Xaiver had three different portals open in front of him. He stood a few feet away from the tent.

  There were several ways that he could do this. He could mind control the kidnapper and make them disarm the traps, but that could go wrong. As fast as Xavier was, his enemy might detonate the traps the instant he saw the purple mist heading toward him. That wasn’t something Xavier could afford.

  Right now, his enemy was in a time prison, standing outside of the tent. Xavier didn’t know the nature of the traps. He might have been able to use time prison on his people, then take the traps away—but something told him it might not be that simple. If the traps were connected to them, as they appeared to be, then they might be trapped inside of the time prison along with them.

  No, this way seemed like the better plan.

  The traps were only supposed to kill the person standing on them. If that person moved, they died. He doubted they were explosives large enough to kill the others inside the tent. Whatever mission this kidnapper was on was clearly a suicide one, but making traps like that… It just wasn’t good sense.

  Xavier sighed.

  If it was an explosive, he had a plan for that, too. He just hoped it worked.

  It will work. It has to.

  Xavier had opened the tent flap and gotten a glimpse of the inside before making the portals. His mother, Kelly Jacobs—Howard’s wife—and Justin’s mother hadn’t seen him. They were clearly distracted. Distraught. Staring into nothing in fear.

  He’d stepped back out, Guardian staring at him but the golem asking no questions, remaining silent as he thought.

  Now, with the portals open, Xavier stuck his head through and warned them of what he was going to do.

  Then he acted as swiftly as he could.

  One by one, he pulled them straight off the trap and through the portal, snapping the portal shut the instant they were through.

  He let out a breath, looked behind him, and found all three women lying in a heap on the ground. Shocked, afraid, even shivering, but no worse for wear.

  There were three small, but loud, explosions. The tent went up in flames. Xavier flinched as he looked over at it. The flames billowed outward. He stepped forward and cast Time Alteration, capturing everyone outside of the tent inside of it. The explosion didn’t reach them in time.

  “Well, I guess I was wrong about there being explosives,” Xavier muttered. Next, he turned and faced the man inside of the Time Prison.

  He deactivated the spell.

  It took a moment for the other man to register what was going on. He blinked, stared at Xavier, a look of confusion in his eyes—Xavier had been standing farther away when this man had been frozen in time—then he looked around at the three women on the ground.

  “Oh,” the man said. Fear seeped into his voice. “Well, that didn’t go to plan.”

  Xavier considered killing the man where he stood. He had tried to interrogate invaders to Earth before. They often had contracts preventing them from saying a word. Xavier liked to help people. Liked to keep them safe. But when it came to an enemy, he saw no reason to hold mercy in his heart.

  But he supposed he should glean as much information from this man as he could.

  Then, maybe I could feed him to Romalda’s dungeon…

  “Who the hell are you, and who do you work for?” Xavier asked.

  The man cleared his throat. “My name is Alexic Kalcav. My master is a B Grade from the Ventorin sector, which neighbours your own Silver River. His message was to show that you were a fool to think your little proclamation should keep you safe from outside threats.”

  Well, he answered that easily enough…

  Xavier was a little stunned to hear that this person’s master was B Grade. He already had a C Grade from another sector that held a grudge against him—that man shouldn’t have let his son come to Earth in the first place—but a B Grade?

  That was something he needed to take seriously.

  “Why should I believe you?” Xavier asked.

  The man sighed. “This all went so terribly wrong.”

  Xavier raised an eyebrow.

  Alexic ran a hand through his hair. “If you would believe it, good sir, I ultimately intended to make you an offer of friendship.”

  Xavier laughed at the sheer absurdity of the comment. “Friendship? I don’t know what things are like where you come from, but on Earth, this”—he gestured to the women who’d been kidnapped—“is not traditionally how one makes friends.”

  Guardian was helping the women up from the ground. They didn’t say anything. They simply stood on the sidelines. Xavier didn’t spare a glance for his mother. He wished her to be safe, but beyond that… He didn’t often think about her. He was glad that Justin’s mother and Howard’s wife were safe, however. And he was glad that Justin and Howard had not had to worry while they were off in the tower. They didn’t know this had happened at all.

  Good thing this Alexic didn’t take Howard’s kids, or Siobhan’s sister. He would definitely be dead by now.

  “My master has me restricted,” Alexic said. “He does not allow me to go above E Grade. That is why I was able to come to this world. I thought, perhaps, if I had collateral, I could make a deal with you…”

  “And you thought kidnapping these people and threatening to kill them was a good way to gain goodwill from me?”

  “Leverage is everything,” Alexic muttered. He looked forlornly at those who were no longer his captives. “And clearly I no longer have any.” He prostrated himself on the dirt before Xavier, which Xavier only found to be pitiful. “Please, I shall sign a truth contract with you and tell you everything about my master if only you spare my life and put me in your service.”

  Xavier considered. “Wouldn’t that break your own contract with him?”

  “I did not sign a death contract. I shall merely lose all my levels, skills, spells—even my class… But under your service I can grow far more than I could ever under my former master.”

  Xavier ran a hand through his hair. Was he really hearing all this? “Do you really think I want to work with you after what you’ve done to these people?”

  The man frowned. He stared up at Xavier. The fear was still there, but his look was mainly one of confusion. “I have simply done what I could in the position that I am in. Someone as powerful as yourself must understand that. My master is dangerous. Please, you need my knowledge if you are to find an ally that can help you protect your world from him. He is petty by nature. He will send others. And then when he can, he will come for you.”

  Xavier sighed again, wondering if the man was right. Protecting Earth from outside threats after the restrictions were lifted… Might not be as straightforward as he’d expected it to be. Simply being a Progenitor wasn’t enough to deter everything.

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  They don’t know how powerful I’ve become—how powerful I will become…

  He tapped his foot on the ground in thought. Usually he solved his problems through taking action. Through killing his enemies. But he sensed that killing this man wouldn’t help him, and he wasn’t actively a threat to anyone. Not any longer.

  “Let’s speak of this somewhere more comfortable.”

  Xavier created a portal. The others all stared at it. He wasn’t able to make portals when he’d left Earth, only recently. Clearly, they were surprised about this new development, even though he’d already used the spell in front of them.

  After he’d cast the Portal spell, and before he’d rescued the three kidnapped prisoners, Xavier had waited for the spell to reach the end of its cooldown so he could use it again in case he’d activated his Time Alteration spell.

  Alexic blinked. He looked behind him. “Time manipulation…” He looked at the portal. “Portal creation…” He looked at Xavier. “Those black wings…” He shook his head, the fear returning now. “What have you become?”

  “Someone to be feared.” Xavier cast Fear Dominion on the man and watched as his eyes widened and his skin went pale. Then he grabbed him and threw him through the portal.

  He lacked patience for all this. He would get his answers from this man. After that, he wasn’t sure what he would do with him.

  With the time dilation field up, the man wouldn’t arrive on the other side of the portal until Xavier deactivated the spell. He had Guardian and the three women step through the portal next, then he stepped through the portal himself.

  The moment he did, the explosion continued to rage. But now he was standing far, far away from it, inside of Collinsville.

  “Tell John everyone has been returned safely. I’ll take Alexic to the war room. I’m not to be disturbed.”

  Guardian inclined its massive head then sped over to the wall.

  Kelly Jacobs stepped toward him. “Thank you.” She had a shamefaced expression he didn’t understand. “Thank you for saving us.”

  Xavier nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry this happened.” He looked a little sheepish. “You three were endangered because of me.”

  Kelly shook her head. “No. We were saved because of you. You may have created enemies, but Earth would be under more immediate threats if you hadn’t acted the way you did.”

  Xavier’s mother didn’t step forward. She was looking her son up and down with an expression of clear disgust. “What the hell did you do to yourself? You look… You look like a monster.”

  Xavier sighed. He didn’t have time for this. He gave Kelly and Justin’s mother a nod, then he grabbed Alexic by the arm and picked him clear off the ground, then marched him through the doors of the main tower down to the war room. There was only one guard in residence at this time of day, and Xavier dismissed them.

  Xavier let the man go. The kidnapper landed smoothly on the ground. “Sit,” Xavier commanded. He did the same, sitting at the seat with the tallest back at the round table in the oval-shaped room. As he sat, all he could think of was the loot box he wanted to open. Perhaps he should have been shaken by the events of the night. Someone had held three of his people—including his own mother—captive. Their lives had been in danger, yet he hadn’t felt afraid once.

  His confidence could have been mistaken for arrogance if it wasn’t for the results he constantly achieved.

  “All right. Let’s make a deal,” Xavier said. “But I don’t think it’s one you’re going to like.”

  The man’s head dropped. He told Xavier his name—Alexic Kalcav—and his occupation—spy—and pleaded with Xavier, again and again, telling him of the asset that he would be, but Alexic had nothing much to bargain with but information. Information about a B Grade who, though they would be a threat in the future, right now weren’t even able to reach Earth.

  Xavier could kill this man in an instant without feeling as though he would be losing out on anything too important. But he didn’t want to make that decision with haste. Besides, it wasn’t the type of ruler he wished to be.

  “Please, my good lord. I am a master spy. I can accomplish any mission you set forth—”

  “You failed in your mission here,” Xavier said, interrupting Alexic. “Didn’t you?”

  Alexic hung his head. “My intention was to get your attention. That is why I failed in my mission. I saw what you had accomplished in such a short time. My master has not been kind to me. I wished for the honour to serve you. If I had not made this decision, the people I kidnapped would already be dead. Your golem never would have found me.”

  Xavier leant back in his seat. “So your justification for failing your mission is that you dishonoured your old master? Betraying him with your intention to turn traitor and work for another?”

  Alexic scrunched up his forehead in clear frustration, one of the few signs of emotion the man had let through. “Some masters beg to be betrayed. They treat those beneath them without the respect they are due. I saw that you were not someone like that. I wish to help you, Xavier Collins. You have accomplished much. With more knowledge of the sectors that neighbour your own, and perhaps someone who could become the master of a great spy network that worked under your name, maybe what you have built can be protected in the future. When the restrictions on your planet finally fall, you will find yourself in a very, very different world. And, beyond the protection of your world, if you one day intend to rule the sector…”

  Xavier blinked. Rule the sector. That wasn’t something that had ever been on his agenda. He didn’t want to rule, he wanted to protect. But it made the wheels in his mind turn. Maybe it hadn’t been his goal before, but with all the power he was gaining…

  He pushed that thought away for now. It didn’t feel like him.

  Xavier heard Adranial speak in his mind. This man had spoken similarly to her. She’d done almost exactly what Alexic had, using leverage to get what she’d wanted—she’d held the contract she’d forced Howard to sign over Xavier’s head to get what she wanted.

  Xavier despised that kind of behaviour. Still, he knew what she would say—that this man could be a resource he shouldn’t ignore. Xavier barely knew anything about his own sector, let alone this Ventorin sector the man spoke of being from. He needed to learn everything he could if he was going to protect Earth from the powerhouses out there.

  But he didn’t like how… Slimy this man was.

  Still, the man was willing to lose much by doing what he’d done. Xavier saw the truth in the man’s words—he could have killed those he’d kidnapped and have been long gone from this world. He was willing to give up much—his levels, skills, spells, and class—in order to serve under Xavier.

  Xavier contemplated what losing all of that would be like to him…

  Absolutely unbearable.

  In the end, despite despising the man, Xavier decided he could use him as an asset. Because, after all, what kind of spy master wouldn’t feel slimy and despicable?

  Xavier, however, did not trust this man. And so his will would be enforced by a death contract. He had been kind in his contracts in the past. The contract he had the elven invader, Famarial, sign had been one that let the elf and his people leave Earth when the restrictions lifted in five years. In hindsight, it had been even more generous than he’d first realised.

  When it came to Alexic Kalcav, Xavier wasn’t as inclined with his generosity.

  Controlling a network of spies in an area as large as a whole corner of the universe is going to take a long time…

  He tapped his foot on the floor of the war room as he thought.

  “Give me one thousand years of service, and I will give you your life,” Xavier said.

  He might find this Alexic to be a despicable, cold, heartless person, but Xavier was playing a different game now. If he was going to venture out into the Greater Universe and make enemies wherever he went, he would need to gather as many resources as he could.

  Alexic agreed to the contract without hesitation. It was, after all, the only way he could continue to live.

  Once the contract was signed, Xavier sighed. Alexic looked strangely thrilled to have signed the contract—as though he was getting exactly what he’d wanted.

  Xavier stood up from the war room’s round table. Though he believed the threat of Alexic’s former B Grade master to be real, he knew that threat wasn’t imminent. Instead of gaining the information from the man now, he figured he would leave that to another time.

  The Greater Universe worked on different timescales to what he was used to. He would have to learn how to wait for the things he wished to know. Would have to wait for the events he knew would one day play out to come to pass. His mission, his ultimate goal, had a timescale that was impossible for him to imagine.

  But if he didn’t start to imagine it now, he might never accomplish all he needed.

  Learning information about the B Grade threat could wait.

  Xavier was about to retire to his quarters, calling John Hammond into the war room before leaving. “This man isn’t to be harmed. He’s no longer a threat,” Xavier said. “See that he has quarters within Collinsville.”

  John blinked, looking confused, but he didn’t question Xavier. Instead, he’d simply nodded and led Alexic back up the stairs.

  Xavier sighed as he stepped into his quarters. They hadn’t changed in the time he’d been gone. He walked over to the middle of the room and took out the loot box he’d been aching to open. Patience was something he had learnt to cultivate under Liana’s tutelage, but it wasn’t something he had completely mastered. And though he would need it to accomplish his ultimate goal, right now the contents of this loot box was the most pressing thing on his mind, and so patience was abandoned.

  He knelt before the box and opened the chest’s lid.

  You have received a Spirit Golem!

  Xavier stood up. He withdrew the new item from his inventory and stared at it.

  The golem looked much like Guardian, except sleeker and shorter—it was roughly Xavier’s own height—and the substance it was made from was oddly cloudy. It looked like metal, but the metal shifted and moved, almost as though it was alive. It felt strangely ethereal.

  Xavier touched a hand to the golem and found that it was cold. He’d never heard of a Spirit Golem before.

  He glanced at the ceiling. “What have you given me?” he muttered before using his Identify skill on it.

  {Spirit Golem - Level 1}

  This golem is an empty shell that can be commanded in two ways—with the use of infusing Spirit Essence into the golem, which creates a telepathic connection, or by that of a summoned spirit.

  This golem can be soul bound to its master.

  Xavier blinked. Well… That was certainly interesting.

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