Balance
"... That's impossible." Osho mumbled, and they all looked at each other.
"We.. had similar thoughts. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the results are unmistakable." Lady Haggai tapped a few things on her tablet before handing it to Osho, who promptly carried it.
There, he saw a component bar chart representing the past year, and there was a subtle but unmistakable rise in beast tamers with high potential appearing over the last couple of months.
"It's not such a huge increase that anyone can tell except for those who keep tabs on these things. But it's only a matter of time before someone notices something is off." Major Thomspon explained, and Osho nodded slowly.
This... was both good and bad. On one hand, the overall talent of beast tamers within a Citadel rising was great, as that meant the Citadel would gain more and more capable members as time passed, which would lead to a rate of rapid growth.
On the other hand, as much as Citadels and humans are technically united, they also act in their best interests 90% of the time, and if they learned that a Citadel was somehow raising the potential of the general populace, well... chances are that they would stick their noses where they don't belong.
In short, they would unintentionally garner a lot of attention.
Which raised another question.
'Why?' Osho frowned as he looked at the chart. He didn't doubt that what was happening was due to him, but what exactly was the correlation?
Did evolving a few eggs... okay, not a few, but did evolving beasts eggs and beasts somehow lead to the potential of every beast within an area to rise gradually?
How did that work?
As he was pondering the issue, he suddenly felt Gale hop off his head and look at him with squinted eyes.
"... What?" He looked up and raised a brow.
Gale didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked at Osho like he was deciphering a particularly interesting puzzle, and the others glanced at each other curiously, wondering what was happening.
"Aha!" Gale pulled back and flapped his wings with satisfaction. "I knew I noticed something."
"... Wait, did he just spea–"
"Something shifted!" Gale cut off Timothy as he stared at Osho–who was getting increasingly confused–with triumph.
"And what are you talking about?" He frowned.
"Well, I wasn't sure at first, but..." Gale gestured around them with his wings.
"The balance of this place shifted." His words confused them even more.
"Could you... elaborate?" Mrs Jane asked carefully, the realization that Gale could speak momentarily taking the back seat.
"Oh, well..." He brought a wing to his beak like he was considering how to explain whatever it was that he discovered. "How do I say this...? It's kinda weird to explain in human words." He paused and ruffled his feathers a little.
"Hm. You see, even though every place is a part of Azure Star, not every location breathes the same," He tilted his head. "It's not just as simple as some places having better mana quality than others or stronger affinities. There's something else mixsdin with the air, the ground, the sky. Every location has its own... rhythm? Yeah, that." He scraped a talon on the table lightly.
Some places have a slow and steady rhythm. Others are sharp and fast. That rhythm decides what goes on there and how."
He flapped his wings once as he walked around the table, his gaze still fixed downwards.
"I also noticed that different locations have their own... balances, kinda. Like a deal with the world. If a place is good for one thing, it's bad for another. Like, if a place naturally spawns great elemental beasts naturally, then they might grow fast, but die young if no one takes them. It keeps things fair, I think." He pointed at wing at the ground.
"Here, though, something is different. I couldn't see it before, but the rhythm here used to be steady... but kinda dull. Now, though, it's louder. Alive in a wag it wasn't before. The balance shifted. Now that i can see it, it's like the ground itself is shining from within." His feathers hustled again.
"It's not normal, or usual, rather. But it seems like, every creature that stays on this land, the 'new' balance sort of has to do with territory? Basically, any 'side' that conquers more and more of this location has something they value get better gradually, and in this case, it's beast eggs for humans." He tilted his head.
"It's not exactly those words, but that's what it feels like." When he finished, the room fell silent.
"... And do you know why this is happening?" William finally asked after nearly a minute passed.
Gale aimed at wing at Osho without hesitation.
"It's him. I can see it. The way the balance tilts ever so slightly due to his presence. It's barely noticeable now, but I reckon the more stuff he does, like evolving beasts eggs, the speed of this shift will increase. It's like..." He trailed off.
"Like his very existence shifts the balance of wherever he goes." Major Thompson finished as he leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs as he stared at Osho.
"What exactly are you, kid?" He asked slowly, and Osho glanced at him.
There was silence, but Timothy quickly broke it.
"Okay, let's not get too excited." His soothing voice washed over everyone, and the tension eased.
"This is, understandably, a lot. And it gives us much to think about. However, it's clear that Osho is as surprised about this as we are. Besides, it's not necessarily a bad thing either. If what his beast says is true, we can use this to our advantage." He leaned into his seat.
"However, we will speak about that later. For now, Osho is just arriving, so there's no need to bother him with world-changing information from the get-go." His words relaxed everyone further.
"... I suppose you're right." William decided to ease up, and Osho exhaled.
In truth, now that Gale mentioned it, Osho felt that it made sense.
After his encounter with that... creature, he thought a lot about what it said, especially its last words.
'Both of our presences bend and ignore the rules of this plane of existence. Alone, it's manageable, but together? Things will become... messy. Even now, the fabric of existence becomes unstable.'
'Is this what he was talking about?' Osho wondered. 'I still found it hard to believe that simply evolving beasts had such a profound effect on the world. But now... now I'm not so sure.' He wanted to sigh. There were still many things he didn't truly understand about himself and his abilities, it seemed.
However, before his thoughts could get messy, he felt someone poke him.
He turned to look at Mrs Jane's partner staring at him with gleaming eyes.
"My name is Aaron." He said with barely suppressed excitement, and Osho blinked.
"Oh... Hi?" He wasn't too sure of how to react. He wasn't used to people staring at him like that, and this person, Aaron, seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of speaking to Osho.
"Jane glazes you a lot, so I was really curious about you, but seeing you here now and hearing of the stuff you do... the glaze isn't even enough. You're cool. Very cool." He continued, his smile growing, and Osho found his cheeks getting warm.
Osho: ( ￣▽￣)?
"Uh... thanks." He forced a cough, feeling embarrassed despite himself. The man's elation was like staring at the sun.
"On that note," Mrs Jane suddenly began, and everyone turned to her. "While I'm sure you have a few stories for us, I'm a bit curious." She glanced at Gale and Bedrock, her eyes glinting slightly.
"Just how much have you improved this past year?" Hearing this, Osho stared at her for a few seconds, then the meaning of her words clicked, and he smiled slightly.
"Oh...? Do you perhaps want to spar, Mrs Jane?" He asked, and she mirrored his smile.
"Of course. My dear student went to one of the best institutions in the world and came back looking like this. It's only natural that I'm curious to see how much he has improved." She chuckled lightly.
"I feel like we have important things to discuss, though..." Thompson mumbled.
"Meh, let then young ones have fun." Thompson shrugged, but even he seemed a bit curious.
"That said, where will we spar?" Osho asked curiously. Not that he was looking down on them, but he was more than accustomed with his beasts destructive capabilities than ever, and recalling the arenas he'd seen before he left, he wasn't too sure if anything they had could withstand such energy.
However, his worries were unfounded.
"Heh, don't worry. We naturally had to develop better arenas now that the power of us elites had risen significantly." Mrs Jane stood up, and the rest followed suit.
"Come on, let's go." Osho stared at them for a few seconds before just shrugging. He'd see when he got there.