Prologue

Long after the screaming stopped, fire lit the night sky. Cursed chains pulled from below, and clouds of lightning and copper spiraled above, cutting off escape. The smell of rot came with the cloud, masked by perfume and an illusionary veil. The people I tried to protect betrayed me. All of my allies that I had gathered lay dead, floating below in the sea. Waves rose and devoured ships and people while monsters comfortable in the waters preyed upon the unlucky survivors. If I moved, the storm would sweep through and kill them all, including my brother's family.

Bringing down the most privileged is essential for others to rise. Giving up your power would have saved lives.

"I would rather die on my feet than live as your slave."

The wind carried Olivia Rodrigez's voice along. "You could still have a comfortable life. Think of your children."

As the wind from the lightning storm above flowed from her back, I smelled the rot in full. Olivia's class was unknown, but the masses declared her Demeter's hero. The new public institutions of learning included her speeches in their curriculum, class theory, ethics courses, and Monster history.

Monsters covered the ground to the horizon. Through the flashes, I saw because my vision was not bound to my flesh.

"Our daughter,"

"Will be a Rodriguez. We never married Atom. You would not give up your privilege."

The new culture would mold our daughter into a copy of her mother; I shouldn't leave her. I raised my hand, and a white slash streaked through the storm. "Slaughter," I said.

The storm powered by a hundred thousand rank two weather mages broke, unleashing my wrath upon them. I would unleash my fury upon them, returning all the damage they have done to me a thousandfold. My curse homed in on them and struck through my spirit art.

"For that attack, I will cut off a finger."

"She's your daughter."

"No, she's half of you. I will cut off the privileged parts." Olivia woman smiled. "Unless you rip out your own heart and drop it. Even you can't heal back your heart and keep your blood flowing to your brain."

"You expect me to kill myself?"

"For our daughter, and what remains of the Grey family? Atom, this is what your privilege deserves. You were the last holdout with you gone. Weston can be a union in full. Everyone will be equal eventually. This is for our daughter Maranda and all your multi-ethnic sons and daughters eating out of dumpsters where their mothers left them. In our party, monsters can vote, women can vote, and even men without classes like you can vote. Don't you see the good that I'm doing? You must die so that our nation can be equal." Olivia said.

Skills were at work, passive and active, magnified by uncountable buffs by entire legions of soldiers. Monsters even did their part to make Olivia's little speech more powerful.

I raised my gauntleted hand. Bone and steel swirled in an alloy, ending in small, sharpened ends at my fingertips. Since I was only 15, I had adjusted my spirit art, only advancing it to its current state during the battle of Easton's Jade Palace. The hand I raised tore the heart out of the jade emperor after Athena's arrow weakened him. If my spirit art could slay a god even weakened, it could surely kill me.

"Swear upon the gods that you will ensure they will live out their lives like the most favored of Weston's citizens. Like your precious victims, and I will tear out my heart." I said.

"I swear upon the gods of Olympus that if you tear out your heart, all of your family will be like my own children. You will get no better terms than that."

Lightning rumbled across the sky. We sealed the oath.

Olivia would twist my words, but my family would survive. She was a twisted bitch, but she still feared the god that brought her to this world.

My hand ripped through my armored chest, and blood shot out of my mouth, filling my helmet. I clasped my heart and pulled it free. Then, I lost control of my flight and fell into the waters below before the powerful current took me away.

No one who goes out with the current ever comes back.

As my blood poured out of me, I thought about my family, my dead friends, and my children. They had a rough time living with unbound monsters. My thoughts wandered to my youth when I wanted to be a tamer back when monsters served humans. Learning that I had the farmer's class had been such a disappointment. Perhaps I had been rash in destroying it. Those were the days when I was young and continuously proven wrong.