Warmachine

Jack decided to first approach the country of Cibolas since he had already been there and it was the country where he had defended a major attack and registered his company. They would also be the most likely to be open to his proposition since they were the most dutiful when it came to protecting their citizens while also having many countries bordering the high-density Sym energy areas that are most affected. Their government system was similar to a representative democracy, although it had some key differences compared to the democracies he was used to on Earth. The people could only vote on issues but not on their representatives themselves. It was found that voting for individuals or parties was a major flaw in any political system since uninformed voters would always vote for who they liked most rather than who brings policies that they agree with. As a result, the people vote on key issues multiple times a year and their vote will determine who will be in office, but it will be indirect to avoid personalities from entering the democratic process. News companies were also legally obliged to neutrally inform viewers on all the issues that are up for votes and are banned from exhibiting a bias for any individual or party. If they were to not comply with this law, then they would lose their right of country-wide distribution as part of the tax-financed media network. Another key issue was that voters had to fill out a short, usually 3-question, questionnaire when they hand in their vote. The voters are not informed of their grade on the questionnaire, but it would be used to weigh their vote in the overall count. This way, uninformed voters would be counted less, but they would not be disincentivized from voting since they would not be informed of being uninformed. It was a fascinating system, Jack thought.

Now all Jack had to do was to approach the president of the country, a man called President Cord, and get him to sign his drafted truce agreement. To accomplish that, he made his way into the capital through long-distance window portals since the city was far from Gosi which was located close to its border. It took Jack a few hours to navigate his way into the city since he got distracted by a variety of stunning views. The terrain was mountainous and had some amazing forests and lakes which were as beautiful and untouched as any of the national parks he knew from Earth. Since he combined window portals with levitation, he had a literal bird's-eye view over everything. He stopped more than he had planned in a number of areas just to take in the beauty and peace of the place. He had not seen a single creature in the area which confirmed his suspicion that the humanoids either do not dare to leave the high-density Sym energy area too far or they can't. But there were also other questions like what the humanoid who broke into Gosi stole since it displayed a high level of intelligence. Could it be weapons? Sym energy crystals? Or something as mundane as food? The latter would make no sense based on its lacking digestive tract but who knows how these creatures function, Jack thought.

He had left Alpha in the high-density area near his cave since it refused to return to his home planet. Being a dimension away must be difficult for it since it can sense him when he is on the same planet but not across dimensions, the assistant explained. It wanted to follow him but Jack thought that it would be too threatening if it joined in the negotiations. Jack was unsure how it would go anyways since he had no choice but to barge in and impose his deal onto the leadership anyways. He could not wait for introductions or audiences. This was urgent and he had become increasingly impatient. The assistant had drafted the agreement so it was all up to him now.

Jack skipped the entry to the capital and jumped straight onto a large skyscraper that stood tall in the middle of the city. It belonged to the international bank he was a customer of which made Jack smile, "Some things never change." He was wearing his fox mask and thought about how to approach things. He would have to demask himself anyways when proceeding with the truce since he would use his identity and company as a contract partner to formalize it. But he did not want any fame or recognition in the world which would be inevitable once he revealed his powers. It was a dilemma that made Jack pause. His growing aggression and instincts wanted him to just say, 'Fuck it', and barge in but he made the effort to think this through. Maybe there was no point in revealing his face or involving his company. Maybe he just stays anonymous and calls himself Fox. It would make no difference anyways for the deal he proposes since it was his power and not his background that mattered.

He had changed his mind again. Since he had never done this before, that was a common occurrence for Jack in this world. He decided to go with his mask and get them to sign the agreement, not with him, but with the other alliances. There was no reason for him to sign anything. He would only help those nations that are honoring a permanent and complete truce. Those who do not honor it will suffer under the creatures without this help. He also expected that some nations would break the truce and had the assistant draft clauses which allow an alliance to recover its protection status through making amends to the attacked nation. Nations are also not allowed to retaliate but the compensation that will be placed on the attackers will be proportional to the damage it caused. It was a good system. Jack now had the assistant remove himself from the truce and made it an agreement only to be signed by the three alliances.

He felt like he was babysitting for three battling siblings and had to outline how they should be in a civil society. Do not hurt each other. If one hurts another, they have to make amends. Do not seek revenge. 'An eye for an eye' leaves the whole world blind. But he knew that even Earth had not learned that lesson yet so how could he expect much from such a large and troubled world.

He had made his way to the central government building in the capital and could sense a variety of protective Sym devices in the area including detection systems and varying weapons. He had not learned the skill of hiding his presence which he had seen Viva Ashton use yet but it did not make a difference anyways. His goal was not to infiltrate in secret but to get attention. His window portals could view anything in a radius of at least 15 kilometers so he had no troubles just scanning the place to find the man he wished to see. The one who controlled the Cibolas country and the entire Alliance. The assistant had shown him photos of him so it would only be a matter of time before he would spot him. After searching with his detection and window portal abilities for about 15 minutes, he found a large conference room where five men had a heated discussion. In the center of the group stood the man he was looking for, scratching his chin and appearing to listen attentively while deep in thought. He could see five security team members standing near the windows and doors and they were carrying varying weapons and protective gear that he had not yet encountered. The room had no recording devices of any kind but seemed to have many Sym energy detection devices, likely to detect teleportations.

Jack did not think twice and jumped straight into the room. One of the side effects of accumulating more and more Sym energy was that his reflexes and overall speed became extremely fast. Not only could he move very fast but he was also able to detect and adjust to obstacles within milliseconds. When he suddenly appeared in the room, he felt as if time had slowed down. All the men standing in the room instinctively reacted to the alarm signals coming from the ceiling since a large Sym fluctuation was just detected rather than noticing him. Jack used that split second to jump into the center of the group followed by the creation of a large 5 meter-radius barrier to keep the security team from intervening. Then he stood still while facing the President with his arms just hanging comfortably on his sides.

The men stepped backwards and tried to leave while the security team rushed towards the barrier. All of them quickly realized that they were caught in a trap and the attempt of the security team which, to their credit, acted extremely fast was futile. They tried to shoot the barrier immediately with varying guns but it did not even leave a scratch. Jack had been stacking three layers on top of each other so, even if they succeeded in breaking one, there was no way for them to break through. While four of the men had retreated to the far end of the spherical barrier, only the president had not moved an inch. Jack was sure that he had not even seen him flinch when all of this happened. The president just looked at Jack with a surprised and uncertain expression.

Jack did not move and looked at the president with a friendly smile, visible below his mask, "Don't worry, I am just here to talk."

"Why didn't you make an appointment then?" The president answered with a ballsy tone for a man in his position, Jack thought.

"You are a very busy man and I am in a hurry so this was the best way. I have a proposition for you. Where I come from, we call it an offer you cannot refuse," Jack smiled at his corny line.

The president looked at his security team making calls and getting reinforcements so he was comfortable stalling for time, "What's the offer?" he said with a diplomatic tone while folding his hands behind his back like a statesman.

"I will tell you but let me first give you very important advice. Do not let your security team escalate this situation. I know they will call for reinforcements but they could not take me down even if you bring the army. Have you heard of the guy who took out the creatures in Gosi and in Batan? That was me. If I can do that to creatures, what do you think I can do to people who attack me?" Jack said with a cold tone.

The president looked clearly flustered and Jack noticed a hint of nervousness in the body language of the otherwise calm man. He did not answer but looked intently at Jack to see if what he said could be the truth. If it was the truth, he would have to welcome this man as a guest since there was nothing else he could do. If it was a lie, he must not be conned by a man who was lucky to sneak in and only had an impressive barrier ability. "How can you prove that it was you?"

Jack looked at him and smiled, "I thought you would never ask." Jack opened his storage portal and let 50 large Sym crystals fall onto the floor. They were so big that the space in the spherical barrier was nearly too small to fit them all and the 4 men who had retreated to the barrier wall were pressing themselves against it even more. "I got way more than that. Turns out that killing creatures is good business."

The president looked at Jack and his nervousness subsided almost as if he had made peace with the situation he was in, "That is indeed an amount of Sym crystals that could not be accumulated by a single individual and it would surely not be used by an expendable assassin. If you let the barrier down then I will tell them to stand down."

Jack smiled and let his storage portal suck all of the Sym energy crystals back in. He had found a way to add the negative pressure function to the storage portals as well and they seemed to work specially well when it came to objects that contained Sym energy. Since crystals are extremely dense in energy, they were sucked up like dust by a vacuum cleaner. "Just a warning. If anyone attacks me, they will lose a limb. Guns don't work on me."

As the President raised his arms to signal the security team members to stand back, Jack released the barrier. As soon as the barrier was down, the security rushed in and circled the president while reinforcements who had been waiting outside rushed into the room to encircle Jack. The president had been screaming for everyone to not shoot and not touch me. Jack just stood in the middle in silence with a friendly smile on his face. Then he noticed two men approaching him from behind with a weapon of some sort aimed at his back. It was clear that they would try to fire at him or incapacitate him in some way but he knew that an escalation would only complicate things. Since it was clear that this was not a situation that could lead to a negotiation, he sighed and shook his head. He opened a portal to suck the president and his three security team members in and jumped to the desert outside Gosi with them.

The four men landed on the ground and looked visibly confused. The three security team members had pulled out their guns and began shooting at Jack who evaded all their attacks with ease. He then created three more portals and sent the three men back into the presidential building where he had left an exit portal. "Now we are all alone and can talk quietly." Jack looked at the president with a smile and held him out to help him up from the ground.

The president took his hand and raised to his feet. "Where are we?"

"Between Gosi and Jalk. Want to see Jalk? I got a place there," Jack said with a smile.

"Jalk is a fallen city. It was a surprise attack and the first one of its kind," The president said while dusting off his clothes.

"I want to help with that. That's why I'm here," Jack said with his hands folded behind his back.

"How?" The president asked with a stern expression.

"First, call your people. Tell them to clear a room and that you are fine. We can return right now if you can guarantee that they won't disturb us. I don't want to kill your people but I have to if they attack me," Jack said while taking a few steps in the desert.

The president pulled out his communication device and called his chief of staff. Even without trying to listen in on the call, Jack could hear the protest coming from the other end but the president made it clear that this was what had to happen and that no security measures would make a difference. Then he hung up the call and told Jack that they were ready and could use his office. Jack opened a portal and the two men jumped back into the capital. The room was still filled with people but the majority was standing with their backs to the walls and had placed their weapons back into their holsters. The president looked at Jack, "You must understand that a man wearing a fox mask who kidnaps the president is seen as an enemy. You have decided to take a very questionable approach to a negotiation."

Jack followed the president out of the room and into the corridor leading to his office, "Maybe I will have a better plan next time but I think that there is no easier way of getting facetime with a world leader."

When the president heard Jack's words he turned his head towards him and tried to read if he was serious or not. Since it was the mysterious but powerful figure his intelligence apparatus had been trying to track in vain for weeks, he could not be sure. This man could stand the world order on its head if he wanted to. So let's figure out what he wants first, the president thought.

The two men arrived at the office and, like his experience with Carl Ashton, the president sat down and the negotiation began. Only two advisers joined him and stood on the president's side but Jack noticed that one of them was a member of the security team in disguise. But he let it slide.

"How can I help you, Mr. - what should I call you?" The president asked, leaning back in his office chair.

"Call me fox for now. I want you to sign a truce with the other alliances that ends the war. In return, I will take care of the creatures," Jack said.

The president leaned back and turned his chair sideways in order to think about Jack's words. He stared at a set of flowers that stood beside the wall and looked like he was considering his options. "This war cannot be ended. It is too complicated and too much of the world economy has started to depend on it."

"Great," Jack said. "Then exchange fighting people with fighting creatures and rebuilding cities. And trade can solve all problems, you should try it," Jack said.

"You sound naive. This negotiation will not lead anywhere," the president said.

"How many advisors do you have in this building who can assess a truce agreement?" Jack said.

"About 15 or more. Why do you ask?" The president said with a curious face.

Jack looked at the president and extended his hand, "Give me your communicator and I will send you the agreement we drafted. I will present it to all alliances and get them to sign it. Have your people review it while we speak."

The president turned to his advisor and told him to get his strategy team to meet in a conference room to assess a document. He was not sure what the man in a fox mask would present but the faster they could end their conversation, the better. As Jack took his communicator, the president said, "I have to unlock it since you cannot-"

Jack did not wait for him to finish his sentence and interrupted him by returning his communicator immediately, "Done, I copied the file. Send it to them." Jack could just use the assistant to hack any device since the cryptography on this planet was basically non-existent without computer systems.

The president inspected his phone and was shocked to find a new file simply called 'Three alliances truce agreement' on his device. He sent it to his staff and then looked at Jack, "Done. Give me a summary of what you suggest."

"I will take care of all the attacks by creatures that are a real threat. These would mostly be the attacks by the humanoids who can coordinate and control the regular creatures. I can take them out and protect the city. I will do that for all cities that are being attacked. I will take all the Sym crystals of the creatures I kill. I might use Sym crystals to help fund rebuilding activities at my own discretion," Jack outlined.

"And what do you want from us?" The president asked with a cynical tone. These conditions only benefitted them so he was skeptical.

Jack knew that he needed to appear greedy since no smart negotiator would take him seriously if he asked for nothing or very little. "Next to the Sym crystals, I want all the information you have on spatial abilities. I also want you to provide me with a large piece of land in a nice region that has a beautiful villa on it including tax exemption for at least 20 years. The exact conditions are found in the agreement." Jack and the assistant had been thinking about what they could ask for since there was really nothing he needed for them. He wanted to take out the humanoids without being bothered by the military and could just steal the knowledge by himself. But they thought that asking for land and tax exemption would make the governments feel like they had to give something in return which should give them peace of mind.

The president leaned back. He thought about the conditions and could not shake his skepticism. What this man had asked for was not much. The attacks by the creatures were the greatest threat the alliance had ever seen and made the war pale in comparison. He did not know if the man was stupid or a liar. But maybe he was both, the president thought, or maybe he was too cunning for him to read just yet. He looked back at Jack, "how much do you know about the humanoids?"

"I know that they are really bad conversationists," Jack said with a smile.

"Have you talked to them?" The president asked with a skeptical expression while leaning back.

"I have but it was just gibberish," Jack said.

"Do they speak our language?" The president asked, now more curious.

"They do not. They speak a very old language. I got a translator," Jack said while taking a step towards the desk, "Read the agreement. If you do not sign it, I will not help you. You will be on your own. You know that it only takes me a few minutes to save hundreds of thousands of lives."

The president had many questions since he was surprised at Jack's words about the humanoids. They had recovered the body of one many months ago after coincidentally finding it dead in the deserts. It was recovered near Gosi and had been secretly studied there. But one night, another humanoid had snuck in and stolen the body. It showed a level of social behavior thought to be impossible by common sense. Then the president got a call from his advisory team. Jack could not hear all the words being said but it looked like they had gone over most of the agreement and told him that it was a clever way of ending the war since it forced the alliances to exert self-restraint to gain protection as opposed to creating a truce that would break down. The no-retaliation and reinstating of truce-breakers were also well-thought out according to what he could hear.

The president looked at Jack, "Did you write this?"

Jack looked back at him with a smile, "I had help from a very smart assistant." He then turned around and set up a portal in the office, "read it then sign it. If you have any questions, you have my contact information under 'fox' in your device. I will go to the other alliances and get everyone to sign it. You better select a nice villa for me!" Then he vanished before the president would even respond.

The assistant had put a lot of thought into the setup of the new agreement. Since Jack was not a counterparty anymore but rather a protection service, they needed a good way to enforce the agreement so that the three alliances would follow it. The best way to achieve that goal was to have the assistant gain access to the intelligence services of each alliance in order to judge cases where conflict occurred and make an objective judgment regarding the consequences. The assistant would therefore determine reparations, punishments and decide on the best course of action.

Jack returned to his luxurious cave house and could sense Alpha flying towards him the second he appeared. Since the entry was still covered by a boulder, it first pushed it away and then entered the cave to lie on the ground in front of Jack's feet. "Yeah, yeah, I'm back, buddy. Had fun?"

"It seemed to have hunted three creatures as you were gone," the assistant said.

Jack looked at the crystals it had dropped on its side, "Nice, good boy!" Jack had been thinking about scale a lot. Even if he could jump to every city in an instant, he could not be everywhere at once and, if he judged the creatures correctly, they would start to realize his patterns and start with simultaneous attacks. He needed a force to use and the assistant had a way of providing that.

There were two parts to his plan. Number one, he would create little wooden boxes that contained a condensed portal. He would give these boxes to the alliance leaders and have them position them on top of the border walls of high risk cities. This way, he could easily expand a portal in the area and jump there. Secondly, he would have Alpha take control over more bat creatures and lead them to support him in areas where he was unable to appear at once. This should help him through getting some extra hands in this fight and was quite feasible due to the flock-following nature of the bats creatures. He found them to be stronger than regular creatures, as proven by Alpha's recent hunts. But he found their Sym abilities the most useful. They could shoot down on the invading creatures from a safe distance and stall for time until he arrived even if they are outnumbered. If it got bad, they could always retreat.

While Jack was waiting for President Cord to respond, he would prepare to take care of the humanoids at scale. He went back to Alpha's home planet and the group started looking for new bat creatures to bring under them. Jack had been playing with the thought of creating a fleet as soon as the assistant explained its feasibility which was the reason for him naming the first one Alpha. It will be his first general to lead his swarm of bat creatures. All he would need to do was to beat up the ones that are solo and to then get some saliva into their blood in order to subdue them entirely. According to the assistant, the subordination through the blood was not necessary due to their loyal nature but Jack wanted to be sure that no accidents occurred if he was not present.

Jack spent a total of 5 hours in the other world and hunted down every solo bat creature he could find while avoiding those who had already found a flock to follow. According to the assistant's reading of Alpha's memories, an existing flock was incredibly loyal to the leader so even if he were to kill the leader, the flock might not follow him. And Jack decided not to indiscriminately kill Alpha's own kind since he thought it could have a negative impact. Jack had been able to subordinate a total of 35 bat creatures which took quite a lot of effort since he needed to beat them to the brink of death in order for them to accept him. With his healing ability and the assistant's devices, he was able to quickly get them back to health afterwards.

But Jack gained more from this than just his own swarm of creatures. He learned about all of their memories through the assistant who could analyze them fully. Just like Alpha, all the other creatures had varying abilities including teleportation, levitation, telepathy and different attacks ranging from electricity-like shocks over to extreme soundwaves. It was clear that creatures, due to their different brains, had different abilities compared to humans but some are also very similar. Whatever it was, they were quite useful.

Alpha had been established as the vice leader of the flock and all creatures understood to follow it when Jack was not around. Since at least 7 of the creatures also had long-distance telepathy abilities, he could split the swarm into 5 units and coordinate them from a distance. There were a variety of things to be developed but this was good for a start. One of the creatures he recruited was interesting since it seemed to be able to converse more freely than the others. He named it Omega since it could be used in the gathering of information when out in the field. With such a high level of intelligence, it could recognize patterns and report them to Jack.

"Jack, the President Cord of Cibolas has just responded with a long message. They are accepting the terms and will sign the agreement. They have asked if you wish to have an opening ceremony or have a more formal way of closing this agreement. It appears that footage of you has been leaked to the media and your fights with the creatures are well known. They might be trying to use that fame to their benefit," the assistant said.

"Tell them to sign it and to send you the proof. Also tell them to send you any data relating to conflicts as per the agreement so that you have oversight. From now on, they are to only act defensively against the other alliances. Also tell them to give you a list with all creature attacks that happened in the past three years so that we can protect the high-risk zones," Jack instructed the assistant. He then created a portal and took the entire swarm to the fallen city of Jalk in order to retrieve it. He had visited a lot in the past but had never taken it upon himself to clean out all of the creatures that were still lingering in the area. After a quick reconnaissance, he found that there were about 25 creatures but no humanoids. He left 5 of his swarm there to reclaim the city. "How many attacks are currently ongoing in the world? Do you have updated information?"

"Attacks by individual creatures are very common but they usually resolve themselves with no or only a few deaths since the large wall cannons are acting as an effective deterrent. But there do seem to be at least seven attacks occurring right now across the globe which do involve humanoids. Two of these are in the territory of the Cibolas Alliance while the remaining five are in the South Alliance. In the latter, two cities have been reported to have fallen while the rest are undergoing long-term siege warfare. It seems that they are attacking in smaller numbers compared to the assault we witnessed in Batan. I do not have any data regarding the West Alliance since it is a highly converted place that is akin to a religious cult with an oppressive monarchical government system. Any information that is entering or leaving the region is highly controlled," the assistant said.

"Got it," Jack said as he returned to the outside of his cave with Alpha and his 30 strong swarm following his every move. "Then let's help the president out by reclaiming the cities and let's see what types of humanoids we will get."

Jack made his way to the first city which was not far from Gosi and he was able to use a portal he had dropped on his way to the capital. It was being attacked by ten regular creatures and at least one humanoid from what he could tell. He quickly jumped behind it and knocked it to the ground with a fully powered kick. The humanoid immediately lost consciousness but Jack could tell that it was still alive. He searched for a dimensional link but could not find one. He then kicked the humanoid's ribcage as his swarm was taking out the creatures that were attacking the city walls. "Hey, are you alive?"

The humanoid started to move its arms and then slowly opened its eyes. As its eyes were open, Jack felt a sharp pain on his forehead and immediately stomped on the humanoid's head with full force to crush it into the ground. "Telekinesis again, huh?" Jack was annoyed that he did not get to talk to him but there were plenty more where he was going. When he turned around from the humanoid's hiding place and looked at the city wall, he saw that the guards and the military were in a complete panic due to the sudden appearance of a large swarm of powerful bat creatures that were shooting energy abilities from the sky like it was new years eve and killed normal creatures like it was no big deal. Jack immediately recalled them. "Send a message to the president saying that I have taken out the creatures attacking the city and that the flying creatures that look like bats are mine. They are instructed to not harm humans so he should tell his army to just ignore them. I also left one Sym crystal for the repairs to the walls and as compensation for those who have died. Also tell him that I have retaken Jalk city. There are 5 bat creatures that are protecting the walls from now on so he should ignore them if he wants to go back."

Jack then made his way to the next city which was much further away and was in the country of Tiber which was part of the Cibola Alliance. The city that was being attacked was called Lhurda and it had been hit much harder than the other ones. Since it was a city of over 5 million people, one would expect that it had sufficient protection but its border wall was only 5 meters tall and it only had 100 cannons in total which were not even close to covering every part of the wall's security perimeter. The reason for its low security was its distance from the high-density Sym area and its lack of attacks over the last 80 years. They were complacent and did not think that the attack patterns of the creatures could change in the future. But they did.

Penetrating the city's defense was easy with two flying creatures gliding over and twenty normal creatures jumping over the walls to start killing the citizens. When Jack arrived, it was a bloodbath. The streets inside of the walls were red and filled with body parts. It appeared that the citizens tried to flee in packs while running from their homes even though their basements would have been much safer for them. Not only did they lack protection, they also lacked proper education and drills.

Jack immediately let his swarm descend on the city and clean up the streets while he was locating the humanoid who was controlling them. He found two hiding outside the city walls and planned how to take them out. He took Alpha with him in order to help him distract them while he took out at least one to balance the odds. Since Alpha can easily withstand being catapulted through a window portal, he shot him right above the creatures and let it rain down fire balls on the surprised humanoids. As they were caught off guard, Jack appeared behind one and melted its head within a split second. The other humanoid was suddenly covering itself with a purple fog in order to teleport but Jack immediately kicked it in the head to cancel its ability activation and knocked it on its back. "Wanna talk?" he said while he pushed his shoe onto the creature's neck.

"Stop." The creature mumbled while trying to remove the pressure of Jack's foot but failing to move an inch.

"Why do you attack humans?" Jack said with a sharp tone.

"Humans disordered." The creature grabbed Jack's leg and tried to move it but failed. "Must keep the promise."

"What promise?" Jack asked while further pressing his foot down the creature's neck.

The creature remained silent and tried to struggle its way out of the situation. Jack loosened his grip in order to allow it more space to breathe. "Do not fight me. If you fight me, I will kill you. Understand?"

The creature relaxed its arms as it felt the grip loosening and sat up when Jack removed his foot. "Yes." it said while glaring at him.

"What promise?" Jack repeated.

"We create life. Important. Humans take life." The humanoid said.

Jack looked at the humanoid with a confused face. "You are killing humans. You take life. You got it wrong."

"No, humans not life. Energy is life. Humans take energy. Destroying life." The humanoid said.

Jack thought about what he said and was deep in thought. Destroying life? Taking energy? Were they referring to Sym energy? What is their relationship with it? He then looked back at the humanoid, "Are you referring to Sym energy?"

The creature moved its head sideways with a puzzled expression.

Jack got frustrated with the conversation but then had an idea. He pressed his foot back on the humanoid's neck and then crouched down to drop some saliva into its mouth. The humanoid struggled but it was too late. Once the assistant had sent its bot into the humanoid's body, it could replicate indefinitely just powering itself with the existing Sym energy. The subordination did not seem to work flawlessly as it did with the bat creatures but it was enough for the assistant to read some of its memories and control some of its movements. "Read its memories and tell me later what it meant." Then Jack turned around and left as the humanoid escaped through its teleportation ability. "Let's see what you will show me later, my Trojan horse."

"Jack, the president has signed the agreement and has sent me proof. He has also connected me to a data room where ongoing breaches can be investigated. For now, this has limited use but it will be essential once the other two alliances have signed the agreement and we need to resolve complex disputes," the assistant said. "He has also thanked you for your support and has expressed his desire to reclaim Jalk City. But he was concerned about the bat creatures since they present a security risk to him."

"I don't care. My bats are stationed there to make sure it does not fall again so he can either take it or leave it. But once the threat is over, I will remove all bats and only leave the portals there so that they can return during an attack. Same for the city of Lhurda. Send him an update on that. The bats are not to be attacked," Jack said as he checked that his swarm had taken out all of the creatures and collected the crystals. He left two crystals with the military for the repairs and then returned to the killed humanoid to check for a dimensional link but neither the dead one nor the one who fled had one.

Jack then left 5 bats to patrol the city and made his way to the country of Silvant which leads the South Alliance. The capital was called Silve and it was the place where he would have to pitch his truce agreement once again. This Alliance had a strong military culture but Jack also thought it would be easy to convince since it had two fallen cities and three that are being attacked constantly. But the way to the city was long since he had to cross a large ocean and many smaller countries on the way. From Lhurda, the distance was over 40,000 kilometers and even he would not be able to jump there in less than a day. "Contact Carl Ashton and ask him if he can teleport me as close to Silve as possible."

Jack had been texting with Fey regularly since she spent the night at his house in Jalk. She had a naturally cheerful and sweet personality so she would frequently update him on what was happening in her life. He had also told her about some of the things that were happening since he enjoyed having someone just to chitchat about daily occurrences. But he did not tell her too much other than that he now had a lot of pets and also worked on stopping the war. His messages were often just focusing on what was happening in her life rather than detailing his.

"Ask the president when he has the villa ready and send me the location. If the people really return to Jalk then I better not keep crashing in someone else's house. And ask Fey what she is doing tonight," Jack instructed.

"Certainly. You have a message from Carl Ashton. He writes that his company can teleport you into the city of Silve under their trading license. But you must expect a military screening as soon as you arrive in the city," the assistant said. "And Fey has just responded. She said she would be seeing you."

Jack smiled and opened the portal to the building next to Fey's apartment. "Tell Carl that I want to leave at 10 am tomorrow. Get the location and any instructions from him."

When he arrived at Fey's door she opened it before he could even know and embraced him wearing a beautiful but elegant dress. She looked tired again from a long day at work but she was beautiful without her makeup with her pale and soft skin as well as curly blonde hair. As soon as she hugged him, he embraced her in return and kissed first her cheek and then her mouth as she turned her head in response. They slowly went inside the apartment and sat on the couch, opposite of each other, with their legs intermingled. Jack enjoyed just looking her in the eyes and talking since he felt like she became more radiant when he gave her attention. They talked for an hour before they decided to eat some food Fey had cooked.

Afterwards, they went to bed.

Chapter 29: Pride

At 2 am, Fey had fallen asleep and was lying in Jack's arms. He did not need to sleep so he stayed awake and meditated. He cleared his mind and decided to fully relax while focusing on his breath and the low-density Sym energy around him. He could sense Alpha, Omega and the other bat creatures from his swarm wherever they were. It was a strange connection that had brought them together through the technology developed by the assistant. Omega had the duty to go through the portals he had set up and investigate the area to look for clues or patterns that could provide important information. Nothing had been discovered yet but it was recording the attack patterns from the assaults and tried to judge the humanoid's level of intelligence.

"Jack, I have completed the reading of the humanoids memories," the assistant said.

Jack thought of his response to avoid waking Fey, "Great. Where is it now? And what did you find?"

"I can barely track its current position. It teleported into the high-density Sym energy through 20 consecutive jumps and then went through a dimensional portal. The subordination does not work as well as it does for the bat creatures but this is likely due to their general hostility which makes it harder to take them over. It has met with another humanoid and then disappeared through a portal. Either it has disappeared into another dimension or it is in an area that is shielded from Sym energy in some way which would block my sensing capabilities," the assistant said.

"Too bad, let me know when it returns," Jack said as he opened his eyes and looked at the sleeping Fey. "What did you find in its memories?"

"I have made a surprising observation. These humanoids seem to be part of a hive where each member has a specific role that is intuitive instead of earned or given. Like a worker bee, it is going out to fulfill its duty without any knowledge on why it does it. This particular humanoid was following a fluctuation in the Sym energy field of the region and tried to exterminate it."

Jack thought carefully about the assistant's words. "Are you saying that they were trying to stop humans from using Sym energy?"

"That seems to be the case," the assistant said. "It seems that these humanoids have a close relationship to the nature of the Sym energy. They are likewise very sensitive to it so they can naturally feel its fluctuations even from very far away."

"Then why could they not detect me when I was nearby?" Jack asked.

"If they do not have a detection ability then they will not be able to. Their sensitivity only allows them to sense general changes in the energy fields of large areas but with very low resolution. Once they get close, they can pinpoint the cause," the assistant explained.

"What's bad about using Sym energy? I thought the energy was infinite and was never used up," Jack asked with a frown on his face.

"I do not fully understand it since the nature of Sym energy is quite mysterious but it seems to be about balance and not about absolute quantities. Using Sym energy changes its state which can have secondary effects. I will have to investigate this further," the assistant said.

"Ok, do that. So, where did the humanoid come from and why have they been unknown so far?" Jack asked.

"This humanoid emerged from some kind of breeding ground where plant-like organisms produced eggs. I do not know the exact location but it must be underground somewhere or deep inside a mountain. Unfortunately, I was not able to gather any more information. The humanoid had been awake for only a few weeks before it met you so it had not experienced much during its time," the assistant said.