As the man walked into the house and descended into its basement, he gradually disappeared from the System's detection mechanisms, as though he had become completely isolated from the rest of the world. The moment he crossed the threshold of the room he had prepared for this purpose, every trace of his presence vanished from the System's awareness. He had spent considerable effort establishing this secure location, and he was pleased to see that the precautions were working exactly as intended. Once he reached the centre of the basement, he looked at the magic circle carved into the floor and allowed a crooked smile to spread across his disfigured face.
Right, let's get this show on the road, he thought as he activated the magic circle. Unlike the elaborate rituals that other members of their organization had to perform, his circle required no sacrifices, no elaborate preparations, and no wasteful expenditure of human lives merely to establish communication. This was not an accident, but a deliberate decision made by the people at the very top of the organization. The communication circles distributed among their subordinates were inferior copies of the original, designed to make their users believe that sacrifices were an unavoidable requirement rather than an unnecessary expense.
The truth was considerably simpler, although the Lords had no intention of sharing it with the rest of their organization. The Void essentially paid for the original communication circles with the energy needed to establish a connection, letting it use that energy for its own purposes. From the Void's perspective, this was a perfectly reasonable arrangement, since anything that brought it closer to consuming the universe was ultimately beneficial. However, the Lords had their own priorities, and they were far more interested in preserving the cultural energy of their victims so that they could use it to improve their cultivation.
Consequently, they saw no reason to distribute the genuine communication circles throughout the organization. Doing so would have allowed their subordinates to conserve human lives and potentially develop more powerful cultivation methods, which would have undermined the Lords' control over the resources they possessed. Instead, the inferior circles ensured that countless people continued to be sacrificed whenever communication was necessary. The Lords could therefore enjoy the benefits of the original technology while keeping their followers dependent on the very practices that enriched the organization.
As the circle lit up, the familiar figures of the surviving Lords gradually appeared before the man. Their expressions immediately revealed that they had not expected him to be the first to establish contact, and several of them stared at his disfigured face with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. The man, who was known among them as Lord 1, paid little attention to their reactions. He had expected some confusion after the recent disasters, but he was more interested in learning what the others had discovered and determining how they intended to proceed.
"Right, is this everyone?" one of the assembled Lords asked, looking around the gathering with an uncertain expression. The question was not entirely necessary, since the number of figures visible through the circle already revealed that their organization had suffered substantial losses. Nevertheless, seeing the surviving members gathered together made the consequences of their recent operations impossible to ignore. They had begun their plans believing that the Earth could be manipulated much like the other worlds described in their records, only to discover that this planet was considerably more dangerous than they had anticipated.
"Yes, it seems so," Lord 1 replied, his voice carrying a trace of amusement. "They managed to get quite a lot of us, didn't they?" He spoke as though the deaths of their fellow Lords were an unfortunate inconvenience rather than a serious blow to their organization. His casual attitude irritated some of the others, but nobody interrupted him, since they were all aware that complaining about their losses would not bring the dead back. For the moment, they needed to understand what had gone wrong and decide how to prevent another disaster.
"This is nothing like those other planets we were shown as examples," said an Asian-looking man whose body lacked any hair. Both of his ears were missing, yet he could somehow still hear everything said during the meeting. His mutilated appearance made it difficult to guess what he might have looked like before his transformation, but his voice remained clear enough to convey his frustration. He had expected Earth to follow a more familiar pattern of development, and the recent events had demonstrated just how badly that assumption had failed.
"But we already knew that, didn't we?" Lord 1 responded, turning his ruined face towards the speaker. "Those examples looked like planets that had only just begun developing into civilizations, whereas the people here have been fighting one another for thousands of years." He considered the distinction obvious, since Earth possessed a long history of warfare, political competition, and technological development. Its inhabitants had repeatedly survived crises that would have destroyed less resilient societies, and their experience made them far more difficult to manipulate than the Lords had initially assumed.
"Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that our secret-realm plan was a step too far," Lord 2 replied, his tone growing increasingly serious. The Asian-looking man had reviewed the available reports and concluded that their actions had provoked a response they had not adequately anticipated. The System had quickly dispatched support from the opposite side of the world, allowing the defenders to close the gaps and secure the secret realms before the organization could exploit the situation fully. Instead of achieving their intended objectives, the Lords had ended up with a disastrous operation in the United States and very little to show for their efforts.
"And the worst part is that we lost another two Lords because of this stunt," Lord 3 added. His appearance was equally unsettling, as he resembled an African man whose only remaining arm consisted entirely of bones. The loss of so many high-ranking members was bad enough, but the consequences extended beyond the immediate reduction in their numbers. The System now understood more of their methods, and every additional piece of information it acquired made their future operations increasingly difficult.
Lord 3 was particularly concerned because the United States represented the furthest point their organization had managed to reach so far. Their attempts to establish themselves elsewhere had produced mixed results, and Africa had proved especially difficult to penetrate. The continent was already struggling to adapt to the arrival of mana, with many of the systems and resources its people had relied upon disappearing or becoming unusable. Governments were busy relocating populations to areas better suited to habitation, securing food supplies, and preventing their societies from collapsing under the pressure of the changes.
Under those circumstances, the African nations had little time or energy to devote to the kind of political manoeuvring the Lords preferred. Their leaders were focused on immediate survival, making it difficult for the organization to exploit the usual weaknesses in government and public administration. Lord 3 had not yet found a reliable way to establish the influence he wanted, and the recent disaster in the United States had given him even more reason to question their current strategy. If they continued to underestimate the differences between regions, they could end up losing even more members without securing anything of lasting value.
"Just calm down, everyone," Lord 1 said, raising a hand to stop the complaints from spreading further. "I doubt any of us expected this operation to succeed in exactly the way Lord 8 imagined." A faint smile appeared on his disfigured face as he recalled the arrogance of their fallen colleague. Lord 8 had become so convinced of his own brilliance that he had practically advertised their capabilities to the entire world, behaving as though demonstrating their strength mattered more than concealing their intentions. In Lord 1's opinion, the man had brought his fate upon himself.
"Good riddance," he added, and several of the others responded with similar expressions of satisfaction. Although they had once shared an organization, the Lords had never been particularly loyal to one another. Each pursued personal ambitions, accumulated resources, and searched for opportunities to improve their own position at the expense of their colleagues. Lord 8's death was therefore less a tragedy than the removal of a rival whose arrogance had endangered everyone else.
"It is a shame about Lords 9 and 4, though," Lord 1 continued, his tone becoming slightly more serious. "Still, that is the price we have to pay to learn more about the System and the planet we inhabit." He did not sound particularly distressed, and his attention soon shifted towards the reason he had called the meeting in the first place. The recent disaster had provided them with information, however costly it had been, and he intended to make certain that the surviving Lords did not waste the opportunities created by the resulting chaos.
"Now, let's discuss what we actually came here for," Lord 1 said, a sinister smile spreading across his face. He had not gone to the trouble of activating the communication circle merely to discover which of his colleagues had survived. Whether the others had lived or died mattered very little to him beyond the effect their losses might have on the balance of power within the organization. What interested him far more was the possibility of placing one of his own trusted subordinates into a position vacated by a fallen Lord, thereby gaining access to additional resources and improving his personal cultivation.
The others quickly understood the direction of the discussion, and their expressions became considerably more serious. They had all been thinking along similar lines, since the recent deaths had created vacancies that could be exploited by whoever acted most decisively. The positions held by the fallen Lords had offered access to people, territory, and resources that were difficult to obtain through ordinary means. Whoever managed to secure control over those assets would enjoy a significant advantage over the remaining members of the organization.
"Fine, then we have one opportunity in the United States, one in China, and one in South America," Lord 3 said after considering the available information. "How are we going to divide them? The resources we could obtain from those positions are enormous." He spoke with measured interest, carefully avoiding any suggestion that he had already decided which position he wanted. The distribution would inevitably create competition, and he preferred to let the others reveal their priorities before committing himself to a particular choice.
"I want the position in China," Lord 2 declared almost immediately. "I am already established in the country, and having control over the entire operation would make my work considerably easier." He had little interest in allowing another Lord to interfere with the activities he had spent so much time arranging. China had placed the relevant area under strict control, which made the position especially valuable to someone who already possessed contacts and influence there. He also needed a fresh supply of human victims to keep his machine operating, and securing the position would give him a better chance of obtaining the resources he required.
What followed was a prolonged negotiation in which the surviving Lords attempted to divide the available positions without allowing any single member to gain too much of an advantage. Lord 2 quickly discovered that his existing presence in China was not enough to convince the others to surrender their claims without compensation. If he wanted the position for himself, he would have to buy out the competing interests, offering something valuable enough to make his colleagues accept the arrangement. In their organization, such transactions were rarely settled with ordinary money, and human lives remained the currency most readily accepted by everyone involved.
The price of securing a position varied according to its potential value, the resources attached to it, and the strength of the Lord who currently controlled the surrounding territory. Even the cheapest buyout required at least one thousand human lives, a demand that none of the participants considered especially unreasonable. To them, people were simply resources that could be exchanged for influence, cultivation materials, and opportunities to strengthen their positions. By the time the meeting had progressed, the surviving Lords had begun reshuffling their territories and dividing their interests, each determined to emerge from the crisis in a stronger position than before.
North America was also assigned to one of the surviving Lords, although Lord 5 made a different decision regarding how his influence would be exercised there. Rather than stationing himself directly in the United States, he chose to send his deputy to Mexico. The reasoning was straightforward: hostility towards corrupted humans had become particularly intense in the United States, where the recent revelations had provoked widespread anger and a determined effort to identify everyone who had collaborated with the organization. Mexico, by comparison, appeared to offer a less dangerous environment in which his deputy could establish a foothold while the American authorities remained occupied with their investigations.
The situation in the United States was becoming increasingly difficult for anyone connected to the corrupted humans. Co-conspirators were being exposed, arrested, and brought before the courts, while citizens who had once ignored political corruption were now eager to help identify those responsible. The legal system was already struggling to process the growing number of cases, and the backlog was expected to increase as investigators uncovered further evidence. Some of the accused had committed crimes so severe that the public considered execution the only appropriate punishment, meaning that the process of cleaning up the country's institutions would take considerable time.
Worse still, the issue was unlikely to disappear from public attention anytime soon. Every new revelation strengthened the determination of ordinary Americans to see those responsible held accountable, while politicians who had previously protected powerful collaborators were now facing scrutiny themselves. The consequences would extend beyond the courts, affecting businesses, political families, and institutions that had benefited from the corrupted humans' activities. Anyone hoping to rebuild their influence in the country would have to contend with a population that had become deeply suspicious of the people who claimed to represent it.
"Hell, even the president is among those on trial," Lord 5 remarked as the discussion continued. He considered the situation particularly useful for explaining why he had chosen Mexico rather than the United States as his deputy's base of operations. The American president was almost certain to face death for his role in the scandal, especially since the surviving wealthy companies and powerful families had every reason to demand revenge. His manipulation of the cultivation method had damaged their interests, and those who had survived the resulting upheaval were unlikely to forgive him simply because he had once occupied the highest office in the country.
For Lord 5, the American crisis presented both an opportunity and a warning. The turmoil might eventually create openings for the organization, but the intensity of the public response made it far too dangerous to rush into the country without a careful plan. Mexico offered a chance to observe events from a safer distance while the American authorities remained occupied with the enormous task of prosecuting corrupted humans and their collaborators. As the Lords continued dividing their interests, each of them was determined to exploit the unfolding crisis without becoming the next name added to the growing list of the dead.