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Sitting on a rock, staring at the sky, Mark's thoughts flowed in and out as he tried to take stock of his wants and desires, as he looked out at the little garden and the hidden grotto that Grax and Goofy had built. It was a nice little garden in the middle of nowhere. No monsters, either. Sigils glowed faintly blue on the underside of some of the rocks here and there, where a passing drone or superhero wouldn't notice the glow at all.

Based on a casual reading of the sigils Mark was pretty sure they were anti-notice and anti-monster sigils. So that explained that. Nothing explained how unmoored Mark felt right now. Usually he was so solid about what he wanted. He knew, for a fact, he wanted the Reset Quest to happen. He wanted a peaceful world… and yet, aside from the horrors of all the death a Reset would cause, if the monsters left then Mark would be a soldier without a war. That would be tough.

He could get by with the Hero/Villain Program, but it would be a thin soup compared to the feast that was fighting kaijus. Killing kaiju was proper heroism… And thinking of heroism, Goofy had Heroism as a Natural Power! How cool was that? So cool. And yet… Goofy might be a good guy, but he was going to get himself mired in the facts of all the other goblins, and he was going to have to compromise himself many times over to remain 'Heroic'.

Goofy would struggle to be heroic, and he would always fail, and that was sad. What was his other Power, anyway? A Body Power, right? … What Power did Mark want to get to 100, to birth his own demon to create a power upon the manasphere itself, creating a whole new 'sigil', or whatever he decided? Other people could call upon whatever he created and enact a fraction of his own power upon… whatever they needed to apply power to. How fucking strange was that! Where would he even start?

Adamantiumkinesis, Union, Necromancer now, and finally Adamantine Immortal. All of them were at 99. Technically Mark had Arch and Mind at 99 as well, but those were at '99'. The others were at '099', according to his Status and the Systems, so they could actually reach 100. Mark had always wondered if 100 was something truly special. He had seen a few other people at 100, though not many at all. Maybe… 4 people, total?

Aurora Valen always kept herself away from his scanners at Dawncoast, and the world bent around her making scanning difficult, according to Eliot, but Supreme Telekinesis was at 100 Kinetic, for sure. Mark wasn't too sure about her Telepathy, or even if she had a Third Power, but the General of the Settlement, of Dawncoast, for sure had 100 in Supreme Telekinesis… Probably. Glorious Man probably had 100 in Supreme Body, too, though Mark was always too star struck to really look at him closely.

Timeweaver, Zaid, had purposefully stood in Mark's scanners at Dawncoast, giving Mark a full view of his Power Levels. Zaid had 100 in Mind and Arch. 99 in everything else. So Zaid had met his own demon twice. What were Zaid's 'indelible marks' upon the manasphere? What magics did he create? And the Royal Family, from Walaria to her sister Kalimara, her brother Doomo, and their parents, Empress Cataclysm and Emperor Salvation, for sure had demons of their own… but maybe not?

Addavein had 100 in every category, but Mark was pretty sure that dragons and kaiju did not make demons, themselves, and were instead a demon inhabiting and melding with another. But did Addashield have 100 in Adamantiumkinesis, at least? Perhaps? … No. He got his demon Kanda pretty early in his magical career. Addashield and Addavein probably never created a demon of their own. … Actually, the only person that Mark knew had 100 in anything was Zaid. Speak of the devil." Hello, Zaid." Mark looked to the left.

"I was just thinking about you."" Hey, Mark," Zaid said, sitting on a boulder. He was wearing his brown and gold pinstripe suit, and it looked like he had a pair of gifts. One of them was a shopping bag with some blue tissue paper sticking out of the top. He set the bag next to Mark, saying, "For when you can wear proper clothes again. Did you like the islands?"" They're going to have a civil war later, but they're going to throw off the goblin incursion for now. Otherwise they were nice.

Need to go back to get a soulbook, though. Is Wongod targeting the rest of the world since our communications broke down?"" He's planning on it, but that's why I'm here." Zaid thumbed at a second gift, saying, "I can't hold that for long. It doesn't like me. But it'll like you." It was a long, wooden box, leaning against the wall. Mark reached over with some fingers of adamantium and opened the box, revealing the 6-sided Pillar of God from Aluatha.

He picked up the staff, expecting it to flood him with absolute anger, like it did to everyone else who tried to pick it up, and yes, that did happen, but the anger rapidly faded, like a startled pet realizing that it had nothing to be scared about. Mark took a deep breath, and then he held the staff in his real hands— The staff slipped into Mark's soulhouse and leaned against the door, ready to be picked up, but for now, it wanted to just stay there.

It was like a lost puppy that had finally found a comfortable bed, and now it zonked out. Mark stared at his empty hand for a moment, and then he asked, "How hard was it to get from the current user?"" They keep it in a sealed cave until it's needed. A whole lot of wards. It was easier to steal it by promising the staff itself that I would give it to an elf than it was to try and convince anyone else about what I needed it for," Zaid added, "I am already being yelled at, but this was necessary, so there you go.

How is it acting inside your soulhouse?"" Kinda relaxed. Like a dog on a porch."" How are you doing right now?"" Unmoored… Is that Power Level 100 Trial and demon-creation real?"" Yup. Almost no one even knows about it because getting to 100 is practically unique, but everyone who gets close to it learns about it. Doesn't happen to archmages." Mark nodded.

"They already have 100 in everything, and they already have a demon… So where did all the demons come from? A long time ago?"" Most of them are tens of thousands of years old, yeah. Most come from the time of Seed and the Dreamer and the Dragon King. There are still some demons being made these days, but not many. I'm rather certain that Leash is waiting for your demon to be born so he could work through that guy to kill Kanda. You're a lost cause for Leash, but your demon will be useful.

Thrashtalon thinks so, too."" Ah… I hadn't considered… I really will create a demon, huh? I suppose Tartu told us all that it was possible but… Will I have any control over them at all?" Zaid was about to answer… but he paused, and then stood up, saying, "When you first meet it it'll be more like what the elves called 'homemaker daemons', and less like the demons you know of today."

"… So don't force it to be a demon by doing evil things to it, like telling it to kill itself," Mark said, reading between the lines. Zaid continued, "When you're ready to go on dryad execution runs into Okuana, let me know. I already got most of the details sorted with Derek." And then Zaid flickered and vanished. Mark checked out the shopping bag. It was underwear, a shirt, and shorts. Basic stuff. Mark didn't wear any of it yet. Adamantium pants were fine, for now.

He closed his eyes slightly, checking out the Enforcer Staff sitting on the porch, leaning against the wall beside his front door, and then he opened his eyes all the way and the staff was in his hand. The Enforcer's Staff was, perhaps, the first truly solid thing that Mark had gripped in a long time. He squeezed a little, and the staff got firmer, matching strength for strength. Mark let go, and the staff stood on the ground and floated a little, almost reaching for him without actually moving at all.

Mark reached out to it with Adamantiumkinesis and the staff stood at full attention, ready for action. With a casual twist of his kinesis, Mark had the staff twirling and then expanding and stretching and then condensing. A little push inward made the staff flicker into his soulhouse, while a similar pull outward made the staff appear where Mark wanted it to appear. Mark grinned.

"Well aren't you responsive." The staff, of course, said nothing.

"… Can you make a spear?" The staff did not respond to Mark with words. The staff tapered one end of itself to something almost like a tip, while expanding its base into something a lot wider. Mark reached for it and it flexed back together, acting almost as if it was a cartoon object, or a polygonal surface in a video game; it stretched and flexed and shifted like Mark was pulling and pushing at corners of a wire mesh, like he had seen Eliot do sometimes when he was designing buildings.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. … Mark decided to do a stress test, casting his attention on the staff upward and downward— The staff responded at the speed of thought, suddenly plummeting into the ground but also stretching way, way up into the sky, far beyond Mark's sight, looking like a sudden line in the world." Wongod's scouts are going to see that," Grax said, looking out the window, right alongside Goofy.

They had looked out when Zaid had appeared, and while Goofy was star struck Grax was terrified. Now, his terror came home to roost, as his exact fear suddenly manifested in a new way. People had discovered his home with Goofy, and now Grax knew he needed to abandon his home. Mark gripped the staff and shrunk it down into a palm-sized hexagon that he put on a thumb and flicked like it was a coin. It stayed in the air where he flicked it, spinning over and over again, almost happy.

Mark said, "I think I know how to take out the Spires now, if you think it would work." Grax's eyebrows went up in surprise.

"Ah… Yeah. Yes. If you can control it that well already, then it will work." Goofy asked, "What will work?" Mark reached out and grabbed the staff, expanding it like it was a part of him, to stand with it as he said, "I'm going to knock them over, of course." Grax came out of the house and walked toward the door on the other side of the grotto, saying, "Perhaps you can, but I am unsure. I do know that you will be able to negate Wongod's staff with your own, though. Come see the lay of the land."

Goofy walked out behind Grax, asking, "So we're doing this?" Mark said, "If we act fast enough then I can kill Wongod by this afternoon." Grax opened the door to the planning room, saying, "That won't happen. You cannot kill him. Try, by all means, but don't expect that kind of miracle. I'd rather you focus on distracting him long enough for us to do the rest of the plan."" I think I got a pretty good handle on him, as soon as I can… take out those… hmm."

Mark followed them into the planning room, words drifting off as he took in the whole production that they had made of the large room.

"Okay. Maybe there is a need for a plan. How the fuck did the goblins get this far in only… I guess it's been 10 months since I kicked them out of Goblinhome?"" About 6 months, actually," Grax said, standing on a giant map of D'Australia that was not to scale at all." Fuck," Mark muttered.

"Time really flies."" So it's a good thing we fly, too!" Goofy said, being enthusiastic. Mark looked down at the giant map, logging everything through Quark, who was a lot quicker about digesting what they were seeing. D'Australia was dangerous as hell, but it was mostly the same as the continent of the same name back on Earth; open and empty, with brushlands here and there and even some rainforests on the edges, but the center was desolate.

That giant pillar/skyscraper that Mark had seen back when he tangled with Wongod was clearly marked with a tall silver rock. Or maybe Mark had seen a different tall, silver rock. Because this map here had 27 tall silver rocks. They were mostly scattered in the desolate areas, each of them with a ring of rocks around it, like a city wall. Each of the cities had to be smaller than they were here on the map, because if they were this size then they had to be 100 kilometers across.

That sort of size was impossible for 6 months of work. Even Eliot couldn't do that. A few of the big rocks were marked with gold stars and numbers. The walls of the room had listed forces at each location marked with a star and number, with size estimates of various cities at 1 million to 10 million goblins. That city nearest to the Lightning Spires was labeled with 25 million goblins, and with a big star. It was their Capital City, and they named it 'Capital'. Or maybe Grax had just labeled it that way.

Each city was surrounded by a varying number of smaller rocks with numbers or circled numbers near them. The Pillars of Goblinhome. (1) was Wongod. (2) was BiggestBaddest. The rest followed, from Tormpol the Storm, who controlled the weather from the central city, and not the capital city, to Sampo the Hearth, the one that resurrected other goblins quicker than they could resurrect themselves. Sampo was at the central city, too.

Most of the big named goblins were at Capital, but a few of the numbered goblins were elsewhere. Other goblins of note were listed without circles around their names; they were strong powers, but not 'The Pillars of Goblinhome'.' Techbro' was at Central, and he had notes next to his name on the wall, marking him as important. Mark read those notes as he looked at the lines of toothpicks connecting cities to each other. Other goblins warranted descriptions, but not many." They have trains?"

Mark asked, "And Techbro maintains those lines?" The goblins had trains, airports, fields of goblintrees which made more (thankfully basic) goblins when they were Bitten, and what appeared to be a 'human district' where they were already restarting their human 'lacuna' society. Back when they had Goblinhome in the Green Death Mountains, their human district was filled with people who had been molded, from birth, to be 'good lacunas'.

Those people had gone to their own deaths for their goblin masters, thus powering a massive anti-human ritual across the entirety of the goblin territory. Mark had resisted that ritual, because by then he had been reborn as his broken, full-adamantine self. Other humans could not even see each other inside the border of that ritual. The goblins had not managed to remake their 'human district'. These humans had to have been captured from nearby lands. Maybe from Vaka, maybe from elsewhere.

Maybe from just across the Veil, on Earth. The cities of Metrovakara were kinda close, geographically, to many places on Australia, like Lake Eyre, which was one of the largest freshwater lakes on Earth. They did lots of filming for the Hero/Villain Program at Lake Eyre, whenever there was a water scene. The open ocean was too dangerous but Lake Eyre had a thriving HVP scene. Lake Eyre used to be rather safe. Australia was dangerous, like all nations, but not really. And yet…

Now Australia was truly dangerous, and all because Mark kicked the goblins out of Goblinhome and they landed here. Mark hadn't heard anything from the nations of Australia, but… but these people located in this human district beside Central had to be humans from Earth. If Dominant, Addavein, and others could open gates between worlds and then close them as they wanted, then Wongod certainly could. It was angering. Mark was too furious, his heart burning with cold rage." They're already committing atrocities.

Not even a year into a new land, and they're already pulling this shit." Goofy was coldly angry right there with Mark, saying, "The new human district started a few months ago." Grax told Mark, "There are two options: The minimum option, which gives Goofy the ability to start siphoning goblins away from Wongod, weakening him in the long term and eventually allowing us to down him permanently, or the maximum option, which is the minimum option but also causes massive internal damage to Metrovakara.

Either option requires the destruction or destabilization of the Spires. Destabilization is an easier target." Goofy had an opinion that he chose not to share, but he was hoping that Mark was going for maximum destruction. Mark went with a third option, saying, "I'm going to go destroy the Spires and then I'm rescuing those people. That's my goal this time. I'm not letting people die, yet again. If Wongod interferes then that's on him, but I suspect he will. Will that give you the time to do what you have to do?"

Goofy was… okay with that. Grax looked to Goofy briefly as he told Mark, "Goofy and I can do the minimum plan while you deal with the Spires and then with the human district. It's probably better that way. It might be best if we don't tell you our actual plan, too, so that Wongod cannot respond to it if you let it slip. He might think we haven't met up yet, but he will know we have met up after the battle; his lesser advisors will tell him as much."" Sounds like a good idea to me," Mark said.

"So tell me about the Spires." Grax said, "They're solid stone, pinned in place by the System. The only reason they're working at all is because Wongod probably has some ritual bridging some metaphysical gap of ownership, located somewhere in Metrovakara. I can't tell you about the ritual because I don't know what it is, or where it is, but if you destroy the actual Spires then the ritual doesn't matter. Taking out any one of the Spires will be enough to destabilize the ritual." Mark nodded.

"The humans?" Goofy told Mark, "The humans are from Lake Eyre. There's probably a thousand of them." Goofy pointed to a city on the map just north of Lake Eyre on Earth, saying, "The gate they used to get back and forth to Earth is here."" Fucking knew it… Have you two tried fighting Wongod at all?"" No," Grax said, solidly." I… tried," Goofy muttered, scowling, fists clenched hard. He glanced at Grax. Grax focused, fear fluttering through his vector as he told Goofy, "Not until you can actually harm him.

Mark might be able to. You will just get hurt again." Mark turned and left the room, saying, "I'm going to strike the Spires in 30 minutes. They'll be able to track me on radar if they have any, so I suggest you get moving." Grax walked out of the room with Mark, saying, "We'll be evacuating this site. If you need to find us again then go about 250 kilometers south of here. We're there, too. Kardi probably went there. If we're not there then it was good to see you again, Mark."

Mark stood under the sun again, staff at the ready, looking up for a moment at the deep blue sky. And then he regarded Goofy and Grax, and told them, "It was good to see you two again, though I am still wary of you, Grax. You killed a lot of people."" I did, and I am repenting right now for that evil. Good luck, Mark." Goofy strongly said, "Good luck."" You two, as well." Mark launched into the sky, got a few tens of kilometers away, and then he started burning speed, turning the world to fire as he moved.