A true warrior of justice would not allow injustice to continue within their gaze. Even if there was a greater good to be had, failing to protect those within their sight was a poor excuse. The Swirling Swarm made this particrly difficult as it was difficult to tell which sides were most unjust, and their crimes were often perpetrated spontaneously and with swift violence.
However, there were also times where things were so simple that nobody had to think about it and they could simply react. One such asion came to the Xiopia as a child staggered through the streets, praying for help.
Not asking, because even a young child would know better. There simply wasn’t any help to be had in the territory of the Swirling Swarm. Everyone stood out for their own interests. Perhaps they might fall into temporary groups for certain benefits, but it would neverst. Those who were concerned about safety were too vulnerable to survive.
“Please…” the weak voice prayed to no one and nothing. “Someone… anyone…”
The lone child was being hounded by an older human. The fact that they carried a half loaf of stolen bread didn’t change the situation any. It was entirely possible that the pursuer wasn’t even the proper possessor of the aforementioned sustenance.
“Save me.”
The child fell face first into an alleyway, seeing nothing but scraps of garbage and a dead end. Tears streamed down their face- though they hardly had the energy or sustenance for any such thing.
“Your words won’t help,” said the one following after them. “There are no gods here.”
The figure spoke as they punched out with a fist, one surrounded by sufficient upper energy to turn the child with barely a scrap of cultivation into a paste. The fist was going to hit the ground right next to the child, but that wouldn’t make a difference with the aura surrounding it. A horrible cracking noise came as fist impacted stone. The child opened their eyes to see a shocked face. An adult human too confused and afraid to remember to scream out in pain or terror. A stter of blood coughed onto their face. This, at least, was of little concern to the child. Blood was nothing new. The corpse atop them was quite an inconvenience. They considered how they would extricate themself and decided they couldn’t. They ate the bread.
It was the official position of the Alliance that Domination cultivators weren’t gods. The same was true of the void ants and the Great Queen. She was just one of them- an aspirational elder that had grown beyond where most could dream to reach, but a void ant nheless. Not a divinity.
Devours Viins didn’t know if some sort of god existed anywhere, but they clearly weren’t doing anything here. <em>She</em> was far less of a god than any other, but she happened to be here. Covered in blood as she and her people targeted the humans weakest points.
The adult’s energy was barely tolerable in vor and potency, but she had happily chewed it up anyway.
She and her royal guard crawled down, making no noticeable difference in the weight pressing down upon the child currently gnawing on bread so stale that they had to soak it in the blood dripping down on them.
This was the sort of thing that would traumatize a human. Devours Viins seriously doubted the child hadn’t <em>already</em> been traumatized merely by existing in this ce.
Moving humans was so difficult. Void ants simply didn’t have the mass for it. The queen would probably have to gather half her nest to make any sort of significant effect on that. She shouldn’t have dispersed all of the adult’s energy. Some of that could have been manipted to move the body.
Devours Viins simply wasn’t proficient enough to tug around ambient energy to create the same effect. Her mother had tried to teach her, but she needed more time and practice. Another decade or two and she might manage it, or a period of intense focus.
The child wasn’t dead yet. That meant <em>some</em> cultivation. Xiopia simply didn’t allow for humans to live without energy. Some were born with it, others sheltered by it for those rare souls among the Swirling Swarm that retained parenting instincts.
Devours Viins carefully inspected the child’s dantian. From the outside, of course. There wasn’t another way that wouldn’t be fatal. There was certainly something there, but it was idle. She began to poke and prod as much as she could from her position, calling upon her royal guard to aid her.
The child sensed something happen with their energy, and eyes focused on Devours Viins. In turn, the child strained their neck, turning their head away and bringing the bread to the furthest point they could manage while still consuming it. No fear of horrible, energy devouring monsters. Perhaps no capacity for it. Just hunger.
The child eventually finished the food. Then they began struggling to try to wiggle out from under the body. However, even with limbered energy they seemed incapable. At any moment another human could take interest… but they probably wouldn’t help even if they did.
Devours Viins designated her royal guard to remain while she flew off into the city. She had to take careful paths out of the eyelines of the myriad humans to avoid notice. Anonymity though ack of energy only served as a defensive feature until attention was drawn. Surely <em>some</em> of the humans would recognize a void ant and react appropriately. Or at least, as they were historically ustomed.
Madiha was not pleased to be pulled away from her current activities. She was even less pleased when Devours Viins instructed her to follow without exining precisely why. “There is an important task that requires a human,” she exined.
Traditionally, humans were far more concerned about individuals than void ants. That was generally true, even for Devours Villians. However, that was not because they were callous or uncaring. Most void ants weren’t people. Missions had to bepleted.
Those who were chosen to be infiltrators had special qualifications that made them less like the general poption of the Alliance. They weren’t chosen for ack of empathy. Indeed, their empathy might even need to be especially developed. They were also trained to set aside unnecessary feelings for the sake of the mission.
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“Move this body,” Devours Viins signed.
Madiha grabbed a section of clothing and tossed the body onto her shoulder. “Where should I carry it to?” she asked. Then she heard a gasp. “... You could have told me there was a kid.” Madiha tossed the corpse to the side, correctly determining the reason she was called upon.
“You were moving with sufficient haste already,” Devours Viins countered. “This young human almost died.”
Madiha had some words about potentiallypromising the mission. If she’d said them, then <em>she</em> mightpromise the mission. She turned around. “Did you kill them?”
“No,” Madiha said as she began to walk away.
The child vaulted to their feet. “I’m Taj.”
Madiha ignored them. Her steady strides were too much for the child to keep up with her even at a desperate pace. At least, so she thought. She made her way through a crowd, people pressing against each other. Her training allowed her to keep a steady pace without disying an untoward amount of energy usage. Letting herself be annoyed by brushing against others would be too little- people here didn’t tolerate annoyances, even though they also <em>had</em> to. Moving at her actual maximum speed among the people would have been too much.
The child- Madiha <em>refused</em> to remember the name- somehow managed to keep up. She should have noticed them, but she couldn’t properly spread her energy senses any distance. It made sense that the child could move between people more easily due to their small size. What were they, six years old? No, quite a bit older but malnourished. Standing at all in the heavy gravity was a feat.
“You saved me,” the child said when they caught Madiha in an alley, about to return to the prior spying operation.
“I did not,” Madiha said. “I just fleeced a body.” She had, technically. It was part of her cover. No self-respecting Swirling Swarm cultivator would <em>not</em> rifle through the pockets of a corpse if they got that close.
“You picked it off me on purpose.”
“I picked it <em>up</em> on purpose. To see if there was anything of value underneath. There was just a kid.” Madiha red. The kid was probably going to die. If she took them in, they’d probably <em>both</em> die. She couldn’t always be there, so maybe it would just be the kid.
“You didn’t even check my pockets.”
“You just don’t have anything.”
Madiha felt a nip on her energy. She flicked her eyes over. “You don’t meet with the other agents enough,” Devours Viins signed. “You need another friend. Or at least a non-enemy.”
“A burden,” Madiha dered.
“I won’t be,” the kid responded. “If you teach me just a little. I got some energy, I just don’t know how to cultivate safely. I can watch your back.”
“I don’t need a kid to watch my back. I have energy for that.” The queen nipped her energy again. “Stop that.”
“You stop that,” Devours Viins said. “This is a human child that isn’t corrupted by the aura here. You need to make sure that remains true.”
Madiha grunted. “Go away.”
“... Are you talking to the ant?” the kid asked.
““No.”” Madiha red at him while Devours Viins also responded.
“... Why’d he shake his head then?”
“Bugs just wiggle around,” Madiha said.
Clearly, the void ant wasn’t interested in preserving her cover as much as she was correcting Madiha. “Bugs is derogatory. Tell the child I am female.”
Madiha flicked her energy at the void ant, speaking in barely proficient energy sign. “It was dismissive on purpose. Go away.”
“What was that?” the kid asked. “What were you doing with your energy?”
“Their passive senses are good,” Devours Viinsmented. “Taj isn’t even dead yet. That shows great talent. Think of what you could do with a young talent, molding a false aura from the beginning of cultivation. It’s not even hical experimentation because they’re asking for it and will die otherwise.”
“I don’t have time,” Madiha said.
“You’ve been here for <em>years</em>. This isn’t going to end soon.”
“I’ll just watch,” Taj- <em>the kid</em>-mented. “Just don’t stab me.”
“Fine. Whatever. I’m not going to protect you though,” Madihamented.
At the time, she meant what she said. But even though she was mostly truthful, humans changed over time.
-----
“I don’t even have anything!” Tajined to the ants snuggled in their tangled hair. “But people always want to steal from me.”
The ants couldn’t respond from their position, but that didn’t matter. The human child was just venting anyway. Somewhere away from people, which was to say around a corner or two. Visible weakness was rapidly taken advantage of.
Taj had managed to squeeze out a few lessons from Madiha. Knowing they were supposed to be storing energy in their <em>dantian</em> and also using some of it to temper specific parts of their body was very useful. Being able to observe it happening was great.
It was still hard though. Taj had to stay standing up, in case they needed to run. Sitting down and meditating was for people who were strong enough to murder people sneaking up on them. Taj couldn’t take enough of the local energy for anyone to really notice yet, so people probably wouldn’t get too annoyed, but anyone passing by could want to exploit them.
The ants would protect Taj, but they could only go so far. Taj could still get punched in the face- even if all upper energy was peeled away, momentum remained. Any adult would have a full andplete Body Tempering. Getting hit <em>hurt</em>.
Madiha said that healing injuries was also good training. It was awful.
Taj had never experienced a day that was <em>just</em> awful before running into the ants and Madiha. They weren’t going to give up the chance to grab new lessons whenever they could. Taj didn’t even care if the ants were just going to eat themter. They could handle that when they tried. Would they go for the eyes first? They usually went <em>inside</em> the humans they killed, but they didn’t seem to eat anything.
Taj did their best to train before going to look for food. Then,ter, there would be a lesson with Madiha so they could be told how they were screwing up in Body Tempering. Apparently, there were limitless ways to do things wrong.
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