It was the dinner where everything should be decided.
The seven Pioneers, the seven traitors of Earth and now the seven Tyrants, sat at a table outside of an idyllic cottage in Sector Ten. They did not need to hide in underground bunkers, or sit in the most opulent of rooms to display their wealth. They had nothing to fear nor nothing to show off, for there was no power greater than them.
Of course, as always, in a party of giants, there would always be the smallest. The one that thought they didn’t belong. The one that felt like they were perhaps the littlest amongst the giants that were the Tyrants.
In this case it was Henrik the Dwarven Tyrant.
You could even tell it from the way his title was constructed. Look at everyone else’s:
Paul the Chieftain Tyrant
Ayla the Passive Tyrant
Jai the Shadow Tyrant
Hadi the Skillful Tyrant
Xavien the Archmage Tyrant
Lihua the Witch Tyrant
Each one based on distinct feats and powers that the world noticed. Meanwhile, there Henrik the Dwarven Tyrant. Did you see the difference?
Even the rest of the world knew that he did not belong amongst them.
And oh boy, did Henrik really wish he wasn’t here right now.
It wasn’t like there hadn’t been spats before. Plenty of times where they all argued and even punched each other out. In fact, it was normally Lihua that yelled at Ayla for throwing off her plan because Ayla’s ‘instincts’ had told her to do something stupid. Normally, Henrik agreed with Lihua in most situations.
It was always better to commit as a team to an inferior plan than for an individual to go out of their way and do their own thing.
While in modern times, that was considered basic wisdom, back in the day, there had been more than a few issues getting Ayla to stop deviating from Lihua’s gameplan.
So, it was a rare experience when it was Lihua that was getting yelled at.
The Passive Tyrant ripped off a chunk of meat and started chomping away at the food—bone at all. That went on for about five seconds before she finally lost her temper.
She pointed a greasy finger across the table.
“I’m telling all of you right now. She’s fucking lost her mind. Ghost Gammy was right. Lihua needs to have her safety life removed, or be placed on Earth where her Legend can’t affect her.”
Xie Lihua continued to sip away at her tea, unbothered by the accusations, just treating it as if this was just another spat between friends.
“I am perfectly lucid and things are going according to plan. Besides, this is pure hypocrisy coming from you.”
Ayla stopped chewing and wiped her hands on the tablecloth. Everyone tensed up, ready to dodge or grab her the moment her fists started flying.
“How so?”
“How many adventurers have you killed with your recklessness? Do you think those monsters that you teach go around being peaceful with the world around them? If it wasn’t for me, at least four cities would have fallen over the decades because of your doing.”
She did sort of have a point, though it was an unfair one to bring up now.
“You said you were happy to handle it. You said it helped with your class!”
“And I’ve told you plenty of times to stop harassing certain groups and monsters. Of which you ignored me plenty of times.”
“That’s not fair—you’ve said you enjoyed the unpredictability from time to time.”
“You need to learn to read between the lines. Oh wait, I forgot, you can’t because you’re a savage [Barbarian] that wipes her hands on expensive tablecloth.”
All of the Tyrants swiveled their heads between the two as they kept arguing. Once again, an argument between the two wasn't rare—it was just that Ayla hadn’t been this angry before.
Jai, the Shadow Tyrant, cleared his throat.
“I believe what Ayla is trying to say is that she’s concerned you’re going too far. We all are. How many people died this time? A hundred thousand? How many people could have died if things went really wrong, Lihua?”
Despite having a city full of orphaned Realmers he had raised himself, even Jai had come to the meeting. Henrik just wondered how many of the other Tyrants believed that Lihua was willing to go scorched Earth if it meant the chances of bringing her daughter back would go up.
Xie Lihua put down her cup and stared at the ripples going through her tea.
“Do you remember? We had to sacrifice Realmers, Trialists, even entire cities if it meant we needed to win. We’ve lost more than this with greater mistakes.”
Even Paul couldn’t keep up his jolly appearance at that. It was a sad smile, remembering all the losses they’ve had.
“Those were bad days.”
It was all that was needed to say for the table to stop and reminisce. Henrik still remembered it. The slow realization that they had to step in or watch Earth devastate The Realm. As they had to learn to go from heroes to revolutionaries to commanders in a war none of them wanted.
To then Earth uniting against them.
Only Lihua had been prepared for how bad that got.
Give them an enemy and it turned out that the countries of Earth could work together. He’d seen how evil they could get. Everything out the window if it meant they would win the war. It was Lihua that had dug them out of that one. She widened the rift between nations, sewed the incentives for betrayal and countered their propaganda.
Without it, peace would never have been achieved and The Realm would have only been ashes.
Henrik never said it out loud, but there was some part of him that was glad that he had chosen to be a dwarf. He wasn’t sure how he could look in the mirror if he had stayed human.
Lihua, that unsung heroine that everyone still feared bowed her head.
“Yes, and these are bad days now. I am not perfect, I am simply doing as I believe is right, because as it stands, we cannot complete the Fifteenth Trial.”
Paul quietly stared at the food in front of him. Unable to refute her words given everything they knew.
Ayla had a little more fire within her.
“You don’t know that. We need to give it a good shot before you can make that sort of assessment.”
“One good attempt is all we get. We fail and most of you are dead. After that, it will only be me and Henrik left, negotiating with the Great Civilizations as the Trial System leaves. That is where we stand currently. I have not lost my mind, I am doing as I have always done. Prioritizing for the greater good of The Realm—because we have all decided to try the fifteenth Trial, even if we die.”
Only Henrik and Lihua had safety lives left amongst them. The trials had not been easy at all, especially when they first started and they were scrambling to figure out what was going on.
Ayla clenched her fists.
“We will do it, why can’t you just trust us that we’ll succeed?”
Lihua scoffed. “What do your instincts say, Ayla?”
“That’s not how it works. You know that.”
“Yes, and that’s exactly why I do what I do. You run into an unstoppable wall hoping your head is tougher. I plan ahead and try to find cracks in it, that or find someone else that will increase our odds of success.”
It had never been in the plans to complete the Fifteenth Trial—oh they had been planning to give it a good go. Though it would have been only Ayla and those with safety lives… which was basically just him and Lihua.
It was going to be more of a symbolic send-off because Ayla would try it whether they joined her or not.
The Skillful Tyrant, Hadi, tapped on the pommel of his sword. His first words during the whole argument.
“That thing that’s on Earth. What actually happened there?”
Ayla went angry again, remembering why they had gathered in the first place.
“She mindfucked Pinkie. That’s too far.”
Lihua just rolled her eyes. “Nothing less than the little [Shapeshifter] was doing to herself. Sooner or later, Pinkie would have returned to Earth to find that she could not control her body with an unstable Legend and caused a disaster either way.”
Jai raised an eyebrow.
“And the Lich King Rahess?”
“A warning system and a training target for new adventurers on Earth. The loss of life was regrettable but I knew Grettfield to be there. I expected her to be better, that was my error.”
“I could have taught Pinkie. She could have been one of those that joined us in the Highest Trial.”
“Who says she still won’t be? You seem to be under the impression that she’s going to stay the way she is forever. Did you think about what would happen if she overcame both your instincts and my curse?”
Jai shook his head. The Shadow Tyrant was quite experienced at seeing through the web of dragonshit the Witch Tyrant liked to spin.
“She seems pretty far gone from what I’ve seen of her. Plus, that’s not a threat we can deal with without endangering millions of innocents. I agree with Ayla, you went too far.”
“You seem to forget that before she turned into that, Pinkie was fully willing to decimate the city of Defiance for her own growth. We have killed people for far, far less.”
Henrik finally decided to give his input, emboldened by the others pushing against her.
“Yeah but that was a situation you set up.”
“And she failed spectacularly. Pinkie made a promise with Artigan to keep the dragonslayers she was fighting safe and she broke that promise the moment she lost her temper. Do you think someone like that would do better with your powers Ayla? Can you guarantee that she won’t cause disaster after disaster with your powers?”
Ayla knew she wasn’t good enough to argue against Lihua, she just cut to the chase.
“I know what I saw Lihua. You can spin it however you want, you crossed a line.”
Paul just looked sad at the table, the food he spent precious time cooking was getting cold.
“Perhaps we should eat first, a full belly always calms temper—”
But he never got to finish. Lihua slammed her cup down, shattering it entirely.
“A line? A line?! What would you know about a line? You are a child that gets to play around while everyone has to clean up your messes.”
“I am not—”
“What do you call someone that trains monsters while letting others deal with the fallout? What do you call someone that kills another from a different culture because you didn’t like how they talked to you? All this time you got to enjoy your freedom and kept your head in the sand with how I operated because it was convenient for you to do as you pleased. After all of that, you talk about a line?”
Lihua scoffed, then turned to Xavien.
“Tell me, now that your city is the largest in The Realm, would you like to share with all of us if you’ve done something you regret?”
The Archmage Tyrant, the Tyrant of Ulverra, looked like he regretted even showing up as a projection.
He sighed. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to keep everyone satisfied.”
“Now multiply that to the entirety of The Realm. Add Earth continuing to send misinformation and propaganda across the realmnet and the Manager sending waves of chaotic Destined and do you see it yet, Ayla? Are you an irresponsible child with too much power or are you not?”
Ayla’s fist slammed into the table, shattering it entirely. All of the Tyrants flew back in an instant. The Chieftain Tyrant stood between the two women his body ready to catch Ayla if she leaped at Lihua.
Ayla stared right past Paul.
“I know what I saw. I’m calling a vote. Xie Lihua has gone too far. Even during the worst of the war she would not have done what she had done to Pinkie. I vote to make her lose her safety life, lowering the levels of her skills. I do this for her because I think [Remembrance of the Fallen] is ruining her with grief.”
Everyone blinked at each other. They knew Ayla was ready to kill Lihua in the heat of the moment but an execution like this?
That was going too far.
Even Jai the Shadow Tyrant, the other Tyrant that was the most outspoken against Lihua, stepped forward and shook his head.
“That’s too much, Ayla. I vote to quarantine her instead. At the very least until Pinkie is dealt with.”
Ayla looked around at all of them.
“Guys, trust me she’s lost her mind. Do you think I would be asking this if I didn’t think it wasn’t the only answer?”
Paul shook his head, now looking at Ayla like she was the one that lost her mind.
“As [Chieftain] I am saying no to that, Ayla. Friends don’t ask to kill each other.”
“Paul—I—”
Henrik coughed.
“Read the room, lass. Do you really think you can just execute Lihua like this? Or are you going to tell Paul or Jai to do it?”
It was clear that Ayla hadn’t thought that far ahead. For all of Ayla’s strengths, coming up with plans and convincing people was not a skill she had. Even if it might have been the right answer… how could you tell any of them to kill each other? They’d gone through too much to do something like that.
Henrik sighed, then raised his hand.
“I vote to quarantine Xie Lihua.”
Two votes.
Xavien, the Archmage Tyrant shook his head. “I vote against the quarantine. Not all plans work out and this isn’t the first time Lihua’s sacrificed something that turned out to be good in the end.”
Hadi, the Skillful Tyrant tapped the pommel of his sword as he turned to Lihua.
“You are still aiming for the strongest version of The Realm, correct?”
“Not only the strongest. I have always kept the future with the highest potential in mind.”
“Then I vote against the quarantine.”
Three for and three against—a tie and that meant that Paul would decide… something that could take days, maybe even months for a decision like this.
The Witch Tyrant raised her hand.
“I vote to quarantine myself.”
That made everyone turn and stare at the elven woman in white robes. Technically, Lihua hadn’t voted yet. They had all assumed she would just vote to keep them in a deadlock.
“As much as I believe I did the right thing, I have to believe that when my good friends are all telling me I’ve ‘crossed the line’ that I should take a moment to reflect. I will gladly quarantine myself with Paul and Ayla on rotation. Ayla’s instincts are honed enough to tell when I’m overstepping boundaries anyway.”
A lifetime in a team with Lihua meant that everyone here knew she wasn’t being sincere at all.
Henrik facepalmed.
“We just got Lihua’d again, didn’t we?”
Ayla just looked annoyed at the whole thing.
“I told you it was the only way.”
“Get off it lass, we’re not executing her. Oi Lihua, enough playing around, what are you planning?”
“Nothing.”
Paul crossed his arms, the Chieftain was finally starting to lose his patience as well. That or it was because a lot of his cooked food had ended up on the ground.
“Lihua.”
“It’s the truth. I will quarantine myself and do nothing. I will stop scheming, plotting and most of all, I will stop maintaining The Realm because that’s part of what I’ve been doing this entire time.”
Xavien’s magical projection held the bridge of his nose.
“Ah damnit. I should have seen that one coming.”
Henrik turned to the projection.
“Surely it can’t be that bad, right?”
“The Adventurer’s Guild alone is an insane mess that needs an overhaul. One we can’t do while everyone’s going to want to migrate after having seen what happened to Sunstone City. Also the new tax codes being written up for nascent cities has just passed review and needs people staffed. We also need to figure out a proper punishment for the blacklisted dragonslayers. Not to mention, the Secretary’s gone AWOL as well.”
“That wasn’t my doing, I assure you.”
None of them believed her.
Henrik raised his hand. Say what you wanted about him, he wasn’t a coward, he was willing to stand up against the mother of all hexers to do what was right… but if that right needed him to help deal with bureaucracy?
“I switch my vote against the quarantine.”
“It’s too late Henrik, I’ve already made the decision public. Oh, and I almost forgot, because we’ve killed most of the guardian deities in Sector Thirteen, all of you will have to regularly maintain my protections on the scattered nations over there.”
They all just stared at her. Did that mean that if they chose to execute her, all of those protections would have fallen?
“Also a few dragonslayers have started to take over a couple smaller cities and are trying to gather the power of faith that way. Good luck with the chaos, Tyrants. It will be entertaining seeing all of you try to fill my heels. Try not to leave it in ashes.”
All of them other than Paul started throwing food at the unrepentant Witch Tyrant.
/////
Never get in a group project with a [Witch], folks.