The stars were still burning bright in the night sky. The firmament still appearing as a million, million diamonds sparkling on sheets of pure black velvet.

Of course, there had been changes. Little things here and there.

It was normal, for humans at least, to look up at the sky and to wonder about how much was out there. How many new things were waiting to be found. How many new adventures were waiting to be had.

It was not normal for the stars to look right back however. Nor was it typical that said stars would blink.

'Yeah. That was a lot of Psy to use in one sitting.' I considered. 'Maybe avoid doing that in the future.'

Normally, the act of degrading the Veil made all my other abilities work better. More efficiently so that I got more of an effect for less Psy. Which meant things like my ability to see the future worked even better than before.

I took a sideways glance at a cloud of burning gas as it floated away from the mass of burning tentacles that had been the planet once upon a time. Watching as the gaseous body became liquid and then solid in a second, before growing eyes that shone purple, yellow, crimson and emerald and maws that constantly salivated and drooled more of the black flames engulfing the chaotic mess below.

I saw nostrils flaring. Blonde hairs growing and falling and growing back and twitching, before then becoming eye-stalks that blinked back at me. Before the edges around the stalks became tongues that curled the eyes around them before newly-grown jaws snapped them back up.

Pustules filled with pus then grew all along the thing's body and those burst to reveal clusters of eggs. Frog-spawn squirming within the thin membranes until they burst and grew into all kinds of eels and sharks and octopi whose tentacles ended in mewling, slobbering mouths.

And then one of those eggs, one of them, actually turned into something that half-resembled a Solomonling. Granted it had snakes for wings and two tree roots stuffed with squirming eyes for legs, but it still kinda looked like me.

Kinda.

"Okay. You, never go near mom and dad." I commanded. "In fact, go around these parts and make triple sure none of the Intruders being born here ever make their way back to earth for any reason whatsoever."

The Solomnling giggled in that childlike way they all did. Then he gave me the finger. Before floating off into the starlight and ballooning up to the proportions of an elephant. Then a whale. Then a cargo ship. Then a small city. Then a large city.

The fugly thing kept growing until it was bigger than the Moving Mountain and then it kept growing some more.

Pustules filled with eggs appearing on its own skin, along with additional mouths and eyes and flaring nostrils.

"Okay." I said to myself. "That's new. And not at all horrible."

"Yes. You're right." The horse-headed man next to me said. "Freaky stuff right there."

I turned to look at him. Sitting in a single bubble of stable reality. On a steel chair painted white and across a table outside a small cafeteria. One filled with sweets and pastries.

All of them filled with wriggling, many-eyed worms of course.

I stared at him.

He stared back at me.

"What? Is there something on my face?" He asked, as a zit burst next to his right eye and a dozen tiny spiders crawled out of the wound.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. Go away."

"Where would I go?" He asked then. Looking genuinely distressed.

I looked around me once again.

"That's… a very good question actually." I admitted. Noting the way my own Psy was continuously being sucked out into the forming fleshy nebula surrounding what had once been a normal solar system.

Out in the distance, a planet and both of its moons split in half. Gargantuan moth-things with scorpion tails emerging from between the sundered continents. Fully-formed and shedding trillions of many-eyed eels with each flap of their wings.

"I may have gone too far this time." I said, not for the first time.

"You think?" Another voice spoke to me from the opposite side.

I turned and saw her. A gorilla tinted reddish-brown. With sagging cheeks and greying strands of fur around her eyes.

"Benevolent Mercy?" I asked at once. "Is that really you?"

"The fact that you need to ask that question at all does not give me confidence in your abilities." Another creature asked from behind her. A small crustacean, roughly the size of a dog. With luxurious robes reminiscent of those that Golden Cruelty had been wearing.

"And you must be Frigid Bloodline." I mused. Suddenly altering my demeanor to be more accommodating and less demanding.

"I don't suppose I have the honor of speaking to the real you?"

"All of me are the real me." The four-armed lobster spoke in a matter-of-fact voice. "It does not make any difference how far away we are or how many of us there are. It does not make any difference that we are not connected Telepathically and it does not make any difference that we are separated by worlds and Instances and dimensions. We are one, and we will join again once we re-unite. I will pass along the results of this conversation to the rest of me at that time, or not. For I can make all the decisions for all of us. For we are one."

"Of course. A very straightforward arrangement." I lied through my teeth.

In truth, the Savant could split itself into many, many clones with each one having a semblance of sentience and… as far as I could tell, all the clones would willingly die without hesitation in order to re-merge their minds into the original, or else let themselves be re-absorbed into the collective that constituted this Savant.

Not the most pleasant of notions, but then again, I probably thought that because I was human and not a lobster-taur like this thing.

"I must say friend, I did not expect either of you to join me so soon." I said truthfully. "I am glad that you managed to find your way here, to the only spot of stable reality in this collection of planets. It will be getting quite dangerous in other parts."

One of the planet-sized moths split open far behind me. Its own intestines coming alive and eating their way out of the moth body. Exiting as winged serpents with burning eyes. As in, they had small suns burning up gases and fuel in place of eyes.

"I can see that." The Frigid Bloodline replied calmly. Then his lobster eyes looked down to where the Moving Mountain was struggling.

Her roots had been all but consumed by now. The black flames from the eye that used to be the planet's core having disintegrated most of her outer stony skin.

She was still fighting though. Sending out pulses of her own Psy in that same manner as Hazimon did when we first met. In that same manner the Drake's sample in Dusty's world had. Turning and twisting the energies in the air into her own image. Forcefully absorbing Psy in the atmosphere and making it fill up her own reserves before commanding it.

"Odd that Shifters can do that." I mentioned off-handedly. "Usually, you would think that only Telepaths would be capable of such feats."

"It is not a matter of Type." The small shelled Savant explained. "It is a matter of Tier. Of mastery. Of true understanding. To use Psy, to be an Esper, is to remake the world in your image. To rule with mind over matter. This technique is merely an extension of that. A softer, more malleable way of gripping reality that falls outside the categorization of the System."

"I had noticed." I spoke. "Seems like a useful skill to have."

One of the Moving Mountain's ridges snapped off. The wound bleeding a billion jabbering mouths that, even from this distance, smelled of rot and decay.

"Not useful enough. Clearly."

I shrugged.

"What can I say, even beings such as us must have our limits. Mine just so happens to be a lot higher than hers."

The crustacean nodded solemnly. Seemingly lost in thought.

I turned to the she-gorilla.

"You look lovely my lady." I began once more. "A hundred years younger at least. Shifter suits you."

I could not make out the exact details of her expression, but her ape-like face was familiar enough that I could derive a reaction from errant twitches here and there.

Pain, sorrow, shame.

"Oh come now." I spoke again. "I did give her a chance. You probably saw as much. I even got the Golden Cruelty to become neutral towards us. I'd say that was more than worth it."

"I would think so. Yes. I would agree with that statement." The clone crab said in the shrill little voice of his.

"She would have been a difficult foe. Her own constitution would have let her survive the torment currently killing the Moving Mountain."

"Would she have survived the lack of oxygen for a prolonged period of time?" I asked. Sitting across the melting horse-headed man in our little bubble of tranquility. The smells and colors from my Domain bleeding out into the empty void of space.

"Not likely." The other Savant agreed. "But perhaps she, no. She would have definitely had an ally come in and save her. Portalling her out to safety. The Golden Cruelty's species has a different sense of honor than that of you bigger creatures. She will live to fight another day if she sees herself losing. It is the right thing to do in her species' mind and culture. The only honorable way to live is to live smart and the only honorable way to fight is to fight smart."

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"A philosophy your people share, I believe."

"You would be correct. My young and too-strong peer. You would be correct. We too do not like to take on losing battles. For we know that each of our actions has rippling consequences across time. Not just for us, but for our clan and kin. A failed attack makes the clan look weak. A theft makes the clan look immoral. And the clan cannot afford to look weak or immoral. Because the clan is the past and the future for us. The clan is mother and father and teacher. The clan is safety and civility. The clan is survival and prosperity and nothing can exist outside of it."

The thing paused.

"If one of us makes an enemy. Then the clan has made an enemy. If one of us is killed, but the enemy is not satisfied, then the clan dies as well. So we must all act in accordance with our honor. With the values of our clan. So the clan survives us."

The conversation had taken an odd turn all of the sudden. The other Savant going from discussing the Golden Cruelty, to his own sense of morality and justice. The one he shared with his collectivist species.

I knew where he was going with this, but I decided to drag things out a bit longer. Not just for my own curiosity, but so that miss Mercy could hear me speaking about my own moral viewpoints.

"Well that's not a very healthy way of looking at things." I commented. "Sure, what a human does might impact the outlook of whomever was near him, but it doesn't feel right to generalize an entire species based on the actions of an individual. I've been hurt more times than I would care to count, but that doesn't diminish my love of people."

"I have been told you mind-control your people." The lobster thing said. His voice lacking any kind of sarcasm of snarky tones.

"No. I do not." I clarified. "I only enlighten them as to the reality of what their actions bring. We humans can be…"

I paused to search for the words.

"Individualistic. Perhaps a bit too selfish and self-centered at times. For some, the actions of others lead them to commit crimes out of desperation. For others, they simply engage in anti-social behaviour in order to satiate their own greed or to feel as though they have some measure of control over their lives. Or sometimes merely because they see themselves as more important, more human, than their victims and reason that they will take what they will take and damn the consequences."

"It does not sound like the social fabric of a functional clan." The other Savant noted.

"No. I would agree with you. It does not. And very few clans, as you put it, were functional in the way that someone like you would come to expect. We did our best, but sometimes our best was not enough. Not for all of us."

"My kind removes troublesome members." The shelled Savant pressed. "For the good of the clan."

"My kind did that to some extent as well. Though I suspect my people would prefer to keep the prisons operational, rather than follow in your footsteps. I mean no offense, oh honored Savant. But ritual cannibalism seems a bit extreme to me."

"It forms the ties that bind our families together." The small being countered.

Leaping onto the table and making its way over to where I was sitting. Its own eyes staring up and mine.

The light of distant stars reflecting off the glassy surface.

"It shows us all, elder and youngling, that we stand against chaos and the enemies of our people together. That we all truly care for the laws. It shows those who are weak enough to falter the consequences of their actions."

"Perhaps. But I maintain my point that simply melding all our minds together for a brief instant is preferable. The suffering of others is much harder to ignore when you have seen the world through their eyes. Or when you see the world through my own eyes for that matter. My presence also helps things along too. Hedonism is, unfortunately, a very human trait. And making people feel good when they do good things is a very efficient way of lowering crime rates."

"I see." The being spoke softly. "You certainly do seem to care a great deal about the well-being of your clan, Solomon Carter."

"I have no choice." I replied calmly. "I hear them. All of them. Even now. Even from here. I cannot be separated from them or their suffering. And so I must minimize it. I must act in order to make sure all of them live the best lives that they can. I have no choice. I never did."

"Neither did I." The Savant followed up.

Before looking down at the last remains of the Moving Mountain. Her last working limbs swatting away the spreading corruption even as half her body worked to eat her from the inside out.

"The Veiled Assassin has decided to kill you." The small crustacean spoke then.

"Has she now?" I commented. "How very sad. I had hoped we might have been able to get along. Tier 10 Enhancers are a pain to deal with."

"I had decided to kill you as well." The small thing admitted.

I smiled down at him.

"I do hope things have changed. My giant of a friend. I do so think you and I have so much in common."

"I have come to think so as well." He said. "At the very least, I feel as though I understand your motivations well enough at this time."

A single claw opened and stretched out towards me.

"Neutrality then. In exchange for the rest of the Types you offer."

"Alliance." I corrected. "Not neutrality. And you get two Types right away. Of your choosing. The last one comes after the Dragon falls."

"That is not the deal you offered the Moving Mountain or the Golden Cruelty."

I nodded.

"Because neither of them would ever become an ally I could trust. Neutrality was the best I could have hoped for. As divinity was all I had to offer."

I nodded again. Opening my arms in a welcoming motion.

"But you, my friend, have much more to gain. As you yourself mentioned. We are much alike. I have boosted my people. As many as I could reach. And I have given unto them the means to defend themselves against any foe. Go to any of humanity's worlds, and you will find a horde of Tier 3 individuals. Just waiting to defend their homeland."

I offered my own hand.

"Two million boosts. Each individual being boosted twice. Up to Tier 4. To any group you designate."

"I want Telepath and Projector right now then. All the way up to the limits that you can provide."

"Done." I replied promptly.

Hand met claw while the Benevolent Mercy looked at the proceedings. Her eyes drifting to the remaining planet-sized moths out in the distance, to the far reaches of the solar system where nebulas of writhing, squirming tentacles and eyes and teeth were growing in patches. Blotting out some of the light entering from the rest of the galaxy.

And from there, she turned her gaze to the Moving Mountain. To the way her head tried to fight off the plagues consuming her.

To the despair now apparent in her cries.

"Do you wish to show her mercy?" I asked her suddenly.

The she-ape shook her simian features.

"No. There was nothing more you or I could have done. Nor is there anything more you and I could do for her right now. She is dead now. And no amount of healing will change that at this point."

"A shame." Frigid Bloodline spoke out loud as well. "She was mighty and her path was wide and well-trodden. She aided many in combining their Shifter abilities through guidance. Never asking for much in turn."

He did not shake his head, perhaps due to his crustacean species not having such a motion in its repertoire of expressions.

"It saddens me to see her like this."

"But you did not join her in her fight." I commented from the side.

"I did not know of her plot to kill you until Benevolent Mercy came to me and to the Veiled Assassin. We did not have a chance to meet up and join our forces."

"How unfortunate." Said I, who had conspired to keep him from meeting up with either the Golden Cruelty or the Moving Mountain.

"No. On the contrary. It is fortunate." He countered. "I have made a new ally this day and the future of myself and my clan looks brighter than ever before. I cannot complain about personal grievances. The clan has benefitted and the clan is all that matters."

'Well… whatever. I'll take it.'

"I believe it might be time to get moving." Benevolent Mercy spoke.

"Yes. You are right." I said at once. "I don't think there is anything else we have to do here. Let us depart and reconvene elsewhere."

I waited for her to open a portal. She did no such thing.

"What are you waiting for?" Frigid Bloodline asked.

"I barely managed to come here with you." Benevolent Mercy addressed him. "I almost felt myself being torn apart by the ravaging tides of primordial chaos engulfing this universe. And that was us following the trail this human created for us. That trail is long gone now and the tides are, if anything, fiercer than ever before. I cannot access my Domain. I cannot summon my own Intruders. Let alone use my new abilities. We both will surely perish if we try."

She looked at me.

"It is you who must open the way. Solomon Carter."

I blinked.

"Uh, I cannot do so right now."

They both stared at me.

"I put everything into this one attack." I explained. "And my Psy is still being drained as we speak. I can't do anything else but sit here until the chain reaction stops."

I paused to peer into the stable opening to my Domain.

"I could take you both into my Domain and wait there until I regained some of my Psy. But it wouldn't be a direct link to the rest of the Labyrinth."

The new Savant clicked his mandibles.

"Wait. What do you mean, chain-reaction?"

I felt a flex of surging power and knew that another two suns in another two solar systems had imploded. Turning into living eyes of purple-black flame and tentacles of silver light.

"Exactly as I said it." I explained. "The Psy has grown too large and it has absorbed too much of itself. Of me. The Veil has been opened into this material realm. The wound is too large. It keeps bleeding and the Psy from the other side keeps feeding the conquest on this side."

I considered the problem.

"Yes, on closer inspection. It might be better for us to leave through the stable hole here while it remains stable. No telling what will happen in a few minutes."

I looked down and saw that the Moving Mountain had finally expired. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that she had finished her final transformation. Now she was but an extension of the eye in the middle of what used to be the planet. More jaws that spewed black flames higher and higher. The light-snuffing combustion slowly solidifying into layers of obsidian crystals. Reflections of memories appearing on them.

Reflections of memories… and some other things.

"Those do not look like the Intruders I have seen near you thus far." Benevolent Mercy mentioned.

"I keep trying to sense them and, put into words and into thoughts where I have seen them before. Because I have seen them before. But I simply cannot place them no matter how hard I try."

"Doubtless this is a mystery we should all strive to uncover." The lobster Savant spoke then.

The 'at a later date.' part was not spoken out loud, but it didn't have to be.

"Let us depart then." I prompted the others. Making my way deeper and deeper into my own realm within Pandemonium.

I pressed through throngs of screaming, wailing voices crying out for help and the somber lamentations of living beings of all shapes and sizes struggling to survive or otherwise coming to terms with the fact that their lives were at an end. I pushed through the last sad mental gasps of all the poor plants and animals that had been in that world before I cracked it open. Their entire existences snuffed out in the blink of an eye due to a fight they had no way of knowing about.

"Elephants fight, and the ants below them pay the price."

I did not say the words, but rather, the entire realm around us said them. The voices being momentarily drowned out by my own musings.

"I do not know what an elephant is." My new ally quipped. "Nor do I have knowledge of any ant that you would recognize for that matter. Though I do know of the species. Yet I can infer the meaning well enough. And yes. It is not a pleasant topic to dwell on."

He paused. The world around us picking up his thoughts and giving them a voice.

"This is why self-reflection and self-control are ever so important. Because those who believe in individuality are naught but narrow-minded cretins. Everything we do affects both the clan and the universe around us. Every movement can stir Frogoths from sleep and every thought given voice can set hearts afire with passions such as love and hate and jealousy. One must act with caution and with forethought. Lest one doom themselves."

"You sure speak very openly of such things, for someone who leapt on Solomon's offer without hesitation." The gorilla-like Savant countered.

"It was a critical juncture." He explained. "There was no time to ponder things any further. And besides, if he wanted me dead right then and there, he could have simply collapsed the stable pocket of reality. Without you to guide me out, I was as good as dead. That, and I know he will not go back in our deal because he paid you and the Golden Cruelty upfront. Everything I have learned about Solomon Carter the Mad Tyrant suggests he deals openly with others. Even those he could have [Dominated]. Why should I fear him now?"

"You are a fool if you do not fear him now." She riposted.

"Ouch. I am hurt." I commented from the front. Pressing deeper past another membrane of unreality.

"You have a point." The crustacean relented. "But that does not change the outcome I chose. Nor does it make me wish I had chosen differently. Besides, this incident only started due to Hazimon's meddling from what I gather. And knowing what you yourself have seen of the debacle, I would have reacted in much the same way. The clan is everything. And to threaten the clan is to threaten someone beyond their own life."

"I do not believe humans have such a deep sense of community." She explained. "From what I have gathered, his kind are much more akin to mine in how they behave in their everyday lives. The Tyrant seems an oddity in that regard."

"A welcome oddity then." His mandibles clacked with approval. "Let us rejoice that we have found each other to be such willing and kindred spirits. Surely our alliance will spell joy for our respective clans for generations to come."

"He is still allied with the Seeking Drake." She reminded him.

"And that abomination will be gone from the Multiverse sooner, rather than later. I do not believe that such an egocentric being will linger too long in the material world, when Divinity beckons just beyond it. He has shown a habit of locking himself up for millennia at a time, only going out to sample more victims on occasion. I do not think that will change once he ascends. It has happened before, with other Masters that do so."

He was right about that of course and I too was hoping for much the same outcome. Though it still galled me that I had to enter into a bargain with that thing to begin with. If I had known where to find my new little friend, or even the Golden Cruelty before my encounter with Hazimon, there is little doubt I would have reached out to them instead.

'Oh well. Once the milk's been spilled there's no getting it back up that udder. I will just have to make due.'

I took another step forwards and came out the other side at last. Into a Domain that was not my own.

"Uh oh."

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