A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri didn’t need Emelia’s empathy to sense the tension in the room as both sides brandished firearms. Fortunately, no one went further, and the leaders on both sides were shouting for a standdown. Slowly, weapons were lowered, though none were stowed. He noticed many of them relax, and he suspected Emelia was subtly influencing everyone to prevent any possibility of violence.

When the standdown orders finally abated, an older woman asked, “Was that display really necessary?” Imri knew from the dossier that she was Baronesse Dotson, the poly-sci professor.

“You clearly weren’t taking us seriously before,” Laura countered.

Imri tuned out their argument when it was clear that it was just posturing. Not wanting any surprises, Imri used his Manifest Domain skill. Once again, a flood of information rushed into his mind, and it took him a moment to make sense of everything. He now knew the levels of everyone present and their exact location. Unfortunately, not all of them were human. Even more concerning, five were in the room with them, one having infiltrated each of the baron’s organizations.

Imri had to resist the urge to dispatch them immediately. While he was confident he could take all five while they were within his domain, he couldn’t without sparking a conflict between Celestia and the Barons of New Chicago. He could inform them they were compromised, having Azala Infiltrators among their staff, but that would allow the Azala to attack. He was confident he could withstand the mental attacks of two or three of them, but taking five attacks was questionable at best. Worse, they might take the opportunity to kill several of those present who didn’t have the same mental defenses he did.

Unfortunately, the decision was made for him, as he felt the five Azala begin mentally attacking his mind. They made light probing attacks, hoping to find some weakness in his mental defense, but found none. Still, the strain of five minds against one was a lot to withstand, and Imri began to feel the pain of a migraine. They would eventually break through and damage his mind. However, Imri wasn’t going to let that happen.

Imri activated his Temporal Expansion enchantment with a mental command. He then began to construct his domain spell. He didn’t use it on people or the Azala. Instead, he defined the target as any firearm within the room from either side, using Reorient Gravity with the new vector heading towards himself. He defined the amplitude as relatively high; he needed it to be strong enough to wrench the weapons out of everyone's hands but not too strong that the gathered weapons were turned into projectiles.

Despite everyone holding their weapons tightly, none of them were expecting the force that now pulled them towards Imri. The guns fell towards him significantly faster than the force of gravity on Earth, and they could have become dangerous if they had more time to accelerate. The larger weapons fell a bit slower, having more mass, which was one of the variables for the mana cost of the Reorient Gravity spell, and the effective mana output on each object was constant.

Imri returned his suit jacket to his Inner Domain while almost simultaneously summoning his newly commissioned Drake Armor. A moment later, the firearms reached him, pattering harmlessly against the impressive scales of his armor. Whenever one touched his skin, he mentally added it to his Inner Domain, causing them to vanish from sight. Within seconds, he had a small armory of weapons added to his extra-dimensional storage.

Though the entire disarming process had only taken a few seconds, the Azala hadn’t relented in their mental assault. With his attention divided, the attack had been somewhat effective, and Imri was beginning to feel the strain. His mind felt addled, and it became difficult to form coherent thoughts, let alone spells.

Unfortunately for the Azala, Imri wasn’t alone; Emelia was keenly aware of what Imri was feeling and quickly came to his aid. He felt the soothing energy of a healing spell disperse whatever damage they had done to his mind.

Now that the Azala had his undivided attention, it was almost trivial to dispatch them. One by one, Imri targeted them with a Spatial Collapse, popping their heads with a pressure that neared that of the deepest parts of the ocean. The moment the first one had fallen, the mental pressure they could exert was countered entirely by Imri’s mental defenses. While killing them, Imri deliberately avoided harming the center mass, leaving the core intact.

Spell Rank Up

Spatial Collapse F to E: 3% increase in the spell's mana efficiency

Imri finished slaughtering the last infiltrator with impunity; both sides were still too surprised and confused to act. He casually strode over to one of the corpses and dug out the core, with the dead Azala wrapped around it like a bundle of nerves. He held it aloft so everyone could see the remains, then tossed it on the once pristine table. A few of the barons visibly flinched as if Imri had just thrown a live grenade.

“What the hell just happened? And what the hell are we looking at?” one of the barons asked in a quavering voice.

“And what did you do with all our weapons? We expect compensation for each of them,” another demanded.

“Each of those individuals was an Azala Infiltrator,” Imri said. Seeing uncomprehending expressions, he added, “They’re Azala that control an infected host without altering the body. As far as we know, they’re undetectable unless you have some combination of levels, a higher rank Identify, or a trait that improves it.”

“I have a trait and ranked up my Identify; why couldn’t I Identify them?” Leslie asked.

“They were all in the mid-twenties for levels, and they definitely have a trait or two that makes them harder to Identify. You’re just too low-level,” Imri said with a shrug.

“Then how did you manage to Identify them?” Leslie asked.

“I have my ways,” Imri said. After consideration, he added, “Hopefully, you won’t be too ignorant forever, so you’ll eventually figure out that my strange appearance is because I reached tier 2 in my heritage. You need to be at least level 30 to get that rank up.”

“There’s no fucking way that’s possible. There are millions of people in New Chicago, and the highest level people haven’t even hit twenty,” Baron Pearson said.

“That’s because you’re pretending nothing has changed and the integration never happened besides hoarding the nexuses and their access to yourselves,” Imri said, unable to contain a bit of his anger.

Before he could say anything else, Laura coughed exaggeratedly. Imri felt a bit guilty. They had discussed that Laura would lead the negotiations, and she had specifically asked Imri not to bring that point up right away. He had agreed and hadn’t intended to break that promise, but the Azala Infiltrators had distracted him.

“Now that the grisly business has been taken care of, I’d like to get back to the purpose of today’s meeting,” Laura said professionally.

“We have plenty of rooms we can use; there is no sense continuing in a room that is so…messy,” Leslie suggested.

Imri had kept his domain active, so he knew the entire building's layout and everyone inside the convention center's location. While there were other people inside, the convention center was mostly empty.

When no one objected, they migrated to another conference room. Imri noticed many guards looking at him with undisguised fear and awe as they moved. He had clearly left an impression.

“It’s clear you’re quite capable. What did you want from us?” Baronesse Dotson, the former poly-sci professor, asked. Of the five, she was the oldest, similar in age to Laura, who was in her late fifties or early sixties.

“While we have adapted to the integration well, we could still use plenty of things. The main area you’ve got us beat is restoring many modern conveniences. Some people in Celestia would pay good credits for some of those items. We’d also be interested in raw materials, especially lumber and iron,” Laura explained.

“I can help with the appliances, especially engines,” a man said. He was in his mid-thirties and balding. Grease stained his hands as if he had come straight from a garage to this meeting. Imri’s identify told him this was Baron Coleman, a level 18 Tinker.

“And in return, you have more exotic materials?” Dotson asked, eyeing the black leathers that the Celestia scouts wore.

“Among other things,” Laura said with a sly grin.

“How would trading even work? Aren’t you located thousands of kilometers from here?” Baron Burke, the ex-police officer, asked.

“We have a solution for that,” Imri said with a wry grin. He looked over to Laura, and at her nod, he continued. “We’re going to open a portal between our two settlements.”

“A portal?” Baronesse Dotson repeated, having to say the words out loud before it sunk in.

Imri nodded and began explaining the portal's specifications and operation. What he thought would take only a few minutes became an hour, as he was frequently interrupted by the Barons, who wanted one point or another clarified. It was incredibly annoying when they asked questions he had already answered, but he tried not to show his frustration.

“Of course, we’re not going to give you access to our portal network without a few restrictions,” Laura said.

“And they are?” Baronesse Dotson asked dryly, clearly having expected this.

“The first condition is that both parties share the mana cost of operating the portal equally. While we have managed it ourselves, the cost is significant,” Laura said.

Four of the barons looked ready to agree, but Baronesse Dotson stopped them before they could agree to the first term.

“Just how significant of an expenditure are we talking about?” she asked.

“Just a few mana points for the micro portal to establish the connection parameters between both locations. Establishing the primary portal event horizon is the most significant expenditure, taking just under ten thousand mana at its current efficiency. Finally, maintaining the portal takes a few hundred mana per minute,” Imri explained.

“Did you say ten thousand?” Leslie asked. Imri just nodded.

“How are we supposed to come up with thousands of mana every time a portal is opened?” Pearson complained.

“You have millions of people; just get a small percentage of them to give some mana. I’d also be willing to say mana at a reasonable rate,” Imri said with a shrug.

“What do you mean, give mana? How would people do that?” Baron Coleman asked. He seemed to follow along the best of the five but still asked basic questions.

“Everyone has mana, and it's not hard to learn basic mana control, even if you don’t have any spells. After that, all you need is a material to hold the mana; gemstones work best for that,” Imri explained.

“Celestia also has naturally forming crystals called Espeonite. They have the greatest capacity for mana storage out of any material we’ve been able to test. We would be willing to trade some of them,” Christoph added.

“What about the device that opens the portal? You can’t expect us to provide that,” Baronesse Dotson pointed out.

“I’m happy to provide the device on one condition: you need to open up your Nexuses to the general population, specifically for the shop function,” Imri said.

Imri and the council had discussed this point in preparation for the meeting. They had unanimously agreed that it was better to slip in demands in exchange for services they were willing to offer. The portal was one of the largest, so it only made sense to include demands, though the largest was yet to come.

The barons' reactions varied. Coleman seemed indifferent to the demand and was more interested in the portal than economic policy. Leslie almost immediately agreed, but Emelia glared at her for some reason, her emotions mildly annoyed. When he sent her a telepathic message, the annoyance only grew, and she said he was blind.

Pearson and Burke were stubbornly opposed and seemed unwilling to give up any of their power. Imri pegged them as the two that would be problems when he reached his final ultimatum. Dotson seemed thoughtful, and it quickly became apparent that she was the pivot to how these talks would go.

“In the long run, it is mutually beneficial for everyone to have a more open economy. Restricting access to the Nexus will only increase your wealth in the short term. That's not even accounting for the missed experience from lost tax revenue. There’s also deflation to be concerned with, which the system inherently does by taking currency out of circulation with every transaction. Without a way to print credits, the currency created by selling items to the system is essential to the economy,” Christoph lectured.

While Christoph's argument went over the heads of the more martial Barons, it did appear to have some effect on Baronesse Dotson. Unfortunately, she wasn’t willing to make any concessions easily.

Imri sighed as the discussions continued for hours without consensus on a single issue. Laura had moved to the condition of open borders between the two cities, which had sparked another heated debate. Baronesse Dotson immediately realized that it could go catastrophically wrong for New Chicago. Their main advantage was their numbers, which allowed each to have a tier 3 settlement. However, given the poor conditions within the city, citizens would leave in droves if a better alternative presented itself.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t force people to stay against their will. We intend to let everyone know that Celestia will be accepting immigrants. I’m sure there wouldn’t be riots if that opportunity were denied,” Laura threatened when it had become clear that the negotiations had stalled entirely.

“You conniving bitch. We won’t be treated this way,” Baron Burke shouted as he stood, his fist balled as if he would physically strike Laura. Imri interposed himself, his hand raised and pointing as if he was about to cast a spell.

“That’s enough, Burke,” Dotson chastised the ex-police officer. “Is this how Celestia operates, by threatening anyone who doesn’t agree with their policies?”

“It is when basic human rights are violated,” Imri countered.

“While things haven’t been perfect, we’ve done our best. We certainly haven’t enacted policies as heinous as you’re suggesting,” Dotson snapped.

The baroness’s response was tame compared to the two martial barons, Burke and Pearson. They shouted obscenities and threatened physical violence. Imri thought they might have followed through with those threats if they hadn’t been disarmed. Imri felt his anger rising, and it was only thanks to his high willpower that he didn’t erase them from existence.

“Why don’t we adjourn for a break,” Emelia suggested, taking on the role of mediator. Imri could feel through their bond how exhausted she was by all the negative emotions.

When both sides agreed, they departed to separate rooms. Imri sighed and sank heavily onto an office chair. He had vowed to use force only as a last resort, but he was beginning to question if they were reaching that point.

“Well, that went well,” Laura said.

“You’re serious?” Imri asked when he didn’t detect any sarcasm.

“I am. This is going about as well as we could have expected. The fact that three of them are relatively reasonable is far better than I would have guessed. I’m confident we can reach an agreement within a few weeks,” Laura said.

“Weeks?!” Imri exclaimed.

“Did you think we came in here, made numerous demands, and they would just agree to all of them like that? These things take time to iron out,” Laura explained.

“Weeks is too long. By that point, Celestia would be part of the Azala hive. We need to conclude things by the end of the day tomorrow, one way or another,” Imri said.

“We’ll need to either give more concessions or use more threats,” Laura said.

“I trust you to know which to use, and I’ll support you,” Imri agreed.

The serious discussions were temporarily halted when a catered lunch was wheeled in. While Imri didn’t hate the Drake meat that had become a staple of their diet, he hadn’t realized how much he had missed a more conventional meal. In this case, it was a spread of rice, beans, and various other toppings for a burrito bowl. While this would have been standard fare before the integration, it felt extravagant, given the circumstances in the city.

They had just finished eating when an aid burst into the room, breathing heavily, having sprinted from the barons' delegation. “Sorry for the interruption, but the remainder of the discussions have been postponed indefinitely. The city is under attack.”