Angar's jaw clenched as Hierarch Rusak's psychic exercises failed again. During each attempt, he felt it, the power right beyond reach, just out of his grasp, wanting to be used, yearning to blaze through him, but refusing, mocking him.

What was he doing wrong? Or lacking? What unseen flaw thwarted him? It was infuriating.

The armor of his left vambrace now bore a Psy Crystal dock, the Unspoken Way set within it.

Slavo's cunning had wrought it yesterday morning, and for a paltry thirty-seven credits, but it sat useless, impotent until he could manifest a power.

After that, he had moved back aboard the Zephuros, into the sanctity of his own quarters.

Angar savored the return to eating biobricks after about two weeks of street food. The sausages and meat-sticks were delicious, but too rich a diet, and he doubted they contained the nutrition of a tasteless, dry biobrick.

The award ceremony and celebration had gone well enough, but it dragged on far too long.

Kong, sodden with drink and reveling too late into the night, had been unfit to install Angar's implants. Plans were forged to meet this morning, after Angar attended Presbyter Prostasia's daily service.

He'd yearned to chip away at his penance, redeeming souls amid the station's throng, but no one else deserving of being killed had crossed his path.

Maybe if he'd been told of the Peregrines' slaver mission, his penance would be lesser, but that was unlikely, as the battleground was a poor place to save souls.

As he toiled through the exercises related to psychic projection, Deli's voice crackled in his ear. "Kong just boarded."

"Thank you," Angar replied, excitement growing in his chest. It was eleven hundred, but Kong, two hours late, probably hungover, would finally install the implants alongside Doc.

Many required major surgery. The plan was to install most, then Angar would enter the Vitaelux Apexium to heal his jaw, mend surgical wounds, and regrow his teeth and thigh, before completing the rest.

The Zephuros would likely depart for its three-week voyage to Sulfuron 9 before he rose.

A little over two days to the right Lumen Anchor, then twenty more to reach the world. Twenty-two imperial standard days, but nineteen by his world's measure.

Imperial ships could reach about one-third the speed of light, resulting in about 6% time dilation for the crew, but the Lux Aeterna Drives' FTL Alcubierre bubbles bypassed special relativity, so it'd feel like twenty-two days.

Though fairly close to Sol itself, Sulfuron 9 languished in a barren expanse stretching towards the fringe and nothing. With no Lumen Anchors situated in utilizable paths, they'd crawl there at two light years a day.

In Orion alone, a small and minor galactic arm, over a thousand planets with the Sulfuron designation existed, some more livable, but rarely inhabited.

The designation meant a rocky, terrestrial planet with a thick, toxic sulfurous atmosphere, similar to Venus and Jupiter's Io in Sol, but with lower temperatures, liquid water on its surface covering at least a quarter of the planet, an atmosphere with at least a tenth part oxygen, and a minimal ecosystem with some flora.

Since ancient Terrans had first ventured beyond Sol, colonizing other systems, they'd found eight such worlds before naming his own.

By tradition, colonized worlds with generic titles shed them for unique names, and Sulfuron 9 would soon bear its own.

First, Angar must bend all the many fractious lands and nobles to swear to him, forging unity under his banner.

And, even more frustrating than his inability to manifest a psychic power, he'd now have to unify his planet with a damned penance hanging over his head.

He'd prefer the forty-six souls he needed to save not swell to thousands and thousands, as Holy Theosis' definition of innocent was far too strict.

Angar lay on the operating table, freshly healed and out of the Vitaelux Apexium, the sterile hum of Doc Laoch's tools blending with Kong's muttered calculations.

He clutched the small plastic card Kong had pressed into his hands, its words meant to anchor Angar's restless mind, quiet his thoughts, and ease the incapacitant's work by reducing his resistance as he read the definitions splayed upon it.

The standard pharmacokinetics formula for the incapacitant, tailored to a body's composition and Tier, had to be increased for Angar. The dosage risked collapsing his lungs or triggering a fatal heart failure, demanding vigilance.

This trick had worked twice before, so he focused his mind, rereading definitions he had learned long ago in Cloisteranage.

Cybernetics: Broad term for any integration of mechanical or electronic technology with biological organisms to restore, replace, enhance, or add new functionality, including everything from limb replacements to neural interfaces or jacks. They can be obvious and look fully mechanical or, for a higher price, look and feel completely natural.

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Cyberware: Mechanical or mostly mechanical implants, prosthetics, and grafted 'ware' that replace, restore, attach to, or augment and enhance body parts or functions. Vulnerable to technological disruptions like EMP. Based on size and quality, these are often customizable with modification slots, granting enhancements or additional functionality.

Bioware: Bioengineered organic or biomechanical materials, including nanotech, that augment natural physiology, such as enhanced muscles or fully replaced organs. Resistant to technological disruptions like EMP and incompatible with mod slots due to its organic nature, but strengthened along with its owner through ascension.

Partial Cybernetics: Specialized, almost exclusively cyberware providing a single, specific nonbodily function, many replicating those of slotted mods in full cyberware, not replacing or enhancing natural bodily functions. Examples include palm-blades or non-optical laser-eyes. These have limited or no mod slots and are vulnerable to EMP.

The implant installations weren't going as expected. Or how some cyberware fused with his body wasn't. Plans had to be shifted, scrapped, or modified.

In Angar's opinion, speed reigned supreme in combat. Any increases to speed and maneuverability on top of Adroitness, even minor, he'd take.

Digitigrade feet, like those of most predatory beasts, not only distributed force better, but provided enhanced speed and agility, a longer stride, spring-like mechanics, and quicker directional changes.

Unlike the four legs typical for such feet, his two-legged design posed balance issues. His tripod foot mod, along with the drill-toe extensions, would solve much of that problem, but not all of it.

Digitigrade feet shifted the body's center of gravity and altered gait, increasing stress on the pelvis due to the elevated heel and forward-leaning posture, requiring adjustments to the hips to ensure maximum benefit and stability.

The new leg structure and enhanced range of motion required a slightly modified hip joint angle, surgically grafted synthetic fibers and tendons to optimize power transfer to the gluteal and hip flexor muscles, integrating with existing tissue, and partial replacement of the hip joint with modified sockets and bearings.

In other Terrans, this procedure would result in 0.2% to 0.3% body mass loss per hip, depending on height, weight, bulk, and excess fat.

Body mass and percentages were easy to calculate, as was scanning to determine what mass should be there compared to what was there, what was original, fully natural body, and what wasn't.

Angar's expected body mass loss was 0.2%, but almost certainly due to how his physiology differed from standard Imperials, it reached 0.5%, as the partial replacements, synthetic fibers, and tendons integrated more fully, more extensively, replacing a greater portion of original tissue.

His previously installed implants were examined, but the scans revealed no clear explanation, no rhyme or reason, for his reported mass losses.

The Infernus Oculus, typically accounting for 0.01% to 0.015% of body mass, registered at 0.01% for Angar, as expected. Normal.

The Somnoregulator, with minimal connections, registered negligible body mass replacement, as it did for him.

The Neurvux, threaded through his nerves and connecting nine small nodes across the body, was a critical implant. Critical, but typically with minimal impact on body mass, no more than 0.01%. For Angar, however, it accounted for 0.06%.

His leg cybernetic had accounted for 12.9% of his body mass loss, exceeding the expected 12%.

They installed his new lower leg cybernetic onto his organic leg, expected to replace 6% of his total organic body mass, but it registered at 6.5%.

It had to be his divergent physiology.

Angar was not the only Crusader from Sulfuron 9. He was just the first.

In the first eighteen months since Angar's departure, some imperial ships had collected youths, primarily those around sixteen from Kondune and the northern hemisphere's capital, and delivered them to Cloisteranages. Each ship left packed, parents clamoring to give their children a chance to become a Holy Knight.

On average, 11.63% of each month's Cloisteranage graduates qualified to attempt the Grim Ordeals, with only 5.38% of those qualifiers ascending as Holy Knights.

In total, only 0.625% of Cloisteranage students, slightly more than half of one percent, ascended to Knighthood.

According to Hidetada, Sulfuron 9 youths had significantly higher chances of success. But there were no distinctions made between Sulfuronians in these reports.

Konduneans were weak and pathetic. Mecians weren't. The much more populous northern hemisphere of Sulfuron 9 had weaker citizens than the southern hemisphere.

The Sulfuronian students, on average, were less intelligent and far, far less educated than imperial citizens, most failing the non-physical standardized tests for the Grim Ordeals.

However, of those who qualified, approximately 31.89% became Holy Knights, a nearly 500% increase over the imperial average of 5.38%.

Angar was certain that if only Mecians were tested, most would pass, and that percentage would triple, their zealous minds trained from birth to be devout, naturally resisting the unholy and profane.

A few months ago, when Hidetada and Angar made plans for Sulfuron 9, there were 137 other Crusaders from his world.

Since then, Imperial Command decreed that Sulfuronians receive waivers for non-physical testing, provided they demonstrated knowledge and understanding of basic Catechisms.

They aimed to test everyone on Sulfuron 9 in the Grim Ordeals, effectively emptying the planet.

Hidetada squashed that. There were hundreds of trillions of imperial citizens. A few million extra knights would be a nice bump, but that plan would ruin a golden goose.

So, two months ago, there were 137 Sulfuronian Knights. There'd be a lot more now, especially with the testing waivers.

But how many of those had undergone the same Vitaelux Apexium and gene modification treatments as Angar? Body mass loss was only significant for Psychics, and so far, none besides Angar were known to be.

As of now, it had to be assumed cyberware and bioware integrated differently in Sulfuronian physiology. That wasn't a bad thing. A fuller integration meant a better integration.

However, this did require waking Angar and modifying the plans.

The issue wasn't solely due to Angar's Sulfuronian physiology either, as his arm modification plans encountered a separate challenge.

He sought two partial cybernetics for his left hand – a hand-blaster and a tentacle to snatch and pull enemies toward him. His leonine forearms wholly rejected cyberware integration.

There was a bioware option for the tentacle, and that failed to integrate too.

But that was fine. Armor mods could perform those functions if he wanted them badly enough. It also freed up mass for other implants, with numerous alternatives available.

Besides his revised plans, mass limits immediately ruled out several desired implants, such as a reinforced skeleton, enhanced muscles, or dermal implants affected the whole integumentary system.

He'd love to have subdermal armor, but he couldn't afford the hit to mass. His Crusader Armor was supposed to serve that purpose anyway, made to take the hits instead of his own body.

They opted for the most compact and costly cybernetic implants, the ones most Crusaders had to work their way up to.

He'd stick to those affecting the most of his body, providing a host of benefits, granting more power and additional mod slots, allowing him to punch even further above his weight.

He lay on the operating table, Doc Laoch assisting Kong, praying the third round of planning worked out, and he'd made the right choices, trying to focus his mind, rereading the words on the card he held, definitions he had learned long ago, over and over again, as the incapacitant took root.

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