[MA] 242. In Person (Patreon)

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Shen's previous teleportations between worlds—or maybe even galaxies or universes—had taken a while. This time, however, he was out of the teleportation's endless white space in less than three seconds.

When it ended, Shen stood on a white stone platform in the middle of an infinite sea. The platform was fifty-by-fifty yards, and a golden teleportation circle filled its entire extension. The endless ocean and clear skies were green, and a white sun on the skies was dozens of times bigger than Earth's. Only a gentle breeze blew, barely moving the waters.

Liya materialized beside him a second later. Surprisingly, she had gotten a haircut. It resembled Earth's military cut.

"What happened to you?" Shen asked.

"They unexpectedly found a weapon in my hair," she said. "How silly of me. This was my way of proving it was accidental. It's also my first lesson to you." She squinted her eyes. "Welcome to the Summit of Hypocrisy. Everything in here is about appearances and half-assed compromises.

"Everyone here will smile at you while seeking your death. It's a great opportunity to rid other races of their talents. However, they will try to pretend they are all nice people. They will also resent you if you don't pretend to believe them.

"Knowing you, prepare yourself for plenty of angry stares and promises of death. But promises aren't as dangerous as actual attacks. There are things you absolutely can't do. So, I'll explain Alliance etiquette for S-tier official occasions while we wait for whatever is coming."

Shen frowned.

While Liya's words hadn't changed much, her tone did. She sounded bossy and inconsiderate. He definitely didn't enjoy being talked to as if he was beneath her—though, hierarchically, he was. He also didn't like being ordered about by her now that they were in an almost-relationship.

They had just agreed that revealing themselves to the world would be stupid. Yet, now that he had experienced it first-hand, it left an even worse taste in his mouth.

It wasn't only a matter of pride but also Path. He believed in playing tricks against an enemy in battle. He did not believe in cowering in fear of what others would think of his relationship.

"I know that look," Liya said as her expression softened—but only a little. "You agreed this is necessary."

"I know," Shen replied.

Agreeing with it didn't make it any easier to swallow, though.

He took a deep breath and buried those emotions. They didn't disappear because he wasn't crushing the feelings that caused them: his feelings for Liya. They weren't many or overwhelming, but they were there, and he couldn't shut down his beliefs.

Liya nodded at him, acknowledging what he had just done. Then, the softness in her face reverted to the previous coldness. She placed her hand behind her back and looked away from him into the horizon.

"S-tier Alliance etiquette isn't complex or too obnoxious," she said. "You can speak however you want to whoever you want, as long as you aren't being blatantly aggressive. Whoever gets offended by different cultural speech or table manners in an alien assembly is an idiot who doesn't deserve your time anyway.

"What matters here are actions.

"Don't deploy your aura outside demonstrations—I'll explain them in a bit. Ever. If it touches anyone, it's considered an attack. I also won't deploy my domain. Furthermore, never wield any weapon or take cutlery over two feet away from where you found it.

"Don't enter a fight outside a demonstration. Even if attacked, defend yourself but don't counter-attack.

"Maintain a safe distance from everyone—no touching except to deliver a hit in a fight. If you touch the wrong race, anything could happen, from getting attacked to starting a war of obliteration to being forced into marriage by an A-rank.

"Don't betray anyone during a demonstration. Everyone here likes to pretend we're a big happy family selflessly fighting the big bad Void. If they believe you're too dangerous as a first-class talent to be allowed to grow when you can't be trusted, you'll be killed.

"And no, I won't be able to protect you. Most races treat first-class talents like the blessed children of the stars. They are protective. Many will temporarily change a talent's tutor to come to this place. Whoever can send a B-rank here will do so, and not their bottom feeders, either. A couple of A-ranks should also come. They will do whatever they can to kill you if you give them an excuse.

"More importantly, an S-rank will be overseeing the Summit. They won't be paying full attention, and likely won't try to kill you, either. However, they will stop me if I protect a treacherous little asshole. The S-rank is the greatest hypocrite of all.

"Don't enter any trade agreements or start any relationship of any kind. You will be taken advantage of. You don't have enough experience to avoid the pitfalls. If someone makes a really attractive offer, refer them to me—and I won't negotiate but refer them to the Triarchy instead. We must know our limits.

"Unless it's ordered of you due to a demonstration, don't go through any door frames in the Palace without me. Ever. Many will try to tempt you into it, but some places are lethal traps. To make matters worse, some such places also limit the rank of whoever can enter them, and removing such restrictions can take a while. I might not be able to save you on time."

She paused.

"That's about it," she added. "Now, you asked about demonstrations. Demonstrations are the things you'll be asked to do. Sometimes it's a fight to the death. Other times, it's a silly puzzle or challenge. Most will be trials with rewards, but not all of them. The organization under the S-rank in charge will tell you what you must do when the time comes."

"Why is it called a demonstration?"

"Supposedly, this Summit is for everyone to see the Alliance's talents. To give everyone hope and let us make connections to strengthen ourselves so our talents can grow more safely. Bullshit. They want you to display your power like a monkey in a zoo to better understand your strength and decide where and when to ambush you."

Liya's anger gave her obvious bias, but Shen didn't doubt her analysis. Humanity had also suffered under the Dreamer. Valentina had ignored Earth's protection and gotten to him. Obviously, he wouldn't take everything the Alliance told him at face value.

Liya treated him kindly in private, but this was still her. She had said she was sorry for his training, but she hadn't become a sweet little lady. She was still overbearing and filled with hatred.

Fortunately, none of that hatred was directed at him.

"Should I hide my power in the demonstrations, then?"

She shook her head. "No. Do your best. Weakness is a sin in the multiverse, and the punishment is death. You'll be attacked anyway, but showing strength might at least decrease the number of enemies willing to come. Your survival will be statistically greater if you awe your enemies instead of underperforming."

"Won't that cause them to send stronger assassins?"

"I suppose," she replied. "I found it better to go for the better prizes. Better prizes make you grow stronger faster, while tricking your enemies into sending weaker enemies at first will gain you only a little extra time. You can choose your own path after they announce the prizes."

Before he could think about it, the sea shook violently. Liya sighed. "Looks like they'll start with a demonstration. Good luck." Then, she disappeared.

= - = - =

Liya didn't teleport herself away. Instead, she was pulled by someone's Realization.

Then, she found herself in a vast open temple. White and golden colors dominated the floor and pillars, and it had no ceiling. The materials involved were only G-tier, and nothing was enchanted. In a way, that only made everything more impressive.

Sheer engineering beyond what humanity could grasp had allowed the seven-yard-thick white pillars, decorated with golden tribal patterns, to rise hundreds of miles into the sky. The very G-tier stone-like material they were made of should not be capable of supporting the weight of everything above it. Yet, it stood firmly, defying gravity and physics to declare that place's glory.

It was a statement of omnipresent might. Liya had been forced to come by an S-rank, but their power wasn't limited to magic. They had mastered everything there was to master under the sky—and beyond. Even their G-tier pillars could reach the heavens and support their weight.

And then came the statement of wealth: chairs.

Precisely twenty-four wooden armchairs—and they looked like chairs, not thrones—formed a circle, facing each other in the middle of the temple.

There was nothing eye-catching about them...

...except the overwhelming pressure they released. Twenty-three were A-rank, and one of them was S-rank.

Liya had to curse in her heart. The assholes were telling her they could waste resources and expertise to build random furniture stronger than almost all items she had access to.

She had materialized already sitting on an A-rank chair. Except for one A-rank and the S-rank chairs, every other became occupied with hers.

In the Alliance, some races were too big or too small. The five-foot-tall chairs were enchanted to deal with that. Liya felt her body being set at precisely the right height to fill it. She could've stopped it from affecting her, but she wasn't as stupid as the Weaver—an actual titled A-rank—who attempted to, then was slammed with an S-rank willpower attack and submitted.

The Weaver was from a rare half-phased species, the omnispider. It was a grand name they enforced on everyone—or they went to war against them. The drow hadn't cared enough to make an issue of it.

Omnispiders existed both in normal space and phase space. When seeing the Weaver in this plane, she looked as if four nine-mile-wide tarantulas had been superimposed and rotated in random vectors. But as you kept looking, you kept feeling they were rotated elsewhere. They didn't blink in and out of existence but existed in a way that standard space couldn't fully depict.

Full of itself—some would say rightfully so—the Weaver had refused the armchair's enchantment that attempted to make it smaller. The next moment, S-rank willpower slammed against it. And then, it allowed the chair to change it into a three-feet-tall tarantula with a non-changing physical body.

The "omni" in its species name clearly had nothing to do with omnipotence.

None paid special attention to it. Instead, they focused on meeting the competition.

Right now, everything was being unveiled to them. Now, they could see which other races had first-class talents. Everyone had hidden this secret as well as they could, but there was no keeping secrecy in here.

Liya was surprised to see a high elf occupying one of the other chairs. Either the Triarchy hadn't known of that or hadn't informed her. Even more surprising was to find that almacores, a race of spiritual manticores, occupied two chairs. It made them incredibly lucky.

No orc was present, and of the races the drow were currently waging war against, only an alai was present. It looked like a fist-sized ball of pink hair.

A few moments after Liya's arrival, someone materialized on the still-empty S-rank armchair.

Or rather, they made their presence known.

Reality couldn't physically represent infinity-edgers, and the chair didn't force it to take form like the omnispider. The infinity-edger couldn't be seen, smelled, or heard. Even Liya's domain, if deployed, would only find an infinitesimal dot where it stood.

Yet, when he made his presence known, she felt the Laws of Reality twisting and Concepts cry in agony. Space was infinite yet not, and trying to contain an infinity-edger hurt existence itself. That such a species could even exist was a paradox that Liya's mind hurt to try to understand.

But more importantly, she felt her host's power because the S-rank in charge had come in person.

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