[ TT ] Dark magic does n't actually make you evil , power-hungry people just gave it a bad name . As a new sorcerer under your mentor 's guidance , you now have control over one of the most free-form magics to exist . Your final assessment ; go show people that you 're not what the legends condemn you as .

I still remember my master's last words to me. 
 
 `` What we have here is n't true ThunderSlaving. We ca n't replicate the Soulless' power sources. We can only imitate them with WorldShaping. But it is enough. That is why we practice in secret. But we should n't do that anymore. That is why your task is what it is. I... We need you to go out there, and show people the gifts we can give them. It's the only way. The only way we will move forward. The only way we can escape.'' 
 
 I was confused. I did n't know what we were escaping from. I asked him, and he replied simply. 
 
 `` Use your lenses, and look to the sky. There are things out there, and one of them is coming. It will destroy us all, unless we can escape.'' 
 
 `` Escape to where?'' I trusted my master implicitly, but if something was coming to destroy the Garden, there was n't really much we could do. 
 
 `` We must follow the path the Soulless took, and abandon the Garden. It is that, or death. And the resources we will need for that... We need support.'' 
 
 I was unsure at the time, but I accepted what my master was saying. I acquiesced and left for my quest. 
 
 ***** 
 
 When I began, I had no idea it would lead to this. I started with a small village, on the very tip of the East Garden. Isolated and poor, its inhabitants were willing to suffer a strange visitor with money. When I gave them the first lights there were suspicions, but people will tolerate many things if they get something they wanted. It did n't take long to learn what people wanted. They wanted more. More food, more light, more comforts. I gave them that. The fertilizers had the biggest impact, suddenly people were *coming* here to settle down and share in the plenty. Word was getting around. And of course, where there is good fortune, there are those who wanted to take it away. Five years after I started my quest, the first soldiers came. 
 
 There were only a few at first. I dealt with them myself, most had never seen a firearm before even though alchemists elsewhere had learned to make them. The next groups had WorldShapers though, and I had to use everything I knew to fight back. It worked too, WorldShaping is more flashy than powerful. I recruited young men to defend their homeland, gave them armor and weapons beyond their wildest dreams, and I too, had an army. I will never forget that final battle. 
 
 The largest empire on East Garden was the Friends. They used MindShapers to control their population and were always expanding. I was surprised they had n't come to my village before then, presumably they felt there was nothing important there. The MindShapers worried me, I had no defense against them. I worked day and night, and eventually I had it. A device that would push Precursor away, creating a short-lived bubble where no form of Shaping would function. My devices would still work though, with the addition in some places of a few capacitors. Fully armed and armored, my army was ready to fight back. 
 
 The Friends were confident, they marched in a straight line, and we met them on an open field. They probably felt that the ground favored their numbers; it also favored my latest weapons. I can only imagine what the Friends felt as they attacked. It must have felt like they were actually fighting Soulless. The MindShapers could barely get a grip, much less do anything. The soldiers charged desperately into a killing field of lasers and artillery, the ones who somehow made it all the way fell to land mines. 
 
 WorldShapers were considered the ultimate asset in battle, capable of leveling fortifications and breaking up enemy charges or rallies from a distance. When lighting and fireballs struck my men, they obeyed my orders and fell. The Friends advance cautiously, until they were almost to my lines. Then they died. I left survivors, let them flee to spread fear. In there armor, bedecked with discharge spikes and cooling fins, my soldiers looked almost exactly like the legendary Soulless. The resemblance was n't identical, the Soulless armor was black and much stronger then metal, as well as being a better conductor. But mine was good enough, and people tend to embellish what they have seen, even to themselves. 
 
 I should have realized what I had done, but it was only when I received the capitulation from the Friends that I realized. I had built myself an empire. So I got to work. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Today is the day. It has all led up to this moment, although it's not what my late master expected. I've seen the rock incoming, and while my master thought of escape, I'm thinking bigger. When people see the rock falling, they will fear. And when they see me destroy it, with my technology, they will accept me as their Savior. I just hope I have n't miscalculated something. 

