"I have to do something." I managed to gasp out. Turning to face them each in turn.

"What would that say about me, if I chose to do nothing? If I merely stood by and let it all happen in front of me?"

"No one is saying that you need to stand by and let it all go though." Voice of Order stated. "You could do something as long as it didn't involve meddling with people's free will."

Voice of Order piped in.

"How about we allow you some concessions and put in place new rules for the Labyrinth. In line with our language guidelines. How about we institute some System rules? Something anyone can agree on? Let us say, perhaps… no slavery."

"Slavery is your first go to? Not murder?"

"It's not so easy as that." Living Stitches argued. "Many species out there have ritual duels as part of their growth and cultural coming-of-age ceremonies. The Foxxans don't go so far as to kill each other but those knife fights can get messy. The Garabals though do stab each other to death. They birth two males for every female and those males compete fiercely for their attention. Upon reaching puberty, they arrange duels with peers of their own age group. Survivors get to have arranged marriages. Losers fertilize the soil. They're not the worst examples either. The Veiled Assassin's people also do this, but on a much wider scale. They have group fights in ceremonial arenas and the winners get two or three females each. The losers have their name struck out from the histories."

I sneered. Openly showing my emotions.

"And I suppose you're all fine with that?"

"Of course not!" Living Stitches snapped. "That's a barbaric practice for what I consider a barbaric few species. I'd stamp out the practice in a heartbeat if it were up to me."

"So why don't you?"

"Because it isn't up to me." He said at once. "The people out there have the right to run their civilizations however they want. They have the right to run their factions and empires however they want. What right do I have to march up to them and tell them how to run their lives? I don't like a lot of the things that you humans take for granted in your daily lives, but do I have the right to go up to you and tell you that you can't make clothing out of leather? Do I have the right to tell you all that using pesticides to kill the small lifeforms that used to dwell in the wet patches of farmland you use to grow your crops is a crime and an abomination? Do I have the right to waltz right in and kill all the farmers that refuse my demands?"

"That's different." I spoke softly. "We're speaking of murder."

"What your farmers do is very similar to murder from where I stand." He spoke. "Besides, my Symbiotes can help feed as many people as a civilization needs. That and lots of powers can be used to grow crops despite insects feeding on them."

He waved the whole idea off.

"But enough of that. Lets us go back to our little concessions and say that murder is illegal throughout the multiverse, say for designated duels in which all parties agree to participate beforehand while being fully aware of the consequences and not under any kind of duress."

I nodded slowly.

"I can agree to that."

"Very well. So we can agree on something. Let us continue then. We have murder and slavery down as very bad things that we will punish. Let's say… that breach of these rules will allow you to manifest an Intruder at the offending party's location. What else would you like to make illegal?"

I paused, and began listing off all the terrible things I'd seen people do. My mind still scrambling as Cultist Sully's plan came together.

I had admitted that I wasn't comfortable standing by and doing nothing. Which was true. The idea that standing by while innocents were being hurt was almost as bad as doing to dee yourself was one of the main points when I'd been arguing with Charlie. And here I was, letting myself be carried away by a much simpler argument than the one he'd used.

One that would have been impossible for anyone else.

Influencing people to take away all evil was out of the question, but consequences weren't. It was simple. Stupid simple, once you thought about it. The System was already a thing most people in the Labyrinth held as sacrosanct. Why not have it interfere with the moral goings on within the multiverse to make things better? Why not preemptively stop the events that would lead to System excursions by making it so that people would experience real consequences for their actions? There would still be natural disasters to avert, so it wasn't as though you were taking away a very important avenue for levelling either.

Still, there were hangups. The other Divines refused to stamp out war completely. It was a form of competition in their minds, rather than the wholesale slaughter of millions of innocents.

After much, much prodding, I got them to at least agree to make formal wars a series of designated fights between high-leveled people who all agreed to fight. No need to involve civilians at all if it could be helped.

And that still left a sour taste in my mouth.

It was strange, because anyone else would have been jumping for joy. Here I was, getting everything I wanted to get with minimal concessions from the other, much more powerful entities surrounding me and I was still feeling as if I'd been swindled.

'Maybe this was another reason why Cultist Sully mind-snared all those people. Maybe this was what he wanted all along. For me to see how his [Presence] through the Troubadour affected all the people on my Earth and have that lead to ill feelings. Maybe he wanted to rub my face on all the horrors of mind-control again so I'd be more likely to agree to the concessions the other Divines were allowing me.'

I sighed internally, but I couldn't figure out how I could possibly swing a better deal for myself. Nor for humanity.

The other Divines had decent arguments for their own positions. Not only that, but it was hard to hate them and remain so set on my own convictions when they were willing to compromise when it mattered.

It was weird.

When I'd first realized what I was and the full extent of what I could do, the first thing that popped into my mind was hatred for these beings. These powerful snot-nosed bastards who sat prettily in their ivory, or in this case obsidian, towers. Looking down on everyone else as they struggled and refusing to engage with all the people who needed help. All the people who cried out for a hero. For someone to notice their suffering.

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It burned me up from the inside that these bastards saw it all as a person would an ant. They were detached from the whole. All of them, save Living Stitches. None of them had the empathy to put themselves in the shoes of a person in need. A person with no hope. A person crying out for a hero.

That empathy had been the thing that kept me going all this time. The knowledge of all the suffering that all the people I watched went through. The knowledge that it could be better. That I could make it better. That all the evil these people experienced could go away if someone decided to put a stop to all of it.

I could be the change I wanted to see in the world. I could be the hope these people were calling out for.

But I'd also be changing them to be strong. So that they would never be victims again. I would be imposing myself onto them and I'd been content with the idea that I would be the lesser of many, many evils.

But I didn't know if I could still say that if these old codgers were willing to change the fundamental rules of the System.

I didn't know if my way was the best way anymore.

And that thought was terrifying.

'But what else is there to do? I got what I wanted. Humanity is safe. As safe as I could possibly make it without boosting everyone to ridiculous levels. The people in the Labyrinth will finally have some semblance of order that will carry on across dimensions. Across civilizations. Heck, this would even stop most of the shenanigans that gnomes get up to. Those that are left anyway.'

I knew I was supposed to feel happy, but I didn't. All I felt was, not defeated, but deflated. As if someone had taken all the wind out of my sails.

I nodded along as they spoke. Pointing out all the inconsistencies. All the little injustices that could snowball into larger injustices.

I was fairly sure we'd gone over a very wide variety of problems, when the four of them perked up. Looking over at Puffin and over at me with surprise in their expressions.

Then they all schooled their own faces as silence descended on our platform.

"Did you plan for this?" Voice of Order asked.

"Planned for what?" I asked in return.

He shook his head from side to side. As if disgusted.

"Fine then. Have it your way and consider this your victory. The terms change and the Kenari war ends as it is. Singing Metals will not take any actions to avenge her people so long as you agree to stop all attacks against them and to keep your allies from attacking them."

Puffin looked confused and this was perhaps the first time that she and I were on the same page.

"I'm sorry? What's going on?"

Voice of Order croaked. Now with some bemusement.

"You really didn't know then? How odd. Though I guess those kinds of prophecies have a way of coming true regardless."

Balanced Scales piped up next.

"Singing Metals has killed the Dragon as a peace offering. It's over."

The party was exuberant and lively. People dancing up and down the street with wild abandon. Their bodies moving to the rhythm of the music as they moved through and around different clusters of human beings.

A year ago, the streets surrounding the campus had been filled with reveling students. Those who had just finished their spring term degrees and who were now looking forward to new lives out in the real world.

That wasn't the case right now.

Instead, the streets were filled with survivors. Those I'd invited over to share in the victory we'd all managed. Or rather, the victory I had settled for.

There were all kinds of people here. From those who had come from the same world as me, to those who had come from vastly different Earths. There were those who came from techno-barbaric dystopias and those who came from Dusty's world. There were those who came from Monique's zombie world and those who came from Charlie's own plague and war ridden Earth.

Everyone here had had the time to get acquainted with each other over the past few days. Talking about the different Instances of the Tutorial and how they had been getting through them when the whole thing went down. After my encounter with Hazimon.

I was looking down at them from my old unit in the student housing complex. Just as I'd been doing on that day.

How odd, that only a year had passed. It felt like a lifetime ago. Even without considering all the times I sunk into some sort of time-warping pocket of Pandemonium.

It felt as if the old me had been a child. Blind deaf and dumb on top of being willfully ignorant. These days, even calling him a version of me felt like a lie. Like he'd been a mask I'd put on to shut the real me away for years. Like he wasn't real. Like he'd never been real.

That was nonsense too of course. In a way, that mask had been the only version of me without the madness of the powers. The only one who had been truly and inarguably human.

I sighed.

"You look like (Sully)." Henry spoke up from behind me. Cringing as the System corrected his words.

"Sorry. I still have a lot to process."

"No. No. It's all right." I said calmly. Waving him and his girlfriend over.

Cassandra hesitated. Still staring at me as if I was going to shift into an inhuman monstrosity. Before then eating her and Henry and everyone she'd ever known and loved.

"You don't have to do that." I told her. "I don't bite. Anymore. I even let go of that bloody otter. The Veiled Nobody and the other two traitors I swallowed. If I was willing to spare them, it stands to reason that you have no reason to be afraid of me. Why would I even want to hurt you?"

"I talked to your friend." She said in response.

"The Seeking Drake is not my friend." I corrected. "And I've asked him to leave the planet multiple times. He knows what'll happen if he touches a single hair on a single human's head though. He'll behave, even if he doesn't leave."

"He was trying to flirt with your dad." Henry said with worry.

"Of course he was. That filthy piece of (Gnome)." I sighed. Holding my head with both my hands. "I should have killed him when I had the chance."

I had a very good idea as to why the Seeking Drake was bothering me of course. As luck would have it, the new guidelines I negotiated had several clauses for torture and prolonged, needless suffering. So the Drake had been forced to finally kill all the hapless innocents he'd had in his palace of flesh and bone. He had not been happy about that.

On the other hand, he'd been extremely happy to hear about Hazimon's death at the hands of his own disciple. So much so that he hadn't risked eating another person in the months that followed.

And considering this was the Seeking Drake, that was saying something.

I shook my head.

Staring back at the setting sun as it shone an orange light down on the world.

"Herny, I feel, weird." I admitted.

He walked up to me.

"How so?"

I shrugged.

"I feel, defeated. Like, I came so far and did so much, only to then fail to live up to my own expectations. What I thought was right. I feel like I could have done so much more good if I'd been the force I wanted to be at the start. I feel as if I compromised on what I knew was the right choice. I don't know if…"

"Stop." Henry butt in. "Just stop Sully. You're speaking nonsense. Remember what you told Charlie and the rest of us back on his world? Remember what you said about the injustices you saw all the time?"

"Yes."

"Well Charlie remembers too. He also has these kinds of conversations with me sometimes. Believe it or not. He and I have gotten to know each other pretty well these past few months. And one of the things he kept going back to was the idea that no one should have the power or the responsibility to care about everyone all the time. That was impossible to do that without going insane."

I nodded. "I recall him thinking that, yes."

"Right. But you proved it could be done, to a degree. Like you showed Charlie, all it would have taken was the absence of free will and…"

Henry stopped. Looking conflicted.

Then he sighed, running his fingers through his thick blonde hair, before speaking again.

"Look. I can't find the right words. What I meant to say is that the other Divines, the frog and the others, were right Sully. There has to be some leeway for freedom and free will and all that. Keeping people safe is important. I know that. And I know how much it hurts you to feel the pain other people are going through, but there's just no other way."

He placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You have to let people live their own lives Sully. You can't keep them from making their own decisions. Their own mistakes. Even now, I think this whole 24/7 surveillance you've got going on with the System is a bit much. I only think it's a net good because I saw what it was doing to you. What it was turning you into."

He must have seen my expression, because he removed himself and walked away with Cassandra.

"Just… think about it."

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