Curse magic. Stealth magic. Venom magic. Assassin’s strike.

  He had a template to apply to every single ant, now. It was steady. Every time he completed another Ant, and the corpse rose from its lifeless state, acquiring the same dark, malevolent aura as the rest… he imagined it sinking its mandibles into Nightfire…. And then sent it to the village.

  He could see it in the background now. As soon as he abandoned control of the undead, they started wandering the village; malevolent undead with a thirst to destroy life. There were no people there… but there were insects. Plants. Some form of lesser life; rats? Gophers? Whatever the Minoan equivalent was. He’d inspect it later, see if their corpses were worth turning into undead.

  And whatever it was, the ants he released into the village were digging at the ground, tearing apart walls, trying to find it, to kill it; turning the quaint village into a ruin. Shredding the crops. The pleasant place becoming a dark, toxic horror, which only grew worse with each ant he released.

  It would take hours to get through the pile. But he had time. And the hundreds of moderately intact Fire-Ants would make a good start.

  By the time he was halfway through, exhausted, having had to slow down dramatically, he was eating a sandwich while making the next ant… and his phone started ringing.

  He glanced at it…. And hit accept. Sledge was calling? Might as well find out why. “This is Grey.”

  ~Hey, Grey. Me and my sister are gonna be meeting up with a new group. Probably not fighting or doing anything serious; the mission is just a nest of some sort of animals, Armadillos I think. I know you’re doing the whole military thing soon, but mind coming with for a bit? These guys are a bit like you; they didn’t swear the general oath, just swore not to hurt each other. And as silly as it sounds… I’d prefer a bit more backup until we all make that promise.~

  Grey thought for a moment. “Sure. No problem. I’m actually out at the spot where we wiped that fire-ant nest collecting corpses now that I got more storage. Give me a time and location. I’ll wrap up here, and head out.”

  ~Nice. Text incoming. See you there.~

  Grey looked at the piles of corpses that were left… and then at the GPS. He nodded… he had an hour and a half. He could make more of them… at least a dozen… and then head out.

  ***

  The new armor was a bit…. Off. It had re-sized to fit him, as he’d expected; all the magic stuff did. But he’d never worn armor that heavy before… and it still smelled of the dye he’d used to change the color.

  It was a simple, dark grey, with the ceramic chest-plate more black, alongside the gauntlets… and he was still wearing the combat boots.

  And… it felt heavy. Constricting. It didn’t really cause a problem, but it made it clear that Medium armor was truly different; and he hoped the protection offered was worth the hassle. He looked out the windshield as his GPS told him the coordinates were up ahead; he could see a vehicle already parked; one he didn’t recognize.

  When he pulled off on the side of the road, he gave it a quick look; a simple red Ford Explorer. Nothing special; though undoubtedly upgraded, and they’d even attached armor plates to it. Grey wasn’t sure if that would do any good; but trying certainly wasn’t a bad idea.

  The men standing outside the vehicle; five of them; were all wearing almost identical gear. AR-15s. Body-armor vests. Classic khaki desert camo. Black masks, looked like some cheap version of gas-masks. Three of them were leaning against it, talking to each other, one of them was standing off to the side, looking offroad at what was undoubtedly the Armadillo den…

  The fifth… wasn’t even there anymore. One of them had vanished as he approached…. Undoubtedly a stealth ability like his own.

  Huh. Going into stealth to scout the nest? Possible threat. Grey considered possible reasons why he would do such a thing.

  First thought…. Ambush. If he hung back, he could take Grey and his allies by surprise. Possibly even wait until after they made an oath… and then attack while they thought they were safe.

  Grey thought for a moment…. Looking at the four. He typed out a text message… ~Supposed new team planning ambush. One of them went into Stealth and is seeking a sniper position. May need backup.~

  He didn’t hit send… and held the phone in his pocket, as he climbed out of the truck. At the moment, he likely seemed harmless, despite the armor. Simple blue hoodie so that he actually had pockets, over grey and black armor; no apparent weapons.

  The four men all looked at Grey as he approached; all human. Some sort of oddball flag on their shoulder; probably one of the militias. “Just the four of you, and all decided to focus on using rifles?”

  One of the men spat on the ground. “Yup. Why go with something new? The rifle is what let man conquer the world. No reason not to use it to conquer the galaxy.” Grey nodded, and pressed the send button, withdrawing his hand from his pocket, extending it out towards the stranger.

  The man took it, giving Grey a firm handshake. Grey held onto his hand for the moment. “Name’s Grey. So you’re wanting to conquer the galaxy?”

  The man seemed a bit confused. “Johnson, myself, and...Yes? Its human destiny to expand across every world.”

  “Seems like a good enough idea. Though I’d say America, rather than humanity, right?”

  The man shrugged. “Both. But really… human destiny, american destiny… spread across every world out there. Not just shore to shore this time. Across every world.” He started to release Grey’s hand… but Grey held firm.

  “If you’re genuinely thinking we should expand out there, take either worlds….Would you like to see another world? I can take… or send… you directly to a village of those Minoan people. Not a single gun in sight, just mostly defenseless farms.” Grey could store living beings in the Shard. But they had to go willingly.

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  He blinked. “You…. can access other worlds?”

  “If you people wanted, I could send all of you straight to one, and take you back, too. Only from this one specific village, though; you’d have to find your own way from there. There’s a portal there… never figured out how to activate it.”

  If he could trick these idiots into going willingly, the ants would kill them. Then he could loot their corpses, at minimal risk to himself.

  The man looked at his friends. “.....That’s a talent our organization would find extremely useful, though we’d need to figure out how to make a permanent portal so we could really effectively exploit it. Just to be clear though… if you wanted to become a member, you’d need to change back to human. When I said human destiny, I meant human destiny.”

  Grey had no idea if that was even possible. “Sure. The venom is handy, but I spent a few levels recovering from the lost stamina when I switched; regular serpentfolk have abysmal stamina. Most races do, it seems.” Sledge and Star had both swapped species. No way these idiots were genuinely wanting to work with them.

  He nodded, seeming to accept the admission of human superiority. “...So how do you do it? The leaders of our militia would be… intensely interested in this.” All four of them seemed much more interested now.

  “I killed this band of invaders; Minoans… its where I got this armor, and….” he snapped the Multi-rifle into existence, pointed off to his left. “This rifle. Can shoot bolts of force, bolts of fire, or even launch grenades. Really kick-ass.”

  He lowered it to point at the ground; all of them were watching it intently, clearly curious about the alien technology. “But anyways. After I wiped them out, I got access to, maybe, the spot they came from. If we had enough like-minded Americans we could launch a counter-invasion. I can just hop there myself, or send people, or items, close enough there. Gotta be willing people, though, and I can only reach this one, specific place outside a Minoan village.”

  Grey glanced around. “Obviously I don’t expect you to take it on faith. I can send one… or more… of you, and go there with you so you know its safe… to land, at least. I’m sure they’ll want to defend the place, so wandering around likely wouldn’t be safe.”

  He could feel the village. The fields of crops were currently devoid of ants; they were currently all chasing a single gopher-like creature, hundreds of the giant ants tearing apart a single house to try to reach a living thing no bigger than his foot.

  Johnson studied Grey for a few moments thoughtfully. “... Your friends aren’t here yet…. Are they close friends of yours?”

  “Helped me kill the Minoan invaders, and some ants. Otherwise….” Grey shrugged. “I’m an American, and a vet. The country comes first. They’re American citizens, and useful.”

  The small group looked at each other for a few seconds… and leaned closer, having a short, soft, conversation. After a few seconds, they broke back up, and the leader made some sort of gesture…

  A man seemingly appeared from nothingness about fifty yards away, laying amidst a pile of brush; even without Stealth, he would’ve been hard to spot; and started to approach.

  Johnson continued to take the lead among them. “Well. Honestly, I’m interested in seeing this Minoan village of yours. But we should probably send someone who can sneak around, check things out.”

  Grey nodded. “Seems fine.”

  He glanced at his men, then back at Grey. “Now. I’m gonna need an oath from you not to attack me or my men. You give me that, I’ll go with you and see what this place is like.”

  Grey thought for a moment. “I swear by the system that I will not directly harm any of your people who themselves have sworn not to harm me or my allies, but make no promises regarding our destination; the creatures on the other side are definitely going to be hostile to both you and me.”

  Johnson blinked… and frowned. Clearly he’d wanted to get an oath without giving one back… but he glanced at the man who’d emerged from stealth. “Bob. Swear not to hurt him or his allies…. Word it the same way, so if his buddies attack us, you can still hurt them. And I also swear not to harm you, nor your allies if they make the same oath.”

  A few seconds after Bob finished speaking, Grey could see a visible indicator of the oath between them, and himself… and he nodded. “Well then. Take my hands. I’ll show you the village.”

  One moment, they stood in the desert. Brush, desert, rocks…. The Armadillos they were supposedly there to clear out nowhere in sight.

  The next… they were standing in a desolate field; clearly torn apart by the ants, uprooting every plant, crushing every animal…. And could see the ruins of the Minoan village.

  The space was designed to trick the eyes; make it seem as if the village was inside a forest, with a clear-cut region around it planted with crops; which helped his deception. He could hear movement, from the village, and see the buildings themselves… but otherwise it seemed fine.

  The time of day… appeared to be noon. It was later than it was in Texas, and a bit cooler, more humid. It felt different in so many subtle ways… and Johnson smiled. “This…. Is amazing. Seriously, if we can figure out a way to make a portal, being able to invade these fuckers back… it’ll be a total gamechanger.”

  He looked at Grey. “I wish you were human. But we’ll get that fixed, somehow. Do we have to be here, like, this spot, to go back?”

  Grey nodded. “Yup. I can feel this spot right here, even when I’m in the other world.” He looked around at the village, and there was an audible click as he checked the Multi-Rifle; there were five venom containers hooked to the bottom in the ‘Magazine’.

  Johnson chuckled. “Well then. Bob, go take a look around. If you run into trouble, come right back to this spot and go back into stealth.” He drew an X in the debris.

  The other militia member gave a salute… and faded into nothingness. Grey considered. If the other men had taken the oath, they’d be a non-threat. If they hadn’t… he could simply shoot them.

  He couldn’t order the ants to attack these gentlemen. The oath would prevent that, or reset him to square one. Leaving them here, trapped?

  He took a step away from Johnson… and then returned to the real world, Multi-rifle already raised, aimed at the hip level where he knew the men weren’t wearing armor…. And pulled the trigger less than a second after he reappeared, as soon as he noticed the lack of the ‘Oath’ designation on them.

  From the perspective of the three men, one moment there had been nothing; they’d been listening for the approach of an oncoming vehicle, and heard one in the distance… the next…

  A ceramic shell had burst through one man’s thigh, shattering and sending fragments of envenomed ceramic bursting through his veins… as Grey swept the rifle to the left… firing a second shot, the shell bursting on an armored chest… a third on the same man hitting another unarmored leg… and his fourth shot, once more, hit leg.

  It had been bare seconds, and he’d fired four times… and he tried to return to the shard, or his storage space… only to find that he couldn’t. It seemed that for whatever reason that wasn’t allowed during a fight… so instead, he ran around the other side of the ford explorer.

  All three of the men had started to fall… but none were dead yet, and all of them were still armed. There was screaming… cries of pain, of rage…

  And then a sudden vibrant burst of light…. And silence.

  Grey looked over the hood to see Sledge and Star in the distance; Sledge looking a bit troubled, while Star was smiling, waving back and forth cheerfully, clearly unconcerned about the dying men she’d just finished off. The van was nowhere to be seen, and Grey would be curious about how they'd arrived... if he weren't more focused on the antics of the two men imprisoned in the Village shard.