System Change

“I could take care of that right now,” Derek said, motioning to the still unconscious duke. With someone who had no way out of dying, Derek thought it would be the perfect opportunity to perform his second test with his Void Travel skill. The duke was relatively powerful and would be perfect.

“No,” the king said, disappointing Derek. “We will go with Edgar’s plan. A public execution of the second highest power in the Kingdom of Astrus should have the desired effect, especially after they have learned of the death of their king. Which, might I ask, is there anything left of him?”

Derek looked over at Silvi, but she just stared back, sullenly. “No, I don’t believe there is,” he said.

“That’s unfortunate, but it wasn’t a necessity. It would have been better to have something, but we can make do with just Duke Terrin,” the king said. “I am sure that many in the kingdom have already learned of the death of their king.”

“Then what will we do first, father?” Edward asked.

“First,” the king began. “Your brother, Ms. Swan, and Mr. Hunt, if they are willing, that is, will invade the capital of Indria and bind the royal family with a soul contract. Indria’s royal family will be bound to Cydaria’s royal family, and thus, Indria will become a vassal kingdom to Cydaria. Too many have perished already, and it would be best to end this war with as little bloodshed as possible.”

“What about Astrus?” Edgar asked.

“Once Indria is taken care of, myself and, hopefully, King Osian will execute Duke Terrin in the Astrus capital. Post that, we will establish a new royal family with soul contracts as well, making Astrus a vassal kingdom,” the king explained.

“So, basically,” Derek started. “You are going to do to the other kingdoms what they wanted to do with Cydaria?”

“No,” Natalie chimed in from the side. “They wanted to eliminate the Cydarian royal family and anyone close to it and force many of the citizens into servitude that may not have been much better than slavery. With Edwin’s plan, Astrus and Indria will both continue to exist, just with new rules and laws—the rules and laws of Cydaria.”

“Speaking of slavery, how deep does whatever Gerald was doing go? Was the royal family involved? Or was that just some side project for him while he fed them information? Because if they were behind it, your plan may need some adjusting,” Derek said to the king.

“Unfortunately…” the king started with a sigh. “The overwhelming majority of those we found involved in Gerald’s business, were actually noble families from Cydaria. As far as we have been able to tell, he may have initiated some… trades with some Indrians, but he never had actual contact with the royal family. At least not that he knew of.”

“Well, I guess I can always find out more once we get to Indria…” Derek shrugged. “Whatever,” he said. “I’m in. When do we leave?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Edgar cut in. “If it’s the three of us going, then how are we going to initiate the soul contract? That would require either Edward or you,” he asked his father.

“Brother,” Edward stepped forward and held up his arm that was missing his hand and much of his forearm. “I have failed too many times. It seems that at every move that I make, I am being saved by you or others. Father and I have discussed this much over the last weeks. You have proven your strength and commitment…”

“No!” Edgar flat out stopped Edward, then he shot Derek an annoyed glare.

‘Told you,’ Derek sent Edgar via Telepathy. ‘My Liege.’

“I refuse to become king,” Edgar said. “In fact, if you insist on it, once everything here is taken care of, I will leave to go explore the rest of the world. But I will not become king.”

“But…” King Edwin began.

“No buts, father. It is impossible.”

“I have a suggestion,” Derek said, and everyone looked in his direction. “We all know how I feel about how Edwin has run his kingdom. I haven’t exactly been silent about it. However, Edward has seen his faults, and seems to be of the right mindset. So what if he lost an arm? Edgar brought him a dragon. Or, your daughter could be queen,” Derek said as he looked at the woman, who had been quiet all this time. “The dragon doesn’t exactly have to be Edward’s. But I don’t know much about her.”

“I am Elouise Cydaria, Princess of Cydaria,” the young lady stepped forward. “And unfortunately, I am no more cut out for becoming queen than Edgar is for becoming king.”

“Then Edward it is!” He smiled at Edgar, who was looking at him thankfully. “If you have been discussing it, then I imagine you are planning on stepping down as king?” he asked Edwin.

“I do,” Edwin replied. “I plan on giving up my throne as soon as this war business is settled.”

“Great,” Derek said, then looked at Alanah. “Alanah, how long do you need to recover?”

“I should be 100% in around another three hours,” she replied.

“Good, that will give me enough time to experiment,” Derek replied. “Do you have any live beasts in the palace? Of any kind?” he asked.

“Uh… yes?” the king replied, confused. “There are always multiple live beasts available for the kitchen to prepare fresh. May I ask why?”

“There’s something I need to do,” Derek said. “Something I need to try out, and I would rather try it on a beast instead of a person.”

“Very well,” the king said. “Phillip, go fetch Mr. Hunt a beast from the kitchen.”

“Bring back a couple,” Derek half yelled at the adviser as he bowed and left the Great Hall.

Minutes later, Phillip came back with three cages—each with a boar-like creature inside. Everyone loves bacon, Derek thought as he looked at the beasts. “Great,” Derek said, then walked forward and took one of the cages. ‘Silvi, make a Void Travel portal,’ he said to Silvi. “Could you hold these?” he asked Alanah before tossing her the storage rings he’d been given.

In the middle of the Great Hall, the dreadful feeling came crashing down on everyone in the room, then the space split open, revealing the void tunnel. Instantly, the doors to the Great Hall swung open and multiple guards came rushing in.

“Leave us!” the king yelled, commanding the guards back out.

Once the doors were shut, Derek opened a cage and took one of the boars in his hand. It was the first time for him to use Void Creation on something other than himself, so it took a lot of focus. Soon, a thin layer of void energy encompassed the creature. With a nod to everyone, Derek stepped inside the portal.

He watched the boar attentively, not taking his focus off of it for a second. Slowly—very slowly—the boar began to change. It’s much slower than it was with the turkey. And the boar isn’t as high level as the turkey was, either. Plus, it’s still alive. It seemed that covering the beast with his Void Creation skill was working, even if not completely.

Derek waited, and noted down that it took almost five whole minutes before the boar died inside the tunnel. It was a good experiment, and show that the two skills he had received from the Origin System for his evolution, Void Travel and Void Creation, worked well together.

Finally, he removed the void from around the creature and watched as it rapidly aged and disappeared. The rate at which it happened with and without his void covering it was like night and day. After that, Derek stepped out from the void tunnel. Everyone had been watching him in rapt attention, and they all witnessed what happened with the boar.

Without saying a word, Derek reached into the next cage and pulled out another boar. This time, he spent a great effort and amount of time to fully cover the beast in the same void armor that he used on himself. The longer he held it, the easier it was to use. With the creature covered and his mana only maintaining the void armor instead of building it, Derek turned back around and walked into the void tunnel.

This time, even after ten minutes, Derek didn’t detected the boar being hurt at all. Oh? I actually may have found a work around. However, I don’t know if I can do this for a whole person. The armor wasn’t nearly as easy to create around the beast as it was himself.

He waited another ten minutes, then walked back out. Once out, he removed the armor, and to everyone’s surprise, the beast was perfectly intact. It showed no signs of harm at all.

“Your turn,” Derek turned to Silvi.

‘What?’ his companion asked.

‘You have the skill, too,’ Derek sent.

‘For cooking,’ she sent back. ‘Not for armor.’

‘Hmm… what can you make with it?’

‘Just cooking things. Pans, forks, spoons, knives…’

‘Pots?’ Derek asked. ‘With lids?’

‘Yes!’

Derek watched as Silvi quickly created a big pot with a lid out of the void. The pot was big enough for the whole boar, and then some.

‘Put it in, put it in!’

She didn’t have to ask twice. Derek grabbed the lid, which surprisingly felt and weighed just as much as he would have expected a real one to. Then, he put the boar inside. Instantly, the pot lifted into the air and hovered above Silvi as she hopped into the void tunnel.

However, Derek watched in dismay as the lid slightly lifted up once they were inside, then fell back shut. The boar had opened the lid, and had been hit with all the void from the tunnel. The current experiment was a bust, and even Silvi knew it. She hopped back out and placed the pot on the ground.

Derek opened it and looked inside. Sure enough, in that split second that the lid was opened, a chunk had disappeared out of the boar’s head.

‘Try the other one,’ Silvi said, and chucked the body of the dead boar out of the pot.

‘Sure,’ Derek agreed, and soon he had placed the third boar inside.

This time, along with telekinesis carrying the pot, multiple Mage Hands floated around it, holding the lid down. Silvi also waited twenty minutes inside. Then, when she hopped out, she opened the lid, and every looked on with bated breath. Finally, the boar jumped out of the now open pot and began running around the room. It had worked. The boar was still alive.

‘How big and how many of those can you make?’ Derek asked.

‘Just one. And not too much bigger than that.’

So… I can take one person, hopefully, and she should be able to carry one… maybe two. Interesting.

Derek turned to the king and asked, “Do you have anyone scheduled for execution or the like?”

“Multiple conspirators from some of the great houses,” the king replied. “We have performed most of our public executions. The others will be taken care of once this war is finished. We have not had the time.”

“Great. Take me there, and give me someone who knows who is to be executed and why,” he said. Then he looked at Silvi. “Let’s go. Close the tunnel.”

“Phillip.” The king turned to his adviser. “Please escort Silvi and Mr. Hunt to the dungeons and help him with anything he wishes.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The adviser bowed. “Mr. Hunt, if you would follow me.”

With that, Derek followed behind the King’s Adviser and was soon led to the dungeon below. It wasn’t as nice as the one under Natalie’s residence, but it seemed to work just as well. The cells all had many of the same runes on them as Natalie’s, preventing any of the prisoners from escaping or using much of their powers.

“We are here, Mr. Hunt,” Phillip said.

“Do I know anybody?” Derek asked.

“I do not believe so, Mr. Hunt,” the adviser answered.

“Alright, then, just pick someone. Someone who completely deserves to be executed.” He wasn’t sure how much pain being inside the space would cause, and he wasn’t one for torture. So, he wanted to make sure that whoever he experimented with really deserved it if it didn’t work and ended up being extremely painful.

Phillip opened up a cell, and a middle-aged man appeared.

“What did he do?” Derek asked.

“He was one of the people Gerald trusted to… supply him.”

“Got it,” Derek said. He would feel nothing if the man ended up dead from the experiment. “Silvi, if you would.”

Silvi opened the portal, and once again, they began their tests.