"Dad, I'm awake. Want to talk whenever you get a chance?"

William quickly sent everyone else away. Joseph looked curiously at him. The people didn't call him Master William, but sir?

As if reading his mind, his dad nodded and said, "Yes, everyone is free now. All of the contracts stated that they only continued while the current kings were in charge."

"WHAT!? I know the western kingdom lost their king, but the central and eastern kingdoms, too?"

"The central kingdom was overthrown, though we haven't confirmed the death of the king. The eastern kingdom is still being ruled by the king, but it's in name only. At least it was so weak the contract decided it counted as having lost control of the kingdom, and ended itself."

"Wow."

"Furthermore, the group responsible for taking control of each kingdom, appears to be the same, though they claim different names. They have sent people and resources between the kingdoms to assist the revolts, whenever needed."

Joseph thought quickly, 'hey system, if I take over the current human kingdoms, will that count?'

(NO. FIX THE WASTELAND. THE NOBLES IN THESE KINGDOMS ARE ALREADY HOPELESS. YOU WILL NEVER ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO, WITH THE CURRENT NOBLES HERE.)

'Fair enough.'

"Well, we killed a group of demons wearing human skins, that were torturing a magical creature in order to siphon mana for some other goal. So, the magical creature thanked me and taught me a lot of spells, which pushed me into a mage trance, and while I was there, time was weird, so it took a while to come back. But I've learned a lot of spells in the last month. Twenty-two new spells, including what the creature gave me directly. I know it was intelligent, but I couldn't actually speak it's language, so I don't know its name."

His mom suddenly let go of his hand, and let out a scream. Joseph turned quickly enough to see the gator emerging from behind him.

"Oh, this guy is the one they were killing."

Dozens of other alligator spirits emerged from his back as they sat there. Tekaun started mumbling what kind of sounded like a prayer, as they wandered around. The king went back into him and he felt it heading back to EARTH.

'Hey dude, I am not a revolving door,' Joseph thought at it.

[They wanted to see your people.]

Screams erupted outside as the spirits explored the town. Several people who hadn't contracted spirits yet, fell to their knees and began the contracting process. It seemed that the creatures weren't willing to contract with anyone who already had a spirit. Contracting a magical creature must have been more taxing. They only knew EARTH spells and abilities, but they knew far more abilities than normal spirits.

'Hmm. Well that will be helpful,' thought Joe.

"Hey, Stella? What's to stop us from both using BODY OF STONE and teleporting into space? I want to look down on the planet and the wasteland, and maybe see the world tree. I'm still not sure how the wasteland kills people, but surely the effect can't extend into space, right?"

"I don't know, Master Joseph."

"Want to go after breakfast?"

"Into space?"

"Why not?"

"Um, I suppose."

"OK."

Both his parents were too distracted by the spirits to have noticed their conversation.

"Ever since I saw my last life's memories, I've been trying to figure out how I would get giant robots, and to fly in space. It's a man's romance, Stella."

"Master Joseph, sometimes I have no idea what you are saying, despite being certain you are still speaking common."

"Maybe even a super combining robot."

"Why would you do that?"

"Coolness factor obviously. It's terribly inefficient."

"Yes, Master Joseph."

"Don't worry, a golem army will be plenty. I don't need to make a super combining golem to pilot."

"Good."

"So, now that we've got that all figured out, should we go get breakfast while everyone is zoned out?"

"Sounds good."

Breakfast was wonderful, with hot flaky biscuits and rich gravy.

XxxxX

After breakfast Joseph took Stella's hand.

BODY OF STONE. BODY OF STONE.

'Joe, I may need you for extra power.'

'Alright,' he grumbled, stopping his research and paying attention.

TELEPORT.

Hmm. He could only teleport up a few miles at a time. Stella was really holding his hand tightly as they started to free fall.

TELEPORT. TELEPORT. TELEPORT. TELEPORT. TELEPORT. TELEPORT. TELEPORT.

They made it. The planet looked terrible. The map he saw at the cartographer, was extremely accurate for the human lands, but..the land they lived in was like Korea to the rest of Asia, or maybe Florida to North America.

Everything was a dead brown or grey. The land left alive looked like overlapping circles or dots. Joseph could count at least fifteen circles, but he didn't know if there were some completely hidden by others. The circles had different sizes. In the distance, he could see the world tree.

The size was ridiculous. He wasn't even sure how to describe it. The whole planet should tip from how big it was. The upper branches, which were extremely close to being in space themselves, were shrouded in dark clouds that had to be magical in nature.

Stella was shaking his hand, but he didn't know how to read lips, since there wasn't any atmosphere to talk.

TELEPORT.

"There, you can talk now."

"Can we go back now? I can't move here," she said, wiggling her legs to prove her point.

Joseph laughed.

"You don't like it when you can't hop?"

She frowned at him and went to cross her arms, but wasn't quite willing to let go of his hand.

"Ok, I guess that probably was too far."

He turned back to the planet, as an idea occurred to him.

"Want to check out the capital of the eastern kingdom?"

"Why?"

"So I have it saved as a teleport location. Looking at a space from orbit probably isn't going to work to be able to teleport to later. We could go shopping?"

"I guess. I have some coins in my purse."

"Let's go play for a bit. You can just be my friend, instead of serving me."

"I'm not sure about that, Master Joseph."

"Fine, fine. I order you to play along with me, as we goof off on a date."

"A DATE!?"

"Sure, it doesn't have chaperones, and we don't have a mission today, so I think it counts."

"Have you ever been on one before?"

"No actually. But I'm sure this counts."

They had fallen below the clouds and could suddenly see that smoke was rising from the capital.

"Shavist! Never mind."

"Why?" she suddenly seemed more interested, and Joseph rolled his eyes.

"Our first date is not going to be in a city being burned and sacked. Let's see what's going on."

A group in fancy armor, with crests, looked kind of like an army. They were fighting a group with non-descript, piece-meal, black armor.

"Maybe they are the militia?" he wondered.

Certain sections of the city looked like the army was defending from the militia, and certain sections looked like the militia was defending from the army. Nobody seemed to be around the castle.

Stella was really squeezing his hand.

"Ok, Stella. We are teleporting to that alley. I'll dismiss the BODY OF STONE after we land."

She nodded vigorously.

He was going to have to figure out a flight spell for her. She really didn't like falling.

TELEPORT.