Over the next three months Hector hammered out a better working relationship with his retinue. Captain Devin proved remarkably helpful with that, even though he made it well known that he thought a friend group and a military unit were not strictly compatible. The good captain suggested that they establish specific spaces where one mode or the other dominated.

  In the rec room and dining room, Hector had no titles. Other than ‘war barge’ which Piercing refused to give up. The joke had started lame, grown lamer, and eventually gained acceptance. Outside Cruiser Erin, Hector was either ‘Lord Dragonbane’ or ‘Chaos’. In other environments, they had to signal if there was a change between one mode or the other. Hector could initiate serious time by saying ‘to business’ and members of the retinue could clarify if they had freedom of behavior by asking if they were off duty.

  It wasn’t perfect, but it worked well enough. Everyone knew what was expected of them and had spaces where they could vent anything to him without repercussions. The stress from their initial missions reduced greatly as well now that Hector had learned to handle his realm better.

  They did have to establish a rotation for the non-Xian on the team due to their lacking restoration rates. In order to keep some balance to the team’s ability profile, he made sure that they always had one Sage and one Jinn. That meant Conflagration and Piercing took turns sitting out, with Conrad and Captain Devin following the same rotation. Ajax came with them when he had sufficient reserves, which was about every third outing.

  Meanwhile, his Xian grew steadily in strength with the copious cosmic energy they were bathed in. Hector benefited most of all, with his domain and realm improving far more rapidly than should have been possible for someone at level nine. He might not be able to assess the growth of his realm, but Hector could witness how much cosmic energy it consumed. The amounts that vanished inside made it seem like a bottomless pit.

  In comparison, he could easily estimate the growth of his domain. It was well past halfway to the peak of level nine. The combination of using techniques in advanced ways for exercising his apertures and manipulating miasma directly caused the rapid growth. At times his domain hurt almost as much as his realm.

  He’d taken to doing mental cultivation of miasma on occasion to push his mind aperture forward. Though that activity never became a priority, his mind was always quick to improve. So without ever really intending it, he brought his mind all the way to the peak by the time those three months were up.

  Two of his apertures bumping up against the limit of parity brought a strange sensation. He’d never felt more powerful, like he could push aside existence itself if he made a real effort. At the same time, his inadequacies were clearer than ever before, like an infinitely tall wall separated him from his goal. That dichotomy bothered him as much as a missing tooth would exasperate his tongue.

  He was on the verge of godhood yet the infinitesimal gap was impassable. The fact that he knew attempting to seize the next level would ensure his death by Tribulation didn’t make the frustration vanish. Whatever blocked his progress wasn’t related to his own choices. It was a hard limit imposed from without and his fundamental nature rebelled against it. Hector believed any true cultivator would find the situation intolerable.

  Of some consolation was the fact that he had discovered some interesting uses of his soul weight applied to his mind. Whenever he wished, Hector could speed up the pace of his thoughts to the point that events around him slowed to a tenth of their normal rate. That would have been wonderful to use in battle, but at such times he dedicated his full might to his realm. So his new tricks were no more than curiosities he trained for fun.

  His Xian subordinates were also seeing rapid growth. Riley had advanced to level five shortly before taking off to tour the dungeons of Union Central with Darius. Now she was close to level six, with just her domain lagging behind a proper advancement. Even though he’d not taken his training serious for a long time, Darius was close to ready for level seven. Isabel achieved level eight during her time with the retinue and Esther wasn’t far behind.

  The only thing approaching a loss was the destruction of one of Cruiser Erin’s two shuttles. It had been damaged by miasma during a drop-off and the infection spread to the frame. The Jinn crew salvaged the motors and any other components they could, then ejected the decaying chunk of metal like the trash it was. The incident taught Hector that things partially degraded by miasma frequently became radioactive as atomic nuclei were destabilized.

  Their luck while following the miasma vein had held strong. Only a few times did they need to abandon a world to inevitable death. For the rest, they were able to end invasions and close rifts without more than minor challenges. A big part of that was the growing strength of Hector’s realm. He was able to effortlessly convert atmospheric miasma for hundreds of meters in every direction. Because he was no longer driven catatonic, he could bring his domain to bear as cables that melted through monster flesh.

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  Hector felt like his realm was only now where he expected it to be after the Dragon. It was in truth no stronger at its function. But it was able to endure infinitely better. He suspected the Dragon would have been a real challenge if it hadn’t pressured him the entire time he formed his realm. There had been no shock to his soul under that relentless attack. In a way, the beast’s ceaseless malice prevented it from effectively harming Hector when their battle of resonance began in truth. Had the pressure been withdrawn and then brought back suddenly, the impact might have cracked his soul in half.

  Fortunately, that battle had been against a creature more hateful than crafty. His current battles he was much better equipped to handle. Especially against the big ones. The larger the monstrous pseudo-soul, the greater his odds of successfully shattering their essence into energy.

  Alas, the good times could not last forever. Cruiser Erin brought them into a universe with a minor monster invasion. Hector brought his retinue down to the planet to handle the issue. And as they were mopping up the easy mission, a salvo of thunder announced a second force. Eyes wide, Hector watched a small team of Xian descend upon some remaining monsters in the distance, raining chaos bolts down.

  That other team was composed of nine individuals. Six of them threw chaos bolts. Two others wielded weapon type externalities – one spear and one sword. The final individual hung back like a servant. Leading from the front was a slick-looking Lord whose eyes lit up as he caught sight of Hector. With a hand gesture, the Lord commanded his retinue to surround Hector’s.

  The enemy hovered above, effectively denying any escape through flight. Hector grit his teeth, cursing the fact that he’d left Conflagration behind and brought Piercing instead. At least he had Captain Devin. And, unfortunately for their current needs, Ajax. The Titan’s mass would be a serious challenge to their mobility even if they were able to break through the air superiority.

  The Lord sneered down at Hector. “I witnessed your tournament matches. They were quite unimpressive. A bunch of children playing at combat and you still couldn’t secure first place. How sad for a man who would claim the title of Lord.”

  As Hector was racking his brain for what move he could make, his earpiece brought the voice of Cruiser Erin to him. “Conflagration is on his way. I am unable to enter the battle. The Xian would not be harmed by my lasers, but my hull could be breached in turn.”

  Unfortunately, Conflagration had not conserved his strength during his time among them. Hector didn’t know how much of an asset the Sage could be at present. His realm would still function at full strength, but surely that wouldn’t mean much against a Lord. Not without a whole lot of illusory energy to feed his attacks.

  “Do you have no witty repartee? Come, Principal Dragonbane, do not miss out on the opportunity to dazzle us with your intellect. Last words are particularly memorable.”

  “Principal?”

  The Lord scoffed. “It is the title for those at level nine. Did you expect me to recognize you as a peer? When I mount your head in the main hall of my primary residence, the plaque will read as I’ve addressed you: Principal Dragonbane. I might include some subtext about the Dragon and how I slew you in turn. Maybe I neglect the explanation to let the display speak for itself. I haven’t decided yet. Would you care to share your thoughts?”

  Hector shoved his hands deep into his pockets to hide their shaking. “The funny thing is, I don’t even know your name.”

  That wiped the pleasure from the man’s posture. “The name of your killer is Lord Malcolm.”

  “You don’t even have a sobriquet? How humiliating for you, Malcolm.”

  The Lord’s cheek twitched. “Kill his men first. I intend to take special care with his death to ensure his head remains untouched.”

  Lord Malcolm’s retinue had three level eight men and the rest were at level nine. As they aimed their hands, Hector shifted his conceptual weight subtly to switch his target. “Darius, Riley, your counter-attack is prevented,” he said to cue his team about what he had done.

  Spotlights illuminated them from above as enemy chaos bolts failed. Their plan for facing Xian wasn’t very detailed. It boiled down to one simple concept: ignore the ones with bolts and take out anyone with a weapon externality. A Lord shouldn’t expect such a strategy. They would know Hector had some trick for miasma, not that he could neuter chaos bolts.

  Piercing got the man with the spear through the neck with an expanding sword thrust. His rune-reinforced blade entered without problem, but then shattered on the spinal column. As space along the path of his attack normalized, Piercing held only one third of the original length of his weapon. The line of runes had been interrupted as well, making his fragment of a sword quite mundane.

  At the same time Captain Devin had lined up and taken a shot with machine-like accuracy. The plasma beam, reinforced by a vast flood of legal energy, drilled through the eye of the man floating furthest away. Hector felt a surge of annoyance – the preferred target was the man with the sword externality.

  Darius voiced the frustrations of their entire group. “Wrong target! He had no weapon!”

  Captain Devin responded without emotion. “That man was almost certainly their porter. If we survive this encounter, the greater hurdle will be to avoid being found again. Now they can neither chase us off world nor share our general location within the multiverse.”

  Lord Malcolm, staring down, pronounced his judgment. “Before I kill this false Lord, I will force him to power a cosmic chamber for years. I will train up a new porter from the local populace before I return to Tian as its third God.”