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Absolution watched the corpse in silence, lowering his scythe as energy trickled into him. His lips thinned and turned down. An Initiate 8 monster, felled with such ease that he\'d barely even gotten the power to justify the time it had taken him to clear out the rest of the dungeon.

He scanned the ground for any magical items, but he suspected that, had the Magma Golem possessed anything worthwhile, it would have already put it to use.

The hole in the center of his chest throbbed. A strange sensation, since there was nothing there with which to feel pain, but a sensation, nonetheless. Absolution\'s frown grew further.

He\'d already reached the peak of Initiate 9 well ahead of schedule. His Mind Palace was built prepared to advance, and he\'d gotten all 3 Aspects imbued within it.

Everything was going exactly how he had wanted it to. There should have been no cause for concern.

But instead of satisfaction, his thoughts had been nothing but troubled as of late — and he could pinpoint the exact reason why.

Once the 3rd Initialization is dealt with, I am going to hunt Stargazer and this native of his down. He has dwelled on my mind for too long.

Absolution turned on his heel and strode out of the dungeon. There was too much to do. Too much to prepare. The 3rd Initialization would not be far off. New worlds always took a little time to stabilize under the implementation of the System. It depended on how large the other planets they\'d been merged with were — and this location had been part of a 50 planet merger. A relatively small merger for a new planet, which meant stabilization would likely occur in a few day-night cycles at most.

If there was truly a native in this subsector that could pose a threat to me, then they will have been one of the ten in the top leaderboard. Stargazer was among their ranks, but the rest are unknown to me. I had hoped he would reveal something about this native\'s identity, but Stargazer didn\'t react to a single thing the Overseer stated. He knows he\'s being watched.

It was of no matter. Absolution had already memorized the names of the other eight leaderboard rankers. He would deal with each of them in time. Subsector 735 was far too large to waste time hunting for rats right now.

Absolution left the dungeon a short while later through a rippling green portal. His foot landed in a knee-high field of yellow grass awash in bright sunlight. Warmth beat down on his back and heated the air around him in a faint haze — and something at the base of his neck prickled in warning.

His eyes narrowed.

A young woman holding an enormous staff stood in the field about twenty feet away from him. Her purple robes stood out in stark contrast to the grass around them. A huge, floppy hat covered her face, leaving only its lower half visible. There was a small scar running along the side of her lips amidst a sea of freckles.

"You are an Anomaly," the woman said. Her name was concealed by an item — one strong enough to keep even Absolution\'s eyes from making it out.

"As are you."

The air around Absolution crackled. Particles of frost twisted together into a cloud. Razor sharp blades of frost shot free from it and carved down toward him.

Absolution shifted. The world bent around him, a single step taking him all the way across the field and directly up to the woman.

His foot landed on the ground.

A faint thrum of magic pulsed in his ears, even as he started to swing his scythe.

She set a magical tr—

The world vanished an explosion.

Lava burst free from the ground like an erupting volcano, swallowing Absolution in an instant. Grass burst into flame as it came into contact with the flowing molten rock. The fire spread in instants, passing by the woman harmlessly as it caught on the dry grass and ripped across the field.

The lava flowed around the woman, giving her a wide berth as it rapidly solidified into stone. She lowered her staff. The flowing lava hardened at a rapid speed. Within moments, all that remained was a solid block of lavarock where Absolution had been standing, locked in place like a frozen fountain.

Her whitened knuckles loosened as she lowered the staff. She drew in a small breath, the remnants of a nervous tremor still gripping her body.

The woman turned — and Absolution\'s fist slammed into her cheek. Blood splattered from her lips and she let out a cry as her head snapped to the side.

Coils of gray Qi twisted off Absolution\'s body. It pulsed behind his eyes and seeped from between his lips like smoke.

That almost got me. She\'s fast.

The woman\'s staff lit with flowing reddish-brown Qi and she drove it into the ground with a cry. Dirt exploded in a geyser of flame.

Absolution folded the space behind him and shifted a dozen feet away.

Three molten hands of lava, each the size of a small horse, clawed free of the ground. The woman thrust her staff forward. The hands burst into motion. Qi rolled off their surfaces as they shot out toward Absolution in a pincer formation.

A shadow passed over him as the hands blocked the daylight out, crashing down like a wave of burning orange stone. His head tilted to the side.

That\'s a league above the last lava attack she used. Her Qi is powerful. Not too bad. Her Domain will be impressive. The heat coming from those things will melt me if they get close enough.

Absolution drew on the Qi flowing through his own body and snapped his fingers. Gray lines carved through the air around him. They split open, forming dozens of small portals that melted together into a dome above him.

The hands of lava struck the flat gray energy. If he hadn\'t used his Qi, they would have shattered his magic and continued onward into him.

Instead, their Qi clashed with a roar. The power coursing through the lava evaporated, a droplet of rain against the walls of a castle. Then the hands vanished, sucked through the portals surrounding him and swallowed without a trace.

He folded the space between himself and the woman, closing the distance between them in a split second. Her eyes didn\'t even have time to widen.

Absolution\'s knee drove up into her stomach with enough force to lift her into the air. His other hand slammed into her chest an instant later. The woman flew back and slammed through the stone formation, the air driven from her lungs. Rock crumbled down all around her.

The staff on the ground twitched. Absolution tilted his head to the side as it leapt into the air and swiped at him, missing by mere centimeters. A roar of wind howled past him and gathered around the fallen woman.

It detonated with a loud explosion, sending rock pelting out in every direction. Absolution lifted a hand, grabbing a stone before it could strike him in the skull. Others struck his shoulders and legs, but he paid them no mind.

The woman staggered to her feet, wiping the blood from her cheek. Her staff flew back into her hand and she pointed it at Absolution. Her lips pulled back in a snarl. "How did you dodge?"

"You know my fighting style," Absolution said, tilting his head to the side. "Someone sent you. That seems to be happening often as of late."

The space between him and the woman vanished, even as her mouth opened to respond. She reacted with respectable speed. Her staff slammed down on the ground and stones detonated around her, rising up in a ring of jagged spikes.

But Absolution didn\'t take form at her side.

He appeared above her.

His leg whipped down and his heel connected with her nose with a loud crunch. She stumbled back with a cry of pain, tripping over her own spikes. They sank back into the ground an instant before the woman impaled herself on them.

She rolled to the side as Absolution\'s foot slammed into the ground where she\'d been a moment before. Fire roared at the head of her staff as she pointed it toward him —

Absolution shifted.

A blanket of molten flame enveloped the space where he\'d been standing. It was so intense that the air around the woman warped and shimmered with heat.

He landed behind her. She twisted, but Absolution was faster. His leg snapped out and his heel connected with the fingers holding the staff, breaking them. The weapon spun from her grip. Before she could go for it again, Absolution\'s hand darted out like a snake.

It slammed into her neck, driving the breath from her lungs and slamming the woman into the dirt. Absolution lifted the woman into the air, grip tightening. She clawed at his hand, her legs kicking desperately, but her attempts didn\'t so much as make him falter.

"What family?" Absolution asked, his voice emotionless. "Or are you just an unlucky Anomaly?"

"Everbloom," the woman wheezed.

Absolution\'s hand loosened.

The woman crumped to the ground at his feet, gasping for air. She shoved herself to the side and her hand shot out. Her staff leapt across the ground, slapping into her palm. She staggered to her feet and pointed the staff at him.

"That would be unwise," Absolution said. "The Everblooms are in dire straits. For her to send a representative here… it seems you took a poor deal. It is a sad day when the Everblooms become nothing more than hired blades."

The woman\'s eyes widened. She wiped the blood from her face with the back of a hand and took a step back. "How did you—"

"Don\'t give me so much credit," Absolution said. "It was not a difficult guess. Remove your concealing treasure."

The woman\'s lips thinned. She hesitated for a moment, then reached up to a thin silver choker that hung around her neck. The latch clicked and she dropped it to the ground at her feet. Golden words shimmered through the air over her head.

Orchid - Elemental Mancer (Initiate 6)

"Orchid," Absolution said. "Tell me, then. Who contracted your family to send you after me? I am disappointed I was judged unworthy of a more capable assassin."

Orchid\'s jaw clenched. She said nothing.

Absolution quietly stepped over to where his scythe laid in the grass. He hooked a foot under it and kicked it into the air, grabbing it with a hand. His gaze drifted back to Orchid.

"Is the secret so great that it is worth dying for?"

"They will destroy my family. I have no choice. Everbloom\'s future rests on my shoulders."

"Then your silence will bury that future in this field," Absolution said.

"What does it matter?" Orchid asked, her jaw clenching even tighter. "I cannot fail. I have no other options. This is the only way."

"The other Outworlders are cut from this world for some time longer. Only after the 3rd Initialization will they be able to peer in, and it will take longer still for them to attempt to worm their way deeper. The only people present are you and I. There is no other here."

Orchid hesitated.

"You would let me leave, knowing I had tried to kill you?"

"It is the nature of the weak to seek the death of the strong," Absolution said. "I cannot hold your inability against you. The only mistake you made was failing to kill me. Should you prove yourself useful, then I have no reason to end your life."

The Mancer swallowed. Her weight shifted and her eyes darted around the field, but there was nowhere to run to. Nowhere to escape. And, when a scared animal was cornered with only a single way out…

They took it.

"It was the Starfallen family," Orchid said. "They granted me access to Planet 274-50 through their portal on the condition that I would hunt you."

Absolution stiffened. "Did any of their members enter this Subsector?"

"Not that I\'m aware of. They promised me that it was just me."

The corner of Absolution\'s mouth twitched.

Promised. As if the Starfallen would ever keep a promise.

He still had time, but this was a surprising development. The Starfallen family… it had been a long time since they\'d made a move on a new world. And if they\'d made a move, the other major families had as well. There were more players than he had expected. Something about this world had the attention of powerful players.

And the more interest there was from Outworlders, the more the System counterbalanced it by increasing the potential of the world to give the natives a way to fight back against the resources the families could bring to bear.

How fascinating. All the more reason I must ensure to harvest every resource this Subsector has to offer if I wish to save anything at all.

"Tell me, Orchid. Did your Matriarch pass down her path to you?"

Orchid\'s features paled. "You know about it?"

Absolution just watched Orchid in silence.

She swallowed, then nodded.

"Yes."

"Very good," Absolution said. "Now tell me, what city have you taken up residence in?"

"Valley Ford. It is large. I think the System will select it as a Hub City. It\'s one of the largest locations in the Subsector."

"How fortunate for you. You will do something for me. Keep an eye out for a native who has been to the Mirrorlands. And, if he appears, kill him."

Orchid blinked. Questions played across her face, but none of them made it to her lips. She gave him a stiff nod. "I — very well."

"The 3rd Initialization will be soon. Days at the most. I suggest you utilize that time wisely. I will not be so forgiving should you find yourself against me a second time. Choose your side well, Everbloom."

His scythe flashed.

Orchid\'s lips were still parted mid-word when her body pitched forward, severed at the neck. Her head bounced off her back and landed in the tall grass amidst a growing pool of blood.

Absolution turned and strode away, his mind already on other things. He would have to unlock his Domain as soon as possible.

If the Starfallen family had set foot on Planet 274-50, then he had far more competition than he\'d initially anticipated. With the 3rd Initialization, the Outworlder families would arrive in full force, and the System would ensure the natives had a way to defend their land. A way that Absolution would have to wrest from them.

I must ensure I get a Town Token as quickly as possible. The greatest rewards are for those who take the most risk. Far too many times have I witnessed just how immensely useful controlling a portion of the world can be. The opportunities it provides are innumerable. There should be a token in one of the dungeons that appear after the Initialization completes, but even I do not know where their locations will be.

The Starfallen family cannot be allowed to take another world. Anyone powerful in this Subsector must fall in line — or fall before me.