Inside a private office in the Capitol building of the United States, two powerful politicians sat across from each other, both looking considerably more nervous than they would have liked. The room itself was quiet, with thick walls and a heavy door that gave the impression of privacy, but neither man was foolish enough to believe that they were truly alone. The Capitol had ears everywhere, and both men knew that a careless word could become a death sentence if the wrong person heard it. Even so, Charles Armstrong, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, could no longer keep the question to himself.
"Do you have any idea why there have been no reports of a tide of corrupted creatures?" Charles asked his colleague.
Luke Owens appeared considerably less disturbed by the situation than Charles did. In fact, he almost looked calm, although that calmness was more the result of his ability to suppress his fear than an actual lack of concern. They had expected something very different to happen by now, and the absence of that response was beginning to frighten them. Their plan had been carefully arranged to create as much chaos as possible, yet the chaos they expected had simply failed to materialize.
They had pulled almost every string they could to make the secret realms burst open at roughly the same time. More importantly, their handler had ordered every corrupted human hiding inside the secret realms to come out simultaneously. That was the part that had required the most effort, because convincing those corrupted humans to expose themselves had not been easy. They had needed to beg their handler to give the order.
Beg.
They were United States senators.
The very idea would have been laughable under normal circumstances, but neither Charles nor Luke found it funny anymore. The people involved had already accepted the power offered to them by the Void, and that power felt far too good for them to willingly give it up. The progress they had made was ridiculous compared to what they had achieved through ordinary cultivation. Some of them had even broken through Stage One in record time.
Because of that, the idea that they could simply be prosecuted for taking advantage of their new power was almost unimaginable to them. They had convinced themselves that they deserved what they had gained. More importantly, they had no intention of allowing anyone to take it away from them. That was why getting them to cooperate with the plan had required so much begging in the first place.
At first, Charles and Luke had not even cared much about the law that permitted people to kill corrupted humans.
Why should they?
If a few of their expendable pawns were killed, then it would not matter. They had far more important people to worry about, and the corrupted humans who were being sacrificed were simply tools. Losing a few of them would have been an acceptable price if it meant that the larger plan succeeded. Unfortunately, one particular problem had appeared that neither politician had anticipated.
That stupid marshal had started planning to storm Congress.
The idea of someone actively investigating what was hiding inside the Capitol had been far more dangerous than either of them wanted to admit. If the military had actually entered Congress and started searching, there was a chance that their activities would have been exposed. They could not allow that to happen, which was why they had been willing to take increasingly extreme measures to create a distraction.
Now, however, they had managed to create an uproar that simply did not materialize.
"I know what you are worried about," said Luke. "Our fate will not be good if we do not complete our goals, but I fear for our lives already."
He reached into his belongings and pulled out a picture before handing it to Charles.
Charles stared at it.
His expression immediately darkened.
"Where did these people come from?" he asked. "We did our best to let all the humans disappear from the area."
The picture showed something that should not have been there.
The secret realm was supposed to have been surrounded by devastation. Their entire plan had relied on making the area look like the perfect location for a secret realm disaster. Humans were supposed to have been cleared away, and the corrupted creatures were supposed to have had the opportunity to create enough chaos to make the situation impossible to control.
Instead, the picture showed people.
There were too many of them.
"Why and how?" Charles asked, barely managing to keep his voice down.
He wanted to scream.
He wanted to demand an explanation from someone.
But he did not.
The walls of the Capitol had ears, and Charles had no intention of dying anytime soon because he had lost control of his temper. He had spent too many years climbing the political ladder to throw his life away because something had gone wrong with a plan.
"Yes, I know," said Luke with a sigh. "We were willing to cause such a mess, but it seems the planetary will is faster than we thought."
That statement carried far more meaning than an ordinary person would have realized.
People as high in the government as Charles and Luke knew things that ordinary citizens did not. Their knowledge had become even more extensive after they came into contact with the Void. During their corruption ritual, they had learned things about their adversary that had fundamentally changed their understanding of the universe.
They had been shown the vastness of the Void.
And that was enough to terrify them.
During the ritual, they had seen creatures so enormous that they were larger than their entire universe. The sight had driven them toward madness, and neither man had been capable of properly understanding what he was looking at. It was not something the human mind was supposed to comprehend.
Even now, memories of those creatures could make them feel sick.
Yet that madness had eventually become acceptance.
They had accepted the Void because they had been shown that they had very little choice. They had been made to understand just how insignificant humanity was compared with the things that existed beyond their universe. Once they accepted that reality, they had been allowed to emerge from the corruption ritual alive.
It had helped that they had also offered one hundred humans each as sacrifices.
That had been the price for ensuring they survived the ritual.
Neither man had enjoyed paying it, but survival had mattered more.
"Okay, but what can we do against these people?" Charles asked. "I know that satellite pictures only show a rough outline and no real detail."
He looked down at the photograph again.
"The picture you showed me only has a smudge that looks like a village. It does not show the black, lifeless ground that should be there."
Charles swallowed.
"I do not want to get punished for failing our duty."
Fear was evident in his voice now.
Luke immediately tried to reassure him.
"Do not worry. They will not dare touch us. We are too important, remember?"
Luke leaned back slightly as though the situation were not nearly as dangerous as Charles believed.
"So what if the plan failed? It had nothing to do with us. The people who executed the plan were wrong."
His confidence was almost impressive.
"But you are right," Luke continued. "We need to respond somehow to show that we are competent. That way, we may even be praised for doing a good job."
There was excitement in his voice as he spoke.
Luke wanted to live for as long as possible, and this was the path he believed would allow him to accomplish that. He and Charles came from completely different political parties, but that did not matter anymore. They had something far more important in common.
They were among the most powerful people within their respective parties.
Both men possessed enormous political influence, and that influence was precisely what made them valuable to the corrupted humans controlling the operation. They could move legislation, influence other politicians, and make decisions that would affect millions of people without ever revealing who was truly pulling the strings.
Unfortunately, being old had not helped them become adults in the System's eyes.
Neither man possessed enough talent for cultivation.
Even with all the resources they had received from the government, they had only managed to reach Stage 0.4 in their respective races. They had spent nearly six years using some of the best cultivation resources available to them, yet their progress had remained painfully slow.
They saw almost no hope of becoming an adult in the system's eyes.
That terrified them.
The possibility of spending the rest of their lives trapped at a low stage was unbearable, especially after they had learned that powerful cultivators could live far longer and possess abilities that ordinary humans could barely imagine. When they were approached the previous year and offered corruption, there had been very little convincing required.
They had accepted.
And once they did, they quickly took control of the entire operation because, in their minds, that was their right.
Now they simply needed to protect what they had gained.
"Let's just say that these people are stealing our resources," said Luke. "They should be executed for invading our nation."
He spoke as though putting those words together was enough to make the problem disappear.
Charles stared at him for a moment before his expression changed.
"Brilliant," he said.
The idea was terrible.
It was also exactly the sort of terrible idea that could work.
"That should teach them," Charles continued. "If we can sandwich them, maybe the corrupted creatures can overwhelm them and create a real wave. That could help us set up the array."
"Good. Let's do this, then," said Luke.
His confidence returned immediately.
"I will go and bring it up in the Senate and condemn them. If you can talk to your party about this and drum up some support, then I will draft a quick law. We should be able to pass it in a heartbeat."
Luke stood up and walked toward the door.
He looked quite pleased with himself as he left the office, apparently convinced that they had just solved their problem.
As for why he was so confident that they could ram the legislation through so quickly, the answer was painfully simple.
Half of Congress had already succumbed to the Void.
And for most of the rest, Charles and Luke possessed enough blackmail material that those politicians had no choice but to go along with their wishes.