Fred was scattered across a garage bay. Components were everywhere. Contemplative mechanics studied the individual pieces, making notes on their electronic tablets.

"How is the patient?"

"Hector! I can't feel my wheels! Why can't I feel my wheels?"

A mechanic laughed. "The 'patient' has a busted sense of humor. We're ordering a replacement, but it might take a while to get it in."

"Will I ever dance again, doc?"

The mechanic glanced to Hector and deliberately ignored Fred's silliness. "His cognition unit is undamaged and wired directly into the garage's power cell. Based on our inspection, we're going to replace almost every other component. There's been too much material fatigue from the miasma."

"It really argues the non-existence argument," Hector muttered.

That caused the mechanic to look at him like he was crazy. "Huh? Anyway, Fred is out of commission for a while. We have most of the parts we need on hand, but the chassis replacement will need special ordered. Until then, he's hanging out with us."

"Tell them to hire some hot women mechanics, Hector. Daddy needs eye candy."

Hector walked over to the speaker and studied the nearby casing for the cognition unit that was marked with a name brand and model number. "You don't want to be around the girls without a working antenna, Fred."

Dramatic sigh. "You speak words of wisdom, my friend. It would be criminal to talk the ladies into a frenzy and not be able to deliver on my promises."

He clenched his fists. "Fred? Why is the rest of humanity sitting on the sidelines?"

"They either don't know how bad it is or they choose not to think about it. People want to go about their little lives without worrying over the big things. They vote people into office who promise to let them go about their trifling affairs and not think about the real dangers. The ability of humans to delude themselves is really quite impressive, if you think about it."

"We have the strength to retake this world. We just lack the will."

"I think that used to be the case, Hector. The rot went untreated for too long. Aes is fallen. They might call this the Reconquest, but what we are actually fighting for is to delay how long it takes for the miasma infestation to erupt free to target other worlds. The unempowered worlds that fall release massive amounts of miasma on their neighbors, threatening chain reactions. Aes being a true world… we can only assume it's going to be much worse."

Hector scowled. "All of this makes me so angry."

"Yeah. We all go through that from time to time. When you get tired of carrying the rage, set it down. Joke around with your buddies. Have some mindless fun back on Union Central. Stewing about matters you're not in position to change doesn't help the situation, it just ruins your day. And as you saw over the past few days, soldiers don't know how many days they have left. Don't let those precious things be wasted in anger. You're fighting in the war. So are your comrades. Everyone else… well, sometimes you just need to not think about them."

He nodded in agreement. Where others might find it odd how Fred could alternate between juvenile humor and wise advice, it seemed perfectly natural to Hector. His father had been like that. "I need to focus on getting stronger."

Fred laughed. "That is the standard Xian response to any setback, I believe."

"It would be nice if humanity had one lord fighting on their behalf."

"Don't be overly dramatic," Fred said. "The Lord Windblade and the Lord Striker have been part of ever Coalition Army main body since the start. The Lord General even joins on occasion – though he has a habit of wandering off with his army when he gets bored."

They spoke for a while longer before Hector left to get lunch from the dining facility. He slept back at the bunker, though the quality of his rest was tarnished by lingering resentments.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

For several days he cultivated in every free moment. Mostly he focused on his domain, but when the halo would be inconvenient or he was exhausted, he switched to using either his mind or externality aperture. His reserves steadily rose until they were at twenty-five percent. Hector returned to Union Central and brought back the box containing the partially eaten level six cartilage and skin pill.

As the weeks passed, he finished the pill a little at a time. It brought his skin up to the peak of his current level and got his tendons close to the limit as well. Hector considered the remaining stages of the cold forged method. There was circulation, respiration, digestion, muscles, nerves, and flesh. Though with his skin layer done out of order, the flesh category was partially completed. It didn't seem like any of the body systems was truly a priority at the moment.

He needed to strengthen his domain and his aura. Those were his most critical abilities. They were also his most under-leveled aspects. From his trip back to Union Central, Hector knew that his aura statistic had increased another tenth of a point after using it so much during the special operation. Esther claimed that resisting miasma was the ultimate training tool for aura training. He'd mostly disregarded her advice on that matter since he saw so much greater benefit from working his domain. Methods considered best practices by normal Xian appeared inefficient and slow to him.

And still he wasn't content with his progress.

Which led to a repeat of the most foolish act of his life.

Hector stretched a cable of force past the rune barrier while on guard duty and sucked a mote of miasma into his soul. It was just a fraction the size of the piece from the previous time, but the conceptual battle was no less fierce. Indeed, the smaller mass was actually harder to immobilize.

He finally exhausted it and crushed its will, unraveling the evil intent to liberate a small dribble of cosmic energy. This method was most certainly not efficient. He could cultivate a hundred times faster through other means. But it offered a glimpse into something he didn't think he was supposed to be seeing at his current level.

The sense of resonance from a Sage's realm was nothing compared to the intense resonant battles against miasma. It honed his new sense and worked a muscle he'd never flexed before. It was training something for sure. Whether it was a worthwhile aspect to strengthen, Hector couldn't say.

He kept doing it, though.

Little dribbles of miasma died in his soul, crushed by the zealous application of his insight.

The mechanics had more of Fred reassembled every time he visited. The Rover eventually was ready to enter service again. He'd been due a return to Union Central at the end of his deployment but re-enlisted on the spot instead. Hector felt grateful but also worried Fred was staying to keep an eye on him.

His own enlistment was rapidly coming to an end. He finally broached the topic with Esther at a dinner. "I'm going to sign up for another tour of duty."

She sighed. "Riley is going to be upset."

"I know. I'm going to see if they will let me commute from Union Central. That will make it easier to balance all of my obligations."

"I'm not even going to get started, Hector. I will just say that I think you are being reckless."

"Better reckless than feckless," he shot back.

"No. Don't you dare get sucked into the warrior at the border mentality. You're not going to make yourself into some noble sacrifice like a sucker." Esther's words held more heat than he'd ever heard from her.

They triggered something in him. "Why is contributing to society so terrible? Just because I'm not in it for my own selfish benefit doesn't make me a sucker."

"Fuck you, Hector," Esther snapped.

The two of them didn't speak for several days after that confrontation.

Hector sought out the sergeant major and presented his case for commuting to the Stronghold for duty. The man actually listened to the proposal, which was better than he'd been expecting. When he fell silent, the sergeant major pondered the matter.

"You say you're willing to work for free. I appreciate the gesture, but money isn't the main issue. In fact, we'd rather our soldiers be a little greedy so that we have the ability to keep them in line with financial incentives. Running a military operation with such diverse power sets and cultures presents a lot of challenges to discipline. I just don't know that we would benefit from having a soldier we can never depend on being where he's supposed to be."

A voice came from outside the sergeant major's office. "Let him do it."

The sergeant major took a moment to compose himself before responding to the eavesdropper. "This isn't a matter you need to become involved with, Purification."

An Arahant woman pushed the door open and stepped inside. She was quite plain in appearance but carried herself with a casual confidence that drew Hector's attention. "I've been keeping an eye on him. He's a special resource."

The sergeant major's forehead grew wrinkly in a display of surprise. "A level six Xian is a special resource? I'll admit he did well on the one special mission he went on, but –"

"He's running experiments on the miasma every night," Purification said. "I'm not sure quite what he's trying to do, but it aligns well enough with my own insight that I'm certain I want him to keep doing it. If my word isn't enough to grant him an exemption, Transit has been keeping an eye on Hector too."

After a few moments, the sergeant major shrugged. "I will follow up with Transit. It will be easier convincing the colonel if I have his recommendation."

The Arahant Sage nodded. "Good! Come along, Hector. It's time we had a talk."

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