Beyond The System-Chapter 289: Changing Sides

No one spoke on the walls. But beyond them, I could hear boots scraping, armor clattering, and the frantic scrambling of the resident soldiers as they repositioned.

I began to walk.

Not quickly. Slowly. Evenly.

Behind me, the last of the fire and lightning dimmed, guttering out until there was nothing left but the aftertaste of smoke.

What happened next wasn’t something anyone had bothered to discuss. But I had my own ideas.

So I kept going straight toward the broken walls until the captain in plate was in front of me, recoiling as I approached him, but frozen in fear.

“Who’s in charge?” I asked, forcing as much venom into my voice as I could.

He didn’t answer, eyes flickering beneath the slit of his helmet.

I reached out.

He flinched back, but I was faster.

I caught the helm in my hand and tore it off in one sharp motion, yanking him forward, and I repeated myself. “Who is in charge? Don’t make me say it again.”

He shuddered, eyes darting past me to the field where the other man lay.

FWIP! 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

An arrow cut through the air at my face.

I didn’t bother dodging. I raised my hand and a green barrier snapped into existence from Internal Force condensed into a curved pane. The arrow struck and crashed harmlessly into the shimmering surface.

Then came the rest.

Fireballs from my left. A shard of ice from my right.

More arrows. Throwing weapons shaped like stars. And in the middle of that ridiculous storm, I was pretty sure someone had actually lobbed a pebble.

I flicked my wrist.

The barrier swelled outward and wrapped around us both, sealing us inside a translucent green shell as the unending onslaught of magic hammered it with thuds, hisses, and sparks.

I leaned down to the man still in my grasp. “Your soldiers don’t seem super interested in keeping you alive.”

He looked around, listening to the relentless pummeling of useless attacks battering the shield.

“Th–th–they are simply following orders,” he managed through the tremble, finally locking his brown eyes with mine.

Sweat slid down from his short-cropped golden hair. He swallowed then went silent.

My patience thinned.

So, I switched tactics.

“I only have something to say,” I told him, nodding toward the barrier. A skill I’d hardly even practiced, not that he knew that, but still—it spoke for itself. “Tell them to stop, and everyone will live. If not, I’ll unleash everything I have on this camp.”

I let the words land.

“Everyone dies.”

His eyes widened. The stutter vanished, but not from courage. It came from the kind of clarity that comes when fear sharpens into horror.

“You wouldn’t—You’d never be forgiven by the Kingdom.”

I shrugged. “I don’t care about them. But—”

I lifted my palm.

Tiny flickers of micro-explosions sparked across my skin. Small pinpricks of violent light blooming and collapsing in rapid bursts. Then I activated my Precursor Sense and split my focus, narrowing that focus: one part of me maintaining the barrier, the other guiding my power as Drybel assisted me by reforming my Inner Realm.

A tunnel of low pressure formed under my intent.

It unfurled from my palm in a narrow, invisible corridor, dragging wisps of fire from the little detonations, and giving them direction. The guided flame curled and looped around his head, close enough that he could feel it.

His eyes followed it, unblinking.

He gulped.

“My power. My control. Even the Starborn fear me,” I said, lying without hesitation. “I could lead a single explosion to each and every person…”

I paused, just long enough to let him imagine it.

“Let’s say—” I leaned in closer, drawing that tunnel’s faint, less-than-firecracker whisper right beside his ear— “I just slip it in there. It wouldn’t be hard, you know? Just a snap of my finger and—Boom.”

He gulped again, deeper this time, as the guided heat dissipated and the flickers died down.

“M—monster.”

“I only ever wanted to be left alone,” I sighed, and waited.

He barely hesitated at all. “I’ll do it if you swear—”

“I won’t kill anyone.”

Then I gripped him close and burst forward, dashing out from under the barrage and hopping into the settlement in one clean motion. The barrier vanished away behind us.

I looked at him.

“Now.”

“CEASE FIRING!”

A stray arrow hissed past. I shifted a half-step and let it fly by.

“STOP NOW!” the man screamed.

And they did. Thankfully.

A crowd stood in the street of more than a dozen, holding all sorts of weapons and tools, every face turned toward me.

They stared with aimed hostility.

Not a single hand lowered. Not a single blade dipped.

“Right,” I said, clearing my throat. “So…”

I let the captain drop, hoping the gesture would soften something. “I’m here to make an offer.”

“Holy—would you move!” someone shouted from within the crowd.

Sia’s sharp voice, clearly annoyed.

A dark chuckle followed, and whoever it was wore their amusement openly. “Damn, Peter. Couldn’t have done that better myself.”

“Not helping,” I muttered, as Thea stepped to the front of the pack too.

They all approached, walking through without anyone daring to act. The hostility remained, but they stayed frozen in place, pinned by the fact that no one wanted to be the first idiot to test me.

“Want me to take over?” Elric asked.

There was no usual edge of sarcasm in it, but rather a plain, genuine offer to take the weight off.

I still shook my head. “It’s better to get used to it.”

Thea’s fingers laced tighter around my hand as I lifted my voice.

“My offer is simple: join me. I will teach you everything I know. Your power will layer on your Blessings, and your strength won’t have the limits placed on you by your systems!”

I didn’t slow down, not giving them room to cut in.

That line was just the hook, but it wasn’t the real point.

“The Kingdom—State—whatever the hell it’s called.” I spat the words. “It’s not a place where you get to grow up comfortably. You’re taken to train. To fight. To kill.”

I stopped long enough to breathe once, then threw the question at them.

“How many of you suffered through that training? How many of you sat under the thumb of some group, or forced to endure beatings from those luckier than you, only to end up here anyway? With nothing!”

I took a step forward, letting the silence press against my next words.

“Whether your goal is strength. Peace. Or just an escape from this land, so long as you help me, then I will give you what you want.”

A quiet breeze slipped through the street.

More figures appeared in doorways and windows, drawn by the shouting. When I spread my senses, I felt over twenty more peeking their heads out, watching with wary eyes.

“Anyone is welcome,” I said, voice steady. “Your past is irrelevant. So long as you are loyal.”

But still, no one moved.

They stood frozen in that moment until Elric stepped forward.

“I am Elric Ama,” he declared, voice cutting clean through the hush, “the sixth prince of the Kingdom of Stars!”

I couldn’t tell if the crowd believed him. Some faces tightened. Some eyes narrowed.

But Elric didn’t care.

“Drake Ama and I have abandoned our home, and joined him.” He paused then his voice dropped. “Because… we too, were abandoned. Abandoned for weakness.”

His gaze swept across them, taking in every clenched fist and raised weapon.

“But now?” he said, and something hard settled into his tone. “There is no doubt in me. All of you, against me alone, would be dead in moments.”

He angled his head toward me, confidence unflinching, then faced them again.

“And if you went against Peter? Don’t even think about it.” His tone held a ruthless certainty. “So. Make a choice. But when the Kingdom forces you against me, know that you made the wrong one.”

That did it.

The crowd broke with sound. Murmurs blooming from the center and spreading quickly.

“What are you—” someone started.

“Move,” another man with a gruff voice said.

He was taller than most, wearing the same uniform and emblem as the others. A few people barked questions at him, but he pushed through anyway. When he reached the armored captain beside me, he didn’t look proud.

“Sorry, cap,” he said quietly. “I’m tired. Too tired.”

His hands rose to the emblem on his chest. With one swift tug, he tore it free and let it fall to the ground.

“Stand here,” Elric said, pointing to a spot near him.

And then more followed.

A young woman probably in her twenties stepped out and did the same.

An older man moved with a woman close at his side, the two of them staying together as if separating now would break them.

Three more after that.

The captain’s head turned side to side as more than a dozen peeled away from the crowd and moved over.

He looked dumbfounded.

But he didn’t scream. He only spoke softly.

“Do you all really think that is the right choice?” His gaze flicked between the defectors, his jaw tight. “As soon as they are killed, and they will be… you will all be next.”

I stepped forward, cutting into his line of sight, forcing him to look at me.

“I’m confident in my own abilities,” I said evenly. “But even if you’re right and it ends exactly the way you think it will—” I spread one hand out, gesturing around us. “Is living a life here, only to one day send your own children into the same line of suffering… is living like that even worth it?”

He opened his mouth, but didn’t get the chance to respond.

A man stumbled in through the gates, bruised and bloodied, legs swaying. He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand, spat something dark, then jabbed a finger toward me and started laughing.

“Hehe—HAHAHA!” The sound was ugly, raw, too loud for the street. “Do you not even realize?!”

He laughed harder, breath hitching between barks. “She told me to handle it. She’s just been watching this entire time.” His grin twisted wider. “Your done. All of you are done! Starborn!” he called out.

My head snapped to the man I’d beaten down earlier then back to the captain.

The captain looked just as confused as I felt.

My heart kicked hard once, then started racing.

From far behind us audible to me, and to all of us who’d formed a Grand Channel, the door of the large building opened.

A melodic sigh drifted out, soft and airy.

“You should’ve waited longer,” a woman’s voice said, pouting playfully like a spurned lover. “Maybe they all would’ve turned on the Kingdom.”

I turned.

My Spiritual Sense didn’t detect her.

Even when I focused on that second sight, that movable pair of eyes, to look; it showed… nothing.

Empty.

As if she weren’t there at all.

Only my physical eyes could see her.

She descended the wooden steps slowly, gracefully, like she had all the time in the world. Tight fighting leathers clung to her. Scaled shirt and pants in green, as if skinned from a beast and tailored to her directly.

“Then I could’ve harvested them all,” she continued lightly, “and presented them directly to Lucan.”

She smiled as she said it, revealing pearl-white teeth beneath lips far too red.

“Oh well.”

Her eyes snapped up, locking on me with sudden, bright interest.

“You’ll do.”