The two of us spent a decent amount of time simply insulting Khime before our discussion moved on to more serious matters. Lee proposed we continue our discussion somewhere more comfortable, and I agreed, so we spoke as we started to walk towards his destination.

  "Why are there so many people here? The voranders don't seem to be attacking them," I asked the land's owner.

  "This place has become something of a last refuge for those with nowhere else to go. Criminals, outcasts, exiles, the desperate. The odd scholar or mage arrives every so often, intent on completing their research and leaving, but they quickly discover the limits of my tolerance."

  "And the...soul leeches? How do they coexist with this land's inhabitants? Why are you not affected by them?" I asked.

  He smirked, an ugly thing that made my skin crawl. "Let us say that I have come to an accord with them, and leave it at that. Now!" He clapped his hands, rubbing them slightly in anticipation. "What do you seek to accomplish by leaving this world?"

  "I told you before. Freedom."

  Lee shook his head, that smirk still present on his face. "You speak the truth, but not a complete one. Those who crave freedom know what it is to be deprived of choice. Perhaps this world has been harsher on you than your homeworld, but ultimately it matters little. I will rephrase my question then. Once you have your freedom, what is stopping you from losing it?"

  "...anyone else I meet who is stronger than me."

  "Precisely. What you truly seek is not freedom, but power. Power to throw off any shackles that others use to bind you. Power that will make them regret attempting to bind you. And eventually, enough power that nothing and nobody would dare attempt to even cross you, lest they feel your wrath descend upon them."

  Why is he asking me these questions? Has he even learned anything about me? Or is he just preaching?

  Lee next asked me about the state of the war, to which I replied with what I knew. He was well aware of the parasites'-- or apparently, the soul leeches' -- plan to withdraw their forces but was unaware of the response of the rest of the world's forces. He even implied that he would survive even if the northern continent was encircled and every vorander wiped out to the last.

  He also asked about my world specifically, such as how advanced it was, its population levels, its primary energy sources, even cultural questions. I had no issue telling him some barebones facts about Earth, as he could do nothing with the information besides maybe improve his understanding of me.

  "Why are you still here, after hundreds of years?" I asked perhaps the most salient question that mattered at the moment.

  His face fell, downcast at the reminder. Or it was an act to gain sympathy from me, but if so, it wasn't working. "Your comprehension of the greater universe is limited, so forgive me if I drone on." I rolled my eyes at his casual acknowledgement of my ignorance. "This world is unique. Its peoples are...crippled, for lack of a better term. Their world has been doomed since before its inception, and I highly suspect our mutual acquaintance is responsible."

  "Why would you say that?" I asked.

  "Patience. As I said, this world is unique, in that its composition is entirely void of mana. Let me explain. Mana is the fundamental energy that..."

  He explained mana to me in layman's terms, and its similarities and differences to essence. And while I could have told him that I was already aware of what mana was, explaining how I knew was none of his business and would just lead to more deviations and possibly conflict.

  "-- and most importantly, this essence somehow prevents the possibility of ascension. Souls need time, experience, and mana to grow, and to deprive generations of the opportunity to improve themselves is a crime more ghastly than anything these so-called 'monsters' have done."

  I paused as I took in his words. "When you say ascension, are you referring to...immortality? Or divinity?"

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  He looked at me with scrutiny in his eyes. "Curious, that you would arrive at such a conclusion. Ascension allows one to not only accrue more power, but also more potential. Beyond that, my understanding is as limited as your own. While there are many who have become beings that you would call gods or deities, ascension is something else entirely."

  We finally arrived at our destination, a massive hole in the ground at least two hundred feet across. From the precipice I couldn't see anything, but my head began pulsing uncomfortably as soon as I attempted to take a look inside.

  "Shall we?" Lee invited me as he began levitating and flying around without the use of wings or magic, as far as I could tell. It wasn't pretty, but I could mimic flight, albeit to a very poor degree, with my wind affinity. Once more I followed his lead, descending slowly as I wrapped myself in a bubble of air and manipulated it to resemble movement.

  The pit was deep and obviously artificial as there were numerous branching paths of tunnels every so often. After a few minutes, estimating that we went at least half a mile down, we entered a nondescript tunnel that looked just like the rest, bored out in a perfect circle as if it were done by a drill, that ended in an enormous cavern. In sheer size, it had to match Elder Dusk's cave abode that I had been in before, but instead of being filled with treasures of all kind, it resembled a lab, with completely alien formations everywhere, floating light sources hovering in the air every few feet. As if it weren't apparent, my spatial affinity confirmed that this area had been spatially expanded somehow, which explained the different sections that I could visibly make out.

  The lab area, complete with formations, was the most prominent. There was a rest area to the side, with books and loose notes piled up in stacks next to an imitation of a bed: feathers and pelts covering a small raised rectangle of stone. There was a small nook about ten feet up with just enough space for a single person, but all I could make out from where I stood with my earth sense was the presence of carvings on the walls, ones that were too irregular to be formations or runes.

  "We were speaking of your goals, so now let me speak to my own. Like you, I was brought here on the brink of death, my lifeforce draining away thanks to an experiment gone awry, and when I awoke, I was met with an individual who told me that I had died." He sensed my skepticism and addressed it. "Perhaps you were more dubious than I in that situation, but I was young at the time and had no reason to distrust him. The absence of mana was perhaps the greatest evidence that he was telling the truth, as how else could it be explained? Regardless, he introduced himself to me and claimed that this world was one he was responsible for, and wished for me to educate its natives."

  "And you accepted?" I couldn't help but ask.

  "I did. I was merely grateful for the opportunity to repay what I believed he had done for me. I was somewhat suspicious of this savior, of course, how could I not be? Yet he asked for nothing in return save that one thing. The races here were all ones I was familiar with, even if the lack of mana took some time to adjust to. I chose to live among the elves, as their longevity would ensure the information I taught them would not be forgotten. I taught them about formations, mostly. The relations between the elements, and how to manipulate them to create different outcomes. I had experience teaching, even if I was primarily a scholar and researcher, and my students displayed true understanding of what I taught. After spending time with the elves, humans were my next pursuit. The beastfolk, I had discovered, were just like those I was familiar with, their pros and cons identical. They preferred using their bodies to solve problems rather than their minds, and viewed those who sought my tutelage as lesser, imitators that relied on tricks to cover their weakness."

  "Humans proved far more accepting, and while there were many who understood my lessons, there were just as many who did not. The truly gifted wished to aid me in my research, which I continued to pursue even after coming here. Substituting essence for mana worked on some levels, but the results were inconsistent with past experiments, which eventually led me to the truth."

  "Which was?" I supplied.

  "The astral conveyance and resonant dimensional cohesion that mana typically --"

  "Can you say it simply, like I'm a child?" I said, trying to cut to the heart of the matter without having to endure all the technical jargon that was endemic of scientists.

  For once, Lee seemed to show some humanity as he rolled his eyes. "Of course, how could I forget I was speaking to a child. Let me see if you can understand this." He paused, and whether it was to build suspense or because he was genuinely trying to dumb down his findings, it took a while. I waited in silence as he sat in thought, until he looked at me once more.

  "Essence is mana, but without the components that allow one to ascend, all its significance stripped away."

  Huh. I was kind of expecting more from that reveal, given how much he hyped it up.

  "I could only think of one possibility for doing something so...heinous. To breed an army of slaves, with no possibility of rising up in revolt against their master, yet possessing as much might and resilience as one could desire."

  The only thing that really concerned me was if it had to do with Khime. "Did Khime ever confirm your theory?"

  Lee actually chuckled. "You could say so. Once I shared my suspicions with a few trusted students, I and everyone I had told were killed by chimeras like nothing I had ever heard of or come across. They appeared from a portal in mid-air with no warning landed in the midst of a delicate experiment. I would have died had one of my students not given his life to save mine."

  "I killed or subjugated them all, but it was a meaningless victory. Everyone I had considered family on this new world was dead, and my life was contaminated and meant to end if not for fate intervening. I mourned for my losses before I set myself to the goal of avenging them. I studied the instruments of their destruction, the chimera. They bred faster than goblins, adapted faster than mimics, and lacked the barest speck of intelligence beyond their primal instincts."

  "It was then that my laboratory was attacked, those I had known in the past wielding the knowledge I had taught them to attack me. I fled, taking what I could salvage before enduring years of running and hiding. In all that time, I continued my research into the chimera, seeking to improve them and control them. To turn them against those who had turned on me. I was fortunate in that my soul's unique properties allowed me to eventually imprint certain commands on them, but I was limited in what they could perform without my constant supervision, so I kept things simple. Kill. Breed. Destroy. Those three orders are present in every chimera present today. Ah, yes, I forgot they go by a different name nowadays."

  "Others began to seek refuge with me to attack their enemies, and I allowed them to do so. Once it became more popular, I retreated and hid myself away, but this time from the world. Without me at the helm to lead them, my forces grew unchecked and eventually were sealed away, resulting in that damned barrier."

  He paused, his head turning as if to confirm something, before looking in my direction once more and smiling.

  "It seems as though the world has lost its patience concerning this chimera matter. The entire island is surrounded."

  could extend it, but honestly, I don't think any of us want that, all things considered. I won't deny I've lost interest and motivation for this story a few times (a day), but I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those authors who just straight-up doesn't finish a story. Like, even a cliffhanger would be better than leaving something incomplete. So yeah, I'm nearly done with this story and have been working on my next one.