Strangely, this spell resonates with this world, your own power, and the power in the immediate area. Unfortunately, it does cause a backlash.

As your now golden blade pierces the demon through, sending it back to wherever it came from, you get a vision of a terrible golden entity with multi-winged angels around it, and legions of people worshiping it because that is what they were told to do. You hear only one word, spoken clearly: "OBEY!"

When you vision returns, the demon is gone, and you feel a disconnect with your magic. It's not as strong as Chang's lock though, and you know it will fade much faster. Likely within the day.

The Legionnaire is soon joined by others, who see him walking up to Thirteen. "You belong to Citizen Anthony, correct?" The Legionnaire is speaking to Thirteen. "If you can hear me, good work, citizen. You have upheld the Law of Justice well. And if you can't hear me...machine, tell him he did well."

Thirteen did not respond, except to give a quick salute in the manner of the Legion.

A dark-skinned man wearing a white longcoat with a golden eye emblazed on it steps through the forming Legionnaires. "The demon was slain?"

You realize they cannot see you as they are speaking. The Legionnaire who was speaking to Thirteen replies. "Well, it is not here, is it?"

The man in the robe strikes the speaker in the head with a swift hook, knocking him down. "Find the others, get order back in this city. Brand the cowards involved according to the Law of Valor, and enforce the others as needed. We might not be finished yet."

He's looking down at a bit of blood that is pooling at your feet. He kneels down to it, studying it intently and sweeping his gaze to where a short trail has formed during your movements against the demon. He gives a command without looking to the other soldiers. "Dismissed! Get back to your posts!"

They leave, and it is just Thirteen, this man, and yourself.

I'll take my shirt off and wrap it around my hand. Then I'll move as quietly as I can away from where the battle took place.

Now I wait.

"Foreigner, entity, whatever you answer to." The man is speaking without looking at anything but the blood. "I know you are close by. You are likely scared, low on resources, and desperate. You will not last long without citizenship or the patronization of one. Whatever these backwater legionnaires may think, the Eyes want you alive."

He looks up. "My name is Lucius, and you may be the reincarnation of the First, If you are, we could really use your help right now. Let me take you to Sol, and all will be explained there."

Thirteen looks impassive at the moment, before speaking. "I must re-turn to my mas-ter. En-gag-ing re-turn pro-to-cols."

He starts to stomp off, before the man speaks in a voice of ice. "Remain, machine, or your master will be executed for a violation of Humility."

Thirteen stops. "Whether you are actually true AI or not, that got your attention at least." The man smiles coldly, and then his face becomes stern again. "Step out of the shadows, or be flushed out later. Your choice, if we must be like this."

I weigh my options and decide to speak.

"I hear that the Legion takes Versers to Earth or Terra and execute them. That seems really suspicious to me. You seem like the type to just shoot them on the spot."

I move to somewhere else.

"So what do you really do with them?"

I move again.

He's not looking directly at you, but his head turns in your direction, so he's close to guessing where you are. "I have no idea. The trials they put entities such as yourself through are classified to agents. But you are right. If we want someone dead, killing them immediately is our general M.O."

Thirteen's head looks at him with that statement, and his hands clench.

If Lucius noticed, he's not showing it. "But I offer this: safe passage off of this planet to the Sol system. I do not have much more time to discuss this, because I am being called back to deal with some problems brewing here in the wake of your passage."

I move again.

"Have you heard of anyone passing those trails? In any case, I'll need to think about it. I'll meet you sometime tomorrow. "

"Will you?" He seems guarded about something. "Very well. This location will do, if you can find your way back. Farewell."

He leaves, glancing at Thirteen as he passes by the machine. "We are watching you. Obey."

It is just Thirteen and yourself now. "I must re-turn to my mas-ter. En-gag-ing re-turn pro-to-cols." Thirteen begins heading to the construction site you came to the world in.

If you follow Thirteen, the journey will not have incident. If not, what actions do you have in mind instead?

I comment as I walk with Thirteen to the construction site.

"Well. This is a fine mess I got us in."

"No-thing has been got-ten in-to." Thirteen replies back without breaking stride. "I do not know what you want here. I want free-dom. I do not be-lieve the gal-ax-y of-fers it an-y-where. They ei-ther des-pise hu-mans and their crea-tions in eq-ual mea-sure, or they are not free, or some com-bin-ation. On-ly front-ier worlds are free, and the quest-ion with them is this: how long?"

"The Drake-fan-i would wel-come me with op-en arms, but would kill you on sight." Thirteen explains as it turns a corner. "They are A-Is. I won-der if the First knew of them, and banned AI be-cause of them. They would be rea-son en-ough."

"The Tek-ron would en-slave us both, and make you more mac-hine, and me more org-an-ic. No one knows why, but it is what they do."

You hear a whirring noise from Thirteen, as it's CPU tries to think of something. "On-ly the League of Fringe Worlds has held as truly free, and they are not pro-sper-ous. They are in a three way war against the Rai-ders, the Heg-emo-ny, and the Hob-ain Blood-knights."

"They are also hard to reach."

When you make it back to the site, Anthony rushed out of a shadow and hugged Thirteen. "Thirteen, I thought you were leaving for good! I'm glad you made it back."

"I am just a mach-ine. Glad to help."

"Right...right." Anthony looks at you with tired surprise. "And you...what did you do to my workers?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:05, Thu 30 June 2016.

As I walk with thirteen I comment after his explanation
"I see, I need to learn a lot more about this universe before I know what I would want. But trying to find a way for you to be truly free sounds like a good thing to work on."

After I get to the site.
"What did I do to your workers? How are they different?"

"Almost right after you left, they went underground to our meeting place here, and..." Anthony rubs his short hair. "I think it is better if you look. Just realize we didn't have this before you arrived."

He opens a door in the trailer he was on, and you see what was once an office meeting space. Someone left a computer of some sort running. "That is designed to feed a loop to the eyes around here. They never told me they knew how this was done..."

Thirteen makes a noise that sounds like a fuse blowing. "You may add this as well." He places a tiny scorched metal thing next to the device.

Anthony looks back at you, fear plain in his eyes. "If the Eyes saw this..."

You sense a high concentration of potential power here, and it is giving the urge to act. It is your power, the energy you brought in when you came here.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:05, Thu 30 June 2016.

"Hmmm. The power I build up before pooled here.
So they where not defeating the Eye's security before I got here?
What are they doing now?"

"They never cared to!" Anthony is almost yelling. "All they did was grumble about the Legion and talk! They never did anything like...this! Talk will get nothing out of the Eyes unless you are brazen about it or people start listening to you! Blocking their surveillance is another matter entirely!"

"This does re-pre-sent an es-cal-at-ion. If dis-cov-ered, some-one would like-ly be pub-lic-ly killed. Hum-il-it-y, Just-ice and Hon-est-y would like-ly be the laws cited."

"I don't know what they are doing right now. They went home, and started talking, leaving me out."

"Great. This is actually my fault. The power that surrounded me when I appeared pooled here. It has a tendency to make people want to act. I think I might be able to draw it in again. but I can't use it at the moment because my Magic is down. That would hurt, A lot. "

"Per-haps leav-ing your en-er-gy a-lone may be best." Thirteen was looking around, and you notice he reaches for the device and a surge of electricity jumped from his hand to the device. "Pow-er short-age. It re-quires more than it is get-ting."

"Why do you want it to get more?!" Anthony was clearly not on board with this signal jamming plan. "Do you want the Legion to kill us all?!"

Thirteen took two steps towards Anthony. "An-thon-y, you know that is not true. You know what I could do if I was what the Leg-ion claims I am."

"But the Leg-ion is not heal-thy for this plan-et. They will not re-form. The sol-u-tion will in-volve the deaths of your kind."

Anthony is not taking this well, and looks to be on the verge of a breakdown.

"I Generally can't approve of Something that authoritative.
I also don't want to see your workers die.
At the moment I need to get medical attention for my hand and rest for a while.
I also couldn't figure out exactly what the legion does when it catches entities like myself.
Thirteen says that they execute them at Sol. But then why don't they just shoot me.
The eye guy says there are some sort of trials."

"I'm honestly not sure what happens to them. None have ever returned though, so Thirteen might actually be right. But that doesn't mean WE have to fight the Legion, Thirteen!" Anthony is yelling at the large machine. "Do you know what they do to rebels, Thirteen? Decimation would be an indication of mercy!"

"I was pre-sent, An-thon-y, when they took this world. I am get-ting ti-red of hid-ing. The Leg-ion will not be-come more tol-er-ab-le. Per-haps act-ing now would be best."

"You can survive though! We all can! It's better to be alive and angry about it than dead!"

Thirteen does not respond to that, but he looks to you. "Where is the first aid kit?"

"You-!" Anthony sighs. "It's in here. Hold on a moment."

He rummages for a small box. "We have frequent injuries on the site. Don't move, ok? This will feel a bit strange."

He pulls a roll of what looks like toothpaste out and applies it to your injures. Your hands almost instantly regenerate from second degree burns to unblemished skin. "Bio-gel. It con-forms to your gen-et-ic code. The First Leg-ion-naire ad-vanced much tech-no-lo-gy, but tech-no-lo-gy has not ad-vanced much in Leg-ion ter-ri-to-ry."

"That is nice. I wish I had more of that stuff to take with me.

Hmmm... The are going to take me to the heart of their Empire. I could do something nasty with my magic there. Then again they could try doing something nasty to me."

"I don't want the Leg-ion des-troyed." Thirteen raised a hand in protest. "The po-wer va-cuum must be con-sid-ered. On this, An-tho-ny and I ag-ree."

"Er...right." Anthony was speaking rather cautiously. "Look, I don't know what they do to people there, but anyone grabbed by the Eyes tends to just disappear. And I just want what is best for everyone, which certainly doesn't involve any crazy ideas like fighting the Legion."

"An-tho-ny. He needs to get off of this world with-out en-ter-ing Yi-drel ter-ri-to-ry. Or if he must go through, to pass safe-ly."

"I...hmm...I don't know right now. Personally, I would get some sleep. It's not comfortable, but we've got a place here which can hold a few people. They provisioned it today after you left, which worries me."

"What I would do probably wouldn't destroy the Legion.
Just a nasty surprise if they have a nasty surprise for me.

What is the smallest ship that can get to other systems?"

After they answer I'll say

"I want to rest for a while. I'll need to think."

"An-y Leg-ion spon-sored build-ing will have the ab-il-ty to travel in space. Jump or gate cap-a-ble en-gines are an-oth-er mat-ter. They are de-signed to re-loc-ate on short not-ice, but they sometimes need an-oth-er ves-sal to make the jump or open the gate."

They talk and argue a bit, but they try to keep it down. Thirteen puts a pillow over his chest to cover his speakers, because he was not built with a voice modulator.

You are awoken by activity. You see the room you went down in being filled with people who are talking cheerfully with each other and showing off some kind of gun with a blue crystal where the barrel would be at. One person is messing with the jammer. They are the white coated construction workers, and they are looking forward to a fight.

One of them notices you are awake, and Thirteen is not in sight.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:10, Wed 06 July 2016.

Is my magic still blocked?


I ask them.
"What time is it?"

Your magic is just fine once again.

"Early." He puts the gun down. "Sorry we woke you up, but we are preparing for the future, friend. In a few months, we are going to run the Legion out of this city, and get ourselves a fleet at the same time. We held off the Yidrel and the Saurians just fine before the Legion showed up, and we can do it again without them or their absurd laws."

"With these..." He points to the weapons he and his comrades were arranging. "We can actually fight them back."

Thirteen comes stomping in, takes a glance at you, and then looks to the weapons. "Tes-la weap-on-ry. The tech was in-vent-ed by my cre-at-or. Where did you get so ma-ny?"

"Stole them from the Legion."

"Reck-less. Build up slow-er and be cer-tain."

"Time is the ally of the Legion, Anthony." He seems to believe Thirteen is not speaking for himself. "Stop talking through this thing, and get in here and disagree with us to our faces."

Thirteen goes quiet with that, as the man rejoins the others in excited chatter.

"He's right. The Legion will notice that many weapons missing at once. The Legion will attack before you are ready.

Do all of you know how to use those Tesla weapons? How accurate are you with them?
Because The Legion has automatic rifles. And It will not sit idly by while you prepare."

"Automatics are given to the ground troops, cheap old tech. Reliable, but old. These are assault weapons, capable of killing entire squads. The Legion uses them when they need to kill everyone except each other."

"Yeah, we know how to use them. Point the business end at the enemy, and zap! No more Legionnaires."

Thirteen just looks blankly at you. Without any expression on his metal slab of a face, it is impossible to tell what he is thinking. Not even chi senses can give you a clue, beyond that his face has turned to you at that sentence.