Various viewpoints

***

Today was a day with a capital D, hell today was a day with all words in the capital. John and all the other mega heads were anxiously floating inside a huge hall of one factory that served as their base. This particular hall was completely emptied and remade.

The floor, the ceiling, the walls, the doors, everything was under a thin layer of steel, the room only had one door in and no window, the only source of light came from the balls of trapped light that were floating around.

Inside the large hall there was a big tank with blood inside and in the middle of the tank there was a huge unnatural heart and on it, many runes were written, there were many tubes connected to the heart that held the heart in place while also providing nutrients and stimulating blood flow.

But that wasn't all, all around the tank there were circles filled with enhancements and metal boxes full of various machinery or magical devices.

In the hall there wasn't a place where some kind of enhancing circle wasn't drawn, only the doors were spared. As all the enhancements were made with beast blood anyone walking there could destroy them, for this reason, this hall was declared as a danger zone for any humans. And danger it was, if the mega heads found anyone there, they wouldn't hesitate to kill them, nothing is more important than the project.

And this project is a mana generator that will absorb and convert mana from the air. The mega heads continued to float for a moment before they gave a telepathic signal to one another and with a heavy nod, they started.

All the mega heads scientists poured their mana into few lines of blood before them, those lines of blood serve as fuse and they will make sure that all the enhancements will get the mana at the same time.

At first slowly but with increasing speed the room started to shine with blue light. All the enhancements started to shine, and the scientist didn't even breathe.

Slowly the enhancement dimmed a bit and instead began to pulse inside or above the steel coating, it was a truly magical sight, before them, magic circles were floating with various purposes. Some gathered mana, some stored it, some were redirecting it, some were filtering the meaning, and some were filtering the impurities but none of the circles could refine the mana to higher circles.

For this were there the metal boxes, they contained centers of power that were "transplanted" to them and were kept "alive" to refine the mana and then send it to the middle to the big tank where the heart floated, this heart was manifesting the mana and creating the mana crystals.

Slowly the mana crystals started to appear in a designated box near the blood tank, the project was successful.

All the mega heads scientists couldn't help but think about the future and they agreed on one thing ´with this we can play the big game´

***

The snow-covered the whole town but Mason couldn't care less, as an undead he was immune to the cold, well mostly, he wouldn't die from it and the cold didn't hurt him but he could feel some parts of his body freeze and that was no joke.

With his body being basically huge brain Mason could do little to prevent this, same fate met some of the zombies that had an excessive amount of flesh on them, the flesh of some of the fat zombies completely froze and made those zombies into statues made of ice.

Still, the winter was a blessed time for the undead as they could fight mostly fine while the enemy had to take measures to fight against the cold and Mason used this, he expanded the tainted land as far as he could, and while he was at it he even attacked two nearby towns.

The towns were just a few miles/kilometers far but still way beyond Mason´s ability to control undead but luckily he still managed to pass his intentions and the undead obeyed, if they did not Mason would be forced to go with them and he wanted to prevent that at all cost.

After all his body was very weak and with the regained clarity of mind Mason knew the risks involved in moving. If possible, he did not want to test the ability of undead to revive on tainted land with his current form and preferred his role as a mastermind.

A huge mass of bodies neared Mason, the bodies were fused and formed a behemoth over 6 meters tall (18ft) the behemoth dragged even more bodies in a huge improvised back and slowly made his way toward Mason.

Finally, Mason sensed the behemoth and exclaimed telepathically "Crag! So nice to see you!" Crag "humph" with the most faked embarrassment Mason spoke, "a-are those for me?" Crag "humph"

Crag sat next to Mason and emptied the bag, dozens of bodies spilled out, some of them moving. Those bodies were alive, they already turned into undead but neither Mason nor Crag cared as they happily started feasting.

Mason cracked the skulls open with one of his tentacles and absorbed their brains while Crag ate the bodies whole. The bodies entered his stomach and then move to some part of his body stacking themselves to make the giant even bigger.

Such a warm scene, for the undead at least.

Mason didn't even notice but with every passing day, he lost even more of his humanity, not that he cared. Strangely, he liked being a huge undead brain.

But even after absorbing the brains, Mason didn't have enough ´about time we kick it up a notch´.

***

Riley was going on a patrol around the city, with Rex, his beast teammate in the first phase he was making sure no one is misbehaving. To simplify it Riley was an equivalent of a policeman, but far less lawful.

Starting from the center which served as home to many of the citizens such as himself, few small shops were established there selling the fur or some daily necessities in the areas where the snow was cleaned.

The area where the citizens lived was relatively peaceful, there were no riots or anything like that but there were awaken one's training with dummies, either casting fireballs or hitting them with a variety of weapons.

All around the training area, there was a huge enhancement, just like the freezer but the opposite, there was an enhancement that kept the temperature pleasant 15°C, sadly those enhancements are only in specific areas that the citizens use and in some areas for the free humans.

Riley wishfully watched the awakened ones ´one day I will save enough to buy awakening potion as well´, those that awakened were considered as elites and were half a step above the citizens and that was just the first circle or rank of body, who knows how will the leader treat those that achieve for example fourth circle….

Riley himself had little talent in magic, and without joining a powerful family he had so far no chance to acquire the awakening potion, Riley could manifest a small flame but nothing that will impress the family heads to accept him. Still, things could be far worse… for example if he wasn't a citizen…

Without further ado, Riley continued on his patrol.

Next, he went to the area where the free lived, there were mostly those that didn't acquire enough contribution points to become citizens and also the few who wanted to leave once the snow melts.

This area was quite peaceful as well, occasionally there were some disturbances in the brothel that was here but otherwise it was fine.

Because of this Riley went and checked the brothel to make sure no one is drunk there and making problems.

The oldest craft was doing well and the women that had nothing else to offer or those that chose to do so ended up there. No one was in the brothel by force.

Prostitution is inevitable even in modern society and rather than uselessly trying to suppress it the leader chose to embrace it and make a profit from it.

Once done there Riley moved to the area of forced workers, this area was the worst of the three and was separated by a wall that was made when the leader´s camp was still small.

There were two walls now, an inner wall that protected the citizens and free humans, and an outer wall that protected the forced workers.

Riley was making his way through the area and while doing so he could almost feel few hateful stares that were piercing his back, ignoring those Riley checked the usual problematic places and made sure the fence that separates the forced workers from the beasts/monsters still holds strong.

The forced workers were living together in schools or tower blocks, it was nothing much but still way better than living outside in wild.

While checking the forced workers Riley could see many acts of violence but he didn't intervene, without being directly asked for help the patrols were "advised" to ignore the forced workers.

Finally, Riley reached the end of his patrol, the road to Centerville, as far as Riley could see there were forced workers with shovels cleaning the snow from the road.

Watching the road Riley thought ´maybe I should join the attack…´