The fusion of the two Wizard Civilizations was progressing quite smoothly.
The Duel Arena operated from dawn to dusk, the glow of contracts almost never ceasing.
Wizards from the parallel world climbed down from those battered warships with their families in tow and moved into temporary settlements built by the Four Great Factions. They received new Wizard Robes, ate hot meals, and some had even begun receiving remedial education in basic knowledge.
Wizard Civilization gained a batch of counterparts, while the parallel-world wizards gained more knowledge and resources. Everyone seemed quite pleased with the arrangement.
But not everyone was happy to see this.
Inside a secret chamber within the war machine formed from the chaotic planar fragments outside the Duel Arena, more than a dozen figures gathered soundlessly. They wore the tattered Wizard Robes common among parallel-world wizards, their faces gaunt and bodies deformed, no different from the compatriots lining up outside to await their contracts.
But their eyes were different.
The people in line held anticipation, relief, and even the wholehearted satisfaction of realizing that it was actually good.
These people had none of that in their eyes. There was only rage suppressed to its limit and a near-mad determination.
The wizard at their head was barely recognizable as human.
His lower body had completely fused with some crystalline inorganic structure. His upper body barely retained a human outline, but foreign objects constantly writhed beneath his skin.
His name was Wald, one of the members of the parallel world's Supreme Council, a Level 8 Wizard.
Aboard those battered warships, his orders had determined the lives and deaths of hundreds of millions of living beings.
And now, he could not even control his own fate.
"Everyone's here." His voice was hoarse, like rusted iron scraping together.
The figures around him