a sob and refusing to look back. He needed Amanda and his own people to begin preparing from enemies within their own ranks. For sabotage and treason.

But he reminded himself that while growth will come with its fair share of problems, so would the potential for good. Saboteurs will join their ranks, but so would healers. Warriors. Experts in crafts and other fields they'd need to build their faction up.

With a sigh, he picked up the glowing remains of the pylon, then turned to the fearful crowd. The stares immediately turned hard. But no one spoke. No one brandished any weapons, though some still had them in hand. So while he knew his words might likely fall on deaf ears, he still had to say them.

"This wouldn't have needed to happen if your warriors and leaders hadn't gone out of their ways to hurt my people," he spoke, flames still dancing along his scales. The glares hardened further, but he ignored them. "And while you might hate my guts, I'm considering the matter settled. Blood for blood. Zacharia is dead. You're free to do whatever you want. Peacefully. But start any trouble… and you'll see me again."

***

With his little speech done, Ethan took a minute to round up those he believed to be happy with the change of leadership. They did end up being servants, but not all of them. Some had been 'involuntarily recruited', for one reason or another. Two of them, actually, but Ethan didn't have the time or will to dig into the why of it and unfortunately, none of them had a flying ability, so Ethan was going to have to do the heavy lifting.

Figuratively, and literally.

"This is going to be a little awkward, but I want you… 14 to sort yourselves by level. Or maybe by Might. I'm going to give you a head-start toward my settlement, but you'll have to finish the rest of the way by yourselves. Understood?"

With nods all around, Ethan dragged them away from the hostile stares, then had them all lie down on the ground in a line, with the strongest of them at one end, and the weakest at the other. Then every individual grabbed on to the next one's ankle, and the strongest of them—a man with a level of 64—grabbed on to Ethan's ankle.

"This'll be a little rough," he told the flustered faces. "But it'll only be for ten or fifteen minutes. If it gets too bad, let me know. Don't let those below you drop to the ground. I won't be flying high. Understood? Great. Then off we go."

Ethan slowly lifted upward, dragging the human-ladder up one by one. There were a few shouts and exclamations of surprise—someone even laughed—and it was a little straining on his wings, but not as bad as he had expected. When all fourteen were off the ground, he looked down at the swaying figures below. "How's everyone? Ready to go?"

Thankfully, there were no issues and within seconds, Ethan was able to fly off. He kept close to the ground, just in case, and it did get easier to keep the people below somewhat stable so long as he neither accelerated too briskly nor decelerated too violently. He even had the time to check out his notification and to examine the primagem he'd gotten.

You have defeated [Human - Level 62 (I)]

…

You have defeated [Human - Level 81 (II)]

You have reached Level 82. 1 stat point awarded.

…

You have reached Level 87. 1 stat point awarded.

He didn't feel that happy about these levels. Especially with the number of dead human notifications that floated past his gaze. It made his stomach squirm and twist, but none of those had been an innocent bystander. All had put innocents at risk. Whether they were following orders or acting of their own volition, it didn't change the fact that their actions lead to people's death.

Dismissing the notification, he pulled out the oddly shimmering primagem and read the prompt.

Assimilate [Primagem of Conviction (Mid-grade)] ?

Ethan wondered if that had been Zacharia's trick. Did he only need to strongly believe in something to make it a reality? It was hard to believe, but it made sense, considering how versatile the man's Prime Manifestation had been. While Ethan's was about stomping through obstacles, Zacharia had been a little more nuanced. He had been able to heal, defend, attack, give orders.

Ethan didn't know how he'd go about combining and using the primagem just yet, but he knew it was valuable, so he accepted the assimilation and turned his attention back to the people hanging below him.

If the night hadn't been so grim, Ethan would have found the situation funny, and before they knew it, New Dawn's territory was in sight, some twenty minutes later, and he lowered his cargo to the ground.

After he pointed them toward his settlement and told them to seek out Amanda and let her know of what went down, he flew back up, much faster this time, and headed south.

It was time to go visit Providence.

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