World Filter

Mark grunted as a fist the size of his head slammed into his chest, launching him toward the ground like a missile. He crashed into the stone floor, carving a shallow crater, but the smooth surface softened the blow just enough for him to roll aside. His construct flickers but holds.

A moment later, Jonathan's chitin-plated knee struck the same spot, deepening the crater and blasting shards of rock in every direction.

Not willing to let him follow the attack up, Mark splayed his palm out in front of himself and used [Telekinetic control] to launch the man into the nearby wall.

Knowing he didn't have time, Mark jumped up and funneled all of his Mana from his two [Animated minds] to create six points of light.

The light hissed as it flash-fried the air in six parabolic arcs. The shower of brilliance ignited throughout the area, highlighting several more craters from past fights.

The amount of Mana Mark shoved into the spells was intense, as each one was capable of liquifying stone. Since his core consolidation and improvements with light control, Mark had been getting a firmer grasp on light magic.

Unfortunately, even though five of the six beams struck home, they barely left more than faint scorch marks on Jonathan's exoskeleton-like armor.

He burst out of the wall, closing a hundred meters in under a second and generating a shockwave as he did. Mark spun his construct around and reinforced it, bracing for impact.

But the blow never came. A thick wall of ice shot up between them, and Jonathan, unable to stop the momentum of his charge, smashed into it and spun out of control.

Mark's eyes widened as Jonathan came hurtling toward him. He immediately softened his spell to absorb the impact, and the collision sent them both crashing to the ground in a chaotic tailspin.

Mark's construct burst and retreated to his body, while Jonathan's transformation faded. The two of them landed in a tangled heap of limbs.

Jon glared up, looking none too happy, but before he could say anything, Sam's chilly voice broke both their battle fugues.

"I told you guys to hurry up and get ready. You've been fighting all night."

Jonathan swallowed and disengaged himself.

"Come on, that was the tiebreaker," he said, his voice falling dangerously close to a whine.

Mark untangled himself and sat up.

"Shit, have they started?" he asked while panting.

They'd been fighting for a while now, and the score was three to three. Granted, even with his new core, Mark had had to eke out every win with some trick or maneuver. Things that didn't work twice against someone like Jonathan.

Unfortunately, if he didn't, their matchup was just too unfavorable. Mark had become incredible at mitigating large amounts of physical impacts, but when Jonathan got going, even he struggled.

One of the first things Mark had done was to wrap Jonathan up in a construct so thick that he couldn't move a muscle or exert any force. He'd only won that one by arguing that if he'd put all of his power into it, he could do enough damage to incapacitate the guy. Which was true, but as dangerous as their fighting was, they didn't mean each other any permanent harm.

Jonathan won the others by exhausting Mark's resources or doing 'lethal' damage to him.

Between bouts, when they were recuperating, they had both reviewed ways to improve their fighting styles. Jonathan was insistent that he teach Mark how to fight in close quarters, and how to handle certain maneuvers, like 'falling right' as he termed it.

While Mark insisted he practice defending against mental assaults.

The last fight had been a no-holds-barred ordeal, allowing them to use whatever techniques they had at their disposal. Well, save for Mark's newest ability to attack the soul directly. Jonathan didn't have any defense against it, and Mark wasn't about to put himself or others in danger to test a potentially lethal technique. He was still recovering from his last use of it.

"They haven't started, but if we don't get there soon, there won't be time to make our proposal. Now come on."

Jonathan shot Mark a look that said, "We'll finish this later," then stood and offered him a hand.

Mark took it as Jonathan spoke.

"Fine, we'd better get this over with. I'm going to run and take a shower, meet you two there."

Sam shook her head and stopped him from leaving.

"Hang on, we're late as it is. Plus, I have a new technique to test, and you two are going to help me."

While there was no internal plumbing in the spire yet, NAS had acquired potable shower heaters and set them up in the courtyard of the building.

Mark was curious, but then he saw Jonathan's eyes narrow at Sam's evil grin.

He started to ask what it was, but he felt the smallest pulse of Mana leave Sam and wrap around them both, surrounding his body before she opened her palm.

Suddenly, a damp sensation collected over his skin that was followed shortly by a warm breeze that covered every square inch of his body. Then droplets of water streamed from beneath Mark's and Jonathan's clothing and hovered above Sam's hand.

A shiver ran down Mark's spine as he couldn't quite push down the unsettling sensation.

After a moment, Mark rolled his shoulders and realized the uncomfortable layer of sweat and exertion that was covering his body had all but faded.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Frowning at Sam, he realized she'd used magic as a cleaning solution. The thing was, this wasn't just a ball of water they could use to clean themselves.

It was an incredibly sophisticated application of Mana; this technique required at least three different magics, probably more, and an incredible level of control to do with such speed.

Sam didn't hesitate to evaporate the water and send the pebble of salt and grime away.

"There, now we can go straight to the meeting."

Mark opened his mouth to argue, but Jonathan made an exaggerated full-body shudder, like something had just crawled down his spine.

"Don't ever do that again," he said, looking pale.

Sam rolled her eyes.

"Oh, grow up, Mark, you found it okay, right?"

Mark shook his head violently, which only made her snort.

"And after I worked so hard to come up with a spell that took your body sizes into account," Sam said with a shrug while walking away.

Jonathan and Mark exchanged a glance before they both chased after her, asking what she meant by that.

Fortunately, they arrived on time, giving Jonathan a brief window to pull Ning Wei aside.

The meeting itself, however, was far from the small strategy huddle Mark had expected.

As the area filled, Mark noted Colonel Rachel seated near the front—her posture rigid, eyes sharp—and behind her, a significant contingent from both the engineering and scientific divisions. More people filtered in by the minute, many of them from NAS, their faces unfamiliar to him.

The guilds had gathered along with many other factions, sending in their representatives.

Across the aisle, Ethel stood calmly, having brought their own collection of figures from every corner of the Order. Each person here seemed handpicked, seasoned, and ready.

Whatever this was, it wasn't routine.

This wasn't just a meeting. It was a gathering of all the powerful players within the city.

But as impressive as it was, it was quickly apparent that it would be tedious in equal measure.

Every voice had to be heard, and this took hours. They had gathered in the middle of the spire, and someone arranged seats for all the factions to discuss how the spire's resources would be distributed fairly. It took a fair bit of time, but after what felt like forever, they elected to share the resources in an even three-way split.

As soon as they knew their limits from the spire, they would all contribute to a communal residence for people, and after that, their remaining resources could be freely used as they saw fit. All in all, things were looking up.

It took them so long to get to this stage that by that point, Mark was lost reading through the Loyalists' strict but fair proposal on how to manage the influx of people.

It was exactly because of this that he didn't notice Ning Wei getting up until she spoke.

"Now that the immediate concerns are addressed, there's one final matter. I've already asked the bound under my command to choose their Protectors, and have even nominated myself as proof of my conviction. I did this because I believe we must take the next step without delay. So I'd like to motion for every bound to be paired as soon as possible."

Predictably, this idea was not well received, but Mark was surprised that the loyalists were not immediately against it. The biggest obstacle turned out to be the tenders themselves. Several men and women feared the unknown and were hesitant at first, but what was their alternative?

As things went, it seemed that the spire would not allow them to use their full rights until they had bound their protectors. Even though people like Sarah were vocal about their hesitation, it didn't take long for them to see that it was more dangerous not to have a protector. So, slowly, but surely, each concern was addressed.

The biggest advocates for this were Ning Wei and Jason.

Ethel had made sure to tell them to have some 'resistance' to the idea, but eventually support it. So when they finally gave in, each tender was assigned a protector.

In hindsight, it was their haste that made what followed a disaster. They were used to pushing forward just to stay afloat, but this time, the pace would cost them, and Mark would carry that regret for a long time.

Tenders began to bind whoever was available.

Sam bound Gibby as his protector, and Jonathan already had Mark. As a test, Shelby bound Boe with Ethel's consent, and the system seemed to accept it.

After that, NAS brought out many fighters, even going so far as to bind Nathan to Jose.

Lisa decided not to bind herself as she had responsibilities, nor did Patrica.

Mark looked around as he watched dozens of people pairing up.

Jason stepped in to lead the Lotalist's tenders and encourage their strongest to bind

Wesley was bound to Sarah, his shield reassuring her cautious nature. Andy, being there, stepped up even though he had a pregnant girlfriend at home. To Mark's surprise, even Terry appeared from NAS. Mark wasn't sure how he felt about that. Though to be fair, the last time they'd seen him, it was when that Corrupted human had impersonated him. Now? He looked a lot better, more stable, though the bags under his eyes had not faded.

As a show of faith, Ning Wei did indeed bind herself to one of the guild tenders, and for a while, everything was okay.

That was until the last person assigned their final protector. It was a tender from the Loyalists, and the only reason Mark had noted it was because the tender was binding to a woman he recognized as Dakota. She had been the teacher who showed Mark how to create his [Animated mind's] at the campus, the one who specialized in summoning magic.

The very same second Dakota accepted, a message went out to all sixty individuals.

There was no time to shout or even react as the spire trembled for just a second. Panic and shouts went up, but the last thing Mark saw before his vision was blinded by silver light was the expressions of horror on everyone's faces. Ethel screamed, and Karter had enough time to reach for Sam before countless strands of Mana connected to all sixty individuals and yanked them through space.

The journey was chaotic, and it felt like Mark was covering vast distances in a matter of moments, but one thing was certain: he had never traveled this far with spatial magic.

Before he knew it, there was suddenly ground under his feet, and the world stabilized enough to see again.

The wind bit at Mark's face as he blinked into the chaos. What was left of the spire wall yawned open around him, exposing a sky smeared in ash and shadow.

Above, winged creatures circled like carrion birds, their screeches sharp and ravenous, echoing off the distant peaks. Below, nothing stirred, just scorched rubble and mountain ranges stripped bare, like the bones of something long dead.

Mark hardly had a chance to take all this in when he noticed others from his group arriving. Sam and Jonathan appeared beside him where they had been before the jump, but both were immediately on high alert.

As if arriving amongst a dying landscape weren't enough, the system sent one final message to seal their fates.