Unchosen Champion

Before long, Coop was being baked by the toasty wind skills of a level 97 Hellsinger. The heat was nothing compared to the Avatar of Huracan’s onslaught in the Central American heat, but combined with the warmth of the midday sun, it was enough to feel like a giant blow drier was being used to dry him off.

A small group from the Forager’s Guild had joined together to attack the mud monster with their spells before heading to their assignment on the boardwalk. Their eventual victory over the surprise raid boss had been hard fought, but Coop was the primary beneficiary. Unfortunately, there was no loot for them, just an appreciative Revenant.

The locals that helped Coop freshen up were among those that hadn’t been assigned to Empress City’s original event army, despite volunteering. They had been slightly disappointed by being passed over, but instead of being disheartened, they were focused on holding down for Empress City while the rest were gone. They would be spending a full five days moving away from the settlement as they traveled from checkpoint to checkpoint on the boardwalk, rotating between guard houses until they reached the Placid Lake Outpost. Once they reached the end, they would take a rotation at the furthest point during the most difficult time while the event was ongoing.

The news that Coop had provided a new mission to sweep the rest of South Florida hadn’t reached them yet, but they were already itching to make their contributions obvious, so that they wouldn’t be passed over the next time there was a volunteer possibility. They only paused briefly at Coop’s request before setting off to meet the new alligator allies in the region. The fact that the extension of the boardwalk would be continuing had barely reached the city.

However, they had an abundance of questions about the Swamp Lord’s minions. The rumors of the intelligent reptiles had spread like wildfire. Coop did his best to share some wisdom on how he treated animals now that the system had provided the skills that would uplift them, but it was one of those things that required a touch of familiarity.

Unlike Ghost Reef, Empress City’s high level animal residents were concealed, avoiding the bustling city center in favor of their own hideaways. Therefore, the human residents lacked the experience of seeing animals as equal partners in the assimilation, but based on their conversation, Coop was confident that Empress City’s population would get there. They already had several examples of powerful Chosen animals that they both feared and respected, and Coop thought it was only a matter of recognizing that potential in all animals that would be key in viewing them appropriately. He even considered letting them borrow Jett so that she could whip them into shape, but he doubted he’d ever get her to even temporarily leave her lighthouse.

Coop would have spoken with the group until it was time for them both to go, except that he had an unusual visitor who subtly demanded his attention after hunting him down herself. The Empress City residents were quick to avoid her presence, recognizing the jailor as someone to avoid messing with. She had taken a relatively prominent role in Empress City, but mostly as a disciplinarian. They took the first opportunity to excuse themselves once she started lingering around their conversation.

The residents courteously bowed out and left him alone in the center of the former drop-off area of the airport, in front of the centrally located guild headquarters, to deal with the guest on his own. Coop shook his head as he watched them go at a slightly faster pace than necessary. So much for being Ghost Reef’s backup, he thought, chuckling as they went. They retreated at the first sign of a challenge. He turned to the patiently waiting contracted alien resident with an amused smile on his face.

“God-Champion.” Eleza, the last remnant of the Endless Empire and the warden of the local dungeon-like prison, politely greeted Coop once he was alone.

Eleza took the posture of a peasant seeking an audience with royalty. She lowered her head so that she was staring at her own feet, much to Coop’s dismay. The effect of the upright bow wasn’t that drastic, considering she was seven feet tall, but her intent was obvious enough, and it made him uncomfortable. Coop could still see most of her face as he looked up at her, but he understood that she was being exceptionally respectful.

“I’m no God.” Coop tried correcting the pastel purple alien with his smile growing a bit awkward instead of amused.

“If you insist.” Eleza agreed obediently, though she didn’t raise her head, keeping her eyes hidden behind her short and frosty lavender hair. “I would humbly ask for an update on the cursed ones, but I am not worthy of an answer.”

Coop blew air out of his nose, already weary of the veneration. “It’s not like that.” Coop tried getting her to relax, so that they could actually connect on a person-to-person basis, but it was clearly a long shot.

The contracted residents in Ghost Reef had a much longer time to get used to Coop and the other human residents that had adopted his general attitude. Eleza was far less influenced, and she was also treating him differently than even a Champion deserved. He thought it was a comparable situation to how the residents of Empress City would need some time to grow familiar with the concept of sapient animals. She needed a chance to get on the Ghost Reef wavelength.

It would be a tall order to get her to change her mind after interacting with Coop only a handful of times, so he shelved the idea and gave her an update on Cap, Grizz, and Dan instead of struggling to get her onboard.

“They’re all fine. The ones you pointed out even avoided the permanent consequences completely. They helped me a lot during my last campaign defeating the Chosen of the Unspeakable.” Coop reassured her.

Eleza’s pupils dilated at the mention of the Undead faction, but then she sighed with relief as she comprehended the rest of his words, soaking them in like they had come from the heavens themselves. She still couldn’t bring herself to look directly at Coop, like it would be akin to staring at the sun. Coop tilted his head to the side and watched as she struggled to say something else, clenching her fists like she feared divine retribution.

He wasn’t comfortable with the way she was putting him on a pedestal. It made him wonder if he would need to go back to keeping his identity a secret to avoid others from getting the wrong idea about him before they had a chance to experience his personality. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure if he could suppress his aura enough to hide his status from any contracted residents. He suspected that he would need a lot more Mind stat to disguise himself from prying eyes.

“Eleza. It’s fine, I’m still just another human. You can say whatever you want. Do you want to come to Ghost Reef and see them?” Coop guessed, using as gentle a tone as he could without it feeling condescending. They were clearly disconnected by a mutual misunderstanding.

He fought with his natural inclination to treat her like a skittish beast, worried it might be kind of rude despite how the same logic applied to the mana-enhanced animals scattered across the planet. If what he knew of the alien residents in Ghost Reef applied universally, the other members of the galactic community had been closer to the alligators of Earth before mana activated on their planets. He cast his concerns away, assigning the contradiction in his feelings to a sort of galactic seniority rather than a difference in consciousness. No matter how she felt about their standing, he believed she was his senior, but the various animals he interacted with were his peers in the process of assimilation.

She shook her head curtly, shifting her bangs as she denied her desire to have him escort her to Ghost Reef. She was mouthing words before abandoning them, evidently surprised that he deemed it appropriate to use her name, revealing that he remembered it at all. His familiarity with her threw her off even more.

Eventually, she formed her thoughts into a coherent sentence and spoke with barely grasped confidence. “I wish to request a meeting with one of your God-Ministers to declare my allegiance.”

“Ah, God-Ministers? I don’t have anything like that.” Coop disappointed her. “I guess you could talk to Jackson or Fabiana, they’re essentially my advisors for this settlement. Are they neglecting you?” Coop wondered, trying to be helpful.

“No!” She practically shouted. “They are worthy attendants. Please do not punish them for my ignorance.”

Coop sighed, wondering how to get her to be normal. “You see my level right? I’m a novice in the community compared to you, and I’m not going to punish anyone.”

She hadn’t been afraid to push him around a bit when he was her prisoner, though he thought it would be better to avoid reminding her of that time given how it might inspire some regrets. She may have given him a chance, due to his status as a Champion, recognizing him as a potentially valuable relationship. Letting him escape had been strategic, but she hadn’t anticipated him becoming the founder of a faction as well. Due to what he viewed as her faction’s brain washing, he had transcended to another echelon.

Eleza was unconvinced by his modesty. “You have established a new faction on an unassimilated planet and have not been subjugated. You have the leisure to visit subordinates while the galactic community has surely set its eyes upon your claim. I will not question that you are special. I merely desire to join the Lighthouse and abandon my contract with Empress City. I had hoped to extend my departure, but now I wish to make it permanent.”

Coop scratched his sideburn with one finger. “I suppose it probably looks like I’m taking it easy, but we still have to survive the assimilation, right?” She bowed her head further to nod in agreement, though he was pretty sure she would agree to anything.

“Do you already know about the Eradication Protocol?” He wondered.

“I have heard the story.” She affirmed, repeating her bowing nod.

“It seems like more than a story, considering the Icons of Mana that pop up every once in a while.” Coop grumbled. “We can’t let our guard down on this planet, even if there are a bunch of other factions crawling over each other to take a piece from us.” He stated.

“I understand.” She declared, finally looking toward his chin, a moderate improvement. “I would stand with you on this planet Earth in exchange for not having to return to the Empire. There is no honor for me there. They have already decided I am unfit to be a proper warrior, but I will have redemption and prove myself to you.” Eleza recited, seeming like her decision had been a long time coming, and she was practically bubbling over with her reasons. “Please, give me a chance.”

“Oh, we can do that. As long as you understand the many threats we face, I won’t turn you away.” Coop was happy to grab another alien for the faction. He knew this one had already been cast out by the Endless Empire. Her assignment as a prison warden was essentially a punishment, but extending a hand to the downtrodden was what the Lighthouse was all about. She certainly fit the bill.

“Really?” She asked with some surprise. “I mean, I have already organized the merit system to be retained through personal contracts, but the Endless Empire’s service will be lost without any refund, and I have no way to guarantee my worth.”

“Huh. You mean the prison will despawn?” Coop wondered, glancing toward the nearby parking garages. He had long suspected the system services weren’t permanently attached to the planet, behaving more like the contracted resident’s personal belongings. He supposed if the services weren’t independent, they would belong to a faction instead, and the settlements only had them on loan.

“That is correct.” Eleza confirmed, sadly. “You only stand to lose in any exchange involving me.” She added, disheartened by her own admission.

Coop shrugged. “Are there many prisoners?”

“None, God-Champion.” She responded with discipline.

“Call me Coop, Eleza.” Coop tried.

“Yes, God-Champion Coop.” She agreed.

Coop shook his head at his failed attempt to slip in some familiarity while she was distracted. “Fine.” He responded, causing her bow to deepen as she detected his slight frustration.

He opened up his status and interacted with his officially created faction tab while she stared at the ground. His eyes wandered over the absurd and still growing credit total and he felt his heart skip a beat as he realized they would almost certainly reach a nonsensical 12 digits before the end of the battles. He was shaking his head in disbelief as he found what he wanted.

Before he was able to send the contract offer for the selected individual, he could review the penalties that Eleza would be assigned for breaking her current contract. Beneath the floating three-dimensional image of the pastel purple, lavender-haired, muscular, seven-foot tall alien amazon, her details were listed. Highlighted in red were the penalties: a five hundred thousand credit fine, paid in a split between the system and her former faction, or a five hundred thousand credit bounty on her head permitted by any faction that acquired her, as well as ten levels worth of unavoidable personal experience debt. These were evidently meant to be extremely severe punishments, but Coop was unimpressed. It didn’t seem like much money, but Scavenging might have started to warp his sense of the credit economy before thousands of battle victories completely destroyed it.

Coop paid the fine on her behalf from his own savings without any hesitation, thinking that if any faction tried to hunt down any of his members he would want to personally hunt down whoever wrote such a thing into a contract in return. She would have to work through the experience debt herself, though 10 levels seemed pretty minimal to him.

Eleza’s head finally tilted toward Coop’s and he watched as her pupils dilated for the second time, apparently the way her species displayed surprise. She received the contract much easier than she expected, without any of the many trials that were standard in the galactic community. The color drained from her face in the moment before she rushed to accept it, apparently ready to ignore the terms completely before one of the lines caught her eye, leading her to discover more and more anomalies.

“But these terms cannot be correct? 0% tribute? Purely voluntary participation? Fine already paid for?” Eleza muttered in disbelief, struggling between not questioning God-Champion Coop and the complete lack of mandatory bonds in her new contract. The Lighthouse would be following its own rules, and they were completely different from the standard within the galactic community.

Coop nodded encouragingly, letting her come to an understanding of the structure of the Lighthouse herself before she finally accepted the terms. It only took a few moments, the alien refusing to let what she saw as a golden opportunity pass her by. Coop hadn’t considered how the structure of the Lighthouse might have helped Balor successfully recruit the factionless aliens, but he supposed it had contributed.

[Eleza Amara (Level 1,272) has become an ‘Initiate” level Permanent Member of the Lighthouse]

“Welcome aboard.” Coop smiled as another joined the Lighthouse. “Make sure to work hard.” He added, though she was five times his level already. He shifted his attention to the tower that poked above the parking garages as it deconstructed itself from the top down and disappeared. The solid black stone turned translucent, with red and blue mana highlighting the edges of each individual stone before they faded in a cascade of evaporating mana smoke.

“Yes…” Eleza mumbled, with a shaky voice that made her sound younger than he imagined she actually was.

“That won’t happen to the direct purchases we made through the system, will it?” Coop asked from over his shoulder, referring to the tower with his extended thumb. There was a difference between the system services and system structures. He hoped they wouldn’t need to worry about losing the structures that provided the vast majority of their housing.

“...No…” She whispered, struggling to keep it together.

“Alright.” He turned back to her while her head still hung low, this time in disbelief rather than respect. “I’ve got a settlement event to go take care of.” Coop forced eye contact by leaning closer and gave her an encouraging smile as he reached up and put his hand on her lightly scarred shoulder. “Welcome home, Eleza.” He expressed, patting her arm, before turning to leave without lingering too long. He headed toward the port.

Before he got too far away, he heard her whisper, “...thank you.” with her voice still unsteady, spoken quietly enough that she probably didn’t think he would hear. She sounded a bit too much like an orphan child in disbelief of being adopted for his taste.

Coop’s jaw was firmly clenched as he marched to the port where a huge portion of the Tempest Fleet was waiting. No one stopped him while he went, steering clear as his discontent swirled. For the first time he could consciously recall, he did the opposite of trying to keep his plans simple while focusing on the immediate challenges they all faced. Instead, he was thinking far beyond what was reasonably prudent. The galactic community had 110 years before he wanted humans to impose some changes upon the universe.

They were halfway to Ghost Reef, with Coop at the bow of the lead ship, staring off at the horizon, before his jaw relaxed. It was Admiral Kayla, putting her hand on his shoulder in turn to pierce his tempestuous meditation.

“One thing at a time, Coop.” She advised him sagely, with eyes on the horizon.

Coop nodded, staying quiet for a few more moments. “I’m gonna kick some Primal Construct ass.” He finally declared, embracing the ember of aggression that burned within.

“Damn right.” The pirate admiral agreed.

Two hundred ships flanked the Eye of the Storm, with Coop and Kayla on the bow. The phalanx of vessels carried the first portion of the Empress City reinforcements in anticipation of the Underlayer Event. Coop wasn’t alone in this fight.