The elves sought to conquer us. They’d have succeeded had we not summoned our Champion. Bringing forth one from another world altogether… to think the other races looked down on mankind’s prowess with Ether. It took time, for the one we summoned lacked experience. Both with combat, and more surprisingly with Ether. Apparently, his world had no such power. A world without Ether… the concept is so foreign and bizarre. It is like imagining Avani without air or water. Well, at the end of the day, it was of no matter, for the Champion eventually grew powerful enough to lead our armies. And with his innovative and revolutionary ideas for technological advancement, we were able to repel our ancient invaders and save Branlyn from their greedy clutches.

  -Excerpt from “The Chief Guide’s Ruminations”

  Galen grunted as he blocked an Ether empowered punch from Aleksi. The man quickly followed up with several others, and he struggled to block or evade the onslaught.

  Towards the end of the combo, Aleksi managed to tag him right in the ribs. He gasped as he fell to one knee, clutching at the side that had been struck.

  Had he not been reinforcing his body with Ether, that blow would have easily shattered his ribs.

  His mentor smiled as he slowly circled him, “I’m impressed, Galen. You’ve made quite the progress. You almost avoided getting hit that time.”

  He grunted in response as he forced himself back to his feet.

  A month had passed since he’d been given his Ether Intolerance medication. Since then, he’d undergone loads of training under Aleksi’s tutelage.

  He’d quickly gotten the hang of burning the power to enhance his physical capabilities and reinforce his body. Once Aleksi had been satisfied that he had the process down, which had taken a few days, they worked on speeding things up. And once he’d reached a satisfactory speed, which had taken about a week and a half, they’d moved to their current exercise.

  Aleksi would circle Galen, and would randomly attack him with Ether enhanced speed and power. He had to burn the Ether stored in his Capacity to empower himself appropriately and quickly enough to defend himself.

  It’s been more than two weeks since they started this process, and Galen had yet to completely avoid getting hit during one of his mentor’s combos. The closest he’d come was just now, where he only got hit once.

  “Damn! Even with Ether that punch still hurt!” Galen winced as he rubbed at his tender ribs.

  Aleksi laughed, “Of course it does, lad. If I held back enough so that my blows wouldn’t hurt, you wouldn’t give it your all in defending yourself! I believe you once told me a saying from your world that applies rather well here. What was it again? ‘No pain, no gain?’ Yes! That was it.”

  “If you break one of my bones then there won’t be any gains for months…” Galen pointed out.

  His mentor shrugged, “That’s what we have healers for. If you suffered an accidental injury like that, well, we’d simply have someone who knows healing Arts come and fix you up!”

  Galen blinked, “If healing Arts are that potent, then why not constantly heal me so I could keep training at one hundred percent?”

  Aleksi clicked his tongue disapprovingly, “Now that would just border on torture, lad. Yes, healing Arts can heal the body, and with Ether you’d theoretically be able to rid yourself of any fatigue. But what do you think would happen once you stopped using the power?”

  Galen gulped as his mentor gave the answer, “Exhaustion of the mind is different from physical fatigue. In such a scenario, the mental exhaustion would hit you all at once! You’d run the risk of blacking out, and could remain unconscious for hours, or even days. I’ve even heard of rumors of someone who burned themselves out so terribly in this way that they were in a coma for weeks! We call this sort of thing, Ether Burnout. Be wary that this never happens to you, lad.”

  “Is there any way around that?”

  Aleksi pondered upon that for a moment before answering, “Yes and no. As you come to master Ether, you’ll eventually learn how to constantly refill your reserves, even while unconscious. You’ll also learn to increase the rate at which you absorb the Ether around you, and once your Capacity and Efficiency grow to a certain point, you’ll be able to refill your stores faster than you can burn them.”

  “Wouldn’t that mean I’d never run out of Ether?”

  “Under normal circumstances,” Aleksi specified, “if you were in a battle to the death in which you were pushing yourself to your limits, then you’d likely find yourself burning more than you can replenish. Anyway, that’s besides the point. Should your mastery and Efficiency reach this level, you’d probably be used to constantly burning Ether every hour of every day. We call those kinds of people Savants. They are less likely to suffer Burnout, but even for them it’s not impossible.”

  “I see…”

  Galen felt nervous about that possibility. He hoped he never experienced it. His worry must have shown on his face, since Aleksi gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, “Don’t worry, lad. Simply keep in mind to be careful, and you should avoid ever experiencing one.”

  He nodded, and Aleksi grinned, “Now, let’s continue your training. Let’s see if you can avoid getting hit before we wrap things up.”

  ***

  Unfortunately, Galen hadn’t been able to avoid getting hit before the day was done.

  He stumbled into his room, his body throbbing despite the healing he’d gotten after his training. And boy, had THAT been unpleasant. Many would think that being healed would feel blissful, but the people who thought that had never been healed with fire.

  Being healed with Fire Affinity Arts was… well it hurt like hell! The resulting flames quite literally burned away injuries. The worse the injury, the greater the sensation of being burned. After the flames did their work, the burning sensation was quick to fade. But Galen found that he still suffered phantom pains, even after being healed. He’d been told that was normal, and that it takes the body a bit of time to realize it was no longer injured. Aleksi made sure to point out that this was another danger in abusing healing Arts.

  The morbid example his mentor had given was that if a person broke every single bone in their body, and was fully healed from such a state, then they’d likely still be lying on the floor in agony for a while.

  That’s a scenario for my nightmares… Galen thought as he sat himself on his study desk.

  His tired expression changed into one of dread and worry as he pulled out his notebook. He hesitated for a moment before opening it and reviewing everything he’d written down so far from his research.

  He’d started this endeavor ever since he’d found out that the Dominion actively enslaved the other races of this world. Since they had kept something so important from him, he’d begun to wonder what else Athanasius and his empire had hidden. To try and discern this for himself, Galen had begun this project of rereading the history books he’d been given to study.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  This time, he read the contents of the books with a more analytical eye. And what he’d found painted a worrying picture.

  For one, Galen had noticed how the history books were biased. Horrendously so, he might add. They went out of their way to paint humanity in a sympathetic and morally superior light, while vilifying the other races, particularly the elves.

  He’d been told that there was a bitter history between the elves and humans of Avani. Now that he was aware of the bias, he could see the vitriol with which the makers of the books had written into their works.

  The only reason he hadn’t caught it the first time he’d read through those books was because much of the malice and criticism was written in between the lines. The writers had used implications and insinuations rather than blatant and scathing remarks. Which isn’t to say there weren’t any outright, because there definitely were.

  Galen’s findings were vindicated as he had read through the Athurai holy book. That book had called the elves demons in all but name, and labeled them mankind’s mortal enemy. There were also lots of human supremacist sentiments littered throughout it. For example, the book used Athanasius’s alleged divinity as proof that humanity was the superior, holy race.

  The Athurai scriptures stated that Athanasius Durai himself had been of a virgin birth, born of a human woman, one of the First Champion’s descendants, and Ether itself. It went on to claim that, because Athanasius’s form was that of a human, because he was born of a human woman, and due to his nature as a supposed god, that that was irrefutable proof that humans were the superior and ultimate race.

  The book also used mankind’s “unrivaled” ingenuity, passion, and inventiveness to support the claim of being the chosen race.

  In Athanasius, the book claimed, was the vindication of humanity’s claim that they were the pinnacle lifeforms on Avani, and that the Emperor was the very embodiment of perfection that all of mankind needed to strive towards. The book had all but claimed Athanasius Durai as the one true god, who incarnated himself to lead the humans to an age of prosperity.

  This even effected Galen’s own role as “Champion” of the Dominion. Due to Athanasius’s supposedly divine nature and being born into the lineage of the First Champion, the role came to be viewed in its own holy lens.

  By being summoned as the new Champion, Galen was essentially a Saint to the people here.

  Which explains why they venerate me so much, he shuddered.

  There was more that Galen hadn’t read, of course. The Athurai tome was rather thick, so even with a month of dedicated reading, he hadn’t been able to finish.

  He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised by his findings. It was rather obvious in retrospect. As the saying went, history was written by the victors. Due to the Great Fragmentation, the various Realms and most of the races had been isolated from one another for over five hundred years now. Such circumstances naturally led to a skewed, if not outright propagandized, view of history.

  Any non-humans present in either Axis Mundi or Branlyn were slaves, so they naturally wouldn’t have a say in how history was written and taught in the human controlled Realms.

  It wouldn’t surprise him if the other Realms had their own, equally skewed, versions of history.

  He groaned as he rubbed his temples. With such blatantly biased tomes, there was no way he’d be able to get to the truth of this world’s history.

  I guess that applies just as much to Earth’s history though, he thought, who knows how much of what we were told is true, and how much is just a case of the winners deciding what history gets written down.

  Putting that train of thought aside, the question now weighing heavily on him was if he’d continue to work with the Dominion, despite it becoming increasingly clear their goals may not be as altruistic as Milton had made them out to be. The thing is, his only other option would be to turn his back on the only clear path he had to return to Earth.

  It was a question he wasn’t ready to answer as he closed his notebook.

  He eyed Redian, resting in the corner of his room. Galen hesitated for a moment, before opening the mental door in his mind to allow the sword to communicate with him.

  “Hey boss! What’s up? You want to talk about something-”

  Redian, Galen interrupted, if you had to choose between helping me, or the Dominion, what would you choose?

  The sword was quiet for a long moment before responding, “Oh… this is gonna be one of those conversations, isn’t it?”

  Galen didn’t say anything as he waited for Redian to answer his question.

  “What brought this on, boss?” the Sentient Weapon asked instead.

  He responded by flooding all his thoughts about his current predicament to the sword

  Redian remained quiet for a long while.

  Well? Galen prodded.

  “Are you planning on betraying the Dominion?”

  I don’t know, he admitted, but it’s not an impossibility, if I’m being honest. I just… I need to know, Redian. I need to know if your loyalty is to me, or the Dominion.

  “Why ask me such a thing?” the sword seemed to be completely serious for once.

  Because if I end up making the choice against the Dominion, then I need to know if I can rely on your help or not.

  “And if you can’t?”

  Galen got the impression that the sword didn’t frame that question as an answer. The Sentient Weapon was genuinely curious for his answer.

  If your loyalty is more towards the Dominion than me, then I understand. I won’t hate you for it, and I wouldn’t be surprised, honestly. If I were to make weapons such as you and your kin, then I can see the need to instill loyalty to the Dominion above all in your creation. So if that’s the case, then at least I’d know. And then I could simply leave you here if… if I decided not to work with Athanasius. That way they wouldn’t destroy you along with me, Galen answered honestly.

  He got the impression of a smile in his mind from the sword.

  “Boss, did I ever tell you why me and the other First Generation Weapons were shelved down in Ignis’s Armory?”

  No, I don’t think so?

  Redian seemed forlorn as he explained, “The reason we were shelved was due to our flaws. The way we were given sentience, the way in which our artificial minds grew, and how our personalities took shape, resulted in flaws that the Dominion wasn’t satisfied with.”

  And what were those flaws? Galen asked.

  “Oh, there were plenty!” Redian snickered, “however, the one most relevant for this topic, and the straw that broke the camel’s back as you humans put it, was the inability to instill ABSOLUTE loyalty towards Athanasius and his empire in us. Due to how our personalities and minds formed, it basically made it impossible to forcibly add that unwavering loyalty without screwing something up in our minds. That was something the Emperor couldn’t abide. However, we were also too useful to simply scrap, so we were stored instead. The next generation of Sentient Weapons, I believe, was made in a similar manner to us, only they started with the code of absolute obedience and loyalty to Athanasius and the Dominion as a foundation. As for the third generation, I have no clue. Perhaps it builds even further upon that.”

  Redian allowed Galen a few moments to take all that in before continuing, “So, boss. To answer your question, my loyalty is to my Wielder first and foremost. So if I had to choose between helping you, or the Dominion, I’d choose you.”

  Galen slowly smiled at the sword’s answer. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Thank you, Redian…

  “Of course! I quite like you, boss, so the choice was easy. Plus, it helps you’re not a prick like some people here!” Redian chimed.

  Galen had a good laugh at that.

  There wasn’t a question in his mind as to whether Redian was telling the truth or not.

  With the mental connection they shared, it made it difficult to them to lie to one another. Both simply had an innate sense for what the other’s true intentions were. It was strange, but the sword had explained that this was an unforeseen consequence of mental communication.

  His laughter faded as the matter of what he would do in the future still weighed on him. He sighed as he thought privately, Now that I know Redian’s on my side, there’s only one other person I need to talk to. I’ll ask Aleksi for his counsel the next time I see him. He’s the only other person other than Redian that I trust fully, and the only other one who has my best interests in mind.

  Having come to that decision…

  Galen decided to take a nap. The day had been draining, both mentally and physically, and he needed a break.

  He fell asleep the instant he closed his eyes.

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