106 Chapter 100: The Return of Humanity's Hope

Tansen was wearing his usual black kimono and rubbing his black goatee. Unusually, he looked quite irritated in his office with his forehead ridge and black hair milling about as he stared at Harold and a woman in a blue robe with short brown hair and green eyes standing across from his desk. To his right was Rand, the armored, tan man with a brown mustache and green eyes. Both Tansen and Rand were in opposition to the mid 30's man and Floods Wrath member standing opposite of them, as they had been several times before. A play done so many times already they went as far as to stand in the same spot of the windowless room with white and blue striped walls and plain wood floor. Harold scratched his strong jaw as he idly flexed his muscles in the white undershirt and black vest with pants that marked his profession. While he had a short cut of brown hair, his bushy eyebrows waggled suggestively as he pursed his lips.

"Like I said, Tansen," Harold scoffed with a dismissive wave of his right hand, "This is a matter of Central Enforcement. You lot are not to be involved in our business."

"You've made it our business," Rand growled as he strummed his metal chest plate over the rest of his leather armor. "The whole damn Kelton district is ready to snap after that poor boy you murdered."

"An unfortunate accident," The woman dismissed, "A sadly needed one if we are to get the quad mage back."

"Get him back?" Tansen demanded as he leaned forward onto the desk with his black robe falling down his arms. "What makes you think the Keltons know anything about his whereabouts?"

Harold just clenched his jaw as he stood there in silence. Tansen had understood the real answer the first time he had asked the question yesterday, but he still tried to make him say it. They were going after the Keltons to drag Eli back here. Doing it and saying it were two different things and as long as Harold stuck to his bogus story of asking questions, he would be legally in the clear. Minus a few settlements, of course.

"Master Tansen!" A courier shouted as he came through the door. The teen lad with short brown hair and a rough jacket of brown, white shirt, and grey pants ran through the door behind Harold and the mage woman. "Eli has returned!"

Harold turned around and stuck out his chin to emphasize his arrogant tone.

"Seems like our methods get results" He said before turning to the courier. "Bring him here, at once."

The courier nodded before running back out the door.

"Still," Tansen said, "We're going to petition that we be more involved in these matters of… public enforcement."

The Floods Wrath member huffed.

"Associations and Central Enforcement are above the petty concerns of such back-woods nosepickers." She said with a stuck-out chin. Both she and Harold were content to stand there waiting for the quad mage to come through the door. A few minutes later, what they got instead was a sweaty, panicked courier running through the door.

"He's killing everyone!" The poor boy wheezed as sweat dripped down his face and brown hair, "A CE man was taking a Kelton woman for investigation and Eli stopped them. They were talking as some of the blue mages gathered around. When the officer backhanded his prisoner for trying to get away, Eli summoned some stone claws and ripped his head off right in the street! Then the other mages started trying to stop him and… Their entrails and limbs were…"

The courier finished his tale by promptly puking on the floor.

Harold and the woman went a bit pale.

"That fucker!" Harold yelled, "Thinking he can do whatever he wants. There's going to be a nice warm cell in Prisoners Cliff for him."

The woman nodded and followed him out the door, while the courier went downstairs as the secretary called for a maid. Rand walked past Tansen's desk to leave, but Tansen stopped him.

"Rand!" The academy head called.

The leader of local law turned around with a single raised eyebrow, which promptly became two when Tansen started a spirit connection with him.

'Get the civilians out of the way and let Harold and Floods Wrath die if Eli's is only going after them.' Tansen said.

Rand puckered his lips as he stared at Tansen for a few seconds.

'Why would I do that? You think Eli would win in that fight?' He finally asked.

'Yes, he would. Having the guards die along with them would be a waste. Not that I'm sure Eli would kill them, but I'm not going to make any assumptions on his mental state right now.'

Rand looked surprised and was visibly struggling with what to do. Tansen could see the incredulity of one person killing that many people weighing against that one person having already killed elves.

'I'll come along and see what the academy can do.' Tansen said re-assuredly as he got up and went to the door with Rand. The two men went down the staircase and out of the tower. As they came upon the wide double doors of the academy entrance, Tansen could already tell something was wrong.

It was a clear winter day as a massive crowd was trying to get inside the academy while some guards rushed past them, the cold indiscriminately assaulting both parties as they jockeyed for space through the entrance. When the crowd made way for the two men, they got outside and onto the main road with a look over the gathering masses of the main market surrounding the road that led straight from the entrance of the academy to the bridge directly ahead in the distance.

Looking over the men, women, and children, Tansen saw they were bloody and battered from… No, those were just the regular scars of life on them. The blood, however, came from an external source. Which was when Tansen felt a drop of rain touch his cheek above his black goatee. Putting his right hand to his cheek, he wiped away the raindrop. But as he did so, he looked up and saw the clear sky. Turning his head down to his hand, the red smear of blood was unmistakable. Scouring his surroundings, Tansen soon found the source.

Off to the left in the Kelton quarter, was a mass of wind-blown sand that moved between houses and shops as it dipped and bobbed with the person casting it. While Tansen was bound by the display of earth magic, a mass of bloody limbs and viscera was ejected out of the sand cloud to land at random spots. Rand went pale as he stood on Tansen's left before nodding to the academy head.

"Get the civilians inside! Look after any injured-" Rand layed into the stunned guards with his orders as he walked off.

Tansen tried to do the same, but Eli was too proficient at mass murder for his organizational skills to come in handy. As time went on, the faint waft of blood became a metallic taste in the air that mixed with the sweat and panic gripping the citizenry huddling in the academy or scurrying to save their goods from the occasional downpouring of entrails and fingers from the sky. All to the chorus of carnage and mayhem as men and women could be heard pleading for their lives, swiftly followed by another shower of gore.

By the time the report came in that Eli was only killing CE members, troops, and those associations involved with the harassment of the Keltons, Tansen had a mere handful of mages, made up of staff members and the Ember association, ready as Rand started getting a sizeable troop of the local guard ready for whatever may come while the others were milling around town trying to direct the panicked populace. For a few minutes, the assembling mass of steel and mages gathered in front of the academy on the hill, though no orders could be given or formed in the short amount of time they had.

While they were assembling, a frantic-looking Harold and the Floods Wrath leader came running away from the Kelton quarter with a ragged and bloodied looking troop of their people and those few full steel-plated troops that remained sprinkled throughout.

"Get the guards on the choke points out of the Kelton quarter!" Harold screamed, his black vest and white shirt cut along his chest and thighs while the blue robes of the woman looked more like bloody string than a proper garment.

Along the hill leading up to the academy, the line of steel and leather-clad guardsmen stood in long lines with the increasing numbers of white and blue-robed staff members. Aside from the occasional explosion and scream off in the distance, the field was silent as the two groups regarded each other.

"Who is he killing?" Tansen asked Rand on his right, who now had his brown hair dangling about his armor and sweat on his face.

"Central Enforcement and Floods Wrath. The Ember and Hurricane's Kiss associations haven't been touched nor have any of the civilians. Directly, anyway." Rand said with a worried look between him and a now fuming Harold.

Tansen turned to the molten face of Harold and the leader of Floods Wrath, though the scared mass of CE members, troops, and water mages looked more like cowed sheep.

"What are you doing?!" Harold screamed in outrage. "Get into position!"

"Tell me, Rand," Tansen said as he turned to his right. "Are we obligated to help them, what with us being a 'bunch of backwoods nosepickers'?"

The leader of the local guards green eyes lit up as every face on the hill turned to him.

"No, Eli hasn't attacked any of the civilians."

"I am the head of the local law now! You will do as I damn well say!" Harold screamed as the battered CE members, troops, and water mages stared sullenly at the gathering mass of people higher up on the hill.

"Yes," Rand said as he stepped forward with a smile that twisted his mustache, "But you expressly forbid the local guard from taking part in the latest rounds of investigation. Because this latest incident is an extension of that operation, I'd say we can't quite move under your command yet."

A horrified scream near the houses to the right of the lines of CE and Floods Wrath members drew everyone's gaze for a moment as the sound of tearing flesh and the expelling of another cloud of human body parts over the line of rooftops quickly followed. The biggest change was the animalistic scream that quickly followed it. Looking over the houses, it was clear that the cloud of sand was getting closer.

"What is this fucking troll shit?!" Harold demanded with a stomp of his right foot as he bared his teeth and pointed to one of the officers further down the right with a white feathered helmet. "Get the men moving! Now!"

The officer merely shrugged.

"I'll need you to sign onto several forms for that. Since we were pushed out from this operation, we will need a force transfer request form filled out in triplicate to-"

Another crash and the accompanying sound of tearing flesh, now closer than before, interrupted him. But when the officer turned back to Harold, he merely looked at him with indifference. Harold, however, lost the color in his face as the realization that he had no allies to call upon in this fight washed over him.

"You-Yo…" Harold sputtered for a moment as he looked at the assembled men and women with sweat dripping down his face despite the winter cold. "We are not combatants. Central Enforcement is for the application of the law and gathering evidence. You cowards would let innocents d-"

Tansen just burst out laughing, drawing the resentful gazes of the assembled men in black vests and pants, along with the water mages and troops.

"You didn't seem very non-combatant when you killed that boy, or when you left a few of the Keltons bloody and battered. No, Harold. Everyone had their fun kicking the dog and you were the one who decided to take it too far when your foot was in reach. If you think for even a second that I'll be risk my academy or its people on your behalf, then you're a bigger fool than I could have ever imagined."

The onlookers only had a moment to process that statement before the man of the hour arrived. Another crash and chorus of screams sounded out behind the assembled water mages and CE members as one blue robbed woman was thrown from between the houses along the main road and onto the main street proper. A hammer took her in the chest, promptly followed by a fire spell that went off below her and blew her body apart in a shower of blood and limbs.

Out of the alley stomped a vision of horror that would haunt the dreams of the assembled men and women forever after. It was Eli in his plain steel armor, but the surface was almost entirely red with streaks of steel peeking out behind the blood and occasional bit of human flesh. Sand flowed around the edges of his body before it moved around towards the street. The smiling metal mask was also covered in blood as Eli retracted his hammer from the scorched spot where his opponent had been. Above the mask were those purple eyes, though the wild fury contained therein was a feature Tansen had never seen in them.

A loud whoosh fell over the town as the mass of sand moved from around Eli to cover his next victims in front of the academy. Tansen summoned a water wall around him and his people while those in the street tried to scramble away, Harold being foremost among them. Some of the water mages tried to raise water walls, but the sand buried deep into them and quickly drained the water spells. Eli must have used real sand from the river for his material as the particles didn't disappear after Eli let the spell go.

In between the moment that the walls of water evaporated into nothingness and they got the next set of walls up, Eli launched several stone shards and lightning bolts into the small panicking mass. Their cries sounded out as sprays of blood doused the survivors and blackened bodies crumbled to the ground. The CE members were closer to Eli and messing up the mage's formation as the quad mage used his suit's self-powered wheels to zip closer to them.

A sense of panic took over as the mages got a few thin walls up further behind where the last layer of defenses had gone. The quad mage simply lifted all the sand on the ground and threw it down over the heads of the unfortunate mob. While it was a small irritant in most situations, the sand had been thrown with such force that it left dots of bloody pinpricks in the arms, heads, and shoulders of everyone with no armor.

Eli moved up to the disoriented mob as the people on the hill pulled further back with his approach. Putting up his right hand, Eli blasted them all with a white-hot tongue of flame. Flesh burned right off the bone, steel plates blazed red hot, and those who survived were quickly mercy killed with a stone spike, as were the uninjured members who tried to run up the hill to a false haven of safety.

Three mages on the left put up a pitiable last stand as they launched water spikes at him. A quick shield of stone blocked the spikes and when Eli launched it at them, one of the women was reduced to a paste. The other two on her left shirked back, giving Eli enough time to summon a long spear of molten slag. With water shields almost hair-thin, they had no chance as the bar of slag was sharpened and cut them in half. The quad mag launched a boulder at one's head and stomped on the others, quickly ending their pain even as their four pieces continued bleeding all over the road and Eli's now brain covered right foot.

On Tansen's right, Harold and three of the mages were running towards the noble district in a mad panic. Eli swirled around; his purple eyes wild with blood lust. Sending a wave of stone shards into the back of the retreating women, Eli was almost a blur as he shot forward to the now unaccompanied Harold. The mid 30's man, despite his buff physique, had no chance to even look behind as Eli tackled him to the ground and held him face-first into the stone road.

The whole town, from those illustrious members on the hill, to the shopkeepers staring out behind stalls and windows, to the poor peasants caught in between, all stared as Eli got on his knees over Harold and took his head in his right hands metal glove. He pulled him back before slamming Harold face-first into the stone. When the first blow into the road came, Harold screamed and struggled. After the fourth strike, Harold had probably fallen unconscious as his head was a bloody mass of skin and loose flesh. After the seventh strike, when the open skull looked more like a pulp of random bone and brains, Eli, let loose his first words.

"Why can't you just be fucking decent?!" He screamed with feral intensity. That was quickly followed up with him slamming the ruined head into the ground one last time, sending brains and blood all over his upper chest and helmet as the head collapsed like an overripe melon. Eli leaned forward for a moment, heavily breathing and sweating over the body before he pulled himself back up.

It was a long moment as the whole world stared at him sitting atop the corpse. After that, Eli finally decided to stand up, though he did so with shaking legs. Those purple eyes surveyed the carnage of dead bodies and burned flesh throughout the place he had called home for several months. When they passed over the living, there was an appropriate shirking back even among those on the hill. Then the mountain of blood, terror, and steel took a step forward with an ominous wobble to the right, gripping the hammer with his left hand before he took another step as he dragged it behind him with a loud scrape that immediately stopped.

There was no sound. No dogs barking, no fires raging, and no word spoken as everyone stood still, uncertain of what to do. However, it appeared that even Eli had his limits. Those purple eyes rolled up as he leaned forward and his left hand lost its grip on the hammer. Time seemed to slow as the blood-soaked hope of an age tilted further before gravity took hold and he did a full body slam into the viscera and ash covered road. The impact sent a ringing of steel that reverberated over the silent town until even that fell to nothingness. Tansen gulped and moved forward, past some of the stunned guards and mages, as his footsteps pierced the dead silence. Walking up to the mass of blood-soaked armor, Tansen lifted his head and was relieved to see that he was still breathing.

"Medics! Get healing potions and the body movers going! Before they re-animate." Tansen called to his staff on the hill. That knocked everyone out of their stupor as the guards went about getting bodies and checking on the Kelton quarter. When the medical team with wide hats of white arrived, Tansen left the clean-up to Rand as he passed by numerous staff and guards to stay at his tower office.

Over the next few hours, there were several letters from those at the Base out west and the towers inquiring about what had happened. Tansen could only reply for them to wait for the full report. Agatha and the visitor from congress even tried to force their way into his office, but Tansen denied them until Rand could gather an official report. As for Eli, Tansen had a special prison set up for him.

Ryan's old home had been remade into a mana dead zone with leather crafts siphoning off all mana from a wide area near the building with a detachment of guards to make sure he was properly detained within the grounds. Tansen felt a bit of guilt for not being there for Eli, but he had too much he had to attend to. By the late afternoon, Eli still hadn't woken up from his orgy of death, but Rand had managed to fill out a complete report, owing to the sheer amount of witnesses who had seen everything from beginning to end.

With it on his desk, Tansen finally allowed Agatha and the pudgy congressman to come in and stand opposite of him. While she wore her typical black working dress, the large man had a wide white shirt with a brown vest with grey pants. His green eyes were wild with fear as sweat dripped down his bald head, while Agatha just looked like she wanted to puke. Wasting no time, Tansen immediately got to the point of their visit.

"Earlier this morning Eli arrived in town and immediately headed towards the Kelton quarter."

They both sucked in a breath at that, obviously knowing where this was going.

"When he met a Central Enforcement member apprehending a random Kelton woman for interrogation, Eli stopped them and demanded to know what was going on. Over the course of the argument, the official backhanded the Kelton woman. Eli responded by taking his head in repayment for the discourtesy. Which prompted several Floods Wrath members to apprehend him.

Now I could bore you with several accounts of horrific bloodshed and brutality, but the only real surprise is that another scion with a white ferret and a squad of other casters tried to kidnap him in the middle of his rampage. They failed, obviously. Another curiosity for Coalition intelligence to mull over.

The only bit left for our end is that Eli is currently detained in a mana dead zone at Ryan's former residence."

A moment of silence hung over the room as the two newcomers stood still. They almost certainly knew about Eli's rampage at this point, but having confirmed it with an official report they seemed to fully accept the situation they were in.

"How many CE officials are left from his rampage?" The congressman demanded.

Tansen sighed before looking him in straight in his green eyes.

"None. All Central Enforcement agents assigned here and the whole of the Floods Wrath association are currently in the very overcrowded pyres."

The pudgy man just looked dumfounded while Agatha paled.

"Has he gone mad?" Agatha asked hesitantly.

"I doubt it." Tansen said with a shrug, "When I killed staff members at my academy, it was all blood and hatred. But the morning after? Could have spent my previous day napping in bed for all the difference it made. Not that it's guaranteed to be the same, but we've taken all possible precautions."

"This is unacceptable!" The pudgy man screamed, his big nose flaring. "A disaster of this magnitude will-"

A knock on the door behind him drew everyone's eyes.

"Yes?" Tansen called.

"A Kelton couple. They've been… very insistent on seeing you." The secretary called.

"Ok,-" Before Tansen could finish his sentence, the Kelton duo burst through. A Kelton man with brown fur and curling horns with a brown jacket and pants that was clung to by a grey-furred Kelton woman with a drab brown dress and grey underdress that matched the small horns atop her head.

"Hello, we wanted to see Eli," The husband said with a step forward. The wife pulled back with her hands in front of her as she patiently waited.

That drew odd looks from all three, but the congressman puckered his lips and spoke with a sour voice.

"Whatever damages you suffered are inconsequential in the more important-"

"We wanted to thank him. But we were told Tansen or possibly Rand were the only ones who could approve the visit."

That drew askance looks from around the room until Tansen put the pieces together with what he had heard from the past few days.

"Ah, yes. Your boy. I am so sorry for your loss."

The congressman flared his nostrils as he scowled and took a deep breath while Agatha seemed sympathetic.

"Do you have any shame?" The pudgy man demanded. "That man just put some of the Coalition's best and finest to death far away from their families and you want to shake his hand."

The husband's white eyes in the goat face narrowed before he spoke again in a calm, low voice.

"They got what was coming to them."

The congressman drew back his right hand for an exaggerated slap to the face, but the smaller, grey-furred wife stepped forward.

"If you're going slap me," She said in an even tone as she stuck out her face to receive the blow, "Make sure it leaves a nice, red mark. I don't want Eli to doubt me when I tell him of our visit here."

The congressman jerked back, giving a slight yelp as he did so. With the bravado knocked right out of him, he immediately put his hand down and contented himself with staring sullenly at the couple. Tansen's chuckle broke the mood as everyone turned to him.

"Well, you certainly can't say Eli's deterrence wasn't effective. I'll have a messenger contact you as soon as we feel it is safe to allow for visitors."

The two nodded and left the room.

"He's a mass murderer, Tansen," The congressman growled.

"Aye," Tansen agreed with a lean back into his chair as he disinterestedly picked at his black sleeve.

The room was silent for a few moments longer before the congressman spoke again.

"I will have to inform Mclain after the fact, but I'm going to petition that Eli be made a national asset. The hearing to make that happen will be conducted by a judge after Noah gives his testimony on Eli's actions."

Tansen raised an eyebrow while Agatha just huffed, sending her blonde bun swaying with a shake of her head.

"You sound like it's going to be a quick deal." She said with an unbelieving tone. "Last I checked there were no high-ranking judges around."

"Ah," He responded with a raised finger and cruel smile, "But we're in wartime, in case you forgot about those armies trudging up here at this very moment. We have the legal leeway to get it done. Once that's seen to, the appropriate services will be rendered. Even if it has to be done from a prison cell, this matter is quickly reaching its conclusion."

Tansen just huffed as he crossed his arms.

"If you're going to rape him, at least have the decency to call it what it is before you pull down his pants," Tansen said with a sour look.

The green eyes of the congressman turned on the academy head with fury. His nose flaring, he put up a pudgy finger towards the academy head.

"I'm sure the grieving widows and orphans Eli left in his wake today will be very concerned about the details of his consent. This rotten, ass-end of nowhere just consumed so many of our brave men in law enforcement. Damn this shit heap of a town filled with pig fuckers. We should have just busted his door down and dragged him to the dorms when he was first discovered!" He shouted before he turned around and stormed out of the room.

Agatha turned with a sympathetic look to Tansen, who only nodded back before the Front member also excused herself.

The next morning, Tansen was informed that Eli was awake. But as the academy head was walking out of his tower to Ryan's house, Rand stopped him.

"Sorry, Tansen," The tan man said with a raised hand. "It would do you no good to visit him. The court is seeing him later tomorrow, and if you want to be of any use to Eli, you need to make sure it isn't quite so obvious that you are on his side."

Tansen struggled against the chains of sound legal advice for a long moment before turning around and heading back to his office. As head of the academy, he had several people he could reach out to for any number of tasks. Deploying some staff to get the general mood of the public over that day and the next, Tansen was surprised to see the rather sanguine attitude most of the people had towards the massacre.

The Central Enforcement staff had garnered a bad reputation in its time at Tansen's little corner of the world. Bad tippers, cutting lines, and the general laying about the populace like they were owed everything just by being in these woods were what they were most known for. Decorum would not allow most people to openly react with joy at them being brutally murdered in the street, but the niceties of society didn't demand grieving either.

Out west, the reaction was far less understanding. Tansen had gotten several letters from higher-ups in the government demanding to know what happened. The news of what happened was out, but Tansen and Rand trickled out the facts enough to hold them off. Even so, the letters contained no small amount of cursing. Most unbecoming of official heads of state.

In the early afternoon, the hearing had finally started.

Tansen was in a seat on the left of the conference room at the top of the classroom towers where Eli had shown off his crafts. A wide room with white walls and a red carpet lined with leather strips to drain mana, there were chairs in front of a tall wooden stand where the accused would be seated and a slightly higher wooden chair and desk behind that where the judge would be. All of which was illuminated in the soft glow of mana lamps along the top of the ceiling. In a small cluster of the chairs were the Rangers, mages in grey cloaks. On the academy heads left was Agatha and further ahead, behind the desk of a man who had prepared several blank papers and quills to transcribe the proceedings, was the congressman and his lackeys.

The judge, a skinny man with a long black robe and no hair came down the line of chairs as several guards took position along the points between the seats, tables, and stands. His long nose swung with his taking in of the surrounding spectators before he moved ahead and proceeded to sit at his exalted spot above everyone else. With a heavy air in the room, he took a moment before taking his gavel and slamming it down to kill the idle chatter before he spoke.

"Order. Order.

We are here today to hear out an accusation against the quad mage Eli and afterward decide on the matter of making him a national asset. Guards! Bring forth the man in question."

The door on Tansen's right and in the back of the room opened and through it walked a pair of guards. Behind them, done up in a metal cover restraining his arms to his wrists up to the shoulder and monocles around his feet, was Eli. He had the white and blue striped robes of an academy student on him. Though the open display of his face was a rarely seen feature. His strong jaw moved with puckered lips and his purple eyes showed complete disinterest in the world around him as he moved forward. His short silver hair swayed as he made his way up to the stand in the middle of the room before taking his seat with an unceremonious plop into the chair.

As he did so, the judge went through some papers on his desk before sniffling and turned to Eli.

"Alright, young man. You stand accused of a lot, both in these proceedings and in future ones. I'll save us all the usual meanderings and just bring things to their point. Noah Fritzgeld."

'Great. Another show trial' Tansen thought to himself as he struggled to not groan.

Amidst the rangers stood the man in question. He was an early 20's man with short black hair, slightly tan skin, and green eyes with a cut above his right eye. His smooth cheekbones and sharp chin moved with his sour expression as he stared at Eli with ill-concealed hatred.

"Noah," the judge called, "Please step forward and give your account of events."

The ranger stepped forward, his grey cloak fluttering around his leather armor. When he was on the right of Eli's stand, he kept his eyes on the judge.

"While…he was in this academy's medical ward after a fight involving him attacking me and an associate, that same associate and I found one of the Pandego's near these very woods."

Tansen's and Agatha's eyebrows shot up. That those monsters had been so close to his students made his stomachache flip while Agatha went pale.

"Our preconceived notions of their elements were shattered that day. It was wildly spewing fire, lightning, and air blades everywhere in addition to the earth and water elements. Confused and, in all honesty, terrified at this fresh horror from the swamps. When we arrived back in town and started talking with our fellow rangers, we got a nice little story about this new mage. A mage who could use healing and metal magic, thus having all four elements.

Then we gathered information about his many famous deeds and doings. When we looked at the times he disappeared, it all fell into place. It wasn't some new monster; it was his familiar!" Noah said with a raise of his left finger to Eli even as he still refused to look at him. "He has been aiding the orcs and probably has some spawn among them. We tried to contact high command and get the word out. But his previous trial had a bunch of political bullshit which made that impossible as everyone lined up to suck his fucking dick to-"

The judge banged his gavel to interrupt the rising fury spewing from Noah.

"Lad. These are official proceedings, you hear me?" The judge said with an indulgent look and patient tone. Noah nodded and stood silent for a brief moment before continuing.

"Knowing the secrets he had and being given no support from anyone, we used our only card. Familiars are social creatures and we took the bet that the other scions familiars knew more than they were letting on. Keeping our eyes open, we noticed the water scion Veronica's familiar harassing the dwarves. When it went to a certain bar and we saw others from that group coming in, we contacted Harold and he loaned us a few guards to see our suspicions through. Low and behold, we were right."

The judge nodded and turned to Eli.

"What say you to these allegations."

The quad mage sat there, clicking his tongue as he looked around the room with indifference before he closed his eyes and pulled himself straight up. Putting his bound hands on the top of his wooden enclosure, he coughed before giving his defense.

"I was not involved with nor a part of the Pandego's. A surly lot that often had the frojan skittish." He said firmly.

Tansen had some niggling feeling of wrongness as Noah snorted before he finally turned to his nemesis, his green eyes filled with hatred.

"You lie! We've lined up events in the swamps with your disappearances. We can go over everything in exhaustive detail, down to the hour if we have to." Noah growled, sticking out his chin.

"Hmm?" Eli said with a casual turn of his head. He had his lips puckered and eyebrows raised like Noah had dropped a mild curio in front of him. "Why would you need to do that? I said I wasn't the pandegos. I didn't deny the rest of it."

"Bah! You'll do anything to save yo-…r skin," Noah's rant died as Eli's words washed over him.

The world seemed to come to a standstill as even the scribe stopped his scribbles and looked up with a slack jaw. Tansen felt the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up as he realized what he didn't like about Eli's first statement.

A surly lot who made the frojan skittish.

As in he was there to witness it.

The judge went pale as did all the guards, the congressman and his aides, and Agatha. The rangers, however, just looked confused. Noah tried to make the words come out, but his jaw just couldn't make it happen. The judge's face was a pale sheet of white as he leaned forward and gripped the edge of his desk.

"Would you care to elaborate on that statement, young man?" He demanded through gritted teeth.

Eli, completely indifferent to everything around him, shrugged and leaned back in his chair as he idly put his two restricted arms over his chest before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"During my disappearances, I often visited the swamps and my friends there. Yeah, they tried to mate me. But I kept my identity a secret and was allowed a certain amount of freedom. When the Phoenix empire attacked their swamps, I was forced to reveal my identity, which was around the time the pandegos showed up. My unique colorings had made me a curiosity to one fire orc mage named B-" Eli's voice cracked for a moment before he coughed and continued. "Borba and had seen several interactions between them and the pandegos. I kept off to myself and out of sight after my true nature had been revealed, but the Phoenix empire made a particularly big move into the swamplands. Forced to defend my friends again with the help of my familiar and wife, I helped break the back of the foothold they were establishing into the swamplands.

Suffice it to say, we won. During a rather energetic celebration, I met up with Borba again. I was, of course, out of the orcs reach with my speed but she tempted me with a sight along the southern coast while my wife helped get our things ready to go up north after we heard from the dwarves that the Keltons were being mistreated. Along those pristine shores, Borba and I walked, and given the booze in our guts and the starlight playing across the ocean, you can imagine where such a romantic setting lead. When we got word about the attack on the Kelton community, I was forced to run back here."

Eli finished with a smack of his lips and a slight smile as he sat in his chair, looking like he was talking about the local weather.

Tansen had never felt his mind go totally numb. Time on the road and the Far Shores court demanded action carried out in fractions of a second and his fine reflexes were honed in those environments. But, for the first time in his life, the academy head's mind just wouldn't move as the images of quad element scion orcs tore through his mind.

"What is he doing?" Agatha demanded with a panicked whisper as she turned her face to Tansen. Sweat was falling down her face as her right hand dug into the black kimono's shoulder. "That story doesn't make any sense. The orcs would have stopped at nothing to catch him once discovered. To say nothing of the fact he just sicked the Coalition on the mother… or does he not consider orcs his children?"

Tansen numbly shook his head as the congressman was furiously whispering amongst his aides in the chairs before Eli and Noah. The latter of which just stared at Eli with a blank face. After a few seconds, the congressman stood up with a heave of his considerable weight. His chubby face was red, and his face was contorted with rage as his green coat fluttered around his white shirt and black pants.

"Eli!" He screamed. "Your attempt to embarrass the Correctional Committee is disgraceful."

Eli and Noah turned to him.

"Excuse me?" Noah said with a face like he had bitten into an apple and found half a worm wiggling in it. Eli only looked on disinterestedly.

"I am petitioning that we move onto the national asset portion of this trial." The congressman said with a puffing of his chest. "Thank you for your service in this matter, Noah. But I will be taking over from here."

Noah stood still as a statue, looking the fat man up and down in disbelief.

"What do you mean? He confessed." Noah said in a near whisper as his green eyes seemed to empty. The huff he got as an answer only lit a fire in his eyes.

"Please," The pudgy congressman said with a dismissive handwave, "We all know of your drinking ways. That you found out about Eli as his friends traveled through a tavern is an easy explanation. One that makes far more sense than that convoluted nonsense. The decision on what to do about this little stunt of a confession will be reached later. Now please sit amongst your fellows."

Surprisingly, Eli and Noah seemed irritated at this announcement, though Noah had more freedom of arm movement as he waved to Eli with both hands.

"He's fucking admitting to it!" Noah screamed at the top of his lungs, "He's sitting right fucking there and saying he's a horrid pervert. Right in front of all of us!" Noah looked more animalistic with every word spoken as his face got redder and redder.

"Indeed," Eli interrupted, "I laid with an orc and helped them in the swamps."

Noah took a deep breath and did another dramatic wave to the quad mage.

"Well?!" Noah demanded, "The punishment for a caster or above mage mating orcs is death. He's admitting to it, right here and now."

The congressman sighed as he shook his head.

"Even if, if, it's true, we are not at a point to do anything about it. We need him to spread his line and killing him over his past actions is not an option. When we finish looking over all of it, there are any number of punishments we could hand out if this is confirmed. But we have armies currently marching through our proverbial backyard and we can't throw away our best tool."

Noah stood there with a blank face as his right hand twitched.

"Is that how it is?" Noah said in a near whisper, "He killed so many of us, so many good men and women of the military and he gets to walk. After everything, he'll spend his days in a mansion eating the best food and wine while constantly getting his balls drained for the rest of his life."

Noah looked down with a shake of his black hair for a long moment. Then he was a blur as he zipped across the room and drew a knife from the folds of his leather armor.

"Uaaghh!" He screamed as he ran straight at Eli.

Eli quickly shifted around and took the head of his chair and stuck out the legs in front of him while the guards charged forward. Noah tried to jump past the wall around the seat, and nearly succeeded as Eli was too restrained from his arm braces to effectively move. When Noah got one brown boot on the wall, the guards finally got in the mix. Pulling the fire mage down as he bellowed like a wounded animal, the other guards moved around the other rangers to make sure they didn't try to join.

After a few minutes of wrangling, the still screaming Noah and his companions were escorted out of the room. The congressman shook his head while the guards looked over the prize of our age for any injuries. When things had settled down, the congressman took Noah's place as Eli sat back into his seat.

"Well, you may have made things easier for us, Eli. Between that confession and your rampage, I'd say we have a clear and pressing need to assert more direct control over your person. Wouldn't you agree?" The congressman said with a nod to the judge.

"Do you really want an orc fucker as a national asset?" Eli asked mildly as he leaned back into his chair.

The congressman's green eyes peeking out between his fat cheeks squinted in anger.

"This little game you're playing won't work. We'll look into it, of course, but your attempt to drag this committee through the mud by having such slanderous accusations crop up while under our care is not appreciated."

Eli puckered his lips as he looked the fat man up and down with a cold fury before his icy voice rang out.

"Accusations? I'm not confessing to anything I haven't already been labeled." Eli then turned to the judge, "Can we stop wasting time on this? We all know how this is going to end."

The judge stole a look to the congressman, who slightly nodded before the judge coughed into his hand and banged the gavel again.

"Normally, we would have called witnesses to judge character. But that Eli would even joke about having participated in the depths of such depravity is enough to render judgment on his moral strength, in the eyes of this court. Using the war powers imbued to me in times of national need, I declare Eli to be made a national asset and be compelled to provide whatever services are needed to see to the societal good."

With one last bang of his gavel, Eli was taken by the guards and escorted out. As Tansen looked on, he couldn't help but notice the look of indifference in Eli's eyes as he passed the rows of chairs and was taken out the back door. Tansen and Agatha sat there for a while as the congressman and his stooges shuffled out, with some clapping each other on the back for their great work.

"Well," Agatha said with a tired voice. "I'll see about having Veronica and her two friends do the deed first. They apparently have some secret bond with him and having the starting women be familiar will probably make laying with the later ones easier."

Tansen just nodded, feeling numb from his head to his toes as he got up and headed down to the main floor. Once he was back in his carriage, he stared out with a blank face and lifeless brown eyes as his assistant Aki sat opposite of him. Neither man said anything, as there was nothing left to say.

When he got back to his office and sat behind his oak desk, Tansen spent a few minutes idly sifting through reports. When he realized he wasn't actually reading any of them, Tansen just huffed before he got out of the leather chair and went down the tower to Ryan's house. The only mana dead zone where the deeds could be done and not have the guards worry about Eli going on another rampage.

The three-floor home had thick bricks of stone and solid wooden beams with grey roof tiles. In front of the cave-like entrance were Agatha, Veronica, Eska, and Mia. The mother was off to the left while the three girls stood on the right. While Veronica's gold hair played over the single white dress, Eska's shoulder-length black hair and Mia's choppy red hair barely touched theirs, so low was the top of their garments. Any passerby with any amount of a sex drive could see what the three girls were preparing for based on their blushing and nervous swaying.

"- And when you grab the…Yes, Tansen?" Agatha asked calmly as she turned to the academy head.

"I've come to talk to Eli," He said casually. The blond nodded with a sad look playing over her sharp cheekbones.

Tansen walked forward and past the two guards by the entrance before opening the wooden door. He immediately walked to the left, over the thick stone floor, and into the main room, the big bed therein catching his eye. The room was now bare except for that single piece of furniture as the walls were dark oak beams that poorly reflected the mana lamp in the center of the ceiling. That mana lamp was the only source of light as the windows and back door had been fastened shut with steel bars and thick wooden planks.

In the center, sitting at the foot of the bed with blue blankets and white sheets, was Eli. Wearing a simple white robe, he looked surprisingly bored as he turned to the academy head and idly slapped his right foot to the ground.

"Ah, Tansen! What brings you here?" He asked cheerfully.

"I… I wanted to see how you were holding up." The academy head said uncertainly, thrown off by Eli's tone.

"I'm doing ok," Eli said with a bit lip as he looked down for a brief moment. "How are things going for the Diamond academy?"

"Surprisingly well," Tansen said with raised eyebrows and puckered lips as he nodded. "The people you ripped to pieces in the street were often rude and annoying, so the only people complaining are those too far away to matter. At least for a few weeks"

Tansen bit his lips before he took a deep breath and got to the point.

"Eli, I know matters of siring are prickly for you. But consider the fact that these children will be more well cared for than most princes. Even Beth, who I don't yet know if she is actually with your child, has been getting a queen's treatment. The lives they will have will be full and happy ones, even if dad isn't around as much as he would like to be, and family reunions look like towns springing up overnight."

The quad mage closed his eyes and leaned back as he basked in the soft glow of the mana lamp above. A long moment passed where no one said anything until the silence was broken.

"I'm done," Eli said with a note of finality as he kept his eyes closed. "You, Jeff, Veronica, Bess, Salamede, and to a lesser extent, Andrew, were the only ones who showed the slightest bit of concern for me when I was a crafter, and for that, you will always have my thanks.

But my patience has run out. I was abused, mistreated, and relegated to the trash heap because my magical label said, crafter. At no point did the mage world, society, or those whores throwing themselves at me ever show the slightest concern for me when I was down.

And now we're all supposed to just get along.

I have power. I have prestige. I am everything this world ever wanted from a single person and when my ears are assaulted by the chorus of adoring fanfare, the only thing that registers is the screams of swine. All these high and mighty people scolding me for my selfishness, pulling on threads on common humanity that they themselves cut. But even all of that, I could have forgiven. For my personal needs and the better interests of people everywhere.

Going after my wife, though? Attacking the people who actually gave a damn about me because the quad mage having a woman with a goat's head isn't the perfect tale to tell small children? Holding innocent bystanders hostage? That I will not forgive.

I am done. I don't know what I can do about the Coalition holding the Keltons hostage or where to go from here. But from now on I'm going to focus on absolving myself of these chains rather than trying to make them fit better."

With that, Eli opened his eyes and turned to Tansen. While he was now barefaced, the pain in those purple irises was something no mask could have hidden. The saddest thing is that Tansen could find no objection in himself to present. No appeal to altruism, decency, or duty could undo what had been done, nor should they.

Moving forward and squeezing his shoulder, Tansen only offered a sympathetic nod before turning away and heading out the door. On the grass, as small flicks of red started playing across the late afternoon sky, stood the four women and the congressman in a line still dressed in the same clothes as he had for the trial. Coming from the black gate on the right was a member of the medical squad with a large white hat. He had a slight chin and large nose as the healer came up with a side bag of various ointments and tools.

Agatha nodded to the three girls, who quickly followed the medical staff member inside.

"Finally, shouldn't have taken this long to get his dick wet." The fat man huffed as he looked to the sky with a scowl.

Tansen stood around for a minute, unsure of what to do or what he was doing here now. Finally, Tansen turned to his right to speak with Agatha.

"I'm heading back to my office."

The blonde nodded, a strand of blonde hair escaping her bun.

"I'll stay behind to work on the aftermath. There are already a lot of women lined up to demand-"

She was stopped when Mia, the tan redhead with smooth cheekbones, ran out with a pale face and brown eyes wild with panic.

"We…Ugh. We need you inside. Now." She said with a shaken voice before running back inside. Looking between each other, the three adults ran inside to see what was going on. Coming through the door, the tension in the air immediately spiked.

Veronica and Eska were off to the left, both looking a little green with shakes wracking their arms and legs. Mia came over to stand beside them, while Eli was standing opposite of them and looked positively bored as he thumbed his white robe and casually looked around the room from his position near the bed. The medical member had his bag on the floor beside him and was standing to the left of Eli, though the doctor's green eyes were wide and sweat was running down his face.

"He… I was performing the needed medical inspections when…"

"Pff," Eli huffed as he threw open his robe. His shoulders were broad and strong and as Tansen's eyes fell over his slightly pale skin past his abs, the source of the problem became clear.

Or rather, the lack of a source.

A plain wall of smooth skin patched over where Eli's loins had been. There were bumps along the skin and a hole that made it clear that the act was an intentional one with healing applied afterward.

"Thanks for the healing potions, by the way," Eli said casually as he closed his robes. "Might have bled out if I didn't manage to snag a few from the healers. Though I'm sure the guards would have let me out to heal myself afterward anyway."

Everyone just stared at him like he had grown a second head. Tansen, on the other hand, was concentrating on not crossing his legs or throwing up.

"You've mutilated yourself," Agatha said breathlessly as she but a black-gloved hand to her mouth.

The fat congressman just looked up as he swayed to the right before falling on the floor with a loud crash, dead to the world. The guards at the door heard the noise and came to assist him, but he was out and too heavy to move. Before they could come into the main room, Tansen waved them back to their posts even as they gave the congressman laying on the floor odd looks.

Those who remained inside all turned back to Eli, who was puckering his lips. With a loud pop, he sat on the bed and casually leaned back.

"This was just my way of saying I am not amiable to the current course of things. Now, if we're done here, it has been a tiring day and I would like to get ready for dinner and bed. I'm sorry for wasting your time, Veronica, Eska, and Mia." He said with an apologetic nod to the three girls.

They nodded with blank faces before turning around and scurrying out the front door.

The academy head put out a hand to stop them.

"Not a word to anyone. Everyone here will be put under a gag order. Understand?" Tansen asked with a calm that surprised himself. After they all nodded, the three girls rand full speed out of the room.

Tansen turned around and looked at the medical member while Agatha just stared at Eli in mute horror as Eli returned the feeling with indifference.

"Not a word to anyone, understand?" Tansen warned the medic, who nodded with a vigorous shake.

At a loss for what to say, Tansen could only wait for the congressman's aides to come by and stir the man awake. When those green eye's flickered open, Tansen was standing above him with his arms crossed.

"This is your mess," The academy head declared with bitterness, "Good luck cleaning it up,"

Not waiting to answer the aide's questions, Tansen stormed out of the house with Agatha following closely behind. When they were a good bit away from the guards, Agatha finally spoke with her eyes beseeching the red sky.

"Is this some kind of joke by the gods? Are the fates just doing this to laugh at us?" She moaned with a hand to her forehead.

Tansen whirled around, rage in his face as he stomped forward.

"Fate? Gods? They did everything they could for us," Tansen spat as he bared his teeth and shoved a finger in her face. "We had the opportunity of a lifetime land in our laps. It was all put in a box with a nice little bow on top and the only thing asked of us was to just not act like fucking animals! There were so many points during this mess that this could have all stopped. If the military had been willing to take a risk on a crafter instead of worrying about their prestige, if I had been doing my fucking job and taking care of all of my students, or maybe if you hadn't scolded Veronica after the trial about associating with the orc fucker,"

Agatha appropriately lowered her head at that, but Tansen wasn't about to stop.

"We could have a crop of healing and metal super mages by now. Maybe if just one damn person had been there for him after the trial, he wouldn't have had to go to a goat woman for emotional support. But no. Everyone wanted more prestige, more power, more of everything they couldn't suck out of Eli, so they kicked the local pariah for goodwill from the herd or because it was what was convenient at the time.

Just one fucking person in power doing what they were supposed to be doing at any point in this mess would have sent us on our way to paradise. We don't deserve the favor or love of gods or the universe or fate or whatever poor thing out there has had the misfortune of being shackled to a bunch of self-centered curs like us."

Tansen stood there, his chest rising and falling with his hard breathing while Agatha cooly regarded him with sympathy in her blue eyes. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to soothe the aching man.

"If anyone is to blame for the state of things, the least of the guilty would be you."

Tansen shook his head as he stared down.

"No. I was only interested in Eli due to his abilities as a crafter. Even if I was as selfish as everyone else, I started this academy to rise above the school that failed me. Instead, I oversaw a greater injustice than-"

Tansen struggled for a bit, the words like daggers pointed at his heart. Taking a deep breath, he plunged them directly into their target.

"Than my old academy head. When I was tested and the call of greed touched my ears, I proved myself no better than her. I've come so far, done so much, achieved things most could only dream of, and I still failed."

With a twirl of sapphires and the black kimono's fabric, Tansen turned around to leave the scion housing area to return to his office. To those that looked at him, he was the same stoic, powerful man he had always been known as throughout these lands. But on the inside, he felt more lost than he had at any time during his travels across unfamiliar jungles and the aimless streets of foreign cities.