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 A Tarthan’s body is not naturally strong enough to support itself. The great, hidden reserves of aether within them is what has kept their bodies in peak condition. Now, with that aether being drained from their bodies, they find themselves struggling to move as well as they did before.

Rat is the least affected of them all. His body is just smaller and more comparable to that of a regular human’s, so he does not need nearly as much aether to fuel himself.

Even Hero is struggling to stay stand on his own two feet by himself.

Not only did he just toss away aether, the ability for others to use magic which includes healing, and his own powers which could have conquered this city on its own, but he has essentially reduced Tarthans to slightly stronger humans whom can barely move in their own bodies.

“What’s happening, Hero?” Val asks after coming up to him.

He explains what he believes is wrong with himself and the other Tarthans.

Val has even more reason to dislike the choice he made now. He just took away the strongest would-be fighters of her followers, and they are supposed to have an important role in the upcoming battle. Instead, they have been reduced to oversized humans without any proper armor that could fit them. They have little to no training in using proper weapons to make up for their reduced strength as well.

She is still confident that they can take the city, but without Tarthans at their full strength and healers to support everybody post-battle, this is going to be far worse than she feared.

But, she cannot blame Hero for the choice he has made. She knows that she can’t. She wants to, her mind is screaming at her to scold Hero for what he has done and how many deaths he may now be responsible for, but she knows she can’t.

If she does, she would just be another person with no respect for other’s free will.

Only time will tell whether he was right or wrong. All she can do until then is wait and watch to see what happens.

She truly hopes that Hero has made the right decision no matter how impossibly irresponsible it seems right now.

For now, Hero focuses on helping the other Tarthans.

Charles is the one having the most difficulty. He is the largest one out of them all, and he appears to be having the most of a struggle in getting up onto his feet.

Hero can only hope that, in time, their bodies will adapt.

He assumes that he isn’t struggling as much as the others are because of how much longer he was wearing those cuffs than the rest of them. His body is already used to having a lack of aether within it. While this an even more extreme case of that, his body has still had more of a chance to build up without being overly reliant on aether.

Aside from Hero and Rat not being as affected as most of the rest are, Vsas and the other Tarthan women are not as affected as much either. Due to already having smaller bodies more on par with those of regular human women, aether was never as important for them to keep their bodies going. They may lack the superhuman strength they once had, but unlike most of the men, they are not fumbling all over the ground as they try to figure out their new limits.

Despite this actually being a serious deal, Hero sees Vsas… teasing Black. She’s pushing him around every time he tries to stand up and even laughing at him! The growing frustration on his face just makes her laugh even harder, which makes him try harder, which makes him get even more frustrated when he fails which makes her laugh even louder.

One cycle may have ended, but a new one has begun.

“Hero,” Fara says, standing beside Hero, “why do they seem so happy? I would have… I would have thought that they were going to be upset, you know? But they don’t really look worried about it.”

“If ya don’t mind me answerin’ for your man there,” Rat chimes in, “it’s freeing and refreshing. It’s not like we’ve ever had a true challenge outside Tartha. We’re not so much stronger than everybody and everything else anymore, which means we’ve got some real challenges ahead of us which every one of us loves, and it also means we’re not going to have a bunch of masters chasing us down trying to slap cuffs on us. Even if they do put those cuffs back on us, they ain’t going to do anything.”

It makes sense when Fara thinks about it. Hero has only ever truly faced mental and psychological challenges. If he wasn’t so bored from how easy everything was back during Havetedge, he might never have fallen so deeply into being Alpha. Furthermore, without such innate strength, they are no more valuable than any other slave.

The exiled and lost of Tartha will no longer have to worry about being hunted down for slavery.

“What happens to all the Tarthans in Tartha? Don’t you need your strength to fight the monsters there?” Fara asks, concern clear in her voice.

 Hero answers this one. “Aether gave us the strength to kill monsters by ourselves. Now… change is possible. Tribes will have to work together, they can’t just exile weak children anymore since they’ll all be weaker, and they will have to fight together if they want to survive. They will survive.”

“What the sir said,” Rat agrees.

Fara realizes what this truly means for Tarthans. From what she was shown in those memories of the past, the Ascended who fled and sealed away their powers never truly changed. They might have stopped themselves from being able to manipulate aether and use magic, but in the end, their aether is what made their bodies grow so large and powerful. It was also responsible for their naturally-enhanced healing ability. They still had a massive advantage because of their aether, even if they were not consciously using it.

Their enhanced strength and ability to heal meant that they were strong. The strong did not need the weak, so the weak were exiled. Tarthan society ended up never being too different from Ascended society. If anything, the Ascended who became Tarthans just reverted to how they were before civilization.

In time, the Tarthans would have eventually become just like the Ascended again. If Hero would have accepted that gift, all Tarthans would just become Ascended again and everything would return to how it was thousands of years ago.

But now they are forced to evolve and adapt differently than before. Without aether, they must rely on one another, innovation, and strategy instead of just brute-forcing their way through life.

Some may die during the process of transforming their culture, but in the end, it is for the better of both them and the world as a whole.

“You were right, Hero. You’ve changed the world,” Fara says, hugging his arm. Sloo does the same with his other arm.

“I’m not going to get any shorter than I already am, am I, sir?” Rat asks.

“Don’t think so,” Hero says.

“Good. Alright, I’m going to go find the dwarf. He’s probably drinking now that he’s realized he’s useless now.”

Hero wouldn’t quite call Wohran useless since he has seen how the dwarf can fight with a mace and shield, but that’s just the relationship those two have.

Everybody looks up at the towers when they hear a loud cracking sound come from them.

Fissures run up along the towers from their bases to their tops.

More and more cracks appear in them.

“What’s happening?” Fara asks.

“Her limbs are breaking. They are her connection to our world. Now she’s breaking away which means all aether is gone already,” Hero explains what he believes is correct.

The first tower snaps in half. Its top half crashes down into the city beneath it and sends debris and dust flying into the air.

The second tower does the same.

And then the third tower.

Watching tower by tower break and fall is bittersweet. It signals that this is now a world where its people truly have free will and the ability to shape the future – to bring about change after having broken the cycle, but it also means that they are being left.

It can be felt in the hearts of every living being across the world.

Aorilae, their creator – their mother, is leaving them.

The beings of this world are now truly independent for the first time in its history.

The lower halves of the towers collapse next.

A cloud of dust covers the city of Lord’s Towers.

When the smoke clears, they can see that one of the towers landed on the city’s wall and opened a path into the fortified city.

Given how Val has already had several of her plans ruined, she is not going to let this opportunity escape her.

The first event of the new world will be that of fighting for change and freedom.

“Everybody, charge with me!” Val shouts, getting atop her trusty steed, Justice, to lead the charge.