There were many reasons why he was awed by the information on the View: the mirror of many reflections effectively gave him the ability to build the best army he could think of, at least using his home world's standards, or even stretching them a bit—a well-coordinated, impossibly mobile, and perfectly well-commanded army. The master of conflicts, according to what was described, promised to be akin to the most overpowered right-hand man, albeit with a spice of an illustrious but mysterious past. What was even better than its already good-looking power profile was that it could still unlock more abilities as it grew in power or as he came across 'items of its power,' as the view had put it. And judging from the first abilities it had unlocked, the other abilities promised to be even more powerful, making the aspect beast more powerful as it grew and giving him a more powerful weapon in his arsenal. He was so wowed that his brain selectively filtered out the way the texts mostly wormed their way into the view.
"I better not start thinking in that direction before I start depending on them to my own detriment."
He said to himself. He had learned the hard way many times from his home world that power that was not firmly in one's possession or control could turn around and cause a backlash on that person.
He had seen people who got appointed by the Central Council, who both pleased and displeased people. Those they pleased in hopes of building lasting contacts ended up treating them like air after they were relieved of their office; as for those they offended, they finally had the chance to retaliate, even if they had only offended them in the lines of carrying out their job.
Thus, here in this strange world, he was not going to depend on the power of his aspect beasts. His aim was to discover those fragments that granted personal powers, especially now, when his life depended on it due to one of his banes. And with the power granted by his aspect beasts, he could finally begin to look in a certain direction he had been avoiding for a long while.
Pushing those thoughts out of his head, he looked to the last section that contained information on the very reason he got many of the rewards he got, the very reason he attracted some of his banes, and what he thought was the very reason why the 'eyes of the administrator'—paraphrasing how the disembodied voice put it—were on him: the heart of the proliferating forest, which granted him control over the proliferating forest.
That particular section somehow evoked the feeling of seriousness and solemnity in him.
It started with an ominous warning as though to buttress the feeling, as though it was trying to make him see that the whole reality at large was granting him jurisdiction over something exceedingly powerful…and infinitely dangerous.
It read
[Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Use the power granted by this piece wisely.
You have been granted absolute power and authority over the proliferating forest through this piece, the heart of the proliferating forest, by the direct but solemnly given permission of the administrator. Use your powers wisely.
This piece lets you control the proliferating forest, the only mega influence of its cadre, either remotely or directly by temporarily fusing with this heart. As safety features, the administrator has added the [auto kill] and the [lucidity pulse] features, the former automatically killing anyone or anything, living or non-living, no matter the rank, quality of personality, or strength of being value, who or which dared to come in contact with this heart, while the other feature sends a pulse of lucidity through you that reminds you of your individuality and separate existence from the mega-influence when you fuse with the heart periodically all through the time that you fuse with the heart, and more powerfully, the more deeply the influence of the forest exerts itself on your individuality.
[Do you want to summon the heart?]
Note: the administrator advises that you do not summon this item rashly and that you should beware of its reality-eating power.
[Do you wish to summon the heart?]
]
Mike looked at the view solemnly. If the mood the section evoked was tame, then the directions' descriptions and direct warnings it gave to him at the start and the end of the section were anything but. The message was loud and clear: he was given something very powerful, very important, and very dangerous, which, even though he earned the right to, he may or may not be ready to wield.
He read that section over and over to be sure he did not miss anything, and just to be sure he was not imagining things, even if the text were still as unpleasant to look at as the first time and even more so this time. Everything happened to be as they appeared at first: a solemn warning.
'Since I will be living with this thing from henceforth, I better summon it now, figure it out, and get it over with. I should treat it the way the central government treats Zircon armaments—as a weapon of the very last resort.' He reasoned within himself as he stretched out his hands and gave the mental command to the view to summon it…
… Apparently, he shouldn't have because what happened next was something he would have come to regret.