Tatehan lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, his mind wandering through random thoughts.

He had left the commmader's office hoping to take a nap but he had been unable to do so since he entered the room. And by the way, he wasn't someone who slept in the afternoon.

Him wandering between thoughts finally led him to one:

How did Mars actually work?

Back on Earth, back in his time, there had been countries. Nations, governments with presidents, prime ministers, councils. Bureaucracies that controlled everything from trade to military to infrastructure. It was complicated, sometimes corrupt, but it was structured.

What of here on Mars?

He'd read about it in some of the sci-fi novels he'd been devouring over the past few weeks. Those books always had governors who ruled planets.

But the reality he'd encountered was nothing like that.

Here, there were just... cities.

Independent cities that governed themselves. Waython Hollow. Loenitt. New Helios. Reon Outpost. Ironhaven.

Each one operated autonomously, with its own leaders, its own rules and its own military forces. There was no overarching government or planetary authority. Just scattered settlements trying to survive.

It was strange, but the more Tatehan thought about it, the more it made a kind of sense.

Humans had fled Earth after the Great War, the Space Dragon Wars that had nearly wiped out the species. They'd arrived on Mars desperate, broken, clinging to whatever they could salvage. Terraforming the planet had taken decades, maybe longer. Making it habitable, creating breathable air and stabilizing the climate.

And during all that, they'd had to enhance themselves just to survive. The system—the abilities, the augmentations, the cores, all of that had been necessary just to adapt to a hostile alien world.

There hadn't been time to build countries and establish grand political systems. People had clustered into cities, formed clans, and focused on one thing: staying alive.

Maybe Mars was still developing. Still figuring itself out. Maybe in another hundred years, there'd be nations and all that kind of stuff.

Or maybe not.

Maybe this was just how it was going to be. Cities ruling themselves. Clans competing for resources. Power concentrated in the hands of whoever could hold it.

What if the Obscuron won?

If the Obscuron won, there would surely be a unified Mars. One government, one ruler…a goddamn tyrant.

The Obscuron would become the governor of the entire planet. He'd control everything: resources, military and infrastructure. He'd rule through fear and violence, crushing anyone who opposed him.

And all those independent cities? They'd be nothing but territories under his boot.

Tatehan exhaled slowly, shaking his head.

That couldn't happen.

It wouldn't happen!

Not if he had anything to say about it.

His thoughts drifted, and suddenly another realization hit him.

He hadn't harvested the cores.

During the battle in the city, he'd killed two Boulder-back Behemoths, dozens of shadow goblins, iron-jaw scavengers. All of them had cores, valuable ones.

And he'd just... left them.

Tatehan sat up slightly, frowning.

Why hadn't he taken them?

He always took cores. It was instinct by now. Kill a creature, harvest the core, move on. He'd been doing it since his first days in the wastelands.

But after the fight in Waython Hollow, he'd just walked away.

He thought about it for a moment, trying to understand his own actions.

And then it clicked.

He'd been too disappointed and kinda sad.

The battle had been a victory, technically. They'd stopped the monsters, saved lives and protected the city.

But the aftermath wasn't exactly a good one.

The bodies, the destruction and the grief in people's eyes.

It had overshadowed everything else. By the time the fighting was over, Tatehan hadn't been thinking about cores or upgrades or power. He'd just been thinking about the cost.

Thirty-three dead. He had pondered on the families torn apart and children orphaned.

That was what had stuck with him. Not the thrill of the fight or the satisfaction of victory. Just the sadness of what had been lost.

So yeah, the reason he didn't harvest the cores was because in that moment, it hadn't seemed to matter.

Tatehan let out a long breath and lay back down, closing his eyes.

There was a knock at the door.

Tatehan's eyes opened, and he sat up.

"Come in," he called.

The door slid open, and two guards stepped inside. Both were young, maybe mid-twenties, and still wearing their combat gear, though they'd cleaned most of the blood and grime off.

One of them, a stocky guy with a shaved head, carried a small crate. The other, a woman with short dark hair, nodded respectfully.

"Battle Commander Tatehan," the woman said. "We wanted to give you these."

She gestured to the crate, and the stocky guard set it down on the floor near Tatehan's bed.

Tatehan stood, walking over and looking down at the crate.

Inside were two cores.

Large ones. Easily thrice the size of the shadow goblin cores he'd been collecting. They glowed faintly, one with a deep amber light, the other with a dull red.

Behemoth cores.

Tatehan blinked, then looked up at the guards.

"You... took these for me?" he asked.

The woman nodded.

"Yes, sir," she said. "We figured you'd want them. You're the one who killed the Behemoths, after all. It's only right you get the cores."

The stocky guard shifted slightly, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"We left the rest for the citizens," he added. "People are already harvesting them. Figured it'd help them upgrade their abilities. Maybe make them stronger for next time."

Tatehan stared at the cores for a long moment, then looked back at the guards.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"That's... actually a really nice thing to do," he said.

The woman smiled back.

"You saved a lot of lives today, sir," she said. "This is the least we could do."

Tatehan nodded slowly, then crouched down and picked up one of the cores, the amber one. It was warm in his hands, glowing faintly with stored energy.

He activated his system interface, scanning the core.

[Behemoth Core (Amber)]

[Type: Enhancement Core]

[Grade: Rare]

[Properties: Increases physical durability and stamina. Can be absorbed to enhance Enhanced Durability ability or used to upgrade equipment.]

Tatehan's eyes widened slightly.

Durability and stamina. Exactly what he needed.

His Enhanced Durability was still only at Level 3, barely noticeable most of the time. But if he absorbed this core, he could push it higher. Make his bones tougher, his muscles more resilient and his body harder to break.

And after what had happened today, after getting hit by a Behemoth's tail multiple times and walking away, he knew how important that ability really was.

He set the amber core down and picked up the red one.

[Behemoth Core (Red)]

[Type: Power Core]

[Grade: Rare]

[Properties: Increases raw physical strength. Can be absorbed to enhance strength-based abilities or used to upgrade weapons/armor.]

Strength.

Tatehan turned the core over in his hands, thinking.

He already had kinetic absorption through his armor. And his gravity manipulation gave him plenty of offensive power. But raw physical strength? That would be really good.

If he absorbed this core, his punches would hit harder. His grip would be stronger. He'd be able to lift heavier objects and break through tougher materials.

It was tempting.

But he could also use it to upgrade his armor. Or his chakrams. Or even save it for later.

Tatehan set the red core back in the crate and looked up at the guards.

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

The woman nodded.

"Anytime, sir."

The stocky guard gave a small salute, and the two of them turned to leave.

And with that, they left, the door sliding shut behind them.

Tatehan stood there for a moment, staring down at the two cores in the crate.

Then he crouched down, picked up the amber core again, and held it in both hands.

He held the amber core in his left hand and reached for the red one with his right.

The moment both cores touched his palms, a notification flashed across his vision.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Compatible cores detected]

[Behemoth Core (Amber) + Behemoth Core (Red) = Fusion Potential Identified]

[Would you like to merge these cores?]

[Warning: Merging cores is irreversible. Individual core effects will be lost. Something else will be granted instead.]

Tatehan froze, his eyes widening.

Merge them?

He stared at the notification, surprise making him SURPRISED!. The system had never offered him something like this before, at least not in this manner.

He'd absorbed cores individually, used them to upgrade abilities or equipment, but merging them?

That was new.

He has used all of the knight brutenecks cores back at the wastelands to get a new the armor but then, to do, he didn't merge the cores.

He just used them all to gain the armor. Merging them was making both cores become one and that was an act he had never done, seen or heard of before.

Another line of text appeared.

[Your heart already knows.]

Tatehan blinked.

What the hell did that mean?

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