Remian turned to the dark figure laying down on the ‘empty’ bed next to him as Kairos went off to find him some food. “What are you doing here?”
“Taking a break.” Death answered. “I’ve was rather busy last night.”
Remian’s face fell. “How many? How many died because of me?”
Death paused, counting. “Three.”
“Three? Who were they?” Remian regretted losing control to such an extent.
“Irontusk, Third Boar Alpha of the Iron Bristle Boar tribe. He was fighting Markus and Max when you burned a foot-wide hole in him with your light bolt.” Death began. “Ssi-ruuvi, two-headed Acid/Venom Serpent of Forktwig Marsh. They were trying to provide Irontusk some support. A bit more and they could have killed Markus.”
“Wait. They were Wilds? Are you saying my Light spell killed Wilds?!” Remian stared. “Not humans?”
“No humans were harmed by your magic.” Death said. “Although a lot of them couldn’t see for a few minutes. Some of them were injured while trampling around blindly, but for the most part, your Light Spell saved them by scaring away all the Wilds.”
“Scaring away… I did that?” Remian gulped. “What happened to my Light Spell?”
“I think you overdid it.” Death surmised. “By several magnitudes of power. As if I didn’t have enough work already.”
Kairos came back with hot soup. Remian filled his stomach while Kairos reminisced. “You know, power like that doesn’t come by often. The only ones I know who can do something like what you did are those guys who have seen God and lived.”
Remian supped quietly. He did sort of fit the description himself. If the Church of Celestial Light knew about it, how many priests would attempt to see God that way? Probably not many. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. “Can you teach me more? Other than that Light spell?”
“Not really. Light and healing is all Priests are really good for, and Rhema can teach you healing spells better than I can. My forte lies in studying the sacred texts. I’m more a historian than a warrior priest.”
“What’s a warrior priest?”
“Oh, some of our Order support the Iron Legion and take up arms at their side. There is a famous group of warrior priests called ‘Paladins’. Some call them holy knights or some such. But me, if I joined the Legion, I’d be more of a chaplain instead of a Paladin, staying back at camp rather than fighting in front.”
“I see.” Remian ate in silence for a minute, taking it all in. “This power I have… is it just for Light magic?”
“I have no idea.” Kairos admitted. “You’ll have to try and see for yourself.”
“And how would I do that?”
“You’ll have to learn other types and test it out.”
“Where would I learn other types?”
“Around here?” Kairos paused. “I don’t think anyone here teaches magic. Other than myself, Rhema and the airship crews, I don’t think anyone even knows magic.”
Death snorted. “Try telling that to that Kage guy from last night.”
“Who’s Kage?” Remian asked Kairos.
“Kage? The Shadow Slayer of the Circling Raven Gang?” Kairos turned and pointed. “He’s THAT guy.”
Across the hall was a figure completely covered in black, showing only an eye-slit. He was sitting in a chair talking to one of the patients in bed.
“Based on what I saw last night, that guy uses Shadow magic.” Death mentioned. “Could be a good compliment to Light.”
“If I learned Shadow magic from Kage… won’t it mess with my Light magic?”
“No.” Kairos said.
At the same time, unseen and unheard by anyone else, Death said, “Actually, they would complete each other, but don’t let anyone know I told you so.”
Remian didn’t wait. He walked right over. “Kage?”
Kage turned to him and observed him. He recognized Remian. “The light-caster?”
Remian nodded. “Yes. Could you teach me Shadow magic?”
Kage frowned. “The darkness is not revealed. It is only experienced.”
With that, Kage disappeared. Literally just faded into a shadow that vanished in the morning light.
“Don’t take it personally.” The girl he was visiting advised Remian. She was young, in her early teens, with messy red-hair. “He’s always like that.”
“Ah.” Remian held out his hand in greeting. “I’m Remian, agent of the Iron Legion.”
“Mindy, barmaid at the Raven Tavern.” She shook his hand. “You’re welcome to come by for drinks sometime. Bring your Legion friends and spend some coin at our place!”
“I don’t have coin to spend.” Remian shook his head. “But I can get you some meat, if you don’t mind buying from a trapper.”
“We can do that. We can even buy some old items off your hands.” Mindy offered. “There’s plenty of stuff left behind by dead people in the wilderness. We’re not picky and we offer good coin. Of course, we also expect you to spend some of that coin buying our drinks.”
Remian stared. “That was the smoothest recruitment offer I’ve ever heard from any of the gangs.”
Mindy grimaced. “It was that obvious?”
“No, and that’s why it was so smooth. I almost joined your gang by accident.” Remian marveled.
“Why don’t you?” she asked.
“Because I want you to join MY gang!” Remian said.
“You have a gang?”
“No. But we can start one.”
Mindy burst out laughing, then held her side. “Ouch, too soon… my wounds are going to reopen at this rate. Ow…”
“Uh… I guess I better not bother you any more…?” Remian scratched his head. “I can still come by to sell meat, right?”
“Tomorrow.” Mindy leaned back, breathing heavily. “Just give me the day to recover.”
“Didn’t the nun use healing magic on you?” he asked.
“She did, but there were so many injuries, and only one of her, so…”
Remian got the idea at once. “Hold on. I’ll go find the nun and then I’ll be right back.”
Very predictably, Rhema did not entertain his requests to help Mindy out. She was, however, willing to teach him a basic healing spell, as long as he used it to treat the injured for the rest of the week.
“Fine! I’ll work for it!” Remian rolled his eyes, and set down to learn.
Two hours later, he was back in bed, collapsed from over-exhaustion. Even after two hours, he still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of any of three basic healing spells.
Death laughed at him. “It’s not so easy to steal people from my hands, you know. You basically have to fight me for them.”
“Couldn’t you… go easy… on me?” Remian heaved for breath.
“Not really, no. I have standards to keep.”
“Not even for my own case?” Remian groaned.
“ESPECIALLY for your case. Why do you think I’m always hanging around you?”
Remian sighed. “So much for using healing magic on myself.”
“Healing magic of this level? That nun couldn’t save a drowning bunny if her life depended on it.” Death snorted. “The most she can do is make people feel better, ease exhaustion, recover faster, maybe ease a headache or two. Everyone who came in here with a critical injury is dead already. Why do you think I’m hanging around here?”
“I thought you needed a break!”
“And why was that break necessary, do you think?” Death shook his head. “That nun needs to go back to school and apologize to her teachers profusely. Yours was the only life she saved all night, and only because it was exhaustion that nearly killed you.”
“For her saving my life, I am immensely grateful.” Remian looked at him sideways. “I don’t suppose you have anything to do with that?”
“Me? Why would I go easy on her just to let you off?” Death snorted. He did not meet Remian’s gaze. “Besides, what have you done for me?”
“For you? I thought I was easing your workload?” Remian mentioned. “Unless you want more work?”
There was a short pause.
“Is that it?” Remian’s eyes widened. “All this time you were complaining about having work to do, but what you really want is more work?”
“It’s… complicated.”
“What’s complicated about it? Does more work mean more pay? That’s why you want more work even though you keep complaining about it?”
“Something like that.”
Remian shook his head. “So what do you want me to do, run around killing everything I see?”
Death chuckled. “As if you could! With your capabilities, it would be you I’d be working on before anyone else. It’s not like you’re an expert in death magic.”
At that, Remian froze. He slowly turned to look at Death, not daring to voice the idea that just popped into his head.
Death saw the look on his face and froze. “No way. Nuh-uh. Not going to do it.”
“But it’s what you want, right? More work, more pay.” Remian pointed out.
“Teaching you death magic is going to be a hassle in itself, more work than simply reaping lives! What ‘pay’ would I get from such an effort?”
“You get more work in the end?”
“No way! Forget it! I’m not going to teach you how to order me around!”
Remian hesitated. “It’s too late. I think I already know how.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really.” Remian said. “It’s because of what you told me earlier.”
“Which is?”
“Healing magic means fighting with you for lives. So the opposite of that…”
There was a sudden, chilling silence.
“Well, too bad. You still can’t use healing magic to save your life.” Death mentioned.
“Not yet, no. And besides, who’s to say?” Remian shook his head. “I might very do much better with the opposite of healing magic.”

Latest Chapter
523. Comms
Somewhere along the line, he’d lost consciousness. George only realized it when he woke up to a splitting headache. “Ow.” He groaned. “What... where...?” “We’re on the way back to Sorrel.” Grace told him, appearing by his bedside. And it was a bedside, he realized. He seemed to be in the Kara’s Medical Bay. “I’m sorry. We had to retreat.” “Our... people?” George managed. “The HAC Troopers made it back. The Mechs... did not.” Grace paused. “We have the refugees though. And the Robotic Assembly Plant for Mining Drones. That’s all they managed to grab.” George slurred. “Mech pilots?” “Alive, if battered.” “Good. Alive is good.” George sighed. “This... didn’t go so well.” “Hey, at least we got the guys we were trying to save, and some machinery on top of that. You might say it was a success. A costly one, but a success.” “Casualties?” George asked. “Plenty of injuries to go around, but no deaths. So far.” Grace paused. “Some of the really badly injured might change that before lo
522. Second Aid Mission
“Were these really the best you could do?” George asked, eyeing the six hulking figures in front of him hesitantly. “Mmm.” Juni grunted. In front of them were six brand new Mechs. 2nd Generation products, they were armored weapons platforms on legs, with jumpjets for the signature ‘jumps’ that earned their generation the nickname, ‘Jumpers’. Or were they? George wasn’t entirely sure. When he looked at them, they really looked more like 1st Generation Walker-types. Those Jump Jets seemed to be an afterthought, an added equipment haphazardly strapped to their backs. “Would they really work right?” Juni shrugged. Given the time and materials he had to work with, George supposed he couldn’t expect better. He had only just received 2nd Gen tech. Until now, he’d been working with 1st Gen expectations and schematics. One of these Mechs seemed a bit worn, evidence that it had been built quite some time ago, and only recently been modified for George’s requests. “Fusion Cell for power, Pu
521. Next Step
It turned out that they also needed to acquire salvage rights to haul away ‘scrap metal’. Fortunately, that was a simple affair now that they had local currency. 50 USD and the matter was done. Grant, being the nearest specialist on matters of scrap to their location, graciously offered to transport their ‘scrap’ directly to their vessel out of sheer goodwill. Finally Benny and Sam went to try out the barbecued skewers. At Grant’s recommendation, though, they didn’t go to the Starport roadside stall. They ended up at another roadside stall run by a ‘foreign refugee’ someplace downtown not too far from Grant’s workshop. There, each skewer was loaded with rows of thick, juicy beef sausages, and only cost 20 USD for 10. Benny stretched. “Not bad for our first day. We’ve got three days here, don’t we? But we’ve already got half of what we wanted.” “What’s the other half?” Sam asked. “Technical manuals on engineering, power and propulsion. Tech, basically.” Benny yawned. However, whe
520. Uber States Colony
“Black Fang, you are cleared for docking. Follow the designated path and welcome to Trifer, colony of the Uber States.” Benny stood on the observation deck of the Black Fang below the bridge, listening to the conversation between the comms officer and the dock authorities. He eyed the massive sprawl of structures and smoke emitted below and wondered. “This is what they call a ‘small’ colony?” The colony was bigger than Craggy Falls, Kara-Goth and Nightshade City put together. “Just how many people live here?” Benny asked next. “According to our sensors, about half a million.” The bridge crew told him. Okay, that was less than the human population of the Sorrelian Migration, which, after including the Cumin survivors, was over 800,000. They shared the sensor feed with Benny, Sam and Foxy. Looking at the scope, Benny realized that most of the colony below consisted of machinery and robots. Furthermore, what he saw on the surface wasn’t even half the colony. The entire complex went
519. Scoop
That evening, Benny and Sam left with Tim’s battle group, headed for the nearest Uber States outpost with medicine in the cargo holds. This left only one freight galleon to ferry materials and regretful space miners from the surface to Sky Haven. “It’s going too slow.” Remian decided. “I need to call Raven.” With Mindy busy trading across star systems, Raven had inherited (bought over) her airship fleet and company on the surface. They built more gunships and scout ships than freighters these days, mainly focused on providing recon and fire support to ground forces fighting Undead. But it was those freighters Remian needed now, the bigger the better. “We need them refitted for extreme high altitudes, as high as they can go.” Remian explained. “Also we need them spaceworthy, at least up to low orbit.” “You want our airship freighters to fly into space?!” Raven spluttered. “Yes, but not on their own. I want them to haul cargo and passengers as high up as they can. Around 30km woul
518. We should call Remian
“Relax, I’m not asking you to build them from scratch. You’ll need to remodel a Galleon and a trio of our current Dropships. We do want proper Mech Carriers in the future, but for now, we need to deploy urgently, so we’ll just remodel what we have.” Ermine brought up some projections. “The Mechs in question are going to be Light Walkers, designed and built by J-Armory. Juni’s had a workable prototype for a long time, but it’s never been needed until now. Live testing is scheduled to start in three days. They’re powered by Fusion Cells, the kind that looks like dustbins, so you won’t need to worry about fuel lines, just cell-swapping. You won’t need to worry about replacing the He3 in the Fusion Cells either; spent cells will be sent back to J-Armory for recycling or refueling or whatever it is they do. Same goes for the weapons; Jamie’s J-Arsenal will handle maintenance and replacement and all that. The ship only needs to carry the Mechs, deploy them, and run basic maintenance. Repai
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