World Filter

The festival of worship, as several people were calling it, ended pleasantly. Mark heard that Patricia's followers swelled after that. And though they still weren't comparable to the religious district, they were growing rapidly. After NAS exposed the other organized religions for their actions, public opinion had plummeted. That, combined with their already forceful recruitment techniques, had a lot of people questioning if the choice to join them was really worth it.

It was sad as far as Mark was concerned, because those who had already 'signed on the dotted line' were stuck. Even if they wanted to leave, nothing short of a full dissolution of their faith was going to work.

Patrica and her new flock were working hard to reach out to those who wanted to escape their pledges, but there was only so much she could do against factions as deeply rooted as theirs.

In time, Mark was certain she would be able to extract them, but in the meantime, they had to hang on. Even Shelby had noticed a marked increase in the number of people looking to explore his growing order.

Since the man didn't want to make anything religiously official, his followers had just been joining his newly set-up faction. Which had been growing in strength rapidly, but he seemed content to have it recognized as an offshoot of their order.

Ethel and Gibby had gone over everything with Jonathan, and as far as they could tell, there were no conflicting interests, so he was acting in a capacity for both factions.

In the coming days, it may cause problems, but for now, they were all in agreement.

"Unfortunately, that wasn't what was troubling Mark at the moment. With internal strife settling down, many factions had managed to send their fighters to the spire for testing. And at last, weeks after the search for the unbound had begun, all thirty had been found."

It was an incredibly time-consuming process, but the last person had just been located in a faction they were familiar with, Tyler's tigers.

The unbound had chosen to stay with the faction, which was to be expected. Ethel had been working hard to keep their own members. Unfortunately, even with NAS's support, they lost people. When the dust settled and all the offers were made and deals done, they were only able to keep ten unbound on their side. From half to a third hurt, but it was understandable. The loyalists had not been shy to devote large amounts of resources to nurturing their unbound and had managed to secure ten of their own spots.

That just left the neutral parties. They could honestly go either way, but most of them were loyal to their own factions or the guilds.

As of yet, Mark had little chance to meet their unbound, so he thought it smart to call a meeting before they convened later today with all the other factions.

The opening of the spire was too important to delay; even the Loyalists had not hesitated to take the next step.

And so, in this final hour, Mark found himself sitting on a bench inside one of the many abandoned buildings in their territory. It had once been a gym, and he now gazed at the drained swimming pool—its cracked base long since rendered useless by slow, persistent leaks. Jonathan, Gibby, Sam, Ethal, and even Nathan from NAS were here as they were waiting to meet the mysterious figures.

The fact that none of them knew who was coming to meet them was intentional. All of the factions had taken great care to protect the identities of the unbound. Mark only knew that Shelby would be among them. They had a list of names, but he had yet to put a face to any of them. Karter was the only one who had met them all, as their security would be his responsibility.

When Karter and Shelby arrived, they did so with nine different vehicles. Each had come from a different location. Mark noted twelve glowing blips of life instead of the eleven he expected. His growing sensitivity to the lives around him told him as much—no spell required. Since forming his new core, Mark had discovered that it was not only more attuned but also exerted an outward effect on all conscious life, including plants.

He lounged on the bench, watching as weeds that had pushed up through the cracked concrete began to draw in his energy. They grew visibly more vibrant by the second until he cut them off from the flow.

Then the gym door opened. The two missing pillars stepped inside, followed by ten individuals

Sam flicked Jonathan awake, while Mark sat up straighter, seeing them head in their direction. Karter nodded to Ethel before turning back to the people here.

"Good to see everyone is here on time. My fellow pillars, I'd like to introduce you to our tenders."

Mark glanced from the stern man to look at the rest of the arrivals.

What he saw was not what he expected. The individuals before them looked completely normal, as though pulled at random.

Some were glancing about curiously, others warily, and there was even some excitement. But each one of them looked to be from different walks of life. There was a young boy no older than thirteen with a woman who could only be his mother shaperoning him, and an older gentleman who seemed hardly awake. A plump woman with curlers in her hair and a middle-aged man wearing a suit. All of which only further confused Mark.
What were the criteria for how the system chose its unbound? One thing was that all of them gave off similar levels of Mana and Prana as a low-level individual. Only two people here looked like they could fight to protect themselves. One was an ex-soldier, Mark could see it in his posture. The other was a young woman who looked rather nervous as she chewed her thumbnail to the quick.

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The others looked unsure, content to let the soldier and the muttering woman step forward. They looked like they wanted to be the first to speak, but stopped to size up Mark's party.

After a few strained moments, the soldier spoke.

"Hello. I think I speak for everyone when I say we wanted to extend our thanks to all of you for what you've managed to do for us. I'm glad to be part of this, and I hope we can help you all like you have helped us."

Mark's eyes flickered to each of their faces. From the looks of things, not all of them shared the sentiments, but there was a sense of awe in most of their eyes.

Sam indicated that everyone sit down in the plastic chairs they'd set up.

"We apologize, we were not able to meet in a better location, but this meeting had to be off the grid. Mark has already set up a barrier around us, so feel free to ask anything you are curious about. No one will hurt you while you are with us."

After a brief pause, the soldier looked like he was about to speak up, but the nervous woman spoke before him while lifting her hand.

"Hi, yes. I'm Sarah. Are you sure we're safe? I've heard really disturbing rumors of people who are more alien than human."

Mark cocked his head, to think of the Corrupted as aliens was interesting. They had come from the skies, right? But even if they were, they were so much more than that.

Sam's smile disarmed the woman.

"Yes, we are aware of the Corrupted humans and will share what we know of them. This is also why all of you have been kept separate. Your safety is our highest priority. We don't know what will happen after this spire is opened, but each of you holds an important role in this."

Her reassurance seemed to open the floodgates for everyone to begin asking questions. From what Mark knew, each of them had chosen to stay for some reason or another. Whether it was because of the perks or family members in the area, they were all her for the same reason.

Mark put his palm out quietly to halt their questions, which had a more dramatic effect than intended when they all immediately fell silent.

"There's a lot to talk about, and if our suspicions are right, we'll be working together for a long time—hopefully," Mark said. "I've memorized the list of names I was given, but I'd love to put a face to each of you."

The list had been intentionally stripped of pictures. That way, if it ever leaked into the wider public, it would be harder to identify and track them down. Mark had a few guesses, but he figured this was a good first step. He was sure of this when several people relaxed at his words.

Mark then introduced each of their pillars, letting them offer their own introductions. It felt oddly like an AA meeting, calling out names in turn—but no one objected.

Once the round of introductions ended, Mark glanced over the group, taking them all in.

The young boy was Callum, and the sleepy gentleman was called Old Noel. The businessman went by Parker, and the plump woman was Misha. The others were Lile, Bernard, and Zara.

Finally, there was the soldier, who introduced himself as Jose, alongside Sarah.

Mark memorized their faces before turning back to hear their questions.

Sarah was the first to lift her hand again.

"Do any of you know what happens to an unbound when were do this? Are we like sacrifices? If that's the case, then I'm sorry, but I won't do it."

Mark's first thoughts moved to what it had taken to create the spire, and he hesitated. The system seemed more than happy to use sacrifices when needed.

Luckily, Jonathan spoke up before they could notice his hesitation.

"That shouldn't be the case. As far as we understand, all of you will be necessary for what is to come after. Whatever that may be."

Jon's words didn't settle the group as much as Mark would have hoped, but their options were severely limited.

Mark felt for them. It was one thing to willingly walk into danger, but an entirely different thing to be forced into it against one's will.

They continued to discuss possibilities, but the truth was that none of them had any idea what was in store for them.

The more they spoke, the more Mark found himself warming to them. Each man and woman here was just that, a person with their own stories. They never expected this to happen to them and were trying to make the most of it.

Callum's mother looked close to breaking down. With the spire being built, she had finally hoped for some normalcy for her and her son. Old Noel had lost his wife during the fall, and all he wanted was to find a place to lay her to rest. But from the looks of things, the system would never allow them to forget it. Each story was filled with pain, but there was a strength in all of them that kept going. By the time they broke up, Mark knew a little bit about each of them. The meeting was quickly approaching, so they all went to prepare.

Hours later, they had gathered in front of the spire as the brilliant white stone shone with its usual luster.

Countless factions gathered on the outskirts as those with unbound stepped forward.

Mark spotted Jason at the front of the Loyalists, striding ahead with confidence, followed closely by half a dozen tanks. Mark sensed several life signatures inside. If he were a betting man, he'd wager their unbound were hidden within. The enhanced tanks were ideal for protection, their armored shells providing a confined sanctuary.

Mark had linked with Sam to provide a shield for their unbound. Surrounding them with an opaque bubble, obscuring their identities and guarding them against anything short of a ballistic missile.

What he didn't expect was to see Ning Wei leading half of the neutral parties. She was surrounded by hired fighters, yet still managed to wink at Jonathan and wave cheerfully to the rest. Last Mark had heard, her father had secured broad support among the crafters' cove and the trade markets. So while her appearance was surprising, it wasn't unwelcome.

Just before they reached the gate, all the teams paused and gathered in one spot. No one wanted to speak first.

A long silence stretched across the space between them, broken only by the rustling wind. Slowly, their attention turned toward the spire. Caution hung in the air, but so did something else.

Hope.

For the first time in a while, they had direction, some way out of the nightmare they'd been trapped in.

That's why, when Mark looked back on this day, he would always wonder how something so full of promise could twist so completely, leaving behind only the taste of hate and desperation.