The portal shimmered and opened before me. A wound on reality itself that nonetheless appeared completely stable. Its outer edges were marked by a thin purple line of stable energy. A painted border between the black, sucking hole in the middle of the air and the rest of the real world.

Bringing my fingers close to that line made the hairs on the back of my hand rise up in protest. The blood in my veins chilling somewhat from one second to another.

Then the Psy in my body adjusted and the feeling of oddness was gone.

'Hmn. How odd.' I thought to myself. 'I should have a bunch of new combined abilities keeping my body in check. That, and the Projector ability is more or less a rip-off of Randall's own. It shouldn't really make me nervous. Not since I made it mine.'

I tried to predict the future around it and found that the strings of probability were being cut off. My futures ending in every case where I tried to step through.

"Huh." I spoke aloud. Shifting my new cloak around Buddy as I moved my arm to scratch my head.

"That's new."

I looked down at my hand. Narrowed my eyes and lengthened it. Before then ripping off the limbs and turning it into a drone. The fingers becoming eye-stalks while the palm opened up into a gaping, slobbering maw.

Then I pressed it maw-first into the portal. Before then pulling it out.

The former hand was gone above the wrist. The remains sizzling with heat as the charred portions of flesh and bone struggled to knit themselves back together.

"Huh." I repeated. "That's new."

I degraded the Veil enough that both Serpent-Tongue and Randall manifested next to me. Both garbed in new robes of flowing red and gold. The colors mixing to form a scene depicting flames falling from above to sear little outlines below. All of whom happened to have conical hats on.

"You ever seen something like this?" I asked Randall.

"Yeah sure." He said casually. "Just means there's something on the other end doing that. It's nothing wrong with the ability itself. If you portal into a lake of lava, then the lava won't be allowed to come into your portal without your say-so. But you'll still get singed if you go to where the lava is."

I nodded.

"Makes sense. Only, I'm not trying to portal into a lake of lava here."

I waved over to where the portal was.

"That one leads to Lady Agony's palace. I made sure to predict its location before starting this whole thing and I also know where it is from the Drake's memories. Only my predictions aren't working anymore and I can't seem to open a portal that doesn't give me the creeps."

Serpent-Tongue peered closer at the aperture and narrowed his beady little eyes. The two orbs looking like tiny spots of shining onyx when contrasted against his fat, pale, toad-like face. Their surfaces slitted like the eyes of a snake.

"How dreadful." He said finally. "Oh how very dreadful my master. It would seem that someone on the other side is making a lot of trouble for your esteemed, magnificent, glorious person. How very sad."

He pretended to wipe away a tear.

"If I had to guess, I would say that there was a Projector on the other side of the portal. Emitting such heat that the entire dimension had caught fire."

"Yeah. That'd be my guess too." Randall agreed. His three pairs of white wings fluttering behind him as he pretended to walk. His bare heels never actually touching the floor.

"I could have done something similar, if I knew someone was trying to portal in, but it wouldn't have been my first choice. Instead, I would have prepared to stop time while charging a concentrated energy blast for the guy on the other side. Making sure to charge up my [Pressurizer] to help pin them in place in case they resisted the time dilation."

"So you don't think this was done to stop me?" I asked to clarify.

He shook his head.

"Naw. I'd say this was the side-effect of another fight. Probably that new friend of yours going wild with his new powers. Granted, I don't know him all that well, but from the glimpses I got when we shared memories, I'd guess he's not the kind to hold himself back in a fight. Probably released as much heat as he could in one stroke as soon as he entered the dimension. With three whole Types worth of multipliers, that would translate to a small sun's worth of heat. If I were to guess."

I shook my head.

"No. That's not the Drake's style. Sure, he has new toys to play with when it comes to his powers, but he prefers his playthings alive and screaming. Not charred to atoms. He wouldn't have done this."

"Not even when pressed?" Randall questioned me.

"Especially not when pressed." I stated with confidence. "He's the kind of creature who will retreat without any kind of shame, only to plan an even more horrific fate for his attacker once he figures out how to beat them or elsewise what weaknesses he can use against them. We're talking about a guy who ate a bunch of the Dragon's grandkids over what amounted to a slight disagreement on territory regarding high-Tier instances to train in. He killed them, but he wanted to hurt him and Lady Agony."

I nodded to myself.

"Death is often a mercy when it comes to the Seeking Drake. It's those who live who should be worried."

Randall frowned.

"Then that means…"

"Someone else must have done this." I finished for him. "Someone who is likely on the Dragon's payroll."

Serpent-Tongue huffed and puffed. Revelling in the feeling of indignation.

"This is a most bothersome inconvenience master. Though, perhaps it is to be expected."

He nodded sadly.

"These…" He paused to take a deep, resonating, offended breath. Though he didn't need to breathe. The motion making his jowls shake and quake. The many chins below his puffy cheeks bobbing up and down like apples floating on water.

"These filthy heretics and craven unbelievers will do anything to avoid hearing your good word master. It would not surprise me to learn that they have set their own realm ablaze just to spite your gracious coming."

He snorted in derision.

"If this humble servant could be allowed to speak for a moment, I might suggest something."

I raised an eyebrow. Already knowing what he was about to say.

"Why would I flood the portal with Intruders when I can just wait? Or better yet, go for a different target?"

I recalled that the Kenari had multiple well-defended outposts throughout the Labyrinth. Some of them being residential spaces for regular people and some being glorified palaces for that strange cluster of folks too rich and high on the smell of their own farts to live with the plebs while also being too weak and poor to live with the real power houses. The Tier 4s and 5s of the faction who had to look up enviously at Hazimon's inner circle and his daughter's court. When they weren't too busy snubbing their noses down at the dirty, smelly poors in Tier 1 or keeping the Tier 2s and 3s from catching up too quickly.

Now, the chances of those kinds of folks being recruited by Hazimon to go bananas on humanity was… low. Very low in fact. At least so much so that I hadn't predicted any of them actually talking to the guy or ever showing up in a human world.

Did that mean it was impossible? No.

Would I still slaughter them? Of course I would.

I wasn't anything personal on my part, but the Dragon had made it plain that we were playing dirty and any one of those motherfuckers might very well start to get ideas if Lady Agony survived her current ordeal with the Drake. If he and his had no problems targeting innocent humans, then I sure as shit wouldn't be holding myself back over some notion of honor.

In that sense, I was much in line with a species-centric belief.

As far as I was concerned, humanity came first and everyone else came second. A very distant second.

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If another species was out there itching to cause trouble then I would make sure trouble found them first.

Was this morally abhorrent? Yeah. Duh.

They were thinking, feeling, sentient species. Who didn't happen to be gnomes.

In other words…people.

Would I still xenocide them? Absolutely.

I wouldn't enjoy it by any means, but I'd already dammed myself a couple billion different ways trying to save humanity from all the many different horrors trying to end all the many different Earths. What with the forced empowerment and presence addiction.

It was necessary for them to live and I would do it again, but I was under no illusions that I was anything but a necessary evil at this point.

Another couple of sins, however vile, didn't mean much to me at this point. Doubly so if they weren't being committed against humanity.

"Right then. I think it's about time to be heading out. These Kenari aren't going to strangle themselves after all."

Randall winced.

"So, we're just going after normal people?"

I turned to him with shocked horror on my face.

"What? No! Of course not!" I chided. "Why would we start out hunting a bunch of Tier 1s who didn't do anything to me? When there are so very many other powerful Kenari to choose from before that point? Heck, why even bother with the Tier 1s and 2s at all when I could just warp in and disable their starships and any other forms of interdimensional travel?"

I scoffed.

"Honestly Randall. It's like you don't know me at all. It's the powerful players I'm worried about. Business over pleasure I always say."

Randall's eyes wandered to my back.

"Is that a cape made of gnomish scalps?"

My eyes beamed.

"You like it?"

POV: Gerosh.

The room was completely engulfed in panic. The few remaining dignitaries from other dynasties looking about the place as if already planning their escape routes. Eyes filled both with a sense of mounting dread, and a certain willingness to do whatever they might need to do in order to come out of this alive.

Given how old some of these fossils undoubtedly were, they no doubt had plenty of practice with such matters.

'I wonder how many collapsing Instances they've had to flee over the course of the last few centuries?' I thought suddenly, before realizing what I'd just put out there and suppressing the musings with all the willpower I could muster in such short notice.

'These esteemed gentlemen might be old, fool. But they are not harmless grandfathers walking around with the help of bionics. You'd do well to remember your place. Lest you lose your head and probably much more than that.'

Indeed, the Joketel dynasty was storied enough that one of their patriarchs served directly under Lady Agony. A full-blown Tier 8 and someone who was rumored to be a few half-steps short of the 9th Tier. They might not be located near the heart of the empire, but they still commanded respect of their lesser.

'Though, come to think of it, it might be that very distance that ends up saving them in the end.'

No word had come back from the capital city-dimension as of yet after all and most of the major seats of power adjacent to the prime palace had fallen swiftly thereafter.

Old monsters on the 6th and 7th Tiers disappearing one after the other with little to nothing in the way of warning. Now, that usually meant that someone or something had been stupid enough to pick a fight with our faction as a whole and that the old powers had gone to ground in order to prepare themselves for war. Whether that meant suddenly teleporting into other species' home worlds to destroy them or to be summoned in the defence of our own faction's worlds at a moment's notice.

You had to have all the powers gathered in one place, so that the Seers could do their thing and predict and counter-predict the enemy's assaults. With the better predictions carrying the advantage of the masters being one step ahead. With this often meaning that the greater faction was always on the offensive. Destroying other planets before our own planets came to harm and assassinating important targets before they could be deployed.

Or even recruited in some cases.

The thing was, nothing of the sort had happened in a long, long time. What with out side having the Lady, her kin and of course, a very close connection to an actual, literal Divine. One that hailed from our species to boot.

You would have had to be suicidal to attack us. Or anyone under our umbrella of protection for that matter.

'Well, that's not strictly true I suppose. You would have to be suicidal, or you could simply be the Seeking Drake.'

It was hard to tell which one of those prospects was less appealing.

What with the System being down and all.

"I'm telling you it's a coincidence!" Herolax Vrelas roared. The old curmudgeon's face turning red as he did so.

A sad, sad wisp of a man, the old coot carried himself with a self-importance that did not befit his actual status. Or at least, the status he had earned.

The man himself had achieved the laudable goal of reaching the 2nd Tier. On two Types. The problem was that those two Types were Projector and Telepath and they were the only Types he had ever managed to unlock in all his miserable existence. Which more or less meant he'd been relying on that blasted machine attached to his chest to continue pumping oxygenated blood through his decrepit veins for the better part of two centuries.

Anyone else in his position would have been thoroughly ashamed, and afraid, of taking such a tone in this house. But of course, he came over as a representative of his much older, much more talented, much more accomplished great-grandfather, so no one was in any kind of hurry to tell him off.

"There is simply no way the System being down has anything to do with the recent blackouts in communication! It is simply not possible for the two events to be related! If that was the case, then surely her holiness would have descended upon the palace and forewarned Lady Agony!"

Two of his much stronger peers seemed to let themselves be calmed by that statement. Once and for all proving that being well-connected counted for much more than ability or common fucking sense.

….

There was a silence in my mind. Followed by yet another slight gasp. One that was barely audible, but that nonetheless drew the attention of everyone present.

I bowed my head apologetically and proceeded to flood my mental blocks with as much Psy as I could muster. Feeling the pathways in my brain burning up through the sheer weight of power being moved.

'Stupid!' I yelled at myself. 'Stupid! How could you be so stupid as to swear in here! With all these influential windbags!?'

I caught myself again and flooded even more Psy into the barricades. Until I was left dizzy by the exercise.

"Gentlemen!" My uncle came to my defense. "I realize that these are trying times but please! Keep calm! Do not let yourselves be overtaken by panic and listen to the reports coming in! Otherwise, this meeting will be going nowhere!"

Many quieted themselves, but even I could see that fewer actually listened. Their faces still letting off subtle twitches here and there that suggested they'd lost all semblance of self-control their powers might have otherwise granted them.

If folks this powerful were acting like this, then the Tier 1s in our domains must surely be throwing themselves off the rooftops in a blind panic.

Uncle Gerikor continued.

"We must sit here and try our best to remain calm. Only then can we hope to make sense of the reports we're getting!"

"How are any of these reports making any kind of sense!?" Another envoy asked. Pulling out a still image captured and transmitted by a surveillance drone seconds before it and the entire network went silent.

The picture was that of a gnome. Much taller than the rest. With a skull that was more oval than conical and who sported three purple eyes on his face. His symbiote was a stark white that drank in all the blood around him and his feet and hands were bare. Though the former left footprints of jet-black goo wherever it stepped.

No sooner had we seen the image, than the voice returned.

A whisper behind each of our ears. Sweet, feminine and seductive. Slow and drawn out. Like a lover's first kiss.

'Sully Carter.' The voice hissed into the corners of my perceptions, before then disappearing entirely.

A few masters were still so unnerved that they once more turned their heads to search for the origin of the voice. To no avail.

"It is coming from beyond the Veil." Uncle informed the crowd. "Somehow, this thing has managed to degrade the Veil across several dimensions within the Labyrinth. A feat no doubt made possible by the erosion of the System. We simply cannot continue to believe that these events are unrelated. No matter how impossible the situation seems."

Uncle pulled out another image.

"Here, take a look at this one. Notice how it moves the longer you stare at it."

Sure enough, the still image began to move slowly as Uncle held it up. The gnome seeming to come alive as his grin grew more manic.

"What is it doing?" A diplomat asked.

"From what we can see, driving a truck filled with fuel into a hospital known for treating nominally unhealable injuries sustained by rising stars."

Uncle once more looked at the picture and for one unnerving moment, the eyes of the gnome seemed to follow him. The voice coming back once more.

'Sully Carter.'

He put it down.

"Then there is this one of the same gnome driving one of our starships into a ramming manouver. Until it crashed into the Hazimatia memorial Space Port."

This time, the gnome was topless and swinging what looked like a shirt attached to the rest of his Symbiote with one hand.

The eyes looked our way again.

'Sully Carter.' The voice hissed. Sickeningly sweet.

"And then there is this other one of him dumping toxic waste into our water supply."

'Sully Carter.'

"And yet another instance of him appearing over Mistress Drafia. As she lay wounded after a particularly difficult instance."

The gnome had his pants down. Squatting over her open wound as she lay helpless. A sadistic smile on his face.

'Sully Carter.'

"And then there is this one of him taking a saw made of what looks like his own bones to the statue of Hazimon the Dragon in the main square of Frotolok city in the world of Frosia."

'Sully Carter.' The voice seemed to cheer. Even as his hand twisted so that his middle finger stood up while the rest stayed down. His eyes still alive and tracking us.

Uncle put down the images.

"Gentlemen. I think what is going on here should be obvious to anyone. We are all under attack by a force unlike any we have ever seen before and… for whatever reason, our protectors have not come to our aid."

Uncle stood.

"So it is up to us to take matters into our own hands and deal with this new threat."

The old coot with the metal machine in his chest blinked in confusion.

"You want us to take on a fellow who we know for a fact has destroyed at least one noble family already? One you claim had a hand in destroying the System itself?"

"Of course not stupid." Uncle chided. Saying what I was thinking without missing a beat.

"I want us all to leave to our respective corners of influence and to gather as many allies as we can. Anyone who may have once been helped by the honored Dragon or Lady Agony. It should not be hard to come across a few of them."

"The people of which you speak rarely like visitors. Let alone those who come unannounced and uninvited."

"If they get angry, despite the situation, then they would have been far too stupid to ever reach their current levels of power." Uncle responded once more. "There is no way any old Master isn't as freaked out as we are. It just so happens that we have a clue as to who or what caused this mess."

He clapped his hands.

"I know the odds seem bleak my friends, and I know you all fear for your families and your own dynasties. But think on this for a second. Who do you think is stronger? A divine? Or this up jumped troublemaker?"

No one needed to say it out loud.

"Precisely. And who do you think will ultimately come out on top?"

Again, no one needed to say the words. Though their eyes spoke volumes by themselves.

"Then let us make haste and show our commitment and initiative." Uncle followed up. "Lest the Divine of Singing Metals think us lax in our duties. We must move to protect as much of our empire as we can, by whatever means are currently available to us."

One head nodded. Then another. Then two more and five more and ten more. Until the whole room had regained some measure of clam.

I gulped and hoped that it would be enough. Even as the voice kept hissing in the back of my mind.

'Sully Carter.'

'Sully Carter.'

'Sully Carter.'

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