Melissa smiled - it seemed her pawn was doing well in his adventures. Already, she could see him hard at work, taking apart his enemies piece by piece. His aggressive handling of the Drengin was expected, his plans for dealing with the Korx, less so. The fact that he was ignoring the Yor was a bit of a surprise, but then again, he never really seemed to dislike them in the game, so this was not without precedent. As for Dread Lords, well, he hadn't addressed them yet, but that would happen in due time. He had only just met them, after all.

Turning her attention away from the battle, Melissa stared out from her tower. Below, citizens went about their daily lives, eating, trading, working, and playing. The scene was one that could be seen in any city, regardless of its inhabitants or technological level. Across all the myriad universes that made of creation, many things differed between cultures and species, but this scene was not one of them.

Occasionally, though, the ordered scene below was interrupted by the sound of a distant explosion from the west. Thanks to her inhuman senses, Melissa could also make out the sounds of smaller explosions accompanying their larger brothers, ones that would fade into nothingness before the citizens below would sense them.

The source of these violent noises was a small battle place on the hills to the west of the city, where two mighty armies clashed. This battle was not brought about by malice, though. This fight was merely a mockup, a fakery, a game. This conflict was merely training for the forces that were clashing, preparing themselves for the future, where the carnage would be all too real. Though they were unlikely to see action anytime soon, the warriors and soldiers in this mighty host refused to lie idle, always seeking to make themselves stronger, yearning for the day they would be let loose against real foes.

Within the tower, a similar battle was playing out, albeit this one was a four way free-for-all rather than a clash of legends. Four figures went into battle - a hulking, insectoid brute, a lithe young man, a strange, serpentine creature, and a graceful, fiery lady with hair that was, surprisingly, blue and white. The brutish figure was Mortarax, one of her first creations, a leader among his kind, embodying many of the traits they prized - strength, speed, and endurance. The lithe young man was Elling - a child of one of her family's servants, he was timid, yet wise beyond his years. His family had served her own for as long as she could remember, and that was a very long time - long enough that some of them had spent their whole lives serving her forbearers, from the cradle to the grave. She had known Elling's grandfather since the man had been ten years old, and that man was still serving her, even though she'd offered to let him leave. Loyalty was a funny thing. As for the Serpentine figure, his name was Leal. He, too, was one of her family's servants, but he was far longer lived than Elling - Leal had served her family since he was a teen, and he was only a few years older than she was. Last among the dueling warriors was the girl, Adeline. Adeline was, perhaps, the oddity among the team - she hadn't been born into Melissa's service. Instead, she had joined up with the ROB during one of her travels, in exchange for protection of her community, one Melissa had been all too willing to grant. Forget getting a powerful and valuable ally, helping others was the right thing to do. Of course, doing was while advancing your own interests was always the preferable way to do things.

On a nearby set of stands, Cassidy was watching the fight, acting as referee for the battle. Granted, this mostly amounted to making sure that the warriors didn't kill each other, and besides, she was too enthralled by the sight of the conflict to be a good referee. One day, Melissa would teach her daughter to fight, but that was not today. Her daughter was still a child, and she deserved to have a chance to be a child before she was cast into fire.

Still, observing both the duel before her, and the skirmish to the West, Melissa knew she could only keep her forces satisfied for so long with skirmishes - her armies yearned for the chance to be let off the chain, and her personal squad was growing restless. Mortarax was made for warfare, and yearned for the chance to test his skills again. Elling may not be a fighter, but there were few things that challenged his mind more than the battlefield. Adeline was one of ancient race of conquerors, wielders of lance and shield, and though she was far nicer than her forbearers, she still enjoyed the taste of battle. Leal was the exception here, but even he enjoyed a good scrape. All of her more militant followers longed to taste the thrill of battle, with all its glory and horror.

And Melissa was going to sate that hunger.

Turning her attention skyward, the female Random Omnipotent Being focused her sight until she could see outside the world's atmosphere. Here, strange organic shapes moved around, some tearing into asteroids, others rendering down the rock into ores and alloys, a few fighting among themselves, and some growing more of the strange organic shapes. Unknown to many, these shapes had hollow cavities throughout their bodies, many of which could easily hold atmospheres. Of the shapes, the smallest were no larger than birds, but the most titanic were larger than citadels.

As she watched a new batch of the shapes come into being, Melissa smiled. Soon, it would be time to intervene with the affairs of her pawn once more.

Her master had said that, should she join the Commander in another universe, she must restrain her powers to a certain degree, so that no one would realize what she was.

He never said that there were any restraints on who she could bring with her, though.

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AN: Well, that's done.

Anyone got any guess as to what Melissa is going to do next?

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!