Swamp Dragon looked at the letter in his hands with furrowed brows. His jaw was strained, and his hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly.
He had trusted Kyle.
When Kyle had been outed as a member of the Cult, he had given him another chance, believing that Kyle was no longer loyal to the enemy of all existence.
But now, Kyle was colluding with the Cult of Final Fate again.
It was difficult for Swamp Dragon to associate the Kyle he knew with all of these crazed lunatics he had killed as a Defender.
Whenever the Cult attacked, they showed no restraint. While normal Seekers fought each other for personal gain, the members of the Cult were not like that. Normal Seekers didn't slaughter countless Mortals. Why would they? These Mortals didn't have anything that could benefit them.
And yet, the Cult targeted everyone. In fact, the weakest people were their first targets.
How could his best friend be like them?
Swamp Dragon felt hatred, anger, and disbelief, but most of all, he felt betrayed. His best friend was part of an Organization that wanted to kill all life, and since Swamp Dragon was alive, he was also their target.
His best friend was working for a party that wanted to kill him.
However, despite all that, Kyle still talked about wanting to remain friends.
He even invited him.
Swamp Dragon wanted to do nothing more than to tear this letter into tiny pieces, but in the end, he put it away. He would forward this letter to the Array of Stars. Maybe they could save some lives with the information contained in the letter.
The ban on communications had already been lifted again, and Swamp Dragon opened his Communicator, but then, he hesitated.
It wasn't that he didn't want to tell the Array of Stars about this. No, he definitely wanted to do that.
The reason why he hesitated was something he had sworn to himself many, many years ago.
Swamp Dragon clenched his fists as he put the letter away again.
'Always wait a while before making a big decision,' he thought.
In the past, he had sworn to himself to wait for 24 hours, but as days turned into years, which turned into centuries, which turned into millennia, the time increased.
Nowadays, Swamp Dragon always waited a month before making any big decisions, unless there was no time to wait.
Swamp Dragon snorted before returning to his new Organization in the Secondary Sector. This entire incident involving Kyle had caused a tremendous amount of chaos in the different Secondary Sectors, and he was still in the process of fixing everything.
Over the next couple of days, the people of his new Organization noticed that Swamp Dragon acted a bit unusually.
He seemed more… hardline.
When he made decisions, his approach was much more black or white.
At some point, he even overheard some Elders saying that the expectations put on them were unreasonable. They were here for their own power. This was a job. The policies their Head implemented were too strict. Yes, this was their job, and they were supposed to do these things, but at the end of the day, they were not here because of some great moral cause.
They just wanted to grow stronger.
When Swamp Dragon heard these words, his anger exploded, but he didn't let it show.
Swamp Dragon was an introspective person, and he quickly realized why he got so angry.
It was because all of these people reminded him of Kyle. The way they talked about their Organization was how Kyle talked about Organizations.
Why were so many people like Kyle?!
Yet, as Swamp Dragon flipped the sentence around in his mind, he took a deep breath.
Why was Kyle like so many people?
It was the norm.
He was an individual.
Swamp Dragon believed that everyone with power had a duty to protect the people weaker than them, but he also knew that most people didn't share his opinion.
Three weeks after receiving the letter, Swamp Dragon looked at it again.
He had calmed down, but he would still report it to the Array of Stars. After all, it was the right thing to do.
Yet, over the next few days, he reread one certain part of the letter several times.
"Most people use Karmic Luck as a standard for a person's morals, but that's bullshit. A person with a lot of Karmic Luck is often seen as a morally superior person when compared to a person with less Karmic Luck. I don't agree at all."
"If you want proof, you just have to do one simple thing."
"Do what you think is the right thing to do. Ignore the existence of Karmic Luck and just do what you think is the right thing to do. The next time you see someone doing something horrible, ask yourself one question. Is it the right thing to stop that person, and if not, why not?"
Swamp Dragon had read that part several times.
He had already agreed that Karmic Luck wasn't necessarily a measure of someone's morals, but it was still indicative of someone's moral character.
When the deadline was up, Swamp Dragon decided to wait for a bit more.
He wanted to put Kyle's words to the test.
As soon as Swamp Dragon set out to test his words, plenty of opportunities presented themselves. There were countless Transcendents and Primals in the Secondary Sector, and Swamp Dragon's powerful senses could pick up on a lot of things.
Swamp Dragon went to one of his Beast Planets and saw Transcendents arguing about a rare piece of metal they had found in one of the lairs of a killed beast.
Swamp Dragon had seen this scene countless times. Either they would agree on something, or they would enter a True Battle.
He watched as the situation escalated, and soon enough, there were two fronts, with one being quite a bit stronger.
This was a normal occurrence. This was part of being a Seeker. Yet, even though this was a common occurrence, Swamp Dragon didn't believe that things should be like this.
Would he get involved?
No.
Why not?
…
Swamp Dragon got involved and pushed the two sides apart. He distributed the valuables as fairly as possible, keeping in mind the contributions of each member.
The Transcendents didn't dare to complain about their Head's judgment.
Yet, Swamp Dragon could see that one of the two sides wasn't happy with his ruling. It wasn't hard for him to notice the signs, but that also didn't matter. He had done the right thing.
Several more conflicts arose within the next day, and there was even a repeat incident involving some former members.
Swamp Dragon punished the offenders harshly.
He continued doing so for a couple of years, and slowly, he noticed that some things were changing.
The average power of their Disciples lowered. There was almost no room to take advantage of others anymore, and most of the time, one could only take advantage of someone else if one were in a stronger position.
The Crushers in the Organization were unaffected since there were barely any incidents involving them, but the Transcendents and Primals slowly changed.
On top of that, Swamp Dragon could feel that his Karmic Luck was not growing as quickly as it used to be. Even though he was doing the right thing, a lot of people resented him now, and that resentment was often accompanied by negative Karmic Luck.
Eventually, Swamp Dragon witnessed something egregious. He hadn't been on this Planet many times since it was quite far away from his Central Planet. Because of that, people were more… true to themselves here.
This time, Swamp Dragon saw a powerful Primal, who was about to kill a couple of Transcendents because of something valuable they found. The Primal would lose a lot of Karmic Luck, but the valuables were worth it, in his opinion.
When the Primal was about to attack, Swamp Dragon killed him. If he waited until the Primal attacked before taking action, the Momentum of the Transcendents might get negatively affected.
The Transcendents didn't even know that Swamp Dragon had just saved their lives, but that also didn't matter. Swamp Dragon didn't kill the attacker for them. He killed the attacker because it was the right thing to do.
Yet, as Swamp Dragon killed the attacker, he felt a burst of negative Karmic Luck.
The Primal had positive Karmic Luck, and he was much weaker than Swamp Dragon. According to the world's judgment, Swamp Dragon had killed a good but weak person without any reason.
Over the past years, Swamp Dragon's Karmic Luck had still increased.
However, he could see…
If he continued acting like this, his Karmic Luck would eventually start reducing.
Swamp Dragon clenched his fists.
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