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Would I even know it if I was being controlled?"" Oh yeah. You're way beyond being controlled through proximity and casual effect. It would take a concentrated action of direct force to subjugate you first, and then impose controls, and you'd feel each and every one— Oh! Set down there. That's a good spot." Mark decided to take that at face value for now. He aimed at the ground where she pointed. It was a boring part of the land, about 5-ish kilometers away from the death cave.

Normally, Mark would have asked 'why there', but he was pretty sure he was going to find out, and this was Second Princess Walaria Aluatha of the Aluatha Empire, who could view the past and who was like 100 years old and very, very strong, and Mark decided that even if she had de-aged herself in a blatant bid to be more personable to him… He needed to be a bit more proper. At least a bit! Holy shit what the fuck was he doing here— Anyway.

The trench that Aurora had carved from the Shine to the death cave and beyond was a 500-ish meter wide canyon straight through the land, in a gentle curve. The cave itself had been sitting up in some low hills, but now those low hills had a wide canyon carved through them. The trench's edges had mostly fallen in, exposing orange and brown dirt and other things. Big boulders. Other caverns. The death cave was completely caved in. It had been filled with black death mana, but that stuff mostly billowed away.

There were daily bombings of the place, via Powers and such, to keep it clear. Stuff was still spawning in the darker parts of the area down there. Mark hovered about a hundred meters above a grove of trees about 5. 5 kilometers north of the caved-in death cave. The trees here were untouched by Aurora's destruction, and the land wasn't burned by death fires or death water at all. There were monsters living here.

Mark felt those monsters as he descended, following the point of Walaria's vector, which was now getting rather indistinct as they got closer. She didn't know where they were going, only that they needed to go here, toward this grove and these monsters. Quark identified the monster moment before Mark did, because Quark noticed spider silk hiding between the trees, like tripwires—" Kill the spiders and clear the trees," Walaria said, as she let go of Mark's adamantium handle and stepped away, into the air.

Mark almost would have clipped her with his adamantium propellers, but he recognized her vector as moving away before she even spoke, so that did not happen. Mark still sweated a bit at her sudden disembark from his escort. She continued, "Complete destruction to a meter off of the ground. Leave the ground intact." A weird request, but Mark could already tell that Walaria knew something was here.

So Mark turned on the blender, passing his tri-toroid across his body and downward, to spin the blades outward into a whole bunch of blades about 5 meters apiece. And then he went down, falling a hundred meters to the ground, to the trees. He thunked three blades into the ground for support, and then he Unioned with Adamant and Ethereal, and began doing what needed to be done, apparently.

Quark registered the spider colony as one that was marked for keeping by the records in the settlement, so Mark knew what he was facing, and it was a bunch of normal forest spiders with a penchant for trapping. They had big brown and black bodies, maybe a meter across, and they collected silk into their paws and threw it at targets. The spiders threw thread at Mark as he got within range of the treetops, but Mark cut them down, spinning fast, and then faster. Trees became mulch. Spiders became dead.

And then Mark got to cutting more than killing as he switched to a Union of Purity/Impurity, focusing on everything he was cutting down. With an application of concentration, Mark got rid of all the broken things underneath him, leaving stumps and bush bottoms, and he threw all of that impurity outward, into the lands outside of the immediate area. The trees here did not grow. The trees outside grew very big, very fast.

The newly-cleared grove of trees was about 60 meters wide by 20 meters long, nestled into a downward undulation in the ground, and Walaria wasn't sure what she was looking for so Mark cut and cleaned up the entire place. Mark was done within five minutes. There was still debris, but there wasn't much of it— Quark noticed something. It was only most of a tree stump. Mark had sliced through it and felt it was a little bit different from the rest, but he hadn't really seen it until Quark marked it out.

A sheared-off pipe was in the center of the tree. Holy shit. An installation? Unmarked? Or hidden in the settlement records? The grove of trees and the monsters here were marked as 'keep'. So did the settlement know about this place, or not? Walaria stepped down onto the air next to Mark, saying, " That would be what I was looking for." She told Mark, "Now do what you want to do."" Are you seeing how I work? Or doing something else?"" Mostly the first thing." Mark nodded, then asked Quark, "Quark.

What's the settlement have to say about this installation in the woods here? Is it part of the marked-to-keep spiders?" Walaria went, "Ohhh… they were marked for keeping… Oh well. I'll put in a work order to replace the area when we're done." Mark added, "Group speaker, Quark" Quark said, "The spiders were accepted monsters, but not for any particular reason.

According to the records, which are now being combed over by a great many people in the command center, this place was marked for keeping by House Exatech, specifically their eldest son, the Ranger Vincent Exatech. His last known presence in the area was 2 months ago, and then 16 days ago to reaffirm the 'keep'." Mark looked at the clean-cut pipe in the middle of the stump and said, "There's either a bomb down there, or a hideout. Probably just a hideout… Can you see a normal entrance, Quark?

It might just be a hideout." Mark was already looking around for any suspicious boulders or square patches of grass that could lift up and expose an entrance tunnel— "Ah. Thanks, Quark." Quark had outlined a low boulder to the side that was mostly sunken into the ground. The grass next to it was plastic. Mark went over to the boulder and found a latch on the side of the rock that he… paused before he opened. He looked over to Walaria, who was walking in the air next to him."

Apologies for asking again, but do I need to worry about you?"" I don't believe the place is trapped, but if I'm proven wrong then this is a bigger deal than I assumed it was. But no; I'm not in any danger here." Mark nodded, and then he stiffened his adamantium shell, securing himself completely. Adamantium, empowered by Mark's Union of Adamant and Ethereal, and its own general power, did not flex at all. As long as there were no holes at all in his shell, he was immune from shockwaves.

He also couldn't hear shit, at least not normally; his ears were encased in solid adamantium. Mark could still feel through his adamantium, though, but not his hardened shell, so he put some droplets of soft adamantium near his head. This did not work that well at all. Mark had not managed to be able to listen through his adamantium yet, but it was better than absolute silence. All Mark could hear inside of his 'bomb suit' was his heartbeat, his breathing, and a dull sound outside, like nothing much at all.

Just some dead wilds. Quark provided cameras to the outside, though, and Mark could still use his adamantium like hands and fingers. Mark opened the latch on the hideaway— The fake boulder suddenly snapped open and stayed open for 2 seconds, and then it slammed shut. Looked like it slammed shut rather violently, too. Probably to clip off curious spider legs? Maybe. No bomb, though. Mark opened and shut the thing a few times, and each time it slammed open and shut.

He got a look down the tunnel on the other side, and it was a smooth-ish twisting stairwell, almost like a slide. The slide part was right ahead, but the stairs were on the left, and inside the same space. The place had light and power, and there were screens posted to the right that showed off some views of the forest nearby. Several of the views were from the boulder's POV, so the boulder had cameras inside of it. Most of the views were static; 'Lost Connection'.

Mark reformed his adamantium into normal scales, saying, "My hypothesis is that Vincent uses this area as a hideaway for whatever reason."" Let's go in!" Walaria said, and then she touched the handle and promptly slid down into the hiding hole.

"… Okay?" The boulder slammed shut. Mark tapped the handle and then slipped down into the tunnel quickly, though he wasn't as careful as he should have been with his adamantium. He got into the tunnel fine, but he scraped up the slide and he ripped his adamantium through the roof, making holes.

"… I'm sure it's fine," Mark told himself." Shall I offer your standard recompense for damage to property?" Quark asked." Not right now, and not if they're goblin collaborators." Walaria was already ahead. Mark slipped down into a normal space. Looked… Normal? A big screen and video game console over there, a mini-kitchen, a bed… Or at least it would have been normal. There was a great big hole in the ground over there, like someone with a Stone Shaper Power had pushed forward and broken the ground to the sides.

It was dark in there. Also, now that Mark was looking, he saw the bed was unmade, someone had pissed all over the video game console, and the mini-kitchen was a mess. Also, there were electronics left scattered all over a workbench. And a great big firebomb sat in that corner, back by the slide/stairs leading down into the area. It looked homemade yet professional, and also unfinished.

According to the parts Quark was labeling in Mark's vision, all it had was a sparker and a trigger, and the sparker and trigger were working quite well, sparking into an empty space. They had crossed a laser line when they went inside, triggering the firebomb, but it had no fuel to ignite." Gas tank missing?" Mark asked, wondering how the hell could they miss installing the gas tank." It does line up with standard goblin-grunt craftsmanship, sir," Quark said.

Mark hummed— Walaria said, "Time to view the past~" If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. And then she cast her dreaming spell, and Mark was thrust into another memory. A goblin dug a hole through the side of the room, making a tunnel, moving quickly but not too quickly. Other goblins showed up into the space. One goblin played on the game system and another pissed on it when he couldn't play.

There were arguments and slapping, but nothing approaching a real fight. They were here on a mission and they did their mission well. They made the tunnel. The tunnel was a dark hole, impossible to see through, but that seemed unnecessary. And now Mark stood at the edge of the memory, looking in alongside Walaria. Walaria said, "This is the important part." Some necromancer goblins showed up. Two of them. Mark knew them as such because one had a small, ethereal white snake coiled around its arm.

The other had a deathly pallor to him, and his eyes were fully black. Also, they started conjuring something black at the edge of the memory, directly into the tunnel. The other goblins left, not wanting to stick around for the summoning. The necromancers yelled at them, but the other goblins pushed up the side of their lips, showing fang. The necromancers mirrored this gesture, and based on their hateful faces, Mark got the distinct feeling that the gesture was like flipping someone the bird.

The tunnel guys left; the job was unfinished. The snake-holding necromancer complained about the half-finished bomb sitting in the corner. The black-eyed one just shrugged. Mark got the distinct impression he was saying 'not my problem'. The necromancer goblins went back to conjuring black into the tunnel. The dream ended. Mark blinked, and he was fully back, out of the dream. His first question was a simple one, "Goblinhome?""

Oh yes," Walaria began walking up and out of the slide, saying, "We're going to House Exatech now." Mark followed Walaria out of the ground, though he had to wait for the boulder to slam shut before he could reopen it. Once he was out, he looked back at the boulder and said, "That probably munched a lot of spider legs." Walaria smirked.

"Handle, please!" Mark provided a handle, and then a flight back to the settlement. Mark remembered House Exatech as he flew toward the target in his vision, about five blocks east of Mark's team house. Mark knew none of the people at all, but he remembered that they were involved in some scandals in the last goblin incident near the settlement. Sally had brought it up back then; Some other House had accused them of poaching some acreage or some animal. Some light mana animal.

All Mark really remembered was that Sally had brought it up and said she didn't trust them. It might have been right before they went after the mushroom mini-kaiju, when it had been a choice between the mini-kaiju, some goblin hunts, and investigating the poaching by House Exatech. House Exatech was already surrounded by the 'general guard' of the settlement.

The settlement didn't really have a guard, but a lot of people were asking for one, and it was probably gonna be led by the guy standing down there who was currently the tactical unit leader for the settlement, Bert Ironclad. Hovercars hovered. People knocked on the front door demanding answers. Yoro Windrunner was there, too, standing with Bert, looking like a very skinny intelligence officer next to Bert's immensity, which is what he was.

The turrets and self-defences in the private wall of the residence were currently in pieces, and three people inside the house were in the same room yelling at each other. Mark could feel their vectors, but he also heard them yelling. Mark landed on the front lawn. Walaria stepped forward. Every single person in the area turned toward her and bowed, like a wave of power passing through the area and triggering on every person. It wasn't even a vector…

or maybe it was so large of a vector that Mark simply couldn't tell it was around them. Mark's eyes went wide at that thought. That might have been wrong, but it could have been correct, too. Bert and Yoro stepped to the side, and the guy knocking on the door backed away. The door opened for Walaria without her touching it, or doing anything at all.

The three people in the house, who had been far in the back, were suddenly standing on the other side of the door, and the door was gone, the front half of the house opened. In a blink, they were all now standing on a front foyer that was partially inside of the house, with an overhang of the house overhead, and everyone was on brickwork flooring, including the residents of the house. It was sort of like what Eliot could do, but a lot more subtle and quick. Quark provided the names of the terrified people.

Ranger Vincent Exatech, the eldest son. Shepard Vincenzo Exatech, the father. Some girl Vincent's age, who was some visitor to the town. Quark had to do some digging to find out that she was Betty Style, and her recent social media had her in pictures with Vincent. They were dating, and they had been dating for a month. Quark noted, "Most of the family is missing and they are not in the settlement where records show they should be." Mark hummed a little at that. Walaria asked Mark, "What's that noise for?"" Uh!"

Mark said, "Quark told me that most of their family is missing, and they're not in the settlement like they should be. The girl has been dating Vincent for at least a month, according to her social media. She's Betty Style." Walaria nodded, and then turned back toward the Exatach family. She did not speak yet. She just stared. She focused on the girl. The girl's heartbeat spiked, her brain shorted, and she fainted. She fell onto a pile of cushions that had not been there a moment before. Walaria looked at the guys.

Vincent and Vincenzo maintained. The eldest son almost pissed himself in fear, but he held it in. The patriarch was having a freeze-response to his fear. Walaria still hadn't spoken yet. Yoro was very, very concerned for Mark, and everyone around them. Why was Yoro concerned for Mark? Mark would ask him later. But Mark was personally feeling fine. He had no idea what was really happening, but things were happening fast, and that seemed good? It was probably not good, actually. But it was happening…

Slowly, softly, Vincent fainted into a pile of pillows, too. Walaria focused on the patriarch of the Exatech family, her voice a command, "Talk about goblins." Vincenzo blanked, his vector practically cut, vanishing. And then he came back to himself, disbelief in his voice, "We kill them?!" Walaria hummed, then said, "Someone else will take over the interrogation. I've hit a dead end for my free time today. Be back later. Handle, Mark! And then back to the Society."

Mark extended a handle of adamantium and then they were in the air, flying back to Mage Society, while behind them the guard moved upon the Exatechs, and the girlfriend. Meanwhile, Walaria pointed to the roof of the arcanaeum. Mark took them through the illusion barrier, right onto the roof. Walaria stepped away and turned to Mark.

"No executions today. I would have preferred executions. They're simpler. House Exatech has a lot of issues with sabotage and theft, specifically they have 3 valid complaints against them with regard to that. One here, and two back in Crytalis. House Yarl, the people who filed the official complaint about Exatech here in the settlement, would have been my next visit, but they have a clean record, so they will not get a visit from me. Someone else will go there."

The goblin reveal is going to cause a whole lot of problems. Goblins always go for total war against humans when they can, which usually happens when one of them gets the idea in them to make us all into breeders. They call humans-used-as-breeder-fodder 'lacunas'. If you hear a goblin talk like that, kill them if you can, but beware the whole time, for they are likely truly strong, or connected. They use 'lacuna' over in Goblinhome. They don't call us 'humans' except when talking about us as capture targets."

That Lightbody goblin is back, you know. The one that got away. Grax is his name. I was thinking this could have been him, but it's worse. It's Goblinhome itself, looking our way." I'll hand this problem off to my brother, First Prince Doomo, in charge of the Interior, and also my father, Emperor Salvation.

They'll probably knock the problem down to size and prevent total war, but humans lose the most in total war, and goblins don't care about losses most of the time because they think they're immortal, one and all." You ready for a goblin war, if it comes to that?" Mark's emotions roiled within. He hadn't had time to process any of what had just happened. It wasn't a battle; it had been an investigation and a capture of a family in less than 30 minutes. But he knew what to do about war.

Black veins pulsed in the air, as Mark softly declared, "Kill all monsters." Walaria grinned and her eyes flickered with a kaiju's gaze, only briefly, and then she said, "A strong answer. It's appreciated." She added, "I'll have books delivered to the arcanaeum here for you, Mark. I want you to do a Union of Understanding and learn them fast, and then I want you to see about making a Sword of Empire for someone. I don't care who. You promised your friends swords, right? So make them some swords.

There are lots of mithrikinetics here in the settlement, so pick one and make friends with them, too, and make some good swords." I'll be seeing you." And then she opened a door in the thin air, into some grand hall somewhere, with pillars the sizes of ancient trees reaching up to golden light. The floor was polished white. Everything was old and magnificent and there were people on the other side by the hundreds. Mark barely felt the people.

Mostly he felt something like a kaiju on the other side, the entire world turning Mark's way, looking at him briefly, and then ignoring him in favor of Walaria— Mark caught a glimpse of Walaria's shoe, and then the door was closed. Mark stood upon the roof of Mage Society for a while, thinking." She knew what she was doing every single moment of all of that, didn't she," Mark openly mused.

"She even knew about the Exatech-controversy-thing Sally mentioned."" She might have an AI, too, sir," Quark said.

"But I think she was in communication with others, somehow."" I would tend to agree but her vector never went inward like it does when I focus on you… I think she either has a Mind Skill or she's just that good — Ah. And the Color Drop treatment is called 'Emperor's Child', so she's probably a Tri-Talent, too. But she's also fucking… intense." Mark didn't dislike her. … She'd make a good 'master' in Mage Society, maybe? Ugh. Mark hated that word.