Setting up a sanctioned death-battle was simultaneously a long-winded process and far too fast, especially when you considered the far-reaching consequences this one would have. Lady Melania was the ruler of a tier 3 planet, with 26 sub-worlds under her dominion. As evil as she might be, to most of her people, she was a decent, if detached, leader.

  Should Arthur be successful today, hundreds of billions of lives would be affected. Succession protocols existed, but the void of power Melania's death would cause was sure to be chaotic. Some would argue that Arthur was jumping the gun, making a mistake even, but he didn't live in a world where someone's positive impact on society made them immune to justice. A person who clothed and fed the poor didn't suddenly gain the right to kill and torture as they pleased, even if their beneficiaries numbered in the billions.

  Most importantly, someone who had tried to kill and imprison him didn't just get to walk away scot-free. The Weaver was busy setting everything up, which had left him in the company of his potential father-in-law, Duncan and Thalia the dwarf, the only people here willing to talk to him.

  “Y’know, kid, you're about to fight the Bloodied Butcherer of Kenasis,” Thalia said, waving her arms emphatically. “She didn't get that title by twiddling her thumbs. She’s more famous as a scientist these days, but those present on Kenasis 400 years ago will never forget her.”

  “And you were there?” Arthur asked.

  “No, but my niece's friend's husband was, and I’ve heard the stories. You’re in for a beating, boy.”

  “I don’t want to say it, Arthur, but I have to agree with her,” Ezrial said. “You're in over your head. These are waters you're not ready to swim yet, and this is without considering the advantage she’ll get as the challenged party.”

  “She’ll get to choose the battlefield, yes. You’ve told me this already.”

  “I don’t think you realise how bad that is.” This time it was Duncan speaking. “She’s a scientist, a mad inventor. The possibilities are endless, and since you’ll be fighting in a perfectly mirrored reflection of the place, Melania can use strategies that would normally bankrupt her empire. Even in a stronger vessel, I wouldn’t enjoy facing her under those odds.”

  They’d been repeating words of similar meaning for the last few minutes now, explaining in increasingly descriptive ways, just how fucked he was. Arthur probably should’ve been worrying now, and he was, just not for the reasons most were thinking. He was mentally preparing himself to use the trait he had refrained from, no matter how dire things had become.

  Beast Form, a trait that would transform him into a bipedal monster based on all the cores he’d consumed in his life. Arthur worried about the implications of such a transformation. The last time he’d truly given in to his bestial instincts had been months ago, when he’d faced the Draconic Liverthion. Losing control like that was terrifying, especially when considering how much more powerful he was now. Arthur pulled up his status page, the first time he had since his second refinement.

  Going over everything, Arthur could immediately see that consuming Shylo and Samuel’s core had given him a minor boost in some stats, most notably in his intelligence. He’d also evolved to C rank, which made his many titles a little more potent, and he had a few more unassigned attributes than he was supposed to. It took him a moment before he realised they had come from his evolution retroactively boosting the stats he'd gained from his enlarged soul title.

  The extra points he should have gained in Draconic Vitality had apparently become free points he could assign, and even then, he wasn't sure if the numbers added up. Arthur had so many things affecting his stats at this point that he couldn’t recall where all the different boosts were coming from. In fact, he was pretty certain his stamina and ether regeneration should be significantly lower than they were.

  The only explanation he could think of was that his enhanced regeneration trait had somehow started affecting those energies, too. Perhaps it was because of how often his health fed into his ether pool, though he wasn’t sure when exactly the change had taken place. Whatever the case, Arthur would never complain about having higher numbers.

  “You’re looking at your stats page, aren’t you?” Ezrial interrupted his musings. “Don’t invest any of your free points.”

  “Why not?”

  The fae king sighed. “You really should learn the rules before you go around issuing challenges, kid. From the second you challenged Melania, until the moment she either accepts and the challenge is completed, or she decides to reject it, you are not allowed to make any changes to your status page. The same rule applies to the challenged. If she’s made any changes to her status page in the last 11 minutes and 37 seconds, she isn't allowed to accept your challenge unless you issue another.”

  “It's a rule to prevent people from stat dumping at the last possible moment to ensure easy victory. Similarly, any doping item not created by yourself is disallowed to prevent the wealthy from fighting proxy wars.”

  Arthur cursed his stupidity. The reproach in Ezrial’s voice was well-meaning, but it was tinged with disappointment. If he didn’t have perfect control over his biological functions, Arthur would’ve flushed with embarrassment. As things were, he grit his teeth and promised himself he wouldn’t be so hasty again.

  “I really did get too cocky,” he muttered.

  “See that you learn from your mistakes. The rules are being bent in your favour this time. The Council won’t let you actually die, but you’ll be suffering a hell of a lot over the next decade or so. I’m assuming The Council will restrict me or anyone else from helping you heal, too, to teach you a lesson in humility. Next time, though, a mistake like this can and will cost you your life .”

  Arthur shook his head. “I wasn’t relying on a stat dump to win the fight. It would’ve helped for sure, though, which is a shame. Just not as much as you might be thinking."

  "So you held back when you fought me," Duncan said, "I'm not sure if I should be angry or impressed."

  "What would have happened if I'd unknowingly invested my stat points?"

  "Well, as a challenger who'd broken the rules, it would mean forfeit. For a sanctioned death-battle, the penalty could have been anything from community service to execution, depending on who judged your case. It would've been a great way for The Weaver to get you even further tangled in her web," Ezrial explained.

  The words were like a beacon in a dark and put recent events in an entirely different light. The Weaver had been so quick to accept his challenge, too quick even if she'd made a show of it, gaining extra service from him in the process. The only reason he'd known sanctioned combat was a thing was because she'd name-dropped it before his test against Duncan.

  For that matter, why was it that only Lady Melania's assassins had pursued him after Solana's deception? No one else had. Had she been pulling the strings there, too? She'd almost made him blunder his way into additional work. No, that was my own stupidity there. I can't blame her for everything.

  "Stop doing that," Ezrial's voice cut through his racing thoughts.

  "Doing what?"

  "You're thinking Makora's been manipulating every decision you've been making. That's a fast track to landing yourself in a psychiatric ward. Before you know it, you'll be questioning if the thoughts in your head are planted and programmed. Or if others are caught in her web, too. Is this warning I'm giving you all a part of her schemes, too?"

  "I've seen powerful people go crazy with these thoughts before. They cope with it in different ways—some use a hundred-sided dice to decide their every decision to make themselves unpredictable, others completely abandon their current lives and relationships, while some simply stop doing anything at all and live in limbo."

  "Yeah, I remember hearing people talk about it in a bar," Thalia interrupted. "The theory that we're all puppets dancing to The Weaver's tune. That there's no such thing as free will."

  "And is there?" Arthur asked.

  Ezrial sighed again. "I can see why my daughter likes you. She was always asking the same question as a teen. That's the problem with seers. Let me give you an example. Take a mundane ant and place it in a controlled environment. A group of Earth's greatest scientists will probably be able to calculate the probability of anything the ant does in the next few minutes. Will it eat the food in front of it? Take three steps to the left, take a shit, or suddenly drop dead. Will it get eaten by the spider they put in the terrarium? This can all be calculated. Similarly, the probability of any action or decision anyone makes in the multiverse can theoretically be calculated too."

  "To someone like The Weaver, though, most people are like our metaphorical ant, and the universe at large, her terrarium. Now the question is, do the scientists knowing exactly what the ant is going to do mean it doesn't have free will? They created the terrarium. Shaped its environment. Imagine we took it a step further and said they manipulated the way the ant evolved, too?"

  Arthur considered Ezrial's words. He remembered having a similar discussion with Mathew years ago, though they'd scrapped the topic very quickly.

  "You're the Fatebreaker," Arthur said instead of answering the question. "How did you deal with it?"

  Ezrial grinned. "Well, you've gotta stop being an ant, of course." He laughed loudly at his terrible attempt at a joke, slapping Arthur on the back.

  "In all seriousness, though, kid, I sincerely doubt Makora's as cunning as the rumours would have you believe. It's all propaganda, a part of her PR machine. Hell, I've got evidence of her funding some of the more zealous idiots."

  The sound of someone clearing their throat loudly put an end to Ezrial's tirade. The Weaver stared at him coolly. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't give away all my secrets, thank you very much," she said, harumphing. "Onto more important topics, Lady Melania has agreed to your challenge. It will take place in a mirrored replica of the very heart of her capital city, 53 miles for you two to duke it out to your heart's content. I assume she believes we are rewarding her with a learning opportunity by letting her be the one to execute you. She was the one who convinced The Council you were still alive, after all."

  "It actually works out perfectly for us, almost like fate is being woven in our favour," Makora chuckled. "That was a joke, by the way... Or was it? We can fake your death and have you return to high society in a decade once you've healed your injuries. We can introduce you as some backwater noble, selected by the Twins for your exceptional aptitude."

  The Weaver turned away from him. "And if you miraculously win against all odds... Well, it'll put a wrench in my plans." She paused for dramatic effect. "Or will it?"

  Arthur rolled his eyes. He could see why people had gone crazy dealing with this lady.

  "You'll be teleported to the battlefield in three minutes' time. Make any last-second preparations you can. Invest your free stat points, consume any natural treasures you may have."

  Arthur's eyebrow twitched. Now she was just taking the mick.

  Links to the audiobooks.

  Etherious: Originator

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